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Effective Marketing for the Home Services Industry, with Richard Blount, Four Winds Marketing

November 29, 2023 by John Ray

Four Winds Marketing
North Fulton Business Radio
Effective Marketing for the Home Services Industry, with Richard Blount, Four Winds Marketing
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Four Winds Marketing

Effective Marketing for the Home Services Industry, with Richard Blount, Four Winds Marketing  (North Fulton Business Radio, Episode 722)

In this episode of North Fulton Business Radio, host John Ray spoke with Richard Blount of Four Winds Marketing. They discussed the importance of SEO and effective marketing for home service providers, focusing on the need for a professionally designed, functional website that caters to the end user and fosters immediate engagement. Richard highlighted how SEO involves technical, on-page, and off-page aspects, and he underlined the need to refresh a business’s look every four to five years to remain updated and relevant. Richard also shared success stories of businesses that experienced significant growth through his effective online marketing strategies.

North Fulton Business Radio is broadcast from the North Fulton studio of Business RadioX® inside Renasant Bank in Alpharetta.

Four Winds Marketing

Four Winds Marketing is a full-service creative and digital marketing agency.

They increase online traffic and engagement for more booked appointments and visibility. They provide services such as website development, SEO, SEM/PPC, Social Media, Email Marketing, and SaaS solutions.

Four Wind’s primary clients are in the home services industry, like electricians, HVAC, plumbing, landscaping, tree services, etc.

Company website | LinkedIn | Facebook | Instagram

Richard Blount, CEO, Four Winds Marketing

Richard Blount, CEO, Four Winds Marketing

Richard is a rare cross-brained breed, possessing a unique blend of analytical skills and creative talent. With a background in finance at WDW (Walt Disney World), he has developed a keen ability to dissect and analyze complex data sets and spreadsheets. Driven by his passion for design and marketing, Richard ventured into agencies where he excelled in graphic design, web development, and marketing. His exceptional skills and innovative mindset earned him recognition in the form of multiple awards.

Recognizing that attractive websites alone were not enough, Richard delved into the realm of SEO (Search Engine Optimization). Through extensive study and relentless determination, he achieved exceptional results for his clients, ensuring their websites ranked high on Google and gained maximum visibility in search engine results. Although Richard’s ability has been to apply his analytical skills, design expertise, and marketing experience to a wide range of clients, he is narrowing his company’s focus to maximizing opportunities within the Home Services Industries.

By combining data-driven insights, captivating design elements, and strategic marketing approaches, he helps Home Services businesses thrive in the competitive digital landscape. Richard understands the unique challenges and requirements of these industries, and his multidisciplinary approach allows him to create comprehensive solutions that drive growth and success for his clients.

Richard’s unwavering commitment to excellence and his ability to leverage his diverse skill set make him a trusted partner in the Home Services industry.

LinkedIn

Questions and Topics in this Interview:

  • 02:17 Richard’s Journey into Marketing
  • 04:01 Richard’s Unique Blend of Finance and Marketing
  • 04:27 The Importance of SEO and Website Functionality
  • 10:25 The Impact of Professionalism in Marketing
  • 17:26 The Importance of Regularly Updating Your Website and Logo
  • 21:47 The Mystery of SEO Explained
  • 26:03 Success Stories from Four Winds Marketing

North Fulton Business Radio is hosted by John Ray and broadcast and produced from the North Fulton studio of Business RadioX® inside Renasant Bank in Alpharetta. You can find the full archive of shows by following this link. The show is available on all the major podcast apps, including Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google, Amazon, iHeart Radio, Stitcher, TuneIn, and others.

RenasantBank

 

Renasant Bank has humble roots, starting in 1904 as a $100,000 bank in a Lee County, Mississippi, bakery. Since then, Renasant has become one of the Southeast’s strongest financial institutions, with over $13 billion in assets and more than 190 banking, lending, wealth management, and financial services offices in Mississippi, Alabama, Tennessee, Georgia, and Florida. All of Renasant’s success stems from each of their banker’s commitment to investing in their communities as a way of better understanding the people they serve. At Renasant Bank, they understand you because they work and live alongside you every day.

Since 2000, Office Angels® has been restoring joy to the lives of small business owners, enabling them to focus on what they do best. At the same time, we honor and support at-home experts who wish to continue working on an as-needed basis. Not a temp firm or a placement service, Office Angels matches a business owner’s support needs with Angels who have the talent and experience necessary to handle work that is essential to creating and maintaining a successful small business. Need help with administrative tasks, bookkeeping, marketing, presentations, workshops, speaking engagements, and more? Visit us at https://officeangels.us/.

