Ensightium

Whether you're operating a small business with a few employees or you're a freelancer or solopreneur to effectively market your products and services, first get back to basics and align your marketing goals with your business strategy.

Marketing is a critical part of every successful business. It’s crucial to take a strategic approach to your marketing efforts to optimize success and maximize your investment. Here are ten knucklehead mistakes that often hinder marketing success for small business owners, solopreneurs and freelancers.

Today, our Pro Tip focuses on the importance of client segmentation as a key business development and growth driver. Nicole Lewis, the president and CEO of Nicole Lewis & Associates, is a passionate client advocate and solution architect who creates high impact and “out of the box” initiatives to consistently deliver double digit return on investment for her clients. Nicole shares her progressive business development strategies and the importance of client and donor segmentation in this episode. Watch the video interview here. Contact Nicole at https://www.nicolelewisandassociates.com/contact/.  

Today, our Pro Tip focuses on business etiquette and why it is important for business owners, professionals and executives to achieve greater business and career success. Joscelyn Davis, the president and chief strategist of JADE Strategies, Inc., is a highly sought-after speaker and trainer who brings more than 25 years of proven experience in organizational change strategy and leadership coaching in the public, private and nonprofit sectors. She shares her business etiquette insights to help you excel in your business or career. Watch the video interview here. As a special bonus, download Joscelyn’s FREE “Business Etiquette: Great Impressions Close Deals” cheat sheet.

It’s my pleasure to welcome Ryan to the Ensightium podcast. Ryan is an award-winning marketing strategist and brand consultant that transforms communications into mission-driven and results-oriented solutions for a wide array of creative projects. Ryan mixes strategy with creativity, technology with graphic design to produce inspired and unique identities, collateral and marketing materials, as well as social media marketing, and digital properties. In this episode, Ryan shares his strategies for employing graphic design in your communications and social platforms. Is graphic design important to create effective digital, print and social communications? I truly believe first impressions are everything, and visual communications play a vital role. Design goes far beyond just first impressions though, it helps to give your audience an understanding of what you are trying to communicate and actions you wish them to execute. Additionally, when you align your look and feel across all mediums it helps to establish stronger brand recognition with your audience. How can business owners improve their social media results? The social media landscape has changed drastically over the years. Before, it was simply enough to have a Twitter account and Facebook page. Now, everyone is fighting for space.  If you find you are not getting the results from your social media program, take a step back a review a few things. Evaluate what spaces are you playing in. More is not always best. Perhaps focus on one or two social media channels that you feel most comfortable with and see the greatest engagement.   Look at the data. Use your social media insight tools to see how your posts are doing. If your reach and engagement is consistently low, re-evaluate the types of content you are putting out. Make sure you are sharing and creating compelling content that your audience would be interested in and motivated to share. You may need to look to paid content on the network to re-establish a foothold.   Develop your network. Get people talking about your brand.  Reach out to individual or brand influencers relating to your business to help put a spark in your social strategy. These influencers will feature you amongst their network or simply share your content to help drive additional engagement and awareness.  In a survey by eMarketer, 84% of marketers said they would launch at least one influencer campaign within the next twelve months   What are your three to five top strategies, tips or tools to help grow small businesses? If your organization has not taken a look at messaging, social messaging in particular, do so immediately. I believe the conversational economy is the next big thing and has engagement that blows email out of the water. Social commerce is only going to grow and in particular, through messaging and in app purchases. One tool to help with this is a current favorite of mine, ManyChat that integrates directly with Facebook Messenger to create your very own bots. Essentially automations for messages that are received to your business. From these interactions, a subscriber list is created that allows you to message and interact with the audience much like sending out an email. Keep the messages real, exclusive and personable.   I know, all the hype about bots and automation, who needs humans anymore right? You are missing the mark if this is where you are coming from. Individuals are aggressively seeking human interactions with brands and if you are not readily available, your leaving revenue dollars on the table. People expect a response from a brand within an hour on social media so utilize automation to bring back one-to-one conversation. While you can't be readily available all day, these automations can at least give you a buffer until the next time you or a team member can respond. Use messaging and email automation to encourage direct interaction with a real individual at...

