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Don Schindler

Executive Reputation Coach & Digital Marketer

Tag: don schindler (page 1 of 5)

Are You Ready To Join The Social Media Revolution at the 2014 Joint Annual Meeting?

don-schindler-jamie-vander-molen

Don Schindler and Jamie Vander Molen are DMI Communication Trainers

Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and Pinterest are places where your customers are taking about their experiences with dairy. DMI is excited to bring you customized social media training just for the dairy industry.

On Oct. 29, Jamie and I will be teaching social media and digital communications from 2:15 – 5 pm at Partners in Progress, The 2014 Joint Annual Meeting of National Dairy Board, National Milk Producers Federation and United Dairy Industry Association.

Classes are free and first come, first serve (classrooms hold about 25 people). Laptops are encouraged but you can also bring your tablet or smart phone. You can sign up by visiting the Registration Desk or just come to the classroom.

Starting With Twitter – 2:15-3 pm (Jamie)
If you’ve ever wondered what this twitter thing is all about and want to use it, this workshop is for you. You will learn how to set up a profile, how to follow other people, what it means when you are followed, how to put people into lists andwhat the terms/language of Twitter means (i.e., hashtags, @, and DM).

Interested in Pinterest? – 3:15-4 pm (Jamie)
Have you looked through Pinterest but aren’t for sure how to get involved. This workshop is for those who want to set up and create a Pinterest profile to help them engage dairy advocates and promote dairy products. We will go over how Pinterest works, how to pin images and videos, how to set up boards and how to share across your other social media networks.

Picture Yourself Using Instagram – 4:15-5 pm (Jamie)
Have you ever wondered what your kids were doing on Instagram besides staying off of Facebook? Instagram is the social network that is built on the photos you take. This workshop is for those who want to set up a profile, learn how to take good photos and share them, and get the basics on hashtagging.

Cultivating Your Farm Online – 2:15-3 pm (Don)
Have you ever “googled” your farm name? Is it what you want people to see? Did you know you can change what comes up? You’ll get the answers from this workshop on how to control how your farm looks online as well as your personal information.

Advanced Twitter Conversations – 3:15-4 pm (Don)
This advanced workshop is for those who have already using twitter to advocate and protect dairy and their farms and you want to go to the next level. You will learn how to use other third party applications (Hootsuite, FollowerWonk, Twtrland, Bufferapp, etc…) to grow your twitter following, to schedule your tweets, to use trends to get found and retweeted.

Building A Facebook Farm Page – 4:15-5 pm (Don)
This workshop is for those who want to start and manage a Facebook Page for their farm. We’ll go over Facebook Page tips and tricks to gain more “likes”, engagement and how to handle negative feedback. We’ll also touch on analytics and proper set-up.

After attending our sessions, we guarantee you’ll feel more comfortable advocating for your products and farm online. Sign up at Registration Desk or just come to the classroom.

Internet Marketing 101: How to read Google Analytics?

When I first started this series on Internet Marketing 101, I told you how to set up Google Analytics on your site.  Now let’s see what Google Analytics can really tell you about your site?

Google Analytics Dashboard

Google Analytics Dashboard

I don’t have a whole month’s worth of data on my friend’s site, www.veinskincareinstitute.com, but I do have enough to teach you guys how to read the data and what I would consider important.

Let’s log into our account and see what the site is up to.

First, we see the Dashboard.

Here we can find several things quickly. We see our mountain range of user activity. Looks like on average we get about 30 users a day visiting the site with 579 Visits.

Continue reading

Internet Marketing 101: Understanding Your Current and Past Marketing Efforts

So we’re to the second question I posed for my friend’s company with my Internet Marketing 101: How Do I Start Marketing on the Web?

How's Your Current Marketing Going?

How's Your Current Marketing Going?

2. What is your current marketing strategy and how is it doing? What are your tactics to complete that strategy. You should have a record of what you are spending and how you are spending it and what it is bringing in. ROI is very important for each individual piece but don’t kill something just because it’s not performing as an individual (you should know how it is integrated with all of your marketing efforts).

My friend’s company, Vein Skincare Institute, is like most other small businesses.  As a friend on Twitter said they do “Random Acts of Marketing”.

Here’s my friend’s answer to what they do.

Secondary to finances, staffing, and business issues; we are currently not doing a lot of marketing.

