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“Go where people are; that doesn’t always mean physically, it means making things available 24/7.”
Becky Schol is the communications and marketing manager for the Public Works & Natural Resources Department at the City of Longmont. As a marketing leader, strategist, and writer she is focused on community awareness and engagement. Becky began her career as a newspaper reporter, then directed communications for three Colorado municipalities and a top-5 Colorado marketing agency. She later served as the digital marketing leader for Boeing Global Services. She is certified in FEMA emergency communications and Pragmatic Marketing, and she is accredited by the Public Relations Society of America.
Listen & Learn:
- Tips for creating meaningful and integrated plans.
- Why you shouldn’t push aside a strategy or a tactic without understanding your audience at a very deep level.
- The importance of relationship marketing as the basis for internal and external communications.
- Ways to collect and interpret data and then apply it to your strategic plan.
TO LEARN MORE ABOUT CITY OF LONGMONT, CLICK HERE.
TO FIND BECKY SCHOL ON LINKEDIN, CLICK HERE.
“If your PR doesn’t live beyond the flicker of the moment that it’s published, it has super limited value for a client.”
As an owner and principal of a PR agency for over a decade, Chris Dickey has thoroughly explored the intersection of PR and search engine strategy. PR has always been a top-of-funnel marketing strategy, and Search, which on average receives six billion queries every day, is by far the world's largest product discovery platform. Yet brands typically approach toward search strategy through the narrow lens of advertising or SEO — largely ignoring the majority of high-value results that already exist on the first page of search. Chris' newest venture, Visably, is a new SaaS software the identifies a brand's footprint in search. Visably is currently in open-beta and available for anyone to trial it at no cost. Chris is passionate about helping brands reach their needle-in-the-haystack customer and evangelizing multi-channel search strategy, and Visably is poised to be an indispensable tool for PR and digital agencies. Chris has raised more than $700K to date.
Listen & Learn:
- The power of product discovery through Search.
- Why vanity metrics don’t work when measuring your PR.
- What you can do optimize and a build search engine strategy as an additional component to your overall approach.
- Defining Search Engine Visibility.
- Amplifying and sustaining your brand’s voice at the top of the funnel.
- The intersection of PR and search engine strategies.
TO LEARN MORE ABOUT VISABLY, CLICK HERE.
TO FIND CHRIS DICKEY ON LINKEDIN, CLICK HERE.
Get your brand on the first page of Search. Call LORI JONES today at 303-678-7102 to learn more!
“Unless you’re a Hollywood producer, don’t get too fancy with your production.”
Gideon Shalwick is a serial entrepreneur who’s been creating content in the online video space for over a decade. Gideon launched Splasheo – a video captioning service made up of a team of real people who manually transcribe videos for brands and influencers, and then burn those captions directly into the video using engaging layouts – because he believes that captions…and not just native captions, but real, personalized captions…are what elevate video content to the next level. For Gideon, it is this personal touch that makes for true, authentic engagement.
Listen & Learn:
- Sign-up to get your first four videos FREE by joining Splasheo today! Use this link for this $99 value!
- The goal of video is three-fold: attention, engagement, and action.
- Mistakes to avoid when creating a video marketing campaign.
- Creating a visual in the minds of your audience.
- Why video content is not about going viral, it’s about relationship building.
- How to segment your content into smaller pieces of content.
TO LEARN MORE ABOUT SPLASHEO, CLICK HERE.
TO FIND GIDEON SHALWICK ON LINKEDIN, CLICK HERE.
“I want to see emerging brands succeed. We don’t want to have a world of just Coke and Pepsi.”
Carolyn Lowe founded ROI Swift in 2015 to help emerging consumer brands get expert help in Amazon, Paid Ads for Facebook/Instagram, and Paid Search. So many smaller businesses were being taken advantage of by paying agencies big dollars for no results, and Carolyn thought that was wrong. Her team grew an apparel and footwear company from $0- 12M in 18 months through paid Facebook and Instagram ads. In addition to helping her clients see larger profits, she is also an expert in e-commerce marketing communications, email marketing, market research, customer acquisition, lead generation, and agency management. Carolyn is a mom of two and a licensed pilot.
Listen & Learn:
- Why “heavy and cheap” doesn’t work on Amazon.
- The importance of understanding your fees and the Amazon marketplace.
