How To Increase Sales Online: Digital Marketing | Amy Singleton

Discover how Amy Singleton, CEO of Hite Digital Norman, transformed her life and career from nursing to digital marketing entrepreneurship. In this episode, Amy candidly shares her story of resilience, overcoming significant personal challenges, and finding purpose alongside her husband and business partner, Joseph. Together, they founded a digital marketing agency designed to bring reliability and integrity to a market often lacking these crucial elements.

We also explore the delicate balance between visionary ideas and operational excellence. Learn the importance of having a dedicated operational manager to keep the wheels turning while the visionary focuses on the big picture. Using proven frameworks like Franklin Covey’s four quadrants, we delve into task prioritization and effective delegation.

Lastly, Amy offers a treasure trove of practical advice for building a robust online presence in today's fast-paced digital landscape. Leveraging free resources like Google Business Profiles, you'll get actionable tips on maximizing visibility and engagement. Hear her expert opinions on the the pitfalls of inactive social media accounts, and the power of lead generators in fostering long-term client relationships. This episode is packed with insights to help your small business thrive in the digital age.

Amy Singleton: CEO / Hite Digital Norman

Website (personal): https://amysingleton.net/

Website (company): https://www.hitedigital.com/norman/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/therealamysingleton/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/therealamysingleton

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/therealamysingleton/

TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@therealamysingleton

Podcast: https://queenslead.org/


Mentions:
Michael Morrison: Delegation Quadrant
Donald Miller: Building Story Brand, Business Made Simple
Charles Duhigg: Supercommunicators

#IncreaseSalesOnline #DigitalMarketing #AmySingleton #HiteDigitalNorman #Entrepreneurship #BusinessGrowth #OnlineSales #DigitalEntrepreneur #MarketingStrategies  #VisionaryLeadership #TaskPrioritization #StandardOperatingProcedures #OnlinePresence #GoogleBusinessProfile #SEOTips #LeadGeneration #SmallBusinessSuccess #BusinessPodcast #MarketingAdvice #BusinessPodcast #SmallBusinessPivots #SmallBusinessSuccess #Success #Podcast #SmallBusiness #BOSS #MichaelDMorrison #Oklahoma City

Chapters

• 0:00 Overcoming Mindset Issues in Small Business
• 12:27 Leveraging Operations for Business Success
• 21:29 Building a Strong Online Presence
• 29:52 Maximizing Business Visibility and SEO Contracts

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

All right, welcome to another Small Business, pivots. Today we have a very special guest from around the world. Actually, she's almost right down the street from where our headquarters are and I know no one can introduce themselves like our guest. So tell us your name, your company and, briefly, what your company does.

Speaker 2: 0:17

Hi Michael, thank you so much for having me. I'm Amy Singleton and I am the CEO of Hyight Digital Norman, which is a full-service digital marketing agency.

Speaker 1: 0:27

All right. So how are we going to help our listeners today?

Speaker 2: 0:30

Well, I'm hoping to give them some insights into. One of the biggest things that business owners have is mindset issues overcoming, getting out of our own way in order to scale and grow, and also maybe some tips on digital marketing itself websites, search engine optimization, ads all the things that are really hard for a business owner to do because they're experts at what they do and not necessarily experts about getting the word out about what it is that they do.

Speaker 1: 0:59

Well, you know, we only have like 30 minutes right by now right. So we better get to the introduction of our show and we'll be right back to get started. Welcome to Small Business Pivots, a podcast designed for small business owners. I'm your host, michael Morrison, a small business coach and founder of BOSS, where we make business ownership simplified for success, so that you can own a business that runs without you. To learn more, go to businessownershipsimplifiedcom. All right, welcome back. So, amy, where shall we start? We're going to unpack a lot today.

Speaker 2: 1:36

Let's do it.

Speaker 1: 1:37

So let's start with. Let's start with mindset, because I know a lot of business owners grow up with trials and tribulations. For me, it was being kidnapped by gunpoint. People have heard that story over and over. For others, it's a death in the family or maybe abuse. What are some things that you did? And then, how did you overcome those? Because that's the biggest issues. How did you overcome those?

Speaker 2: 1:58

Man, michael, you know I wasn't always a business owner. I never. I didn't really even have an example of a business owner or entrepreneurship in my life. So you know, just just overcoming the first hurdle of am I even capable of doing something like this was was really difficult at first. The way that my husband and I got started with our agency was was very interesting when some of the some of the challenges that I had to overcome in my life, you know, was growing up in a household where I wasn't necessarily, my strengths, weren't necessarily embraced and they didn't really understand me as a child I was very loud and performance-based and all of these things and people just could not wrap their their mind around who Amy was. In fact, I used to introduce, introduce myself and tell people that Dolly Parton was my real mom in front of my very ordinary real mom, because I just knew I was bound for something different, and so my first career was actually in nursing.

