Marketing School | Digital Marketing | Online Marketing

In episode #492, Eric and Neil talk about how to manage your business while traveling. Tune in for some great tips on how to stay involved while also trusting others to step up in your absence. Time-Stamped Show Notes: [00:22] Today’s Topic: How to Run a Business While Traveling [00:31] Eric and Neil are going to try a new format for the next twenty or so episodes about this type of content and would like your feedback. [01:05] Eric likes to make sure he has ironed out processes and delegated important tasks before he travels. [01:40] Traveling internationally doesn’t mean you can’t reach your team; you can still work in your current time zone. [02:10] Compromising with your leisure and work time while traveling is the best way to get everything done. [02:30] Having amazing managers in place means you can actually enjoy your travels and have fewer work responsibilities while you’re away. [03:10] Parkinson’s Law applies: “Work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion.” [03:50] Jus

In episode #491, Eric and Neil explain the purpose of Google’s AMP and why it may be killing your revenue. If you are an e-commerce business, this episode should be of particular interest to you. Tune in to discover how AMP is hurting your business. Time-Stamped Show Notes: [00:27]   Today’s Topic: Google’s AMP Is Killing Your Revenue [00:35] Explaining the purpose of Google’s AMP. [01:13] When stripping down sites for mobile access, it strips away ads to get the sites to load more quickly. [01:30] Reasons why certain countries have different rates of search traffic. [02:30] Why your revenue will tank in spite of search traffic increases. [03:13] Even though Google says they are adding tools for publishers, take it with a grain of salt. [03:35] If you are an e-commerce business, it can be detrimental to use AMP. [03:48] That’s it for today! [03:50] Marketing School is giving away a 90-day free trial to Crazy Egg, which is a visual heat-mapping tool. [03:55] Go to SingleGrain.com/giveaway to get y

In episode #490 of Marketing School, Eric and Neil explain why social media scheduling tools can hurt your numbers in terms of reach. Ultimately, live posts are still where it’s at. Time-Stamped Show Notes: [00:30] Today’s Topic: Buffer and Hootsuite Are Hurting Your Facebook Reach [01:05] When using Buffer and Hootsuite to schedule posts, it doesn’t get nearly as much engagement as “live” posts or by using Facebook’s own tools. [01:54] These tools are ok to use with Twitter. [02:19] They ultimately recommend to avoid using tools and post manually. [02:20] That’s it for today! [02:22] Marketing School is giving away a 90-day free trial to Crazy Egg, which is a visual analytics tool. [02:28] Go to SingleGrain.com/giveaway to get your free copy. You can also learn how to win a one-year subscription to Crazy Egg. 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: Neil

In episode #489, Eric and Neil give advice on how to increase the number of your Instagram followers. A lot of it is as simple as interacting and engaging others on the social media platform. Listen in for more specific advice on how to get your first thousand followers. Time-Stamped Show Notes:  [00:28] Today’s Topic: How to Get Your First 1,000 Instagram Followers [00:44] Gaining Instagram followers by doing “shout for shout” [01:59] Promote your social media profiles by cross-linking them all and linking to them from your website. [02:58] It’s harder to rank on Google organically, because if it wasn’t, they wouldn’t get money from ad revenue. [03:14] If you have an email list, link to your social media profiles in your blasts. [03:50] Interact and engage on Instagram to make your profile more visible. [04:35] That’s it for today! [04:37] Marketing School is giving away a 90-day free trial to Crazy Egg, which is a visual analytics tool. [04:43] Go to SingleGrain.com/giveaway to get your free cop

In episode #488 of Marketing School, Eric and Neil discuss whether it is better to hire an agency or a freelancer to market your business. Tune in to learn which approach is best for you and your company. Time-Stamped Show Notes: [00:27] Today’s Topic: Should You Work with an Agency or Hire Freelancers? [00:36] Establish a goal. [01:15] Freelancers are great if you have a lot of time to manage people; plus it’s more cost-effective. [01:46] Agencies tend to move faster than the companies that hire them; hire them if you need someone to push you. [02:33] You can find freelancers on sites like Upwork, Problogger, or Fivrr. [03:38] You can use tools like Hubstaff to manage your freelancers (it takes screenshots and helps to track their time). [04:15] Before you hire anyone, be sure to ask what they are going to do for your business. [05:00] Check agencies’ and freelancers’ past work, experiences, and ratings. [05:33] That’s it for today! [05:35]  Marketing School is giving away a 90-day free trial t

