The Messengers

Working with outside agencies like PR firms, advertising agencies, and marketing agencies can cause a lot of problems for entrepreneurs and small business owners. Should you hire an outside agency at all? If so, do you need an advertising agency, a marketing company, or a PR firm? Do you need to hire more than one? All three? Mostly that starts with understanding what each of those agencies can and will do for you, and what they won't. All these topics and more covered in this episode of The Messengers podcast (https://messengers.blog)!

Price comparison shopping has become so prevalent that it's starting to have negative consequences for business owners and consumers who only look at price without evaluating the value provided by both low- and higher-cost options. How cheap or expensive an item is doesn't have anything to do with the size of the price tag; it's all about how much value you get for what you spend. This episode is a deep dive on evaluating your options beyond just the price tag.

Digital printing is a relative newcomer in the world of printed media and we often face a lot of questions with regard to when we choose to use one process over the other. On this episode of The Messengers podcast (https://messengers.blog), Chris Searles (www.christophersearles.com) and Rob Seifert of Searles Graphics (www.searlesgraphics.com) discuss the differences between digital printing and offset printing, the pros and cons of each print process, and when you might choose to use one instead of the other.

Many business and individuals are guilty of failing to follow the most basic of cyber security steps to protect their own information, and the personal information of their employees and customers. Far too often we see the lack of simple procedures result in data breaches, stolen credit cards, identity theft, financial issues, and massive headaches for everyone involved. In this episode of The Messengers podcast, Chris Searles (www.christophersearles.com) and Rob Seifert discuss the most basic of security procedures and policies that all businesses should follow. Even if you don't own a business, there is a ton of information in this episode on how individual people can keep their personal information safe from attackers. Visit https://messengers.blog for full episode notes and more from The Messengers!

One of the hardest things for entrepreneurs and small business owners to wrap their heads around when it comes to marketing and advertising their business is how much they should be spending on those activities. In this episode of The Messengers podcast, Chris Searles and Rob Seifert discuss the issue of budgeting your marketing and advertising activities, with specific detail about how much you should actually be spending and the proper way to account for those expenses. Visit https://messengers.blog for full show notes, including links to all of the resources mentioned in this episode!

Many entrepreneurs and businesses spend far too much time, effort, and money on logo design. While your logo holds some importance, it’s not the make-or-break endeavor that many make it out to be. Whether it’s spending too much on logo design, or agonizing over details that won’t matter at all to your business, mistakes happen in the logo design process all the time. On the other hand, there are a number of important elements when it comes to choosing a logo designer that need to be considered, but don’t need to cost a fortune. In this episode of The Messengers podcast, Chris Searles and Rob Seifert discuss some of the common logo design pitfalls they see entrepreneurs and marketers fall into, as well as the misconceptions many hold when it comes to understanding what a logo is actually supposed to do. They provide important information you should be sure to discuss with your logo designer to make sure your logo will work across all mediums, and get into everything from digital vs. print color-palettes to whether or not your logo should be updated and at what frequency. Visit https://messengers.blog to find links to your favorite podcast or streaming service, or click here to subscribe to The Messengers on YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC_q1Z9BVf0HnSIcGUXs_jqA).

Deploying your website is just step one in the long process of maximizing that shiny new domain name you just purchased. All of the effort getting things just right is wasted if you’re not measuring the performance of your website, and then making changes based on the results you see. Modern analytics tools– the most common and accessible being Google Analytics– make measuring your website’s effectiveness simple.  Unfortunately, even for many who see the value in analyzing their analytics data, they’re often left overwhelmed by the sheer amount of information that’s presented to them In this episode of The Messengers podcast, Chris Searles and Rob Seifert provide an overview on the features of Google Analytics to help demystify the platform. They provide examples of how they use Google Analytics to improve the performance of their websites, and share some of the concerns and mistakes they see clients make using the platform for their own business. They discuss everything from finding out how people are getting to your website, using Google Analytics to identify which pages of your website are serving user’s needs and which ones aren’t, how to use Google Analytics to see what parts of your website are the most engaging and, most importantly, how to use Google Analytics to drive sales. Visit https://messengers.blog to find links to your favorite podcast or streaming service and to get the latest from The Messengers! 

To some, direct mail sounds like an outdated marketing method. But with the oversaturation we’re seeing in digital marketing mediums, it’s as (or more) effective than ever. In fact, for many marketers, it’s the single best direct response marketing medium they have. In this episode of The Messengers podcast, Chris Searles and Rob Seifert of Searles Graphics discuss the benefits that direct mail marketing can bring to a business and how they’ve managed to use direct mail to make a difference for their own clients. They discuss the various ways you can get a mailing piece to your target audience, how to build or acquire your mailing list, and how to deal with post office regulations (we know it can be hard). They also touch on the actual design of your direct mail marketing, and how to maximize the effectiveness of your direct mail piece through creative and intelligent design.

Keeping your website up-to-date can be one of the most difficult tasks for a small business. Very few small businesses and entrepreneurs are able to dedicate personnel to this task, which means it usually falls by the wayside until it gets so bad it can no longer be ignored. At that point, it comes time to make a decision on whether you’re looking at an update or a complete, ground-up rebuild. It would be nice if there was a rule we could follow, such as “if it has been X years since you did Y, you need to start from scratch.” Unfortunately the real answer isn’t so straightforward. In this episode of The Messengers podcast, Chris Searles and Rob Seifert discuss the correct approach to a website redesign - one based on data and facts rather than subjective opinion. We discuss some of the technical aspects behind rebuilding a website for a business, how to identify when a website needs a full redesign, how to use the data that your current website provides to optimize rather than rebuild, and most importantly, what you should be doing to turn views and clicks into revenue for your company.

Search engine optimization, or SEO, can be one of the hardest aspects of digital marketing. But with the majority of people picking from the first page of Google’s search results when they need a service or product, organic search optimization is a critical part of any comprehensive marketing strategy. And with paid search engine advertising being more prominent than ever, navigating the Google landscape can be more confusing than ever. In this episode of The Messengers podcast, Chris Searles and Rob Seifert discuss what SEO is really all about, debunk some of the myths that seem to permeate small businesses about search engine optimization, and provide best practices that they implement for their own clients. They discuss balancing search advertising and organic search results, what you can do to boost your own rankings, understanding what your potential customers are actually searching for and how to beat the competition. They also explain how a consistent content stream, relevant to your searchers’ interests is the most important way to set yourself apart from everybody else. Don't forget to visit https://messengers.blog for the latest from The Messengers!