From Surviving to Thriving | Build a Marketing System That Works for You – Video

Join Devin Herz as he discusses the importance of marketing systems with Robin Robins, one of the most in-demand IT Marketing Consultants in the world.

Special guest, Robin Robins is the IT industry’s most in-demand marketing consultant, sales trainer, and direct response marketing consultant who specializes in developing strategic marketing, sales, and lead generation systems for MSPs, VARs and IT services companies. Robin is the Founder of Technology Marketing Toolkit, MSP Success Magazine, and Big Red Media.

Key Takeaways from this episode

► The importance of marketing systems
► Strategic sales process
► Time management techniques

► Schedule a FREE Strategy Session & FREE Marketing Audit with Devin | YourDMC.com/schedule

► Where to follow and listen to Devin & DMC | dynamicmarketingconsultants.com/dmc-links/

#MondayMarketingNugget #MarketingStrategy #MarketingNugget #DynamicMarketingConsultants #BusinessIdeas #business #smallbusiness #DevinHerz #MarketingTips #MarketingTrends2022

How to Keep Website Visitors Engaged | The Best Live Chat Team

To have chat or not to have chat? That is the question. I’m sure everyone out there has been on a website and BOOM! In the lower right-hand corner, a chat icon pops up to greet you.

Nelson Bruton, president of interchanges, a lead generation firm in business for years joins us to discuss having a chat team on your side that will help your business succeed.

Below is a transcript of Devin and Nelson’s discussion that is filled with great nuggets to improve your business.

Devin Herz – Hello Nelson.

Nelson Bruton – Thank you for having me Devin pleasure to be here.

Devin Herz – Oh yeah. Great to have you here as well. And Nelson, you’ve got some awesome software and a business that I want to bring some attention to and let our viewers out there know that this even exists. So, please give us some insight on your background and how you really got started in this segment of marketing.

Nelson Bruton – Absolutely. So, gosh, we’ve been in business for 20 years and we’re a full-service digital marketing agency. And, about 17 years ago, one of the things that we plugged into our digital marketing solution package, if you will, is a live chat solution. And because we were already doing SEO and SEM and email marketing to drive people to a website, we were focused on how do we convert more of those people into sales opportunities? And we started adding chat to the website and built our chat teams out and it worked very, very well. And so that’s how we kind of came about 17 years ago, adding that chat solution to the overall mix.

Devin Herz – Yeah, that’s great. And I know that interaction definitely helps engage with visitors. And I would say that your platform is definitely different than what a lot of people experience out there when it comes to chatbots and whatnot. We’ll get into that in just a minute, but I think people spend tons of money getting people to their website, but they lose them as quickly as they get them there. Give us some insight on how your platform really helps keep the visitors engaged and what differentiates you from the typical chatbots that are out there. Because I know this is a completely different way to go about it.

Nelson Bruton – Yeah, yeah. It really is. There’s a ton of chat software companies out there that are really good. And if you have the people and capability to staff it yourself, it’s a great option, right? Especially if you’re a small business, there’s a lot of good, very inexpensive chat software out there. There’s a lot of chat software that has AI built into it, artificial intelligence, where you can program a bot to answer simple questions on your site and direct people through different choices. And that can work in the right applications. Where we really specialize is the more complex B2B environments we work with, mostly industrial components and equipment manufacturers, truck manufacturers, equipment dealers, where the conversation is more complex where trying to think about programming a bot is just a whole other level because there’s so many different options, products, technical details, etc. So, where

we separate ourselves is we provide a 24/7 dedicated chat team, real humans behind the chat. We have our own proprietary chat software, which is just a widget that, you know, like all the others you copy and paste the code onto the site that puts the chat widget there. But again, what truly separates us is that we have teams of people in call centers, professionals that we train specifically to dedicate to a customer website. That’s served us very, very well in the more complex B2B, customer space.

Devin Herz – So instead of having AI or a chatbot, these are actual real people that understand your client’s business to be able to answer questions that are thrown at them. Is that correct?

Nelson Bruton – Absolutely. Yeah. And you know, one of the things I like to distinguish is, you know, when we train our people, we have a very detailed process that we go through. It’s an easy process, but it’s a process where we’re not trying to train our chat team to become salespeople or a sales specialists or product experts for our customers, nor could we for the intensely technical customers that we have, we are conversion experts. So when we go through the training process, we’re training them to be able to help the visitors navigate the pages of the website. We’re training them to be able to answer common questions that come up, we’re training them to be able to ask some top-level qualifying questions. For the technical customers that we have though, typically what happens is the visitor will ask a technical question or an application or a facility-specific question that we won’t know the answer to. At that point, our team simply says, let me have one of our experts help you with that. Can I have your phone number, email address please?

Devin Herz – They’re capturing that information, which is crucial, right? You want to get that contact information, which helps you market to them ongoing, retargeting them, reach back out to them, or have a sales professional from their team. But it’s really an extension of their team because now you’re saving them time by answering probably the most common FAQs that are out there.

Nelson Bruton – Yep. And a common concern that comes up is, well, you know, you guys are just the middleman. We have a contact form on our website. People can fill out, we have a phone number, people can call. And what we’ve found doing this for 17 years, the people that prefer to call or fill out a contact form, they’re still going to do those things. Where our value lies is we’re capturing the people who are, today, leaving the website because they don’t want to call or fill out a form, but they would engage with chat because that’s their preferred method of communication.

