Marketing School | Digital Marketing | Online Marketing

In episode #629, Eric and Neil Discuss how to get started in SEO. Tune in to hear what’s changed and how you can get a successful start doing SEO. TIME-STAMPED SHOW NOTES: [00:27] Today’s Topic: How to Start in SEO [00:45] The biggest thing that Eric and Neil are seeing right now is that the path to success has changed. [01:18] If you spend a year practicing SEO on your own website, that’s no longer the way to go. [01:35] You should practice on someone else’s older website. [01:52] Hit up a ton of people offering your services for free. [02:00] It’s easier to grow a business than it is to start one. [02:25] During a TED Talk Eric saw, a Harvard Professor outlined the three elements of trust: authenticity, empathy, and logic. [02:45] When you develop your skills for free, you will eventually earn clients. [03:14] You will probably have to email 15-17 people before you get a solid “yes” when it comes to offering your services for free. [03:40] Make sure that the person to whom you offer your servic

In episode #628, Eric and Neil have a 6-ish minute chat about planning for the long-term. Tune in to hear why you should always focus on long-term goals and solutions. TIME-STAMPED SHOW NOTES: [00:27] Today’s Topic: 6 Minutes For the Next 60 Years of Your Entrepreneurial Journey [00:36] When you think about starting a business, most people think about “what problem should I solve?” [00:54] But you should also ask “will this problem that I’m solving still be relevant in the ensuing years?” [01:08] You don’t want to have to create a new business every few years. [01:30] Eric thinks Singlegrain will still be around in 20 years, but that it will have to evolve. [02:10] Five years into his business, Eric believes he still has a long way to go. [02:36] If you come up with a short-sighted solution, then you will have to start a new business every few years. It is easier to grow a business than it is to start one. [03:00] Elon Musk has a long-term plan to work towards getting people on Mars. [04:07] Often

In episode #627, Eric and Neil discuss how you can find a CMO. Tune in to hear what you should be doing to grab your next successful CMO. TIME-STAMPED SHOW NOTES: [00:27] Today’s Topic: How to Find a CMO [00:33] They get hit up all the time for people looking to fill this position, but it is the hardest position to fill. [00:55] Tap into referral networks. [01:05] When Eric was hired at Treehouse, he was referred in. [01:27] Don’t just hire a CMO, have someone prove in a lesser position that they can deliver results for you. Have people work their way up. [02:55] Instead of having a CMO, just make the marketing department work together to guide the mission. [03:41] Contingency firms whose focus is on hiring executives is another way to go. [03:48] They will cost you a lot of money, but will deliver on the mission. [04:34] Org structures are different now, so it changes how you can operate. [04:38] To recap: referral networks work, contingency firms work, having NO CMO works. [04:48] That’s it fo

In episode #625, Eric and Neil discuss where and how to focus your energy. Tune in to hear what you should actually be focusing on! TIME-STAMPED SHOW NOTES: [00:27] Today’s Topic: To Focus or Not to Focus, The Marketer's Dilemma [00:50] People have different concepts of how marketing works. [01:02] Your tactics all depend on what your business is, what its status is, etc. [01:37] Pick a tactic that is working the best for you and focus all your energy on that. [01:55] Once that tactic is operating to its best abilities, add in other tactics. [02:24] Eric worked at a company that tried a bunch of different tactics and found video marketing worked the best, then focused all their energy on that. [03:14] Neil met the Legal Zoom/Shoedazzle CEO; he told Neil to have laser focus. [04:10] Steve Jobs said that he is better at saying “no” than other people. [04:40] If your growth rate is accelerating, hit the gas. If it’s decelerating, think about what you can improve. [04:55] That’s all for today! [05:0

In episode #626, Eric and Neil explain why they don’t watch the news. Tune in to hear why  television news is a waste of your time. TIME-STAMPED SHOW NOTES: [00:27] Today’s Topic: Why We Don't Watch The News [00:33] The news media is just another business. [00:45] It’s a viewership-driven business and they thrive on ad revenue. [01:00] Instead, Eric follows different people on Twitter and gets his news from that. [01:20] TV news is just noise! [02:21] You can get your news by browsing news sites instead. [02:34] If something really important or big happens, you will most likely find out about it on Twitter or social media, anyway. [03:15] By not spending time posting on social media, you gain a lot of hours back. [03:44] To beat your competition, focus on your business and what matters as opposed to being obsessed with frivolous social media posts. [04:40] The Economist Espresso is one or two paragraphs and summarizes the most important stories. [05:00] “If you want to do well, stop wasting you

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

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 Fran

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 th

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 t

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, sta

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.

