Marketing School | Digital Marketing | Online Marketing

In episode #620. Eric and Neil discuss 7 unorthodox marketing hacks. Tune in to hear what you could be doing to drive conversions. TIME-STAMPED SHOW NOTES: [00:27] Today’s Topic: 7 Unorthodox Marketing Hacks You Ought to Leverage [00:35] #1: When driving people to your website, less than 5% will convert. For the 95% that don’t convert, re-market them with an opposite pitch (logical vs. emotional). [01:22] #2: Every month, when Drift launches a new feature, they treat it as a product launch, which helps to keep them top-of-mind. Product Hunt is a great tool for this. [02:22] #3: There is a program on LinkedIn that gives a special button that populates their LinkedIn info into a form, so they have less work to do. This will increase your leads and conversions, because there is less work to be done [02:59] #4: Build a repurposing framework. Think about all the content you can take even further (turning a blog post into a video, social media post, webinar, etc.). [03:36] #5: To increase your traffic, sta

In episode #619. Eric and Neil discuss how you can audit your content in 5 minutes. Tune in to hear how you can quickly improve your content. TIME-STAMPED SHOW NOTES: [00:27] Today’s Topic: How to Audit Your Content in 5 Minutes [00:34] Eric likes to use Screaming Frog Spider, an SEO tool that allows him to crawl his website like a search engine would. [01:06] There’s an annual fee, but it’s a great way to audit your content. [01:12] Neil likes to make a list of all his Wordpress content, see which topics are duplicates, then plugs that into Google Search Console. Once he sees which ones are ranking, he will combine the similar posts and update his links. [02:04] This is the quickest way to audit your content and this will increase your rankings. [03:05] Using a tool like AHREFS allows you to do content gap analysis, while also offering a look at your competitors. [03:25] Content auditing doesn’t take long! [03:43] Click flow helps to optimize organic click-through rates to drive your traffic up.

In episode #618, Eric and Neil discuss why Ivy League graduates aren’t always the best marketers. Tune in to hear why you shouldn’t hire a Harvard grad. TIME-STAMPED SHOW NOTES: [00:27] Today’s Topic: Why You Shouldn't Hire Harvard Graduates [00:35] People who come from Ivy League schools are smart and they are not saying not to hire them. [01:20] What you need to do, is hire people based on how creative they are and their past work. [01:38] If a candidate can turn a dud into a stud, they can probably do great work for you. [01:55] People who go to good schools are good at following instructions. When it comes to getting creative and thinking outside the box, they may not be able to do that. [02:40] When Eric was 22, there was a Harvard grad who was in the same position as Eric. The Harvard grad appeared to have no chutzpah and would come in and only do what he was told. This motivated Eric to work hard and be creative. [03:25] Affiliate marketers are the most creative, because they don’t operate ba

In episode #617, Eric and Neil count out their favorite WordPress plugins. Tune in to hear what plugins you should be using to optimize your posts. TIME-STAMPED SHOW NOTES: [00:27] Today’s Topic: Our Favorite Marketing WordPress Plugins of 2018 [00:35] YouTube Subscribe Bar allows you to embed videos and include a subscribe button. However, the subscribe button will subscribe viewers to your channel instead of the channel from which the video was posted. [01:13] Yoast SEO Plugin has an XML sitemap generator. They create XML sitemaps the correct way, whereas other plugins do not. [01:37] Tools like Pretty Links help to shorten links and make them more visually appealing. [02:05] Exit Pop Ups works well with Hello Bar and Neil likes it because you can make your background an animated GIF. Animated GIFs tend to up your subscribers. [02:27] Wordable allows you to write a post in Google Sheets and then push it directly to Wordpress. [03:18] Gravity Forms is a great way to do integrations and collect paym

In episode #616, Eric and Neil discuss the 7 hacks you can use to stand out from the crowd. Tune in to hear what you should be doing to make an impression. TIME-STAMPED SHOW NOTES: [00:27] Today’s Topic: 7 Social Media Hacks That'll Make You Stand Out From The Noise [00:42] #1: Neil took the most popular influencers and had them take photos of themselves holding signs that said, “Who is Neil Patel?”. Over the years, he has closed deals because people remembered this campaign. [01:26] #2: Allbird has custom illustrations and videos on Instagram. That kind of thing will help you stand out. [02:06] #3: See what’s working for your competitors and is getting them the most shares. Then, create similar content or posts. [02:38] #4: Social Blade shows stats for YouTube. You can see channel’s growth rates and what helped them achieve that growth. This will help you figure out what tactics to copy. [03:23] #5: Increase engagement by boosting posts to people on your fan page. [04:11] #6: Build pods with like-m

