Growing Your Business with a Local Marketing Agency with Randy Rohde

This week host Eric Dickmann interviews Randy Rohde. Randy started working in retail operations right out of grad school – running large box retail stores. He moved on to start several more companies and during that time, discovered the power of digital marketing and the impact it can have on scaling growth and revenue.

Randy turned that passion into another new company and now runs a digital marketing agency focused on the growth of other small businesses called 38 Digital Market.

In addition, he hosts a podcast called “Running the Bases with Small Businesses“ where he talks with business owners of all sizes about their journey through entrepreneurship, their challenges, and their lessons.

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/running-the-bases-with-small-businesses/id1511302169

Eric Dickmann can be found on Twitter @EDickmann and LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/edickmann and my website https://ericdickmann.com

Randy Rohde can found online on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/randyrohde/ and at 38 Digital Market https://38digitalmarket.com

Episode Summary: The episode summary can be found at https://fiveechelon.com/growing-business-with-local-marketing-agency-s2e13/

If you'd like to contact us with feedback or guest inquiries, please visit:
https://fiveechelon.com/podcast 

For more information about Virtual CMO strategic marketing consulting services, visit The Five Echelon Group at https://fiveechelon.com

Episode #28

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Transcript

Eric Dickmann: 0:08

Welcome to season two of The Virtual CMO podcast. I'm your host, Eric Dickmann, founder of The Five Echelon Group. Our goal is to share strategies, tools, and tactics with fellow marketing professionals that you can use to impact the trajectory of your company's marketing programs. We have candid conversations about what works, and what doesn't, with marketing tactics, customer experience, design and automation tools. Our goal is to provide value each week with a roster of thoughtful and informative guests engaged in a lively conversation. So with that, let's introduce this week's guest and dive into another conversation with The Virtual CMO. This week we welcome Randy Rohde. Randy runs a digital marketing agency focussed on the growth of other small businesses called 38 Digital Market. He also hosts a podcast called“Running the Bases with Small Businesses“. Randy welcome to the virtual CMO podcast. I'm so glad you could join us today.

Randy Rhode: 1:09

Hey, thanks. Good to be here, actually. This is a real privilege for me, because I think actually this is the first time I've been a guest on a podcast.

Eric Dickmann: 1:19

for the last few months, every episode that I've recorded, starts out with a little disclaimer that we're recording this in the middle of COVID people have been locked down And I know you're an outdoor guy, you love to run. You love to backpack. Have you been able to do any of that during this time of COVID?

Randy Rhode: 1:36

it's funny even ask that, I'm a scout master for my son's boy scout troop. And so we do a lot of camping through that organization, but, earlier the summer, my son and I were supposed to go on a camping trip with the whole troop. And then because of the pandemic, we canceled all of that, but my son and I decided, Hey, let's just go. And so we went out to the Hills in pennsylvania and, did he, a four day backpacking trip and then just, literally just this last weekend. The whole family, we went out to a Pennsylvania and, did a weekend camping adventure, just the four of us. yeah, that was fun. Oh, yeah. So anyway, it just is a nice getaway because otherwise we're just so quarantined in our little village where we live, and walking around and keeping distant from everybody. And yeah, it's just kinda nice to get a different, I dont know, environment, change of pace.

Eric Dickmann: 2:33

I've heard on the news that the national parks are actually swamped with visitors right now, because people are off, the kids are around, they need something to do. Outdoors is a pretty safe place to be, and people are swamping the parks.

Randy Rhode: 2:48

Oh, it is really difficult. Yes. And and I think, and I don't know the trip that we took my son and I earlier. whether, it wasn't like a camp ground kind of thing. And so it was more wilderness. And I think because of that, it provided. more seclusion. I think, we saw just a handful of people on the trails but this last weekend. Oh my gosh. Yeah, it was packed and we did stay at a wilderness camp ground, but it was packed too. we literally got the last site available and yeah. So dont know how many people were actually at this campsite, but it was crazy. It was right on Lake Erie, which was beautiful. And we went to go see the sunrise or sunset no way my wife would get up for that. Went to go see the sunset. And I swear, they're like a hundred people like, Oh my gosh, this is crazy. We can't do that.

