Marketing School - Digital Marketing and Online Marketing Tips

In Episode #61 Neil and Eric talk about the differences between hiring in-house, hiring consultants and hiring agencies. Listen as they highlight the pros and cons, share what works for their own businesses, and the stunning advantages of outsourcing.

• 00:29 – Today’s Topic: The Pros and Cons of Hiring In-house Versus Agency Versus Consultant
• 00:42 – Neil never hires agencies—only specific consultants
• 01:08 – Eric has an agency but would not hire an agency
  • 01:45 – Eric would go to Angel List, Indeed or Forced Hiring
• 02:08 – How the Forced Hiring tactic works
  • 02:10 – Using LinkedIn
  • 02:52 – The easy way is to just look for an agency
  • 02:58 – Agencies do not fully understand your product
• 03:18 – Be mindful of relationship dynamics
• 03:26 – Think about why you want to hire
  • 03:34 – In-house for managing the whole process
  • 03:42 – Freelancer for a specific task
  • 03:48 – Consultant for helping in strategy
• 04:10 – It depends on the task you want to get done
• 05:00 – Optimize costs and results
• 05:40 – Working with the big ones means paying for the brand name
• 06:35 – Consider your company’s culture—don’t hire solely for the results
• 07:16 – End of today’s episode!

1. Agencies bring convenience, but significant expense as well.
2. Hiring for what you need done and what fits your culture.
3. Don’t look at just the costs; look at the results as well.

• Angel List and Indeed – Where Eric would search for consultants
• Forced Hiring – A tactic which Eric wrote a blog about
• LinkedIn – A social media platform where you can generate leads

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In Episode #60 Neil and Eric discuss the relationship between digital marketing agencies and their customers—specifically how agencies treat their customers, and what agencies are getting wrong.

• 00:28 – Today’s topic: What Do Most Digital Marketing Agencies Get Wrong?
• 00:36 – Neil had an agency in the past and Eric has one in the present
• 00:53 – Oftentimes, big agencies hand your account off to a junior person
  • 01:09 – The results are going to be limited
• 01:26 – Creating an agency should be about driving results to clients
• 01:33 – Another mistake is not understanding the client
  • 01:42 – The relationship won’t work out
    • 01:45 – Neil’s experience related to this
  • 02:10 – An understanding between an agency and client is important before running a project
• 02:37 – Most agencies exclusively focus on building their client rosters
  • 02:48 – Agencies lack client profiling and they shouldn’t
  • 03:14 – Try a foot-in-the-door type of engagement
• 03:48 – Agencies and clients can’t focus on each other
  • 04:00 – Agencies love big clients and big clients get the special treatment
    • 04:18 – Don’t hire agencies that handle big clients, unless you yourself are a BIG client
  • 05:16 – As a client, find a small agency and make sure that you’re your agency’s biggest client and as an agency, value your biggest client
• 05:30 – Agencies’ cookie-cutter approach
  • 05:53 – Every single business is different
• 06:07 – Agencies’ package approach
  • 06:15 – There is no set package
• 06:32 – Make sure the agency produces the highest ROI for you
  • 06:47 – Give the agency your stats and metrics and ask how to increase your ROI the fastest
• 07:09 – Agencies showing off their awards
  • 07:40 – Focus on your clients

1. Owning good communication and practicing understanding can go a long way – always make sure that you’re on the same page with your clients.
2. Treat each of your customers with care—you are here because of them and they are in front of you because they need you.
3. Know your money’s worth—it’s never a crime to ask questions.

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In Episode #59 Neil and Eric discuss the most important things you need to do before publishing a blog post. Listen as they illustrate the seven things you can do to increase your online presence, click-through rate, and drive online traffic to your blog post. 

