Marketing School | Digital Marketing | Online Marketing

In Episode #304, Eric and Neil discuss where you can hire great writers. Tune in to learn how you can easily find great writers in your space and why hiring a full-time writer may work as a disadvantage to you.  Time Stamped Show Notes: 00:27 – Today’s topic: Where Can You Hire Great Writers? 00:46 – Eric and Neil both use Problogger religiously for finding their writers 01:05 – It’s cheap to put a job posting and there’s a lot of great people you can meet there 01:12 – Neil checks his competitors’ blogs and reaches out to some of the writers 01:22 – They usually accept any writing gig 01:30 – Don’t hire full-time writers because the ROI isn’t there 01:37 – People get burned out, so find someone who will write for you just a couple of times a week 01:51 – Find the most popular writers in your space based on comments and social shares 01:56 – Social shares mean they’re driving traffic and comments mean they’re engaging the audience 02:07 – If you’re doing audio and video podcast, go to Rev

In Episode #303, Eric and Neil discuss the type of content marketing you should create when you’re starting off. Tune in to learn why Eric would still start with blog posting even if people are saying that it is dying and why you should start with what YOU are good at. Time Stamped Show Notes: 00:27 – Today’s topic: What Type of Content Should You Create When You're Starting Off? 00:38 – First, create blog-based content 00:40 – It is the easiest type of content to create 01:00 – In content marketing, there’s no right form of content to start first 01:10 – If your skills are in audio or video, then start off with those and do what you’re best at 01:24 – If everything is going to one direction, try the other way 01:47 – Think of it as the Blue Ocean Strategy 01:58 – Gary V isn’t good at blog posts, but he’s good on camera 02:18 – If you have created video content in the past and are good at it, then go in that direction 02:30 – If Eric would start now, he would start with blog posting 02:53 – J

In Episode #302, Eric and Neil discuss what should you do if the wrong page ranks for a target keyword. Tune in to learn what Eric is currently testing and how Neil managed to redirect his traffic from the wrong page to the RIGHT one. Time Stamped Show Notes: 00:27 – Today’s topic: What Should You Do if the Wrong Page Ranks for a Target Keyword? 00:40 – Eric has a blog post right now that ranks for online marketing companies or internet marketing companies 01:02 – Eric’s agency is top 10 for the keyword other websites are ranking for 01:18 – Eric and other SEOs that he has talked to suggested redirecting that page to what converts people 01:33 – Eric is currently testing having a ranking table with different agencies 02:11 – Eric is still trying several different things at the moment 02:21 – Neil suggests making internal links between your pages 02:25 – Google usually sorts things out and it’s just a question of time 02:31 – For the page that isn’t ranking but you want to rank, compare the keywo

In Episode #301, Eric and Neil discuss whether or not you should buy marketing courses. Tune in to learn the importance of putting learning BEFORE earning and why paying for a course is sometimes more beneficial than trying a free one. Time Stamped Show Notes: 00:27 – Today’s topic: Should You Buy Marketing Courses? 00:39 – There’s a time for learning and there’s a time for earning 00:51 – Check Neil’s advance marketing course or his other courses that he has available 01:03 – Keep reading and keep learning! 01:12 – Implement what you have learned 01:25 – If you’re starting off, courses are great 01:30 – If you’re not starting off, the best way to learn is by networking at events and by practicing and doing things on your own website 01:44 – Neil is a big believer that it is easier to learn through DOING 01:51 – Neil’s current courses are about investments 01:53 – Neil invested in a Canadian company 02:17 – Instead of buying courses, Neil is investing on someone who already is doing them 0

In Episode #300, Eric and Neil discuss marketing tactics that they still use today. Tune in to learn how content marketing has shifted and how Eric and Neil have grown from making simple blog posts to a whole host of different platforms to share their content.  Time Stamped Show Notes: 00:27 – Today’s topic: Marketing Tactics that Neil & Eric Still Use Today 01:11 – Neil noticed that over the years, content marketing has shifted 01:45 – You now have to be everywhere 02:10 – What’s going on with your email, podcast, webinar and blog is all considered content 02:20 – Gary V has been doing great with content marketing 02:23 – He has a videographer who documents Gary V’s everyday life 02:35 – Content marketing still feeds into a different marketing stream 03:00 – Build something long-term by taking advantage of what’s available to you as a business 03:17 – Eric and Neil both look at things holistically 03:25 – Neil started with an agency website and he created a tool for how to do marketing better

