Marketing School | Digital Marketing | Online Marketing

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

In Episode #284, Eric and Neil discuss how you can find a reliable blogger. Tune in to know where you can post job postings as well as search for great bloggers. Eric and Neil will also discuss why setting criteria is important to find your next blogger and how to prepare for the inconsistent blogger. Time Stamped Show Notes: 00:27 – Today’s topic: How You Can Find a Reliable Blogger 00:35 – Go to ProBlogger's’s job board 00:43 – Eric found technical writers who write about machine tools 01:04 – Craigslist and Upwork are also good options 01:09 – It’s not about finding just good bloggers 01:12 – You can add certain requirements in your job post 01:43 – The hardest part of getting bloggers is their ability to produce a great content, consistently 01:48 – Neil looks for people who don’t have jobs and freelancers who can produce a lot of volume for you 02:09 – The key is to find freelancers who don’t have full-time jobs and can do a few pieces of content, each week 02:27 – Eric usually goes

In Episode #283, Eric and Neil discuss their biggest marketing frustrations. Tune in to learn why it’s OK to have marketing frustrations, the importance of sticking with them, and how you can keep ON TOP of the never-ending marketing strategies, tools, and trends.  Time Stamped Show Notes: 00:27 – Today’s topic: Eric and Neil’s Biggest Marketing Frustrations 00:37 – People are expecting things to happen quickly 01:16 – When you STICK with your marketing problems long enough, you are bound to solve more and more of those issues 01:24 – Neil uses Infusionsoft for marketing automation 01:54 – Don’t go with the tools that are easiest to use, but use the ones that have the right features to grow your business 02:14 – Eric is looking to hire creative people for his paid advertising team 02:25 – When you’re hiring people, make sure you hire the learners who are really creative 03:00 – With emails, it’s quite hard to get good deliverability 03:20 – Hotmail is the hardest one 03:29 – “There’s always thi

In Episode #282, Eric and Neil discuss if it is important to become Google certified. Tune in to learn what Eric received from his Google certification, the importance of creating a culture of learning in your business, and why Neil believes being creative is a KEY trait for success. Time Stamped Show Notes: 00:27 – Today’s topic: Is It Important to Become Google Certified? 00:34 – Neil thinks it’s not important and that it’s actually useless 00:42 – Eric got certified a couple of years ago 01:10 – “Any person can learn how to use Google AdWords” 01:20 – The hard part in becoming a really good PPC manager is being creative 01:27 – Google AdWords’ certification can’t make you creative 01:36 – Neil is lucky enough to be creative and he thinks outside the box 02:00 – Eric looks at the certifications of juniors before hiring them, just so he knows that they have the baseline knowledge 02:31 – It is the same thing with people who have a bachelor’s degree 02:52 – Having a certificate doesn’t mean tha

In Episode #281, Eric and Neil discuss how to reduce PPC spending in 1 hour without impacting your content conversions. Tune in to learn how you can efficiently run your PCC and paid ads campaigns without spending more than your desired budget and the importance of knowing when to stop your campaigns.  Time Stamped Show Notes: 00:27 – Today’s topic: How to Reduce PPC Spending in 1 Hour Without Impacting Your Current Conversions 00:36 – We want to have efficiency when we run our PPC or paid ads campaigns 01:05 – What you want to do is take a look at the things that are not converting for you 01:07 – Go to AdWords or Facebook and pause those that are not converting 01:15 – You can pause the high CPA ads inside of Facebook 01:36 – You can also add a negative keyword 01:56 – Another option is to find the exact match, so you’re not digging around on the variations of the keywords that do not fit 02:05 – When you’re trying to figure out what term you want to bid on, make sure you remove the display net

In Episode #280, Eric and Neil discuss how to move your target keywords from page 2 to page 1. Tune in to learn how you can move your website ranking from page 3 or 2 to 1 effectively and why being on page 2 is just not enough. Time Stamped Show Notes: 00:27 – Today’s topic: How to Move Your Target Keywords from Page 2 to Page 1 00:35 – If you’re ranking on page 2 of Google and you have a high search rate, people STILL won’t look at page 2 00:49 – More specifically, they stick to the top 3-5 of the list 00:55 – What you want to do is find the keywords you’re ranking with on page 2 using the webmaster tool 01:06 – Then, build links to the pages in page 2 or change your title tag to be more appealing 01:20 – Eric recommends looking at the top 3-5’s click through rates 01:34 – Click through rates are constantly changing and Google is adjusting their result pages to drive more dollars and please shareholders 01:47 – The number 1 position could be at a 30-40% click through rate depending on the

In Episode #279, Eric and Neil discuss whether or not SEO will still be around in 10 years. Tune in to hear what Eric and Neil think SEO will look like in the future and how our younger generation will always dictate the changes and patterns in SEO. Time Stamped Show Notes: 00:27 – Today’s topic: Will SEO Still Be Around in 10 Years? 00:37 – Eric thinks we are still in the early days of SEO 00:48 – As long as searches are around, SEO is going to be around 00:59 – There’ll be changes in the future, definitely 01:24 – There are multiple variations for SEO 01:39 – The problem with SEO right now is you do a search, you get the list of results, then go from there 02:02 – SEO is changing as more people are trying to use voice 02:10 – Neil thinks that SEO will probably change into just one result 02:26 – The result will be personalized for each person 02:40 – “At the end of the day, it’s all about overall experience” 03:24 – We just have to be very vigilant with how things are evolving 03:32 – Marke

In Episode #278, Eric and Neil discuss how to structure your marketing team. Tune in to learn what you can do to improve your marketing team and the disadvantages of growing your team too big, too quickly. Time Stamped Show Notes: 00:27 – Today’s topic: How to Structure Your Marketing Team 00:50 – With startups today, there is a growth team, growth lead, and VP of growth 01:37 – Some companies who have growth or marketing teams forget to have engineers, developers or designers 02:12 – Make sure you have designers and engineers that can work with the marketing team 02:20 – Neil wants to hire just one person who is a good executor and knows what they’re doing 02:27 – That one person can hire contractors who will get things done for them 02:41 – As the team grows, the contractors are hired in-house and they become full-time employees 02:50 – In Crazy Egg, the first guy was Shawn and the team grew to 4 or 5 03:04 – When you add too many people at once, everything will slow down 03:15 – Neil provides h

In Episode #277, Eric and Neil highlight how to create an SEO-friendly homepage for your website. Tune in to learn how your homepage can bring a cornucopia of traffic to your entire website and why you have to spend more time thinking strategically about conversions. Time Stamped Show Notes: 00:27 – Today’s topic: How to Create an SEO-Friendly Homepage 00:39 – “Your homepage is going to be the most-trafficked on your site” 00:47 – Your homepage has to be good for Google and for users 01:00 – Keep in mind the overall theme of your site 01:20 – Make sure your website loads fast, link your major pages to your homepage, include an attractive title tag 01:29 – Mention your brand under the title tag because it helps with search engine rankings 01:40 – The concept of internal linking 01:42 – The SEO-friendly homepages where you will use internal linking 01:49 – The clicks that you have on the homepage will be passed on to your other important pages 02:07- If you’re ranking for your homepage keyw