Today we have Francie Hinrichsen who is the owner and founder of Simply Integrated LLC, a digital marketing company that aims to help small business succeed via effective website analytics strategies. She believes that she is destined to be an entrepreneur as she grew up watching his father wear different entrepreneur hats. She specializes in SEO and CRO techniques that helps small businesses maximize their online presence and create informed decisions. She is also passionate about creating an encouraging and actionable space for women through her mastermind. Her mastermind anchors in an all-women community where they support and help each other.
Francie’s website: https://simplyintegratedllc.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SimplyIntegratedLLC
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/franciemuellerhinrichsen/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/simplyintgrtd/
Katie Brinkley 0:02
Hey there. This is Katie Brinkley and you’re listening to Rocky Mountain marketing. This podcast is all about helping Colorado based small business owners, entrepreneurs and professionals discover the strategies and systems that take their marketing to all new heights. Let’s dive into today’s episode. Welcome back to Rocky Mountain marketing. My guest today is Francy Heinrichs. In France. He is the owner of simply integrated a company with a mission to show females how entrepreneurship can lead to the life they dream about. She’s got a fiery passion for helping small businesses get results. Francy has an MBA and a bachelor’s degree in communications. And she nerds out over marketing and business strategy that earns analytics proven results. I also geek out over marketing to France. He also runs a Business Mastermind for female entrepreneurs, and is officially launching her first book later this year. Thank you so much for coming on the show today.
Francie Hinrichsen 1:00
Katie, thank you for having me.
Katie Brinkley 1:02
Tell listeners a little bit about yourself. So let’s start at the beginning. Tell us where you grew up and what your life was like growing up?
Francie Hinrichsen 1:09
Sure. So growing up, I was the daughter of an entrepreneur. So you can say it’s in my blood. I grew up in Westfield, Indiana, which is just north of Indianapolis about 20 minutes in the Midwest. So I am a Midwestern girl. And I had a great upbringing. I just had a lot of passions growing up. And like I said, I was the daughter of an entrepreneur. So I got to see firsthand what it meant to run a business, right? You’re the CEO, but you’re also the janitor and the marketing person, and you’re the salesperson and the telephone answer. So got to see all those things and had an entrepreneurship in my blood from the get go started my first business when I was about seven or eight, and it has never left me.
Katie Brinkley 2:02
I love it. And yeah, you like you said it’s it’s one of those things where starting a business is sometimes it sounds really sexy, but other times it’s kind of like, oh, yeah, well, you know, you gotta also clean the bathrooms at for the shop. So how do you think that your upbringing impacted your eventual career journey and your professional journey? I mean, you have a couple things going on with with the female entrepreneur mastermind. And, you know, with your analytics, I mean, like, which I can’t wait to talk about too. So tell us how you thought that some of your entrepreneurial upbringing affected your eventual journey?
Francie Hinrichsen 2:35
Yeah, so much of my mindset is rooted in this belief that I can do anything I put my mind to. That’s how I was raised. That was the message that was conveyed to me growing up from my parents, I remember asking my dad one time before I could really understand that he ran a business and what that meant for our lives, I asked him, if you didn’t have your job, what would we do as a family? What would we do? He was the sole breadwinner, you know, my mom was a stay at home mom, while he traveled and did a lot of different things to get that business up off the ground. And so he said, we would run a taco stand, you know, and it was so the message was clear to me, we would we would work it out, we would make it work. And we would figure out our own way. And so, you know, resourcefulness was a huge thing growing up for me, and really kind of just designing a life that you love waking up to. It was modeled for me growing up. And I am so thankful because I did go the corporate, you know, eight to five route right out of school, but almost like muscle memory, I took a pivot, and I started creating my own way. I
Katie Brinkley 3:56
love it. And you you talked about mindset with your very first sentence there. And that is something that’s so important to entrepreneurs and being a successful business owner, can you talk to us about how your mindset really helped your craft your journey to be doing whatever you want to be in how you try to incorporate that with your mastermind, that you you help with your female entrepreneurs?
