From Hollywood Trailers to Small Business SEO Services Marketing Expert Drew Dorenfest

OPENING & SOCIAL MEDIA / AI STORIES OF THE WEEK PAUL WRIGHT Hello everyone and welcome to episode thirteen of the Link Thru Social Podcast. Later on in the show, we're going to have marketing expert Drew Dorenfest. He's from Client Magnet CRM. Uh his website is clientmagnetcrm.com. And he'll be joining us on the podcast from Hollywood trailers to small business SEO services. I think you're really going to enjoy the segment. Last week we celebrated episode 10 and also released two other bonus episodes, one the same day and the other on the Friday. And we had an amazing numbers from both YouTube and on our different podcast platforms that we offer, uh, Spotify and Apple. The numbers were very strong, and we thank everyone for your support. You know, it was a big milestone hitting episode 10. As I mentioned, you know, a lot of podcasts don't make it. Only one in four actually make it to episode 10. And now we're on episode 13 this week. So please once again don't forget to subscribe to our YouTube channel and also follow us on the platforms where you get your podcasts. Now, let's get to the stories of the week. A big problem is getting bigger. AI voice scams. What is an AI voice scam? Well, AI voice scams use artificial intelligence to clone a person's voice, tricking victims into sending money or revealing sensitive information. Unbelievable. To protect yourself from AI voice scams, be aware of voice cloning technology. Use automated voicemail and establish a family safe word. These are some of the points I want to go over right now for you. The key strategies to prevent AI voice scams. First, understand voice cloning technology. Recognize that AI voice cloning is real and can be used to create convincing replicas of someone's voice just using a few audio samples. Awareness is the first step in protecting yourself from these scams. Number two, switch to automated voicemail. Customize your voicemail greeting to the default automated message provided by your service provider. This reduces the risk of scammers capturing your actual voice and using it for cloning. Very good tip. Three, this is interesting. Create a family safe word. Now, establish a unique safe word that only family members know. This can help verify the identity of a caller claiming to be a family member in distress, preventing falling victim to impersonation scams. But remember, if you're gonna come up with this safe word, do not email it, do not text it, because you never know. Uh someone might get a hold of your information and they have access to that as well. So just verbally come up with this safe word amongst your family members. Number four, be cautious of emotional manipulation. Now, scammers often create a sense of urgency, claiming that a loved one is in danger. Always pause and verify the situation before taking any action, especially if money is requested. Take a step back, think about what has just happened, and maybe do a little bit more research, try to contact the family member in question yourself, and then you can make the decision whether this is true or not. And of course, limit social media recordings. Be mindful of what you share on social media, as scammers can use publicly available audio or video to create voice clones. Reducing your online footprint can help protect your voice. Now, by implementing these strategies, you can significantly reduce the risk of falling victim to AI voice scams and protect your personal information and finances. Stay vigilant out there and informed about the evolving tactics used by scammers. Next, Smart Post App is rolling out V26.15 update, which includes a new pro plan. This plan will allow up to 500 queued posts, which is targeted at agencies and social media managers who need more capacity on the Smart Post app. Go to SmartPostApp.com to find out more. Next. I touched on this earlier this week on my weekly segment on the Gene Velaita show, which is on Niagara's News Talk a.m. 610CKTB. I appear there every Wednesday at 10.05 a.m. Eastern. So you can either tune in or also you can stream live on their website, 610CKTB.com. Now, remember when social media was free? Now Facebook wants a subscription, Instagram wants a subscription, WhatsApp wants a subscription. Are we entering an era where the best features are locked behind a paywall? Now, how many subscriptions does the average person already pay for? There's Netflix, Spotify, YouTube Premium, Amazon Prime, Apple TV, ChatGPT, all the other different AI platforms, Claude, streaming, streaming sports, cloud storage. Now, Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp are offering a paid subscription as well. Now, you gotta think about it. Would you pay, say, five or ten dollars a month for an ad-free social media? A