Devin Herz – Yeah. I would say increasing conversions is what it’s all about. And I know we spend good money for our clients and for ourselves and you get traffic there and you’re like, where’d they go? So this is just another way to really engage with them, keep them on the website, longer answer questions they may have, and give you those opportunities that people are potentially losing. When it comes to website visitors, what would be three nuggets that you want to share with our audience today?

Nelson Bruton – Well, for us, deciding whether or not to do a test with somebody or if they want to decide to do a test with us, one of the discussion points is, do you have at least 3,500 people going to your website each month? That’s kind of the minimum threshold. The chat software is really inexpensive. And so when you jump up to having a fully staffed team, obviously the investment levels go up. So, we want to take the time to make sure that there’s a good chance, a really good chance of

getting a solid return on investment for that client. 3,500 visitors to your website per month is the minimum you want to have in the B2B space. You want to have a high average sale to be a good fit with what we do.

If you have that low amount of traffic or more, up to a hundred thousand, 200,000 visitors, we can handle high traffic websites as well. And then you have a high average sale or one conversion could be worth a significant amount of money, you know, $3,000 or a hundred thousand dollars or a million or $7 million. We converted a customer on one of our other client sites that was worth $7 million. The high value, average sale, or high value customer over the course of a year or more, those conversions tend to produce that return on investment that we’re both looking for. If our customers are getting a return on investment, they’re going to stay with us for a long time.

Devin Herz – That makes total sense. And I’m sure it was a heck of a nice ROI to land a $7 million client. That’s quite awesome to have that case study. When you think about the websites and just with our audience out there that maybe trying chat, having tried bots in the past, I would say that one of the things that you want to keep in mind is to make sure that you’re tracking how many phone calls you’re getting and really be able to track and measure. Do you have any insight on that?

Nelson Bruton – You’re exactly right. I mean, you have to have benchmark data, right? How many phone calls are you getting? How many contact forms are you getting? How much traffic do you get to your website? Those are three pieces of information that every marketing director or business owner should know because those are the key performance indicators that drive your digital strategy, right? Drive more traffic convert more of it into calls and form completions. Now we’re talking about adding live chat as a conversion tool or a capture tool. How many live chats do you get? And so usually when we do a 30-day free trial with our customers they see a significant increase in conversions. They still usually get the same number of phone calls and contact forms, but now they’re getting chat conversations as well.

Devin Herz – Yeah. And I would say that the other nugget here is the fact that you’re starting conversations with the website visitors. I think people like that human interaction. We all sit at home and kind of scroll through different things and don’t reach out to people on the phone anymore, but there is something to that personal touch. Your software really starts that conversation with the website visitors.

Nelson Bruton – Absolutely. We proactively engage every single visitor. And so what that means is we automatically open up the chat window on a website after a certain period of time. Usually, it’s 15 seconds or so where we’ll pop up the chat window. For customers of ours that we have where their average visitors are on the site for longer than four minutes, we’ll wait about 45 to 50 seconds before we pop up the chat window. But that proactive chat is important. The next thing that’s really important that I want to emphasize here is we allow the conversation to start right away. In other words, we don’t require visitors to enter name, email address, or any other contact information prior to the chat starting. That’s a roadblock that prevents conversations from happening. So by us doing the proactive engagement and by us letting the visitor start typing right away, when that chat window opens, we get more conversations started and more conversations, as you indicated leads, to more sales opportunities.

Devin Herz – Yeah, absolutely. Well, whether you want to talk with Nelson about interchanges and what they can do for you, which I highly recommend, even if you’re trying this out on your own, those three nuggets right there, I think will help you out. What type of businesses are you best suited for with your service?

Nelson Bruton – Yeah, so, you know, like I said, that the more complex, the better, we have some example sites we can pull up from our previous discussions. Weldeck, is a company that manufacturers railings and mezzanines and guards for large industrial facilities and commercial facilities. And you see our chat window opened up in the bottom there. If you were on their site, you could start chatting right away. We literally doubled their sales leads. We doubled their quote requests. A cool story with this one is, you know when you click the “get a quote button”, it goes to a page where you pick which division you want to fill out a quote form for. And their quote forms are extremely long. Like if you click on the mezzanine request for quote, the second one, uh, that form is extremely long.

I had suggested to the marketing director at the time when she was there, I said more than likely we’re going to cannibalize this. You’re going to get less of these. You’re going to see a lot of chats to my surprise. They still get the same number of people filling out this request for quote, web form. But we doubled their sales leads that right there just shows that, Hey, never make assumptions test, right? Marketing is testing, uh, number two, uh, it talks to the people’s preferences on a site, the people that want to fill out this form, that’s where they’re comfortable with. That’s what they prefer. They’re going to do that. But we started capturing the people that wanted chat. That was, that was their preferred chat or preferred method of communication. And so having phone numbers, contact, or quote forms and a chat, that’s a huge nugget for businesses that are really trying to increase their sales opportunities and their sales pipeline.

Devin Herz – Love It. Love it. And I mean, the fact that you have the proof of concept here, so yeah. Let’s move on to another Site.

