Marketing School - Digital Marketing and Online Marketing Tips

In episode #673, Eric describes his long and short-term goals for Singlegrain. Tune in to hear what makes Eric so successful! TIME-STAMPED SHOW NOTES: [00:27] Today’s Topic: Eric Siu's Personal Marketing Strategy [00:55] Daily, Eric’s team is focused on retaining clients (services and sales). [01:15] He personally wants to remove himself from the business almost entirely. [01:38] What is working is podcasting, video, SEO, content marketing, and referrals. [02:00] Big clients may start small, but if you can build trust, you will be able to expand into a bigger account. [02:35] Podcasting is 15-20% of sales. [02:45] 0% comes from video, because they are just starting to use it. [02:53] 50-60% comes from content marketing and SEO. [03:10] Most of his money is spent on content marketing and SEO. [03:18] Eric found Vivid Vision really helpful when planning long-term goals. [03:32] Eric’s long-term goal is to have Singlegrain be self-sustaining. [03:45] People tend to poach great marketing talent. He wants to build-on flexibility, so they always feel engaged and challenged, so he won’t lose them. [04:29] If he could go back and change his initial approach, he would only focus on one area of marketing. [04:42] In the beginning, he wishes they didn’t switch from tactic to tactic too quickly. [05:16] Patience is key! [05:23] Eric’s long-term vision is to have buy and grow many different businesses. [05:55] That’s all for today! [06:00] Go to Singlegrain.com/Giveway for a special marketing tool giveaway! 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 #672, Eric and Neil gush about HubSpot’s stellar marketing. Tune in to hear how you can be more successful like HubSpot. TIME-STAMPED SHOW NOTES: [00:27] Today’s Topic: The Genius of HubSpot's Marketing [00:35] HubSpot is a CRM and they are a large, publicly traded company who coined the term “inbound marketing”. [01:00] HubSpot’s marketing is so good, because they aggressively use content marketing; they looked at the data and saw what moved the needle. [01:20] They check what ranks for their competitors and copies that topic/style. [01:45] HubSpot also hires the best. [01:57] In order to maximize their content marketing, they have two full-time employees who repurpose all their content. [02:08] They call them ’historical content managers”. [02:20] HubSpot also finds ways to offer free tools that are similar to successful paid versions. [02:30] They are ruthless. [02:52] Website Grader was a great resource and helped HubSpot get backlinks and traction. [03:20] They have created a large community by creating a conference series. Their own users throw HubSpot conferences around the world. [03:45] David Cancel says one of the biggest winners was creating the agency partner program. [04:05] They love creating symbiotic relationships. [04:36] HubSpot is getting 70% open rates using Facebook Messenger. [04:43] When they did this, chatbots were new. [05:00] Sales rep’s close ratios are the same from free tools as the ratios for content. [05:20] That’s all for today! [05:41] Go to Singlegrain.com/Giveway for a special marketing tool giveaway! 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 #671, Eric and Neil discuss which A/B you should run to improve your sales. Tune in to hear what will help you up your conversions. TIME-STAMPED SHOW NOTES: [00:27] Today’s Topic: What Kind of A/B Tests Should You Run to Improve Your Sales [00:40] Add pop-ups to your site! [00:42] You can use tools like Opt-in Monster, Sumo, and HelloBar to do this. [00:52] From there, you just try to drive people to a conversion. [01:08] Headlines and copy affect conversions more than most things. [01:20] Get on the phone with your customers and ask what got them on board. [01:35] You’ll find people will say a lot of the same things. [01:39] Take what worked and incorporate it into your headlines and copy. [01:53] You need to make sure your copy is cohesive throughout your site. [02:00] Urgency is key. Have deadlines. [02:09] Use Deadline Funnel to create a countdown. [02:17] When something seems limited, it makes it more appealing. [02:30] The final email you send out before the deal expires is usually what gets the most conversions. [02:45] Having all your form fields on one page can be overwhelming. Break your checkout process into a couple or a few parts. [03:07] Conversions will go up by at least 9%. [03:22] Test your pricing every now and again. [03:25] BugSnag changed their pricing several times during their first year in business. [03:47] When doing customer development, ask them what prices are deal breakers. [04:03] Play around with button color, text size, and images. These things don’t necessarily affect conversion as much as people say, but it counts as content. [04:25] When people aren’t buying, Neil surveys them to see what didn’t work. [04:35] Do a remarketing campaign addressing these negatives (maybe using video). [04:54] Also run a test using the video. [05:04] Try short-form vs. long-form copy and see what performs better. [05:30] Optimize your ads. [05:40] On Facebook, add video and a lot of text content. [05:56] The conversion rate goes through the roof. [06:07] Test out freemium, free trials, etc. [06:37] That’s it for today! [06:41] Go to Singlegrain.com/Giveway for a special marketing tool giveaway! 