Monthly Archives: April 2022

Weekend Favs April 30

Weekend Favs April 30 written by John Jantsch read more at Duct Tape Marketing

My weekend blog post routine includes posting links to a handful of tools or great content I ran across during the week.

I don’t go into depth about the finds, but encourage you to check them out if they sound interesting. The photo in the post is a favorite for the week from an online source or one that I took out there on the road.

  • Aircam – is a real-time, AI-powered platform that provides professional business photos for multi-location businesses at an affordable price.
  • Ludwig.guru – is a linguistic search engine that helps you find the perfect word or sentence to express your ideas. Essentially, it helps you write better English in an easy and smart way.
  • Wizenguides – Essential strategy guides for the busy startup founder. These online guides were built to help entrepreneurs avoid common mistakes and take guessing out of their work. 

These are my weekend favs, I would love to hear about some of yours – Tweet me @ducttape

3 Steps For Creating The Perfect Recruitment Strategy

3 Steps For Creating The Perfect Recruitment Strategy written by John Jantsch read more at Duct Tape Marketing

Marketing Podcast with John Jantsch

john-jantschIn this episode of the Duct Tape Marketing Podcast, I’m doing a solo show where I’m covering a topic that is very high on a lot of business owners’ minds and that’s the idea of recruitment and retention of your internal customers — your employees.

Key Takeaway:

Recruitment and retention are big topics in the minds of business owners today. And I think these problems can be solved with a marketing solution. How people choose to become customers has changed, and we need to be thinking about acquiring employees and customers in a much different way than the funnel approach. In this episode, I talk about how we need to start rethinking the employee recruitment journey and the steps to take to create the perfect recruitment strategy.

Topics I discuss:

  • [0:53] Why recruitment and retention is a big topic on the minds of business owners today
  • [1:29] Why I think it can be solved with a marketing solution
  • [2:01] We just launched a unique, new marketing assessment
  • [2:54] Growth comes from being important in the lives of your customers and your employees during tough times
  • [3:49] Why we need to be thinking about acquiring employees and customers in a much different way than the vending machine or the funnel approach
  • [6:38] Three steps for creating the perfect recruitment strategy
  • [8:00] The four questions to ask your employee
  • [11:52] Thinking about recruitment as an end to end customer journey
  • [12:09] How people choose to become customers and employees has changed
  • [12:36] Thinking about the marketing hourglass as we apply it to the employee journey
  • [13:48] Branding your organization as a great place to work is a killer marketing message
  • [16:01] Keeping your employees is a far better way to grow, not just your team, but your organization
  • [17:11] People don’t change jobs they changed the bosses

Resources I mentioned:

More About Duct Tape Marketing Consultant Network:

Like this show? Click on over and give us a review on iTunes, please!

John Jantsch (00:00): This episode of the duct tape marketing podcast is brought to you by the salesman podcast, hosted by will Barron and brought to you by the HubSpot podcast network. Look, if you work in sales, wanna learn how to sell, and frankly who doesn’t check out the salesman podcast, where host will Barron helps sales professionals learn how to find buyers and win big business ineffective and ethical ways. And if you wanna start someplace, I recommend the four step process to influencing buying decisions. Listen to the salesman podcast, wherever you get your podcast.

John Jantsch (00:44): Hello, and welcome to another episode of the duct tape marketing podcast. This is John Jantsch, and I’m gonna do a solo show today. It’s actually been a while, but I wanna cover a topic that is very high on a lot of business owners’ minds. And that’s the idea of retention of internal team members, internal customers, whatever you wanna call them, employees, staff, team members. This has been a really hot topic of the last year, and I think it’s not going away. There’s a lot of pressure for a lot of reasons on this. So I wanna talk about it as the subject that it is, obviously it turns into production issue or fulfillment or capacity issue for a lot of organizations, but it’s really a marketing problem, or at least can be solved I think, with a marketing solution. So that’s what I’m going to present.

John Jantsch (01:34): Hey, I also wanted to let you know that I have been working very hard on a unique marketing strategy assessment. A lot of people have these, uh, marketing assessments out there that that really are just measuring your tactic approach. What you’re using, what you’re doing. I’ve created something that really is heart and soul to the idea of strategy before tactics marketing as a system. And I’d love for you to check it out. Uh, the URL is marketingassessment.co. So it’s marketing assessment.co go on over there and, uh, check it out to go through. It takes about, I don’t know, five minutes to answer the 20 questions and, and the report that you get at the end of it, frankly, is, is enough gold to, to have you actually, uh, improve or find area of for improvement in your, in your marketing strategy. So, uh, check it out, marketing assessment dot C.

John Jantsch (02:29): All right. So let’s talk today about rethinking the recruitment journey. You know, one of the things that I think that certainly I’ve said this many times to anyone that will listen, one of the things that I think the pandemic and, and a great deal of what went on with the, the, the chaos of the last couple years is that, you know, a lot of businesses do pretty well in good times just by being in the right place at the right time. A lot of businesses during the pandemic learn that, but boy, in tough times, growth comes from being important in the lives of your customers and your employees. And it’s a constant, uh, battle. It’s constant shifting there’s the leverage changes, you know, so to today we work with a lot of folks that are saying, Hey, I don’t need more customers. I need more people.

John Jantsch (03:12): So the leverages in many cases is, has gone squarely to the employee. And I think that changing dynamic, I think does have a tendency to allow people or, or to get people in the habit of thinking, oh, this is just a vending machine approach, need more customers, put some money in run, some ads, run a funnel and create more customers, oh, need more employees just go run. Some ads, go to the job boards, put in some and voila pops up some new employees. And I, I wanna share, I’m gonna rifle through. ’em pretty quickly a few statistics that should shed some light on how we have to be thinking about this in a much different way than the vending machine or the funnel approach. Apparently less than 15% of the, of every job that’s advertised on those job boards, you know, monster indeed, et cetera, gets filled by candidates who actually apply through the job board.

John Jantsch (04:07): So we’re spending a whole bunch of money there, and it’s not really producing the results. 50% of candidates say they wouldn’t work for a company with a bad reputation, even for a pay increase S true of customers coming to us. Why wouldn’t it be true? Of course of employees as well, 79% of candidates use social media in their job search. We have to be where they are. That’s, that’s true. Again for customers as certainly as much as it is for staff. 92% of consumers will visit a brand’s website a first time for reasons other than making a purchase, guess who is visiting your website for reasons other than making a purchase people you might hire, or you might wanna hire 71% of employees say that they would accept a pay cut for a better working experience. A flip side of that is I know I’ve paid more or a product or a service when I got, or was expecting to get a better experience.

John Jantsch (05:05): I think it’s just the flip side of that exact same thing. 89% of employers think employees leave for more money. That’s why everybody defaults to more money. That’s why everybody defaults to lowering their prices when, uh, they’re trying to attract new customers. It, again, it’s the flip side of the exact same thing, but according to a very large gala poll, only 12% of employees actually leave for money. And I think the thing that, the point that I’m really trying to drive home here, in fact, if you’re really in a hurry, just take note of this idea and, and you’ll have the essence of where I’m gonna go with this, uh, today. People really aren’t candidates or consumers. They’re both, there’s no distinction. I mean, people are just people. So the vending machine approach of let’s put money in and get more customers, put money in, get more employees, lower prices, you know, advertise bonuses, you know, for getting employees.

John Jantsch (06:05): I mean that, that approach will draw some people, I suppose to you, but you know, people who come to you for a price increase or price decrease, or employees that come to you because they get a dollar, two more, an hour are gonna leave for the exact same reason. So when I talk about the customer journey and the employee journey, or how somebody, uh, comes to, to join an organization, it, it it’s really in a lot of ways, it’s not even a marketing issue. It, it is a strategy issue that I think can be solved with of the marketing approach. So here’s the three steps for creating the perfect recruitment strategy. First one is to know who you’re trying to recruit. And I know everybody says that, but what people forget to say is that you probably already have some ideal employees in your organization.

John Jantsch (06:51): Just like I talk about narrowing your focus to the top 20% of your customers, look at your team. You can do the same thing. What is it about your highest performing, uh, folks, the people that thrive in your organization? What is it about them that you need to understand? What behavior, what characteristics, what objectives, what problem can you promise to solve as an organization? That’s always been true from a, an attraction standpoint for a, a differentiator for your customers is going to be true, certainly for employees. So how can you create an end to end customer journey? Think in terms of employee recruitment pipeline, it’s something that doesn’t, it isn’t meant to be an event. Oh, I have a position to fill. We need to do X that’s. What gets people in, in the mindset of, oh, I have to offer more money. That’s the only way to get more people or I have to spend more money on the job boards.

John Jantsch (07:45): That’s the only way to get more people. It has to be something that becomes part of the DNA of, of all of your marketing. So look to your current employees and I’m gonna give you four questions and you might come back to this, uh, part of the recording. I’m gonna give you four questions. If you need to write these down to, to try to either think about, or even even ask your employees sometimes asking is tough because it’s the boss ask asking. And it’s like, is my answer really gonna ? Is it gonna be used for good or bad? But here, your question to ponder, what does their current work life situation look like? You’ll find that they probably have certain goals or in a certain point in their life that they, you know, have certain values. Now that doesn’t, I, this is not an appeal to say everybody in your organization needs to think and look alike.

John Jantsch (08:35): It’s just that there are gonna be certain situations that I think might be keys or might be signals to, you know, what you’re looking for, or, or at least what you start promoting. If you find that many, uh, folks in your organization enjoy a certain type of work or a certain type of environment, they Excel in, then you wanna start talking about that. That that’s what we do here. All right. Second question. What do they enjoy? What frustrates them in what work environment do they Excel? Number three, and number four, what factors were involved in them making a decision to come to your organization? If you could start to understand doesn’t mean you have to have all the answers, but if you can start to at least think about the answers to those questions, you’re gonna have a better idea of the message you need to take out there to the world and start talking about why your place is a great place to work.

John Jantsch (09:25): And speaking of that, one of the greatest marketing messages, this is to attract customers is to talk about your people is talk about how exceptional your place is to be an employee. In fact, we’ve actually moved many of the marketing messages to be, you know, for example, a remodeling contractor, our people make your remodeling experience exceptional. That is a very positive, attractive message for the people that want to remodel their kitchen, because maybe they’ve were worked with not such so exceptional people, but it’s also a great message for the potential employee. You’re leading, talking about the fact that your people are exceptional. Hey, I wanna work there now. Also, don’t forget. As I reminded you many times, don’t forget about Google reviews. If you’re getting some amount of Google reviews, pour over those word for word first off, what you’re probably going to see is that if your people are truly exceptional, your customers are going to be noting that they’re going to be actually naming them by name.

