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Welcome to the Small Business Miracles podcast! In this one we talk marketing tips with the pending Google Analytics 4 transition and we have a helpful analytics tip in SpyFu.com. We’ll close with an interview with IN Kansas City magazine — a print, online, and custom content company in Kansas City that is helping businesses communicate. They can make a difference.
Transcript
Jeff Randolph:
Welcome to the Small Business Miracles podcast. I am Jeff Randolph. This small business podcast is brought to you by EAG advertising and marketing. Yes, we are going to talk about marketing, but our clients are all entrepreneurs and as you know, entrepreneurs are amazing. They’re visionaries. They move the economy forward. They’re the ones who bring the needed services to the community because they’re the ones who see the opportunity and grab onto it and make it happen. We celebrate that on this show. We give advice. We have tips, and each week we’re going to introduce you to another small business hero and hear their story and grab some inspirational advice along the way. Are you ready? Here we go.
I’m going to start out this news segment with one that is really, I mean, it’s been hitting your inbox. You’ve probably heard about it, but it can be difficult to focus on, because it’s happening soon and we don’t have to deal with it quite yet, and that is Google Analytics. Universal Analytics is going away. You’ve probably seen. If you’ve ever logged on to your analytics account and you’re using Universal Analytics, it’s going to say, “Hey, we’re sun setting this Universal Analytics thing. We’re switching over to GA4, Google Analytics 4.” That’s going to happen on July 1st, 2023. A lot of people haven’t done anything with this yet, and that’s because a lot of marketers will tell you, “Hey, this, it’s not great. It’s not great. It’s not ready for prime time. It’s so different. I don’t have all the metrics that I used to have. It’s a different way to look at things. My reports, my dashboards are all different.”
If you switched over to Google Analytics 4 right now, that’s exactly what would happen. You would not have access to the same things and it wouldn’t look quite the same way. Using Universal Analytics for a lot of people then is easier because you’re used to it or you’re familiar with it, and this is of course, assuming that you have used Google Analytics to look at what kind of traffic you have coming to your website. That’s an important tool. We need to pay attention to it, so what are we doing with it? What are we recommending? There needs to be some kind of transition time. You are officially in the transition time now. Here’s what we would recommend at this stage. Go ahead and get your Google Analytics 4 set up so that you can run both of them tandem right now.
Getting Google Analytics 4 set up now means that you are starting to collect some of that, what will become, historical data in the future so that you can compare and contrast it between the data that you actually have and are maybe more familiar with in Universal Analytics. And you can start to, over the next six months, before the July 1st, 2023 window, start to really pay attention to it and see what the differences are and how are you looking at data in one versus the other. There is more setup to do in Google Analytics 4, you’re going to need to set up new goals and really set up what conversions are important to you and that may require the help of your friendly neighborhood IT person, but if you will do that, you will soon start to reap the rewards because you’ll be able to have Google Analytics 4 up and running and set up and ready to go. So highly recommend that you go ahead and get that squared away with your friendly neighborhood IT person.
All right, let’s take a moment and talk about our marketing tips. Tips can also be tools and today’s tool is SpyFu, spyfu.com. It’s a tool that we use quite a bit. There’s a paid version, there’s a free version, but it’s a tool that anyone can use. Just jump in and throw in a web URL. Just your web domain address would be fine. We’re going to throw in smallbusinessmiracles.com and that’s going to show us a few things. Here’s how we use it. It’s just a good kind of external snapshot in time of here’s what’s happening on your website. An outside look at the analytics on your website, the traffic to your website, the keywords that you qualify for, the paid keywords. If you’re bidding on something, you could put a competitor’s name into this and it’ll tell you what keywords they are bidding on.
For Google paid search, it’s a great tool to use just to learn a little bit more about who you are and what kind of traffic you’re getting on your website. It’ll give you your organic traffic and your organic keywords. It will also tell you what are your paid keywords, what are the ones that you are buying, so if you’re doing this for a competitor, you can see what terms they’re going after, what are the top pages of your website and what kind of traffic is that getting on an estimated basis. Again, this is estimated because this isn’t your Google Analytics account, this is just an outside look at it. So all the keyword rankings you can hope for, your back links, what kind of links from other websites are coming to your website, so all kinds of great information just sitting there at your fingertips.
