Your Digital Marketing Coach with Neal Schaffer

I don't pretend to be a YouTube expert by any means, but if you are new to the platform like I am, how successful you can be there is all about the details.Strategically creating, editing, and uploading my first YouTube video ever made me feel like I "finally" started taking podcasting seriously back in 2019, 6 years after my launch!Similarly, I have had a YouTube channel for some time, but it is only very recently where I have decided to be a little more strategic and intentional about the videos I post.I am still very early in my journey, but these are the 13 actionable tips for YouTube that I wish someone had taught me, and they are tips that I don't see in the blogosphere.Hope you'll join my on my YouTube journey here:  https://youtube.com/nealschafferKey Highlights[3:17] How to Strategically Approach YouTube[7:33] First Tip to Maximize YouTube Influencer[9:03] Second Tip: Finding Role ModelsThe importance of finding role models in your niche.[11:13] Third Actionable Tip in Approaching YouTubeThe ideal length of YouTube video to post.[14:26] How Do I Make People Stay Long In My YouTube Videos?[16:40] What Type of Video Content Should I Create?Finding a format that fits your niche and product.[18:42] Doing A Keyword Strategy[21:04] Tip #7: Create An Enticing Title[22:13] Why I Like Putting Teaser at the Beginning of My VideoPlace a short 10-15 seconds teaser to let the viewers know what they're going to get out of the video and entice them to stay to the end.[24:08] Introducing Elements In Your YouTube Video[26:55] Tip #11: Have A Professionally Designed Thumbnails[29:30] Leverage Video Descriptions[31:17] Cards and End Screens[32:27] SummaryNotable Quotes:When I talk about YouTube video, I'm talking about this form of content that allows you to build a platform, it allows you to build a platform because number one, the content gets indexed by search engine. And number two, therefore it has a long shelf life. If you want to do better at YouTube, you got to consume more YouTube.Find accounts in your niche that are already doing this, that you can not emulate but be inspired. Because you need to do it in your own way to be successful, you can't just copy and be successful.So whatever format fits your niche fits your product fits your branding, find a format.Let them know what they're going to get out of it. Entice them to stay to the end. And then go through the motions of creating the video and really delivering on that promise.What you can do is you can have a great title, which is also going to be depicted in your thumbnail, which hopefully will entice people to click through, and the title is going to be aligned and includLearn More: Buy Digital Threads: https://nealschaffer.com/digitalthreadsamazon Buy Maximizing LinkedIn for Business Growth: https://nealschaffer.com/maximizinglinkedinamazon Join My Digital First Mastermind: https://nealschaffer.com/membership/ Learn about My Fractional CMO Consulting Services: https://nealschaffer.com/cmo Download My Free Ebooks Here: https://nealschaffer.com/books/ Subscribe to my YouTube Channel: https://youtube.com/nealschaffer All My Podcast Show Notes: https://podcast.nealschaffer.com

Look at your social media analytics, and you will probably notice that those posts that were or included a video component probably performed the best. This should be no surprise as video is perhaps the most powerful form of content that helps to create trust and connections unlike any other content medium.There is no better person to guide us on how to leverage videos in our social media TODAY than Kate Skavish, co-founder of the video marketing platform Wave.video. Listen in as Kate teaches us how to be relevant by including videos in our marketing content mix and helping us stand out by providing tips on how to make better videos consistently.Key Highlights[1:12] The Power of Video[3:36] Introduction of the guest, Kate Skavish[5:01] How Kate Started with Video Marketing[6:43] Leveraging Video Content to Create Trust and Connection to Your AudienceIn what way video can help create trust and communicate feelings to your audience?[11:11] The First Step to Including Video In Your Marketing StrategyThe different approaches on how you can create videos and use them as part of your content strategy.[14:52] SEO Driven Approach For Videos[22:41] Wave.video New Features[27:54] How Can I Make Better Videos Consistently[30:15] The Best Way To Get Your Audience Hooked In Your Videos[33:57] Best Practices for YouTube VideosKate shared some advice and best practices to apply when doing YouTube videos.