Eric Dickmann: 3:44

Oh, that's funny. Yeah. I'm an outdoor guy myself. And usually I take a trip out West to go into the mountains and go camping and hiking. And boy, this year more than any, I really want to be able to do that because it would be nice just to get away for a little while I tell you.

Randy Rhode: 3:58

I would love to do something like that. It's hard. We had, a whole big trip planned and we ended up canceling that to go out West. And I'm usually during spring break. We try to take the kids and go show them stuff out West. I have lived out in California and the Pacific Northwest, but; we had a trip planned to go out to a New Mexico and ended up having to cancel that thing.

Eric Dickmann: 4:22

It's just the time that we live in and, I'd love to dig into a little bit of your background because you're an entrepreneur by heart, 38 digital market is not your first rodeo. talk to me a little bit about, your entrepreneurial adventures. You've started a few companies.

Randy Rhode: 4:39

I've started a few companies, and really I always tell people I fell into business, I think by accident. But, thankfully I did. I always thought I was going to teach is really what I thought I was going to do. and I went to grad school and got my masters in English. And I ended up, right after grad school, actually going to work for a national retailer and, progressing with those folks, opening stores, managing the store opening stores, and then taking on a regional role. When I look back in my. Career like, wow. That was. Interesting. And I was approached by a group of guys to say, Hey, We want to start an educational services company and we'd love to have you on board to help us scale. And and it kinda hit me with the sweet spot because I was like, wow, this is education. I love education. I love, working with kids and seeing that kind of growth in that opportunity for them. And I know you very much value kind of the work life balance. And then, I was way out of balance. I'll be the first to admit that, that my wife, I should say I was the second to admit it and I had been doing. Digital marketing. I think I started our first website back in 2008 when I had my own education services company and so we were doing a lot of different things with that in regards with digital marketing as well. And, yeah, so that was a great experience. and I had a couple of folks that were, Hey, can you do this for me? Because I've been doing it for them. almost on the side. And just went full time with the agency and, it's been a great ride ever since.

Eric Dickmann: 6:17

it's so interesting to me because. You know, you've been in business for a while in these various businesses, and yet you've had this keen eye on digital marketing and you've been able to see the impact that digital marketing can have on a business. So when you look back over your career and those businesses that you were involved in, How can you see the trajectory of digital marketing growing over time and really becoming a force in terms of its power to grow a business.

Randy Rhode: 6:46

it's amazing. I obviously, you and I have been around to see really the maturity of marketing the internet or the course of our lifetime. Whereas my kids who, my oldest is 14. He has no idea about life, without an iPhone. but for us, absolutely. I can see, how the importance of digital marketing, what I always tell clients is that we're expanding your digital footprint. So we are, whether it's in your website, whether it's content on various, social sites, LinkedIn or Facebook, as an example, doing video production and having videos out there for distribution and utilizing for whatever purposes. As well as getting recognition from other, platforms in regards to your brand. we do a lot of press releases, for our clients as well. So that's all kind of digital marketing from our perspective. there's so many different, Research or stats, that you could throw out in regards to just the behavior of the people as digital marketing has. matured over the last several years. if you're looking for a plumber, they'll be on their phones. Most of the time, it's somewhere around 65% of the time, they'll get their phone out and they'll like, I need a plumber in cleveland and that's how they'll search and they'll look at the, That first page, almost nobody. what is the great word? If you, everyone, hide a dead body, put them on the second page of Google. nobody ever goes beyond the first page of the search page of Google. all of our bread and butter's get you on the first page. but you look for that local plumber and you either look like in that it's called the Google map pack. you see the map there with the push pins and usually see three kind of local businesses right there. And so we try to get our clients into that if they're a services kind of an industry or on the first page, but if you are on your phone, usually you're like, great. There they are. I'm going to hit the the call and then boom. And then you're connected. 10 years ago or so, that was never even thought of. the way that, consumer behavior has changed or migrated to this whole digital platform is absolutely amazing. The advent of the iPhone or that whole mobile device is really open up the door in so many different ways before obviously it was just people on their desktop looking and searching the web. and just, as the industry has matured, then we begin to understand more consumer activities, their behavior online, what they use when they use it, how they use it, user intent search terms. All of those kinds of things. Every day, every week, it seems like we're learning something new and something new to apply in order to benefit our clients.

