Marketing and Service with Justin Varuzzo

We have an incredible guest in this episode. From creating the marketing around the Panasonic Toughbook's to building a group of incredible CMO's during COVID, and author of a new book Renegade Marketing. This B2B marketing expert lays out a playbook that works for ANY business and for ANY marketer - it's all just as applicable to C2B marketing! For detailed show notes, Justin Varuzzo's after thoughts on each episode, and lists you can use to take immediate action in your business, check out the website at http://www.marketingandservice.com.

This episode is all about AI and ChatGPT! How can you use chatGPT to boost your marketing efforts? Here are six things you should be using ChatGPT for right now to help maximize the impact of all of your marketing!For detailed show notes, Justin Varuzzo's after thoughts on each episode, and lists you can use to take immediate action in your business, check out the website at http://www.marketingandservice.com.

In this episode I'm joined by the founder of SimplyNoted.com. Rick Elmore discusses his incredible platform that allows you to send handwritten notes through the mail at scale! Impress clients, customers, employees, and build STRONGER relationships. Rick's system doesn't print notes, it actually writes notes with a pen! Learn how this former NFL player can take your customer experience to the next level! For detailed show notes, Justin Varuzzo's after thoughts on each episode, and lists you can use to take immediate action in your business, check out the website at http://www.marketingandservice.com.

In this episode I want to dig into LinkedIn and LinkedIn sales strategy. Why are you doing it wrong?!?! Please - take a moment and listen! Improve your close rate, improve your lead quality, reduce the time with "cold emails" and "cold connections". Boost sales and learn how to offer VALUE!For detailed show notes, Justin Varuzzo's after thoughts on each episode, and lists you can use to take immediate action in your business, check out the website at http://www.marketingandservice.com.

I'm back! Welcome to season 2 of MarketingAndService.com podcast! What's been going on the past 6 months? Why is the world falling apart? How can we save it through marketing? What every business should be thinking about as we begin to wrap up 2022! For detailed show notes, Justin Varuzzo's after thoughts on each episode, and lists you can use to take immediate action in your business, check out the website at http://www.marketingandservice.com.

If you are a business that sells a product or service that someone else produces or you create a product or service that other businesses sell on your behalf - than you SHOULD know all the ins and outs of co-op advertising. In this episode I highlight the benefits of co-op advertising from both sides of the business relationship. Each side is served mutually to great benefit when a co-op campaign is done right! Save half your advertising spend or double your exposure at the same rate! 

In this episode you will learn how to maximize advertising dollars by targeting platforms that are primarily made up of your target audience, instead of spending significant time trying to weed out people who are NOT your target market on the big digital platforms. Also, it's a look-forward while celebrating a year of podcasting with 48 episodes! 

Two incredible companies that have changed the world at Tesla and Amazon. Taking a queue from the tech-world and creating incredible processes of automation to provide an incredible customer experience. But, what if your problem isn't described in their drop down of possible issues? Uh oh! This episode explores the ugly side of automated customer service and challenges you on how to solve it!

That is the question we will answer on this episode. Do you want to start a podcast? Is a podcast the right medium for your message? What's involved with a podcast? How much time will it take to produce and edit a podcast? What equipment and tools will I need? What will be the format? How long should my podcast be? Yeah, I get it - you have a ton of questions about this! In this episode I'll breakdown exactly what's involved in creating THIS podcast - how much time, what tools I use, etc! 

This episode features the infamous SEO Steve! Steve Wiideman has been tackling SEO from the very beginning, before it was even called SEO. In this episode he offers some incredible insight and strategies for best-practices in developing a content strategy, and offering great advice on how to break things down to make it easy to create, measure, and analyze your SEO performance.

Ugh - why do so many people get scammed? We work so hard for honest sales and building great relationships, yet someone else is constantly closing the deal to get a credit card number for an extended car warranty phone scam! What is it about the con-artist that lets them close the deal?!

In this episode we're joined by a special guest Jonathan Flaks of JF Coaching. Aside from being my personal coach, Jonathan helps businesses with strategic leadership. His coaching system can help take a business and create a sense of autonomy, ensuring that the business is driven by strategic planning and not by YOU making decision on a whim everyday! Visit Jonathan Flaks website at:  jfcoach.comConnect with Jonathan on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonathanflaks/

This episode is all about keeping your business relevant. By looking at case studies of people like Snoop Dog, Jay Leno, or Carlos Santana we can learn how to apply their success in keeping relevant to YOUR business! 

