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Sex Still Sells | Ep. #677 Jun 08, 2018

Show notes

In episode #677, Eric and Neil discuss how sex is still used in marketing. Tune in to hear what they think about this method of advertising and whether you should be using it.

TIME-STAMPED SHOW NOTES:

[00:27] Today’s Topic: Sex Still Sells
[00:40] The most popular people on the internet still use sex to sell.
[00:56] We’re still at a place in marketing, where sex sells.
[01:24] When you see Trump in the news all the time, it’s because he is generating reactions, which is kind of selling.
[01:35] Using sex is problematic, whether you are leveraging men’s or women’s sexuality.
[01:53] You’ll get a lot of haters, but you will also get a lot of conversions.
[02:00] There was a case study done by affiliate marketers where they posted a Facebook ad and the image was of a woman’s breasts. The click-through rate was extremely high, but it was also extremely distasteful.
[02:32] GoDaddy used Danica Patrick to sell their service.
[02:55] That was tasteful.
[03:05] Beats used the Kardashians, but in a way that wasn’t overtly sexual.
[03:30] Now is not the time to use overly aggressive sexual marketing, because of the current political and cultural climate.
[03:42] The world is evolving to become more inclusive and less exploitative.
[04:10] If you have to use sex to make your business work, your product or service may not be the best.
[04:55] If you search “International Women’s Day Ads” or “Most Empowering Ads for Women”, this will give you an idea of how sex can sell in a non-exploitative way.
[05:26] That’s all for today!
[05:30] Go to Singlegrain.com/Giveway for a special marketing tool giveaway!

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Content Marketing Doesn't Work The Way You Think | Ep. #676 Jun 07, 2018

Show notes

In episode #676, Eric and Neil Discuss the two schools of thought on content marketing. Tune in to hear how your conversions rates can be affected.

TIME-STAMPED SHOW NOTES

[00:27] Today’s Topic: Content Marketing Doesn't Work The Way You Think
[00:37] There are two schools of thought on content marketing: The first is: Write a lot of content and you will get rankings, traffic, and generate a ton of sales.
[01:02] Someone will not convert the same way if they visit your home page vs. your blog post, because the intent is to read, not to buy.
[01:20] You just have to keep in mind how conversions work.
[01:38] The second school of thought is that quality wins over quantity every time.
[01:50] Backlinko writes infrequent, high-quality content.
[02:07] HubSpot posts the most content, but their quality isn’t as good.
[02:44] However, they still do extremely well in rankings, conversions, etc.
[03:08] Backlinko is worth less than HubSpot.
[03:40] Guest contributors can bring in new audience members and get you more conversions.
[04:01] It’s all about finding high-ranking keywords and flooding the marketplace, which is what HubSpot does well.
[04:20] It’s all about creating a framework/system for posts and guest posts.
[04:35] Read the post from Tomasz Tunguz of Red Point Ventures about how content marketing compounds.
[04:48] You will have hits and misses, but the more you post, the more likely you are to be successful.
[05:00] Content marketing will boost your site authority.
[05:20] That’s it for today!
[05:26] Go to Singlegrain.com/Giveway for a special marketing tool giveaway!

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Neil Patel's Personal Marketing Strategy | Ep. #675 Jun 06, 2018

Show notes

In episode #675, Neil breaks down his long and short-term strategies for success. Tune in to hear what keeps Neil in business.

TIME-STAMPED SHOW NOTES:

[00:27] Today’s Topic: Neil Patel's Personal Marketing Strategy
[00:50] Neil used to have an ad agency 16 years ago. The way they grew the business was through cold-calling clients.
[01:13] Once blogging became a thing, he decided to use it to generate leads.
[01:42] Right now, Neil still spends a lot of time and money on content marketing.
[02:00] They get 2 million visits per month thanks to content.
[02:20] If you don’t keep releasing more and more new content, your numbers won’t go up.
[02:37] They are now buying and merging other businesses.
[03:08] They spend 80% of their money on giving away free marketing tools.
[03:24] Giving away free stuff is the best way to generate traffic.
[03:45] Neil thinks creating tools are a good long-term plan.
[04:48] Over the next few years, after continuing to give away tools and grow the business, Neil will semi-retire, leaving his team in charge.
[05:15] He has already wound down public speaking engagements.
[06:01] That’s all for today!
[06:11] Go to Singlegrain.com/Giveway for a special marketing tool giveaway!

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How First Mover Advantage Can Kill Your Business | Ep. #674 Jun 05, 2018

Show notes

In episode #674, Eric and Neil discuss the First Mover Advantage. Tune in to hear why being first may not make you the best.

TIME-STAMPED SHOW NOTES:

[00:27] Today’s Topic: How First Mover Advantage Can Kill Your Business
[00:50] Coca-Cola is the beverage king. They are the first mover.
[01:11] The first mover advantage helped Coke become the dominant brand.
[01:26] Peter Thiel has a concept that says whoever the first to market is, gets a huge advantage. However, you also end up with a lot of high costs and inefficiency.
[02:17] Last mover advantage is taking what has been done and improving upon it.
[02:31] Being the last in is a huge advantage.
[03:23] Moz was the first marketing tool out there, but other brands that came after have overtaken them.
[03:35] SEMRush and AHREFS are go-to’s and improved upon what Moz does.
[03:58] YouTube did really well at first, because they didn’t have to deal with the lawsuits other sites did.
[04:30] Napster was a great service, but they had to deal with lawsuits and they got destroyed.
[05:18] As tech evolves, it also gets cheaper.
[05:30] When Moz released their financial info, it was found that they spent hundreds of thousands on server costs.
[05:40] This is something you can spend a lot less on now.
[06:09] That’s it for today!
[06:13] Go to Singlegrain.com/Giveway for a special marketing tool giveaway!

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Eric Siu's Personal Marketing Strategy | Ep. #673 Jun 04, 2018

Show notes

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!

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The Genius of HubSpot's Marketing | Ep. #672 Jun 03, 2018

Show notes

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!

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What Kind of A/B Tests Should You Run to Improve Your Sales | Ep. #671 Jun 02, 2018

Show notes

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!

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How to Consolidate Your Marketing| Ep. #670 Jun 01, 2018

Show notes

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!

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How to Reach Influencers | Ep. #669 May 31, 2018

Show notes

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!

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Where do Neil and Eric Spend Their Marketing Dollars? | Ep. #668 May 30, 2018

Show notes

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!