• 00:28 – Today’s topic: Seven Things You Should Do Every Time Before You Publish a Blog Post
• 00:36 – First thing?—A/B test the headline
  • 00:43 – Search for WordPress A/B testing plugin
  • 00:50 – Why this is important
• 01:14 – Second thing?—have a very engaging image
  • 01:26 – Images affect your click-through rate when running an ad
  • 01:30 – Sites like StockUnlimited gives you unlimited stock photos
  • 01:40 – Subscribe to DesignPickle monthly subscription plan to get unlimited design
  • 01:46 – Single Grain blog
• 01:56 – Third thing?– email every single website you link out to
  • 02:06 – Sending a cold email
  • 02:20 – An additional note to add in the email
• 02:27 – Fourth thing? - building a promotional aspect
  • 02:33 – Connect to a community that you can engage in
  • 02:36 – For marketers, you can go to GrowthHackers and Inbound and share the content that you have
  • 02:51 – Think about where your audience is hanging out
  • 03:00 – Reddit looks out for people that are self-promotional—tread carefully
    • 03:06 – Make sure your blog post adds value and you engage with people
  • 03:33 – Number 5?—asking for social share
    • 03:34 – Go to competitors article around the web
      • 03:42 – Go to search.twitter.com and type in keywords to see related articles
    • 03:48 – You can also do searches at and type the keywords
    • 04:07 – After finding the people who re-tweeted the articles, you can email them for social share
  • 04:55 – Number 6?—ask your team to promote your blog post
  • 05:23 – Number 7?—send an e-mail blast every time you release a blog post
    • 05:31 – This is good traffic source
    • 06:02 – Send the email 2 days later 

1. Utilize your resources—your team and family can help you increase traffic.
2. Don’t just blog—create something of value and you’ll actually pique people’s interest.
3. Increasing traffic means increasing your connections. Learn how to interact with people and return the good deed.

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In Episode #58 Neil and Eric highlight how they create a marketing budget. Listen as they illustrate the differences between short-term and long-term budgeting, the value of content for link building, and the one place you should spend at least $10K per month if you can.

• 00:25 – Today’s topic: How to Create a Marketing Budget
• 00:34 – Short-term versus long-term budget
  • 00:48 – SEO is a front-loaded cost
    • 01:18 – Takes a long time to get going so you spend a lot early on to get it set up
  • 01:25 -- Social media
    • 01:29 – Ad buys can be done on a monthly basis…it’s ROI driven
    • 01:55 – Fan building, another front loaded cost
  • 02:18 – If you have something that’s working, go all in on it, don’t stop arbitrarily
    • 03:10 – When you’re starting out, you don’t have unlimited budget, so it’s important to invest where returns are greatest
  • 04:30 – Content marketing and link building
  • 04:40 – With CRO you need at least 10K visits per month
  • 04:48 – Content is KEY for link building, and you can’t do it right unless you’re spending 10K per month
  • 05:40 – Eric spends $2500 per month just on tools
  • 06:29 – Digital Marketer breaks down the traffic buckets brilliantly
  • 06:55 – Allocate 68% of funds to cold traffic
  • 07:15 – Don’t blindly dump money into programs

1. Build two budgets, short term and long term.
2. When you’re just starting out, your funds are (probably) limited, so put the money where the returns are greatest.
3. If you want to be successful in link building, spend money to develop marquee content.

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In Episode #57 Neil and Eric talk brands, specifically, how many you should have if you want to be successful in your efforts. Listen as they explain why brand diversification is not only unnecessary in most cases, but how it can actually damage your business.

• 00:25 – Today’s topic: How to Decide if You Need Separate Brands for Your Business
• 00:35 – If you’re creating different products and they’re not related at all, obviously you need different brands
• 00:45 – Having said that, you put SO much into building a site and brand, why not bring everything under one umbrella?
• 01:28 – Talking about QuickSprout
  • 02:12 – The brand split wasn’t intentional
  • 02:35 – Crazy Egg was such a different concept, it couldn’t merge with QuickSprout
• 03:10 – Most people create too many businesses
• 03:39 – Focus on your CORE business until it flat-lines
• 03:55 – Talking about Growth Everywhere versus Single Grain
• 05:05 – Just look at all the effort Neil had to put in to build NeilPatel.com
• 05:30 – You don’t need a personal blog and a corporate blog—just do ONE
  • 05:45 – And generally go corporate, because you can market and sell that

1. Your time and focus are limited—that alone means rare is the time when it make sense to split brands.
2. If you’ve already established a brand, domain, and good traffic volume, why divert your attention from that?
3. Unless the brands/products/offerings are going to be EXTREMELY different, it usually doesn’t make sense to kick-off a new brand.

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In Episode #56 Neil and Eric highlight how they go about hiring the best freelancers no matter the industry. Listen as they share websites, tools, and creative strategies for finding freelancers that are truly masters of their given craft.

