Podcasts about your competitors

Have you ever been concerned that executive recruiters weren't calling you enough (or at all) or were calling about roles you weren't interested in? If so, then host Doug Lester shares five strategies for getting on the radar screens of recruiters for the right opportunities. They're based on his experience as a senior associate at a top executive search firm.Resources mentioned:

Jon shares the excitement for London Build 2024, taking place on 20th - 21st November at London Olympia. Discover why it's the UK's biggest construction show with over 35,000 attendees, 700 speakers, and 450 exhibitors. Jon talks about the opportunity for networking, CPD training workshops, and having some fun! He also invites you to his talk at 10am on Wednesday 20th November at London Build's Skills & Marketing Hub. Don't miss out - grab your free tickets through the link in the show notes and connect with Jon on social media before London Build 2024.Episode Highlights...00:00 Introduction01:43 What Is London Build?02:14 Why Attend London Build?03:13 Why Jon Is Excited About London Build04:50 What Is Jon's London Build Talk About?05:36 Where & When To Hear Jon's Talk07:08 Why Attend Jon's Talk?08:50 How to Get Tickets10:02 Conclusion and Next Episode PreviewKey Takeaways...What London Build 2024 Is All About: London Build 2024 is the UK's biggest construction show. You'll find over 35,000 people there, with more than 700 speakers across 12 stages, plus over 450 exhibitors. It's packed with activities too: meet-the-buyer sessions, celebrity guests, music, DJs, networking parties, and more. It's like a full-on festival for the construction world!Why You Should Go to London Build 2024: This event is more than just a conference—it's a place to meet people, learn new skills in CPD workshops, and connect with others in the industry. It's also fun, with live music, a bar, and free entry for everyone. There's a bit of everything to enjoy!Jon's Talk at the Event: Jon is excited to join London Build 2024 and will be giving his first talk at the event. His presentation, "The Simple Way to Stand Out from Your Competitors," covers how to find your niche, use content marketing, and build your personal brand. He's looking forward to sharing ideas and meeting you at the event.Links Mentioned In The Episode...

It was “really slow in the first couple of years...really, really slow.” GoHenry was an app and debit card for kids to help parents teach their kids about money. Dean started over a decade ago in 2012, when mobile was just truly taking off. And yet, it took multiple years to get off the ground. Once he found the right channels and repeatable growth, he and his team started pouring fuel on the fire. In total, they raised over $100M. He ultimately grew to 2 million paying customers. Earlier this year, they were acquired for an undisclosed sum in what is one of the bigger fintech M&A deals of the last few years.Here's how it happened.Why you should listen: Why even with millions of paying users, Dean speaks with a handful of customers one-on-one every week.Why timing is so important and how to spot trends early-on based on small things happening around you.How finding the right channels is key for consumer startups. Why Focus and clarity are key to maintaining a successful business.KeywordsGoHenry, startup, acquisition, product market fit, customer feedback, financial education, kids debit card, scaling, marketing strategy, entrepreneurshipTimestamps:(00:00:00) Intro(00:1:34) The Beginning of GoHenry(00:5:57) Why I talk to users every week(00:11:22) You Grow by Learning Faster than Your Competitors(00:26:50) V1 of GoHenry(00:35:26) Getting to 10,000 Customers(00:38:33) Conversion Rates from Social Media(00:41:51) Getting Acquired(00:50:59) Finding Product Market Fit(00:51:33) One Piece of AdviceSend me a message to let me know what you think!

Welcome to Compromising Positions! This week we are joined by Dr David Burkus, one of the world's leading business thinkers and best-selling author of five books on the topic of business and leadership. Dr Burkus has worked with the leadership teams of some internationally known names such as PepsiCo, Adobe and NASA.In this episode, “Storytelling Superconnectors: Unleashing Purpose Beyond Metrics in Your Cybersecurity Function”, Dr Burkus challenges the concept of Dunbar's Number as we discuss the power of human networks, and how finding the superconnectors in your organisation will help you get your cybersecurity agenda in front of the right people.Indulging in a bit of schadenfreude, Dr Burkus shows us how we can use the hacks and breaches of our competitors to demonstrate our value and purpose offering to the c-suite and he also shares his unique insights on breaking down siloes, and harnessing the power of positive engagement in the workplace.And as if that wasn't enough (!) how to move away from just metrics to make your security function shine! If you want to change the way your organisation sees your security team, this is the episode for you! This is a two part episode (this is part one!) so don't forget to check back in next week to hear the whole interview! Key Takeaways:Find your Superconnectors: Superconnectors are individuals who have lots of powerful connections and can help you expand your network quickly. By networking with superconnectors, you can find new opportunities and build purpose-driven teams in the cybersecurity function.Embrace the Power of Storytelling: Facts and figures are important, but stories resonate on a deeper level. Security teams can leverage storytelling to educate employees about cybersecurity threats, celebrate successes, and foster a sense of shared purpose.Break Down Silos: Challenge the stereotype of security as the "office police." Focus on collaboration and highlight the positive contributions your team makes in protecting the organization. Aim for a 3:1 ratio of positive interactions to negative ones to build trust and rapport.Learn from Your Competitors' Misfortunes: While celebrating wins is important, so is learning from failures. Use competitor breaches as a springboard for threat intelligence exercises, demonstrating the value your team brings in proactively preventing such attacks.Links to everything we discussed in this episode can be found in the show notes and if you liked the show, please do leave us a review. Follow us on all good podcasting platforms and via our YouTube channel, and don't forget to share on LinkedIn and in your teams.It really helps us spread the word and get high-quality guests, on future episodes. We hope you enjoyed this episode - See you next time, keep secure, and don't forget to ask yourself, ‘Am I the compromising position here?' Keywords: cybersecurity, storytelling, psychology, networking, silos, purposeSHOW NOTESDr Burkus has an awe-inspiring career as an author. You can check out his books on AmazonDunbar's number: Why we can only maintain 150 relationships. BBCWham, Bam, That's a Scam Series by Atomic ShrimpsFreakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. DubnerMGM Ransomware Attack. A write up by Bleeping ComputerNominate us in the European Cybersecurity Blogger Awards (we're going for ‘Best Newcomer' Google Form Here (it's safe, promise)ABOUT DR DAVID BURKUSOne of the world's leading business thinkers, Dr. David Burkus' forward-thinking ideas and bestselling books are helping leaders build their best team ever.LINKS FOR DR DAVID BURKUSDr Burkus' LinkedinDr Burkus' WebsiteDr Burkus' TikTok (No dancing unfortunately)

Great brands are built on data. Growth comes from knowing your customer inside and out - especially their buying psychology - that you then use to build brand strategies that help them pick you over your competitors. A lot of product-based entrepreneurs are fighting the wrong battle. They think it's their mindset or their marketing, when really it's their brand strategy. And I'm going to be teaching you the difference between the two - and how to incorporate your shopper's psychology into your brand in my masterclass that's going down next week: The Secret Psychology of Shoppers: Three Brand Strategies to Get Customers to Start Picking Your Product instead of Your Competitors

Timestamps: 01:46 - The Animal Kingdom and the Competitive Ecosystem 05:52 - Differentiation in the Marketplace 08:12 - Reacting to Your Competitors in New Markets 12:47 - Communicating with Your Competitors 14:17 - Coping with the Acquisition of a Competitor About Philipp Stauffer: Philipp Stauffer is the co-founder and managing director of FYRFLY Venture Partners, a venture capital firm that invests in companies using data and intelligence to build their competitive advantage. His investments have included AngelList, Philz Coffee, and Beekeeper, among many others. As well as being a founding board member of the Swiss Blockchain Federation, he is also on the Advisory Board of the Swiss Entrepreneurs Foundation. Additionally, he serves on the boards of PubMatic, the Swiss American Chamber of Commerce, and the Digital Citizen Fund. In this episode, Philipp talks about how to handle competition in the workplace. He compares the competition ecosystem to the animal kingdom: highlighting the importance of knowing and understanding your place in the marketplace in order to respond more effectively to your competitor's actions. In this episode, he gives insight into: The competitors you should worry about the most Why talents may leave your company and work for competitors What is the perceived differentiation in the marketplace With regards to differentiation in the marketplace, Philipp explains that differentiation is not just about how exceptional your product is, but it also expands to other aspects of your company: The market presence The distribution process The sustainability of the pricing structure Above all, Philipp believes that understanding your “why” is important. This greatly affects how you handle competition, especially when it comes to taking competitive action and understanding why your competitors take action as well. Memorable Quotes: “Don't think you're the lion if you're the sheep.” “You don't have to be paranoid about competition all the time.” Take a listen to our conversation in our previous episode with Philipp Stauffer to learn How to Nail Your Board Meetings. Don't forget to give us a follow on our Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and Linkedin accounts, so you can always stay up to date with our latest initiatives. That way, there's no excuse for missing out on live shows, weekly giveaways or founders' dinners!