- Best practices for writing your listing and product description on Amazon.
- It comes down to sessions and conversations.
- Why an omnichannel approach is essential.
TO LEARN MORE ABOUT ROI SWIFT, CLICK HERE.
TO FIND CAROLYN LOWE ON LINKEDIN, CLICK HERE.
Incorporating Amazon into your sales and marketing strategies. LORI JONES today at 303-678-7102 to learn more.
“The more organic, the more authentic, the less salesy, the fewer ‘buy now’ messaging in our ads, the better.”
Bethany Claypool brings more than 15 years of marketing experience to Fathom Events, where she serves as head of marketing. In her role, Bethany leads the development of custom-tailored marketing plans for more than 160 box office titles each year, ensuring the entertainment experience and success of each title while leading the strategy of Fathom’s advertising, event marketing, digital marketing, branding, sponsorships, and PR practices. Prior to joining Fathom Events, Bethany was the senior marketing manager at the University of Denver where she was responsible for creating, deploying, tracking, and measuring marketing strategies. She also gained experience at multiple advertising agencies, with a focus on employer branding and strategy development, and marketing for some of the world’s largest consumer package goods brands.
Listen & Learn:
- Using Reddit to engage your community.
- Creative and strategic approaches with Reddit that build brand awareness and audience connection.
- How to integrate social media with Reddit.
- Dispelling the myths and misconceptions of Reddit.
- Where should you start on Reddit?
- Why it’s important to enter the Reddit platform as a user first.
“How would you feel if a competitor’s ad was shown right before your video? It’s actually a very good thing.”
Nate Woodbury, owner of Be The Hero Studios, is a YouTube producer, currently producing a variety of "How To" YouTube channels. He helps his clients grow their YouTube following and turn their channels into lead generation machines that generate seven figures. His largest channel generates over $1M per month all from organic YouTube traffic. The strategic videos Nate produces ensure that customers find his clients, and more importantly, trust them. Nate is a master of efficiency and his brain always thinks in reference to the end result. He believes that activity without a focus on results is a waste of time, so he is always innovating ways to minimize time and expense and maximize results.
Listen & Learn:
- How to tap into the 1.9 billion active YouTube users.
- Why what you are sharing will ultimately make all the difference.
- Why “how-to” videos work so well.
- The importance of authenticity.
- The four ingredients to a powerful YouTube strategy.
- How to get an abundance of traffic to your YouTube channel.
“If it weren’t for salespeople, our entire economy would crumble.”
Craig Klein is the founder and CEO of SalesNexus.com, a leading CRM, marketing automation and lead generation solution for sales teams from 10 to 100. He’s also the author of Inside-Out Selling, a guide to growing and managing sales teams. Prior to founding SalesNexus, Craig spent 15 years building and leading sales teams selling multimillion dollar, multi-year contracts to energy companies like ExxonMobil, BP, Shell, and Chevron. The long, complex selling environment within these energy behemoths gives Craig a keen sense of the risk of misallocated sales time. Craig’s belief that business growth is the engine of human advancement has led him to serve as a mentor to students in the University of Houston’s Wolff Center for Entrepreneurship.
Listen & Learn:
- His approach to organizing the sales and marketing teams so they can connect to customers.
- The “Four Steps to Market Domination.”
- The difference between lead generation and lead nurturing.
- How email marketing is a wonderful laboratory to test messaging.
- How to create an effective email marketing campaign.
- Finding your perfect customer.
“Get out there and make some exciting things happen for your brand as if you didn’t have a budget!”
Randall Scott White is a driven innovator recognized for his proven business results. Throughout his 20-year career, he has been in marketing and Internet leadership positions with Clear Channel Radio, Dave's Killer Bread, Safeway, Urban Airship, and several major technology companies. His expertise is in brand integrity and reputation, corporate crisis management, product development, virtual reality, augmented reality, and effective content creation. An entrepreneur who celebrates creativity and originality, Randall is taking his career to the next level and pioneering the concept of what he calls, “resilience marketing.”
Listen & Learn:
- What should be in your resiliency marketing tool kit.
- The five-step process to creating a resilient marketing strategy.
- How to monitor your brand’s voice in the marketplace.
- Do “friendly battle” with your competition.
- Strategically responding to negative reviews.