• 00:25 – Today’s topic: The Best Services for Finding Great Freelancers
• 00:40 – Talking designers
  • 00:47 – Dribbble for designers
  • 01:18 – 99designs.com a contest driven resource
  • 01:39 – visual.ly – great for infographics
• 01:53 – upwork.com
  • 02:05 – A lot of the freelancers suck, but a lot of the people offering jobs suck too
  • 02:31 – You need to find people who’ve done EXACTLY what you’ve done
• 02:40 – Check out freelancer.com as well
• 02:50 – Toptal.com is great for engineers and developers
• 03:10 – The Code Pen is where Eric sourced his developer
• 03:14 – Don’t forget about word of mouth sourcing
• 04:32 – Consider searching LinkedIn—it’s not as unusual as it sounds
• 05:05 – angel.co Angel List means you’re plugged-in
• 05:52 – ProBlogger.net has really good writers
• 06:09 – More often than not though…this is all about YOUR hiring process—if your process isn’t good, you’ll run in circles
  • 06:22 – When you’re hiring people, be explicit, nitpick PRE-hire so you don’t have to nitpick POST-hire
• 07:15 -- Remember that a friend will rarely if ever recommend a lousy freelancer because they don’t want to look bad…this of a personal recommendation as (generally) a sure thing

1. Looking for a talented freelancer? Look word of mouth FIRST.
2. Be extremely upfront and explicit in your expectations before hiring.
3. Feel free to get creative—try plundering LinkedIn for talent in your industry.

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In Episode #55 Neil and Eric discuss tried and true strategies for making the most of a website that is no longer in use. Listen as they talk 301 re-directs, domain name investments, scrappy partnerships, and more.

• 00:25 – Today’s topic: What Should You Do with a Website that Is No Longer in Use?
• 00:35 – Neil usually does a 301 redirect to another digital property, or sells the domain
  • 00:50 – Check out flippa to sell
  • 01:09 – Rent the website as well
• 01:29 – Empire Flippers and FEinternational.com
• 01:58 – Eric just acquired another gun blog
  • 02:10 – Used a 301 to drive that blog to his site
  • 02:38 – 301 redirect EACH page and renew the domain for a very long time
  • 03:10 – Redirect no less than the Top 25 pages driving traffic
• 03:35 – See what competitors are doing to make money
• 04:00 – If you drive the same amount of traffic, why aren’t you making the same amount of money?
• 04:20 – Finding website brokers
• 04:35 – Owning a premium domain name is a GREAT way to make money
• 05:03 – Why aren’t you doing anything with your site?
• 05:39 – Don’t be afraid to partner with someone who’s scrappier and hungrier than you

1. Take advantage of 301 redirects.
2. If you’re thinking about terminating your website, ask yourself WHY before doing so and evaluate the alternative options.
3. Always hold on to a premium domain—that’s a digital real estate investment.

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In Episode #54 Neil and Eric share their secrets for measuring the success of SEO changes you make to your website. Listen as they talk Google Search Console versus Google Analytics, and highlight how you should approach each tool.

• 00:25 – Today’s topic: How to Know if Your SEO Changes are ACTUALLY Working?
• 00:34 – Checkout Google Search Console
  • 00:58 – As long as it says you’re going up—everything is typically all good
• 01:05 – Look at impressions
• 01:49 – When you make a technical SEO change, make a note of it and check back in 20 days via Google Search Console
• 03:23 – One framework to use, Brian Balfour experimentation framework
• 04:04 – All you need is a spreadsheet
  • 04:14 – Neil lists the columns in his spreadsheet
• 04:30 – Tracking against 1 EID
• 05:15 – Set weekly growth meetings to review changes
• 05:40 – Take screen shots 2 or 3 times a month to track your data, because you will lose your history in Search Console
• 07:00 – GrowthBot.io can sync with Slack and preview key analytics

1. You MUST use Google Search Console.
2. When using GSC, be sure to take screen shots at least 2 or 3 times a month as history is not stored.
3. Set weekly or monthly meetings to review SEO changes.

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Welcome to The Marketing School Podcast—your 10-minute resource to learn, grown, and nurture your passion for online marketing! In Episode #53 Eric and Neil discuss their favorite marketing tools that save you time. Enjoy!