Nelson Bruton – Yeah, yeah. This is a good story here. Elliot Equipment, this company manufacturers different types of industrial trucks for specialized markets and specialized contractors, they sell through distributors. And as do most of my customers and the story here, they had a chatbot on their website when we first started working together a few years ago and I talked to the President of the company and I said, “Hey, you already have your data on your performance of your chatbot.” And it was done pretty nicely. I mean, they had a chatbot with some intelligence built into it in terms of the different options people could click. And we did a 30-day test human versus bot, if you will. And as you can see, my chat team is still on their site because the humans one, we produced not only a higher volume of sales opportunities, but the overall experience, the customer experience was greatly improved compared to what they were seeing with their, their chatbot. And, you know, when I go to trade shows and talk to people, you know, all these businesses talk about how their relationship businesses, you know, their businesses unique because it’s the people, right?

Yeah. If you’re a relationship business, don’t try to put a bot on your website. Put people on there because people buy from people makes sense. And then I see the capstone was this company is extremely technical, this company manufacturers and does microturbine installations all over the world.

Law Firms Experience Success by Incorporating Digital Elements and Video Brochures into their Marketing Mix

There are several techniques available to make your law firm stand out from the rest, and the video component is key! Law firms experience success by incorporating digital elements and video brochures into their marketing mix. Below we’ll explore some of our top tips for helping your law firm stay ahead of the competition.

Utilize Social Media

Social media is a part of many people’s daily routines. It gives us a chance to “check out”, especially when life becomes stressful, or we want some mindless entertainment. Instagram for example has a wide audience reach and creative photo-editing features. It would be wise to have a presence on Instagram if it makes sense for your business. Posting about recent happenings involving mass tort cases for example will keep your followers up to date, while grabbing the attention of those interested but not yet following you. Posts also have an opportunity to showcase all that you offer as well! Posts that include a video element will certainly grab more attention.

Create Promotions for the Right Audience

Targeting the right audience is important when it comes to marketing. Promote to your present clients – It will continue to build trust!  Don’t forget to look back as well as forward – appealing to past clients who have shown loyalty, may prove useful. Your law firm will be fresh in their minds when they need you in the future.  But how do you target new markets? Extending a discount to a new client can be the key to having them switch from their current attorney or selecting you from the beginning. It may seem counterintuitive because they’re not a paying client at this point, but consider this: Your potential client has already seen some of what you offer through digital promotions; now all they need is an invitation to discuss further.

Incorporate Reviews

When searching for an attorney, people do their research and rely heavily on reviews. Reviews are a fundamental tool in attracting new business because they provide credibility. We suggest making the review process simple! Create an easy way for your satisfied clients to share feedback with others on how you’ve helped them with their legal matters. When people read your reviews, it will become clear why your practice is unparalleled in your area.

Have a Digital Get Together

Gain exposure and get your name heard with live digital events such as webinars, perfect for networking or Q&A sessions, allowing for a personable way to digitally connect with potential clients. Supplying useful, need-to-know information to your audience also builds trust and highlights you and your team as the experts – and who knows…It could turn into a face-to-face meeting soon enough!

Don’t Forget to Include the Team

With many different types of content to share on your social media, you may be feeling a bit overwhelmed. That’s why we recommend enlisting the help of a marketing consultant agency to help you with these tasks. Or if your internal marketing team is up for the challenge, perhaps you divide up the tasks. One person could be responsible for creating and posting images while the other focuses on creating captivating videos. It all depends on your employees’ time and skillsets.  Create short but FUN and interactive videos that introduce your Firm’s executive and support staff, company happenings, community involvement, etc. This will keep potential clients informed, entertained, and engaged all year long. Whatever you do, make sure your posts are creative and capture your law firm’s culture.

Remember to Advertise Digitally

Technology continues to advance and it’s up to us to adapt. Digital marketing is a powerful tool for legal organizations looking to gain exposure and new clients. One great option is pay-per-click advertising—It’s important to know your one main goal for the campaign before you begin and go from there. Whether your main goal is gaining more clients, targeting specific demographics, or building brand awareness, there are ways that digital marketing can help make these goals a reality. Create ads that stand out amongst your competitors; think of a catchy phrase and find the perfect image that will get attention and roll with it.

Consider Video Mailers

To truly get noticed, video mailers should be your next step and are the future of digital marketing.  Video mailers, commonly referred to as “Video Brochures”, combine printed material with an embedded video element. This is where PrintAVizion can help! Our video solutions can be customized to your needs and feature only the highest quality video components, HD screens, flash memory, and are rechargeable. Our team is also available to assist with creating a unique video to incorporate into your video mailer. This affords your target market a more stimulating, out-of-the-box experience, leaving your firm at top-of-mind.

You may have already considered or implemented some of these tried-and-true legal industry marketing tactics. However, if you’ve not yet experienced the power of Video mailers, don’t hesitate to reach out to us. Schedule your FREE introduction call at 813-803-5200 or info@printavizion.com. We look forward to helping your law firm reach new heights.

 

 

 

 

 

7 Reasons Why Customer Reviews are Essential

As a business owner, you should collect customer reviews and respond to them because it helps your brand stay relevant in the market. It’s also beneficial for both customers and businesses when they provide feedback about their experience.

Online reviews from customers have created a new field in marketing and communication that bridges the gap between traditional word-of-mouth and viral form of feedback.

Below we Discuss 7 Reasons Why Customer Reviews are Essential

1 – Understanding Your Customers & Their Needs Improves Customer Service

As the reviews your customers leave can give you feedback on what they want, analyzing them helps understand overall customer satisfaction. By using this insightful information as constructive criticism, you can improve customer service and quickly resolve the issues that consumers face. This will create a positive experience for them while keeping your focus on their needs.

