Everything Is Marketing

On the show today is Hiten Shah. Where do I start with Hiten... most notably he's the founder of the software companies FYI, Crazy Egg, and KISSmetrics. He's also been involved in starting a number of other companies. He writes a newsletter called Product Habits. He does a podcast called The Startup Chat. He angel invests. He has a grand career in tech.I wanted to bring him on because Hiten has been in the world of tech and startups for a long time. And with time and experience comes wisdom. I'm always impressed by the way that Hiten sees the world and how he thinks about marketing. He also has a unique ability to be very objective and honest about himself. We get into this with his companies but he's not afraid to talk about where things have fallen short. And given his experience with Crazy Egg and KISSmetrics, Hiten knows what works and doesn't work — he's seen it all and has been on the forefront of marketing for a long time.You'll hear about what go-to-market model Hiten would start with if he was founding a new startup today, why marketing is everyone's job, why all of his landing pages are just a headline, subheadline, call to action, and some sort of illustration, and why there's no such thing as having done zero marketing.More on Hiten:@hnshah on TwitterFYIThe Startup Chat podcastSponsored by SparkLoop — the referral tool for newsletters. Hundreds of smart newsletter creators use SparkLoop to get more, high-quality email subscribers on autopilot. Get started in 5 minutes and start a free 30-day trial → sparkloop.app/eim🙌 Thank Hiten for coming on the show with a quick tweetIf you've got a question or takeaway you want to share from this episode, you can do so in the Swipe Files community. You can chat with guests of the podcast as well as a bunch of other top-notch marketers. Join a community that will help you do your best work and be prolific. Check it out at swipefiles.com/membershipI write an occasional newsletter about cutting-edge, comprehensive, and sometimes even crazy marketing ideas. Subscribe to become a better marketer, one idea at a time at swipefiles.com You can also get my free newsletter Marketing Weekly. It's a curated digest of the best marketing content in your inbox every Sunday morning. If you enjoy the podcast, would you please consider leaving a short review on Apple Podcasts or your podcast player of choice? It takes less than a minute and it really makes a difference in helping to convince hard-to-get guests. I also love reading the reviews!Looking for marketing jobs? Check out Hey Marketers, a free job board I created just for marketing jobs. ★ Support this podcast ★

On the show today is April Dunford. April is the author of one of my all-time favorite marketing books, Obviously Awesome: How to nail product positioning so customers get it, buy it, love it.I wanted to bring April on because she's THE person to go to regarding positioning. Positioning is probably the most essential part of marketing and yet the least understood. April is a very unconventional thinker. She's not afraid to disagree, tell people they're wrong, or offer up her opinion. She's also consulted with hundreds of companies, spoken at conferences around the world, and written some amazing material on all things positioning.You'll hear about how she doesn't think Product-Market Fit is a useful concept, the pros and cons of creating a category, the tried and true method for working out your own positioning, and many more unique insights, examples, and case studies that she hasn't shared elsewhere.More on April:@aprildunford on Twitteraprildunford.comObviously AwesomeSponsored by SparkLoop — the referral tool for newsletters. Hundreds of smart newsletter creators use SparkLoop to get more, high-quality email subscribers on autopilot. Get started in 5 minutes and start a free 30-day trial → sparkloop.app/eim🙌 Thank April for coming on the show with a quick tweetIf you've got a question or takeaway you want to share from this episode, you can do so in the Swipe Files community. You can chat with guests of the podcast as well as a bunch of other top-notch marketers. Join a community that will help you do your best work and be prolific. Check it out at swipefiles.com/membershipI write an occasional newsletter about cutting-edge, comprehensive, and sometimes even crazy marketing ideas. Subscribe to become a better marketer, one idea at a time at swipefiles.com You can also get my free newsletter Marketing Weekly. It's a curated digest of the best marketing content in your inbox every Sunday morning. If you enjoy the podcast, would you please consider leaving a short review on Apple Podcasts or your podcast player of choice? It takes less than a minute and it really makes a difference in helping to convince hard-to-get guests. I also love reading the reviews!Looking for marketing jobs? Check out Hey Marketers, a free job board I created just for marketing jobs. ★ Support this podcast ★

