Showing results for "Business App"

How do local businesses attract new customers? The Customer Journey panel on the Business App Get Started page represents the key stages that people go through to become your clients’ customers. It is intended to help your clients understand each stage and to provide tactics to improve their current and prospective customers’ experience at each stage of the process. The Customer Journey is composed of 5 steps, explained in detail below. When users enter your client-facing app, they will see the introductory frame explaining the Customer Journey. Clicking Get started will walk a user through each stage. Users can also click on each stage individually to view more information.  Each section contains a key workflow that your clients can do to improve their customer journey. If there is an applicable product activated on the account, there will be a call to action where they can immediately take steps to improve that specific stage of the customer journey.  Awareness The first step in the Customer Journey concerns what your client can do to increase their audience within their local market. At this step, we recommend that users maintain an active presence and connect with their current and potential audiences on social media. Call to action: Users with an active Social Marketing product can click Make a post to launch the Social Marketing composer. Findability Potential customers may be aware of a business, but if they can’t find consistent and accurate information about that business online, they’re less likely to become customers. This step recommends that your clients keep track of their online listings and business information, like hours of operation, address, and contact information, and ensure that the information is up to date wherever it’s found. Call to action: Users with an active Reputation Management product can click Where am I found today? to view and verify the accuracy of their current business listings across the web. Alternatively, users can click Update my business information to edit their location, hours of operation, and contact information in the Business App. Reputation Potential customers frequently use online reviews to guide their purchase decisions, particularly when deciding among competing businesses. This step recommends that your clients monitor and respond to reviews frequently in order to rank above their competitors in online search and improve their ratings online. Call to action: Users with an active Reputation Management product can click Respond to my reviews to view and respond to their most recent reviews on sites like Facebook and Google. Conversion Having an informative and up-to-date website is crucial for helping customers find local businesses and learn more about their products and services. When people can easily find, contact, and buy from a business online, they’re far more likely to become customers. This step recommends that your client edit and update their existing website to reflect their current offerings and provide relevant information to their customers. Call to action: Users with an active Listing Distribution product can click Edit my website to create or update their current My Listing page with relevant business information. Advocacy A local business’ best advocates are its happy customers. This step recommends that your clients reach out to previous customers for reviews to improve their overall star rating on popular review sites and help inform the purchase decisions of other potential customers in their local market. Call to action: Users with an active Customer Voice product can click Email my customers to create a request for reviews that they can send to past customers.

Business App users who receive a weekly or monthly Executive Report email have a 38% higher chance of being retained compared to those who don't, making automated reporting a necessity for serving your local business clients. Additionally, Business App users who received an Executive Report with their Google Business Profile insights for at least half of their lifetime saw a 47% increase in retention after one year compared to those who received a report without Google Business Profile insights. (Source: Vendasta SMB Retention Survey, 2019.) With this retention rate, it’s important to make sure your clients who have made a connection through Google Business Profile, Facebook, Google Search Console, or Google Analytics receive a notification for their performance in these respective areas. By receiving proof-of-performance reporting on a consistent basis, you are providing your clients with evidence of the value you bring to their business and engaging them in your Business App offering. 

What is the Marketing Funnel? The Marketing Funnel rolls up key metrics from the Executive Report into Impressions, Engagement, and Leads – helping your clients see how their marketing efforts are contributing to increased brand awareness and more customers. The Marketing Funnel in Business App enables users to see how their marketing efforts perform. It is divided into 3 distinct sections: Impressions: The number of views of online content received. Engagement: The number of interactions with a business' online content. Leads: The number of interactions from people interested in a business' online content. Within each section, you can find important statistics that drive Marketing Funnel. These include statistics such as Google Business Profile views, social post comments, ad clicks, and the number of new reviews.  

Welcome! This end-to-end guide takes you through many of the core actions that will help you to grow your revenue with Vendasta. Looking to complete a full platform setup under your brand? Read our guide on how to set up and white label the platform.  To learn more about specific workflows in greater depth, check out some of our other Getting Started Guides.  Note: Some of these steps may include features that are only available on specific subscription tiers. To see an updated list of which features are available on each tier, refer to our pricing page: vendasta.com/pricing  Checklist Start selling Ready-made packages Marketplace products Prospecting Find and add accounts Create Snapshot Reports Send Snapshots with AI Analysis Activate your customers Invite users Order products and get paid Business App connections Start selling With Vendasta, you're set up to start selling right away with a collection of ready-made packages and products ready to go. If you want to take full control and customize your store, check out the Store Build Guide. To dive in quickly, take a look at some of the basics. Ready-made packages Your store is automatically populated with a number of packages that include some of the most important solutions for small businesses. You can change the existing packages if you wish.  Go to Marketplace > Packages. To edit an existing package, click the vertical ellipsis ⋮ and click Edit. Click Unpublish and Archive  if you wish to remove a package. Here you can click + Add item to add products, click the X next to an item to remove it, adjust retail price and marketing copy. To view and add our latest recommendations, follow these steps: Click the Recommended Packages tab. Click any package to view its contents. Click Add to Store to include this package amongst your offerings. Choose Save and publish to add it immediately or Save as draft to edit it before setting it live. Each of our 2024 Digital Success packages include all of the powerful features of Business App Pro, allowing you to bundle services on top of a core set of features that help your customers manage their daily work. Back to top. Marketplace products Find everything you need about a product including sales assets, pricing information, and support contacts by viewing the product page. To access a product page go to Marketplace > Discover Products and click on any product. At the top, you'll find sales and marketing assets under Screenshots & Files. Down the right you'll find pricing, contact information, and add-ons. At the bottom, you'll find FAQs.  If you wish to order a product from the Marketplace for one of your customers, you need to make sure that you have selected Start selling on that product.  Note that access to some products in the marketplace may be limited based on your current Vendasta plan. Go to Marketplace > Discover Products. Click a product you're interested in. Click the Start selling button. Click the checkbox if you wish to add it your Store page. Click Done or Add to store. Back to top. Prospecting Here are some of the core steps you can take to kick off your prospecting efforts. This video showcases all of the steps for adding accounts, creating Snapshot Reports, and sending them all at once. Find and add accounts Accounts can be added in groups and individually. This workflow showcases how to add many accounts at once into a list. To learn more about adding individual accounts or importing them via a csv file, go here.  Go to Partner Center > Accounts > Manage Accounts Click Find accounts. Search for businesses by type or location. (For example, you could search for “Dentists near me”). Click the checkboxes next to any of the businesses that you want to prospect. Click Continue. Click Create accounts. Wait a few moments for the accounts to be added as part of a list. The system will grab information about these businesses right from their Google profile and add that information right into the platform for you. Some information is not readily available from a Google Business Profile, so you will still want to look for additional information about the business such as email addresses or contact names. Back to top. Create Snapshot Reports Snapshot Report is a needs assessment tool that will let you know about the gaps in the business’s online presence. Because your prospects were added as a part of a list, you can create Snapshot Reports as part of a quick bulk action. Go to Partner Center > Accounts > Lists Click on the ⋮ vertical ellipsis menu next to the list you created. Click on Create/Refresh Snapshot Reports Note that additional charges may apply Wait for information to start populating. It can take up to 24 hours for the information to be fully populated and up to date. The Snapshot Report will continue to refresh with information for 7 days from its creation. Snapshot Reports can be refreshed after the 7 days–additional charges apply. To create a Snapshot Report for one account, go to Partner Center > Accounts > Manage Accounts click on the + report icon next to the account name. Tip: While waiting for information to populate, it’s a great time to make some quick edits to the Snapshot Report. If you’ve added a number of prospects that are part of the same business category, you can flag them as competitors. Check out our Snapshot Guide for more. Back to top. Send Snapshot Reports with AI Analysis Prerequisite: Before sending out any emails through the platform, make sure you have configured your email settings to assure maximum deliverability. These steps are showcased in detail here. A personal touch can go a long way and leveraging artificial intelligence gives you the chance to personalize your outreach while being efficient with your time. Go to Partner Center > Accounts > Manage Accounts Click on the Snapshot Report icon next to the account Click Edit report. Click the “paper airplane” Share icon. Add sender name and email (your information). Add the contact email. Click Suggest content. Clicking the down arrow next to Suggest content gives you additional options. Suggest general content will craft an email based on the overall information in the Snapshot Report. Suggest section-specific content will allow you to choose sections of the Snapshot Report and craft a more targeted email. Review and update the email content that has been generated. Click Send. Activate your customers Invite users Adding a customer as a user to an account will give them access to Business App and allow you to bill them.  Go to Partner Center > Accounts > Manage Accounts. Find the account you want to add the user to. If there are no users assigned to the account, you can click the Add User icon  next to the account name. You can also click on the account name, scroll to the Users section, then click Add Users. Add an existing user from the list or click Create New User and add their information When creating a new user, you can choose to Send welcome email to send an invite into Business App. Once you have all of their information added, click Create User.  Learn more. Back to top. Order products and get paid Prerequisite: You can automatically request payment while ordering a product through Vendasta. To do so, you will first need to set up Vendasta payments. This video showcases the workflow to order products whether you are collecting payment before activation or not. Go to Partner Center > Accounts > Manage Accounts.  Click the account that you want to place an order for. Click Order products. Select the products and/or packages that you want to order. Complete any order information required. If you are using Vendasta Payments and collecting payment, then you can bill your customer at this time. Update the retail prices as needed. Under Collect payment, choose to "Send order for customer review & collect payment online." Select a user to bill Add an expiry date of terms, if necessary Select a product activation date. Note that if using the payment collection methods in Step 6, then the products will only activate on/after that date if the payment has been collected. Check and update the wholesale billing info if necessary (this is your payment to Vendasta). Click Send Order. The Vendasta platform allows you additional flexibility for full order management of your sales team; to learn more about that type of workflow, check out Getting Started: Onboard your customers. Learn more about ordering products. If you are ordering fulfilled services, like those from our Marketing Services team, after the order is complete, you will be presented with a fulfillment form, an easy way to capture information with the help of your customer. Learn more about fulfillment forms. Back to top. Business App Connections   Setting up connections for your customer in Business App is crucial for retention. Something as simple as connecting their Google Business Profile helps them to see value and increase functionality across many products and features. To access the Business App Connections for your customer, follow these steps: Go to Partner Center > Accounts > Manage Accounts Click on the ⋮ vertical ellipsis menu on the far right of the account in the table. Click Open Business App. Click Settings. Click Connections. Click + next to the app or external account you wish to connect. From here, there may be some different steps depending on the connection you wish to make, but in general you or your customer will need their login credentials and will need to give permission for information to be shared with Business App (often shown as an unbranded app called Social Reputation). Learn more about connecting accounts to Business App here: Connecting social media accounts Connecting Google Analytics Account in Business App Connect QuickBooks in Business App Troubleshooting Facebook and Instagram connection errors Back to top. Need help? Support On-Demand can answer your questions or put you in touch with those who can. You can us at support@vendasta.com. Learn more.