⬇️  ⬇️  ⬇️ Hello and welcome to Beauty and the Biz where we talk about the business side of cosmetic surgery and how you want a smooth-running practice. If you're working too hard and want to streamline your practice so it runs like a well-oiled machine…so you can unplug, relax, and have a system in place that does the work FOR you so you can spend more time with your family WHILE you get excellent results from your patients….this podcast is for you. The most successful, profitable smooth-running practice doesn't  happen by accident. The surgeons running the best smooth-running practices have learned the core success principles that are MANDATORY for you to build a practice you are proud of and enjoy going to every day. Otherwise, what's the point of working so hard? This week's Beauty and the Biz podcast episode, “Want a Smooth-Running Practice?” lays out what it takes to build an enviable practice you can enjoy until you drop or you can sell for a profitable exit….it's your choice! P.S. I'm practically giving away the “The MBA for Plastic Surgeons Course” this week in honor of St. Patrick's Day. Since I'm super Irish, I want to give you the “Luck of the Irish” so you create a “pot of gold” when you have your own smooth-running practice. Click Here to Grab the Course for this never-before offered low price. https://apple.co/3tsQuta Want a Smooth-Running Practice?  The (4) Core Success Principles Needed After working with surgeons for more than 22 years, I understand how difficult it can be for you to juggle staff, patients, family, and overhead as well as grow your practice at the same time so I feel your pain and do what I can to simplify things for you. The objective is to set up your cosmetic surgical practice as a business so it's more profitable, more enjoyable to go to every day, and it frees up your valuable time so you have more of it to spend doing what you like to do with the people you most enjoy being with. So in this podcast, you'll get: Clarity as to how to run your practice like a business and that will give you peace of Mind and More Free time to enjoy your life, hobbies, family, special interests and That means you'll be more productive without working harder but you'll be achieving better results. So, we'll be covering topics including mindset, team-building, leadership, marketing and systems strategies you need for leverage to think bigger, do better and earn more… all while enjoying the process. Because as Ralph Waldo Emerson said: “Unless you try to do something beyond what you have already mastered, you will never grow”. You already mastered surgery so now let's master the business and marketing side of surgery. THAT is what catapults you to success and a more certain future. So Let's Start with Mindset As a surgeon, you were programmed to think in a certain fixed way. You had to think that way to become a great surgeon. However, that thinking is the opposite of how a businessperson has to think. For example, You most likely put more value on YOU as a surgeon vs. growing your staff and your systems and you work IN your practice rather than work ON your practice Michael Gerber explains it well in his excellent book the “EMyth, Why Most Small Businesses don't work and What to do About it”. Basically, he says to run a successful business, you need (3) key players: The Entrepreneur to come up with new ideas to keep up with the times; The Manager to set up the processes and people so things run smoothly; and The Technician to actually do the key work that makes a profit. So, in a cosmetic practice, you, the surgeon, are the technician but you're also juggling the jobs of the entrepreneur and the manager and that takes different skill sets.  That's not a good use of your time and it will not get you to your financial goals. So, we're going to change that up for you because when you set up systems, you and your staff get clarity. And when you remove the complexity, results happen because “Money is Made in the Processes”. Here's the first big mindset shift: “Operate your practice like it's for sale”. In other words, regularly ask yourself, “If I wanted to sell my practice tomorrow, what would I need to improve to get the most value for it?”          or, “If I wanted to buy an existing practice, what would ”I” be looking for and be willing to invest in? It's smart to figure this out now rather than wait until it's too late. Because the goal is to have an asset to sell, or at least to enjoy, for the rest of your career. Because the alternative is you don't do anything to improve but then you must know, you've only created a job for yourself. That's not a bad thing if that's what you want. But the goal is to be sure you're clear what you're working towards so you're satisfied with the outcome. Ok, enough said. Let's get on with it. Here are the (4) Core Success Principles Needed to Grow a Sellable Cosmetic Practice: Building a Team of Rock Stars Strategic Marketing and Planning Setting Standards so You Don't Compete on Price and that includes Differentiating Yourself from Your Competitors and Setting Yourself Up to Grow and/or Exit when you're Ready (and that includes Leadership Skills and Managing Metrics)   Success Principle #1: Build a Team of Rock Stars Hiring the right team for your practice will be your biggest challenge but also your greatest asset. Because it's all about the WHO. Jim Collins, Author of Good to Great) says: “The most important decisions that business people make are not “what” decisions, but “who” decisions.  What typically happens is surgeons want to fix the staffing problem quickly, so when a staff person leaves, you have a tendency to hire fast to fill the position but then you have to deal with bad hires who don't fit your values or your culture. And, you know all-too-well what bad hires cost you: You can't rely on them; They are adding stress to your day and maybe even your nights when you're trying to sleep; They have a negative impact on you, your other staff and your bottom line; and And did you know a bad hire costs at least 15X their salary in lost productivity? By the way, there are usually warning signs when staff goes “bad”: They become moody Treat other members badly Don't care anymore Bad attitude Excessive time off Come in late and/or leave early Don't participate or contribute That is a problem that is not going away so do everyone a favor and take care of it sooner rather than later. So your new motto is…..  Hire Slow – Fire Fast The point is to take more time at the beginning to choose the right team players so you save a lot of time and grief at the end trying to deal with a toxic staff person who is just not cutting it. And, be sure you have the right people doing the right jobs. There is a saying in business, “Get the right people on the bus and then get them in the right seats” For example, certain staff should be on the front lines because they have excellent people skills and other staff have analytical skills and are better suited behind the scenes. And here's another mind shift change…. View staff as an asset vs. a liability. The team supporting you IS your secret practice-building weapon when it comes to patient-relations since they spend more time with your patients than you do. Staff can make or break your cosmetic practice so be sure you have the right people representing you.  They are your leverage. You can't do it all alone, nor should you want to. When you hire the right people, give them the right tools and hold them accountable, they handle the majority of the practice so you don't have to. And that leads us to …… Where do you Find Rock Stars? Start with people your staff knows. Your staff knows you and the practice and they know who would fit well with the rest of the staff and they also know they have to vouch for and work with this person so they will be careful to choose someone who will make them look good. But here's the pearl – offer a bounty but spread it out. That will motivate them even more to be sure they bring you the best talent and that they succeed. Then if you've exhausted your staff's contacts, put the word out on social media to your followers. They can cast a wide net by sharing your “help wanted” post. Then ask your vendors since they are “feet on the street” and they know which practices are closing, moving, and so on. Then look to your own service providers like the receptionist who works at the high-end hair salon you get your hair cut or the friendly sales staff who help you pick out new clothes. And keep your eyes open when you are at 5-star restaurants or your country club. Those employees already have the customer-service mindset and could be a great fit for your practice. Lastly, cast a wider net by Advertising on linkedin.com, Indeed, and ZipRecruiter.com You're doing this to prove to yourself that there is no shortage of talent out there so you don't have to take just anyone. Be selective. When interviewing, use a list of questions to help you determine how articulate, confidant and assertive they are as well as where they see themselves going in life.   You'll also use their answers to see how consistent they are when you talk with them in person……..should they get that far. As a side note, you want to Google them to check out their social media to see how they represent themselves online. If they do well on the phone interview, do a 2nd interview via Facetime and ask more questions. You are checking out their demeanor, how articulate they are, if they show up on time, etc. If all goes well, have them come in for a live interview. You want to follow up with questions that start with “What” and “How” and “Tell Me More”. For example, if they have experience in our industry, ask: What did you do to help promote the practice? How did you grow patient retention? Tell me more about whatever else they bragged about doing at their last job. By the way, here are some red flags to watch for when you're interviewing someone: They blame, criticize and make excuses for their failures Cannot explain job moves Speaks badly of past bosses So, if you are feeling good about them, have them spend time with your staff so you can then compare notes since you will all have different perspectives. Then sleep on it. And if you believe this is your new a-player, then have them come back again and preferably at lunch hour with you and your team so you can see how they act in a more relaxed atmosphere. Either go out to lunch and see how they act towards the wait staff, or have lunch brought in and see how they act in general.   Success Principle #2: Strategic Marketing & Planning Now we'll move on to Strategic Marketing & Planning where you will discover… What the most successful practices focus on to gain market share; How to increase your revenues by up to 33%; How to set up a SYSTEM for creating a powerful 12-month marketing plan to Predictably and Reliably keep a steady stream of patients coming to you; Increase your average patient's lifetime value so that EVERY patient is worth more to you…today, tomorrow and far into the future; and Generate more referrals for your practice without hoping, guessing or waiting for your patients to “mention your name” because you'll have a system to make referrals happen like clockwork. You are painfully aware of how the relentless competition is making it more difficult for you to succeed so you need to approach patient attraction more strategically. You stop for a minute and think this through before you keep throwing money at the problem because here's a quote that says it all: “The key to success is not doing more it's doing more of what works” Please don't take that lightly. I watch so many practices go from one shiny object to the next, hoping that will solve their problems. They throw money at all sorts of Internet, advertising and marketing companies who promise them the world but then don't deliver and now they don't trust anybody and are skeptical. Let me give you another easier way to figure this out… Be strategic by focusing on increasing the 5 Key Metrics that grow a cosmetic practice and those are: # of Leads # of Appointments # of Consultations # of Conversions # of Retention Here's the point… You may be focused on the wrong thing, such as more new leads. Please remember – leads are only 1 part of it. That means a lead is just a lead until you get them through your processes to a YES. Otherwise it's a dead lead going nowhere. Which means you are just burning money on lead generation and NOT conversion and retention. Before you invest in any more new patient-attraction shiny objects, plug up the holes in your systems that are costing you a silent fortune. That's where you'll see new profits more quickly and easily. It's quality over quantity, which means you do less but get a better result because you slow down and go deeper into the numbers that are telling you the truth. So, Let's go over each metric and start with the one you like the most… the # of Leads. I know you want more patients so that means you need to increase the # of leads coming to your practice so the question becomes….. Where are the new patients? The answer is they are everywhere and nowhere. Prospective cosmetic patients are clicking around like crazy so you have a nano second to catch their attention long enough for them to stop – notice and click on your website. Here are some suggestions…. For the foreseeable future, Google rules the world so do what they like and you'll have a better chance of get ranked over your competitors. In a nutshell, Google likes fresh new content, before/after photos and lots and lots of reviews particularly on Google. Google also want you to “pay to play” you're found in the search rankings, but the downside is Google Adwords  can cost you a fortune so you need to work with someone who knows what they're doing. So here's my advice: I would have a new rule anytime you are considering any kind of advertising or marketing effort and that is: If you can't track it, don't invest in it. It's too expensive and it's too easy with today's technology to track so you no longer have to guess at your marketing's effectiveness. Here's another easier and faster approach to growing your practice: Follow your successes.   This is so obvious; it's easily missed. It's also a more positive way to look at your practice because this is where all of your hard work paid off and where patients chose you and gave you money so you want more of them. As Peter Drucker, the guru of business said quite succinctly: “The Purpose of Business is To Create AND Keep a customer” Here's an exercise to help you identify your successes: Go through your schedule and note at least the last 40 surgeries or big-ticket procedures you performed. You want to know how they heard about you. Did they find you on the Internet randomly? Were they referred to you by a friend? Or were they a current patient coming back for more? You also want to note the procedure they had as well as the demographics such as age and zip code because you will see trends that you'll want to capitalize on and budget proportionately to those successes. Once you decide who your preferred patients are, you map out a Marketing Mix plan to reach new Internet stranger patients as well as a plan to encourage your current patients to return for more and refer more of their friends. You do this with a marketing mix plan: You set up a system to get found on the internet by stranger patients using SEO & content, before/after photos and patient reviews AND you also set up a system for your current patients to return and refer their friends using text, email, social media and word-of-mouth referrals. #2 metrics is the # of Appointments You can get leads all day but can your receptionist convert them to a scheduled appointment with you? In a nutshell, here are the 5 phone fixes that make all the difference in your receptionist being able to book a caller to an appointment: Answer the phone within 2 rings with a friendly, warm voice & greeting Ask How They Heard About You Promote you, the Surgeon, as the best choice ASK for the Appointment Collect Contact Info Please be sure you have the right person representing you on the phones and check out my Phone Club if they need training. Then #3 metric is the # of Consultations How many of the prospective patients who book an appointment actually shows up? You and your patient coordinator block time for a consultation, and if your prospective patients are not showing up for their appointments, your valuable time is wasted not to mention the wasted time and money because now your staff is standing around. So, here's what you do. First, you establish a cancellation policy and then live by it. For example, you get their credit card upfront and either a charge a consultation fee or at least charge a reservation fee that is charged ONLY if they do not cancel or reschedule within 48 hours. You also have your patient coordinator conduct a pre-consult call to introduce herself and to prepare the patient to show up ready to say yes. This pre-consult call will help you get to a yes at the consult and eliminate no-shows.   #4 metric is # of Converted Consultations How well do you and your patient coordinator convert consultations into procedures? Everything that happened until this point is just “pre-marketing”. You don't get paid for consultations. You only get paid if you can successfully convert a consultation into a paid procedure. Therefore, THIS step has the biggest impact on your bottom line. The better you convert consultations into procedures, the more revenues you'll make for your practice. Here are strategies to help you convert: Use video to give yourself celebrity status. Psychologically, your image is enhanced when prospective patients see you on a screen no matter what size. Shoot a “welcome to my practice” video as well as procedural videos and testimonial videos so patients get a feel for your expertise and are more comfortable with you and see you as the expert and best choice. And then your patient coordinator must be trained to convert a consultation which is an entirely separate training but I will say the #1 skill I see coordinators are lacking in is in asking for the decision so please get them the scripts & structure they need and watch your conversions increase immediately. Check out my Converting Club at www.catherinemaley.com. #5 metric is Patient Retention It's 7X more expensive to attract a new patient than to keep a current patient so please take this metric as seriously as you do new leads. Because if your patients are NOT returning and referring their friends, something is wrong. They are still getting aesthetic rejuvenation. They are just not getting it FROM YOU anymore so it would behoove you to figure this out. You cater to a very hungry audience with endless needs. The patients who care about how they look and feel have all sorts of concerns you can address NOW AND for years to come thanks to the relentless aging process. Cosmetic Patients enter your practice through many doors. That means a patient who came in for Botox will often work their way up the ladder to surgery or other big-ticket procedures and those who came in for surgery are much more likely to now be open to your non-surgical procedures and skin care treatments to stay looking good and feeling great. You have so much leverage here because you already did the hard part, which was spending time, money, and effort attracting this patient to you. Now it takes only minimal effort to keep them coming back.   Now here's Success Principle #3: Set Standards so You Don't Compete on Price In this section, you'll discover: How to set standards so you are NOT competing on price What you can do to be different and stand out from your competitors How to get the patient to see you as the BEST choice Here's a popular question I get from surgeons: Q:  “I am losing consultations to lower-priced competitors even though I have more skill and expertise than they do. I've even “repaired” their work. How should I be pricing my services to compete?  I don't want to lower my prices because I know I'm good but I also don't want to miss out on new patients.”  One of the reasons this happens is because if the cosmetic patient truly believes there is no difference between other physicians and surgeons, all they have to go on is price as their determining factor. But we know there's way more to it. If aesthetic rejuvenation was based solely on price, this would always be about the lowest price and that would turn into a race to the bottom and then nobody wins. It's only about price until YOU add in other determining factors to help the prospective patient consider the VALUE they get. Patients Weigh Their Options When a cosmetic patient questions your price, they are really doing a cost-benefit analysis in their heads and asking: “What am I getting from you that I'm NOT getting from your competitor for that higher price?” Patients select their surgeon based on the perception they are getting “better”. Better really equals more benefits, less risks and/or less hassle and that equals peace of mind, certainty and reassurance. Actually, contrary to popular belief, the majority of cosmetic patients rarely decide based on price alone. Affordability – yes but price alone – rarely. Pricing Starts with Your Own Mindset Get very clear about your value and what you stand for. Have conviction and believe in yourself and your prices. If you believe you deserve top dollar because you do great work, then price your services for your “preferred” patients. Those are the patients who see you as a skilled, reputable plastic surgeon and they are glad to pay more for your expertise so they can be confident they'll get a great result and then brag about you to their friends and family. You determine what's most important to those preferred patients and give it to them. For example, is it price, procedures, technology, innovation, expertise, credibility, status, convenience, quality and/or 5-star customer service? And consistency is key. Your patients learn to trust your brand and expect the same experience and result – every time. Focus on Preferred Patients Once you have clarity about your preferred patients, you attract more of them and deter everyone else. Now you and your staff have more time and energy to focus on the serious prospective patients who are looking for quality and service more than saving a few dollars. How To Differentiate Yourself in a Competitive Marketplace It's your responsibility to educate prospective patients so they see you as the BEST CHOICE at a FAIR price. That takes creativity. Here is a list of specific differentiators to consider: Specialist in one procedure Advanced/uncommon technology Extensive experience You are Board Certified Attended top medical schools Affiliated with top hospitals Authored studies, white papers and clinical trials You have performed thousands of procedures You offer computer imaging when your competitors don't Exceptional facility with views Superior results Caring personality WOW experience You are the first to offer a new procedure You are a media favorite Your office setting is unique (Villa with views) Convenience or accessibility You personally call patients night of treatment/procedure You make house calls Waiting times are short You remember patient names and details like they were family Exceptionally friendly, professional and courteous staff You ensure a pain-free treatment or procedure You are well known around your community You are an author of aesthetic book You speak at medical conferences You train other physicians Vendors make you an elite top tiered practice You sit on vendor boards You are well known in social media with a huge following You are from the town you practice in You have special credentials You belong to many professional membership societies You offer easy pay plans You include post-op care in your fees You have longer hours More patient online reviews More before/after photos You offer virtual consulting Come up with your own list and be sure your unique points are integrated into every aspect of the patient experience including your in-house signage, patient welcome package, advertising, public relations, on-hold messaging and new patient calls scripting. This exercise will not only help YOU get clear about your value, but it will also give your prospective patients clarity about why you charge what you charge.  They now understand your value and are more than willing to pay for it.   Success Principle #4: Leadership You know you're doing a good job leading when your practice is running smoothly and your staff is working well together. You have peace of mind it's running like a well-oiled machine with or without you there. However, if you feel frustrated like you have to do everything yourself or you feel the need to micro-manage to ensure what you think is getting done is actually getting done, that's a red flag. Because if you feel like nobody cares about your practice like you do, that could mean you did NOT: Hire the right people Give them the right tools they need to succeed And/or you're not holding them accountable The reality is you simply cannot build a successful practice by yourself.  You've got to have a team supporting you. Leadership Concepts This is a big topic so here are the basics and then I urge you to become a student of leadership. A leader is not born. Like anything else in life, you become a great leader from learning and doing and practicing and getting good at it (just like you did to become a great surgeon). So, to begin, a good leader is clear about their vision. Decide now what your vision is. Know thyself.   Are you building an empire or a lifestyle? You need to know that because it will affect every decision you make. Then be sure the staff knows your vision so they perform at a high level because they have clarity and know the end result you're striving for. For example: “You are in the business to make money helping patients look and feel great about themselves.  This allows you to pay your staff well so they continue to enjoy their own lives.” You may even consider adding a bigger vision. For example, you give a % of your revenues to a philanthropic cause you feel strongly about. That way, you have a bigger “why” which helps when determining the How and the What to do to grow your practice.  Because staff works harder, longer and more seriously when they have a bigger Why. It's also nice to give back to the less fortunate and do good in the world. Now you need a mission statement that acts as your “Rules of Conduct”. A really good exercise for your team is to develop a new mission statement you all can get behind and live by. For example: “We strive to add joy to our patients' lives through genuine caring, generosity of spirit, and the quality of our work.” A good leader also takes good care of his team so they take great care of the patients. That means you are genuinely interested in them as people first, then as staff. Show interest in their lives and families and what's important to them. Catch them doing things right and thank them often. A good leader communicates the culture of the practice. For example: “We are in business to make money and we do that by taking care of our team so our team takes care of our patients. We do not say no to patients who give us money – we make time for them because that's how we get paid. We treat every patient the same with kindness and respect. Always with a smile – no matter how many patients or how crazy it is at times. We acknowledge every referral with a heart-felt thank you and so on…” And a good leader makes sure the entire group plans as a team, wins as a team and celebrates as a team. They also give credit for their success to their team knowing it would not have been possible without them. A good leader gives the staff solid goals they can work towards and have something to strive for that is concrete. A good leader meets with the team, listens and gets feedback from the team, and lets them brainstorm how they will meet the goals.  A good leader then holds them accountable without micromanaging. And, team meetings are a must when you run your practice like a business.  Hold your meetings on the same day and time so nobody can say they didn't know about it. It's always on the calendar and stick to it for consistency. This is true team-building and keeps everybody engaged and interacting with the success of the practice. The agenda of the meeting should be structured and fast-paced with everyone participating by reporting on the numbers they are in charge of. For example: # Calls # Email Requests # Appointments # No-Shows # Consultations # Procedures # Post-Op Appointments   # Referrals # Returns Because you want to know at a glance, if you're healthy or hurting and that's easy to do when you regularly review your numbers. Bonuses Based on Productivity We can't talk about goals without also talking about Perks. There are countless scenarios but here's one that makes sense and keeps everyone working together as a team: Break up staff into teams for each revenue stream such as: Revenues Stream #1:  Surgery Revenues Stream #2:  Lasers & Injectables Revenues Stream #3:  Skin Care + Retail Assign revenue goals or % of Increase over last year Perks get bigger for everyone when each revenue stream reaches their goal. The teams will help each other out to reach their goals since the prize gets better; i.e., 1 team hits their goal   = lunch brought in for everyone 2 teams hit their goals = spa day for everyone 3 teams hit their goals = lunch out + shopping $$$ for everyone And/or another Bonus Structure that works well is: Gross Sales COGS O/H U =    Profits of which % goes into a bonus pool and is distributed evenly among the team and/or based on part-time or full-time status. So, you see how knowing your numbers gives all of you clarity and direction? It makes it so much easier to identify what you are doing right and what else you could be doing when you have the numbers giving you an accurate story. It's also so much more motivating to staff when they know what they are striving for and why.  Please spend some time customizing your own metrics and perks plan that would work best in your particular practice. SET UP YOUR PRACTICE TO GROW OR SELL A good business leader is always planning their exit to build a legacy and get their equity out so let's talk about Profit Centers. To recap, you're doing it right when… You have specific metrics in place so you are generating predictable income rather than checking your bank balance to see if there's enough to pay the bills. That means you have a reliable marketing plan as well as processes and systems in place so your practice runs like a well-oiled machine and your staff knows exactly what to do whether you're in the office or in surgery or on vacation. The secret is to keep it simple so you and your staff will actually do it! PROFIT CENTERS The reality is you can't do it alone and you probably don't want to be a 1-man show where you are the only revenue-generator. That's stressful!   When you run your practice like a business, the goal is to get to no more than 30% of your income coming from your own hands. That's how you set yourself up to grow and it allows for “life's surprises”. For example, I used to run a surgeon's coaching club with an 8-figure surgeon and he got a phone call at 4:45 pm in the afternoon saying his house was on fire. By the time he got there, it was gone. Nobody got hurt but because he has his practice running so smoothly, it was a distraction rather than devastation. Here is a simple exercise to get you thinking: What is Your Per Hour Rate when you are in surgery? $800 - $1,000 What is an RN's Per Hour Rate? $350 -  $500 And what is an aesthetician? $50 -  $150 + Cost of Materials + Amount of time to do procedure/tie up room Here's a thought:  Would it make more sense to network with aestheticians in the community who could refer to you vs. having in-house aestheticians tying up an exam room for $100/hour when getting another nurse injector could be more profitable? And here are other questions to ask yourself: What are the opportunity costs of you doing everything? What COULD you be doing to make more hourly? (Perhaps spending more time with high-revenue patients, following up personally, networking, answering questions on RealSelf, etc.) Because sometimes, one of the smartest questions you can ask yourself is: What are you going to stop DOING that is costing you time, money, effort & hassle? However, there are 2 thoughts processes here when it comes to keeping or delegating injectables: You like doing the injectables to bond with your patients or You delegate them so you have more time to spend with the higher-revenue patients There is no right answer. There is just a right answer for you so please think about what makes most sense for you. Here is what I have seen work best in a solo practice: Since surgery is the most profitable revenue stream, You set up your other profit centers to feed the surgery. The most popular revenue generators are: Nurse injectors, laser technicians and aestheticians that can also perform high-ticket procedures and sell retail; however, they too need: Goals Tools Accountability For example, their goals are: to take great care of patients to give them the best result possible to refer them to you, the surgeon, whenever an opportunity comes up to do so Then give them tools to do just that.  For example, Their treatment rooms should show off your excellent surgical work using signage and digital photo frames so the visiting patients ask about surgery. Now your staff can hand them a VIP surgical comp card and set up a surgical consultation with you. This provides the paper trail for accountability you need. And you know for a fact, which staff members are promoting you or not. However, they must know “what's in if for them” to promote you because they don't want to lose their patients to you especially if you have given them a revenue goal to hit, nor do you want to get into fee-splitting issues so what do you do? You could increase their hourly fee when they prove to be a good referral source or give them a night out on the town or add more to their bonus. The objective is to acknowledge and thank your revenue-generators for their commitment to the betterment of the entire practice – not just their piece of the practice. What about Additional Profit Centers like Adding: - Veins - Hair Restoration - Anti-Aging - Dermatologist and so on? TIP:  Hire SLOWLY because you can lose a ton of time and money on this. Here are the criteria to help you determine if it's a go/no-go: Do they fit your culture and have the same values? Is their profitability at least 10-15%? Do they act as a feeder to your ultimate goal, which is surgery? Do you have to buy equipment and, if so, does it pay for itself within 2 years because technology will NOT drive your practice – people do? How much of YOUR time is going to be involved? Can you systemize it? What's the competition like? How much is it going to cost for you to promote this new service in your marketplace? Is this a distraction taking away from more profitable revenue generators? Do you like the “Business Side” of practicing; i.e., meeting with accountants, lawyers and consultants? Are you bringing them on as a partner or will you be the benevolent dictator until they buy in to succeed you? Do you enjoy solving problems? Do you enjoy managing people and maximizing human potential? If not, bigger is not always better. But if you decide to move forward, you need accurate cost accounting for each revenue stream so your books MUST BE in order. Otherwise, you will never truly know if it's profitable or if it should be dropped. THEFT AND EMBEZZLEMENT You can never be 100% sure that you are foolproof but here are tips to help: Sloppy systems open you up to trouble. Don't tempt anyone. Tighten up your processes so they know you are on your game and watching. To keep track of non-surgical monies, use a control document Day Sheet that is multi-carbon pages and numbered. Staff makes out the day sheet the night before so all of the patients' names are on there already; I sheet goes into a 1-way box that night so staff can't take a cash-patient's name off of it; 1 goes into the box with the cash and 2 people have to sign the envelope; and 1 is given to the patient. You also: Keep a laser logbook to know how many pulses were used Keep a Botox log for how many units were used and for whom Keep a skin care retail products inventory log And outsource all insurance billing The easiest thing you can do to avoid problems is for you, the surgeon, to personally open all bank and credit card statements to review all debits and checks issued to be sure they make sense. You then use a red pen and circle questions you have for your bookkeeper so they know you are watching closely. And, always match disbursements with checks and transfers. Then put the statement back into the envelope, write reviewed by with your initials and off it goes to your bookkeeper. This takes 10 minutes and can avoid massive grief down the road. EXIT STRATEGIES It has been said the only reason to have a business/practice is to grow and sell it. So, the question is… What is my practice worth?  This is tricky because you want to get paid for the risk and effort it took for you to build a name for yourself. For the blood, sweat, tears and goodwill that went into building your practice as well as your reputation. But that's intangible which makes it difficult to put a price on it. So, you turn to tangible and financial assets such as the office building if you bought it, the equipment, the furniture, inventory, A/R if any MINUS the liabilities such as payroll taxes, loans, and retirement plan contributions. There's a lot more that goes into this but I'll leave that for the lawyers and accountants. Here's a more practical way to look at it from a business point of view: “You, the seller has a ready-made income stream to sell. The buyer is looking for a ready-made income stream to buy. In business, that is what value is all about.” But here's the reality when it's all said and done… The bottom line is your practice is worth whatever someone else is willing to pay for it. So, think about it. What would YOU be willing to pay for if YOU were going to buy someone else's practice? That brings us back to the assets I mentioned early on: The Profit People Processes Tools Patient List P&L Statements Vendor Agreements are all of value BUT in order to present these assets to a potential buyer, You have to have your act together. The buyer is looking for an asset's ability to generate cash with a degree of certainty and limited risk so you need to show a prospective buyer how you have built a cash cow. You do that with a Cosmetic Patient Blueprint so they see how you keep a steady stream of patients and revenue coming in. And you show them your systems and processes that keep your office running smoothly and your staff on their game. And you show them your constant review of your metrics to show the health of your well-oiled machine. Then you show them your clean and organized books and that includes not overextending yourself with too much debt since there is a big difference between income and actual profits. And there you have it. The 4 Core Success Principles for running your practice like a business: Build a Team of Rock Stars Strategic Marketing and Planning Setting Standards so You Don't Compete on Price and that includes Differentiating Yourself from Your Competitors and Setting Yourself Up to Grow and/or Exit when you're Ready (and that includes Leadership Skills and Managing Metrics) I covered a lot here and there is much more to each principle but you have plenty to start with. Of course, please call or text me if you need clarity Catherine Maley, MBA • Author, Your Aesthetic Practice • Cosmetic Patient Attraction AND Conversion Specialist Catherine@CosmeticImageMarketing.com Cell/Text:  (415) 377-8700 http://www.CosmeticImageMarketing.com   #beautyandthebiz #podcastforsurgeons #plasticsurgeons #cosmeticsurgeons #podcast #marketing #plasticsurgery #stafftraining #businessconsulting #strategiesforsurgeons #davidmandell #ojmgroup #wealthplanningforsurgeons

