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The Snapshot Report and the Executive Report are two of the most powerful tools at your disposal. Used together, they can not only help you sign more clients but retain them. What is the difference between the Snapshot Report and the Executive Report? The short answer is that they are used at different points in your relationship: The Snapshot Report is used before you've formed a business relationship to pitch your services and products to prospects. The Executive Report is used after you have a business relationship to give them insights into the state of their online presence. Snapshot Report The Snapshot Report is a marketing needs assessment that uncovers a prospect’s performance in six categories: business listings, reviews, social media, website, advertising, SEO, and eCommerce. Use the Snapshot Report to start conversations with your prospects, highlight gaps in their marketing, and propose optimal solutions. Resource: Cheat Sheet for Snapshot Report Executive Report The Executive Report is your client’s single source of truth for the state of their online presence. It gives your clients a rollup of everything that’s happening across all of their digital marketing channels in the last week or month. This report is white-labeled, so it automatically appears under your brand. This automated report gives your clients a first-hand look at the return on their investment—it’s a great way to build trust, position yourself as an expert, and show how you’re delivering week over week. Resource: Executive Report Overview

Websites are critical to succeed in today's online marketplace, providing consumers a virtual doorway into your client's business. Similar to how you'd want physical customers to have a great experience in-store, their online visit should be just as enjoyable.  This is where the Snapshot Report's website section can help as it breaks down the key components required for a great online experience. Page experience is important for multiple reasons: Creating an enjoyable website experience helps to build stronger brand recognition with consumers.  If the business owner runs an ecommerce enabled website, a smooth page experience can lead to an increase in online sales.  These page experience metrics are important factors when it comes to Search Engine Optimization (SEO) strategies.  That last point is vital for business owners. Without a good website experience, they may not rank high within search engines, impacting their chances of being found by prospective customers.  The Snapshot Report breaks down website performance using Google's Core Web Vitals, the set of key indicators they use as ranking criteria.  What are Page Experience and the Core Web Vitals? Page experience measures aspects of how customers experience and interact with a website. By optimizing for these factors, business owners can create delightful experiences across all web browsers and devices. This can lead to more engaged consumers, increases in sales, and a strong brand affinity.  Core Web Vitals are a set of real-world, user-centered metrics that can help to quantify key factors of a user's experience. They focus on 3 areas: speed, responsiveness, and visual stability. Google combines these factors in determining search ranking as they help provide a holistic picture of page experience.  Snapshot Report Homepage Content Within the Snapshot Report, we first give a look at the homepage content for your clients website. This will show if key business information is found on your client's website. Having easy access to this information creates a smooth page experience for visitors and is essential when it comes to search engine ranking.  Snapshot Report Website Performance Overall Grades - The Snapshot Report breaks down performance for both Mobile and Desktop. Both grades can be seen at the top of the section, along with an image of how they appear on both devices. NOTE: If needed, salespeople have the ability to turn off either the desktop or mobile version within the Snapshot Report. Visit our support article to learn more about customizing the Snapshot Report.  Page Speed - To the right of the device image you'll find page speed. This measures how quickly the content of your client's website is visually displayed during page load.  Large Content - This metric measures how long it takes for the largest element within view to load for site visitors.  Interactivity - This measures how long it takes the client's website to respond after a user engages with an on-site element.  Visual Stability - This will measure any unexpected shirts in your website layout. This can be caused by site elements loading out of sync.  NOTE: If the Snapshot Report has been customized to only show desktop or mobile, then that will be reflected in these metrics by only showing how that particular device measures up.  Below the Core Web Vital scores, you'll find a more detailed report on what should be fixed on your client's website for both desktop and mobile devices.  If your client has the ability to make changes on their own, you can provide this detailed look at what needs to be fixed as an additional value for the Snapshot Report. Or if you offer website services, this can be an effective talking point about how much you can help them improve their website experience. 

Vendasta enables Partners to review and manage updates to their clients’ Google Business Profiles (GBP) directly within the Admin portal. This feature gives Partner's control over GBP updates, ensuring the information displayed aligns with the clients’ preferences and maintains consistency across platforms. How It Works When Google updates a client’s GBP, you’ll see these updates listed in the Admin portal. You can then take the following actions: Approve Changes: Accept Google’s updates, which will sync the updated information across your client’s GBP and any other publishers connected through Local SEO. Reject Changes: Reject Google’s updates, which will trigger a new sync to republish the original data you or your client have deemed correct. This process ensures accuracy while adhering to Google’s Terms of Service, which require user involvement to overwrite GBP data programmatically. FAQs Q: Why can’t updates be automatically pushed to Google? A: Google's Terms of Service prohibit automatic overwrites of GBP data. To ensure compliance, all updates must be reviewed and manually approved or rejected by a user. For more details, see: Google Business Profile Help Q: What is required to enable this feature? A: To see GBP updates in the Admin portal, the following conditions must be met: The client’s GBP must be authenticated. Local SEO must be active. Sync must be enabled for the business. Q: Why is this feature available for Partners but not for clients? A: Most Partners manage GBP updates as part of their services for their clients. Consolidating this functionality in the Admin portal allows Partners to manage updates for multiple businesses more efficiently.  For more information on managing GBP updates please contact Vendasta Support. 

Partners can find out what technology their prospect is using to manage their business online and reveal the tech stack behind any website to identify potential gaps in the current setup. What’s included? The technology section displays the technology stack and marketing stack your clients are using on the website. Are there opportunities for you to offer better solutions? Are they using a website solution that slows down their SEO efforts? Such as Squarespace or Wix? Gain valuable insights into their technology needs before approaching the prospect, empowering you to offer targeted solutions that align with their business goals. Is this Section Automatically Included?  This section will be enabled automatically if you're currently running with the default configuration. If you want to disable the section, you can go to “Administration” > “Customize” > “Sales” > “Edit Default Snapshot Template.” From here, uncheck the checkbox at the top of the “Technology” section. NOTE: This will only affect new Snapshot Reports. If you have already created one for your prospect, you will need to refresh it for this section to appear. If you've customized the layout, you will need to make sure you enable it first before refreshing the report. 

The Business profile page is an important component of a business's digital presence. It allows you and your clients to update all of their relevant business information such as hours, location, and phone number, and keep that information in sync across the platform, and the web. How do I access the Business Profile Page? Once your clients log in to their Business App account, they can access this page easily by going to My Business > Business Profile. Business Profile stays in sync across products. The Business Profile is also accessible from other products if they are active on the account, and editing the profile in one place will update it everywhere. Local SEO Reputation Management It’s also connected to the account in Partner Center, and editing it there will keep the business profile up to date.

Clients with multiple Facebook, Instagram, or X pages connected to the platform can view and select exactly which social page the data syncs to. Please note that the Instagram source selection does not have an edit button because it is managed by the Facebook source selection.  How do Multiple Social Connections work in Local SEO? If a client has connected multiple social pages through the Business App or a product like Reputation Management or Social Marketing, they will see those accounts reflected in Local SEO. On the Listing Sync tab found within Local SEO, click on the desired source. From here, the side panel will appear, and you can select which of the connected pages you would like to sync to. Select the 'Sync to' button, and you are set! 

The Snapshot Report is a marketing needs assessment that uncovers a prospect’s performance in seven key categories: business listings, reviews, social media, website, advertising, SEO, and eCommerce. Use the Snapshot Report to start conversations with your prospects, highlight gaps in their marketing, and propose optimal solutions. Check out the cheat sheet below for useful tips. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1qPPOK_MTjw2BwT70FTLToLKzuw4wXx1u/view?usp=drive_link       

