Acceptance of Circumstances, accountability, AEO, AI Search, Being Found on Google, brand promise, community involvement, competitive advantage, Customer Service, good will creation, keeping up with trends, lead generation, Memorability, Objectives Setting, organic SEO, reputation management, sales, Search Engine Optimization, SEO, staying current, strategic planning, target audiences, Target Marketing, traditional marketing, Understanding Your Environment, User experience

Your Best Chance Of Appearing In AI Overviews? Being The Best

After reading this Linked post by Eli Schwartz, a very well-respected and well-known SEO expert, about how to appear in Google AI Overviews, the above slogan came to me. I wanted to give credit where credit is due and share how I was inspired. It all makes great sense and is in keeping with what we, as a fellow SEO expert, has been sharing in recent months, i.e., if you want a search engine to declare you as the best, or indicate less directly that your organization is the best or one of the best in its field and geography by mentioning your organization’s name or sharing a link back to your site (known as a citation), then your organization has to earn that “best” title.

We’ve already discussed ways your organization can send signals to AI engines that you are trustworthy in a number of recent blog posts, and that includes getting rave reviews from happy customers. But, ultimately, the way to get those reviews is becoming a company whose products, services, and customer service is unmatched by competitors, by demonstrating your commitment to the community/communities you serve, and by making sure you’re an “employer of choice.”

Why I’ve Got The Experience and Knowledge To Speak To What Makes An Organization An Outstanding One

Having worked since I was a teenager and until my mid-50’s for employers (and served in a number of manager and director roles), and now, for the past 12 years run a marketing agency that has successfully served more than 150 clients and received public-facing accolades (reviews), compliments and appreciation from clients, I believe I’ve got the background and experience to speak to what makes an organization stand out from competitors, and therefore, be considered “the best.” You can learn more about my corporate marketing and marketing agency background on my Our Principal and History website page.

As a life-long marketer I feel so strongly about how many of the attributes below influence an organization’s success that I’ve written about many of the below in past blog posts!

What Does It Take For Your Organization To Be The “Best” In Your Industry and Geography?

  • Treat your employees well.
    • Offer them opportunities to learn and take on new and larger roles.
    • Take the time to listen to and consider employee’s ideas to improve work productivity or process, or the products and services you offer.
    • Offer tangible and intangible benefits that they value and/or need.
    • Celebrate personal and organizational milestones and successes.
    • Offer financial incentives where, if the company does well, the employee does well.
  • Deliver exceptional, world-class service each and every day at every point of contact (EPOC) with customers. As a marketing professional with more than 35 years of experience I know first-hand how important good customer service is to success. Not only when it comes to assisting customers/clients of your organizations, but handling inquiries and leads that come into your organization respectfully, effectively, and on a timely basis!
  • Offer solid, reliable products and services that meet client expectations and needs at a reasonable, fair price.
  • Give back to your community/communities.
  • Always keep an eye on business and daily life changes and how they impact your clients — whether they be businesses or consumers — and how you can make their lives easier or respond to a challenge they are facing.
  • Always be evolving and considering what new innovative product or service you can offer.
  • Educate. Educate. Educate — make sure staff and leaders have time to stay in the know on industry changes and national, regional, and local happenings and anything else that could negatively or positively impact how they and your business does their work or the products and services you offer. Ensure they can learn from both internal and external experts. To support all of this, designate times of the week as meeting-free and learning time!
  • Encourage out-of-the box thinking by all staff and leaders!
  • Treat your clients and customers like family.
  • Take the time to walk in your clients’ and customers’ shoes. Check out this blog post about the importance of walking in your customers’ shoes.
  • Show both your clients and customers appreciation regularly. A small “thank you” goes a long way!

I’ll likely add new features and characteristics to the above list as they strike me, but I think any organization that achieves the aforementioned will succeed at being top in their field, in their particular geography!

Acceptance of Circumstances, AEO, AI Productivity Tools, AI Search, collaboration, competitive advantage, Consulting, differentiation, GEO, keeping up with trends, partnerships, relationship building, Search Engine Optimization, SEO, staying current, strategic partner, strategic planning, Understanding Your Environment

Medullar: A Safer Way for Professional Services Firms to Collaborate with AI

Guest Blog Post By Heath Anderson, Medullar

Professional services firms run on knowledge: every client engagement, advisory project, investigation, tax matter, or consulting assignment depends on the team’s ability to find the right information, apply judgment, and move quickly.

But for many mid-market firms, that work is harder than it should be. Important context is scattered across email, cloud drives, chat tools, research notes, meeting transcripts, prior deliverables, and personal folders. Teams often spend too much time searching for information they know already exists. Work gets repeated. Collaboration slows down. And when sensitive client data is involved, the pressure to adopt AI safely becomes even more complicated.

Many small-to-mid-sized firms want the productivity benefits of AI and move quickly to adopt AI tools without investigating if and how their proprietary data/intellectual property will be kept private. But, they cannot afford to treat confidentiality as an afterthought.  The crux of this problem is one that Medullar aims to solve.