Did you know that your competitor is taking your customers, and your spot, but that now there's something you can do about it? I have a […]The post #28 Your Competitors are Taking Your Customers, and Your Spot on Google! appeared first on Port Bell SEO.

Welcome to Season 3, Episode 28 of the Millionaire Car Salesman Podcast!  This episode of The Millionaire Car Salesman Podcast is a can’t miss! Join Webinar Panel Moderator Sean V. Bradley, CSP and his guests Danny Zalas he simultaneously broadcasts LIVE across Facebook to +18k Automotive Dealers/Professionals, Youtube to +15,000 subscribers, and the New EXCLUSIVE App, no one can get enough of - ClubHouse! Sean V. Bradley welcomes his esteemed Panel: Danny Zaslavsky - Dealer Principal of Country Hill Motors in Kansas City, Internet Sales 20 Group Speaker, and Cover Star of Digital Dealer Magazine AND Nationally Recognized and profoundly successful Dealer Principal of Bob Ruth Ford, Rob Ruth.  The Car business is changing, and changing fast. This means new challenges... and new opportunities. Tune in for tips and strategies to confront one of the largest, cutting-edge dilemmas in the Auto Industry today, and why you need to STOP paying vendors to advertise your competitors! Listen in as Sean, Danny and Rob speak on how the Automotive Industry is being challenged by the continuing development of software, and the manipulation of data. Consumers are being told, and sold, on the idea that the ‘online car shopping’ experience is TOO easy, and it’s simply not true.  The Main Problem: dealers are paying money to vendors to bring in customers, yet they advertise to other dealerships in the surrounding area… YOUR COMPETITORS. Do NOT MISS this episode as the panel breaks down the problem and provides inside solutions and proactive approaches as they help you: Find out why you need to ‘Stop Paying Vendors to Advertise Your Competitors’!  #AutoSales#AutomotiveIndustry #DigitalMarketing #Marketing #AutomotiveSales #CarSales #TopTenVendor #MillionaireCarSalesman #Podcast #OrangeTie #DealerSynergy #BradleyOnDemand #BlindPhoneMaster #InternetSales #IncreaseProfit #DigitalRetail #DigitalRetailing #SocialMedia #Vendors #DealershipLife #VinCue #BobRuth #CountryHillMotors #Facebook #ClubHouse #Youtube For More Free Resources and Knowledge: Dealer Synergy | The Automotive Industry's #1 Training, Consulting & Accountability Firm Check Out The Automotive Industry's #1 Virtual Training, Tracking, Certification Platform Join the Millionaire Car Salesman Facebook Group - TODAY!  The Millionaire Car Salesman Podcast is Sponsored by: VinCue Autoweb DealerEProcess Internet Brands CarNow Please visit any of these AMAZING Sponsors and transform YOUR dealership to a whole new level in 2021!

How can your company be the disruptor – and not the disrupted? Find out by listening on-the-go to Episode 84. The environment in which we lead our businesses continues to change in so many previously unanticipated ways. Disruptions can come at us not only from competitors but from social and economic changes as well as disastersRead More The post Recognize Emerging Opportunities Ahead of Your Competitors appeared first on Business Advancement.

How can your company be the disruptor – and not the disrupted? Find out by listening on-the-go to Episode 84. The environment in which we lead our businesses continues to change in so many previously unanticipated ways. Disruptions can come at us not only from competitors but from social and economic changes as well as disastersRead More The post Recognize Emerging Opportunities Ahead of Your Competitors appeared first on Business Advancement.

Did you know that when potential customers go to your social media, 50% of your page is covered by your “Social Media Cover"? Our research team looked at 100's of different business Social Media pages and we noticed a huge opportunity no one is taking advantage of. Leap Ahead of Your Competitors and turn your Social Media Pages into gold with this Ninja Secret.Recorded 9/19/18. HERE ARE ALL THE RESOURCES WE CURRENTLY OFFER (more to come, so join our community to receive updates)Request your FREE PERSONALIZED MARKETING ASSESSMENT:http://www.upscaleyourbusiness.com/assetsAccess our FREE RESOURCES:http://www.upscaleyourbusiness.com/toolboxRequest our 'CONTENT ON PURPOSE' Template:http://www.upscaleyourbusiness.com/cop-templateSUBSCRIBE to our YouTube Channel:https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC31T1O9IDTzDrsPsj6sDN2AJOIN OUR FACEBOOK GROUP, "Upscale Success Strategies for Coaches and Consultants":https://www.facebook.com/groups/upscalesuccessstrategies/LISTEN TO OUR PODCAST that will help you on your online business journey:http://www.upscaleyourbusiness.com/podcastREGISTER for our LIVE Implementation calls (these are real-life business coaching calls):http://www.upscaleyourbusiness.com/implementationOUR PROGRAM OFFERS FOR COACHES AND CONSULTANTS:http://www.upscaleyourcoachingbusiness.com-=-=-=-=--=-=-=-=--=-=-=-=--=-=-=-=--=-=-=-=--=-=-=-=--=-=-=-=-CONNECT WITH US:Jaimie Skultety:https://www.linkedin.com/in/jaimieskultetyMark Kanty:https://www.linkedin.com/in/mark-kanty-=-=-=-=--=-=-=-=--=-=-=-=--=-=-=-=--=-=-=-=--=-=-=-=--=-=-=-=-OUR SITES:Upscale Your Business:http://www.upscaleyourbusiness.comUpscale Your Coaching Business:http://www.upscaleyourcoachingbusiness.comRelease Dynamicshttp://www.releasedynamics.net Wishing you all the best and continued success, Jaimie Skultety and Mark Kanty

In episode #1378, we talk about five ways to learn from your competitors and shortcut your marketing success. We cover tips from how to work with the best people out there to learning from your competitors’ mistakes on podcasts they featured on! Tune in to hear how to optimize your business by keeping an eye on the winners in your space! TIME-STAMPED SHOW NOTES: [00:25] Today’s topic: Five Ways to Learn from Your Competitors and Shortcut Your Marketing Success. [00:34] Finding your Dream 100 and people to work with using SparkToro. [01:39] Using Built With and Wayback Machine to track a competitor’s strategy evolution. [02:45] Checking how successful a competitor’s ads are using Facebook Ad Library. [03:24] Learning from a competitor’s mistakes on podcasts they featured on. [04:44] Using Adbeat to see what kinds of ads competitors are using on Google. [05:24] That’s it for today! [05:25] To stay updated with events and learn more about our mastermind, go to the Marketing School site for more information. Links Mentioned in Today’s Episode: SparkToro Chet Holmes Built With Russel Brunson ClickFunnels Hotjar Crazy Egg Wayback Machine Facebook Ad Library Leveling Up Nathan Latka Adbeat Leave Some Feedback:   What should we talk about next? Please let us know in the comments below Did you enjoy this episode? If so, please leave a short review.   Connect with Us:  Neilpatel.com Quick Sprout  Growth Everywhere Single Grain Twitter @neilpatel  Twitter @ericosiu

