Marketing School - Digital Marketing and Online Marketing Tips

In episode #534, Eric and Neil count out 7 productivity hacks that will help you run your business more efficiently. Tune in to hear these great time-and-energy-saving hacks. TIME-STAMPED SHOW NOTES: [00:27] Today’s Topic: 7 Productivity Hacks that Will Make You a More Efficient Marketer [00:34] Hack 1: Use Rescue Time, it’s a tool that analyzes how much time you spend on social media sites. This will give you something to compare with your analytics and give you an idea of where to spend more of your time. [01:23] You have to optimize your time and spend it on the sites that are getting you the highest ROI. [01:49] Hack 2: For mobile, Moment is an app that shows you how much time you’re spending on the phone and different apps. [02:28] Hack 3: Use Trello. It has boards that help you track all of your projects and their various phases. [03:32] Hack 4: TubeBuddy helps with posting videos to YouTube (tagging, etc.) [04:10] Hack 5: Use Google Analytics to help track your best performing pages and see which SEO is working and which needs improvement. [05:47] Click Flow is another great tool for tracking SEO. [05:58] Hack 6: Zapier helps organize your workflow and saves you time. [06:57] Hack 7: Buffer or Hootsuite social media schedulers can be used to schedule posts 10-20 times per day. Doing this will boost your Twitter traffic. [07:58] Meet Edgar is another social media scheduler that will help you plan ahead and score more Twitter traffic. Always re-post your blog entries! [08:50] That’s it for today! [08:52] Go to Singlegrain.com/Giveway for a special edition of Crazy Egg, the heat mapping tool. 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 #533, Eric and Neil discuss how to manage clients who are never satisfied and ask for work above and beyond their contract. Tune in for some great advice on how to satisfy clients and remain profitable. Time-Stamped Show Notes:  [00:27] Today’s Topic: How to Handle Clients that Always Want More for Less [00:43] In the early days, Neil would give his clients whatever they asked for. [00:47] However, the moment you give in to unnecessarily demanding clients, you find that your margins decrease and it becomes a vicious cycle of rewarding complaints. [01:05] What he learned from this, was that it is of the utmost importance to structure your deal properly from the get-go. [01:18] When a company asks for something above and beyond the terms of the contract, tell them it won’t be possible, but that you can renegotiate/draw up a new proposal. It is important to set boundaries! [01:58] Once you do too much for free, you will lose money, and you will always have unhappy clients. [02:20] You have to track how much time you spend on each client to determine profitability. [02:40] You can always draw up a Zero-Dollar Change Order, just to have a written trail of the changes in terms. [03:15] The third of fourth time the client tries to adjust the terms, point to the free Change Orders, and tell them you will have to charge them in the future. This way, you are protecting yourself. [03:49] iProspect charges based on an hourly rate. They will do whatever the client wants, because they are still getting paid for their time. [04:41] The hourly rate model is simple and straightforward, which prevent confusion and hard feelings. [05:27] Neil still does flat-rate pricing, but internally they track client hours and the ensuing costs. [05:42] Hubstaff is an invasive time-tracker, but works well for Eric and his company. [06:02] Toggl and Harvest are other great time-tracker options. [06:17] Ogilvy will charge by the hour, but will charge additionally for face-to-face work. [06:56] That’s all for today! [06:58] Go to Singlegrain.com/Giveway for a special edition of Crazy Egg, the heat mapping tool. 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 #532, Eric and Neil discuss what to do once your business hits 7 figures. Ultimately, there are two paths you can take. Tune in to hear their advice about optimizing your business for growth or stability.  Time-Stamped Show Notes: [00:27] Today’s Topic: What You Should Do After You Hit 7 Figures in Revenue [00:34] Eric believes that once you hit 7 figures, why not strive for even bigger numbers? [01:18] Look at what works and double down on that. [01:47] Invest in what you can control. [02:10] Neil thinks that what you do to get to 7 figures, isn’t necessarily what will get you to 8. [02:58] 7 figures are hungry to make money right away, while 8 figure businesses look more to long-term investments. [03:24] If you can spend more money on acquiring customers than your competitors, it’s much easier to grow your business. [03:37] Celebrate that your business has reached 7 figures, but then think about what else you can do to optimize your business. [04:29] Really good marketers consider “scaling”. [04:51] Once you get beyond the strategies that helped you reach 7 figures, think about what systems and processes you