Episode 2: Martina Brugnoni on SEO & Social Media Marketing Trends

It's really, really important if you're going to have success with digital marketing that you're working with a company that understands your company, really, and the way that you're structured and the way that you need to drive leads in. I mean, if you get the wrong company, they're going to get you a bunch of clicks for claim searches and think, "Look, we got you 100 clicks." We don't want those clicks, we want quotes, we don't want claims, you know, so it's having the understanding of the industry is huge, huge. Welcome to the Club Capital Leadership Podcast, where you will learn to grow your business, grow your leadership, and grow and develop your team. And now tune in to another great episode brought to you by your hosts, Bradley Hamner and Chris Ferretti.

Today's guest on the Club Capital Leadership Podcast is Martina Brugnoni, owner and operator of Uptown Marketing. I was so excited to talk to Martina and we talk about all things digital marketing, including Google, social media, Facebook, how you can maximize your impact on those sites. We talk about Uptown, we talk about how they service clients, we talk about her background and just overall best practice marketing. I think our listeners are going to get a ton out of today's podcast. Chris, what'd you take away?

I love learning about today's trends in social media, particularly influencer marketing. It was also exciting to see how voice search is becoming more relevant and what you can do to show up when someone searches for your products or services. So without further ado, let's get into it.

We're super excited to have you on the podcast, Martina. Welcome.

Thank you. I'm really excited.

Alright, so for those who don't know you, don't follow you on social media, don't know about Uptown, before we get to Uptown, talk to us about how did you get to this point? Tell us a little bit of background about you.

So I'm from Rochester, New York. I went to school for marketing and I worked for a State Farm agent when I was 18, so about 23, right around when I got out of school, a little bit after. And then from there I started working at a marketing company and because I had been doing so much marketing for the State Farm agent that I was working for, I started doing marketing for all kinds of State Farm agents all over the country. And I was there for 4 or 5 years almost. Then I one day this past January decided I don't want to live in Rochester, New York anymore. I want to live in Dallas, Texas. So I literally just picked up and moved like a month later. And 2 weeks after that, I was kind of like, well, you know, I'm obviously feeling crazy this year, so I think it's time I also start my own company. Now that I've made this big jump, I'm just gonna really go for everything. So I started Uptown Marketing in March.

Yeah, so that's actually what the next question I was gonna ask you. So talk to us about the transition from being a team member to owning your own company. I mean, that's a big change for anybody.

It is, yeah. So when I was a team member, I started off doing like typical almost receptionist, beginning of day, more of a service role, and then grew into more of a sales role. And then as I started to learn about marketing, I kind of just took it over because at that time social media and the whole concept of online marketing was just getting really, really big. So I'm like, alright, well I'm going to jump on this. And my boss didn't know anything about it because it had never been around. I just learned a lot. I studied a lot. I researched a lot. And then the next step, the other marketing company that I worked for there, I was able to take what I learned at the State Farm agency and build a really big book of business and a big network with mostly State Farm agents. And it got to the point there where I was kind of running my own business anyways. So it was actually a very easy transition to start Uptown and just basically do the same thing I had been doing, make some improvements on things that I didn't necessarily love about the old company. And here we are.

So I didn't actually know that about your background, that you actually worked for a State Farm agent initially. So I think that's so fascinating that you had that experience to see exactly the struggles and the things that work and the things that don't work. So I'm curious though, did any of your marketing degree in school help you whenever you got started working in marketing with that agent, or is it just through your own learning and studying and figuring out what works yourself?

It definitely did. I'm like a nerd when it comes to marketing. Like I'm really, really fascinated by it. So I definitely researched into it more than probably an average team member would have. And then I definitely applied what I was learning in school rather than just saying, all right, well, I know how to use social media because I use it myself. I really basically took what I was learning in school and applied it. So it was actually more successful that way.

