Cosmos

Welcome back to the show, my fellow extraordinary Americans. Today, we are honored to have Ira Bowman, a seasoned professional in the digital marketing field. With a substantial following on LinkedIn, Instagram, and YouTube, Ira Bowman has been a prominent figure in the online digital world since the launch of his business, Bowman Digital Media, in June 2020. He focuses on increasing his clients’ visibility on social media and website traffic. He holds a bachelor’s degree from Liberty University. 

He’s also a professional photographer, videographer, and graphic artist with a flair for writing, blogs, and press releases. He contributes to the Amazon Book Strategic Growth for Leaders 10, Success Keys to Elevate You to the Next Level. 

He’s an extraordinary American, and I’m glad to have him on the show. Ira, are you there?

Ira

Yes, I am. Thank you for having me. 

Cosmos

Thank you so much for taking the time to do this podcast. I’m glad and honored to have you on the show. Could you tell me at the audience a little bit more about yourself, your background, and how you got started?

Ira

The bio you just read pretty much said the May high-level points. I started my career in customer service out of college, and then I got into sales quickly. I worked in the print and graphic industry for over 20 years, primarily doing sales but also doing graphic design, and that’s how I do digital marketing experience all came to be.

I started doing photography in the print in the print world. I started doing graphic design in the print world to help clients out. I always worked primarily with smaller businesses and mom-and-pop shop businesses, so you know, as the print and graphics guy, I was more than just their print executor or their print vendor. I was, in a lot of ways, their marketing strategist. 

My experience in photography, graphic design, and website development has equipped me with multifaceted expertise, which I bring to my digital marketing strategies. 

So, I would brainstorm with them to figure out ways to help them increase their visibility, and we did it with print media. However, as social media evolved, I figured out how social media worked. I got into website development with my nonprofit Project Help You Grow in 2018 and started learning how SEO works out of necessity. I was self-taught in this area, a testament to my determination and passion for digital marketing. This self-taught journey also extended to social media marketing, where I honed my skills to help my clients thrive in the digital world. 

That’s where Bowman Digital Media really kind of its genesis in 2018. Fast forward just a bit as we entered COVID-19 IN2020I, and I lost my job. I was, I wasn’t fired, I was late. Off, but I decided being laid off sucks, so I wanted to put my fate in my own hands instead of relying on an employer. 

So, I started a company with the vision to help small and medium-sized businesses increase their online visibility. It was just about how to help them build their sales funnel. Really. Because sales are the lifeblood of every organization. So that’s what we did. We created a company with six different services, but they all work together to help people increase their visibility. If you do that correctly, your sales will grow naturally or organically, as we say in the SEO space. 

So anyway, that’s a little bit about me. I’m married for 24 years now. I have eight kids, three of which are in college. I have a couple of teenagers still at home who eat us out of the house and home, and we have two dogs, so as much as I work hard, I try to play hard and spend time with my family. So, over the last few years, I’ve just been learning. How do you balance life and work? And I’ve lost 45 pounds in the last 12 months, so I started walking daily.

Anyway, I’ll just journey. It’s been a lot of fun. Entrepreneurs, life is hard, but it can be very rewarding. And so I’m happy to share a little bit about it. Whatever you want to talk about, my friend.

Cosmos

I find it fascinating that, in 2020, many people got laid off, lost their jobs, and even had a family. And then you got laid off. From there, you made a comeback where you came up with an idea—a company, and then you went through it, right? 

So, for the audience’s sake, my question is: What was your thought process during that time? Was it motivating? What was the motivating factor that allowed you to make a comeback, and what was your mindset around that time in general?

Ira

Yeah, well. Twenty years of successful account manager roles or being in sales, right? Whether that was an individual contributor or managing sales team director of sales, all those things taught me one thing for sure. In my professional career, when it is time to make money and bring money revenue in, I’m a good person to do that. 

So, I knew I could make money right. I’ve always been able to make money, and This is why sales, I think, is a good pathway to business. If you’re used to the pressure that goes along with having a quota and you must do it a month in and month out, and then you want real, you want real pressure, have eight kids; you must feed those kids. You must right house them, clothe them, get braces, get doctors, and all that stuff; it’s expensive.

So, I created built-in motivation. I never needed an employer to incentivize me to work hard. I had that built in. I must look my family in the face every day, right? And I either have the money to do the things they need, or I don’t, and I’m going to tell you from personal experience that it’s no fun when you don’t. So, you have to do what you have to do.

So, when I was laid off, I had no idea it was coming. There was some talk that there might be some layoffs, but in that initial wave, I thought the company that I was working for, and I’m not going to name them. I’m not trying to smear them or whatever. But you know that there was a dialogue between the management. And the staff and it was communicated that we had kind of weathered that initial storm and we’d be alright.

However, the government program was called PPP. I don’t know if you remember that, but with PPP ending in May of 2020, many people, me included, found us on that unemployment line. I was laid off on a Friday evening at 5:30 by cell phone from my boss. And what’s funny is that day, I was at a client of mine, and they had just verbally committed to a six-figure contract, a new one that brought in six figures. Now, the paperwork wasn’t completely done. It would have been wrapped up the following Monday if I had still been there.

