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This week we start our new 5-minute format! Listen to Kyle talk about the basics of the CAN-SPAM act and answer some questions about email marketing from listeners and around the web. Have a future topic you want to see covered or questions on the episode? Leave us a comment! Episode Transcription: “Welcome to the MIND Your Business podcast! I’m your host, Kyle Speaker, and this week kicks off our brand new podcast format. Now you can listen to us talk about small business, marketing, and life  in 5-minute bite-sized chunks every thursday. This week we are going to be expanding on an article we wrote a few months back about the CAN-SPAM act. We’ll also be answering some common questions about email marketing from small business owners. What is the CAN-SPAM act? Put simply, it provides regulations and guidelines for internet marketers, in order to help protect consumers. I like to break down the act into its 5 main pillars: Number 1: Your header info must be accurate. This refers to things like the domain name and email address that is being used in your message. It’s pretty easy to stay out of trouble with this one, as long as you aren’t pretending to be from a domain other than your own, you should be fine. 2: The subjects of your emails have to be truthful. Don’t claim to be giving something away for free if you aren’t, and don’t make claims that aren’t legitimate. 3: You must provide a way to opt-out or unsubscribe from your emails. Once you receive an unsubscribe notice, you have to comply within 10 business days. Luckily, most email marketing software and companies already take care of this for you. 4: Commercial emails must identify themselves as an advertisement or solicitation in some way. While there is no hard and fast rule as to how this must be done, as long as you aren’t trying to conceal who you are in a shady manner, you should be fine. Bonus points if your email includes where they signed up for your email list at. The fifth and last point is that your email must include your business’s physical address. Like most of the other rules outlined in the CAN-SPAM act, this is another way to help consumers know who is really sending them email. Now as long as you follow those five main pillars, you shouldn’t have to worry about your email campaigns having any issues with the law. Continuing with our theme of email marketing, let’s take a look at some common questions we came across: Where can I find emails to place on my marketing list? The most common form we recommend is by using sign up forms through your website and content. You might also have some success using methods such as physical sign ups at events or through hosting a contest. If you need a lot of emails quickly, or are looking for a focused “email blast”, purchasing a list may also make sense. Can I use scraped emails in my marketing? This one is a little more difficult, and may require looking into the specific laws regarding advertising where you live. In most cases, I suggest not using scraped emails if possible. Receiving unsolicited marketing emails is not only annoying, but may be seen as violating the CAN-SPAM act. How often should I send emails to my subscriber list? The exact frequency of your email campaign depends on your industry and the goals you have for your campaign. I find that the best frequency to send emails at is whichever you told your subscribers when they first signed up. If they signed up for weekly emails, send weekly emails. As long as you’re upfront with how many emails they’ll be getting, and send quality content, any frequency is fine. For those of you that want a hard answer, I prefer weekly. Not only do I typically see the best results from campaigns using this frequency, but it fits with my own personal “flow”. That wraps up our episode. If you have any other questions about email marketing, ideas for future episodes, or pictures of dogs dressed up as bears, please send us a message or leave a comment below.”

Meteorologist and Educator Eric Hörst On The Weather Channel, Forecasting and Twitter. If you’re not familiar with Eric Hörst and the Millersville University weather website, you might want to pay them a visit and experience accurate forecasts with no hype for yourself.  Eric has over 30 years of experience and works with students in maintaining the site and updating the forecast on the website typically twice a week. What’s compelling is that in between these updates during the week, Eric is giving timely weather updates via his Twitter feed as the forecast changes while Mother Nature reminds us who’s in charge. On this week’s podcast, Eric shares some of his background in Meteorology, his views on The Weather Channel and his use of Twitter (nearly 6,000 followers) for sharing weather information and forecast changes. Thank you for listening to our podcast and feel free to contact us if you have any questions regarding it or anything website related.  During your next boring business meeting, put in your earbuds and crank up the MIND Your Business podcast!