This image shows a black woman, Caucasian and an Asian woman looking at and working on documents together as they sit on a comfortable-looking brown leather sofa.

Medullar is a privacy-first, secure AI collaboration platform built for professional services firms that work with sensitive information. It gives teams a safer way to bring project knowledge together, collaborate across people and tools, and use AI in workflows where privacy, permissions, and trust matters.

At the core of Medullar are secure, encrypted Spaces. A Space acts like a private project room for a client engagement, matter, deal, investigation, proposal, or internal initiative. Teams can gather relevant documents, emails, notes, research, transcripts, and other materials into one controlled environment. Access is permission-based, so only the right people can see and use the information inside.

This matters because professional services work is rarely done by one person in one tool. A consulting team may have client emails in Outlook, research in browser tabs, deliverables in Google Drive or SharePoint, notes in a meeting transcript, and key context sitting in someone’s inbox. Without a shared, secure environment, valuable knowledge stays fragmented.

Medullar helps firms reduce that fragmentation without forcing a major data migration. Its universal search tool can search across connected apps and sources, helping teams find relevant information where it already lives. That means a team can locate prior work, surface client context, and reuse institutional knowledge faster, while still respecting permissions and access controls.

Just as important, Medullar is designed for private AI interactions. Instead of exposing confidential information to general purpose, publicly trained AI models (such as large language models (LLMs)/answer engines like ChatGPT, Claude, and Perplexity), teams can work with AI inside a governed environment. AI can help summarize, compare, draft, validate, and search across approved project context, while keeping the work scoped to the right Space and the right users.

Consider a consulting team preparing for a client engagement. Before the project begins, the team creates a secure Space for the client work. They gather relevant emails, prior deliverables, client notes, web research, meeting transcripts, and internal reference materials. Instead of hunting across multiple systems, team members can search across everything from one place. They collaborate with each other alongside their frontier AI model of choice (ChatGPT, Claude, Grok, etc.) to help summarize the current state, identify gaps, compare findings, and draft sections of a client-ready output, all without exposing sensitive client information.

The same pattern applies to advisory, accounting, tax, investigations, and legal-adjacent services firms. A team working on a due diligence review, an RFP response, a case triage, a board briefing, or a client deliverable can use Medullar to organize the work, search across fragmented knowledge, and collaborate more efficiently.

This is especially useful for firms that are large enough to feel the pain of scattered knowledge, but not so large that they can tolerate slow, complex systems. Mid-market firms need tools that improve daily work without adding unnecessary overhead.

A secure AI collaboration platform should do more than answer questions. It should help teams work together around sensitive information, preserve client trust, and turn existing knowledge into better outcomes.

This is the image of Medullar's logo which says "Medulla"r in primarily dark purple letters and has a magnifying glass at the bottom of the m in the word Medullar.

That is where Medullar fits: helping professional services firms use AI safely, find and reuse information faster, and deliver higher-quality work with less friction. Interested in learning more? Reach out today to schedule a complimentary discussion about our secure AI collaboration and productivity tool for your own small-to-mid-sized business and/or for one of your clients; or, ask our friends at Results Communications & Research to make an e-introduction on your behalf.

Acceptance of Circumstances, accountability, brand promise, differentiation, Making Connections, Making Connections and Introductions, marketing best practices, Marketing Planning, Memorability, mission statement, Networking, Passion, push marketing, relationship building, sales, strategic planning, target audiences, Target Marketing, Understanding Your Environment, User experience

How Small Businesses Can Craft Winning Sales Pitches and Marketing That Last

Guest Blog Post by Charlie Michaels, Entrepreneurworld.net

Boston-area small business owners and marketing managers often face the same small business marketing challenges: low search visibility, inconsistent leads, and a nagging sense that efforts aren’t translating into clear ROI. When sales pitch development is driven by what the business wants to say instead of what buyers struggle with, messaging turns scattered and forgettable. The fastest way to tighten everything is target audience analysis that surfaces real customer pain points and connects them to a simple promise. That clarity becomes the foundation for effective brand communication.

Understanding a Credible Brand Narrative

At the center of a winning pitch is a brand narrative that starts with the buyer, not your business. You map the problem they are trying to solve, then choose storytelling techniques that make them feel understood. Strong research and clear strategy skills help you prove you can deliver, not just promise.

This matters because optimizing for search and ads only work when the message is consistent and believable. If your story is vague, prospects bounce and your marketing feels like a cost. When the story is grounded, it becomes easier to rank, convert, and measure what is working.

Picture a service company pitching “fast, reliable.” A better story names the stressful moment, offers relief, and shows evidence, since tapping into emotion helps people understand and care. Add your ‘why’ by defining the reason your business exists beyond profit..