lot of people get turned off by all the constant ads on Facebook or Instagram or X, uh, even TikTok. So would you actually pay a rate, whatever it might be, $5,995 a month, so you don't have any ads on social media. Similar to, you know, if you have an Amazon Prime video subscription, you can for one price tier, it could have limited ads, or for a little slightly higher, it eliminates the ads altogether. So social media might be pivoting to this type of subscription base. It's fascinating the shift because social media companies, you know, they've spent nearly 20 years training people to expect everything for free. Now they're trying to convince users that premium features are worth paying for. The challenge is that consumers are already feeling subscription fatigue from streaming services, like I just mentioned. So the next battle in social media may not be about followers, likes, or AI. It may be about which subscriptions people are willing to keep and which ones they're ready to cancel. Next, Instagram updates algorithm to reward original creators. Instagram is updating its algorithm to give original photos and carousel posts more priority in recommendations. As part of the change, aggregator accounts that mostly repost other people's content will no longer be recommended in Explore and other discovery surfaces. Reposts may still work for followers, but fresh visuals, how-to post, visual stories, and content with meaningful added value are more likely to earn a broader reach. Well, that does it for the stories of the week. The Link Thru Social Podcast will be back right after this brief message from our sponsor. SPONSOR MESSAGE - SMART POST APP SPONSOR MESSAGE Tired of stressing over what to post on social media? Meet Smart Post app. You're all-in-one solution to create, schedule, and grow your content effortlessly. In just a few taps, you can generate engaging posts, stay consistent, and keep your audience coming back for more. No more guessing, no more burnout, just smarter content faster. Whether you're a business owner, a creator, or an entrepreneur, SmartPost helps you show up like a pro. Start posting smarter today at smartpostapp.com. Smart Post App because your content should work for you. INTERVIEW - DREW DORENFEST PAUL WRIGHT Welcome back to the Link Thru Social Podcast. We have a special guest once again this week, Drew Dorenfest, and he's from ClientMagnetCRM.com. Drew is a marketing expert who has worked with global brands such as Netflix, Apple, Warner Brothers, the NFL, and many more as a video editor. Now, with Client Magnet CRM, he's using his expertise to help fellow small business owners grow their brands through more clients, more five-star reviews, and more sales. Drew, welcome to the show. DREW DORENFEST Thanks so much for having me. PAUL WRIGHT My pleasure. It's ClientMagnetCRM.com. Before we get started with the interview, why don't you give us a little bit more about your background and how you came to this point today? DREW DORENFEST Sure. I'm from Chicago originally, and I always grew up loving movies - seeing a million movies in theaters and watching all the TV shows. I don't have one genre that I like. I like comedy, horror movies, and action movies. I decided to move out to L.A. to be part of the entertainment industry. I got my first job off Craigslist, believe it or not, at a trailer company where they made trailers for movies and video games. They needed someone to pick up lunch and basically be a gopher. I thought, "That sounds great." Everybody was really cool. They wore T-shirts in the office, played video games, hung out, and talked about movies. I thought, "This is my dream." I learned the ropes there, and I'm still friends with a lot of those guys almost 20 years later. I worked my way up to editor, and I really liked trailers. I've always liked watching trailers for movies. I thought they were really exciting - sometimes the trailer is even better than the movie itself. I've been in the trailer industry for a long time, basically the whole time I lived in L.A., almost 20 years. I worked at different marketing agencies that worked with different studios. It depended on the relationships between senior people at the agency and the movie studios. If someone was really tight with Paramount, you might be working on Transformers and Star Trek movies. If someone was tight with Disney, you might be doing a lot of Disney and Marvel properties. It was great, but I've been part of layoffs and part of a whole company that I loved that collapsed. You have less control over your future. There's not the kind of stability that past generations had, where if you were loyal to a job, the job was loyal to you. There's so much turnover and instability in the marketplace. I had never been anywhere as a full-time employee for longer than four years, through