Digital Marketing Radio

David: How do you best build an authentic list of email subscribers? Should you buy an email list or is it best to build one for yourself? And does email marketing also work just as well for B2B? Those are just the three of the questions I intend to ask today's special guest Alita Harvey-Rodriguez. Alita, welcome to DMR. Alita: Hi, David. How are you going? David: Very good, thanks. How are you doing yourself? Alita: I'm very well, thank you. David: Superb. Well, Alita is the founder of Milk it Digital Academy, helping businesses to uncover hidden profits in digital business channels through business development workshops. So Alita, your philosophy is “data beats emotions”. What do you actually mean by that? Alita: Good question. Thank you for asking. It's a question that I get asked a lot. What I mean by "data beats emotion", it's very simple is that we're no longer in an era of business where we can simply rely on our gut feeling in order to make a decision to grow our business in the most profitable

David:    What are the most effective ways of using content marketing for lead generation? How do you qualify your leads to ensure that your list is relevant? And is there a disconnect between social and the bottom line? Those are just 3 of the questions that I intend to ask today's special guest Matt Hodkinson. Matt, welcome to DMR. Matt:    Good morning David. David:    Thanks for joining me. Matt is the founder and CEO of Influence Agents, helping IT and professional service firms generate more traffic leads and sales, using effective social media and inbound marketing strategies. So Matt, how do you determine the true value of social media interaction? Matt:    I think for many business owners, David, it's got to come down to the bottom line. That's clearly where they're thinking is going to be. No matter how airy-fairy we tend to be sometimes talking about the conversational value and the intangible of social media, many business owners will still be thinking, on some level, on "How is this going to

David:    How do you define your business prospects? How can you convert more prospects into customers? And how can you increase your profitability per transaction? Those are just three of the questions that I tend to ask today's special guest, Lianne Savage. Lianne welcome to DMR. Lianne:    Hello, David. Thank you for having me. David:    Well welcome. Lianne is a business growth strategist who helps to bring offline profitability skills to the online world. She's created what she calls the sales influx system so that businesses can attract customers that spend more, purchase more often, and refer their friends. Lianne, how does a business actually know that it's attracting the right website visitors. Lianne:    Always be looking at the stats. There's some key indicators that you can look at. Your bounce rate is going to tell you whether they're staying on your website or leaving straight away. If you've got loads of people leaving straight away, then it's clear that they're not the right people for yo

David:    What particular challenges are solopreneurs facing with digital marketing? It is possible for solopreneurs to be everywhere? How does content marketing integrate with e-mail marketing? Those are just three of the questions that I intend to ask. Today’s special guest Kamila Gornia. Kamila, welcome to DMR. Kamila:    Hi David. How are you? David:    Very good, thanks. All the better for you joining me today. Kamila:    Thank you. David:    Kamila is a business coach who works with passion driven solopreneurs to get their mission and message into the world through specific online marketing strategies and mindset support.     So Kamila, what’s the biggest digital marketing mistake that you see solopreneurs making at the moment? Kamila:    I see a lot of solopreneurs is really trying to spread themselves a little bit too thin, especially with marketing. They think that they can do it all at the same time or learn it all at the same time which is, I’m sure you know, not really the case. You can

David:    Is it important for your content marketing to be beautiful?  How does good design impact conversion rates?  Should most businesses be developing their own app?  Those are just three of the questions that I intend to ask today's special guest, Jeff White.  Jeff, welcome to DMR. Jeff:    Thanks very much for having me, David. David:    Thanks for joining us.  Jeff is that odd dichotomy, a creative who could also think in code.  Nearly 11 years ago, Jeff founded Kula Partners, a boutique agency specializing in design, development, and inbound marketing.  Jeff, 11 years is a long time in digital marketing.  How much has your marketing ethos changed over that period? Jeff:    I think everything has changed in that period since.  It's quite incredible.  I originally got into building websites in 1994. David:    Wow Jeff:    The early era, pre-Netscape even.  Just to see the progression of what we've gone through and the development of web standards, mobile, and everything else, the whole thing has

