Sports Card Strategy Show

This podcast episode documents the long but rewarding process of installing Google Optimize into your website so that you can run awesome experiments and get real data to optimize your website, and not guess or use opinions. This is also known as A/B Testing. While there are several third party tools that allow non-web developers and content managers and digital marketers to set up website experiments, such as Optimizely, Hotjar, VWO and Crazyegg, we are electing to use Google Optimize for it's easy integration with the rest of the Google Suite of tools, like Google Analytics and Google Tag Manager, which reminds me, before we get started, you'll need the following. 1. Google Analytics Installed On Your Website (Click here for How To Install Google Analytics) 2. Google Tag Manager Installed On Your Website (Click here for How To Install Google Tag Manager On Your Website). 3. Some knowledge of how to create a Google Tag Manager Tag and Trigger (Click here for a great piece on how to create a Google Tag Manager Tag and Trigger). We will definitely have more content on how to read your experiment result reporting and make data driven decisions based on those reports, but for now, you're off and running with Google Optimize installed on your website.

Data Driven Daily Tip 208: This video gives a solid overview of the Custom Report functionality in Facebook Ads Manager. Why is this important? 1. If you're a small business owner, this should be your easy, go-to tool to compare the data across all of your Facebook Ads and Campaigns to see not only which are performing best, but also, which Times of Day are working best, which Days of Week are working best, which Audience Segments are cheapest to acquire as new customers and on and on. 2. If you're a strategist or analysts at a digital agency, or a marketing director or VP of Marketing, you can easily examine this key data to make data driven next marketing decisions. 3. If you're a software developer, you can pull down CSV files and create easy pivot tables / interactive reports to impress your co-workers and clients. You're welcome. :)

B2B Marketing Series: Why Can't I Find Certain "Employers" or "Companies" In Facebook Ads Manager? Data Driven Daily Tip 207 B2B Marketing is not that much different from eCommerce Marketing, really, from a tactical perspective that is. Facebook Ads is the best example of a platform that is tailor made for doing both very effectively. Our Facebook Ads eCommerce Series gets into that in detail. But every once in a while, a specific scenario pops up that is solely for B2B Marketers. Recently, I reported that Facebook Ads has reinstated the Employer Targeting Feature. But a great question recently came in from a reader: "Hi Paul, I don't wish to take up too much of your time, but have read an article of yours and have a question. I am trying to target music industry people on Facebook and in the 'Employers' section, companies such as Polydor, Universal Music, Sony Music etc do not appear whereas other types of companies do. Any reason for that? Thanks very much" Great point. It's actually not that easy to find ALL of the Employers you want to target with an ad. -This is because Facebook Removed 3 million "terms" / "employers" due to their "Community Guidelines" and has been adding them back slowly but surely. -The good news is, I've found some tactics that will still help B2B marketers do what they're looking to do. The video above explains, as well as the brief explanation below. 1. When Creating Your Ad, go to Detailed Targeting. Click "Browse" 2. Select "Demographics" > scroll down to "Work" then > "Employers" Start typing in "Sony Music" - notice it doesn't show, but when you stop at "Sony Mus" - then "Sony Music and Entertainment" shows. So the search is awkward. Boom, add it. Once you add it, click suggestions and you'll see a TON more similar "Employers" show, in this case "Atlantic Records," "Interscope Records," and more. The more you add, the better your suggestions get. Add / Remove, Add / Remove until you've built your audience. On the Polydor Records example, you'll notice that they don't ever show under Employers, which means they were removed, per above and not added back yet, but building an audience of Job Title + Interest > Polydor Records (which exists) can still build you a very targeted ad likely to hit your audience (although not as exact). Same thing with "Universal Music," which shows under Interests but in much more granular categories, like Universal Music Nashville and Universal Music Motown, etc.

Data Driven Daily Tip #206 - There's nothing quite like finding out that Wednesday is the best day of the week for your business to run Facebook Ads, because you're paying one quarter of the price for link clicks on that day than other days. Or finding out that you're paying half the cost for Males age 35-44 to like your page vs. Females age 35-44 to like your page. It's super silly not to ALWAYS USE DATA to drive your next marketing actions. That's why we constantly practice what we preach and show marketers and business owners how to do it also. Facebook Ads is a super robust platform, which is why we're continuing our Facebook Ads eCommerce Series by calling out the top hidden tips we, as true practitioners of the platform, are constantly finding. This video shows you how to use Facebook Ads Manager to find "Performance" which you can use to sort by Time, Delivery and Action categories to analyze your data in a plethora of ways. This is the easy part. The hard part is mastering the artform of actually turning the insights into "next marketing actions." Watch the video, but keep in mind this can also be done at the Ad Set and Individual Ad level if you want to get super-granular. :) Happy eCommerce Marketing.

Facebook Ads for eCommerce Websites: Your Problem Could Be Bid-Capping (Data Driven Daily Tip #205). One of the best content strategies is to have an open dialog with your audience, no matter the size. For example, my audience is tiny. To say "niche" is to be extremely nice. Small Business Owners, Marketers and Digital Strategy Geeks. For example, I've been posting videos on YouTube for a little over a year, and am just starting to get some traction. This video was posted on December 15, 2017, and just got a comment. A great follow-up comment, and thus the purpose of this blog post and new Facebook Ads series. It's a tiny setting in Facebook Ads. You get these insights from being a true practitioner; from loving your craft; and from tasting all sorts of techniques and settings within platforms like Facebook Ads. So "Bid Capping" is the actual micro topic of this post, and how to turn it off in Facebook Ads was the question. The video above has the answer. Thanks to "Funnel Copy Tips" for the great comment/question. The purpose of this post is two-fold: 1. To officially kickoff my Facebook Ads eCommerce Series. More to come. 2. To reiterate my point about how CEOs, Small Business Owners and Executives can make content. Don't worry about being fancy. Just put it out there. The traction should follow if you stay consistent, and keep your content educational / helpful in some way to your audience. So here's Bid Capping and how to turn it off / on. More to come!

