Marketing School | Digital Marketing | Online Marketing

In episode #640, Eric and Neil discuss the marketing tactic you need to master this year. Tune in to hear what one tactic you should be leveraging. TIME-STAMPED SHOW NOTES: [00:27] Today’s Topic: The Marketing Tactic You Must Master in 2018 [00:33] Surprise: it’s branding! [00:49] Neil recently performed a survey to discover what causes people to engage with his brand. [00:57] He made sure it was an open-ended survey. [01:05] The answers were either that they saw him at a conference or watched his videos. [01:55] The reason Eric and Neil simulcast their podcasts on video is because people enjoy and engage with the videos more. [02:14] Even though it costs more upfront, it will pay off financially in the long run. [03:00] The market is very fragmented right now; the way people market and engage with content varies. [03:38] Make sure that you spread your content across the many different social media platforms, because you will reach different people on each one. [04:35] There are a lot of websites

In episode #639, Eric and Neil discuss the three best marketing strategies. Tune in to hear what three things you should be doing to increase your conversions. TIME-STAMPED SHOW NOTES: [00:27] Today’s Topic: The Three Best Marketing Strategies [00:46] Posting less on Facebook, actually gets you more traffic. [01:14] Share your best pieces and you will get higher engagement. [01:40] Eric’s office has printed out and posted the Content Re-usage Workflow. [02:00] The framework says to start with a foundation, which will then give you options to spin the content down the line. [02:54] Google Analytics can now show you each person’s entrypoint to your site and what is causing a conversion. [03:05] Take the conversion data and take the low click-rate stuff and repurpose it. [04:15] Traffic that doesn’t convert isn’t worth your time. [04:37] That’s all for today! [04:44] Go to Singlegrain.com/Giveway for a special marketing tool giveaway! Leave some feedback: What should we talk about next? Please

In episode #638, Eric and Neil discuss why the small things can make a big difference. Tune in to hear how many different facets go into creating a successful business. TIME-STAMPED SHOW NOTES: [00:27] Today’s Topic: Small Things Make The Biggest Difference [00:36] At a past job, Eric took the footer links on the homepage and added more that said “Learn Web Design” and “Learn Web Development”. These small changes helped to improve the domain authority. [01:23] The Dropbox referral program isn’t what made their company, even though it helped. [01:35] Their explainer video was also a small thing that helped make a difference without making the only difference. [02:00] Dropbox offered a lot of little things to help create the powerhouse they are today. [02:15] It’s never just one thing, but rather a lot of little things that make up a successful company. [02:45] It’s like a video game: you are constantly leveling up. [03:38] Think about building things up, but remember not to do it in isolation. [04

In episode #637, Eric and Neil explain why paid ads are better than SEO. Tune in to hear why you should be focused more energy on paid ads. TIME-STAMPED SHOW NOTES: [00:27] Today’s Topic: SEO Will Never be as Good as Paid Ads! [00:34] Content pages generally rank higher than product pages. [00:59] While paid ads are expensive, you can direct traffic to pages that will generate the most cash. [01:10] The conversion rate is higher, because visitors will land on a page that is selling them something. [01:29] You just can’t control SEO as well as you can paid ads. [01:57] With paid ads, you can scale as much as you need to. [02:20] VC’s really like pouring money into SaaS companies. [02:44] Google and Facebook wouldn’t be worth what they are, if it wasn’t for paid ads. [03:30] People are moving campaigns from TV to the Internet. [04:05] Focus on paid ads before SEO, especially if you have a product or service. [04:34] That’s it for today! [04:37] Go to Singlegrain.com/Giveway for a special marketin

In episode #636, Eric and Neil discuss whether it is worth spending money on blog posts. Tune in to hear where your money should be going. TIME-STAMPED SHOW NOTES: [00:27] Today’s Topic: Is It Worth Spending $200 Per Blog Post? [00:33] Yes, it is worth the money! [00:45] The cost per blog depends on the industry. [00:50] It’s not about how much you pay, but rather if it is on the right topic, using the right keywords, etc. [01:05] You can’t be pushing or schilling in the post, it needs to educate. [01;20] Neil writes long-form blog posts. [01:40] It costs him well over $200 per blog post. [02:05] Start with a strong foundation and build from there (videos, webinars, facebook ads). [02:23] Singlegrain went from 4000 visitors per month to over 100,000 by using this strategy. [03:15] Every quarter, open up a tool like AHREFS, see the keywords for which you rank well and improve upon them or replicate that content. [04:01] Once you build a strong blog foundation, you can expand into other areas of m