David:    How did podcasting start, and what's the technology behind podcasting? How does podcasting fit into your content marketing mix, and what gear do you need to record a great podcast in 2014? Those are just three of the questions that I intend to ask today's guest, Dave Jackson. Dave, welcome to DMR. Dave:    Thanks for having me. Glad to be here. David:    Welcome. Dave's one of podcasting's originals. He's been podcasting since April 2005. He has a degree in education, and he's one of the world's top podcasting consultants. He's spoken at events, such as NewMediaExpo, and he runs SchoolofPodcasting.com.     Dave, I'm so impressed with your consistency of recording and publishing. What's your secret for staying focused? Dave:    Number one, there's a great program called Feedly. It's an RSS reader. Along the ways of going through everything podcasting, when I find a really good website with great content, I throw it into that website, and so every morning when I fire that up, I'm checking probab

David:    Is it best to brand your business as your personal name? What is a micromaven and how do you build your personal profile into a global microbrand? Those are just three of the questions that I intend to ask today's special guest, Trevor Young. Trevor, welcome to DMR. Trevor:    G'day, David. How are you? David:    Very good, thanks. How are you doing yourself? Trevor:    Pretty good in sunny Melbourne, in Australia. David:    Sunny Melbourne. I remember my time in Australia last year and it was mostly sunny. Trevor is a speaker, a consultant and an adviser who helps businesses to tell their story, grow their audience and build their brand using social media and content marketing. You'll find him over at prwarrior.com. Trevor, in your recent book, "Microdomination," you talk about building a mini business empire around a personal brand. Is it better to brand your business as a personal name in the modern business world, do you think? Trevor:     I guess it depends on what your goals are and giv

David:    Why is digital marketing so gray to most people? What are the best marketing tips for entrepreneurs? What are the current new technologies that SMEs should pay attention to? Those are just three of the questions that I intend to ask my special guest today Sharon Latour. Sharon, welcome to DMR. Sharon:    Thank you David. Thanks for having me. David:    Thanks for joining me. Sharon is CEO of a full service marketing agency called Marketing Bee, specializing in small business marketing. According to StartupSmart, she was one of the top 25 hottest entrepreneurs to watch in 2013. Sharon, what are the biggest marketing challenges that small businesses are facing at the moment? Sharon:    That's a great question David. From my perspective, the biggest gap that I can see at the moment in small businesses executing marketing very well and more specifically digital marketing is that there's a big gap between what they do online and the actual business vision and business strategy. What I mean by that

David:    What is the best way to structure the setup of a remote working team? What are pitfalls of setting up a remote team and how can they be overcome? You’ve decided to hire a remote digital marketing team, where’s the best place to start? Those are just three of the questions that I intend to ask our special guest today, Liam Martin. Liam welcome to DMR. Liam:    Thanks for having me David. David:    Well welcome. Liam’s CMO and Co-Founder of Staff.com, a remote staffing platform that only allows to hire long-term remote labor. So Liam we’ve discussed the benefits of outsourcing in an interview that we recorded together about two years ago actually. How do you feel that outsourcing has evolved over the last couple of years? Liam:    That’s an interesting question. In 2012 there was a huge … The space was really quite open and the space was evolving. I think about maybe 1% of all staffing was run remotely. I’m talking about staffing agencies, now we’re probably about 4-5%. We’ve seen a 400-500% jump

David:    How much website traffic is enough? What’s an appropriate conversion rate from website visits to leads? And what is gated content? Those are just three of the questions that I intend to ask today’s special guest, Kevin Krason. Kevin, welcome to DMR. Kevin:    Thanks David. David:    Kevin founded Biznet in 1994 to realize his passion for the internet marketing and business industries. Biznet is one of the most successful and enduring web develop, an internet marketing companies in Michigan. Kevin, happy 20-year anniversary! Kevin:    Thank you. Thank you. It’s been quite a journey. There’s just never been a dull moment. David:    I’m sure. It has been. That’s extremely impressive 20 years because that’s obviously the year that’s … I think that was the year that eBay was founded, wasn’t it, or perhaps Yahoo. Kevin:    I will tell you, my memory is a little fuzzy, but I will tell you this. In the beginning, when we first started, America Online was the most popular tool for connecting folks tog

