Marketing School | Digital Marketing | Online Marketing

In episode #758, Eric and Neil tell you how you can find freelancers that don’t suck. Tune in to hear how your hiring process could be improved. TIME-STAMPED SHOW NOTES: [00:27] Today’s Topic: How to Find Cheap Freelancers That Don't Suck [00:43] Eric has been using AngelList to find freelancers, while Neil has been using Upwork and Problogger. [01:20] Eric has found great recruiters on Upwork. [02:00] Make sure you choose people who have good reviews, high success ratio, and a lot of completed projects. [02:30] Neil likes to skype with potential freelancers. [03:00] Just talk to people and figure out what they can do for your business. [03:20] Basecamp has written about their hiring process. [03:50] Pay potential employees for a small test project. [04:15] This will give you an idea about the quality of their work. [05:10] Neil would find freelancers and test out 5 at the same time. [05:26] That’s all for today! [05:28] If you could take two minutes out of your day, we are trying to improve th

In episode #757, Eric and Neil discuss 7 powerful marketing tools. Tune in to hear about some lesser-known marketing tools. TIME-STAMPED SHOW NOTES: [00:27] Today’s Topic: 7 Powerful Marketing Tools You May Not Have Heard Of [00:35] 1: Supermetrics is top of mind for Eric, because they are putting together reports for an all-hands meeting and it helps to make powerful reports. [01:11] 2: Clickflow is Eric’s tool, but Neil likes it because it allows you to do A/B testing. [01:58] 3: Bonjouro allows you to customize and personalize videos to your customers. [02:30] 4: Profit Well helps you find the lifetime value of your customer. [03:33] 5: LTV Plus has agents that can man your chatbots. [04:23] 6: AimTell creates push notifications that helps bring traffic to your website. [05:00] It also helps send notifications to those who did not purchase anything. [05:22] 7: Answer Force provides an agent to man your phone lines. [05:54] This is helpful if you are in a service business. [06:06] That’s all f

In episode #756, Eric and Neil discuss whether it is better to charge a monthly fee or a one-time fee. Tune in to hear which is more lucrative. TIME-STAMPED SHOW NOTES: [00:27] Today’s Topic: Is It Better to Charge a Monthly Fee or a One-Time Fee [00:40] If you have a monthly fee, look at the lifetime value of your customer. [00:45] Think about charging a one-time that is more or equivalent to your LTV and see if that generates more revenue. [01:05] People like the concept of a one-time fee. [01:24] It’s a much more appealing marketing message. [01:33] You have to be testing! [02:37] If your average customer only lasts one year, it’s more beneficial to charge up front. [02:56] Neil tested out up-front payment and a payment plan and found that up-front was the best system for his business. [03:25] If you charge a one-time fee for a lot of stuff, this holds greater appeal. [04:05] It’s all about the lifetime value of your customer: this is the best way to determine your pricing structure. [04:43]

In episode #755, Eric and Neil discuss whether you should give up on marketing campaigns that don’t work right away. Tune in to hear whether you should stay the course or drop dead weight. TIME-STAMPED SHOW NOTES: [00:27] Today’s Topic: Should You Give Up On Marketing Campaigns That Don't Work Initially [00:40] Singlegrain is trying to do what ClickFunnels has done in terms of bundling software with online courses. [01:00] Eric made an elaborate webinar and found that people really liked it. [01:17] However, no one bought immediately afterwards. [01:35] Eric was so disappointed, but he decided it would take more work to succeed pitching bundles. [02:04] The feedback he received let him know that he was downplaying his teaching skills too much. [02:15] So, sometimes you need to take a step back and re-jigger things and understand that everything takes time. [02:35] Don’t give up. [03:00] Marketing isn’t easy: you’re not going to get the results you want unless you put in a lot of work. [03:10] It

In episode 754, Eric and Neil discuss ways to reduce spending. Tune in to hear what you can do to cut spending without affecting your traffic. TIME-STAMPED SHOW NOTES: [00:27] Today’s Topic: How to Reduce Your Marketing Spend Without Hurting Your Traffic [00:40] It’s the most expensive at the very beginning. [00:53] You’ll find that over time, the methods you use to get traffic will go into automatic maintenance mode. [01:00] If something is in maintenance mode,  you shouldn’t be spending as much money. [01:18] Why spend the same amount of money when it takes a third of the effort to get results? [01:30] If you take your eye off the campaign, numbers get worse. [01:45] Make sure you are always looking at the basics, optimizing, and cutting what doesn’t work. [02:02] You will struggle to find where you can cut. [02:12] Neil recommends looking at credit card statements to understand your expenses and where to cut. [02:30] Cutting small things will have an impact and you will save money. [02:45] Si