John Jantsch (10:29): In fact, they might not even name your company, but they might name somebody who works at your company. So start understanding what they about your people, about the experience that they’re having. Those are some real cues to what maybe you ought to be saying. The promise that you ought to start making, uh, to, to demonstrate that you can deliver a better experience. You know, customers don’t actually change comp I mean companies, I mean, I don’t think we want to jump around and say, well, that didn’t work outs, or maybe it did work out, but I’m gonna go look for a new one. Uh, I think we want to stay with companies. And so we don’t really leave them. We leave the experience that we’re having with them. And now let’s hear from our sponsor. Look, if you’re tired of slowing down your teams with clunky software processes and marketing that is difficult to scale, HubSpot is here to help you and, and your business grow better with collaboration tools and built in SEO optimizations.

John Jantsch (11:23): A HubSpot CRM platform is tailor made to help you scale your marketing with ease, integrated calendars, tasks, and commenting, help hybrid teams stay connected while automated SEO recommendations, intuitively optimize your webpage content for increased organic traffic ditch, the difficult and dial up your marketing with tools that are easy to use and easy to scale learn how your business can grow better @ hubspot.com.

John Jantsch (11:52): are the third component of this strategy idea is that is, is to think about this end to end journey. You know, a lot of handing these days about all the things that have changed in, in, in marketing and in business. But, you know, I think the thing that doesn’t get talked about enough, the thing that’s changed the most is how P people choose to become customers and employees. They have so many options today and how they decide on the company that they’re going to, to hire is, is all about the research that they do.

John Jantsch (12:24): And they go out there and, and in a lot of ways are making a decision, you know, before we even know that they’re looking at our organization and this, this is certainly true of some be coming to be hired as, as an employee. So we have to think about the marketing hourglass as we apply it to the employee journey. And so, uh, as a reminder, I know I talk about this all the time, but the marketing hourglass for us is, has seven stages. They are no like trust, try by repeat and refer. And so what I’m asking you to consider is what is, what are you doing to intentionally guide somebody to come to know about you and, and start to think, Hey, this is a place I might wanna work, but then as they start to dig in, you know, what message are they seeing as in terms of a story, are, are they connecting with your values?

John Jantsch (13:10): Who do they meet first? Is it easy to find out more information? If for me, how often people will have a, Hey, come, you know, we’re hiring and then you click on a button. And before you ever find anything out about the company, you have a, a five and a half page application to fill out. That’s like going from, Hey, you know about us now, I wanna buy you wanna buy and, you know, skipping the steps of trust, building that, that really make you, you, the obvious choice, obviously reviews, employee stories, your values and actions mentions in the media. Those are all things that are part of the employee journey today. And in fact, as I started to say, I think the, the beauty of this idea of branding your organization is a great place to work is it’s a killer marketing message. I mean, how could that possibly be a, for anybody who wants to hire you or, or buy your products and services?

John Jantsch (13:59): So promoting, uh, part of your content strategy ought to be in fact, a huge part of your content strategy ought to be, to promote things that your employees, your team members are doing, how they’re advancing, the fun that you’re having at your organization. I mean, these are things that go in many cases in the early part of the journey, they go a lot farther than the benefits that I’m gonna actually receive, because I think people, uh, more and more are, are leaving organizations maybe even for pay cuts or, or certainly not staying at organizations because the 401k is the bonus is great. If the environment is not great, if the experience of being an employee there is not great, then none of that really matters. So then if we slip over to the try and buy and, and obviously substitute higher for buy, if you like, , it’s not a real stretch in my mind.

John Jantsch (14:53): So the try process, what, what is that application process look like? The phone screening, you have so many, and again, what happens is a lot of organizations don’t have an HR department, don’t have a professional who’s charged with the hiring experience. It’s the manager or the VP of something that actually has another job, and this is just something they are doing. And so the follow up and the experience, and, you know, once they come on board, the onboarding, the who, who their manager is, you know, how they interact with current employees. I mean, all of that, their training plan that’s laid up. The statistics are pretty crazy about when people leave organizations within the first night days. It’s because there was, there was no onboarding. It’s true of customers. You know, you’ve heard me talk about Joey. Coleman’s great book, how to keep, I can’t remember now the title, but how to keep an employee no, how to keep a customer for life.

John Jantsch (15:43): Although he is actually working on the employee one too, he tells me, but the idea behind it is make the first 90 to a hundred days an amazing experie. And you will not have the turnover that many organizations, uh, experience today. And speaking of that, you know, just like keeping customers is, is a far better way to grow a business. Keeping your employees is a far better way to grow, not just your team, but your organization. You know, the number one, uh, reason people are citing now for leaving organizations is a lack of respect, a, of a growth path or any kind of personal development. I mean, pay and benefits certainly shows up on the list, but it’s way down from things like respect and, and personal development. And then finally refer, I work with a lot of organizations that have happy, happy employees and happy customers.

John Jantsch (16:30): And, and we always scratch our heads say, well, why aren’t they referring us? And most of the time, it just comes down to the process. The, you know, it’s almost with, with employees, a lot of organizations almost treat it like, uh, you know, an expectation, a part of the job, you know, they offer a bonus. So it just becomes part of the pay. But the biggest reason people don’t make recommendations or referrals, both as customers. And it lawyers is they don’t understand or worse don’t trust the process. Maybe the hiring process for them was kind of wonky. Hey, they like being there now. but the, uh, the process itself was a little bit stressful. Do they wanna put their friend or, or neighbor, you know, through that kind of thing. And last thing about retention people don’t change jobs. I mean, they change about, so the, again, a lot of it has to do with the experience that they’re having, you know, maybe with the person they’re directly reporting to, and not necessarily with the organization, I’ve been running recruiting ads, a skilled labor positions for a number of years, and we test different headlines in different approaches.

John Jantsch (17:32): And the number one recruiting a for the past two years simply just says, respect with a question, mark, you know, do you feel like a respected member, uh, of a team in your current, uh, position? And it beats everything else. We try, you know, time and time again, because that is the, that is what’s missing for a lot of people in the, uh, positions. And I don’t care what type of job it is. I think that’s, uh, the piece that’s really missing. So think in terms of this idea of the marketing hourglass and, and applying that journey to the recruiting process, intentionally helping move people through the stages of no, like trust, try higher retained and refer. All right, that’s it for me today. Um, again, I wanted to remind you to check out the new assessment that, uh, I built it is a marketing strategy assessment.

John Jantsch (18:24): You can find it @ marketingassessment.co – not.com – marketingassessment.co. All right. Take care.

John Jantsch (18:32): All right. So that wraps up another episode. I wanna thank you so much for tuning in and, you know, we love those reviews and comments. And just generally tell me what you think also did you know that you could offer the duct tape marketing system, our system to your clients, and build a complete marketing consulting coaching business, or maybe level up an agency with some additional services. That’s right. Check out the duct tape marketing consultant network. You can find it at ducttapemarketing.com and just scroll down a little and find that offer our system to your clients tab.

This episode of the Duct Tape Marketing Podcast is brought to you by the HubSpot Podcast Network.

HubSpot Podcast Network is the audio destination for business professionals who seek the best education and inspiration on how to grow a business.

 

 

3 KPI’s Guaranteed To Double Your Website Revenue

3 KPI’s Guaranteed To Double Your Website Revenue written by Sara Nay read more at Duct Tape Marketing

About the show:

The Agency Spark Podcast, hosted by Sara Nay, is a collection of short-form interviews from thought leaders in the marketing consultancy and agency space. Each episode focuses on a single topic with actionable insights you can apply today. Check out the new Spark Lab Consulting website here!

About this episode:

In this episode of the Agency Spark Podcast, Sara talks with Michael Buzinski on 3 KPI’s guaranteed to double your website revenue.

Michael Buzinski, President & CMO of Buzzworthy Integrated Marketing, is a lifelong entrepreneur, digital marketing thought leader, and best-selling author. Dubbed a “visionary marketer” by the American Marketing Association, Michael’s sole mission is to help entrepreneurs avoid the time drain and frustration of managing profitable digital marketing campaigns. Buzz, as most call him, has simplified digital marketing success with the Rule of 26 and is on a mission to double the website revenue of service-centric businesses across America.

More from Michael Buzinski:

 

 

This episode of the Agency Spark Podcast is brought to you by Monday.com, a powerful project management platform. Monday.com helps teams easily build, run, and scale their dream workflows on one platform.  I personally am a user and big fan of Monday.com – I start my workday pulling up the platform and spend my day working within it for everything from task management to running client engagements. Learn more about Monday.com at ducttape.me/monday

Fueling Your Growth With Facebook Groups And Communities

Fueling Your Growth With Facebook Groups And Communities written by John Jantsch read more at Duct Tape Marketing

Marketing Podcast with John Cantarella

In this episode of the Duct Tape Marketing Podcast, I interview John Cantarella. John is the VP of Community & Impact Partnerships at Facebook. Prior to joining Facebook, he was the president of Digital, News, Business, and Sports Properties at Time Inc. where he oversaw TIME.com, CNNMoney.com, Fortune.com, SI.com, and Golf.com. John also spent several years at The New York Times Company at NYTimes.com running strategy, marketing, and operations.  He was part of the management team that was instrumental in launching NYTimes.com’s first digital paid product and the acquisition of About.com.

Key Takeaway:

Building a community creates a space to engage with clients, advise potential clients, and help people who want support, encouragement, and a place to share and connect. If you’re a brand, business, coach, consultant, course creator, author, expert, or speaker, cultivating a community of raving fans will get you results and impact your bottom line.

In this episode, I talk with the VP of Community & Impact Partnerships at Facebook, John Cantarella, about how to leverage Facebook for businesses of all kinds to build groups, communities, and raving fans to fuel your growth.