Clickable.bio for Instagram is a feature for Social Marketing Pro that helps clients drive traffic from their Instagram gallery to their website or online store so they can capture more qualified leads, convert these leads to customers, and grow their business. Clickable.bio turns Instagram posts into a gallery of images that redirect to your client’s online store or website. Why is Clickable.bio important? The main goal of any marketing effort is to generate more revenue for your client’s business. Social media is a cost-effective way of driving traffic to their online store or website so they can capture more leads, convert them into customers, and ultimately, increase their sales. Instagram has the highest user engagement rate because of its algorithm. In fact, 83% of Instagram users discover new products and services on the platform. However, they can be quickly distracted by other businesses’ posts and content. If you can't direct your clients’ followers to their website in a simple way, they will find a different business to purchase from on Instagram, Google, Amazon, or other marketplaces. Through Social Marketing Pro’s Clickable.bio feature, you can drive followers directly from your clients’ Instagram gallery to their website so these followers can instantly and easily make important transactions, such as purchasing a product, booking an appointment, or filling out a lead form.  How does Clickable.bio work? Clickable.bio transforms your Instagram posts into a clickable gallery of images that turns social fans into paying customers. It is available for free on any Social Marketing Pro account. Just set up your Clickable.bio page in Social Marketing, link your URL in your Instagram bio, and add links to each Instagram post. Below are the detailed steps to help you get started.    Set up a Clickable.bio Page Compose an Instagram Post Frequently Asked Questions Set up a Clickable.bio Page Make sure your Instagram account is connected to Social Marketing. If you haven’t connected your Instagram account, you can do so through Settings > Connect Accounts. Before you connect it, ensure your Instagram account is connected to a Facebook page. Go to Tools > Clickable.bio. Click the Set up button to begin setting up your page in three easy steps. Step 1: Claim Clickable.bio URL Your Clickable.bio URL is the URL that you will be including in your Instagram bio. This will be pre-populated with the business name attached to your Social Marketing Pro account, but you can change it as long as the URL you want has not yet been claimed by other businesses. Clickable.bio URLs are formatted as “businessname.clickable.bio” (ex: fashionbyjane.clickable.bio). You can change this URL in the future. Click Next to proceed. Step 2: Customize your Clickable.bio Page When users tap on your Clickable.bio link in your bio, it will take them to your Clickable.bio page.  Provide details for each of these fields. As you make changes, you will be able to see a preview of your page on the right side. Business name - the name of the business that appears at the top of the page Profile image - this shows up above the business name. We recommend using the same profile image as your Instagram account. Do you want to have a button on your Clickable.bio page that takes users directly to your website? Yes  Type some text for your button - we recommend a call to action like “Visit website” Type in your website’s URL and save the changes. No a button will not appear on your Clickable.bio page Click Next to proceed. Step 3: Paste your custom URL in your Instagram Bio Click the Copy link button to copy your URL.  Click the Go to Instagram Profile button. This will open Instagram as a new tab on your browser. Make sure you are logged in as your business Instagram account. On your Instagram Profile page, click on the Edit Profile button. Paste the URL on the Website field. Go back to the tab with Social Marketing and click Finish. Congratulations! You have successfully set up your Clickable.bio Page. Compose an Instagram Post You can create a post through the Compose button on the sidebar or through  Tools > Clickable.bio > Compose a post. Make sure your Instagram is selected, and create your post as usual. Don’t forget to remind followers to check the link in your bio. You can add text like “See link in bio” in your post. You will notice a new section at the bottom: Instagram options. Here, you can add whatever website URL you want your post to link to. Publish or schedule your post. It’s that simple! Your Clickable.bio page is automatically updated once the post is published. Now, when users see your post, they can simply go back to your profile and tap on your Clickable.bio link. This opens your Clickable.bio page. Users can then tap on the post image they like, and they will be taken directly to the link you’ve included in your post.     FAQs Q: Can you add website links to previously published Instagram posts?  A: Adding links is only available after you set up Clickable.bio. After set up, you can add links to all your new Instagram posts. Q: Can you edit the website links for published Clickable.bio Instagram posts? A: As of the moment, you can't, but we will be adding this functionality in the future. Q: Can you use shortened URLs for the website links? A: You can use any type of website link for Clickable.bio Instagram posts. Q: Can you change your Clickable.bio URL? A: Change of heart? No problem. Simply go to My Posts > Clickable.bio > Appearance and Settings to change your custom URL. Q: Will the Clickable.bio page affect a business’s SEO? A: The Clickable.bio page is not crawled by a search engine so it does not compete with the business’s website searchability and SEO ranking. Q: What happens to an existing Clickable.bio page when a business disconnects its Instagram account? A: Their Clickable.bio page will be saved until they either reconnect the account or delete their old data.

The Business Category ensures that all sources and industry statistics are relevant to a particular account. You can enter more than one Business Category, but only the first will be used for setting visibility sources. All Vendasta customers have access to a category system based off of Google's 4000+ categories. As you can see in the screenshot above, you can select sub-categories to fine-tune the Business Category. Most categories go only two levels deep. The advantage of selecting more specific categories is that listing sources will be better tailored to these categories, resulting in a better experience for the client. Why is the business category important? Choosing the correct business category can significantly boost a local business' Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and search engine results page (SERP) ranking. This is especially true for Google Business Profile, as there are over 4000 categories to choose from that can either make it easier or harder for potential customers to find that business.  For example, a local Pizza Restaurant can set its primary category as "Pizza Restaurant" and may appear in search results for Restaurants, Italian Restaurants, or Pizza. It's important to choose a more specific category rather than a vague one whenever possible. Choosing a category like "Nail Salon" rather than just "Salon" is more likely to grab the attention of those looking for nail care rather than a haircut. If there is no suitable specific category, we advise you to choose a more general primary category.  How to change the business category Navigate to Partner Center > Accounts > Manage Accounts > Select the desired account > Edit > Under the Basics section, select the primary and additional categories.  For a full overview of the new Business Categories, you can reference the comprehensive spreadsheet attached.