Dang, what a story. Definitely, definitely sad story. So obviously with Uptown Marketing, that in itself, Says it's a marketing agency, but can you elaborate on like Uptown Marketing in general? Just what it does, how you service clients today and things like that.

Yeah. So there's 5 of us total, 5 girls. Every one of us either has marketing background or insurance industry background. Some of us have both and we do all kinds of digital marketing, mostly 99% for State Farm agents specifically. That's our niche is State Farm. And we'll do anything from SEO, so search engine optimization to paid advertising online, which would be Google Ads or Facebook Ads, Instagram Ads, anything that's compliant as far as paid advertising. I do a little bit with recruitment ads. That's something I want to develop more. I actually just had a focus group a couple of weeks ago with a bunch of agents to talk about some of their struggles with hiring because that's something I definitely want to get into. But because it's something I'm less familiar with, I want to take my time and really create something that's going to work really, really well rather than just start to wing it. And I also want to get into some sales consulting, like with team members, because I've always had agents ask me, I wish I could teach my team to sell like you. Like, why can't my team sell like you? And obviously being a team member myself and having done it in the agent's office, I think that's somewhere I could provide value for agents too. But as of right now, our main focus is the digital marketing space.

Nice. Nice.

Yeah.

I would say that at least when I first met you, when you sell, it's truly not like selling at all. It feels like you organically and genuinely care about the person and you generally interact with them, like when I see you interact with them on Facebook, it looks like you're just a friend that happens to be great at marketing. And because of that, people just gravitate to you.

Oh, thank you. Well, yeah, I mean, that's really what it is to me. I've never really looked at sales like sales. It's such a bad connotation and I don't understand why, because people need what I have. Everybody needs online marketing. It's the same concept with insurance. Everybody needs insurance. You're not doing something bad because you're selling something. You know what I mean? We all have something to provide value to somebody else. It's about establishing a relationship and filling the need that they have where it becomes a good fit. And then it's really not sales like you're saying. It's just, you know, natural.

Exactly. So, I mean, the marketing space is very dynamic, as I'm sure that you're aware. What would you say are some of the trends happening right now in digital marketing? And keep in mind that this podcast is being recorded in November of 2019. For those of you listening.

So I think that there's a big push, and this is not necessarily something that State Farm agents or any insurance agents will really benefit from. Maybe they will, I don't know. We never know what's going to happen. But the influencer marketing, like instead of running ads, we're going to look at brands are hiring people with maybe 10,000 or 15,000 or a million Instagram followers and they're paying them to post on their behalf because they have such a big following. It's almost like a TV show that has a certain amount of viewers. That's where you want to place your ads. So it's interesting because these people are creating their own individual brand, these influencers, and then they're able to literally charge just for posting on Instagram and saying, I like this fit tee or whatever it is.

Don't get me started on the fit tees.

I know.

So I really want to talk about Google. I think Google is just— confuses so many people. So you talk about SEO, we talk about the digital paid ads. Can you just help us to break down Google specifically? And then we'll transition, we'll talk about social media. So help us understand how Google works and specifically how to be marketing yourself on the Google.

The easiest way to kind of break this down in simple terms— I mean, I could talk for hours and hours about Google, and obviously nobody wants to hear all that. But to keep it very simple, we have to keep in mind that What is the goal of Google? The goal of Google is to keep consumers on Google, right? They want to make sure that every time we do a search, whether we need a recipe, we need plane tickets, we need an insurance agent, that we're choosing Google. So the way that they do that is by providing us with the best possible experience. There's a reason we don't like Bing as much. There's a reason we don't like Yahoo as much is because they don't have it the way that Google has it. So when they are sifting through all the billions of pieces of information and websites and pages of websites and this and that on the internet, they have less than milliseconds to provide the consumer that's doing the search with the best possible match to the search. So something I always ask agents to keep in mind is that Google doesn't know your sales numbers. They don't know you're the best agent in your town. They don't know that you beat the guy down the street in numbers last month. They only know what's on your website and what the rest of the internet has to say about you. So, in simple, I know I said simple and then I went on a tangent, but you wanna keep in mind that the more active you are and the more effort you put into it, you're in a race with everybody else that wants to show up in this space. So, you have to make yourself the best possible result for the person that's doing the search for insurance. And there's a lot of different ways to do that, but getting that understanding that you have to put the work in and you have to work with somebody that understands that and really it's no different than having somebody that's an expert in insurance handle your insurance. You have to have that expert approach, I guess.