This episode features our special guest Brent Keltner. Brent is the President of Winalaytics and the author of the upcoming book "Revenue Acceleration Playbook".  Brent and I discuss the power of an authentic customer journey and he explains how important it is to truly and 'authentically' understand you buyers problems before offering solutions. He also touches on the importance of understanding the long-term value of each client by stressing forward thinking of how your products and services not only help you buyer now, but in the future as well. You can pre-order Bren't book slated to be released in April of 2022. https://www.amazon.com/Revenue-Acceleration-Playbook-Authentic-Marketing/dp/1774581019/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=brent+keltner&qid=1641146940&sr=8-1You can visit Winalytics online here : https://winalytics.com/The book has a website of its own here: authenticitywins.com

This episode is all about business planning! With COVID still going strong at the start of the New Year, it's time to focus on planning. Setting goals, planning, and considering contingencies for COVID lockdown or restrictions that could be looming in the New Year as the Omicron variant sweeps the nation at record numbers. A few hours of thought and consideration can make difficult decisions easy, help keep a financial cushion for  unforeseen  circumstances, and possibly make for the best year for your business yet! 

This episode follows up on the Episode 38 regarding the future of marketing. In this episode we explore the crystal ball to unveil the trends that are driving customer service moving into 2022 and beyond. How can customer problems be solved quickly? Can they be solved before the problem even exists? Where will people look for solutions? How will solutions be delivered? How will problems be resolved? What will be customer expectations? 

This episode is all about the future! What will the next five to ten years bring us in the marketing world? How will we connect with customers? Where will we connect with customers? How will we exchange value for goods and services?   I even attempt a mid-atlantic accent to seal the deal!                   

In this episode we have guest Eric Dickmann. Eric is host of "The Virtual CMO" Podcast and CEO of FiveEchelon Group and offers fractional / virtual CMO services to businesses small and large. We discuss many challenges businesses have when they don't have strong leadership in the marketing wing. Many companies are priced out of having a CMO to lead marketing, but Eric provides CMO services to businesses of any size. Having a Virtual CMO provides the opportunity to leverage the very best talent when needed in forming a marketing strategy, then bringing back the talent as needed to adjust the strategy as time goes on! You can find Eric on LinkedIn at: https://www.linkedin.com/in/edickmann/You can listen to his podcast "The Virtual CMO" here: https://fiveechelon.com/the-virtual-cmo-podcast/Visit his Five Echelon Group here: https://fiveechelon.com

This episode explores the keys that unlocked success for huge global franchise fast food restaurants. We will explore the processes and procedures that allow for the magic of managing and delivering a consistent experience across the globe. This episode will also compare this to much larger corporations and how their processes and procedures can differ to accommodate vast amounts of scenarios. 

In this episode our special guest Darrell Evans from Yocal Local Digital Marketing and host of The Mindshift Podcast @  dives into the customer journey and discusses how to better attribute your campaign success by having a better understanding of the typical journey and how it interacts with a typical consumer. There are some great bits of gold in this episode for anyone doing any digital advertising! Link to Yocal Local Digital Marketing: https://www.yokellocal.com/blog/author/darrell-evansLink to "The Mindshift Podcast":https://www.themindshiftpodcast.com/

This is a case study of what NOT to do when creating customer relationships. Walmart, Amazon, and Target have had huge backlash from their inability to executive and fulfill orders for the latest gaming systems. Fueled by the pandemic, new consoles that have been out for over a year have yet to hit store shelves before being gobbled up by scalpers selling them for double the price! And who wins? Walmart and Amazon?!

Julie Guest is the author of the new book The Client Stampede. Her book details 7-steps to driving traffic to your business! Julie takes the time in her interview to explain how she developed the system selling her house for what she owed, during a recession when home values plummeted 20-30% across the country. She utilized techniques used by the largest digital advertisers in the world, like Facebook and Google. You might be surprised to hear what she has in common with them, and what drove her success! 

What is price elasticity? How does it affect your business? How do you properly price a product? How do you determine the flexibility in that price? How can you increase the value of your product or service to increase the price and become more profitable? How can increasing price reduce your profit? How can increasing volume reduce your profit even at a higher price? There are so many questions to think about my brain just exploded!

This episode is all about how you can save precious time and money, while also offering exceptional service for your customers - answering their questions lightening fast by having the proper resources! We talk about FAQ pages, community support groups, AI chat bots and more. Don't miss out on easy opportunities to better serve your customer while saving yourself time!