Questions I ask John Cantarella:

  • [2:19] How has the business use of Facebook evolved from those early days to where we are today?
  • [4:15] How complex has Facebook become since the early days?
  • [5:40] Why do you think Facebook has such a hold on businesses for creating groups and communities when there are other tools where you can do the same kind of thing?
  • [7:58] What are some other places along the customer journey that you think groups or communities fit that maybe people aren’t thinking of?
  • [12:31] What are the best practices to really stimulate, grow and keep a very engaged community?
  • [14:55] Say I build this 80,000-person community with great tools and a great community, but I don’t really own it, and it’s on somebody else’s platform — how do you address that?
  • [16:44] I have a lot of listeners who own traditional local businesses, so they have real geographic constraints just by nature of the model of their business. Are there ways that you’ve seen local businesses use this in a way that might effectively drive revenue?
  • [19:23] What’s next for businesses on Facebook?
  • [22:24] Retention and recruitment have become really hot right now for a lot of organizations – what role can community play?
  • [24:13] What resources do you want to share with listeners?

More About John Cantarella:

More About Duct Tape Marketing Consultant Network:

Like this show? Click on over and give us a review on iTunes, please!

John Jantsch (00:00): This episode of the duct tape marketing podcast is brought to you by the salesman podcast, hosted by will Barron and brought to you by the HubSpot podcast network. Look, if you work in sales, wanna learn how to sell, and frankly who doesn’t check out the salesman podcast, where host will Barron helps sales professionals learn how to find buyers and win big business ineffective and ethical ways. And if you wanna start someplace, I recommend the four step process to influencing buying decisions. Listen to the salesman podcast, wherever you get your podcast.

John Jantsch (00:44): Hello, and welcome to another episode of the duct tape marketing podcast. This is John Jantsch. My guest today is John Cantarella. He’s a VP of community and impact partnerships at Facebook prior to joining Facebook, he was the president of digital of the news business and sports properties at time, Inc, where we are versa saw time.com, CNN money.com, fortune.com, si.com and golf.com. He also spent a number of years at the New York times company at NYT, I guess it’s NY times dot com, running strategy, marketing, and operations. He was a part of the management team instrumental in launching NY times dot coms, first paid product and the acquisition of about.com. So John, welcome to the show,

John Cantarella (01:30): John, thanks so much for having me just hearing that a while it goes back a bunch of years too, but I really appreciate you having me, uh, on, on your podcast.

John Jantsch (01:38): You, you bet about.com is really a blast from the past. You actually, of course, people are listening to this. You don’t look old enough for, to have, uh, been involved in that they, the about.com. There was a, a guide. I think that’s what they called them in my community. That was, you know, interviewed me a number of times. So about, this was like around 2000 ish, I think, or something like that. But

John Cantarella (02:00): You probably remember it was called the mining company before it was about.com and it was kind of an early community platform, you know, with those guys who are really building it.

John Jantsch (02:08): Yeah. Very early on. And it it’s kind of been absorbed into something else now hasn’t it?

John Cantarella (02:13): It has, I think the New York times ended up selling it to, to Barry DI’s company interactive core, I think.

John Jantsch (02:20): Yeah. Yeah. All right. So let’s go. Not quite that far back, uh, but let’s start at about 2008, which was probably the date that Facebook really became a business tool or started the journey becoming a business tools. So could you give us a quick, in your view, you know, how business use of Facebook has evolved kind of from those early days to where we are today?

John Cantarella (02:43): Yeah, I know it’s a really interesting question. You know, what I, I wasn’t around in 2008, but you know, early days, I mean, you know, Facebook was really an effective, you know, marketing platform, particularly in the early days, really focused much more on, you know, customer acquisition, which is still obviously a large part yeah. Of our business, but because it was one of the early platforms to allow, you know, self-serve, it really built, you know, a huge ecosystem of small businesses. Yeah. And, and, and, and it helps scale the platform really quickly. I think, you know, this company has gone through so many transformation. I mean, you think back in 2008, you think about early advertising and banner ads. And, you know, I could remember, I remember all the different formats, but, you know, in those days, Facebook really pioneered, you know, and didn’t use traditional ad formats like the, you know, 300 by two 50 and, and really started, you know, you know, running ads and feed, and then obvious, you know, mobile happened, the company transformed and pivoted very quickly towards mobile. And I think you’ve seen that we’ve innovated on, on formats over the years from, you know, feed ads to ads in stories. And, you know, and now you’re starting to see, you know, ads and things like reals. I, I think that the thing that’s, you know, what we hear a overall is that I think about it in terms of economic opportunity. When I think about the millions of small businesses that use Facebook and, you know, it’s an incredible platform to drive people, to, you know, take action for your business.

John Jantsch (04:15): So going back to my early use and it, I mean, it was such a great place in the early days to get exposure for your content, because again, the way the feed was first off, it wasn’t as, as busy, but also the way the feed was as you, anybody who followed you saw your stuff. And, and obviously as it became so many more users and so many more, so much more functionality, you know, adding Instagram now and, and other purchases it’s really in a lot of ways is it’s become much more complex. Hasn’t it?

John Cantarella (04:44): I think it is complex from a, from a, you know, you have to be somewhat skilled in knowing how to reach an audience. And I think that’s why we have a large ecosystem of partners that, that help you. But, you know, if you’re a small business, you know, you can’t necessarily hire a third party. I think where they’ve innovated really well is, you know, to your earlier point, you know, obviously we have Facebook, we have Instagram, there’s WhatsApp, and, you know, you know, within, within quest, you know, you can run an ad and there’s so many tools in business manager that allow you to place an ad that it’ll optimize for you. It up, you know, you can put some basic things in there and the, and that system will take care of the rest for you, like continually optimize the audience across platforms. So really trying to simplify it that said, you know, if you’re a sophisticated organization, you know, you could really be very specific in who you’re trying to target.

John Jantsch (05:40): So a lot of small business owners certainly use the ad, you know, functionality and dependent upon types of businesses have done really well. I’ve also seen, uh, a lot of small businesses in a non-paid environment, the groups that, you know, creating communities for various reasons. So

John Jantsch (05:56): Why do you think, I mean, there are a lot of tools now that you can create groups and communities. I mean, HEC slack, you know, this is one that a lot of people will attempt to do that. Why do you feel like Facebook, uh, has such a hold on? I mean, obviously part of it’s just sheer numbers. There’s so many people on Facebook already, but it, it feels to me like, you know, the group functionality at FA on, on the Facebook platform is, feels far superior to a lot of other, you know, options out there of kind of doing it on your own.

John Cantarella (06:23): You know, it’s a, it’s a great point. I would say, fundamentally, you know, we talk about product market fit. The product works incredibly well. And we have an unbelievable product team who, you know, over the last year is literally launching new features based on what the community’s telling, what they need on a weekly and monthly basis to really ensure that people can manage and grow their community or their groups. I mean, to your point, like, so we call them groups, but to be honest, you know, fundamentally our mission as a company is to give people the power, to build community, to bring people closer together. And, and Mike to team specifically works with people that build communities. So we know there are over 70 million people, um, that are managing groups. There are over 1.8 billion people, monthly in groups. And, you know, with that’s your scale, you know, these are ordinary people doing extraordinary things.

John Cantarella (07:13): And we like to think about them as communities. And, you know, you wrote about this in one of your books. You know, a lot, lot of these folks are purpose driven. And there are a collection of people that receive a sense of belonging through the connection, and frankly, a feeling of safety and trust that they invest in over time. And when we see small businesses or even larger businesses use, uh, Facebook groups, we see it because they’re driven by a purpose and, and something they want, um, they’re consumers to have around a short interest or a goal or an attitude. You know, they’re not looking them as just a as capital, right. They’re looking at it for purpose.

John Jantsch (07:49): So I think a lot of people get the idea of, of say putting clients or members or, you know, whatever we wanna call them into a group. I mean, that’s quite obvious what are some other place along the customer journey that you think groups or communities fit that maybe people aren’t thinking of?

John Cantarella (08:06): So the, the thing that we’re seeing you think there’s a stat out there that 80% of small businesses have used digital tools in the past month, you know, for advertising and communication. And overall, you know, you know this, and you’ve been doing this for years and consulting for companies. I, I think gone are the days when one way communication is gonna work. You can’t speak at your audience anymore. And so, you know, what we’re seeing is, is that companies that are purpose driven, small business that are purpose driven, you know, are finding real value when they’re building a group. Right? So they’re looking at for multiple things. So, you know, we call it and I, I have to give all credit to a woman. My name milita tub was an early investor in communities and started the community fund. You know, she calls it C C ROI community return on investment.

John Cantarella (08:55): And when we think about that, there, there are three things that we’re seeing, small businesses and businesses get out of community. One is, you know, potentially revenue. There’s a real lifetime value when people are, are in your group, because they’re your best customers. Secondly, you know, from an operational standpoint, you know, it could be a customer support tool where your community, it’s making your operations easier because people are talking to each other to help solve problems. And, and that third piece is really the insights piece. You know, we’re seeing multiple companies use it for product development and they’re, they’re using what they’re hearing in their communities to make their product better and have a, a continuous conversation with, with a customer. And there’s so many great examples of that.

John Jantsch (09:40): Well, and I, I think you missed one that I’m seeing a lot of is peop it’s actually become a top of the funnel, you know, tool for a lot of people where they’re building these free communities, where people get a taste of what it’s like to be in that community, or to be coached by that person or whatever is before they really even go into the true sort of sales funnel.

John Cantarella (10:00): It it’s a great point. And we, we hear this from a lot of small businesses. I have an example. There is a founder called Priscilla side. She started a, a beauty company called Coco kind. And, you know, it was all started out of a need. She really wanted to have a clean, deep brand. She felt a lot of the beauty brands out there weren’t aspirational for her because she suffered from, you know, pretty bad skin. And she, you know, didn’t relate to a lot of what she was seeing out there. So she started this beauty company called Coco kind. And as she started this company, she started to interact through Instagram and direct message with customers to really understand, like, what formulas do they like? What, what is the packaging, what the colors that they like really finding that they’re educated consumers. And then as her community on Instagram grew larger, she started to do polls that you get things like she gets things like 30,000 responses from her community through this, what she calls her Coco kind lab. And then she also started a Facebook group called skin positivity because, you know, these folks really love the products that she produces, but they also wanna connect with others around, you know, tips and tricks and to support each other. And to your point, you know, this becomes an organic top of funnel, as opposed to, you know, if you, if she doesn’t remain true to permission of skin positivity, you know, people can see right through that.