TRANSCRIPT

[00:00:00] Richard Blount: Live from the Business RadioX studio inside Renasant Bank, the bank that specializes in understanding you, it’s time for North Fulton business radio.
[00:00:19] John Ray: And hello again, everyone. Welcome to another edition of North Fulton business radio. I’m John Ray and folks, we are broadcasting from inside Renasant bank in beautiful Alpharetta. And if you’re tired of the big bank experience, the mega banks who really don’t want to talk to you live, they want a computer to talk to you.
[00:00:39] John Ray: If you are at one of those banks, you know what I’m talking about. If you’re tired of that kind of experience, Renasant, I think has found a magic combination between being big enough to handle pretty much any need you can throw at them, but they’re small enough to deliver their services in a personal way.
[00:00:58] John Ray: I’ve found that myself, and I think you will too. If you’ll go to renasantbank. com. And find one of their local offices and give them a call and guess what? They answer the phone. Imagine that Renasant bank, understanding you, member FDIC. And now I want to welcome Richard Blount. Richard is with Four Winds Marketing Agency, Richard.
[00:01:22] John Ray: Welcome.
[00:01:23] Richard Blount: Thank you. Good to be here.
[00:01:24] John Ray: Yeah. Great to have you here. Let’s talk about you and your firm. How’re you serving folks out there?
[00:01:29] Richard Blount: We are a full-service online marketing agency providing websites, SEO, social media, all that fun stuff for promoting businesses. We mainly focus on home service, um, companies and just help them.
[00:01:49] Richard Blount: grow. That’s our favorite thing to do.
[00:01:51] John Ray: And let’s, for those that don’t know, I’m sure most people do, but let’s define home services specifically.
[00:01:58] Richard Blount: That covers anything from roofing to landscaping. So HVAC, electrical, plumbing, carpentry, all that kind of stuff. Just
[00:02:08] Richard Blount: about anybody that pulls up in with a truck in front of a home and is going inside or outside to work, right?
[00:02:15] John Ray: Yeah. Yeah. Got it. Let’s talk about a little bit about your backstory and what your journey has been and how you got into marketing.
[00:02:25] Richard Blount: That’s a pretty loaded question. It was definitely not a straight line. I’ve been drawing since I was five. And then but my mom said I should be an artist when I grew up, but I wanted to be rich.
[00:02:39] Richard Blount: I didn’t want to be a poor, starving artist. And so I ended up heading more toward got a job at Disney working in finance, worked my way up. And I was the only one on a team of 70 people that had Happy Meal toys all over his cubicle. Had posters up, and if a report needed to look pretty, give it to Richard, he’d, that’s what he does.
[00:03:04] Richard Blount: And so I was involved in a lot of creative things throughout my entire life. And then, finally left Disney, and, in my early thirties and got on with an ad agency down just outside of Orlando. And worked my way up art director and then moved around a little bit. Ended up in a.
[00:03:25] Richard Blount: And it’s a great place. With paper there, they had an internal agency and where we were servicing all their clients doing print online, digital websites, all that kind of stuff. And we were rocking it. It was a lot of fun. And I won awards and got recognized. And but, newspaper industry started to Take a dive.
[00:03:49] Richard Blount: And I was doing a lot of freelance and then just got a vision for starting the company in 2015 and launched it January 1st, 2016.
[00:04:00] John Ray: That’s terrific. Now you’re unusual. You in a good way because not many people have a successful. in the finance side of business and then make this shift over to marketing.
[00:04:16] John Ray: So what did, what does that say about you and your talents? And I guess what is that background in finance? How does that help you with your clients today?
[00:04:27] Richard Blount: Oh
[00:04:28] Richard Blount: yeah. I found that to be very helpful, especially when it comes to doing SEO work and and just running a business in and of itself because I’m used to spreadsheets.
[00:04:39] Richard Blount: I can look at numbers and yeah, I loved math as a kid. I did well in math and science and art, those were my go to places. And so I just worked in that that realm, for me, it was just natural just to do the finance thing and it’s all tracking and and all that.
[00:04:59] Richard Blount: And so it transfers over very well, especially trying to run your own business, cause you got to switch hats a lot. Sure. And so being able to stay profitable with your own business and then with SEO, it’s very much math based and creative based. You’ve got to have both mindsets in order to try to.
[00:05:19] Richard Blount: work the algorithm sorry, the algorithms that that Google uses and just to track your numbers, your conversion rates, your impressions. I could get into a lot of technical stuff right there, but it really helps. Yeah.
[00:05:32] John Ray: That makes a lot of sense. And algorithms come out of math.
[00:05:36] John Ray: Yeah. And. Google is full of data people.
[00:05:40] Richard Blount: Yeah. Yeah. And you start to see patterns. And so we could do a lot of testing as far as so it’s a wonderful mix between the psychology of people who are searching the internet and the math that Google is using to try to serve up the correct information that people are searching for.
[00:05:59] Richard Blount: And so just, We do a B testing on different things. So just changing the color of something, the image the layout a little bit and have a big impact on that. So I think just being able to go back and study the numbers and look at how things are working and looking at the trends really helps a lot and is a lot more interesting than finance.
[00:06:22] Richard Blount: Finance was okay, but it was. There was a reason why I had posters up and I started a newsletter within the company. Really? Yeah. And then, cause I would write, I would do illustrations for it and stuff like that. And cause I was always about all is all about fostering a team and bringing people together.
[00:06:40] Richard Blount: That was my thing that I enjoyed doing.
[00:06:42] John Ray: That’s pretty cool. Yeah. And I can see how, when There are probably a few people down the hall or around the corner or what have you. When they needed a little more fun in their day, they came to see you, right?
[00:06:53] Richard Blount: Oh, yeah.
[00:06:57] Richard Blount: And if they didn’t, I would stop by and see them. . , that’s right.
[00:07:02] John Ray: The holdouts you would go find. I love it. I would, I love it. Richard Pilot is with us folks. He is the CEO of his own firm. Four wins. Marketing. So you’ve decided to form your own firm along the way, and why the focus on home services for you?
[00:07:19] Richard Blount: A couple of reasons. The first house I built was built in 1940 so it needed work. , I was horrible at doing the work myself, so I was constantly reaching out to electricians, plumbers, and roofers because the things I would try to do myself. I failed miserably and
[00:07:38] John Ray: I identify with that.
[00:07:39] Richard Blount: Yeah.
[00:07:40] Richard Blount: I really grew to respect what they do and I really appreciated honest home service providers, because there are a lot of ones out there that don’t put out good work, but there are ones that do a good work and I respect them. And then actually the second house I built was in, I bought was built in the forties.
[00:08:02] Richard Blount: My third house was built in the fifties, and then when we moved up here to Atlanta, this house was built in 1970. And my wife was like, this is an old house. I’m like, what? It’s new to me. This is fantastic.
[00:08:16] Richard Blount: It’s 30 years newer than the ones I’m usually used
[00:08:19] Richard Blount: to, right? Exactly. Yeah. And yeah, we’ve I’ve always dealt with.
[00:08:23] Richard Blount: Window people, garage people, roofers. And so I watched their marketing. I watch, I look at their websites. I look at what they’re doing to reach out to people and it’s all stuff I can identify with. And I, again, I respect it. And As I, in the agencies that I worked in, they cater to everybody from termite people to security people, from dentists to lawyers.
[00:08:51] Richard Blount: You name it. We did a website or advertising forum. And so when I started the company, that was my, I just kept the same mindset, but it naturally just worked out that around 20 to 40 percent of my clients ended up being in the home service industry. Anyway, either contractor contractors or HVAC people, stuff like that.
[00:09:14] Richard Blount: And and those are the ones I had the most success with as far as uh, building out their websites, their online marketing, doing their their SEO and even social media. things like that. There are a lot of fun and I like working with people who do a good job because I like to do a good job for them and so that’s we’re starting to you know zero in on that and focus on that industry specifically and instead of trying to cater to everyone I’m gonna just go ahead and focus on the industries I respect and with the ones that I have the best So I can show them, what we can do.
[00:09:54] John Ray: Yeah. That, that, that makes sense. You said something there that I’m curious about, and I would imagine a lot of home services people are too, those contractors out there that they are honest. And there’s a lot of them out there that, that. Yeah. They’re, they are, they’re honest.
[00:10:13] John Ray: They do great work. They. Tell clients things that cost them money sometimes because they’re honest. How do you communicate that in your marketing effectively?
[00:10:25] Richard Blount: Oh, about about them being honest and
[00:10:28] John Ray: being, because everybody says they’re honest and trustworthy, right? And that’s almost a cliche in some of this marketing that home services folks do. The ones that really How do they, though, have that philosophy of way of doing business? How do they communicate that effectively in their marketing?
[00:10:45] Richard Blount: Well, a lot of it shows in the quality of the marketing itself.
[00:10:51] Richard Blount: When it’s a subtle thing to see graphics and messaging that come across from a professional standpoint versus, somebody who’s not in, in the industry, there are really cliche kind of things that people will say, but then there is the more, I don’t know how to say it. Just there, there’s a, an essence in doing the marketing itself, just in the graphic work in the messaging and the, even the colors that are used.
[00:11:29] Richard Blount: tHere’s a lot of things that play subconsciously into the viewer’s mind when they’re looking at something, either if it’s a website, there are so many times people will try to put up a very simple website that doesn’t offer a lot of functionality and it’s just a postcard on the screen is basically all it is.
[00:11:52] Richard Blount: Whereas with a professional. So what we try to do is go, all right, look, let’s cater to the end user and give them an option to do an online booking to do an instant chat and to engage with you quickly where, and we can set it up so that you get texts or the the company gets texts so they can engage immediately with the viewer.
[00:12:18] Richard Blount: So like
[00:12:19] John Ray: through the chat feature, you mentioned
[00:12:21] Richard Blount: through the chat.
[00:12:22] John Ray: Oh, wow. Okay.
[00:12:23] Richard Blount: So
[00:12:23] Richard Blount: it’ll go straight from the chat to a text to the owner. Oh, wow. So that way the owner gets a text going, Hey, you’ve got a chat going on with your website and they can respond immediately. Oh, that’s great. And it keeps somebody from going on to the next person.
[00:12:39] Richard Blount: So as opposed to just having. Something on the website that says, Hey, I’m legit. Go check it out. As opposed to something that shows up on a website. That’s got my history to it and has functionality to it where people will actually stay on the page I guess if somebody’s on there for a second and a half.