“The starting place is about attention; how you are going to get into somebody’s mind and get into a position that they remember you.”
As VP, Head of Marketing for Cognite North America, John King drives the development and execution of the company's global marketing, communications, production, and media strategy. An early executive at the company, John built and manages the marketing organization, is the founding editor and production director of the quarterly publication, Cognitive Times, and founding producer of the company's annual global tech conference, Time Machine. John is in what he calls, “a constant state of learning,” and is a thoughtful leader driving his team to be analytical, creative, collaborative, and in a state of perpetual improvement.
Listen & Learn:
- How a great story can transform your audience.
- The importance of gleaning anecdotal data from customers.
- How product evolution is a big indicator that you’re ready for the next stage.
- How to set benchmarks throughout the many stages of business startup.
- How to make a mid-stage shift in strategy.
- What you need to know about AI, IOT, cybersecurity, and collecting data.
“Traditional media relations just isn’t enough anymore.”
Jennifer Livingston has worked in PR and marketing for 16 years. She has worked in the entertainment industry – managing Red Carpet events – and with nonprofits. Since 2012 she has worked for Atkins Nutritionals, Inc. where she manages all PR and social media for the organization. She is responsible for all corporate communications, celebrity endorsements and ambassador deals, the PR for product launches, as well as for advocacy and outreach to the nutrition and medical communities. Jennifer has an innate passion for marketing, communications, and media, and loves to help others thrive and find their voice in this industry.
Listen And Learn:
- Insights into running social media strategies in parallel with PR.
- Utilizing success stories and customer testimonials as part of PR and social strategy.
- Tricks to measuring and reporting social engagement.
- Tips to implementing a successful influencer strategy and creating partnerships.
- How to find and create advocacy with brand ambassadors.
- How social listening can help you measure success as well as insert your brand into the conversation.
“When a brand gets clear on why they exist and what kind of contribution they want to make to society, that automatically puts them into the better-for-you space.”
David Lemley is a brand strategist with a strong history in restoring growth to declining brands, developing new brands, and accelerating growth on established brands. He is the president and head of brand strategy for Retail Voodoo, a firm that helps specialty food and beverage brands address their toughest growth challenges. David focuses on the growing Better-For-You category and has worked with big brands like Starbucks and REI and Kind Bars to name a few. He loves nothing more than to dig in deep to figure out what it takes to build a strong and lasting brand. His expertise in brand strategy, innovation, consumer markets, and consumer behavior builds brand awareness and equity.
- Defining what makes a Better-For-You brand.
- His philosophy for making your competitors irrelevant through positioning.
- The differences between making assumptions versus implementing strategies when marketing better-for-you brands.
- The importance of figuring out your brand’s mind, body, and spirit.
- Creating “impressive brand story telling.”
“Yes, you have the data. But you have to be able to decipher it; is there a compelling story there?”
Michelle Howard is a senior product marketing manager at Xactly. She is responsible for the go-to-market strategy for numerous products, including Xactly Insights, Xactly SimplyComp, and Xactly Objectives. She has a strong background in product marketing for software companies in the events, telecom, internet marketing, and insurance industries. Michelle is a keen observer of trends in data application, most specifically in how it can solve complex needs and identify key problems. She is an expert on the benefit of using real-time data insights to proactively identify important areas of focus, understanding the intersection of pay and performance across sales teams, leveraging Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) to predict sales rep attrition, and in using benchmarking data elements like tenure and pay mix to identify when your team will hit optimal sales performance.
Listen & Learn:
- How COVID has impacted the buyer mindset.
- How sales reps can control their sales cycles, spikes in performance, and avoid “the hockey stick.”
- How to use data analytics to deliver the right message to the right audience at the right time.
- How brands can look at their sales funnel and help their sales reps leverage AI to predict attrition.
We use data to strategically increase the stickiness of your sales and marketing efforts. Call LORI JONES today at 303-678-7102 to learn more.
“If you say you’re innovative and then force everyone to call your 1-800 number, then you’re not doing what you say you can do.”
Maddy Martin is the head of growth and education at Smith.ai, which provides integrated phone and web chat services for solo and small businesses, including their virtual receptionist and intake service, live website chat, and Keypad cloud phone system. She has spent the last decade growing tech startups from New York to California and has expertise in digital marketing, small business communications, lead conversion, email marketing, SEO, and event marketing.