In Episode #299, Eric and Neil discuss how to deal with a negative PR. Tune in to learn why negative PR should be IGNORED, how it eventually fades away, and what you should be doing in the meantime. Time Stamped Show Notes: 00:27 – Today’s topic: How to Deal with Negative PR 00:37 – Neil leaves negative PR alone and doesn’t talk about it 00:43 – When you deal with it, it just adds more fuel to the fire 00:54 – A negative result is also negative PR 01:11 – Some would pay to remove the negative PR 01:26 – There was an agency that was called out for buying links and the owner had a deal with people who wrote negative PR about the agency 01:45 – Eric also just ignores negative PR; it will go away in time 02:09 – It sucks right now but you can get through it 02:23 – Just continue to focus on refining your product and what you are doing 02:33 – Neil had negative PR when a magazine showed inaccurate client data 02:50 – Neil learned along the process that it’s really better to ignore it 03:17 –

In Episode #298, Eric and Neil discuss how to do reputation management. Tune in to learn the strategies you can use to control your negative results regarding your brand or website. Also find out why getting help from a third party can be very helpful when dealing with your antagonizers. Time Stamped Show Notes: 00:27 – Today’s topic: How To Do Reputation Management 00:34 – Reputation management is managing the negative result for a website or brand 01:04 – Ripoff Report has a ton of reviews 01:28 – First is to look at Moz or Ahrefs; look at the top 10 results and the number of links going to the top 10 results 01:46 – If you have a Facebook page, you can link that to the top 10 results to push negative results down 02:06 – Neil uses InboundJunction—it works out deals with the site and forms a contract so the text will be removed 02:16 – It is the most effective, but most expensive too 03:00 – The post was telling people that Neil isn’t an effective marketer 03:10 – Neil learned that there ar

In Episode #297, Eric and Neil discuss what to look for in a CV as a recruiter for a marketing role. Tune in to learn why you shouldn’t be looking at CVs if you want to hire the crème of the crop and how LinkedIn, portfolios, and a good old-fashioned interview can be a better way to gauge the quality of your next hire. Time Stamped Show Notes: 00:27 – Today’s topic: What to Look For in a CV as a Recruiter for a Marketing Role 00:48 – Looking at certain keywords on a CV depends on the role one is applying for 01:03 – Eric usually just scans the CV and pays more attention to their LinkedIn, social profiles and the examples that they have sent 01:21 – Neil doesn’t look at CVs at all; instead, he asks them about the work that they have done and checks and analyzes them 01:39 – If the portfolio is good, you can ask them a marketing problem and if you like their answers, go from there 01:54 – “It’s all about the hiring process, at the end of the day” 02:07 – The best people typically aren’t looking for

In Episode #296, Eric and Neil discuss the marketing tactics you should do regardless of ROI. Tune in to learn why Neil’s biggest tactic is to focus his energy on everything to do with branding and how helping others and fostering an attitude of goodwill is building for long-term relationships AND success. Time Stamped Show Notes: 00:27 – Today’s topic: What Marketing Tactics You Should Do Regardless of ROI 00:36 – The biggest tactic that Neil loves is doing anything with branding 00:44 – Everyone in marketing thinks about ROI, but you don’t need an ROI for everything 01:20 – Branding is what causes your company and business to be on top of people’s minds 01:25 – “Having a big brand is amazing and you have to strive to have that” 01:47 – People are always giving unsolicited advice 02:07 – When Eric receives comments, he knows that he is on the right track 02:29 – “Just stick with things when you know that you’re on the right track” 02:37 – Neil likes helping people 02:46 – “I believe it crea

In Episode #295, Eric and Neil discuss how to do B2B marketing on Instagram. Tune in to know how Instagram can help you close deals and how to use it well for B2B marketing. Time Stamped Show Notes: 00:27 – Today’s topic: How to Do B2B Marketing on Instagram 00:35 – Instagram is continuing to grow 00:51 – DMing people on Instagram is one of the options you can do for B2B 00:55 – If you want to work with influencers, celebrities, or entrepreneurs, find their profiles and just DM them 01:06 – Eric has a friend who just started shooting videos and DMed people that he wanted to make a shoot for and he got deals from it 01:21 – If you have an Instagram that shows a good example of your work, it will work out well 01:38 – Neil tested different marketing strategies in Instagram and he learned that they don’t work well with B2B directly 01:46 – Indirectly, it’s great for brand building and connecting with people 02:00 – The problem with B2B is most buyers are desktop buyers 02:53 – In marketing, if