In this episode we'll explore two ads from competing companies in the same year with an exceptionally similar nostalgic theme - targeting the same audience! One is the Jeep ad featuring Bill Murray reprising his role as Phil Connors in Groundhog Day during the 2020 Superbowl. The other ad is for the Ford Mach-E commercial that aired the Christmas season of 2020 featuring the Griswold family from Christmas Vacation. Which one did it right? Which one did it better? I'll share my thoughts and encourage you to let me know what you think! See the full superbowl ad for Jeep here:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xxe_HLixs1QSee the full Christmas ad featuring the Ford Mach-E here:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gmAU8MJoJU4

Apple's latest iOS installments with iOS 14 and iOS15 have introduced a variety of new privacy features that the news is screaming will completely break Facebook advertising! The good news is email marketing and Facebook advertising is still alive and well despite Apple's new features. In fact - for many small businesses this may have little or no impact on your bottom line!

In this episode we take a deep dive into one of the most under-utilized SEO strategies available to small business - LOCAL SEARCH! Google has put a ton of work into local search results to ensure people get the best results when searching for local products or services. From voice search, local SEO, local content strategy, and more, Wendell offers his expert advice on how to navigate the digital landscape when thinking local first!

If you are interested in setting and achieving goals than this episode is for you! By using S.M.A.R.T goals you can create wins for yourself that will create motivation and inspiration. This helps build momentum for setting more ambitious goals that can be quickly achieved! In fact, some would say all you have to do is WRITE IT DOWN to make it come true! 

This episode features a special guest John Wall, a co-host of the very long-running and successful marketing podcast "Marketing Over Coffee". John has interviewed the biggest names in marketing over the years and has become an incredible resource from which to learn! John currently is. partner at TruthInsights.ai.  We dive into data and analytics - and discuss how we can gain clarity, insights, and actionable information from all the data sources we have on our sites. Google Analytics, Microsoft Clarity, site reports, etc - how do you make sense of all of it? 

In thie episode we dive into the do's and dont's when you can't close a sale and lose out to the competition. There are valuable lessons to be learned and many sales training programs gloss over what many in sales can imagine is the worst possible outcome. There are opportunities that lie within some deals that are lost - but if you aren't on top of it you might miss out on them!

This epsiode features special guest Deam DiMarzo from "LongestSoloEver" Youtube channel. Dean has gotten over 150,000 subscribers and 20 million video views. Dean discusses the various ways he's monetized his content, and we connect it to how anyone or any business can start leveraging video today to promote their business, but possibly create a new income stream for the very same business! 

In this episode we dive into using the free website analytic tool Microsoft Clarity, There are key features that can highlight and identify major issues with a web-design or customer journey throughout a website near instantaneously! If you have any website, business or not, this is a tool worth checking out. It costs nothing, can be setup in a few minutes, and provide incredible value and insights into your website performance.  

In this episode we have a special guest Gina Pomponi, COO of Bluewater Media - a full-stack marketing agency with in-house production.  Gina speaks of the importance of reaching a broad-audience like those found through TV to actually help better define your target audience - and the compound power of combining traditional media and digital media to produce a synergy the maximizes the results of each. 

In this episode we explore strategies to help you cope with the seemingly infinite number of tricks, methods, and strategies you can utilize when marketing your business. There is only a few basic things you REALLY need to know before approaching any marketing strategy. Social media? YouTube? Facebook Ads? Google Ads? Print Ads? Email Marketing? Where do you start?!

In this episode we discuss the critical importance of having a live chat, but we don't shy away from discussing the pitfalls, dangers, and mistakes some businesses make. Eric Kades is the founder of textchat.com. His innovative new chat to text platform makes it easy for businesses to be incredibly responsive and close deals faster, boost average order values, and provide an incredible customer experience. 

Using a survey can be a powerful tool in gaining insights from customers or employees. Properly executing and analyzing the data of a survey can prove to be quite complicated. One wrong move and the survey results may provide data that is unreliable and could result in making poor decisions based on false assumptions. In this episode we'll dive into the how and why of surveys!

This episode is all about how you can connect an incredible customer experience to influencer marketers! Gordon is an expert who wrote the book on influencer marketing and dives into detail on how building long-term relationships with your influencer has an immeasurable impact on their audience and their ability to persuade their audience to check out your product or service. It's all about building that trust!

