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Is Customer Experience Being Exploited By Brands?

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ALT="Authenticity in customer experience, Soulati.com"

credit: Modern 8

Customer experience is quite the buzz right now. I have been thinking about this customer experience stuff for quite some time. Everywhere you look a company or brand is attempting to create some extraordinary customer experience.

Just like when the recession hit in 2008 companies heavily discounted everything and consumers became spoiled by deeply discounted products. Coupons were all the rage; still are. JC Penney comes to mind — it had a CEO migration, and the new guy wanted better profit margin so coupons went away. Well, so, too, did the customers! [Read more…]

Sara Soulati Recognized As 2016 Woman Of The Year

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ALT="Sara Soulati, CEO, Global Cardio Care"Sara Soulati is CEO of Global Cardio Care in Los Angeles. She has been in her field of EECP since 1996 and is one of the world’s foremost authorities.

But that’s really not why I am recognizing her as 2016 Woman of the Year (even though we’re into month two of 2017).

There is no one I know more selfless. She holds the weight of the world on her shoulders and still she saves lives with the Sara Soulati Health for Life Program.

Her lifestyle modification program helps reverse and prevent heart disease. She is a devout vegan and wants everyone with a heart to eat plant-based nutrition. [Read more…]

Be Known As A Podcaster

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ALT="Heart Of Marketing Podcast Logo--Soulati"In life we need to have cause to celebrate. I know my friend Mark W. Schaefer celebrates probably every day because he is known.

Heh. What the heck do I mean? When you’re known, well, people know you. They know your work; they know your competency; they know your authenticity; they know your personality; they know you as a blogger, podcaster, author, speaker, and authority. And, how do people become known, actually?

In this 100th anniversary celebratory podcast, The Heart of Marketing, we get a tease and early introduction to the next big thing by Mark Schaefer. He’s drafting a book on becoming known and how one goes about that. (In fact, I’ve been reviewing each chapter as he’s writing and let me tell you, this book of his coming soon is going to be amazing good.)

When you lead a public life and the Snapchat Spectacles are targeting you, the lens is pretty harsh in that public eye. Mark has done an incredible job of holding his end of the bargain and being all things to all people and so much more behind the scenes we don’t know.

Today, I’m celebrating 100 podcast episodes, and I’m also celebrating Mark as a role model for us all in the marketing arena.

This is an early endorsement of Mark’s new book we can expect in Q1 2017, I presume, about how each of us on our very own journeys can accomplish so much more than what we realize. His book is what I’m calling ‘my personal public relations plan,’ and I encourage you to watch his space for announcements and pre-orders.

Being Authentic While Becoming Known

From my own experiences becoming known with a goal early on to be an influencer in public relations, I know first hand that authenticity is critical. Being genuine and accessible and truthful and believable are traits I know work on the journey.

Back in the day, when Mark and I started on Twitter together, we immediately developed kinship alongside the rest of us bantering in the marketing sector on Twitter. Everyone had an opportunity to create their personal brand and become an influencer in their own right.

Today? Not so much. People don’t know how to use social media for relationship building; it’s merely a channel to sell or ask for favors. Developing an authentic self on social media today is quite challenging and takes a lot of time and pressure.

The only way to be authentic is to take the time to develop the rapport and to be real, not phony. We can see right through phony!!

Launch a Podcast

I’m going to say something not very profound, but perhaps it will make you stop and think a moment.

If you were speaking into a microphone all by yourself knowing that an audience is hanging on your every word (well, that comes with time!), is there any way you can be but authentic?

When you do a podcast, what you say has to come from the heart, really and truly. What you share is teachable and professional so you want people to align with your topic and your authority, right?

I’m so very happy to have John Gregory Olson as my co-host on The Heart of Marketing because I’ve never wanted to go it alone. We’ve been informed that we’re yin-yang; professorial-school girl, and that means entire complement — chemistry so hard to find in the podcast world it’s priceless.

Meet Maura Sweeney

I just had the absolute pleasure of meeting Maura Sweeney yesterday. She’s the authority on Living Happy Inside Out, the podcast that in a short ~10 minutes gives you guidelines for life’s journey. One of my faves is about cookies. I’m happy to say I’m always on a quest for the best chocolate chip cookie loaded with nuts and other goodies, and when Maura asked me if I was being a cookie I had to listen in and do the ‘ah-hah’ thing because apparently being a cookie isn’t the best you can be!

Tune in to Maura’s podcast right here, and stay tuned for her to be our special guest coming soon!