can build to reach 8 figures. [05:58] You have to be able to convey your vision to others (employees and investors), so that they can get on board and help you reach 8 figures. [06:20] Some people do not care for money and just want to live a quiet, relaxing life. [06:48] If you are one of these people, optimize your business for profit and don’t try to reach 8 figures. [07:12] Once you optimize your business, don’t spend too much and save your cash in order to float the “chill” lifestyle you desire. [07:42] Mergers and Acquisitions are another way to make quick, stable money. [08:15] If you look at Dentsu or Ogilvy, they have a number of different services and have grown through M&A. [08:42] Hitting the 7 figure mark is rare! [09:33] Once you reach 7 figures, you can’t take your foot off the gas. [09:44] Remember to CYA (Cover Your Ass): always have two to three months of expenses in the bank. [10:23] That’s it for today! [10:26] Go to singlegrain.com/giveaway if you want to get in on a special giveaway opportunity!  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 #531, Eric and Neil talk about how Google Intelligence can help you understand analytics and grow your business. Tune in to hear which analytics are key to interpreting content performance. Time-Stamped Show Notes: [00:27] Today’s Topic: Our Favorite Google Analytics Hacks That Actually Help You Grow [00:35] For mobile or desktop, there is a thing called Google Intelligence. It’s a program much like Siri or Alexa. [00:45] You can ask Google Intelligence questions about your website’s analytics and it will give you answer much like Siri or Alexa would. You do not actually have to know anything about analytics. [01:14] Neil likes to create segments for each different type of traffic source, which helps him to understand and parse the data. [02:23] Creating segments will help you fine-tune your marketing decisions. [02:28] Make sure that you are linking up Google Search Console and Adwords with Google Analytics. Combining the data will make your life easier. [02:48] Kaushik.net is a blog with advanced segments you can duplicate, as well as using some templates he has built. [03:29] There is an article on Medium that has a few analytics hacks you can use. [03:37] Neil likes to see how quickly his site loads. [04:04] Look at your most popular pages and see the load times. Speeding them up will help boost your conversions. [04:41] Utilize Google Tag Manager. When you connect Tag Manager to analytics, you can check scroll depth and other cool analytics that will help you determine how engaged people are. [05:19] GTM Measure School is a great YouTube channel that will help you figure out Tag Manager hacks. [05:29] If you’re a content marketer, it’s important to know there is a tool within Google Analytics called “Content Groups”. You can set up content grouping to figure out how certain content is performing. [05:52] Content marketing is a hit or miss game, so you want to analyze topics and trends and see what is performing well. [06:02] By grouping your content, you will be able to better analyze content performance. [06:58] That’s it for today! [07:00] Go to singlegrain.com/giveaway if you want to get in on a special giveaway opportunity! 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 #530, Eric and Neil tell you the real secret about how to raise your Google ranking. Tune in to hear the honest truth that other marketers won’t tell you. Time-Stamped Show Notes: [00:27] Today’s Topic: Learn the Real Secret to Ranking on Page 1 (and What Most Marketers Won't Tell You) [00:37] Eric and Neil rank for a number of keywords or terms. [01:08] When trying to rank for those terms, they did not create pages specifically for them. [01:25] Eric has created hundreds of pages for Single Grain, but the majority do not rank well; it’s a quantity game. [01:34] There was no difference between the pages that ranked and those that did not. [01:47] Neil and Eric create a massive amount of content, because it’s a hit or miss game.There is no guarantee that the content will be a hit. [02:31] For the posts that rank, they have a process that involves Google Search Console. [02:56] Step 1: Install Google Search Console. [03:08] Step 2: Go to the Search Analytics section. [03:17] Step 3: Click on three buttons/check boxes on the top left (“CTR”, “Impressions”, and “Clicks”). [03:36] Step 4: Click on the radio button for “Pages”. [03:47] You want to see the pages that have a high impression count, but a low click-through rate. [04:17] Low click-through rates are the low-hanging fruit you want to optimize. [04:26] By changing the titles of these, it can help you change your click-through rate. [04:50] So, create a lot of content, see what performs the best in Google Search Console, go in and fine-tune your content (make it super detailed and try to maximize the traffic you can get from them. [05:15] No one knows why some pages rank and others don’t. That’s the big secret! [05:33] If you want the most traffic, you need to focus on quantity. [05:42] Write at least one article per day and don’t overlap your topics. [06:02] They built ClickFlow to help you manage the Google Search Console process. [06:26] Focus on creating quality content in mass quantities; over time, Google will start to see your site as an authority, which will cause your domain authority rise, and whenever you write new content, it becomes easier to rank. [07:10] Make sure you go after keywords that monetize. [07:27] That’s it for today! [07:29] Go to singlegrain.com/giveaway if you want to get in on a special giveaway opportunity! 