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 #670, Eric and Neil discuss how you can consolidate your marketing. Tune in to hear how you can get back to basics. TIME-STAMPED SHOW NOTES: [00:27] Today’s Topic: How to Consolidate Your Marketing [00:36] When you look at anyone in marketing trying to grow a company, they don’t know what to do first or even how to do them. [01:03] Eric has about 40 tools in his marketing stack, which is crazy, because that’s the number after they consolidated everything. [01:14] It’s overwhelming. The operations guy keeps telling him to prune the tools. [01:31] When you shut a tool down, you drop the ball on five things, so it’s a slow process. [01:58] Some of the tools Eric stopped using have resurfaced, because his team has decided to retest them. [02:40] Eric’s team tried to shed a link cloaking tool, which has since been reincorporated. [02:50] The point is that paying for all these unnecessary tools is like death by a thousand cuts. [02:55] Neil says stick to the basics. [03:05] He posts social media content manually. [03:20] Neil’s team uses Google Analytics, Google Search Console, HubSpot, SEMRush, and a product management solution. [03:44] SAP and Oracle combine a lot of tasks into one product. [04:05] Eric’s team needs to get better at consolidating. [04:15] When your team is testing tools you’ve already gotten rid of, they are wasting time. [04:44] Using Segment is going to allow you to consolidate your data. [05:05] Prune every quarter. [05:15] Whenever you have too much going on, look at what’s driving results and dump the rest. [05:45] Decision fatigue is at play here. [05:55] That’s it for today! [05:59] Go to Singlegrain.com/Giveway for a special marketing tool giveaway! 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 #669, Eric and Neil discuss tactics for reaching influencers. Tune in to hear how and if you should be trying influencer marketing. TIME-STAMPED SHOW NOTES: [00:27] Today’s Topic: How to Reach Influencers [00:34] Influencer marketing is getting bigger and bigger. [01:01] Go after micro-influencers first. People on their way up are easier to get. [01:15] Micro=5,000-20,000 followers. [01:27] Search for specific hashtags, see who is geographically close to you, and get in touch. [01:36] You will find these upstarts are open to collaboration. [01:43] There are Instagram pods, where people follow and promote each other. [02:01] Influencer marketing doesn’t work the way most people think. [02:14] When one of the fit tea guys started using influencer marketing, it was low cost and converted well. [02:31] Over time, as more products and influencers came around, influencer marketing didn’t work as well. [03:00] The only way to really get a good ROI today, is to pay relevant influencers who have the customers you are targeting. [03:15] Going after Kim Kardashian won’t work unless you have a mainstream product her audience will love. [03:37] You can reduce costs by only paying for the first 12 or 24 hours of the posted image. [03:46] After a week, the view count is going to be so small, it doesn’t matter if it goes up or not. [04:18] Do what most people aren’t: have contests to encourage engagement. [04:44] That’s it for today! [04:50] Go to Singlegrain.com/Giveway for a special marketing tool giveaway! 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 #668, Eric and Neil break down their marketing dollars. Tune in to hear what the biggest marketing costs are and how you can avoid overspending. TIME-STAMPED SHOW NOTES: [00:27] Today’s Topic: Where do Neil and Eric Spend Their Marketing Dollars? [00:51] Eric spends about $10,000-$15,000/month on blog content. [01:12] Neil spends about $4,500/month on video content. [01:24] Podcasting costs Eric and Neil $700/month each. [01:40] They spend the same on video content. [01:48] Eric’s team just starting ramping up/retargeting their ads and spent $3000-$4000. [01:54] Neil spends most of his money on making and giving away free tools, which costs around $80,000/month. [02:12] Building tools takes up a lot of time. [02:20] Neil’s team found it is cheaper to buy out other companies than to spend money on marketing. [02:50] Building free tools gets you organic traffic. [03:02] If they were to add in salaries, that would only add an additional $25,000 to the mix. [03:15] Neil’s numbers include salaries in his estimation. [03:33] Editing blogs costs about $2000/month, but Neil doesn’t pay for translations. [03:52] If you build up brand equity, you can get a lot of work for free. [04:10] One strategy for people with a minimal amount of capital: find people to partner with. You will get stuff for free and both of you will gain a new audience. [04:35] Guest posts are really helpful. [05:28] That’s it for today! [05:32] Go to Singlegrain.com/Giveway for a special marketing tool giveaway! 