Eric Dickmann: 9:46

it wasn't that long ago that. I think a website was almost a stake in the ground. You have to have a, an online presence, but that's really all. it was just an online presence. And then, you've got SEO and you've got online reviews and you've got lead generation and lead conversion. There's so much more now that a web presence needs to do for you. And obviously all of this falls under the blanket of digital marketing and what it can do for you. And I know you mentioned something that's also very important, which is how things have gone mobile. And now not only do you need to do all those things, but you need to do them in a mobile responsive way. So the people can get access to that information. On their devices. So I know with your agency, you also work with local businesses and that brings in a whole unique set of challenges, right? It's that getting found? it's the reputation management, getting reviews and things like that. Talk about that a little bit about what you need to do above and beyond for a local business.

Randy Rhode: 10:53

And you're absolutely right. The whole, the mobile aspect is so critical because as I said earlier, is that, internet use is about 65% mobile. and Businesses really have to understand that and then understand even further, the consumer behavior around mobile. Not only does your site need to be responsive, meaning that it changes depending upon what platform that it's being viewed on, whether it's a desktop. A phone. Pad. but also it's gotta be very quick to load up because somebody who's on their phone, they're not going to hang out and wait for a slow website to build and show them information. And so much of that. I think of my kids. It just went instinct gratification. They want it like, how come it's not there? Why is it taking so long? and so your websites or whatever that digital platform is, it has to be quick. it's almost everything that we do now is all geared around mobile first and then desktop second. and the behavior and even some of the search terms are end up being different because of that. And so you mentioned about local businesses. And so a consumer and especially again, if you're in the services industry. So if you're a plumber, a roofer, an electrician, restaurants, even. the way that consumers are going to search for those terms or those services can be very different than what it is on a mobile versus a desktop. With the GPS, they know exactly where you are. And so if I just say it, say I need a plumber, they're going to show me plumbers in my neighborhood because they know you are right here in Cleveland. And, and so here are our offerings of plumbers near you. but people do tend to as well, Search for, I need a plumber in Cleveland or in their particular neighborhood. It'll get served up appropriately. And so from a strategy on our part, we're always trying to broaden that, radius on how Google is going to offer up a particular service for a client. as an example, I live actually in chagrin falls, Ohio, which is about 25 miles, East of Cleveland. And there's a lot of little suburbs in between us. So what we would do would be instead of just focusing on the plumber in chagrin falls, we're always trying to push that radius out as far as we can. So maybe it might be, the next two or three suburbs over from us so that when somebody is in, Beachwood or shaker Heights, Ohio, which are a few neighborhoods over, and they search for a plumber that they're going to find our client that's actually located over here in chagrin falls. And so there's a strategy around how we do that. but we're also being very mindful about how consumers are actually searching and what are those terms that they're searching for. And we call those very user intent, search terms, And so in thinking of when somebody is actually at their desk typing or when they're plugging it into their phone and they're typing. What is that term that they're looking for, and trying to then to serve up our client, for those terms. but yeah, local is so critical in that being in that. What we call the Google map pack or the three pack. is incredibly valuable and to give you some stats. So the first page of Google, remember I said, nobody ever goes beyond the second page or beyond the first page. 92% of all search traffic. Goes through the first page of Google, 92% of all traffic. Crazy numbers. there's typically 10 organic places, usually have some ads at the top. Then you might have the Google three pack or mat pack depending upon what it is that you're searching for. And then there's usually 10 organic slots that are there because of good SEO practices. And then usually at the bottom of the page, there's some more ads. And so what we're always trying to get, and especially if it's a services industry is get our clients right there in that three pack. because. About 40 to 45%, depending upon industry even, goes through of that first page, traffic goes through that Google map pack. Our client is a plumber. we're doing everything we can to get them in that three pack because of the high, clickthrough rate, for them, when they show up in that three pack. it's incredibly valuable to them.

Eric Dickmann: 15:32

it's all these layers, right? You're talking about all these layers of things that you have to do to get that traffic, because then once they're in that three pack, What's going to make them choose. Item number two versus number three, that's usually the reviews, right? The positive reviews. So then there's this whole effort around getting positive reviews on the Google, my business, so that. You're the one that gets picked.

