The inbound method is changing the way business and customers interact, and there are countless success stories from brands that have made the switch.
Today we’ll be talking to the founder and owner of HLC Media Group, Lisa Cavalli.
Jeff Lambert: 00:00 The inbound method is changing the way businesses and customers interact. And there are countless success stories from brands that have made the switch. We'll be inviting business owners to discuss why they converted to inbound, how it impacted their business, and what advice they have for other companies. Today we'll be talking to the founder and owner of the HLC Media Group, Lisa Cavalli. That's next on Inbound Academy.
Jeff Lambert: 00:41 Lisa, thank you so much for coming on the show and being willing to talk about your organization's journey with inbound.
Lisa Cavalli: 00:47 Thank you so much, Jeffrey. It's great to be here.
Jeff Lambert: 00:50 Lisa, why don't we start off the show by taking a moment to learn more about your organization. Can you tell me a bit about the services that you provide?
Lisa Cavalli: 00:58 Certainly Jeffrey, thanks so much for asking about our business. So what would we have, or what I founded in 2014 is a business called HLC media and we provide digital strategies and marketing for digital platforms. I'm a publisher of a webpage called BeLatina.com and it creates content for the cultured, educated women from the evolution of Latino or Latina empowerment across multiple themes and channels. And we unpack and celebrate monumental shifts in culture. And it was really finding a niche market that wasn't having content created for them.
Jeff Lambert: 01:51 Now how did you come up with your business idea?
Lisa Cavalli: 01:54 Well, in 2012 I started looking around the digital space and discovered that there really wasn't content that I thought my family could access. I have a deep family of Latinas that were first and second generation Mexican-Americans and mostly masters and PhDs. They were always struggling to find content that was about their culture and interesting content that they wanted to read that wasn't just about makeup and hair. So I dug a little deeper and couldn't find any content. And knowing that I couldn't find any, I thought I would create a company that would create content or deliver content that folks would want to read about.
Jeff Lambert: 02:44 Now when you established your organization and began this service, how did you learn about inbound marketing and sales?
Lisa Cavalli: 02:51 Well, after discovering more on how to get traffic to our site, I was looking and learning and coming from outside of publishing, I pretty much started this from the ground up and didn't have any idea about it. So I'm looking at other ways to drive traffic. I learned about Rizen from SEO marketing and topic driving and was introduced to the Rizen team through some other professionals in Miami. And then the synergy just clicked. And we've been working together since 2014 or 2015 I believe.
Jeff Lambert: 03:33 And were there certain things about the inbound philosophy that made you feel like it was the right strategy for your organization to adopt?
Lisa Cavalli: 03:41 It did, uh, you know, that's a really great question. You know, going into this again, we, I think we started with one strategy that I was very cautious about and then working with Rod and Will (from Rizen) who helped us to, you know, tighten up the strategy and really help to develop the ideas like the landing pages. I think this was an early time for landing pages. So instead of just creating SEO words or keywords and having folks just land into your page, I thought it would be smarter and more cost-effective if we created landing pages with keywords and had folks drop to those specific landing pages, which then increased our page views because it was specifically what they were looking for and not just dropping in on the homepage.
Jeff Lambert: 04:40 Now, when you started implementing some inbound tactics to help grow your business, were there some issues that started to come up? Or was it smooth sailing right from the start?
Lisa Cavalli: 04:50 Well, you know, I think I said I was new to this business and that's good and bad, right? The good side of it is I'll try anything. I'm open to many, many ideas and the bad side about it is perhaps I could have not taken as long as I did to make that change of the strategy because I think I may have lost a little traction. But you know, that's, neither here nor there and that's all about processing your business and that's how we improve. So now, you know, with this new digital portal, this is my number two portal that I've created. And using Rizen as my inbound partners, it's been much easier the second time around because I think we've all learned from our last practice round. So this time has been 100% smooth sailing, but knowing that there was a lot of things that we learned last time, I really look at it as a learning perspective.