In Episode #294, Eric and Neil discuss the 7 question to ask yourself before investing in content marketing. Tune in to learn why these questions are necessary for you to answer in deciding whether or not content marketing is right for you. Time Stamped Show Notes: 00:27 – Today’s topic: 7 Questions to Ask Yourself Before Investing in Content Marketing 00:36 – Question 1: what are your goals? Are you trying to get more traffic or are you trying to get more leads? What is informed branding? What are you trying to do, specifically, that will shape your campaign? 00:46 – If you don’t have goals, you can’t manage what you’re doing 01:01 – The action that you take will depend on your goal 01:16 – Second is, how long are you going to make an investment? 01:22 – “If you’re not willing to make the investment for a year without seeing an ROI, content marketing isn’t for you” 01:17 – Content marketing is a long-term play 01:39 – Third is, who is your target audience? 01:51 – Figure out your target audienc

In Episode #293, Eric and Neil discuss how to improve your net promoter score. Do you know the level of satisfaction of your current customers? If not, you need to get on this and start listening to your feedback. Tune in to learn the importance of understanding and maintaining your net promoter score and why having a score of 9-10 can be extremely beneficial for you and your business. Time Stamped Show Notes: 00:27 – Today’s topic: How to Improve Your Net Promoter Score 00:35 – A net promoter score expresses how much people like your company or brand 00:47 – One of the basic questions to assess this: how likely are you to recommend us to somebody else or another customer? 01:13 – The goal of 60 means you’re doing a great job 01:20 – Eric recommends Google's net promoter score 01:23 – It has a scale of 1-10 01:39 – To improve your net promoter score, you have to look at the feedback, first 01:48 – Ask if there’s anything else they would like to add 02:10 – Eric had a detractor in the past who

In Episode #292, Eric and Neil discuss how to generate leads through LinkedIn. Tune in to learn what LinkedIn lead gen ads are and how it compares to Facebook lead gen ads. You’ll also learn how Neil boosted his website traffic to a thousand plus visitors a day through LinkedIn. Time Stamped Show Notes: 00:27 – Today’s topic: How to Generate Leads Through LinkedIn 00:33 – The LinkedIn lead gen ads are similar to the Facebook lead ads 00:43 – It makes things a lot easier and faster 00:48 – It works well for Eric and they’ll probably scale it up 00:52 – Eric has spent around $700 on it and has acquired 4-5 leads 01:08 – Jump on to LinkedIn lead gen ads now 01:18 – LinkedIn has autofill where you can have LinkedIn forms on your website 01:37 – Use it so you will have more data of your customers 01:42 – It drastically increases your conversions and it is just a simple button you add on your form fields 02:14 – LinkedIn took away a retargeting pixel, but it is now back with better features 02:4

In Episode #291, Eric and Neil discuss 7 techniques for keeping users engaged in 2000+ word blog posts. You don’t want your blog post to read like a lecture—your readers will drop like flies. Instead, in you employ even just a few of these techniques, you’re bound to increase that engagement and keep your audience scrolling down... Time Stamped Show Notes: 00:27 – Today’s topic: 7 Techniques For Keeping Users Engaged in 2000+ Word Blog Posts 00:43 – First technique is to make sure that your post is written in a conversational tone 00:50 – Consider your post like you’re giving a lecture and you don’t want your readers to get bored 01:03 – Use words like “you” and “I” within your blog post 01:10 – Second is to use bucket brigades; Eric learned this from Brian Dean 01:19 – It is basically breaking up more paragraphs, instead of having walls and walls of text 01:43 – Third is sub-headings 01:45 – Think of your blog post as a book 01:48 – Adding a sub-heading makes it more scalable and it’s on top

In Episode #290, Eric and Neil discuss how to delegate marketing tasks. Tune in to learn the key things you, as a leader, need to recognize before passing off a task to someone on your team. Can they create a replicable process for that task? Will they be able to find a solution on their own or will they be needing help? Find out how important delegation is—not just for marketing—but for every type and aspect of business and how to do it effectively. Time Stamped Show Notes: 00:27 – Today’s topic: How to Delegate Marketing Tasks 00:43 – Delegation is not just for marketing. In any business, you’ll have to learn how to delegate 00:50 – Eric recommends reading Getting Things Done by David Allen and The Checklist Manifesto 01:00 – These books will help you decide what to delegate 01:09 – Eric has his own checklist in Evernote of the things that he needs to do 01:14 – As you get bigger, there are tasks, like booking travel and scheduling, that can be assigned to someone else who can do it for you 01