David:    What is Brand Identity Development? How do you tell your brand story? How does that all come together as part of a coherent marketing strategy? Those just really the questions that I intended to ask today’s special guest, Alex Williams. Alex, welcome to DMR! Alex:    Hello David. Thank you for having me on. David:    Welcome. Alex likes to call himself the “Swiss Army Knife” of marketing in creative services. He offer services like logo and identity development as well as marketing strategy; and you can find them at thermalexposure.com. So Alex, you enjoy wearing lots of different hats then? Alex:    Yeah. I guess I have to. I started out as a web developer just in the early days around 1998. That’s make a grandfather in internet years. David:    Before my time. Alex:    Yeah. After doing a little bit of web development, I really got a hankering for getting into design. Once I was into design, I realized I needed to use my own photographs and so I taught myself photography and that transition

David: What are the 3 pillars of local SEO? Why are real reviews important? What is rich media and why is that important as well? Those are just 3 of the questions that I intend to ask today's special guest, Scott Gallagher. Scott, welcome to DMR. Scott: Thanks David. David: Scott helps small businesses get qualified leads from the organic channels of the internet. He's co-founder of Local Marketing Source and founder of WON Marketing. Scott, you focus on local SEO, but you don't like to call it SEO, why is that? Scott: That's true. We do. The practice of SEO or search engine optimization essentially is just that it's trying to optimize content to satisfy the needs of search engines. At some point in time in my business career several years ago, I started to look at this and think about what the search engines are trying to accomplish. When I was back in school and spent all this money on getting my university degree I got in marketing, a specialty in marketing with a Bachelor of Commerce and ... David:

David: What can thinking like Mark Zuckerberg do for your digital marketing? Is it essential to be visual in your story telling in using social media and how do you start building meaningful relationships with influencers. Those are just two of the questions that I intend to ask today’s special guest, Ekaterina Walter. Ekaterina, welcome to DMR. Ekaterina: Hello David, great to be here. David: Wonderful to have you here. Well, Ekaterina’s laid strategic and marketing innovation for fortune 500 brands such as Intel and Accenture. She’s also author of the bestseller Think Like Zuck, the five business secrets of Facebook in probably brilliant CEO Mark Zuckerberg and co-author of The Power of Visual Storytelling. Ekaterina, you’ve provided social media advice to a lot of big brands but is social media more challenging for big brands compared with single honor businesses? Ekaterina: Well David, the reality is I think as marketers whether we’re business owners or marketers in a big brand, our key goal should

David: Is it really possible to have a data driven, results-orientated social media strategy? How does public relations fit into the modern marketing mix? What are the changes that are occurring at the moment in social media? Those are just three of the questions that I intend to ask today's special guest, Dr. Angela Hausman. Angela, welcome to DMR. Angela: Thanks. David: Angela's the head of marketing at Group Surfing. Angela owns Hausman and Associates, full service firm operating at the intersection of marketing and social media. Angela, I'm interested in this phrase, at the intersection of marketing and social media. Is social media not part of marketing then? Angela: Sure. Social media is part of marketing and I think that's why I used the tag line on my website at the intersection of marketing and social media. The reason is because even though social media is part of marketing, a lot of people who are operating in this space don't act like it is. They act like somehow social media is this totally

David: What are the most important tools for creating your own book? Where you should you self-publish your own book? What are the most effective techniques for promoting a newly published book? Those are just three of the questions that I intend to ask today’s special guest, Derek Murphy. Derek’s a bestselling author and book design expert and has been a leading voice in how to use design to sell more books. He’s also finishing his PhD in literature while running over a dozen book and publishing related online businesses. Derek, tell me a little bit about the software that you recommend to produce books? Derek: A lot of people recommend Scrivener. Scrivener is a word processing software that’s specifically for books. It’s a little easier than Word because inside of Scrivener, you can organize different chapters and you can make notes and you can make a bulletin board to collect ideas or research so that you have everything for your book together in one place. Then, you can go through it and edit it. Sc