This is the image of pitcher holding a ball in one hand and wearing a glove on the other and standing on the pitchers mound at a large ballpark and wearing a gray uniform with a long-sleeved navy blue top and the number 20 on it, plus a blue baseball cap

Turn One Core Offer Into 5 Assets and a Repeatable Pitch

If your brand narrative is clear, your customer’s problem, your promise, and the proof, your marketing gets a lot easier. Use the steps below to turn one core offer into a set of usable assets you can ship this week, then improve based on real engagement.

  1. Write a 30-second pitch template (and don’t improvise it): Draft one short script you can reuse across networking, sales calls, and your website hero section. Keep it to: Who you help ? the problem you solve ? your approach ? a believable outcome ? one proof point ? a simple CTA (call-to-action). Example: “We help busy local service businesses get found on Google by fixing on-page SEO and running targeted ads, so you generate consistent leads without guessing, here’s a recent result, and the next step is a 15-minute audit.”
  2. Translate your pitch into customer-centric messaging (“You” > “We”): Take each line of your pitch and rewrite it from the buyer’s perspective using the language they already use in emails and reviews. Aim for one sentence per stage of awareness: pain (“I’m spending on ads but leads are inconsistent”), desired outcome (“I need calls every week”), barrier (“I don’t have time to learn SEO”), confidence (“I want to know what I’m paying for”). This is how you keep the narrative credible without overpromising.
  3. Create 5 core assets from the same message spine: Build a mini “asset stack” so your offer shows up consistently in search, ads, and sales conversations. A simple set is: one landing page, one one-page PDF, a 6–8 slide deck, a short email sequence (3 emails), and 3 social posts that reuse the same hook and proof. Because collateral exists in physical or digital form, you can use the PDF both as a download for leads and as a leave-behind after meetings.
  4. Standardize your visuals with a print-ready template system: Pick two fonts, 2–3 brand colors, and one photo style, then lock them into a reusable layout for your one-pager and slides. A clean template reduces “design thrash” and makes your message easier to scan in a hurry; a great template can make a big difference in clarity, especially for pitch decks. If you also create quick printables for events, like a simple workshop sign, lobby flyer, or QR-code poster, using the same fonts and colors keeps everything consistent, and a printable free poster maker can help you produce those pieces without reinventing your layout.
  5. Add one proof element to every asset (and make it specific): Proof can be a short testimonial, a mini case study (“from X to Y in 60 days”), a screenshot of a metric, or a “what’s included” checklist. Tie the proof back to the customer’s problem from your brand narrative, avoid generic claims like “best in class.” If you’re new and lack results, use process proof: your audit checklist, reporting cadence, and what a client can expect in week 1.
  6. Track 3 engagement metrics and run a monthly “message tune-up”: Keep it simple: landing page conversion rate, email click rate, and deck/one-pager follow-up rate (how many people reply or book after receiving it). Once a month, update one thing based on the data: change the headline, swap the proof point, or tighten the CTA. When objections come up repeatedly, price, timelines, “we tried this before”, add a single slide, FAQ block, or one paragraph to address it with clear ROI logic and evidence.

Prospect Pitch and Marketing Questions Small Teams Ask

Q: What do I say when a prospect pushes back on price?
A: Reframe price as risk reduction and outcomes: what problem is costing them time, leads, or margin right now. Offer a smaller first step like a paid audit or a 30-day pilot with one measurable target. Then anchor with proof, even if it is process proof like reporting cadence and deliverables.

Q: How do I pick lead generation tactics without wasting money?
A: Match the channel to intent: search and local SEO for “ready to buy,” and email or retargeting for “not yet.” Start with one primary channel and one support channel, run it for 2 to 4 weeks, and keep the offer consistent so results are comparable.

Q: How should I measure marketing ROI if I do not have perfect tracking?
A: Use a simple baseline: leads, booked calls, close rate, and average deal value. Marketing leaders feeling that pressure from the board rose 21% is a reminder to report what you can, consistently, rather than waiting for perfect attribution.

Q: Can testimonials really improve conversions, or is that just nice-to-have?
A: They help because customer trust in SMB (small- and medium-sized business) sales is built on confidence, reliability, and credibility. Use specific testimonials tied to one objection, like timelines or results, and place them near your CTA.

Q: When should I change my pitch versus keep iterating on the same message?
A: Change it when qualified prospects repeatedly misunderstand what you do, who it is for, or what success looks like. Otherwise, keep the core claim stable and test one variable at a time like headline, offer, or proof.

Launch-Ready Pitch and Marketing Checklist

This checklist turns your pitch and campaign into a repeatable weekly system. It helps you stay focused on what moves revenue, especially when 60% fail to meet objectives and the difference is usually clarity and follow-through.

? Confirm a single goal and one primary success metric

? Define the buyer segment, problem, and decision trigger

? Draft a compelling elevator pitch that grabs attention fast

? Map three proof points to your top objections

? Choose one primary channel and one support channel

? Build one landing page with one CTA and one offer

? Track leads, booked calls, close rate, and deal value weekly

Ship the next iteration today, then let results steer your edits.