You can dive in and you can do a lot of research on a lot of different people’s websites and get some good data that you can use, something actionable, and say, “Huh, why are my competitors going after this term For SEO, is that intentional? Is it an accident and do I need to be worried about it?” SpyFu, check it out. See what you see. All right. Hey everybody. Welcome. I’ve got our special guests here, Katie Delzer and Brittany Cole from KC Media. It’s in Kansas City Magazine. Katie is the senior media consultant and Brittany is the digital director. Welcome you two.
Brittany Cole:
Thanks. Thanks for having us.
Katie Delzer:
Thanks for having us.
Jeff Randolph:
Excellent. Well, let’s just start out and hear about in Kansas City Magazine. Tell us for those people who just, I don’t know, they just landed in Kansas City. They don’t know anything from anything. They don’t even know what barbecue to get. What is in Kansas City Magazine? What do you guys do? Who reads? Tell me everything about it.
Katie Delzer:
Well, we launched a little over four years ago and we have a monthly lifestyle magazine, city Lifestyle magazine, and then our website in. kansascity.com. We have daily original content every single day on everything that’s going on in Kansas City, whether that be events, latest restaurants, what’s new, retail events-
Brittany Cole:
Home decor.
Katie Delzer:
I mean, really, we really kind of encompass everything that’s going on in Kansas City. We love our city. We felt like when we launched it, we needed something to really encompass everything that’s happening in our beloved Kansas City.
Jeff Randolph:
I know we push a lot of clients your way to make sure that they’re being seen by all of the right people and that they reach their target audience. When you’re working with clients, what kind of issues are they having? What are they trying to do? What do you hear most from clients?
Brittany Cole:
I would say get their brand out is the biggest.
Katie Delzer:
Yeah, I would definitely say brand awareness. They feel like our digital and our print product really encompasses with like-minded businesses and they really like what we’re doing because everything is local, local, local.
Brittany Cole:
And we are women-owned, so they like to be part of that, a locally owned, women-owned business.
Jeff Randolph:
Yeah.
Brittany Cole:
Yeah. Our reach is really great. We mail to a ton of different houses in both Kansas and Missouri side. Our digital reaches, I think it’s a little over a million visitors last year. We have this great reach, both print and digital, and so I think people wanted to utilize that.
Katie Delzer:
And I think really what kind of sets us apart is our editorial. I mean, we have the very best writers in the market, so it’s not just total puff pieces. I mean, we’re really kind of digging in on what’s going on in the city.
Jeff Randolph:
Oh yeah, and I know we’ve taken advantage of that. Great writing on everything from, let’s see, the Greater Kansas City Community Foundation and Complete Home Concepts, all kinds of great clients in very broad industries, so you guys really reach a lot of people.
Brittany Cole:
Meyer’s Music.
Jeff Randolph:
Yeah, Meyer Music does the same thing. Yeah, it has been a great partnership so far. All right. Let me ask a quick question about when you’re working with a new client, when you’re approaching them for the first time, I know you’re trying to find out what their goals are, that interplay between print and digital, where do you start a conversation with a new prospect and somebody who hasn’t been in Kansas City Magazine before?
Katie Delzer:
Educate. I
Brittany Cole:
Think we educate too first and we partner.
Katie Delzer:
Yeah.
Brittany Cole:
After we ask their goals, we definitely talk with them and listen, and then we kind of start to build stuff and then ask questions. A lot of questions are being asked by them.
Katie Delzer:
We really need to kind of dig in to find out who they’re trying to target and-
Jeff Randolph:
How to get there, what the right mix is.
Brittany Cole:
Yeah. What they’ve tried, what they don’t like, what they know, what they don’t know. It’s an uncovering of sorts. Maybe they’ve tried something and it has not worked in the past, but ask them more questions about that. Maybe it was just not done at the right time or with the right message, so we really kind of want to figure out some of those, and what their goal is for now, but what they see in the future and their trends for their type of business.
Jeff Randolph:
Oh, that’s good. Yeah. I think it’s good that as more and more people push to digital and you guys have great products to offer there, as more and more people push there, making sure that you’re seen in that gorgeous print publication that can actually reinforce brand over time and have that longer shelf life and not just a fleeting message that happens one time. The power, the one two punch of both of those things is spectacular. I’m glad people are seeing that and understanding that that’s where we’re going with marketing. Let me switch things up now and go straight into a lightning round, if that works. Now, lightning round, lightning round rules work like this. I’m going to throw something out there. There’s no right or wrong answer. There just is your answer. Quick soundbite, one word, two word or sentence kind of things. We’ll dive in if we have to and understand your answer, but let’s start with it. First up, what’s your favorite social media platform?