So I'm a client of you guys, and when we transitioned over several months ago, a lot of my— we'll call them, I guess, profiles on a lot of different sites were just messed up. Directories. Okay. And so talk to us about why is that important to make sure all of those align? And what are some of the most important ones outside of Google that need to match up so that someone's profile does show up the best in Google?

Yeah. So when Braly's saying profiles, he's referring to business directory So this would be like your business profile on Yelp. Yelp is technically a business directory. There's tons and tons of these sites. So the reason these are so important is because when Google's going out and they're scrubbing the internet and they're checking for information that's going to match a business to the person searching, they're checking these directories for consistent information, for relevant information, for accurate information, everything that's going to tell them, okay, Bradley's a solid result for this insurance search. And the problem that agents run into and that every business runs into is that those directories are all controlled by somebody. So any information that's out there about your business, like let's say you weren't with Uptown and you just had, you're winging it online, right? Directories purchase data from data aggregators. So data aggregators collect information from everywhere, any bill, any form you've ever filled out, your social media, it comes from all over. So the problem that a lot of agents run into is that you guys love to move your offices, right? So you'll get the wrong address or your old address. If you've taken over a book of business from another agent, you're gonna run into some of those directories where the old agent's website is listed or their phone number, whatever it is. There's so much that can go wrong, and every time something goes wrong on those directories, you're making Google less and less and less likely to want to show you because they don't feel very confident in the information they see online, which could in turn provide a consumer with a bad experience.

That makes sense. That makes sense. So you guys go in there, you find the inconsistencies, make sure that that matches up. Where does the paid ads come in with Google?

So paid ads would be totally separate. You think when you do a search for something, whatever it is, you see the ads up at the top and all they are, they're links to websites that show up the same way and it's got a little teeny tiny green symbol next to it that says ad. So the way that you show up in those is by running Google AdWords. Google AdWords are run in a bidding, like auction system. So let's say us three all wanted to run Google Ads for a podcast search. Well, if I'm willing to spend $5 per click, but Chris is willing to spend $6 per click, but you're willing to spend $10 per click, your ad's going to stay at the top. Okay. And you're probably going to get the majority of the traffic and there's a whole, whole lot of stuff that goes into it. But the most important thing to keep in mind with those, for any agent that's looking into running those or is running those with another company or wants to just learn more about it, the transparency of that is very, very key to success of it. So when you're running a campaign with a company, or if it's yourself, you have to be able to look at the real numbers and be able to analyze them right where they are in Google versus just in a report somewhere.

And I mean, I feel like nowadays there's so much information about SEO, internet marketing, just marketing in general, and a lot of it can be misinformation, I would say, from people who pretend to be experts and really they're just charlatans speaking. So for some people who unfortunately may have been led astray, and, and perhaps insurance agents specifically who may have some misconceptions about the state of marketing today, what would you say are some common misconceptions that they might have and some mistakes that you're seeing them make because of those misconceptions right now?

So if we're talking about insurance agents specifically, I think the biggest mistake that they could make is trusting the guy at their church that does marketing or their cousin that knows about SEO. There's so many people in this space, and that's not to take away from any of those people or say they don't know what they're doing, but the insurance industry is very, very specific and needs to be marketed in a certain way. And if we narrow it down even further to State Farm agents, there's compliance restrictions, there's certain ways that you have to market or ways that you want to market. Your website works a certain way, so it's really, really important if you're going to have success with digital marketing that you're working with a company that understands your company, really, and the way that you're structured and the way that you need to drive leads in. I mean, if you get the wrong company, they're going to get you a bunch of clicks for claim searches and think, "Look, we got you 100 clicks." We don't want those clicks, we want quotes, we don't want claims, you know. So it's having the understanding of the industry is huge, huge.