Speaker 2: 3:00

I did open heart surgeries for over a decade and then one of those setbacks that I had was well, one of the setbacks that I had was losing that career due to my health. So I was diagnosed with a host of autoimmune diseases rheumatoid arthritis, lupus, I had broken my back and had cancer and a divorce, and all of these things happen within a very, very short period of time, which landed me in a really scary place of depression, of heavy drinking, and that was something I really had to overcome. But through the process of overcoming all of that, I met my now husband and business partner, joseph, about eight years ago and I was not able I didn't think I was going to be able to physically go back to nursing, especially in the operating room. It's very physical, very demanding work. And so he was the serial entrepreneur. He'd owned several businesses over the years. In fact, at one time, from the late 90s to the mid 2000s, he owned a very large paint contracting company here in town. They had 125 employees, millions and millions of dollars in revenue. Town. They had 125 employees, millions and millions of dollars in revenue.

Speaker 2: 4:09

And as we were brainstorming ways to bring him home at the time, I met him. He was working out of state consulting in another business he owned. But it was a really strained relationship because he was never home and I was traveling to see him and he was coming home when he could and all of these things, and we were discussing one day. You know, where can we serve our community? What? Where is it that that my talents and interests and his experience and talents and interests intersect in a way that we can really serve the Oklahoma city metro area by bringing and bringing him home Right? And we knew that we were not cut out to work for other people. I definitely realized that by that time in my life.

Speaker 2: 4:46

And he said you know who? I pay a lot of money to Marketers, angie's List, home Advisor, lead Services, all of these people that you and I were talking before we started recording. There are so many scams out there. It's hard to know who you can trust and who's actually going to give you an ROI when they say, invest, invest in your marketing, you have to do this thing, invest in your business, and you're going okay. Well, I don't know you, I don't know where you live, I don't get to talk to you, touch you see, you feel you, and I don't know where all this money is going. And so he then looked at me and said the four words that started our business, which is we can do better. Business owners deserve better than what I got is what he said. You know, I. I felt like I deserved more for my money and more in a relationship than what I had.

Speaker 2: 5:33

So the very first iteration of our business was similar to uh, to home advisor. We uh, we learned how to build websites, rank websites, get leads coming in, which so many people think they have to have all of these Don't shoot me as a business coach, but they think they have to have a business plan, they think they have to have a team. They think they know what you need is leads. What you need is work. Right, you've got to have someone to do the work for.

Speaker 2: 5:58

And so we found a lot of value in being able to provide leads to businesses, especially in the service-based industries, that could not afford to build their own website, could not afford to invest in, you know, ppc or Google ads or Facebook ads or search engine optimization. That takes a long time to build over time. So that was the first iteration of our business and we found over the year, over the couple of years we did that, that once people were at a certain point in revenue, they were like, hey, we're ready to invest in our own website, we're ready to invest in our own business, and so over the years it kind of changed and reiterated into what it is now. But that's where we have really found the value in being able to promote these local businesses in a way that they feel comfortable, that they have a relationship with someone that they can actually trust.

Speaker 1: 6:50

Wow, we've already unpacked so much and no, you're not going to shoot the business coach, because I totally agree with you. I share with business owners if your sales are not where they need to be, you need to be selling. Don't even think about doing anything else other than selling. So you got me on that. And then also for the overcoming trials and tribulations, the power of people you know, community you got to reach out.

Speaker 1: 7:14

And I just had someone the other day saying hey, I've been trying to reach out to so-and-so and I said, have you ever asked them or or requested that you'd like to meet with them have coffee? No, no, I just kind of send an update and I'm like, well, tell them what you want. And they did, and, sure enough, they had coffee the very next day. I was like you know, if you need something, ask, don't be afraid to ask. That is one thing about the people you know on this planet.

Speaker 2: 7:48

For most people. People still want to help people, but they need to know what you need help with or they feel like they might be stepping, you know, out of their, their bounds. Oh, a hundred percent. And you know that that's not just in business. That's I mentioned, just kind of glossed over the fact that I was very depressed at one point before I met my my now partner and husband. But I had asked, isolated myself from everyone, from everything, I was very depressed. I was staying in my home, I was suicidal, I was not moving and I was not connecting with people, I had just isolated myself to the point that I couldn't move forward.

Speaker 2: 8:14

And I think that that's such a similarity in business when we start, we have this little thing that's our baby and we're working on it, we're in our office, it's late at night and so many people don't even tell someone. They don't even tell them that. You know, hey, I've started a business, hey, this is my offer, this is what I'm selling, this is my product or my service, because we think we have to be all alone, do it all on our own. That's just not the case. There are so many people out there willing to help, help, you know, joining networking groups and mastermind groups of people that are even doing the same thing that you're doing. So many people think it's just competition, competition, and that's not true. There is enough for everyone. There are more people in this planet than any one of us could ever do business with.