In episode #635, Eric and Neil discuss an important SEO strategy. Tune in to hear what you may have been overlooking. TIME-STAMPED SHOW NOTES: [00:27] Today’s Topic: 95% of You Will Ignore This SEO Strategy [00:36] Branding is what separates good companies from the bad. [01:30] If you don’t know how popular a brand is, it’s hard to outrank them. [02:00] Neil’s strategy used to be: create good content, create value, wait for results. [02:04] This wasn’t the best strategy. [02:15] His best branding strategy was the “Who is Neil Patel?” campaign. [02:45] BuzzSumo has a great alert system that will help you track your brand. [02:51] Neil likes to use Google Trends, which is free. [03:03] Google Search Console is also a great way to track your progress. [03:10] GSC tracks farther back than 90 days, which is more helpful when gauging progress. [04:15] The stronger your brand, the higher your domain authority. [04:40] That’s it for today! [04:44] Go to Singlegrain.com/Giveway for a special marketing

In episode #634, Eric and Neil discuss the easiest way to be successful. Tune in to hear why experiments are key. TIME-STAMPED SHOW NOTES: [00:27] Today’s Topic: The Straightest Road to Success [00:33] The key to success is experimentation! [00:51] A lot of people forget to build out an experimentation framework. [01:02] Neil will split his team into four groups and each group will submit ideas each week for “crazy” experiments they can run. [02:38] Each group needs to run experiments every week. [02:46] GrowthHackers created North Star, which helps you track experiments over time. [03:00] Northstar is a free service. [03:18] Try Google Experiments as another tracker. [03:34] Build experimentation into the fabric of your company. [04:00] It’s ok if experiments fail! [04:28] By doing radical experiments, you can learn how to grow your company at a fast pace. [04:50] Read Crazy Egg to learn more about experimentation. [05:01] That’s all for today! [05:04] Go to Singlegrain.com/Giveway for a spe

In episode #633, Eric and Neil discuss why you shouldn't fall in love with an idea. Tune in to hear what you should love in order to be successful. TIME-STAMPED SHOW NOTES: [00:27] Today’s Topic: Don't Fall in Love With an Idea [00:35] Most startups start with a totally different idea than what they are doing presently. [00:54] Don’t fall in love with an idea, fall in love with an industry. [01:55] As long as you stick with your industry, you can build upon that experience, as opposed to shifting to something else entirely. [02:18] It’s like compound interest: the moment you stop investing, you lose all that interest. [02:53] Stay in your lane. [03:01] In a Nathan Latka podcast interview, the discussion was about sticking with one industry instead of branching out into the unknown. [04:02] You need to love what you do, but make sure you love the industry. [04:20] Elon Musk had ZipTo, then Paypal, then SpaceX. Because he jumped industries, he struggled much longer before his success. [05:23] It’s

In episode #632, Eric and Neil discuss why you shouldn’t copy your competition. Tune in to see why past techniques may not work for you today. TIME-STAMPED SHOW NOTES: [00:27] Today’s Topic: Stop Copying Your Competition [00:38] What worked for your competition won’t necessarily work for you. [01:17] The problem with content marketing is that there is now a lot more competition. [01:40] Whereas Neil had success within the first three months, it would take people a year to do the same today. [02:18] Costs of paid ads have gone up and bigger brands drive prices even higher. [03:00] What people were willing to spend years ago, was a lot less than you would have to spend today. [04:00] Just because one tactic worked for another company, doesn’t mean it will work the same way for you. [04:15] Dropbox referral programs worked in the past, but they probably wouldn’t work now. [04:50] If you’re in business to make money, you should do something else. [05:03] You have to be three steps ahead of everyone;

In episode #631, Eric and Neil discuss why it’s important to not overthink shit. Tune in to hear why overthinking could be ruining your business. TIME-STAMPED SHOW NOTES: [00:27] Today’s Topic: Don't Overthink Shit [00:34] Everyone loves to come up with complex funnels. [00:48] When you make it complex, stuff is more likely to break down. [01:12] Start simple, then expand. [01:22] When Eric started, his channel was SEO. They wrote content and did a lot of guest posting. [01:43] They tried a complex marketing funnel, but it didn’t work. [01:55] They also were podcasting at the same time and then layered in content marketing once they got the hang of everything. [02:27] Just focus on the things that you are good at. [02:40] Don’t take on too much and you can layer things in later. [03:14] Why build a crazy marketing/sales funnel, when you haven’t tried a simple one in order to see if it would even work? [03:50] The boring growth is often the most sustainable growth. [05:06] Wait until the next ma