In episode #1378, we talk about five ways to learn from your competitors and shortcut your marketing success. We cover tips from how to work with the best people out there to learning from your competitors' mistakes on podcasts they featured on! Tune in to hear how to optimize your business by keeping an eye on the winners in your space! TIME-STAMPED SHOW NOTES: [00:25] Today's topic: Five Ways to Learn from Your Competitors and Shortcut Your Marketing Success. [00:34] Finding your Dream 100 and people to work with using SparkToro. [01:39] Using Built With and Wayback Machine to track a competitor's strategy evolution. [02:45] Checking how successful a competitor's ads are using Facebook Ad Library. [03:24] Learning from a competitor's mistakes on podcasts they featured on. [04:44] Using Adbeat to see what kinds of ads competitors are using on Google. [05:24] That's it for today! [05:25] To stay updated with events and learn more about our mastermind, go to the Marketing School site for more information. Links Mentioned in Today's Episode: SparkToro Chet Holmes Built With Russel Brunson ClickFunnels Hotjar Crazy Egg Wayback Machine Facebook Ad Library Leveling Up Nathan Latka Adbeat Leave Some Feedback:   What should we talk about next? Please let us know in the comments below Did you enjoy this episode? If so, please leave a short review.   Connect with Us:  Neilpatel.com Quick Sprout  Growth Everywhere Single Grain Twitter @neilpatel  Twitter @ericosiu

Learn about one company's efforts to make large returns painless and simple, five ways to disrupt a common travel experience, and what we love and can't stand about the rental car industry! Bite-Sized Delight From the Episode: Turn a Mistake into a Great Experience -  Even when things go wrong, if you work to deliver a remarkable experience you can create a raving fan.  When You Do the Same Things as Your Competitors, Everyone Loses - You'll stop being treated like a commodity as soon as you stop acting like one.   Small Things Can Make a Big Difference - Improve your customer touchpoints by comparing them to the best and worst of the rental car industry. Are You Looking for Things We Referenced? • Wayfair Get more resources and the full show notes at http://ExperienceThisShow.com. See you next week!

I’m a big believer in multiple streams of income, and  one of the ways I’ve been focusing this year is investing in already profitable businesses. Finding information on how to do it is difficult, But luckily I reached out to an old friend Alex Nghiem.  Him and his partner are in the business of acquiring new businesses and then either holding or selling it later (just like real estate). On the episode, we discuss why if you’re still working full-time, buying a business or digital asset is a great way to add an income stream or accelerate your transition from employee to owner. If you have a business already, buying a business a great way to skyrocket your growth.  LINKS MENTIONED https://www.acquisitionsbook.com - Free Book for Our Listeners - Growth Through Acquisitions: The 7-Step Process for Growing 300% Faster than Your Competitors https://www.bootcampmd.com/atlanta - Online Business Workshop for Smart Physicians  - October 5-6, 2019  