Speaker 2: 8:58

I'm so happy to collaborate with other marketing agencies because there are things they do that I don't want to do and vice versa, and they're willing to share. And I think when we first start out, it's really hard to see the value that we also have to bring someone else, even in our lack of experience. You know, I think a lot of people are in this fake it till you make it kind of mentality. But but really, if we just say what it is, we are, I'm a beginner, you know what, and that's why my prices are $500 instead of $50,000. I'm a beginner and I'm here to learn. You will get more business by being honest with what you are able to do and deliver and know that you also have something to offer the people who are way ahead of you on that escalator of success, so to speak.

Speaker 1: 9:44

Absolutely so. The show name is Small Business Pivots. Were there any pivots along the way that you learned that you could share with our small business owners listening?

Speaker 2: 9:55

Yeah, absolutely so. I mentioned the first iteration of our business was like that lead service, lead generation service. One pivot we made was kind of an accidental business. One of the websites that we had was a painting website. Well, my husband- Imagine that.

Speaker 2: 10:12

Imagine that we were pretty much an expert in that area, but we pivoted in. Instead of selling those leads to someone else, we pivoted into an entire another line of business and because those leads were coming in through the website, we then started our own painting company, went down, filed the DBA, all of that, had a three crew painting company for a few years and graciously sold that business. But it was about during that time that we recognized that more and more of our clients were coming to us saying I want, you know I'm, I appreciate these leads, these are great, but now I'm ready to build my brand. Now I'm ready to build my website, my, my search engine optimization. I want to sell my business in 10 years. So we pivoted into that, into that structure.

Speaker 2: 10:59

We realized, about a year into doing that on our own, as you can fully attest to building out the systems, the processes oh my goodness the softwares, the sales forces of the world, all these things that take, you know, like a doctorate degree in technology. We made a big pivot when we were approached by Hype Digital, which Hype Digital is? It is a franchise model of digital marketing. I hesitate to say that now because we're not taking on any more franchises. We have six locations across the United States and we're not gonna be changing that anytime soon.

Speaker 2: 11:34

But when we decided to pivot and make that partnership with them and become the Oklahoma location of height, it fast forwarded us probably two years in business in what we were trying to develop as far as systems and processes and staffing and teammates and all of that. You know, it was like it was a little bit humbling at first because we were really trying to just build it on our own. And in that pivot that we made which took a lot of humility, you know, to say you know what? They already have something that's working really well. Why don't we use this thing to help us grow? And and that was really the catalyst that that helped us grow, um, to the point that we are now and you know now just found out we're on Inc 5,000 for the third year in a row um, you know, have a staff of over 100 and um are really just doing the thing to make the impact that we want to make for businesses.

Speaker 1: 12:27

Well, to make an impact again the power of people.

Speaker 2: 12:30

Power of people.

Speaker 1: 12:31

You can do more things with more people. So moving forward. We're talking to small business owners, that's who listens to the podcast most. Most of them are stuck right, so you talk about how you kind of pivoted into the height framework, but before that you're trying to move forward, but you also have fires to put out daily. Any advice that you can give to listeners, Because some of them are just stuck putting out fires daily and we're talking for months, years, some of them even decades. One company we work with they're into the second generation business and they're still putting out daily fires Any advice you can give.

Speaker 2: 13:27

I really had to wrap my brain around was as an entrepreneur, as the idea person or the visionary person. It's almost impossible to have that vision and to keep something moving forward without an operator. You have to have that operational person that's willing to keep the thing moving along while you're over here having your ideas and ping-ponging and having all of the shiny object syndrome and thinking that you need to to go a different direction. Or do you've got to have someone that is going to keep you on task and keep you accountable to your ideas and to your vision and keep you, keep you moving forward? I think one of the things that business owners get really caught up in is I'm trying to remember the book it came from, but I think it's a Franklin Covey thing the four quadrants of like. Sort the big rocks out, Like what is the thing that is important and not urgent, and work on those things. And most of us business owners, especially early on, are working on the things that are important and urgent.

Speaker 2: 14:28

Like, oh my gosh, this has to happen right now. This is the fire. We got to put out the fire, put out the fire. And when you just put out the fire over and over and you don't put in a system or a process or a person to help prevent that same fire from happening over and over and over again, you're just going to keep having to pull out that fire extinguisher every single day and put it out.