Yeah, I would definitely agree with that. So obviously it sounds like the best recommendation for agents who are in this situation would be to work with an agency that actually understands their industry. But as an agent who has a lot going on, whether it's sales, whether it's support, etc., how would an agent be able to distinguish between somebody who basically you just described, an agency that actually understands the insurance industry?

I would say, like anything else, asking a lot of questions. And it's hard because it's a space where most agents don't understand and they don't really speak the language, so it's tough to ask those questions. But one thing that's been huge for me, obviously, is referrals. So I was always able to gain credibility by saying, hey, I work with this agent that you know, and I've done a good job for him, and he'll vouch for me. That makes a big difference versus if I was just just cold calling people saying, hey, I'm Martina, I used to work for State Farm, let me do your marketing.

Right.

You know, they may listen because I worked for State Farm, but I don't have the same credibility as I have. I mean, Bradley, you were referred by somebody at some point, and everybody from Uptown on was really a referral that started from me building those relationships at the other company I was at. So I think that it's good to get, like, I guess referrals, or just somebody that you can check up on and say, hey, have you ever worked with this person before? Do they know what they're doing?

Yeah, that's definitely great, great advice. Thank you for sharing that. I mean, right now it seems like you guys work with agents who are just starting their businesses and also agents who have been in business for, you know, let's just say 10+ or 20+ years. Would you say that agents at different states should have different marketing strategies or does it mainly depend on their goals?

So that's another thing that differentiates what agents will want to work with a specific company that understands this because you have to be different there's very few agents that would need to market the exact same way. So whether that's tenure, whether that's market, whether that's the different lines of insurance they want to focus on, awards they're going after, every agent is in a different situation and it's extremely important to market yourself according to where you are now. So like Atika, for example, somebody within their first few years, they're going to want to start building the SEO foundation right away and that's something they're going to have to be patient with. Because you're not going to have SEO success in 30 days or 90 days or even 6 months sometimes when you're first starting out. So to supplement that, you need to do a lot of branding, right? Because nobody knows where you are, or nobody knows who you are in the community. You're the new guy in town, so you have to blast yourself all over Facebook, Instagram, billboards. I mean, I would do crazy amounts of branding if I was a brand new agent. And then an older agent, or not necessarily older, but a more tenured agent, they're going to want to be measuring what they're doing because they're often trying so many things, they're talking to so many different vendors, they're getting referred to so many programs that it's important to A, diversify, so not just do one type of marketing, but B, make sure to consistently look at what you're doing and have a marketing partner that's able to help you decide what's working, what's not working, so you can make strategies that make sense for where you're at in the business.

So one of the things we didn't mention about Google is the importance of Google reviews specifically. So can you talk to us about your opinion and what are some of the keys about Google reviews? I mean, if we got 150 reviews, I'm a new agent, I start out, I get 150 of my friends to do a review, they're all 5 stars, is that bad if they do that?

Yeah, I mean, here's the thing with reviews. Google is not stupid. They know if you get 150 of your friends in your first 2 weeks of business, they know there's something fishy going on with that. And I have all the time. I I have new agents that are like, Martina, I got 10 reviews yesterday morning, and it's like, no, slow down. You don't have to go at that speed. It's important when you're new to build it at a faster pace, but you still want to stay on a pace that makes sense. The reviews should not just be anybody with a computer that's willing to go on and type something. It should really be your customers or your friends and family is fine in the beginning, but the reviews need to be genuine. Otherwise, Google's going to catch up to it and realize, okay, this person's been in business for 2 weeks and they have 200 Google reviews. Something's not adding up. So, it's just a matter of setting a right pace. So, I would say somebody in their first 2 or first year to let's say 3 years in business, you want to shoot for maybe 5 a month, whereas somebody that's been open a little bit longer could slow down to maybe 2 or 3 per month because that's a realistic pace, you know, that your customers would be leaving those reviews.

