This week’s show is a continuation in a series of shows dedicated to sharing detailed information on the various chapters that appear in WSI’s 3rd edition of the best-selling book, Digital Minds
In the recently released 3rd edition of the book Digital Minds, I had the pleasure of authoring the chapter on “conversational marketing,” a relatively new way to build relationships online and help enhance conversions and connections.
During this week’s webinar, I walk attendees through the concept and how technologies such as AI (artificial intelligence), personas, automation, and chatbots are changing the way both consumers behave online, and how businesses provide service and support.
About The Author - Eric Cook
Eric Cook is a former 15-year community bank executive, now serving the financial services industry as a digital strategist and award-winning web designer with WSI since 2007.
Cook is a sought-after, nationally-recognized speaker in the banking sector and is on faculty at six banking schools across the country where he educates community banking professionals on how to build relationships and credibility online.
He’s also a 2003 graduate of the Graduate School of Banking at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, holds undergraduate degrees in business and psychology, as well as an M.B.A. in general business.
This week’s show is a continuation in a series of shows dedicated to sharing detailed information on the various chapters that appear in WSI’s 3rd edition of the best-selling book, Digital Minds.
One of the fundamental components of a digital marketing strategy is to first “take a look around” and see how you stack up against the competition. Of course, that’s assuming you’ve got a good handle on who your competition is, especially in today’s online world!
But before you begin your online marketing efforts and spend time developing a digital strategy, it’s a good idea to first take a look at what the competition is doing, how your products or services stack up… all with the intent of better understanding the marketplace and what opportunities exist for you to make money!
Joining me for this week’s show is a fellow returning Digital Minds author and WSI consultant from South Africa, Francois Muscat. I’ve known Francois for as long as I’ve been a part of the WSI family (12 years now), and in addition to the excellent first chapter to kick off the book, he’s also my “go-to-guy” for all things LinkedIn. You’re gonna love this show!
Meet Our Guest - Francois Muscat
With 15 years of digital marketing experience, this baby boomer challenges himself every day. Francois is known for his ability to simplify complex digital marketing tactics, and he leads by example when consulting to his clients. He is an established professional speaker and avid blogger and holds a Master’s Degree in Information Technology.
As a speaker, trainer, and consultant, Francois endeavors to remain at the top of his game through continuous learning. He is a subject matter expert in SEO, Content Marketing, and social media. He enjoys fishing, caravanning, and spending time with his family.
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If you are not yet registered for the Free Webinar Wednesdays series, click here to register. We look forward to seeing you online!
About Free Webinar Wednesdays
Free Webinar Wednesdays was created as a community building tool to bring professionals together to share pertinent business development information, provide subject matter experts with a platform to open a learning dialog, and inspire small business owners to reach their professional goals.
Free Webinar Wednesdays is sponsored by WSI Digital.
You’d never go on a road trip without a map (or let’s be honest - you’re likely using the GPS on your phone, right?). So why try and navigate your business online without one? In the world of digital marketing, there are few places you can find a written “how to” on the challenges of navigating the many options that are out there - but it’s hard to know where to start. This industry is one that is often inherited or learned through the many experts in the field sharing their experiences, successes and failures. As an expert in the field, Eric Cook from WSI discusses the road map to digital marketing using the 2nd edition of their book ‘Digital Minds: 12 Things Every Business Needs to Know About Digital Marketing’.
The 12 chapters of this book are available individually for free as PDFs, so you can get access to the full content at no cost. During today’s session you’ll hear about everything from conducting competitive research, the power of Google Analytics, tips for improving email marketing, the key elements of a landing page, and more!
Join Eric, where he actually joins the show from the comfort of his RV while spending time Pennsylvania - on his way to teach at the PA Bankers Advanced School of Banking. There’s a good chance as soon as the webinar concluded he was off to the trails with his mountain bike - check out the WSI Cycling site for even more details on how . Be sure to share your comments or questions regarding this webinar and any past shows below!
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If you are not yet registered for the Free Webinar Wednesdays series, click here to register. We look forward to seeing you online!
About Free Webinar Wednesdays
Free Webinar Wednesdays was created as a community building tool to bring professionals together to share pertinent business development information, provide subject matter experts with a platform to open a learning dialog, and inspire small business owners to reach their professional goals.
Free Webinar Wednesdays is sponsored by CBCi and WSI Digital.