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 #529, Eric and Neil discuss strategies for becoming "Instagram Famous." Tune in to her great tips on building relationships, growing your following, and attracting Likes. Time-Stamped Show Notes:  [00:27] Today’s Topic: How to be Insta-Famous Without Taking Off Your Clothes [00:37] Everyone on Instagram is either a celebrity or rich. The majority of the Insta-famous people are basically half-naked attractive people. [01:28] Eric follows Founder Magazine, because he likes their content and he believes they are adding value to his life. Tai Lopez is another account that Eric thinks ads value. [02:43] The more emotional content you use, the more engagement you will get. [03:13] If people don’t connect with you or your images, you won’t gain followers. [03:29] Engage with other users and respond to comments on your page as well as on other account pages. [03:57] Instagram tracks followers and likes; if the ratio is off, you won’t get promoted on the app. [05:10] Think about who you can build a relationship with via social media. This will help you grow your engagement and add followers. [05:45] You have to be able to tell a story in order to draw people in. [06:31] Partnerships with other users (photos, contests, etc.) will help you gain followers [07:02] If your content is truly amazing, it will get discovered. You always have to “one-up” people. [07:53] That’s it for today! [07:55] Go to singlegrain.com/giveaway if you want to get in on a special giveaway opportunity! 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 #528, Eric and Neil explain how you can be an event speaker without being a household name. Tune in to hear how you can eventually earn money and a following speaking at conferences. Time-Stamped Show Notes: [00:27] Today’s Topic: How to Get Paid to Speak Even if Nobody Knows You [00:34] Neil shares the story about his early days of public speaking [01:00] He didn’t get paid at first and had to cover his own expenses. [01:26] A Harvard Football player now gets paid $25,000 for speaking gigs at financial firms regarding sales training. [01:33] The football player continuously reached out to every speaker bureau and eventually, they offered him paid gigs. [01:42] He also self-publishes books and then mails them out to the companies and people for whom he would like to work. [02:10] When you first start out, reach out to different conferences and offer your services. [02:26] The first speaking gig that Gary Vee (Gary Vaynerchuk) ever did, he asked for $5,000, because he wasn’t sure what kind of money he could get. [02:41] Now, Gary gets $100,000 per event. [03:11] Bryan Harris came out with a tool to help people get speaking gigs. [03:30] Make a prospect list to help you set your goals. [03:37] You can hire telemarketers from Upwork for about $30/hour to help you do cold calling. [03:52] It would be worth speaking for free at popular conferences, because it will help you build up your speaker resume. [04:34] Neil spoke about Wikipedia at the Search Engine Strategies Conference. He did not generate any revenue, nor did he gain any followers. [04:54] After doing a few more events for free, he eventually began to ask for money. [05:14] Go to the speaker bureau sites and see where those people are speaking, because those are the conferences that are paying. [05:25] Neil charged $5,000 for his first paid gig. [05:37] Eventually, he began charging more money. [06:03] That’s it for today! [06:05] Go to singlegrain.com/giveaway if you want to get in on a special giveaway opportunity! 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 #527, Eric and Neil explain how you can quickly and easily create webinars. Tune in to hear some great tips for creating webinars and an explanation of why these could be key to your success. Time-Stamped Show Notes: [00:27] Today’s Topic: How to Create a Webinar in Less than 45 Minutes [00:35] For those of you who already have content, you can turn it into a webinar. [01:01] For reference, look at The Content Reusage Workflow. [01:09] Eric recently looked at old content and repurposed some of it for a webinar. [01:21] However, if you don’t have any content yet, go to BuzzSumo, look at what topics are performing well, and then make your own webinar about those topics. [01:52] Check out SlideShare to see what the most popular presentations are. [02:18] You need