Let me briefly introduced Matt. He has coached hundreds of financial advisors for more than a decade. Following Matt's extraordinary success with helping his client achieve and exceed their goals, Matt launched his own coaching/consulting company, Top Advisor Coaching. With a Master’s Degree as a Therapist and a Coach, Matt is trained to deal with the human elements of business. As success means different things to different people, Matt helps his clients find what success means for them and then helps them create a path to get there. Matt has been recognized by successfastlane.com as one of the world’s top life coaches. He is the author of The Social Media Handbook for Financial Advisors: How to Use LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter to Build and Grow Your Business, published by Bloomberg Financial. In this episode, Matt shares his insights regarding how to get out of your own way and why it is important to engage with a coach, a consultant or a mentor to achieve greater success. Download Matt's 30-Day Journey Document Contact: Matthew Halloran Partner|Brand & Podcast Guy "The Voice" Top Advisor Marketing 877.260.5710 ext 3  

Referrals are an extremely effective and cost-efficient revenue generation strategy. Yet, many business owners constantly expend countless resources focused on mass marketing in an effort to appeal to an entire market using a one-size-fits-all approach. With some planning and consistent execution, a referral program offers many benefits to small businesses. So, why are referral programs a great revenue generation strategy? Let’s consider the following statistics. • 92% of consumers trust referrals from people they know – Nielsen • 77% of consumers are more likely to buy a new product when learning about it from friends or family. – Nielsen • After a positive experience, 83% of customers would be happy to provide a referral. But salespeople aren't asking -- just 29% of customers end up giving a referral. – Hubspot Be sure to check out the following podcast for more information on creating an exceptional customer service experience. 015: Excellent Customer Service Should Be Your First Focus

It’s January 2018…A new year always brings the inevitable resolutions or if you prefer behavioral modifications. Many business owners—like you and me—resolve to generate more revenue and to grow their companies. With an estimated 80 percent of resolutions likely to fail by February (that’s about 30 days), a surefire pricing strategy is necessary to achieve your revenue goals. Business owners commonly and unknowingly commit several significant pricing faux pas that limit their revenue opportunities and create unnecessary obstacles for their businesses. Recognizing and avoiding these common faux pas will help you achieve your profitability and revenue goals. In this episode, you can learn how to create a surefire pricing strategy that will help you make more money, increase your profitability and achieve your resolution. Be sure to check out the following podcasts for more information on brand and revenue generation. 014: When It Pays to Fire Clients 006: Generating Leads Is Easier Than You Think 005: Perfect Pitch: Keys to Winning More Business 002: Everything You Need to Know for Successful Branding 001: Branding Matters: Unlock Competitive Advantages for Faster Growth ###

Do you remember the moment you decided to launch your business or to become a business owner? Do you remember the myriad of decisions you had to make? Specifically, how did you decide on your new title of president, managing partner, founder or CEO? Whatever your decision-making process, your title represents more than your position. It reflects you level of competency to effectively manage and grow your business. As you launched your business, you were confident in your technical abilities to deliver the products, solutions or services. Perhaps, you also were confident in your ability to manage your accounting, sales and marketing. With your business growing, is it time to develop additional skills and to transition to a fully functioning chief executive officer? This transition is crucial to your continued business growth to help successfully enter new markets, to engage a higher-level client and to close bigger more lucrative deals.

Customer service is personal for your clients and customers. There are many benefits when businesses provided exceptional, excellent or even good, customer service. Yet, many business owners don’t consistently focus, monitor or improve their customer service. In fact, they create shortcuts and cut costs. Horror stories abound! Most recently a passenger refused to deplane a United Flight and was forcibly removed by security personnel, suffering a broken nose, a concussion, a sinus injury requiring surgery and lost two front teeth. Of course, this is beyond the pale and outside the mainstream, but it happened because United wanted to fly its employees at the expense of paid and seated customers. United’s financial hit included $255 million loss in market capitalization, a 57 percent drop in profits, and many credit card customers destroyed their cards. It will take years for United to recover from this shameful, unfortunate and unnecessary situation. If you are in business, customer service matters and should be your first priority and focus. Download FREE 5 Steps to Design Your Customer Experience Infographic. If you enjoy this podcast (and we hope you do!), please take a minute to subscribe, review or rate Ensightium an iTunes at https://ensightium.com/ensightium-ratings-itunes/. We sincerely appreciate your support!

