Jasmine Sandler - Build a Powerful Social Brand that will Lead to Business (G0917)

It's true that some things change as we get older, but if you're a woman over 40 and you're dealing with insomnia, brain fog, moodiness, and weight gain, you don't have to accept it as just another part of aging. And with Miti Health, you can get help and stop pushing through it alone. The experts at Mitty understand that all these symptoms can be connected to the hormonal changes that happen around menopause, and Mitie can help you feel more like yourself again. Many healthcare providers aren't trained to treat or even recognize menopause symptoms. MIDI clinicians are menopause experts. They're dedicated to providing safe, effective, FDA approved solutions for dozens of hormonal symptoms, not just hot flashes. Most Importantly, they're covered by insurance. 91% of MIDI patients get relief from symptoms within just two months. You deserve to feel great. Book your virtual visit today at joinmidi.com. That's join MIDI.com. All right, we're going to move on. We have just, we're running a little short on time today, so we're going to move on to our next guest right away, and she is Jasmine Sandler from Agency Online Marketing in New York, and we're going to talk about global digital marketing, and she's a global digital marketing and sales consultant and trainer in the areas of online branding, SEO, and B2B social media, and she's the CEO of a digital agency since 2006. And she has a niche service that she provides for CEOs and small business owners called Personal Branding Online, which she's recently published her third book called How to Brand Yourself Online like a CEO with a related social branding course for business owners, and we're going to discuss on the show today how to build a powerful social brand that will lead to business. Jasmine, thank you so much for joining us today. It's a pleasure to have you on the show. Oh yes thank you Bill I like listening to the doctor that was interesting. He's great, isn't he? Yeah, I know he's fan I come from a family of doctors, so uh I agree with everything he said it's important to exercise uh yeah well thank you so much for having me on the show um I think it's fantastic and happy to answer any questions. Yeah. Well, yeah, yeah, tell us a little bit about your background in agency online marketing. It sounds like a fascinating name for a company and tell us what you do. Sure. So I've been in digital marketing since '97. Um I actually started and sold a social network before Facebook before social networking was a widespread kind of thing. Um and uh I started agency in 2006, so basically from about 2002 when I sold that social network to um. 2006, I spent a period of time because when you build a social network from scratch, you really learn everything that there is to know about everything about digital marketing from web development, web design, online marketing, social branding, um, Online branding and so, um, so I had a lot of knowledge and, and I went out and consulted for a number of agencies. Uh, and I started agency online marketing in 2006 because I was consulting for other agencies as a lead digital strategist and I had You know, potential clients coming up to me and saying we're not big enough for your agency like the agency I was representing, um, and I found that there were, there were tons of small growing businesses in the B2B segment that really needed hand holding online. And they needed honesty online, um, so that's what I kind of served to do. So I started agency as a resource for that and a solution for that. So since 2006, my agency has solutioned hundreds of digital marketing projects for global B2B companies. Primarily um our core business is search marketing. I don't know how much you know about search, but, um, so I've been doing a lot of search marketing really since then, um, and to date. Uh, I actually do, let's say in the last 5 years I've, I'm still leading my agency, but I actually started another business which is the training end of my business, so I train and consult for other agencies and also for uh businesses in the areas of SEO, social selling and online branding, um, so I'm, I'm pretty busy but very focused. Yeah, it sounds like a fantastic array of different services in a in what can be a bewildering world for a lot of business owners these days. Talk about, let's talk a little bit about search marketing. What is search marketing and how does, how does it fit in with what business owners need to do these days? Yeah, so I, so you know, I always say because I'm. I it's funny because I've been doing this so long when I consult for companies, especially small businesses actually I don't like the word small. I usually call them growing businesses, which they are. I kind of take on a management consulting role because they um they and probably the audience, the listening audience, you know, they, you have a lot of cost considerations right when you're a business owner and you don't know which lever to pull it's very hard, you know, to be a business owner, so, um. So I tell my clients that they need to think of search marketing as an investment rather than a cost because if you invest in it and do it correctly it has a very high ROI. Um, so search marketing really comes in two flavors if you will, right? So there's paid search marketing, which is the, is basically the advertising or the box to ads that even will say in Google it says ads in Yahoo Yahoo ads, Bing, those are the main, you know, the major search engines, right? So you can basically pay to play. You generally pay on a cost per click or a CPC basis. You can also pay, I don't want to go too much into search, but you can also pay on a CPM or, you know, cost per 100,000 impression basis if you're looking to build a brand, um, and search, paid search has changed over time just like organic search has changed over time. So in paid search, especially if anybody listening is a local small business. I you have a local retail store or local service, right, or your franchise or whatever paid