To import an existing account list into Partner Center: Go to the Partner Center > Accounts > Lists. Click Import Lists in the upper right corner of the screen. Download the CSV Template, or Choose the File. Map Fields. Set User Permissions and Notifications with options to select: Allow full access to Business App. (You can configure the permissions for each user at any time.) Turn on all notifications. (This setting only applies to new users. You can configure the notifications for each user at any time). Send a Welcome Email. When filling out the CSV template, you'll want to pay special attention to the following: Required Fields: CompanyName and Zip CompanyName Make sure the business names are represented properly: Confirm the business names have the correct capitalization and spelling. Do not include any additional information about the business, such as its specialty or store code. UserEmail The user emails must be formatted correctly (no spaces or apostrophes). Avoid using emails that are likely accessed by multiple people. This affects open rates and will likely increase the number of unsubscribes. Some examples include info@domain.com, sales@domain.com, and support@domain.com. Other Notes Leave any unknown fields empty (except for CompanyName and Zip). Our system will attempt to fill in any empty fields by searching online provided you check the box at the bottom of the upload wizard called 'Attempt to fill in empty cells'. You cannot provide an email address for a salesperson that does not exist in the system yet. If you are unsure how to create salespeople, you can find instructions here. Ensure you set the salesperson's market prior to associating them via account list uploads or updates. Import Lists  To learn how to export account data, click here.  Walkthrough Video

What is Beta mode? We know our Partners are eager to start using this! While our development team is still bringing some exciting new features to the Zapier integration, the Beta tag will be used to signify this. Please note that this feature is currently available only to Partners on a subscription tier that includes integrations.  What does the app do?  Create or update CRM contact  Users will have the ability to create or update a contact in Vendasta CRM using a Zapier Action Create or update CRM companies  Users can now create or update a company in Vendasta CRM using a Zapier Action Log CRM activity CRM notes, emails, calls, meetings, and tasks can be logged into Vendasta CRM using a Zap. More activity types will be coming soon. Run a Vendasta automation that uses the API trigger This allows any activity supported by Vendasta automations to be run in response to a Zapier trigger from the 6000+ apps that Zapier supports. Associate contacts with companies - Coming soon!  Grey Labeling of Zapier App - Coming soon!  Run automations for an account or an order - Coming soon! Who can use the app? The app can be used by Partners, Salespeople, and their clients as it uses the permissions of the user that set up the Zap. It should be noted that the app is Vendasta branded so if you wish to white-label the platform, you won’t be able to offer this currently. You may instead choose to build the zaps on behalf of your clients. A grey-labelled option is currently in the works! Can the app be found in the Zapier app store? This is coming soon! How does this affect Reputation Management/Customer Voice review requesting? Once automations are released in Business App, users will be able to set up an automation with the 'Send Review Request' option to a contact action that is triggered via Zapier or a CRM activity. We will have a template available to do so. How do companies relate to accounts? An account will be created as a copy of the company data the first time that an account is needed on the platform. Once created, updating the company record will only update the assigned Salesperson and all custom fields on the account. When a client updates their account most fields will update the company record. Why is the app greyed out when I try to add it? You may be trying to add the app as a trigger instead of an action! We do not currently support any Vendasta-built triggers. (You can use Zapier’s catch a webhook trigger to send data from Vendasta to other systems.)  

