Marketing Speak

If you're like most business owners, you probably hate cold calling. I can relate. I hate it too. Selling isn't easy, not even for the raging extrovert who loves the limelight and chatting with random strangers. From a young age, we're taught to be humble and self-effacing. So it's no surprise that most of us find hyping up ourselves, our company and its products a little uncomfortable. Yet, sales is as necessary as the air we breathe. Without sales, a business can't exist. Even if you didn't have to interact with prospects and could leave it all to the sales team, it's still part of your job to get out there and evangelize your company.  Today, I'm joined for this episode number 198 by sales expert three-time author and HubSpot partner Wes Schaeffer, also known as the Sales Whisperer for a crash course in sales. Wes will be revealing the biggest mistakes business owners make in sales. We'll be talking about the difference between sales and marketing and the method great products sell themselves. I hope you're ready for this no-nonsense lesson in sales funnels, pipeline, CRMs, and lead nurturing, so let's get this show on the road.

If you have a unique skill or have cracked the code on running a successful business, sharing your heart and wisdom with others can provide you with an expanded product offering and generate a lucrative income stream. The main hurdle is finding a simple and scalable way to monetize your knowledge. If only there was a solution.  Enter Jonathan Cronstedt or JCron, as he prefers to go by, our guest for today's episode number 197. He's the president of Kajabi, an online platform designed for the digital education entrepreneur, that simplifies the process of creating marketing and selling digital products, like courses, and in the process generating millions of dollars of revenue for its users. Prior to working at Kajabi, JCron was the general manager of Digital Learning Systems at Success Magazine and the CEO of DigitalMarketer.  Get ready to learn what it takes to produce a profitable course, host your own events, and even start your own mastermind group. If you're an expert looking to diversify your revenue streams, or if you're just passionate to share what you know, this episode is packed with insider tips on how to leverage the eLearning boom.

The traditional view of the entrepreneur is someone with superhuman stamina who works day and night to get their vision off the ground. For a long time, it was simply accepted as part of the culture that people who wanted to succeed work 14-hour days and spent their weekends buried in spreadsheets and contracts. On this episode number 196, we're going to hear from a man who embraced this lifestyle 100%, then he realized his mistake. I'm talking about author, podcaster, and entrepreneur Chris Ducker. Chris was so focused on building his business that he worked long hours and neglected his personal health and family. Then in 2009, he suffered shocking burnout that made him question everything he knew about work. Exhausted, he knew he had to make a change. He overhauled his business, embraced outsourcing, and by 2010, he was working an average of six hours a day and spending more time with his family. Not only was he happier and healthier, but even managed to start a second business while working less. If you've ever felt trapped by your own business and wish you could spend more time working on your business instead of in it, this episode is for you.

For the serious SEO practitioner, Ahrefs is a tool and brand that we're already well aware of. It's a powerful platform for many things, including competitor analysis and keyword research. As you can imagine, an awesome marketing tool like Ahrefs needs an awesome chief marketing officer, and that's where Tim Soulo comes in. Tim is a digital marketing thought leader, a frequent speaker at events around the globe, and a publisher of cutting-edge research and opinions on the Ahrefs blog. Before taking on the CMO role at Ahrefs, Tim forged his own path in the digital marketing world for more than a decade, building successful online businesses, and becoming an expert in SEO and the process. On this episode number 195, Tim and I will be delving into the most pressing issues in SEO right now, including best practices for link building, content creation, building authority online, and featured snippets. If you want the latest on SEO from the CMO of one of the biggest online digital marketing tools, tune in.

What's the difference between a viral video campaign that gets millions of views, shares, and likes and an equally valuable one that languages in the backwaters of YouTube? Daniel Harmon is the co-founder and the creative visionary of the Harmon Brothers. You may not have heard of the Harmon Brothers but they're a big deal. The agency has delivered over 1.4 billion video views—that's B, billion—with over $350 million in consequent sales to their client lists which includes brands like Squatty Potty, Purple, Chatbooks, FiberFix, and Poo-Pourri. On this episode number 194, Daniel will reveal the Harmon Brothers' unique approach to a viral video, which has been so successful that they've launched online courses teaching their techniques at the Harmon Brothers University, and published a book explaining their methods, From Poop To Gold. If you've ever wondered if there's a proven formula for creating a viral ad, stick around because you're about to learn from someone who's basically unlocked the secret to success with a viral video and bottled it.