Note: This article was created to support the integration phase for Marketplace Vendors. If you're ready to get started as a vendor, we'd love to hear from you. Apply to join the Marketplace! Requirements Checklist General Marketing Category Product Name Banner Image / Card Image Icon Image Short Description / Tagline End User Marketing Long Description User Benefits (Key Selling Points) FAQs Gallery Images Files (Resources) Reseller (Partner) Marketing Long Description Key Selling Points FAQs Gallery Images Files (Resources) General Settings: Category, Product Name, Card Image, Icon Image Types of Marketing and where they appear End-user Public Store in Business App, & embedded on resellers website. Reseller Discover products General needs for positioning, assume the reseller can sell anything, but won’t spend a considerable amount of time learning about your product.  Vendasta cannot be mentioned anywhere in reseller marketing or URLs used for your support and sales calendars. Reseller marketing is turned off by default. When you turn it on, it will auto-duplicate what is in the end-user marketing Category It is important to select the correct category for your product as this is how a Reseller will find your product to sell on the Partner Center Discover Products page.  In Vendor Center, you will see the category selection here within the Reseller (Partner) facing marketing:   Note:  You can only select one main category and one sub-category.   Product Name The name of your product is one of the first things both the Reseller and the End-User will see. Make it memorable (unique and easy to remember) Keep it short and simple Your product name should not exceed 30 characters. The best names are between 10 and 20 characters.   Card Image (Banner Image) The card image is one of the first things both Resellers and End-Users will see when clicking into a product or exploring a public store. When designing your card image, use a professional graphic that communicates the value of your product. Below are three examples of ideal card images: It should work for both Resellers and end-users Don’t include text Avoid white space Required format: 1124px x 372px; jpg or png (3:1 aspect ratio) Maximum size: 5 MB   Icon Image When Resellers are browsing in Marketplace > Discover Products, the icon image is one of the first things they will see, so it is important to make a strong impression that communicates your product's quality and purpose. When creating your icon image, keep the following in mind: Keep it simple and abstract. Use recognizable symbols, but be unique. Do not use text. Avoid using the same icon for multiple Products. Ensure it fits in a circle. Do not use GIFS Recommended format: 240px by 240px (1:1 aspect ratio); jpg. or png. A circle.  Maximum size: 5 MB   Short Description / Tagline Your Product’s short description is an opportunity to make a powerful first impression beyond your Product’s name. Make it memorable Do not use the tagline for other purposes, such as special offers or pricing Do not include your company or product name Use correct punctuation Keep it under 75 characters The following examples explain the Product, what it does and how it provides value. They are concise and include punctuation.       Book more customers and save time managing them.    Seamlessly capture leads with our wi-fi-powered customer engagement platform.    Quickly increase website rank with onsite and offsite SEO tactics for 5 keywords.   End-User Marketing End-user marketing is marketing that targets the Reseller’s client. As such, you will want to format it in such a way that you are speaking directly to the customer. Do not mention Vendasta anywhere in the material as it will break white label within the Vendasta platform. Below is what the End User Marketing Page looks like within Business App:   Long Description Provide a concise and captivating description that communicates what your app is, how it’s unique, and why end-users will love it. Some tips: Use familiar terminology Keep it under 3000 characters Use a video! A short 30 to 90 second marketing video to describe your offering. Use HTML formatting if necessary. If your description requires formatting or multiple paragraphs, use HTML tags. Otherwise, your content will appear as plain text. Do not copy/paste images. Use the Insert/Edit Image within the WYSIWYG editor to include the image source. Do not include pricing   User Benefits (Key Selling Points) Provide 3-6 unique value propositions about your Product. Consider explaining:  How your Product solves the end user’s problems. How your Product delivers specific benefits. Why end-users should choose you over your competition.  Keep each point under 500 characters FAQs FAQs are the final section on your product page. This is your opportunity to provide end-users with the nitty-gritty details they may need to know in order to make a buying decision. Tips: You MUST explain: Any unique onboarding requirements, or expectations  How user seats work if applicable  Consider answering: What languages are supported? What countries are supported? What happens after the sale? Is there support available? Answer real questions. Include questions that real customers have asked or questions that you anticipate real customers might ask. Use HTML formatting if necessary. If your FAQs require formatting or multiple paragraphs, use HTML tags. Otherwise, your content will product will appear as plain text. Do not use pricing information  Gallery Images The Gallery section is for screenshots of your Product. Include professional screenshots or images to showcase the user experience. Consider the following when adding in your gallery images: It is shared between the End-User and Reseller marketing, so ensure images uploaded can be consumed by both personas.  Use a high-resolution monitor to take your screenshots. Don’t combine multiple screenshots into one image. Only use graphic overlays when you need to provide extra context. Avoid including pricing in your screenshots, as pricing is already shown on your product page.    If you are providing a service that does not have a user interface, you could upload some images that give a visual representation of how your service work. Recommended format: 1920px wide by 1080px high (16:9 aspect ratio); jpg or png with a maximum file size of 5 MB.   Files (Resources) At this point, end-users have read through your description and selling points and they’re interested. The Resources section is your chance to showcase the user experience.  Upload at least 5 pieces of marketing material Videos Brochures Case studies Sample reporting Be professional with your file names Make sure all resources are specific to your Product Make sure Vendasta is not mentioned in the name of your file. Reseller (Partner Marketing) Once you have finished your End User Marketing, you will want to toggle on your Reseller Marketing. The material you’ve added into your End User Marketing will be copied over.   As such, you will want to change the format in such a way that you are speaking directly to the Reseller. Do not mention Vendasta anywhere in the material as it will break white label within the Vendasta platform. This marketing should explain the basics of your offering and why they should consider selling it to their clients (end users).  Below is what the Partner Marketing page looks like. Note that aside from the above, the main differences between the two are: The formatting and information regarding which persona you're displaying the information to. The end-user will see retail pricing and the reseller will see wholesale pricing. The Need Help? section is only completed in the Reseller marketing. Reseller marketing needs to be infographic based - our Resellers and sales teams will be navigating to see the distributed product in the marketplace and need to immediately understand how to sell your product. Also include videos, battle cards, & case studies. We are now requiring vendors to provide a walkthrough video on how to sell your product.   Long Description While a lot of the material on your Reseller Marketing Page can be the same as the material on the End User marketing page, you will still want to make a few revisions to the Product Description that the Resellers will see. You will want to make sure that it targets the Reseller, focusing on why they will want to resell your services and how it will benefit their clients. You should also focus on how your product compares to competitors inside the Vendasta Marketplace. Explain the basics of your offering Why the Reseller should consider selling it to the end user A competitor matrix that highlights the key differentiating features between your solution and your competitors. Do not copy/paste images. Use the Insert/Edit Image within the WYSIWYG editor to include the image source. Key Selling Points Instead of Key User Benefits, the Reseller Marketing page needs Key Selling Points. How your Product solves the Reseller's or their client's problems. How your Product delivers specific benefits. Why Resellers should choose you over your competition.  3-5 core differentiators around what makes your product unique. Keep each point under 600 characters. FAQs The FAQ section on the Reseller Marketing page should focus less on questions end-users have asked and instead focus on questions that real Resellers have asked or questions that you anticipate real Resellers might ask. Avoid using the FAQs as key selling points. Do not include pricing information in the FAQs. Some general questions you should consider answering: What languages are supported? What countries are supported? What happens after the sale? (Service Level Agreement) Files & Documents The files and documents section is your chance to provide Resellers with the sales materials they need. In addition to the case studies, videos, case studies, brochures, and sample reporting you’ve added to the End User Marketing, you’ll want to include files and documents that are specifically for the Reseller's Sales Team, such as: Sell Sheets Sales presentations and scripts Competitor matrix/graph. Please be sure to educate your team on the competing products in the Vendasta Marketplace. Understanding the competitive landscape is essential when speaking to partners and our sales teams. A brochure (or one-pager), sales presentation, and case study (or testimonial) are all great assets for Reseller Marketing. Recommended format: Almost any file type is accepted—pdf, jpg, png, mp4, docx, pptx.   Maximum size: 30 MB per file Glossary MarketplaceAn online marketplace of products and services that are available for channel Partners to purchase and resell to their SMB clients. Vendor CenterVendor Center is the area of the platform where Vendors can go to build out their marketplace offering and connect with Resellers. Partner MarketingThe marketing page displays to the Reseller. End-User MarketingThe marketing page that displays to the End-User. Channel PartnerA Channel Partner is a reseller who has signed up under Vendasta’s subscription model and will resell Marketplace products to their clients. In the Vendasta ecosystem, Channel Partner, Reseller, and Agency are used interchangeably. SMBAn SMB is a small-medium-sized business. Most of Vendasta’s Resellers sell to SMBs. In the Vendasta Ecosystem, SMB, end-user, and client are used interchangeably.

Note: As of February 21st, 2025, Customer Voice has become a legacy Vendasta product. Start using Reputation Management Premium to automatically collect reviews and NPS via email and SMS. The Customer Voice product is an independent product but works better when associated with other products on the platform.  The following products can be associated with Customer Voice:  1. Local SEO: This product is needed for the client to have a 'My Listing' page where reviews can be collected and managed with the help of the customer voice template. 2. Reputation Management: This product speaks to Customer Voice, especially the review sources. For instance, if you have the Reputation Management Standard product, the listing URLs for Facebook and Google are automatically pulled from Reputation Management and synced to Customer Voice and you will not be required to add the URLs manually. (Note: The Listings must be present in Reputation Management for this to happen). With Reputation Management Pro, you're able to add more review sources.