[00:13:00] Richard Blount: Which is a lot of times average. It doesn’t sound
[00:13:04] John Ray: Okay, let’s just stop right there. Yeah a second and a half. That’s the average
[00:13:09] Richard Blount: Yeah, really one to two seconds is where somebody will be on a page and it doesn’t sound like a whole lot of time But you can get a gist of something We get it just instantly because of visuals.
[00:13:21] Richard Blount: And so by adding the functionality and doing providing more content, getting them to stay on there for four to five seconds to a minute then at that point, if you’ve got them engaged, they’re either texting or booking an online appointment or something like that. So at that point.
[00:13:41] Richard Blount: They’re invested. Sure. And they’ve spent a minute on your website. Yeah, that’s huge.
[00:13:45] John Ray: Wow. This is fascinating to me. And I’m sure a lot of business owners out there just shaking their heads at this, right? But that makes sense. If someone, if the average time on a website is one to two seconds, people are, they want an instant impression.
[00:14:03] John Ray: And that’s where the quality of the graphics, the art, the colors, everything you mentioned that’s where that comes into play.
[00:14:12] Richard Blount: Exactly. Okay. All that comes in because there’s a psychology to all of that. Sure. Because there’s. One or two things that people are looking for immediately. They’re looking for, what you do, where you’re at and how to contact you because they know they’re not going to get a price off of your website.
[00:14:30] Richard Blount: They need to like engage with you and they want to do it. Like 80 percent of people want to do it through a text. And if you have that feature on your website where they can chat and turn that right into a text. Then you’ve got them. Yeah. Yeah. You’re going to schedule an appointment, a phone call, and from there, your sales team takes it on.
[00:14:49] John Ray: Well,
[00:14:49] John Ray: and that feature among others, I’m sure you could talk about. Really reveals professionalism and that’s really what you’re talking about when you’re talking about features that show that you, that illustrate your trustworthiness. Exactly. That, that when you have a feature like that, as opposed to the last three websites that they checked that don’t.
[00:15:14] John Ray: You instantly differentiate yourself.
[00:15:16] Richard Blount: Yeah. Through the website you want there’s a lot of. pRofessionalism that goes into that. You want somebody to put that together who has a history of doing that. And so there’s just a lot of background work and a lot of stuff that comes in there.
[00:15:32] Richard Blount: It’s the whole thing where I think everybody’s heard the story where. There’s a boiler that’s not working in somebody’s basement, and they call somebody, they come in, they can’t figure out how to fix it. They call somebody else, they can’t fix it either. They call a third person, he walks him, takes a look around, waits a second, he takes out, he pulls out a hammer, hits it on the side, and then…
[00:15:58] Richard Blount: Boom. It’s running fine. He says, all right, that’ll be 1, 000. Like, how’s that 1, 000? You’re only there for a minute. aNybody could have hit that with a hammer. Yeah. But did you know where to hit it? Yeah. So that’s what we’re dealing with a lot of times, it’s hard to explain how I know where to hit the hammer where, but that’s how it works in, in, since I’ve been doing this since.
[00:16:22] Richard Blount: I think I started doing graphic design in the eighties and then built my first website in 1995. And I’ve been watching how SEO works ever since, that just analyzing how it all works. So I’ve got at this point, 25 plus years doing this. And so much of it has become almost instinct. And somebody asked me one time years ago, where do you get your inspiration?
[00:16:48] Richard Blount: And I said, I get it from everywhere, every magazine, every billboard, every television ad, every, radio ad every email I get and a website I visit. There’s so much I soak in from that. And there are I used to keep files of all this kind of stuff, an inspiration file. So that when I needed to create something, because we used to work with so many different types of businesses, then I would just go to my inspiration file and just start going through that and then find yeah, and this is what inspired me to go in that direction or the other direction, something like that.
[00:17:26] John Ray: How often does a home services company need to refresh their look, whether it’s their logo, website, what have you? I asked that question because a lot of them, um, I think, and correct me if I’m wrong, but this is my perception. They get to a point where, they’ve got a pretty good call, pretty good business.
[00:17:49] John Ray: They’ve got established. Calling patterns based on their reviews and referrals and all that kind of thing, right? And they let the website slide, and they, maybe the logos a little dated or what have you. So how often should that refresh occur?
[00:18:05] Richard Blount: From what I’ve seen in the industry, every.
[00:18:07] Richard Blount: Four to five years, I would go in and refresh because styles are constantly changing. And people can can tell. When a website looks 10 years old or older, there’s functionality, there’s graphics, there’s messaging, there’s layouts, there’s all these different things. And then the website itself is actually getting faster.
[00:18:33] Richard Blount: So different hosting providers are speeding up or the software that they run helps speed things up. And so the websites need to stay up with that as well. So there’s a lot of. Back end stuff. It’s like a car. You’ve got to constantly take it in and get it tuned up or and fixed up or whatever on a regular basis.
[00:18:52] Richard Blount: But I would say what I’ve seen every four to five years you may have to go in and retool the website. I’m not saying that you need to replace it. If a company has been a business, I would say five to 10 years or more. They definitely don’t want to replace their website because their website already has a lot of history with Google.
[00:19:15] Richard Blount: And if you create a new website, then you’re breaking all those old links and creating new ones. And Google looks at it as though you’re starting fresh. In those cases, there’s retooling that can be done to a website to make it more modern and all that without breaking all those links and all that history with Google.
[00:19:37] Richard Blount: But with a company that is, say a company is like 5 years old or whatever, or even if they are 10 years old, But they’re not doing the kind of business that they want to be doing if they’re, they haven’t broken, say 200 or 500, 000 a year yet, or they’re in that range, then at that point a lot of times what I’ll do is I’ll look at how their Google ranking is and, a lot of research can be done.
[00:20:05] Richard Blount: And if we need to, it’s a, you’re fine to go ahead and, it. Build a new website and start from scratch and get that going. A lot of times it depends on the age of the company. And how, how busy they are. How many, clients that they have going and all that kind of stuff. And then even if they do, there’s still social media and Google ads and things like that could be done to help.
[00:20:32] Richard Blount: Boost that kind of stuff. But as far as their logo goes, that can always be updated. Shoot, Google has changed their logo. I lost track of how many times. It’s got to be well over 2000 times since they launched in 95, 96. Yeah. And AT& T, although they changed theirs, they modified it a little bit here and there.
[00:20:55] Richard Blount: So there’s, as far as changing the logo, people will have this idea that it’s taboo to change it. I’m like, no, you can always refresh it and, bring it up to, more current standards and there’s techniques and way to do it, that it makes sense. And same with messaging colors and stuff like that.
[00:21:13] Richard Blount: And actually it can be a good way to relaunch your company. So if you’ve been around for say five or 10 years. And you’re at a point where it’s just like you and two other guys, maybe got two trucks or three trucks or whatever, and you have aspirations of 10 trucks, then going through a rebranding can be a really good thing because it’s a relaunch and it’s a great way to foster up new press releases.
[00:21:40] Richard Blount: And do grand openings and all that kind of stuff. So there’s just a lot of things that can be done.
[00:21:44] John Ray: Yeah.
[00:21:45] John Ray: Yeah. That makes a lot of sense. SEO search engine optimization. Yeah, this is where you were talking about how. iT can be a mystery around what the right color is and all that.
[00:21:58] John Ray: Now we’re really getting the mysteries, right? SEO. And I, I think the average home services entrepreneur, they know they need to be found on web search, but they don’t know all the, what goes into that, right? And it’s hard to judge effectiveness, right? So what advice do you give them on that?
[00:22:23] Richard Blount: That’s
[00:22:24] Richard Blount: a SEO is a big one. Yeah. Cause I’ve seen it change from the beginning. Google constantly updates its algorithm and and they fine tune it and they will even work to hone it in on specific industries. They’ve done updates that really hit the financial industry earlier this year. And but if the SEO is done, then a website can survive an update by Google because there’s there’s white hat, black hat, gray hat, methodologies and white hat is, I just think about, think of it like in the old Westerns, the guy with the white hat did everything the way it was supposed to be done. The guy with the black hat.
[00:23:10] Richard Blount: He was always the outlaw, and sooner or later, the outlaw got caught, thrown in jail. So that’s what I would see happening. Or worse. Oh, yeah. Yeah. And Google provides Google Analytics. It’s a free tool that anybody can create an account with. And then hook that up to their website and it will show them the amount of traffic, the amount of where it’s coming from and how they’re showing up.
[00:23:38] Richard Blount: And then there’s another one that Google has called Google Search Console. And that will show people How many people clicked on it, what pages they clicked on and all that kind of stuff. So those are free. Google offers that for everybody. And for all our clients, what we do is we hook into their account or create an account for them.
[00:23:58] Richard Blount: Cause a lot of people don’t even want to mess with it, but we will set that up and we run reports to show them and the reports can be quite daunting. There’s a lot of information in there, but there’s key areas that we look at. I won’t get into all the technical stuff, but that will show us the results.
[00:24:19] Richard Blount: But with SEO, there are actually three aspects of it. There’s the technical SEO, which has to do with the The technical part of the website running fast, the the layout and things like that. That’s all the technical stuff. The meta tags and meta description, all the things that Google looks at.
[00:24:40] Richard Blount: Then there’s the on page SEO, which are all the things that are done to build out the website. So that it is more effective and will capture or, Capture is not the right word, but will attract more keywords. And then there’s off page SEO. And that’s to deal with other areas on the web that point back to your website.
[00:25:04] John Ray: Wow.
[00:25:06] John Ray: A good reason to have a, aUthority here, folks, Richard Blount, Four Winds Marketing. Wow. That’s pretty that gets deep fast.
[00:25:15] Richard Blount: It does get deep fast. Yeah. I’m trying to keep it short and sweet. Yeah.
[00:25:19] John Ray: Yeah. But what, here’s what I’m hearing out of this is that, you’ve got a background, in finance, it’s not just the numbers and you learn in finance that just cause you can measure it doesn’t mean it’s important.
[00:25:33] John Ray: Correct.

