

Marketing School - Digital Marketing and Online Marketing Tips
Eric Siu and Neil Patel
Neil Patel and Eric Siu bring you daily ACTIONABLE digital marketing lessons that they've learned through years of being in the trenches. Whether you have a new website or you're an established business, you'll learn the latest SEO, content marketing, social media, email marketing, conversion optimization and general online marketing strategies that work today from people that actually practice marketing and operate business. Approaching 100M downloads with 2,500+ episodes, you're sure to find something that will help you grow faster. Also don't forget to subscribe to our Marketing School Youtube channel to get more marketing goodness.
Episodes
Mentioned books

Apr 16, 2018 • 11min
How to Get More Out of Your Day | Ep. #624
In episode #624, Eric and Neil discuss how you can get more out of your day. Tune in to hear how you should be organizing your life. TIME-STAMPED SHOW NOTES: [00:27] Today’s Topic: How to Get More Out of Your Day
[00:40] Google “Michael Hyatt Perfect Day”, which will explain how to block out your day. [00:53] Eric and Neil record at a set time every week. [01:07] Thursdays are Eric’s content days. Fridays are for his SAS products. [02:05] Eric will do networking events, dinners, etc., because it is a priority for growing his business. [02:40] Figure out your end goal and cut everything else out. [03:00] Neil doesn’t do networking events, rather he does actual tasks. [03:15] He feels that if he hasn’t accomplished his goals, he can’t rest, so he doesn’t care about work/life balance: he works through illnesses and holidays. [03:29] Mark Schuster did a blog post “Learning Before Earning”, which you should read. [04:09] The book, The One Thing, tells you to pick your most important goal and to just focus on that. [05:06] Building or fostering good habits is key. [05:15] You have to rank things to determine which is the most urgent/important. [05:42] Check out Rescue Time: It will show you how you are spending your time and allow you to cut the fat. [06:15] Delegate! [07:10] That’s all for today! [07:16] 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.

Apr 15, 2018 • 9min
Here's A Unique Way To Keep Your Brand Top Of Mind | Ep. #623
In episode #623, Eric and Neil discuss how you can stay top of mind. Tune in to hear what you should be doing to remain popular. TIME-STAMPED SHOW NOTES: [00:27] Today’s Topic: Here's A Unique Way To Keep Your Brand Top Of Mind
[00:38] If you look at Drift, every time they launch a new feature, they always have a lot of fanfare and masquerade it as a product launch. [01:26] In 2017, Neil bought UberSuggest and relaunched it as a free tool in 2018. [01:45] He used Product Hunt to promote it. [02:15] Neil publishes to his blog 7 days a week! [02:32] You have to be relentless in order to stay top of mind. Tom Brady is a great example of relentlessness. [03:00] There is no one specific thing you can do to stay popular, but rather you have to try everything. [03:42] The rule of 7: someone has to see something 7 times before they convert. [04:10] By putting yourself out there, eventually, you will become top of mind. [04:51] Zoom doesn’t run a lot of ads, but they have billboards everywhere in San Francisco. They even bought a sponsorship at the arena where the Golden State Warriors play. [05:28] That’s all for today! [05:31] 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.

Apr 14, 2018 • 10min
Running Out of Marketing Ideas? Do this | Ep. #622
In episode #622, Eric and Neil discuss what you can do when you run out of marketing ideas. Tune in to hear where you can find inspiration to get you out of a rut. TIME-STAMPED SHOW NOTES: [00:27] Today’s Topic: Running Out of Marketing Ideas? Do this
[00:45] Eric opens Feedly, which has a bunch of marketing blogs, which can give him a bunch of ideas. [01:17] Nuzzle takes all of his Twitter followers and shows him who they are following. [01:34] Basically, go out and research in order to get new ideas. [01:47] Instead of doing more things, improve what you are already doing. [01:53] Try using Buzzsumo, SEMRush, AHREFS in order to see what your competitors are doing. [02:14] Re-write your competitors work and improve upon it. [02:46] Whatrunswhere shows you what banner ads your competitors are leveraging. [03:15] Keep things fresh: go look at your channels and update/upgrade them. [03:42] Crowdsource your ideas! [04:50] Listen to competitors’ podcasts, which will give you great ideas. Find out their numbers, see what’s working, and leverage this information to your advantage. [05:32] Eric did an episode of Growth Everywhere and his interviewee’s competitor was listening and reached out to Eric. [06:01] The competitor picked up some useful info, just from listening to the podcast. [06:25] That’s all for today! [06:29] 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.