Deciding to end a client relationship is a highly stressful, intense and difficult choice that should not be made quickly or taken lightly. In fact, your decision should be made with all due consideration and with well-defined reasons. It is also important that you take extreme care in executing your decision as you end a client relationship. Why would you ever fire your client? There are many valid reasons to part ways with a client to grow your business, to improve your capacity or to capitalize on new opportunities. And, sometimes you have just outgrown each other. Whatever your reason, ending a business relationship is a very delicate situation that requires diplomacy, significant forethought, planning and flawless execution to ensure you don’t burn bridges or harm your brand and reputation. If you enjoy this podcast (and we hope you do!), please take a minute to subscribe, review or rate Ensightium an iTunes at https://ensightium.com/ensightium-ratings-itunes/.

Marketing can be a daunting challenge. There are so many conflicting recommendations. And, the landscape seems to evolve daily with new digital and social media platforms. If that’s not enough, there are the issues of what to say, how to say it, where to say it, and who should hear it. Marketing is and should be viewed as a critical investment for the financial success of your business. PERIOD. Marketing is not optional. It’s imperative. Believe it or not, you will spend significantly more money if you don’t commit to a strategic marketing communications plan that will help you win customers, increase your sales and create buzz about your products or services. If you enjoy this podcast (and we hope you do!), please take a minute to subscribe, review or rate Ensightium an iTunes at https://ensightium.com/ensightium-ratings-itunes/.

The terms sales and marketing are often used interchangeably. However, these vital functions provide very different—and equally important—contributions to the company or organization. They’re in fact the yin-yang that cultivates customers, generates sales, and serves as the fuel for your company. Today, we explore how to align your sales and marketing functions to significantly improve revenue generation, enhance productivity and to increase profitability. Many business owners and executives incorrectly believe marketing is an expense that in a budget crunch should be significantly cut or completely eliminated. Nothing is further from reality. Marketing is and should be viewed as a critical investment to the financial success of the organization. Sales without an appropriate marketing function is more costly, less effective and reduces the bottom-line. If you enjoy this podcast (and we hope you do!), please take a minute to subscribe, review or rate Ensightium an iTunes at https://ensightium.com/ensightium-ratings-itunes/. We sincerely appreciate your support!

Growing or managing your business can be a daunting challenge. Keeping customer acquisition and opportunity costs low is extremely important for sustainable business growth and revenue generation. Today, we will unpack how to assess business opportunities and optimize business growth potential without bankrupting the company, to identify niche and target markets to accelerate customer acquisition and revenue generation, and improve your return on investment. If you enjoy this podcast (and we hope you do!), please take a minute to subscribe, review or rate Ensightium an iTunes at https://ensightium.com/ensightium-ratings-itunes/.

I hope you have been able to incorporate lessons from last week’s episode. Today, we will continue to examine lessons from the 10 Best Global Brands. As a reminder, the 100 Best Global Brand valuations by Interbrand, a global branding consultancy, are distributed each October. The 10 Best Global Brands provide invaluable lessons for growth-minded entrepreneurs and small business owners. The lessons will help you strategize, implement and achieve your desired growth, and to build a strong and resilient customer-focused brand. For our purposes, we have isolated a specific lesson from each brand. If you enjoy this podcast (and we hope you do!), please take a minute to subscribe, review or rate Ensightium an iTunes at https://ensightium.com/ensightium-ratings-itunes/.

In today’s episode, we will examine lessons from the 10 Best Global Brands as valuated by Interbrand, a global branding agency. The 10 Best Global Brands provide invaluable lessons for growth-minded entrepreneurs and small business owners. The lessons will help you strategize, implement and achieve your desired growth, and to build a strong and resilient customer-focused brand. For our purposes, we have isolated a specific lesson from each brand. If you enjoy this podcast (and we hope you do!), please take a minute to subscribe, review or rate Ensightium an iTunes at https://ensightium.com/ensightium-ratings-itunes/.

