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Nick: I hope everybody is having a great day. I am your host, Nick Jaworski, and today Iíll
be talking with James Martell, founder of The School of Internet Marketing and VP of
Product Development for jambMEDIA. Todayís topic is the surprising effect the Internet
has on small business. Now, before James joins us, just a reminder that if you have questions
or require assistance, you can reach Jamesí team at jambMEDIA School of Internet Marketing
at 604-535-6352 and on Facebook at Facebook.com/gogreatminds. James Martell has taught tens of thousands
of business owners how to effectively market their businesses online through his e-books,
courses, live trainings and webinars, podcasts and speaking engagements. And Iím looking
forward to learning as much from his as possible. James, welcome to the show.
James Martell: Nick, thanks so much. Itís great to be here.
Nick: I am ready. So letís just get started. What effect has the internet had on small
business?
James Martell: Itís a great question, and itís a question I have been asked recently.
And I had a chance to recently think about that, and the answerís quite surprising,
because everyone has this feeling that the Internet has done all these great things for
small business, and in reality itís really thrown a monkey wrench into the gears for
most small businesses. They had found themselves relying for years, some of them for decades
on the most traditional form of advertisingóyellow pages, local newspapers, the daily newspapers,
even couponsóand more of the staples of the advertising industry have gone by, and whereas
all of the sudden the Internet comes along, and now we start to see the little daily newspapers,
or even the large ones, struggling with readership because people are generally shifting to the
net. I know in our area, weíve got a little local newspaper called The Peace Arch News,
and itís been around for decades, literally. And now, when it arrives at the doorstep,
itís so thinóI hate to say it, but itís a fraction of what it used to be. We kind
of look at it these days as more of a flyer wrap, because most times, thereís more flyers
in the paper than there actually is newspaper. And then I look around in some of the neighboring
communities. Weíve got a community up the Valley, and this is probably very similar
throughout the entire continent, but up the Valley there are two communities. Both of
them have had daily newspapers for as long as I can remember, and they both just announced
that they are closing their doors. So, this has really thrown small businesses into a
quandary. Meanwhile, they still need to figure out ways to bring in local foot traffic, they
need to get their phones ringing, they need to find ways to generate leads and customers
and get people in their doors, and yet the ways theyíve normally been doing it is no
longer working. So theyíre finding themselves very vulnerable. They are quite unsure of
themselves when it comes to generating new traffic and new business to the net, or because
of the shift in traffic to the net, they know they need to get involved with the Internet,
and many have had some failures with it. They may have had a website that was created that
didnít quite go the way they wanted it, yet they know the local consumers are looking
to the Internet to find local businesses, but theyíre just really in a position where
theyíre not really sure where to get started.
Nick: Okay, so where do you feel most small businesses are with regards to the state of
their online presenceótheir websites, their social media, all that stuff.
James Martell: Thatís an area Iíve been working in for a very long time is talking
with small business owners about exactly that topic, and I found that most small businesses
either still, and if listeners want to look up the stats, just do a Google search of how
many percentage of businesses have websites, and youíll find that still today, less than
half of small business owners even have a website. I found that many that do, the websites
are out of date, theyíre not kept up, theyíre usually in the control of maybe their graphic
designerótheyíre not really connected to it at all. Theyíve got no way to update it,
they havenít really thought about it for a long time, maybe their domain name has expired
and their siteís actually downóIíve run into that more times than not. They canít
find their pass codes. Theyíre really having some challenges. And now you layer on it you
have this new layer of social media with Facebook coming online, and thereís another whole
level of complexity. They know they need to be collecting email addresses from their audience,
but theyíre not quite sure how to get started. Meanwhile, theyíre all busy as bees, in the
day-to-day operations of their business. We know small business has a lot of work to do
in a day, or a small business owner, so this whole idea of the Internet, and this happening
that weíre watching unfold thatís Iím sure decades from now weíll be talking about this
time online. The typically small business owner didnít really plan on having to all
of a sudden become an Internet marketing expert, so theyíre finding themselves really in a
bit of a quandary.
Nick: Okay. Well youíre the expert, so why do you think itís important for small businesses
to take the Internet seriously?
James Martell: I was actually talkingóand thatís a very good questionóI was talking
to my son a couple evenings ago, and he lives in an apartment about 15 minutes from where
my wife and I live, in the South Surrey area, and he saidóI donít know how we got onto
it. Oh, I remember. We were talking about the yellow pages. We were having a beer in
the pubóitís nice to go out with your son for an evening togetheróand we were just
chatting, and something came up and he pulls out his smart phone, this amazing piece of
technologyóand Iíve got a smartphone but I canít make it do a tenth of what he does
with his. And heís talking aboutóI donít even remember how it came up, but we were
talking about the yellow pages, because I had asked one of the servers a couple weeks
before would they mind bringing me the yellow pages, and she gives me this stare like ìOkayÖLet
me go to the back and see if weíve got one.î A few minutes later she comes walking out
of the back and says ìNo, no yellow pages, sorry, we donít have any yellow pages.î
And Iím telling this story to Justin and he basically tells me that in his apartment
building a few months ago, they came by, as they do in all apartment buildings, and just
dropped off just a pile of yellow pages in the lobby for everyone to grab and take up
to their apartments as they walked in. He says the pile hardly moved in months. They
ended up just turfing them all. Here we are with the business owners in the former way,
and many of them have stopped those traditional forms of advertising, but they havenít been
able to replace it. And, they realised they hear the talk about Facebook, they hear the
talk about the growth in Facebook and the various social networks where you hear the
stats that Facebook is not up over 1 billion users. You hear that stats that Twitter is
up over 200 million users, but itís really kind of hard to get your head around. But
intuitively they realise, Iím finding, that they know their audience is onlineótheyíre
just not quite sure how to go get them. Itís a really big problem for many of them, because
they just really donít have any idea where to start.