Jeff Lambert: 06:02 Sure. Yeah. Growth is so important, especially when it comes to owning and running a business. You know, it's very hard to get it right the first time no matter what. But, you know, if we learn from our experiences, we're always going to improve, you know, the next time around. So I can certainly relate with what you're saying. Absolutely. When you made this switch to an inbound philosophy with your organization, how did it impact your relationship with your customers?
Lisa Cavalli: 06:28 Well, I think what it did is it really gave us our customer intimacy. Not only did we drive people to our page, but we were also sending people to the social platforms. Our content was written for them to share and to read and then go back to our sites. But I really knew who our customers were because I would interact with them on a daily basis. I know it kind of sounds silly when I have a customer base of, you know, five to 600,000 units a month and high traffic on our social platforms. But I really took the time to know who those people were and didn't forget about them. So the customer intimacy brings you the customer loyalty and that's always been what's so important. I think it's a priority in publishing these days.
Jeff Lambert: 07:28 And by developing that deeper relationship with your user base, do you feel that's impacted your business growth?
Lisa Cavalli: 07:34 I do. I do. How that's impacted our business growth definitely is with the large brands because they know specifically who they want us to be speaking to. So by providing them with our intimate engagement and our segmented audience, it's easier for them to make a decision to partner with us. And by providing them with drilled-down information on our audience, they know that we're speaking to the audience that they're trying to connect with.
Jeff Lambert: 08:16 Well, it certainly sounds like your experience with inbound has been a successful one. If there are other listeners that are tuning into this episode that are looking for a place to start in terms of if they're interested in making this jump as well, are there any resources that you would recommend for them if they want to start this journey into inbound?
Lisa Cavalli: 08:35 Yeah, absolutely. And you know, one of the resources that Rizen offered when we first started having our conversations that was really helpful in providing resources was I would ask a lot of questions that they may not have had the answers to. But they easily directed me to one of their resources that I know that they use as well like Hubspot who is, you know, a leader in the inbound marketing processes. And it's just finding the right folks who want to direct you to the right information. And you know, what's so great about Rizen with their inbound style of partnerships is we're all on the same team and we're all learning. I may not have the right answer for something and they may not, but we'll find it together. And that has what's been the really great partnership with them and they're 100% professional and being human is the biggest part that I think we are all missing in a lot of this because everybody is so interested in AI and automating. But it's really the human side of it that keeps the positive process going.
Jeff Lambert: 09:57 And Lisa, for our listeners that are interested in finding out more about your organization, how can they connect with you?
Lisa Cavalli: 10:03 Oh, absolutely. So my media company is www.hlcmediagroup.com and the portal that we were speaking about earlier was www.belatina.com that has a soft launch. Uh, January of 2019 and we're doing a big announcement on May 21st for the business. And I that's where you can find our content that we produce. I would really appreciate feedback on the site. Everybody can get on there and comment on the interesting stories that we're producing. They can share on our Facebook page and I believe that Facebook has BeLatina too. So I look forward to hearing feedback and reaching out and see if there's any services that we can provide to our listeners.
Jeff Lambert: 10:57 I'll make sure to include some links to BeLatina.com In our show notes. And Lisa, thank you so much for taking some time to come onto the show and talking about your experience using inbound methodologies.
Lisa Cavalli: 11:08 Oh, thank you so much and you know I couldn't have done it without a Rizen and they've just been a delight. And speaking with you today, I hope it's been helpful for others and I wouldn't hesitate to jump in with inbound marketing, it's been a really great process. So thank you
Jeff Lambert: 11:27 And we wish you all the best.
Lisa Cavalli: 11:29 Thank you so much.
Jeff Lambert: 11:30 And to our listeners, thank you so much for joining us for today's episode. You can expect the new one every weekday, always no longer than 10 minutes and always filled with advice that's going to help you grow your business. And remember, if you're looking for inexperienced, friendly and results driven team to help you check out Rizen by going to www.gorizen.com or following us on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and Linkedin by searching for the username Rizen_Inbound, that's one word, Rizen_Inbound. Remember, you can also help us out and reach new people by leaving a review on your podcast app of choice. Thanks again for your support and we'll see you on the next episode.
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