• 00:25 – Today’s topic: Marketing Tools That Will Save You Time
• 00:34 – Droplr—take screenshots and videos with ease
• 01:23 – Ahrefs—links to all your competitors
• 03:14 – Drip—a fresh, effective take on email marketing automation
• 03:24 – LeadPages—build landing pages with ease
• 04:49 – HelloBar—collect email address, push out marketing message, etc. with ease
• 05:15 – Google Tag Manager—Add snippets to whatever pages you want, add pages at-will, etc.
• 06:29 – Rescue Time—Identify where you’re inefficient
• 07:06 – Text Expander—Save snippets so you don’t have to re-type paragraphs
• 08:09 – Gmail Canned Responses—a great time saver for email marketing
• 09:03 – ScheduleOnce – Just a great time saver in terms of booking people

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In Episode #52 Neil and Eric discuss the all-too-common challenge of finding great ideas for blog topics. Listen as they share a number of their favorite tools, proven techniques, and secret sources for marquee content.

• 00:23 – Today’s topic: How to research new blog topics?
• 00:42 – Hold weekly meetings and crowdsource idea generation
• 01:00 – You can also tap into your email list
• 01:50 – Tap into feedly.com
• 02:05 – Neil only sources his audience for blog/podcast topics
• 02:31 – What type of problems are you hearing about again and again at conferences and industry events?
• 02:50 – BuzzSumo and Brian Dean's Skyscraper Technique
• 04:00 – TrackReddit
• 04:48 – Tap into article sub-headers and use those sub-headers to create individual posts
• 05:30 – What have people engaged with in the past?
• 06:56 – Digital Marketer – Headline Ideas
• 07:15 – Aaron Ageis Quick Sprout

1. Tap into the hive mind (aka the crowd).
2. Listen into your industry’s buzz.
3. Try transforming sub-headers from older content into stand-alone pieces.

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Welcome to The Marketing School Podcast—your 10-minute resource to learn, grown, and nurture your passion for online marketing! Links affect two types of traffic sources: organic traffic and referral traffic. In Episode #51 Eric and Neil discuss how to drive a lot of traffic to your website without building links. Enjoy!

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Welcome to The Marketing School Podcast—your 10-minute resource to learn, grown, and nurture your passion for online marketing! In Episode #50 Eric and Neil discuss why they decided to do this podcast in the first place, what their hesitations were, and the benefits of doing it. Enjoy!

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Welcome to The Marketing School Podcast—your 10-minute resource to learn, grown, and nurture your passion for online marketing! In Episode #49 Eric and Neil discuss how often you should be tracking your keyword ranking. Enjoy!

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In Episode #48 Neil and Eric discuss their respective strategies for studying competitors. Listen as both hosts explain why examining the competition—while occasionally valuable—is not as helpful as examining customers, and why your big strategy shifts should be determined by YOU as opposed to the competition.

• 00:10 – How much should you focus on your competitors?
• 00:15 – Neil doesn’t focus on competitors too much
  • 00:29 – Remember that the market is HUGE
  • 00:45 – There’s a LOT of room out there
  • 01:03 – Making a shitload of money as #2 or #3 is awesome—you don’t need to be #1
• 01:47 – Just focus on building your OWN business
• 02:12 – SEMrush
  • 02:15 – Use it to gain keen insight into what your competitors are doing
• 02:49 – AdBeat
  • 02:54 – See what your competitors are doing with more granularity
• 03:13 – If you’re going to pay attention to competitors, may attention to new products and market shifts
  • 03:55 – If you don’t, you’ll get left behind
  • 04:10 – Don’t sweat the small stuff—look at their roadmap
• 04:46 – Talk to your customers BEFORE making a big shift
  • 05:05 – As long as you’re talking with your customers, you’ll never miss a beat
• 05:50 – Don’t do legwork for free
• 06:35 – When all you do is monitor your competitors, you’re playing a constant game of catch-up

1. When it comes to competitors, only pay attention to their new products and market shifts—the rest is small potatoes.
2. You do NOT need be #1.
3. Never forget the market is HUGE.

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In Episode #47 Neil and Eric walk through their Top 10 Plugins for WordPress—they’re not only talk about the plugins and their features, but best practices for making the most of these WP add-ons. 