Install a web chat widget on your website that uses an AI assistant to answer questions 24/7 about your business, and capture leads for you and your team to follow up with. The AI-assist Web Chat Widget comes pre-bundled into Inbox Pro (along with SMS messaging) or can be purchased as a standalone product. Why is AI-assisted lead capture web chat widget important? Even if a business is busy, they can benefit from a trustworthy AI assistant working 24/7 on their website to chat with website visitors, capture contact information so the business can follow up later via SMS or email, and turn them into a customer. AI-assisted web chat is a feature of Inbox Pro product, available in the Vendasta Marketplace. It's also available for Partners in the Partner Center Inbox. What does the AI Assistant do? Once installed on a business website, the chat widget will appear to website visitors and encourage them to chat, with the goal of capturing a lead for the business. Conversations will appear in Inbox in Business App, where a business person can respond to the lead via SMS, and try to turn them into a customer. AI Assistant Behavior & Goals By default, the AI assistant "just works" by responding to any messages from website visitors immediately, while bring a good representative of the business. It has these primary goals: Answer any questions about the business: The AI assistant will respond to questions if it confidently can find the answer in the knowledge it has been trained on (See knowledge training instructions below.) By default, the AI assistant knows basic information about the business from the business profile. It can also be given any additional text knowledge, like answers to FAQs, pricing, products, services, shipping info, or anything in text format. The assistant will not answer questions it does not know the answer to, but instead let the lead know someone from the business will get back to them as soon as possible. Capture the lead's contact info: The AI assistant will engage with a website visitor with a goal to understand their needs, and attempt to get their name and contact info (mobile number, with a fallback to email address) so the conversation can be continued even if the lead leaves the website. Once contact information has been collected, Business App will alert the business that they have a new lead via na email notification. Respond in the language the person is using: The AI assistant can reply in over 40 languages, including English, French, Spanish and many more. The AI assistant will default to whatever language the website is in, determined by the language being used in the browser settings. The language of the welcome greeting will also change language based on the browser/website, unless it has been customized.  What can I customize? Color: It’s possible to customize the color of the chat widget, to match the website it’s installed on. Set a primary color of the widget, as well as the secondary color of the Send button and text bubbles, so the widget can match any business website and brand. Web Chat greeting: The message that appears at the top of the web chat widget that website visitors first see, to encourage them to interact with the chat widget. AI knowledge: Give your web chat AI assistant additional context and knowledge about the business it’s representing. Learn how to set this up below. Profile Information: Add a name and profile photo that will appear to visitors of the website in the web chat. Welcome Greeting: This appears on the header of the chat widget to encourage website visitors to engage Initial AI Message: Add a custom message that gets sent to greet visitors. When they open the web chat, the custom message will appear after 0.5 seconds.  Phone Configuration: Easily set and update phone number settings for each of your clients to specify how received calls and SMS messages should be handled. (Inbox Settings > Phone and SMS > Configure.) Find these options via Business App > Administration > Inbox Settings > Configure Web Chat. Give your AI assistant business profile knowledge The AI assistant can be given knowledge about a business from the business profile, to be able to answer questions about what the business does, where it's located, its hours, and how to contact them. This is enabled by default, but can be removed as a knowledge source if desired.These fields are shared with the AI from the account's business profile: Business Name Address and/or Service Areas Website Booking URL Phone Number Categories Hours Services Offered Short Description Long Description Social Media URLs Give your AI assistant additional knowledge from any text source Navigate to Business App > Administration > Inbox Settings > Web Chat Settings > AI Assistant. Click on any title to see the knowledge that the AI has access to. Click Manage Knowledge to go to the centralized area in Business App where new knowledge can be added. You can write or paste and text information into a new knowledge source, and then select it to make it accessible to your AI assistant. The AI assistant will also show it's source material below the message.  BOOKING LINK TIP: If the business uses a booking link to let customer book appointments themselves, add the following sentence to the custom knowledge and the AI will encourage visitors to visit the booking link."Clients can see availability, pricing and services on our booking link: [linkhere.com]" Q: Can the AI assistant scrape websites?Yes! You can read more about this here.  Q: Can I upload files like PDF or DOC?Not yet, only raw text can be saved. Copy and paste important text from your PDF or DOC into the text entry field to make it available to the AI. Q: Is this just in Business App?This is also available for Partners in Partner Center under Inbox Settings! How is a user notified about a new lead? When your AI assistant is successful in capturing a name and contact info, a few things will happen automatically: A new contact is added to the CRM, with the captured info: First name, last name, phone number, and email address. If a user updates their contact info in the AI-assisted web chat (like for example, if they make a mistake), the latest contact info will be updated on the contact automatically. A "New lead" email notification is sent to users of the account, that have the notification enabled (this notification is enabled by default for Business App users.) How to test Web Chat right now A fully working AI-assisted web chat is available to test for any account that has Local SEO and Inbox active. Open Local SEO from the desired account, navigate to the My Listing tab > View My Listing. From here, you will see the Web Chat Lead Capture Widget pop up, and you can demo this feature before you install it. How to enable or disable the web chat in My Listing The 'Show AI-assisted Web Chat Lead Capture' setting will be turned on by default, but if you need to turn it off, navigate to Partner Center > Administration > Customize > General Product Settings > Local SEO and check off Show AI-assisted Web Chat Lead Capture. How to install the Inbox Pro Web Chat widget on your website To install your web chat widget on your website: After Inbox Pro is activated, go to Administration > Inbox Settings > Web Chat Configuration – and set up your web chat widget. After configuring, you can copy and paste your install code into the element of your website, typically just before the closing tag. Feel free to add the chat widget to multiple sites if needed!    WordPress OPTION 1: To install on a WordPress site using a plugin Download the web chat widget installation plugin from Administration > Inbox Settings > Web Chat Configuration > Installation. Navigate to your WordPress backend admin, usually at your-website.com/wp-admin Go to Plugins > Add new plugin Upload the zip file containing the plugin you just downloaded. Activate the plugin. Your web chat widget should now appear on every page of your website. OPTION 2: To install using widget code on a WordPress site with Divi theme: Copy your web chat installation code into your clipboard. Navigate to your WordPress backend admin, usually at your-website.com/wp-admin Go to Divi > Theme Options > Integrations Paste the code into the section titled “Add code to the < head > of your blog.” Save changes. Your web chat widget should now be live on your website, on all pages. Shopify Copy the web chat widget Javascript code from Business App > Administration > Inbox Settings > Web Chat Configuration Locate your Online Store page on Shopify Click the menu and navigate to “Edit code” Find your “theme.liquid” code file. Locate the closing tag and paste the code above it. Don’t forget to save your code! Congratulations, your Web Chat widget has been installed on your website. Now you can test it. Other Websites To install on another website, you'll want to place your web chat widget install code into the header of your site, typically right before the closing < /head >. Common web chat issues Issue: I don’t see the web chat on my site, even though it’s installed in the right placeIf the Web Chat code is installed on your website and enabled in Inbox Settings, and you cannot see it on your website, the most likely next cause is cache or plugin issues. You can try additional steps on your website to clear cache or any blocking plugins to get the web chat to appear.Caching issuesMost websites use multiple types of caches that help the site to load faster. You’ll want to reset the caches, to get your latest website changes to appear. Browser cache – to tell your browser to load the website without using local device cache Shift+command+R (Mac) Ctrl + F5 (PC) Website hosting cache – clear the cache that the Website product manages, by clicking the Flush Cache button on the Website overview page Divi CSS cache – Disable the Static CSS File Generation cache in your Divi Theme options > Builder > Advance Other Cache plugins – Ensure there are no other cache plugins activated on your website; if so, disable them. Google reCAPTCHA badge is in the way When reCAPTCHA is being used on a website form, this badge will appear in the bottom right of a webpage – which could be in the way of the web chat widget.You can hide the badge completely on your website with some custom CSS; just make sure to follow Google’s required alternative ways to inform the user that reCAPTCHA is being used. Read more: https://developers.google.com/recaptcha/docs/faq#id-like-to-hide-the-recaptcha-badge.-what-is-allowed To hide the reCAPTCHA badge, go to your website CSS editor: Log in to your WordPress dashboard Go to Appearance » Customizer Click Additional CSS Add the snippet below:.grecaptcha-badge {visibility: hidden!important;} Save and preview your website. I can't type a certain letter or the "Space" key when trying to type in the widget. Some plugins can interfere with the ability to type in the widget because they “hijack” that key for their own functions. For example, website admins will have trouble typing messages into the web chat widget when the WordPress jetpack plugin is enabled, because it hijacks some of the keys to open and close their own chat functions. Disabling the JetPack plugin will restore the function of these keys. Smooth scrolling website features can also interfere with the ability of your website visitors to type the ‘space’ key with the web chat widget. If you have the Divi theme on a WordPress website, you can disable smooth scrolling by going to Divi > Theme Options and disabling the Smooth Scrolling functions.