Turn Your Pitch Into a Long-Term Marketing Rhythm

Most small businesses don’t struggle with effort, they struggle with keeping the story consistent while results come in unevenly. The way through is a simple loop: treat your pitch and marketing as a living message, anchored by continuous marketing improvement through customer feedback utilization, sales performance analysis, and steady brand message refinement. When that becomes the norm, campaigns get clearer, conversations get easier, and your best customers start recognizing you faster. A strong pitch isn’t one perfect script; it’s a story you keep sharpening based on real results. Set a 30-minute weekly review to check what sold, what got ignored, and what customers repeated back. That rhythm turns day-to-day outreach into a long-term marketing strategy you can sustain through busy seasons and uncertainty.

About Our Guest Blogger, Charlie Michaels

Charlie Michaels created EntrepreneurWorld.net to connect and guide entrepreneurs all over the world! He came up with the idea in the midst of the pandemic. Feeling isolated and anxious, he thought other entrepreneurs, near and far, might be feeling the same way. He wanted to create a central digital gathering space where entrepreneurs could come to get support and learn from one another. Entrepreneur World is in its early stages, but Michaels is working hard to grow it to meet his big vision.

Acceptance of Circumstances, accountability, AI Productivity Tools, Importance of taking break, keeping a balance, keeping up with trends, making time for things you value, Objectives Setting, staying current, strategic planning, walking, warriors, fighters, doing good, giving back, paying it forward

Taking A Step Backward To Move Forward

So many fellow marketing professionals are talking about the value of storytelling these days, and that got me thinking about what story of my own vs. my clients’ that I could tell that might help or inspire others.

In recent months, I’ve taken a step backward on both the professional and personal fronts with the ultimate goal of improving my work-related productivity and my health.

What Tool Can Help Improve A Marketing Professional’s Productivity?

Over the last two or so months, I’ve spent a very large number of hours creating monthly marketing dashboards/reports for each of my ongoing/monthly clients in a new tool. Well, new to me, not new to marketing agencies and consultants. It was a huge investment of time, and there was a big learning curve — and I used ChatGPT along the way when I needed help with challenges I ran into along the way. But, I’m pleased and proud to share that I successfully migrated the aforementioned clients away from manually populated KPI Google sheets and Word docs to monthly reports on Google Looker Studio.

Accomplishing the above meant I had to allow myself to live with the discomfort that other client and administrative work was piling up. But, I was eventually able to catch back up on the piled-up work and sacrificing the short-term for the long-term has already allowed me and my clients to reap the following benefits of my taking time to learn and implement reports on Google Looker Studio:

  • I can focus less on manually entering data in KPI sheets and Word documents and focus more on the data itself and what the auto-populated reports are showing/indicating
  • I have more free work/personal time and work/life balance, which means I’m less stressed and my brain is fresher and has more energy for being creative and strategic
  • I can present results visually vs. just in table or paragraph format, so that clients can easily understand their monthly results and metrics
this image shows the legs of woman below the knees who is walking on wooden pier and who is wearing jeans and who is bare-footed.

Hitting The Health Bad Guys Head-On

I won’t go into detail about my health history, but for the last 20 years, I’ve dealt with difficult health challenges. You can read my health story at Our Heart Speaks, an organization who provides a voice to individuals who are dealing with chronic illness and/or disability and in this past blog post about why I’ll always feel like a cancer patient.

The sum of all of it is this. I have struggled with severe digestive issues for 12 years now, and there have been days and times — a number of them — where I literally cried about my situation and felt I just couldn’t handle/deal with it anymore. But I am a fighter, and I’ve always picked myself back up somehow, while trying to lift up others too.

I have seen a large number of functional/natural nutritionists and consultants, and gastroenterologists over the years, and tried countless recommendations to try to improve or eliminate my severe digestive symptoms.

For the second time over the last 12 years, I recently underwent a SIBO breath test, which required a limited diet leading up to, and 12 hours of fasting before, the test. The last time I had one, nothing helpful/conclusive came out of it, but this time my results indicated I have both what’s known as SIBO (small intestinal bacterial overgrowth) and IMO (intestinal methanogen overgrowth).

The above can be treated, and possibly cured, by one or several courses of one or two antibiotics or thru many-months-long herbal supplement treatment. Because I believe the straw that broke the camel’s back related to my digestive issues was being put on a very powerful antibiotic after a surgical wound got infected in 2014 — killing off good bacteria in the gut and allowing bad bacteria to multiply — I decided to go the natural route in treating my SIBO and IMO. I’ve read that, often, the antibiotic approach is not effective and the bad bacteria and archaea return. But, the natural route has it’s challenges too, as I’m discovering already, including:

  • the supplements are expensive, only certain ones really work, and many, if not all, need to be taken in high dosages to be effective
  • you need 3 types of supplements or supplement groups: 1) one(s) that reduce inflammation, 2) one(s) that kill off the “bad guys” causing “die-off,” and 3) one(s) that improve motility and gut transit time
  • side effects of some of these supplements include nausea, burning, stomach pain/cramps, dizziness, and other unpleasant symptoms (including some of the symptoms I already had from having SIBO/IMO)

It’s the last bullet item directly above that really hammers home why I included the work I’m doing to address my health challenge in this blog post about “taking a step backward, to take a step forward.” Because, ultimately, I may need to feel worse on the digestive front for a few weeks (I just started my supplements on 3/27/26) in order to ultimately feel better!