The transition from pre-sale to post-sale is critical for the customer experience. Addressing this transition instills your customer with confidence. combats buyer’s remorse, and sets them up for a successful and fruitful relationship with your agency. This guide will help you go through the necessary steps in the platform to ensure everything runs smoothly, but remember to continually work with your customer to address questions and ensure their experience is the best it can be! Getting Started Checklist Prerequisites Before ordering products for your new customer, you will want to double-check three prerequisites: You are ready to collect payment via Vendasta Payments. Check out this guide to set up Vendasta Payments: Getting Started: Collect payments in-platform You are using Subscriptions to collect recurrent payments. Learn how to set up and use Subscriptions here: Subscription Billing You have selected that you want to Start Selling on the products you plan to order. You can learn more about selling products and setting up your store in our Build Your Store: Quick Reference Guide. Order products and collect payment Go to Partner Center > Accounts > Accounts.  Click the account that you want to place an order for. Click Order products. Select the products and/or packages that you want to order. Complete any order information required. If you are using Vendasta Payments and collecting payment, then you can bill your customer at this time. Update the retail prices as needed. Under Collect payment, choose to "Send order for customer review & collect payment online." Select a user to bill Add an expiry date of terms, if necessary Select a product activation date. Note that if using the payment collection methods in Step 6, then the products will only activate on/after that date if the payment has been collected. Check and update the wholesale billing info if necessary (this is your payment to Vendasta). Click Send Order. Learn more. Back to top. Introduce your customers to Business App Business App is your customers' place to keep up to date on their digital services, communicate, and find in-depth information for how their business is performing online. To get started, your customers will need to be added as Business App users, get oriented, and set up connections. Add users to accounts In order to allow your customers to access their products inside of Business App, they will need to be added as users. Go to Partner Center > Accounts > Manage Accounts > Click the Account to which you want to add a user Scroll down to Users and click Add Users Click the checkbox for an existing user then click Add user ORClick Create user if the user does not exist Fill in the user details Click Create user Learn more. Back to top. Welcome your customer with a video Business App has a built-in video that helps your customers to become acquainted with it. This video can be removed or changed. Go to Parter Center > Accounts > Manage Business App Click Customize Business App Go to Pages > Get started To remove the onboarding video, uncheck the onboarding video box To customize it, add a URL for a YouTube video link You can create your own video that showcases the specifics of how you have customized your Business App, showcase your brand, and highlight anything unique about the working relationship your customers will have with your business. If you wish to showcase a slightly more technical onboarding video, you can use this unbranded video. It can be downloaded from Loom or through this link.  If you would like to create your own video, a pdf of the script is available here. Back to top. Onboard your customers into their products and services Any customer onboarding should cover three main elements: orientation, connections, and expectations. Helping your customers understand the most important things they will need to access in Business App will help them to adopt it faster (a welcome video, like in the section above, can help with this). Setting up connections will allow them to use products and see value out of the reporting. Setting and aligning expectations will ensure that your customers are not upset or confused when they receive their deliverables. Meet with your customer Set up a meeting to make sure your customer understands what to expect out of their services and help them to understand how to use their products if they will be taking a do-it-yourself approach. If your organization is transitioning from a salesperson to an account manager this step will be critical to make sure the account manager is aligned with the customer’s business goals. Many of the services from Vendasta’s Marketing Services team come with a pre-launch call where our team helps to set up the appropriate connections in Business App and set expectations. Check out this example call to learn more (and consider adapt the process for your own services). Back to top. Set up connections in Business App The connection process varies between each type of connection you want to make, but the process generally follows these basics for each one: Go to Business App > Settings > Connections Click the + to the right of the app name you want to connect Sign in with your credentials to the app (eg. Google, Facebook, etc) Within the app, grant permission/access for the account(s)/page(s) that will need to be connected Back in Business App, click Select on the account/page that will be connected The unbranded video in the section above includes a brief guide on connections for your customers, but you can learn more with this partner-facing video and this article. Back to top. Set expectations for deliverables Your customers will need to understand when they can expect their deliverables and what to expect out of them. They will also need to understand what they need to provide to ensure success for the products and services they have purchased. Often, this means access to the right accounts or details about their business in order to create relevant content. For example, while a website can be built and ready to go live in as little as ten business days, if the customer has not provided basic information like their logo or their product details for ecommerce, then it will be impossible to deliver something they will be truly satisfied with. When selling Vendasta’s Marketing Services, you can find unbranded expectation brochures that can help you and your customers understand timelines for delivery and more. To learn more about Marketing Services expectations, check out Marketing Services: Expectations by Service and Getting Started: Using Marketing Services. Back to top. Track and follow up Your customer will want to see the return on their investment and ensure that they are achieving the goals and quick wins that your salesperson surfaced while they were first meeting with the customer. Project tracking and data revealed by the Executive Report are key to ensuring that your customer sees the value in their purchase. Your customers can track projects by going to Business App > Projects and clicking into the different projects that are being fulfilled. The information in these projects is shared from Task Manager, and so you can highlight the work that your team is fulfilling to your customers, and work from Vendasta's Marketing Services team will also populate there. The Executive Report is generated on a weekly and monthly basis. It populates with information based on the connections in Business App and the products that are active. By comparing reports, you and your customer can how their online presence is improving and what areas to focus on next. Be proactive and set up a meeting with your customer to review their Executive Report at the one-month mark to compare performance and discuss next steps for continued improvement.

If you receive this error message, you need to update your Business Category under the account page through Partner Center > Edit.  The following businesses are restricted: Adult Entertainment Camp Cannabis shop Casino Conference Center Gun Shop Hotel (all hotel categories) Vacation Rental Wine Store (and other alcohol-related categories) Please refer to the Google Guidelines on Eligible and Ineligible businesses to know which categories are/aren't supported: https://support.google.com/business/answer/3038177?hl=en.

Facebook implements heavy image compression, resizing, and formatting for photos to enable its pages to load faster and save bandwidth and storage. This applies to all photos uploaded to Facebook, no matter what software you are using.  We’ve tested this using different software (including a direct upload from Facebook, Social Marketing, and other popular social media tools.) The photo was displayed with the same reduced quality on all of the software we tested, confirming that Facebook is responsible for the photo quality and not Social Marketing. To ensure that your photos display in the highest quality possible, Facebook recommends a size of 2048 pixels wide or smaller and saving your image as a JPEG with an sRGB color profile. See all image and video requirements →

For users to see and experience the AI lead capture trained on a specific business’s data before activating any paid products – every business app account with Local SEO active comes with a demo of the AI lead capture widget installed on the business’s My Listing page, that can be configured and trained on custom data. How to use this demo Navigate to Partner Center and create a new account for any service type business. Make sure Local SEO (free) is active on the account. Go to Business App > Inbox Settings for the account, and click on the Try now button on the My Listing Web Chat card. This will open the My Listing page with a web chat already active for the business. The AI can immediately answer basic questions using info from Business Profile. Additionally, you can return to Inbox Settings and reload the page, and you’ll see a button to configure the AI web chat - this is where custom knowledge can also be added. Why customers love this: Partners can now very easily demo AI lead capture to clients before activating anything – and it can magically answer questions about that specific business.    

When we set up your white-label, we will ask you about your preferences for the URLs your clients, prospects, and salespeople will see. Note: Custom domains are only available with certain subscription tiers. Speak to your account manager for more information. There are two options: Option 1: Default URLs Predetermined domains with a customizable subdomain. Partners typically choose this option if they do not already own a domain or they simply need to get started immediately. Here are some examples: Reputation Management: [partnername].steprep.com Social Marketing: [partnername].socialsmbs.com Local SEO: [partnername].pdqs.mobi Business App (client dashboard): [partnername].smblogin.com Sales & Success Center (salesperson dashboard): [partnername].snapshotreport.biz The square brackets indicate the words you can change. Option 2: Custom URLs Fully customizable subdomains and domains. Partners typically choose this option if they already own a domain as well as access to its DNS settings. If you choose this option, please tell us your preferred domains for each product. You can customize the subdomain as well as the domain (as long as it is a domain you own). To give you some ideas, our partners typically choose the following formats: Reputation Management: [reputation].[yourURL.com] Social Marketing: [social].[yourURL.com] Local SEO: [m].[yourURL.com] Business App (client dashboard): [login].[yourURL.com] Sales & Success Center (salesperson dashboard): [sales].[yourURL.com] Partner Center: [CRM].[yourURL.com] The square brackets indicate the words you can change. Fill in this form to send us your preferences, after which we will email you TXT and CNAME records, along with instructions on how to enter them into your DNS settings.