Have you ever wondered why ads are popping up on your browser for things you were looking at yesterday? Maybe the shopping cart that you have open on tab 12, is shly giving you a reminder that you NEED those items? The reality is, advertising technologies have changed a lot over the years, so in this week’s episode, Eric talks about how your business can understand and utilize the tools of consumer tracking programs to maximize relevancy and the effectiveness of your online advertising efforts.
Much of the power of online advertising is powered by cookies, and we’re not talking about a website is sending you a cookie basket in the mail for visiting their site (although that would be a tasty surprise). While the tracking knowledge can make some people uncomfortable, this episode’s underlying theme is “using our powers for good” when it comes to leveraging tracking data to be as effective as possible when it comes to your online advertising message. Good data optimizes success, both for the customer and your business and we’ll dive into the three steps that you need to take in order to fully take advantage of this tracking (known as remarketing) technology.
This week’s episode also highlights Search Engine Marketing, known to many as “SEM”. The first step in any marketing plan is to produce a Situational Analysis: the who, what, where, when, how. Answer the questions for your business, determine your target audience, and adjust to their preference of communication channel. There are three main areas within a Situational Analysis; under this term you have demographics, geographic areas, and positioning strategies. From there, you can develop an advertising campaign to get your message in front of the right target audience!
If you are looking to increase your customer engagement and retention, learn more about browser tracking programs, and delve deeper into the different advertising channels, you need to be sure to watch this week's episode. If you’re still feeling overwhelmed, that’s ok. There’s a lot to know, but the good news is that there are agencies out there (like WSI) who are here to help and partner with you to help achieve success online.
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If you are not yet registered for the Free Webinar Wednesdays series, click here to register. We look forward to seeing you online!
About Free Webinar Wednesdays
Free Webinar Wednesdays was created as a community building tool to bring professionals together to share pertinent business development information, provide subject matter experts with a platform to open a learning dialog, and inspire small business owners to reach their professional goals.
Free Webinar Wednesdays is sponsored by CBCi and WSI Digital.
In today's online world, there are few things that you cannot purchase digitally at the snap of your fingers (and most of the time, it’s on Amazon). This global marketplace is creating increased competition and a multitude of consumer choices, making it even harder to differentiate yourself online.
Knowing this, how are you positioning your brand/business to stand out as a strong competitor among those in your industry? On this week’s episode of Free Webinar Wednesdays, Eric joins from Wichita, Kansas where he is delivering a keynote presentation based on the ‘Amazon Effect as it relates to the community banking sector. He breaks the strategy down into five categories, all of which could serve as advantage points to your business (yes, even if you’re not in banking).
This week’s episode also highlights some of the new features on Twitter, as they are updating the desktop version of their website, making it a cleaner and more “mobile-like” experience for users. Eric discusses the importance of the Lists functionality and how you can use that to improve your engagement by sorting those you want to follow into organized groups (so you don’t miss important updates). In previous webinars, Eric has emphasized the need for engagement among your followers/website users, and this function is one way to accomplish that goal.
He also hops over to TweetDeck, an optional interface to use your Twitter account, with the ability to create separate columns with feeds of key tweets, Lists, Mentions, etc. and see even more from one screen to work smarter (not just harder) when building your brand on Twitter. Whether you work on your mobile, the new desktop version or give TweetDeck a try, you’ll discover the platform offers an abundance of opportunities to obtain and retain followers, use these to your advantage and push the limits of your industry to stand out among the crowd. So if you’re looking to increase engagement and learn more about the tools Twitter provides, be sure to check out this week’s webinar with Eric Cook!
Register Today
If you are not yet registered for the Free Webinar Wednesdays series, click here to register. We look forward to seeing you online!
About Free Webinar Wednesdays
Free Webinar Wednesdays was created as a community building tool to bring professionals together to share pertinent business development information, provide subject matter experts with a platform to open a learning dialog, and inspire small business owners to reach their professional goals.
Free Webinar Wednesdays is sponsored by CBCi and WSI Digital.
Facebook was the first social media platform to provide alternative reaction options to respond to someone's post; these reactions include various emotions that better represent your mood rather than a “like”. As discussed in the webinar, LinkedIn has recently launched their version of this concept with four different emoticons used to capture the users opinion on the post: like (blue thumb), celebrate (green hands clapping, love (red heart), insightful, (yellow lightbulb), and curious (yellow “hmm” face).
