How Agapi Helps During COVID-19

covid-19 restrictions

Are COVID-19 restrictions lifting for good?

It’s been over a month since I last posted here.  Dealing with the restrictions and lockdown of businesses and society has been challenging for all of us.

But now there is light at the end of the tunnel!  Restrictions are starting be lifted and businesses are slowly being permitted to open (with certain regulations still in place to continue to protect everyone against this virus).

Today I published a new podcast.  This is an audio version of my last uploaded video, along with an updated introduction.  As we start to take baby steps toward “normalcy”, make sure that your business is prepared – not just for now, but with a strategy for the future.  I have assisted a couple of local businesses recently and they have been kind enough to provide testimonials, which I invite you to read.

For more tips on how to improve your business, catch my videos on the Agapi YouTube channel, like us on Facebook, or follow us on Twitter.

Listen here or download the podcast.

Did you know? Our podcast is available on 7 platforms.

Are you ready to grow your business now? If you’re ready to take the next step and make your business more profitable, please reach out to us.

If you like the information you are receiving, please share this post.

Getting More Clients When Times Are Tough

getting more clients when times are tough

How do you get clients when times are tough?

Getting new clients is a challenge at the best of times, but when the economy has slowed down, it can be an even bigger challenge.

This Small Business Tips Show broadcast was originally aired in 2015. But the information in this podcast is as relevant today as it was then. Economies are cyclical, and there are always the inevitable ups and downs. Listen in for some strategies and real life examples of how to survive in tough times.

For more tips on how to improve your business, catch my videos on the Agapi YouTube channel, like us on Facebook, or follow us on Twitter.

Listen here or download the podcast.

Did you know? Our podcast is available on 7 platforms.

Are you ready to grow your business now? If you’re ready to take the next step and make your business more profitable, please reach out to us.

If you like the information you are receiving, please share this post.

Marketing – Back By Popular Demand!

marketing your business podcast

Marketing – digging deeper!

One of our earlier podcasts about marketing with Frank Thomas of the Small Business Tips Show was highly acclaimed. Due to its popularity, we dove into the deep end with even more discussion about effective marketing. In this interview, we dig deeper into marketing your business.

For more tips on how to improve your business, catch my videos on the Agapi YouTube channel, like us on Facebook, or follow us on Twitter.

Listen here or download our podcast.

Did you know? Our podcast is available on 7 platforms.

Are you ready to grow your business now? If you’re ready to take the next step and make your business more profitable, please reach out to us.

If you like the information you are receiving, please share this post.

Podcast – Marketing Interview Part 4

marketing interview part four

The final segment of our 4 part podcast on marketing is now available.

The full interview, which is about 40 minutes long, will be shared here on Thursday. But if you want it in smaller segments, please check out each of the ~10 minute breakout segments.

Listen here or download the podcast. 

Please take the time to listen, share, and give me your feedback.

Are you ready to grow your business now? If you’re ready to take the next step and make your business more profitable, please reach out to us.

If you like the information you are receiving, please share this post.

Grow Your Business through Storytelling

telling stories for business

Get the attention of your audience through unique and authentic storytelling!

“A story can cross the barriers of time – past, present, future – and allows us to experience the similarities between ourselves and through others,” says Andrew Stanton, a filmmaker at Pixar.

Customers are looking for something that is unique and relatable to them and storytelling is an age-old method that allows businesses to relate to potential buyers.

Here are 3 elements of storytelling that can help turn the mundane into something of great appeal:

Emotion. Take your customer back to those times they will never forget with emotional appeals, such as sympathy, envy, or intrigue. Move them through from one emotional state to another as the narrative unfolds. This only intensifies their connection with your product and brand.

Authenticity. Be honest. Speak truth and life about the brand and the audience it is speaking to. This will grab their attention while also creating a reputation for your brand.

Relatability. Make a connection to your audience. Do your research on who you are targeting. Appeal to your audience through situations they have also experienced, and also challenges they have overcome.