search can really help local businesses because they give favor to local like you've seen local listings right? um, you've seen maps, you know, all that stuff so that's the pay to play model, OK, versus organic search so when. I look at, we look at search marketing in my industry because I'm a peer, you know, in the search industry, um, we, we look at search as, you know, stepping through the buying cycle for any small for any business or buying consideration. So, um, essentially only probably about, to be fair, 10 to 15, 15% of all actual clicks and conversions and search come from paid search, right? The other 80 to 85% are driven through what we call in general marketing, right, the buying stage of search, so that 80 to 85 bill are all coming through organic listings, right? So organic listing, people tend to trust more. That's the key, key factor in search marketing is trust and credibility in the search world we call it a trust ratio, so. In the organic search, what that takes for your, let's say for your radio program to be ranked number one in organic search, let's say right you would have to have a consistent program every month that includes um it's part tech. and part content and part social signaling. So search engine optimization or SEO or natural search or organic search, whatever you want to call it, is a monthly ongoing practice. Why? Because almost virtually every industry that's out there. Is competitive in search outside of like some smaller outliers like some manufacturers but primarily you're competing very heavily in search so what does it take just like running a business it takes time and effort and in most cases money because um because a small business should do what their job is right their core they shouldn't be trying to manage search if you're selling widgets, right? So, um, anyway, so search marketing to go back to your original question, sorry, I can talk a lot, um, is a you're doing fine you're doing fine, don't worry. No, I talk like I talk. I'm just a talker so you can just say shut up Jasmine any time you want um so so search marketing is. An investment in your company for your company's growth. There isn't one client that I have and I do a number of things that does isn't either doing search with my agency has me as a search consultant or it hired another search agency. It's, it's a staple. It's like it's like having a computer. You know, so it's very, very, very important, important, but the point I want to make is search these days has very much changed over time in terms of the factors, the drive ranking, and a couple of those factors, right, have to do with social media. So my social media strategy practice has grown um in parallel tracks that my search practice has grown because they support each other. Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. And of course we all know that we need to be out there in all of these, you know, a lot of our listeners, Jasmine or maybe over age 50, and some of them are starting to understand, but it's still very confusing. There's a lot to it. So how do you help business owners think differently about their business? Well, the first thing that they need to understand, especially with your audience, is that they need to understand that they are in a digital and mobile era. So this helps companies like most of my clients, to be honest, are B2B tech where the decision makers are CIOs and they're older and they're very experienced people or brand managers that are older, so it's fine, you know, they need to understand as they're thinking about their product. And services, the revenue model especially how is it going to be either impacted or how are you going to impact a digital buyer? So what's the key there? That person is everywhere that person requires personalization, right? So if you're, if you are marketing a new product or service, it's not just about broadcasting your message it's not just about advertising. It's really about the most important thing. It's actually understanding who your customers are, understanding who your prospect customers are, your target audience, and then building, because we're talking about marketing today, so building your marketing programs and your plans to meet the actual individual needs of your customer. It really doesn't matter. Like I said, my clients are all B2B, so, and B2B is becoming very innovative in the world of personalization. So they they they need they need that kind of two way dialogue. Yeah, the, the problem I think for a lot of people is they're thinking, you know, things are changing so quickly. How do I get ahead? I'm like, what's next? I mean, OK, we're digital and mobile uh are we settled into that now or what's next ahead of that that I need to get ready for now? What do you see in the future? Well, it's interesting in the future so I'm gonna stick with personalization because really everything has to do with personalization in the world of marketing today so you wanna stay on top of trends like things like the Apple Watch, right? is a is a great example wearables because now you can make a phone call from your arm, you know, it's kind of insane I think it's funny it's insane. I feel like I'm living in a, you know, when I was growing up it's like you could only dream of these things, right? So, but we're there now and it's never slowing down. Technology, you know, it's like at the speed of light right these days. So anyway, so what's in the future? More and more personalization, more and more understanding the customer it's almost like. You walking into a store and they know exactly what you need before you get there, which in New York is great because we don't have any time. So it's I walk into a store and they hand me something and then they give me a deal at the same time. I am a happy camper, right? So that's basically where we're headed in terms of. The consumer mindset, right, especially with business to business they are smarter than they ever were your buyer, OK? So they expect people, your sales team or maybe you're the lead sales person and you only have a couple of people on staff. Your job is not really to sell anymore. Your job is to engage delight and build relationships and social and in mobile. You need to be there. So, um, that's actually the first step is you need to actually be there. You need to listen, react, engage, and build relationships. And mobile right now, um, is, is, is super, super important. 