In episode #630, Eric and Neil explain how successful marketers think. Tune in to hear what you should be doing to become a more successful marketer. TIME-STAMPED SHOW NOTES: [00:27] Today’s Topic: How Successful Marketers Think [00:35] Successful marketers are numb to failure. [00:45] Most experiments are going to fail, but as long as you continue to improve by 1%/week, that will be a 50% gain over the course of a year. [01:13] Consistency is key! [01:20] It takes time to get things right, but you have to stay the course. [01:45] Eric writes thousands of blog posts, even though he has terrible grammar. He knows it is important to follow through and be consistent. [01:50] Be a T-shaped marketer. [02:30] Spot trends! If you are not good at spotting trends, keep reading news sites and stay on top of things. [03:25] Things change so quickly in marketing. [04:45] If you are not thinking about ROI, you are not going to succeed in the marketing world. [05:20] It’s important to be data-driven; the numb

In episode #629, Eric and Neil Discuss how to get started in SEO. Tune in to hear what’s changed and how you can get a successful start doing SEO. TIME-STAMPED SHOW NOTES: [00:27] Today’s Topic: How to Start in SEO [00:45] The biggest thing that Eric and Neil are seeing right now is that the path to success has changed. [01:18] If you spend a year practicing SEO on your own website, that’s no longer the way to go. [01:35] You should practice on someone else’s older website. [01:52] Hit up a ton of people offering your services for free. [02:00] It’s easier to grow a business than it is to start one. [02:25] During a TED Talk Eric saw, a Harvard Professor outlined the three elements of trust: authenticity, empathy, and logic. [02:45] When you develop your skills for free, you will eventually earn clients. [03:14] You will probably have to email 15-17 people before you get a solid “yes” when it comes to offering your services for free. [03:40] Make sure that the person to whom you offer your servic

In episode #628, Eric and Neil have a 6-ish minute chat about planning for the long-term. Tune in to hear why you should always focus on long-term goals and solutions. TIME-STAMPED SHOW NOTES: [00:27] Today’s Topic: 6 Minutes For the Next 60 Years of Your Entrepreneurial Journey [00:36] When you think about starting a business, most people think about “what problem should I solve?” [00:54] But you should also ask “will this problem that I’m solving still be relevant in the ensuing years?” [01:08] You don’t want to have to create a new business every few years. [01:30] Eric thinks Singlegrain will still be around in 20 years, but that it will have to evolve. [02:10] Five years into his business, Eric believes he still has a long way to go. [02:36] If you come up with a short-sighted solution, then you will have to start a new business every few years. It is easier to grow a business than it is to start one. [03:00] Elon Musk has a long-term plan to work towards getting people on Mars. [04:07] Often

In episode #627, Eric and Neil discuss how you can find a CMO. Tune in to hear what you should be doing to grab your next successful CMO. TIME-STAMPED SHOW NOTES: [00:27] Today’s Topic: How to Find a CMO [00:33] They get hit up all the time for people looking to fill this position, but it is the hardest position to fill. [00:55] Tap into referral networks. [01:05] When Eric was hired at Treehouse, he was referred in. [01:27] Don’t just hire a CMO, have someone prove in a lesser position that they can deliver results for you. Have people work their way up. [02:55] Instead of having a CMO, just make the marketing department work together to guide the mission. [03:41] Contingency firms whose focus is on hiring executives is another way to go. [03:48] They will cost you a lot of money, but will deliver on the mission. [04:34] Org structures are different now, so it changes how you can operate. [04:38] To recap: referral networks work, contingency firms work, having NO CMO works. [04:48] That’s it fo

In episode #625, Eric and Neil discuss where and how to focus your energy. Tune in to hear what you should actually be focusing on! TIME-STAMPED SHOW NOTES: [00:27] Today’s Topic: To Focus or Not to Focus, The Marketer's Dilemma [00:50] People have different concepts of how marketing works. [01:02] Your tactics all depend on what your business is, what its status is, etc. [01:37] Pick a tactic that is working the best for you and focus all your energy on that. [01:55] Once that tactic is operating to its best abilities, add in other tactics. [02:24] Eric worked at a company that tried a bunch of different tactics and found video marketing worked the best, then focused all their energy on that. [03:14] Neil met the Legal Zoom/Shoedazzle CEO; he told Neil to have laser focus. [04:10] Steve Jobs said that he is better at saying “no” than other people. [04:40] If your growth rate is accelerating, hit the gas. If it’s decelerating, think about what you can improve. [04:55] That’s all for today! [05:0