Speaker 1: 14:49

Yeah Well, I have a shameless plug, because we have something similar. It's called the delegation quadrant, and so basically it's the four corners, and it starts with the things you love and that you're great at and then goes around to the very bottom things that you're horrible at and you hate. Those are the first things we want to help business owners get off their plate. First, because we know if you're not good at it and you hate doing it, what are you going to do?

Speaker 2: 15:13

Procrastinate, it's never going to get done.

Speaker 1: 15:15

And then when you finally do it, it's probably going to be wrong anyways, because you rushed through it. So if anybody wants to do that, they can get that off our website. So a hundred percent.

Speaker 2: 15:24

you should definitely be working with Michael to find out what is your zone of genius? Like where is it that you really shine as a business owner? And understanding. Like when I first started like I said, I came from the nursing field Like I didn't think I was a visionary, I didn't think I was a CEO material. You know, I knew how to follow a process. I know how to take a blood pressure. I know how to set up medications. I know how to set up an operating room. I can follow a checklist and I had been so used to doing that for so many years.

Speaker 2: 15:54

I didn't recognize that it wasn't really something I was good at in the abstract or in developing my own process and having the humility to understand that that was not my zone of genius. And I was spinning my wheels, putting out fires every single day, trying to keep up with the projects that were going. I'm not good at that. I want something that is one and done. I want to have a conversation. I want to give a strategy and then pass that strategy off to someone else to implement. If you're not an implementer, you're never going to be. I mean not that you're not going to, can't learn that, but stay in your own zone of genius and let other geniuses come alongside you and help move that vote forward.

Speaker 1: 16:33

Absolutely so. I didn't know we were going to get off on the SOP. So those are standard operating procedures for those that don't know. So, being in the healthcare, other than someone could possibly die. If you don't follow these directions, these steps, how do they get people to follow them? Because I hear business owners say all the time I don't have time to write these. Well, somebody had to write them for healthcare. I don't have time to make sure everybody's following them. Well, in the healthcare, people don't follow you around making sure you just do it. But how does that work in the healthcare system? Because you all probably have a lot of them, I would think.

Speaker 2: 17:10

Definitely Well it's. You know the documentation is. You know, from a healthcare perspective, one of the very first things they teach you in nursing school is if it's not documented, it didn't happen. You know, if you didn't, even if you gave the medication to the person, if it's not on when I first started on paper but now in the system, if it's not in the computer system, right then it didn't happen.

Speaker 2: 17:34

So I think one of the things that a lot of the business owners put off is getting some softwares or getting something that's going to help them to to stay in alignment and to make that procedure. So, even if it's something like a free Asana account where you're just typing out what needs to happen next and then require, you know, in the hospital, it's required to document that. And if you, if you don't document that thing, you can't clock out at the end of the day. So you know, having a lot of personal responsibility, but also those checks and balances from the management staff making sure that all of those things are being documented. You know, it's just a requirement and I think that more business owners need to hold, first of all, themselves to the standard of what they want their team to do.

Speaker 2: 18:22

Because, like when you start out like you're wearing all the hats, right, if you look at the organizational chart, you've got CEO, cfo, coo well, your name might be in all of them, right, but if you're not the one making sure that those things are happening, how can you ever expect someone else to follow that procedure and what you want to happen? When I'm talking to business owners about their marketing, I so often have to kind of move into the business coach seat going okay, you would be very, you would not be surprised. But I think your listeners would be very surprised to hear that when I asked the question okay, someone makes a phone call to your business, then what happens Then?

Speaker 1: 19:00

what happens.

Speaker 2: 19:01

Then what happens? And they don't know, because they don't know they will. I have this manager over here that if she takes care of that, okay, well, what happens if she quits? Well, I don't know. Someone else is going to come in see your beep show and have to figure out the whole show over again, right? So having that, even if it's just a Google doc it's free a piece of paper, write down what happens next for your customer. What happens next internally, what happens next externally. You have to know what happens next, or no one else can take the ball and run with it.

Speaker 1: 19:37

Yeah, Amen, Amen. So part of that was you said there's repercussions if you don't follow and the business owner has to follow them Usually. I'm sorry listeners, that's usually the number one problem. Why SOPs don't stick in a business is because you don't follow them yourself, so why would anybody else?

Speaker 1: 19:54

And you make them too complicated. So there's my little rant on SOPs. But everybody knows from listening to me that SOPs is one of the essentials for a successful, scalable business and for it to be replicable, like you said. What if Michael leaves? Now, what do we do?

Speaker 2: 20:12

Well, you know, you talk to people and you're like, said what if Michael leaves now? Yeah, now what do we do? So well, you know, you talk to people and you're like, well, what's your goal for the business? Well, I'm going to sell it one of these days, okay? Well, what do people want to buy? They don't want to buy your brain, I mean, they have to buy a system that works.

