Online Genius Podcast

Today we’re talking again about a subject I love: list building. We’ll be breaking down how to build a high-converting opt-in page so that people will want to join your list.  This episode is part of our inbound marketing series. Last week we talked about lead magnets, and today I’m sharing the 3 key ingredients to creating a high-converting opt-in page. WHAT YOU'LL LEARN IN TODAY'S EPISODE The single purpose rule How to optimize the layout of your opt-in page How to write stellar copy for your opt-in page RESOURCES FROM TODAY'S EPISODE BOMU

If you want to build your list, you need to create a stellar lead magnet that your core audience will gladly give their email address to get. The trouble is that figuring out what makes a great lead magnet can be really confusing. In this episode, we’re taking the guesswork out of it (at least as much as possible!).  WHAT YOU'LL LEARN IN TODAY'S EPISODE What makes a great lead magnet How many lead magnets you should have How to pick the right kind of lead magnet RESOURCES FROM TODAY'S EPISODE BOMU Canva templates

As an online marketer, you’ve no doubt heard that you should be building your list. But maybe figuring out exactly how to do it is tripping you up. That’s why we are doing three episodes in a row about list building. In this episode, we are tackling list building basics. We talk about how list building fits into your marketing and the nuts and bolts of how to get started. WHAT YOU'LL LEARN IN TODAY'S EPISODE How list building fits in with inbound marketing Overview of the list-building process Make sure you’re getting the right people on your list The most important rule of list building RESOURCES BOMU

If you’re listening to this podcast, you are an inbound marketer… or at least you should be one. You don’t have money to spend blasting generic brand awareness ads to your customers. Instead, you need to attract, nurture, convert, and serve your potential customers in an orderly journey. That is the inbound marketing journey. What You'll Learn In Today's Episode: The difference between inbound and outbound marketing How each type of marketing should fit into your overall marketing strategy The five phases of the inbound journey The five types of content you need to create to move people along the journey The biggest mistake marketers make in differentiating the phases of marketing Where you should focus your advertising dollars How content marketing fits into the puzzle How social media marketing fits into the puzzle How list building fits into the puzzle How email marketing fits into the puzzle What a closing channel is and why you need to have one Resources In Today's Episode: BOMU Hubspot AccessAlly

One thing that my followers have figured out by now is that I am NOT shy about expressing my opinions about things... which means I tend to make some pretty definitive statements. When I make those statements, I believe them to my core, but I'm not ashamed to admit it when I change my mind later. This episode is my mea culpa for three things that I got wrong... and not just by a little. These aren't little things. These are places where I have changed my mind big time. Buckle up for some big admissions. What You'll Learn in Today's Episode Three pieces of advice that I've given that were wrong Why creating a single piece of content each week might not be enough How we are changing our content marketing to build authority The different kinds of content you should be creating Why running sales that include price cuts aren't always bad What we can learn from Nordstrom Why "adding value" may not be the best way to generate sales How to handle promotion if you're creating multiple pieces of content each week Why

We’re wrapping up our Ethical Way series with my guest, Zach Spuckler. Zach and I had a great conversation about ethical marketing and how people use negative emotions in their marketing. We also ventured into other important online marketing topics. Zach has been in the online marketing world for a while. He has been the Periscope guy, the Facebook ads guy, and now he’s the challenge guy. We talk about trends in the online marketing industry, like how messed up sales calls can be and why it’s important to be transparent about the real costs of starting an online business. WHAT YOU’LL LEARN IN TODAY’S EPISODE: How to think about using negative emotions in marketing and the false dichotomies that are common in the online marketing space. Ways you can avoid negative emotions in marketing and not follow the script of work with me or be broke forever. Another way to do webinars. The problem with the bait and switch on webinars and discovery calls. The problem with using shame and guilt to get people to buy your

We’re continuing our journey down the ethical way, and today I’m joined by Tarzan Kay to talk about ethical marketing. Tarzan has been thinking and talking about writing ethical copy, and I’m  excited to share our discussion about how we can be ethical online marketers. We dive into how we think about ethics in online business and some of the assumptions that people make when they hear the word “ethical.” We also don’t hold back in discussing some of the problematic tactics that are so common in the online marketing world. You don’t want to miss this episode. WHAT YOU’LL LEARN IN TODAY’S EPISODE: When Tarzan realized there was a problem in the online marketing industry. The complexity between people being vulnerable and in enough pain to need a solution and the pressure put on them to take responsibility for their situation. How negative emotions are used to manipulate people instead of influence them. Where the line is between agitating pain and acknowledging the problem. Why we need to do the work to under