In Episode #289, Eric and Neil discuss how to use dropped domains to enhance your SEO. Tune in to learn how to maximize those dropped domains and why it is better to use an established website rather than dropped domains if you have the cash to spend. Time Stamped Show Notes: 00:27 – Today’s topic: How to Use Dropped Domains to Enhance Your SEO 00:48 – Dropped domains are abandoned or expired domains 01:07 – Eric has been buying domains that have worked well and has a good number on Ahrefs 01:12 – What Eric does is he takes the site, takes the top pages and redirects it over to his money site 01:22 – The site that Eric bought has keywords that they’re targeting, at the moment 01:30 – Neil also learned something from this 01:48 – If you already have a popular site, you will not gain from this doing this technique—it’s not for you 01:57 – The technique that Eric uses works, but the dropped domain must relate to what you are doing 02:05 – You can use Internet Archive to see what the site used to

In Episode #288, Eric and Neil discuss simple methods for calculating ROI on SEO. Tune in to learn the formula Eric and Neil use to project an estimated ROI and why some agencies won’t provide this information to their clients. Time Stamped Show Notes: 00:27 – Today’s topic: Simple Methods for Calculating ROI on SEO 00:38 – Some agencies are not telling their clients the exact ROI that they’re going to get 00:48 – It is indeed difficult to quantify 00:55 – What you can do first is look at the keyword volume 01:00 – Look at how you’re currently ranking and your click-through rate 01:04 – The formula is you take your traffic, you take your click-through rate, then you’ll have your estimated traffic 01:12 – You have to look at your conversion rate on your website 01:18 – If you’re an ecommerce website, look at the average order value of a product or the specific keyword you’re trying to rank for 01:26 – You now have your baseline metric, then you have to project it 01:32 – If you move something

In Episode #287, Eric and Neil discuss where you should focus your marketing efforts first. Tune in to learn why you need to market on your strengths, first and foremost, and the value of focusing on one task BEFORE moving or adding another. Time Stamped Show Notes: 00:27 – Today’s topic: Where Should You Focus Your Marketing Efforts First? 00:35 – Focus your marketing efforts on what you’re the BEST at, first 00:46 – If you’re not sure what your specialty is, try different marketing tactics 01:03 – If you have a specific skillset, use that first 01:10 – This will surely drive the best result 01:22 – Neil does paid ads, but he focuses on content marketing and SEO because that is what he and his company is good at 01:39 – Neil doesn’t consider himself as one of the best advertisers 01:42 – “I focus on what I know because that’s what tends to produce great results” 02:24 – The word Warren Buffett and Bill Gates believe makes them successful is “focus” 02:33 – Focus on one thing first, do it right

In Episode #286, Eric and Neil discuss the simple methods for creating fast and effective webinar content. Tune in to learn how Eric and Neil produce their solo webinars successfully and the tools that help them execute those webinars efficiently.  Time Stamped Show Notes: 00:27 – Today’s topic: Simple Methods for Creating Fast and Effective Webinar Content 00:42 – Neil recently had his Virtual Summit 00:47 – Thousands of people registered 00:50 – Neil educated people about SEO 00:53 – It is a bit different from a webinar 01:00 – If you want to create effective webinar content, it should be about educating rather than selling 01:30 – Since Eric has a lot of podcasts at the moment, he repurposed some of his old webinars and made them valuable for the audience 01:54 – You can look at your past blog posts and webinars and check which ones are still valuable 02:11 – “You don’t want to create s**t content and you don’t want to create a webinar that no one wants to attend” 02:16 – Go to Slideshare an

In Episode #285, Eric and Neil discuss how to differentiate your product or service in a highly competitive market. Tune in to find out the 2 main strategies that will set you apart from the rest and the importance of having a product that is user-friendly. Time Stamped Show Notes: 00:27 – Today’s topic: How to Differentiate Your Product or Service in a Highly Competitive Market 00:40 – Eric’s agency charges more than their competitors but there’s a reason for that 00:50 – Other agencies charge less and will hand your account to juniors who don’t know what they’re doing and are still figuring things out 01:11 – You end up losing money 01:22 – All of Eric’s people who work with an account have a couple of years’ experience 01:29 – Eric gives access to 3 channels: AdWords and Facebook are two of the channels 01:37 – Eric himself strategizes for the accounts 01:43 – Eric’s agency is different because they bring new ideas 02:04 – Two main strategies of Neil’s are creating a unique angle and adjustin