Marketing School | Digital Marketing | Online Marketing

In today’s episode, Eric and Neil discuss unorthodox strategies for coming up with blog topics. Tune in to hear how you can spin any topic. TIME-STAMPED SHOW NOTES: [00:27] Today’s Topic: The Unorthodox Strategy We Use to Come Up WIth Topics For Our Blog [00:45] They don’t have many strategies at Neil’s org, but rather one simple method. [01:10] Neil writes about personal experiences. [01:25] Neil wants people to know they can’t get his content anywhere else. [01:52] When he shares personal stories, he gets 12x more comments. [02:25] Growth Everywhere doesn’t have a headline or title until after the interview. [03:15] At Single Grain, employees are required to come to a meeting with multiple blog ideas. [03:45] A blog should be about what you want to share, but also what people would want to read. [04:10] As a blogger, you can come up with unique stories for any industry. You just have to put your personal spin on things. [04:45] Ben Settle came up with the concept for “Seinfeld Emails”. [05:25]

In episode #737, Eric and Neil discuss whether cheaper is better. Tune in to hear if you are shooting yourself in the foot by charging less. TIME-STAMPED SHOW NOTES: [00:27] Today’s Topic: Is Cheaper Better? [01:00] Some people say you pay what you get for, but sometimes cheaper is better. [01:30] There is a diamond company that makes the stones in a lab. When they sell them for less, no one wants them. When they sell them for the same price as mined diamonds, they sell out. [02:00] The quality is the same, but the diamonds are made in simulated conditions. [02:28] If two advertising companies charge two different rates, most people will pay the higher rate for a smaller company and more focused attention. [03:05] People often question the quality of something if it’s too low of a price. [03:30] There is no exact science to setting a price point, so do your research and run tests. [04:20] That’s it for today! [04:24] If you could take two minutes out of your day, we are trying to improve the liste

In episode #736, Eric and Neil discuss why marketers change their minds so often. Tune in to hear why marketers are a fickle bunch. TIME-STAMPED SHOW NOTES: [00:27] Today’s Topic: Why Marketers Change Their Minds a Lot [00:45] Eric and Neil originally said they wouldn’t use Outbrain or Taboola. [01:00] Since then, those companies have improved their methods. [01:24] At first, the Facebook ads platform was weak. [01:45] Often, marketers change their minds because circumstances change. [02:05] What worked yesterday, may not work today. [02:20] Market conditions are always in flux. [02:38] Neil always told people not to advertise on Instagram, but he has since changed his tune to some degree. [03:00] It’s not good for cold traffic, but works for further exposure. [03:30] Have a framework whereby you can re-test methods that were previously unsuccessful. [04:10] That’s all for today! [04:13] If you could take two minutes out of your day, we are trying to improve the listening experience for you, so

In episode #735, Eric and Neil discuss how to do content marketing on a budget. Tune in to hear what steps you can take to save some money. TIME-STAMPED SHOW NOTES: [00:27] Today’s Topic: How to Do Content Marketing on a Budget [00:45] Right now, Eric is cutting his content marketing budget. [01:00] They decided to collaborate or work on getting guest posts. [01:47] KissMetrics grew by reaching out to other content marketers and offering a platform. [02:27] You can get people to write for free if you offer publicity and other opportunities for exposure. [03:15] There are a lot of writers out there writing well-researched long-form content. [03:52] Infogram or Canva are great ways to repurpose content and turn it into infographics. [04:35] The content re-usage framework is a great line of thinking and a great way to save money. [05:32] That’s it for today! [05:36] 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/surv

In episode #734, Eric and Neil discuss how to build links the right way. Tune in to hear what makes link-building sleazy. TIME-STAMPED SHOW NOTES: [00:27] Today’s Topic: How to Build Links (Without Being Sleazy) [01:00] Having a simple widget or tool is a great way to provide a service without being sleazy. [01:25] Neil likes to release free copies of paid tools. [01:56] HubSpot overtook Drift by offering a free service. [02:30] Yelp offers widgets that helps restaurants link-build. [02:45] Email outreach isn’t sleazy, even though people think it is. [03:02] To not be sleazy, you have to offer value. [03:46] Aim to build relationships instead of just reaching out for links. [04:15] Use data to help you find out your best people to reach out to. [04:43] That’s it for today! [04:47] 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 some insight into what matters to our listeners. Leave some f