We’re talking about ethical marketing and our responsibility as business owners in the information space. Today we’re going to have a little fun talking about whether there’s a snopes for marketing. What are our duties to check information we’re passing along in our products? Last summer I had an epiphany and started to ask questions and investigate some of the marketing practices that are common in the online space. Now I compare this to the game of telephone. Someone discovered a way to make money online and passed it along. But where do we draw the line between passing along information and investigating what we’re passing along? WHAT YOU’LL LEARN IN TODAY’S EPISODE: Why online marketing is like a bad game of telephone. Why it’s problematic to say you don’t need to be an expert to teach others. Why the fact that it worked doesn’t mean that it’s right. Why you need to investigate the information that you hear from others before you decide to repackage and sell it. When repeating something becomes dishonest

We’re continuing our ethical way series where we’re talking about what it means to be an ethical online marketer. This isn’t me simply telling you what to do but asking questions about common industry practices. Today we’re diving into the issue of objections. Objections are a big deal in the online marketing world. But it’s time to take a step back and rethink when we should bust objections and when a question or concern is a valid reason not to buy. We’ll be talking about understanding where that line is. WHAT YOU’LL LEARN IN TODAY’S EPISODE: Why we’re taught to think of everything as an objection to be busted. Why it’s a problem to take this approach to objections. The reality with completion and success rates for online courses. How we’ve been trained to treat valid reasons people shouldn’t join as objections to bust. Why people don’t have success with most online programs. Why it’s unethical to say this will work even if you have no list and no audience. Why we need to reframe the question from is it po

As online marketers we use a lot of words and phrases that might seem confusing to people who aren’t in the know. Some are just lingo that is annoying. Those clearly don’t raise ethical issues, but it’s probably not good marketing to use those publicly! Some are confusing because we are using euphemisms... like when we use "masterclass" because our people don’t want to attend a "webinar." Other times we’re using words that are simply untrue... like creating a list of "Frequently Asked Questions" that includes questions that no one has ever asked us. In this special #Friday Live edition of The Certified BADA$$ Online Marketing Podcast, we’re talking all about the ethics of these word games. This isn’t an episode I had planned, but was inspired in the moment. That’s why it’s a live episode! Enroll in my FREE training program, BADA$$ Online Marketing University to keep building your badass biz: https://bobbyklinck.com/bomu/

We’re continuing our conversation about ethical issues that come up in the online marketing space, and today is a doozy. We’re going to talk about the ethical limits on the promise and case studies. We need to have a discussion around both of these topics. If you haven’t listened to the last several episodes, be sure to go back and start with episode 202 where we started this conversation about how we should be marketing products that aren’t tangible, physical products. What does ethical marketing mean for those who sell coaching, services, or information? Let’s dive into the issues that come up with our promise and case studies. WHAT YOU’LL LEARN IN TODAY’S EPISODE: How to think about the way we communicate the result that people get from our products. What it looks like to foster trust and honesty in the marketplace. Questions to ask about our products: do our products do what they claim, do we stand behind them, and do we honor our promises? How we can honestly talk about our products and the explicit and

We’re continuing our exploration of the ethical issues that come up in the online marketing space when you’re selling a transformation rather than a physical product. Today we’re addressing the responsibilities we have as marketers for the results of our students. In the past, I’ve said that we’re not responsible for the results of our students. This is the conventional wisdom in the online marketing world. But what I want to talk about today is: have we taken this too far?  How does our marketing affect the results of our customers and what role does it play in causing people to buy? If our promises convince them to buy, then we need to take some time to think about what our obligations are for their results. WHAT YOU’LL LEARN IN TODAY’S EPISODE: The extent to which we as marketers have to take responsibility for the results our audience gets. What the American Marketing Association says about our responsibility to our customers. How our promise impacts purchase decisions and what our obligation to help our

Today we’ll begin digging into the ethical questions around building an online business. We’ll be asking what it means to be an ethical marketer when we’re selling something that promises a result or transformation instead of a physical product. Last week we laid the groundwork for our series, and this week we’re going to talk about our obligation to tell people about details that might be relevant to their decision to buy our programs or products. This episode is intended to start the conversation, but I would love to hear your thoughts too. I’ll be sharing where I’ve landed, but I can’t tell you exactly what the right thing for your business is.  WHAT YOU’LL LEARN IN TODAY’S EPISODE: Acknowledging that we’re helping people with problems that aren’t easy to solve (that’s why they’re still there). What our obligation is to tell people that this is going to be hard and where the line is between presenting a false impression about how much work is involved and the full picture. How the American Marketing Assoc

We’re starting a new series today. This one is all about ethical marketing and seeks to start a discussion around the question of what ethical marketing looks like in a space where the product is a transformation instead of a physical product. We’ll dive into the ethical framework that I’ll be using for this series. To be clear, this isn’t just me telling you what the ethical way is. I want to start a conversation and talk about these things because not enough people are doing this. My purpose isn’t to make you feel bad about yourself or moralize. My point is to help you think about these issues so you have your north star in your business. WHAT YOU’LL LEARN IN TODAY’S EPISODE: Why ethics in marketing is an issue no matter what you’re selling Why we need to have this discussion Why it might be time to reframe some of the ways we market our products What makes the online information space different from physical products What our responsibility is in sharing what it’s going to take to get results What our obl