[38:19] The Future for Wave.video[40:00] Connect with Kate SkavishNotable QuotesVideo conveys so much more than just what you say. With video, you are able to communicate your passion, your feelings, and that what tended to create this connection between people, which also creates trust.Well, my advice is to start explaining and think about strategy. First, what you want to convey and how you will do it over time, you're not going to end up doing something once and then forgetting about it. Because that doesn't bring results.Research your keywords, create content, see what actually trends on YouTube because training is something that where you can utilize your efforts on and then probably see, if you already have written articles, just repurpose them in the form of videoYou have to streamline your video creation process. And that makes it easier for you to produce it on a regular basis.Whatever your goal is, for this particular video, you need to tell your viewers directly what you want.Under commit and over deliver.Kate Skavish LinksWebsite: https://wave.video Learn More: Buy Digital Threads: https://nealschaffer.com/digitalthreadsamazon Buy Maximizing LinkedIn for Business Growth: https://nealschaffer.com/maximizinglinkedinamazon Join My Digital First Mastermind: https://nealschaffer.com/membership/ Learn about My Fractional CMO Consulting Services: https://nealschaffer.com/cmo Download My Free Ebooks Here: https://nealschaffer.com/books/ Subscribe to my YouTube Channel: https://youtube.com/nealschaffer All My Podcast Show Notes: https://podcast.nealschaffer.com

Instead of always trying to figure out what to write your next blog post on or wonder why you aren't ranking for strategic keywords, take my advice and learn how to plan out and build one year's worth of blog content which will become your strategic library of content. This content will not only help you rank higher for SEO but also give you a social "voice" and allow you to engage with both prospects and clients in social media as well as your email subscribers. I will show you the exact steps I have taken to outrank formidable competitors in building my own Library of Content in this episode.Key Highlights:[02:07] Library of contentHow can I strategically create a library of content in one year?[7:22] How Am I Going to Get Discovered on Google?[09:46] Targeting Relevant KeywordsThe library of content starts with understanding what are the relevant keywords to target[12:24] Importance of Curating the Right Keywords[13:33] Creating a Content Schedule[15:12] What is Search Intent?[17:19] Planning Out Library Content in Terms of KeywordsI have planned out my library content, now, how do I implement it?[18:01] Leveraging Artificial Intelligence to Rank[22:08] Calculate Your Content MarketingHow do I calculate my ROI? How do I track my social engagement of the blog posts I published?[23:07] Search Visibility[25:42] E.A.T MethodologyHow does EAT Methodology help get you a higher ranking on search engines?Notable Quotes:If you have the best product in the market, if you have the smartest service, the least expensive, sir, I don't care what it is, you're out there you have a business because you provide something valuable if there are keywords related to your business that you need to be found for you should be found for. And if you don't attack this strategically, you're never going to be found for it, or you're going to be paying a lot for advertising in order to be found for it. It takes time to build authority.Not every keyword is relevant.Think of it this way, you only need to curate those keywords that will lead potential customers to you.It's really all about serving search engines what they want to see if this is what they think values the reader, they'll want to serve the same thing that you have, you do not want to republish though, it's got to be original content.When you build authority in one subject, it does raise all of your boats in other subjects. Related Tools:SEMrush: https://nealschaffer.com/semrushFrase: https://nealschaffer.com/fraseLearn More: Buy Digital Threads: https://nealschaffer.com/digitalthreadsamazon Buy Maximizing LinkedIn for Business Growth: https://nealschaffer.com/maximizinglinkedinamazon Join My Digital First Mastermind: https://nealschaffer.com/membership/ Learn about My Fractional CMO Consulting Services: https://nealschaffer.com/cmo Download My Free Ebooks Here: https://nealschaffer.com/books/ Subscribe to my YouTube Channel: https://youtube.com/nealschaffer All My Podcast Show Notes: https://podcast.nealschaffer.com

For B2B brands, your internal influencers are often your salespeople. They are facing your customer and often are the most active on social media because they can monetize their influence in the form of additional commissions.That's why every employee influencer / advocacy program for B2B brands becomes successful when there is alignment between sales and marketing.If this is a need your company has, you are in for a special treat. B2B marketing thought leader and best-selling author Pam Didner joins us today to give us some creative ways to set up your B2B sales team for success, including:Identify how you can help sales via different sales stagesMap marketing content to a sales cycleUnderstand the collaboration process between sales and marketingKey Highlights[01:02] Introduction of podcast guest, Pam Didner[04:44] Pam Didner's Book[4:57] What is Sales Enablement?