DrRissysWriting.com is ranked #1 in PR and top ten in Social Media and SEO for New York and New Jersey. Dr. Morissa Schwartz (aka Dr. Rissy) has been featured on Forbes and MTV. She speaks professionally about inspiring others through words and entrepreneurship, and through her publishing, was named the “Voice of Generation Z” by Community Magazine.  Dr. Rissy talks with George Leith about 360-degree marketing; SEO, Social Media, Ads, PR, and how these 4 pillars need to work together in your marketing strategy. She discusses trials and tribulations such as lacking confidence in your content creation and the 95% "no" response rate she got when approaching publishers before she became a proprietor with GenZ Publishing. This episode will make you reimagine what it means to think "inside" the box, "outside" the box, or what this box people keep speaking of is? Is there even a box? Dr. Rissy doesn't think so. All this and more in this episode of the Conquer Local Podcast. Conquer Local is presented by Vendasta. We have proudly served 5+ million local businesses through 50,000+ channel partners. Learn more about Vendasta and we can help you build your dream agency or learn more about Vendasta’s Affiliate Program and how our listeners (like yourself) are making up to $10,000 off referrals. Join the conversation in the Conquer Local Community and keep the learning going in the Conquer Local Academy. Introduction George: Welcome to this edition of the Conquer Local Podcast. Our guest this week, Dr. Morissa Schwartz, is the founder and CEO at Dr. Rissy's Writing, and the proprietor at GenZ Publishing. And when we started to do our research on Dr. Rissy, we found that this individual knows how to help local businesses. And her passion around helping local businesses is going to come out in this episode, I guarantee it. So what we want to learn more about is how she became ranked number one in PR, and in the top 10 in social media and SEO for New York and New Jersey on Thumbtack, and keep in mind, that's one of the biggest markets on the planet. She's been featured on Forbes, and she's been named The Voice of Generation Z by Community Magazine. One of our first doctors on the show, Dr. Morissa Schwartz, coming up next on the Conquer Local Podcast. I am going to learn a lot, and I know you're going to learn a lot in the next few minutes on this episode of the Conquer Local Podcast. Dr. Morissa Schwartz, joining us from New York City, and from here on in it's Dr. Rissy. Good day, welcome to the show. Dr. Rissy: Thank you so much, happy to be here. George: So in the preamble, I gave a little bit of an overview, but Morissa, I'd love to hear your words, your voice, just a little bit of an overview of you and your organization. And then we're going to talk all about content. I'm really excited to dig into this with you today. Dr. Rissy: Yeah, absolutely. So I own Dr. Rissy's Writing and Marketing. We're a 360-Marketing company, focused on helping businesses and startups that help their communities. I grew up my parents, mom/pop carpet shops, so, you know, helping small businesses and startups, it's in my blood and I love it, I love the atmosphere. I also own a book publishing company called GenZ Publishing. And yeah, that's me in a nutshell. Growing Up In Local Business George: Well, when I went to your website, and we're going to put all of the contact information so that our listeners can learn more about you in the show notes, but when I went to your website, I like, what a roster! You have graphic designers and writers, and you know, that organization that you've built, pretty impressive to say the least. But I'd to talk about this passion of yours around local business, because I think you and I share the same passion. In that family business and the businesses that you folks support, it really is about helping those local businesses, you know, with the digital marketing they need to do to thrive. I'd love to learn more about that mission that you're on with your team, and how many people in your organization. Dr. Rissy: Yeah, so I have a team of about 25, and I mean, small business, so as I mentioned, a girl from my parent's shop, last night, even, I went down to Main Street where I grew up and my mother reminded me, you were at the store everyday. Like before school, after school, I was at their store and it was nice. I would get to see the community. And, you know, I had a little mini office that was just really, a really great experience. So last night I was at this car show at my parent's, run in town, and just got to see the community members and the joy that is brought to them by this community event, not to mention the, you know, the money they raise goes to charity. And it just shows how these small businesses, they are the backbone of communities, they do make a difference, and being able to work with them and, you know, kind of put the humanity back in online work, it's a really great feeling. 'Cause, you know, a lot of the time you can be working on a computer and forget almost that you're, you know, there's another person on the other side of that screen. So I always like to have that kind of small town and community minded thought process when, you know, when I'm working with my clients. To Think Outside Or Inside The Box? How About We Just Ditch The Box. George: Yeah, I try to remember back to the, you know, May of last year, when we were driving down the street or maybe walking down the street and there was just nobody. And all of that buzz, you know, we were driving the other night and saw, you know, two kid's teams playing baseball, and just seeing those local communities back in action again, I know that it's been impacted in your markets the same way it has been in ours, but seeing all that activity, we definitely missed it when it was gone, that's for sure. So what, if we were to, in a nutshell, put one line out there that they could take away from this episode and put to use, what would be one piece of advice that you would give? Dr. Rissy: To realize that you don't just have to think outside the box, realize that there is no box. You know, a lot of people think, oh, because it's been done this way before, this is how it always has to be. And tradition's important, but there also comes a time for innovation and realizing that you can do things differently. So I always like to, you know, realize that there was no box. And I think my business is a testament to that. I started it, because when I was in high school, I went to a biomedical science academy, and I caught myself rushing through my biomedical science work to do freelance writing and editing work for clients and to write my own books. And I thought, hmm, I think I have a passion for this instead. And everybody said to me, oh, you know, you can't do it. You got to get an internship. You have to get a job at the mall, well, all the friends that I had that had jobs at the mall, well, they hated it. So I wanted to do something different. So, you know, I started freelancing online and I realized, hey, I might be on something when a teacher of mine said, can you hook me up with a freelance gig online? That's great. And I'm thinking, wow, that's my teacher. Like I was in high school. My teacher was asking me to hook him up for a job. So that was my first time I realized that you really can not only think outside the box, create your own box, right? Like one box would have been, get a job at the mall, but one would have been, you know, intern somewhere, but no, you can make your own path. And I have enjoyed following that through every project that we do. Just, you know, make your own path. You don't have to do something just 'cause everybody else does. George: You know, when the team told me we'd landed the opportunity to have you on the show, I was saying, this is our first doctor that we've had on the show. And that doctorate in literature and your master's in communication, how important has that been as you've built out this organization? Dr. Rissy: I think it shows people that I'm a lifelong learner. I'm somebody who, you know, even after getting my doctorate, I got certified in this, We Thrive program, which is for female entrepreneurs, and it shows them everything from, you know, bookkeeping skills to how to keep your website safe. So I'm always learning more. So I think that's the biggest thing. It shows prospective clients that myself, my team, 'cause a lot of my team members also have advanced degrees. Actually I think 95% of them have advanced degrees. It shows that, you know, we are always educating. You need to do that to be competitive online, you know, because SEO, ads, social media, it changes so quickly, you need to adapt and learn. So I will say, I think it helps with that, but I don't think everybody needs to do that to have a successful business. I've learned more outside of the classroom than I have inside the classroom. I think the classroom gives you skills that you need to know to continue learning things on your own. But you know, it's definitely not prerequisite to have advanced degrees like that to be successful online. 360 Degree Marketing: Social Media, SEO, PR, Ads George: In your writings and content, I see you talk a lot about 360 degree marketing. What does that mean to you if we were to come up with a description? Dr. Rissy: Yeah, I divide it into four pillars. So you have social media, SEO, PR, and ads. And the four of those things go hand in hand. So some companies, they'll just do SEO or some will just do PR. The reason why we do all of them is because they feed into each other. So if you have good social media presence, it's going to bleed into your SEO, it's going to improve your SEO. Case in point, Dwayne Johnson is the number one celebrity on the planet. When you search his name, the first result that comes up is his Twitter profile. Twitter is great for SEO. Then you have PR when you, let's say you're on a podcast, you won't just go on the podcast and that's it. You put it on your social media so it's giving you great social media content. It also helps your SEO because the podcaster is going to put a backlink to your website, they're going to put your name on there. It's helping your SEO. And then of course, ads drives people to your social media, and to your website, which, you know, SEO and your Google ads go hand in hand, because if you have your keywords figured out, it's going to decrease your ad rates or your ad costs. So they really all go hand in hand. That's why we do all of those areas. George: You know, I'm glad that you're bringing that to light, that they do go hand to hand, because when I'm talking to a business owner and we're analyzing, what's working and what's not working, usually it's because they don't understand that all this works together, and it's not necessarily one tactic. You know, thanks for bringing up the Twitter one. That's a really good example. It's like, what the hell does social media have to do with SEO? But you just nailed it right there. It's a really important component, but it has to all work together. So those learnings, again, we're going to have links to your website and to your material where people can learn more about that. When your team is working with a business owner and trying to tell that story around, you know, the content and the message, and it all has to tie together, where do you feel that business owners should pay attention? If there was one area, I know it's all important, but if there's one area where it just keeps coming up, time and time again, that they're not getting, is there that area that needs to be