In the past we have done much more, at various times including: print (major newspaper, magazine), direct mail, network TV, cable informercials, radio, seminars, direct physician office visit/in-service referral solicitation and data/guerilla-based.

At the moment, we have our web-site, pay-per-click internet campaign, (ever heard of Google’s Stupid Tax with Adwords) occasional e-mail offers, spotty thank you notes to patient referral sources, and in office signage.

We feel that we really need to pick up the marketing pace in a big way.

We need to have accurate tracking by staff.

We need to have aggressive data based marketing with software to facilitate this on a regular, efficient and consistent basis.

We need to overhaul or website from information, content, creative, color, speed, user friendliness, optimization techniques, increasing data base of e-addresses, regular e-newsletters, regular mailing and offers, and tracking of success/failure of programs.

Again another long winded answer:  bottom line is we are not doing very well with marketing currently.

Our budget is minimal for advertising right now, so I think mass media is out, and frankly I am not sold that it is pertinent anymore.

I think we need to maximize the internet, maximize data based, and direct office visits to referral solicitation, with tracking and consistency pushed in all areas.

I responded to her by saying, “I would agree with you on some of this.  Mass media sucks for pricing but can be crazy good if targeted at your audience and with a call to action that can be tracked.  It takes a lot of work to do this.”

Do you know your current marketing efforts?  If they are succeeding or failing?

Are they prepared for the work?  Technology makes tracking easy but it does require a lot of planning and effort.  Most small business really don’t need any extra work so it’s my job to figure out something that can track but not add a lot of extra work to the staff.

Next up, Question 3. Who is your competition both online and offline?  Knowing your competition well will help you position yourself differently and craft your message.  You should know their market share as well.  If you can’t find out on your own, buy the research.  It is marketing dollars well spent and can save you from making a bad decision.

Internet Marketing 101: Figuring Out Your Business Goals

Back on Feburary 20th, I began a series on Internet Marketing 101:  How Do I Start Marketing on the Web?

vein-skincare-institute-webI’m using a friend’s business as an example.  It’s a vein treatment center located in St. Louis called Vein Skincare Institute.  She is answering the first of my four questions.  This is not how many questions we ask during an investigation of a company.  It’s just used for her as an example.

With her four answers, we’ll start working a strategy online that can help transform her business.  Instead of surviving, she’ll thrive and grow and, eventually, change the world.  Or at least, the world of vein treatment.

1. What are your business goals? This can be a lot of different answers but to me I really try and get them to tell me the obvious. It’s funny how many people talk about branding and awareness and all of that – which is important but more important is “I want to sell my product or service this many times.” You should know that number. It will drive everything that you do. Write it down in big letters.

Here’s her answer.

We are a full service vein treatment facility (phlebology) for problematic veins on the legs primarily; but we treat had, face and truncal veins as well.

We have a rather large tool box of treatment options, including injections, laser, intense pulsed light, and surgery.

While we have many other skin deep beautification services (laser hair removal, fotofacial rejuvenation, skin peels, permanent cosmetics, laser removal of tattoos, brown spots, birthmarks, etc), our main focus and that which drives our business is the treatment of problematic and unwanted veins.

In other words, if we grow our vein business, then the other services will grow thru cross-sales after confidence is gained after vein treatment, or patients see and hear about other services while in our building or webspace.

Our business works by attracting patients to our expertise, where they will receive a no charge consultation from a medical expert, followed by a summary meeting with a sales/marketing specialist, hopefully an appointment made, treatment to follow usually in multiple visits over several months, then after successfully addressing the initial concern, maintenance future regular visits…with multiple opportunities at various points to market to this population for cross-sales and referrals.

We mostly run with one full time physician and a very part-time physician, a nurse and an ultrasonographer.  The business was designed to be a 2.5 fte physician, and 2.5 nurse/laser tech facility, ie lots of room for growth.

Optimally I would like to see 3-5 new consults for veins a day, and “close” about 70% of them for treatment.  I would like to generate about 25 surgeries per month (some patients need injections only, and some need surgery and then injections).

So this is a long winded answer to your question:  basically we would like to average about 4 new consults a day.