[7:08] Different Sales Stages[10:30] Best Content Strategy Practice[13:07] The Importance of Building Relationship With Your Sales People[16:03] Ways to Collaborate and Work With Sales Team[19:04] The Critical Role of Quality Data[21:08] Leveraging Tools and Processes In Sales and Marketing Alignment[26:08] The Role of AIs[30:16] Basic Questions You Should Ask Your Vendor[31:06] Connect with Pam[31:39] Final ConclusionNotable Quotes:In addition, to build brain awareness and drive demands, a portion of our job is also supporting sales. And the one major functions of doing that is to provide content that salespeople can use. So not just educating themselves, they can also use it to share with your clients or the prospect.Salespeople are very relationship-driven. And that's how to they build their accounts, or do the customer is a lot to do with relationship. It's still very much a relationship-based type of approach when you want to close any kind of sales.Find a way to provide value and then build that relationship over a period of time. What I have come to realize is that supporting sales is very similar to why salespeople try to build a relationship with the prospects and the potential customers, you need to take a similar approach to build that relationship with your salespeople.In every single marketing element that you have in your sleeves, if you apply on the sales side and be very targeted and accounts specific, it's basically sales enablement to some extent.Technology often gets over and the process gets overlooked. And the technology does not create the process, you need to have the process. And then find the technology that helps enable it right.Pam Didner LinksWebsite:  https://pamdidner.com/B2B Marketing and More with Pam Didner Podcast:Learn More: Buy Digital Threads: https://nealschaffer.com/digitalthreadsamazon Buy Maximizing LinkedIn for Business Growth: https://nealschaffer.com/maximizinglinkedinamazon Join My Digital First Mastermind: https://nealschaffer.com/membership/ Learn about My Fractional CMO Consulting Services: https://nealschaffer.com/cmo Download My Free Ebooks Here: https://nealschaffer.com/books/ Subscribe to my YouTube Channel: https://youtube.com/nealschaffer All My Podcast Show Notes: https://podcast.nealschaffer.com

If you want your organization to yield more influence in social media, or if you are looking for your employees to become more active in social media to raise your company's digital profile, this episode is for you.Listen to all of my advice that you as a leader can do to push the ball forward on leveraging influence that can impact your entire organization.Key Highlights[03:31] Why and How Every Business Should Become More Influential[04:24] Become The InfluencerYou, as the leader of the company or brand, should be the influencer. Leverage your title and be more active in social media because you are indirectly representing your company or employee.[06:22] Setting Yourself As A Role Model To Your Employees[08:12] Leverage Others ContentUse your employee's success stories and use their content as part of your social media profile and make them a hero.[10:37] The Importance of Having an Internal Training System[11:42] Invest and Empower Your EmployeesIf you want your employees to do better and shine in social media, empower and invest in them.[11:52] Ways You Can Empower Your Employees[14:52] Investing in Tools, Technology and Other ProgramsFind some tools or technology that can help your employees work and perform better on social media. You can also enroll them in some programs or additional training.[17:21] SummaryNotable QuotesThe first one as I hinted that every brand should try to become more influential is to become the influencer.Use your social media presence, don't rely on others, to become influencers for your company, don't rely on all your employee influences you should become one of them.If you really want to become that role model, carve the path for others to follow.Make your employees the heroes of your stories.If we can leverage other people's content, it allows us to be able to engage through content, and engage with people that engage with our content, it actually gives us more time to engage with people.Considering investing in tools and technology to complement what your company already has to help your employees perform better on social media.It's all about empowering them and taking it one step further.Learn More: Buy Digital Threads: https://nealschaffer.com/digitalthreadsamazon Buy Maximizing LinkedIn for Business Growth: https://nealschaffer.com/maximizinglinkedinamazon Join My Digital First Mastermind: https://nealschaffer.com/membership/ Learn about My Fractional CMO Consulting Services: https://nealschaffer.com/cmo Download My Free Ebooks Here: https://nealschaffer.com/books/ Subscribe to my YouTube Channel: https://youtube.com/nealschaffer All My Podcast Show Notes: https://podcast.nealschaffer.com