no fault of my own. In 2018, I decided to go freelance to take some of that control back and be my own boss. I loved it. I liked being a freelancer and having that control. Then, in 2023, I was working a lot with PBS, public broadcasting here in America. They're amazing. I love them. I was freelancing for them for about eight months, and toward the end of the year they were running out of freelance budget. They said they loved working with me and asked if I would be open to changing our arrangement so that, instead of being a freelance employee, I could be a vendor - a company. I said, "Great, sounds good." So I became an LLC and a business. I was a one-man business, and I treated it as such. I learned what I had to learn about running a business, how to pay taxes, and how to structure everything. It allowed me to market myself as a business. I wanted to grow, especially outside of entertainment, and find clients who weren't necessarily in entertainment. Through networking, I met a lot of small business owners and realized I had marketing expertise that many of them didn't, because they're focused day-to-day on their specialty, service, or what they sell. They're experts in that, but not necessarily in posting on social media, networking, or getting clients. I tend to think in systems: double down on what's working and don't spend time on what isn't working. Look at the data. If posting on LinkedIn twice a week is much more likely to get me a job, gig, or client than posting every day on Instagram, focus on LinkedIn. That's what led me to Client Magnet CRM: helping fellow small business owners with their marketing and helping them get found without having to post daily on social. You can do it differently through SEO, smart digital strategy, and email marketing, which I find is super underrated. PAUL WRIGHT It really is. You mentioned LinkedIn. A lot of people who aren't really in the know might say LinkedIn is a little passé, but I don't agree. I think LinkedIn, especially for business professionals in marketing, social media management, AI solutions, and podcasting, is still a very important tool. I would question anyone who says it isn't. Maybe you could describe a few other tools or software that have been a game changer for your business. DREW DORENFEST Absolutely. LinkedIn works for me because my target audience and customer is a business. It's B2B. When I launched Client Magnet, I tried everything. I started a TikTok and Instagram. I have one client with a gift shop that sells candles, clothing, unique jewelry, birthday cards, and other items. I started a Pinterest for her because that kind of inventory is tailor-made for Pinterest. Pinterest is driving about 10 times the traffic of her Instagram. She had a Pinterest account when it was new and completely forgot about it. I told her, "Your stuff is tailor-made for Pinterest. Why aren't you on it?" It's passive. She doesn't really have to do anything for people to find her products. You have to know who your audience is when you're talking about social. For me, LinkedIn was the best place because it's B2B and business owners. Instagram is often somewhere people go for fun. If you're selling directly to consumers, if you're selling a product someone can click one link and buy, TikTok Shop and Instagram can be the place. A lot of marketing is testing, seeing, and trying. For me, another major tool was SEO. SEO is complicated. I like learning, but once you understand that people are looking for things and Googling all the time, you realize the death of SEO is way overhyped. People are still searching on Google even if they're also talking to ChatGPT or Claude. They're still questioning the internet and looking for answers. Those answers will be provided by whoever works their SEO and gives Google the information it needs. I really worked over my website. As a portfolio site, it had all my trailers and work I had done. But Google algorithms thrive on text. If you have a picture, they can't necessarily read it. It's getting more sophisticated, but they like text. As a video editor, Google can't watch my trailers and digest video the same way. I had to write much more text on my website. Once I clearly explained, "My name is Drew Dorenfest. I live in Los Angeles, California. I've been working with Netflix, Apple, and these other brands," it became very clear to Google who I am, where I am, and what I do. That's my number-one piece of advice. Everyone focuses on website design and how pretty it can look. It's about text and clearly stating who you are, what you do, and where you do it. If someone is local to you, Google can put you in front of bigger brands because it knows the conversion is more likely to happen locally. If someone is looking for a plumber, roofer, or hairstylist, they're going to look locally. Build a