Can I Repurpose My Content?  Yes, You Can and Stoney deGeyter Will Tell You How! This week on the MIND Your Business podcast, we welcome for the first time as our guest Stoney deGeyter, CEO of Pole Position Marketing and author of The Best Damn Web Marketing Checklist, Period! Stoney has been in web marketing since 1998, when he started Pole Position Marketing and has a wealth of knowledge to share on all aspects of web marketing.  On the podcast today, the focus is on repurposing your content.  Blog writing for your business is necessary in building trust with the search engines as well as educating and earning trust with your visitors so they will become your clients;  however, blog writing can become overwhelming and begin to feel like a chore really quickly without proper planning. Repurposing content, when done properly and with the right intent, can be a major time saver and at the same time help you reach a wider audience.  Stoney will give you guidelines on how to do it properly so you can work efficiently and, as he proudly states, “have more time to binge-watch Netflix.” Thank you for listening to our podcast and feel free to contact us if you have any questions regarding it or anything website related.  During your next boring business meeting, put in your earbuds and crank up the MIND Your Business podcast!

Best Selling Author, Speaker and Educator Mark Schaefer Discusses How He Broke Through His Own Comfort Zone and Helps Others Do The Same. This week on the MIND Your Business podcast, we welcome back one of our favorites…Mark Schaefer, author of numerous best selling books on marketing and content sharing including The Content Code and, most recently, Known. No matter who you meet and how successful they are, chances are that they have had to overcome numerous obstacles on their way to success…including stepping outside their normal areas of comfort in order for both their business and their life to progress. It can be scary and if you’re scared or nervous, you’re not alone. Progress happens outside of your comfort zone.  Let’s say that you’re a bit of an introvert, but the work you do requires you to consistently be in front of people…even speaking and doing presentations.  If that’s the case, then you will be most definitely interested in what Mark has to share.  That’s just part of your takeaway from this week’s podcast…there’s plenty more and, as always, Mark is down-to-earth, fun and entertaining in relating his own journey while giving you tips and advice for yours! Thank you for listening to our podcast and feel free to contact us if you have any questions regarding it or anything website related.  During your next boring business meeting, put in your earbuds and crank up the MIND Your Business podcast!

Are You Afraid Of Yourself?  Breaking Through Your Marketing Comfort Zone With Greg Orth of Sandler Training. This week on the MIND Your Business podcast, we welcome Greg Orth of Sandler Training here in Lancaster, PA! If you’ve listened to the podcast or read my blog posts for any length of time, you know that I’m not a fan of what is known as “systematic sales.”  The main reason for this is because in my experience with various sales systems, I found that either 1) they basically taught manipulation techniques or 2) they took good habits employed by successful salespeople and systematized them so someone who doesn’t care can appear as though they do. The one exception was my experience with Sandler over 10 years ago. The reason I’m doing this “Breaking Through Your Marketing Comfort Zone” series throughout this year is because of the tremendous impact it had and continues to have on my life.  What I learned was how to get over my own fear so I could cross those barriers that I allowed to hold me back in business and my career. To market yourself and your brand in the Internet age, transparency is supremely important.  That makes many business owners nervous.  Transparency requires you to go beyond what is comfortable to you, which is where true progress is waiting. Greg will discuss the HUGE risk he took in breaking through his own comfort zone to succeed, as well share a story of how he likewise helped a client do the same thing.   Thank you for listening to our podcast and feel free to contact us if you have any questions regarding it or anything website related.  During your next boring business meeting, put in your earbuds and crank up the MIND Your Business podcast!

How Can Social Media Help My Business?  Tamara Dorris Answers That And More.   This week on the MIND Your Business podcast, we welcome author, educator and real estate professional to discuss how social media and new technology, such as video, has helped grow her business and her brand over the past 10+ years! I was first introduced to Tamara close to 10 years ago when I was working with real estate agents on their Internet marketing…back when most people were not taking the Internet seriously as a competitive marketplace.  Tamara saw the future and was among the first in her profession to utilize podcasting before it was cool (it was actually just referred to as radio when she started) and incorporate video into her marketing and educational mix. Years later her brand thrives and she’s here to share some of what has worked for her and why. As well as being a real estate professional for 25 years, she has taught real estate and communication courses as a college/university professor for 12 years, is an active speaker and consultant in real estate and communications, and is the author of 16 books.  I have long admired her embracing of social media and tech early on when many of her peers thought social media was just…ahem…a fad. Thank you for listening to our podcast and feel free to contact us if you have any questions regarding it or anything website related.  During your next boring business meeting, put in your earbuds and crank up the MIND Your Business podcast!