Speaker 1: 20:25

Yep, Amen. So well, let's talk about digital marketing, because this is a whole. Our seasoned business coaches who have walked the path themselves, provide invaluable guidance and support and with additional services like fast business loans some approved within 24 to 48 hours, comprehensive online courses, detailed workbooks and engaging classes, Boss offers a wealth of resources to help you succeed. Discover how small business success begins with Boss at businessownershipsimplifiedcom. If you're enjoying the podcast, make sure to stay connected by hitting that subscribe button, giving us a thumbs up or leaving a positive review. Your support keeps us going.

Speaker 1: 21:26

Now let's get back to our incredible guest. Well, let's talk about digital marketing, because this is a whole. It just seems to evolve too quickly and, like you mentioned, there's too many scams out there and small business owners unfortunately don't have time to sit and research everybody and do background checks and everything. So let's talk about what digital marketing is, how it helps you, kind of what are the basics of what they should have first, kind of leading into those early stage businesses, because I work with businesses that are two and three decades old, maybe a second, third generation, and they're still operating like they were when grandpa started it.

Speaker 1: 22:05

So you know, they're just kind of all over the board. So what's kind of the starting place and then we'll move into the after you've gotten past that, what they should be looking for next.

Speaker 2: 22:20

Yeah, I think the place that we have to start these days, the way it used to be, was we had a yellow pages, right, we had, we had one source of information, and that's why, if you look at a lot of older companies that are called triple A wrecking or triple A plumbing, or quadruple A electric, aaa, electric, is because they wanted to be at the top of the yellow pages, right?

Speaker 1: 22:35

Oh, I don't remember those days. I don't remember.

Speaker 2: 22:38

I can't see this gray. No, no, we don't know anything about Gen Xers, but that's the way that you were able to reach people. There was only one source of information, and now we are in the information age. Everyone has access to information, everyone can look up the guide or a how-to or this or that, and we are inundated with information. We have so much to sort through, and so the very first place we start with businesses, whether they're brand new or 30 years old, is what are we saying? What is the message that we are trying to get out to our customers? And so many businesses are wrapped up in their own story, like they're very proud of the fact that grandpa started that business back in 1912 with two pieces of bubble gum and a rubber band. Nobody cares. Like we have. Nobody cares. We've already lost interest. Are you solving my problem? I have a leaky sink or I have water in my kitchen floor and my in-laws are coming over tonight. I need that fixed right.

Speaker 2: 23:37

So, as we're hearing, you know, 8,000 advertising messages per day. It doesn't matter how much search engine optimization you do, it doesn't matter what your Google ads budget is, if you're not saying the right words to a customer to bring them into the story where they become a hero for doing business with you, then all of your advertising is going to fall on deaf ears. Well, that's the very first place we get. That's branding, your brand messaging. What are we saying?

Speaker 2: 24:06

I highly recommend a book by a man named Donald Miller. He wrote a book called Building a Story Brand. He also wrote a book called Business Made Simple. Those two books are like an MBA in business and in advertising. Fabulous framework for messaging and bringing people into a story. So there's a very strategic way that we can design a website and design that language that will help to bring people into that story. And then the next thing that we hear is like oh, I get all my business from word of mouth. Okay, well, do you think someone wants to buy your word of mouth? They don't. They need lead flow. So I think anyone who says they do all of their business through word of mouth has just never experienced the joy of getting business through the internet and getting the getting the business through search Right. And so making sure that you're taking that message and translating it online in a very clear way in order to bring that customer in and attract them is very paramount. So that means having a website at all.

Speaker 1: 25:10

You know, I'm sorry to tell you, but like sir.

Speaker 2: 25:13

People aren't going to the yellow pages anymore, they're going to the internet. They're searching for you and if you're not there in a compelling way that's answering the questions that they're asking Google or their social media accounts, then you're not going to show up for them.

Speaker 1: 25:27

Yeah, so you look at websites. There's still businesses that do not have a website them. Yeah, so you look at websites. There's still businesses that do not have a website. We all know that and then there's also the impression of a website. So if I go to a website and it looks like 1970, I'm not going to use them, because then that tells me their solutions are probably from the seventies as well. So it really is all about branding.

Speaker 2: 25:49

I don't care if my own mother gives me or my best friend gives me a referral for a business. The very first thing I do is go Google them up. Where do they show up? What does their website look like? Do they have a social media account? Is there a recent post on their social media account? There's not. Maybe they're out of business? And I click back because my attention span is two seconds long.