Today, we will focus on a mission-critical skill—relationship building—for the success and viability of your business. Having the ability to confidently and effectively engage with people in both business and social environments is imperative to successfully market your business, to develop key relationships, and to attract business opportunities. So, love it or hate it, relationship building is everyone’s responsibility in your company. And, mastering this skill will provide enormous benefits and opportunities for your business to succeed. If you enjoy this podcast (and we hope you do!), please take a minute to subscribe, review or rate Ensightium an iTunes at https://ensightium.com/ensightium-ratings-itunes/.

In our previous episode, we discussed lead generation strategies for your business success. Now, we turn our focus to effective communication strategies that will engage your current and prospective customers. Small business owners can effectively employ the following techniques to strengthen their customer relationships, to attract new customers, to differentiate their products and services, and to enhance their profitability. If you enjoy this podcast (and we hope you do!), please take a minute to subscribe, review or rate Ensightium an iTunes at https://ensightium.com/ensightium-ratings-itunes/.

Many business owners believe generating leads is a costly, low return and difficult task. By purposefully and strategically creating a lead generation plan, you can significantly reduce spend by maximizing low cost and highly effective platforms to develop a sales pipeline. Today, we introduce lead generation and explore several tools and techniques that small business owners can implement now. If you enjoy this podcast (and we hope you do!), please take a minute to subscribe, review or rate Ensightium an iTunes at https://ensightium.com/ensightium-ratings-itunes/.

In an extremely competitive marketplace, creating customer value is essential for winning more business. Optimizing sales and marketing activities while employing customer cultivation, acquisition and activation strategies are significant drivers to increase sales volume, differentiate products and services, create competitive advantages to win more business and accelerate growth.  Today, we delve into purchase decision-drivers, the marketing and sales funnel and how to create strategies that increase sales volume and maximize marketing spend to win more business. If you enjoy this podcast (and we hope you do!), please take a minute to subscribe, review or rate Ensightium an iTunes at https://ensightium.com/ensightium-ratings-itunes/.

Today, we will explore the executive brand strategies used by influential CEOs to increase their top-line revenue, gain access to more deal flow and bring in bigger dollars. When you think of branded CEOs, many come to mind, including Steve Jobs (Apple), Richard Branson (Virgin), Warren Buffet(Berkshire Hathaway), Martha Stewart, Oprah Winfrey, and the list goes on. Each of them have carefully and purposefully created iconic CEO brands that enabled them to build their companies and to become category and market leaders. If you are thinking it worked for them, but can’t work for you. Think again. They all started with passion, tenacity, a vision and invested in their greatest strategic asset—their brand. And, you can too. If you enjoy this podcast (and we hope you do!), please take a minute to subscribe, review or rate Ensightium an iTunes at https://ensightium.com/ensightium-ratings-itunes/.

Growing your business is no small feat and requires several critical resources. And chief among them is highly qualified talent that can help address new client demands, new marketplace realities and modify internal processes to cost-effectively deliver new products and services. Many small business owners and entrepreneurs falsely believe they are unable to successfully hire the best in-demand talent as the competition with larger and global corporations is unwinnable. Today, we will explore why savvy CEOs care about their employer brand, the game-changing employer brand strategies to win the war for talent and how to leverage your employer brand to acquire the talent needed to accelerate your growth.

In today’s highly competitive marketplace, differentiating your company, products and services is a business imperative. Oftentimes, small business owners and entrepreneurs struggle to develop sound strategies to successfully compete. Here’s where a proactive and well-thought-out brand strategy is the secret to unlocking key competitive advantages for your company that will increase market share, attract the right customers and build brand loyalty. Today, we will explore the business case for branding your company, the key faux pas, mistakes and missteps that impede success and how to build a breakout brand. If you enjoy this podcast (and we hope you do!), please take a minute to subscribe, review or rate Ensightium an iTunes at https://ensightium.com/ensightium-ratings-itunes/.

Welcome to our inaugural podcast! From challenging the status quo to breakthrough innovation, here you will find actionable strategies and thought-provoking topics to educate, engage and empower you. Taking the required time to proactively and consistently manage your company’s brand provides unmatched opportunities to increase your market share, to attract purchase-ready customers, to retain your top customers, and to build a top-performing team. Your brand is vital to the long-term profitability of your small business. If you enjoy this podcast (and we hope you do!), please take a minute to subscribe, review or rate Ensightium an iTunes at https://ensightium.com/ensightium-ratings-itunes/. We sincerely appreciate your support!