(Data Driven Daily Tip #204) Thank you Smash Balloon. When a WordPress plug-in really works, IT REALLY WORKS. Smash Balloon's FREE Instagram Feed plug-in, is what we've started to use on all of our client websites that want to have an Instagram Feed. It's easy for Digital Marketers and WordPress Content Managers to do on their own. You don't need a web developer. This podcast explains how.

Podcast Episode 81: Executives & Small Business Owners: You Need To Blog Every Day. Here's How (Data Driven Daily Tip 203). Attention Executives and Small Business Owners: Blogging Every Day for Your Business should be like brushing your teeth. Seriously. When you were a kid, you were scared of brushing your teeth, and you hated it, and let's be honest, that's how most of you feel about creating and publishing business content every day in the form of a blog. But aren't you the same people who for the last 10 years have asked people like me "how can we get to the top of Google?" and "how can we grow our web traffic" and "how can we get more people to convert on our website?" Well, some of you haven't. Some of you have simply asked me how I do it (blog every day that is). Regardless, I'm breaking it down here. Why? Because I work 60-80 hour weeks just like you, running my own small company, and for the last year, I've created content and blogged every single day. Not only that, but I've repurposed the blog content into video, audio in the form of podcasts and daily tips, so as to have a presence on: MEDIUM LINKEDIN FACEBOOK INSTAGRAM YOUTUBE SNAPCHAT PODCAST TWITTER AND... ALEXA. So What? Well, these efforts have helped grow our web traffic by 525%, with Google, Medium, LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter all leading the way at driving the traffic. And see that increase since July 2018 all the way through October 15 (today)? Yep, blogging every day is like writing a small check into your top returning investment account every day.

I know a lot of people may read this blog and watch this video and think (pfewhat? it took him a year to get to 100 subscribers?) That's NOTHING, and it took him a year? Yep. And I'm proud of it. Here's why. 1. I put out an average of one video per day. While doing my other full time jobs, running a successful company, building an amazing team, and being a great husband and father of two phenomenal kids. Kids that I actually know well and spend time with. And helping my clients grow their businesses. 2. I went through many different ways of capturing and editing video. Some days I'd record myself on my phone in a meeting using a case that sticks against the wall. Some days I'd record myself using my laptop (sometimes in a meeting, sometimes sitting looking at the camera). I did this / continue to do this, all while actually working 60-80 hours per week. Sometimes I'd use Instagram stories as the main way of capturing the video content (and editing the video content) and I'd send it directly to YouTube (vertical and everything). Sometimes I'd be driving in my car, sometimes I'd just have finished a run and be super sweaty and gross, sometimes I'd be walking, sometimes I'd be sitting at my desk feeling gangster and purposely bumping rap music into the background. 3. I'm fully aware of the fact that the video quality and audio quality isn't always the best. I've moved from Nashville, TN to Valencia, Spain, and run a business of 10 people that are a fully distributed senior level remote work team. We all work from home. Sometimes there is now my dryer in the background. Sometimes there is city background noise. Sometimes kids screaming, often music playing. I now like to shoot some of them around the city, so the audio quality isn't always going to be the best, and I've had some people point out to me that it's "Busch League" that I'm sometimes wearing a backwards baseball cap and a "dirty t-shirt," but as I point out in this video, it doesn't matter to me. The reality is, I love making this content. It fuels and fulfills me, and it makes me a better person, and a better digital strategist and business owner. It challenges me to provide even more value for our clients and our team. Our team strives to be the most knowledgable, friendly and easy to work with. That's just us. And these videos are just me. I'm never going to stress over getting the lighting, audio and video perfect, and I'm never going to change my outfit for the camera.

Finally! I have an answer for all businesses who need to use digital data to justify / quantify the success of their event related marketing and sales / business development efforts in terms of pounding the pavement with meetings. Like, real data, not anecdotal stuff. For example, if you have a booth at an event, you absolutely need to make sure all of your sales people are having booth visitors scan your company's Instagram Nametag and follow you right away either from the digital display on the screen of your booth, or right there off of your employee's phones. No personal information exchanged, and it takes a fraction of the time it takes to sign up for your email list or fill out a web form on a mobile device. Instead of the booth visitor giving you a fake email address, they actually follow you on Instagram, and you can then see who they are and message them there rather than jam their inbox with spam. For the first time, we can relate Instagram followers to In-Person Real Life meetings. Small Business Owners and Marketers need to know about Instagram's new Nametag feature, explained perfectly in this video. Another use is for 1:1 business development / sales meetings. Business cards are still floating around out there, but the Nametag feature could completely replace it. Business cards are expensive and are thrown away. Training your employees to scan IG Nametags is simpler, more cost-effective, and immediately puts the new contact in your marketing funnel. The Nametag feature is also extremely relevant to personal brands, or super talented musicians, gymnasts, dancers or street performers that want to get some love for being on people's Instagram stories all the time. :)

A Great Small Business Marketing Tip. I've written a lot about the importance of Google My Business, how it's the number one most important Small Business SEO strategy and even something all marketing directors and VPs of Marketing should pay attention to regardless of the size of their company. I've even gone in depth about why it's important to post photos on Google Maps. Now, it's time to take a look at the different post types you can make in Google My Business, and why it is a tool that all businesses can use to create offers, promote products and events, and direct people to their storefronts. This audio elaborates on how to improve your business SEO.