If you want to learn how to apply the concepts of SEO to social media, you are in for a treat. Today's guest is one of the most recognized SEO experts, Stephan Spencer who is co-author of The Art of SEO, co-author of Social eCommerce, and author of Google Power Search, all published by O’Reilly.In this episode we talk about something that you might not have considered before: The SEO value of your social media. Specifically we discussed:SEO applied to your YouTube channel and videosGetting SEO value from social media postsContent marketing strategies: coming up with hooks, getting links not just social shares, etc.This is a longer than average episode as I got a TON of value from this interview - I am confident that you will as well!Key Highlights[2:13] Introduction of Podcast Guest, Stephan Spencer[4:43] Who is Stephan?[8:03] The Value You Can Get from SEO[11:09] Stephan's Advice on Getting Started at YouTube for SEO[16:13] The Best Tactic in Embedding YouTube Videos in Your Blog[18:44] Ninja Technique[22:58] SEO Advice to Apply to Your YouTube Channel and Videos[25:19] Should I Use Tags on YouTube?[28:44] Keyword Research for YouTube[34:35] Stephan's Advice on Getting SEO Punch from Social Media[39:23] Content Diamond[43:05] Should I Create Content from My Podcast Episode?[46:04] Stephan's Advice to Content Creators[52:28] Importance of Scaling Yout Content Team[53:19] Connect with StephanNotable QuotesIt's very important that your videos on YouTube start out strong and a lot of the YouTubers teach this.The first thing that people look at, and that kind of the big decision point for them is what the thumbnail looks like, and not the title of the video.Don't go with your gut, always do the research and see if your gut is right or not, that's the right way to do it. And having some tools that give you YouTube-specific data is just invaluable.Everything that you create should have a hook to it.  Having that hook is invaluable.Look what other people are doing. And like I said, you're not emulating them it's purely for inspiration but the magic is in making it your own and owning it and applying it to your brand your content so that it works.If you're still doing all those small things, you're not going to scale. So you need to scale your brand, you need to scale your content team. And now's a great time to do it.Stephan Spencer LinksWebsite:  https://www.stephanspencer.com/Marketing Speak Podcast: https://www.marketingspeak.com/podcasts/The Art of SEO: https://amzn.to/3ealztR (affiliateLearn More: Buy Digital Threads: https://nealschaffer.com/digitalthreadsamazon Buy Maximizing LinkedIn for Business Growth: https://nealschaffer.com/maximizinglinkedinamazon Join My Digital First Mastermind: https://nealschaffer.com/membership/ Learn about My Fractional CMO Consulting Services: https://nealschaffer.com/cmo Download My Free Ebooks Here: https://nealschaffer.com/books/ Subscribe to my YouTube Channel: https://youtube.com/nealschaffer All My Podcast Show Notes: https://podcast.nealschaffer.com

"It's all about your funnel." "You gotta have a funnel in place." "This tool will help serve all of your funnels." A lot of people say a lot of different things about funnels, so let's take a step back and look at what exactly marketing funnels and why they are fundamental to your business.More importantly, learn why there is no one-size-fits-all approach to the subject and how you need to be creative in designing funnels that truly serve and deepen relationships with both your prospective and present customers.Key Highlights[03:07] What Are Funnels?[04:40] How Do Funnels Works?[06:55] The Process of Looking at Funnels[09:41] Other Definitions of FunnelsAside from the traditional definition of funnels, what are the other definitions that apply to funnels?[12:15] Why Retargeting Is Effective?[13:09] How to Build Relationship With PeopleBuilding relationships with people and your target audience is critical if you are trying to offer products and services to them. How do I do that?[14:44] Converting General Public to Your CustomersHow can I convert a general person into my customers? What are the ways I can convince him/her to buy my product?[15:43] The Advocate Stage[17:40] Ways of Building Funnels[20:26] SummaryNotable Quotes You want all of your targeted, relevant potential customers, to find you to follow you. And the way that happens digitally, today is that there are only two different ways that happen, they're either gonna find you through a search engine, normally Google, or they're gonna find you on social media.We need to build a relationship with them, we need to build like no interest.It really comes down to your products and services. What value are you going to add? where and who? and constructing everything you do with your marketing? That's the top of the funnel, traditionally speaking, then we want to get people that are interested in doing business with us. And then there has to be this desire, that there's an interest, but is theirs are they actually going