addressed? Dr. Rissy: I think the biggest issue that I see with clients is just them not having enough confidence or fearing what people are going to judge. So I, for example, I had this amazing, I have this amazing artist, he's a musician, and he takes these beautiful photos and he would post them. And they just, he literally has the most aesthetically-pleasing Instagram I've ever seen, but he was so afraid of people's negative comments that he turned off commenting on his posts. And I said, you know, you're missing out on so much engagement. You could be growing so much more, but you're shutting people out of the conversation. Then on the other end of the spectrum, I have a client who is a great speaker, but he's too afraid to film himself. He says, oh, I don't know how to film myself on video. I feel uncomfortable with that, I'm not going to do it. So he puts out, you know, these blogs, which are great, but I know people will want to hear him talk, people like to see a face. So I think a lot of the time, people are their own worst enemies with things like that. It's just a matter of not being afraid of that judgment. And just put yourself out there, go on that, you know, go on that ledge and you'll see, you're not going to be thrown to the sharks. Like, it's it's okay, and you're doing yourself a disservice if you're not fully engaging with your audience. The Voice Of Generation Z: GenZ Publishing George: One of the passions that I know you have, and it's probably tied into this Community Magazine naming you The Voice of Generation Z, is your GenZ publishing, and helping those debut it, the writers that are debuting and emerging, or even underrepresented, where did that all come about? Because I know it's a very important component of your business. Dr. Rissy: Yeah, so I have always loved writing. Always had passion for writing, and I, in college, well, actually in high school, I had self published my first book and realized, oh shoot, you know, you need to market these things. In high school, I thought, oh, I'm a high school kid writing a book. They just sell themselves. They didn't. You know, nobody knew about it so they didn't sell themselves. So that was when I realized, okay, you need some more behind this. So in college I wrote another book and actually went to traditional publishing companies. I pitched my book to about a hundred publishers, and about 95 of them never even responded. It was a, it was like, did they not get the submission? Like, what is this? Four rejected, most of them saying, oh, you know, we, you know, we usually publish more established authors, a.k.a. older authors. One of them actually said we really don't want to publish people under the age of 40, because they don't have enough experience and things to say. It's like, wow, that's blunt. And then there was one publishing company that did publish it. So, I learned a lot from having a book published. I learned some things that, you know, are working well, and some things that really could be improved in the industry as a whole or, as a publisher, I want to try to improve some of those things, the best that I could. So the first thing that I instituted was, hey, we respond to everybody who submits a book. Like, that getting ignored by 95 of them, not a great feeling. I want authors to at least know that we received the work, but not only do we let them know that we received, that we let them know we read each work. So kind of, when you submit a query to us, you know you're going to get some kind of constructive criticism or not even criticism, constructive feedback back. So, you know, usually if we get, let's say we get a query where it's good, but they have some grammatical errors. We'll say something like, hey, your story is great. If you maybe hire an editor or use some editing software and, you know, resubmit, we might consider publishing it, that kind of thing. So that was something that I learned from my own experience of feeling how yucky it felt, not hearing back from people. And then from the folks who had the attitude of, oh, you're, you're 20 years old, you can't publish a book unless you're, you know, an A-list celebrity, we opened it up to any age, anybody who has a writing talent, let's do it. So that's why we call the GenZ Publishing. 'Cause it's showing we work with people who have innovative things to say. So, yeah, it's been great. We've published 115 books, mostly young adult, but we have memoirs as well. We've published poetry books, and it's been really fun. We have our first book being turned into a film right now. George: That's amazing. And it's amazing that that business was born out of a lousy customer experience. Dr. Rissy: Exactly. And most businesses seem to be right. It's a founder sees a problem and wants to fix it. George: No, and that's where some of the best ideas come from. That's great. And thanks for getting those authors a place to get their, you know, their works known, because I learned a lot from lots of authors under 40. So you dispelled the fake news that that publisher told you. Dr. Rissy: Right?! George: And you know, the 360-Marketing concept, I want to come back to that before we wrap things up. I, you know, these, when I go through the website and I see all of these great team members that you have, and I see the different things that you're tying together, I think that that lesson for businesses there, I think a lot of people are looking for this silver bullet and it's not. There is no silver bullet. It's a series of components that come together. And then how do I put it into a box? Well, no, you gotta really be outside the box because that box thing's a myth. And even if you get the one box figured out, there's going to be a different play tomorrow because the world is changing. So, you know, those components around 360, really, really important. If I wanted to get more Dr. Rissy, what's the best way to do that? Dr. Rissy: I'm on social media everywhere as Morissa Schwartz and Dr. Rissy, so literally wherever your favorite channel is, whether it's TikTok, Twitter, Instagram, just type in "Morissa" with an O. Morissa Schwartz or Dr. Rissy and you'll find me. And my website is drrissy.com. Dr. Rissy x MTV: Constantly Jump On Opportunity George: Well, we really appreciate your time today. And thanks for educating us on a 360-Marketing, and where businesses are falling down and where they might be able to find some opportunity. And I'm sure that our listeners will appreciate getting more- Oh, one more thing! There is one thing I wanted to ask you. You were on MTV. I found it when I was doing some research. Tell us about that. Dr. Rissy: Oh, so, you know, I grew up idolizing American Idol. Like that was the epitome of "you knew you made it" when you were on American idol, as a kid, right? So growing up, I knew I needed to be on one of those singing competition shows, and I kept auditioning and auditioning as soon as I was of age. So as soon as I was 16, which was like the age to be on one of those shows, I started auditioning. And at 19, I did a video audition for this new MTV show, which was supposed to be their version of The Voice or American Idol, it was going to be a big thing. And I submitted a tape and they liked it. So they invited me to do another audition, another audition. And this was just something that I found online on MTV's site. Like I didn't have an agent or anything like that. I knew I was a studious person. It was just kind of a lifelong dream. So I wound up making it, and they said the words that I dreamed of hearing my whole life, which was "you're going to Hollywood!" They gave me a golden ticket, they flew me out to Hollywood. It was hosted by Jonathan Bennett, who played Aaron Samuels in Mean Girls, which talk about another lifelong dream, meeting a Mean Girls cast member was the coolest thing ever. So I got to perform on the show, and you know, I love rock music. I love classic kind of music, but it's MTV. So they made me sing a very modern pop, like Ellie Goulding, who I had never heard of before the show, but I learned it and pretended to be her super fan. And yeah, I made it, I was in the top five, and I was actually beaten by a guy who went on to be a finalist on American Idol, because our show, this MTV show, it was on for one season. And it was by no means a successful show like American Idol, but it was very fun. And it was just another thing crossed off the bucket list. You know, it was a dream since childhood to sing on a show like that. George: It's an amazing story. So one of our first doctors on the show as a guest, and the only person who's been on MTV as a guest here on the podcast. So you have those two accolades, and we're looking forward to learning more about you and sharing this information with our audience. So, Dr. Rissy, thanks for joining us all the way from New Jersey today. And we'll put all of the contact information in the show notes, and we appreciate having you here for our Conquer audience. Dr. Rissy: Awesome. Thank you so much. Conclusion George: I was expecting that we would talk a lot about writing and we would talk a lot about content, and the show went in a different path than what I was expecting, because what Morissa has learned, or Dr. Rissy, is that you need to have it all working together. One of the biggest takeaways is around her four pillars. You got SEO, you got social media, you've got ads, you've got PR, and are those swim lanes? No, they all work together. And businesses need to understand how they all work together, and how one component might impact the other. And what we find, and you notice that in what she was talking about from her experience on the street, and I love when we have guests that take it right down to the street level, is that businesses may be doing a great job in one tactic, but don't understand how it's impacting other components. And then they're looking to see the outcome, and having a hard time sometimes backing that out. And the biggest issue is around the confidence. The fact that things are changing all the time, and it comes back to this constant theme that we've heard over and over and over again from the day the Conquer Local Podcast was founded. Businesses are looking for either the "learn it on their own," and start to understand it, or "someone who can help teach them," and show them what good looks like. And when you talk about those 25 people in her organization, those folks are helping with the graphic design, and the writing, and bringing it to that local business group to help them have that confidence and eventually understand what's working and what's not. So that idea of this all coming together, we hear this more and more as we continue to bring subject matter experts like Dr. Rissy onto the show. And I appreciate that she really highlighted that maybe something you're doing over here in social media could be impacting those other components. So the four pillars, again, SEO, social media, ads, and PR just all are part of what a business needs to be understanding and working together to get the outcome that they're looking for. And, plus, just a very engaging speaker. When you dig deeper into her work, and we encourage you to do that, because we shared all of the contact information inside the show notes, you'll find that she's very passionate about helping local businesses, and, hey, that's right in our title. That's what we're all about here at the Conquer Local Podcast. So thanks to Dr. Rissy for joining us this week. My name is George Leith. We'll be back next week with another episode of the Conquer Local Podcast. I'll see you when I see you.