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John Jantsch (12:09): Yeah. So you really hit on kind of where I was gonna gonna go next. You know, are there some, I, I hate the term best practice. It implies that there’s no better practices, but are there some best practices to really stimulate and grow and, and keep this very engaged community? Cuz you know, I see all kinds of people I get invited to ’em all the time, these groups that you go there and it’s like a ghost town, you know, so what are some, if somebody’s really one to do this, what do they have to, what what’s their investment gonna be?

John Cantarella (12:37): It’s a really important point. And it’s an important point because you know, everyone, not everyone, but, but most companies have someone who’s their marketer and they have someone who’s their social media manager, community management is none of those. Yeah. And you know, we’ve seen cases of large companies starting communities and then quickly losing control of it because they don’t have a clear mission of what they’re doing. And you know, we’ve spent a lot of time to make sure that our ecosystem of community builders really have the resources that they need. So first of all, we have everything from a community management certification program to a playbook for small business or any business to really figure out how to get started to use, you know, Facebook groups and also just figure out like what community platform works best for you. So I think number one, we’d like to say why like identify what your community objective is, right?

John Cantarella (13:29): You know, it, it, your community objectives should number one, be I just want more customers. Right? And then once, you know, oh, your why it’s really, how do I list the right person to, to manage that community and then really develop a strategy to support your desired outcomes. And then once you’re there, then you start to build the guiding principles and you start to engage the community. And what you see is, you know, these communities start to grow pretty pretty quickly. Uh, and I’ll give you an example. One of our, our partners is, is a young woman called DEHA Kennedy. She started a community called broke black girl. And, and her mission was really to provide culturally relevant financial information to African American women. I mean, she, I love it. She called herself at a five financial activist, right? And so she started this community to help women save money and it quickly became 80,000 people wrong.

John Cantarella (14:17): And you know, she was a community first leader because of an issue she was having to really find better financial, um, literacy and information to manage finances from that, she started getting people in our community, asking her to consult for them. And it’s gotten to the point now where Dasia could no longer do one-to-one consultation. So she started to build old small business where she’s offering seminars, she’s offering templates. And it’s your point? It’s, you know, she’s like, look, I can’t look at them as capital. I look at them as people and I’m providing value and if they want to migrate to my website and buy one of my courses great. But I, you know, it is topless funnel for her, but it’s organic.

John Jantsch (14:55): So you touched just briefly, maybe unintentionally on a another point that I know, uh, sometimes comes up. So I build this 80,000 person community, great tools, great community, but I don’t really, oh it, um, it’s on somebody else’s platform. I’m sure you hear that all the time. What, you know, how do you address that? Sometimes very real concern.

John Cantarella (15:21): So I, I like to think of it in terms of, we are nothing without these individuals. And what I’ve found is both when I speak with small businesses and I work with these community builders, they are enormously grateful for the impact that they are able to make, right. With the tools that we provide them. And so, you know, we manage multiple, I mean, I would say not multiple thousands of community builders who are some of the most engaged on that platforms. And we spend a lot of time with them getting their feedback and, you know, and putting them in front of our product leadership to make sure that we can build all the tools that they want. And, you know, we call it our top pain points or people problems, you know, what are the product enhancements that we need to build to support them on the flip side, you know, our team is very focused programmatically to capacity, build individual to make sure, you know, when these communities grown in a certain size, they immediately see that it becomes a challenge. So we wanna make sure how can we make your community sustainable by launching monetization products? How can we support you in your leadership journey? Cuz you need to build a team to support the work that you’re doing. And so if you look at the tools over the last year that we’ve launched, they’ve really been in response to these individuals, being able to, you know, feel more ownership over their communities. Overall,

John Jantsch (16:44): I know on my show, there’s a lot of businesses that are, are traditional local businesses. You know, how would they go about looking at this cuz because obviously they have real geographic constraints just by nature of the model of their business. And obviously social media has oh, geographic constraints. So, you know, what are there ways that, that you’ve seen local businesses use this? Not, not just to build numbers, but to do something that might effectively, uh, drive revenue.

John Cantarella (17:13): I have, I mean, here’s the thing, you know, I just saw the sta this week, it was in the New York times, which is really frankly upsetting and frightening is that with more companies settling into permanent hybrid work from home in New York city, specifically the average office worker is predicted to reduce their annual spending by nearly $6,700 pre pandemic. They were almost $14,000 around their office areas. And if you go down the list, that’s a New York city with, you know, largest metropolitan area in, in the us, you know, Los Angeles and San Francisco. It’s a $5,000, um, reduction in spend that is terrifying. And the thing that I think is so important for small businesses and this is at the local level, right? Most people, you know, think about small businesses at the local level. You know, during the pandemic, we launched multiple things to support small businesses, not only grants for them, as well as you know, in, in communities, but even on Instagram, you could, you can still launch a sticker today that is, is linking to your local small businesses to make sure that, that you can support them locally.

John Cantarella (18:17): So, so local is fundamentally, you know, when I think about community, that’s what I think about. Secondly, I say is that it’s so important for small businesses to have the digital for front door and a digital front door is not only a social media presence, but also, you know, the people that off by your store every single day, they are your community. And sometimes small businesses don’t realize that. And so I would always encourage these small businesses to really engage with their customers. And you know, this is the beauty, I mean, community has redefined itself. We always think about community in real life. And so, you know, now it’s both, how do you make sure you can bridge the people that walk by your store every day with this digital front door to make sure they can connect with you? Right. So my local restaurant of the street noodle pudding here in Brooklyn, New York, you know, I follow my Instagram. I would love for them to have a I’d love for them to have a group. You know, they post their menu every single I wanna support them. So it’s really important for these small businesses to put that digital shingle out there in as many ways as possible.

John Jantsch (19:20): So this is a big question. I don’t know if we can end up on this or not just give us a glimpse of what’s maybe next for businesses on Facebook, but obviously community as well.

John Cantarella (19:29): So I think there are multiple things and I, I think, yeah, you are an early evangels of evangels to this, from what I can tell, you know, I think it’s so important. We talked about this community return on investment, but to me, the other piece that’s so important is the purpose and the social value. You’re bringing to people in the sense of belonging. That’s why I feel so strongly that businesses, that build community in the future, you know, you, any young person today wants a company that shares their values, whether it’s around sustainability, like colo kind or, you know, focus on social justice, they wanna know what you stand for. And they’re not gonna find that out. If you don’t talk about it and engage them on it. I also think that community is not going to be a marketing function. We’re gonna start to see the biggest companies have a chief community officer, and there’s gonna be a whole new industry trained up around people being certified in community management.

John Cantarella (20:24): We’re already seeing a bunch of third party companies start to build metrics and tools so they can start to measure the value of community overall. And you know, the better we’re able to support our partners in being able to measure the value of their community. The stronger they’ll be. I’ll give you an example. There’s a, an incredible startup cold tonal. They’re a home startup and they have a home exercise machine and we’ve been working with them on a case study because they have this toll community on Facebook. And if you go on there, you see these people who are so dedicated to the exercise, but we also found that their most active community members work out with the product more than the average user and they are, are more and they’re much more significantly likely to recommend to tool brand. They also get feedback every Friday, it’s hashtag feedback Friday on how to improve their product.

John Cantarella (21:17): And they filter it back into the brand. You know, it it’s the full circle. So I think you’re gonna see more companies like to like Airbnb, like Coco kind and, and broke black girl invest in community and set themselves apart from everyone else. And I, it, you know, it wouldn’t be right if I didn’t, uh, mention the metaverse, you know, as we’re building, uh, virtual reality, we’re obviously making a really big investment there, you know, and part of what we’re gonna do is really help define what community will look like in the virtual world, which is gonna be fundamentally important. You know, if you can’t be there in person, you can be there with your avatar and hopefully get a sense of, what’s like to be a part of a community.

John Jantsch (21:56): You know, you mentioned obviously hybrid workplaces, distributed workplaces, you know, are, are certainly they’ve been going on for a long time. But I think that they just got a jolt , you know, from what we’ve done in the last few years, what role would a tool like, um, like your community groups play in retention of employees? You know, I think that’s a, that’s a pretty hot idea right now because, uh, so many people, I don’t know where they are working now, but so many people have left to go, uh, pursue other careers. And so retention and recruitment have become, you know, really hot right now for a lot of our organizations. What role can community play in that since we don’t have the natural sort of meeting community place?

John Cantarella (22:38): I think it’s so important to think about that. And, you know, and again, you’ve written about this. I think if you don’t start by building community with your company, it’s gonna be really hard for you to create an authentic community outside of your company for your customers. I think the beauty of working company look, I’ve worked, I worked in media for years and I’ve been at MEA for seven and a half years now. And we, you, you have a version of Facebook internally, cold workplace, and, you know, beyond the groups that we’ve created to collaborate. So you might have a group that you’re collaborating on a, around one project. We also have a lot of groups within our company that are just really fun. You know, it could be sad work from home meals, it could be, you know, you know, people at, at meta that are over 40, you know, they’re really fun and they help you build community overall with people within your organization when you can’t be in real life.

John Cantarella (23:36): And that really sustained a lot of people in our organization and in companies, not only, you know, communities, but even, you know, even tools like zoom or chats, you know, we have a chat for it’s a Peloton chat for folks on my team, and it’s a great way that we all just, you know, support each other and build a community around a shared interest. So I think that using digital tools is really important, but it can’t completely supplant, you know, in real life. And I think that combination of the two is really being thoughtful about how you bring the digital platform and the in real life potluck all together is really important.

John Jantsch (24:14): So John, tell me, you mentioned the playbook. That might be a good place to start, but if there are any other resources you wanna mention or draw our attention to,

John Cantarella (24:21): We do, and I’ll send you the, I’ll send you the URLs and you can add it to the site, but we, if you go to fb.me/business/community, I know that’s a mouthful, but we have a playbook. We have all kinds of resources for people that are building community. You know, I like to say to, to the team, it’s, you know, we, we are trying to be as colloquial and as sufficient price, as you know, know, I think that’s, again, you know, as possible where it’s like, how do you break it down? So that it’s really easy. Step one, step two, step three. So that it’s really easy for people to onboard. And the beauty of our tools too, the way they’ve been built is that there’s a lot of automation involved so that, you know, you don’t have to be air dust 24 hours a day, but, but you do have to be there to tend, you know, it’s like being a gardener, you know, make sure you head to it.