Ordering workflow To give your customers access to your products and services, you'll need to activate them on their accounts. This can be done either individually or in bulk. Individual accounts Multiple accounts Individual accounts To activate a product or package for an individual account, go to Partner Center > Accounts > Manage Accounts and view an account. Click Order Products. Select the items you want to activate. Want to activate Reputation Management from the demo? When your Salespeople create a prospect in the Sales & Success Center, they automatically create a Reputation Management demo. As such, the activation process for the Reputation Management demo is a little different than it is for any other product—you’ll need to convert the demo to “paid.” Can't find a certain item in the list? Make sure to start selling it first. It may take a few minutes to appear after you start selling. Click Proceed to Next Step. Fill out any order form questions required for the items you’ve chosen, then click Next. Review the order contents and edit item prices. Choose a method for collecting payment. Choose an activation date for the items in the order. Once you’ve confirmed that the order is correct, click Purchase to complete the order and pay the wholesale cost of the items ordered.  Once wholesale payment for the order is received, and once approval is received from any vendors that require approval before activating their products, the items in the order will be activated according to the activation date you chose. You can also activate products from the Account Details screen. To access this page, go to Partner Center > Accounts > Manage Accounts and click on the account name. If your customers have access to Business App, they’ll now be able to access these products from the My Products tab. Multiple accounts This feature is only available for Partners on a paid subscription. To activate products for multiple accounts at once, you need to first add those accounts to a List. Once you have created the List: Go to Partner Center > Accounts > Lists. Click on the List you want to activate products for. Click the Actions button in the top right, then click Activate Product or Activate Add-on. Select the product(s) you want to activate. Can't find the product in the list? Make sure to start selling the product. If you've just started selling the product, refresh your browser. It may take a few minutes to appear on the list. Click Activate. If your customers have access to Business App, they’ll now be able to access these products from the My Products tab. FAQs Q: I activated a product on the wrong account. Is there a way to transfer the product to the correct accout? A: No - If you activate a product on the wrong account, it will need to be cancelled, and re-activated on the correct account. To request a billing adjustment, please reach out to support@vendasta.com. 

To add a user to an account: Go to Partner Center > Accounts > Manage Accounts. Find the account you want to add the user to. If there are no users assigned to the account, you can click the Add User icon  next to the account name. You can also click on the account name, scroll to the Users section, then click Add Users. Select the user to add to the account. If the user already exists: Find the user in the list. Click the checkbox next to the user.  Click Add User.  If the user doesn't exist: Click Create New User. Complete the form with the user's information: First name Last name Email Phone Welcome message Select whether you want the platform to send a welcome message to the user. If Send Welcome Message is selected, the platform will send a welcome email to the user. This email contains a link to log in to Business App. Upon clicking this link, the user can set their password. Enter a custom message for the top of the welcome email (optional). Click Create User. The user will now be assigned to the account.   Add a user Partners on Free subscriptions have a limit of 25 Business App users that they can add to their accounts. 

Partners can use invoices to request and collect payment for the products and services that they provide their customers. Invoices can be manually created or can be automatically generated according to an account’s subscriptions and product renewal dates. Invoices will function differently depending on whether or not a partner has set up Vendasta Payments. Partners who have not set up Vendasta Payments are able to create, edit, and send invoices to their customers, but cannot collect payments from directly within the invoice email. Note that it is possible to invoice a customer for any product you're selling or any package (draft or published) in your Store. However, if you are invoicing a customer for a product that is not already active on their account, the product will not automatically activate once the invoice has been paid. Partners can instead activate the product by following the usual steps for product activation at any stage of the invoicing process Preparing to use invoices Invoices can be used most effectively when the following criteria are met: You have set retail prices and added the product/ package to your Store Your Store uses packages that are priced using the new package pricing model An account exists for the business that you intend to invoice You have set up Vendasta Payments and are capable of accepting payments and receiving payouts You have created tax rates (if applicable) Creating an invoice Invoices can be created at any time from the Commerce > Invoices tab in Partner Center. or by simply going into the account you wish to create an invoice for and clicking on the invoice tab.  Click New > Invoice and select an account to create a draft invoice Select a Due date for the invoice  Select a User (recipient) for the invoice Click Add Item to add an individual product to the invoice. You can add any product that you're currently selling in your Marketplace, or type any text into the text box to represent a line item that does not exist in your Marketplace If the product you select already has a retail price set, it will automatically populate the Unit Price and currency for that item. The price and currency can also be overwritten on an individual invoice (note that invoices can currently only accept payments in USD and CAD) To add a discount as a line item, input the description of the discount and enter a negative dollar amount. The negative value entered will be subtracted from the invoice total You can also click Add Custom Item to create your own line item.  If your invoice includes more than one of a certain item, this can be specified using the Quantity column Use the Options ⋮ menu to remove an item from the invoice or apply a tax rate to a line item. If necessary, add additional information to the invoice using the Memo field at the bottom of the invoice Invoices can also be created at any time when viewing an individual account in Partner Center > Manage Accounts by clicking the Options ⋮ menu next to the Open Business App button. Invoices can be generated from an order in Partner Center > Sales > Orders by viewing an order and clicking the Create Invoice button. Sending or charging an invoice Before sending an invoice, we recommend reviewing the Subtotal, Discount, and Total fields to ensure that the invoice was properly assembled. A draft invoice can be edited as many times as necessary, but once an invoice has been sent, it cannot be edited. When your invoice is ready, click Send Invoice to choose one or more recipients from the users that exist on the given account. The window will also display a preview of the email that each recipient will receive.  Alternatively, you may instantly charge your customer for the contents of the invoice by selecting Automatically charge a payment method on file under the Collection section. This will change the Send Invoice button at the top-right of the page to Charge invoice. After a successful charge, your customer will receive a receipt via email. This requires your customer to have at least one payment method saved in Vendasta Payments. Your customer will have a payment method saved if they have previously paid an invoice or made a purchase using the Shopping Cart. If your customer does not have a saved payment method, it is possible to enter a payment method on behalf of your customer by clicking Edit next to the payment method field in the Collection section. Sent invoices can be viewed at any time from the table on Partner Center > Commerce > Invoices. If an invoice has been missed or misplaced by its recipient, it can be sent again at any time. Clicking Resend Invoice while viewing a Due invoice will allow you to choose any recipient on the account to resend the invoice. Paying an invoice After sending an invoice, the recipient that you’ve chosen will be emailed a digital copy of the invoice. Invoices sent to an account will also appear under the Invoices tab in Business App. If Vendasta Payments is enabled when the invoice is sent, the recipient will have the option to pay the invoice directly by clicking Pay this invoice while viewing the invoice. This will direct the recipient to a landing page that displays all line items on the invoice and allows them to pay via credit card. After an invoice has been paid, the recipient can click Download as PDF to save a receipt in PDF format. Managing invoices All invoices can be viewed at any time from the table on Partner Center > Commerce > Invoices. Clicking the Options ⋮ menu on an invoice allows users to edit or delete a draft invoice, download a copy of an invoice in PDF format, or download a receipt for a paid invoice in PDF format. Business App users can view the complete list of invoices they have received using the Invoices tab in the Business App. Partners can download a complete table of all sent non-voided invoices by clicking the ☁ Download button in the top right corner of the Invoices table. Invoice statuses An invoice’s status is displayed in the Status column on the table in Partner Center > Commerce > Invoices. An invoice can have one of the following statuses. Draft: A draft invoice can be edited, and has not yet been sent to a recipient. Due: A Due invoice has been sent to a recipient and can no longer be edited. Clicking Resend Invoice allows you to reselect a recipient and send the invoice again. Paid: A Due invoice will be marked as Paid when its recipient pays for it via the Pay this invoice button. Alternately, if payment was collected outside of Vendasta Payments, an invoice can be marked as Paid by clicking the Options ⋮ menu, selecting Change invoice status, and selecting Paid. Void: If an invoice has been sent in error or is no longer relevant, an invoice can be marked as Void by clicking the Options ⋮ menu, selecting Change invoice status, and selecting Void. Note that an account’s Invoicing settings are all off by default. To edit these settings for a particular account, go to the Products section on the account's page underPartner Center > Accounts > Manage Accounts > Select account and click Invoices.   