[00:25:37] John Ray: And you bring that background to it, right? You can help a business owners know what’s important. And in that daunting report and winnow it down to something that’s simple and easy to understand.
[00:25:48] Richard Blount: Exactly. I try to give them that and then I will look at the secondary stuff that is a little bit in the minutiae.
[00:25:56] Richard Blount: Yeah. But I know it can have an underlining effect and help me increase their search engine results. Yeah.
[00:26:02] John Ray: Terrific. I want to get to success stories here, Richard, as we come to a close. You’ve been at this for a while, worked with a lot of different home services professionals. Give us a success story or two to help illustrate the great work you do.
[00:26:19] Richard Blount: We did we were working with one electrician company and within three years we got them to a point where I remember my numbers because there’s quite a few their paid traffic increased 470%. Their organic traffic increased 810%. And what the difference between paid and organic is basically the ads that were being run for them increased how many people were coming to their website as and then working with the SEO alongside of that.
[00:26:55] Richard Blount: iNcrease it over 800 percent in the course of three years as a result. They increased from about, I think they had five or six people working at that time. Now they’ve got over 16 people working and the owner no longer has to work out in the field. He’s no longer in a truck, actually working the jobs.
[00:27:12] Richard Blount: He’s overseeing everybody at that point. Wow.
[00:27:15] John Ray: And then that’s a great place to be. Yeah.
[00:27:18] Richard Blount: Yeah. It’s either that or there was a one HVAC supplier. And, we worked with. And, yeah, we increased their traffic over 600 percent their monthly visitors rose 714 percent in the course of four years. Their visibility grew to a point.
[00:27:38] Richard Blount: Where we had an increase of their keywords by 875%. So keywords are, when you type in something in Google to look for something, that is a keyword. And the more keywords that you capture the more visibility you have. And they grew to a point where they were able to sell their company to a national company.
[00:27:58] Richard Blount: And so the owner was able to sell it for big bucks and retire. And
[00:28:02] John Ray: wow, lots of value there.
[00:28:04] Richard Blount: Yeah. So I, those are the things I like working towards.
[00:28:07] John Ray: Yeah. Wow. That’s fantastic. Richard Blount. Folks with Four Winds Marketing Richard, that’s that’s a great way to end this and I, I want to get to the most important question that people have, I’m sure right at this point, which is how they can get in touch with you.
[00:28:25] Richard Blount: Through our website, that’s our best bet. Of course. Yeah. That’s a four winds marketing dot us or United States. Or any spell out four wins F O U R W I N D S. Marketing. us
[00:28:39] John Ray: Terrific. RiChard Blount with Four Winds Marketing richard such great work and we’re excited to be able to highlight you and share your story and keep up that great work.
[00:28:51] John Ray: We appreciate you.
[00:28:52] Richard Blount: Thanks, john. I appreciated being here. Enjoyed talking to you. It was an honor.
[00:28:55] John Ray: Yeah, thank you so much. I appreciate that. Hey folks, just a quick reminder. If you are, Having some search problems in your business being your back office and what I mean are getting to the bottom of that administrative task pile you need to get done or maybe you’re having problem finding all those receipts and you when it comes to tax time, your bookkeeping is a mess.
[00:29:20] John Ray: Here’s an answer for you. that will help restore the joy to your business that you used to have that you don’t have anymore because of all these problems. Office angels. They have a whole team of angels that fly in and get that work done for you so you can focus on what’s most important in your business, which is working with your clients and your employees, right?
[00:29:41] John Ray: Let them take those issues off your plate and give them a call. Just describe what your problem is and let them know we sent you. Describe what your problem is and I think they’ll be able to help you. 6 7 8 5 2 8 0 5 0 0 is the number office angels dot us is the website. If you’re shy, I want to learn more, a little bit about them before you call.
[00:30:04] John Ray: But I just encourage you to be in touch. They do great work. And I know that myself because they do work for me and my business and I couldn’t work without them. And folks, just a quick reminder, if you’re listening to this show. Here at the end of November, 2023, I’ve got a book coming out. It’s called The Generosity Mindset Method for Business Success.
[00:30:27] John Ray: Raise your Confidence, your Value, and Your Prices. If you’re listening to this show later in December or in 2024, the book’s out , so go check it out. If you’re a a small firm or solo professional services provider, this might be a book that. You have an interest in might be helpful to you in your business.
[00:30:46] John Ray: Go to the generosity mindset. com to learn more, where to find the book. Also, I want to thank you, our listener. You have supported us significantly. Just very heartening ways over this last seven and a half years. As we have passed show number 700, you continue to like us on social media, you share the show and please keep doing that.
[00:31:09] John Ray: If you’ve heard something here that makes you think, Hey, I know. I’ve got a home services buddy that needs some help with this marketing. Maybe you need to share the show with that person. And they need to know about what Richard’s up to, but this is true for any of our shows. So when you hear something that makes you think, Hey, this would be a good person for someone else to know.
[00:31:28] John Ray: Please continue to do that. That’s how we get the word out on the great work that business leaders like Richard and the some 1100 others we’ve had on this show, the great work that they do. And it helps us fulfill our mission to be the voice of business in the North Fulton region. So for my guest, Richard Blount, I’m John Ray.
[00:31:49] John Ray: Join us next time here on North Fulton business radio.