Katie Delzer:
Okay. I love TikTok and I know I have teenagers, but I think TikTok is really fun.
Brittany Cole:
I am going to go with Instagram.
Jeff Randolph:
Oh, Instagram for the gram?
Katie Delzer:
Yeah.
Jeff Randolph:
On your gram. What are you posting on your Instagram?
Brittany Cole:
I have an eight month old baby, so it’s really just her.
Jeff Randolph:
It is all baby.
Brittany Cole:
It’s a hundred percent baby all the time right now. It used to be a hundred percent dog.
Katie Delzer:
I don’t post on TikTok. I just like seeing my recipes, my makeup tutorials and everything else, travel tips, so it’s like my feed is curated just to me and I love it.
Jeff Randolph:
A million great videos out there.
Brittany Cole:
Yes.
Jeff Randolph:
Next question, what businesses inspire you? Is there a brand? Is there a company that inspires you personally?
Katie Delzer:
Well, I can answer this really fast. I had a great meeting with Casey Current yesterday, and what they have done in less than two years is inspiring, what they’ve done, not just for our city, but nationally for the women’s soccer is inspiring.
Jeff Randolph:
Absolutely. We got to do a video shoot with Adriana Franch, the goalkeeper, who is also a US Women’s National Team Goalkeeper, and I got to put cleats back on and take some shots on her just for the film, obviously, and that was maybe a highlight. So yeah, they have done an amazing job. Totally agree. Anything?
Katie Delzer:
I will have to say it, with Brittany, I think what they’ve done is amazing, and I’ve known Angie Long for 30 years, and so it’s just really cool to see what she’s done, and she is just a huge supporter of women and women-owned businesses, and it’s really cool to see.
Brittany Cole:
Our city.
Jeff Randolph:
Yeah, no, teal Rising next year. Next year.
Katie Delzer:
Oh yeah.
Jeff Randolph:
Let’s do one. Let’s see. Imagine there’s a big success. You’ve just done something amazing. You have seen great client success or you’ve met some goal. How do you reward yourself? What do you do to celebrate a win?
Brittany Cole:
Probably happy hour.
Katie Delzer:
Yeah. I would say happy hour.
Brittany Cole:
Happy hour.
Katie Delzer:
It’s fun to get out of the office and sometimes we’re guilty of staying busy and just grabbing lunch and eating at our desk, but it’s important to unplug. We got out of the office the other day with our Art Director and had just a lovely lunch at Blue Sushi, and we were like, “We need to do this more often.”
Jeff Randolph:
Oh, yeah. Celebrate the wins. That’s good.
Brittany Cole:
Yeah.
Jeff Randolph:
And I think we’ll wrap up with this one. We’ll give you one to three words. One to three words. What do you want your future customers, your future clients, to know about you?
Brittany Cole:
We can make a difference.
Jeff Randolph:
Yeah.
Brittany Cole:
We can make a difference.
Jeff Randolph:
That works.
Katie Delzer:
Yeah.
Jeff Randolph:
Impact, real impact.
Brittany Cole:
Yeah. Okay. I think, yeah.
Jeff Randolph:
All right. You stick with those answers?
Katie Delzer:
Yeah, I want to stick with that too. I think every day that we’re doing what we do in our office, we do feel like we’re making a difference and supporting our city and supporting some of these leaders, and when we were just talking about Casey Curran, we’ve profiled Angie in our magazine and we’ve profiled just a lot of great things that are happening. With the World Cup coming, that’s going to be happening in our city, we’ve…
Brittany Cole:
We’ve profiled leaders and emerging leaders and other people that don’t even know who they are, but they’ve done great things.
Katie Delzer:
[inaudible 00:14:36] We really like to uncover these people that are just doing amazing thingsJeff Randolph:
Now. Hey, I know everybody here is a big fan. Katie and Brittany, thank you so much for coming in and hanging out with us for one of our first podcasts. We really appreciate it in Kansas City Magazine. You should definitely check it out.
Brittany Cole:
Thanks, Jeff.
Jeff Randolph:
Thank you.
Katie Delzer:
All right, thanks Jeff.
Jeff Randolph:
That is our show. Thanks for listening to the Small Business Miracles podcast. I’d like to thank my guests this week from in Kansas City Magazine. That’s Katie and Brittany. Remember to subscribe. Leave us a five star rating and review. Drop us a line on the website@eagadv.com. If you have some thoughts, throw them our way. Until then, we’ll be out here helping entrepreneurs with another small business miracle.