In episode 753, Eric and Neil discuss the best way to write a cold email. Tune in to hear why you shouldn’t pitch someone right off the bat. TIME-STAMPED SHOW NOTES: [00:27] Today’s Topic: Best Way to Write a Cold Email [00:35] When Eric started emailing people, he would write epic novels. [00:53] It’s important that your emails are concise. No one wants to read a novel! [01:03] Make sure you personalize it in some way. [01:15] For instance, Neil like bottled water, so you could find a way to incorporate that into your pitch. [01:40] Don’t make a sales pitch, pitch a call or a smaller ask. [02:00] Neil has found that when you pitch in your very first email, it is so much harder to close or convert that customer. [02:07] Build a conversation. [02:22] Ask people for their feedback, then maybe get on the phone with them. [02:28] Ask if certain changes would sweeten the pot for the customer. [03:26] Build a relationship before you pitch your customer. [03:52] Most people fail at emailing because th

In episode #752, Eric and Neil discuss an easy alternative to content marketing. Tune in to hear how you can get great content for free. TIME-STAMPED SHOW NOTES: [00:27] Today’s Topic: The Easy Alternative to Content Marketing [00:38] Have your users create content for you! [00:44] Consulting.com and its proprietor didn’t enjoy content marketing, but he thought it would be a great idea to get users, customers, etc. to created video testimonials for him. [01:34] Consulting.com has thousands of video testimonials that ultimately help drive sales and conversions. [02:10] Kissmetrics asked everyone who was part a competition they were running to write a piece for the blog. [02:28] Because of this, they got 7 blog posts per week for free. [03:05] The content was also high-quality. [03:15] Yelp and Trip Advisor do so well because they have user-generated content. [03:30] Screen the content to make sure it’s quality work. [03:45] Listen Notes pulls people’s reviews and notes about podcasts from the web

In episode #751, Eric and Neil discuss how to properly hire interns. Tune in to hear tips on making the most of internships. TIME-STAMPED SHOW NOTES: [00:27] Today’s Topic: How to Hire Marketing Interns [00:45] Interns are awesome because they aren’t jaded and are basically blank slates. [00:55] They are often quick learners and you can train them to have a future in your company. [01:35] Eric had an intern that didn’t have a college degree, but he is one of their best employees now. [01:55] You never know where good talent will come from. [02:05] One intern earned his spot at Singlegrain by writing an 800-word blog post about what he would do to improve the site. [02:18] Eric pays his interns. [02:25] AngelList has been a great resource for finding interns. [02:36] Neil goes to colleges directly. [02:48] The schools help with recruiting. [03:10] As your potential interns what they are looking for in a career. [03:25] Don’t make false promises. [03:45] Don’t string interns along with the hopes

In episode #750, Eric and Neil discuss how you can get more traffic just by making your site load quickly. Tune in to hear how you can speed up your website. TIME-STAMPED SHOW NOTES: [00:27] Today’s Topic: How to Get More Traffic From The Google Page Speed Update [00:55] Page speed has always been a factor, but now they are rolling out page speed algorithm updates. [01:45] Eric’s site was run through GTMetrix to show him what was slowing it down. [02:21] He then cleaned up the slow parts and tested out the site again. [02:48] He got a substantial bump in visitors once he sped up his site. [03:25] Neil uses Google AMP and MaxCDN to make sure his site loads quickly and is routing through local servers across the globe. [03:45] Neil’s site also uses lazy loading, so things load as you scroll. [04:07] Make sure to compress images and reduce javascripts. [04:30] Bad code will ruin a site. [04:53] Make sure to make the most of what you already have instead of chasing new, shiny objects. [05:34] That’s

In episode #749, Eric and Neil discuss whether riches are in the niches. Tune in to hear whether you need to focus on a niche market. TIME-STAMPED SHOW NOTES: [00:27] Today’s Topic: Are The Riches Really In The Niches? [00:55] If they are, then why do we do different things? [01:15] In the beginning, you can go after a niche, because it is too expensive to go after a huge category. [01:20] Once you are established, you should expand and get beyond a niche market. [01:22] For example, ConvertKit tried to compete in the email marketing space and it didn’t work out. When they changed course to be a service for bloggers, they started succeeding. Now, they are Seva and have a larger business. [02:00] It is hard to make millions working within a niche. [02:35] If you are going to swing, swing for the fences. [02:54] If you don’t have a lot of cash, go for a niche. If you have the money, go for a huge market from day one. [03:25] Eric interviewed someone who works for Kahuna. [03:44] They focused on one

