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Your business’s website, from your home page to the back pages full of detailed product information, is where you make that first impression on a shopper. To kick off our podcast, EAG chief marketing officer Jeff Randolph explains that up to 90% of a purchase decision is made during a visit to a company’s website before the prospect talks to a live person.
Next, we’ll hear Jeff speak with Natalie Julien, President & CEO of CASA of Johnson & Wyandotte Counties. CASA stands for Court-Appointed Special Advocates. Natalie’s organization recruits and trains volunteers who are assigned to advocate for children in the foster care system. It’s each CASA advocate’s mission to know a child and work for what’s in that child’s best interest. CASA volunteers help judges develop a fuller picture of a child’s life and make well-informed, child-focused decisions.
Since 1985, CASA has empowered children who have experienced abuse and neglect by seeking a safe and permanent home for each child. CASA volunteers in Johnson and Wyandotte Counties dedicate more than 11,000 hours to children every year.
Transcript:
Jeff Randolph:
Welcome to the Small Business Miracles podcast. I’m Jeff Randolph. This small business podcast is brought to you by EAG advertising and marketing. We’re going to talk about marketing, and we’re also here to celebrate entrepreneurs.
We have marketing news and advice business owners can use to keep moving forward, plus a featured interview this week with Natalie Julien, the President and CEO of CASA of Johnson and Wyandotte Counties. Let’s go meet Natalie right after this marketing tip.
In today’s marketing tip, I want to talk about the foundation. When we’re talking about the foundation in marketing, we’re probably talking about your website because that is the foundation for your marketing. We may even refer to that as your digital home base. In a business to business situation, your website is the place where people are going to go check you out to prove your legitimacy before they ever decide to work with you.
A B2B prospect is typically two thirds to 90% of the way through their purchase decision before they ever decide to talk to you, before they ever decide to get in contact with you. That means that your website has to do a lot. It has to carry all of that burden of making sure that they’re communicating exactly what that prospect needs to hear, because they’re not going to talk to you and give you the chance to do that.
They check you out first, and they’re typically two thirds to 90% of the way through that purchase decision before they ever contact you. Because of that, you’ve got to make sure your digital home base is solid before you start driving traffic to your site.
Now, in a B2C situation, a business to consumer kind of thing, it can be even more important to get your website right before you send traffic, and especially before you pay to send traffic to that site, because you may only get one chance to present your product or service to a customer before they decide to write you off for good.
Your homepage is likely not the front door they use. They may not show up at the homepage anymore. When someone is doing a search for a product or a service, they may go to a very specific page of your website, probably deep within your website, and that’s the exact product or service that they’re looking for. That page has to convert the viewer to a contact in some way, so we have to make sure that page is doing the job.
Your website is almost never done. Gone are the days when you finish a website and said well, that’s it. We’re done. The website’s all set. You should always be making changes to those landing page and squeeze every last conversion out of it that you can. If we have an ABCs thing, it’s A, always, B, be, C, doing some AB testing. The coffee is for closers either way. That is your marketing tip for today.
In this segment of the podcast, I am joined by Natalie Julien, president and CEO of CASA of Johnson and Wyandotte Counties. Natalie, welcome to the show.
Natalie Julien:
Thank you so much for having me.
Jeff Randolph:
CASA stands for court appointed special advocates. For those who don’t know, describe what CASA does.
Natalie Julien:
CASA trains volunteer advocates who are assigned to children who are in the foster care system. The advocate’s job is to get to know that child, figure out what is going on in their lives, and then advocate for what’s in their best interests.
Jeff Randolph:
Excellent. There are 817 children in foster care in Johnson and Wyandotte counties due to abuse and neglect. That means 817 children who need someone in their corner, someone to be their voice. Does that number fluctuate quite a bit? Are we seeing something toward the end of the year where there are more cases going through, or is this just there’s always this big a need going on at all times?
Natalie Julien:
The need is pretty consistent throughout the year, and so we want to make sure that we have access to more volunteer resources so that we can find an advocate for each child who needs one.