A diverse marketing stack will help you grow your revenue faster. With Vendasta’s Marketplace, you can start reselling products and services from different marketing categories within minutes. Start with finding the products and services that fit your customers' needs, then create your packages, and customize your store to match your brand before showing it off to your customers - It's as easy as that! Why is building your store important? Building and customizing your store will enable your customers to purchase packages directly from you. Your customer’s shopping experience in your store is entirely dependent on how you set up your store, so you'll want to make sure your store is perfect before you share it with them. How to Build Your Store Discover and start selling Marketplace products Configure your product settings and prices Add your own products Create and configure packages Add a recommended package to your Store Create your own custom packages Customize and share your store Embed and share your Store Set your store currency Customize your Store's appearance Discover and start selling Marketplace products Go to Partner Center > Marketplace > Discover Products. Click into some of the products that look interesting to you and look to see if they have any add-ons, what screenshots and files they have available, and what help resources they have. You don’t need to be an expert on every product or look through every option, but knowing how to navigate and find the resources you need will help when it comes to adding new products or answering client questions. Add products to your store by clicking "Start selling" Note that access to some products in the marketplace may be limited based on your current Vendasta plan. There is no cost to you when you start selling a product. This simply makes the product available in your store and allows a Partner Center Admin to activate it for a customer once sold.  To start selling a product: Go to Partner Center > Marketplace > Discover Products. Browse or search for products you want to start selling. You can filter your search by category using the navigation tabs. Click on a product to view its Product Details page. When viewing the Product Details page for a product, click Start selling to add it to your store at its suggested retail price. You can change its price or remove it from your store at any time under Marketplace > Products. Any editions or add-ons of the product will be immediately available for you to sell as well. Products you’re selling can be viewed and managed at any time from Partner Center > Marketplace > Products. Back to top. Configure your product settings and prices When you start selling a product, it will automatically be added to your store at its suggested retail price. You can change its price or remove it from your store at any time under Marketplace > Products. If you have Multiple Markets, products you start selling will be added to your store in each market. If you don’t want to show a product in your store in certain markets, you can change its availability per market while viewing the product’s page in Marketplace > Products on its Available in Store section. Products you’re selling will appear in your Public Store (which you can preview in Marketplace > Manage Store) and Business App > Store. Each product and add-on has settings that can be configured. After clicking on Marketplace > Products you can click on any product you wish to configure and click on Product info. From here you can do the following: Click the lock icon to change the default retail price and frequency. (Note that changing retail billing frequency does not affect wholesale billing.) Toggle automatic activation behavior on or off for Standard products. Set white-label branding for applicable products. You can change the name and the icon for products that are able to be white labeled. Configure an upgrade path for Standard products. Back to top. Add your own products You can sell your own products and services and bundle them into your packages alongside Marketplace products. To create a basic product, one with a simple billing configuration and ready to add your store and packages right away, the steps are simple: Go to Partner Center > Marketplace > Products Click Create product in the top right Set your product name Choose if it is a product or service Add an image (this will be the circle icon for how it will appear in a package) Choose your billing frequency (either one-time or subscription; subscription will be monthly or yearly) Note your cost (this is for your reference and does not affect purchase behavior) Set your retail price Add a marketing description Add any key selling points Publish to store If your product requires additional configuration, add-ons, integrations, or more, then you can continue editing the product in Vendor Center. Check out this guide for creating products in Vendor Center. Back to top. Create and configure packages You can create your own custom packages or add a recommended package to your store.  Recommended packages are bundles of products that Vendasta has curated to work well together. Add a recommended package to your Store Go to Partner Center > Marketplace > Packages. Click on the Recommended Packages tab. Browse or search for packages you want to add to your Store. If you need further details about the package, click on the package card. Review and edit the package information as needed. Once you’ve found a package you want to sell, click Add to Store on the package card, or click on the Package Details page and click Add to Store in the top right of the page. You can select which Market to copy the package to or select all markets. The product will not appear in Markets that are not selected. Click Save and publish to make the package available for sale immediately. To continue working on the package at a later time, click Save as draft. Draft packages can be published at any time from the Packages tab. Create your own custom packages Go to Partner Center > Marketplace > Packages. Click Create Package. Name your package. This name will be displayed to customers in your public store and Business App. Click + Add item to choose what you want to include in the package. Only products you're selling will appear in this list. A product’s retail price will be automatically entered into the Retail Price column. This is the price your customers will see in your public store Business App. Add a setup fee to products if applicable. This is a one-time fee added to the package price. Change a retail price by entering a new value into the Retail Price field on any line item in the Package Contents. If you haven’t set a retail price for a product in Marketplace > Products yet, it will default to the Vendor's Suggested Retail Price (USD, CAD, and AUD only). Rearrange package contents by clicking and dragging an individual line item above or below others. Remove items from the package by clicking the X on the line item. Edit the package's Purchase behavior to change what happens when customers click the Get it Now button on your package in the Public Store or the Store tab in Business App. Select Add to Shopping Cart to allow customers to add the package to their Shopping Cart when they click Get it Now Select Contact Sales to launch a contact form when customers click Get it Now  Select External URL to specify a URL to redirect your customer to when they click Get it Now Review the package's retail price and wholesale cost. Note that the retail price is the sum of the prices set for the individual products. The displayed price of a package can be modified by selecting Show as Starting At price (to indicate that prices may change based on certain factors) or selecting Show Contact Sales instead of price (to hide the total price of the package). We recommend using either of these settings with the Purchase behavior set to the Contact Form option, as these settings make a package incompatible with the Shopping Cart.  Add any relevant marketing content (optional): Click on any of the fields in the Marketing Material preview to begin editing Click Save under the field you're editing to save your changes If you are adding a single product to a package, the package will automatically use the product's marketing material. Depending on how you intend to market a package, you can choose to show or hide the names and product-specific details of products within the package using the Show product icons and names and Show product details options. When the Show product icons and names setting is off for a package, invoices created for or including the package will not show the products contained in the package as line items—only the package name and the total price of the package will be displayed Click Publish to make the package available for sale immediately. To continue working on the package at a later time, click Save Draft. Draft packages can be published at any time from the Marketplace > Packages tab. Your published packages will appear in your Public Store (which you can preview in Marketplace > Manage Store) and Business App > Store. For a detailed breakdown of building your own custom package, check out this resource. Preview packages You can preview your packages to test how they will look in your public store and Business App. To preview a package: Go to Partner Center > Marketplace > Packages. Click the Menu icon to the right the package card. Click Preview.   Back to top. Customize and share your store Go to Partner Center > Marketplace > Manage Store and go through the different sections to customize your store. You can share your Store outside of Business App by embedding it on your webpage or sharing a direct link. Public Store has your store's URL and can generate a code to embed your store on your website. Contact Form allows you to choose a salesperson who will receive email notifications when prospects browsing your store reach out for more information. Categories will allow you to rearrange packages and tabs in your store. You can drag categories around, hide them, rename them, or create custom categories. Currency allows you to set your store currency. Note that your wholesale currency is determined by your contract with Vendasta (so it’s possible to sell products in a different currency than you are being billed). You can only have one currency per market. Theme allows you to customize the colors of your store page. Embed and share your Store To embed your Store on your website: Go to Partner Center > Marketplace > Manage Store. Click Public Store. If you would like customers viewing your embedded Public Store to be able to create their own account and sign in, copy the Embed Code (with Sign In). Otherwise, copy the standard Embed Code. Use your website's HTML editor to embed the code. Whenever you add new products or packages to your Store, they will automatically appear in your Public Store as well. To share a direct link to your Store, simply copy the URL found in this section and include it on your website, a button in your email signature, or within an email marketing campaign. Set your store currency Your store's currency is used to set and display the retail prices of products and packages and is the currency used for accepting payments when customers purchase something from your store. Go to Partner Center > Marketplace > Manage Store Under the Currency tab, you can see the currency your Store displays prices in. If you've already set up Vendasta Payments, ensure that your store's currency matches one of the currencies that you're able to accept payments in. Adjust your Store’s currency by clicking the lock icon to make changes. Click Save to finish. If your store uses a currency other than USD, CAD, or AUD, you can also set a currency conversion rate when you choose your store’s currency. When you start selling a product, this rate will be used to automatically set the product’s price based on its suggested retail price in USD. You'll also have the option to use this conversion rate to convert the prices of any products you're selling that don't already have a retail price set in the currency you've chosen. You'll only need to use this option if your store already contains multiple products using a suggested retail price in an incorrect currency for your store. Note that this conversion will not affect the prices of any products that you've already set a retail price for.  Customize your store's appearance You can match your Store's appearance to your website by opening the Theme section and editing the following settings: Logo bar: the top section containing your logo and Sign in and Create an account buttons Background If your website has a distinctive or multicolored background, you can set your Store's background to be completely transparent Accent: used for button text and the indicator of the product category tabs Primary font: used for package and product category names and descriptions Secondary font: used for the price information of a package Each change you make will automatically update the Store preview. When you’ve perfected your store’s appearance, click Save to save your settings. Back to top.