Randy Rhode: 15:56

Yeah. And so there's an incredible amount of strategy and tactics that we employ to try to make that happen for our clients. And, But it's amazing once you're there, the volume of traffic that flows because of it. So I don't know, we created a free book that we give out. people can. Email me and, or go to our website and go grab it. But it's, called the three pack secrets and they can go and jump in and get it and start doing some of their work on their own

Eric Dickmann: 16:24

No, I think that's really useful. And I'll make sure to put that in the show notes as well. So that's a strategy for a local business, but not everybody is a service based business where they're going to be on a map because they have a physical location. So next to that, the sort of Holy grail of digital marketing is organic leads. It's driving people to your website without really having to pay advertising dollars to get them there. So that's all about content. And what are you seeing from a content perspective? Right now that's really working. That's really engaging with prospects.

Randy Rhode: 16:57

I'll tell ya it is content in a very simple term, it is content and content in a lot of different ways. So as you said earlier, it used to be your stake in the ground was get a website up and then play around with a little bit and try to, rank it, from an SEO or search engine optimization standpoint. and now, because there are so many websites out there. it's massive. The amount of information, that is continually updated every day. and so you're not just concerned about your website, but it's all of these other. Digital platforms out there that Facebook, the LinkedIn, Instagram, anything else? Youtube. that you're trying to. synchronize. Content or your brand On all of those platforms in order to create this cohesive branding element. So that when people are looking for your product or service specifically, that your brand becomes mentioned, Content is so critical for that. And it's one of the things that we do and spend quite a bit of time with, which is content, whether it's in a written form, whether it's in a video form, because video is so huge and plays a real critical role, from a branding and content, and be able to link and push people back to your website. because YouTube is the second largest search engine in the universe and just happens to be owned by the first largest search engine in the universe. Yes. And so everything that we can do with video and there's things that we do to optimize that appropriately, to drive that and from a search and ranking standpoint and it helps drive that power, that boost to your own branded website as well. you keep these things linked together, keep that relationship. it's highly critical. So we do a lot of content. Lot of content written, is great because the search engines are looking for that know, and trust, only in a digital way. So the search engines, one is C are you an authority? Are you credible? Are you providing content that's useful and valuable to those who are searching for it? and is it consistent? Are you continually putting content out there? That makes sense that the user who's looking for XYZ. Can get their answers off of the content that you're providing and, or can you expound on it enough so that it becomes a valuable source for the user? And, so doing this content is real critical. And we take an approach that we're doing written content, and we combine it with video, to supplement the written content that we do. We distributors syndicate that out in a lot of different ways, depending upon what the client is or what they're doing or what that particular content is. We may do a press release with it as well. that just further distributes at that content and that information, all of them kind of pulling back and pointing back to the client's website in order to generate leads. it's a real, octopus approach because you've got a lot of different tentacles spreading out, from this content base, and pulling it all back into the main source, which could be your website or a landing page. but yeah, content is so critical, and having a good strategy around Canon. It's not just. I'm going to create, I'm going to write this blog. Hey great. But it's really having a strategy around that, just that blog, but the next three or five blogs or articles that are coming after that to help support it. So there's a real strategy then. What that material or that content is going to be and how you're going to interlink them and how you're going to support it. again, through video and, and podcasting is becoming such a real kind of firestorm right now. And podcasting is growing, just in double digit gross a year over year. And, having content that's in this kind of a format only helps and adds another. Log to the fire. So to speak about building the brand and the content, disbursement, for a client.

Eric Dickmann: 21:24

I think that's so true. when people get excited about things like posting to an Instagram story or doing a video on tick tock, or these are fun, sexy things. And. They're good. those are big platforms. They can drive traffic, but what I really love as an inbound marketing guy. Cause I really love some of this content that really turns into evergreen content over time. Because if you do a, an ebook or you write a blog post, or you create a video that you put on YouTube or your website, This stuff stays out there until you take it down. And so years from now, and you hear these stories over and over again about people who have blog articles or videos that they did years ago that are still driving significant traffic to their website. And it's not to say that instagram story or a Tik Tok video. Isn't good because they serve different purposes in a comprehensive strategy, but they're here today, gone tomorrow, just like an advertisement. These other kinds of investments in content can have value for and be major traffic builders over time.