Listen & Learn:
- How to boost your ROI with proactive follow-through.
- What customers expect from a brand’s responsiveness.
- The pros and cons of chat, text, and emails.
- How to get your marketing automation, texting, chatting, Facebook messenger, and opt-in game dialed in to effectively respond to your customers.
- How to develop a system of responsiveness.
“Brand is in the mind of the consumer.”
Magda Houalla is the director of marketing strategy at AspireIQ, the leading influencer marketing platform empowering businesses to generate branded creative at scale. Magda plays a pivotal role in ensuring all existing and new brands using the AspireIQ platform are set up for success by aligning their needs with best practices and world-class strategy. Her guidance has helped brands such as Zevia, Freshly, Bed Bath & Beyond, L.L. Bean, and Walmart both expand their Influencer programs and increase campaign ROI.
Listen & Learn:
- What brands should consider when reaching out to macro-, micro-, and nano-influencers.
- Taking a community-first mindset.
- The worst mistake a marketer can make when dealing with an influencer.
- How to measure the results of your influencer program.
Take a full-funnel approach and maintain brand continuity with a strategic influencer approach. Call LORI JONES today at 303-678-7102 to learn more.
“Feedback is a gift.”
Driven by a determination to make the world a better place, Chris Yoko is focused on helping people, and the organizations they belong to, pave the road to a more utopian world. As president and CEO of Yoko Co, he helps like-minded organizations build and champion themselves using their most powerful asset, their web presence. Throughout his career, he has worked with some of the planet’s largest brands, like Ritz Carlton, Pampers, and Living Social. Chris excels at aligning strategy and execution with goals and objectives, solving unusual problems, and helping to create a remarkable experience. His background encompasses a well-rounded mix of media, sales, marketing, and entrepreneurial experience. When Chris isn’t fearlessly leading, you’ll likely find him on the ice playing hockey, with his nose buried in a book, or playing and exploring with his incredible wife and two daughters.
Listen & Learn:
- What you can learn from negative reviews.
- Setting up systems to enable your team to ask for customer reviews.
- The social listening tools Chris recommends to monitor your brand’s online reputation.
- How a well-deployed reputation management approach can build brand ambassadors.
- Recommendations for creating a reputation management approach.
- Why reputation management starts with listening.
TO LEARN MORE ABOUT YOKO CO, CLICK HERE.
TO FIND CHRIS YOKO ON LINKEDIN, CLICK HERE.
“Start with your existing customers – keep your contracts, see how you can be of service, see the problem areas that you can solve – and you will see organic growth.”
As founder and CEO of Industrial Strength Marketing, one of North America’s top B2B marketing agencies, James Soto brings 17+ years of experience and perspective working with iconic industrial brands, media, and trade organizations helping them address the challenges they face in this new era of disruptive business models, generational change, digital marketing transformation, and Industry 4.0. James is a three-time Inc. 5000 Fastest Growing Company leader, keynote speaker, and recognized contributor to Fabtech, HubSpot, Modern Machine Shop, Mashable, and LinkedIn events. He is also a prolific visionary, responsible for branding and co-producing Manufacturing Day, the largest industrial sector promotion in US history; and he is co-founder of Nashville Made, a community focused on making way for makers and manufacturers to thrive in Nashville’s urban core. He is, as he puts it, “Born industrial. Raised digital.”
Listen & Learn:
- The importance of understanding patterns in customer behavior.
- How marketers should take a “trial and learning” approach.
- How the past can inform how we approach the future.
- How to connect and empathize with the fears customers might be having during COVID.
- How marketing leaders can be of service to their teams and to their customers during times of crisis.
“It’s surprising what a machine can do just as well if not better than us.”
Neil Sahota is an IBM Master Inventor, United Nations A.I. subject matter expert, professor at UC Irvine, and globally recognized speaker and author. Neil is a founding member of the UN’s Artificial Intelligence for Social Good Committee, and author of the book, Own the A.I. Revolution, a best-seller that provides a future-forward look at A.I. Neil’s work experience spans multiple industries including healthcare, retail, travel and transportation, energy and utilities, automotive, telecommunications, media/communication, and government. Prior to his current role, he was a thought leader, consultant, and practice leader in IBM Global Business Services, where he led the sales and delivery of consulting engagements in business strategy, new product development, revenue optimization, process improvement, and business/system integration.