2 – Establish Credibility & Social Proof

Our unique social nature allows us to ask friends and family for recommendations, but since the internet’s emergence, it has become much easier. Online review sites allow users globally to get information about products before they make their buying decisions by just clicking a button on their phone or computer!

3 – Contend with Experience to Save Margins

Reviews allow new businesses to compete with the more established competition and potentially gain a good reputation. It’s like choosing between two companies, one has 50 3-star reviews while the other company only has seven five-star reviews. There you go! You just took the discussion away from price and discounts.

4 – Give Consumers a Voice and Create Customer Loyalty

A new study found that consumers who leave online reviews for businesses are more likely to feel loyal and even happier about their experience. This is because they felt like they had a voice – it didn’t matter whether you were behind the screen or not, there was still some kind of connection between them both. So, if you see a disappointed customer who leaves an online review, take the time to find out why and make it right. You may not be able to change their overall perception of your business but showing that little bit extra can go a long way in keeping them coming back for more.

5 – Supercharge Your Rankings

Reviews are the most important ranking factor in local search. They help businesses rank well, even if they have low-quality link profiles. Google wants the local search results to be high quality and relevant. According to Search Engine Journal, “Pages with reviews which mention a keyword and/or the name of a city, were found to have higher rankings in Google’s local pack.” At this level, having keywords you are trying to rank for while also mentioning cities has been seen as highly correlated with ranking well on Google My Business.

6 – Consumers Become Your Marketing Force

Positive online business reviews are worth more than any marketing campaign. They’re like micro-marketing campaigns that keep working long after they’ve been posted, providing your business with benefits it can’t get through simple advertising techniques alone. This constant positive image created by these types of reviews is good for both the short and the long term because potential customers will continue to see this brand awareness on social media sites without even searching specifically for you themselves!

7 – Reviews Give Birth to More Reviews

When businesses receive online reviews, they encourage other visitors to leave their own feedback. Just the appearance of several reviews seems to be enough to give new customers confidence and incentive in submitting their opinion on a particular product or service.  As online customer reviews become more important, your involvement is only going to be even more necessary. Customer reviews are great for grabbing consumer’s attention and increasing sales. They also help consumers make decisions on their purchase as they increase in importance and secure the business’ visibility in search rankings; moreover, there will always be increased competition encouraging reviewers, so it becomes very important that you get involved early!

How Can I Take My Review Profile to the Next Level?

Empower your business with the tool designed for a higher star rating and a winning online reputation. The InterReview Video System powered by Dynamic Marketing Consultants.

92% of customers consult reviews! Don’t just stop at collecting authentic written reviews.

Remove the stress and awkward feeling of asking for your reviews. Let Dynamic Marketing Consultants do the work for you. Our system simplifies the interview process, provides you with priceless video testimonials and case studies to assist in future sales opportunities.

What is the InterReview Video System?

Our team will contact your customer and coach them through our virtual video interview. We will ask them just the right questions regarding their experience with your company, product and/or service. We take care of all the editing of the captured footage including introduction animation, lower thirds and title bars, B-roll graphics, and video, finishing it up nicely with Outro animation with your chosen call to action. DMC will then package your InterReview up with a bow on top by developing final videos for use on your website, social media, and marketing platforms.

For more information about Video Marketing and how it will benefit YOUR business, reach out to us at Dynamic Marketing Consultants. We’d look forward to working on your video project and answering any questions you may have.

Creating a Business to Support Your Lifestyle

Devin Herz discusses the importance of prioritizing long-term goals and building a community in the early stages of growing your business, while also balancing your lifestyle goals – How do you want to spend your time outside of work?

Michael Zipursky, CEO of Consulting Success, weighs in on the topic for an insightful conversation about developing a successful plan. He has advised companies, including Dow Jones and Panasonic. He has helped launch new products into global markets. But more importantly, he has helped over 500 consultants from around the world.

Below is a transcript of Devin and Michael’s discussion that is filled with great nuggets to improve your consulting skills.

Devin Herz – Mike it’s great to have you here, I’m excited to have you on the show because I just know you’re packed full of great information. About eight years ago, I worked with Michael. I hired him as a consultant for myself and our business, and he really helped us develop a business model that has allowed us to build a seven-figure agency. So, Michael, I want to first say, thank you very much for all your help back then. You gave us some great insight and a great model to follow and looking forward to sharing some of your information and background. You’ve got over 35,000 consultants that follow you on a regular basis. They read your newsletter. You’ve got some great books out there as well. So, I want you to talk to us about your big pivot and turning point in your success.

Michael Zipursky – Yeah, In business for myself for 21 plus years now. I’ve been building consulting businesses for the past 13 years, working with consultants through Consulting Success. I think the biggest, I wouldn’t call it a pivot, but maybe just a shift that we made, really relates to my mindset. I think this is what’s exciting about business, is that we all can “Up level”. We have the opportunity to realize greater potential. It’s not usually the strategies or tactics that we’re missing. It’s the mindset and the belief that we can take bigger steps or, reach for something that maybe we thought was unattainable before. So, in our case many years back we started a new program that we had never offered before. It was a version of our coaching program. It’s changed quite a bit since then and really improved. But back in that day it was a different format, at a different price point, at a higher price point, than we’ve ever offered before. When we did that, things really shifted, and they shifted for the better and allowed us to create the base that we’ve built upon for many years since.