Today's episode is all about boosting leads, SEO, and building authority through content marketing - but with a twist! Everyone hammers home the importance of content marketing that usually is designed to draw new customers to your business. What if you could create incredible content for your current customers, building trust and strong relationships, but also be used as a tool to drive new traffic to your business? 

Are you ready to sell on Amazon?! You might want to listen to this episode first. Amazon can be an incredible way to boost sales, build a brand, or reach a new audience. It can also be a nightmare, technically complicated, or even worse - it can be the death of your business! Our special guest Neil Twa has built dozens of incredible brands on Amazon, generating millions with each. Neil gets to the bottom of what's important for sellers when selling on Amazon!

Did your business stem from a hobby, or did you accidentally stumble into your business? If so, this episode is for you! In this episode we talk about how to map and create an incredible customer journey. Your job is to think about how customers become aware of your product or service, what helps them in considering if you are the right person for the job, how easy the purchase process is, how you handle post-sale, and lastly how your customers can become advocates for your business! 

In this episode we are joined by special guest Bharat Kanodia who has valuated trillions in assets from the Golden Gate Bridge to the New York State Thruway system and everything in between. Bharat explains strategies that can result in a valuation 10x greater than a competitor with the same revenue, same profit, same demographics by just making a slight adjustment to the business model!

The hospitality industry epitomizes service. There is no other industry where exceeding expectations and creating incredible experiences is essential for the long-term success and viability of a business. In this episode we'll explore ten things that I've learned from the hospitality industry - and I think all 10 can be applied to just about any business right away with not much effort!

In this episode we talk to the founder of Objection.co. Objection.co is a service that helps organizations identify and dispute fake reviews. Curtis and I discuss the importance of reviews, the importance of trustworthy reviews and how extremely difficult it can be to have a slanderous or fake review removed from popular review websites. Fake reviews can have an enormous impact on your business, and Curtis explains how he helped a physician facing a 7-figure impact to their business because of a SINGLE FAKE REVIEW! 

This is an episode that explores a pet peeve of mine, the failure of follow up. It's something we've all experienced many times where either we really want to buy something and can't get sales staff to follow up, a service call that goes unanswered with no follow up, and maybe we ourselves have forgotten to follow up with a customer or client. We all make mistakes - let's discuss it and see if we can unlock some helpful insights! 

Your a solopreneur and the weight of the world is on your shoulders. You are singularly responsible for every single aspect of your business. It can be an overwhelming experience for the best business owners, but in this episode our guest Diana Lund Nordstrom is going to share some ideas, tips and techniques to help hold yourself together and push forward. Through grief and illness Diana learned how to focus attention back to herself. 

What is content marketing? How does it fit into a marketing plan? In this episode we explore a twist on content marketing. What if your content could market your product or service and also be incredible content for existing customers and users of your product of service? The time and effort spent here will pay double dividends for your business.  

Are you scared to take the customer experience to the next level?  Today's guest Mark Morton is a coach, mentor, and motivational speaker. This episode tackles fear and why fear can be crippling. Mark walks through techniques and strategies to tackle fear, overcome fear, and lead a better life while running a better business. Don't let "stinkin' thinkin" get in your way!

In this episode we'll learn the three most important things you need to do before jumping into launching a Facebook ad (including boosts). You can save a lot of money by better targeting your ad and ensuring you only pay for ads to be seen by perspective customers. You can save money by targeting non-traditional keywords or demographics that will reach your audience with less competition. Before you do anything know your numbers - do you know your customer acquisition cost and lifetime value? Learn why it's so important to know this before jumping into Facebook ads!

Vince Warnock is a successful entrepreneur, who has launched and sold several start-ups, has served as the Chief Marketing Officer for Cigna Health insurance and is now an author of the hit book "Chasing the Insights" and the host of the podcast "Chasing the Insights". In this episode we discuss the things he has learned in his career and how it can apply to your business today! 

In this episode we explore the many ways your sales team can be undermining your business, your service team, and letting down your customers. Why do some sales staff overpromise leaving the company forced to underdeliver? Whose fault is it? How can you get a handle on making sure sales and service are on the same page? 

Is stripping your service department of all authority really worth it? Are you crippling their ability to best serve the customer because they aren’t empowered to make judgement calls or service decisions? Let’s dive into why it’s a good idea to rethink this strategy and ensure your team members can always do what is best for the team.