to buy from us?Whatever product or service you have, you really want to think this through. What are the different touchpoints? What are the different ways, especially with paid media?What are the different ways in which we can retarget people that have a brand affinity for us, that's really the way we want to think about it?Learn More: Buy Digital Threads: https://nealschaffer.com/digitalthreadsamazon Buy Maximizing LinkedIn for Business Growth: https://nealschaffer.com/maximizinglinkedinamazon Join My Digital First Mastermind: https://nealschaffer.com/membership/ Learn about My Fractional CMO Consulting Services: https://nealschaffer.com/cmo Download My Free Ebooks Here: https://nealschaffer.com/books/ Subscribe to my YouTube Channel: https://youtube.com/nealschaffer All My Podcast Show Notes: https://podcast.nealschaffer.com

Serial author and content marketing expert Christoph Trappe joins me for this episode dedicated to livestreaming and why it matters. We all know that video is the most powerful to express our brands or our ourselves, but why aren't we doing more of it?Christoph will help you better understand and utilize livestreaming with his advice on:The evolution of livestreaming as a differentiatorHow to integrate livestreaming into your strategyTools and tricks of the tradeKey Highlights[01:21] Introduction of Podcast Guest, Christoph Trappe[03:13] Christoph's Journey of Content Marketing and Storytelling[05:50] Why Do I Need to Always Tell A Story?[08:20] Rules on Paragraphs[10:02] Tools for Content Writing[14:34] Why Livestreaming Is A Strong Strategic Differentiator in Content Marketing[21:56] Integrating Live Streams into Marketing Strategy[23:47] Content Repurposing[24:26] Christoph's Recommendations on Content Repurposing[26:51] NPR Approach[27:48] Tools and Tricks You Can Use for Live Streaming[33:32] Christoph's Book[36:50] Connect with ChristophNotable QuotesAlways try to tell stories. It's the stories that people remember.Integrated into everything else you're doing, find a way to maximize what you're doing on the live stream, use it on other places, whether it's an article, whether it's social, whether it's different things, and then kind of see what takes off, you know, maybe it's the light, maybe you need to focus more time on the live stream and less time on blogging.Be very strategic over what you want to update what you want to produce after the fact.There's always a way to repurpose, and sometimes it's as simple as taking the new podcast or the new live stream, and embedding it into an old article, In the end, you're done.So my biggest advice is, stop the excuses that you don't have the right equipment. There are 47 dominoes that have to fall. Something doesn't work on a live stream. Don't sweat it, you know, just do what you can. And if it doesn't work, try it again later, or just do a podcast, you know, and use the podcast.Christoph Trappe LinksGoing live: Livestream your podcast to reach more people Book: https://amzn.to/3cMccBj (affiliate)Website:  https://authenticstorytelling.net/Learn More: Buy Digital Threads: https://nealschaffer.com/digitalthreadsamazon Buy Maximizing LinkedIn for Business Growth: https://nealschaffer.com/maximizinglinkedinamazon Join My Digital First Mastermind: https://nealschaffer.com/membership/ Learn about My Fractional CMO Consulting Services: https://nealschaffer.com/cmo Download My Free Ebooks Here: https://nealschaffer.com/books/ Subscribe to my YouTube Channel: https://youtube.com/nealschaffer All My Podcast Show Notes: https://podcast.nealschaffer.com

Instead of always trying to tap into the influence of others, why isn't your brand trying to take a strategic approach to increase your own digital influence? The benefits of doing so are plentiful, and influencers have already perfected the formula of what you need to do.So what are you waiting for? Listen to this episode and build your own influence as a company or brand!Key Highlights[03:15] Employee Advocacy[03:56] How Can I Make My Business More Influential?[04:26] Building Influence[06:36] Other Approaches Where You Can Yield Influence[09:30] Things People Look At When Collaborating[10:43] Why Building A Large Following Is Better Than Small Following?[11:28] The Funnel of Social Media Relationships[14:36] How You Can Build Better Influence Than Your Competitor[15:27] Leveraging Social Platforms[16:49] Micro-targeting Options[17:44] The Things You Should Be Looking At When Setting Up Social Media Dashboards[19:25] Why Do You Need To Delineate Marketing From Your Social Media?