Marketing School - Digital Marketing and Online Marketing Tips

In episode #1082, we give you the opportunity to hear Eric’s conversation with Syed Balkhi from the Marketing School Live event to talk about how to design your thinking for unstoppable growth.  Tune in to hear all about what Syed does and how he runs his business. TIME-STAMPED SHOW NOTES: [00:55] Today’s Topic: How To Design Your Thinking For Unstoppable Growth [01:15] Syed’s company creates Wordpress plugins.  [02:34] They have over 9 Million websites using their software. [04:31] Syed tries to be consistent and do the simple stuff that delivers over time. [05:15] Syed has personal health goals, because he gained a good deal of weight. [05:40] He applied a similar principle here and did the simplest things with consistency.  [07:58] An external success gap is the gap between what the product does and what the customers use the product for. [10:00] An internal success gap is what your product does and what the user thinks it should do. [10:10] Sometimes, there are things that the product can do, but doesn’t yet, because the company hasn’t anticipated all of the users’ needs. [10:43] Affiliate marketing is having a commision-only sales team. [13:05] If someone is ranking for the best article on marketing, you can reach out to them to try out your product. [17:32] Syed got his first customers through his blog that already had a big following. [17:41] He also used influencer marketing. [19:01] Content marketing is still key to success and Syed leverages this to attract more customers. [21:56] Syed has in-house writers, because he needs people with a certain level of expertise. [24:45] Publish Press is a great tool for tracking content. [27:05] Wordpress powers 34% of the web. [27:30] Syed sees it as the operating system of the web. [29:15] Hiring the right people has helped Syed, as is having a physical planner and blocking off his Fridays. [34:56] Syed found that building relationships (strategic partnerships) with other companies has proven successful. [37:40] Streaks has added a lot of value to Syed’s life; it’s a great accountability tracker. [38:08] The Content Template feature in SEMRush has proven helpful to his company, as well. [38:30] One book Syed recommends is Extreme Revenue Growth. [39:13] That’s it for today! [40:00] We are going to take applications for live intensive sessions. Just go to the Marketing School site for more information and to apply. Leave some feedback: What should we talk about next? Please let us know in the comments below. Did you enjoy this episode? If so, please leave a short review. Connect with us: NeilPatel.com Quick Sprout Growth Everywhere Single Grain Twitter @neilpatel Twitter @ericosiu Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In episode #1081, we offer a free listen to Larry Kim’s presentation from the Marketing School Live event in Los Angeles. Tune in to hear Larry discuss his hacks for Facebook marketing for 2020 and beyond. TIME-STAMPED SHOW NOTES: [00:55] Today’s Topic: Larry Kim’s Top 5 Favorite Facebook Marketing Hacks for 2020 and Beyond [02:15] Larry is from Winnipeg and he’s obsessed with unicorns. [02:47] Larry started WordStream in 2008 out of a bakery he frequented. [03:00] Now the company employs over 300 people managing over $1 Billion in ad spend. [03:20] He sold the business one year ago. [04:22] Facebook is getting in trouble for questionable live streams and censorship. [04:55] The future of Facebook is private groups and messaging. [06:22] Live chats are a core growth marketing area on which to focus.  [08:40] Anything you can do with email marketing,  you can do with messaging. [11:35] Use a chatbot builder like MobileMonkey. [12:45] Surveys are a great way to get user feedback and you can do them using chatbots, so they are more conversational. [15:10] This helps improve conversions. [17:25] In order to improve experiences, you would want to create content around questions people have. [19:11] By making a person confirm that he is doing well in a conversation, you can use that to piggy-back upon and move onto the topic at hand. [19:47] No matter what you’re selling, try to take people on a conversational journey. [22:30] It’s never been easier to grow your email subscriber list. [23:20] Don’t wait for people to message, you have to be more proactive in getting leads. [23:40] A Comment Guard is a strategy for baiting users into messaging your company. [25:05] Another way to engage your audience is to ask an enticing question and offer the actual answer and further information. [28:12] Larry has changed the way he does Facebook ads, so that it sends people into his messenger funnels instead of a landing page. [30:44] After someone becomes a Messenger contact, you can input their info into a Drip campaign and attempt to use upsells. [31:15] You can also remarket people based on conversational criteria. [33:14] There are more daily active users on messaging platforms than on social media, yet less than 1% of companies have the ability to market to those users. [33:27] Engagements rates are 100x better than email marketing. [34:45] That’s it for today! [34:48] Please go to Marketing School for a free copy of Larry’s slides. Leave some feedback: What should we talk about next? Please let us know in the comments below. Did you enjoy this episode? If so, please leave a short review.   ►Subscribe to our premium podcast (with tons of goodies!): https://www.marketingschool.io/pro   Connect with us: NeilPatel.com Quick Sprout Growth Everywhere Single Grain Twitter @neilpatel Twitter @ericosiu Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In episode #1080, we debate whether you should charge for a conference. Tune in to hear where each of us stands on this issue. TIME-STAMPED SHOW NOTES: [00:27] Today’s Topic: Should You Charge For A Conference? Neil & Eric Debate [00:51] As the day proceeded, Eric realized they could have charged for the event. [01:10] When your content is already free for the most part, it would have been more than fair to charge for the conference. [01:30] Also, charging would have guaranteed a higher attendance rate with higher quality attendees. [02:52] Neil disagrees with Eric’s assessment.  [03:10] Neil prefers to give away information for free. [03:35] Luckily, Intercom and others served as sponsors, which helped offset the costs. [03:51] Neil doesn’t want to make money off of people who are just seeking knowledge. [04:22] Eric thinks it put way too much stress on him and his team and another free event wouldn’t be worth it. [04:45] We are providing value and those surveyed said they would pay for another event. [05:30] Neil feels he didn’t work as much for this event, so he understands Eric’s perspective. [05:50] Tweet at Eric to give us your thoughts! [06:50] That’s it for today! [07:00] We are going to take applications for live intensive sessions. Just go to the Marketing School site for more information and to apply. Leave some feedback: What should we talk about next? Please let us know in the comments below. Did you enjoy this episode? If so, please leave a short review. Connect with us: NeilPatel.com Quick Sprout Growth Everywhere Single Grain Twitter @neilpatel Twitter @ericosiu Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In episode #1079, we discuss the mistakes we made while putting on our first conference. Tune in to hear what went wrong and how we dealt with it. TIME-STAMPED SHOW NOTES: [00:27] Today’s Topic: 7 Mistakes We Made From Our First Conference [00:35] Check out the Marketing School Live videos we posted online! [00:50] We had a couple of last-minute hiccups, because there was a lot of miscommunication. [01:30] Another mistake was that the food was amazing, but there were no vegetarian options. [01:57] We didn’t have an emcee.  [02:45] Not charging for tickets hurt us a little bit. [03:00] There wasn’t an easy way to digest and download all the information we shared. [04:22] Eric underestimated the amount of work it would take to get butts in seats. [04:38] Neil thinks that even though people say they are going to come, not everyone actually shows up. [04:54] Last minute, they had a bunch of open seats that they needed to fill. [05:21] That’s it for today! [05:28] We are going to take applications for live intensive sessions. Just go to the Marketing School site for more information and to apply. Leave some feedback: What should we talk about next? Please let us know in the comments below. Did you enjoy this episode? If so, please leave a short review. Connect with us: NeilPatel.com Quick Sprout Growth Everywhere Single Grain Twitter @neilpatel Twitter @ericosiu Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In episode #1078, we discuss how to throw a successful live event. Tune in to hear how we did it! TIME-STAMPED SHOW NOTES: [00:27] Today’s Topic: How to Throw A Successful Live Event [01:07] For our first event, it went well. [02:17] Everything was laid out for us at the venue. [02:27] Eric gave the LA office a day off, because he needed them to come in on Saturday to help with the event. [03:00] We had speakers come in from all over the States. [04:30] Eric bartered with his friend to bring a food truck to the live event in exchange for two months of free services. [05:10] We prepared for about six months to put on this live event. [06:08] That’s it for today! [06:17] We are going to take applications for live intensive sessions. Just go to the Marketing School site for more information and to apply. Leave some feedback: What should we talk about next? Please let us know in the comments below. Did you enjoy this episode? If so, please leave a short review. Connect with us: NeilPatel.com Quick Sprout Growth Everywhere Single Grain Twitter @neilpatel Twitter @ericosiu Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In episode #1077, we discuss how to make sense of traffic estimates from SEO tools. Tune in to hear how we handle this data. TIME-STAMPED SHOW NOTES: [00:27] Today’s Topic: How to Make Sense of Traffic Estimates From SEO Tools [00:38] Examples of such tools include: UberSuggest and SEMRush. [01:20] When it comes to these tools, it’s hard to compare them. [01:35] You should use these tools to see how you stack up to your competitors.  [01:50] Always use the same tool for comparisons, so that the data will be similar.