We hope that whether it pertains to your professional life or your personal life, you’ll be both willing and able to take some steps back that will ultimately move you forward! And, we’d love to hear all about the steps back and the steps forward!

Speaking Of Steps, Be Sure To Check Out Our Blog Posts About Walking!

Check out our large collection of walking-related blogs, including ones about Boston, RI, and New England here: https://allintheresults.com/category/walking/

Acceptance of Circumstances, accountability, AEO, AI Search, Being Found On Bing, Being Found on Google, blog, Blog, Blogging, content marketing, GEO, keeping up with trends, marketing best practices, organic SEO, pull marketing, Search Engine Optimization, search terms, SEO, staying current, strategic planning, target audiences, Target Marketing, website

Do I Need To Keep Adding New Content To My Website To Continue To Be Found Online?

The answer to the above question is pretty straightforward, and in most cases, “yes.” Given that we are in the day and age where individuals are using what’s known as answer engines — think ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Claude — more and more for both business and personal purposes, if an organization wants to continue to be found online, it DOES need to regularly produce and publish new content. Unless your site is one that is only meant to provide very static information and credibility to people who already know or have found your organization, your organization will need to do the following to support your organization’s name being mentioned or a link to your organization being served up by answer engines in response to relevant prompts.

This image is a print screen of what it looks like when you go into a WordPress website to add a new post and says "Add new Post" at the top and "enter title here."

What Types Of Content Do I Need To Create If I Want To Be Found In Answer Engine Results?

  • Blog posts or questions that reside within a website FAQ (frequently asked questions) page that answer questions that your organization regularly gets asked by prospective clients and existing clients
  • Blog posts or questions that reside within a website FAQ page that answer questions that keyword research and answer research indicates your target audiences are asking answer engines/searching on
  • Blog posts that speak to topics that are “tangential” to the particular products and services you offer, but that are important ones for your target audiences. For example, you might offer seniors in-home care, but write and publish some blog posts about senior fraud, aging in place/aging at home, and exercises for seniors. You get the picture!

Even if you’ve already published such content, target audiences’ questions and needs change/evolve, and both from a marketing standpoint and a search-engine standpoint, you need to demonstrate that you are staying current/relevant/up-to-date. It’s not good to have clients or prospective clients visit your site and see that you haven’t put up any new content in many months and/or content is outdated — it looks like you’re not minding your shop, and if you aren’t, what else might you neglect? And, search engines are more likely to serve up new, fresh content than content that is old and dated.

In sum, a static site will NOT help your organization be found online by target audiences, given how individuals gather information these days. Sure, it’s time-consuming, but regularly producing and posting new content answering questions and providing information that benefit your target audiences needs to be an ongoing marketing activity. As we’ve always said, “SEO (search engine optimization) is NOT a one-and-done exercise.

Need Help Figuring Out What To Blog About And How Frequently?

Reach out today to schedule a complimentary discussion with our digital marketing agency about your blog strategy!

Acceptance of Circumstances, AEO, AI Search, Being Found On Bing, Being Found on Google, community involvement, digital marketing agency, diversity, GEO, good will creation, Google Ads, Google My Business Profile, integrated marketing, keeping up with trends, local search, marketing best practices, nextdoor, online advertising, online presence, organic SEO, paid search, public relations, sales, Search Engine Optimization, SEO, social media, social media strategy, staying current, strategic planning, target audiences, Target Marketing, traditional marketing, Understanding Your Environment, website

The Marketing & Sales Downfall of Focusing Too Much On Appearing In Answer Engines (AI Search)

I’ve attended a decent number of webinars about AI search and how to get your organization’s name or a link back to your website (citation) to be shared by an answer engine in response to a topic-relevant user’s prompt. To-date I’ve heard the following list of key tactics mentioned related to how to get your organization’s name or page served up by answer engines like ChatGPT:

This is a very brightly colored image with question marks of different colors in the background and then the words, where, what, when, why, how, and who in brightly colored captions bubbles -- yellow, blue, pink, red, green, and orange.

What Types Of Organizations Benefit The Most From Appearing In Answer Engines/AI Search Engines?