Speaker 2: 26:08

Right, like I don't have time to go and you know research and make sure and do all this. They're just going to go check you out online. They're going to look at your reviews. I can't remember the statistic and my husband will always tell you I'm the worst with numbers. I just throw out any number that comes to mind. But a vast majority of people make split second decisions on whether or not they're going to do business by just the way that your website looks. Yeah, just like you said, if your website looks old. If you don't have one, I'm going to assume you're living in the dark ages and you don't know the newest, latest, greatest, even if it comes to an industry like HVAC or plumbing or electric or something like that. They have to know that you're up to date and that you're there to serve, and you're still there and you're relevant and timely, yeah and you're relevant and timely.

Speaker 1: 26:49

Yeah, and we're here to help people. So I don't like to get on rants, but I do like to expand when someone says something that I'm like oh, I hear this often. So one of the things that I hear often and I'm sorry for you businesses that are family owned but, like Amy said, if I'm looking for a plumber at two o'clock in the morning, family owned doesn't help me right now. Who helps me at two o'clock in the morning? Who can be here 24 seven?

Speaker 2: 27:17

So that's one of the things there's absolutely a place for your story and people care about that story, but you have to hook them first. You have to have the opportunity to get in front of them, and the fact that you and your brother own this business like that's great. But first I need to know where you are, what you do and how you do it before I care about the fact that your business owned or that your veteran owned, or that your female owned. I do care about those things, but it's not the thing that's going to lead me to you.

Speaker 1: 27:46

Absolutely. And the second thing that I see a lot when I work with businesses is when we go to their website to check them out, see if they're legit, see if they're going to fit our needs. Oftentimes, depending on what the product or services people are searching for, they're going to go check you out on social media too. Maybe don't align with your mission statement and everything else that you're saying, and you know you're a complete opposite over here. I'm not saying they won't do business with you, but they're going to. There's going to be a question mark, right, I mean yeah, absolutely.

Speaker 1: 28:20

Are you just talking the talk or do you walk the talk also?

Speaker 2: 28:31

That's right. Being in the information age, people are going to find you, they can tell who the business owner is and you have to make a choice. Basically, with your personal social medias, I mean, having a page for the business is great, but if they find their way to your personal channels, you have to be the same person everywhere you are. You can't be one thing. Yeah, you're absolutely right.

Speaker 1: 28:48

Well, let's talk about the pieces of digital marketing. What should some? Because we talked about this earlier, so I want to expand on that. Not on the show, but when, before we started recording, what are some of those essentials that people need to have?

Speaker 2: 29:02

A website first of all, and I think you know a lot of times the things that get us started aren't the things that are going to help us continue to grow. So the things that get us started aren't the things that are going to help us continue to grow. So having a website that you own is really important. So we build on WordPress websites. There are a lot of people that get out there on like a Wix or a Weebly drag and drop builder, which is great and it's affordable and it can help get you started, but truly, when it comes to marketing, the two things that you own are your website, if you own it. If you have your website on Wix or Weebly or something like that, you don't own it. I hate to tell you that. You need to have a website that you own the files of, and that's how WordPress happens. That's how you do. That is through a platform like WordPress and your email list. You said you've had some guests recently talking about email, but having that list of people that you communicate with constantly, those two things are the things that you own.

Speaker 2: 29:52

One of the things that a lot of business owners completely ignore that's a free resource to them is their Google business profile. I mean, utilize that thing to the maximum, fill it out, have the right category on there, get reviews, respond to your reviews. There are ways. Category on there, get reviews, respond to your reviews. There are ways you know and that's a completely free resource that that people massively underuse. Another thing I'll say is social media, like social media profiles. A big mistake I see a lot of businesses have is they go out and they, they, they. They pop up an Instagram or a Twitter page, now X, and they never, ever post to it. Okay, well, only have the social media platforms that you're going to use, because you you may have an attorney or someone who's looking and maybe their platform of choice is X. If you have an X profile but you haven't posted to it in three years and that's the first place that that person goes to and they see no posts, they might just back out and think you're out of business. So, if you're going to have the social media handle, be posting to it. If you're not going to post to it, get rid of it. It's not. You don't have to be on every single platform on every. There are more people on any one social media platform that you could ever hope to do business with anyway. So pick the one you're familiar with and you're comfortable with and go all in on that.

Speaker 2: 31:14

As business owners, we want someone to come to our website and marry us. We want you to land on our website. We want you to click that click to call button. Hopefully you have a click to call button. Make your buttons click to call. Please make your buttons click to call. But they want you to fill out that form. They want you to make that phone call.

Speaker 2: 31:32

Well, maybe people are like whoa, whoa, whoa. Can we get a cup of coffee first, please? Like, can we date a little bit? Can I get to know you? You know if it's not a flood in your bathroom at 3 am and maybe you're looking for something else. That's maybe a longer term solution. People want to be able to consume some of your information and kind of date you for a little bit.