Clients with multiple Facebook, Instagram, or X pages connected to the platform can view and select exactly which social page the data syncs to. Please note that the Instagram source selection does not have an edit button because it is managed by the Facebook source selection.  How do Multiple Social Connections work in Local SEO? If a client has connected multiple social pages through the Business App or a product like Reputation Management or Social Marketing, they will see those accounts reflected in Local SEO. On the Listing Sync tab found within Local SEO, click on the desired source. From here, the side panel will appear, and you can select which of the connected pages you would like to sync to. Select the 'Sync to' button, and you are set! 

Due to the nature of the shared server environment in Website Pro, it is not feasible to install applications that require Admin access. Such installations are typically limited to servers with root access, such as VPS servers or Dedicated servers. In Website Pro, we won't be able to access SSH (Secure Socket Shell) and installing any Custom Applications would need SSH access to deploy the application.   

Gordon Borrell built an entire business around a survey, and he's still doing it! It's 10 years running and there isn't a stop in sight. Gordon Borrell, CEO of Borrell Associates, has confirmed what we've been hypothesizing for a while now. The customer journey needs to have a relationship built off trust, BUT he throws in a twist. Listen and find out what the secret sauce is. Gordon Borrell is ranked in the top 2% among Gerson Lehrman Group’s 150,000 consultants worldwide and is quoted frequently in The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Ad Age, Forbes and other publications. He has appeared on CNN and other TV and radio programs discussing trends and forecasts for local media. Prior to starting Borrell Associates, Gordon was vice president for new media for Landmark Communications, where he worked for 22 years. He started his career as a reporter and editor for The Virginian-Pilot in Norfolk, Virginia. Introduction George: It's another edition of the "Conquer Local Podcast." And one of my favorite events to go to in the year is Gordon Borrell's LOAC presentation that he has at the Grand Hyatt, and it's been running now for 10 years. And we have Gordon Borrell all lined up to take us through all of the nuggets from that convention and to also tell us what... You know, Gordon, he reads the tea leaves. And he has a look at the data, and he says, "Here's where the space is going, and here's where you need to pivot your business." And he also has a tendency to attract some of the best keynote speakers to his convention. I always find it to be very informative and very educational when I go to that event every year. So we're gonna hear it from the man himself, Mr. Gordon Borrell, coming up next on the "Conquer Local podcast." Join us for "Conquer Local" 2019 in beautiful sunny San Diego. California's Beach City and the legendary Hotel del Coronado will play host to the most valuable conference of the year for companies selling marketing solutions to local businesses. We have a must-see lineup of industry experts, including our keynote speaker, Kevin O'Leary from ABC's Shark Tank. Our entire slate of accomplished speakers have been hand-picked to address the top six growth problems facing all B2B companies: product, demand, sales, scale, retention, and expansion. You'll get stimulating talks, tactile workshops, and an opportunity to connect with the brightest minds in your industry, all geared toward turning your business into a recurring revenue growth engine. Plus, you can experience an unforgettable adventure on a guided tour of the world-famous San Diego Zoo capped off with an incredible treetop reception. We've secured deep discounts on conference hotel rooms, but they are limited and going fast. Don't miss out. Go to conquerlocal2019.com, and get your tickets and rooms today. George: It's another edition of the "Conquer Local podcast." You know, it just hit me like a lightning bolt. We've obviously been doing this for a little bit over a year because I remember one of our first podcasts had Gordon Borrell on. And Gordon Borrell is back because it is that time of year where you have your massive convention in New York City and you unveil all of that data. And I had the privilege of being there when you did the unveil of all the data around your survey. So, first off, welcome back, Mr. Gordon Borrell. Gordon: How about that. What an honor it is for me to be here. Thank you, George, and you do have a great podcast. It is indeed an honor to be on this. You're doing some great things. I've heard quite a few of them, and you're really helping the industry from an educational standpoint. So, thank you. George: Well, we appreciate those comments. It's great guests like you that help us to do that because you are out there doing the hard work getting the insights. And I found some interesting things as you were rolling through the rollout of the data from your survey. So, can we set the table for the survey, and can you tell us about how long you've been doing it? And just for new listeners who may not be familiar with Gordon Borrell and the great work that your company does, can we kind of get a little bit of a back story, please? Gordon: Sure. We've been around for 18, 19 years or so. We've been doing surveys and research for that period of time looking at local advertising and tracking the trends in advertising and marketing expenditures. The survey that you're referring to is the Local Advertiser Survey that we do annually from April until July, and it's the largest survey in North America of local advertisers. It's about 44 questions, and it's a huge amount of insights and information from the local business industry about what they're doing, what they're planning to do with their advertising and marketing expenditures.   The Giant Toy Box of Advertising and Its Treasures George: You know, that is very valuable information for a local seller. Imagine going into the customer and knowing what, you know, furniture stores in markets that size are spending on social media advertising. So can we dig into some of the insights from this survey that you saw when you were speaking to those advertisers because I think it's very valuable for salespeople to know what the poll says of businesses in the markets? Gordon: First off, George, the survey itself is now, what, six, eight months old or so because it ended in July. But we also do a monthly panel of about 2,000 advertisers. So, we kind of filter the results and look at it over time in how things have changed. So, overall, the trend that we see, I guess the two most important things that I can tell you out of that survey are local advertisers are expanding the number of types of media that they're buying. So in a given year, they typically buy five and a half, on average, different types of media. So it might be Yellow Pages, newspaper, radio, social media search, you know, etc. There are 5.5 on average that, pretty consistently, they have bought in a year's time. For some people, it might be direct mail. And others, they'll buy direct mail. They buy radio or this or that. It has now expanded to eight. So they've increased. It doesn't sound like a lot, but it really is. They have expanded to eight different types of media that they buy in a year. Now, this is the really shocking and scary thing that we saw on the most recent surveys. They are cutting the number of companies that they are buying from five to three. So they're cutting out two. And what that tells us is that they are definitely looking into the giant toy box of advertising, you know, marketing technologies that they have and go, "Wow, social media boosting posts? Let's do that. Let's do something on Twitter. Let's shoot a video of ourselves and cut it into a 15-second pre-roll and do some YouTube advertising." So they're certainly adding that type of stuff. But they are cutting out the dumbest punk companies that they have been dealing with that are just saying, "Oh, that social media stuff doesn't work. Radio advertising is bigger than anything else, or newspaper advertising is the best." So they know those people aren't really telling the truth. Those people are just trying to sell advertising. George: So it's interesting. You know, we in the industry, we call it, you know, the reduction of vendor clutter. But what it really means is that the advertiser is looking to a trusted provider, and they're saying, "I can get it from Joe. I don't have to deal with Suzy or Tom over here who I don't even think are telling me the truth. So I'm just gonna go with that trusted local expert." You know, we've been talking about this for quite some time, but the data is starting to support that or continuing to support that. Gordon: It is, George, but it's just a little more complicated than that. And I'm actually just learning this from my Executive Vice President of Research, Corey Elliott, who's the guy who's at the center of all the surveys that we do. And he was just sitting with me this morning telling me that, "You know, you think it would be they're going with the person whom they trust and the trusted brands. But while that is important, that is not the most important thing." And this is kind of shocking because, George, you and I have always felt with lots of other people that, "Well, they're gonna buy advertising based on trust." You could have the most trusted, nicest, kindest, most wonderful person walk in that door. If they didn't have the right products to sell, and they didn't know, and that's the key, and they didn't know about your business and let's say you're a furniture store, and they didn't know, you know, how to sell an ottoman, you know, the best marketing tips for selling an ottoman, and they didn't have the right product, you know, maybe they were selling only Yellow Pages, well, that's not gonna work. So, in the end, it's the combination of things. Yes, it's the trust, and yes, it's the relationship, but, man, you've gotta have the right products, and you also have to have some knowledge about the business.   