Francie Hinrichsen 4:20
Sure. So it has evolved, you know, really, honestly, it has evolved. When I started my business, I was really coming from the place that was solely shaped by my upbringing, you know, the values and the morals and the mindset and the lessons that I had taken with me into my early adulthood. And more recently, now that I’m about five and a half years into business, my perspective of the role that mindset plays in my business has really changed in that I have much more control than I ever gave myself. credit for, for shaping results. And so when I first started, it was very much rooted in hard work. And I’ll do what it takes as long as it’s aligned with my moral compass. And, you know, like I said previously, I can do anything that I put my mind to. And now I would say it’s much more rooted in work smarter, not harder. Yes, that you know, that work ethic is. So there, that value of hard work is something that I bring with me each and every day. But I’m starting to realize as a service based business, maybe you can appreciate this, Katie, if I want to reach the goals that I’ve set for myself, I’m going to have to do things differently, to scale my business, then what I’ve done up until this point, five and a half years. And so now my mindset, understanding looks more like a daily reflection, you know, really focusing on what is it that I’m doing today, that’s going to get me closer to my 12 month goals, and kind of bucking some beliefs that I had, and really paving a new path forward. That’s never been modeled for me and creating that from scratch. And so I would say, to answer your question, when I started my business, it was very deeply rooted in the core of who I was up until that point, and now moving forward. It’s kind of like a blank canvas that I get to create in order to produce results moving forward.
Katie Brinkley 6:39
I love it. And I have a feeling that that probably is what you call the the Francy. One on one. Can you talk to us a little bit about that? And what you do who you do that for?
Francie Hinrichsen 6:49
Absolutely. So my technical expertise, marketing related is data and analytics. So I help small business owners make smart decisions with data and analytics with what’s called SEO search engine optimization that one’s well known. And then CRO conversion rate optimisation. And those two go hand in hand. But I find that SEO is a lot more of a buzzword than the CRO. And so aside from my technical expertise, like you said, I’m a female Small Business hype girl. And what I mean by that is I create encouraging and actionable space for women who run businesses. So one of my passions within my business is to lead a women’s mastermind. And within that community members learn from one another about how to run a better business. So that’s the work side. And then the personal side, I’m a mom of a feisty two year old, her name is my law. I’m a wife to my husband, HanSe. I’m a runner, and I am an avid lifelong learner. I love love, love to consume blog posts, podcasts, Success Magazine, if you believe it, I still open and turn the pages of that. And then also books, I’m an avid reader of books as well.
Katie Brinkley 8:12
So you said, you know, CRO, and SEO, talk to us a little bit about conversion, optimization, and SEO, because like you said, Those are huge buzzwords. And I feel like every small business knows that they need to have good SEO, but they might not really understand what it is or how they should best utilize SEO for their business?
Francie Hinrichsen 8:36
That’s a great question. So yes, they work together. So your SEO is going to help drive new traffic to your website, from search engines. And then the CRO converts that new traffic from a lead into a paying customer into a repeat customer. So of course, it doesn’t all happen on the first visit, we know that over 90% of site visitors aren’t ready to buy. So I help businesses, whether their business is service oriented or product oriented. I help them understand that there should be a flow of engagement that first helps visitors develop that rapport, that’s so crucial, and then build trust with their engagement, their value proposition. And then once they make that purchase, and they have a great experience, and they come back and they repeat that purchase and they become a loyal customer.
Katie Brinkley 9:35
Yeah, and that’s, that’s one of the hardest things to do is want to get someone onto your page, help your business stand out from the crowd, but what are you going to do to bring that person coming back to make more purchases and become your biggest fan the big you want to become one of your best customers. So why are these things so vital for web based entrepreneurs and I feel like 2020 Just about everyone has had to make the pivot into being a web based entrepreneur in some aspect, why is it so important to have these a solid SEO and CRO strategy?