For bigger brands who offer services and products throughout the whole U.S., or even the world, it makes great sense to want your organization’s name and links back to your website to appear in answer engine results related to relevant-topic searches. But for organizations who only offer services or products locally, i.e., in one city or town, in one state, or in one region (such as New England), there will likely be far less value to your organization to your organization from being found on answer engines than there would be for a national or international organization. Why? Because many individuals entering prompts into an answer engine just want their question answered. They aren’t looking to buy a product or pay for a service. And, the answer engines are more concerned about serving up content that easily/readily answers the question, regardless of the geography of the content producer or of the individual who is looking to get their question asked or answered. Unless, of course, the searcher/prompter includes their geography in the prompt, such as a prompt like “who’s the best digital marketing agency in Braintree MA.”

The Big Mistake That Organizations Who Need To Rank Locally Are Making Related To AI Search

Let’s face it, smaller, local organizations have far smaller budgets than a national brand like Progressive Insurance. They also have far smaller marketing teams. When they put the majority of their marketing dollars and energy into producing content that will be found in AI tools like Perplexity, Claude, and ChatGPT, they are missing out on other opportunities which might better help them be found locally, since, as we shared above, many individuals to whom their website content or name will be served up by answer engines won’t be in their geography.

What Are Some Marketing Tactics That Help Organizations Be Found Locally?

  • Nextdoor Business Profile and Advertising – you can’t get more local than that!
  • Google Search Ads – where you’ve selected a geography appropriate for your business
  • Display Advertising – Google, Meta (Facebook/Instagram), other social media advertising – again, where you’ve selected a geography appropriate for your business
  • Publicity in Local Newspapers and/or on Local Media websites
  • Community Event Participation and Sponsorships – in communities your organization serves
  • Social Media Strategy and Posting – like with AI/answer engine search – you can reach local individuals and businesses who follow you this way, but there’s always some “waste,” where you are reaching individuals who can/will never become a client or customer because of geography or for other reasons
  • Optimizing Your Google My Business Profile — this is your best opportunity to be found locally and have your organization served up for “near me” terms
  • Writing a guest blog post for another local organization who serves your geography and/or requesting a backlink from their website to your website

Why You Need To Diversify Your Marketing Efforts

Check out our blog post on why it’s particularly important right now to diversify your marketing efforts and reach out today to schedule a complimentary discussion of your organization’s particular marketing challenges and opportunities in the time of AI!

Acceptance of Circumstances, digital analytics, digital marketing agency, Google Analytics, marketing analytics, Results Analysis, strategic planning, website

Which Google Analytics Website KPIs No Longer Make Sense To Track & Analyze Because Of Spam and AI Bot Visitor Upticks?

I’ve been talking to clients (and with SEO and marketing colleagues on LinkedIn), about the huge uptick in spam and AI bot traffic since fall 2025, and I’ve shared the following on some clients’ monthly dashboard reports and/or in e-mails to them: “analyzing overall/total website traffic and making comparisons to previous months’ figures no longer makes sense. Across all industries, site traffic volumes are up significantly because of increased spambot (also spelled as two words “spam bot) and AI agent bots/AI bots visiting/scraping websites. Most of this traffic is earmarked as “direct” traffic by Google Analytics and many organizations are seeing a big uptick in their direct traffic.”

I promised in a LinkedIn post comment related to the AI and spam bot uptick that I would take the time to document which data available in Google Analytics it still make sense to track and analyze. So, here goes:

  • Traffic volume at the specific defined traffic source or user source/medium level to ascertain how much traffic your site is getting from various marketing vehicles or tactics, such as e-mail marketing, social media posts, social media advertising, paid search (Google Ads), or traditional search (organic search) engines, vs. how much traffic the site as a whole is getting
  • Engagement rate at the defined traffic source level vs. the overall website engagement rate (average engagement rate across total website visitors, which, unfortunately, includes direct visitors)
  • Page views at the defined traffic source level
  • Time on site at the defined traffic source level
  • Conversion rate at the defined traffic source or user source medium level — to learn what specific marketing activities/vehicles are converting, i.e., causing visitors to complete desired events, such as clicking on an e-mail link or phone # link, completing a form, or making a purchase
  • Referral traffic by specific domain/URL — while we don’t want or need to be analyzing spam bot or AI bot traffic, and likely can’t since Google Analytics is currently rolling such traffic up into “direct” traffic, it is very beneficial to know from what external websites, if any, your site is receiving traffic (backlinks), and to see if you are receiving traffic from prompts/searches completed in AI tools such as Google Gemini, Microsoft Co-pilot, Perplexity, Claude and ChatGPT. Such referral traffic indicates that the source in-question is including a link back to your site in the results they share in response to a user prompt/search and that you are getting important AI citations.
This is a light gray rectangular shape image that runs vertically that says "In This Age Of AI, Are You Tracking & Analyzing Website Data That Is No Longer Meaningful Nor Data You Can Act On?" and the image also contains the logo of our digital marketing agency, Results Communications & Research

What’s The Easiest And Visually Best Way To Present And Analyze Appropriate Google Analytics Data Or Other Marketing-Related Data?