Devin Herz – We have been watching your growth and seeing everything that you’ve got going on. I think evolving is such a big thing right now and being able to change and develop the ability to see what’s going on. Trying to predict the future as best as you can with your business and being able to shift gears if need be. Understanding the fact that you want to build a business and we all want to have success, and that comes in many different forms. I think a lot of people are just focused on money and building this big business, but I think ultimately, we all want to have a good lifestyle. We want to enjoy the things that we want to do, whether it’s being out on the water or different hobbies, or spending time with family. Tell us a little bit about why it’s key to structure your business, to really support your lifestyle, and not the other way around.

Michael Zipursky – Yeah, definitely. So, if you think about this in terms of a triangle, what a lot of people tend to do is they will put their business at the top of the triangle and that drives all their decision-making. Therefore, they put their lifestyle below their business, and they must make sacrifices within their lifestyle. That means time with family, loved ones, you know, doing things beyond business that, have to essentially, adjust based on what you’ve structured in your business. But what I found over time is that when you actually flip that over and you move your lifestyle to the top, you get very clear to begin with about what is meaningful for you. What do you want things to look like? Where do you get fulfillment from? And the clearer that you can be around that, then you can make sacrifices or adjustments, inside of your business to support your lifestyle.

While that might be hard to see, and if you’re at an earlier stage in your business, you might think, no, that doesn’t make sense. I know I just want to make a million dollars or whatever it might be. That’s very common when you’re earlier on, what’s driving you is money. If you talk to any successful person, or someone who has made it to that next level, they’ll always say that it’s not about the money anymore. Recognizing that and seeing into the future, knowing that you can find a lot of people who have a great deal of money, but they’re not happy because they don’t have a good lifestyle. They don’t have a good balance of how they’re spending their time. They’ve given up on opportunities to build relationships with their family or just to have things that are truly meaningful and that are much more important than money for the long-term. When you get clear about that from the beginning and you really figure out what do you want from your lifestyle, then it’s much easier to structure your business model, your pricing, who your ideal clients are, all the other pieces inside of the business around that to really support your lifestyle.

Devin Herz – That’s such a good tip right there, because I know as a young entrepreneur, it was all about money, having the nice car, having the different materialistic things. As you get older, it definitely changes. For anyone that’s younger out there, trust that advice and just really understand how important it is to work towards a lifestyle and the things that you truly enjoy. You can have some nice things. You can still have some nice vehicles, whatever it is that interests you, but that freedom to do what you want to do, I think is worth more than anything in the world. I have friends now that are running multi-million-dollar businesses, but they’re traveling nonstop. They’re never with their family. They’re constantly stressing over things.

We’re here for such a short period of time on this earth. So really focusing on the things that you enjoy, to have that freedom and create that wealth of that business model that can really let you control your business instead of the business controlling you. Any other advice right now that you’re seeing, obviously we’ve all been through an interesting year to say the least. Are there any other nuggets that you feel you would pass on to our followers who are in all different industries?

Michael Zipursky – There are several things, but one of the most important that I would say right now, it’s been important for quite some time, but certainly will be in the future as well, is the importance of building community. When I look back at, and I wrote in my most recent book called “The Future of Consulting”, where I interviewed many successful consultants, and just people in professional services and everyone who really was able to not only just kind of survive the last 14, 15 months, whatever it’s been now through COVID, but actually see their businesses thrive during that time; our people who really started planting seeds earlier and had built a community. And when I say community, what I’m referring to is that you have a group of people who look up to you or see you as an authority, see you as an expert, who see you as a source of truth and of information.

And you can do that in multiple ways. You can do that by having an email list that you grow. You can do that by having a podcast, conducting executive round tables. Any way that you’re able to get people together where they come to you on a regular basis for new information, for new insights, to get your help. You then have a relationship with those people. And so, it doesn’t matter whether it’s less of an impact if there isn’t an economically challenging time or if there’s another pandemic. I mean, things happen in the world. If you look at history, there’s always ups and downs in the environment that we can’t control, but what we can control is how we create a community or how we create a solid base in our businesses.

And those who were not only able to manage, but to thrive during this really challenging time are those that had taken the steps in advance to plant seeds, to build relationships, to have a community that they can tap into. One very simple example to demonstrate this would be someone who, 90% of their income came from speaking. When the pandemic hit a lot of people kind of froze. They didn’t know what to do, and their income was gone. Then you take somebody else who also maybe did some speaking. That was a percentage of their revenue, but at the same time, they also had built up a following. They had an email list, and maybe an online course, whatever it might be. So even though a percentage of their income dried up very quickly, they’re able to go to their community and say, “Hey, you know, I can’t do this in person anymore, but we’re going to be holding a virtual workshop or we’re going to be putting together an executive round table or we’re launching an online program.” And so, they had that base to tap into, and they were then very quickly able to not only replace lost income, but actually grow beyond where they were before.

Devin Herz – It’s incredible how big authority is. I mean, people don’t like to necessarily be sold to these days. People don’t necessarily enjoy selling. Building relationships and then having those relationships, I think has just fueled so many other business opportunities for us with referrals, repeat business. Some of that is what I remember as you told us back in the day is you, build what we call our “Bay” of people that we can market to and have that loyal following with. They may not need you right then and there but, as you launch new things. Using testimonials from clients that you’re working with and building that authority is something that we really pride ourselves on, not for ourselves only, but for our clientele. Making them appear the way they are, of course, but also with the use of testimonials, getting people to support them, online branding, offline branding, having things look good is that first impression that people see, being that people are very visual.

