Intro:
Broadcasting live from the Business Radio X studios in Detroit, Michigan. It's time for Detroit Business Radio. Now here's your host.
The Mag
Lee Cantor here, another episode of Detroit Business Radio, and today's episode is brought to you in part by activate your great consulting agency. I'm Lea canter and we got a great show on tap today. Today we have Jackie Calixte with CTA digital marketing. Welcome, Jackie.
Jackie Calixte:
Thanks, Lee. How are you doing?
The Mag
I am doing great. I'm excited to learn about CTA digital marketing. How are you serving folks?
Jackie Calixte:
Well, especially right now, it's, it's a really great opportunity for digital marketing. Obviously, everybody's stuck at home. eyeballs on the internet, right? Businesses are shut down. So we're really trying to transition to helping small businesses continue operating as much as possible by being online and increasing the digital presence through websites, apps, and social media.
The Mag
So how did you get into this line of work?
Jackie Calixte:
It's really something I've done for the past 15 years, I started out, like, you know, just go daddy websites, Yahoo websites. And it was really just helping either my church helping my uncle's business, I would design a website, kind of like a hobby, never really thought anything of it. And I guess a lot of hobbies start like that, right? You just do it. It just comes natural. I like technology. I went to engineering, I did electrical engineering in college, and I've been working for a software company for 15 years while raising my family. But on the side, I, you know, pick up technology quickly, you know, engineering trains you to be able to pick up things quickly, especially tech stuff. And for me comes easily, and then other people struggle.
But eventually, I was like, you know, I could make this a business because you're like, why don't you charge people? Why don't you know, this is really good. So the transition from hobby to now it's a business. And I started it two years ago. So it's kind of hit like a really interesting point. Because technology has, we all have been pushed like 10 years into the future, embracing technology, either working remotely shopping online, and figuring out digital tools. And I'm just really here to help businesses understand they can do a lot online, and it doesn't have to be difficult. And it doesn't have to be expensive. And some of it's even fun.
The Mag
Now, do you find that because of the pandemic, this is an area that it maybe would have been nice to have back in the day? And you didn't have to put that much attention. But now during a pandemic, this is a must-have, because like you said, people got nothing but time. So they're on their phone, they're on the internet all the time. Now you have to have a good presence online nowadays.
Jackie Calixte:
You really do, I believe if you don't, you will not survive. There's no way you can survive. I mean, remember, Yellow Pages, that's where people went. But now people on Google, Google Maps, we also do that we do search engine optimization, making sure that you can be found locally, that's where people go, almost, I would say like the stats is so high 90% of people browse on the phone, not even just a desktop, specifically a phone. So the technology you have has to be compatible with mobile. So you have to verse yourself in this new and even post-pandemic, it's not gonna go anywhere. It's still this is the way things are going. You do have to grasp these tools. But it's, it's not expensive. It's, it's not difficult. And it's just a learning curve, right? Change is difficult. The beauty is all of us are in the same boat. All of us have to grasp it now and really have no choice. So it's a great place to be at in that in the sense that you're not the only one who's gonna struggle, everybody will be at the same place you're at. And if you have an open mind, and I think with intrapreneurs really, they're really good at being flexible, because they want to be able to take the business to the same level. So I think it's something that intrapreneurs will take on because they understand they have to survive, they have to stay afloat. So they have to learn these tools.
The Mag
Now let's try to educate some of these folks that are maybe new, do this and maybe teach them some of the basics. What are some of the things when it comes to a website that are kind of must-haves? What are nice to have, and what are some knowledge that an entrepreneur should have in order to really get the most out of their website.
Jackie Calixte:
So one thing that you need is you need a website. And it has to be a responsive website responsive basically means that you can put it on a desktop, you can put it on your phone, you can put it on your tablet, and it switches, it adapts right, the websites that you know, on the phone when you have to scroll in because you can't see it. That's not a responsive website. And Google doesn't rank that anymore, because Google basically wants to make things easy for people, and will only rank the websites that are adaptable to mobile devices. So it's really important to make sure your website is a responsive website, right. So that's number one. And also make sure that your website is not a static website. It's like an artificial, intelligent website. So it's responding as people are on it. So I'm sure you've seen websites where you're on it, and then a pop-up comes up, and it asks you, or don't leave yet. That's artificial intelligence because it can sense the movement of your mouse.