 

Tagged With: Four Winds Marketing, google, home services company, John Ray, logo, marketing, North Fulton Business Radio, Office Angels, renasant bank, Richard Blount, SEO, The Generosity Mindset, website, website design

Successfully Doing Business with the Public Sector E32

November 21, 2022 by Karen

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AZ TechCast
Successfully Doing Business with the Public Sector E32
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Successfully Doing Business with the Public Sector E32

If you’ve ever considered doing business with state or federal government entities, you know that the procurement and government sales process can feel like a maze of rules and regulations. So, how can your company stand out from competitors when pursuing business opportunities with the public sector?

The November 2022 episode of the Arizona Technology Council’s AZTechCast podcast featured experts including Ed Jimenez, director, State Procurement Office, State of Arizona; Paul Robles, sales executive, State and Local Government, Google Cloud; and Jennifer Woods, president, Traversant Group. These leaders joined Karen Nowicki, president and owner of Phoenix Business RadioX, and Steve Zylstra, president and CEO of the Arizona Technology Council, in discussing the complex nuances of the public sector’s primary motivations and operating models when it comes to procurement.

Throughout this hour-long episode, the panel of three experts convened in person at the Phoenix Business RadioX studio to discuss the ins and outs of why the private sector should consider doing business with the public sector, the primary barriers that prevent private companies from contracting with federal and state government entities and the advice that the panel would give smaller companies that are exploring becoming first-time contractors for the public sector. 

Logo-GoogleCloud

Google helps our government transform how they serve their constituents. Google guides them through the challenges they face caused by outside pressures and massive demands on their systems.

Google helps them adopt new technologies and adapt to new ways of doing business quickly, efficiently, securely, and intelligently. By using Google Cloud, government systems are smarter, more efficient, and more responsive.

Paul-Robles-AZ-TechCastPaul Robles is an experienced leader with 25 years of sales, planning, and management experience in globally recognized entities including Hewlett Packard Enterprise, IBM, and American Airlines (formerly America West Airlines).

With a progressive career supporting various industries including the public sector, healthcare, financial services and travel, Paul focuses on driving business outcomes for his clients and team members.

Follow Google Cloud on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram.

The mission of the Arizona Department of Administration’s State Procurement Office is to help accelerate agency performance through value added services and offering agencies world class best practices in procurement.

Their vision is to be the #1 State Procurement office in the Nation, where adding value is the norm and customer service is second to none.

Ed-Jimenez-AZ-TechCastEd Jimenez serves as the Director of the State Procurement Office for the Arizona Department of Administration. Ed is the State’s central procurement authority and is responsible for the authorization, oversight and management of the contracting and purchasing activities of the State.

Prior to his appointment, Ed served as the Executive Director in different capacities for The Boeing Company as well as the President and CEO for Supply Chain Whisperer, a supply chain consulting LLC.

Ed has been a provider of supply chain logistics and purchasing to aerospace and airline industries, including but not limited to: lean initiatives, procedures refresh/rewrites, supply base rationalization, subcontract strategies, commodity strategies, market analysis, warehouse optimization, strategic outsourcing, root cause analysis, balanced scorecards, employee development, negotiation strategies, project management, RFP development, and KPIs.

Follow the State of Arizona on LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter.

traversant-group-logo

Traversant Group is the proven strategic and tactical business guide for organizations who wish to accelerate their success in the government market and achieve extraordinary outcomes.

Jennifer-Woods-AZ-TechCastJennifer Woods has 20 years of experience in government relations, strategic planning, procurement, and public policy. Prior to starting Traversant Group in 2013, Jennifer served as the Arizona Deputy State Procurement Administrator to help lead the state’s procurement reform effort.

Previously, she was a Principal at one of Arizona’s largest public affairs firm where she was instrumental in creating the first government marketing and procurement business line in the Arizona lobbying community. Jennifer is also an attorney and has worked as a
commercial litigator at two national law firms.

Jennifer’s practice focuses on advising a broad range of clients from large corporations to small start-ups and non-profits on matters involving marketing strategies and government contracts at the local, state and federal level.

She develops and executes public sector sales and branding strategies, advises clients on government procurement and contract issues, and has lobbied on legislative matters.

Follow Traversant Group on LinkedIn and Twitter.

About AZ TechCastAZTECHCASTLOGOBRX-4-23-2020

AZ TechCast is dedicated to covering innovation and technology in Arizona and beyond.

Through the art of connected conversation, AZ TechCast’s guests will share their expertise, success stories, news and analysis about the region’s leading startups, companies and emerging technologies, as well as the latest industry trends and critical issues propelling the state’s growing technology ecosystem.

About Your Hosts

Steven-ZylstraSteve Zylstra serves as president and CEO of the Arizona Technology Council, a role he assumed in 2007. He is responsible for strategy, operations, finance and policy development. Zylstra is a vocal spokesman for the value technology can provide in raising social and economic standards in Arizona.

Zylstra serves on numerous councils, committees and boards, was named “Leader of the Year, Technology,” by the Arizona Capitol Times, and “Most Admired Leader” by the Phoenix Business Journal. In addition, he was awarded an honorary doctorate of science in technology from the University of Advancing Technology in Tempe, Ariz.

Zylstra earned a bachelor’s degree in automotive engineering technology from Western Michigan University.