So having all of that together, I think really sets you up for success to build that authority, figuring out that lead magnet. So, you can start to build your people in your following even bigger. I think that’s very important to figure that out, up front too. So that way, at least people are raising their hands to say, “I want to talk to you”. “I want to learn more”. If they don’t buy from me right then they are in our email lists, podcasts, all the things that Michael just mentioned are really the things that are going to keep people interested and then also potentially coming and buying from you.

Michael Zipursky – One of the things that I can add to is, consistency. This is such a powerful principle that I think a lot of people don’t fully take advantage of, but they could, and should. The more consistent that you are with your content or just being visible, right? That’s why follow-up is so important. As Devin, you just mentioned, it’s very common to reach out for example, or to have some kind of conversation with someone, and that may not move forward right away. But if you consistently get in front of those people, and you’re always finding ways to add value or provide proof that you’ve helped someone else like them with a testimonial or whatever it might be. If you do that consistently over and over and over and over then when they are ready, they’re already thinking of you. So, they’re going to come to you. But what a lot of people do is they try something, whether it’s a marketing campaign, an advertising campaign, some kind of social media, some kind of content, whatever it might be, they try something, it doesn’t work for them in a month or two months. And they go, oh, this didn’t work. God forbid, they actually send something once and they go like, oh, I didn’t get a good response and they give up. I think we’re in a society these days where people are looking for instant gratification, they’re looking for instant results. And they judge whether something is working without actually letting it run long enough. Instead of a short-term mindset, if you can look at business with a long-term mindset. Simon Sinek wrote a great book called the infinite game where you really start to shift your mindset from thinking about just getting results and kind of completing something in the moment, to this is infinite. This is long-term. When you have that long-term mindset, you look at your relationships in a different way. You look at how you connect with people in a different way. You look at how to provide value in a different way, but it’s all about consistency. The more that you show up, the more prolific you are, right? The more that you’re doing that repeatedly, the more that you’ll actually see growth in your business.

Devin Herz – I love hearing that because we do all sorts of crazy marketing campaigns for our clients. And a lot of times, people are ready to go. They know it’s going to be a long haul, but so many times you’ll have that first hit go out or we’ll run one week of ads just to get some testing. And we don’t have great results. You got to just kind of power through it and have that long-term vision because it takes time. I mean, if you look at these multi-billion-dollar companies, what are they doing? Advertising! Commercial guy’s in your face, they’re flying over with a banner. I mean, it’s nonstop. So, with social media, you have that ability to do things pretty inexpensively. Obviously, you’ve put some money behind it that also helps build a following. You’re now able to target people so granularly that you can get the people that you want. Get in front of those people, retargeting people. You guys have done a great job of keeping consistent with your newsletter and all that. We try to do a great job here. Of course, clients are always a top priority. So being busy and focusing on their success is very important to us, but just trying to keep content out there like this, because I may not get a ton of calls. You may not get any calls right away off of something like this, but things like this stay around for years online. If they find it, they see the topic, what we’re talking about, we can get a client from this five years down the line. It really just builds the authority. So, I highly recommend if you’re not doing anything right now, like a podcast or a show like this, you’ll find someone like Michael to help guide you. Our team at DMC is producing shows like this all the time now for our clientele. So, don’t stress over the technology and making things like this happen. There are some great people out there that are willing to help and grow successfully with you. Love all the information, Michael. You’ve been kind enough to give away a free 47-page consulting blueprint. I’d love to hear about that. Give our audience a little bit of insight on what that is.

Michael Zipursky – Yeah, sure. So, we’ve compiled, our most popular content and articles, and resources into one guide, which is the consulting success blueprint. We offer it for free. You can go to consultingsuccess.com/blueprint to grab a copy of it. You’ll also get some emails where I share more of my story, on building consulting businesses around the world. The ups, the downs, some pretty wild stories in there. You can unsubscribe from those at any time and still just get the blueprint if you want. But we get a lot of feedback from people that say they enjoy those stories. That’s what it’s about. I think you will hopefully find some value in it.

Devin Herz – I know I find value in everything that you do. Continuing to follow you after all these years and watching you do great things. So once again, really appreciate you being here and thanks for all the amazing nuggets, any last final words for our audience out there.

Michael Zipursky – Yeah, I think you, you hit on a really important topic too, Devin, which is just to spend some time getting clear about what’s most meaningful for you as a person, as an individual. And I think very often in business, we’re so focused on just the day-to-day of business that we lose sight of what’s actually most meaningful for us and where we want to be. But the clearer that you can be about what’s important to you, then the clearer you’ll actually become and more intentional you’ll become in your business. Business is one of these things that when you place your focus on something, you actually are able to attract it to you and achieve more progress towards it. Even though it might sound a little bit out there, I’ve certainly found that to be the case over the last 21 years. That would be just the final word I would encourage people to do. I hope that everyone becomes happier and more successful with that.

Devin Herz – I was just going to say, it’s all about being happy. Just keep that in your mind, smile. You know, we get caught up with things that happened in the past, which creates depression, and we focus on things that are in the future that we have no control over that causes anxiety. So, stay in the now, be happy. It’s great seeing you and keep up the great work.

Please go out there, follow Michael, get all the great information that he provides whenever you can. Remember to make sure that you’re evolving. Don’t be afraid to hire people to help fast-track you. And this has been another great DMC marketing nugget and here’s to your success.