So if you're leaving, it will tell you, is there something we can help you with do you need? What kind of information do you want to leave us your emails, we can contact you, you basically have a salesperson on their website. So the worst thing to do is if you have a physical store, to have it empty, with no one's there to answer questions, the same thing with a website, you don't want to have a website where, because it's your digital presence, right? It's your virtual real estate, you don't want to have people come there and leave without having got the information, you know, having been kind of like a resource to them, right? So it has artificial intelligence. In that sense. You can have chatbots, where you can answer questions. You can sense you know, even IP addresses of your customers, you can have an idea where your customers are coming in, is it local, is it International, and can be kind of interesting, because you'll see sometimes a lot of international people going on local websites. So your website cannot be like just like a document a static document, it has to have artificial intelligence to it. And it's important to have a website, sometimes people are like, Well, I have a Facebook page, I have an Instagram account. If you're on the naughty list, Facebook will lock you out. And it's not really something you own your website you own.
And you also own the data, and you can collect the data. And as a lot of people understand nowadays, data is a big deal. And if you have a business, you want to have that data, right, you want to be able to learn about your customers and ways to grow your business. So a website allows you that and it's kind of like a tool because you can customize it, you can put things in there that you know like calendars, payments, scheduling, chatbots, a lot of different things that are tools to help your business. So to answer your question, so you need a website. And then you can add to it. Social media, social media, just basically, drives traffic to your website. If people have more questions, then you can be really detailed on your website. Social media is just like a snippet. You just kind of keeping in touch with your customer, just communicating with your customer, letting them know what's happening. But if they want more details, and if they need more tools like to schedule to pay to be more specific, they can go to your tool, which is your website and fancy too.
The Mag
Right, well, there's a lot of ways to get fancy. But let's talk a little bit because I think you're right, exactly right. When it comes to Facebook, and Instagram, and all these social networks, they seem like a really cool way to interact. But ultimately, even if you have a great Facebook presence or Instagram presence, you're kind of beholden to Facebook or Instagram. Like they can change the rules. And every time you post something all your people may not be seeing what you're posting, you may think they are. But in reality, you're they're not. So you got to move them to your website so you can get some data about them, and maybe get their email or text so that you can communicate to them when you want to all of them at one time. Right? You can't rely on these third-party platforms because they don't have your best interest at heart unless you start writing them checks.
Jackie Calixte:
You're absolutely right that you hit that on the nail. That's exactly what it is. You're not giving as much data as you need to keep in touch with your customers. Have, you definitely need an email address, you need phone numbers, and you need to keep a heartbeat with your customers. Once you have that you can do email campaigns, where, you know, you can be more specific with some of the things that are happening with your business. So it's really like, an all-rounded thing that you need with your digital presence. Within the website, you know, like we're talking about mobile responsiveness, it has to be speedy, you need security. You need artificial intelligence. And you want the latest and greatest platforms, you know, you want to hosted on amazon web servers. I don't want to get too techie, because I always lose people.
The Mag
Right, but that's why you need an expert like you, right? Like, this is something that sounds good. And maybe they saw a commercial for something that looks like I can have a webpage up instantly because it's easy. But it isn't that easy. I mean, some parts of it are easy, but other parts do it right? You need an expert to help you do this because it's a little more complicated. And really to get the most out of something you need an expert kind of helping you.
Jackie Calixte:
You do and then what a lot of Intrapreneurs, do, they want to do everything. And then they end up losing their talent and the core that they're good at. So an example is, that I have a yoga instructor. She's a fantastic yoga instructor. And then she took on the website development. But that's not her thing, right. And she's spending so much of her time and so much of our resources, trying to get this up and running. And yes, eventually she will get it running. But she's also, you know, losing time when we know time is money is not your specialty, it's not your strength. You could be making money, getting more clients to do what you're good at, then you have to source it out to the people that are gonna what they do. I can cut the grass in my backyard. Yes, I can. It's not too complicated. Why do I do it? I don't, because I want to have my Saturdays to myself, I want to have my kids, I want to be able to hang out with my family. And I hire somebody to cut the grass, and they finish it within 30 minutes. Meanwhile, if I did it, it'll take me like all day, right? So it's one of those things, right?
The Mag
And you would hate it and you dread it. And it's not what you do,
Jackie Calixte:
But then look at all good. We'll just be terrible.
The Mag
Right? So that's, I mean, I agree 100% that you got to do what you do, and then hire out the other stuff, outsource the other stuff to people who are experts at what they do.
Jackie Calixte:
Exactly. And with Technology is always changing those experts on top of it, right. And Facebook has been known to switch things out Google has been known to switch the algorithm around. So you don't want to be monitoring all that stuff. But if you have somebody who's an expert, and for us, we are Google certified vendor. So if Google changes, something will update everything automatically. You don't have to worry about you don't have to say, Oh, now, do I have to be mobile responsive? It's like we haven't, don't worry about it. We'll take care of it. We'll just switch everything up for you in the backend.
The Mag
Now for you what's an ideal customer look like? Do you specialize? You mentioned yoga instructors? Do you do some kind of retail? Do you do eCommerce? Do your business to business, like who's an ideal customer for you?