How can you reduce your Facebook ads cost per click by 90% and increase lead conversion rates? This week onThe Inbound Success Podcast I spoke with Moby Siddique of RedPandas Digital, a Sydney, Australia-based inbound marketing agency and HubSpot partner, about some innovative Facebook ads approaches he's taken that have dramatically improved his return on ad spend (ROAS). Some of Moby's most successful Facebook ads campaigns actually connect Facebook users to a Facebook Messenger bot, which can then offer them discount codes or other offers and opportunities for conversion. The cost per click on these campaigns is 10x lower than it is for others, and the conversion rates average 30% or more. This week's episode of The Inbound Success Podcast is brought to you by our sponsor, IMPACT Live,  the most immersive and high energy learning experience for marketers and business leaders. IMPACT Live takes place August 6-7, 2019 in Hartford Connecticut and is headlined by Marcus Sheridan along with keynote speakers including world-renowned Facebook marketing expert Mari Smith and Drift CEO and Co-Founder David Cancel. Inbound Success Podcast listeners can save 10% off the price of tickets with the code "SUCCESS".  Click here to learn more or purchase tickets for IMPACT Live Some highlights from my conversation with Moby include: Moby Siddique is the Head Strategy Panda with RedPandas Digital, an inbound marketing agency and HubSpot partner based in Sydney, Australia. Some of Moby's most successful campaigns have run over Facebooks ads connected with Facebook Messenger bots. Facebook Messages have a 90%+ open rate. For one restaurant ad campaign that Moby and his team developed, Facebook users see an ad with a picture of a pavlova (pastry) on it. The ad tells them to type the word that describes what they feel when they see the picture, and when they do this, it triggers a messenger bot (via Facebook Messages) that offers them a discount code. Moby uses MobileMonkey to build his Facebook Messenger bots. Encouraging users to comment on the ad serves another purpose of improving the ad's quality score. Once a user is engaged via Facebook Messenger, the business can then continue to nurture them through subsequent Facebook messages. Moby's Facebook ads to messenger bot combination has resulted in a cost per click that is 10% of what is was with more traditional Facebook ads. The coupons that he offers via the messenger bot have a 30% redemption rate, on average. Resources from this episode: Save 10% off the price of tickets to IMPACT Live with promo code "SUCCESS" Connect with Moby Siddique on LinkedIn Follow Moby on Twitter RedPandas Digital website Listen to Moby's Inbound Buzz podcast MobileMonkey website View IMPACT's webinar with Larry Kim on "10 Hacks to Master Chatbot Marketing to Stay Ahead of Your Competitors" Listen to the podcast to learn exactly how Moby structures his Facebook ads campaigns, how they're connected to Facebook Messenger, how he's building his messenger bots and more. Transcript Kathleen Booth (Host):Welcome back to the Inbound Success Podcast. I'm your host, Kathleen Booth and today my guest is Moby Siddique, who is the Head Strategy Panda at Redpandas. Welcome, Moby. Moby Siddique (Guest): Thank you, Kathleen. It's great to be here. Moby and Kathleen recording this episode Kathleen: Yeah, you know, I occasionally have guests that I get particularly excited to interview because I always ask people at the end of my podcast who's doing inbound marketing really well. And it is the people that get mentioned in the answers to those questions that I then think immediately, "I need to interview that person." Your name has come up a few times both in the podcast as well as with people that I am friends or colleagues with. I've heard your name so many times. People say, "You have to interview Moby," and was finally like "Alright. I'm just gonna reach out to him and see if he's game." So I'm super excited that you're here today. Moby: Oh no, pressure. All good, all good. It's great to be here, Kathleen. Kathleen: And not only are you here today, you're actually here tomorrow because you are across the world in the next day. It is Wednesday my time and it is Thursday your time. Even better, I think you're the guest I've had from the furthest away, so you get the badge for that. Moby: Sweet, just don't interview anyone from New Zealand. No, I'm kidding! Kathleen: There you go. Moby: We have a good rivalry with them. About Moby and RedPandas Kathleen: Tell my listeners a little bit more about yourself and your company and where you're from. Paint the picture for us. Moby: Yeah, awesome. I'll try to say something a little bit different from, 'cause at the end of the day inbound marketing agencies, how different are we really? We all try to achieve the same problem. Three, four years ago I was working at an agency. I didn't like how it was being done and I thought, "Hey I can do this." Then fast forward a year or two I ate some humble pie. I realized it's a lot harder than you think it is, and that was actually a really good awakening for us because it's like, "Okay cool. We really have to get back to inbound marketing." At the end of the day marketing is all about trust. We built our agency on a lot of trust and on giving away a lot of information. That's really where my speaking passion came from, as well, so I do a little bit of speaking. I just started breaking the international, I guess got my first paid international gig this year which is cool. Didn't have to do them for free anymore. Kathleen: Congratulations. Moby: Thank you, thank you. That was really cool. But yeah, so I guess my day job is essentially Head Strategy Panda at Redpandas Digital. Clients come in and our job is to translate their offline problems into digital solutions. We're a HubSpot partner, as well, and yeah. I guess we do the best we can. Kathleen: Based in what city? Moby: Sydney, Australia. Kathleen: Alright, excellent. I've never been to Australia. So if you need a speaker at your next HUG and you can pay travel fees, you know who to call. Moby: Yeah, awesome. Kathleen: That would be a nice world that we would live in if the HUGs would pay travel fees transatlantically or transpacifically, I guess in this case. Moby: Oh yeah, we also run Sydney HUG, too, by the way. I know you guys. Kathleen: Yeah, so I have heard so much about you guys and you must be doing inbound well because you seem to be one of the more well liked agency owners within the community of agency owners. The nice things about the HubSpot community, at least in my experience, is it's not super competitive. But still to be the most well liked guy within a group of guys and girls who are about likeability and trust is a high honor. I'd love to know some of what you're working on with your clients and what you're doing to find success with them. Moby: Yeah, really at the end of the day the inbound playbook has been so, I guess, just cookie cutter. And that's been fine for a number of years. It depends on what type of client we have. Often when we have a client for the very first time, there's some very basic fundamentals that are missing. Sure, they're not really looking at personas and their messaging. Even their value proposition, so in terms of what makes them different? You only really know that once you know your personas, know what they care about. You have a whole augmented package of value so you can actually say, "Yeah, this is our value proposition. This is where we stand in the market." We do these two or three things very, very well for you. Often in the start, clients are ... When we meet clients that have maybe grown organically that had a lot of referrals, but now they've kind of hit a plateau. For them it's actually quite easy. But then you have clients on the other spectrum who've been doing things for a while or clients we've been working with for a long time, and then we've just gotta think about at a channel level, what do we do to get them to that authority level? On one side it's like how do we actually ... What are our basics? What do we actually stand for? And then let's think about the type of content and videos we need. Usually they don't have that stuff, it's very simple. But on the other side, once they're actually quite mature, how do we take them to a real authority level? 'Cause it's easy to say that at any level, but it's really the brands that are a little bit mature and have the ability to do things like podcast, to do things like webinars. Things that are hard. So really it really is that. And then of course you have things that are a little bit kind of left field. So trying to combine different technologies together. I know you guys do a lot of bot marketing on your side. We do a lot of that, as well, but one thing that very few people, particularly in our market, are doing anyway is using Facebook ads to go to bots and then use bots as forms and for filling their funnel that way. As opposed to taking them, let's take them to a landing page that takes three seconds to load and then take them to something else and then pay for another ad to keep them in the funnel. So always just trying to shorten the funnel. I don't know if that answers your question but I guess it depends on where they are in their life cycle, and we can act accordingly. Kathleen: Yeah, that's interesting that you brought up working with clients on their value proposition because I don't think that there's many inbound marketing agencies particularly that do that. Part of that is symptomatic of this cookie cutter approach that HubSpot espoused for so many years of attract, convert, close, delight. Their methodology was the playbook and it didn't have a piece that was about positioning or value proposition or differentiation. I know we've run into the same thing where we'll have clients come to us and if we just ran the traditional inbound playbook, we'd probably be very successful at generating leads for them. And this has even happened, but they would be the wrong kind of leads. We actually got into doing messaging for clients for the same reason because if you wanna deliver the right kinds of leads, you really have to understand not only the personas but how to message to those personas so that it resonates with the right people. Not just any person. So that's so important. Facebook Messenger Ads + Bots Kathleen: I'm so intrigued by what you just said about Facebook ads. I would love to dive a little deeper into that. You talked about using Facebook ads to drive people to a bot. Tell me more. Moby: Yeah, so that's ... And there's very clever ways to do it now and the thing about Facebook is almost any channel, but very specifically on Facebook, you've gotta do it before they change and they make it hard for you. All marketers, I'm sure you've had this conversation with others, all marketers we lament the fact how Facebook at first is like, "Hey, use Facebook for your brand." This is seven, eight years ago. Then people start putting their logo on bus boards - Literally advertising for Facebook on TV and billboards and whatever - and they're like, "Oh we're gonna take that away from you now." I guess anything we talk about, if you're listening to this a year later, it might not even be around anymore. You have to be very fast. To that point really quickly, I know with subscriptions, so with Facebook you can treat it like a form of email blasting and they call them chat blasting, bot blasting or whatever. Where once you get people, I guess, subscribed to your messenger, you can blast them with messages like gifs and videos and really cool stuff. At the moment I think they have open rate, I don't ... This might be a month or two old now, but I think their open rates are 90% plus. Marketers haven't ruined Messenger messages yet, or Facebook Messenger yet. So if you send them one, they're more likely to open it. It's very, very close to text messaging and a lot of users don't really differentiate between text ... The way they react to text messages or Messenger messages because it's so ubiquitous. We're just personal messaging. That's one thing to keep in mind. But in terms of what Facebook is doing with that technology, they are looking at tightening what you can do. So that's definitely one thing to keep in mind. Just to give a quick example, because I know if you kind of talk in theory, people really don't get what I'm talking about. But there's an example we're running at the moment with a bunch of restaurants. How that works is it's a nice image of a pavlova or something. It's targeted right, which is a separate discussion. Essentially all it says is, I think "In 10 words or less, describe the first thing that comes to your mind." Obviously the image is good. It's not on an iPhone, it's shot with an SLR. As soon as a person types, I don't know, "scrumptious" or "delicious" or whatever it is, it takes their Messenger opens ... Sorry their Facebook Messenger opens and they get an automated message that says, "We're really glad you like what you see. There is a coupon code available. Simply click on discount or type the word 'discount' and you'll get that coupon code." Then they type that and they can redeem this code. Then they can save it or whatever. Then after that it actually, it's almost like a mini, it's almost like a micro site within Messenger. You can almost build full scale websites in Messenger now. After that, let's go back to this example. I've typed in "discount," awesome. I may use that discount, I may not, but as a marketer if I've done my job right I'll probably remind this person to use it again. Then they'll almost get a "while you wait," or "before you come in, check out our menu." Then you get the cards, like the carousels, and then you can actually swipe and you can see what else ... Kathleen: In Messenger? Moby: In Messenger. Yeah? Kathleen: Okay, I have a million questions that I wanna ask you before we get too much further. The first being, when you talk about Facebook Messenger, let's walk through this from the standpoint of the actual user experience. So I'm a person and I'm on my Facebook. I could be on my mobile phone, I could be on my desktop, wherever I am. Where do I first come across this? What is my first touch point with this experience? Moby: Yeah, good point actually. You may ... In many, many ways, but one example. Say in this example that I mentioned, it could be an ad. It might be an ad in your newsfeed. You're scrolling. It could be carousel ad, it could be a newsfeed ad, video ad, doesn't really matter. Any format. You're scrolling, we targeted you because you're a particular demographic, you live in a certain radius within say that restaurant and you see this image. What normally happens is, so many things can happen. Either you can just have the image and just leave it there. But the thing is we want a call to action, right? We don't want to just friend zone our people all the time. Not that boosting content on Facebook is bad. When people first get into Facebook advertising, they just boost posts. Not that it's bad, and it should be part of your mix, it needs to be, but you can't only do that because where are they gonna go? Are they gonna go to your website? Are you gonna give them the link? What are you going to do? So with Facebook, you can send people to destinations. For those of you, I'm sure your listeners know this already, but for those you don't you can send them either to a landing page and you can just send them to a Messenger conversation. Kathleen: So I see the ad, in this case the picture of the pavlova that you talked about, and the ad is coming from the actual Facebook page of the company or the restaurant in this case. Moby: Yes. Kathleen: I see that ad. In this case it's telling me to click on something to say what words I would use to describe it. Is there a button on it and the button then opens up Messenger? Moby: Yeah, good question. So this is where, when you said what are some hacks and stuff, this is where my mind went to right away. It is a little bit of an advanced tactic that I'm talking about, and not many advertisers are using it. To break it right down, your first step, say you wanna give this a go, would probably be just to try to run an ad to Messenger. Then you click on yep, open conversation and then it opens the user's Messenger. It opens the brand's Messenger. Obviously that relies on a human going there and interacting with the person. Kathleen: Right. Moby: That's normally the first thing. Kathleen: A human on the brand's side, you mean? Moby: A human on the brand's side, yeah. Kathleen: Okay. Moby: The next sort of, I guess, evolve from that would be to send someone to ... There's still a button. There's still absolutely a button. You click on the button to start a conversation and then that goes into Messenger and then you use MobileMonkey, which is the tool we can talk about a little bit later. You can use a whole bunch of tools out there that are tools that will help you build a Messenger bot. Kathleen: Okay. Moby: And you know, if someone says yes give them this, if they say no give them that and they can design the flow. The example I gave is actually a level even above that in terms of advancement, if I can call it that. How that works is you just put in a word in the post. I only know of one other person who's doing this who is a friend of mine. That's why I stole the idea and I started doing it with our clients. But I haven't seen this anywhere else. If we understand that logic, currently cool most people understand I can click on a button in Messenger and it will take me to a Messenger conversation. But what you can now do is you can actually ask them to comment. Kathleen: Comment on the post itself. Moby: Yes, comment on the post itself. And that opens up ... We have the ability now ... It is a little bit advanced but know that it is possible that if you comment, that'll do the same thing. That'll trigger the bot to open. You don't have to click on a button. Now, this is great and I probably