John Jantsch (25:08): Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Well, John, thanks so much for stopping by the duct tape marketing podcast and hopefully we’ll see you one of these days out there on the road,

John Cantarella (25:15): John, I really appreciate your time and, and thank you so much for having me.

John Jantsch (25:19): All right. So that wraps up another episode. I wanna thank you so much for tuning in and you know, we love those reviews and comments and just, I generally tell me what you think also did you know that you could offer the duct tape marketing system, our system to your clients and build a complete marketing consulting coaching business, or maybe level up an agency with some additional services. That’s right. Check out the duct tape marketing consultant network. You can find it at ducttapemarketing.com and just scroll down a little and find that offer our system to your client’s tab.

This episode of the Duct Tape Marketing Podcast is brought to you by the HubSpot Podcast Network.

HubSpot Podcast Network is the audio destination for business professionals who seek the best education and inspiration on how to grow a business.

 

 

Weekend Favs April 23

Weekend Favs April 23 written by John Jantsch read more at Duct Tape Marketing

My weekend blog post routine includes posting links to a handful of tools or great content I ran across during the week.

I don’t go into depth about the finds, but encourage you to check them out if they sound interesting. The photo in the post is a favorite for the week from an online source or one that I took out there on the road.

  • Robinize – This one is great for content writers. This tool will help you save a lot of time on keyword research by revealing the terms and phrases that bring the most traffic to your competition.
  • Close – Close is a CRM software that is offering a FREE lead generation course for small to medium-sized businesses. The course is six hours long and covers topics such as; prospecting, ideal customer profiles, referrals and more.
  • Reflect – This integrated note-taking software helps you access all your thoughts and ideas in one place. It can sync with multiple devices, your browser, calendar, and kindle.

These are my weekend favs, I would love to hear about some of yours – Tweet me @ducttape

Local Marketing Strategies For Your Small Business

Local Marketing Strategies For Your Small Business written by John Jantsch read more at Duct Tape Marketing

Marketing Podcast with Laura Nelson

In this episode of the Duct Tape Marketing Podcast, I interview Laura Nelson. Laura has marketed, sold to, and collaborated with local businesses for over 10 years of her career as a marketer and business manager. She is currently VP of Marketing at Signpost, following roles with Broadly, Reputation.com, and Patch. Laura earned an MBA from the University of Michigan and a BFA at Carnegie Mellon University.

Key Takeaway:

Marketing has changed for all types of business in the last few years thanks to new platforms, channels, and technology. But for small businesses — the changes have been revolutionary, often leveling the playing field and providing a way to reach their customers and new audiences in a low-cost, targeted, and personalized way. In this episode, I talk with the VP of Marketing at Signpost, Laura Nelson, about the latest trends in local marketing and what strategies to focus on.

Questions I ask Laura Nelson:

  • [1:17] So what did you work on in your fine arts and what do you do with it now in your life?
  • [2:07] Let’s talk about the local versus national differences in marketing — are there any significant differences let’s say for a plumber versus say a software company when it comes to digital marketing?
  • [3:57] Does a business with 10 locations need to be optimized for all 10 locations?
  • [5:40] For a lot of businesses, the Google profile presence is one of the most important aspects of the business — what do you have to do to show up there?
  • [8:52] Consumer behavior has changed dramatically — how have referrals changed the game for local businesses?
  • [12:27] How do we get those reviews from customers that seem to be happy?
  • [15:16] How do you manage all of the various channels available today like online, live chat, SMS, appointment scheduling, etc.?
  • [18:02] What are some industries that you think are ahead of the curve in having automated and integrated communication?
  • [20:25] What benefits can Duct Tape listeners redeem from Signposts?

More About Laura Nelson:

More About Duct Tape Marketing Consultant Network:

Like this show? Click on over and give us a review on iTunes, please!

John Jantsch (00:00): This episode of the duct tape marketing podcast is brought to you by the salesman podcast, hosted by Will Barron and brought to you by the HubSpot podcast network. Look, if you work in sales, wanna learn how to sell, and frankly who doesn’t check out the salesman podcast, where host will Barron helps sales professionals learn how to find buyers and win big business ineffective and ethical ways. And if you wanna start someplace, I recommend the four step process to influencing buying decisions. Listen to the Salesman Podcast, wherever you get your podcast.

John Jantsch (00:44): Hello, and welcome to another episode of the duct tape marketing podcast. This is John Jantsch. My guest today is Laura Nelson. She’s marketed, sold to and collaborated with local businesses for over 10 years of her career. As a marketer and business manager, she’s currently the vice president of marketing@signpostfollowingroleswithbroadlyreputation.com and patch. She an MBA from the university of Michigan and a BFA at Carnegie Mellon university. So Laura, welcome to the show.

Laura Nelson (01:15): Hi Jen. Thanks for having me.

John Jantsch (01:17): So what did you work on in your, uh, fine arts?

Laura Nelson (01:20): I was a paint drawing, um, print making specialists. So mostly two, two dimensional works. However, through the program, we had to learn how to use every medium from the traditional media to, uh, computer based video, everything in between.

John Jantsch (01:42): So, so what do you do with that now in life Still paint or,

Laura Nelson (01:47): Yeah. Awesome. I do still practice my art. I, I draw quite a bit and make prints of it and give them the friends or sell them. The pandemic was a great opportunity to get back into it. Just given that I had more spare time as

John Jantsch (02:03): We, I picked up the, I picked up the mandolin. Oh, there you go. So yeah, I think a lot of people did that. Yeah. So, so let’s, you are at signpost for those that don’t know signpost specializes in, in a lot of, uh, local marketing, uh, tactics. So we’re gonna talk about local national differences in marketing. So let’s start there. Are there any significant differences, uh, say for a plumber versus say a software company when it comes to digital marketing?

Laura Nelson (02:33): Yeah, absolutely. Um, a plumber primarily is trying to attract homeowners, you know, to his or her business right

John Jantsch (02:42): In their community generally. Right?

Laura Nelson (02:45): So like, you know, they are restricted by geography. They have a certain budget in mind. Often there are trade offs when they’re budgeting for marketing versus other, you know, expenses and other staff, et cetera, company like ours signposts. We are a B2B or business to business company. So we sell all across the United States and we sell primarily to businesses rather than to homeowners plumbers are our customers. Right, right, right. Along with other contractors who are looking for ways to, uh, attract homeowners with looking for ways to build their brand and their communities and ultimately grow their businesses. Right.

John Jantsch (03:30): So that local business that works in a community, obviously they, they want people generally speaking in proximity for a lot of businesses to, to be able to go online and find them. I mean, that’s obviously the major difference. And in, in my experience, especially lately, if they’re not finding you in maps and things like that, it’s almost like you don’t exist because so many people are making or purchase decisions that way. What about that business that has 10 locations, they have a, a different problem, a different challenge. Do they need to be optimizing for all 10 locations? How does that kinda change their calculus when it comes to, to online local marketing?

Laura Nelson (04:13): Absolutely. And you know, we work with businesses that have one to 10 locations. It’s just an example. That would be our sweet spot. You know, the single location is going to be solving for slightly like different problems than someone operating a business at 10 locations. Sure. They’re thinking about scale and achieving economies of scale, right. Depending on how they’re set up, you know, across multiple communities or multiple states, you know, they may have different, um, needs in turn of their marketing strategies, the reach and the software that they invest in. However, they, you know, the things that they have in common are the basics, right? You mentioned showing up on Google maps, like if your business is not optimized for that, you’re not part of the conversation. A homeowner is not going to find you and, and pick your business.

John Jantsch (05:07): Yeah. The, so, so let’s jump right to what makes Google maps happen. The Google business profile for a lot of businesses is I, I mean, we work with businesses. It’s probably the most important aspect. I mean, it’s scary because it’s owned by somebody else, but it’s, it is, it’s probably the most important aspect having optimized, having the right signals there, having lots of good reviews, but obviously showing up. I mean, that, that, that, you know, for a lot of local marketers is maybe job one. I mean, so what advice, I, I know you work with business owners, helping them optimize that, uh, tool. So what, you know, what advice I, I’m sure people come to you all the time, say, I wanna show up in that thing of, of course you do. What do we have to do to show up in that thing?

Laura Nelson (05:49): You’re absolutely right. John, the Google business profile also formerly known as Google. My business is probably the most important thing you can do to establish your business’s presence online. And everyone wants to be in what we call that local repack, right? When someone searches for plumbers in your area or roofers cetera, you wanna be one of those businesses that’s in the top three that are most obvious to those homeowners looking to solve a problem. The real challenge as you alluded to is that, you know, that is somewhat out of our control. Right? Right. There are basics that we can do to invest in improving that profile. Like first claim it first. And for most, if a business hasn’t claimed their presence on Google, you know, they’re missing out on this free opportunity to be found and chosen. So that’s number one. But beyond that, there are optimizations to do right.

Laura Nelson (06:51): Link it to your website, link it to your scheduler, add photos of your team and the work that you do, make sure your phone number’s right. Yeah. I just went over to, uh, a granite countertop business over my lunch break a few minutes ago. And you know, I told him, Hey, I’ve tried to call you for two days and your number’s not ringing through. Right. So we’ll get into what happens next in terms of a homeowner making that next step. But getting all that critical information is, you know, absolutely essential to showing up online. And of course, I, I don’t want to leave out customer reviews. Right. We don’t know the perfect Google formula to, you know, what enables a business to rank in that three pack. But we do reviews are an important part of that. So having a lot of reviews, ensuring you’ve got a consistent, um, stream of them over time is really important.

John Jantsch (07:50): Yeah. And, and, and actually I think they are giving some pretty good clues these days, because if you do a local search, a lot of times what they surface will say, well, these words were in some of the reviews. I mean, and they’ll actually show you some of those reviews. So we obviously know that they are, that they are using those really almost like keywords in the past for optimization. One of the things that, of course over the last 10 years, let’s say has dramatically changed for local business is, is just the way people buy. You know, everybody wants to talk about how all the changes in these platforms and new, you know, new networks and things that show up, but it’s really the consumer behavior, you know, has really changed dramatically. And I would say that even comes to referrals. So referrals are for local businesses, word of mouth for local businesses, still a huge, uh, way that they generate business. But you used to be, if I went across the fence and asked my neighbor and they said, oh, you should call this for remodelling contractor. I just picked up the phone. I called, you know, today I go and I do a full review of them, you know, to, before I ever call. So how has that, how has that, what I just described kind of changed the game for local vis.