But it wasn’t about my cost because I was bringing in more than I cost, so I’m not sure why I was let go. But you know, it happens. 

So anyway, there’s a parable about jumping off a cliff and building a parachute on the way down. When you asked the question, what was my mindset? That was my mindset. My mindset was I could not fail. I will not fail. I have to succeed.

So, what are my options? I took the weekend to evaluate my options. Then, I chose the path I thought would be the most successful and fun. When you get to know me well, you understand that my mentality is that I like to help everybody I can. I’m not a selfish person. I like to give. 

So, I thought this would make the most positive impact I could make while earning my living, helping people increase their visibility online and not be obscure. Here’s what I mean by that. Like when you go to Google and, let’s say, you’re searching for a company that does a certain thing, but you don’t know the company’s name, you don’t know they exist, but you know that you need. That kind of help, right? 

How do they get in front of you if you don’t know who you’re looking for but you only know what you’re looking for? That’s the difference between a small business surviving and thriving. In many cases, the company gets somebody like me who can help Google understand what they are and how they help. And in front of the people who need that help. That’s what we do without spending millions of dollars without spending, you know, $10,000 a month in, in Google ads and things like that, you know, for a, a fraction of that price, we can get people what we call organic traffic.

Through my project, I became good at helping you grow 2018 in June 2020. When I started my business, I already had 150,000 followers on LinkedIn. I already had a natural flamethrower to shine the light as a beacon for clients who signed up for me. I put out a post that said something very similar to that. It said something about imagining what your company would benefit from if you had 150,000 followers on LinkedIn. Interesting, right? 

Well, my inbox exploded, so I’m very proud and grateful to say that in the very first month from the very first month Bowman Digital Media’s existence, I was able to pay all of my bills. I’ve never had to borrow a penny from anybody to cover the mortgage, the food, my insurance, all those things, right that, that all small business owners tend to worry about how to make payroll. All these things I’ve been. Fine, because we’re good at what we do. 

Look at our Google, clutch, or any publisher reviews on our website or whatever website you want to check out. But that’s why we get the small business owners to trust us and earn their business. We also do something unique, and I learned this in sales alone. Time ago, people don’t like to be sold, right? And you don’t want to have these long-term contracts where you’re obligated to stick with somebody even if they’re not producing what they’re supposed to. And that happens a lot, unfortunately, in my space.

So, what I said from the beginning is, what will I do to make my company slightly different and better? For my clients, one of the first things I said was no long-term contracts; we will go month to month to approve the deal from now. Well, as long as the company exists, that’s one of the things that sets us apart. 

So, if a client signs up for SEO or social media marketing or whatever they need from us and they don’t like what they’re getting, they can just cancel at any time and are not stuck because I’d much rather have them be happy or free. And to feel obligated and stuck. So, anyway, a few things go through my mind.

Cosmos

Wow. So, all right. There’s so much to ask because what she talked about regarding online digital marketing, SEO, and everything is so important for businesses’ success on the Internet because the Internet is relatively new. Businesses in the 21st century have been adapting. 

So, my question would be, what was your greatest revelation during your time? The online digital space regarding marketing and sales.

Ira

That is an interesting question because I’ve had… let’s call them epiphanies. I’ve had a few epiphanies along the way, but here’s probably the biggest thing to know. Whatever works today, there’s no guarantee it will work tomorrow, so you can’t rest on your laurels with digital marketing because algorithms constantly change.

This kind of makes me laugh, but there are people out there, and there’s a snake oil salesman out there, and there’s a lot of them, unfortunately. However, with LinkedIn, for example, I hear these people talking from both sides of their mouths. But one thing that just really is it’s always an attention grabber, and it’s a cautionary tale. Here you go. They tell you that they have mastered the LinkedIn algorithm. 

Now you must understand what I just said. The algorithm for LinkedIn isn’t a singular algorithm. Every single person on LinkedIn has two unique. LinkedIn algorithms and everybody has their unique algorithms, which are plural. Want to test it? Here’s an easy way. Take your phone out. Go to your computer and pull up your LinkedIn on both devices simultaneously. Now, I want you to scroll simultaneously on both, and I guarantee you will not see the same thing on both feeds.

Why? Because it’s different algorithms. That is the answer most people don’t know: there is no singular algorithm. There hasn’t been since 2018. Microsoft bought LinkedIn in 2017, and it is working. They went to work and rolled out an AI derivative of the algorithm, and everybody, like I said, had two because the app is different. The website, so if you’re using a browser or the Internet, the browser is right for those who don’t know. 

So, whether you’re on Chrome or not or Safari or Mac, it’s different than if you go to your cell phone and your app. Here’s what’s interesting for someone who has mastered the LinkedIn algorithm. Singular. They have mastered maybe what works for them on one or the other. Typically, I find the app on their phone because that’s where over 60% of people are on the app, not on. On their computer, but the fact is, here’s an example of video content.

For some people, video content is an albatross. What do I mean by that? What I mean is it’s like a boat anchor. You put up a video, a native video on LinkedIn, and you get nothing, absolutely nothing. Other people will take the same type of content. Put it up on their LinkedIn profile, and theirs will go nuts like they’ve “gone viral,” whatever they think. Viral is right. 