KarenNowickiv2Karen Nowicki is a successful author, speaker and the creator of Deep Impact Leadership™ and SoulMarks Coaching™. She is a two-time recipient of the prestigious national Choice Award® for her book and personal development retreat. Karen was crowned the first-ever “Mompreneur of the Year” Award in 2010 for the southwestern states. She was recognized for her leadership, business acumen, and work-life balance.

Karen has been an expert guest on regional TV and radio shows, including Fox Phoenix Morning Show, Sonoran Living, Good Morning Arizona, The Chat Room, and Mid-Day Arizona. She has been a regular contributor to many print and online magazines – publishing articles and blogs for business and education.

In addition to working with private coaching clients, Karen is also the Owner & President of Phoenix Business RadioX. The Business RadioX Network amplifies the voice of business – serving the Fortune 500,000, not just the Fortune 500. Phoenix Business RadioX helps local businesses and professional associations get the word out about the important work they’re doing to serve their market, profession, and community.

Of all the experiences Karen has had the privilege of participating in over her vast career, she shares that Phoenix Business RadioX is a pinnacle adventure!

Connect with Karen on LinkedIn and follow Phoenix Business RadioX on Facebook and Instagram.

bianca-buliga-aztechcastBorn in Phoenix, Arizona, Bianca Buliga is a trilingual first-generation American of Romanian ethnicity. A marketing professional with experience in both the nonprofit and for-profit sectors, Bianca currently works as Director, Marketing & Communications for the Arizona Technology Council.

Previously, Bianca worked as Marketing Communications Lead at Proctorio, a learning integrity platform that offers remote proctoring software ensuring exam integrity for learners around the world.

Bianca also worked as Senior Marketing Manager at SEED SPOT, a social impact incubator that educates, accelerates, and invests in impact-driven entrepreneurs creating market-based solutions to social problems. In January of 2020, Bianca was selected as an awardee of the Mandela Washington Reciprocal Exchange Program and traveled to the African island of Mauritius to run entrepreneurship programming for 15 impact-driven ecopreneurs on behalf of the U.S. State Department’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs.

Bianca has also completed comprehensive consulting projects for IBM, ESAN Business School, and the Peruvian government, and interned at the Arizona House of Representatives and U.S. Embassy in Bucharest, Romania.

Bianca earned her Bachelor’s degree in International Affairs from Northern Arizona University in 2014 and her Master’s degree in Global Affairs and Management from the Thunderbird School of Global Management in 2017. She is an avid reader, yogi, and world traveler always planning her next trip.

Connect with Bianca on LinkedIn.

About Our Sponsor

The Arizona Technology Council, Arizona’s only statewide organization serving the technology sector, fosters a climate of innovation to enhance technology in Arizona.

A trusted resource in strengthening Arizona’s technology industry, the Council proactively eliminates impediments that companies face, accelerates the entrepreneurial mindset in the state’s expanding innovation ecosystem, and works to create a destination for companies to be, thrive and stay.

Follow Arizona Technology Council on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram.

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Tagged With: google, Google Cloud, government contract, government relations, procurement, public sector, State of Arizona, strategic sales

Andréa Willis with Google

July 24, 2020 by angishields

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Atlanta Business Radio
Andréa Willis with Google
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OnPay-BannerAndreaWillis-GrowwithGoogleAndrea Willis is a Communications Manager at Google.

One of her main focuses at the company is Grow with Google–the company’s initiative to create economic opportunity for all.

Making tools and training easily accessible online for free is just one part of Grow with Google. They’re also bringing workshops, in-person training, and one-on-one coaching to cities and towns across America, in partnership with community groups and local leaders.

Follow Google on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

What You’ll Learn in This Episode

  • Nearly two-thirds of all new jobs created since 2010 require either high- or medium-level digital skills. This presents a challenge to many job seekers, as well as to our economic future in the U.S.
  • Google created three new Google Career Certificates in the high-paying, high-growth career fields of Data Analytics, Project Management, and User Experience (UX) Design. The programs equip participants with the essential skills they need to get a job. No degree or prior experience is required to enroll.
  • 100,000 need-based scholarships, funded by Google, to complete any of the Career Certificates.
  • An expansion of our IT Support Certificate Hiring Consortium, which currently includes over 50 employers like Walmart, Hulu, Sprint and of course Google, with whom participants can directly share their resume upon completion of the program.
  • Hundreds of apprenticeship opportunities at Google for people completing these career certificate programs to provide real on-the-job training. The Google Career Certificates will also be offered in Career and Technical Education high schools throughout America. This builds on our established partnership with more than 100 community colleges.
  • $10 million in Google.org grants to the YWCA, NPower and JFF to help workforce boards and nonprofits improve their job training programs and increase access to digital skills for women, veterans, and underserved Americans.
  • Since 2017 Google.org has provided over $200 million in grants to nonprofits working to promote economic opportunity.

About Our Sponsor

OnPay’sOnPay-Dots payroll services and HR software give you more time to focus on what’s most important. Rated “Excellent” by PC Magazine, we make it easy to pay employees fast, we automate all payroll taxes, and we even keep all your HR and benefits organized and compliant.

Our award-winning customer service includes an accuracy guarantee, deep integrations with popular accounting software, and we’ll even enter all your employee information for you — whether you have five employees or 500. Take a closer look to see all the ways we can save you time and money in the back office.

Follow OnPay on LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter.

Tagged With: economic opportunity, google, Grow with Google

FRAZIER & DEETER’S BUSINESS BEAT: Dan Kent, Kent & Risley, LLC, on Intellectual Property Litigation

March 19, 2019 by John Ray

Business Beat
Business Beat
FRAZIER & DEETER’S BUSINESS BEAT: Dan Kent, Kent & Risley, LLC, on Intellectual Property Litigation
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Roger Lusby, Colette Varco, and Dan Kent on “Business Beat” presented by Alpharetta CPA firm Frazier & Deeter

Show Summary

How do you protect your technology? What are the various pros and cons of patents and trade secrets? How do you gauge the damages of patent infringement vs. the cost of litigation to recoup those damages? What are some interesting cases arising out of key word advertising on Google? Those questions and more are answered in this week’s edition of “Business Beat.” “Business Beat” is presented by Alpharetta CPA firm Frazier & Deeter.

Dan Kent, Kent & Risley, LLC

Dan Kent

Dan Kent is a Founding Partner of Kent & Risley, LLC. Kent & Risley is a law firm that protects technology by enforcing technology rights in the form of patents, trademarks, copyrights, trade secrets and by contract.  Kent & Risley also protects and defends against the wrongful assertion of alleged technology rights and advises clients about how best to protect technology and to build a valuable portfolio of patents, copyrights, trademarks, and trade secrets (also known as intellectual property rights). For more information, go to https://www.kentrisley.com/.

 

Frazier & Deeter

The Alpharetta office of Frazier & Deeter is home to a thriving CPA tax practice and Employee Benefit Plan Services group. CPAs and advisors in the Frazier & Deeter Alpharetta office serve clients across North Georgia and around the country with services such as personal tax planning, estate planning, business tax planning, business tax compliance, state and local tax planning, financial statement reviews, financial statement audits, employee benefit plan audits, internal audit outsourcing, cyber security, data privacy, SOX and other regulatory compliance, mergers and acquisitions and more. Alpharetta CPA professionals serve clients ranging from business owners and executives to large corporations.