Get ready conquerors for this week’s episode of the Conquer Local Podcast as we feature Jordan Roscoe, President & CEO of Unique Pro Media, an agency that helps local businesses launch, grow, and scale. Jordan previously spent over a decade as a Journeyman Lineman. While he succeeded in that role, he aspired to achieve more and explored alternative ways of producing income. He quickly became obsessed with launching an agency capable of producing high-quality video content with the resources and skills to distribute digital media solutions. Jordan shares how becoming an affiliate helped him in elevating his agency to new heights by offering services like Google Ads, SEO, Web Design, and an intuitive client dashboard that streamlines SAAS and reporting. Conquer Local is presented by Vendasta. We have proudly served 5.5+ million local businesses through 60,000+ channel partners, agencies, and enterprise-level organizations. Learn more about Vendasta, and we can help your organization or learn more about Vendasta’s Affiliate Program and how our listeners (like yourself) make up to $10,000 off referrals. Are you an entrepreneur, salesperson, or marketer? Then, keep the learning going in the Conquer Local Academy. Becoming an Affiliate Introduction George: This is the Conquer Local podcast, a show about billion-dollar sales leaders, marketers leading local economic growth, and entrepreneurs that have created their dream organizations. They wanna share their secrets giving you the distilled version of their extraordinary feats. Our hope is that with the tangible takeaways from each episode, you can rewire rework, and reimagine your business. I'm George Leith. And, on this episode, we welcome Jordan Roscoe, the president and CEO of Unique Pro Media. He spent over a decade as a journeyman lineman and then founded Unique Pro Media with an ambition to become more and serve others at a higher level. Although Jordan found success as a lineman, he always aspired to achieve more. He would explore alternative ways of producing income but routinely failed to establish an authentic connection with a new set of skills. After struggling for years to find alignment with his new career path, he finally had an epiphany. He became obsessed with the idea of launching an agency capable of producing high-quality videos with the resources and skills to strategically distribute and leverage the content. And, he went back to his career as a journeyman lineman and started working in home services. Get ready conquerors, for Jordan Roscoe, coming up next on this week's episode of the Conquer Local podcast. George: Jordan Roscoe, joining us all the way from Abbottstown, Pennsylvania. Jordan, thanks for coming on the show this week. I'm excited to have you on the program. Jordan: Yeah, I'm super excited to be here. Thanks for having me. George:  And, I know you're feeling a little under the weather today, but I'm telling you, your voice sounds great, so whatever you're doing, you might wanna keep doing it. It's deeper from what I saw. Jordan: You got that. Got that face for radio voice for video kind of thing going on. George: Yeah, that's what my mom's been telling me for 35 years, face made for radio. So, what we're talking about today is Jordan Roscoe and we wanna get to the affiliates program and passive income, because I think it's something that a lot of people are speaking about, but tell us about what you do in your agency from Abbottstown Pennsylvania. Jordan: Yeah, so here in Abbottstown, we serve, at my agency, we serve a lot of local business. I've got a pretty direct connection to small to medium-sized businesses as both my mother and my stepfather are small business owners themselves. So, I grew up in home services, specifically custom kitchens, and bathrooms, additions. And, then my mother's in the med spa industry, has been for the last 18 years. So, both of them are successful in their career, but it wasn't always rainbows and unicorns, right? So, there were definitely many years growing up as a kid where their businesses struggled, as a result, we struggled, and my brother and I too, right? So, there were tough times, but they were resilient, and they were committed, and they stuck in it. And, as a result, they've grown very successful businesses. So, we like to serve small businesses, and local business, that way we can help smooth out that kind of peak and valley, those peak and valley months or years, and just give us a smooth trajectory. So, we're passionate about local. And Vendasta has certainly been able to, has certainly equipped us with the resources necessary to do that at a high level. George: Thanks for sharing that part of your story, because I think it's a really important part is, at an early age, if I unpack that, you were impacted by struggles that small business people inevitably go through, and your mission is to smooth out that runway so that there isn't the peaks and valleys, which I think that's a hell of a reason to wake up every day. In the time that you've been running your agency, have you found specific niches that you folks do a really good job for, or is it more about people in the community that you're able to serve? Jordan: Yeah, so that's a good question. Starting the business and starting the agency, I wanted to serve the home services vertical and real estate, because that's what I have the deepest connection to throughout my life. My wife's a real estate agent now. I've always been fascinated by all things real estate, in terms of investing and just the lucrative opportunity that that brings. So, I wanted to include that into my home services vertical with my past directly connecting me to those folks, right? I understand what their day is like. I can speak that language pretty fluently. So, I've taken referrals and generalized a bit to work with other businesses within the community, but, ultimately, I'm always really called back to that home services vertical just because of my past. George:  Do you find in that vertical, that there is a request from the customer, that only work with me, because I don't want you helping my competitor get better at this. Like, do you ever find that happening? Jordan: Oh, absolutely. And, that's really one of the key pillars that we've built the agency on is that it's... It is exclusive, right? So, all of our contracts are based on exclusivity, as it relates to any sort of lead generation activity. So, they love that. And, exclusivity sells, it creates scarcity, it creates urgency, right? And, that's really helped our sales process too. So, yeah, exclusivity sells and our customers certainly appreciate that. George:  So, you become a trusted member of their team and they don't have to worry about you going out and giving the trade secrets to somebody else. But, doesn't that reduce the total addressable market that you may have? How have you overcome that? Because, if you're only working with one plumber, can't go work with other plumbers, so how have you been able to expand the business with that lens? Jordan: Yeah, so it's a good question. In a... In a cluster of zip codes, that's true, where you really can't work with a competing company, but outside of that addressable market, we've got the whole world at our fingertips here, and you and I, we're meeting from different countries, I believe anyway. I believe that you're... I'm not sure where you're tuning in from, but let's just say that you are in Canada, I'm in the US. You could be a plumbing company in Canada and I can still apply the same services. Now, we don't have a handshake, but the fundamentals of the strategy still apply, and we can do this business virtually. So, my market is infinite and that's what I love about running an agency. George: Well, and I, that's amazing, not the answer that I was expecting by the way, but I think that's a great answer. I just go outside of the market and find another customer that doesn't compete and run the same plays. But, the other thing I was wondering is if we're looking at home services, because you didn't just say plumbers, you said home services, isn't there an ecosystem there where the plumber usually recommends an electrician, and that's their buddy, and they know they do a great job. And, then the electrician recommends maybe a general contractor, who then maybe recommends a real estate agent that will sell the home down the road. Like, isn't there like a community in there that you might be able to go to as well? Jordan: Oh, absolutely. So, it only takes one. So, for me, it started in roofing and then I was able to infiltrate that entire network. And, just like you're saying, I was able to acquire their preferred HVAC partner, their preferred plumber. And, it did, it became an entire ecosystem of home services within just a couple cluster... Or, a cluster of zip codes. That's advantageous for me, because marketing, when we're talking about small local business, is everything. So, for me, it just took, it just took one. And, then I was able to infiltrate multiple networks as a result of that. George: No, and I love the word infiltrate, because the other thing that we know is all those real estate agents, all those plumbers, all those electricians, go to some sort of convention or belong to some sort of a network, and that's where other leads could come in that are outside of that zip code. And, I'm just making an assumption here, so help me out if I'm on the right track. Jordan: Yeah, absolutely. So, like we said, infiltrating, that that network only grows, because everybody knows somebody else, and their exposure to someone else, right? So, it's everybody knows 20 people, continue to apply that, that philosophy outward. Yeah, business cards. I still use business cards depending on the setting, right? But, I strategically put business cards in the hands of certain folks, and it does work. It does bring business back in. George: Well, everybody that does business properly uses a freaking a business card. Like, this whole thing, the business cards are dead, I probably handed out 50 business cards in the last month. It's like, no. Oh, how dead are QR codes? Yeah, that didn't quite work out, did it? So, good. Now, we've laid the foundation. Jordan is an expert at getting referrals and an expert at building networks. Now, let's talk about passive income and affiliates, because I believe that all of those things that you're doing inside your agency have been part of the reason why you were one of our top affiliate partners as well. So, can we talk about that journey? Jordan: Yeah, absolutely. So, after, I guess it was pretty, I guess, it was pretty early on in my partnership with Ven Dasta that I was exploring the idea of how I could also use the affiliate tools that were available to me, because I was an immediately an advocate, right? So, after becoming a partner, I became very passionate about the platform itself. And, I just... Like, I'm a very... I'm an advocate for the Peloton brand, right? And, if I could be an affiliate for them, I swear I could sell those bikes all day long, no problem, because my heart's in it. I feel the same way about Ven Dasta. So, as I was collaborating with other agency owners, and then just other folks in, other consultants that are in the marketing space, I was able to have that same type of passionate conversation, and it really wasn't about selling the platform. It was just about enthusiastically connecting other people in my industry to a really great resource, and the affiliate program, it's changed since I first came on, and it's definitely a much more lucrative opportunity than it used to be, which is awesome. And, yeah, I've been able to leverage that and definitely build some passive income there. And, it's been a lot of fun doing it too. George: The reason why I was excited about this episode, number one, I wanted to meet you, I feel like I've already met you, because there was amazing case study that was released just before this episode, and there's a video in there about you telling your story, I highly recommend people have a look at that case study, but also I think that business owners need to understand this concept of affiliate better. And, software companies, they jump into all this new stuff, right? And, that's really where affiliate was born. But, what I'm noticing is I think any business could utilize the bones of an affiliate program to help them generate new leads. Like, when I talk to business owner, they usually tell me they're looking for two things, they want more leads. That's always the item. And, they usually go to some long story about telling me that they want more leads. But, then the other thing is their looking for efficiencies, because of what we're dealing with right now in the business climate, like how can we find efficiencies and automate process? But, that, that lead component usually comes from running a great business. If you run a great business, you just get referrals, but putting a foundation in for affiliate, and putting a foundation in, foundation in place where it's easy for people to drive referrals your way, is really at the heart of the affiliate program. So, if you were to highlight the top two things, as you went down this affiliate journey, what would they be? The recommendation that you have to others that are thinking about I need to get in on this affiliate thing. Jordan: Oh, yeah. Referral based sales, right? So, take the consultative approach make yourself available. Something that's really worked well for me is to actually bring and host my own platform demonstrations before I go to the sales team, right? So, I get to build trust with the prospect and then basically as a user of the platform, show them how I'm using it, 'cause Ven Dasta is very robust, right? And, there's so many different avenues that you can go into in using the platform, and I'm quite confident in saying that I'm sure everyone uses it a little different. I think it would be a stretch to say that two people use it exactly the same. So, I have that, I take that consultative approach. I hold their hand, show them the platform. And, then I tee it up to the sales team and they're able to connect the dots from there. George: So, for our, for our listeners, if you're not familiar with the affiliate program, Jordan has an agency and is doing very well with that agency, but then taking all of those learnings, and through the affiliate program, able to talk to other potential agency owners, and get a fee for bringing that lead into the ecosystem. And, I'll tell you where it is, where I'm sitting on my desk. We gotta pay X number of dollars for a lead. And, I'd rather pay Jordan than pay it to Google or Facebook for ads. When a business looks at their cost to acquire a customer, that number is it's... There's a figure there. And, could we just pay it to somebody like Jordan who is a raving fan of the platform? That to me just makes sense to have you promote it to other organizations. So, this isn't a paid announcement for Ven Dasta affiliate program. What I wanted to get to is I think any business could use this model to just put their referral program on steroids. How do you feel about that? Jordan: Yeah, yeah, 100%. And, that's really what it comes down to. It's referral marketing at the end of the day, right? It's not necessarily, or at least the way that I treat it, it's not affiliate marketing, right? I kind of removed that piece of it. It's referral marketing. So, it's for any business to build a referral program around some affiliate marketing strategies or affiliate marketing programs is an absolute lead gen beast, right? And, it's... It wouldn't be that difficult to do so it's not... And, it's not a... It's not uncommon for businesses in existence now to give a referral kickback, right? So, if you could essentially raise an army of affiliates underneath, if you just think what that would represent in your revenue, right? To have an army of people out there as raving fans, like you said, promoting your company and your brand. George: Well, and I want to come back to what we were talking about off the top, because this whole thing ties together. When you go into one of your ecosystems, and you get the plumber, and the electrician, and the HVAC, and then the moving company, and what? Just down the line, right? The paint store, whatever it is, that's working with that audience, when you serve them really well, they usually just offer you the referral. Now, we teach people on this show to ask, create an environment for it, this is just putting some foundation around it. And, you've been very successful in driving this buzzword of passive income, like money in your sleep, but by the way, it's not that you sleep all the time, and you earn the money, you're doing a bunch of work to make this happen. So, I wanna be very clear on that. You're putting effort in to generate the affiliate fees that you're getting. Jordan: Yeah, absolutely. You have to generate the conversation or nothing... Nothing happens at that point. So, for me, it's a lot of community outreach in Facebook, LinkedIn, sometimes it's face to face, right? Because, I collaborate with other agency owners directly just as a result of being in the industry. So, and there's... I have... I'm in coaching programs, I'm a coach, right? So, there are... There's always conversations that are taking place. And, I try not to ever leave any money on the table, right? So, again, I love the Grant Cardone theory of sell or be sold. And, I definitely apply that here to the... My, both, my partnership with Ven Dasta and also my status as an affiliate, because I really am passionate about the product, and I have no problem connecting someone else with that service. George: Well, we appreciate your partnership and all the great work that we've been able to do together over the months with our teams. And, I know that inside our organization your name is a household name, Jordan. People know who Jordan Roscoe is. And, now, as a guest here on the Conquer Local podcast, I'm sure you've got a bunch of other potential raving fans. How can people connect with your organization if they were looking to speak to you about these programs that you're involved in? Jordan: Yeah, The easiest way to get back to me would be to go to my website, which is uniquepromedia.com and, yeah, book a consultation, be happy to chat and collaborate. George: Alright, and our team is going to put your case study into the show notes. We'll have the link if people are looking to speak to you. And, thanks for educating us today and congratulations on the success that you're having with Unique Pro Media. And, being one of our top affiliate programs. I know that Cass, and Jacob, and the team, and the affiliates, they talk about you very fondly. So, thanks for joining us in educating us today. Jordan: Yeah, thanks. It's been a pleasure. Conclusion George: Great speaking to Jordan today and learning from his experience in building out his agency in that very tough niche of home services. And, I love hearing from him that he's been able to figure out how to build some sort of value around an exclusive relationship without reducing his total addressable market, which is always a challenge. So, there's definitely some learnings for you there. The other component is that exclusivity creates urgency. And, all it takes is one happy customer in a network. And, then you can infiltrate that market. Everyone knows 20 people, and so on, and so on, and so on. So, in the early part of the episode we got basic understanding of how to build an ecosystem of referrals. Now, let's talk about affiliate, and, as Jordan likes to call it, referral marketing. Any business can utilize this strategy to build a network and a community to establish trust. And, there's a lot of effort involved, but there's a really nice payday at the end of the day. Generate the conversation. Then, take that conversation online through various communities, whether it be Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, coaching programs. And, I love the fact that Jordan talks about Grant Cardone around his sell or be sold methodology. So, Jordan gave us a master's class today in building out an agency to deal with an ecosystem, then mining that ecosystem for unlimited referrals, and then taking everything that he's learned, and putting it into this buzzword of affiliate marketing, or I like the way that Jordan refers to it better, referral marketing, but referral marketing on steroids. If you like Jordan's episode discussing affiliate marketing, let's continue the conversation. Check out episode 521, personal branding with Libby Gill, or episode 444, the psychology of starting and running an agency with our good friend, Robert Davis. Please subscribe and leave us a review. And, thanks for joining us this week on the Conquer Local podcast. My name is George Leith. I'll see you when I see you.