Laura Nelson (08:58): Yeah, it definitely has. And we perfectly described how homeowners have shifted their behavior. Right? We’ll still have those conversations with friends and neighbors and trust what they say, but then we’re gonna go online to what we learned. Right. So if my neighbor tells me, Hey, work with this contractor, he did a great job. I still need to go on Google to figure out how to get in touch with him. Right. Right. If I see something lower than a four and a half or four stars, I’m gonna start to question right. That recommendation, right? These are people who are coming into homes and, you know, doing an important job. And you know, if the quality of the reviews isn’t aligned with that recommendation, I’m gonna start doing my homework. I’m gonna start looking at other providers in my area. Yeah. That’s one way, I think also, you know, first and foremost, people are starting that search on Google, right.

Laura Nelson (10:00): That’s where the majority of people are starting, but there’s this other class of referral that I don’t want local business owners to miss out on. And, and that’s the conversations that are happening in Facebook groups. Sure. On nextdoor, you know, especially when it’s a tougher project. And for instance, I can refer back to the contracting project I’m working on right now. It’s a smaller job. It’s not a mansion, but I do have a renovation planned. And you know, I had a hard time connecting with the contractor through traditional means, right? Like filling out contact forms and calling people. Yeah. So I went on next door and posted, I went in faced groups to post and asked people, you know, who do you recommend? And I got a lot of responses that way. Yeah. So it’s another important thing to keep an eye on.

John Jantsch (10:52): And now let’s hear from our sponsor. Look, if you’re tired of slowing down your teams with clunky software processes and marketing that is difficult to scale, HubSpot is here to help you and your business grow better with collaboration tools and built in SEO optimizations. A HubSpot CRM platform is tailor made to help you scale your marketing with ease, integrated calendars, tasks, and commenting, help hybrid teams stay connected while automated SEO recommendations, intuitively optimize your webpage content for increased organic traffic ditch, the difficult and dial up your marketing with tools that are easy to use and easy to scale learn how your business can grow better@ hubspot.com SOS.

John Jantsch (11:38): So many of the home services industries right now are swamped in, I mean, getting somebody to even call you back right now, it’s gotten, uh, much more difficult than you would think it should be is hasn’t it?

John Jantsch (11:48): So, so let’s jump back to, uh, reviews. You mentioned that 4.5, uh, I’ve actually seen some interesting research on that, that, that says 4.6, 4.7 is actually the perfect score. And that’s because I think as consumers, we see 105 star reviews and we kind of go, uh nobody’s perfect. And so I think that’s interesting. You actually wanna few three star reviews that you can respond to in a public way. I think, because it, it, it feels more believable, but I know I work with a lot of businesses that have customers that love them, but they still can’t get reviews. So how do we get those reviews from customers that seem to be happy?

Laura Nelson (12:33): You’re absolutely right about, you know, these mid four star reviews are great. Yeah. Right. Real business is perfect and they’ll make mistakes and you’ll see the occasional irate customer that adds to the authenticity of the reviews that are there. Right. So it’s so painful and so personal. Right. Especially when a business gets a, a one star review it, the recommendation here is to bury it with positive reviews. Sure. So you asked how, right. It all comes down to putting a process in place and getting your team behind it and ensuring that you have the right tools. Yeah. So for example, I see team all the time who, you know, wrap up a job, they have a happy homeowner right there and, you know, fail to take the extra step and say like, you know, Hey, are you happy? And, and if so, would you mind writing a review for our business?

Laura Nelson (13:26): You know, these matter to us, they help us find more homeowners just like you. And you know, it’d be mean the world to us, if you did, that’s one, you know, making that ask personal, when you wrap up every job and number two is actually following up, right. Gotta make it easy for the homeowner. If they can’t find your Google listing, if they can’t find your Yelp listing, even if they have the best intentions they’re gonna move on with their day. Right. They’re gonna go somewhere else. Like they wanted to do it, but it wasn’t easy. And, and that’s where tools like signposts can really make a difference. Right? You shoot, ’em a text message. You shoot, ’em an email goes right to your listing link and takes several steps out of the process and ensures that it gets done.

John Jantsch (14:13): Yeah. And I, it, it’s funny that, uh, you know, QR codes are certainly high having a day again. Right. Um, because we all got used to ordering our hamburgers with them and

Laura Nelson (14:23): Yeah.

John Jantsch (14:23): So I’m seeing more and more people put those on business cards and things, you know, for reviews because it is actually, everybody knows how to do it now, you know, you you’re seeing them in ads on television and things. I mean, it, it’s kind of funny cuz they were hot 10 years ago and then it just kind of went away. But they really so, so to your point of making it easy, certainly a way to do it.

Laura Nelson (14:44): Yeah. QR codes are a great tool and, and you used to need a separate app to read them, but now we can read them through the cameras on our phones and you know, that’s a great DIY way to leave behind a card with a customer, no matter what business you’re in. Like they know how to use them. Now.

John Jantsch (15:05): It’s kinda like when it’s kinda like when podcasts first came out, it was very hard to listen to ’em and when apple put the app right on the iPhone, all of a sudden podcast took off as well.

Laura Nelson (15:15): Oh yeah.

John Jantsch (15:16): So what about all the, one of the things I know frustrates some business owners, but I think it’s, it’s like back in the day when it’s like you, you have to take credit cards and checks and cash, you know, now you have to be online and chat. You have to use SMS, have to have appointment scheduling because people are going to, people want to interact with you the way they want to interact with you. How do you manage all of those various channels?

Laura Nelson (15:41): Yeah. It’s incredibly difficult. And this is where technology and other services can make it super easy. I referenced that granite countertop store, my first breast for reference was not to call them, but they forced me into it.

John Jantsch (15:56): Right,

Laura Nelson (15:57): Right. So I will not always do that because I would like a path of lease resistance. Yeah. And that’s what homeowners and customers are really gravitating toward, but I send way more texts a day than make phone calls. And I think that’s common across the population. So if I can get a quick answer, you know, through text message or through chat, I’m gonna do that. I’m gonna take out the friction of a phone call, but that’s like, that’s very difficult for businesses to manage if they’re using like their traditional tools. Yeah. Like, you know, the owner’s cell phone and you know, a team member, cell phones and you know, a chat widget,

John Jantsch (16:37): Someone’s gonna be there’s yeah. Graded.

Laura Nelson (16:39): Yeah. If it’s not integrated. Yes. It becomes overwhelming. Right. Right. And you have to hire someone to manage all of that. That’s what signpost helps to make easy is to bring all of those messages into one place. So you don’t and have 50 tabs open of leads coming from different sources that can come into one dashboard. Yeah. Right. And you’ve got all your messages there where you can fire off quick replies or automated replies too. Yep. Is really important. You know, if you miss a customer’s call, for example, know, our system can send a text and ensure that customer was heard. Right. We got your message. We’ll get back to you. And that enables you to start a text conversation, right. With them.

John Jantsch (17:23): You can say, while you’re waiting, here’s the 27 projects we did last week, right? Yeah, exactly.

Laura Nelson (17:27): You can customize that reply. You can send your scheduling link, you can get them kind of moving down the funnel of making a decision of whether they’re going to hire you.

John Jantsch (17:37): Yeah. Yeah. It’s a very differentiator too. Cuz a lot of people may maybe called three people, you know, Sunday night, you know, waiting for them to all come call ’em back Monday morning. And uh, yeah. All of a sudden you’ve advanced the ball a little bit by having

Laura Nelson (17:50): And people are gonna hire the person who responds first simple

John Jantsch (17:55): Cases. That’s right. Especially the environment where we’re in now, its anybody responds. They’re probably gonna get hired. What are some industries where you think or ahead of the curve in this and, and then I guess maybe, well you don’t have to name some that aren’t doing it well other than to say, if you’re not doing it well, you can learn from these people.

Laura Nelson (18:15): Yeah. I think, you know, in the realm that we’re talking about, say online reviews and communications technologies. In my experience, I’ve seen dental and medical offices a little ahead of the curve there. That’s not to, to say all of them are because you know, the issue now that we’re seeing is that the software is pretty educated, so it doesn’t solve all of their needs, but there was a time when dental adoption of these products was quite sure

John Jantsch (18:43): The it’s probably true of anybody who lived by appointment, you know, scheduled all day long. You know, that, that, that those were probably some of the first adopters weren’t they?

Laura Nelson (18:54): Yeah. Because like they, you know, they want to fill every slot in their day and they know if, you know, if someone cancels, didn’t get a reminder as just an example and they’re losing revenue yeah. For that spot. And it’s very difficult for them to fill unless they’ve got a long waiting list and you know, people are available fill slots.

John Jantsch (19:11): Can I just complain about the people that send me an email, call me and send me a text as well. They really need to, it’s like when we first got into the AI bots, you know, it’s like, they’ve gotta be done well or they’re really not very helpful.

Laura Nelson (19:25): I totally agree. I think that, you know, businesses, you’ve gotta choose one and my recommendation is communicate in the way back that the person came in. Right? Yeah. With the exception, if you missed their call, you ha you give them that option of texting back. That’s just, you know, a common courtesy. Right. But yeah, aside from that, you know, people don’t need to be bombarded. Correct. That’s not a great experience and you know, that may turn them off. So it’s really risky.

John Jantsch (19:55): Yeah.

Laura Nelson (19:56): To add on the question that you asked previously, signpost really concentrates on contractors though, we serve dozens and dozens of industries. We focus on contractors because we saw real need, you know, there are companies across the spectrum when it comes to tech adoption and, and marketing savviness. So we saw that, you know, there was a need, we had the best product market bit. And so that’s why primarily we focus in that area.

John Jantsch (20:25): Yep. So we’ve mentioned the name signpost, it’s just signpost.com. Do you, do you wanna invite anybody for the 50% off, uh, special because they’re a duct tape listener.

Laura Nelson (20:36): Yes, absolutely. Um, visit, sign post. I can’t guarantee that you’ll get a 50% off rate, but you know, certainly if you are a listener, you are eligible for a promo rate. So visit signpost.com, visit the upper right corner and request a demo, check our product out, see if it’s a good fit for your company.

John Jantsch (20:59): Laura saying, thanks so much for stopping by the duct tape marketing podcast. And hopefully we’ll, uh, get to run into you one of these days out there on the road.