SEO Keywords Are Dead.  NOW How Will You Optimize Your Website? We’ve been discussing the advent of Artificial Intelligence (AI) on the podcast here off and on over the past year.  In fact, it really started to come to light when Google introduced Rankbrain around a year and a half ago. During that time, Panda and Penguin have both morphed into realtime updates, we had the second “Mobilegeddon” in January of this year and over the 2016 Thanksgiving holiday Google’s CEO announced that search will be AI first in just 3 years. That’s Artificial Intelligence first…which means interaction and engagement.  What are you doing to be prepared?  AI preparation has little to do with keywords. Google’s State of Website Security in 2016 report last week, coupled with YouTube’s announcement that they are halting video annotations as of May 2nd and switching to “End Cards” marks another major move in that direction.  Make no mistake…there are reasons behind these moves and they point to AI.   Hacked sites were up 32% last year vs 2015 and Google expects that trend to continue because so many businesses are letting their sites get too old and vulnerable.  Outdated websites will not fare well with AI. Okay, I admit it…keywords aren’t truly dead.   They never will be.  However, it’s imperative that you focus on other ranking factors NOW, because if you’re focusing only on keywords you’re already behind.  If you want to prepare your site for AI, you must imagine a world with no keywords to get in the right mindset and move forward from there. I’ll explain it all on the podcast, so take 10 minutes and have a listen:) Thank you for listening to our podcast and feel free to contact us if you have any questions regarding it or anything website related.  During your next boring business meeting, put in your earbuds and crank up the MIND Your Business podcast!

Cincinnati’s Rock N Roll Real Estate Agent On Getting Beyond Your Comfort Zone To Boost Your Brand   I first met Gary back around 2007 or 2008 when the real estate market was upsidedown and I was a real estate coach with another company.   When the real estate crash happened there were a lot of agents throwing up their hands in frustration, cursing and wondering what they were going to do next.  A lot of agents left the real estate business. A TON! One thing I noticed, however, was that the agents I spoke with (easily 12 a day between appointments, phone calls, emails) who had 10 years or more of experience were not among those who thought the proverbial sky was falling.  Some of them even went as far as to say it was a relief because most (not all) of the agents who left weren’t good representatives of what an agent should be and mostly just cared about money. These experienced agents all had one thing in common…they understood marketing and continued to do what they were already doing.  In addition, these experienced agents were the ones who were embracing technology and learning how to blog and utilize Internet marketing before it became fashionable. Remember…Facebook was new back then and a lot of people saw social media as a “fad.” Gary utilized audio, video and a really personable, personal approach that included him having to break through his comfort zone in starting up his weekly radio show, now in its 7th year.  Gary will tell you about this and a lot more on today’s podcast. Thank you for listening to our podcast and feel free to contact us if you have any questions regarding it or anything website related.  During your next boring business meeting, put in your earbuds and crank up the MIND Your Business podcast!

Mark Schaefer Tells You How To Become Known Last week, we were fortunate to have speaker, educator, marketing expert and best selling author Mark Schaefer on our podcast to discuss his new book called Known.  In this book, he explores the concept that you don’t have to be famous to be successful on the Internet. You just have to find your audience and be Known.  And Mark wants you to know that you can do it…anyone can do it!   This week Mark Schaefer returns to the MIND Your Business podcast to discuss more about his new book and his new pioneering strategies to help give focus and scope to your content strategy and social media strategies.  Lots of valuable information in store for you here and Mark is as engaging, entertaining and refreshing as ever! Thank you for listening to our podcast and feel free to contact us if you have any questions regarding it or anything website related.  During your next boring business meeting, put in your earbuds and crank up the MIND Your Business podcast!