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 ba

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 paym

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-m

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 market

In episode #614, Eric and Neil count out the 10 marketing tools you absolutely need. Tune in to hear which tools you should be using to help increase your revenue. TIME-STAMPED SHOW NOTES: [00:27] Today’s Topic: The Only 10 Marketing Tools You Need [00:45] Marketers use too many tools and it was proven in a study. [01:01] #1: AHREFS is the tool that is great for competitive analysis or even analyzing your own performance. [01:30] #2: Google Analytics helps you track what is effective and compare yourself to your competition. [02:14] #3: Zoom is all-in-one webinar software. You can live chat with your team or have your webinar viewed by up to 10,000 people at a time. [02:52] #4: BuzzSumo is a way to track social media shares. [03:08] #5: Convert Kit or Drip as email service providers. Use something that is intuitive like these products. [03:39] #6: Crazy Egg is a heat-mapping tool that Neil helped to create. It does heat-map recording, scroll maps, AB tests, etc. [04:03] #7: Clickflow or Google Sea

In episode #613, Eric and Neil explain why they work so hard. Tune in to hear why they spend so much time working and whether it is worth it. TIME-STAMPED SHOW NOTES: [00:27] Today’s Topic: Why We Work So Hard [00:43] Neil says he works so hard because he loves what he does and he also has nothing better to do. [00:50] He loves it so much it doesn’t feel like work for him. [01:01] Eric loves playing games and finds that marketing is a fun game for him (in terms of strategizing). [01:58] He is addicting to winning. [02:30] One of Neil’s partners said marketing is like a drug. [03:03] Eric sees systems of processes and finds them to be like puzzle pieces. [03:35] Business is a game that never ends. [04:01] Though Neil clearly grew up an Upper-Middle Class kid, he still had aspirations of being “rich” and privileged. [04:12] Eventually, he realized money doesn’t equate to happiness, but the challenges of the job were satisfying. [04:38] Figure out what your motivation is and once you find that, kee

In episode #612, Eric and Neil discuss their craziest marketing schemes. Tune in to hear some out-there ideas that may work for you, as well. TIME-STAMPED SHOW NOTES: [00:27] Today’s Topic: The Craziest Marketing Tactic Ever [00:36] The craziest thing Eric has ever done was bet an entire company (54 employees, 5 months of cash in the bank). [01:02] He bet everything on video marketing in order to hit numbers. [01:19] He was even surprised that it worked. The company now does $25 Million/year in business. [01:39] At the same time, Neil was spending $20 to acquire a customer and generating $200. [02:02] The craziest thing Neil has ever done was to launch the “Who is Neil Patel?” campaign. Though he got a lot of hate for it, it proved to be very successful. [02:42] It caused everyone to Google his name, which made his brand query shoot up, his search traffic skyrocketed, and his ranking improved. [03:12] You can achieve this by creating quizzes or paying celebrities to be part of an ad campaign, as ex

In episode #611, Eric and Neil discuss how you can improve your SEO without writing more content. Tune in to hear what steps you can take to increase site traffic without having to write new content. TIME-STAMPED SHOW NOTES: [00:27] Today’s Topic: How to Do SEO Without Writing Content [00:35] Use Google Search Console to see which pages have a high impression count, but low click-through rate. [01:01] In order to increase traffic to your site, improve your title or meta-description. [01:26] Neil’s most popular pages are the ones with a tool, his blog, and his homepage. [01:44] Whatever business you’re in, create a tool for it. You don’t have to do this from scratch! You can buy a script for what you need. [02:18] Buy other websites via BizBuySell, Flippa, or FE International. [02:49] Brian Dean runs Backlinko, has thirty-something blog posts and gets near 200,000 visitors per month. [03:05] He gets good traffic by improving his existing content. [03:33] You can generate traffic and raise your rank

In episode #610, Eric and Neil discuss 7 useful hacks that will double your leads. Tune in to hear what you could be doing to increase your business. TIME-STAMPED SHOW NOTES: [00:27] Today’s Topic: How to Double Your Leads With These 7 Hacks [00:33] Hack 1: Use the most relevant lead magnet. [00:38] A lead magnet is an ebook, a checklist, etc. [01:07] Hack 2: Remarket visitors to your site. [01:15] Show them a landing page with the opposite pitch of your main landing page. [01:33] Remarketing is effective, because people come to your site via different pages. [01:55] Hack 3: Use a pop-up tool to collect leads. [02:02] Great pop-up tools: Hello Bar and Opt-in Monster. [02:21] Hack 4: If you are doing B2B, use LinkedIn’s pre-populating forms. [02:48] Your conversion rate will go up, because it fills out the form for the potential customer, saving them time and effort. [02:52] Hack 5: Use chat bots. [03:02] You can use Facebook’s free tool, Intercom, Drift, or Many Chat. [03:33] Hack 6: Get peopl