Randy Rhode: 22:33

Yeah. On social platforms. And it's interesting we always tell our clients and we sit down with them and really try to understand what their objective is and who they're trying to reach. Oftentimes, we do tell them you need to have some social content. You need to have that presence because it's all about the search engine's looking to see your brand is it an authority? Is it a brand to be trusted? Is it a credible brand? having active, content driven social platforms, take tag Instagram, whatever the flavor of the month is. it's critical for that because the search engines give credit to it. but that information on those platforms, is there and it goes away so quickly. And I don't mean necessarily doesn't evaporate it, meaning that it's gone, but. If you're not on that page at that moment. So a user is on Instagram. They're looking at stuff. Oh, that's good. And they're just scrolling through stuff. their feeds so quickly. you may not necessarily pop up. They may be following you, but they may not ever see what it is that you're posting up there. And the likelihood that they're going to, unless you're like. a celebrity, the likelihood that they're going to go, Oh, what did Randy post today? is very small. and so the social platforms are good and it's great to pump that stuff out. but if you're looking for that influencer market, and the ability to be that influencer, you are putting so much content out there just in social media, to build up that following. that's almost all you're focusing on. and if you really are looking for all of the. And I think, as you had said that just the inbound leads and the value of that, it's the content that can reside and stay longterm. and the search engines are going to value that and reward you for that. That is going to be a big payoff for you. so I don't try to discount social media from that standpoint, but it is a very quick moving platform though. And, your content you put out there just doesn't have the same kind of life span.

Eric Dickmann: 24:52

We'll be right back after this brief message. Marketing is the engine that drives demand, but too often it takes a back seat to other priorities. Awareness, fails to materialize demand drops in sales falter. Don't wait until it's too late to build your brand awareness and demand generation programs. If your company is struggling with their marketing strategy, we want to help let's schedule a call to talk about your unique situation and what options might be available to get your marketing program back on track. To learn more text C M O to(407) 374-3670 that's C M O two four zero seven. Three seven four three six seven zero. And we'll reply with further details. We hope to hear from you soon. One of the things that we try to focus on this podcast is a lot of our listeners are from small and midsize businesses. They have a marketing operation within their company. But I think as you've been describing the process that you go through with your clients, It's just abundantly clear that there are so many balls in the air at any one time when it comes to digital marketing. And if you really want to have a presence. On these various channels through content marketing, SEO, a good website that converts, et cetera. There are a lot of different things that you need to be working on. And it's not to say that you have to do them. All things can always be pushed off until later. But I think one of the things that I advocate for my clients is if you're trying to grow your company, if you're trying to grow revenue, you've got to get these things going and pushing them down the road is just delaying their effectiveness because you want to get these programs, these channels working on your behalf. And that's why I'm such a big advocate of bringing in agencies, bringing in freelancers, bringing in experts in their particular area. Because they can really help companies scale their marketing departments and quickly get up to speed with all of these, various aspects of a digital marketing strategy. And I'm sure that's the kind of thing that you do with your clients as well.