strong About page that tells people everything they need to know. It's easy and free. The same goes for a Google Business Profile. It's free to set up and one of the easiest and best things to do. PAUL WRIGHT Absolutely. You were talking about SEO. With the emergence of AI, SEO is not going away. People think that because they're using ChatGPT, Claude, or another AI tool, SEO isn't important anymore. That's definitely not the case. With AI moving at lightning speed, let's just talk about the next few months, because I don't think we can talk in years when it comes to AI right now. For a small business owner, what should they be putting their ad dollars behind? Is it improving their SEO, or is it something else? DREW DORENFEST I like to think of everything as interconnected and having a system that works together. Paid ads can work. For instance, you can run paid ads across Meta platforms such as Facebook and Instagram. But as soon as you stop paying, that traffic and interest disappear. SEO is investing long-term: creating content and building out pages and content across the internet, planting little seeds that can be found many months later without continuing to pay for them. You can still do paid ads, email marketing, and social posting. It all harmonizes and builds your brand. It's about smartly placing your attention in the right places. I have Client Magnet CRM clients who love social media and post all the time, which is great, but their SEO was basically zero when I found them. They were posting every day, but if you typed something like "tax help in Los Angeles," they weren't showing up near the top. Google's algorithms don't necessarily count how often you post on Instagram as being as valuable, because that's essentially entertainment - scrolling and catching someone's content. You need to simultaneously build other content that lives for a long time, the way a Pinterest pin or a page on a website can live there and be found if it's valuable. Now, especially with Google and AI, everyone can create content at scale. That means there can be a lot of junk and fluff because AI can pump out 2,000 words in seconds. Google prioritizes helpful content and material that is valuable. That's not to say AI can't create valuable content, but it has to have value. If you're quoting a statistic, cite the source and link to where you found the data. Even more helpful is firsthand experience: "I'm an expert in this because I've been doing it for 15 years. Look at my customer reviews. Here's how many products I have. Here are the SKUs." All of that is proof to Google that you're a human being with real, verifiable experience, and that can rate much higher than a bunch of AI-generated content at scale. For instance, I had a client doing pool construction here in Los Angeles. They remodel pools and backyards completely and have high-end clientele. They later went with another agency that published a bulk amount of AI blog posts - about four a week. None of that AI content ranked highly. But one post I wrote very early on still ranked well. I went to their Yelp page and Google Business Profile and looked at their process photos: here's us starting a job, halfway through, and the finished product. I made a simple blog post of maybe 2,000 words showing job number one, job number two, job number three, before and after, what the process looked like, and the result. That ranks highly because people thinking about hiring them or getting a quote want to see the process. They ask, "Is this right for me?" That's how I feel about reviews as well. Google and AI algorithms highly prioritize reviews because they provide evidence. Some platforms really vet who's leaving reviews. Getting reviews is another free thing you can do. It's also a service I offer. It's my lowest-cost service at $99 a month, helping businesses get more actual, verifiable reviews from customers. People can be too busy, hesitant, or worried about bothering customers to ask for reviews. But you can automate it with an email or text message that feels personalized and isn't annoying. You can make sure that if someone has already left a review, you don't keep asking them. It's very effective. Clients I've worked with to get more reviews have seen their SEO really helped because Google sees that people genuinely like the service and is more likely to promote it. PAUL WRIGHT Like you said, you did that simple 2,000-word blog post. It's just telling a simple story. DREW DORENFEST Exactly. Just get to the point. You don't have to overthink stuff. Just get to the point. PAUL WRIGHT All these flashy AI posters or what have you aren't necessarily going to get you anywhere. They may look pretty and get attention on entertainment-type social platforms like Instagram or TikTok. But if you have a small business and you're trying to get the word