The TNT Report Podcast: Marketing Tips, News, and Tools for Small Business (Episode 23) | Jim Person

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The TNT Report Podcast: Marketing Tips, News, and Tools for Small Business. This newsletter and podcast provides a weekly compilation of curated information for small business owners, entrepreneurs and marketers to grow their business and online presence.

Hello, I’m Jim Person and welcome to the TNT Report Podcast: Marketing Tips, News, and Tools for Small Business. This is Episode (23) for the week ending Friday, June 10. Today’s podcast is brought to you in part by in part by Shopify is the platform commerce is built on. Millions of the world’s most successful brands trust Shopify to sell, ship and process payments anywhere. Start your 14-day free trial with Shopify.

CELEBRATIONS AND RECOGNITIONS

Friday, June 10 is National Herb and Spice Day, National Iced Tea Day, Ballpoint Pen Day and National Marriage Day.

Saturday, June 11 is the Belmont Stakes, Corn on the Cob Day, World Gin Day, Worldwide Knit in Public Day, and definitely my favorite, National German Chocolate Cake Day. I love German Chocolate Cake. It’s my favorite!

Sunday, June 12 is Magic Day, National Automotive Service Professionals Day, National Jerky Day – notice I didn’t say jerk but jerky. It’s also Race Unity Day, Superman Day (also known as Man of Steel Day), Red Rose Day and National Peanut Butter Cookie Day.

Another celebration is noteworthy this month and it’s about a song that is one of the biggest hits of all time. In fact this song is sung somewhere on earth every minute of every day, and has even been performed in outer space. Of course I’m referring to the song “Happy Birthday to You!” According to the U.S. Census Bureau (PDF), the familiar melody dates back to a schoolteacher from Louisville, Kentucky – Mildred Hill – who was born this month in 1859. Incidentally the Blue Grass State is one of six states with statehood anniversaries in June. June 1 was Kentucky’s 230th birthday. Other states with birthdays in June include Tennessee, Arkansas, West Virginia, New Hampshire, and Virginia.

FEATURED CONTENT

SEM vs. SEO: What’s The Difference?
It’s possible the only field that uses more acronyms and initializations than web marketing is the military. Some of the most common mistakes happen when it comes to the similar and related, but distinctly different concepts of search engine optimization (SEO) and search engine marketing (SEM). Once upon a time, in the halcyon days of the early internet (that is, circa 2001), SEO referred to a part of SEM. But, as the language and nuance of web marketing shifted, search engine marketing came to refer to a specific type of digital marketing. So, what’s the difference? Sometimes also referred to as organic (SEO) and inorganic (SEM) search, both are focused on using Google (and to a lesser extent other search engines) to drive traffic to a specific website. SEO is the organic effort that goes into marketing through search engines. SEM and PPC are paid initiatives through search and other platforms.
Source: Search Engine Journal

THIS WEEK’S FEATURED TIP

5 Tips to Build a High-Quality Email List

A critical, but often overlooked aspect of email marketing is the subscriber list. A high-quality list will directly impact your conversions and, ultimately, the bottom line. A small list of highly engaged subscribers will perform significantly better than a bloated list full of inactive subscribers who never read — or even open — your emails. It all starts with audience development, followed by the right incentives, and finally, modifications to your sign up flow to maximize opt-in rates.
Source: Toolbox Marketing

This tip is just one of the tips provided each week in my TNT Report newsletter. Subscribe at https://jimperson.com/tnt.

IN NEWS

Direct Mail Postage Rates Increase July 2022
USPS postage rates are set to increase on July 10, 2022. This is a large increase. It’s not all bad news in that direct mail still is very effective and driving response, we just have to get more creative to save on postage. So, what do the new rates that mean for you? The biggest take away from these rate changes is that presorted first class mail and flats are growing more and more expensive. Flats do have better ROI than letter size pieces even at increased postage though, so make sure you take that into consideration before you choose to no longer send flat size mail.
Source: Brand United

Social Platform Usage to Remain Flat Amid Facebook Decline
Social platform usage among people 18 and older will remain steady between 2021 and 2022 at 100 minutes per day, and the daily time spent will drop 2 minutes in 2023, reports eMarketer. Nearly all social apps will capture more consumer attention this year, except for Facebook, which is projected to see a 7% decrease from last year, down to 30 minutes of daily use by adults.

The IRS Is Coming for Your Venmo Income
Small-business owners, prepare yourselves for the era of the 1099-K. That’s the tax form for disclosing transactions with services such as PayPal, Venmo, and Airbnb. Until this year, anyone with less than $20,000 in total payments typically didn’t get a 1099-K — and thus, in theory, could avoid paying taxes on money earned on such platforms. But since Jan. 1 those companies have been required to report gross payments of more than $600 directly to the Internal Revenue Service.
Source: Bloomberg

In other headlines of the week:

For links to these stories, visit jimperson.com/23. For additional news from the week, see the TNT Report newsletter at jimperson.com/tnt.

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THIS WEEK’S FEATURED TOOLS

Claap
Record quick videos of your screen, get contextual feedback and make decisions.
https://www.claap.io/
The Social Media Hat
Steal this virtual event plan for a flawless event.
https://www.thesocialmediahat.com/blog/steal-this-virtual-event-plan-for-a-flawless-event/

Those were just two of the four tools I covered in this week’s email newsletter. See all of the tools at https://jimperson.com/tnt.

FRIDAY FREEBIE

If you’re a subscriber to the TNT Report, you know it’s more than just tips, news, and tools. Since the newsletter is published on Friday afternoons, I also include a “Friday Freebie.” And today’s “Friday Freebie” is about SERPS – you know, search engine results pages, and the SERP feature trends that every SEO must know. Every time you type a question into Google, the results page can look completely different. Think videos, images, ads, graphs, and related questions. There are more than 40 different interactive elements or SERP features that can appear. So, how can you know what SERP features should be at the forefront of your strategic planning? In this report, Similarweb analyzed the most popular SERP features across various industries. Find out the best strategies to leverage and how.
Source: Digital Marketing

If you’re enjoying this podcast, please subscribe at jimperson.com/tnt-podcast. You can also find this podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, iHeart, Stitcher and numerous other podcast apps.

BONUS CONTENT

Now for some “bonus content” for you as a podcast listener. This is something not included in the weekly TNT Report newsletter.

10 Must-Know SEO Basics For Web Developers
You know the struggle… you just need these four or five tickets taken care of and it would mean so much to your SEO goals for the month. But how do you get your web developers on board? How can you help them understand the urgency of your SEO needs when they have so many other competing priorities on their plate? SEO now relies on content creation, UX, code development, IT, various layers/levels of approvals, and more. According to the Search Engine Journal article, here are the 10 must-know SEO basics for web developers.

Security
Response Codes
Redirects
Robots.txt
Sitemaps
URLs
Mobile Friendly
Site Speed
Heading Tags
Content Management and Dynamic Content

Source: Search Engine Journal

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Alright. I think that’s going to do it for this week’s TNT Report Podcast. You can find links to all the resources and news stories mentioned in this podcast on my website, jimperson.com/23. Thanks for listening – have a great weekend, and a profitable week ahead.

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* Some links in this newsletter are affiliate links. This means that if you click on an affiliate link and then decide to purchase the product or service, I will earn a small commission. However, it does NOT affect the price you pay. In some cases, using my affiliate link may even save you money or offer additional benefits. And by using my affiliate link, you’re providing support to me and The TNT Report Podcast. So, thanks in advance!

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