In episode #748, Eric and Neil discuss how you could learn the best marketing hacks from the top 1%. Tune in to hear how you can get the best hacks from the best people. TIME-STAMPED SHOW NOTES: [00:27] Today’s Topic: How to Learn the Best Marketing Hacks From the Top 1% [00:40] When learning marketing, you are not getting the best tactics from the best people. [01:15] Marketers don’t necessarily want to reveal their best, most effective tactics. [01:30] If they share everything that is working, the more people that use that tactic, the less effective it becomes. [02:08] If you network enough, eventually, people will share tactics with you. [02:28] Eric and Neil share tactics all the time. [03:07] You can throw dinner parties, attend conferences, join groups like EO or YPO and you will build relationships. [03:25] You don’t need internet-famous people to get people to attend your events. [03:45] The goal is to build relationships and learn from others in your field. [05:00] Build relationships wi

In episode #747, Eric and Neil discuss how Seinfeld emails can increase your sales. Tune in to hear why you should be writing Seinfeld emails. TIME-STAMPED SHOW NOTES: [00:27] Today’s Topic: How Seinfeld Emails Will Grow Your Sales [00:45] Ben Settle has a service called “Email Players” and shares a bunch of email marketing tactics. [01:20] Seinfeld Emails are so-called, because the emails don’t talk about the product or anything related to your business (it’s an email about nothing), but then you find a way to tie it in to your product. [02:26] There are so many different email sequences. [03:25] If people just wrote emails for different parts of their sequence, their conversions would go up. [03:40] You need to send out as many emails as you can. [03:50] Sam Evans earns over $20 Million/year doing his consulting course. [04:00] He puts out an email every single day. [04:25] It’s not just using the Seinfeld method, it should be about storytelling. [05:06] That’s all for today! [05:10] If you co

In episode #746, Eric and Neil discuss the best way to build links without actually building them. Tune in to hear the long-term method for link building. TIME-STAMPED SHOW NOTES: [00:27] Today’s Topic: The Best Way To Build Links Without Building Them [00:34] Relationships! [00:38] When you get to know more people, they will naturally link to you. [00:52] Neil knows a lot of people in the industry (including Eric). He and Eric have linked to each other without even asking. [01:20] Neil links to Eric not only because he is a friend, but because his content is good and relevant to his business. [01:50] You shouldn’t ask your friends and taint the friendship. [02:04] Noah Kagan did a video about this very subject. [02:25] Build relationships without expecting anything and it will pay dividends in the future. [03:10] Attend conferences, join slack groups, join LinkedIn groups to build relationships. [03:33] Everyone starts at zero and it will pay to build relationships. Say yes to everything at firs

In episode #745, Eric and Neil discuss the “land and expand” content marketing strategy. Tune in to learn about this method and how to apply it to your site. TIME-STAMPED SHOW NOTES: [00:27] Today’s Topic: The Land and Expand Content Marketing Strategy [01:05] Eric and Neil have a domain for this podcast, but they haven't been paying much attention to it. [01:55] Over the last seven days, they have gotten over 1000 visitors. This means they get about 6000 visitors per month. [02:12] They are planning to expand the content to see if it positively affects their traffic. [02:30] If you take all the pages you have and just add more content, you are wasting your time; look at which page gets the most traffic and expand upon it. [03:18] Use AHREFS and see how your keywords are ranking. [03:20] If the keywords drive 500-1000 visits per month, go ahead and expand. Otherwise, ignore that page or those keywords. [03:45] Within 30 days you may see an increase in traffic, but never more than double your curren

In episode #744, Eric and Neil discuss how to add long-tail keywords to your content. Tune in to hear how you can rank for long-tail keywords. TIME-STAMPED SHOW NOTES: [00:27] Today’s Topic: How to Add Long-Tail Keywords to Your Content [00:33]  If you type in Singlegrain.com or NeilPatel.com and use the Top Pages on the AHREFS or SEMRush sites, you can see how your pages rank and for which keywords. [01:20] Look at all your content that is ranking and go to Google Search Console, where you will see the impression count, keywords, etc. [01:50] Whatever someone is searching for, they are looking for a solution. [02:01] When using keywords, make sure you are offering relevant content regarding said keywords. [03:11] If you have a competitor that ranks above you for a certain keyword, you can take that URL and plug it into AHREFS. Then you can see all the keywords for which they are getting traffic and impressions. [03:35] From there, you can judge whether you re able to adjust your content to include