What are Business Fields for Yext? Partners and their clients can update these new fields for their Business Profile data to be included in the Yext syndication via Listing Sync Pro. These new fields include Brands Carried, SEO Keywords, and Instagram Handle.   Why are business fields important? Users can simply update the business details from the Vendasta Platform. These fields provide additional information about the business that helps inform consumers looking for that business and what it offers. For example, having Brands Carried gives the consumer more knowledge about the business to ensure they are selecting the correct place. Please note: business profiles with these fields already filled out will automatically be pushed to Yext.  How do you update these new fields? Go to Business App > Settings > Business Profile > Edit Business Profile In the Location tab you will find the area to update Brands Carried: In the Social tab, add the URL for Instagram: Under the Marketing tab, add SEO Keywords under "Search Engine Information": Be sure to click "save" on each tab when done making these updates. Once updated, these new fields will begin syncing with Yext and will be reflected across their distribution network. For information about all the business fields that sync with Yext through Listing Sync Pro, please review this article: What business information does Listing Sync Pro update? 

For users to see and experience the AI lead capture trained on a specific business’s data before activating any paid products – every business app account with Local SEO active comes with a demo of the AI lead capture widget installed on the business’s My Listing page, that can be configured and trained on custom data. How to use this demo Navigate to Partner Center and create a new account for any service type business. Make sure Local SEO (free) is active on the account. Go to Business App > Inbox Settings for the account, and click on the Try now button on the My Listing Web Chat card. This will open the My Listing page with a web chat already active for the business. The AI can immediately answer basic questions using info from Business Profile. Additionally, you can return to Inbox Settings and reload the page, and you’ll see a button to configure the AI web chat - this is where custom knowledge can also be added. Why customers love this: Partners can now very easily demo AI lead capture to clients before activating anything – and it can magically answer questions about that specific business.