It's been thrown around and this is kind of an example of a misconception that there's a number that once you get past this number, you become more relevant on Google. I think somebody said at one time it was 30. Is that accurate at all?

It is. I'm not sure what the exact number is because Google doesn't publish that. There is levels to the reviews, but because there's so many other different factors at play, I don't usually like to speak on that because then that gives somebody the misconception that once they get to this number, they should be here, they should be there. And I don't know what we're talking about with the rest of the presence. And so they're just a piece of the puzzle. They're an important piece, but they're just a piece of it.

All right. So let's transition into the other part of marketing, which is social media and social media changes so much. I mean, Instagram has changed so much in the past 12 months and it's going to continue to do so. Now we've got the emergence of TikTok and what is that going to look like over the next few years? And so can you just talk to us about social media as a whole, what you guys do, how do you service your clients with social media? And just what are some best practices that agency owners can pick up now on their social media, but also what are some things that they need to avoid on social media that you see commonly and you think, oh no, don't be doing this, this is not good, don't go there, don't post that on your business Facebook page. But yeah, talk to us about that.

You know what, I kind of have a less traditional approach to social media. I mean, if you guys have ever seen my social media, I'm just very real. I don't try to cookie cutter stuff. And I would say with social media for insurance agents, one of the biggest I guess opportunities they have is to just post more real content. Like have somebody in your office post a picture of the team, or if one of your customers brings you guys cookies, or someone brings their dog in, like taking opportunities where there's real moments that you would want to share versus just connecting it to the vendors that are just going to provide very generic save on insurance or, you know, it's the very cookie cutter type of stuff. We have to keep in mind Social media is becoming so congested, right? We're staring at it all day long, first of all. So our brains are already consuming the information differently than they would be if we were looking at it maybe once or twice a day. We're kind of on overload all the time. So when you see the generic posts like that, you just tune right past it. You know, you're not paying attention to it. So it's super, super important with Facebook and it's not compliant to have an Instagram. So I'm not going to speak on Instagram because technically we shouldn't have Instagram. But for a business Facebook page, just not having those generic posts that everybody else have, really taking the time to create engaging posts. And I think a lot of agents don't do that because they're like, well, I don't know what to post, I don't know what I should be posting. Almost every agent has somebody in the office that's younger, more familiar with social media, could take that lead. Like I did when I was 18 years old, I was running the Facebook because I was the best person for it in that office. You know what I mean? So it doesn't have to be the agent. You don't have to spend hours every week thinking about what should I post on my business page. If you almost think about it, what would you post on your personal page? You know, little moments you want to share, things you think are funny. Use the same concepts and obviously maybe filter it a little bit if you're more— I don't know what the word is, but filter it a little bit more if you need to. The genuine content goes a long, long way. The agents that I know that have success from social media are agents that post on their business their business page as often and as genuine as they would on their personal page.

You know, like when I first got into the space, because I've been into the insurance agents and specifically State Farm space now for about a year and a half. And when I first started befriending these people, I wonder like, why are they not posting things like save on insurance and things like that? They're posting things like, I don't know, like a funny photo or like a meme, and that's got tremendous amount of engagement. And I'm like, oh my God, now it makes sense. They're just being very genuine people. And because of that, you know, people are engaging with them. People are saying, I can't believe my insurance agent is posting. You know, it doesn't feel like there is a formal relationship. It feels that once again, like this is my buddy who happens to be posting funny content. Oh, and by the way, he also insures everything because he knows me and my family, you know, yada, yada, yada. And if anything, I actually can see you being genuine as an opportunity for you to even upsell whoever your clients are, because when you're friends with them on Facebook, you're seeing that they might have just purchased a new car, that they might be expecting a baby, that, you know, there's just a lot of of opportunities that can arise if you're just a genuine person.