[02:50] When looking at these types of tools, Eric looks at trends. [03:30] If Eric sees the traffic value declining, he knows it’s not something worth emulating. [04:40] B2C traffic information tends to be more accurate. [05:00] You can rent out pages that rank for certain keywords. [05:40] That’s it for today! [05:50] We are going to take applications for live intensive sessions. Just go to the Marketing School site for more information and to apply. Leave some feedback: What should we talk about next? Please let us know in the comments below. Did you enjoy this episode? If so, please leave a short review. Connect with us: NeilPatel.com Quick Sprout Growth Everywhere Single Grain Twitter @neilpatel Twitter @ericosiu Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In episode #1076, we discuss what you should do if you lost traffic from Google’s June update. Tune in to hear what you can do to salvage your rankings. TIME-STAMPED SHOW NOTES: [00:27] Today’s Topic: Here’s What You Should Do If You Lost Traffic From the June 2019 Update [00:45] The June update wasn’t named anything specific. [00:50] It was a core update and people lost a lot of keyword rankings. [01:30] Eric found that even though he lost keywords, the keywords for which they already ranked, got better. [02:40] There’s no clear trend, as it seems like a wash. [03:05] Look at the sites and pages that are ranking in the top ten and learn from what they are doing. [04:25] When these updates happen, it can be a crapshoot. [04:45] Updating content helps you maintain your rankings. [04:50] That’s it for today! [04:59] We are going to take applications for live intensive sessions. Just go to the Marketing School site for more information and to apply. Leave some feedback: What should we talk about next? Please let us know in the comments below. Did you enjoy this episode? If so, please leave a short review. Connect with us: NeilPatel.com Quick Sprout Growth Everywhere Single Grain Twitter @neilpatel Twitter @ericosiu Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In episode #1075, we discuss how to stay up to date with the latest marketing trends. Tune in to hear our methods. TIME-STAMPED SHOW NOTES: [00:27] Today’s Topic: How to Stay Up to Date With The Latest Marketing Trends [00:38] Eric follows a few lists he made on Twitter (for Marketers and Entrepreneurs). [01:00] In addition to Twitter, he uses Nuzzle to show him the newest content from the people he follows. [01:42] Just because something is trending, doesn’t mean it is necessarily effective. [02:05] TikTok, for instance, is popular, but doesn’t have a good ROI. [02:12] Neil likes to see what the trends are and then searches for case studies around them. [03:05] This research helps him determine what to focus on in the future. [04:15] Mastermind groups created for this purpose has proven a helpful way to discuss and dissect marketing trends. [04:58] That’s it for today! [05:10] We are going to take applications for live intensive sessions. Just got to the Marketing School site for more information and to apply. Leave some feedback: What should we talk about next? Please let us know in the comments below. Did you enjoy this episode? If so, please leave a short review. Connect with us: NeilPatel.com Quick Sprout Growth Everywhere Single Grain Twitter @neilpatel Twitter @ericosiu Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In episode 1074, we discuss the best social networks that you aren’t using. Tune in to hear which social networks are our favorites. TIME-STAMPED SHOW NOTES: [00:27] Today’s Topic: Here’s My Favorite Social Network That You Aren’t Using [00:40] Neil loves Reddit and thinks not enough people are using it. [01:03] Also, their ads are dirt cheap. [01:30] Discord is another option that Eric likes. [02:40] Neil hasn’t used it himself, as he is not into gaming and music. [03:07] That’s it for today! [03:17] We are going to take applications for live intensive sessions. Just got to the Marketing School site for more information and to apply. Leave some feedback: What should we talk about next? Please let us know in the comments below. Did you enjoy this episode? If so, please leave a short review. Connect with us: NeilPatel.com Quick Sprout Growth Everywhere Single Grain Twitter @neilpatel Twitter @ericosiu Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In episode #1073, we discuss how to effortlessly create amazing content. Tune in to hear how! TIME-STAMPED SHOW NOTES: [00:27] Today’s Topic: How to Effortlessly Create Amazing Content [01:00] Our format is unique and we enjoy making this podcast. [02:01] You don’t have to plan out your content word for word. [03:10] If you’re not enjoying it, creating content becomes hard. [04:05] Timothy Sykes creates great content that helps him make money. [04:20] That’s it for today. [04:31] We are going to take applications for live intensive sessions. Just got to the Marketing School site for more information and to apply. Leave some feedback: What should we talk about next? Please let us know in the comments below. Did you enjoy this episode? If so, please leave a short review. Connect with us: NeilPatel.com Quick Sprout Growth Everywhere Single Grain Twitter @neilpatel Twitter @ericosiu Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.