On the show today is Eric Bandholz — the founder and CEO of BeardBrand, which produces beard, hair, and skin products for men. He also hosts the Practice Ecommerce podcast.I wanted to bring Eric on because several years ago I wanted to start a line of beard balms and oils and then discovered BeardBrand and knew that they had just nailed it. So I left that to them — and they've established an amazing brand.Eric and BeardBrand really embody the premise of the show that everything is marketing since they started a Barbershop, their 1.6 million subscribers on YouTube know them for their education and documentary-style videos, and they prioritize customer service so much so that they offer free consultations over text.You’ll hear about how they develop products, Eric's experience on Shark Tank, and building a brand through content marketing.More on Eric:@bandholz on TwitterBeardBrandPractical Ecommerce podcastSponsored by SparkLoop — the referral tool for newsletters. Hundreds of smart newsletter creators use SparkLoop to get more, high-quality email subscribers on autopilot. Get started in 5 minutes and start a free 30-day trial → sparkloop.app/eim🙌 Thank Eric for coming on the show with a quick tweetIf you've got a question or takeaway you want to share from this episode, you can do so in the Swipe Files community. You can chat with guests of the podcast as well as a bunch of other top-notch marketers. Join a community that will help you do your best work and be prolific. Check it out at swipefiles.com/membershipI write an occasional newsletter about cutting-edge, comprehensive, and sometimes even crazy marketing ideas. Subscribe to become a better marketer, one idea at a time at swipefiles.com You can also get my free newsletter Marketing Weekly. It's a curated digest of the best marketing content in your inbox every Sunday morning.If you enjoy the podcast, would you please consider leaving a short review on Apple Podcasts or your podcast player of choice? It takes less than a minute and it really makes a difference in helping to convince hard-to-get guests. I also love reading the reviews!Looking for marketing jobs? Check out Hey Marketers, a free job board I created just for marketing jobs. ★ Support this podcast ★

On the show today is Rand Fishkin. Rand is the founder and CEO of SparkToro, an audience intelligence and market research tool to discover what your audience reads, watches, listens to, and follows. He previously founded Moz, one of the market-leading SEO tools, and also authored a fantastic book about his journey through the startup world called Lost and Founder.I wanted to bring him on because he's a truly original thinker. Rand really gets to the core of an issue and uses first principles thinking to understand the dynamics, incentives, and ingredients, which has allowed him to produce some outstanding work.You'll hear about how you can leverage niche channels to diversify away from the traditional platforms like Facebook and Google, the future of content and SEO, get an inside look into his own marketing and growth strategy for SparkToro, and lots more.I ran out of time to ask him about a few marketing examples in his swipe file, but he was kind enough to send over some links to outstanding 10x content and marketing examples via Twitter on topics like politics, corporate PR, selling onions, and butter marketing.More on Rand:@randfish on TwitterCreate a free SparkToro account121 Examples of 10X ContentSponsored by SparkLoop — the referral tool for newsletters. Hundreds of smart newsletter creators use SparkLoop to get more, high-quality email subscribers on autopilot. Get started in 5 minutes and start a free 30-day trial → sparkloop.app/eim👋 Thank Rand for coming on the show with a quick tweet If you've got a question or takeaway you want to share from this episode, you can do so in the Swipe Files community. You can chat with guests of the podcast as well as a bunch of other top-notch marketers. Join a community that will help you do your best work and be prolific. Check it out at swipefiles.com/membershipI write an occasional newsletter about cutting-edge, comprehensive, and sometimes even crazy marketing ideas. Subscribe to become a better marketer, one idea at a time at swipefiles.com You can also get my free newsletter Marketing Weekly. It's a curated digest of the best marketing content in your inbox every Sunday morning.If you enjoy the podcast, would you please consider leaving a short review on Apple Podcasts or your podcast player of choice? It takes less than a minute and it really makes a difference in helping to convince hard-to-get guests. I also love reading the reviews!Looking for marketing jobs? Check out Hey Marketers, a free job board I created just for marketing jobs. ★ Support this podcast ★

Join us in the Swipe Files community. You can chat with guests of the podcast as well as a bunch of other top-notch marketers. Join a community that will help you do your best work and be prolific. Check it out at swipefiles.com/membershipI write an occasional newsletter about cutting-edge, comprehensive, and sometimes even crazy marketing ideas. Subscribe to become a better marketer, one idea at a time at swipefiles.comYou can also get my free newsletter Marketing Weekly. It's a curated digest of the best marketing content in your inbox every Sunday morning.If you enjoy the podcast, would you please consider leaving a short review on Apple Podcasts or your podcast player of choice? It takes less than a minute and it really makes a difference in helping to convince hard-to-get guests. I also love reading the reviews!Looking for marketing jobs? Check out Hey Marketers, a free job board I created just for marketing jobs.Links:Marketing Is Everything (HBR article)Everything Is Marketing website ★ Support this podcast ★