Speaker 2: 31:54

So something that most business owners don't have on their website is something we refer to as a lead generator. That's that freebie that you want to give them. So, in the instance of a plumber, instead of asking that person to book that appointment or make a phone call to your office, why don't you put on your website a free guide on how to snake a micro machine or what is it now? A hot wheel or a Barbie head out of the toilet? Right?

Speaker 2: 32:16

Because moms like me believe it or not, it's not the man of the house who's gone back and forth to home Depot 17 times to try and fix the toilet.

Speaker 2: 32:24

It's the wife who finally gets fed up and says I'm calling the plumber, right, but maybe she goes to the plumber's website and she's like, hey, here's something of value.

Speaker 2: 32:32

I might actually be able to do it myself.

Speaker 2: 32:34

Well, she doesn't wanna do it herself, but she's gonna take that free resource, she's gonna give you her name, she's gonna give you her email address, she's gonna download your resource and, hey, maybe she's able to fix her toilet on her own.

Speaker 2: 32:44

Guess what that makes you a hero to her and makes her a hero in her family. That gives you the opportunity to take her information, put it in your CRM or your system, whatever you're using, hubspot or one of these other systems that gives you the opportunity to then communicate with her once a week, once every other week, over overcoming the objections that she might have to doing business with the plumber that she doesn't know. Maybe you let her know that all of your staff wears shirts that are extra long and tucked in so there's no butt crack in her house, or you're overcoming all of these objections on why she wouldn't hire a plumber and why she should hire you. Getting them into your system, onto your email list, is way more valuable in the long-term, in the lifetime value of that client than expecting her to come to your website and click to call to make that appointment.

Speaker 1: 33:34

Absolutely and just in the short amount of time. We've talked about email lists, social media and website and mindset Unbelievable. But there's one more area that could take our lifetime to explain. But one of the biggest scams that I see most business owners getting themselves into is SEO contracts. So somebody comes to them and can you explain from the digital side what they should be looking for before they sign that contract? Because most of those talk in languages that I don't even understand. It's usually acronyms they've made up themselves.

Speaker 2: 34:12

Well, I'll tell you, seo is a long-term play. It's not for everybody at every time, right? It's like that blue chip stock that you pay into over time and eventually it works and it takes over and it's exceptionally valuable to have that organic traffic coming to your website. But what most people fall into the trap of is working with a company that they don't know, that they're not sure what's going to happen, and that's not staying on top of what's happening in SEO. Most companies are going to have a contract, because SEO does take time. It takes six, eight, 12 months sometimes to really grab a hold and be giving value and bringing leads to the website. It goes in stages, right? So the first stage of SEO is just getting your website to show up in a search result. Like, if you're a plumber plumber near me like you can't expect to get someone to click on your website if you're not even showing up in a search result. You're not going to show up on page one. So first we have to do that. Then we have to get a certain amount of traffic clicking on that result Three to 5% of the people that see it. We want them to click on that result. Once we get a certain amount of people clicking on that result. Then we move into the acquisition stage of actually getting leads from that.

Speaker 2: 35:28

So many many SEO companies. One of the questions that I advise people to ask a marketer that they're talking to use the word white label Do you white label your services? I won't say a majority. Many companies are a talking head like myself selling you SEO right. I take your money and then I offload that work to someone overseas that I don't know. I don't know their system, I don't know their process, I don't know if they're keeping up with research, I don't know and then I take the work that they're doing and then I deliver it back to you and it's this back and forth thing.

Speaker 2: 36:04

So having a company that you know that you trust is doing the work for you is really important. So, like, for example, with us, we have a hundred person team and everybody on our separate teams are experts in what they do. Our SEO experts. That's all they do. They research constantly about what's changing the algorithm updates, what's happening with Google. They're constantly assessing what's happening in that landscape and then, as we're delivering those things, we're constantly A-B testing what's working, because what works one month might not work the next month. Sometimes press releases are working. Sometimes it's a different kind of backlink that's working. Sometimes it's this you know, having someone that you know that's really in a conversation with you during that contract is of the utmost importance. You don't want your SEO company to just be a set it and forget it. You're gonna pay us every single month and never know what's happening.

Speaker 2: 36:58

We require our clients to have a monthly meeting with us so that we can get feedback from them. What are you seeing? Let us show you the leads that are coming in. What content are we writing about this month? What's the search volume for this content? Are they writing content that no one's even searching for? That's not valuable.