Let's face it, insurance is boring enough. We don't need to be posting boring content. We need to make— make your insurance agent, you gotta liven it up a little bit.

Oh, so you're saying I need to take down the post of call us for a free quote today? That doesn't— that's not good. I have to say, I've always wanted to say, if we say free quote, people used to charge for that. So like, can I actually start charging for a quote? Like, hey, call us for a $5 quote today.

I mean, after that, the quotes are on sale today.

Yeah, quotes are on sale today. I like that.

All right, well, I mean, you offer a wide variety of services, I would say. Earlier you kind of touched on it, but it's like around SEO, recruitment marketing, and remind me one more time, paid ads, correct? Like paid ads management. Can you elaborate on like what you do for insurance agents?

So SEO, we're going to work with them basically to increase their Google rank, and you want to increase your Google rank in the right way. Like a lot of times A lot of times people will say, I want to show up for insurance Dallas, Texas, when they're not realizing that we search on our phones now, we don't really type the town name in anymore. There's no reason to. If I type in insurance, my phone knows I'm in Dallas, you know, so it's getting to show up for the mobile search because that's where most people are. So there's a lot that we'll work with them on with obviously their directories, we talked about their microsite, their M1 microsite, set them up with tools and practices for getting Google reviews and basically making sure that they're set up on the other places that are important like Bing, you know, it's second to Google but it's still important and then like Apple Maps. So that's going to help connect to Siri and that's I think something that we have to look forward to is all the voice recognition and the Alexa, I need an insurance quote and Siri, I need an insurance quote. That's becoming more and more prominent. That's something we have to kind of keep up with. So that's really the SEO. AdWords, we'll run AdWords campaigns obviously so that That's all driving usually StateFarm.com leads. We can set up some campaigns to drive phone calls to the office, and then Facebook and Instagram ads are going to be really branding and name recognition and getting your name out. Facebook ads are your digital billboard.

I actually find it incredible how you just brought up a great point of voice recognition, basically. I feel like that's a huge trend and it's only beginning, so it's great that you brought up the fact that you get people active. Or listed, I should say, on Apple Maps because Siri— I mean, most phones out there, as I'm sure that you're aware, you know, are Apple. So the fact that you can get them to be interactive with Siri, I feel like that's incredible.

Okay, so Martina, what's one strategy for someone that's listening to the podcast today that they could implement, say, this week if they're not working with a marketing company right now, but they understand that they need to have more presence on social media, they need to have more presence on Google and all the other searches? What's one thing that somebody could do today that's going to have the biggest impact on their digital marketing?

Start implementing a process with your team to ask for Google reviews, Facebook reviews, and Yelp reviews. I would say if I had to pick one, that's the one I would go with.

Yeah, that's good.

Thank you.

All right, it's time for our E9. I'm a golfer. We used to always, towards the end, if we've got finished playing around a golf, we'd always want to go out and try to get an emergency 9 holes. We're going to have a rapid-fire 9 questions. You ready?

I'm ready.

Last book you read?

Mindy Kaling, her book, it's called Why Me, I think.

Okay, I haven't heard of that one.

I'll check it out. What book would you recommend the most?

Like a business book? I'll go business. The Little Red Book of Selling.

Oh yeah, that's a good one.

What if it wasn't business?

Why Men Love Bitches. And I recommend it to all my friends. If you're a woman and you struggle with men, you've got to read this book. So I'll just leave it at that.

We're going to put a link in the show notes to that. I can't wait to see people see those show notes. All right, what's one thing that you cannot live without?

Coffee. I can't even speak without coffee.

Totally with you there. What about the app that you love the most?

Instagram. Definitely Instagram.

Right there with them.

Who inspires you the most?

It's going to sound corny, but A lot of my clients do. Like, I've watched a lot of my clients, like my newer tenured agents that have grown really fast, and then some of my clients that have been very successful for a long time. I think I really, really look up to them and they inspire me to kind of more into the way that they think and develop.