In Episode #487, Eric and Neil discuss how to learn copywriting when you suck at writing. Tune in to learn that you don’t have to be an expert writer to be a copywriter. Focus on overcoming objections and solving problems. They also shares books, tools, and helpful resources. Time-stamped show notes: [00:28] - Today's topic: How to Learn Copywriting When You Suck at Writing [00:43] - If you suck at writing, it doesn't mean you can't do copywriting to compel people to take action. [01:00] - Read Persuasion by Robert Cialdini and The Boron Letters by Gary Halbert. [01:53] - Neil is great at copywriting, but not writing. He learned he doesn't have to be the best writer from Frank Kern. [02:26] - You just need to be able to answer the customer's objection. [02:43] - Survey your visitors and find their objections. Use SurveyMonkey or any survey tool. [02:49] - Find out why people aren't converting and answer those objections in your copy. [03:08] - Solving people's problems will make them much more lik

In Episode #486, Eric and Neil discuss how to create the perfect “About” page. Tune in to learn how to have an About page that resonates with people through storytelling, connecting emotionally, and giving readers next steps to follow. Time-stamped show notes: [00:28] - Today's topic: How to Create the Perfect About Page [00:35] - The Single Grain About page describes our process, who we have contributed to, and our core values. [01:12] - Neil's About page is a story. Storytelling is one of the most powerful forms of marketing. [01:21] - Create a story with an emotional punch and you are more likely to convert those people into customers. [01:44] - Also give next steps about what people should do after reading your story. [02:30] - The story needs to resonate with people. [02:49] - Neil's About page used to have an image of Neil and things he liked, such as tacos. [03:16] - Think about how to connect and resonate with people. [03:25] - We speak at conferences to connect with people and find their

In Episode #485, Eric and Neil discuss how to write a killer blog conclusion that leaves the reader satisfied. Tune in to learn how having a conclusion can encourage the skimmer to read the entire article, encourage engagement through next steps and questions, and cap things off with a concise summary. Time-stamped show notes: [00:28] - Today's topic: How to Write a Killer Blog Conclusion That Leaves the Reader Satisfied [00:46] - How Neil always had a conclusion on Quick Sprout, his first big marketing blog. [01:09] - Ending a conclusion with a question mark encourages more comments. [01:19] - The conclusion should summarize the blog post. People scroll to the bottom and read the conclusion first. [01:46] - Eric likes to get to the point and extract value. [02:06] - Put next steps in the conclusion such as “leave a comment” and “check out this post”. [02:25] - Have conclusion, ask a question, and summarize things. Cap it off. [02:38] - That's it for today! [02:41] - Marketing School is giving awa

In Episode #484, Eric and Neil discuss how to turn marketing qualified leads into sales qualified leads. Tune in to learn the difference between a marketing qualified lead and a sales qualified lead; how to convert an MQL into an SQL through criteria, and how to automate the scheduling and sales calls. Time-stamped show notes: [00:29] - Today's topic: How to Turn Marketing Qualified Leads Into Sales Qualified Leads [00:39] - MQL or marketing qualified leads are actions that are taken inside your email marketing software or marketing automation software. Such as Drip or Marketo. [00:49] - Once someone visits a certain number of pages they may have a marketing score of 70 which makes them a marketing qualified lead. [01:02] - A sales qualified lead is based on the ideal client profile. [01:11] - How do you turn marketing qualified leads into sales qualified leads. [01:18] - Different behavior triggers can move someone into a sales sequence based on criteria that you set. [01:47] - Ask for a lot of crit

In Episode #483, Eric and Neil discuss how to do content marketing if you’re in a boring industry. Tune in to learn how you can use other forms of content like video, make content that is either fun or useful, find out what is popular, and build a brand over time. Time-stamped show notes: [00:29] - Today's topic: How to Do Content Marketing if You’re in a Boring Industry [00:34] - Squatty Potty in 2015 did $20 million in sales on Shark Tank. [00:58] - They spent $600,000 on a fun video with a unicorn pooping out rainbows. [01:24] - Content marketing can be video too. [01:29] - Use BuzzSumo to see what is popular. Education and helping other people is sexy. [01:50] - Your content just has to be helpful and people will link back to you. [02:03] - The Points Guy talks about credit cards and miles. [02:26] - The only way to build a brand is to provide value to people. [03:00] - How Neil couldn't find a good article on how to install a bidet. Some people may think it is boring, but if the content is hel