Want to Become a Marketing Consultant?

Becoming a marketing consultant can be a great way to create your own opportunities and leverage your skills. Though you may have the experience and skills, getting started as a marketing consultant and sustaining your career takes a few important steps:

  • Ask for Referrals and Client Testimonials

When starting your career as a marketing consultant, you need to stand out from the pack and show potential clients you are worth hiring. Let them know you are trustworthy and accountable by asking past clients and connections to provide testimonials on your website. In addition, ask past clients or employers for recommendations on LinkedIn to boost your profile.

These referrals and testimonials will certainly help you maintain and grow your network.

  • Research Your Potential clients

Always being prepared is part of being an effective consultant. After all, you never know when the next client will show up! Keep an evolving list of potential clients you’d like to work with across various industries who may need your services. Stay informed of their company news, announcements, or changes and continually research their top executives and their products/services.

If you notice a particular business is growing rapidly or needing marketing help, reach out to them and show them you’ve done your research. Staying in front of your competition in this manner will lead you to more opportunities to succeed in your marketing consultant role.

  • Seek Out a Mentor

Working as a consultant can be challenging, as you often work alone. A mentor can provide an excellent support system of guidance and advice to help you thrive.

It’s perfectly acceptable to reach out to top marketing consultants in the marketing industry who have the experience you seek. You never know what knowledge you’ll gain and the relationships you’ll form if you don’t try!

  • Promote Your Marketing Consultant Expertise

Create a portfolio website to promote your work. Keep your website and portfolio up to date with past projects that best showcase your marketing talents.

You can also start a blog or podcast to share your thoughts and experiences as a marketing consultant to boost your profile and attract new clients. Or you can update your social networks by sharing your opinion about the industry to promote your services.

  • Stay Up to Date on the Latest Marketing Trends and Tools

Marketing is a 24/7 constantly evolving industry. Impress your potential clients by being informed on the latest industry trends and tools, from mobile apps to social media platforms and management tools.

For more ideas on how to offer your services as a marketing consultant, reach out to your trusted team at Dynamic Marketing Consultants today. We’d happily mentor you to help you achieve maximum results for your clients.

Successful Video Marketing Strategies and Ideas to Drive More Sales

97% of marketers say videos help users better understand their products and services. Simply put, if you are one of the few companies that aren’t utilizing Video Marketing, then you’re falling behind your competition.

It’s important to note that not all videos are created equal. Some types of video content perform better than others and we’ll further explore these below. If you want to engage, capture, and convert the audience into qualified leads and customers, look to Video Marketing.

Some Successful Video Marketing Strategies and Ideas

  • Share Educational Videos

Videos that sell directly to your brand don’t necessarily bring you more leads. People don’t like being “sold to” without some type of benefit. Instead, use your videos to educate consumers on a topic relevant to your industry and experience – people like to learn!  Research shows that educational videos are viewed twice as much on YouTube. So, focus on developing videos that provide value.

  • Live Stream Video

82% of consumers prefer Live Stream Video to all other types of social media, and people of all ages are watching and streaming videos right now. Live Stream Video content is an opportunity to invite your audience to your business in a way that’s more personable, spontaneous, and immediate. And there are many ways to use it effectively.

You can use live video to showcase your thinking skills by streaming content from industry professionals and experts, holding Q&A sessions, and more. Live streaming is also great for generating excitement about new and upcoming products/services/opportunities.

  • Make Use of Webinars

Webinars are essential for marketing. This is a great way to add value to your audience’s experience so be sure to tailor your content to them specifically, to ultimately convert them to consumers of your products and services. Not only do webinars give you the ability to draw a crowd over time, but they also allow you to improve your interactivity with viewers. You can engage in discussion and demonstrate your expertise in a powerful and meaningful way.

  • Use Virtual Reality

Virtual Reality (VR) is not just for video games. It is a rapidly evolving tech tool for business success. Virtual Reality is the latest type of video content that allows you to engage customers in new and engaging ways. You can use VR for virtual tours from the comfort of home. This is especially important now as some people are still being very cautious due to the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.

Successful businesses and brands are using VR to improve the customer experience and to increase customer loyalty. The key is to provide a unique and engaging experience.

  • Create Bite-Sized Video Content

With the exception of webinars, keep your videos short! Consumers love useful, quick, and bite-sized information in video format. The truth is that videos up to two minutes long get the most engagement. Over that length, engagement and interest start dropping.

  • Focus on Mobile Optimized Videos

Most content on Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, and elsewhere should be mobile optimized. 60 million LinkedIn visitors came from mobile in late 2016; 82% of Twitter users are mobile, and 95% of active Facebook accounts go online via smartphone. This means that the majority of your customers will visit your business via their mobile phone and your videos need to be prepared for that.

If you’d like to learn more about how your company can incorporate videos to generate qualified leads that turn into your customers, reach out to us at Dynamic Marketing Consultants. We’d love to work together to develop your ideal strategy.

How Video Marketing can Help Grow your Business

No matter whether you’re operating a small business or a large enterprise, Video Marketing is one of the most compelling strategies that will help your business succeed.

It not only helps the organization to promote the brand but also helps in converting visitors into leads. Due to its excellent results, companies are using videos as one of their digital marketing tools. And, if you aren’t creating it for your business, you are missing out.

Let’s discover how video marketing can grow your business.