And so, what’s the difference? They have different algorithms. That’s the difference. If they had put that same content on, let’s say they use their phone because they take a selfie video and put it on the app. 

Cosmos

Yeah.

Ira

Suppose they had taken that same video and put it on from the computer on the browser on the Internet. Version on the browser. It wouldn’t have done the same if the performance would be different. Why, again, a different algorithm so? And what’s interesting about LinkedIn is just to wrap up LinkedIn stuff unless you ask me more questions about it. 

But the LinkedIn algorithm is AI derivative. It changes consistently and frequently; you don’t know even 30 seconds later because it reevaluates how you use LinkedIn and how other people are using LinkedIn, and it adjusts. It’s dynamic, not static. 

So again, when you hear somebody, anybody proclaiming to be a UN quote, a LinkedIn. Algorithm expert. Just move on. You can laugh out loud like I do sometimes. I can’t help myself. I’m slightly sarcastic and facetious, but when I hear that, I know they don’t know what they’re talking about, and I move on. So be careful out there. Who you? Trust what I’m saying?

Cosmos

Right now, when you go online, some people claim they know about algorithms. 

So, they know about social media and everything, but it’s for somebody new to it. Let’s say you’re a business owner and are new to this saying. How, what, and what do you think are the red flags; What are the green flags for knowing who knows what they’re doing and who doesn’t?

Ira

Well, I’m going to tell you that algorithm experts. OK, first, let’s define an algorithm just because if we discuss it in detail, we need to understand what it is. I will not presume that the audience knows what the word algorithm means. An algorithm is a complex formula that helps rank. It’s all about rankings. You hear rankings constantly, and the SEO algorithm is no different. 

How does it determine what to show and hide from you? Because that’s really what it’s doing when you’re going into “a feed,” and you just scroll down because you don’t know a better way to navigate, but there is a better way. 

Frankly, I put a video on it if you want to check out a video on bookmarks, but how do you? How does it know what to put first, what to put second, and what to cut out because of the amount of content that’s being produced? Every day on these social media platforms is too much for anyone. You cannot purview at all, so it’s not. It’s determining what it thinks you’re most likely to want to see to pay attention to why. They make their money not from you being there per se, but the fact that you’re there allows for paid advertising, and advertising and 3rd party data are the two main ways. 

And then subscriptions as a distant third. Those are the two main ways that these platforms make their money. Facebook was created to scrape and sell your data. That’s what it was created to do, right? Zuckerberg is not a saint.  I’m not saying he’s a bad guy, although I could make that argument if I wanted to. 

Zuckerberg was trying to make money, scrape the data, and sell the data. All of these platforms pretty much do the same thing. How can they take advantage of you being there? Well, they’re selling ad space. What do we call PPC or pay-per-click ads? If the algorithm or I’m sorry if the platform knows that this content is more popular than that content, it is why they adjust it all the time. 

People often forget to ask the following question: Why does LinkedIn change its algorithm so frequently? They’re trying to improve their performance to increase ad spending. OK, so.

So, it all comes down to that with an algorithm. It’s just a complex series of math. If this is the case, then that kind of sequence, right? For example, the Google algorithm has over 250 components …Now … how many exactly? I don’t know. And if anybody, even people like Google, don’t even know. How many components are in there? Because of the way they set up their company, it’s siloed. So, no singular person on the planet knows the entire Google algorithm. That’s for safety, so they do that and can’t. Be bought by some other company and divulge all the secrets. Right?

So, they silo it out now. If anybody tells you they’re a master of the Google algorithm, you can laugh in their face because, again, nobody even at Google. Is that and LinkedIn? It’s impossible. You might be an expert momentarily for your algorithm, but give it 30 seconds, and you won’t be anymore. And I would say that nobody even is for 30 seconds. It’s impossible. Our ability to compute and process information is nowhere near as good as the AI derivatives. The supercomputers that are doing this stuff. 

So, look for somebody humble enough to admit they don’t know everything right and the key you’re looking for. Honestly, is this term called BT Testing? So, we’ll try this, we’ll try that, we’ll try it in a variety of ways, see what works better, and then monitor the results. 

So, if you’re paying somebody like me to do the work for your company, you should get a monthly report saying, ” OK, here was the number of posts. This is the number of views. This is the number of comments. This is the number of people who went over to the website. This is the page they visited. This is how long they were there. Did they hit the call-to-action button? Yes or no, your inside sales team should know how many leads came in, how many appointments you got, and how many clothes were made. That whole sequence should be tracked. And if you’re not dealing with somebody like that, you’re probably dealing with the wrong people.

Cosmos

I see. So, as a continuation of this question, what do you think is the biggest roadblock that new business owners and small business owners face when trying to understand SEO and algorithms, in general, to make their businesses profitable?

Ira

You want to know the real answer. They don’t have the time. So, have you heard about the ostrich that puts its head in the sand? My biggest problem with business owners is even realizing they need somebody like me to do what we do. I’m not saying they need to do it. They don’t need more things to do. They’re super busy, right? What they need to understand is that it’s not something that. It should be ignored, and I’ll illustrate this in an analogy clearly in just a second, but the biggest problem is that they don’t even know they need it because it’s too complicated and they don’t understand it, so they just avoid it, right?