Use these strategies to make a connection with your audience:

Make Your Story Centered around their Situation and Needs
Make People Feel a Part of the Story Experience
Listen & Create a Relevant Context
Showcase Your Values

Once you have made an effective connection, your message will be absorbed deep in their hearts and minds.

Are you ready to grow your business now? If you’re ready to take the next step and make your business more profitable, please reach out to us.

If you like the information you are receiving, please share this post.

Creating Optimal Content and Customer Experience

great content

Customers are looking for great content.

On the internet, standing out poses a daunting challenge, and at the same time, the best opportunity for creativity and bringing some attention to your site. Adding the extra “POW” to your content will pique a customer’s’ curiosity, build their interest, and over the course of a few transactions, earn their loyalty.

This is achieved through web content that goes far beyond ordinary but without all of the sensory overload. Each aspect of your site should have its own purpose—from the background to the logo to the informative blog. Every part is a solid brick in the foundation of your establishment’s site.

Here are some possible “add-ons” to consider to make your site stand out:

– Demo/explainer videos
– Client testimonials
– A page for reviews
– Informational text that actually informs—as opposed to simply luring the client
– Interactive questionnaire
– Easy-to-follow graphics
– A healthy combination and balance of “all-the-above”
– The compelling story of your business began and most importantly, where it’s going

And don’t forget a user-friendly “contact us” page or even an option for a live Chat with a knowledgeable representative from your company? You’re only limited to your own and your team’s imagination.

So the time has come to set that staff meeting and do a plus/delta on your site’s current features. What’s working and drawing in an audience, and what’s not working? What is the purpose of each and every feature of your site? What are some viable changes that can be made? Who is your target audience? How can you make your site not only engaging but also user-friendly?

As you can tell, some guidance from an experienced digital marketing consultant should come in handy. You are the experts in your product or service; so allow some room for the marketing experts to help.

Essential Questions to ask about Customer Experience

User experience with your site can make or break your business. Think about it. A slow interface, a shopping cart that’s difficult to navigate, or even one small glitch can drive traffic away and steer potential customers toward the next result that showed up on the list of search results. So how do you keep this from happening?

Working with a knowledgeable and experienced team of designers and developers can make quite a difference in creating the best customer experience possible. When searching for such a team, you might need to keep a few ideas in mind such as

– Can they reduce my site’s loading time?
– Can they create engaging content that includes images?
– Can they strike a balance between SEO and treating my audience like “real people”?
– Can they build a user-friendly check-out?
– Can they build a user-friendly customer service Chat and/or Email page?

Thus, looking at these many aspects related to a customer’s experience is as vital to us as it is to you. Helping your business to thrive is our ultimate goal and mission.

By joining forces with your team, we can assist you in improving the customer’s experience. What if you’re just barely getting started? We can build on that foundation as well. Either way, we’ll explore several options, analyze data, and minimize as much trial-and-error as possible to get your site running as quickly and smoothly as possible.

Are you ready to grow your business now? If you’re ready to take the next step and make your business more profitable, please reach out to us.

If you like the information you are receiving, please share this post.

Your Business Needs SEO, Whether You Understand its Complexity or Not.

ranking factors

Does SEO Confuse You?

You are not alone.

SEO is a complex process, indeed. Google has over 200 ranking factors!

Plenty of research is being conducted quarterly and yearly by different organizations to understand Google’s ranking factors. Here are some of the findings from a recent study:

– Between the top 3rd and 20th position in Google search results, there is a 45% difference in content length.
– Between the 1st and 10th positions, there is a 10,000 difference in referring domains.

Content and backlinks are extremely important in SEO.

Reach out if you need SEO explained to you from a perspective that you care about without the technobabble. That is, how it will affect your bottom line.

Are you ready to grow your business now? If you’re ready to take the next step and make your business more profitable, please reach out to us.

If you like the information you are receiving, please share this post.

Reputation Marketing and How It Can Affect Your Business

positive reputation

Creating and maintaining a positive reputation for your business is vital.