In episode #615, Eric and Neil debate which marketing channel has the best ROI. Tune in to hear on which channel you should be focusing your energy. TIME-STAMPED SHOW NOTES: [00:27] Today’s Topic: Which Marketing Channels Have The Best ROI [00:35] Content marketing is one of the best options for good ROI. [00:40] On the other hand, Neil thinks using paid ads are the best. [01:06] You have to think of scalability and return on investment. [01:30] With content marketing, you could spend $1 Million and generate $10 Million, whereas with paid ads, you could spend $50 Million and generate $100. [01:40] If you combine those two channels, you could have a “monster” business. [02:00] One channel could work better than the other depending on the business. [02:25] A woman Neil met at a conference gets all her business through Facebook ads. [02:50] Another company grew solely off of social media paid ads, which proves this is a popular and successful method. [03:15] If you layer paid ads with content market

In episode #614, Eric and Neil count out the 10 marketing tools you absolutely need. Tune in to hear which tools you should be using to help increase your revenue. TIME-STAMPED SHOW NOTES: [00:27] Today’s Topic: The Only 10 Marketing Tools You Need [00:45] Marketers use too many tools and it was proven in a study. [01:01] #1: AHREFS is the tool that is great for competitive analysis or even analyzing your own performance. [01:30] #2: Google Analytics helps you track what is effective and compare yourself to your competition. [02:14] #3: Zoom is all-in-one webinar software. You can live chat with your team or have your webinar viewed by up to 10,000 people at a time. [02:52] #4: BuzzSumo is a way to track social media shares. [03:08] #5: Convert Kit or Drip as email service providers. Use something that is intuitive like these products. [03:39] #6: Crazy Egg is a heat-mapping tool that Neil helped to create. It does heat-map recording, scroll maps, AB tests, etc. [04:03] #7: Clickflow or Google Sea

In episode #613, Eric and Neil explain why they work so hard. Tune in to hear why they spend so much time working and whether it is worth it. TIME-STAMPED SHOW NOTES: [00:27] Today’s Topic: Why We Work So Hard [00:43] Neil says he works so hard because he loves what he does and he also has nothing better to do. [00:50] He loves it so much it doesn’t feel like work for him. [01:01] Eric loves playing games and finds that marketing is a fun game for him (in terms of strategizing). [01:58] He is addicting to winning. [02:30] One of Neil’s partners said marketing is like a drug. [03:03] Eric sees systems of processes and finds them to be like puzzle pieces. [03:35] Business is a game that never ends. [04:01] Though Neil clearly grew up an Upper-Middle Class kid, he still had aspirations of being “rich” and privileged. [04:12] Eventually, he realized money doesn’t equate to happiness, but the challenges of the job were satisfying. [04:38] Figure out what your motivation is and once you find that, kee

In episode #612, Eric and Neil discuss their craziest marketing schemes. Tune in to hear some out-there ideas that may work for you, as well. TIME-STAMPED SHOW NOTES: [00:27] Today’s Topic: The Craziest Marketing Tactic Ever [00:36] The craziest thing Eric has ever done was bet an entire company (54 employees, 5 months of cash in the bank). [01:02] He bet everything on video marketing in order to hit numbers. [01:19] He was even surprised that it worked. The company now does $25 Million/year in business. [01:39] At the same time, Neil was spending $20 to acquire a customer and generating $200. [02:02] The craziest thing Neil has ever done was to launch the “Who is Neil Patel?” campaign. Though he got a lot of hate for it, it proved to be very successful. [02:42] It caused everyone to Google his name, which made his brand query shoot up, his search traffic skyrocketed, and his ranking improved. [03:12] You can achieve this by creating quizzes or paying celebrities to be part of an ad campaign, as ex

In episode #611, Eric and Neil discuss how you can improve your SEO without writing more content. Tune in to hear what steps you can take to increase site traffic without having to write new content. TIME-STAMPED SHOW NOTES: [00:27] Today’s Topic: How to Do SEO Without Writing Content [00:35] Use Google Search Console to see which pages have a high impression count, but low click-through rate. [01:01] In order to increase traffic to your site, improve your title or meta-description. [01:26] Neil’s most popular pages are the ones with a tool, his blog, and his homepage. [01:44] Whatever business you’re in, create a tool for it. You don’t have to do this from scratch! You can buy a script for what you need. [02:18] Buy other websites via BizBuySell, Flippa, or FE International. [02:49] Brian Dean runs Backlinko, has thirty-something blog posts and gets near 200,000 visitors per month. [03:05] He gets good traffic by improving his existing content. [03:33] You can generate traffic and raise your rank