So, here’s the analogy. How would you get new clients if we did business in the 50s, almost anywhere worldwide? Right. I’m talking to mass in mass. Billboards, Sunday newspaper advertisements. The Yellow Pages. Phone book. Right magazine articles, things like that. And, of course, word of mouth, right? But that’s usually not mass. That’s usually smaller, especially for small business owners. OK, so the blue oceans, if you will.

Well. Were, you know, the Superhighways of Transaction e-commerce or commerce back then just traditional commerce foot traffic? So maybe you were on a like a like at a mall, you were alongside a freeway, you were on a busy. Farm to Hwy. Right. You were talking about being in Texas in the past, so you know what a farm highway is, right? But so, you’re on some busy country road, right? Lots of traffic, vehicle traffic. Well, now none of that that all pales in.

According to the volume online, for example, there are over 100,000 searches per second right now on Google, which is climbing. So that equates to over 9 billion searches every single day on Google. There is nothing on planet Earth that compares to the traffic on Google. For example, social media, which is a distant second, has 4.5 billion monthly active users on social media right now. That’s nowhere near 1/2 of one day’s traffic on Google. There’s so much Google is like the ocean. Social media, in total, is like a pond. Right. And there’s nothing else even close—all the freeway traffic and all that stuff. So.

Cosmos

So, most people would think the office thinks social media is like the ocean and Google. 

Ira

No, I understand. Yeah. And let me break down another myth, Buster. Many people think LinkedIn is the place to go for all your business. And remember, you asked me what epiphanies I had or what revelations this is—one of them. 

So, when I launched my business in 2020, my first TED talk was on this right. I went from zero to six figures. When you’re using LinkedIn, I share my story and hope to inspire others to do the same. Same thing. Now, my second TED talk is out there as well, right? It says this is why SEO matters because, overall, over half of all the Internet traffic flows through Google, right? Very little website traffic flows through social media, but. If you were to rank number one through #20 social media platforms, you have Facebook holding on by a thread. A lead over #2, which is YouTube #3, is Instagram. 

So, Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube. Every single business needs to have a profile of notes. If you keep coming down, you have platforms like TikTok. Pinterest those are in the top ten. Do you know where LinkedIn ranks? LinkedIn ranks #20, so let me give you a quick example of the difference between Facebook and LinkedIn. Facebook. Most people would say it’s not for business, but it is, and so is YouTube, and so is Instagram—LinkedIn, which everybody thinks is for business. Let me tell you some.

These hard facts were shocking when I figured them out. First, there are only 310 million active users on LinkedIn every month. That’s 310 million, right? Facebook is 3.1 billion. That’s over ten times more. OK, we say, well, my demographics are not on Facebook. Yeah, I bet you it is. Especially if you tell me your demographic is 18 plus in the United States because you know how many people on LinkedIn are 18 in the United States. It isn’t 310 million, and that’s per month, not per day. It’s 90 million, about 25% of the total, and 75% of active LinkedIn users are from outside the United States every month. 

So, 3/4 of your Eyeballs are a waste of time if you don’t serve outside the United States. Where do you go if you want to find 18-plus-year-old Americans? Great question. I’m glad you asked YouTube. 81% of all 18-plus Americans will go to YouTube at least once a month. Now, part of that is because YouTube shares its videos on other websites like Facebook and other sites. You go to Bowman, Digital Media’s website. 

And every video you find on there will be housed. Natively on YouTube, it’s a YouTube video. Still, if you want advertising, if you want to pay for advertising, if you want to have a following, you’re following on YouTube, which is far more valuable than you’re following on LinkedIn. That’s why I have five-figure followers on YouTube, and it’s growing. I’m not focusing on my LinkedIn as much because I realized I have some business. Outside of the United States of our digital media, we can serve people anywhere, but really, the core of our business is inside the United States.

So, we started focusing on our core and my Instagram, which currently has 2.5 billion monthly active users on YouTube and Instagram. My Instagram following has 164,000 followers, and it is growing again. That number is far more important to me now than my LinkedIn number.

Cosmos

So, in your opinion, what are the general strategies people use to grow followers on Facebook, Instagram, and places like Twitter, which is now X?

Ira

Yeah, quit selling. The biggest thing, the biggest thing with social media, the mistake I see from companies is they’re trying to pitch, pitch, pitch, pitch, pitch hard, sell. Let me share basically like this is mine. Oh my gosh, my brain. I went blank with my marketing materials, but my brochure was right. Nobody wants to read your brochure on. Your social media. That’s why your website can do that. That’s a mistake, too. 

So, what do you do instead? Let me help you with some free advice. What you do is. You talk about the things that they’re interested in, and you do it in a way that isn’t dry. And. Boring. So don’t have an old, stuffy person. No offense, but don’t have an old, stuffy person run in your social media because it’s not what it’s there for. This is the comics section of the newspaper. Everybody right? It’s the funny section. So entertaining; what would you talk about at the water cooler? What’s going on in the world that isn’t political, so, you know, stay away from controversial stuff. Although controversy can be a great catalyst, it can ruin your reputation. 