In Episode #482, Eric and Neil discuss how to drive traffic to your website using YouTube. Tune in to learn how you can boost your ranking by having transcriptions on your website, linking to your site from your video, asking for people to visit your site from the video, and using YouTube advertising. Time-stamped show notes: [00:29] - Today's topic: How to Drive Traffic to Your Website Using YouTube [00:35] - Make sure that you are transcribing your videos using a tool like Rev or finding a virtual assistant from OnlineJobs [00:48] - Make sure you have something for the search engines to crawl and have different pages on your site. Also make sure you are interlinking. [01:21] - YouTube gives you more views and authority the longer you keep people on YouTube. [01:43] - YouTube is owned by Google and has advertising that you can use to drive people back to your website. [02:05] - There may be a higher barrier to entry on YouTube, but you can even make selfie videos. [02:26] - Telling people within yo

In Episode #481, Eric and Neil discuss how to become a successful vlogger if you're just starting today. Tune in to learn the importance of good editing, original content, great audio, and video quality – while cranking out volume so you can get your channel to rank. Time-stamped show notes: [00:28] - Today's topic: How to Become a Successful Vlogger if You're Just Starting Today [00:39] - A good example is Casey Neistat he does a great job on his good editing. [00:48] - If you just getting started, you need to find a good editor. [01:08] - You also have to have a good camera and good audio is super important. [01:30] - We are in the studio right now to deliver a better audio experience to you. [01:37] - You need to come up with interesting content topics that pique interest. [02:05] - Use sites like BuzzSumo to see what is and isn't popular. [02:29] - Only 1 in 30 videos are going to take off. [02:51] - Look at what Gary Vaynerchuk does just by having a guy following him. [03:29] - Crank out volu

In Episode #480, Eric and Neil discuss link building techniques that will become more risky in 2018. Tune in to know which strategies will still work for you and why you should always implement long-term plays into your marketing strategy. Time-Stamped Show Notes: 00:27 – Today’s topic: Link-Building Techniques that Will Become More Risky in 2018 00:45 – PBNs or private blog networks still work but have their risks 00:54 – Google has had a difficult time catching PBNs 01:33 – Guest posting is great but won’t be as effective as it once was 01:56 – Google will know when a contributor posts 02:21 – Linking spam will continue to lose its value 02:54 – Do content marketing the RIGHT way so you can scale up 03:20 – Anything that is quick and easy will NOT last 03:37 – Focus on your long-term strategy—this will help you grow the audience that will link to you 04:00 – Marketing School is giving away 90-day FREE trial for Crazy Egg which is a visual analytics tool 04:02 – Go to SingleGrain.com/givea

In Episode #479, Eric and Neil discuss how to make money from videos. Tune in to learn how you can monetize your videos and the types of videos you can create to attract viewers. Time-Stamped Show Notes: 00:27 – Today’s topic: How to Make Money From Videos 00:44 – You can use Patreon to have your fans support you through donations for your videos 01:22 – Add call-to-actions to your videos 02:15 – Product reviews still work—link them to a different platform, like Amazon 02:37 – Neil’s YouTube videos are getting hundreds of thousands of views a month that he can retarget 03:09 – YouTube needs millions of views before you can monetize from it and their terms are continuously changing 03:24 – Videos are a long-term play 03:40 – Gary Vaynerchuk’s empire has grown because of the number of videos he has 04:02 – Marketing School is giving away 90-day FREE trial for Crazy Egg which is a visual analytics tool 04:10 – Go to SingleGrain.com/giveaway to get your FREE copy 04:13 – That’s it for today’s epis

In Episode #478, Eric and Neil share their own personal checklist for throwing a successful live event. Tune in to hear them discuss whether to use a free venue or one that costs money, the various methods to get the word out about your event, the importance of getting help when planning and running a conference, and why your should focus on building relationships rather than making money. Time Stamped Show Notes: 00:28 – Today’s topic: Conferences Are Going to Lose You Money Unless You Follow This Checklist 00:34 – Map out how much the venue is going to cost you. 00:45 – For their Marketing School Live event they wound up booking one that costs $2,500 instead of a free one because the venue took care of everything. 01:20 – If they’d used the free venue, it would have been an inferior experience for the guests. 01:29 – You need to have contingencies for how you’re going to get attendees. 01:40 – Email blast only works if you’ve segmented your list. 01:50 – Partner up with other organizations in th