out in your specific local area, SEO is the way to do it. Simple stories. Keep it simple. You made this huge entrepreneurial leap. How are you using AI in your own business? DREW DORENFEST I use it a lot. The thing I needed it most for was web development. I've built websites on my own before AI existed using Squarespace and Wix, but I had never used WordPress before. That's really where the rubber meets the road. You can change every little pixel on a WordPress site, whereas Squarespace has guardrails to keep you from messing it up. You can make a really customizable, unique website that doesn't feel like a template. I decided to build my own to learn it because I have clients using all of those builders. Having AI really helped. I could say, "This banner isn't working. It looks terrible. What's wrong with it?" It could look at the HTML or CSS and suggest a tweak or additional CSS. AI has been very helpful with that kind of technical work, especially web development. I'd be up late trying to fix my own website, and once I got the hang of it, I became pretty good at it. Coming from a creative field like video editing - and for people in graphic design - maybe graphic designers hate AI image generation. I don't particularly like AI image generation either. You can often tell when it wasn't made by a human being. It can look on par, but it feels like a facsimile. When I'm making a blog post and need images, I like stock imagery. Stock imagery is real human beings shot in a real place. It's like Christopher Nolan movies: use CGI only when absolutely necessary. Or Tom Cruise: if I can do the stunt myself, people can tell the difference and appreciate that it's real. It's the same thing for me. If I can get a stock image, I prefer that over an AI image because people can often tell it's fake. For AI tools, I use different ones for different purposes. I think ChatGPT is pretty good at marketing copy. If I'm thinking about a slogan or snappy marketing copy, it can give me good ideas. Claude can be a little wordier or more verbose, but it can be good at longer-term strategy. Claude also asks questions in a way that ChatGPT sometimes doesn't. It might challenge an assumption and say, essentially, "Hold your horses. That's for that situation. You're doing something different. Think about this." Claude can set me on a better path and calm me down. It's smart. PAUL WRIGHT Everyone I'm talking to has said something similar: ChatGPT is a little better at certain things, Claude is different in other areas, and then there's Grok. It's the Wild West right now with AI. In the end, I think they're all going to learn from each other and it will become harder to differentiate them. Right now, don't limit yourself to one. DREW DORENFEST Exactly. You can even say, "Hey, ChatGPT, you wrote this thing. Claude, read it. What do you think?" I treat them like team members. PAUL WRIGHT I love it. That's awesome. Drew, we have to get going, but once again, your website is ClientMagnetCRM.com. Finish things off by telling us what we're going to see on the website and how people can get in contact with you. DREW DORENFEST The easiest way to get in contact is through the website. You can sign up for a free consultation. I'm happy to chat about your small business. You can also send me an email through the contact page or find me on LinkedIn. I'm on LinkedIn all the time. My name is Drew Dorenfest. All the socials are @ClientMagnetCRM. I'm easy to get in touch with and happy to chat. PAUL WRIGHT Perfect. Drew, I really appreciate you taking some time to be with us on the show today. I urge all our viewers and listeners to go to ClientMagnetCRM.com. Drew Dorenfest, thank you very much for joining us, and you have a wonderful day. DREW DORENFEST Thank you. PAUL WRIGHT All right. The Link Thru Social Podcast will be right back after this short message. LINK THRU SOCIAL MESSAGE & CLOSING PAUL WRIGHT / PROMOTIONAL MESSAGE Link Thru Social. Elevate your brand. At Link Thru Social, we specialize in social media management, podcast production, digital media, and AI solutions, web design, and hosting to enhance your online presence. Go to LinkThruSocial.com to find out more. Link Thru Social can also be your social media partner for major events such as festivals, music events, pro wrestling, MMA, all combat sports, boxing, and so much more. Contact us today at LinkThruSocial.com and follow us on our social media platforms at LinkThruSocial. That's T-H-R-U. Well, that does it for the Link Thru Social podcast this week. Thank you so much for joining us. I hope you enjoyed this episode 13. And like I said at the top of the hour, please support the podcast by subscribing to our YouTube channel and following us on your favorite podcast platform. Until next week, that's it, another edition of the Link Thru Social Podcast.