So, we advise you to stay away from it, but anyway. It’s Super Bowl weekend. We’re going to talk about the Super Bowl, right? Is it NASCAR weekend? We’re going to talk about NASCAR. Somebody just got the 1st pick in the draft. I think they had well anyway. Here’s the here’s the bottom line. We’re going to talk about things that aren’t related to what you’re doing per se, but they’re things that your demographic is interested in discussing. How does that help you? 

Well, let me tell you how it helps you. First, they will start to know who you are because they’re interested in consuming the content you put out now. I didn’t say read what you put out. The reason why is because what do people want? They want video content, so you must have videos in your arsenal. It doesn’t mean every post has to be videos; most of mine aren’t Frank. But I do use video content right on all the platforms, and I use them on my website. You should have a video on every single page of your website. You should have videos on all your social media profiles. Why? Because over 80% of people online will end up consuming video content.

They might pass through if you don’t have video content for them to consume, but they won’t stay. So, these are things that you can do: entertain them and educate them.

And then about 20% of your posts can be on point? Hey, if you are Google, this is one thing I always tell people. You must hire me if Google isn’t your company’s best sales rep. Because Google Works 365 24-7, do you understand what I’m saying? It never sleeps, so there’s no reason for somebody to work 8 hours a day or whatever. They’re working, right? Some people work more than that, as you and I talked about. Green room, so. Regardless, the fact is that there are 9 billion searches per day on Google. 

So, there’s plenty of volume for just about everything now. Some words are obscure and don’t get searched a lot, but that’s part of what we can help you with: identify the words that are what we call quote UN quote keywords your audience is looking for. And then another thing that I tell people is to focus less on selling like a doctor. They prescribe the medication or medicine they need and think more like what they want. And you’re the person or the company that’s providing the funds. Because if I asked you which people spend more on what they want or need, you might want to say what they need, but I’m going to tell you it’s always what they want. If they want it, they’ll find a way to get it. 

So, talk about things and present things in a way that helps them understand what they want. For example, I don’t come here to talk about SEO, social media marketing, press releases, and outbound. Blah, blah, blah, blah. Blah, blah. Why? Because people don’t want that. They need it. That’s the answer to them getting what they want. What do they want? 

Cosmos, it’s really simple. What my clients want are more sales. That’s ultimately what they do. Want how we do it? They don’t even care about frankly, right? It’s like pulling teeth sometimes to get people to look at the reports I send. We spent a lot of time putting those reports together because they were important, but at the end of the day, they didn’t care. Did I get sales leads? Yes, I did. I’m going to continue. Did I get sales leads? No, I didn’t. OK, we’re moving on. Right. What do they want? They don’t want marketing. They want sales.

How do you get the sales with better marketing? So, post it from Bowman Digital Media. We don’t talk about how we do a lot of we do cause people don’t care if they were interested in that; they wouldn’t hire us anyway. Those are just people trying to learn from and copy us. Right. Which is fine. I don’t mind educating those people too. You know, they’re doing good things.

Cosmos

So ultimately, let’s say somebody has a certain budget that they want to put in for marketing, right? A business owner needs to go online and decide between how much to put on Google and how much to put on social media. From your perspective, how should they budget their resources to get the most visibility on the Internet?

Ira

Yeah, the answer to that question will depend on a little bit. So, what vertical market are they in? What is their time frame for getting going here? I will give you some quick examples of how it makes a difference. 

What if you’re looking for quick results at a fast speed? So, let’s think of a 100-yard dash. I like using picture analogies to help people understand what I am discussing. We’re going for speed. It’s the 100-yard dash or Sprint. OK, I’ll take social media 4000, Bob. OK? Cause I can get there faster, like a quick spurt. 

But if I’m thinking of a healthy long-term marathon, it will take me a bit longer to get running on SEO, usually six months to a year, to get solid results. But once I got that, that engine cranking and momentum started. Well, social media can’t. Touch SEO in the long run, so it’s probably healthy. Balance. And to help diversify the portfolio, which I encourage everybody to do, I don’t think you ever put all your eggs in one basket. In fact, at our company, we have six different services. I believe that a healthy portfolio is better than all in one thing. But I would say that if, let’s say, they had $1000, which is not probably the case. Now, for most people, let’s be healthier. Let’s say $2000 a month. OK. Most companies can do well with $2000 a month. 

So, I would say do $1500 a month with your SEO and $500 monthly with your social media because that will get you the short-term gains you need. The Sprint will be in there, and then you’ll also be building primarily healthy muscle, so like the. In this analogy, the social media is kind of like the sugar. It gives you a rush, and you have that energy, but it’s not sustaining long term, and social media is a fickle mistress so that it can change you. Like that, you can be hot one day and cold the next. SEO is a little bit different once you start ranking for keywords unless you do something unethical, which is that there are things out here called White Hat, Gray Hat, and Black Hat. If you’re doing Black Hat things, if you’re cheating and you get caught, then it’s game over. You get to list it. Do you list it? And that’s like a death. Nail to any website, but if you’re using an ethical company like ours and we’re doing nothing but white hat methods, which are all Google approved, then you won’t lose your rankings very quickly, if ever as long. The thing is, you continue to monitor the adjustments that Google puts out for the Google developers. Update your procedures. We are not interested in the how as much as the result, right? 