Laura Nelson (21:06): Thank you so much us John. Really appreciate it.

John Jantsch (21:09): All right. So that wraps up another episode. I wanna thank you so much for tuning in and you know, we love those reviews and comments. And just generally tell me what you think also did you know that you could offer the duct tape marketing system, our system to your clients and build a complete marketing consulting coaching business, or maybe level up an agency with some additional services. That’s right. Check out the duct tape marketing consultant network. You can find it at ducttapemarketing.com and just scroll down a little and find that offer our system to your client’s tab.

This episode of the Duct Tape Marketing Podcast is brought to you by the HubSpot Podcast Network.

HubSpot Podcast Network is the audio destination for business professionals who seek the best education and inspiration on how to grow a business.

 

 

Dominating The News Feed With Ads For Less Than $10 Per Day

Dominating The News Feed With Ads For Less Than $10 Per Day written by Sara Nay read more at Duct Tape Marketing

About the show:

The Agency Spark Podcast, hosted by Sara Nay, is a collection of short-form interviews from thought leaders in the marketing consultancy and agency space. Each episode focuses on a single topic with actionable insights you can apply today. Check out the new Spark Lab Consulting website here!

About this episode:

In this episode of the Agency Spark Podcast, Sara talks with Jody Milward on how to dominate the news feed with ads for less than $10 per day.

Jody likes to call herself an “accidental entrepreneur”. Like many women, after having kids she didn’t want to return to a 9-5 office gig so she started her first business as a Private Investigator (obvious choice, right?). After 9 years, 7 figures in revenue and much government red tape, it was time to move on and she stumbled into the Social Media and paid traffic world. From her first client in 2014 making $12 per hour to generating over 7 figures in revenue 6 years later, she’s lived and breathed digital marketing as a freelancer, sub-contractor, in-house, agency owner, consultant, speaker, educator and mentor.

More from Jody Milward:

  • Get The Quick Start Guide To Becoming An In-Demand Ad Manager Here
  • Jody’s Website
  • Jody’s Facebook

 

 

This episode of the Agency Spark Podcast is brought to you by Podmatch, a platform that automatically matches ideal podcast hosts and guests for interviews. Imagine your favorite online dating app, but instead of using it for finding dates, you’re booking podcast interviews. I use Podmatch to find guests for Agency Spark and it’s made booking engaging and talented guests incredibly easy. Learn more here!

 

Rolling Out The Red Carpet For Your Employees

Rolling Out The Red Carpet For Your Employees written by John Jantsch read more at Duct Tape Marketing

Marketing Podcast with Donna Cutting

In this episode of the Duct Tape Marketing Podcast, I interview Donna Cutting. Donna is the Founder and CEO of Red-Carpet Learning Worldwide and works with mission-driven leaders to help them create cultures of happy, engaged people who deliver exceptional customer service. She’s the author of three books including: The Celebrity Experience: Insider Secrets to Delivering Red-Carpet Customer Service and her new book Employees First! Inspire, Engage, and Focus on the HEART of Your Organization.

Key Takeaway:

The world is changing and it’s time to take care of the people who take care of your customers. How do we get an hourly employee who has never received red carpet customer service, to give it? The answer is obvious, isn’t it? You roll out the red carpet for them, of course.

In this episode, Donna Cutting joins me as we talk about how giving your team members a voice in your company, supporting them with knowledge and training, giving them purpose and equitable pay, translates into higher productivity and happier customers. We dive into core concepts from her new book Employees First! and share strategies for honoring the very people who make your company what it is—your internal customers—your team.

Questions I ask Donna Cutting:

  • [1:18] Would you say that in a lot of ways you writing a book about inspiring and engaging with your employees is a derivative of customer service?
  • [6:11] How do you get people to think about this as a journey?
  • [9:54] Would you talk a little bit about the messaging that you’re seeing that really attracts the kind of employee that’s looking for something meaningful?
  • [13:06] Similarly to buyer’s remorse, sometimes people experience remorse after taking a new job — how can we keep that experience as high as everything that attracted them?
  • [15:54] What are you finding in that channel as a way to attract new employees?
  • [17:17] Do we need to change the way that we think about women and diversity in the workplace?
  • [19:50] Where can people find out more about the work that you do?

More About Donna Cutting:

More About Duct Tape Marketing Consultant Network:

Like this show? Click on over and give us a review on iTunes, please!

John Jantsch (00:00): This episode of the duct tape marketing podcast is brought to you by the salesman podcast, hosted by Will Barron and brought to you by the HubSpot podcast network. Look, if you work in sales, wanna learn how to sell, and frankly who doesn’t check out the salesman podcast, where hosts will Barron helps sales professionals learn how to find buyers and win big business ineffective and ethical ways. And if you wanna start someplace, I recommend the four step process to influencing buying decisions. Listen to the salesman podcast, wherever you get your podcast.

John Jantsch (00:43): Hello, and welcome to another episode of the duct tape marketing podcast. This is John Jantsch and my guest today is Donna Cutting. She is the founder and CEO of red carpet learning worldwide and works with mission driven leaders. To help them create cultures of happy, engaged people who deliver exceptional customer service. She’s the author of three books, including the celebrity experience. And one we’re gonna talk about today, a new one called employees first inspire, engage and focus on the heart of your organization. So welcome back, Donna.

Donna Cutting (01:15): Thanks, John. It’s good. Always good to be here with you.

John Jantsch (01:18): So, you know, in a lot of ways you writing a book about treating your employees or inspiring engaging is really just sort of derivative of customer service, right? I mean, because guess who’s delivering customer service.

Donna Cutting (01:32): Yeah, exactly. I actually love that. You put it that way because so many people will say, oh, you’re switching now, you’re going to a place I’m like, no, I’m not switching it all. We’re talking about your internal customers. And in many ways it’s the book I should have written first.

John Jantsch (01:49): Well, I mean, it’s all just positioning because I mean, a lot of, I know in your previous work, a lot of customer services is about, I mean, your people are probably treating their customers about as well as you’re treating your people. Right. So, I mean, there, there’s definitely, you’ve definitely written in red carpet really about the idea of getting engaged, you know, people involved in the purpose. I mean, so it’s really in a lot of ways, it’s not that different, is it?

Donna Cutting (02:15): No, it’s not. And there’s always been, uh, it it’s, it’s definitely not because it all works together, right. It’s how you treat your team member versus it is how they treat your, is how they treat your customers and all of that stems also from the culture that you’re creating. So, and there’s always been you’re right. There’s always been a chapter, a theme throughout both of my other books that focused, uh, perhaps more on traditional customers, but that you had to re really look at how you treat your employees as well. But this one is dedicated specifically to employees

John Jantsch (02:52): And we’re really not just talking about, uh, foosball tables and cappuccino machines. I mean, you know, as like, oh, give ’em lots of perks. I mean, really at the heart of this is the idea of giving them a, a purpose or something to believe in, isn’t it?

Donna Cutting (03:05): Yeah. It’s a lot of different things cuz we’re going through so many changes right now. And you can imagine John, it was such a daunting task to write a book in, in about the employee experience in a time when are going through, uh, such incredible chain, but yeah, really looking at what is it that people really want, you know, and one of those things that keeps coming up again and again is, and especially after, you know, having gone through what we’ve been through in the last couple of years, just really looking people are looking for meaning in their work and you know, what am I, what am I giving to that gives me a purpose that’s beyond a paycheck and the paycheck’s important. Don’t get me wrong. It, it’s probably more important than we’ve believed it to be in the past, but, but beyond the paycheck, what, what am I doing that is contributing to something that’s greater than myself, that’s making a difference in the world.

John Jantsch (04:05): Yeah. And that’s maybe that’s a bit of an attitude change. I, I, it certainly is something that’s associated say with millennials and the next generation, but I think it’s actually, as you said, we keep pointing to this, you know, with all the change we’ve gone through, I mean, a lot of feel 50 year olds are resigning from their possessions and looking for that, that meaning all of a sudden, I think that’s probably a bigger, uh, sea change maybe than just kind of a generational change.

Donna Cutting (04:32): Yeah. There’s a couple of things. Well I think all of us, right, or many of us I’ll say many of us because I got called out on LinkedIn, by somebody who said, you know, they’ve always held to their values and nothing about them has changed since the pandemic. So we’ll say many people, many people I think got really clear about what really matters, you know, in their life. And so that’s, what’s driving their choices. So if they choose to continue in you working work, life balance is going to be a huge part of the discussion, a part of their decision about where they want to work. But I think you’re right. That’s where we’re seeing a lot of people who, you know, in their fifties, early sixties retiring a little sooner than they anticipated. They would in many cases because they’ve decided no it’s time to, to move on, to really focus on what matters in my life. And this is a huge change because there are so many more people in that age bracket than even, you know, millennials and the generation Z. So that’s causing a lot of a little disruption in the workplace right now.

John Jantsch (05:48): So one of the things that I’ve been, um, preaching for years is this idea of an end to end customer journey that, you know, that attracts the right people that, you know, really has them see you as the logical choice that retains customers that turns them into evangelists. And really, I think in a lot of ways for hiring, we’re talking about the same kind of journey, right? I mean, there is an attraction component. There is a great experience, you know, component, there is a retention component. So, you know, how do you kind of view that end to end? Because a lot of people, oh, I need to run better ads on indeed, you know, as hiring. Right. So how do you get people to think about this as a journey?

Donna Cutting (06:23): Yeah. And you’re absolutely right. It all works together and I think what’s happened. You know, I think, I don’t think we’re talking about anything that people haven’t heard before, but I think what it, what happened in the workplace before was a lot of like short term bandaid thinking the I’ve got to run a better ad on a indeed, you know, and, and really, I think the organizations that are gonna come ahead that are going to attract the best people that are going to are the ones who are going to look at the whole journey and say, really look at their organizational culture and ask the questions. Like, are we really making people feel valued? Are we really, are they clear even what the expectations are and what, you know, going back to, to traditional customer service? Like what does that even look like? And are we giving them the tools that they need and you know, are we supporting them in the way that they’re excited and, and inspired and feel like they have some personal professional development that can happen in the organization and this takes time, it takes planning. It takes commitment. Yeah. But the organization know leaders that are willing to look at that journey and really commit to it are the ones five years, 10 years from now are gonna come out ahead.