Apr 13, 2018 • 9min
Marketers Are Full of Shit | Ep. #621
In episode #621, Eric and Neil explain how marketers are full of shit. Tune in to hear how you can decipher a bullshitter from a talented marketer. TIME-STAMPED SHOW NOTES: [00:27] Today’s Topic: Marketers Are Full of Shit
[00:34] Marketers always talk a big game, but their results speak for themselves. [01:08] When hiring marketers, make sure whatever they claim to have done is backed up by proof. [01:45] Eric’s friend had to fire his marketing guy, because the marketer used up too many resources. [02:16] You must absolutely require proof of success and pay them for a trial period (run a series of paid tests). [02:48] Always test out a working relationship before you pull the trigger. [03:20] Neil doesn’t care what your title is, he is only focused on efficacy and results. [03:43] Eric and Neil can easily provide proof of their results. [04:05] “What is the most impressive win of your marketing career thus far?” is Eric’s favorite interview question. Once you start pressing for details, you can tell whether a candidate is lying. [04:40] Neil likes to show candidates his website and ask what they would do to fix any issues. [05:05] This is a great way to see if they can think on their feet or improve upon anything. It shows you if they know what they are talking about. [05:41] That’s all for today! [05:43] 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.

Apr 12, 2018 • 10min
7 Unorthodox Marketing Hacks You Ought to Leverage | Ep. #620
In episode #620. Eric and Neil discuss 7 unorthodox marketing hacks. Tune in to hear what you could be doing to drive conversions. TIME-STAMPED SHOW NOTES: [00:27] Today’s Topic: 7 Unorthodox Marketing Hacks You Ought to Leverage
[00:35] #1: When driving people to your website, less than 5% will convert. For the 95% that don’t convert, re-market them with an opposite pitch (logical vs. emotional). [01:22] #2: Every month, when Drift launches a new feature, they treat it as a product launch, which helps to keep them top-of-mind. Product Hunt is a great tool for this. [02:22] #3: There is a program on LinkedIn that gives a special button that populates their LinkedIn info into a form, so they have less work to do. This will increase your leads and conversions, because there is less work to be done [02:59] #4: Build a repurposing framework. Think about all the content you can take even further (turning a blog post into a video, social media post, webinar, etc.). [03:36] #5: To increase your traffic, start doing things people wouldn’t normally do. [04:01] The best way to get people from your blog to your landing page/product page is to place banner ads within your blog. [04:27] #6: Offer something for free for the cost of shipping. [04:57] Russell Brunson built his company by doing this. [05:10] #7: Give people options in your ads. [05:22] Within the first 30 seconds of a video about learning guitar, the instructor offered a link for beginners and a link for more advanced students. [06:04] That’s it for today! [06:06] 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.

Apr 11, 2018 • 8min
How to Audit Your Content in 5 Minutes | Ep. #619
In episode #619. Eric and Neil discuss how you can audit your content in 5 minutes. Tune in to hear how you can quickly improve your content. TIME-STAMPED SHOW NOTES: [00:27] Today’s Topic: How to Audit Your Content in 5 Minutes
[00:34] Eric likes to use Screaming Frog Spider, an SEO tool that allows him to crawl his website like a search engine would. [01:06] There’s an annual fee, but it’s a great way to audit your content. [01:12] Neil likes to make a list of all his Wordpress content, see which topics are duplicates, then plugs that into Google Search Console. Once he sees which ones are ranking, he will combine the similar posts and update his links. [02:04] This is the quickest way to audit your content and this will increase your rankings. [03:05] Using a tool like AHREFS allows you to do content gap analysis, while also offering a look at your competitors. [03:25] Content auditing doesn’t take long! [03:43] Click flow helps to optimize organic click-through rates to drive your traffic up. [04:12] That’s all for today! [04:15] 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.

Apr 10, 2018 • 8min
Why You Shouldn't Hire Harvard Graduates | Ep. #618
In episode #618, Eric and Neil discuss why Ivy League graduates aren’t always the best marketers. Tune in to hear why you shouldn’t hire a Harvard grad. TIME-STAMPED SHOW NOTES: [00:27] Today’s Topic: Why You Shouldn't Hire Harvard Graduates
[00:35] People who come from Ivy League schools are smart and they are not saying not to hire them. [01:20] What you need to do, is hire people based on how creative they are and their past work. [01:38] If a candidate can turn a dud into a stud, they can probably do great work for you. [01:55] People who go to good schools are good at following instructions. When it comes to getting creative and thinking outside the box, they may not be able to do that. [02:40] When Eric was 22, there was a Harvard grad who was in the same position as Eric. The Harvard grad appeared to have no chutzpah and would come in and only do what he was told. This motivated Eric to work hard and be creative. [03:25] Affiliate marketers are the most creative, because they don’t operate based on rules. [04:15] People that operate outside boundaries and make difficult numbers work, are often successful affiliate marketers. [04:36] That’s all for today! [04:38] 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.