In episode #610, Eric and Neil discuss 7 useful hacks that will double your leads. Tune in to hear what you could be doing to increase your business. TIME-STAMPED SHOW NOTES: [00:27] Today’s Topic: How to Double Your Leads With These 7 Hacks [00:33] Hack 1: Use the most relevant lead magnet. [00:38] A lead magnet is an ebook, a checklist, etc. [01:07] Hack 2: Remarket visitors to your site. [01:15] Show them a landing page with the opposite pitch of your main landing page. [01:33] Remarketing is effective, because people come to your site via different pages. [01:55] Hack 3: Use a pop-up tool to collect leads. [02:02] Great pop-up tools: Hello Bar and Opt-in Monster. [02:21] Hack 4: If you are doing B2B, use LinkedIn’s pre-populating forms. [02:48] Your conversion rate will go up, because it fills out the form for the potential customer, saving them time and effort. [02:52] Hack 5: Use chat bots. [03:02] You can use Facebook’s free tool, Intercom, Drift, or Many Chat. [03:33] Hack 6: Get peopl

In episode #609, Eric and Neil discuss whether you really need more backlinks to outrank your competition. Tune in to hear what you can do to improve your ranking. TIME-STAMPED SHOW NOTES: [00:27] Today’s Topic: Do You Really Need More Backlinks to Outrank Your Competition? [00:34] Eric doesn’t think you need more backlinks. [00:54] Sometimes, a wikipedia post will rank higher than others because they have domain authority. [01:15] However, Eric and Neil don’t even check their domain authority anymore. [01:21] When you’re starting off, this is something you need to check, but once you are more established, it doesn’t matter. [01:41] Neither Eric or Neil even knows how many backlinks they have. [02:15] To win business, Eric’s company will show companies how many backlinks they have as compared to their competitors. [02:30] Once you’ve been working with a customer for a year or two, you produce good content, build natural links, create videos, create podcasts, and you no longer check on backlinks. [

In episode #608, Eric and Neil discuss what you should do in light of the fact that email marketing is dying. Tune in to hear what avenues you should pursue to mitigate the loss of traffic through email marketing. TIME-STAMPED SHOW NOTES: [00:27] Today’s Topic: Email Marketing Is Dying (and Here's What You Should Do Next) [00:34] Everyone thinks no one uses email anymore, which is a false assumption, especially if you work in the corporate world. [00:55] Although email marketing is dying, that is only for the younger demographics. [01:15] Email isn’t as effective as it used to be, but as long as you leverage all the other channels, you can still do well. [01:40] Combine emails, push notifications, and chat bots; you will get back some of the traffic you lost through email marketing. [02:00] Neil spoke to someone who works in Dubai and he still makes all his money through email marketing to an older audience. [02:21] Eric loves to use Subscribers.com, Many Chat, and text messaging to market to a youn

In episode #607, Eric and Neil discuss what happened when they purchased backlinks. Tune in to hear whether this is still a valid marketing method. TIME-STAMPED SHOW NOTES: [00:27] Today’s Topic: We Bought $100,000 Worth of Backlinks (and Here's What Happened Next) [00:40] Eric and Neil no longer buy links, but did so during the earlier parts of their careers. [00:55] They purchased random sites with no relevance to their industries. [01:30] Link buying is bigger than it used to be and Google isn’t banning any of the purchased sites. [01:55] Sites will spend $100,000 on backlinks, but they are not getting the traffic that they used to. [02:02] Google is now using a lot of factors such as brand queries, user metrics, on-page SEO, Hummingbird, and Rank Brain. [02:45] Paid advertising is the biggest trend right now and it’s working. [03:00] Buying links is the old SEO, instead you should think about ways to repurpose and create great content. [03:26] Neil uses blogging, video, and podcasting as mar

In episode #606, Eric and Neil discuss how you can outrank your competitors simply by copying them. Tune in to hear how and what you should be copying. TIME-STAMPED SHOW NOTES: [00:27] Today’s Topic: How to Outrank Your Competitors by Copying [00:53] Single Grain went from 4000 visitors/month to 100,000 visitors/month by copying great ideas from his competitors. [01:20] Take the best techniques, posts, podcasts and spin it to make it more useful. [01:36] Dr. Axe is a website that crushed the competition. [01:58] Dr. Axe checked which of their competitors’ URLS were getting the most traffic, had the fewest backlinks, and then wrote better versions of those pages. [02:57] This got them to 20 Million visitors per month. [03:34] AHREFS is one of Eric and Neil’s favorite tools. It can do a content gap analysis, which will help you see where others are failing. Fill in that gap! [04:25] Neil wrote The Beginners’ Guide to Online Marketing. It cost him around $20,000 or $30,000. [04:51] It was a combinat

