Apophenic

Good list segmentation in email marketing lies at the intersection of what's meaningful to your audience vs. what's important to you. If it's one or the other, it won't work as effectively. There are 3 distinct ways to segment your email list: Segmenting by interest Segmenting by location Segmenting by customer stage Learn about each and how to apply it to your own email marketing strategy. Show N...

What can we do as consumers to help support small businesses while the economy grinds to a halt? While the COVID-19 pandemic will be painful for all workers, none will feel it like small businesses do. The CDC is recommending a two-month halt to gatherings, among other guidelines.* Quoting Cathy Merrill in the Washington Post about the CDC's order: Two months is not a hiatus; it is a death sentenc...

This special episode is about coping with the coronavirus outbreak – specifically for small businesses, solo businesses, freelancers, and creatives. I offer a few particular strategies that might help small businesses survive a prolonged downturn, and make an offer to help people directly with a free strategy session to get set up and running. Show Notes / Links from the Episode Here are the strat...

Content marketing has changed a lot over the past 5 years alone. What used to work is no longer reliable – even when you are putting in the effort. Have you noticed that: Social media is not as effective anymore? Your website traffic is down overall? Even your best blog posts don't get shared as much? People aren't opening your email newsletters as much? Now that content marketing is mainstream ,...

Repurposing content is one of the best ways to get more out of your blog as a small business. But this strategy works best when you start with a clear intention – and some careful planning up front. I lay out my entire process here: Considerations around formats, the planning that needs to be done, and my writing and editing process as well. Show Notes : https://controlmousemedia.com/podcast/repur...

Building anticipation is a great technique for getting readers back to your site. Producing a blog series is a great way to achieve this. Not only is it good for building a relationship with your readers, but it’s also great for SEO in that it feeds one of Google’s strongest ranking factors. There are two methods that I use regularly in planning and executing a series strategy. Either method can w...

Each post you publish is an opportunity to get found by a future customer. Let Google help you. Optimizing for search is one of the best things you can do for your business blog, and it should only take an extra 5-10 minutes for each post. Here's a step-by-step walkthrough of my SEO Treatment Plan.  Show Notes : https://controlmousemedia.com/podcast/optimizing-for-search/ — Marketing Without the M...

What happens a new visitor arrives at your site? Can you make the sale in one visit? Not likely. This is why "getting traffic" is a fallacy . You can have new visitors showing up once… and then leaving, never to come back. Do this over and over, and guess what? The results aren't going to improve. The solution to this is to build a pathway . To guide a new visitor from your very first "meeting" th...

We are obsessed with getting traffic to our websites. I want to challenge that concept, because let's face it - random traffic doesn't do that much for you. Web Strategy 201 is getting beyond just "traffic" as a goal and making your site much more active in the sales process.  Show Notes : https://controlmousemedia.com/podcast/beyond-getting-traffic/ — Marketing Without the Marketing is available...

Competition on the Web is tough. You can't just hang your shingle and expect people to show up. A basic website isn't good enough anymore - it needs to function as a PATHWAY for prospective customers. Here's how to make your website carry more of the sales load for you. Show Notes : https://controlmousemedia.com/podcast/showroom/ — Marketing Without the Marketing is available wherever you listen t...

Have you noticed that some of the basic strategies behind your website, blog, social, and email marketing have started to lose some of their effect? That's because content marketing is now mainstream, with everyone relying on the same set of tactics. Time to level up with Content Marketing 201. Show Notes : https://controlmousemedia.com/podcast/content-marketing-201-beyond-the-basics/ — Marketing...

Participation is a signal. When you are a part of the community that you aim to serve, it shows that you're invested. That it's important to you. That you care. Not only is it a way to develop trust, but it can also help you see emerging trends in your sector.  Show Notes : https://controlmousemedia.com/podcast/be-a-part-of-the-community/ — Marketing Without the Marketing is available wherever you...

"Are you famous?"   Most of us don't have the luxury of being able to answer "yes" to this question. In a world where attention gets more and more scarce, what can we do to overcome this – without being the one who simply yells the loudest or without resorting to cheap stunts?  Show Notes : https://controlmousemedia.com/podcast/are-you-famous/ — Marketing Without the Marketing is available whereve...

It's worth highlighting ethical business practices since they are often the exception to the rule. This week's episode breaks from the regular format of the show and presents a story from a good experience I had in a Montréal guitar shop. Let's celebrate the good people in the world! Show Notes : https://controlmousemedia.com/podcast/ethical-business-practices-example/ — Marketing Without the Mark...

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...