And it’s an important aspect in creating a loyal customer base while building your brand.

No major successful or popular brand started out and became successful with a negative reputation. In fact, the reputation of a business has been proven to have a significant influence on customer loyalty, satisfaction, and trust.

Customer retention is something that the majority of big and successful companies thrive on. Customers that are happy are more likely to be return customers who spend more money, and in turn, tell their friends and family about their experience.

Having a reputation marketing strategy in place should be the first thing your company focuses on when building your reputation.

More and more businesses are encouraging their customers to go online and post reviews about their experiences. There are many big review sites out there and the data you get from them can be invaluable to your reputation marketing campaign.

Managing these review sites builds trust and authority for your brand and shows your transparency and accountability. Getting feedback about your business and your brand provides you with valuable insights on where your business is falling short, and how you can improve. Even good feedback can be improved on.

Believe it or not, there are many companies that have failed due to having a bad reputation, and either not knowing, or not doing anything about it until it was too late.

On the other hand, it’s worth mentioning that companies with a good reputation financially outperformed companies with bad reputations in every way.

With a good reputation marketing strategy in hand, your business will benefit from higher brand equity, exponential growth, and a flood of loyal customers with increased customer lifetime value worth 10 times as much as their first purchase.

Don’t wait. Take control of your reputation marketing strategy today, and get started building your businesses trust, brand, and reputation today.

Are you ready to grow your business now? If you’re ready to take the next step and make your business more profitable, please reach out to us.

If you like the information you are receiving, please share this post.

Take Advantage of Reputation Marketing to Gain Customer Trust

customer trust

Customer trust! It’s the key to getting and keeping business online.

Any smart business that is keeping up with current business trends will know all about how reputation marketing can affect their business, and how it directly affects things like customer retention, brand awareness, and most importantly, consumer trust.

And if you aren’t taking advantage of online review sites for your business, you could be missing out on gaining more customers and clients.

Having a good reputation marketing strategy where you have someone manage the aspects of online reviews can be very rewarding especially when it comes to building trust for your brand.

Getting listed on these review sites is the first step in wowing potential customers, and at the same time showing these future prospects that you care about your brand, and care about customer experience. If you don’t do this, your competition will, and are already likely taking advantage of getting positive reviews.

Don’t wait a minute longer to find out that your business has unchecked reviews online. Take control of your reputation marketing strategy now.

Are you ready to grow your business now? If you’re ready to take the next step and make your business more profitable, please reach out to us.

If you like the information you are receiving, please share this post.

How Using Multiple Social Media Sites Can Grow Your Business

social sites

You should be using more than one social site.

Today’s customers are not only sticking with one social media site. Your target audience is active on many different sites every single day. Actually, here are some statistics from a recent study that show exactly that:

– 28% are on 1 site
– 24% are on 2 sites
– 16% are on 3 sites
– 8% are on 4 sites
– 4% are on 5 sites

Now that you know that your potential new customer is constantly using multiple social media channels, what does that mean for you?

It means that you also need to be visible to them on multiple social media websites! But how are you supposed to know which channel is right for you?

Here is a breakdown of who is using each of the top social media channels according to Pew Internet Research:

Facebook:

– 82% of online adults between 18-29
– 72% of all adult internet users
– 62% of the whole adult population
– Especially popular with women

LinkedIn:

– 25% of adult internet users
– 46% of online adults who are college graduates use LinkedIn
– Popular with those with high household incomes

Twitter:

– 23% of all internet users
– 30% of online adults under 50
– Most common in urban areas

These statistics show that you could have access to many new customers by simply expanding your social media presence to other networks. We strongly urge you to add your business to more social media sites so that you can begin reaching more of your target audience today!

If you have any questions or want more information on social media marketing, we’re an email away.

Are you ready to grow your business now? If you’re ready to take the next step and make your business more profitable, please reach out to us.

If you like the information you are receiving, please share this post.

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