didn't even mention why you'd want to do this. There's a couple of reasons. Firstly, one of the, as we can talk about a little bit later, one of the things that determines how much you pay in Facebook ads is your quality score or relevancy score, sorry. Quality score is an AdWords term, relevancy score is the Facebook one. How they determine that is a number of things like are you getting engagements? Are people liking it? But one of the biggest factors, to cut it short, one of the biggest factors is comments, as well. So if you put out an ad and you're going to garner a lot of comments, Facebook is gonna say, this isn't salesy, this is facilitating conversation and momentum. This is what we want. This is what we like. I'm gonna make your cost low advertiser. So that's one of the biggest things that's done, Kathleen. Sure the results have been good, but one of the first things that impressed me before the results even started rolling in were the costs per click because it took me back to yesteryear. I remember when we started doing Facebook ads, when I started doing Facebook ads, they were 20 cents, 15 cents, they were so low, and I saw those numbers again. I'm like, "Oh my God. How are we getting these numbers?" It's because Facebook sees the comments. We're driving the comments, obviously because we're incentivizing the comments. We're saying comment on this and you can get a coupon code. So you have to offer them something. You don't have to depending on what you're showing them, but it's nice to offer them something. That drove down our scores. The next thought that I had when I was impressed by that was, "Oh crap. Facebook is going to stop this soon." You know what I mean? They're not gonna let us get away with this for too much longer, because they weren't. If the average of cost per click is a lot higher, depending on what industry a dollar or 80 cents or two dollars, three dollars, even five dollars we've seen it in some industries now, they're not gonna let us get away with this loophole for too much longer. Yeah, I guess that's the difference in the example I said as opposed to a button which is very easy to do. The comment triggers the Messenger app to open up or the Messenger interface to open up and then you can have a bot have an automated conversation with that person. Kathleen: And is that functionality native to Facebook or are you using some kind of a third party tool to bridge the gap between the comment and opening Messenger? Moby: Yeah, so the last part, that more advanced example, we are using some more advanced third party tools. Kathleen: Can you say which one? Moby: Actually I don't know because I am not the technical guy. I'm just the talker strategy guy and then I have other people do that stuff. But I can find out with our team and see if there's anything we can share. Kathleen: Yeah, if you can share it, send it to me after we talk and I'll put it in the show notes. So there's a good reason to go visit the show notes. This is the "I don't know if the answer will be there or not right now, but I'm gonna try." Moby: Yeah, at bare minimum, at bare minimum, we'll share some screenshots in terms of what this flow looks like. It's just so new. There's no actual tools that do these out of the box. You may have to use a tool and then get a code or do stuff on top. But I don't want that to scare people or turn people off. The fact is that if you're not even running Messenger ads to send to a bot, that's what you should be worried about. Kathleen: Right, right, right. Moby: That should be your premier concern. It may not even be worth your time and investment to develop the stuff that I'm talking about. I think it will be, but I want people to prove that to themselves. Kathleen: Yeah, and by the time this airs, Facebook may have already shut this functionality down. You do never know, especially given all the drama with Facebook these days. Moby: That's right. Kathleen: So somebody comments, that triggers Messenger to open, and then they begin interacting with the bot. And you're using Larry Kim's MobileMonkey, you said? Moby: Yeah, for most cases, with the coupon, with this example that we mentioned for the comments to Messenger, no. But for 95% of the cases, we do use MobileMonkey because I don't think MobileMonkey can do what we wanna do from a comments to Messenger point of view. It may, by the time this airs that may change, as well. But we like Mobile ... If I'm honest with you, because I'm a little bit, do you have the word "stingy" in the States, which means you don't like to spend money? Kathleen: Yes we do. Yeah. Moby: Stingy, I got MobileMonkey purely because they had an Appsumo lifetime code. That's why I jumped on it in the start. We went down that sort of path and it's good, it's easy. It's very easy to build and speaking about trust, Larry Kim comes from obviously founder of WordStream. I knew whatever this guy touches he's going to invest time and money and get it right. It's a very good first start for people looking to get into bots. And mind you with mobile Messenger you don't just use it for what I'm saying for ad context. You can use it just as your bots on your Facebook page. It's not new anymore but people also take their Facebook messenger and they install it on their website as well. The benefits of that are reducing over time as Facebook is gonna start restricting what you do with it. But you can still do that sort of stuff. Kathleen: Yeah, Larry Kim is very passionate about what he's doing with MobileMonkey. He did a webinar for us last spring and we got, at that point obviously the product wasn't as far along as it is now, but I just love his passion for what he does. I would agree with you. If you're gonna place your bets on a great platform to build this on, that's a good bet 'cause he's done this kind of thing before and he's really smart. View our on-demand webinar on "10 Hacks to Master Chatbot Marketing to Stay Ahead of Your Competitors" featuring Larry Kim Moby: Absolutely. Kathleen: Alright. So somebody clicks on this, they go to Messenger, the bot appears. What kind of a bot flow ... You talked about offering a coupon. Is this a short interaction where they get the coupon and then they're done? Are you using this to then continue to nurture these folks over time? Moby: Initially, and it depends on the context as well, like B2C examples are going to be very different to B2B examples in an example of a restaurant. It is a short interaction because people just want what they want. If the hook was a coupon code, for example, then cool let's make it easy. Let's make it automated, let's give it to them. The system will generate it, they'll get a screenshot, they can do whatever they want with it. We can track that, as well. Cool. But then after that, the beauty of using Messenger or Facebook Messenger bots or whatever, is they're in your Messenger now. So they're just like another friend, the brand is just like another friend. You know how we all have friends on Messenger and then they're in your ... Once you connect with them, they're there. They're on the left hand side or on the mobile they're wherever, and you can message them anytime. That's the same thing. It's kind of like permission marketing in a way, 'cause now that they're in you can then chat blast. Yeah, you can chat blast them. You can actually send them almost little mini coms, it's like mini newsletters where you can send them. HubSpot does a lot of this over, I don't know, I find it'll be annoying because it's always the same things. It's like a gif or something, but you can send them gifs, you can send them images, you can send them video, you can send them special offers. You can gently sometimes maybe nudge them to your website, and then at the same time you have to allow them to opt out. So if you want to stop receiving this from us, type "no," for example. Yeah. One last thing I'll say before I forget. I think the beauty of this whole thing is, is a human can jump in at any time. Just like bots on a website, chat bots on websites that aren't Facebook related, a human can jump in and take over anytime. Someone's noticing a lot of interest or and you find this, even when bots are ... You won't find a perfect Facebook bot. You're just not gonna find it. We've had ones for four or five months now and even just yesterday there was a flow ... I was chatting to one of our account managers and some poor prospect who was chatting to the clients Facebook bot kept getting the same auto responder all the time. And they were just getting so frustrated. It was like six, seven things that they said and the bot just kept saying the same thing again and again. I'm like, "Oh my God, this poor person." You can jump in and the thing is you're going to have to jump in - either because the bot makes a mistake which is probably our mistake because we probably didn't think about our flow - or you notice someone's very, very interested like that person who bothered to message five, six times isn't just doing it for the fun of it. They're interested, so let a human jump in and take over, as well. So sorry, side note but I think that's important to mention for people thinking about doing it this way are hesitant about doing this sort of stuff. Kathleen: Yeah, this is something I'm really interested in because I am on the receiving end of some of these. I do get Larry Kim's Facebook messages, I get Growth Bot from HubSpot, I get a couple of different things. You definitely see a wide variety of approaches that organizations take when they Facebook Message people, and my feeling about it has been that this is like a tightrope that you have to walk. It's an incredible opportunity but you also have to really be careful because until now, until very recently Facebook Messenger was an entirely private domain. It has been open to organizational messages for awhile but so few are taking advantage of it that I think for most Facebook users, they still haven't mentally made the adjustment that that's a different kind of a space now. Kathleen: I think if you're not careful as a brand, you could easily tip the scales and really annoy somebody who's used to having Messenger only be the domain of their friends or family et cetera. So I'd love to get your thoughts on that. How do you strike that balance so that you're not annoying people? Moby: Yeah, I think you gotta be careful. It's funny, even though Larry Kim MobileMonkey killing at what they do, they get it wrong too. To give you an example, they have 'cause you can follow Larry Kim and you can also follow MobileMonkey. I think they've actually learned actually, I've probably made a mistake but I think they've learned. But I remember up until recently, I'm following both of those properties so I would get a chat blast from Larry Kim and then I'd get a chat blast from MobileMonkey three seconds later. It was so annoying. Kathleen: You're like, "Guys, I heard you the first time." Moby: Exactly, right? And when you say it out loud it's like, "Oh my God, we're so petty. How petty am I, I get annoyed?" But we do. That's how we are. I heard an analogy a couple of years ago online, and this sounds crude but it's kind of true. Online we are dumb, stupid idiots, so by that we mean we're impatient, we want things right away. Even the little petty things annoy us. I'm like, "Guys, I know it's automated but at least have a different message or at least wait a week and send it on the other platform." But I think the tightrope thing I know we can't ignore the fact that if you have a brand and if you're a bigger client, there is a lot more brand protectionism you need to think about. Smaller brands can kind of get away with it. You can almost get away with almost anything because you're not gonna have a huge backlash. Someone's not gonna put up a post that I don't know, Jim's Fishing Supplies sent two messages a week as opposed to one message a week. Kathleen: Right. Moby: Right? In terms of striking that balance, the offer that you put out, because you may need to advertise to get them on board, should dictate what type of content you need to send. Then the frequency thing is something you just need to test. I'd probably say maybe once a month is too far, but once every two days is probably too often. And I think it is just a matter of testing things as well, and also asking them. Because with Messenger you can ask them. If we've been on the receiving end, you would have noticed that with Messenger little menus will come up where it will say, "Okay, what size company are you?" For example. One to five, six to 10, 50 plus or whatever. You can ask them periodically as well, what types of content do you value from us? And of course you always have to have that opt out. Testing different content, like whatever content that seems to be working with your audience on Facebook already in your normal coms already, is probably a good bet to talk about. Then the frequency is just a trial and error thing. Kathleen: I feel like there's also something to this that relates to the type of organization you are and the reason your audience wanted to connect with you on Messenger in the first place. So like when you first said you're using this with restaurants, I used to have some restaurant clients here where I lived in Annapolis, Maryland. I think that's actually a really interesting use case because restaurants run specials. Some of the restaurants I worked with had events. One of them actually had a venue space where they would have bands or they would have a poetry reading night. I think if you have things like that and you have somebody who's local and close by and interested, that's a great use case for somebody who wants to stay up to date on what's happening in your business. Or I can imagine if you're a B2B brand and you've got somebody who's interested in your webinar series and they wanna be notified if a new one comes up. I think where I've seen it poorly used at least from a user standpoint is for what I would call lead nurturing for a single product. Where you're constantly getting reminders of, "Hey, schedule a demo. Check out our product." After a while, you're like "It's been four months and I haven't checked your product out. If you don't have anything new to say to me, stop." That's just something that has struck me as a user, but I'd be curious to hear from you. What types of businesses do you think this is right for? Moby: Yeah, so it's kind of funny because when you think back to even a couple of years ago people used to say Facebook isn't for B2B. There's so many user cases that proved that's wrong, so I know there is a context for B2B. But to be completely honest with you, Kathleen - and it's funny most of our clients are actually B2B - but we've only done this so far with our B2C clients. We've done this with restaurants, we've done this with childcare, we did this with a martial arts company. A company that is kind of like a little bit of MMA where you can sign up to these programs. They're the ones that we don't, so if I'm completely honest with you I don't know. We found it worked very well with all those consumer type brands and I think with B2B, if we look at examples that have been marketed to us with, it's like you sort of said. Why do people connect with us in the first place? There's hockey examples where ... There's bad examples where people were just sort of saying schedule a demo. That's probably also indicative of a bad content marketing strategy as well because if you're always going for the sale, particularly in the B2B world, you're not gonna get anything. I think there is a context for everyone on the B2B side. What did they actually sign up with you for? What's working? If you don't know what's working that means maybe you don't have a content strategy. Maybe you don't have lead nurturing magnets already or you're not putting out content, you know? You guys put out a lot of content, so you have a very good indication of what's resonating relative to other stuff. In your context or your industry rather, some of those things are gonna work quite well in Messenger. And then I think another guideline to keep in mind is where you can be careful of sending them away from Messenger too much. Don't always be blasting things like "Here's a link to our eBook, here's a link to our eBook, here's a link to our eBook." They're in Messenger so they're used to a conversational flow. If you wanna give them the eBook, firstly don't do it every month or every week. Spread it out with your other types of content. But if you do want to give it to them with Messenger you can have forms. So what's your name? Can I get your name? That's ... The user can't tell but that's a form fill. That's saving somewhere in a database somewhere as a name. Okay, awesome. Can I get your email address? Cool. Oh by the way, do you mind me asking now that I've got your email address, I don't care if you don't answer the next part, do you mind asking me what your budget is? For example, if you want. If you're feeling really brave. That's all saved somewhere now. So the other mistake, and I see these one of the first mistakes that brands will make with the bot, and I don't blame them because we're just all learning this stuff, is I'll say, "Can't we just send them to a landing page?" This happened to us just yesterday where a client said, "We've got these programs," so this martial arts company, we've got 10 launching across the world, "Can't we just give 10 links depending on what they give?" I'm like, "You could, but why are we doing this in the first place? We have those links. We have ads that run to those links and those landing pages anyway. They're working in the one capacity. This is a different strategy, so ask them for their name, email address, whatever. Try to kind of keep them there as much as you can." I think that's another, I guess, good little pro tip as well, if you're trying to use this stuff. Kathleen: Yeah, I feel like so much of the decisions that marketers make are driven by our inherent desire to make