In episode #743, Eric and Neil discuss how to maintain a 30% open rate for your emails. Tune in to hear how to grow your list and stay out of the spam folder. TIME-STAMPED SHOW NOTES: [00:27] Today’s Topic: How to Maintain a 30% Open Rate On Your Email List As It Grows [00:45] Typical open rates are between 10-15%. [00:54] Most people would say to clean out your email list, but you won’t get any growth this way. [01:18] Ask your subscribers questions. [01:46] Try to have a conversation with the email recipients. [02:35] If you are launching a course, you should ask for people to share their journeys with content marketing, as well. [03:01] Emailing a questions once per month will help to ensure that you stay at the top of people’s inbox. [03:40] Make sure you don’t end up in the spam box by staying relevant. [03:56] That’s it for today! [04:00] If you could take two minutes out of your day, we are trying to improve the listening experience for you, so go to Singlegrain.com/survey and help us gain

In episode 742, Eric and Neil discuss simple ways to come up with effective marketing ideas. Tune in to hear some simple hacks. TIME-STAMPED SHOW NOTES: [00:27] Today’s Topic: A Simple Way To Come Up With The Most Effective Marketing Ideas [00:40] Spy on your competition! [00:55] AdBeat is a way to see all the ads a company is running and how their spend trends are running. [01:30] This also shows you which ads have been used for the longest period of time. [01:43] Go to your competitors’ web sites. [01:45] Track the changes that they make, because it will give you an idea of what is helping them grow. [02:00] If you go multiple times, you will get “cookied” and you will see all their ads and campaigns. [02:36] AHREFS Content Gap is a way to see all the different keywords your competition is ranking for that you are not. [03:09] Take those keywords to UberSuggest and you will get more ideas about how to use them. [03:25] Use BuiltWith to see what tech your competitors are using. This will give yo

In episode #741, Eric and Neil discuss what you should do with visitors who don’t buy. Tune in to hear how you should follow up with people who didn’t convert. TIME-STAMPED SHOW NOTES: [00:27] Today’s Topic: What Should You Do With All of Your Visitors Who Don't Buy [00:34] Survey those customers who do not buy. [00:50] If you have 100 visitors, you will be lucky if 5 people make a purchase. [01:06] Sure, you could look at Google Analytics, but you won’t know why people aren’t converting. [01:30] If you survey your audience, you can learn from mistakes and boost conversions. [02:15] SurveyMonkey and Qualaroo are great tools to use. [02:30] Eric also likes TypeForm. [03:20] Eric likes the question “Were you considering joining the Digital XP Accelerator?” because the answers let him know that the messaging wasn’t aligning with people’s pay-points. [04:06] Follow up with an email or phone call and try to convince those surveyed to buy. [04:20] Even if they don’t buy, this will give you a clearer id

In episode #740, Eric and Neil discuss what you should do when you aren’t growing. Tune in to hear how you can stimulate growth. TIME-STAMPED SHOW NOTES: [00:27] Today’s Topic: What Should You Do When You're Not Growing [00:45] If Eric is in a rut, he likes to take a break. [01:08] Clearing his head allows him to move forward and come up with better/new ideas. [01:25] When people stop growing, it is because they are relying on old tactics. [01:37] Neil likes to run drastic experiments to test out new ideas. [01:53] Growth is often boosted by unorthodox methods. [02:00] At Crazy Egg, they grew quickly by switching the homepage from a long sales page, to a much shorter, concise page. [02:15] They also tested the “sign in with Google” option, which worked out well. [02:35] After those methods began to hurt them, they switched it up again. [03:15] In general, if growth slows down, do the opposite of what you are currently doing. [03:30] Eric has a friend that does video advertising. [03:55] His sec

In episode #739, Eric and Neil discuss news ways to do Competitive Analysis. Tune in to hear about new techniques. TIME-STAMPED SHOW NOTES: [00:27] Today’s Topic: The New Way to Do Competitive Analysis [00:38] Facebook is a great way to do competitive analysis. [00:55] There is a sidebar on Facebook ads that says “info and ads” that will show you all the ads someone is running. [01:11] You can put a pixel on your website, build an audience, and use tools like SimilarWeb to see who you share an audience with. [01:40] Make sure when doing CA, that the audience is similar to yours. [02:32] The idea behind using the new FB ads feature is more transparency. [03:00] Instead of having to come up with ideas from scratch, you can use other’s ads to show your clients what’s out there and build a campaign from there. [03:24] That’s all for today! [03:28] If you could take two minutes out of your day, we are trying to improve the listening experience for you, so go to Singlegrain.com/survey and help us gain s