In episode #733, Eric and Neil discuss the one thing that can screw up your company. Tune in to hear what you absolutely should not do. TIME-STAMPED SHOW NOTES: [00:27] Today’s Topic: This One Little Thing Can Screw Up Your Company (So Don't Do It) [00:35] Don’t rebrand! [00:44] Companies who are successful and make money still feel the need to rebrand. [01:12] ConvertKit is changing their name to Siva, even though they are doing well. [01:34] They wanted to rebrand, because no one knows what “convert kit” means, anyway. [01:57] It makes sense to rebrand if you are changing your product, but otherwise, it doesn’t make sense. [02:35] The Growth Everywhere podcast is rebranding. [03:00] If you don’t have a ton of traction, feel free to rebrand. Don’t consider it if you’re making millions. [03:57] That’s it for today! [04:01] 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 some insight into wha

In episode #732, Eric and Neil explain how to educate leads. Tune in to hear how you can grow your customer base through education. TIME-STAMPED SHOW NOTES: [00:27] Today’s Topic: How to Educate Leads That Aren't Ready to Become Customers [00:45] There is a time to be aggressive and a time to go easy. [01:20] In everything they do, Eric and Neil try to educate people who aren’t ready to buy. [01:46] You put in all this work during year one, by year three you start to see results. [02:08] It takes time to manifest results. [02:20] Neil looks for what makes his ideal customer. [02:40] He will create content that helps companies grow, because they can become customers once they have achieved greater success. [03:40] The rule of seven is key. Make sure your name keeps getting out there. [04:13] Make sure you are surveying customers to make sure you know what they are looking for. [04:40] Always drop the name of your company and contact info in everything you do. [05:05] TOFU, MOFU, and BOFU are impo

In episode #731, Eric and Neil discuss how you can generate traffic on a budget. Tune in to hear what makes traffic “high quality” and how you can generate it. TIME-STAMPED SHOW NOTES: [00:27] Today’s Topic: How to Generate High Quality Traffic on a Budget [00:50] How do you define high quality traffic when starting off? [01:10] Look at how well the traffic converts in terms of collecting email sign-ups. [01:31] When you have traffic that converts, you know it’s the right traffic. [02:45] Outreach through guest posting is a great budget-friendly way to grow. [03:14] ConvertKit is an email marketing solution. [04:05] Use this tool to reach out to potential partners. [04:22] Go to people who have your ideal traffic and partner up, cross-promote, bundle. [05:30] Do tons of business development and partnerships. [05:47] When you’re starting out, say yes to most deals. [06:05] That’s all for today! [06:08]  If you could take two minutes out of your day, we are trying to improve the listening experie

In episode #730, Eric and Neil discuss why Google Analytics is useless without this one thing. Tune in to hear what you might be missing. TIME-STAMPED SHOW NOTES: [00:27] Today’s Topic: Why Google Analytics is Useless Without This... [00:42] Eric doesn’t always buy a product or service when he visits websites. [01:05] Google Analytics will never tell you why someone left your site without buying. [01:15] GA provides quantitative data. [01:20] Qualitative data is more elusive. [02:07] Go to your lowest hanging fruit first. [02:50] Affiliate marketers struggle because they operate in a vacuum. [03:08] Qualaroo, SurveyMonkey, Google Surveys are great ways to get qualitative data. [03:38] 30 or more responses will serve as enough data to be actionable. [04:15] User Testing and Usability Hub are great tools. [04:37] Make sure the person testing is your ideal customer, otherwise, the data won’t matter. [05:16] That’s it for today! [05:22] If you could take two minutes out of your day, we are trying

In episode #729, Eric and Neil discuss 7 questions you ought to ask your audience. Tune in to hear what types of questions you should be asking. TIME-STAMPED SHOW NOTES [00:27] Today’s Topic: 7 Questions You Ought to Ask Your Audience [00:50] #1: Tell us all of the topics you are interested in regarding Marketing. [01:30] If you are covering food topics, ask your audience what their diet is based on. [01:45] You want to see who your audience is and how they skew (vegan, meat eaters, etc.). [02:07] #2: What else would you like to see on this page? [02:20] This will help you to understand what your page is lacking from the customer’s POV. [02:36] Under 30 responses is not enough data to make an effective change. [03:10] #3: What are you goals in the next year? [03:18] Use Surveymonkey for long form answers of this nature. Make a word cloud out of your responses. [03:58] #4: What did you think about X? (The product or service they purchased). [04:20] This will help you determine if things are worki