everything so trackable, right? And if there's a way to ... We're thinking first, "Oh well if I send them to a landing page, then I get them to convert. Then I can track the conversion rate and the this and the that." It's so clean for us but we're solving for ourselves and not necessarily for the user. Tracking Results of the Facebook Ad + Messenger Bot Campaign Kathleen: To that point of trackability, I'm curious, how you are measuring the results of these campaigns? Because it sounds like you've got a couple of them running, and I'd love to hear just all the way through like you talked about you've seen cost per click go down. Have you seen ... What other metrics are you looking at that you're using to judge success? Moby: In the Messenger context? Kathleen: Yeah, mm-hmm (affirmative). Moby: Yeah, with the restaurant example it's fairly simple because the codes obviously are aligned to a particular ... They're at least aligned to a channel. They're probably even aligned to an actual ad creative as well, if we really wanna get to that level. So that's definitely the case there. It's funny like with the martial arts company, we just launched ... They have HubSpot already but we just launched it. We just wanted to get it out there, and then it actually started doing so well we're like, "Okay there's two problems there." Now, because MobileMonkey I love these tools. They will just send you notifications, they just send you a notification. Then you rely on the client or us to go in and add it manually and say "Okay the lead source was Facebook Messenger." Which is okay but if this thing starts doing well becomes very problematic. So we ran into this problem recently. Now we're like, "Okay, cool." Now we need to integrated with Zapier or whatever it is. So we just kind of launched it. We didn't worry about the tracking at first and the attribution. Then we're figuring that out with the client. But yeah, you can if you send them to a link you can use UTM parameters. That's one thing you can do, but that kind of defies the logic of why you'd wanna do this thing in the first place. So I think there's two ways to think about it. Firstly, if we're especially in a B2B context, if we're using Messenger to give them a little bit of value, a little bit of value and maybe a little bit of value three times and then start a conversation, that becomes like a sales reps conversation. Then I guess it's up to the sales rep to see "Okay cool if this is now an actual real lead, I'm gonna flag it and mark it as a lead in my CRM and I can track it back." You're always gonna have human error. I'm not gonna lie Kathleen. That works because you always have like 15% of the time, it's like, "Guys, you gotta get your sales reps to use the CRM, use the leads." That's always gonna be persistent, that issue. And on the other side, it's how you're going to be integrating with it. So with the ads if you use ... We use a tool called AdEspresso to run our Facebook ads, which is a very, very good tool. We've been using it now for about a year and a half. With Ad Espresso, you can link up, you can install the Facebook pixel on your website and then you can link that up with your ad. And eventually if they convert, you'll be able to tell. So it is a little bit tricky now. At this point if you're gonna be using a bot, if you're gonna be using a Messenger bot, you will need to use some sort of integration piece or rely on the sales reps who have that conversation to attribute it. The other thing, too, to mention, Kathleen, is often these people will end up converting anyway. They say it takes six to eight touch points for someone to convert, so they may not actually convert with that ad with the coupon code for example. They may actually then go to your website on their second visit and convert that way. If that happens, if you've set up your Facebook pixel properly, then you'll see that in your tracking and your reporting anyway. So there are a couple of holes. I think we're all still trying to figure that out how we do that in automated fashion. But it is possible. Kathleen: What kind of ... With the approach that you're using with the bakery, or the restaurant rather, what kinds of savings and cost per click are you realizing like on a percentage basis? You mentioned you're getting down to like 20 cents or something. What fraction of the previous cost per click does that represent? Moby: I would say honestly, so I'd probably say about 10% of what we were getting before. Kathleen: Wow. Moby: It depends on what context and what country you're in, but it used to be that if you sent someone to a link, that was very expensive. And it's still expensive. Then it was like, "Okay, cool." If you give them coupon codes and offers, that was a little bit cheaper, but even that's getting expensive now. Like $1.80, $2 cost per click, you know, just to send someone to a landing page to get them to download a coupon code. It really sounds uncomfortable, you know what I mean? Kathleen: Yeah. Moby: So Facebook doesn't want you to take people off their ecosystem anyway, and the user wants things now and fast and right away. I think the little hack of trying to use comments to drive the Facebook Messenger really worked as well because Facebook is noticing ... Some of these posts have hundreds of comments on them. Hundreds of comments, so we're running the same posts again and again because there's all this perceived virality and conversation there. We don't need to, and only if we really have to or if it's a new offer or something or a new campaign we'll create a new post. But we try to actually use the older post for a little while anyway. And if you don't have tools like this or you can't do something that advanced yet, then trying to instill some sort of, even the old school stuff like "Comment in 10 words or less" or "Tag someone who might be interested" or whatever. That's still going to help, although it's getting harder and harder to use ads to tag people unless they're familiar with your brand already. Kathleen: Yeah, that's true. Now any results that you can share in terms of the business impact this has had for your customers? Moby: I mean, early days yeah. I mean, I can tell you in terms of redemption the cost per click is like 10% of what it was before. In terms of redemption, in B2C the redemption is always going to be a little bit lower but we know that roughly, and also you have to look at the time as well, the time period when you offer this to someone. But we're looking at around 30%, 25 to about 30% redemption on these codes. We have noticed the redemption is higher than it was before, as well. So if we sent someone to a landing page, I'm almost embarrassed to say we used to send them to a landing page to get a code because it sounds so dumb ... Kathleen: So 1980s. Moby: Yeah, right? But that was probably around 15% so they're a little bit higher and I think that's because they get it higher. And if the average order value of, I don't know, I guess a meal is $30/$40, that does represent a significant windfall for this client who's able to get the cost per click down by 10% so you can get 10 times more leads in. Kathleen: For less money. Moby: They're getting ... Yeah so whatever the difference between 15% and ... So 10% more redemption as well. That's significant. In terms of how many, I don't know because I don't have that value. Kathleen: I was gonna say, I can't do that math. I understand it but I can't do the math 'cause I'm a marketer. But it's definitely meaningful. That's so interesting and it sounds like it's a fairly not super complicated thing to implement if you have something like a MobileMonkey. Moby: Yes, yeah. Exactly. Exactly. Kathleen: Very, very interesting, definitely something that I would like to test out. I'm gonna be pursuing you for more information on how you're doing the comment to Messenger, so we'll see what we can find out there. Kathleen's Two Questions Kathleen: Before we have to wrap up, I have two questions I always ask all of my guests, and I would love to know your answer to each of them. The first one is company or individual, who do you think is doing inbound marketing really well right now? Moby: Company or individual who's doing inbound marketing really well, okay. What I do ... What I have noticed is companies and individuals who don't have anything to offer or sell are doing it the best. To give you a quick example, with our childcare client ... In every industry there's an aggregator or a directory or whatever and there's one in our particular industry. People can Google it, it's not a big deal. It's called Careforkids.com.au 'cause we're in Australia. They don't have anything to offer, they're an aggregator, they're a directory. They don't have childcare centers or any centers at all. Because they don't have anything to offer, all they can offer is content. Like I always ... People who are still skeptical of investing in content ... Everyone knows that they need to do it, but they're skeptical to investing to content. I always point them to these aggregators. I'm like, "Look, they're doing so well and you know they're doing well because they're trying to sell you leads. Alright? And the only thing they have to offer is the ultimate guide to childcare or an onboarding process or they've invested three months and $10000 to do a 40 page document. Which probably people don't read. You're right Mr. or Miss client. They probably don't read but look at the authority that they've actually built." So it's a boring example, Kathleen, but I think it's a good example because in every industry you'll notice these aggregators. They're doing the best job at content marketing 'cause they have nothing else to offer. But the proof is in the pudding. They're selling leads back to our clients and us brands out there. So I think they're doing a pretty good job. Sorry I don't have an actual example. Kathleen: So they're basically monetizing .... No that is a good one. Moby: Yeah, I don't wanna say HubSpot and MobileMonkey. They all do great stuff, right? They're putting stuff out in webinars and give, give, give et cetera without being friend zoned. But I think in every industry you'll find aggregators and directories are doing a great marketing job. Kathleen: No, I think that's a really interesting observation because essentially those types of businesses are monetizing their audiences, not a product. Their audience is the product. Moby: That's right. Kathleen: So to do well they have to build a big audience, and that's basically a publisher model. That's what publishers do, they monetize their audience. It's just that it's a different flavor of publisher, if you will. So I think that's really interesting that that's what you pointed to. That's something that we believe in very much at IMPACT because we've really shifted our strategy to be more like a publisher for that very reason. I think products almost follow. Kathleen: Joe Pulizzi wrote about this in Killing Marketing. He talked about how the best way to start a business is to actually grow an audience first and your audience will naturally tell you what the product is that they want. So that when you finally create the product, you already have the audience for it and you already have the demand for it. It's a no brainer to make it successful. It's totally flipping the model on its head, but it's kind of a fascinating idea. Moby: Yeah, absolutely. You're not wrong there. Kathleen: So my second question is, and this conversation is the perfect example of it. Digital marketing changes so quickly. We just talked about bots and comment to Messenger, all this really interesting stuff that's very kind of current. With everything changing so fast, how do you stay up to date? How do you educate yourself to make sure that you're on top of all these latest best practices and new emerging things that you can do? Moby: Yeah, I mean if you're in the digital marketing sector or sphere, you have no choice. I only know this not because I'm smart but because we have a client in this space. I don't just know these stats off the top of my head, but the world economic forum estimated by 2021, all of us, all of us, will need to do 101 days extra training. You can roughly equate that to 25 days training or learning rather, a year, right? So roughly all of us, doesn't matter if you're in ... Forget digital marketing. That's probably 45 days a year, right? But all of us should be investing in 25 days per year in learning. Otherwise I think 52% of our roles are going to be obsolete. They're saying you need to invest here because 52% of roles are going to require the skills. Forget about what the skills are. That's a conversation for another topic. But the point is we need to do this and the way to do it is to do something ... There's two things. Conducive to the way you learn. So if you're a social learner then go to events and say, "You know what? I can't do programmatic learning, sorry programmed learning. I can't do courses. I'm a social learner. I'm gonna try to do one every three months and learn by conversations." Maybe audio books are good for you. Maybe videos are good for you, whatever, right? And then do it in a consistent fashion. Now that's the answer for people if you just wanna be okay. But to answer your question directly and sorry, Kathleen I'm going ... Kathleen: No, no, no, this is so true. Moby: I love to blab. But if you truly wanna be the best, and this isn't for everyone. This actually isn't for everyone. Not everyone has the desire first or the gumption to do this, is I truly believe you have to be a content creator in digital marketing. And I think you know this as good as I do, Kathleen. I've got a podcast, as well. Inbound Buzz, we've been running for two and a half years or so. I noticed at one point there was no more degrees I could do in my field and the podcast is my degree now. It is my "university" now. That is my ... Because everyone sees an article that they like or a something that they like on the web and they save it or they email it to themselves and they never read it. But when you have a podcast you save that at the end of the week and then you create your own commentary around it, for example. Whether it's a podcast or you're more of a writer or whatever, but I think truly, truly to be ... If you want to be actually world class and in the top two to five percent of your field in terms of authority and knowledge, forget authority. Knowledge. You have to be a content creator. "If you want to be actually world class and in the top two to five percent of your field in terms of authority and knowledge, you have to be a content creator" ~ Moby Siddique Click to Tweet this quote Moby: For me, I took a couple of months off because some health reasons but I'm gonna get back into the swing of it in 2019. But for me, that is it. And honestly, Kathleen, now that I haven't done it for a couple of months after doing it consistently for two and a half years, I feel it. I feel dumber. You know what I mean? Kathleen: It's like when you stop exercising and you're like, "Oh my gosh. I'm out of breath." Yeah. Moby: That's right. I just feel it. I just don't feel as sharp, you know what I mean? But when I'm doing it and I'm in flow, there's not a conversation I can have where I feel like I can't contribute if it's in the world of digital marketing. Any topic, you know? But yeah, that's the way to do it in my opinion. Kathleen: Absolutely could not agree more. Anyone who listens to this podcast with any degree of regularity knows that I always say I would do it even if nobody listened, which I hope that's not the case that nobody listens. I don't think it is. But I would because I learn so much and I selfishly seek out guests that I think I have something to learn from. In fact one of my recent guests, Val Geisler who's amazing, she's this awesome email onboarding expert. She joked on the interview, she was like, "Is this a free consultation in disguise?" And I was like, "Why yes it is." Moby: That's right, absolutely. Kathleen: You know, it sort of is. It's great, and these are all people that I would otherwise probably have no excuse to talk to unless I stalked them or something. So I really do agree with what you said. That's two thumbs up for podcasting. Moby: There you go. Kathleen: Great, well I feel like I could talk to you all day, but I know it's getting late my time, it's early in the day your time. You have a whole day ahead of you. Moby: Yeah. We are in the future. We're in the future. Kathleen: Yeah, as we're recording this it's only like two days before I take off for Christmas break. So I'm feeling more stressed by the day, that I have so many presents left to buy for my family. I appreciate you taking the time at this time of year to stop and spend some time and talk with me about this. So, so interesting. Moby: It's been fun, Kathleen. And yeah, I think we'll have you on, as well. How to Contact Moby Siddique Kathleen: Fun. I would love that. Well I appreciate it. If somebody wants to learn more about what you're doing or even get in touch with you and ask questions about what you just talked about, what's the best way for them to find you online? Moby: Probably LinkedIn. All the other channels, a lot of them are automated. Half the time it's not even me putting out content. Probably the best place is LinkedIn. I'm very ... I interact there a lot and yeah, most of my stuff I do on LinkedIn. Kathleen: Great. And I'll put a link to your LinkedIn in the show notes for anyone who's curious about that. You Know What To Do Next... Kathleen: If you're listening and you found this conversation to be valuable or if you learned something new, please leave a review for the podcast in Apple Podcasts or the platform of your choice. If you know somebody else, as always, doing kick ass inbound marketing work, tweet me at Work Mommy Work because they could be the next person I interview. Thanks so much, Moby. Moby: Thank you, Kathleen, love what you're doing. Cheers. Kathleen: Thanks. So much fun.

