Given the state of the world, people crave connections and want to be contacted now. Here’s Howard Wolpoff with his take on engaging digitally.
Howard Wolpoff is the Chief Marketing Strategist at Profit Master Business Solutions. He is a marketing executive with over 25 years of experience helping hundreds of businesses create profitable solutions to drive sales, attract and maintain customers, and build a solid corporate brand.
He has helped launch three businesses: Chelsea Piers Sports and Entertainment, the Brooklyn Cyclones minor league baseball team and GRIDIRONNOW.COM, the premier site for SEC football.
He previously has served as the Director of Best Media in Houston, TX and the Vice President of Client Integration at Client Focused Media where he also produced four local TV shows and was a host on Buzz TV where he interviewed local business owners and leaders.
Interview with Howard Wolpoff
This section contains a summary of our interview with Howard. But, if you’d prefer to listen to the entire interview, our Spotify Podcast will be embedded below the summary.
Nowadays, a lot of people have realized how valuable digital strategies are. Especially with the Coronavirus preventing us from engaging with their customers face-to-face, we have to be ready.
It starts with your website- it is so important to have an effective website. It should be welcoming and a place to have conversations. Its headlines need to be a reflection of who you are. It has to have an engaging pitch of what you do. Howard recommends presenting an enticing offer and having a place for people to receive additional information, like a subscription box.
Your website is your #1 salesperson and it has to perform like so.
With the border being blocked in different places, people want to be contacted now. So it’s our job to figure out the best strategy to interact with people. We have to communicate, we have to be present and engaging, and we have to be consistent. The only warning Howard has is to not over-bombard people with information. That has the opposite effect and puts people off instead.
This is where technology like having a Q&A section, polls, contests, and chatbots come in. As long as we keep it in line with what we do, it’s fine. And at this point, we’re allowed to take risks and test things out. Maybe we can have some fun with our chatbots and give them some personality. Maybe we can try out some email campaigns. Try things out, take some risks, figure out what’s right, and then nurture it.
There’s always going to be a role for data, analytics, and AI when crafting a marketing strategy. We need data and analytics to figure out what is and isn’t working. As well as who is visiting the website, their demography, why they’re on the website, at what hours, etc. We need to know this so we can nurture them.
Unfortunately, people who are unaware of their website analytics are clueless and don’t know what stage they’re at when interacting with people. We need to be aware of your successes and failures. Howard finds that it’s actually dangerous when one fails, but doesn’t know why. So definitely incorporate AI into your digital strategy. The type of tech you decide to use really depends on your use case.