Roger Lusby, host of Frazier & Deeter’s Business Beat, is the Alpharetta Office Managing Partner for Frazier & Deeter.

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/frazier-&-deeter-llc/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/FrazierDeeter
Twitter: https://twitter.com/frazierdeeter

Past episodes of Frazier & Deeter’s “Business Beat”

Tagged With: copyright, copyright law, cost of litigation, Dan Kent, Frazier & Deeter's Business Beat, Frazier Deeter, google, Google AdWords, Google search, injunction, intellectual property, Intellectual Property Law, intellectual property protection, Kent & Risley, Kent & Risley LLC, keyword advertising, keyword search, NDA, Non-Disclosure Agreement, patent infringement, patent law, patent litigation, Patents, registered copyright, Roger Lusby, Steve Risley, trade secrets, trademark, trademark law

Pay Per Click Advertising

March 7, 2015 by angishields

Midtown Business Radio
Midtown Business Radio
Pay Per Click Advertising
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Pay Per Click Advertising

This week I caught up with Eric Jones from Jellyfish, the digital strategy experts.  We talked about Pay Per Click Advertising, mistakes that can be made, things to think about when planning your campaign, and why it makes sense to work with experts such as those at Jellyfish to engage in a digital marketing campaign that employs pay per click advertising.

Having tried our hand at DIY Google AdWords campaigns that quickly cost us $$$ while getting us no conversions, our business can surely say there is value to working with experts who can guide you and help you spend wisely.  Eric talked about the value of analytics to track the effects of a given campaign, as well as why it’s important to consider the page on your website the ads direct your prospective customers to.

Eric shed some light on how the bidding process works in determining where your ads will rank, ultimately controlling where your ads will be displayed (1st page?, top of 1st page? etc).  We talked about how when there is much competition for a given set of keywords the cost per click can rise significantly, so advertisers must be prepared for that.

I also discussed some guests who have been on the show before that our listeners could benefit from getting to know.  I’m planning to incorporate some occasional shout-outs to be sure the companies who need their solutions can link up with them.  We hope you enjoy our show and subscribe to the podcast.  Let us hear from you with feedback, guest recommendations, and where you’re listening from.  If you tweet us questions or put them up on Facebook we’ll try to get them on the air and/or follow up with the guests after the fact to get you answers.  Thank you for listening to us!  Looking forward to 5000 downloads!

Special Guest

Eric Jones VP, Client Strategy with Jellyfish  Twitter 16x16  Facebook  Linkedin  youtube logo  google-plus-logo-red-265px

Jellyfish

  • CEO, Avenue J Development LLC
  • Previous Board of Directors member, Toolbank Baltimore
  • >10 years in leadership roles in digital strategy/marketing companies

Lara O’Connor-Hodgson, CEO of Nowaccount Network Corporation  Twitter  LinkedIn  Facebook

 

HEAR LARA’S FULL INTERVIEW HERE

Nowaccount Network Corporation

  • MBA Harvard Business School
  • Former Adjunct Professor of Finance, Georgia Institute of Technology
  • Board of Directors, Georgia Regional Transportation Authority
  • Owner, Insomnia Group
  • Chairman of the Board, Atlanta Heights Charter School
  • Second Language–Japanese

LeeAnn Maxwell, CEO/Co-Founder of Vixen Vodka  Facebook  Twitter  LinkedIn  Pinterest

 

HEAR LEEANN’S FULL INTERVIEW HERE

Vixen Vodka

  • 28 years experience in finance sector
  • former Director, Client Services of AccousTech Music Productions
  • Crossfit fan
  • 50% Firecracker
  • 50% Do-It-Yourself Woman

Jesus Ricardo (Rick) Tapia, Founder of La Bodega International, LLC and Creator of J.R. Revelry  Facebook  Twitter 16x16

JR Revelry

  • 17 years of experience in alcohol beverage industry
  • Successful entrepreneur
  • Actively involved in the community, supporting Hispanic and Latin American Chambers of Commerce
  • BA, Boston University
  • Speaks Fluent Spanish

Ron Herman, CEO of SionicMobile  google-plus-logo-red-265px  Facebook  Twitter 16x16  Linkedin  

HEAR RON’S FULL INTERVIEW HERE

SionicMobile

  • Founder and Former CEO, Urban Informatics Corporation
  • >19 years of Executive Leadership roles in Technology Start-up to Fortune 500 Companies
  • Former CEO, Intellione Technologies

Mario Montag, CEO, Co-founder of Predikto Analytics  Linkedin  Twitter 16x16

 

HEAR MARIO’S FULL INTERVIEW HERE

Predikto Analytics

  • > 15 years of experience developing transformational technology solutions for Fortune 500 companies
  • Former Director, North America Oracle Master Data Management practice
  • MBA, IT, and International Business, Georgia State University J. Mack Robinson College of Business
  • Fluent in Spanish
 Bill and Diedre Plunk of CimCo Commercial Collections  Linkedin 

CimCo Commercial Collection

  • BS in Education, Minor in Business, Northeastern State University
  • Former Teacher and Coach, Oklahoma Public Schools
  • Board Member, River of Praise Ministries

Tagged With: conversion, corporate collections, customer loyalty, CW Hall, digital advertising, digital marketing, digital payments, digital rewards, digital strategy, echeck, eCommerce, Eric Jones, factoring, google, Google AdWords, high-value assets, ION Loyalty, ION Rewards, landing page, Lara Hodgson, lead generation, LeeAnn Maxwell, Manufacturing, Mario Montag, merchant services, Midtown Business Radio, NOWaccount, oil & gas, pay per click advertising, predictive analytics, Predikto Analytics, railroad, Rick Tapia, Ron Herman, search engine marketing, SEM, SEO, SionicMobile, small business loan, Transportation, Vixen Vodka, vodka

Holly Berggren with RevLocal, Dan Rustin with Monitor Pest Control, and Christine Steck and Kelly Gillam with Lanier Tent Rental

January 21, 2015 by Mike

Silver Lining in the Cloud
Silver Lining in the Cloud
Holly Berggren with RevLocal, Dan Rustin with Monitor Pest Control, and Christine Steck and Kelly Gillam with Lanier Tent Rental
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Holly berggren, Dan Rustin, Christine Steck, Kelly Gillam, Nikole Toptas
Holly Berggren, Dan Rustin, Christine Steck, Kelly Gillam, Nikole Toptas

Holly Berggren/RevLocal

Holly Berggren, RevLocalHolly Berggren is the Business development manager with RevLocal. Her job is to help business owners keep up with the crazy Google world we live in. RevLocal is passionate in helping local small to medium-sized businesses compete because they were one of those “little” guys in the Dial-Up Internet segment. However, they learned how to market themselves through Paid Ads and grew to a 60,000 Nationwide Customer Base. Now their whole purpose is in Local Search and helping business owners navigate the ever changing landscape of online searching.