In episode #728, Eric and Neil discuss the pros and cons of taking online marketing courses. Tune in to hear both sides of this argument. TIME-STAMPED SHOW NOTES: [00:27] Today’s Topic: Why You Should and Shouldn't Spend Money on Marketing Courses [00:45] If you end up paying for something, you’re more likely to take action. [00:52] People can find what a course is selling for free elsewhere. [01:20] If you pay for it, there is still a chance you won’t take action. [02:00] It depends on your personality type when it comes to taking action. [02:20] Eric sees people offering online courses as taking advantage of others. [02:33] They may not actually be experts and credibility isn’t required to teach online courses. [02:51] Eric feels it is preying on people’s insecurities. [03:26] Look into the person selling the course; check credentials. [04:15] Some courses are being taught by people who just teach courses and don’t have actionable information. [05:12] That’s all for today! [05:15] If you coul

In episode #727, Eric and Neil discuss how you can rank for thousands of keywords. Tune in to learn how you can earn a high ranking overnight. TIME-STAMPED SHOW NOTES: [00:27] Today’s Topic: How to Rank For Thousands of Keywords Fast [00:44] Neil’s strategy to ranking for thousands of keywords, is to write a blog post that is only a few thousand words. [00:52] A shorter blog posts allows you to test the waters and see if it is ranking and getting social shares. [01:10] See what search queries are leading people to your article. [01:23] Tailor your articles to those search queries; when people have a problem, offer a solution. [02:05] Look for relevant keywords that aren’t on your page and add them in. [02:36] Adjust your content to benefit the user. [02:40] If the user doesn’t like your article, because you are just stuffing in keywords, your user metrics scores will tank. [02:50] Backlinko is good at doing all of this. [03:08] There is on epic post about this on Backlinko. [03:25] If the majori

In episode #726, Eric and Neill discuss ways to grow your marketing through partnerships. Tune in to hear what makes a great partnership. TIME-STAMPED SHOW NOTES: [00:27] Today’s Topic: How to Grow Your Marketing Through Partnerships [00:40] Partnerships can be collaborating with SEO software and doing joint webinars or doing an affiliate partnership. [01:06] Neil thinks a partnership means a win-win, where everyone benefits from the collaboration. [01:33] When doing collabs, if what you are promoting for the partner doesn’t meet your audience’s needs or interests, nothing will come of this joint venture. [02:01] Neil has over 100,000 YouTube subscribers. If someone who wanted to partner with him only had 2000, he would decline. [02:22] If you have a small amount of followers, you need to up the ante to make it worth your partner’s while (payment, etc.). [03:00] However, most partnerships will not be equal. [03:15] Figure out what you can leverage and how the partnership would be beneficial. [03:4

In episode #725, Eric and Neil discuss how you can generate more upsells. Tune in to hear 7 great hacks! TIME-STAMPED SHOW NOTES: [00:27] Today’s Topic: 7 Simple Hacks to Generate More Upsells [00:33] #1: If someone is buying from you, add an upsell immediately after their purchase (on a thank you page). [00:52] #2: Upsells won’t work unless you’re offering speed and automation. [01:27] #3: Make sure you have urgency built into your upsell. [01:44] #4: Check out bumps. [01:54] When checking out on ClickFunnels, they always have an offer on the check-out page, where you can tick a box and buy something cool for a good rate. [02:22] #5: Downsell. [02:34] #6: Use Google Correlate. [02:45] This will help you to see what people are buying/searching for right after they buy your product. [03:20] #7: Make sure your upsell is relevant. [03:35] If you sell an SEO course, then a design course, it might not make sense. [03:50] That’s it for today! [03:55] If you could take two minutes out of your day, we

In episode #724, Eric and Neil discuss the channel you aren’t leveraging. Tune in to hear what new channel you need to try. TIME-STAMPED SHOW NOTES: [00:27] Today’s Topic: The 11 Billion Dollar Marketing Channel You Aren't Leveraging (But Should) [00:35] You aren’t leveraging the App Store! [00:38] Apple reported they have generated over $11 Billion in revenue from the App Store. [00:46] The Google App Store adds in even more revenue. [01:00] However, so few people are creating apps for their sites or products. [01:18] If you’re not on there, you are losing out! [01:35] It’s not a competitive space. [01:50] If you want more traffic, look for channels that are still growing. [02:10] A mutual friend of Eric and Neil’s used WP to build an app. [02:21] WP is how Marketing School and Growth Everywhere have apps. [02:40] Google Momentum is a great productivity add-on. [02:55] They just figured out how to start monetizing it. [03:30] Eric and Neil will try to leverage new channels all the time. If t