Jeff Randolph:
Okay. Let’s talk about the volunteer resources for a second then, because what is the biggest need that you have as an organization? Is it volunteers? Is it donations? Is it, I don’t know, something else?
Natalie Julien:
It is volunteers. We want to make sure that we have access to enough volunteers for every child, but in order to have volunteers of that magnitude, we do need more financial support so that we can recruit, and train, and support those volunteers throughout their time with CASA.
Jeff Randolph:
If we talk about a volunteer, first, what makes a good volunteer champion? Someone who… Are there skills? Is it a time commitment? What makes a good one?
Natalie Julien:
The basic thing that we look for is someone who cares about kids and wants to give of their time and support to make a difference in the life of a child who’s in the foster care system. That’s the biggest thing.
In addition to that, there is a time commitment. There’s a training process that each volunteer has to go through to make sure that they’re prepared for this particular volunteer job, and then each month, they’re expected to spend time with the child, make sure they’re understanding everything that’s going on in that child’s life. There is so much reward for this particular volunteer opportunity that we hear from all of our volunteers that the benefits really do outweigh that time commitment.
Jeff Randolph:
The training you mentioned, I know that that is an extra step that somebody has to go through before they’re actually actively in there working with a child in that situation. That seems like it would be a very big benefit that you’re prepared for. You have some skills, you have some kind of training to know what to expect. Do people come out of that training, just understanding yep, this is it. I feel much more comfortable now. I’m ready to go.
Natalie Julien:
They definitely get some great resources through the training program that we provide, but even after training’s over, we’re still there to support them. We have a staff person that works with each volunteer advocate throughout the time that they’re with casa, so they can still go to someone if they have questions, needs support in any way. We also have this great team of advocates who support each other. It’s really a great system that we have established and I think it really works well to support the kids that we serve.
Jeff Randolph:
Oh, that’s important. You don’t just need volunteer advocates, you also have a call for not just volunteer advocates, but you have a call for skill-based volunteers, office support, event support. Tell me about the needs that you have there and how somebody could get involved, what kinds of things they might be doing.
Natalie Julien:
We do have a wide variety of opportunities for people to volunteer with CASA. We have general office opportunities, we have just single day projects that we need volunteer support on. We have a few special events throughout the year and we need volunteers who are interested in helping with the planning and the execution of those events, but also day of event volunteers. Those opportunities exist literally throughout the year. If someone’s interested in getting involved, we can find a way to plug them in.
Jeff Randolph:
Let’s talk about those opportunities for the events because not only are events good ways that you could volunteer, but events are good ways for people who just want to find out more, want to see what the community is all about and hear more about the stories that you are bringing back. You’ve got a few different events throughout the year. We’ve got Promise of Hope, and Pinwheels for a Purpose, and Hops & Barley. Let’s start with Promise of Hope. What is that event and should people show up?
Natalie Julien:
Promise of Hope is held in April, and April is Child Abuse Prevention Month. We really want to make sure that we utilize that entire month to communicate the message, not only about what our children go through, the children who are in the foster care system, but also how CASA has an impact on those kiddos.
Promise of Hope is an event that we hold to help educate the community about that impact, but also giving people the opportunity to provide support and resources for CASA so that we can do more.
Jeff Randolph:
Oh, excellent. Pinwheels for a Purpose?
Natalie Julien:
That is part of Child Abuse Prevention Month as well, and it’s to create awareness. Pinwheels are the representation of that month, and so we encourage our supporters to use the pinwheels in their front yards in their offices to create awareness around the issue that we care so much about.
Jeff Randolph:
Be on the lookout for pinwheels, everybody. This is how you should know. We should know more about what Pinwheels stand for. Tell me about Hops & Barley because of course beer, I’ve been known to drink a beer.
Natalie Julien:
Hops & Barley is a fun event that we have every fall. It’s essentially a beer tasting. There is also wine and other options for people who don’t drink beer, but we have representation from a lot of the local breweries, our home brewers groups here in Kansas City, and it’s just a fun event. We also have a mission component where people can hear about the impact that CASA has and again, ways that they can get involved.