Listen & Learn:
- How A.I. can boost profitability and grow your business.
- Using A.I. to understand buyer behavior.
- When A.I should be deployed and when it shouldn’t.
- Using artificial intelligence can transform the customer experience.
- The key components marketers should be considering when deploying A.I. strategies.
- What agencies and big brand marketers are doing to integrate customized A.I. programs into their strategies.
Call LORI JONES today at 303-678-7102 to learn more about the tools you need to understand buyer behavior and segmentation and move your customers through the sales funnel.
“By allowing the consumer to initiate that communication, that outreach, it is so powerful because when they’ve chosen to engage, they are already interested.”
Karen Kelly is a former JWT advertising executive whose award-winning brand campaigns span from Domino’s Pizza to Rolex. In 2010, Karen launched one of Boston's most profitable photography studios from scratch, crafting the original “For Life” industry brand. She has been honored to headline national media conferences and to have co-created three sold-out Boston workshops on Sales, Branding, and The Client Experience in 2016, 2017, and 2018. Today, Karen is the CMO of Tapple, a mobile-first technology platform used to engage audiences, gather first-party data, and drive conversions at live and virtual events.
Listen & Learn:
- How to segment your audience in real-time.
- Creating conversions all along the funnel.
- How to present consumers something fun, quick, and personalized to drive an incentive.
- Why personalization is key to digital marketing.
We can help you close the gap between awareness and consideration and acquisition. Call LORI JONES today at 303-678-7102 to learn more.
“Targeted AI is like a laser-guided nuclear bomb.”
Casey Carroll is the founder of Action Advertising Agency, a Washington state-based firm that works with small- to medium-size businesses nationwide to double (or even triple) profits through both innovative and exclusive advertising campaigns. His passion is for conversion and sales, and he proudly goes against the norm by focusing on just two things: cost per acquisition and return on ad spend. Casey has helped dozens of clients double their monthly collections (some much more) and to turn their ineffective acquisition strategies into profit powerhouses. He is a sought out speaker and has been on numerous interviews as he helps audiences scale their business.
Listen & Learn:
- Targeted AI’s impact on revenue and profitability.
- The importance of LinkedIn in the B2B environment.
- Why it’s more important to test for avatars and the messaging-offer than for red versus green.
- The steps a brand should take to determine their correct social marketing mix.
- Attracting buyers at the right stage of the conversion funnel.
- The myths surrounding where you should be finding your audience.
We focus on the right part of the funnel at the right time using the right platform. Call LORI JONES today at 303-678-7102 to learn more.
“It’s key to understand how you can repurpose the skills, capabilities, and resources in your organization to solve new problems.”
Graeme Strachan is a management consultant with a passion for helping companies succeed by aligning operational reality to strategic intent. Working across industries as diverse as financial services, mining, education, digital media, and the not-for profit world for 20 years, he is known to bring breakthrough-thinking to solve complex business problems. Graeme is committed through client work and community involvement to making Denver a better place to work and live. As CEO of ViTL Solutions his job is to support and develop the company’s team so each individual is enabled and enthused to deliver outstanding results for their clients.
Listen & Learn:
- How companies can traverse the value gap once the COVID crisis is over.
- Ensuring that you can create as much value as possible for the costs of your goods and services.
- Solving new problems for new and existing customers.
- Understanding how you can repurpose the skills, capabilities, and resources in your organization to solve new problems.
- How your value proposition changed because of COVID.
- Why straight talk, reassurance, and consistency is important during the COVID crisis.
TO LEARN MORE ABOUT VITL, CLICK HERE.
TO FIND GRAEME STRACHAN ON LINKEDIN, CLICK HERE.
“When you are experiencing disruption and change, there is no better time to disrupt and change.”
Shawn Rogers, vice president of corporate marketing at TIBCO, is an internationally recognized strategist, thought leader, speaker, and author specializing in artificial intelligence, machine learning, analytics, business intelligence, Cloud, IoT, Big Data, and social media technologies. He has founded and sold two Internet/media start-ups and co-founded the BeyeNETWORK. Shawn guided the company's international growth strategy and helped the BeyeNETWORK grow globally making it the largest and most-read online community covering analytics, business intelligence, data warehousing, and data integration.
