Top of the Wall Business, Marketing, Motivation with JR Griggs l The Red Wall Podcast JR Griggs, founder of Red Wall Marketing. Business & Marketing Coach for Small Businesses

Being a business owner or entrepreneur can be lonely. Not everyone thinks like us.

Whether you are a “solopreneur”, or the owner of a business with employees, you probably find yourself surrounded by like-minded people less often than you’d like.

Our brains don’t tend to think like others. Surrounding ourselves with like-minded, goal-sharing individuals can be extremely valuable.

Running a business is stressful. Our minds are going in a hundred different directions.

I have found being in a mastermind group as one of the biggest boosts in my business. I get to meet with others in the same situation, and who are going through some of the same crazy emotions and struggles as I am. They are trying different things, having different experiences, and can provide value that I cannot get from family, friends, or employees. They can motivate me, validate ideas, save me from mistakes they’ve made, and vice versa.

In This Episode:

This week is a short podcast I recorded while driving home from a mastermind meeting. I was stuck in traffic and decided to record while the topic was fresh on my mind.

The audio might not be great but it is raw and right from the heart. I was fresh off of a couple rough business days and talking with a friend who was having the same experience.

Here’s an article I mention in the episode:

http://www.inc.com/magazine/201309/jessica-bruder/psychological-price-of-entrepreneurship.html

What is content marketing and why is it so important today?

Search engines used to be a directory of websites. You search a topic, you find sites about that topic. Today search engines are more about finding content to answer your questions.

You are more likely to self diagnose something before searching for the obvious solution. Rather than searching “auto repair shop”, you might first try “clicking noise in steering wheel”.

This is typical in a variety of industries. Finding the site that has the answer to that question, can sometimes lead you to contact them first.

As a local business, you can utilize content marketing to get answers out on the web, to questions your market is searching for. Positioning you ahead of the competition.

This is why content marketing is so important today. If you have the answers, you get the business.

In This Episode:



* What is content marketing?

* Why is content marketing so important?

* Examples of content marketing you can use.

For a few years, it has been a good idea to have a mobile friendly website. In the next month or so, it is a must have.

While traffic from mobile phones has been growing over the years, it has been a good marketing practice to have a mobile friendly site.

But Google recently announced that they will now do what has been suspected for quite sometime, use mobile friendliness of a site as a major ranking factor. They already had been to some level, but now that is increasing on April 21st.

This changes having a mobile friendly site from being a good idea to being a requirement.

In This Episode:



* The Google announcement

* Mobile friendly vs mobile site

* Responsive Web Design

* Mobile First Web Design



Responsive Web Design video mentioned in Podcast.

Our Blog Post on the announcement.

Is Direct Mail dead? I guess that depends on who you ask. Many businesses are still thriving with it. And many will tell you they have never had success with it.

I find that to be more about how they are doing Direct Mail rather than a true statement about it’s efficiency.

Right now is a prime time to be doing direct mail. Mailboxes are empty compared to the past.

So let’s take a look at how you can succeed with your Direct Mail efforts.

In This Episode:



* We’ll discuss the types of direct mail that exist today.

* How to properly identify your market.

* How to craft a proper message.

* How to choose what type of Direct Mail to use.

* Tips on how to get your envelope opened.

How did last year go for you? Are you planning an increase this year? If so, how are you getting there? Have you mapped out a strategy to achieve your goals for this year?

In This Episode:

Too often, business owners will go into the year hoping it is a better one. But never really plan out goals and strategies to achieve them.

At the beginning of the year is a time I normally sit with clients and go over the previous year while setting goals for the upcoming year. After defining the level of growth they want, we plan strategies to achieve that.

It is really important to have goals and plans to meet them. Don’t go into the year hoping the market just increases automatically for you.

If you need help planning out a strategy, just contact us and we will see where we can help.

Where is SEO going in 2015? Is it dead? Dying?

In This Episode:

Every year the “SEO is dead” crowd gets going. Every year more people repeat the same misinformation about SEO going away and being irrelevant.

But it is just as relevant as ever.

As long as there is a search engine, there will be a way to optimize for it. So it is best to know what is working, how to do it right and how to stay on Google’s good side.

In this episode you will hear about what is working, what you should focus on and when you may not want to bother with SEO.