In this week's episode, Eric dives into the many different parallels between Facebook and LinkedIn’s reaction capabilities. He also talks about how you can better understand your LinkedIn connections. While the functionality of connection has always been a constant on Linkedin, there is the ability to reach far more. Eric talks about the characterization of the tiers of connections, while also explaining how to reach more people and start future digital business endeavors. This week Eric also opens the conversation to content creation within LinkedIn and how to do it effectively. He mentions a connection of his, and comments on the fluidity and consistency of his self produced articles, that consist of headlines, compelling information, and graphics.
He also talks about the increased reach through mobile devices on LinkedIn,discussing the difference between the mobile app and desktop Linkedin usage, and how you can use these differences to benefit your business to gain new connections. He shares a personal anecdote that surrounds the “Kudos” function on Linkedin, and how a fellow WSI colleague gained two prospect clients from it.
If you’re looking for some tips on getting more out of your time on LinkedIn the opportunities it can create, be sure to check out the replay of this week’s show!!
Register Today
If you are not yet registered for the Free Webinar Wednesdays series, click here to register. We look forward to seeing you online!
About Free Webinar Wednesdays
Free Webinar Wednesdays was created as a community building tool to bring professionals together to share pertinent business development information, provide subject matter experts with a platform to open a learning dialog, and inspire small business owners to reach their professional goals.
This week on the show Eric shares a few apps/tools that he's using to stay more organized and productive, as well as learning while on the go. You'll want to check out Expensify if you've not done that already. And, start taking notes using the Rocketbook Everlast to merge your offline (pen and paper) with the online (tags, archival, organization) world and you'll thank me later. Combined with an Evernote account and you've got the ultimate note taking setup!
Eric also shares some of the podcasts that he's listening to now, covering things like banking, technology, social media, productivity, etc. Finally, you'll learn about some additional learning opportunities through sites like Lynda.com (or LinkedIn Learning) and Udemy to take your skillset to the next level. Enjoy!
Register Today
If you are not yet registered for the Free Webinar Wednesdays series, click here to register. We look forward to seeing you online!
About Free Webinar Wednesdays
Free Webinar Wednesdays was created as a community building tool to bring professionals together to share pertinent business development information, provide subject matter experts with a platform to open a learning dialog, and inspire small business owners to reach their professional goals.
Free Webinar Wednesdays is sponsored by CBCi and WSI Digital.
Eric spends time during today's webinar reviewing several digital marketing tools that can help today's marketer get more done (and the good news is most all of them are FREE). You'll learn how to better content, organize your thoughts, create engaging video, automate tasks, and more.
Wrapping up, you'll be able to check out a great infographic with 100 more tools that you can put to use right away! So what are you waiting for? Click play and check out some of the great tools that you can start using today.
Register Today
If you are not yet registered for the Free Webinar Wednesdays series, click here to register. We look forward to seeing you online!
About Free Webinar Wednesdays
Free Webinar Wednesdays was created as a community building tool to bring professionals together to share pertinent business development information, provide subject matter experts with a platform to open a learning dialog, and inspire small business owners to reach their professional goals.
It's been gone for a few years, but LinkedIn recently announced their Events feature is making a comeback. If you live in San Francisco or New York, there's a chance you've got access to the beta version of the service and can use it to schedule, invite, and manage attendees for your next in person event.
Also, Eric reviews an article on what a modern day marketing program should look like, as well as a few of his favorite productivity apps to help you work smarter, not just harder, in the coming year. Enjoy!
Register Today
If you are not yet registered for the Free Webinar Wednesdays series, click here to register. We look forward to seeing you online!
About Free Webinar Wednesdays
Free Webinar Wednesdays was created as a community building tool to bring professionals together to share pertinent business development information, provide subject matter experts with a platform to open a learning dialog, and inspire small business owners to reach their professional goals.
This week on the show Eric goes over a few of the recently added LinkedIn features, as well as the importance of the #SocialSellingIndex. We also talk about green-dots, Find Nearby, voicemail, #kudos, etc.
As one of the key elements in WSI's Site, Search, Social, and Mobile strategy, having a solid social leg to stand on is becoming increasingly important in building a brand online. If you're looking to up your game on LinkedIn, be sure check out the recording for some great ideas.
Register Today
If you are not yet registered for the Free Webinar Wednesdays series, click here to register. We look forward to seeing you online!
About Free Webinar Wednesdays
Free Webinar Wednesdays was created as a community building tool to bring professionals together to share pertinent business development information, provide subject matter experts with a platform to open a learning dialog, and inspire small business owners to reach their professional goals.