• 00:15 – Sharing the Top 5 Wordpress Plugins
• 00:35 – Yoast SEO plugin
• 01:03 – ThriveLeads is all about content upgrades
  • 01:20 – Allows for opt-ins that are relevant to specific content topics
  • 01:52 – Allows for the addition of an easy CTA for every post
• 02:02 – Pretty Link
  • 02:09 – If you’re promoting someone else’s product as an affiliate, you can cloak the affiliate link
  • 02:47 – Also great for Facebook ads
• 03:03 – PolyLang
  • 03:13 – Requires more work, but it creates SERIOUS ROI
  • 03:49 – Most people don’t speak English, yet most of the content available is in English
  • 04:16 – Manual translate your content
• 05:05 – CoSchedule
  • 05:19 – A wordpress plugin that organizes everything into an editorial calendar
• 06:56 – WPSmush
  • 07:09 – Condenses images to make to help pages load faster
• 07:12 – WordPress Popular posts
  • 07:47 – link every page to popular posts
• 08:20 – WP Checklist
  • 08:26 – Creates a checklist for each and every piece of content
• 09:20 – HelloBar

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In Episode #46 Neil and Eric explain how to measure the results of your content marketing efforts. Listen as Neil and Eric illustrate why measuring your content marketing, while important, isn’t necessarily KEY until your content marketing and its reach has hit a certain level of exposure.

• 00:30 – How to measure the results of your content marketing efforts
  • 00:40 – What gets measured gets managed
• 00:55 – One thing you can do?—start simple. Track what’s important using a spreadsheet
• 01:45 – With content marketing, it takes time to measure results so be patient
• 01:50 – Neil never measures ROI from content marketing
• 02:25 – When you’re spending your OWN time on content marketing, there’s virtually no cost
• 02:45 – Content marketing is a LONG-TERM play
• 03:00 – As long as traffic keeps going up, you’ll be able to find a way to monetize
• 03:20 – Once traffic exceeds 10,000, start collecting emails
• 04:15 – Calculated Risk
• 04:55 – Content marketing is a 12-18 month journey before you see any traction
• 05:35 – Think of content marketing like you think of PR
• 06:35 – Writing eCommerce posts didn’t get the most traction…but they were the most loyal
  • 06:50 – Moral of the story, buzz does not necessarily equate to sales
  • 07:58 – Each visitor isn’t the same, attract the RIGHT type of readers
• 08:28 – Cyfe will allow you to build out dashboards with ease
• 09:10 – Make something people want before you start measuring

1. Content marketing takes time, there won’t be short term wins.
2. Attracting the RIGHT type of readers is more important than attractive LOTS of readers.
3. What gets measured gets managed.

• Calculated Risk – Blog from a WSJ journalist
• CYFE – Social media, analytics, marketing, sales, support, infrastructure... all in one place. Track your entire business in real-time.

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In Episode #45 Neil and Eric talk testimonials—what they are, why they’re important, and how you can go about collecting them for your business. Listen as Neil and Eric share their personal experience with testimonials—both good and bad—and illustrate why you should never create a fake testimonial.

• 00:30 – How you can get testimonials from your customers
• 00:39 – Testimonials are KEY because they do all the hard legwork in terms of winning new business
• 01:28 – Add company badges and testimonials to your homepage
• 01:49 – YesInsights
• 02:39 – Email people asking for feedback
  • 03:03 – Roughly 3 people out of every 100 will give you feedback…at least one of those should be good enough for a testimonial
• 04:32 – A testimonial will give you a conversion lift of around 8% to 10%
• 05:19 – Net Promoter Score
• 06:05 – Be sure to ASK people if you can use testimonials…if you don’t, you can get in BIG trouble
  • 06:15 – However, when it comes to logos, it’s better to ask for forgiveness than it is to ask for permission
• 07:14 – Do NOT make-up testimonials
• 08:15 – Bottom line?—testimonials are powerful and awesome, but you need to be careful when using them

1. Don’t make up a testimonial—people will see it from a mile away.
2. Always ask permission before using a testimonial.
3. Testimonials will help your conversions, but not by any astronomical amount…10% if you’re lucky.

• YesInsights – Get Customer feedback with simple one-click surveys.
• Net Promoter Score – A management tool that can be used to gauge the loyalty of a firm's customer relationships

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In Episode #44 Neil and Eric talk about generating more blog topics for your website—why it’s so important and the tools you can use to ensure your content is always fresh. Listen as they share their personal strategies for creating winning blog content that’s not only interesting to them, but interesting to their readers.