Training to Stay Ahead George: So does that mean that, as a local seller, you can't just be pigeonholed into one thing I think is what you're saying. You need to have access to all the products because even if you have the trust if you have the absence of the products, you're gonna lose the deal. Gordon: I think that the dance is to stay ahead of the advertiser in terms of market knowledge. And the market knowledge right now, they're teaching themselves because they suddenly have these tools available to them. They can build their own graphics, whereas 15, 20 years ago, it was really harder to do that. But now they can, and they can place their own ads, whereas 15 or 20 years ago, it was impossible to do that. You had to go through somebody. So, they have graduated from, we'll say, high school with, you know, some marketing knowledge, and now they're in college. So you damn well better have a college degree and be working on your master's to stay ahead of them. George: You know, that speaks next to something that we have been talking about in lots of episodes, so let's really dig into that. When you're working with your customers who are media organizations and agencies and you're talking to sales leadership in that group, I'm sure that learning and having that culture of constant learning, who are you seeing that are doing a really good job of that in helping to teach their reps? What are some best practices there? Gordon: Well, it's always hard to name names because, you know, whenever I do that, I get calls or emails and people say, "What about me? You didn't mention us." Or, you know, I get smartass sometimes, and I'll mention somebody who's not doing a good job. So, hell, let's just name names anyway. There are a few companies out there that we see doing remarkable jobs in training the reps, and some of them are cable companies. Cable companies are getting cable systems roughly the same amount in digital advertising dollars as, you know, a broadcast TV station does in the market. These guys are actually pretty good at training. They're kind of like radio folks. You know, they're really, really good at selling. So you take a private company like Cox Communications, both on their media side and their cable side, and they do a phenomenal job of training. And then you look at some of the smaller radio groups, not quite the bigger ones, but the smaller ones, and they just get it, and they understand it. And you have to look at, you know, all other groups: newspapers, Yellow Pages, etc. across the board. But I would say that the difference is particularly with those who have multiple outlets, somebody that has a corporate level or company-wide training program that really keeps up with things, keeps up with the certification, maybe the digital certification and the other, you know, certifications like the radio advertising bureaus, you know, radio certification program and local media associations. So it really is the companies that have invested a significant, not a small, but a significant amount of money in training and, importantly, keep those training programs updated every single year because terminology changes and market conditions change and things like that.   Stop the Tear Down, Start the Frank Discussion George: We talked about the number of products that people are buying from groups and things like that. Are you seeing anything around, you know, what they don't like? And I remember last year, you launched into the podcast by saying that advertisers were pissed off. And I loved that statement, by the way. If you were to put one statement over what they don't like from what you saw in that survey, do you have any of those nuggets that our reps can take back and say, "Boy, I better stop doing that because clients hate that?" Gordon: Yeah. Stop pissing on other media and try to make yours look better. The advertisers tell us in comments. I've got a deck that has comment after comment after comment just to drive this home. And I was in West Virginia a couple of weeks ago doing it with the West Virginia Broadcasters Association. I said, "Look, don't go in and tell them the myth that radio reaches 98% of the population in any given week." They know that to be a lie. Well, maybe it does but not your station. Don't go in and say, "Newspapers are better than everything else." Don't go in and say, "Digital media sucks." So you don't go in and you tear down the other medium. You really have to come in and say, "Well,..." you know, and exhibit the market knowledge that everything works in unison. Outdoor works. TV works. Radio works. Yellow Pages work, particularly in small markets. So the one thing that the advertisers are really fed up with is this false consultative sales approach where you come in and say, "Hey, I don't wanna sell you anything. I just wanna ask you some questions. Tell me what your needs are. Tell me what your points of pain are. Tell me what you'd like to do." And so let's say you're a radio sales rep, right? George: Yes. Gordon: And then you say, "I'm going to come back, and then I'm gonna give you some recommendations." Well, guess what you're going to come back and recommend as the solution? Radio advertising. They see through that. If you're in the advertising sales business, it's a really good time to be smart. George: How do you feel about that line, "I'm not here to sell you something?" Gordon: I think advertisers see through that. I think there's gotta be...it may be true that you're not on that visit, but I think it's too time-worn now to use. I think you have to take a bit of a different approach. I think you have to say, "I wanna help you with your marketing needs, but really, on this call, what I'm here to do is try to find out a little bit more. I've got some information that might be able to help you. But if I'm really gonna be able to serve you, I need to be able to ask some questions. And I'm earnest in wanting to help you. I really think I can save you some time or money, or I wouldn't be here." You know, drop all those defenses, drop all that attack mode, drop all the false terminology, and just be frank with them. George: No, I appreciate you validating what I was asking there because I find that when a rep walks in and says, "I'm not gonna sell you something," does a bullshit needs analysis, and then comes back to try to sell them something, you've lost all credibility. You know, "Yes, I am an advertising consultant, or a marketing consultant, or a digital media consultant, and what I'm here to do is to see if there would be a fit between our two organizations where I would be able to help you with the products and services that I have. And, yes, those come with a price attached to them," and just be open with the customer because the trust is the most important piece. And when you break it, you can't get it back. Gordon: Yeah. I completely agree. If you can't say, "I'm not here to sell you something ever," then you shouldn't say it. I mean, that's sort of a test.   Breaking Through the Noise George: And what are you finding in your surveys around these needs, customer needs analysis, the CNA, the dreaded...you know, I'm gonna come in and ask you a bunch of questions. Is there any comments in there from your advertisers that you've surveyed around those because I'm sure they're being inundated by those bloody things? Gordon: Yeah. There really are. And, again, it does speak to the suspicion that the advertisers have that these folks are coming in on a sort of a consultative approach, but they are gonna come back and sell them something. You know, I don't know how you get around that other than to say...just be honest with them to say, "I think I have a whole set of marketing opportunities, some of which you may not be aware of, that you can take advantage of. But on this call, I'm really just here to find out whether we actually have the tools that can help you, I kind of think we do, but I'm here to ask you questions." So, you're basically saying, "I'm not gonna try to sell something on this call, but I'm probably gonna come back and try to sell you something." That's really important. You've got to know that these advertisers are absolutely besieged. The number of sales calls has doubled for the average advertiser to 24 a month in the past three and a half years. So, they're just being barraged by all of this pressure from all of these media outlets. Here's a fascinating fact for you, George. A lot of people don't really know this. But, you know, we're assuming that the Yellow Pages industry is dying and that newspapers are dying, and, you know, nobody's listening to radio anymore, and nobody's watching TV. And that's all a bunch of crap because, right now, there have been some Yellow Pages books that have gone away and there has been. And we hear a lot about them, but it's just overemphasized. Some daily newspapers that have gone to online only have, you know, folded with two other papers. But still, there are about 1,300 daily newspapers in the U.S. and Canada, and there are phenomenal amounts of other media, 10,000 radio stations, 8,000 weekly newspapers. So when you look at any individual market at province or at DMA, there are more than 100 locally-based media outlets on average. Even a really small market might have 30 or 40. And the advertiser is just shutting down and saying, "That's too much noise." So, it really is incumbent upon a company that wants to survive or, you know, grow again to just have a really, really, really smart sales approach. There's gonna be so much effort based on training that sales staff. George: Yeah. We do the count of media organizations. Then we also have every piece of marketing technology that has been built have their own sales team that is hammering the phones and emails of those SMBs trying to get them to buy their bespoke solution as well. So, again, to be in that top one or two is the most important thing that you need to do when you're dealing with your prospects and that top of mind awareness that, "Yeah. I understand your business, we've built some trust, I'm going to see if I can get the product set that matches your needs," has never been more important than it is today. And it's good to see that your data is supporting the things that we're trying to train as we speak to people on the "Conquer Local Podcast." When you look at the entire survey based upon the previous ones that you've done and the data that you've gathered, is there anything else that's really glaring that jumps out at you from the information?   