Apophenic

Aggressive marketing is so selfish .  While these tactics might have been effective in the past, today's consumers are more savvy. They see right through the lies, deception, and whitewashing. Ethical marketing is the only way to set yourself apart – to treat your customers with respect.  Show Notes : https://controlmousemedia.com/podcast/ethical-marketing-is-not-an-oxymoron/ — Marketing Without t...

For many small businesses, a Facebook Page is the primary means of connecting with customers. If you have spent a lot of time and effort building an active following, you know how important it is to running your business. Now imagine that your Facebook Page has been hacked . Deactivated and deleted. Access to those customers – taken away. No ability to be in touch, not even to tell them what happe...

A recent article in the New York Times showcased some high-profile influencers and celebrities using Instagram for blogging. It begs the question: With people connecting on mega-platforms like Instagram, LinkedIn, and Twitter – is blogging still worth it? Could Instagram ever replace blogging? Show Notes : https://controlmousemedia.com/podcast/instagram-for-blogging — Here are the articles I refer...

There is no article you can read, video you can view, or social feed you can scroll through without being interrupted. The never-ending series of desperate attempts to steal our attention from what we actually want to see results in surprise after unwelcome surprise – pop-up and modals and "welcome mats" that leave us searching for the opt-out. It's one thing to earn our attention by producing gre...

People don't mean to diminish your work, but that's exactly what they are doing when they use this one insidious little word. It undervalues your expertise and experience by making it sound simple - as a way to sell you on doing something, paying you less than you're worth, or not paying you at all.  Show Notes : https://controlmousemedia.com/podcast/just/ — Marketing Without the Marketing is avai...

In working with a variety of small businesses over the past 5 years, a clear pattern emerges: There are three distinct stages of a growing business. A good marketing plan takes this into account, with three matched activities: Build : Get a foundation and funnel up and running. Connect : Do your outreach to fill the funnel. Optimize : Measure and tweak into efficiency. Show Notes : https://control...

In this episode, I play the part of a Google Bot scanning your site. Spoiler alert: I don't often like what I see . I cover the two most common SEO issues that I see with small business websites: 1) Site structure , and 2) Page structure . For an overview of my approach, see my SEO for Small Business Series : http://bit.ly/seo-series Book a quick 45-min session with me to do an SEO audit together...

SEO always starts with a simple query. But it doesn’t end when the user finds your site. For SEO to be truly effective, we need to set up a pathway to serve the user more than once so we can build trust over time. And of course, this needs to be set up and ready to go before the first visit. Show Notes : https://controlmousemedia.com/podcast/seo-and-the-user-pathway — Marketing Without the Marketi...

Yes, keywords are important to SEO. But when you boil it down, SEO is about providing relevant, useful content to your human users. Google is able to measure what happens once the user gets to your site. Is it a good experience, or are there things you could be doing better in serving your users? Show Notes : https://controlmousemedia.com/podcast/seo-is-more-than-keywords — Marketing Without the M...

Google’s Web crawlers are assessing your website with every interaction. Are people getting what they need from your site? It turns out that when it comes to SEO, what’s good for humans is good for robots. Let’s look at some of the biggest factors that affect your ranking and how they are in tune with the human side of marketing. Show Notes : https://controlmousemedia.com/podcast/seo-humans-first-...

What is Google looking for in your content? While they are famously secretive about their search algorithms, Google reveals important clues with each major update. Let's take a look at the key search factors and how to apply them to your SEO strategy. Show Notes : https://controlmousemedia.com/podcast/seo-google-algorithm — Marketing Without the Marketing is available wherever you listen to podcas...

People are at the heart of your SEO efforts. So let's look past the keywords, page rank, and site traffic for a second and focus on the real point of SEO - connecting with your potential customers. SEO is about building the apparatus to find the people who are already out there asking for your help - and the pathway to deliver that help.  Show Notes : https://controlmousemedia.com/podcast/seo-is-a...

SEO helps you tackle one of the most difficult parts of any business - finding new potential customers. What's more is that Google will help you do this for free. Episode 135 is an overview of why it's worth the effort to learn even just a little bit of SEO so you can take advantage of its marketing power.  Show Notes : https://controlmousemedia.com/podcast/seo-is-a-key-part-of-any-marketing-strat...

Teaching is how we form a connection with a future customer. SEO is simply a signal that someone wants to learn - with a distinct data "signature" that offers clues about what they want to know. From there, it's up to us to use that data to put ourselves in the best position to answer that question. Episode 134 is an overview of how to do that.  Show Notes : https://controlmousemedia.com/podcast/w...

SEO is one of the most important factors in any marketing strategy, so it's worth the effort to learn the basics. It doesn't have to be complicated, and anyone can learn it. Episode 133 is an introduction to my approach to SEO, and the start of a new series to teach you all the nuances of a good, sound SEO strategy.  Show Notes : https://controlmousemedia.com/podcast/seo-5-key-factors   — Marketin...