Dan Rustin/Monitor Pest Control

Dan Rustin, Monitor Pest ControlMonitor Pest Control offers one of the best values in the industry for residential pest control services, and also services all types of commercial enterprises . Their Once Per Year Pest Application Service is an exceptional way to keep your home, investment property or commercial property “pest free” year round. Their guarantee is one of the strongest in the industry, and with Monitor Pest Control you save money on unnecessary repeat applications which most other pest control companies use as a means to generate revenue. Their application process eliminates the need for these repeat visits. Why pay for services you don’t need when you can work with Monitor Pest Control and their best in the industry guarantee for your pest control needs?

Christine Steck & Kelly Gillam/Lanier Tent Rental

Christine Steck & Kelly Gillam, Lanier Tent RentalLanier Tent Rental is conveniently located – and now celebrating 25 years – at 534 Mill Street in Gainesville. The name says Tent, but they do so much more. They always strive to provide the highest level of service with quality products at competitive prices in the Northeast Georgia and surrounding areas. They provide rental equipment for a variety of functions and events. They work with community centers, colleges, grand openings, corporate events, weddings and many more. They offer free consultations and site surveys.

Lanier Tent Rental invites you to their showroom any time. While pictures are worth a thousand words, there is nothing like seeing the items in person. You can bring your caterer, florist, event planner, family, friends, or whomever to join you. A showroom visit may help you get ideas to personalize your event, and make your vision come to life.

Lanier Tent Rental makes every event an event to remember.

Tagged With: corporate events, dan rustin, event rentals, exterminator, google, gwinnett pest control, holly berggren, internet marketing, internet search, kelly gillam, lanier tent rental, monitor pest control, nikole toptas, pest control, pest control gwinnett, pest control sugar hill, pest control suwanee, rev local, RevLocal, search engines, silver lining, Silver Lining in the Cloud, sugar hill pest control, suwanee pest control, web marketing, wedding rentals

BlueLeap Customer Experience, Kiwanis Club of Atlanta, Dimensional Solutions Managed IT, Jellyfish

September 9, 2014 by angishields

Midtown Business Radio
Midtown Business Radio
BlueLeap Customer Experience, Kiwanis Club of Atlanta, Dimensional Solutions Managed IT, Jellyfish
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CX

Raleigh Burgess talks about how BlueLeap helps companies improve Customer Experience.

BlueLeap and Customer Experience (CX), Kiwanis Club of Atlanta and community service, Dimensional Solutions and Managed IT Services

BlueLeap integrates cloud-based telephony (voice and text) into your business process, automating communication tasks thereby saving your agents time, reducing customer wait and building brand loyalty. They provide an Oracle Validated Integration that uses the entire Twilio Platform inside the Oracle Cloud Service and brings deep enterprise functionality to large clients.   BlueLeap’s CX technologies are integrated into a few industry templates already.   Their Customer Experience solutions ares currently being used in over 50+ countries, across 1000+ agents.  One example of the exciting capabilities that BlueLeap gives their clients lies within their texting component.  It gives the client user the ability to send texts to their customers abroad in English and it’s then translated and displayed to the recipient in their native language.  This has proven to significantly increase customer engagement as shown by dramatic rise in text-backs from the recipients.  Oracle RightNow users can seamlessly integrate BlueLeap’s Oracle Validated services into their existing platforms and take full advantage of the Oracle cloud’s potential.

The Kiwanis Club of Atlanta has been serving the Atlanta community since 1915. The club’s motto is “Learn, Serve, Connect.” Members “Learn” about our community, our state, our nation and our world through the excellent and diverse speakers at weekly luncheon meetings.  Kiwanis Club of Atlanta “Serves” our community through members’ commitment to a variety of community charitable organizations. They “Connect” with each other through the myriad of social and business networking events held each month. The Kiwanis Club of Atlanta is more than a civic club, it is a place where friendships are formed and last a lifetime!

Dimensional Solutions Managed IT provides small- to mid-sized Atlanta businesses a full selection of IT expertise to manage parts or all of their IT needs.  With their ala carte menu of services, companies can tailor the level of engagement with Dimensional Solutions’ team of experts.  This enables companies to achieve the highest level of network reliability, security, and compliance while saving significant dollars spent on their IT needs.  For companies who are involved with a content provider using the “Bring Your Own Device” model for providing their services, Dimensional Solutions is able to insure that these “foreign” devices integrate into the client company’s network without disruption or risk.  And when the content project is complete their team will work to disconnect the devices completely and remove all proprietary information from the devices that will be leaving the business with the content consultants.  Dimensional Solutions provides a free consultation to determine the needs of the client company and identify areas of risk and/or ways they can improve their IT while saving cost.

Jellyfish is a global digital marketing agency, with offices in the US, UK and South Africa. The company’s award-winning combination of technology and talent deliver paid search, display/RTB, SEO, social media, analytics, optimization, creative, video and development solutions.   Jellyfish has worked across a wide range of industries, including property, pharmaceutical, financial and gaming.  Their impressive list of clients include Walden University, Fidelity, Carfax, Pfizer, Zipcar, Caesars and ADP.  Jellyfish has an international team, with industry recognized qualifications, combines a deep understanding of user interaction online combined with advanced technologies. The company’s team proud to create successful, performance-based campaigns.  Jellyfish we understands how the convergence of marketing channels, platforms and devices can be used effectively to create an overall winning strategy, and therefore the perfect digital journey for their clients.

Special Guests:

Raleigh Burgess of BlueLeap  Facebook  Twitter 16x16  Linkedin  google-plus-logo-red-265px

BlueLeap

  •  TAG Diversity in Leadership Award Finalist 2012
  • 10 years experience consulting on ERP and other custom projects
  • Former CIO GE Capital
  • Advisory Board Member to Biotech Startup >10 years
  • 3x successful entrepreneur in software sector

Laura McCarty of Kiwanis Club of Atlanta  Linkedin  Facebook  Twitter 16x16

Kiwanis Club of Atlanta

  • Vice President, Georgia Humanities Council
  • Adjunct English Professor, Georgia Piedmont Technical College
  • Masters in Comparative Literature, University of Georgia

Mike Remy VP, Enterprise Solutions of Dimensional Solutions Managed IT Services  Facebook  Linkedin  Twitter 16x16

Dimensional Solutions Managed IT

  • Over 20 years of experience in enterprise/IT solutions
  • Self-funded, launched and ran his first IT company for 12 years before selling the business
  • Accomplished pilot and photographer

Eric Jones VP, Client Strategy with Jellyfish  Twitter 16x16  Facebook  Linkedin  youtube logo  google-plus-logo-red-265px

Jellyfish

  • CEO, Avenue J Development LLC
  • Previous Board of Directors member, Toolbank Baltimore
  • >10 years in leadership roles in digital strategy/marketing companies

 

 

Tagged With: customer experience, CW Hall, digital marketing, digital strategy, Dimensional solutions Managed IT services, Eliminate Project, google, it services, Kiwanis, Kiwanis Club of Atlanta, Laura McCarty, managed IT services, Mike Remy, outsourced IT services, pay-per-click, PPC, Raleigh Burgess, SEM, SEO

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