[19:59] Things You Can Do To Get Influencers Work With YouNotable QuotesBuilding more influence, a lot of it is tapping into other influencers and influencer marketing.If your business wants to become more influential, you need to build your influence on it.It is recommended that you build a larger rather than smaller following.So look around in your industry and look at your competitors, look at their follower count, see where you rank, and consider a paid campaign to get you to rank a little bit better. What I am talking about is leveraging the micro-targeting capabilities of these paid social platforms to handpick those ideal people that you think if they were exposed to you, they would not only be interested in following you, but they would also be interested in becoming your customer.You got to be like an influence, you got to be tapped in your community, you got to be publishing content there that is truly resourceful, relevant, and you have to be proactively engaging with othersSocial media is less about your promotion, and more about developing relationships, developing relationships with influencers, among others. And when you begin to look at your social channels, not as promotion channels, but as channels that truly provide that valuable resourceful content, curating content from others, photos, videos, you know, interactive, engaging content, live streaming, this is the content that people want on social media. But if you take this approach to use social media as an influencer would, and you take a similar approach, which is we want to build our influence in social media, it's going to make all this other stuff a lot easier to do. Learn More: Buy Digital Threads: https://nealschaffer.com/digitalthreadsamazon Buy Maximizing LinkedIn for Business Growth: https://nealschaffer.com/maximizinglinkedinamazon Join My Digital First Mastermind: https://nealschaffer.com/membership/ Learn about My Fractional CMO Consulting Services: https://nealschaffer.com/cmo Download My Free Ebooks Here: https://nealschaffer.com/books/ Subscribe to my YouTube Channel: https://youtube.com/nealschaffer All My Podcast Show Notes: https://podcast.nealschaffer.com

Why are some entrepreneurs successful while many others fail?Since creating one of the most popular business podcasts of all time, Entrepreneurs on Fire, John Lee Dumas has interviewed more than 3,000 entrepreneurs and taken the time to decipher what has made them successful, culminating in the publication of his first book "The Common Path to Uncommon Success: A Roadmap to Financial Freedom and Fulfillment".John shares some of his findings with us and teaches us the steps we need to take to find whatever uncommon success we are looking for.Key Highlights[01:26] Introduction of Podcast Guest, John Lee Dumas[05:47] What is Entrepreneur on Fire?[08:17] Why Some Entrepreneurs Succeed And Some Fail[11:50] The Importance of Niching Down[14:15] The Next Steps To Being A Successful Entrepreneur[16:16] 17 Chronological Steps Roadmap to Financial Payments[19:14] John's Favorite Step to Financial Payments[22:05] The End Goal[27:16] What Is The Common Path?[29:25] How John Lee Came About Writing His Book[35:59] Connect With John LeeNotable QuotesOne thing they've all had in common is they have been able to provide the best solution to a real problem that exists in this world, all the entrepreneurs that I've seen, fail struggle never quite have it click or the number two solution to a real problem, or the number 10 solution to a real problem, or the number one solution to not that big of a deal of a problem. And that's why they're failing. And so if you are not willing to identify a big idea that you can have in this world, and then take the next step, which is the critical step, which is to discover the niche, uncover the void to find the problem that's not being solved within that big idea, or this being solved very poorly that you can immediately solve better and become the best solution to that problem. You are going to struggle.Look around. And often you'll get inspired by things around you and new ideas. And some of those ideas may help your current business, some of them may propel a new business.You have to know who your perfect customer is. Your perfect avatar is from day one, even pre-launch.At the core of who we are as human beings, we truly want three things. We want to be able to wake up every morning and do what we want to do when we want to do it with whom we want to do it. If you are honestly waking up in the morning, and you're able to say I'm doing what I want to do today, where I want to do it, with whom I want to do it with what else what else is there? I mean, that is what you want to be doing where you want to be doing with whom you want to be doing it with like that is massive success. That is freedom.And that's when I realized that building the career was not the end goal here, right? It was happiness with the people I loved. But Learn More: Buy Digital Threads: https://nealschaffer.com/digitalthreadsamazon Buy Maximizing LinkedIn for Business Growth: https://nealschaffer.com/maximizinglinkedinamazon Join My Digital First Mastermind: https://nealschaffer.com/membership/ Learn about My Fractional CMO Consulting Services: https://nealschaffer.com/cmo Download My Free Ebooks Here: https://nealschaffer.com/books/ Subscribe to my YouTube Channel: https://youtube.com/nealschaffer All My Podcast Show Notes: https://podcast.nealschaffer.com