In episode #723, Eric and Neil count out the 7 lessons they learned from running software companies. Tune in to hear what lessons apply to your business. TIME-STAMPED SHOW NOTES: [00:27] Today’s Topic: 7 Marketing Lessons We Learned From Running Software Companies [00:43] A lot of the lessons Eric and Neil learned, could work for ecommerce and other internet-based businesses. [01:05] #1: It’s not all about the conversion plan. Optimize for lifetime value. [01:25] People typically pay for software on a month-to-month or annual basis and people often have to renew plans; this is a consistent revenue stream. [02:17] #2: It’s all about on-boarding. [02:40] First impressions matter and that applies to software, as well. [02:53] #3: You end up losing about 5% of your revenue because user’s credit card numbers expire. [03:08] To fix this, companies like GoDaddy sign up for a service called Visa and Mastercard Updater; Visa and Mastercard will automatically update user’s credit card details for a small f

In episode #722, Eric and Neil discuss what you should do when a social network stops driving traffic to your site. Tune in to hear what your options are. TIME-STAMPED SHOW NOTES: [00:27] Today’s Topic: What You Ought to Do When a Social Network Stops Driving You Traffic [00:40] Neil has close to a million Facebook followers. When he had a few hundred thousand, he spent $400,000 on Facebook ads to gain a “shitload” of new followers. [01:10] Neil thinks of Facebook like a well. You want to have your own well, so you can keep getting water without spending money. [01:40] Neil’s strategy worked for a very long time, then Facebook changed their algorithm. [02:55] Twitter was better in the past, but overall the user growth hasn’t been great lately. [03:16] If you are able to build your own email list, you control that at the end of the day. [03:40] The cool part about Google is that they have learned not to penalize links, they just don’t count bad ones. [04:15] The possibilities are endless and you sho

In episode #721, Eric and Neil count out 7 simple SEO tactics. Tune in to hear what you should be doing on your site. TIME-STAMPED SHOW NOTES: [00:27] Today’s Topic: 7 Dead Simple SEO Tactics That Still Work Today [00:33] #1: Upgrade your content. [00:40] Look at Wikipedia and Trip Advisor: there is constantly updated user content. [01:01] #2: Google Correlate. [01:04] It’s a great tool for keyword research. [02:06] #3: The Skyscraper Technique. [02:15] Go out and look for top five posts about a certain keyword. [02:30] Make content that improves upon the original resource. [02:41] #4: Infographics. [02:50] KissMetrics was popular because of their use of this visual content. [03:07] Go to BuzzSumo and look at the popular articles in your field and create infographics about the material. [03:43] #5: Use Google Search Console. [03:50] Look at top pages and top keywords that are ranking. [04:00] Add any keywords you don’t have. [04:08] #6: Use Google Search Console to search for top keywords. I

In episode #720, Eric and Neil discuss why marketers overspend. Tune in to hear why you are spending too much money. TIME-STAMPED SHOW NOTES: [00:27] Today’s Topic: You're Spending Too Much Money! [00:40] In marketing, everyone is about spending money. [01:15] When people hit Eric up, they are looking for advertising and SEO, but rarely conversion rate optimization. [01:40] SEO and content marketing are the best or most popular services. [01:57] If you're spending all this money on marketing, why wouldn’t you hire someone to reduce your expense by cutting the fat? [02:12] Hire someone full-time to just do conversion rate optimization. [03:00] Consider ways your office space can produce revenue. [03:22] AWS did $12 Billion in revenue. [03:35] Take the expense you have and figure out creative ways to make them profit-generating machines. [03:50] Example: your office could be an event space. [04:10] Optimize to get more out of your resources. [04:20] Be more creative with how you spend your money,

In episode #719, Eric and Neil discuss the efficacy of midrolls. Tune in to hear whether you should drop the midrolls or keep them. TIME-STAMPED SHOW NOTES: [00:27] Today’s Topic: Do Midroll Ads Really Work? [00:40] In podcasts, there are always ads in the middle of the show. [00:50] Most podcasters use this format, where they run ads in the beginning, middle, and the end. [01:35] Eric was looking at their Apple Podcast retention rates. [01:50] Because Growth Everywhere has a midroll, he checked the retention rates. [02:09] He lost 50% of people at the midroll, but it increased after the ad. [02:30] So, keep your midrolls, because people will just skip them, but will continue to listen and stay engaged. [03:20] Perhaps create a customized landing page to increase ROI. [03:50] Andrew Warner integrates his ads into the podcast episode, which increases sign-ups. [04:22] If you auto-insert ads, people will skip them. If you pay people for custom plugs, that will generate more revenue. [05:12] What W