Similar to many agencies, our firm has started investigating and testing Google Looker Studio as a means to both visually present and analyze results since there are capabilities within the Studio to pull in data from a variety of sources — think Google Ads, Google Search Console, Google Analytics, CallRail, SEMRush and more — and automatically have the tool calculate changes in data from a previous time period.

We are still learning the ins and outs of Google Looker Studio but are very optimistic about how we can use it to tell a story with our clients’ data.

Want To Learn More About What Google Analytics Data You Should Be Analyzing With The Event Of AI? Wondering If Your Team Should Be Using Google Looker Studio to Present Results?

Schedule a complimentary time to meet with our digital marketing team to learn how we can help related to digital analytics and marketing analytics in the age of AI.

Acceptance of Circumstances, AEO, AI Search, competitive advantage, differentiation, Discussion Forums, keeping up with trends, lead generation, Making Connections, marketing best practices, Marketing Planning, nextdoor, online advertising, pull marketing, push marketing, relationship building, reputation management, sales, Search Engine Optimization, SEM, SEO, social media, social media strategy, social media voice, staying current, strategic planning, target audiences, Target Marketing, Understanding Your Environment

Looking For An Additional Way To Be Found Online? The Answer Might Be Right Next Door.

Read on to learn about both free and paid opportunities to create awareness of your organization and its products and services on the Nextdoor social media platfform!

And, keep in mind, that while your organic/free presence may only reach local consumers and businesses, your organization can purchase online advertising that can be served up to businesses and consumers throughout the U.S. And, you can choose the city or state location of individuals to whom you want your ad served up!

Free Promotional Opportunities On Nextdoor.com

If you or your organization is not familiar with, and maintaining an organic/free business page on the social media platform geared toward sharing community news and event — nextdoor.com — you are likely missing out on a free and easy way to create awareness of your organization’s products and services locally. Once you set up a business page — something our digital marketing team can help you with — and provide documentation to nextdoor.com to verify your business is legitimate, fans of your organization can start posting recommendations/reviews to your page. Plus, you can start posting updates to your nextdoor.com business page the way you do to other forms of social media and to your Google My Business Profile.

This an image that is a print screen of what our digital marketing agency's (Results Communications & Research's) business page looks like on nextdoor.com. The image shows our logo, a description about our business, plus an image that says "SEO."

Paid Advertising/Promotional Opportunities On Nextdoor.com

In addition, nextdoor.com offers the opportunity to run display ads (image ads) that are similar to ads that you can run on other social media platforms, like Instagram or Facebook, or on discussion-forums like Reddit. We are currently testing this advertising vehicle for our own business, as well as for a client’s business, and will be sure to provide updates on our experience with the tool and the results it does or doesn’t deliver!

With answer-engine use (think ChatGPT, Google AI modes, etc.) on the uptick, it can be much harder to be found online by relevant searchers. So, maybe it’s time to get creative, think outside the box, and consider this “push” marketing activity, in addition to “pull” ones that you’ve relied on in the past. Learn more about the difference between pull and push marketing and why, particularly, with the introduction of AI, you’ll want to create and implement both a push and a pull marketing strategy.

Need Help With Setting Up A Nextdoor Business Page Or Nextdoor Paid Advertising Campaign?

Reach out today to schedule a complimentary discussion about whether or not your organization would benefit from an organic and/or paid advertising presence on Nextdoor and how we can help!

Acceptance of Circumstances, accountability, AEO, AI Search, Being Found on Google, competitive advantage, Discussion Forums, Google Analytics, Google My Business Profile, Importance of taking break, keeping a balance, keeping up with trends, making time for things you value, Marketing Planning, Objectives Setting, online presence, organic SEO, Quora, Reddit, Results Analysis, Search Engine Optimization, SEO, staying current, strategic planning, walking, website

September Strong: A Second Chance To Set & Achieve Goals For The Year

If my memory serves me correctly, I’ve written about the second “new beginning” that September offers each of us each year on my own blog or that of a client. I love the fact that September provides a second start to any year and a chance to begin any kind of project you’d been hoping to get to earlier in the year, and to revisit goals — whether they be personal- or work-related ones. There’s still four full months to accomplish something you’ve always wanted to, or at least make a lot of headway toward achieving that accomplishment, so let’s agree to not start thinking another year is already behind us!

Since I own and run a digital marketing agency, the fall and early winter work goals I’m going to discuss below are marketing-related, but obviously, your work goals could pertain to any area of your organization, such as employee satisfaction and retention, new technology implementation, or expense reduction.

Marketing Goals For Q3 & Q4

Here’s some marketing goals you might want to complete in September, October, November, or December:

Personal (Health) Goals For Q3 & Q4

Since everything one does in life ends up positively or negatively impacting their mental and/or physical health, every personal goal ultimately is a wellbeing/wellness/health goal. For example, if you enroll in a class this fall or winter, it may cause you to gain knowledge to support a professional goal, but it also will likely make you feel more optimistic and improve your emotional wellbeing.