50% of all ads spend in YouTube, for example. Is done through mobile campaigns, right? These are things that brands don't agencies don't even know these days. So, um, so I think that one of the things I was caution. Some of my clients, especially in the with the the profile you gave me of your audience, right, it's not to jump into the things like I have a client, he's the funniest guy in the world, and he always says, Jasmine, stop me from running after shiny objects. And I said, I will. That's my job, right? My job? No, he's the coolest guy. He lives in LA too, my favorite city. It is. So anyway, yeah, so, so the thing is, is that. With all my clients I always have them proceed slowly and smartly instead of going way off into, you know, for example, should I use Instagram? should I jump on Snapchat? OK, wait a minute. What is your business model? Who's your audience, right? What are their diagnostics? What's your user profile? Where are they living? How are they behaving in search, you know, are they offline? Do you need to have integrated programs, you know, and what's your budget and how can we step through this slowly, assess metrics, and then move from there. So I'm very actually cautious when I consult because, because only my, in my experience, you know, working with a lot of clients and even owning my own businesses in digital, it's important that you step slowly through it and research the hell out of anything that's new before you jump onto it. I like what you had to say about the, the, the Ola or the Real role of a salesperson engage to light and build relationships and then the other thing you're telling us is that even though the pace is quickly that there's a lot of things going on, you need to slow down, work with somebody like yourself, figure out, ask a lot of questions about who your real customer is and are they going to be there when you get there? Do you need to go to these different platforms because they may not. They may not be for your target customer. Very good information indeed. And how does social branding support the business owner Jasmine and we're, we've only got about 2.5 minutes left. I apologize for that, but tell us a little bit about how does social branding support the business owner these days. Yeah, sure, so. Like I said, in, in most cases, I won't say in all cases, well, in all cases, if I go back to some of the my favorite CEOs that I've ever met in my life, like the really famous ones, they always say the same thing. The best sales person in your organization should be your CEO so that's something I've stuck with my whole life and I, I really do agree with that. So I, because you're the one that cares the most, right? So. So in, in, in, in today's world, the business owner, especially the small business owner, or it might even be um an individual lawyer, individual accountant, right? That person. When somebody is looking to do business with their company they're going to be they're gonna look them up online, right? They're going to look to be engaged without even knowing that they're looking to be engaged if you know what I mean so they could be looking for like somebody could be looking for let's say for me, right? They could be looking for a LinkedIn trainer because I have LinkedIn corporate training programs I've been doing that forever, right? Um, they, they might not be looking at my name or anything about me. Maybe they're in Los Angeles, right? So they could be looking up LinkedIn Trainor, but if, if they look up LinkedIn Trainor in LinkedIn and they say, hey, you know what, this post about the top 10 ways to sell on LinkedIn from Jasmine Sandler written in March 2013, right? Has 3100 followers right and X number of likes I'm really gonna read this thing, OK, but it's because I took the time to build that that they found me so social branding, social branding, and forget about me, right? But for social branding for the business owner, um, it is so important because in today's world people are basically gonna find your service and your products. Based on how well you've educated them through social and how well you've engaged with them in social, um, it's really about trust and credibility. Yeah, it's building that trust and credibility. I want to make sure we get in. We've only got about 30 seconds left. Tell our listeners how to get in touch with you best, Jasmine. Very simple jasmine Sandler.com. Everything is there, the books, everything. Yeah, books, she's available for speaking engagements and please you can tell it's a very valuable information, Jasmine. Thanks so much for joining us today. It's been a real pleasure to have you on the show. I look forward to the next time. We'll have to have you back and we'll get deeper into these topics. I would love to. Thank you, Bill. It's true that some things change as we get older, but if you're a woman over 40 and you're dealing with insomnia, brain fog, moodiness, and weight gain, you don't have to accept it as just another part of aging. And with Miti Health, you can get help and stop pushing through it alone. The experts at Mitty understand that all these symptoms can be connected to the hormonal changes that happen around menopause, and Mitie can help you feel more like yourself again. Many healthcare providers aren't trained to treat or even recognize menopause symptoms. MIDI clinicians are menopause experts. They're dedicated to providing safe, effective, FDA approved solutions for dozens of hormonal symptoms, not just hot flashes. Most Importantly, they're covered by insurance. 91% of MIDI patients get relief from symptoms within just two months. You deserve to feel great. Book your virtual visit today at joinmidi.com. That's join MIDI.com.