Listen & Learn:
- What smart companies are doing to keep their brands vibrant during the COVID crisis.
- Why brands need to shift their focus to include a more service-oriented message.
- There’s a time to drive our businesses and then there’s a time to be part of a community and look for ways to help that community.
- How to use the current crisis to differentiate your brand.
- Why it’s important to have a handle on the analytical environment that impacts your business.
- Why it’s important to be beware of the data changes that are impacting your businesses during the COVID crisis.
TO LEARN MORE ABOUT TIBCO, CLICK HERE.
TO FIND SHAWN ROGERS ON LINKEDIN, CLICK HERE.
Taking control of the narrative surrounding your brand is more important now than ever. I give advice on providing straight talk to your customers and your team during COVID-19 on part one of my new marketing mini-series.
Listen & Learn:
- Without consistent communication, a bad storm will only become worse.
- How to manage your reputation during the COVID-19 pandemic.
- Straight talk is the rule of the day: Be real, reassure, and be consistent.
- Tips to drive your marketing and crisis communications in today’s uncertain marketplace.
“You can grow your audience and email list by thousands of prospects.”
Liam Austin, co-founder of Entrepreneurs HQ, is a virtual event planner and host, an online conference consultant, and a virtual summit strategist for people and businesses looking to increase their authority, grow their email lists (and audience), build a network of influencers, and generate additional revenue. The Entrepreneurs HQ community attracts experts to cover key topics of interest to their audience of 150,000+ small business owners, and he works with key partners to help promote these virtual summits, giving free value to audiences while partners benefit from exposure and revenue. His career has spanned the globe, from Australia to Europe to America, and he has been featured in multiple publications including BRW, The Australian, Inc., Startup Smart, Real Estate Business, and others.
Listen & Learn:
- Establishing authority and rapport with your audiences through video during a virtual event.
- Leveraging your audience to create virality and grow your brand ambassadors with virtual meetings, events, and conferences.
- Virtual meetings can make it easier to attract top speakers and influencers to your event.
- How virtual events can generate revenue.
- The cost of a virtual event cost.
- Keeping up with technology and improving your interactive virtual events.
TO LEARN MORE ABOUT ENTREPRENEURS HQ, CLICK HERE.
TO FIND LIAM AUSTIN ON LINKEDIN, CLICK HERE.
“Only collect the data you intend to use.”
Scott Cohen is a proven email marketing veteran with 15 years of experience as both a brand-side marketer and email marketing agency executive. Currently, Scott is the senior email marketing manager at purple, where he combines his award-winning copywriting chops and industry-renowned email marketing strategy and execution expertise into building, growing, and optimizing a $100MM+ email marketing program.
Listen And Learn:
- Where most email programs fail.
- How to build an effective list.
- Why he prefers a single opt-in approach.
- Measuring KPIs.
- GDPR regulations.
- The need for direct and explicit opt-ins.
- How email marketing ties into the larger customer experience.
TO LEARN MORE ABOUT PURPLE, CLICK HERE.
TO FIND SCOTT COHEN ON LINKEDIN, CLICK HERE.
“Eventually the good messaging will resonate and spread with good people.”
David DeCamillis is vice president of Sales and Marketing at Platte River Networks, a Denver-based IT Managed Services firm. He has quite the story to tell about how his company “survived the Hillary Clinton email scandal.” During that tumultuous time, his firm was dragged headfirst into the international crisis that included paparazzi, congressional and federal investigations, and death threats. But he and the company survived through timely crisis management, dedication, and perseverance. David is well-known for his expertise in security enhancements, employee training, social media damage control, media management, website preservation, client communication, and more. He serves as president and founder of Denver Technology Partners and the Denver Biz Tech Expo.
Listen And Learn:
- Insights into handling damage control in the media and on social media.
- Managing messaging with internal and external audiences.
- The impact of a crisis on Google searches, reviews, and rankings.
- The importance of hiring a media and PR firm BEFORE a crisis.
- How to push out positive and uplifting stories as part of a crisis and rebranding strategy.
TO LEARN MORE ABOUT PLATTE RIVER NETWORKS, CLICK HERE.
TO FIND DAVID DECAMILLIS ON LINKEDIN, CLICK HERE.