How Color Impacts Your Decision Making (feat. Chad McComsey of MIND) A few weeks ago, I was printing the itinerary for my wife’s flight to see a friend in Colorado and noticed she had booked with through a website called JustFly.com.  I had never heard of them before, as I’ve always stuck with Priceline since my experience has been consistently good.  I don’t know that it’s truly brand loyalty (maybe it is), but there is definitely a comfort level I have there over other sources like Hotwire or Kayak. Then it kinda hit me while I was printing the itinerary (including the warm blue JustFly logo) that I immediately felt comfortable with them, whereas I would have been uncomfortable if it had been the Hotwire or Kayak or even Orbitz logo on there. And I couldn’t think of a valid reason why. Enter MIND’s own lead designer Chad McComsey. I messaged Chad about the situation and we decided it would make for a good podcast about color and how it can impact our decision making.  So here you go!  Chad will be dissecting the impact of the use of color on these websites and how those colors can not only have an emotional impact on people visiting the site, but in one particular case here can actually help determine the target audience. This is some vital information for you to use when you’re in the design or redesign phase of having your website built. Thank you for listening to our podcast and feel free to contact us if you have any questions regarding it or anything website related.  During your next boring business meeting, put in your earbuds and crank up the MIND Your Business podcast!

Gary Rossignol Talks About Branding Your Business On The Internet.This week on the MIND Your Business podcast, we welcome a gentlemen I first met about 9 years ago when I was coaching real estate agents on marketing as the Internet was becoming a much more fierce and competitive marketplace.Gary was the first person I worked with who was way ahead of his competition in how he was viewing this thing called the Internet and how to market yourself.  He was the first person I worked with who understood that it’s not enough just to BE on the Internet.  What are you actually doing with it?How are you using this medium to project yourself and your heart behind your business to people who are online searching for something more than a price-point…they’re searching for someone who, in the case of real estate, is going to help them with what might just be the largest purchase of their life.They just want to know that you care beyond the dollar signs.  Gary relates what he did in branding his business and how some of the “little things” turned out to be big things as he built his brand.We hope you enjoy the podcast and find concepts and ideas that you can put to use for your business:)  Thank you for listening to it through our site, iTunes, Stitcher, Google Play or whatever.  During your next workout, crank up the MIND Your Business podcast!

Melinda Emerson Talks About Breaking Through Your Comfort Zone For Your Business.This week on the MIND Your Business podcast, we welcome our first guest to discuss the importance of breaking through your own comfort zone to grow your business.  We started this series last week and will be revisiting it throughout 2017 with different guests from different business arenas sharing their own experiences, as well as sharing their experiences with clients. With Artificial Intelligence on the horizon, your comfort zone is going to be stretched to the limit.  Building and maintaining your relationship with your customers and potential customers is going to require you to do things that perhaps you’ve been able to avoid in the past.Don’t worry, though, we’re going to give you some great tips from some great people throughout the year to help you in your own journey…and you’ll probably wind up having some fun with it, as well:) We hope you enjoy the podcast and thank you for listening to it through our site, iTunes, Stitcher, Google Play or whatever.  During your next workout, crank up the MIND Your Business podcast!

Breaking Through Your Comfort Zone and Embracing AI For Your Business.This week on the MIND Your Business podcast, we begin a journey that will last most – if not all – of 2017.  That journey is all about breaking through your comfort zone when it comes to how you present your business, how you market your business…how you business your business.I will be starting off this series this week with some foundational advice and then we will be hearing from guests like Melinda Emerson (America’s #1 Small Business Expert), Gary Rossignol (Cincinnati’s Rock N Roll Real Estate Agent), Mark Schaefer (educator, best selling author of Known and The Content Code and one of our favorite people) and lots more as the year rolls on.It all starts here…and it is such a vital part of your business future because as Google moves toward AI-First over Mobile-First by 2020, your comfort zone is going to be challenged like never ever before.  Embrace the challenge and you will be ready for AI and have even better interaction with your alpha audience.Oh…and have pen and paper handy because we have a few things for you to write down.  With purpose:)We hope you enjoy the podcast and thank you for listening to it.  On your next visit to the north pole, tell Santa that you want the MIND Your Business Podcast in your stocking this year.