What's your favorite non-work hobby?

Okay, I'm gonna say this, and I don't want to sound like a bimbo, but I genuinely enjoy shopping. I like to have I have like a goal in mind. Like, I think it's like the hunter salesperson trait in me, but I really like having something I need to shop for and like creating a look. And I just get really, really into shopping that way.

That's awesome. That's awesome. All right. So if you had not gone into marketing, what do you think you would be doing today?

I would definitely still be doing sales of some kind. I wanted to go into pharmaceutical sales. I was kind of toying with that out of college. But regardless of what industry, I always, always knew I would end up in sales.

Pharmaceuticals was actually part of my background.

Really? It's a lot of science. I'm not the best with science, so I'm glad I didn't have to go that route.

So, I mean, you recently moved to Dallas and used to be in New York, so both states that have great teams. So right now, what would you say is your favorite sports team?

I'm in kind of a bind with sports right now. So I'm a New York Giants fan. And my boyfriend works for the Cowboys. So like, it's good for business to root for the Cowboys. But I'm also a Giants fan. And so, you know what, I'll— the Yankees. The Yankees are my kids' team.

There you go. There you go. Safe bet right there.

Yeah. It's a good bet.

That's such a PC answer. I mean, do it for the brand, right? Goodness.

Yeah. Yeah.

All right.

Best piece of advice you've ever been given?

My dad always used to tell me, because I I was a real mouthy little kid and he would always tell me, you have two ears and one mouth. You're supposed to listen twice as much as you talk. And I think that that really stuck with me and that translates into sales a lot as well. So I always loved that. Two ears, one mouth.

All right, Martina, this has been awesome. So if somebody wanted to learn more about you guys, about you and Uptown Marketing, what you girls are doing over there and how you can service clients, how can they get in touch with you?

They can email me. So martina@uptownmarketing.com. And then if you go to our website, our website is just uptownmarketing.com. And then we do a lot through our Facebook and Instagram pages, which are both just Uptown Marketing.

Awesome.

Simple enough.

Well, Tina, it's been a pleasure. Thank you for coming on the podcast.

Thanks for having me.

Yes, thank you so much for joining us. It's been incredible. And I look forward to having you in the future as well.

I can't wait.

Yeah, can we have you on in the future and talk about some new trends in digital space and social media?

Yes, I would love that, absolutely.

Chris, I thought that podcast with Martina was just fantastic. Some of the key takeaways that I got from her today were number one, the importance of Google reviews and just being consistent about getting 2 to 3 Google reviews every single month, not trying to overdo it and being consistent with that. Number two, posting on social media, just being real and genuine with what you post and not trying to put everything out there that is going to be too businessy. I think being real and genuine is something that really resonated with me. I think number 3, working with someone who knows the industry that you're in and knows your company that you represent and is going to work with you to get to know you and what your goals are and how to market yourself specifically for your business. And then finally, I just didn't realize that Martina had such a background specifically in insurance and working with a State Farm agent. So that was really fascinating to me. And I think obviously that shows her knowledge and depth of knowledge really comes out. What'd you pick up?

I would say the importance of keeping up with the trends that are happening in the marketing space because it's such a dynamic space. So making sure that you're aware of what's actually driving clicks, what's turning visitors into leads, knowing exactly what's going on in the industry is incredibly important. So I'm glad that OptinMarketing helps you keep up with that and also making sure that you're fully aware and intentional of what you want marketing to do for you. And once you figure that out, that your message is clear and consistent.

If Martina and the girls at Uptown Marketing can help you, contact Martina at martina@uptownmarketing.com. Obviously, they're all over the social media channels. Just search Uptown Marketing on Instagram or Facebook. I think you'll be really pleased with the product and the services that they deliver to you and your business. Until next time, Chris, we'll see you on the next podcast. Lead well, Peace!