Jeff Randolph:
Excellent. Always should. You raised 105,000 from last year’s Hops & Barley, it looks like?
Natalie Julien:
We did.
Jeff Randolph:
Well done. Nicely done.
Natalie Julien:
Thank you.
Jeff Randolph:
I’ll close it out here and just say if you’re listening, consider joining in some way. Become a corporate sponsor if you’re running a business, lend a much needed hand, and be a champion for a child. We could all use them.
With that said, I think it’s time to go into the lightning round. Here are the rules for the lightning round. It’s short soundbite answers, we’re looking for the quick response. You have no previous knowledge of what might be asked here, so this is just off the cuff, straight out of Natalie’s brain. What is the best advice you’ve ever gotten? This could be business, it could be life advice. What’s the best piece of advice you’ve gotten?
Natalie Julien:
Travel.
Jeff Randolph:
I’m about to ask all kinds of questions about that. Travel like recharging your soul or to experience another culture? What is the goal of travel?
Natalie Julien:
To see the world. I have a goal to get to every continent at least once.
Jeff Randolph:
Wow, yeah.
Natalie Julien:
I’m about halfway.
Jeff Randolph:
What drew you to an organization like CASA? I know you’ve got a nonprofit background with National MS Society, the Red Cross, the Thomas House Family Shelter. What is it about CASA that was so appealing?
Natalie Julien:
One of my first internships was with Department of Children Family Services in Los Angeles. Working with that population, just something that meant a lot to me, that we could make an impact and support children who are in those circumstances, things that they have really no control over. When I saw the opportunity to work for CASA and be able to work with that population again, it was something I was definitely interested in.
Jeff Randolph:
Oh, good. Tell me the best part of your job because you’re dealing with some pretty weighty moments in the lives of others, and you do that all the time. What are the bright spots? What sends you home at the end of the day and says yep, this was good?
Natalie Julien:
The successes definitely make a big difference, not only for me but for all of my staff. When we hear from the advocates about a successful adoption or a successful reunification and we see the pictures of those kids with the smiles on their faces, that really is a big deal for us and something that keeps us going.
Jeff Randolph:
And really celebrating those wins. I’m going to pivot off of that because if we look at your Facebook page for the organization, I’m going to look at the official Facebook account and I’m going to see people decorating their doors for the holiday to make the office a brighter place. I saw a Friendsgiving lunch, a Halloween costume reverse trick or treat.
Your team is always out in the community doing things. Is there a work hard play hard thing going on there? What’s your philosophy on building a work environment that really supports employees and helps them have that brighter day and more comradery in the office?
Natalie Julien:
We really do try to find the balance because often the work we do is difficult. The stories that we hear, the things that we know our kiddos go through is hard to hear and to deal with every day. We want to make sure that we support each other as a team and that we take some time to just focus on ourselves and how we can find those bright spots and really enjoy each other and the experiences that we have.
Jeff Randolph:
Man, that’s great to hear. It looks like it’s a lot of fun from the outside, but I know there’s a lot of hard work and emotion that goes on behind the scenes. I’m going to say, just have you close us out by telling people where they can find you if they want to be a volunteer, if they want to donate, if they want to do something, where can people find you?
Natalie Julien:
Our website is the best place to go, so casajwc.org. There’s more information about how you can make donations, how you can get involved as a volunteer or events, anything that you want to know about CASA, you can find the information on our website.
Jeff Randolph:
I’ll say it one more time. If you’re listening, consider becoming a corporate sponsor, consider becoming a champion, consider volunteering if you have those skills for other office support, event support, anything at all, let’s see how we can plug you in. Natalie Julien, President and CEO of Casa Johnson and Wyandotte Counties. Thanks for being with us today.
Natalie Julien:
Thank you for having me.
Jeff Randolph:
That is our show. Thanks for listening to the Small Business Miracles podcast. Remember to subscribe. Leave us a five star rating and review. Drop us a line on the website at eagadv.com if you have any thoughts. Until then, we’ll be out here helping entrepreneurs with another small business miracle.