As I shared in this blog post about why I’ll always feel like a cancer (sarcoma) patient, I deal with chronic digestive issues on a daily basis because of past cancer treatment. I also have had chronic neck muscle mobility and pain issues since my late 20’s. Unfortunately, the neck trouble all started when I was working as a research associate at Fidelity Investments and going to graduate school at Boston University at night. I used to regularly carry a heavy bookbag of notebooks and books on the T (subway) to and from the University for many years. Post graduation, and ever since then, I’ve suffered from neck troubles.

I’ve already taken steps this summer, and plan to continue them thru the rest of Q3 & Q4, to improve the above two situations by:

This is the image of a small bronze colored Degas ballerina statue who has her shoulders back and arms behind her and who is wearing a ballet tutu and ballet slippers.
Degas Ballerina Statue That Provides Reminder About The Need to Maintain Good Posture While On Computer!

In addition to the above, I’m using the hashtag #SeptemberStrong with friends and family to encourage them to stay well and for us to cheer each other on, and I’m identifying situations and people that are unnecessarily and excessively anxiety-producing (in some cases, toxic) and steering clear of them!

Reach Out For Help On Your Q2 & Q3 Goals!

Whether you want or need a free wellness cheerleader, or you need help with business/work goal setting and achievement — particularly marketing goals — I’m here to support you, so reach out today! I love being an accountability partner on both the work and wellness fronts! And, be sure to check out our Keep Up The Fight page to encourage you to keep on plugging related to your goals! We totally got this, right?

advertising agency, integrated marketing, landing page, landing pages, lead generation, marketing agency, marketing consultant, Marketing Planning, Objectives Setting, pull marketing, strategic planning, target audiences, Target Marketing, traditional marketing, website

How To Plan For A Print Campaign

Because we believe “traditional,” i.e., non-digital media and marketing is not dead, and often has a strong place in an integrated marketing plan, we’ve been recommending print advertising to clients, as appropriate, and helping to launch and monitor print campaigns.

What Is a Print Campaign?

Normally, when someone refers to a “print campaign,” they are referring to one or both of the following:

  • An advertisement that appears in a printed newspaper in one or more spots within an edition, and in one or more editions of the newspaper
  • An advertisement that appears in a printed magazine in one or more spots within an edition, and in one or more editions of the magazine

Keep in mind that often media/publications that offer print advertising will also share your ads in a digital version of the publication on their website, but that is not always the case. So, this blog post is focused on making sure hard copy/printed publication advertising is both effective and measurable.

How Do You Ensure A Print Campaign Is Effective?

  • Choose newspapers and magazines that your target audiences are likely to read
  • Include calls-to-action like “schedule a free consultation today.”
  • Don’t have too many competing messages or make the ad too cluttered
  • Use fonts appropriately — make sure there’s a hierarchy, so that the most important ad messages/ad content are in larger fonts
  • Provide several means for the ad viewer to get in touch with you, such as: a QR code that goes to the ad landing page (this is discussed below), the spelled-out URL of ad landing page like https://allintheresults/seospecial, a phone #, and if appropriate, an e-mail address. Never assume everyone wants to do business with you electronically or digitally. Always provide options for those who are less technologically savvy or who don’t like to use technology.
This is a very bright and colorful image showing about a dozen magazines with brightly colored covers spread haphazardly across a table.

How Can You Track Print Campaign Results?

  • As mentioned above, ideally, if you are running a print campaign you would have a devoted landing page specific to the print ad in-question, and if the print ad is running in more than one vehicle, distinct landing pages for each of the vehicles the ad will run in. You can use the identical landing page for both a newspaper and a magazine you plan to run an ad in. Just create the website page under one of the URLs you plan to use in a specific publication, and then, copy the page and assign it to a distinct URL for each vehicle. Distinct page URLs will help you, the advertiser/marketer, to determine which ads are driving traffic to the website (just use Google Analytics to check on page URL views).
  • You can also employ a system like CallRail to allow you to create and use distinct phone numbers in distinct publications/vehicles, so that you’ll know that any calls that come in on a certain number stemmed from a particular ad.
  • Whether they be phone, e-mail, or inquiry form submissions, in advance of the print campaign dropping, let appropriate internal staff know about the nature and timing of the campaign and ask them to record how inquirers learned about you. You can also add that question to your online inquiry form. Many marketers/advertisers include a drop-down menu (containing various marketing vehicles) on their inquiry form from which inquirers can choose “how they learned about you.”

Conclusions About Print Advertising

If you’re going to spend the time and $$ executing print ad campaigns, be sure that:

  • The ads themselves are effective and are geared toward generating leads, sales, and engagements for your organization as discussed above.
  • Ensure you put the right tracking mechanisms in place before you launch the print ad campaign, so you can evaluate the ROI of the campaign.

Need Help Creating, Executing, and Evaluating A Print Campaign?

Reach out for a complimentary discussion of your print advertising objectives and needs today!