Affiliate marketing can be lucrative, but it's an industry where only the strong survive. My guest for this episode number 193 is Ian Fernando. Ian is a digital marketer who cut his teeth in the affiliate marketing space for over 15 years, building a highly profitable business, and developing innovative monetization strategies. Ian has also appeared as a speaker at conferences around the world, developed affiliate marketing tools, and even built and sold a successful company in the early years of his affiliate marketing career. As influencers, podcasters and other content creators look to affiliate marketing for ways to generate a steady stream of revenue, Ian's wealth of knowledge of what works and what doesn't is only becoming more valuable. From monetization to mobile advertising, to cutting-edge strategies in affiliate marketing, this episode is going to provide amazing value for anyone who has ever wanted to monetize a website. 

How do you convince someone to take action? It's the eternal dilemma of the marketer. Unfortunately, too many people rely on their guts rather than facts and data when it comes to conversion strategies. Optimizing for conversion means understanding your customer's journey holistically—from the Google search to the shopping cart. It's about ensuring your copy, design, and overall user experience work harmoniously to gently persuade your customers to make that purchase or to sign-up for your newsletter.  Bryan Eisenberg is a master of conversion and user experience and internationally recognized as an authority in online marketing. Bryan, along with his brother, Jeffrey, has helped companies like Google and NBCUniversal boost their conversion rates and massively increase their bottom lines. Both brothers are also internationally sought-after speakers and authors of several bestselling books including Call to Action and Waiting for Your Cat to Bark.  On this episode number 192, Bryan and I would dig into the nuts and bolts of persuasion architecture. You'll glean some exclusive insights on how Fortune 500 companies craft winning conversion strategies. Want to know the inside scoop on what made Amazon so successful and how you can apply some of their very same strategies in your business? You'll learn that and a lot more on this top-shelf episode.

Building a website isn't that hard. Anyone can buy a domain and throw up a few pages of content into a plug and play website builder, like WordPress, Wix or Squarespace, but building a website that people actually want to use and even enjoy using, that can be incredibly difficult. It takes research, patience, and a deep understanding of the customers' needs, motivations, and desires. User Experience isn't just about good design. It's a crucial part of your customer journey and something that can impact not only how your customers feel about your brand, but how you rank in Google. Kelly Goto is a designer and speaker with a focus on UX design and mobile ethnography. She's worked with brands like Netflix, Citrix, Hyundai, and Sony to develop exceptional user interfaces. And she's the author of Emotional UX, and of the classic book, Web Redesign 2.0. On this episode number 191, Kelly will be revealing some of the most effective strategies for streamlining your user experience, including expert tips on usability testing, and building user personas. Stay tuned because this episode is going to give you the tools to really get inside your customers' heads.

Some of the biggest influencers and internet celebrities of the 21st century rose to fame via YouTube. While you may think that they happened to get lucky by being in the right place at the right time, there’s actually a lot of work that goes into a successful YouTube channel.   YouTube has a tremendous audience--it’s the second largest search engine after Google--but you need to be smart about how you create, optimize, and format your content if you want to go viral.   One man who lives and breathes YouTube is Derral Eves. Derral is the founder and CEO of Creatus and VidSummit, and one of the first people to be a YouTube-certified expert in audience growth. He’s also an top-tier video marketer, and has produced several viral video campaigns himself, including Squatty Potty’s pooping unicorn ad, which won a Webby Award.   This episode is packed with massive value for anyone who has ever uploaded a video to YouTube. Derral and I will be talking content, algorithms, recommendation engines, and plenty more fun stuff that will ensure you never have a YouTube fail again!

Every brand has a social media strategy. But which platforms should you focus on? Most businesses invest their time and money in the bigger networks - Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, and so on. Having a presence on these sites is a given, but what if there were other sites that actually delivered a bigger impact and ROI? Brent Csutoras is a digital marketing consultant, futurist, top-tier speaker, and managing partner at Search Engine Journal. With over 13 years of experience in search engine optimization, he surely knows this stuff. Brent is also an expert in one of the more underrated social networks out there - reddit. Historically, reddit has been a notoriously difficult online platform for brands to navigate. But for those who are persistent and savvy enough to leverage it, the payoff can be huge. After all, reddit users are some of the most influential people on the web and often make or break viral content. If you're looking to get an edge over your competitors online, this episode number 189 is going to be an exceptionally powerful one with tricks and advice you won't get anywhere else. If you've avoided reddit in the past, this is your chance to learn the ropes from someone who has found a proven strategy for success. And after you listen to this episode, I encourage you to listen to the previous interview I did with Brent all the way back in episode number 58, which is all about infographics and visual storytelling.