So, our strategies over time are flexible and bendable because the outcome we’re looking for is always to get our clients to the top of the rankings. That’s the end goal because we know that the sales will come. From being found to being found, you must rank high. You have your money with keyword rankings in first, second, or third place if you are less than third. But. Before 10th place. So, in other words, if you’re on the first page of Google, you’ll get a fair amount of traffic, but if you’re in the first spot, it’s worth about 30% of the monthly search volume.

So, if 1000 people search for that keyword and you’re in first place, you will get about 300. Uh, website visitors are a month from that one ranking. If you drop a second place, it drops to about 20%, just under 20%, about 19%, right?

So, then that’s about 190 to 200 people. Third place gets about 10%, and about 100 people go down to—10th place. And you’re going to get about 15 people. If you’re on page two, you might get one 1/2. In other words, every other month, you get a visitor. And that’s just dropping one extra spot from 10:50; 75% of people on Google don’t go to page 2. What do they do instead? They adjust to the search term, which they call the query up to the top. 

So, as long as you have a company monitoring AB testing and the algorithms and reading up on what Google puts out for developers, they don’t put everything out there. There’s a lot of secret sauce, but they like to share; for example, something that came out in 2024 was, I’m sorry, 2023.

This. The acronym is Eat, and they said your website needs to demonstrate experience, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness. So, by doing that, we’ll help you rank higher, and then they share methods with which you could do that. We can get into those specifics if you like, but it might be a little boring for your audience. But anyway, that is something that we weren’t doing in 2022. That is what Google said we should be doing in 2023. So, we started doing that in 2023 and continued doing it in 2024 because it works, and B they haven’t told us to stop. But the minute they replace it with something else, then we’ll switch.

Cosmos

Like what you’re sharing with us, Ira is invaluable wisdom. But I do hope that many of the business owners in our audience look into it because this is really important stuff, like just understanding all algorithms in general, knowing where to budget your resources, whether to do it for Google or to put it into social media, and how much to put for each one. And that makes the difference between success and not having success.

Ira

When you have, when you have an experienced tour guide who knows this landscape? Let’s say somebody’s spending or investing their money in ads. PPC ads, which, I think. For the most part, most people shouldn’t be doing it because they’re wasting their money. Why do I say that? There’s something out there called bounce. Rate. 

So, you’re paying for advertisements to get people from whatever they’re on Facebook. They’re on Google, and they’re on YouTube wherever they are. And they come to your website because they clicked the ad you paid for. What are they paid a dollar per ad? OK, it doesn’t sound like a lot, but maybe you’re getting 500 clicks daily or 500 clicks monthly. Whatever. Most people I talked to spend more than a couple of $1000 a month in advertising. But they’re getting very few actual clients from it. 

Why? There’s this thing called bounce rate. What is it? Bounce rate bounce rate is when you go to a website. Right. But then you don’t stay and consume it. You didn’t see what you were looking for right away, or you see something, and it’s confusing, like, that’s not what I’m, and you leave. Well, you already paid for the click but didn’t get any benefit from it. And what is the ratio of that? Let me tell you, it’s over 90%. That means over 9 out of 10 people who visit your website from an ad will never actually see or consume your content. That is so wasteful. That’s throwing out more than the baby with the bathwater, frankly. And even if you have a professional PPC campaign manager, your bounce rates usually only improve up to 80%. Suppose they’re good at what they do. So, you’re still losing 8 out of 10 people.

At best, at worst, 9/9 and 1/2 out of 10, that’s so inefficient, and that’s thousands of dollars that I was just talking about in ads. You could just redirect that money into hiring a company like ours, and now we’ll run your SEO organically—no ads needed. We’ll also run your social media and even press releases for you.

So, it’s just a different style. But most small business owners see the ads, and they can understand it’s not all that complicated. They don’t understand all the finer points that make or break the system. So. Instead, they throw good money after bad chasing the conversions from PPC campaigns, when instead, they could focus on building their rankings on Google. The organic results are something you don’t have to pay for. However, many people click, and there’s no cost. You just have to improve your rankings on Google to get them to rank you higher and list you first. That’s the algorithm part, right? So that’s how it all ties together. 

But anyway, small business owners need to understand what this is. As vital as everything else, you must have a lawyer and an accountant, ensure your data is safe, and have a good staff. You don’t have to have a full-time marketing person on your team, especially as a startup, but you should consider your website, how it will rank on Google and social media, and how people will find you. Before you even open your business, it’s that important. Why? Because it’s the Superhighway of commerce. It’s now called e-commerce, right? But commerce happens when people find you online. Right. If you don’t have a website in today’s age, I guess you’re running a business that’s like on its 3rd or 4th generation family-run business, and it’s all word of mouth. But you have a Rolodex, if you will, or a CRM stacked with previous clients, and you can, you know—traditional male word of mouth and things like that. However, most people need Google to generate new business, and they need Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube. Tube. You can even say X, right? X has about a billion monthly active users. It’s three times the volume of LinkedIn, and more people on X are in America than people on LinkedIn. 