David: What does it take to be a productive writer? What is the most common mistake that business writers make? And if you produce more quantity, does that not reduce your quality? Those are just two of the questions that I intend to ask today’s special guest, Bryan Collins. Bryan, welcome to DMR. Bryan: Thanks for having me on. David: Well, welcome. Bryan is a writer who lives an hour or so outside Dublin, Ireland - and right now he’s just published his new book ‘A Productive Writer’. Bryan, do you think a great writer should focus on creating great writing only or can a great writer also be a great social media marketer too? Bryan: That’s a very good question, David. I’d say that if there’s two things that a writer needs to do today - particularly an online writer - they need to spend firstly time creating great content and writing and they also need to spend an equal - if not more time - marketing and sharing that content. There’s no point going and locking yourself into a cave and producing a great

David: What does it take to be a top twenty political blogger? How do you persuade traditional thinkers to adopt digital marketing strategies and what’s the future for journalists? Those are just three of the questions that I intend to ask today’s special guest, Mark Pack. Mark, welcome to DMR. Mark: Thanks very much for having me on. David: You’re most welcome. Mark is an associate director at Blue Rubicon, an award-winning consultancy that transforms the reputations of some of the world’s biggest organizations. He’s also a visiting lecturer at City University in London in the Journalism Department. Mark, you’ve marketed using YouTube, Facebook and Twitter to name just a few activities, but is the written word still your favorite communications medium? Mark: That’s a good question. I think the written word, in many ways, is the toughest communications medium; so quite often, if you’re busy, if you’re stressed, if you got too many things to do, I wouldn’t necessarily say always feels like my favorite but

David: Can social media really be 'done for you' or do you have to retain control over your own voice? How do you use Instagram and Pinterest as marketing channels and why are some businesses using Squarespace instead of Wordpress? Those are just three of the questions that I intend to ask my especial guest today, Jenn dePaula. Jenn, welcome to DMR. Jenn: Hello, thank you for having me. David: Well, thank you very much for joining us. Well, Jenn is the co-founder of Mixtus Media, a Nashville-based social media and content marketing firm that specializes in serving authors and book publishers. Jenn, I'm interested, why do you actually end up focusing on the publishing industry in terms of where you offer you services? Jenn: Well, we initially started, I got my career started off in the music industry back in 2000. 2000 was really kind of a turning point for the music industry in turning into a more digital focused industry. I think they clawed and heaved their way up the hill of digital publishing and it

David: Is WordPress the right CMS for the majority of businesses? Should you use a theme framework or should you have your own theme designed from scratch? What WordPress plugins are most important in 2014? Those are just three of the questions that I intend to ask today's special guest, Jeffrey Samorano. Jeffrey, welcome to DMR. Jeffrey: Thanks for having me. David: Jeffrey is a part designer, part WordPress programmer, bringing balance and vision to projects. His strength is managing client expectations by seeing the vision of the bigger picture. Jeffrey, what's the bigger picture for WordPress? Will it continue to be the CMS of choice for more and more businesses moving forward? Jeffrey: Honestly, in my opinion, I think it is. It's got some great traction. It's complete. I mean, what is it, 60 million websites now are running WordPress. I don't think it's planning on slowing at all. It's pretty much dominating. David: It's the place to be. Nothing's going to take it over at any point to the near futu

David: What comes first - SEO or website design? Is it essential for SEO and website design to work closely together? What's the future for SEO? These are just three of the questions that I intend to ask today's special guest Chris Von Nieda. Chris, welcome to DMR. Chris: Thanks, David. A pleasure to be here. David: Chris is the founder of ROI4My.com a website design and SEO service provider based in Arizona. Chris, you got involved in website design way back in 1998. How did you end up building an interest in SEO? Chris: It's great that you're able to build websites, David, but, of course, if no one knows about your website or no one is finding your website, then that really defeats the purpose. Of course, if you're building a website to grow your business or to make money on revenue or provide services for a client, you've got to get people to the site and get them to perform the actions that you want when they arrive at the site in order to be successful. David: That's a very progressive website desi