In episode #626, Eric and Neil explain why they don’t watch the news. Tune in to hear why  television news is a waste of your time. TIME-STAMPED SHOW NOTES: [00:27] Today’s Topic: Why We Don't Watch The News [00:33] The news media is just another business. [00:45] It’s a viewership-driven business and they thrive on ad revenue. [01:00] Instead, Eric follows different people on Twitter and gets his news from that. [01:20] TV news is just noise! [02:21] You can get your news by browsing news sites instead. [02:34] If something really important or big happens, you will most likely find out about it on Twitter or social media, anyway. [03:15] By not spending time posting on social media, you gain a lot of hours back. [03:44] To beat your competition, focus on your business and what matters as opposed to being obsessed with frivolous social media posts. [04:40] The Economist Espresso is one or two paragraphs and summarizes the most important stories. [05:00] “If you want to do well, stop wasting you

In episode #624, Eric and Neil discuss how you can get more out of your day. Tune in to hear how you should be organizing your life. TIME-STAMPED SHOW NOTES: [00:27] Today’s Topic: How to Get More Out of Your Day [00:40] Google “Michael Hyatt Perfect Day”, which will explain how to block out your day. [00:53] Eric and Neil record at a set time every week. [01:07] Thursdays are Eric’s content days. Fridays are for his SAS products. [02:05] Eric will do networking events, dinners, etc., because it is a priority for growing his business. [02:40] Figure out your end goal and cut everything else out. [03:00] Neil doesn’t do networking events, rather he does actual tasks. [03:15] He feels that if he hasn’t accomplished his goals, he can’t rest, so he doesn’t care about work/life balance: he works through illnesses and holidays. [03:29] Mark Schuster did a blog post “Learning Before Earning”, which you should read. [04:09] The book, The One Thing, tells you to pick your most important goal and to just

In episode #623, Eric and Neil discuss how you can stay top of mind. Tune in to hear what you should be doing to remain popular. TIME-STAMPED SHOW NOTES: [00:27] Today’s Topic: Here's A Unique Way To Keep Your Brand Top Of Mind [00:38] If you look at Drift, every time they launch a new feature, they always have a lot of fanfare and masquerade it as a product launch. [01:26] In 2017, Neil bought UberSuggest and relaunched it as a free tool in 2018. [01:45] He used Product Hunt to promote it. [02:15] Neil publishes to his blog 7 days a week! [02:32] You have to be relentless in order to stay top of mind. Tom Brady is a great example of relentlessness. [03:00] There is no one specific thing you can do to stay popular, but rather you have to try everything. [03:42] The rule of 7: someone has to see something 7 times before they convert. [04:10] By putting yourself out there, eventually, you will become top of mind. [04:51] Zoom doesn’t run a lot of ads, but they have billboards everywhere in San Fran

In episode #622, Eric and Neil discuss what you can do when you run out of marketing ideas. Tune in to hear where you can find inspiration to get you out of a rut. TIME-STAMPED SHOW NOTES: [00:27] Today’s Topic: Running Out of Marketing Ideas? Do this [00:45] Eric opens Feedly, which has a bunch of marketing blogs, which can give him a bunch of ideas. [01:17] Nuzzle takes all of his Twitter followers and shows him who they are following. [01:34] Basically, go out and research in order to get new ideas. [01:47] Instead of doing more things, improve what you are already doing. [01:53] Try using Buzzsumo, SEMRush, AHREFS in order to see what your competitors are doing. [02:14] Re-write your competitors work and improve upon it. [02:46] Whatrunswhere shows you what banner ads your competitors are leveraging. [03:15] Keep things fresh: go look at your channels and update/upgrade them. [03:42] Crowdsource your ideas! [04:50] Listen to competitors’ podcasts, which will give you great ideas. Find out th

In episode #621, Eric and Neil explain how marketers are full of shit. Tune in to hear how you can decipher a bullshitter from a talented marketer. TIME-STAMPED SHOW NOTES: [00:27] Today’s Topic: Marketers Are Full of Shit [00:34] Marketers always talk a big game, but their results speak for themselves. [01:08] When hiring marketers, make sure whatever they claim to have done is backed up by proof. [01:45] Eric’s friend had to fire his marketing guy, because the marketer used up too many resources. [02:16] You must absolutely require proof of success and pay them for a trial period (run a series of paid tests). [02:48] Always test out a working relationship before you pull the trigger. [03:20] Neil doesn’t care what your title is, he is only focused on efficacy and results. [03:43] Eric and Neil can easily provide proof of their results. [04:05] “What is the most impressive win of your marketing career thus far?” is Eric’s favorite interview question. Once you start pressing for details, you can t