In this episode of The Social Marketing Academy, host Christopher Tompkins is going to reveal one of the secret weapons to an air-tight marketing strategy - YOUR COMPETITORS! Competition is a great way to make yourself a better marketer. You might be satisfied with your own results, but looking at a competitor can inspire you to keep trying. And why not let your competition help you become even better? Christopher will share his best tips for spying on your competitors and using their successes and failures to improve your marketing strategy! If you would like to read the blog assciated with this episode - click here!

In this episode of The Social Marketing Academy, host Christopher Tompkins is going to reveal one of the secret weapons to an air-tight marketing strategy - YOUR COMPETITORS! Competition is a great way to make yourself a better marketer. You might be satisfied with your own results, but looking at a competitor can inspire you to keep trying. And why not let your competition help you become even better? Christopher will share his best tips for spying on your competitors and using their successes and failures to improve your marketing strategy! If you would like to read the blog assciated with this episode - click here!

How can your company be the disrupter – and not the disrupted? Find out by listening on-the-go to Episode 84. Scott and I discuss how companies of any size can be game-changing disruptors by recognizing emerging opportunities to redefine their place in the competitive environment. In this episode, you'll gain insights on: An often underestimated way toRead More The post How To Recognize Emerging Opportunities Ahead of Your Competitors appeared first on Business Advancement.

In this week's episode of Marketing Nerds, I am joined by Mike Roberts, Founder and CEO if SpyFu, a very popular and effective Keyword research tool. We talk a little about where the concept of SpyFu came from, its evolution, and some of the unique ways you can use the tools information to improve your marketing efforts. The post SpyFu CEO Mike Roberts on How to Spy on Your Competitors appeared first on Search Engine Journal.