So again, just knowing these things helps, but small business owners don’t have time to learn it. And they frankly aren’t interested in doing it anyway. I just got done talking to somebody who runs an IT company the other day. Who is that person? He hates all the things I do. He’s like an IRA. I see you’re the guy I need because you know, and you like to do everything I hate. And I said exactly. That’s what we’re trying to communicate to everybody. Like, don’t reinvent the wheel. Just source to somebody with your best interest, and then we’ll provide all the accountabilities. 

So, you can. To ensure you’re not wasting your time, if you hire somebody in my space who doesn’t generate results, they should change their strategy. There should be adjustments. Don’t just keep doing the same thing over and over. Go. Oh, it will work next time because it worked back in 2019. It’s going to work today. No, you must adjust the strategy if it’s not working today.

Cosmos

But totally our and our, there’s one question I wanted to ask about her contribution to this book. I know you’re a contributor to this book, Strategic Growth for Leaders: 10 Success Keys to Elevate You to the Next Level, and you wrote a chapter on that. Could you tell me in the audience a little bit more about that in the premise? What made you read the chapter and a little bit more about it?

Ira

So, what I tried to do was educate people. And education for people is just about what we were just talking about. How does all this SEO stuff work? How does social media work, and not at the surface level? Make a post and a page, right? But are the demographics that I’ve been sharing right? And how do bounce rates work?

For example, I explain it because people are watching and going, man. I would love to hire Ira Bowman and Bowman Digital Media. To do my marketing because I can see that he knows his thing, and I like his personality; he’s got great reviews. I trust him. OK, I want to hire him. But. I’m bootstrapping. And I can’t afford his service. Perfect. All right, you get the book. You read my chapter. You implement as much of the strategy as you can, and then you’ll see results—positive results from it. As you do that, take some of that extra money you’ll make from the additional sales you’ll garner, start saving those things, and then pay me. And I added something for people like that because my heart goes to small business owners as a kid. My parents both owned small, struggling businesses, right? They were not entrepreneurs; they were just small business owners, and we could talk about the difference than anybody wants to hear. But you know that it was like a job for them. So, I watched them struggle. I want to help these people succeed because they’re some of the most hard-working people. I admit I admire them, right? I want to help them.

 So, I added a service to my suite, and it’s just a 90-minute conversation with me once a month. But I come in, and we go over, we review all the things that you, the current business, are doing, and then I give them advice on things that they could do, and a lot of times, I’ll give them a present. For example, I post on their behalf, or I might make a graphic or video for them as a little thank you for the business. But the idea is I’m consulting for them. Once a month, the price is only $250 for 90 minutes. 

Most small business owners can’t afford that, so it allows them to get some help while they’re getting on their feet to do it all. But the chapter is a kind of how-to guide to explain 30,000-foot views in a little bit. I need to do more in-depth without becoming an expert, but just do what you asked me before, understanding why I need to do this. Why is it so important? The biggest obstacle I face again is that it’s so complicated. Most small business owners just ignore it. They. They don’t even know how important it is, but if you were starting a business in 1950 and could be on a busy street or street with no traffic, which street would you pick? You’d pick the busy street and hang a sign and then benefit from all the traffic that drives by. The Internet is the Superhighway of commerce today. 

So, if you are not getting any business online, your superhighway signage is missing and needs to be corrected. It would be best if you had some signage up there somewhere, and I’ll figure out where to put it and how to manage it.

Cosmos

No. No. When you say it’s a superhighway. Like I couldn’t agree more; it’s like it is. And that is indeed true. And Ira, can you tell the audience a little bit more about your company’s digital Goodman media, the services it does, and the premise of how you started it?

Ira

Sure. Well, we kind of covered the premise of how we started already. It was, it was my, it was my reaction. I hated using the word pivot because it was overused for so long, but I transitioned from lifelong employee to small business owner because I wanted to. Take the power back in my life. I have control over my destiny. 

Right. I had eight kids, so before 2020, I thought I would be a good small business owner cause I’m good at it. I’m good at earning, right? I’m good at sales generation and building revenue, but I thought I needed the stability of a job and its benefits, as well as all these lies that I fooled myself with. It turns out that was all just the veneer. But the safety of the paycheck wasn’t safe at all. I lost my job for no fault of my own, but.

The premise of the business and its services are very simple, right? As I said, the goal and the end goal will always be the same: to increase people’s visibility online so they can increase their sales. So, if they want more sales, we help them get it. How? Creating these digital signs on Google, Facebook, YouTube, and LinkedIn so people need what you want. I’m sorry. Who wants what you deliver? But they don’t know where to get it when looking for you online. How do they find you? We helped them find, OK? 

So, what do we do? We do. First and foremost, we do SEO services. Why? Because Google is the ocean. There is no place on planet Earth where you can find more people. Con congregated. In one place, at any given time, then on Google, what do I mean by that? There are 100,000 people per second using Google. India is the most populated country on the planet. There are over a billion people. It’s almost 1.5 billion people, right?