Jon Buscall of Moondog MarketingALT="Jon Buscall"

Jon Buscall is a very dear and special friend of mine, and he resides in Sweden. He runs Moondog Marketing and the Online Marketing and Communications podcast. Jon was a very early adopter of podcasting, and in fact, wrote the book on how to podcast. He’s also an expert on microphones for podcasting having done tremendous research and blog posts on which mic produces the best sound quality.

I listen to many podcasts and there are very few going solo well. Jon Buscall is one podcaster who’s an absolute pro at going solo; he interviews folks, too, but his lovely accent is reason enough to listen not to mention is marketing smarts.

Be Known As A Podcaster

Each of these podcasters mentioned here have become known over time and with genuine delivery of authority. Celebrate. Try something new and become known because you need to keep your passion energized for whom you are and who has yet to know you.

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In A Quinnipiac Poll Of My 10 BFFs

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ALT="Soulati Media, Future and Past"A survey and a poll from either the leading university (who the hell has ever heard of Quinnipiac University , why is it the bell weather of presidential elections and where on God’s green earth is it?) or politically imbalanced media outlet are dictating how Americans will cast their vote today.

Those polls show that Hilz has lost her lead after a feel-good convention while the Donald is creeping up and running into her backside with numbers that make him cocky and confident.

Who has ever been polled by these organizations in a presidential election? Tell me now, and tell me why these polls can influence and effect the outcome of a presidential election occurring in 50-some days.

Do you allow polling data to influence how you cast your vote or express your opinion? Do you follow a media outlet and hang on every word of their punditry and allow them to make your opinion for you? Do you let your own BFF dictate your vote? Tell me why you’re voting for your candidate with solid support, and I’ll tell you, “Amen, Sistah.”

We rely too much on the effects of the survey and poll to tell us how to react, how to vote, how to feel, how to take action, and basically how to follow the leader.

And, then, there’s Russia. The country that has so brazenly hacked into the livelihood of the totality of the United States from political organizations and celebrities to figureheads and Olympians’ medical records.

Our country has enemies; many of them. In fact, our country has enemies within its borders who are born of these United States. Our Congress has enemies of enemies that sit across the aisles from one another with an obstructionist bent to ensure that POTUS does not succeed or a bill doesn’t pass.

A survey and a poll of my 10 BFFs will tell you that we live in a hateful era where BB guns that look like police-issued weapons and are carried by 13-year-olds cause loss of life in Columbus, Ohio. We hear about Chicago as the gun capital of the world instead of Aleppo, the region in Syria that the green party candidate didn’t know about.

Achh.

There is too much strife in our world to comprehend; there is too much pain amongst us to consider. Certainly, a survey and a poll can tell us what we already know – that the world is doomed if this strife and unrest continues. Our children will grow up negative; our families will suffer without hope; and, guns and insects will rule the world.

There’s Always Hope

While I’m bludgeoned by the intensity of the hatred and divisiveness in which we live today in our neighborhoods, communities, schools, cities, states, countries, and continents, I have hope.

  • I have hope that my child will be a stand-up citizen and benefit from all the attention I’ve devoted to raise her with conviction.
  • I have hope that the turmoil in the U.S.A. government will subside and that political parties can reduce the barriers and join forces for the good of the American people.
  • I have hope that gun violence and mental illness will wane and families will not lose their loved ones to senseless crimes.
  • I have hope that love will prevail because it has to.
  • I have hope that you will watch over the elderly neighbor next door who needs you to be a beacon of support.
  • I have hope that those who wish that hatred prevail can find peace in their heart to love instead.

Sometimes it’s overwhelming to be an adult who knows too much and who has lived through times unlike these. As a marketer and public relations professional, it’s my job to peruse current events while subconsciously absorbing emotion evoked by the news I read and the strife I feel.

If I immerse too much, I cry. The wonder and ponder I have for my child’s future and her children’s future give me pause. There’s ALWAYS hope with love to envelop it, and I can’t forget. You see, a survey and a poll will never influence my choice; I will make that choice myself with confidence.

The PPC Ad Fail; A Click That Generates No Customers

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ALT="PPC Ad, Shower, Soulati.com"Your PPC ad via Google that costs you a fortune? Yep, that one; it’s failing. I have a customer experience to prove it, too, and I bet you can cookie cutter my experience into your business.

My bathroom is under construction; has been for three months for various reasons (my contractor being the primary issue). The last major purchase I will make is the shower door.

One evening, equipped with iPad, I launched a Google search for ‘shower door, Dayton’ and was met with an entire first page of local search PPC ads. This is what Google has done to local search marketing — put all the paid ads in a row on the first page, relegating organic content to the second and third pages.

While it’s maddening for owners of owned content, it is a boondoggle for buyers of a PPC ad campaign, or it’s supposed to be. Here’s what happened and why your PPC ad is failing.

Your PPC Ad Fail

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