This number would generate a cascade that with consult/sales/treatment and follow-up  including marketing, would give us very successful numbers!
I’m glad that she followed my advice about a specific number in mind.  So I immediately wanted to know what they averaged in the past.  Sometimes you’ll find a client that wants to jump from zero to max right away.  So I wanted to know what the reality is compared to the expectations.

She got back to me with this answer.  246 consults last year.

So let’s guess that there are 260 work days in a year and minus out vacation and holidays so that would probably take out 30-40 days.

On the low side 220 work days at 246 consults.  That’s a little more than 1 a day.

She wants me to quadruple that?  Wow, that’s ambitious.  I asked her how that breaks down and she replied with this.

We have our peak periods we call it “vein christmas” (that’s kinda creepy) that runs from Feb thru May so we tend to get the greatest # of consults around that time.

Here is the brk down since 1/2/08 to 2/26/09

jan 16 consults, Feb – 10, March – 36, April – 36, May – 27, June – 27, July – 12, August – 12, Sept – 15, Oct – 2, Nov – 13, Dec – 11, Jan – 12, Feb – 17.  Yes pls quadruple the number!

If we go on the basis of last year, we need to move quickly right now because “vein christmas” is just starting.

Next we’ll go over Question 2. What is your current marketing strategy and how is it doing? What are your tactics to complete that strategy. You should have a record of what you are spending and how you are spending it and what it is bringing in. ROI is very important for each individual piece but don’t kill something just because it’s not performing as an individual (you should know how it is integrated with all of your marketing efforts).
I love strategy and tactics – so this will be a fun one.

Internet Marketing 101: How do I set up Google Analytics?

While I’m waiting for the answers from my friend, I hooked up Google Analytics to their site.

Setting up Google Analytics

1. You have to have a gmail account.  BTW, I love gmail.  I switch off Microsoft Outlook in Jan and I won’t be going back.  It’s like when I switched from skiing to snowboard.  With the flexibility and ease of Gmail, there’s just no going back.  And you should also have a Google profile.  They are easy to set up and you can link to your websites and other profiles on the web.  Check out mine at Don Schindler Google Profile.

I would also recommend that you set up a gmail for your business.  I use this gmail account for lots of different pieces like Adwords, Adsense, Analytics, Checkout, etc…because then you don’t have to worry about mixing personal and business accounts.

2. Go to Google Analytics.

Go to Google Analytics

Go to Google Analytics

3. Do the whole “Sign Up now” thing.

Google Analytics Sign Up Page

Google Analytics Sign Up Page

4. Then put in your root website like http://www.yoursite.com/ and your time zone.

Put in the URL of your website

Put in the URL of your website

5. Fill out your personal info and select your country.

Put in your Personal Info

Put in your Personal Info

6. Agree to their Terms of Service.

7. Then fill out the rest and Google will give you a code.  It will look something like this.

<script type=”text/javascript”>
var gaJsHost = ((“https:” == document.location.protocol) ? “https://ssl.” : “http://www.”);
document.write(unescape(“%3Cscript src='” + gaJsHost + “google-analytics.com/ga.js’ type=’text/javascript’%3E%3C/script%3E”));
</script>
<script type=”text/javascript”>
try {
var pageTracker = _gat._getTracker(“UA-7611885-1”);
pageTracker._trackPageview();
} catch(err) {}</script>

Google will give you the code.

Google will give you the code.

8. Then you take this code and put it on every page of your site.  This can be done through a footer file or part of your template (as long as it is not inside a frame).  Or you will have to put it in manually on every page.

9. Once you’ve put the code in and uploaded the file or all the changed pages onto the site, then click “Continue”

10. Status should change if you’ve set up the code properly.  This one doesn’t because I don’t own www.yoursite.com.  If yours doesn’t change, then click Edit and then click Check Status on the top right of the page.  This will allow you to ping Google and check the status of the page.

Google Analytics Report Page

Google Analytics Report Page

If you still have problems here, go out to your website and click on “View” in your browser, then select Page Source.  Do a search for “google-analytics”.  If it doesn’t show up, then you don’t have Analytics on the page and you need to check your code.

That’s basically it.  Once it says, your status is OK then you should start seeing visitors.  Here’s a look at the dashboard of my friend’s site.

Google Analytics Dashboard Top

Google Analytics Dashboard Top

Next time, we’ll discuss how to read Google Analytics next time.

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