In episode #605, Eric and Neil discuss whether you should focus on quantity or quality when it comes to link building. Tune in to hear what you might be doing wrong. TIME-STAMPED SHOW NOTES: [00:27] Today’s Topic: Quantity vs Quality: What's Better For Link Building? [00:43] Neil finds that neither proves more useful than the other. Slow and steady wins the race. [01:02] This means whether you post ten links per month or three with high quality content, consistency is the only thing that matters. [01:52] You never consider link-building when you’re starting your business, but it matters. [02:20] When starting out, focus on letting people know who you are and what your brand is. [02:45] Eric builds the majority of his links on Singlegrain. [02:56] He and his company focus on quantity and find that quality isn’t always a factor. [03:15] Now, Singlegrain pulls in 100,000 visitors per month. [03:25] Don’t post junk, but quality rarely matters. [03:45] Don’t always link back to your homepage, rather p

In episode #604, Eric and Neil discuss ways you can convert site visitors into repeat visitors. Tune in to hear how you can increase your conversions and revenue. TIME-STAMPED SHOW NOTES: [00:27] Today’s Topic: How to Convert Your Visitors Into Repeat Visitors [00:45] 25-30% of Single Grain’s visitors are repeat visitors. [00:48] Most people will have this percentage of repeat visitors. [01:12] Collect email addresses and re-market to them. [01:30] People on your email list will be the highest converting channel. [01:36] Emails account for 30% of Overstock’s sales. [01:55] Made a lead magnet. [02:10] Use Beacon.by to make checklists and ebooks. Other helpful tools are: Canva and Hello Bar. [02:40] Use multiple channels; try push notifications. [02:45] To facilitate this, try Subscribers, Push Crew, or One Signal. [03:00] Chat bots are still effective (not as much as last year). You can get 40% of those people to your website. [03:24] You can use RSS to blog. [03:50] It’s a quick and easy way t

In episode #603, Eric and Neil discuss ways you should emulate HubSpot. Tune in to hear the ways in which HubSpot is successfully converting people into customers. TIME-STAMPED SHOW NOTES: [00:27] Today’s Topic: How to Growth Hack Your Company by Copying Hubspot [00:35] Eric had one of the HubSpot VP’s, David Cancil, who is now the CEO of Drift, on Growth Everywhere. [00:47] David said that Hubspot got a lot of its clients/sales from it website grader tool. [01:04] When it comes to software, you want to give away something everyone wants. [01:18] Even if you release a cheaper version of coveted software and give it away for free, you will get a lot more traffic. [01:43] You can even apply this to physical products. [02:10] “Marketing is a race to the bottom.” -Neil [02:25] Neil bought and re-launched UberSuggest; did little to no marketing; and offered free versions of his competitors apps or software. [02:50] Russell Brunson offered a free book for which you only had to pay shipping. [03:15] Ou

In episode #602, Eric and Neil count out 7 hacks that will help you increase your revenue. Tune in to hear these great hacks! TIME-STAMPED SHOW NOTES: [00:27] Today’s Topic: 7 Simple Copy Hacks That'll Allow You to Sell Anything [00:35] #1: Take a look at what everyone in your space is doing. [01:03] Focus your copy on a niche instead of directly competing with others content. [01:33] By tailoring to a specific audience, your conversions will go up. [01:54] #2: Check out Backlinko. [02:01] All the posts are easy to read. Model yoru content after this. [02:40] #3: Integrate testimonials and case studies that prove your point. [03:10] Make sure you include more than one testimonial. [03:20] Make it more of a story. [03:33] #4: Emaildrips will help you draw inspiration on what to do next. [03:59] #5: Do the opposite pitch of what is on your landing page. [04:30] Most of your visitors won’t convert, but re-market to your core audience. Send them to a different landing page and try a more emotional

In episode #601, Eric and Neil discuss the one thing that Marketers tend to overlook. Tune in to hear what you might be neglecting in your business plan. TIME-STAMPED SHOW NOTES: [00:27] Today’s Topic:The One Essential Thing That Most Marketers Miss [00:50] You can’t build something great without a great team. [01:22] Hiring and recruiting are the biggest marketing hacks out there, but people often don’t think about this. [01:41] Algorithms always change and it makes it hard to stay popular or “on top”. [02:20] It doesn’t matter what channel you’re marketing through, but rather your brand is most important. [02:41] Focus on providing an amazing customer experience. [02:48] Use Zappos as an example of great customer service, [03:51] The CEO of Priceline realized that at the end of the day, it was all about his team and the people that make up the company. [04:49] Who? Is a great book that will teach you about the psychology of team building. [05:04] Primal Branding is another good resource. [05