John Jantsch (07:45): Yeah. And I think you, you missed a key. It also takes investment, you know, for a lot of organizations, but I use the word investment as opposed to cost because it, the theory is, uh, there’s going to be a return on that investment.

Donna Cutting (07:57): There’s gonna be a return. And also I think, you know, it’s amazing to me, even with my own customers, when I ask the question, you know, have you put dollars and cents to what it’s costing you to all this employee turnover that you have. And very few of them have, like, they know it’s costing them money, but they don’t know exactly how much. Sure. You know. Yeah. And I think if you people really looked at the numbers, the amount of money that they were spending because of this, you know what I’m calling bandaid thinking like quick fix thinking and not committing to that whole journey, they would find that the resources to be able to do it, or there is just shifting a focus from, you know, short term thinking to long term strategy.

John Jantsch (08:43): And now let’s hear from our sponsor, you know, as a business owner, you eventually realize you can’t do everything yourself, but hiring is complicated. And what if you only need part-time help your job is to be the visionary. But instead you spend countless hours on tasks that could be done easily and arguably better by someone else. And that’s where the powerful multiplying effects of delegation, our mission critical our friends at Belay can help. Belay is an incredible organiz revolutionizing productivity with their virtual assistance bookkeepers website specialists and social media managers for growing organizations to help you get started. Belay is offering their latest, e-book delegate to elevate for free to all of my listeners. Now in this e-book, you’ll learn how to re name time to focus on what you can do by delegating to download your free copy. Just text tape to 5, 5, 1, 2, 3, that’s TAPE to 5, 5, 1, 2, 3, accomplish more and juggle less with Belay.

John Jantsch (09:54): So let’s break down a couple of components. You know, one of the first one is, you know, messaging that attracts, we work with a lot of clients that now we’ve shifted to, you know, helping them attract folks in their marketing. Right. And you know, we were working with a contractor looking for skilled liper folks and you know, their ads are all about, here’s the benefits you get, you know, here’s what you can expect. You know, here’s why this good job. And we changed their message and they were getting nothing with, and we changed their messaging to be something around the idea of, are you getting the respect that you deserve in your current job? And all of a sudden it’s like, boom. You know, they got attention. And I think that’s a part that a lot of people are missing. People. People don’t necessarily change jobs for $2 an hour, you know, more it’s they leave a bad situation. So talk a little bit about, you know, the messaging that you’re seeing that really attracts that kind of player that’s looking for something meaningful.

Donna Cutting (10:47): Yeah. That’s so interesting. It’s funny. My friend, Steven Tweed who’s in the home care space, he did a, a study with caregivers in, in the home care space. And one of the things they found was that putting a number like putting a salary or a wage on the ad was actually beneficial in attracting people, but it doesn’t keep people. So what keeps people is exactly what I think you just said is, are people feeling, uh, respected? Are they, you honestly, John, this is, this is all of what I talk about. It’s really about whether you’re talking about traditional customers or employees or just people in general. We wanna be seen, we wanna be heard. We want to feel like we matter, right. That’s, that’s the bottom line of what we’re talking about. So when people feel like they’re not seeing, they’re not her, they’re not respected.

Donna Cutting (11:43): That is when they’re more likely to start looking around. And right now they have a lot of different options. And I think, you know, I’ve been doing a study with hourly workers on what makes them feel valued. And a lot of times, I think, again, what we do in organizations is the quick, like we’ll do employee appreciation day, right. Or the pizza party, or we’re just gonna thank everybody, you know, the hero side, all of those wonderful things. I’m not putting them down, but none of that is coming up in my conversations with hourly workers about what makes them feel valued. It’s more, you know, somebody individually noticed something that I did that I contributed, right. Or somebody saw something in the, my boss saw something in me that I didn’t even see in myself. And now I’ve grown professionally, you know, as a result of that. And then just people knowing them, knowing their names. Yeah, yeah. You know, knowing what’s going on in their life and then caring about their work life balance is really huge.

John Jantsch (12:52): So let’s go to the next phase. You know, a lot of people probably have stories, listeners, I’m sure where they, you know, got a new job. They’re all excited about, they showed up on day one and it’s like, nobody greeted them. Nobody really made ’em feel welcome. And I know you have your red carpet onboarding. So maybe talk a little bit about some of the ways, I mean, that’s the customer experience, right. Buyers remorse happened, you know, I took the job that’s of alert of buyers remorse. Right. And so, you know, how can we keep that experience as high as everything that’s attracted

Donna Cutting (13:19): From day one? And I think, I mean, this is so great for you too, because one of the things I think is that human resources and hiring managers could be working with people and marketing professionals. Right. Exactly. To really look at that experience. But one of the things that because of, uh, staffing shortages, yeah. You know, something that I’m seeing is people, you know, they bring ’em on board. They give ’em whatever education, they need to complete whatever compliance, you know, depending, especially in healthcare or financial services or whatever. They’re like these compliance ribbon training, you know, education they need to have. And then they get ’em out there as soon as possible because they need people out on the floor and they’re losing them within three days. You know, not sometime I’ve even heard. Some people say they ghost them in the middle of orientation.

Donna Cutting (14:10): Right. Like they start the day and then they leave at lunch. And so, so really being intentional about, yeah, what are you creating an orientation and an onboarding process that introduces them to your culture that connects them to coworkers that, um, communicates and clarifies all of those little things they need to know to really start the job effective. And yes, then those compliant activities. But then are you partnering up with someone who is well prepared to be able to mentor them through, you know, the first few weeks of their job? Are you looking at like, you know, how would you roll out the red carpet for a customer on their first day? And are you generating ideas around, around that as well? Like literally roll the red carpet. Sure. But are you sending note cards? Are you staying in touch? Are you checking back in with them? Is there a sign, you know, with their name on it, when they walk in the door, there could be any number of ways to do that. The focus is how in, and of course I share many of those ways in the book employees first, but it’s really about acting with intention instead of just like bringing people in as quickly as possible and then throwing them out there because you have a need.

John Jantsch (15:33): All right, let’s move on down the journey. One of the, probably most effective ways to get new employees is a happy employee, says, I’ve got a friend who ought to join us, but I hear time and time again from employees, they just can’t get ’em to do it. Uh, they can’t get, they don’t get the referrals. They think they should, they make offers, they give money, they give bonuses. What are you finding in that avenue or that channel as a way to attract new employees?

Donna Cutting (16:00): Yeah. I, I mean, I’d be questioning why that is. Yeah, yeah. Right. You know, that’s the thing because, and money and bonuses is one thing. Again, I see that a lot, like referral bonuses, I also, and on bonuses that it’s a, a short term strategy though. If you have a group of employees who are really thrilled to be working at your company, they’re, they’re going to tell their friends they’re going to recruit their friends. So one of the best things I think that employers can be doing right now is to really focus on ask what’s our, our listening strategy. Like how are we really listen, you know, asking the right questions and listening to our employees without getting defensive, without jumping in with solutions, but then collaborating with people at all levels of the organization to create whatever that employee experience is going to be. That’s gonna want, make them want to bring their friends to, to come and work with them.

John Jantsch (17:05): So couple things that are going on, you know, we already talked about the, how higher tough it was hiring, but one segment of the work force really dropped out during the pandemic. And that’s, what do we need to do? We need to change the way that we think about women in the workplace, given what went on. Do we need to think differently about diversity in the workplace in general, and, and particularly for companies that, that just hasn’t, I mean, right or wrong at just, hasn’t been their thing, you know, how do they now start thinking we have to change? Or how do they start changing?

Donna Cutting (17:40): Yeah. So the answer to all of that is, is yes, because people’s priorities are shifting. And I think people are less, less people in general are less likely to just accept the way it is. You know, they want something different. And so women, not just women, but families, right? Looking at mater maternity and paternity leave, looking at, you know, childcare, like all of those different things. And I’ll go back to what I said at the last question is if you want the answers to, what’s gonna be attractive to, to the women, you know, in your workplace. So the families in your workplace is to start asking them really, to sit down and say, you know, if this were an ideal workplace for women and families, you know, what would that include? And, and then start working towards bringing some of those elements in flexible scheduling, remote work, and some organizations, some positions remote work is not possible, but are you more flexible in your scheduling?

Donna Cutting (18:43): You know, all of those different things. And then going back to the second part of your question, which was about just diverse of the inclusion and equity in general. Absolutely. What I think needs to happen is much more, much deeper conversations around what that looks like in the workplace. What, what we’ve done again, that, that bandaid quick fix, like what we’ve done in the past is, oh, let’s have a session on diversity in the work place. And then check that box when it’s over. And I think, you know, this is gonna be something people are gonna be looking for, you know, how diverse are you, how inclusive is your organization? And that means taking a look at all of your language, who’s gotta seat at the table. What is your website look like? You know, what kind of respect you know, is happening between coworkers and that’s a much deeper conversation than, um, what many leaders have been willing to do in the past.

John Jantsch (19:42): Yeah. It’s kind of a compliance versus culture. Exactly. Conversation.

Donna Cutting (19:46): Yeah, exactly. That’s it.

John Jantsch (19:48): So Donna tell people, uh, where they can find out more about your work at the learning world or red carpet learning worldwide. And then obviously I pick up a copy of your new book.

Donna Cutting (19:58): Yes. Yes. So red carpet learning.com is the website. And always, you can connect with me on social, like all the social, LinkedIn, all of it. But employees first inspire, engage and focus on the heart of your organization by me, cutting available, amazon.com, Barnes and noble.com, Hudson book sellers, all those places where books are sold comes out April 1st. So depending on when you’re listening to this podcast, you can either pre-order or order it then. Awesome.

John Jantsch (20:27): Awesome. Well, Don, it was great catching up. You, I appreciate you taking the time to stop by the show and hopefully we’ll run into you. Uh, one of these days out there on the road again.

Donna Cutting (20:36): Thank you, John. I hope so, too. Always good to talk to you.

John Jantsch (20:39): All right. So that wraps up another episode. I wanna thank you so much for tuning in and you know, we love those reviews and comments. And just generally tell me what you think also did you know that you could offer the duct tape marketing system, our system to your clients, and build a complete marketing consulting coaching business, or maybe level up an agency with some additional services. That’s right. Check out the duct tape marketing consultant network. You can find it at ducttapemarketing.com and just scroll down a little and find that offer our system to your client’s tab.

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