to figure out how to transition people into leads or sales. [02:22] You want to do at least 30 minutes of education before you go into your pitch (max 15 minutes). [02:40] Follow all of that up with an offer for further webinars and opportunities. [03:20] Your pitch must be relevant to the topic covered in your webinar. [04:02] If you are selling a service, you can download a lead magnet or you can just offer your services at a discount for the first ten people to sign up. Create offers or opportunities. [04:42] Eric recently released a tool and offered a discount to the first people to sign up. [05:20] When you establish urgency, it causes people to take action. [05:37] Make sure to tease offers at the beginning of your webinar, so viewers will stay until the end. [05:52] If you are scheduling calls or selling a service, use Schedule Once to plug your offer. [06:04] If you are selling a product, use Webinar Jam’s countdown clock to help create the sense of urgency. [06:23] When you’re getting started, Google Hangouts is a great way to create free webinars. [06:27] Zoom and GoToWebinar are paid services you can also opt to use. [06:32] LeadPages is a great way to create landing pages for your site/webinar. [06:46] That’s it for today! [06:48] Go to singlegrain.com/giveaway if you want to get in on a special giveaway opportunity! 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 #526, Eric and Neil discuss the ways in which you can hook readers with a killer blog introduction. Tune in to hear their tips for creating great blog posts. Time-Stamped Show Notes:  [00:27] Today’s Topic: How to Write a Killer Blog Introduction that Really Hooks the Reader [00:34] Neil likes something hard-hitting and quick, when it comes to blog entries. [00:56] Statistics really draw him in. [01:21] Conversational-style writing is also really appealing to Neil. Hooking people with a personal story is usually successful. [01:38] Neil likes to write in the first person, as it makes it seem more personal. [03:10] Eric likes reading things that are written by marketing copywriters, because they know how to write a good hook. [03:37] Eric likes looking at The Boron Letters and the book Breakthrough Advertising. [04:07] Perry Marshal said that your goal when writing an email is to hook them into the next email. [04:28] It’s important to focus on how to keep readers interested. [04:42] It must be authentic and fit your personality. [05:40] Take the signal that makes sense to you and adjust it to fit your style. [05:46] That’s it for today! [05:48] Go to singlegrain.com/giveaway if you want to get in on a special giveaway opportunity! 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 #525, Eric and Neil discuss the best way to market to people making more than $150K per year. Tune in to hear the exciting ideas they have to boost your reach and potential earnings. Time-Stamped Show Notes: [00:27] Today’s Topic: The Best Way to Market to Individuals Who Make Over $150K a Year [00:37] There was an article on the Salesforce Blog about podcasts. According to the article, 16% of the people who listen to podcasts make over $150,000/year. [01:01] In addition, that 16% listens to roughly five hours of podcasts per week. [01:07] So, if you want to target that 16%, you should consider starting a podcast to increase your traffic and sales. [01:18] Marketing School gets about 550,000 listens per week. [01:38] If you don’t want to create a podcast, you can simply advertise on a podcast. [01:55] You can target your ads towards a certain income group on Facebook. [02:28] You can target prominent Venture Capitalists on Twitter or similar types of people. [02:40] Eric likes the idea of targeting people through podcasts. The attention you get from a podcast is unparalleled. [03:05] If you create your own podcast, you can run your own ads to get more subscribers and listeners. [03:21] Eric and Neil considered using Russell Brunson’s method, which required giving away pre-loaded MP3 players. [03:55] iTunes has yet to open advertising for podcasts, but Spotify currently allows it. [04:00] Eric and Neil are planning to expand their marketing plan in 2018. [04:40] Wealthy people tend to listen to podcasts to gain skills that will make them more successful and effective at whatever it is that they do. [05:10] You can do AVM, which is targeting specific companies and accounts. [05:31] If you are delivering the right content to the right people at the right time, you are likely to close sales at a higher rate. [05:51] Marketing School episodes got shorter in 2017, but they started to focus on quality as well as quantity. They want to provide the best possible content to gain more followers. [06:44] Eric and Neil are keen to get your feedback on this podcast. If you like what you’ve been hearing, please leave a review! [06:47] That’s it for today! [06:49] Go to singlegrain.com/giveaway if you want to get in on a special giveaway opportunity! 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.