In Episode #477, Eric and Neil discuss how to get more views from your videos. Tune in to hear them share which tools you can use to improve how your tags are ranking on YouTube, why you should be publishing your videos on multiple platforms, and the importance of pushing and promoting your videos in the first 24 hours. Time Stamped Show Notes: 00:27 – Today’s topic: How to Get More Views From Your Videos 00:40 – You have to have great tags because that’s how Google makes sense of your video. 00:50 – Use a tool like TubeBuddy or vidIQ to show you how your tags are ranking on YouTube. 01:05 – YouTube is the world’s 2nd largest search engine so it makes sense to optimize your videos there. 01:10 – Publish your videos on multiple social platforms, not just YouTube and Facebook. 01:22 – It won’t hurt your video because it’s not considered duplicate content. 01:29 – Publish your video on LinkedIn, too. 01:35 – Neil gets more views on LinkedIn than on Facebook. 01:39 – The power of taking the same pie

In Episode #476, Eric and Neil discuss whether you should be worrying about Google’s cache date. Neither Eric nor Neil worry about this too much, and the results of Neil’s tests show that ranking isn’t affected by cache date.   Time Stamped Show Notes: 00:27 – Today’s topic: Should You Worry About Google’s Cache Date? 00:38 – Cache date is when Google last cached a web page. 00:45 – But not the last time Google visited your web page. 01:10 – As Google’s John Mueller says, the cached date is separate from crawling & indexing, so not to use that as a metric. 01:29 – Neither Eric nor Neil have worried about this too much. 01:35 – Neil has tested this by updating his content a little to get a new cache date but his ranking has never increased from doing it. 01:58 – On the other hand, when he takes content pages that are doing fairly well and updates them with the right keywords, makes them more thorough, and adds better images, then over time his rankings do increase. 02:20 – Marketing School is g

In Episode #475, Eric and Neil talk about backlinks and provide insights which will help you decide how many backlinks you actually need. Eric and Neil provide strategies which will help you zero in on your backlink strategy which will ultimately help build a brand that connects with your target audience.  Time-Stamped Show Notes: 00:28 – Today’s topic: How Many Backlinks Do You Really Need? 00:40 – Look at your competitor’s backlinks profile as a part of your strategy – analyze their domain strength and domain authority 01:03 – The block chain industry is in the nascent stage and therefore, susceptible to someone who wants to go “all in” with their marketing 01:33 – You do not necessarily need more backlinks than your competitor to boost your profile 01:46 – If your brand is really huge, you do not need many backlinks to outsell the competition 02:06 – Build your brand through content marketing, podcasts or videos 02:17 – Content thoroughness will ensure that you outrank people with a greater num

In Episode #474, Eric and Neil discuss how high-end infographics still work and manage to pull in traffic. They recommend various sources for finding some great infographic designers and provide tips and tricks which will help you create something that truly resonates with your target audience.  Time-Stamped Show Notes: 00:28 – Today’s topic: Do Infographics Still Work in Today’s Day and Age? 00:40 – A high-end infographic still works 00:53 – The basic ones do not work anymore 01:09 – People want something new which adds value 01:18 – Visual.ly is a great source to find infographic designers; Pinterest, Dribbble and Behance are some other sources worth checking out 01:46 – Offshore designers might need more direction compared to someone who is US based 02:11 – 3D infographics tend to do quite well 02:55 – You can’t just go viral; start off by focusing on creating something great that resonates with your target audience 03:10 – Make sure you have an embed code generator; we recommend the WordPress p

In Episode #473, Eric and Neil discuss how to double your sales by spending more per click. In an attempt to save money and reduce one’s cost per click, many businesses lose out on their opportunity for significant growth. Eric and Neil persuade listeners to adjust their mindsets and SPEND on those high ROI keywords which will draw the right traffic and optimize your profitability. Time-Stamped Show Notes: 00:30 – Today’s topic: How to Double Your Sales by Spending More Per Click 00:40 – A lot of people spend on irrelevant keywords which causes them to waste money 00:56 – If you’re spending on those hot keywords, others are spending on them as well 01:10 – Some keywords cost 3x more, but will earn you 6x more—optimize on the profitability 01:39 – Some people focus on the traffic and cost vs. revenue and profitability 01:50 – Look at RLSA (Remarketing List Search Ads) to make sure you’re not spending more than you should 02:12 – You may be spending more, but are gaining more qualified and targeted tra