Social Media Mistakes Businesses Should Avoid With Melinda Emerson This week on the MIND Your Business podcast, we welcome America’s number one small business expert and small business lady Melinda Emerson.Melinda is a best selling author and has been featured in the New York Times, MSNBC, FOX News, Black Enterprise, Fortune and CNBC discussing her sharp and creative approach to social media and how to build your audience.  After seeing and meeting her at a Lancaster marketing event a couple of months back, I was delighted that she would take the time to come on our podcast and share this valuable information with you all.Get ready for a great podcast with a creative and straight shooting lady who will both educate and inspire you!We hope you enjoy the podcast and thank you for listening to it.  On your next commercial flight to the Mars colony, ask your intergalactic airline to replace the usual boring entertainment with the MIND Your Business Podcast!

The New Age of Black Hat SEO: What You Should Avoid. It’s been a while since we’ve discussed Black Hat SEO on the MIND Your Business podcast…at least in detail.  After what I woke up to one day last week, it became glaringly apparent that it’s time to revisit the concept because both times and methods have changed.Whereas it used to be all about links and keyword stuffing, the changes to Google’s algorithm in recent years (most notably Panda and Penguin) has made it harder to cheat.  The addition of Rankbrain in October 2015 began the escalation to realtime updates.  As if that’s not enough, the announcement by Google CEO Sundar Pichai back in November regarding Google moving toward AI first seemed to go under everyone’s radar while business owners/decision makers are focused on the latest Google mobile update.All that to say it’s getting harder and harder to cheat the system, but people are still doing it.  And people are still paying for it. with desperate hopes of it actually working.On today’s podcast, I cover some newer Black Hat SEO tactics that should avoid like the plague.  Some of them are being used by SEO companies to cheat local search and show up in YOUR home town search when they shouldn’t.  It’s the new age of Black Hat SEO and we’re going to show you what you should watch out for to protect your business and your online reputation.We hope you enjoy the podcast and thank you for listening to it.  On your next commercial flight to the Mars colony, ask your intergalactic airline to replace the usual boring entertainment with the MIND Your Business Podcast!

Andy Mull on Super Mario 2, Atari ET and more! A couple of weeks ago, Andy gave you his picks for his favorite games in 2016.  It was tough to narrow it down to 5 for a game lover like Andy, but he was more than up to the task.So we uppped the ante and invited him to play The Game Game.As Zim knows cheese, Chad knows dogs, Molly knows herbs, Nick knows healthy stuff and Andrew knows cats…it’s time to find out just how much Andy knows about games.  And we’re going retro on some of these questions…some fun and esoteric stuff like: What iconic game wound up as landfill? Where can you find the ORIGINAL Super Mario 2?  (What was released was NOT the original) Was Donkey Kong originally supposed to be a Popeye video game? Was Lemmy a koopa at heart? A whole bunch more game trivia you’re gonna loveSince next week’s podcast is going to be more on the serious side concerning local black hat seo techniques you don’t want to be fooled by, we thought it would be nice for our first podcast of the new year 2017 to be a fun one!  Have fun and even test your own video game knowledge with MIND’s own back end developer Andy Mull.We hope you enjoy the podcast and thank you for listening to it.  On your next commercial flight to the Mars colony, ask your intergalactic airline to replace the usual boring entertainment with the MIND Your Business Podcast!