Randy Rhode: 27:03

Oh, absolutely. And search engines, abhore, a vacuum, there just is not that just isn't known. if you're not doing it, somebody else and the search engines will push them there. If you're not in the game. And, to the point where you're saying, the longer you it delays, actually I would say the longer you wait, the more difficult it's going to be for you to finally break in because everybody else is. Essentially put all of the effort in front of you and you've got to not only battle. at the moment that you are, but all of this stuff that's gone on in front of you and, to make, the splash. yeah, so getting involved is absolutely critical and we'd, sit down one of the very first things that we do with, with a client as, as they're coming on board is really, what it is that their objectives are. What do they want to achieve? Where do they want to be? Three to five years. what kind of a company, or what kind of sales or revenue do they want to have? and we begin to understand that, and then we begin to build a strategy around what is their website, build so that it can sustain growth. whether it's through e-commerce or doing some other kinds of transactional kinds of things. is it an up-to-date website? Meaning is it something that consumers today because websites, or. Kind of fashionable to a degree, we just spent a ton of time. It took us nine months and we rebuild our website, for our agency. But, it takes. a review of that to understand you can't just build a website and think it's going to last you eight years. it just doesn't work that way. People want to see update technology updates and consumer use of a website updates and changes. so you have to modify what you have, but we identify really what the strategy is. And then we begin to implement and whether, it's web design, whether it's content creation in various forums and who is their target audience. And so we write content or develop content in order to reach and communicate with that particular targeted audience. where does this content reside beyond their website? How do we distribute it? yeah, there's a lot of wheels that move within the process, but it really all evolves around first. What is a company or the client want to do? Where do they want to be? What kind of goals do they have? And then we begin to build a strategy with them in order to make that happen. I grew up on a farm in Nebraska, so I like to just sit across the table. I have a coffee and let's talk. and so I love working with local clients because that's very much our approach is let's sit down and I like to take that trusted advisor kind of role with a client versus that we're just delivering services. I really try to position us as we are here to see you grow and let's work together to make this happen, versus just here's a service that you need. you need a new website here it is. we really want to try to understand how your consumer, how our clients targeted audience, how they interact, what they're looking for so that we can build the right website for them and, or build the right content and get it in the right places. for their targeted audience to drive those leads, back and helped him achieve the goals that they want to achieve.

Eric Dickmann: 30:21

That's actually a perfect segue because I know that you are a podcast host yourself. you've got a show called running the bases with small businesses, and you've had the ability to interview some of your clients on that show to talk about their experiences and their, entrepreneurship journey. tell them I'll be audience a little bit about your podcast and, where they can find it.

Randy Rhode: 30:43

Yeah, great. No, I appreciate the, the opportunity. So as it says, running the bases we interview small business owners and entrepreneurs and really it's around their own story and their journey as an entrepreneur. And how did they land on the idea or the solution that their company or service provides for consumers? How do they market that? How do they create strategy as, some folks are solo preneurs. some of them, have a team. where do they find their support and motivation to keep going and stay focused on moving their business forward, to talk about the challenges and, What those challenges are and what they've done to overcome some of those challenges. the audience that listens to the podcast really are small business owners and entrepreneurs. I call it Running the Bases. Cause I'm a big baseball fan. I love baseball. If you look at our logo, I have it. So it's a little bit, looks like a little, base. Ballish kind of a look to it. and I try to weave in a little bit of baseball, jargon with it as well. We have a little seventh inning stretch where I ask a little baseball. Either trivia questions or something related, maybe with the, with the guests around baseball. So we have a little fun.

Eric Dickmann: 31:58

It's a great show. I was honored to be a guest on it, and I really appreciate that. You're a great interviewer. I love the baseball theme and it makes it fun and different. Randy, where can people find you and 38 digital market?

Randy Rhode: 32:10

Yeah, I appreciate it. 38digitalmarket.com. It's three eight digital market.com. running the bases with small businesses podcast we're are in all of the major platforms, Spotify, iTunes, iHeart, and Pandora, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Everywhere. all great. And you can connect with me directly as well. I'd love to get an email from anybody. Randy@38digitalmarket.com. And, we'd love to connect.

Eric Dickmann: 32:38

That's great. Randy has been great having you on the show today, a lot of good information that you've shared and I've appreciated the opportunity to be on your show as well. So I will have the links to all your social media, to the podcast. to the company in the show notes so that people can find you and really appreciate you being here today.

Randy Rhode: 32:56

Great. I'll tell you as my first, opportunity to be a guest. Cause there was a lot of fun.

Eric Dickmann: 33:01

Yeah, you're passed the test. He did a great job. Thanks so much. that wraps up another episode of The Virtual CMO podcast. As a reminder, if you'd like to learn more about Virtual CMO, strategic marketing consulting services, or anything else discussed here today, please visit us at fiveechelon.com. There's a link in the show notes. If you'd like to send us comments, feedback, guest inquiries, and your five-star reviews on Apple Podcasts are always appreciated. If you'd like to reach me. I'm EDickmann. That's E D I C K M A N N on Twitter. If you'd like to connect on LinkedIn, please let me know. You heard about me through The Virtual CMO podcast. I look forward to talking with you again next week and sharing some new marketing insights on The Virtual CMO.