Apr 9, 2018 • 8min
Our Favorite Marketing WordPress Plugins of 2018| Ep. #617
In episode #617, Eric and Neil count out their favorite WordPress plugins. Tune in to hear what plugins you should be using to optimize your posts. TIME-STAMPED SHOW NOTES: [00:27] Today’s Topic: Our Favorite Marketing WordPress Plugins of 2018
[00:35] YouTube Subscribe Bar allows you to embed videos and include a subscribe button. However, the subscribe button will subscribe viewers to your channel instead of the channel from which the video was posted. [01:13] Yoast SEO Plugin has an XML sitemap generator. They create XML sitemaps the correct way, whereas other plugins do not. [01:37] Tools like Pretty Links help to shorten links and make them more visually appealing. [02:05] Exit Pop Ups works well with Hello Bar and Neil likes it because you can make your background an animated GIF. Animated GIFs tend to up your subscribers. [02:27] Wordable allows you to write a post in Google Sheets and then push it directly to Wordpress. [03:18] Gravity Forms is a great way to do integrations and collect payments. You can hook it in with Woocommerce or Zapier. [03:52] WP Embed Code Generator, which is great for creating embed codes for your infographics, so other people can use them. [04:09] A Blogging Checklist is an oldie, but a goodie. The checklist is an easy form for everyone to follow. It’s a dummy-proof solution. [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.

5 snips
Apr 8, 2018 • 9min
7 Social Media Hacks That'll Make You Stand Out From The Noise | Ep. #616
In episode #616, Eric and Neil discuss the 7 hacks you can use to stand out from the crowd. Tune in to hear what you should be doing to make an impression. TIME-STAMPED SHOW NOTES: [00:27] Today’s Topic: 7 Social Media Hacks That'll Make You Stand Out From The Noise
[00:42] #1: Neil took the most popular influencers and had them take photos of themselves holding signs that said, “Who is Neil Patel?”. Over the years, he has closed deals because people remembered this campaign. [01:26] #2: Allbird has custom illustrations and videos on Instagram. That kind of thing will help you stand out. [02:06] #3: See what’s working for your competitors and is getting them the most shares. Then, create similar content or posts. [02:38] #4: Social Blade shows stats for YouTube. You can see channel’s growth rates and what helped them achieve that growth. This will help you figure out what tactics to copy. [03:23] #5: Increase engagement by boosting posts to people on your fan page. [04:11] #6: Build pods with like-minded people and power-like each other’s posts. [04:38] #7: Figure out what each social network is missing. Facebook is trying to work on video, LinkedIn has a lot of gaps, etc. If you give the social network what they are lacking, they will promote it. [05:34] That’s all for today! [05:36] 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.

Apr 7, 2018 • 8min
Which Marketing Channels Have The Best ROI | Ep. #615
In episode #615, Eric and Neil debate which marketing channel has the best ROI. Tune in to hear on which channel you should be focusing your energy. TIME-STAMPED SHOW NOTES: [00:27] Today’s Topic: Which Marketing Channels Have The Best ROI
[00:35] Content marketing is one of the best options for good ROI. [00:40] On the other hand, Neil thinks using paid ads are the best. [01:06] You have to think of scalability and return on investment. [01:30] With content marketing, you could spend $1 Million and generate $10 Million, whereas with paid ads, you could spend $50 Million and generate $100. [01:40] If you combine those two channels, you could have a “monster” business. [02:00] One channel could work better than the other depending on the business. [02:25] A woman Neil met at a conference gets all her business through Facebook ads. [02:50] Another company grew solely off of social media paid ads, which proves this is a popular and successful method. [03:15] If you layer paid ads with content marketing, you will have twice as much business. [03:42] If you want to know which will produce the highest ROI for you, run some tests. [04:02] If you are not sure which channels to use, check out what is working for your competitors using SEMRush or BuzzSumo. [04:20] Think about where your audience is “hanging out” and tailor your approach. [04:42] If you need to need to go back to Marketing 101, read The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing.
[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.