Mark Schaefer On Hiking, Great Smoky Mountains, Tennis and more!This week, best selling author and marketing educator Mark Schaefer is back on our podcast to have some fun with facts about the great outdoors!Living in the Great Smoky Mountains, Mark enjoys hiking, kayaking, tennis and just plain being outside.  As we love doing on the podcast, we’ve put together some interesting, fun and – in some cases – absurd facts about some of these interests and Mark was kind enough to play the facts game with us on this final podcast of 2016Can a mouse squeeze into a hole the circumference of a ball point pen to sneak into your tent while you’re camping?Who was the a) youngest, b) first German and c) first unseeded player to win the classic Wimbledon tennis tournament?   Hint:  It was the same personWhat is Mark’s favorite place to hike?  Surprisingly, it’s not actually in the Smoky Mountains where he lives.Find out the answers to these and more fun questions on today’s podcast and make sure to check out his best-selling book The Content Code. It’s a great read on not just social media, but how social media works with other aspects of your marketing mix. We hope you enjoy the podcast and thank you for listening to it.  In the meantime, check out Mark’s other books including Social Media Explained, Return on Influence, The Tao of Twitter and his forthcoming new book Known, due out in Spring 2017.   On your next commercial flight to the Mars colony, ask your intergalactic airline to replace the usual boring entertainment with the MIND Your Business Podcast!

Andy Mulls Over The Best Games of 2016 For You Or The Gamer In Your LifeWelcome to Zombocom!  Just kidding.  Welcome to this week’s MIND Your Business podcast, where MIND back end developer Andy Mull shares his experience and insight for all you gamers and those of you who may need a last minute gift idea for a friend or family gamer.Here, Andy will count down his top 5 games of 2016…some new and some not…and tell you in detail what makes them such good choices for your time and money.  From standard controllers to racing consoles that will challenge your upper body strength, Andy covers the bases and will also school you with some really cool gaming and programming facts:)Like what videogame is famous for being so bad it basically became landfill?  And why did it happen to begin with?We hope you enjoy this special gaming podcast and thank you for taking the time to listen.  While you get the family together over the holidays at your Pong gaming console and fire up the good ol’ Commodore 64 (the highest selling single computer model of all time), make sure you crank up the MIND Your Business Podcast!

How To Be A Marketing Badass With Mark Schaefer, pt 2This week we welcome back Mark Schaefer, best selling author, speaker and educator to our podcastMark is here do discuss the second half of his Internet marketing strategy as covered in his best-selling book The Content Code, It’s an easy read in that he explains things so clearly and in such a fun, entertaining way.  Great information and great real life examples of success!  If you heard last week’s podcast, no doubt you have been looking forward to this as much as we have:)If this is your introduction to Mark’s Internet marketing philosophy, he gives it the appropriate acronym of BADASS:Brand developmentAuthorityDistribution, advertising, promotion, SEOAudience and influencersShareabilitySocial proof and social signalsWe hope you enjoy the podcast and thank you for listening to it.  In the meantime, check out Mark’s other books including Social Media Explained, Return on Influence, The Tao of Twitter and his forthcoming new book Known, due out in Spring 2017.   On your next commercial flight to the Mars colony, ask your intergalactic airline to replace the usual boring entertainment with the MIND Your Business Podcast!

Google+ Is Back Because It Never Really Went Away.Well, all of the hype a few months ago was exactly that…hype!You heard it right here on the podcast the whole time it was going on…kinda like Aaron Rodgers with Green Bay Packers fans last year.  R-E-L-A-X.  (Frankie say.)  Google+ was never going away…it was evolving.And it continues to evolve.The most important thing to remember is that, even though it’s playing second fiddle to other social media (especially Facebook), Google+ has been more successful than Google Buzz and Google Wave ever were.  Successful enough for Google to choose to redesign it to be more social and create a clear delineation between it and your Google My Business profile.But WAIT…there’s MORE!But you’ll have to listen to the podcast to find out.  I promise it will be worth your time, though:)Please send us ANY of your questions.   We LOVE answering them and we don’t ever want to run out of them!  Give your website development, design, SEO, content marketing and general Internet marketing questions to us on our Ask A Question page, email us at info@minddnd.com, or drop us a comment on Facebook or simply hire a skywriter.  We will do our best to answer your question on a future podcast:)     At your next tailgate party, make sure you ask the DJ to crank up the MIND Your Business podcast!