Francie Hinrichsen 10:07
Yeah, I think the data and analytics, it sounds scary. But basically what it is it’s just pulling meeting meaning out of numbers. Okay, so it’s telling the story, understanding what that story is and how we can connect those two. So the numbers and then pull that meaning out of it to make decisions in our business. So with SEO, the algorithm changes daily, sometimes more often. And there are over 200 components. So as business owners, you don’t have to keep a thumb on all 200 components in order to rank well. But I think it is important to be familiar with about 10 or so different components that really make the most difference. And it’s we need to know what creates an excellent search experience, because that is how Google has amassed over 70% of the market share over Bing and Yahoo, it’s because they have figured out what makes an excellent search experience. And they integrate that information into their algorithm, and they’re constantly updating it and changing it in order to deliver an even better experience. And so I think it’s really important, like you said that SEO and CRO, they’re buzzwords, but if one is lacking, the other one is likely to be lacking, too. And so the first thing that I do when someone comes to me for an SEO audit, is to jump on their site to see how it’s set up. Because we can work hard to get their site visible in the search results. But if their site’s not set up to convert, if it reads like a billboard, or a brochure, a one way communication, you know, mechanism, then they’re not going to see the results that they’re coming for, which is that they assume SEO is the you know, the light switch, if you have it, you you meet your goals online. And if you don’t, that, you know, that must be the reason why your online presence isn’t as successful as you hope it to be. And so it’s really important to understand how they work together that we can drive traffic with SEO. But then once it’s there, how are we going to make them impact the bottom line of your business?
Katie Brinkley 12:19
Keep them on your site and to make that purchase? And then come back for more? Right?
Francie Hinrichsen 12:24
Exactly. So So for example, we know that the longer somebody stays on your website, the more likely they are to buy. And Google understands that too. And so the longer you know, they stay on your website, Google assumes well, they’re having a great experience. And so once SEO and once can, you know CRO and they work together hand in hand.
Katie Brinkley 12:46
I love it. And you know, you mentioned that you do an audit for a lot of new clients that come in, what are your some of your favorite analytic tools to research and to get some of these stats so that you can provide the best experience for your clients?
Francie Hinrichsen 13:00
Absolutely. So I used to have this really complex methodology for diving and doing keyword research. And this year, I found one of the best tools, which is called Keywords Everywhere. And it has simplified my keyword research process so much. So it’s a Chrome extension, there’s a free version, but I highly recommend the paid version, because it’s only $10. And you get like 100,000 credits. So it’s so worth it. That’s definitely always my number one, since I discovered it in then Google Analytics and Google Search Console. Like I said, Google wants to provide an excellent search experience, their prerogative is to deliver the exact result that a searcher is looking for in the least amount of time. So they’re going to provide these tools for site owners to be able to dig into the data and the numbers to understand what they can do with their online presence in order to meet that common goal. And so Keywords Everywhere, Google Analytics and Google Search Console. And then my fourth is Moz. Moz is a subscription based tool. And it’s one it’s you know, if you’re doing a lot of keyword research and SEO, it’s worth the investment. If you’re not, you know, there’s a free month trial that you can use to see if it would be a good fit for you.
Katie Brinkley 14:25
Yeah, and Moz is spelled MOC. That is that’s when you named off two, three or four that I’ve heard of I have not heard of the first one you mentioned. So I will make sure to link to that one in the in the show notes as well, because SEO is so important. And you always that showing up on the first page of Google is everything. If you can show up on that first page. What is one of the things you mentioned earlier, Google wants you to spend more time on a website because then they think that you’re having a good experience. It’s the same with social media to Facebook wants you to stay on Facebook, as long It’s possible. That’s why video is so important. What is a tip that you could give someone that might be saying, Okay, well, what’s the way that I can encourage someone to spend more time on my website? I don’t have a ton of offerings yet, or I only really sell one thing, what’s a good tip that you give people to get them to stay on a website longer a good piece of content or landing page or something?