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 #667, Eric and Neil discuss which channels are causing your sales. Tune in to hear how you can track this information. TIME-STAMPED SHOW NOTES: [00:27] Today’s Topic: What Marketing Channel is Really Causing Your Sales? [01:03] If you are direct-response marketing, using Wicked Reports can help you succeed. [01:20] Wicked Reports will find out when your leads opted in, took actions on your website, and will track how profitable that lead became months down the line. [02:02] Google Analytics also has multi-channel attribution. [02:27] When thinking about multi-channel attribution, you will find that some channels drive the majority of your revenue. However, marketing is all about the rule of 7. [03:30] You can’t always put a price on good will. Some of your social media work won’t show up in analytics. [04:20] Segment will take your data points and push it to your CRM. [04:46] That’s all for today! [04:49] Go to Singlegrain.com/Giveway for a special marketing tool giveaway! 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 #666, Eric and Neil discuss what to do with your success. Tune in to hear what your next steps should be. TIME-STAMPED SHOW NOTES: [00:27] Today’s Topic: So You're Making Money Now... What's Next? [00:48] Neil’s current salary is $0 and he dumps all profits back into his company. [00:55] He has no other passions, so what would he do with the money? [01:10] Neil thinks a business is like a baby and they only want to nurture their baby. [01:30] Take the absolute minimum salary that you would need. Don’t forget you have to pay taxes on your income! [01:45] Putting your profits back into your business is the best ROI. [02:15] The best bet is always the one you take on yourself. [03:05] If you have other aspirations besides your business, that’s cool, but if you want to further your business, always reinvest in it. [03:32] If you’re content and don’t care for more money, take the money and do what makes you happy. [03:50] OR you could hire people to run your business and take it to the next level. [04:22] If you want more, but aren’t a great leader, hire the right people to run your business. [04:45] Be ok with letting go of control. [04:56] Read the book Rocket Fuel for inspiration. [05:10] The COO Alliance is the only organization in the world that wants to help the number 2 leader in every company. [05:37] Invest in your number 2, because they will be the driving force of your company. [05:44] That’s it for today! [05:47] Go to Singlegrain.com/Giveway for a special marketing tool giveaway! 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 #665, Eric and Neil tell you what you should do instead of starting a business. Tune in to hear why you don’t have to start your own business. TIME-STAMPED SHOW NOTES: [00:27] Today’s Topic: Forget Starting a Business, Do This Instead [00:46] Neil thinks starting a business is one of the hardest things to do. It is far easier to buy a business. [01:25] Buy a company and grow it. [01:48] Income Store has over 800 websites. They buy other websites and promise a return to their investors. [02:09] They brought in $28 Million last year. [02:29] If you think you can’t afford to buy a business, you can always do cellar-based financing where you pay a monthly fee. [02:53] You can do a lot of creative things to cut costs and improve profits. [03:05] You can also only buy a portion of the company and include a clause where you can buy them out in the future. [03:34] FE International has great content about buying businesses. [03:45] Buy Biz Sell, Flippa, and Empire Flipper are also great resources. [04:02] If you are looking for low-cost deals, Flippa and Empire Flipper are good for that. [04:34] Neil’s favorite business purchases are blogs that aren’t properly monetized. [04:45] Buy a business once you have proven that you can grow someone else's business. [05:00] Use those skills to grow your own site. [05:30] Grow things on your own and once you're confident, buy a business. [05:34] That’s all for today! [05:37] Go to Singlegrain.com/Giveway for a special marketing tool giveaway! 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 #664, Eric and Neil discuss a simple way to increase your time on site. Tune in to hear what you can do to give users a great experience. TIME-STAMPED SHOW NOTES: [00:27] Today’s Topic:  A Stupidly Simple Way to Increase Your Time on Site by 19% [00:35] Time on site meaning, time visitors spend on your site. [00:41] If you can increase the time spent on your site, Google will see this and up your ranking. [00:50] If you have a high time on site, you're less likely to get hit by the Google Panda Update. [00:56] The panda update is all about measuring quality. [01:30] If your time on site is low, it’s a negative signal. [01:50] You want to deliver a good experience. [01:53] Amazon recently came out with a product called Amazon Polly. [01:57] Amazon Polly takes your text and converts it into an audio file. [02:14] Using this increased Eric and Neil’s dwell time by 19%. [02:25] Use the Polly WordPress plugin. [02:50] Make sure you add videos to your blog posts! [03:04] This has increased Neil’s dwell time. [03:25] Embed the videos wherever it makes sense. [03:55] Use Pocket on your mobile device: it’s a text-to-speech tool. [04:05] It will read articles to you. [04:08] That’s it for today! [04:12] Go to Singlegrain.com/Giveway for a special marketing tool giveaway! 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.