So it’s a lot of people. But in India, they’re not all in one spot. You know what I mean? You can’t go to a street corner and find 1.5 billion people, but you can find 9 billion people daily on Google.

Right. So when you start thinking about it like that. Wow, right, that’s the Superhighway. That’s where all the traffic is. Yes now. Let’s go to you know. Facebook is #1 still, but it won’t be for long. I was predicting that YouTube would overtake it. Uh, in July of 24. It didn’t happen. But I believe it will happen this year before 24 is over. You two will overtake Facebook for number one in monthly traffic. OK. But the bottom the bottom? And there are billions of people, 3 billion people every month, using Facebook. That’s a lot of people. It’s not 9 billion dailies, but still 3 billion monthly. That’s a lot, right? 

So, we do social media management. So, we do SEO, which just stands for search engine optimization. We help people rank higher on good. People we help people get found on social media. That’s our social media management. We do website development and maintenance

. So, in other words, if you’re a small business owner and don’t have a website, we can create it. If you are a small business owner and you have a crappy website, we can rebuild you and then maintain it. And if you have a pretty good website, it just needs to be maintained. We can maintain it. I’m a graphic designer, so we do graphic design. Why do a lot of people have a logo but not anything else? They don’t have a brand per se. They need custom graphics.

So, we’ll create custom graphics for them. We also do photography and video work. And we do. All those things are what we are creating: a digital library. Right. Having all these different pieces for your digital library would be best. 

So, it all comes together so people can see you, be impressed by you, get to know who you are, trust you, and then talk to your sales team, whoever that is. Your inside sales, your outside sales, whether you’re still founder sales like many of my clients or founder sales LED, right? 

So, the company owner is selling it, whatever the case. Our work fills their sales funnel, which means their prospect list and the people they’re communicating and having a dialogue with. If we don’t do that work well, they don’t have anybody to talk to, and their sales don’t exist. The lifeblood of their revenue is founded upon our digital marketing work.

Cosmos

I recommend that anybody listening to this look at your work at Boom and Digital Media, check out its services, and consider how the audience can connect with you and get to know you, your work, and everything you do.

Ira

If you go to Bowman Digital Media, there’s a tab at the top that says media kit. I suggest people click on that. That’s why I created that: people could get to know me quickly, right? And I’m not. I’m an entrepreneur, so I’m my hand. My hands are in multiple things. Right. The book that we referenced. I’ve been reading seven books in the last couple of years. Right.

 So, I’m a multi-book author. I’ve been on the Ted X stage a couple of times. They can watch my Ted X talks there. I’m a photographer. You can see examples of my work. I give a little blurb about the company. I will give you my bio. They can do all kinds of fun stuff: the media kits, probably the best place to find out more about Ira Bowman, and they can contact me right there, too. There’s a contact button that says to contact the IRA.

Cosmos

That is Awesome, IRA.

I’m so grateful that you took the time to come to this podcast and share your valuable wisdom about SEO and digital media in general. People need to know this important subject to grow their businesses. And I do hope you take the time to come to this podcast later, you know.

Ira

Yeah, well, I appreciate the invite and all of you watching out there. Thank you for watching. If you got to this point, man, you need something more exciting to watch. I don’t know, but let me just say this. I talked to many small business owners daily, and almost all are frustrated. Because they don’t understand, they’re already overworked. You’re tired, you’re broke. You’re killing yourself to make this thing go. My services that the company provides. And there’s more than just me, by the way. We have over 30 people on our staff now, right?

 So, over four years, we’ve grown to 30-plus people. The reason why the clients who come in champion us is because they were once in your shoes. They didn’t get it. They’re like, I don’t understand all this. It’s too complicated. I don’t understand why I will spend $2000 monthly with you. But the answer is this. We do what we do to make your sales life easier. And you know that you can’t run your business without more sales, right? You need revenue to drive everything, right? It’s how you pay your overhead. It’s how you pay your cells.

Have you ever had to skip payroll because you didn’t have the money coming in? Well, we fixed that, right? It should come before just about everything Else Because of the importance of what it does and the results from the fruit of the market’s labor. Thing. Pays for everything else. It’s how you’re going to expand your business. So, if you’re frustrated and you don’t understand, don’t worry; just book an appointment with me. By the way, the appointment is free. Right.

So, I’ll walk you through it. We’ll figure out what you’re trying to do, where you’re good at what you’re not good at. And then I’ll come up with, you know, a solution for you to help you out, including, just like I tried to share some free advice in the book and free advice here today. I’ll give people actionable advice on the consultation, even if they don’t sign up as a client with me, because I want to help people. Small business owners are the Champions of America or the backbone of America, and I want to help them succeed as much as possible. 

Thank you so much, Cosmos, for letting me discuss my work. Hopefully, I’ve inspired a few people. And remember, if you hear somebody say they’re a LinkedIn algorithm expert or a Google algorithm expert, run from those folks because they’re talking about.

Cosmos

Ira, thank you so much for that. And yeah, you certainly inspired me because this is an important subject that needs to be understood. I want to conclude this episode by letting my fellow extraordinary Americans know that, hey, look, there’s an extraordinary within every one of us, and we must awaken it and unleash it until next time. Bye for now.