Getting Together and Educating Gordon: Well, a couple of things. I'll go back to what I said, you know, at the very beginning. It's those two things that just keep going round and round in our minds that they're expanding the number of choices but decreasing the number of companies that they deal with, therefore, they're using a little more DIY stuff. Plus, you know, what I said earlier in that is that they just really want a very defined sleek marketing person to help them out, and those are the ones who are going to win. I think, George, the other thing that we are seeing when we look at these surveys is these businesses, they're beginning to learn from the DIY stuff that's put in front of them. And we do it ourselves here at Borrell Associates. We go, "Well, we can just design this ad ourselves. Hey, we just put a post online. And you click this button here, and, you know, you can boost it for 100 bucks." So we're learning rather than having to rely on somebody else to farm it out to. That, I think, is one of the more important things, is to realize that the class or the education of the advertiser themselves continues to increase. However, I wouldn't classify them as extremely educated. They still need that. They still show up in droves. When you say, "We're gonna have a digital marketing expert or some marketing expert come to town and talk to you about SEO and getting seen by the search engines and social media and things like that," they still come out in droves. So their educational needs are still high. But realize that as they come to these meetings that everybody seems to be holding in the markets, and as they do their own stuff, that their education level is getting, you know, greater and greater. So it's getting a little tougher to serve them. George: We really appreciate you taking some time from your schedule to join us on the podcast again this year and give us the insights that were shared with your crowd in New York at the beautiful Grand Hyatt, which has been recently renovated, which was kind of nice to see. But I also wanted to offer our congratulations to you on 10 years of having that event, and I think it's a great event, media executives from all over North America and, in fact, the world. You know, I wanted to give you an opportunity to talk a little bit about the journey of your convention. It's a monumental accomplishment that you and your organization have had, and congratulations on that. Gordon: Thank you. We did start in 2009. The first one was in this time of the year, spring of 2010, and we were surprised, George, at the first one that we held. We didn't ever think we'd be in the conference business in any way or wanna hold one. So we said, "Well, there's really a need because the trade associations for radio, for television, for newspapers, for the directory industry, Yellow Pages, will hold their conventions or their conferences, and then will have a little section on digital. And if you go to it and you really know a lot about digital, you go, "Man, this is weak crap. Man, this is not good." We thought, "We'll get everybody under one roof, and we'll just have a local online advertising conference. It's gonna be about local, it's just gonna be about online, it's gonna be about advertising, and it's gonna be all types of media. The very first one that we had was sold out. We were shocked. It just spoke, I think, to the need for everybody to understand this new marketing space, not from a monolithic view. It really is a completely different medium with a completely different set of capabilities. And if you don't understand that, then you're gonna shortchange yourself. Having said that, George, I'll tell you one thing. The hotel was renovated many, many years ago. Now, it's being torn down. So this was our last event at the Grand Hyatt. We're gonna have to find another place to go to 2020. George: Well, I'm sure there's all sorts of hotels that would love to have that chunk of business that you bring to town every March. Of all the people that spoke this year, what was your favorite presentation? Gordon: Well, the favorite presentation is, to me, it's always the presentation by comScore. We've traded off between Nielsen and comScore. We've usually had Gian Fulgoni, who's the Co-founder and Chairman of comScore, this year. He had retired, and he offered Sara Hofstetter. And her presentation is just absolutely stunning. We like research people because they have great insights, and they talk about what's going on irrespective of, you know, what they should be promoting because their company is a certain type of company. No, they're truth-tellers. So, in that presentation, what we saw was a lot of information on OTT and how that is growing or over the top video. It's basically the transition of the internet from a read medium to a viewed-and-listened-to medium. The growth of podcasting and all these audio devices and the growth of video-viewing is turning the internet really into a multimedia event, and a lot of the ad dollars are flowing in that direction. So that phenomenal, you know, sudden uptick in growth, and the vast expansion of TV programming to the digital venue was really remarkable.   Conclusion George: Well, I really appreciate you joining us on the podcast. I always feel that, you know, as a gray-haired old sales guy, I always learn things when I listen to Gordon Borrell. So I appreciate you bringing that insight and being a guest again this year. And we wish you all the best in the days to come as we move through 2019, and good luck finding your new location for the convention next year. Gordon: George, thank you very much for having me, and thanks for doing this for the industry. It's a great podcast. Thank you. George: Well, probably one of my favorite public speakers to see him live, Gordon, commands the stage, presents very, very well, and he knows his information inside and out as you can tell. But what I found from that presentation as really interesting is sales and marketing to SMB is harder than it's ever been because we have all of this confusion and all of this noise that's happening with all of these entities that are calling on the prospects. So, it's never been more important for the rep to be more educated. And also, Gordon touched on the fact that those customers are using DIY solutions, and they're becoming more educated. So it's really interesting crossroads that we're at, and it speaks directly to what our core foundation is on the "Conquer Local Podcast." I've said this in past episodes. When I first entered this space seven years ago, and I started working with sales teams, and I remember being on a sales call with a young lady. She was about 55 years old. She'd been selling for a number of years. I was looking kind of in the mirror. I'm like, "Oh, here's somebody, not that young of a salesperson, and they know how to sell their legacy product. But we really need to come up with a way to help them sell the new digital solutions they're going to need so they can stay relevant." There's a lot of young smart people out there that are charging into business with a ton of education. They're very tech savvy. They're not intimidated by digital. And our job here at the "Conquer Local Podcast" is to help all of the salespeople, whether they be brand new salespeople, and they have to learn how to develop relationships, and they learn how to have to actually communicate with people and do active listening. And then we've got old salespeople like myself that need to learn new tricks, but new things that they can deliver to that customer to solve their problems. So I really appreciate Gordon's insight because it's backed up by data. And the data points that everything that we've been talking about on the "Conquer Local Podcast" is more important today than it was a year and three months ago when we started this thing. So, thank you, Gordon, for all of those insights, and we wish you all the best as the months continue here in 2019. We are coming up to summer, is just around the corner. We're trying to plan what we're going to do during the summer. And producer Colleen and I have been brainstorming, and we got saying, "You know, what haven't we covered? What do we wanna look at?" We'd like to get your feedback. You can reach out to me on LinkedIn or on the Conquer Local LinkedIn channel and give us some ideas as to what you might like to see us cover as we move into...well, we're maybe gonna call "The Summer..." we'll come up with a fancy name for it. I'll leave that up to the Colleen to come up with that. But we're going to do a series in the summer months that is all gonna be around teaching. We'll bring some people in that are great sales coaches to those episodes, but we're looking for your feedback first. So please reach out to us on LinkedIn on the "Conquer Local" page or on my page, George Leith. Oh, by the way, my name is George Leith. I'll see you when I see you.

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