• 00:30 – Generating more (and more exciting) blog topics
• 00:37 – Use BuzzSumo
• 00:53 – Take what BuzzSumo gives you and IMPROVE upon it
• 01:54 – Look at posts that are fairly new
  • 02:20 – Take the sub-headers and turn those into individual posts
• 02:58 – Use Google News or Trends to see what’s hot
• 03:23 -- Learn how to write content that’s fresh AND informative
• 04:00 – The internal search feature on your website isn’t sexy, but it is valuable
• 04:35 – Go to NeilPatel.com in the footer click on TOOLS and then type in your competitor’s URLs
  • 05:00 – Don’t copy your competition, outperform them
• 05:55 – Convince and Convert
• 06:30 – Look into your analytics and figure out which of your posts have done well—find the key elements and piggyback off them for new content
• 07:48 – Feed.ly
• 08:10 – Whenever you’re coming up with new ideas, you need to strike while the iron is hot or keep a running inventory of those ideas

1. YouTube advertising is cheap right now but it won’t be forever.
2. Someone else’s laziness is your competitive advantage.
3. When your ad doesn’t resonate, retarget, retarget, retarget!

• BuzzSumo – A valuable took Neil and Eric use to identify trending blog topics
• Convince and Convert – Strategic advisors that work with world-class organizations to make digital marketing and customer experiences remarkable
• Feedly – Organize and share relevant news stories

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In Episode #43 Neil and Eric hammer out the realities surrounding YouTube advertising. Want the two-word summary?—it’s awesome! YouTube advertising is one of the easiest ways to revolutionize your business, listen as Neil and Eric show you how.

• 00:30 – Does YouTube advertising REALLY work for your business?
  • 00:38 – It’s a hidden GEM!
• 00:55 – Any time you’re running display, you’re looking for TRACTION more than anything
• 01:45 – Going all-in with YouTube advertising saved a company
• 02:10 – At CrazyEgg, YouTube advertising generated more revenue in one month than any other medium
• 02:52 – Check out Tai Lopez
• 03:33 – YouTube advertising is extremely profitable—but it is expensive to set up and it’s a lot of work
• 04:05 – Bid on pre-roll and search ads
  • 04:40 – Leads coming in at less than $1 a pop
• 05:10 – For Growth Everywhere, we’re targeting entrepreneurial viewers
• 05:39 – Other people being lazy is your opportunity
• 06:41 – The key to getting an add that works really well is answering objections
• 07:47 – When people watch your ad and don’t buy, hit them with another ad, retarget them
• 08:30 – Get in on YouTube ads while the costs are low

1. YouTube advertising is cheap right now but it won’t be forever.
2. Someone else’s laziness is your competitive advantage.
3. When your ad doesn’t resonate, retarget, retarget, retarget!

• Tai Lopez – A guy who did YouTube advertising RIGHT

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Welcome to The Marketing School Podcast—your 10-minute resource to learn, grown, and nurture your passion for online marketing! In Episode #42 Eric and Neil discuss their favorite marketing tools, like Infusionsoft & LeadPages—and why. Enjoy!

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In Episode #41 Neil and Eric talk about how to generate more leads. Neil stresses the importance of not just getting people to sign up, but getting qualified leads that are viable for your business. Learn as they share.

• 00:30 – How to generate more leads for your website
• 00:39 – Tools you can use
  • 00:40 – Hello Bar
  • 00:45 – SumoMe
• 01:03 – Figure out why someone should become a lead
• 01:19 – Give something to convert them into a lead
• 02:15 – Make sure content is categorized
  • 02:35 – Segmenting your audience
  • 02:57 – Example on marketing funnel post
  • 03:15 – Give a bonus on the topic
• 03:39 – Sending people to case studies
• 04:33 – It’s about getting qualified leads
• 05:01 – Taking people down to a long funnel
• 05:16 – Putting click to action after getting leads to sign up
  • 05:35 – Drip and Infusionsoft
• 05:50 – Make sure to segment people from your website
  • 06:04 – Lead scores
• 06:39 – Breaking leads into multiple steps
• 07:14 – Try storytelling as a strategy
• 07:53 – Test your call-to-action buttons
• 08:59 – Let them fill out what they want to fill out
• 09:20 – That’s it for today’s episode!