Speaker 2: 37:16

And really having the SEO answer those top of funnel questions they're gonna bring people down into actually doing business with you is not something that every SEO company is geared toward. So I can't say that I think SEO is a scam. I don't think the SEO contracts are a scam, because I am an SEO that does contracts. But making sure that you're with the right person, that's actually delivering your content and your services to you in an intentional way, versus just putting it off to someone that doesn't know you. That isn't from where you live, isn't from your area, doesn't know your market. Early on, we had a company. It was an excavator in the Oklahoma City area, in the rural area of Oklahoma, but the SEO company they were working with was writing all of these articles about excavation and all of this. Well, guess what Okies search Dirt work. Was there a single article on there talking about dirt work? No, and so having someone that understands you and your business and what you want leads for and what that content needs to say to your ideal client, is super important.

Speaker 1: 38:23

I will agree with all of that and it's not a scam. And I can feel the tension and the overwhelming anxiety from our listeners because they're probably thinking, wow, this is a mouthful of information. But I want to calm their nerves because if they call somebody like you, you do all that, they don't have to worry about it, right.

Speaker 2: 38:45

They don't know how in the world can a business owner expect to know what to write about on their blog, know what to know what to what kind of links to go obtain, how to how to speed up the backend of their website? It takes my team of a hundred being on top of that constantly. You know we're sending people to conferences where we're partners with Google and we're partners with Meta, so that we can have all of this data aggregated across, not only from those sources, but from our 600 clients nationwide, knowing each industry and each region in the United States and really being solidified in what's happening. It's difficult. No business owner should be expected to keep up with all of that and know all of that, just like you wouldn't. You wouldn't, hopefully, be doing your own taxes in your own books, like you need an expert to do that. It's okay. You're an expert plumber, you're an expert attorney, you're an expert doctor. You don't have to be an expert in everything in your business. Leave it to the pros.

Speaker 1: 39:44

Absolutely. And for those that say they can't afford it, the first thing I tell them is go sell If you can't afford it.

Speaker 1: 39:52

You need more sales so that you can pay someone that can do it right, because I assure you, if you're doing your own taxes, 99.9% of the time you're doing it wrong and you're wasting your time trying to figure out where to categorize things. And same with marketing. Anybody can host social media, but are you doing it effectively? Are you going to get results? And so there's a lot of back-end stuff like the WordPress and websites and stuff that professionals. They know it inside and out. They keep up with the trends. Google's always changing, especially with AI. Right now, they're trying to stay ahead of AI and get people results, so how can people get ahold of you?

Speaker 2: 40:32

amysingletonnet All of my links are there to everything. There's a form at the bottom they can book a 30-minute call. They go to amysingletonnet slash scan. They can fill out that form at the bottom and we will go and do a scan of where their Google business profile is ranking for the keywords that they want to rank for and we can deliver that back with them in an email. That will give them an idea of kind of where they stand online, especially in that local space.

Speaker 1: 41:00

That's fantastic. Well, I got one last question, because you have been a blessing to many today. But if you were in a room full of business owners different seasons of business, different ages, different industries what is something you could conversations, whether that be with your team, whether that be?

Speaker 2: 41:16

with your tax pro or with your client. Understanding what kind of conversation you're in and what's important to the person across from you or hopefully next to you, is so important. Learning how to communicate that's all sales is. It's really listening more than you speak. I think so many people get caught up in trying to do all these different sales tactics and we've got all these different hard sales and hard pitches and really all sales and businesses is communication with other human beings. Understand and recognize that you are just a human being, just like your client is a human being.

Speaker 2: 42:05

Probably one of the best pieces of advice I could give is understanding that not everybody is your client.

Speaker 2: 42:11

Not everybody is going to be a fit for you, and that's okay.

Speaker 2: 42:15

You should repel the people you don't want to work with so hard that they're never in your inbox, that they're never across from you on a Zoom meeting, because you will waste more time on people fighting to try and come to some kind of understanding when there's a whole host of people out there who are aligned with you and your values, who are aligned with what you have to offer, and it's okay to be in a sales meeting or on a sales call and say you know what we might get to the end of this call and we might not align at all, and that's okay.

Speaker 2: 42:47

We aren't always a fit for everybody and I think early on it's really hard to recognize that when you just need that next job, you just need that next paying client. But I promise you that they will be a bigger pain in your butt than you ever wanted to have. That whole 80-20 rule of the people paying you 20% require 80% of your time is absolutely true and you won't believe it until you get someone who's paying you like a hundred dollars a month. It's a big old pain in your butt but but it's the truth. Just know that you're not for everybody and that's okay.

Speaker 1: 43:20

Great advice. Again, you've been a blessing. I wish you continued success and we'll talk to you soon.

Speaker 2: 43:26

Thanks, Michael.

Speaker 1: 43:40

Thank you for listening to small business pivots. Please don't forget to subscribe and share this. Thanks, Michael. Schedule a free consultation to learn why small business success starts with Boss. If you want to talk anything small business related, email me at michael at michaeldmorrisoncom. We'll see you next time on Small Business Pivots.