This is a particularly exciting episode because I’m making a big announcement. I’m going to properly introduce you to BADA$$ Online Marketing University. Today is the day that BOMU is no longer a single course but is a “university” with MULTIPLE courses. I’m going to share WHY we’re giving away all this amazing information for FREE while most people are charging big bucks for this kind of training. BOMU is an all-in-one place to learn all the marketing stuff you need to learn how to build an online business. These trainings were created specifically for small online personal brand businesses. After I share all the awesomeness that’s inside, I’ll also explain how BOMU is the ultimate expression of the lessons I shared in the previous episode. WHAT YOU’LL LEARN IN TODAY’S EPISODE: Today is the day that BOMU is moving platforms and is no longer just a course but a whole marketing “university”  What the 3 foundations courses will teach you What the other 2 courses will help you figure out What courses are still

Today we’re marking episode 200! To celebrate this accomplishment, I’m sharing 5 lessons I’ve learned on my entrepreneurial journey. Each time I reflect on what I’ve learned, I realize that while some lessons stay the same, more often than not, they change as I grow. Recently my entrepreneurial journey has been coming full circle. I’ve found myself revisiting things I learned a long time ago. One of the things I’ve revisited is Hubspot’s inbound marketing program, which was training that I applied in my law firm back in the day.  As I moved into the online space, I became the legal guy. Now I’m also the email and marketing guy. But this inbound marketing emphasis has also become more important as I’ve begun sharing my beliefs about being a serve-first entrepreneur. Be sure to list in as I share how this all fits together. WHAT YOU’LL LEARN IN TODAY’S EPISODE: Why your training is never done. Why information and training are important, but action is what matters. Why you need to simultaneously be thinking abo

Today I’m joined by a special guest, my friend Mel Abraham. We talk about the realities and challenges of being an entrepreneur. But we also get down and dirty and discuss the money stuff and what it means to build wealth and affluence. Mel shares how a medical diagnosis changed his life and allowed him to accept where he was in life. But he also realized that the business he had built allowed him to step back from the daily operations so he could fight cancer without worrying about money. It also inspired him to think about why he was here and how his experience and knowledge could help others. Join us as Mel talks us through how entrepreneurs can think about their money stories and blocks, make smart decisions about money, and define what it means to create a richer lifestyle. WHAT YOU’LL LEARN IN TODAY’S EPISODE: How money stories impact us Why your business can be the best engine to help you generate wealth Why you need to optimize your business profits to create a financial machine Why you shouldn’t rei

Today we’re wrapping up our series on the serve-first way, where we’ve talked about the mindset shifts required to be a serve-first entrepreneur. The serve-first way is about a simple concept: I put the interests of those I serve over my own. In an earlier episode, I talked about marketing over selling. Marketing focuses on the needs of your customers and selling focuses on the needs of the seller. This is a central shift in becoming a serve-first entrepreneur.  Being a serve-first entrepreneur is about being a marketer and understanding what people need and creating a solution to serve them. It involves building relationships at many levels and taking a long view of your business. You can either be a salesperson and sound like an infomercial or you can be a serve-first entrepreneur. WHAT YOU’LL LEARN IN TODAY’S EPISODE: Why you need to start with the question: what would serve my audience best. Why you need to shift from asking how can I make more money → how can I make more impact and serve more people? Wh

We’re continuing our discussion of what it means to be a serve-first entrepreneur. Today we’ll talk about taking a long term view of our business and discuss the long term benefits of this approach. I’ve been talking a lot about my free resource BADA$$ Online Marketing University. This is an example of taking a long term view of business. I’m giving away my best content to serve other entrepreneurs in the online space. But taking a long view approach to online business isn’t popular. Everyone wants to be an overnight success. They’re looking for the easy button. Even though that’s not the way life works, that's what we expect. The people telling you that you don’t want to trade dollars for hours aren’t giving you the full context. It has distorted our view of hard work and success. We get wrapped up in the overnight success stories, but they’re not usually overnight success stories. WHAT YOU’LL LEARN IN TODAY’S EPISODE: Why the “overnight success stories” aren’t what they’re cracked up to be. Why you should

Today we’re continuing our series on what it means to be a serve-first entrepreneur. We’re talking about marketing to a warm audience versus a cold audience. A warm audience already knows you because they’ve read or listened to your content or been on your email list. Any audience that doesn’t know you and your beliefs is a cold audience. In selling and messaging, what you say needs to match the level of awareness of your audience. This is true for selling and even freebies. We’re going to focus on how a warm audience vs. a cold audience impacts our marketing. If you’re trying to sell to a cold audience, it will be hard. Marketing is about making the right offer to the right person at the right time with the right message. How would you be able to do this to a cold audience of people who don’t know you? This is why advertising to a cold audience straight to a sales page is hard. Often entrepreneurs will have success launching to a warm audience like their email list. After they exhaust their list, they move o