Title: How to Love your Business and Reconnect in your Daily Grind

Forbes recently shared the results from The Capital One Business Survey of U.S. small business owners (total annual revenues less than $20 million) surveyed November 17-21, 2021:

• 42% of small business owners, and 62% of minority business owners, have reported recently experiencing burnout.
• The SBA reports that 81% of small businesses have no employees.

Burnout affects mental well-being, physical health, and work-life balance, not to mention your productivity and business profitability. Whether you have employees or not, it’s easy to get stuck in the daily grind and lose your passion for your business. How can you snap out of it so your business can grow? We’ll share various marketing strategies to reconnect you with your business, help you work on your business, and remember the importance of the daily grind.

3 Takeaways:

1. How to face obstacles that are draining your energy
2. A framework to create purpose-driven marketing strategies
3. How to reconnect and stay connected to your business

Recorded: February 7, 2022

About Alexis:

Alexis Rago, the Big Kahuna at Marketing Mana LLC and Work On Your Business (WOYB), coaches and empowers small business owners to create powerful connections with their ideal clients through marketing strategies. Collaborative sessions address SMART marketing goals, business core values, mission, vision, branding, customer segmentation, messaging, strategic marketing plans, action plans, and more. The WOYB Retreat provides an intense getaway for 8 small business owners to create marketing strategies in 3 days while staying at a mansion.

In addition to her MBA from Ross School of Business at University of Michigan (Go Blue!), her expertise stems from 20+ years of marketing companies and brands of all sizes in various industries including technology, eCommerce, retail, legal, financial solutions, insurance, real estate, health & wellness, coaching, and more.

Alexis enjoys showing up for herself so she can provide value to others, giving her dog belly rubs, traveling, healthy and active choices, eating chocolate that’s worth it, and being a boy mom, wife, daughter, friend, and volunteer. She wants to move back to her childhood home, Hawaii, especially during Midwest winters.

The post Video Recording: Alexis Rago on Loving Your Business appeared first on Oak Brook Business Network.

Title: 6 Easy Steps That Will Make Your Website a Lead-Gen Machine

How can you use digital marketing for lead generation and attract new customers? The design of your website directly affects how well you connect with potential customers and convert them into sales. Clean, well-organized content is critical; along with a compelling call-to-action that begins the connection process.

According to Salesforce, it takes an average of 6-8 marketing touch points to generate a sales lead. To build interest, high-quality and useful information should be front-and-center. In this workshop, we present six (6) steps to perfect your website for lead generation, resulting in more paying clients for your business.

You’ll learn how to:

1. Use analytics to determine your best-selling products
2. Design attention-grabbing landing pages
3. Create a compelling call-to-action
4. Build website resources for lead-generation (guides, webinars, e-books)
5. Integrate email marketing and social media to stay in front of customers
6. Make use of SEO, paid ads, and search engine marketing to drive website traffic

Digital marketing efforts are driven by both quantity and quality. Focusing on both the quality (your website / landing page user-experience) and quantity of leads (your inbound marketing efforts) will generate success. To make your website a lead generation machine, the six steps described in this workshop will help you reach that goal.

Recorded: December 6, 2021

About Michel:

Michel Ann Sharritt, Vice President and Co-founder of CueCamp and Situated Research, has over 30 years of experience in designing amazing user experiences across both websites and social media. Her background in behavioral psychology supports her understanding of users’ needs and goals while interacting with technology. She has a creative touch for designing amazing user experiences across websites and interactive media.

Michel has the creative ability to design marketing strategies for businesses of various sizes, using a combination of web design, interactive marketing, and social media. Her full-service marketing agency, CueCamp, is a strategic social media partner offering results-driven social media campaigns for businesses of all sizes. Focused on brand engagement and ROI, CueCamp designs comprehensive strategic marketing plans to elevate brand awareness using advanced marketing automation tools.

The post Video Recording: Michel Sharritt on Website Lead Generation appeared first on Oak Brook Business Network.

Title: Building a Referral Base with Online Marketing

Designing a social media plan that offers the highest return on investment (ROI) across a variety of marketing channels is tricky. Leveraging a combination of industry-specific knowledge, your niche, and understanding the unique benefits of each of the leading social media platforms is required to generate a buzz and provide results for your business.

Together, we’ll explore:

• Best practices
• Ways to get started
• Which channels work for your business
• Measuring successes and failures
• How to gain followers and establish your identity in the community

We’ll discuss how to raise brand awareness and get people to engage with your business. This talk explores how to use social media for business, whether you’re a social media guru or just getting started.

Recorded: August 2, 2021

About Michel:

Michel Ann Sharritt, Vice President and Co-founder of CueCamp and Situated Research, has over 25 years of experience in designing amazing user experiences across both websites and social media. Her background in behavioral psychology supports her understanding of users’ needs and goals while interacting with technology.

Her full-service marketing agency, CueCamp, is a strategic social media partner offering results-driven social media campaigns for businesses of all sizes. Focused on brand engagement and ROI, CueCamp designs comprehensive strategic marketing plans to elevate brand awareness using advanced marketing automation tools.

The post Video Recording: Michel Sharritt on Social Media Marketing Channels appeared first on Oak Brook Business Network.

Title: Business Improvement Einstein’s Way
How Einstein’s Three Rules of Work Can Help a Business Succeed in the “New Normal”

Albert Einstein once said, “We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.” Einstein believed you have to think about things differently and his three work rules provide us with the means do so. As business conditions recover, no one knows for sure what will happen. But, following Einstein’s rules can get your business ready for whatever comes.