Nick: Okay, well, we have to take a quick break, but donít go anywhere because Iím
sure weíll touch on some more of this, and weíll be right back with James Martell.
Nick: Alright, I am here with James Martell and we are still talking about the surprising
effect the Internet has had on small businesses. And James, there are lots of ways that a small
business owner can try to grow their business, and where do you think they should focus their
attention?
James Martell: Thatís an interesting question, and you can walk into any small business owner,
pretty much, who has a presence where theyíre listed in any phone directory or anywhere
that the telemarketers can get to them. And if you talk to them, you will find that people
say they get calls all week long. They get calls, they get inundated with calls, sometimes,
from people promising them great Internet success. And one of the challenges they have
is, getting back to before the break, they donít really know what to do, and theyíre
lacking the basic fundamentals and the knowledge needed to know even how to make the decisions
on which direction they should go. So what I feel that most small business owners should
do is first off, before you do anything, put your checkbook away. Secondly, you need to
get educated on whatís going on. Itís really not rocket science, although sometimes when
you talk to some of these people who are calling in to see you something, theyíll make it
sound like the most complicated beast and theyíre going to do you the biggest favour
in the world by getting you to the top of Google or listed to this directly. Iíve heard
the stories, theyíre definitely painted well. But you need to be able to differentiate whatís
really going on, and what you really need to do for your business. You need to put a
strategy in place, you need to get the tactics in place. Of course, some of the basics are
simple websites, social media presence, and a marketing campaign, and understanding who
your audience is. But really, it begins with an education. You really need to understand
what youíre up against, and you need to discern the information that youíre being presented
with and then with that information you can begin to make decisions on what you need for
your business. So I really do believe it all begins with understanding and education.
Nick: OK. So I guess that begs the question, what is the goal of this podcast, The School
of Internet Marketing podcast?
James Martell: Thatís a very good question, and that is exactly what the goal of this
isóto get small business ownersóbusy, busy small business ownersóand when I say small
business owners Iím typically talking about businesses with 50 or less employeesóto get
them up to speed on this thing we call the Internet. Goodness knows itís the most amazing
happening in communication and advertising and media in the history of our planet, and
thereís really no way to go out and discern the information to learn what are the basic
fundamentals. Like anything, thereís some real core fundamentals on doing the simple
things, like best practices on putting together a website. Thereís some real good strategies
and tactics for growing your email list. Thereís ways to engage and build an audience on Facebook.
And itís just a matter of learning how to do that where you donít have to go spend
two weeks in a school. I do honestly believe through podcastingóand Iíve been podcasting
for over a decade hereóI do believe with a 15-20 minute weekly podcast where we just
kind of break it down, we talk in layman language, we donít use 3-letter acronyms, and we really
just kind of explain. Business owners are not stupid. Theyíre business owners. They
just need somebody to say ìOK, this is the difference between hosting and a domain name.
Hereís how hosting works. Hereís how a domain name works. Hereís what an email marketing
software program looks like. Hereís what you should be spending for it. If you need
to get some help, this is the type of person youíre looking for. Avoid these guys.î So
really, just the podcast is going to be just a way to parlay the information Iíve managed
to pick up through experience over the past 13, 14, 15 years online, and just share real
life success stories that small business owners have had. And just share some basic ideas
and really just educate small business owners so they understand exactly what theyíre up
against and how to about effectively marketing their business online.
Nick: That sounds great. Now, weíre almost out of time, but I just have to ask. You talked
about a number of people who try to sell some of these services to small business owners
with sort of magic solutions and promises of just how wonderful they are, but youíre
giving it away for free right here. I guess the question is, why?
James Martell: Podcasting is something that Iíve enjoyed doing for many, many years now.
We launched our first podcast back in December 2002óactually, 3 years before they even coined
the phrase ìpodcast.î We used to call it an audio newsletter. I still do that show
over on Webmaster Radio every week. I actually really enjoy podcasting. I really enjoy working
with small business owners, and I enjoy teaching the nuances of what it takes to succeed online.
And really, they are nuances. Itís not rocket science. Now, my goal, of course, Iíve got
a couple of agendas myselfóIíve got two services that we offer, and those will be
growing, and for some businesses they might be right. For others, they may not be right.
Maybe youíll have other solutions that youíre already working with other service providers,
but in our particular case, weíve got our Smart Local Web Services team, that is in
the business of developing websites and building online strategy for small business, and from
time to time Iím hoping to pick up some clients that way, once we earn their trust that we
know what weíre doing. And number two is, Iím the founder of School of Internet Marketing,
a school that I built online over the last few years pulling together course instructors
and instructors to generate various courses for our school, also to educate small business
owners on how to market online. So I do have an ulterior motive here, which is to build
business for myself as well, but itís through educating listeners and small business owners
on how to effectively build and maintain their online marketing strategy.
Nick: Well, this is going to be great, and Iím super excited for future episodes. I
love being online and getting business done online, and Iím going to make sure to subscribe
so I get all the updates. Iím sure that our listeners should too, so until next time,
James, thanks so much.
James Martell: Nick, thanks. Itís been a pleasure.
Announcer: Thank you for listening. To learn more about the School of Internet Marketing,
and to get access to all-exclusive courses and interviews, visit theschoolofinternetmarketing.com.
Thatís www.theschoolofinternetmarketing.com.