Francie Hinrichsen 15:26
That’s a great question. So as of right now, Google uses the context of your keywords to understand what your pages are about. So I talked to a lot of clients who are like, well, I don’t want a lot of words on my website. And that’s great. But it’s also not magic. You know, SEO is not magic keywords are such a big part of that. And so I would say the obvious blog posts. And we know that there’s a statistic that Neil Patel shared, which he’s a big authority in SEO world, and he shared that the top, the number one ranking blog posts, on average, were 2200 words. And so when I started my business, I blogged because that’s what I saw other businesses doing without a real understanding of what the purpose of the content is. And the reason why long form content tends to rank better is because Google wants to give a thorough answer to the searcher. And the way, the way that you can do that is by having more words, right you, you’re able to explain more about the topic that they’re searching for, when you go into more detail with your writing. And so I would say having a blog is a really powerful way for increasing the health of your online presence, because it’s going to give people a reason to stay on your site, it’s going to give people a reason to come on your site. But then as they’re going through your blog posts, it’s an opportunity to position yourself as an authority on the topic, it’s an opportunity to give your audience a reason to do business with you. And you can integrate video, you can link to other pages on your website, which helps Google understand the relationship between the pages you can refer to products. So having a blog is so important not just to put content on your website, but to keep your website fresh, so that Google will have a reason to come back and crawl it. And then to to lead people where we want them to go. And we do that by, you know, making these connections. So one of the things that I do when I help somebody build out and plan for their website is we don’t just build out the pages, we look to see how the pages are going to relate. So I do what’s called a web mapping, site mapping. And so I will map out all of the different pages on a website. And then I will, you know, pair up pages that have relation. And that will be an indicator that, hey, here’s a place where we need to add hyperlink text or add a button, drawing people through out the website, not just allowing them or giving them the opportunity to come on a web one site on our website and then leaving, but to make those connections to lead them where we want them to go based on the buying cycle, based on what we know makes a great experience for them helps them come to know like and trust us build rapport, and eventually make a purchase with us.
Katie Brinkley 18:47
I love that. And you also said to I didn’t want to interrupt you because you had so many great tips there. But Google wants fresh content, how often should you be adding new content, new words, new blogs, new product? What do you recommend on how often you should add new content to your website so that Google will want to give you the love and put you higher in their rankings?
Francie Hinrichsen 19:12
That’s such a good question. And I am torn between the SEO side of things knowing that benefit and from the business owner side of things because, you know, can you the barriers to entry have never been lower for starting a business. But it also means that we as the business owners assume so many of the tasks, right, like not everybody can outsource their content creation. And so I understand how hard it is to prioritize that piece of your business when it doesn’t have a direct ROI. Right. So if we’re service providers, we know that working on a client project has a direct correlation to making money and when we’re just getting started with blogging and creating content and things it’s hard to prioritize that piece of it when there’s not that instant hit to our bottom line. And so I do understand the dichotomy and that back and forth between Well, what’s technically the best thing to do versus what can I actually realistically manage as a business owner. And so, I would say, depending on your business model, depending on where you spend your time, on or in your business, once a week, you would be knocking it out of the park, a, somebody who was a blogger. And that’s what they do, that’s where their strategy and their time can be spent. Maybe more often than that, once a week, I think, especially as a service provider, you could be knocking it out of the park. If that’s not feasible for what you have on your plate, I would shoot for being as consistent as you can, aiming for one to two times a month. Now I know some other SEOs would come in here and say, No, you know, blogging needs to be your number one priority. But I also understand that we have so many things pulling at our time, and our resources. And so consistency is important. So if you can’t commit to doing once a week, I would say the best thing that you can do is stock up your content and then schedule it out. If you get to a point where you can create a lot of content, that’s great. But are you going to be able to sustain that over the long term. And if you can’t have a good heart to heart and say, what’s what’s realistic here, over the course of you know, 12 months, and then if it’s, you know, once a week or twice a month, then plan that out and spend your time creating that content, and then schedule ahead so that you can offload it and move on to something else.
Katie Brinkley 21:46
Before we wrap up. Do you have any quick tips on performing keyword research for our audience today?
Francie Hinrichsen 21:53
Absolutely. So my three tips. First one would be as business owners, our technical expertise is our first language. It’s not our target audiences first language oftentimes. So I would say when it comes to keyword research, really put yourself in the position of your customers look back through emails that they reach out to you, what do they ask for? How do they word that and that will give you a really good place to start. Because if we position ourselves to try to sound like the expert, oftentimes, we use technical verbiage that our customers are not using. And therefore we create this gap between our online presence and our customers who are taking to the search engine to look for us. The second tip that I have is, don’t, it’s not always best to select keywords with the largest amount of volume. So it depends on how competitive that keyword is. So sometimes it’s better to go for lower volume keywords, knowing that we have a better chance of landing higher up in the search engine results. In with that. My third tip would be that we know that the number one search result gets more clicks, than spots two through 10 combined, which really blew my mind when I first heard it. So when I look to see where I’m ranking, my concentrate my effort first with those keywords that are landing in the first and second places, because I know those are most valuable. And then what I do next is I actually focus my efforts on the ones that are landing in the 910 11 and 12 spot, knowing that so few people click through to the second page, if we can keep those ranking pages on the first search engine results page, we have a higher likelihood of those click throughs. So those would be my three quick tips for keyword research.