Jackie Calixte:
I love business to business. That's really my ideal customer. And the reason I love business to businesses is I love to see businesses grow. And like to help businesses grow. I like to give them the right tools. So definitely I love those clients. I have worked with them. You know, just regular people too. I have a customer who's developing a cream and she needs to build a website. So I've worked with and I hate to say everybody, but I'm definitely business to businesses, my niche from contractors, electricians, plumbers, to dental clinics, doctors, offices, doctors offices, we're big deal now because a lot of them wanted to do bookings, online, hairdressers, anybody who wanted to have that tool available, people can book in advance before they came in.
So we had something available. We also do apps by the way. And apps are a great booking tool too and this is collecting data. So you're collecting data when somebody books in an app, you're lecturing, you're collecting their email, their phone number, their address. And this is great information to have because it's easier for you to keep in touch with those customers. So yeah, I business to business, I would say is those are great, ideal clients, but I've worked with nonprofits. I worked with a church. I worked with a bookstore. It was just a local bookstore we transition them to online. So that was really fun. So
The Mag
Now when you're working with a client, and especially a local client, because local clients have to do certain things exactly right, so they're found locally, you know, if you're looking for like a pizza place, you don't want a pizza place 100 miles away, you want to show up when the person you know, one to five miles away from you wants pizza, right? Like, so you got to do certain things, right in order for them to show up in Google when they're being looked for. So do you help local businesses too?
Jackie Calixte:
I do I do. I help local businesses. And I have like, an ad goes great under SEO like search engine optimization, we definitely make sure they're optimized for Google. And we have different packages. With that we have search engine optimization, and we have PPC, which is Pay Per Click ads. We have Google ads, and Facebook ads, so you can be found in the local area. But when we develop your website, there's keywords that we put into your website, meaning that this is what people look for, and your website comes up. So an example is, you can have a barbecue restaurant. And you can spell it the long way, right? Like barbecue, the whole long word. But most people when they're looking for a barbecue restaurant, actually just search BBQ restaurant near me, right? So you can just create a website, you also have to look at keywords that people use, that are completely different from what you'd expect.
The Mag
Yeah, that's where again, this is where the expert comes in. Because you know that like if I'm in my business, I and I might call it something and then the customer might call it something else. Like exactly, you got to really understand your customer really well. So it sounds like you do a great job in helping the customer kind of look looking at a website through the eyes of the customer, not exact not the person who hires you, but the customer’s eyes is different.
Jackie Calixte:
How do you know this Lee, that's exactly what it is. The customer and how they think of things is not how the business owner would think of it, I had a customer who wanted to sell pillows, throw pillows. And for her, she put in throw pillows, you know, the 18 by 18 inches. But the way people look for her pillows, their particular kind of pillows, its pillows that Rick Ricky Martin had on a show. So when they put it in the put Ricky Martin pillows, right customer, I know the customer is thinking that's exactly what they're looking for. So that's what they're going to put in. But a business owner does not understand, you know, they saw that on MTV, and that's what you know, inspires them. And that's what they're looking for. So we have to actually use tools online, to tell us that you know, like, tools that have keywords, and we can try and throw in as many keywords in the backend as possible. So when people put in those particular words, your site comes up.
And this is something that a regular person would just, it will be hard for them to really understand. And then at the same time, I don't even know if you want to understand it because it takes time. And it's, it's, um, you have to have a certain passion for it. And we have engineers who this is what they do this is what they love doing is figuring that piece of the puzzle out. So yeah, websites are actually a lot more complex than they appear. There are people out there like Wix and GoDaddy. Who tells you it's easy peasy. But it's about converting into traffic. And if you want all those extras, because you don't want it to be static, you want it to be something that's kind of like alive and breathing and interacting with your customer, especially, especially post-pandemic. And then this is how you're going to grow as a business and you're going to make money because the bottom line is you want to make money as a business owner.
The Mag
Right. And you got to have your website working for you. And what better way to have your website working for you than when you hire an expert, like the folks at CTA digital marketing.
Jackie Calixte:
That's right, exactly.
The Mag
Now, if somebody wanted to learn more and have a more substantive conversation with you or somebody on your team, what's the website?
Jackie Calixte:
It's CTAdigitalmarketing.com. All one word.
The Mag
Well, Jackie, thank you so much for sharing your story today. You're doing such important work and you're making a difference and we appreciate you.
Jackie Calixte:
Thanks, Lee. Thank you so much for having me today. It was a lot of fun talking to you about the website.
The Mag
All right. This is Lee Canter. We will see you all next time on Detroit Business Radio.
Image source: https://businessradiox.com/podcast/detroit-business-radio/cta-digital-marketing/