  • Accelerates Conversions

Improvement within the conversion rate is another benefit of adding videos to the marketing strategy. When you increase your conversion rate, the higher the possibility of sales.

According to a study, adding a video to marketing emails can boost click-through rates by 200-300%. Embedding videos in landing pages can increase conversion rates by 80%. If your goal is to compel the visitors to make a purchase and become a promoter, then Video Marketing is one of the most effective ways to turn your dream into reality.

  • Video Marketing Improves SEM

Google uses many signals to detect whether a web page should be shown for a searched query and adding video to your web pages can assist in improving the metrics of some of these factors.

Adding video to your webpages typically increases the time a user spends on your website, as they tend to stick around to watch the video. Contrary, websites with walls of text may steer visitors to click off the site.

Video within the content also improves the overall quality of the content on the page and can generate high-quality backlinks which play a significant role in increasing your rankings and organic website traffic.

  • Raises Customer’s Retention

Do you want to reach a wide range of customers while staying competitive? Yes! Then you should incorporate Video Marketing into your marketing strategy to build the customer’s trust.

Building long-term relationships with the customers promote your brand and accelerate your business’ return on investment (ROI). To foster trust, create appealing and instructive videos to give them a reason WHY they must purchase the product.

So, if you’re not currently creating video content for your business you’re missing out on some of the benefits. Having a small budget (or none) is no longer an issue. Even if technology intimidates you, it’s not too difficult to start recording with your smartphone.

When you’re done shooting the video, you can then edit them on your own or you can reach out to your trusted team at Dynamic Marketing Consultants to assist you with any of your video and video editing needs.

What are you waiting for? Roll up your sleeves and start creating videos today!

How Business Marketing Consulting Firms Accelerate Growth

Well, as most know, the internet is changing the way customers perform research to address problems and/or implement new solutions. Companies that have not already implemented a digital marketing strategy and plan will be left behind their competitors who have invested in online marketing programs.

However, Business Marketing consulting firms are a great resource to help you to develop and implement your digital strategy, making sure your marketing plans produce results that help accelerate the growth of your business.

Marketing consultants live in the digital world every minute of every day

Business Marketing consultants have extensive experience and specialized skills to help your business integrate your marketing plan so that it aligns with your business goals; All while utilizing the most efficient methods.

New competitors pop up every day and are not limited by geographical boundaries, which means new competitors could pop up at a moment’s notice. A good consultant will not only understand digital marketing but will also have the knowledge to drive demand online and techniques to test and determine consumer behavior with your online content.

There has been a shift in marketing methods for online success. You can no longer just wave a banner about your business or place static website pages on the internet and expect customers to find you and engage with your brand. It’s imperative to shift your businesses marketing tactics to account for how consumers’ online behavior continues to evolve.

How Business Marketing consultants can help your business grow online

Several techniques can be applied to your online marketing program. An experienced marketing consulting firm will know which elements to start with first to create a solid online foundation to build upon, and then recommend the next steps to improve results over time. They understand that at some point you must embed paid inquiry into the mix to generate immediate results. They also know when to focus on optimizing the experience funnel your visitors enter to learn about your business.

Your digital marketing strategy is essential to your business; however, you can’t just toss information onto your website and social media pages without having a plan. You want to draw the buyer in and take them on a journey that provides confidence in their purchase of your product and engagement with your business.

We invite you to access our marketing consultant services in hopes that it gives you a great roadmap for starting out on your own – or helps you refine an element of your already existing business for added profit and better client results.

How to Conduct a Market Analysis for Small Businesses

Knowledge is power, whether you are running a large enterprise, a small business or planning to start your business, it pays to know your target audience.

For small business owners, market analysis is an important way of finding information about customers, competitors and the industry in which they operate. But doing market analysis for small business is a tough game. While it is said that it requires a big budget to conduct most of the market research still it is possible for small businesses to carry out effective market research. But the question is how?

In this article, we will discuss ways to effectively conduct a market analysis for small business:

  1. Identify a Market Need: The market need could arise from a problem that customers seek to solve or any goals they are hoping to achieve. Try and identify how to make your business’s product or services better fit in with your target audience’s changing needs.
  2. Identify a business opportunity: Your target audiences need proven outcomes to be drawn in. Business leaders have greater opportunity if he/she can sell a better solution for their needs. The company should have the ability to deliver superior service above expectations.
  3. Choosing a target audience: Your work becomes easier if you know who your ideal client or customer is and why they are interested in the service or products you are offering. Narrowing this down enables you to target the audience who are in need of your offerings.

When should small businesses use market research?

There are certain times in a company’s life-cycle when market research can be highly-useful. For example:

  • To see if your new business idea is in need or not: You have a new idea for your business, but it important to check out whether they area market for your business or not. Don’t just guess and start your planning –use market analysis instead.
  • When moving into a new market: If you planning to sell your product overseas, it is important to know about your target audience. Different countries or states have different cultures and tastes. What works in one might not work in another. Research will help you find out the differences and adapt to them.
  • When applying for funding: Show potential investors that your business is more likely to succeed than your competitors–and that your company is ready to meet the needs of the market.

Stay focused for your business

If your business is growing, you’ll eventually want to consider your focus group, survey, statistical analysis, and market trends approach to market analysis. With the help of the above points,you can decide how best to obtain the answers.

If you are looking to do a market analysis for your business, Dynamic Marketing Consultants is the right choice to help you through it. Meet virtually with our lead consultant and founder to get tailored marketing advice that you can use in your business today!