Katie Brinkley 23:41
Now, where can entrepreneurs make the most impact with their analytics as they’re first getting started?
Francie Hinrichsen 23:47
Yeah, that’s a great question. I see so many people just their eyes, like glaze over when they look at their Google Analytics. So it’s really helpful to have a place to start and just get a good footing. And then you can kind of expand from there. So the first thing is to maximize the traffic that you already have coming to your site. So one of the best ways that you can do that is by deep diving into your abandoned carts. So if you’re a product based business, look to see where you can convert that traffic, you’re going to have to tweak. That’s really there’s no golden ticket, there’s no exact science to what is going to get your audience to convert. So if it’s maybe free shipping, if it’s adding more detailed product descriptions, if it’s adding a video and your product descriptions of how the product works, maybe it’s adding some other customer reviews to get that credibility. And your product descriptions do that if you’re a service based business where the transaction doesn’t necessarily happen on your site, then figure out where traffic is dropping off with the behavior flow option in Google Analytics. So what that shows us is where people are most likely to come in where they’re most Most likely to click next, where they’re most likely to click Next. And then when we see that traffic drop off, then we know that we need to change up the content at that point, we need to add a call to action button leading them elsewhere in the website, or maybe we need to add a video to engage them, the bottom line is lead them where you want them to go, don’t leave it up to them. So the bottom of every single page on your website should have a call to action button. And so with those two ideas that people come to your site, if you know differently, if you’re a product based business than if you’re a service based business, then look to see what you need to change up based on those two things. And then finally, when it comes to your digital presence, you want to lead potential customers to a space that you have control over. So like your website, your email, list, your text, message, marketing channel, those are all great options. So unless your social media accounts are set up for page transactions, it’s really important to look to see you know what role your different marketing channels play in the success of your online presence. So, for example, a lot of times I’ll see websites where social media icons are placed in the top right corner of the site next to the checkout cart. And so the last thing that we want to happen is for somebody to get distracted by social media, when they’re actually just about to hand us their money. We do not want to distract them when they’re about to hand us money, right? Yeah,
Katie Brinkley 26:25
yep, the last thing you want to do is have is take someone away from your website when they’re about to give you money.
Francie Hinrichsen 26:30
Ya know, if you can tag your products on Instagram, and Facebook, you know that kind of, there’s some strategy there. But the bottom line is just to really think about how you can meet your goals and what that looks like for customers coming to your online presence, and then just don’t get in their way.
Katie Brinkley 26:48
Well, this has been such a great conversation, where can we find out more about you and your business online?
Francie Hinrichsen 26:55
Good question. So my website is simply integrated llc.com. If anybody’s interested in the mastermind, that’s initiative mastermind.com. And I’m also on Instagram under simply integrated. Love it. Well, thank
Katie Brinkley 27:09
you again, so much for coming on the show today. And we look forward to having your book come out. And like I said, make sure to connect with Nancy on all the social channels. I will have all of her information in the description of today’s show. And this has been such a great conversation. Thanks again for coming on.
Francie Hinrichsen 27:25
Katie, thank you so much. I love what you’re doing for the marketing industry. So thanks for your work.
Katie Brinkley 27:31
And if you’re ready to take your social media to the next level for your small business, head over to my website and check out my free video training the three biggest mistakes small businesses make with social media and how to avoid them. Discover how to make your social media marketing stand out from the crowd online. Thanks so much for listening to this episode of Rocky Mountain marketing. As always, I’d love to hear from you. You can visit my website at www.nextstepsocialcommunications.com or connect with me on LinkedIn and Instagram. Let’s keep taking your marketing to new heights.