Attendees will come away with practical ways to:

• Fix barriers that get in the way of people and operational performance
• Make marketing more effective and efficient
• Uncover opportunities hidden behind uncertainty and fear
• Make two truths of human behavior your ally

Members as well as non-members are welcome. We look forward to hosting what will be an interesting discussion. We’ll see you there!

Recorded: July 12, 2021

About Mark:

Mark James is an accomplished business improvement advisor with over 40 years of experience in data-driven marketing, workplace performance, distribution channel effectiveness, and measurement. As the founder and President of Performance Advisors Group, Inc., Mark helps growing and mature companies achieve customer loyalty and sustainable growth. His consulting/service business model saves clients 15-75%. Diverse industry experience includes construction machinery, automotive aftermarket, energy, healthcare, and financial services.

Mark holds a bachelor’s degree in finance from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and a Master of Business Administration Degree from the University of Dayton. He serves on the Board of Directors of Family Counseling Service in Aurora, and is a board member of the University of Illinois West Suburban (Chicago) Alumni Group.

The post Video Recording: Mark James on Business Improvement appeared first on Oak Brook Business Network.

Title: Social Media Marketing for Small Business

How do you raise brand awareness and get people to engage with your business? Designing a custom plan that utilizes marketing channels that offer the highest return on investment (ROI) can be tricky. Leveraging a combination of industry-specific knowledge, your niche, and understanding the unique benefits of each of the leading social media platforms is required to generate a buzz and provide results for your business.

Together, we’ll explore:

• Best practices
• Ideas for getting started
• Which channels work for your business
• Successes and failures
• How to gain followers and establish your identity in the community

This talk explores how to grow business with social media, whether you’re a social media guru or just getting started.

Recorded: June 7, 2021

About Michel:

Michel Ann Sharritt, Vice President and Co-founder of CueCamp and Situated Research, has over 25 years of experience in designing amazing user experiences across both websites and social media. Her background in behavioral psychology supports her understanding of users’ needs and goals while interacting with technology.

Her full-service marketing agency, CueCamp, is a strategic social media partner offering results-driven social media campaigns for businesses of all sizes. Focused on brand engagement and ROI, CueCamp designs comprehensive strategic marketing plans to elevate brand awareness using advanced marketing automation tools.

The post Video Recording: Michel Sharritt on Social Media Marketing appeared first on Oak Brook Business Network.

Title: LinkedIn for Small B-2-B Marketing

LinkedIn is about building relationships through networking. LinkedIn is not mass marketing, advertising, or selling direct to others. Rather, it’s a social business. Who you are connected to doesn’t matter. What really matters is who your first-level connections are connected to and who those first levels can introduce you to that are targeted, potential clients.

As a search engine similar to Google, LinkedIn was originally built to help companies and recruiters find qualified candidates to fill positions. Therefore, you must understand how search engines work in order to leverage LinkedIn to your benefit. Using that knowledge will enable your business to get found on LinkedIn when someone has a need you can fill or a question you can answer.

Wishing and hoping that someone will find you simply doesn’t work anymore. You do need a plan, rather than taking a nonchalant attitude. Your plan must be coupled with proper strategies and tactics to successfully grow your business on LinkedIn.

In this interactive virtual presentation, Michael will cover the above topics and also touch on target marketing, branding, and increasing visibility.

Recorded: May 3, 2021

About Michael:

Michael Yublosky spent 30+ years in direct sales and marketing in both B-2-B and B-2-C arenas. He discovered a passion for Internet marketing in 2006 and learned to successfully launch small business WordPress websites. He uses content marketing and social media exclusively to gain organic (natural, free) results on Google through search engine optimization and content marketing.

Later he re-discovered LinkedIn and found it had evolved from solely a job-seeking platform to one that welcomed small business networking as well. He quickly realized that LinkedIn was a search engine just like Google is. The same principles that worked on Google, worked on LinkedIn, only the results are faster! In 2017 Michael was chosen as one of only 10 LinkedIn members in English-speaking countries to help facilitate conversations and assist members via the LinkedIn Forums for the community team pilot, which was extended quarterly for one year after the initial trial when in-house LinkedIn personnel took over. Michael works with a select group of clients at his Internet marketing consultancy.

The post Video Recording: Michael Yublosky on B2B Marketing appeared first on Oak Brook Business Network.

Title: Five Marketing Principles Every Business Must Get Right to Maximize Results

Have you ever heard someone say this about their marketing: “We tried that and it didn’t work?” or, “We are not seeing the marketing results we expected.” They are probably missing one or more of these principles. And it is costing time and money. Attend this presentation to see how these five key principles will help you:

• Avoid the marketing “shiny key” syndrome
• Prevent the “winging it” trap
• Visualize marketing as a journey
• Make better-informed marketing decisions
• Validate results
• Understand what customers really care about

Recorded: March 1, 2021

About Mark:

Mark James is an accomplished business improvement advisor with over 40 years of experience in data-driven marketing, workplace performance, distribution channel effectiveness, and measurement. As the founder and President of Performance Advisors Group, Inc., Mark helps growing and mature companies achieve customer loyalty and sustainable growth. His consulting/service business model saves clients 15-75%. Diverse industry experience includes construction machinery, automotive aftermarket, energy, healthcare, and financial services.

Mark holds a bachelor’s degree in finance from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and a Master of Business Administration Degree from the University of Dayton. He serves on the Board of Directors of Family Counseling Service in Aurora, and is a board member of the University of Illinois West Suburban (Chicago) Alumni Group.

The post Video Recording: Mark James on Marketing Effectiveness appeared first on Oak Brook Business Network.