1. Give something to people to convert them into a lead.
2. It’s not about having a lot of leads; it’s about getting qualified leads.
3. Storytelling is a strategy that engages people to convert.

• Hello Bar – tool to collect more emails
• SumoMe – tool for having takeovers or pop-ups
• Drip – email service provider
• Infusionsoft – another email service provider

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In Episode #40 Neil and Eric discuss the 7 simple SEO tactics for increasing your web traffic. Neil shares the reason for his long blog posts and why you should link them to your most popular page. Learn how to optimize your website’s exposure with these easy, non-technical steps.

• 00:29 – 7 Simple SEO tactics to sky rocket your traffic
• 00:49 – Linking to your most popular pages
  • 01:19 – Make sure to link on every blog post
• 01:29 – Featured snippets
• 01:53 – How to Rank Zero
  • 02:01 – Make sure you have a H1 title and tag
  • 02:19 – Google’s role
• 03:01 – Click through rates
• 03:18 – Optimizing title tags
  • 03:48 – Think of title tags as human
  • 04:14 – People love to Google, “What is SEO?”
• 04:27 – Second order page scraping
  • 04:37 – Getting into Google search console
  • 05:25 – Google likes to audition you
• 05:50 – Neil’s loooong blog posts
  • 06:05 – More keywords you have, more long tail terms
  • 06:38 – More detailed content, more sure traffic
• 07:02 – Transcribing videos
  • 07:05 – Rev.com
  • 07:15 – Search engines can’t crawl videos
• 07:29 – Google image search
  • 07:57 – Naming your image files properly
  • 08:30 – Optimize image file names and alt tags
• 08:44 – End of today’s episode

1. Link all blog posts to the most popular page you have.
2. Optimize titles, tags, and images.
3. Transcribe videos for content.

• How to Rank Zero – read on how to optimize your title and tag
• Google – the most used search engine
• Rev.com –for transcribing videos

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Welcome to The Marketing School Podcast—your 10-minute resource to learn, grown, and nurture your passion for online marketing! In Episode #39 Eric and Neil discuss why webinars are great for generating sales. Enjoy!

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In Episode #38 Eric and Neil teach you how to promote a blog post. Whether you have a tight budget or an endless one, one of these plans will help you get people to read your content and share it.

• 00:24 – How to promote a blog post
• 00:43 – In the beginning, 80% of your time should be spent on promotion.
• 01:00 – Find people who have already shared content
  • 01:15 – Use Buzzsumo and Twitter
  • 01:50 – Think about how you can stand out.
• 02:10 – Link out to influencers within the blog post.
  • 02:55 – Link out ten times for every 1000 words.
  • 03:10 – Linking to companies.
• 03:28 – Paid social ads.
  • 03:40 – A huge chunk of funds go to promotion.
  • 04:14 – Drive people to your site using Facebook.
  • 04:29 – Also use Google.
• 04:40 – Figure out how to write amazing headlines
  • 05:00 – Copyblogger Headline Formulas
  • 05:30 – Headlines make a huge difference!
  • 05:45 – Portent Headline Generator
• 06:05 – Build up a group of people that will help promote your content.
  • 06:35 – It will give you the initial boost with your posts.
• 07:15 – Meeting people at conferences and build relationships.
  • 07:40 – One guy who had a smart strategy reaching out to Eric and Neil.
• 08:10 – Take a look at Gmail advertising.
  • 08:35 – A lot of targeting options.
• 08:58 – Two Facebook strategies
  • 09:08 – Boosting posts
  • 09:23 – Buying page likes
  • 09:55 – Not all of your posts will be a hit.
  • 10:23 – Be creative and listen to digital marketers about how to boost posts.
• 11:00 – That’s the end of today’s episode!

1. Don’t make crappy infographics.
2. Contact people who shared the original source of your graphic, and invite them to share your design.
3. If you use infographics effectively, your site’s rankings will skyrocket.

• Buzzsumo and Twitter – How to find people who have shared certain content
• Facebook and Google – Create paid social ads
• Copyblogger Headline Formulas – Create effective headlines
• Portent Headline Generator – Generate intriguing headlines on any topic
• Gmail advertising – Create extremely targeted ads

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In Episode #37 Eric and Neil discuss the value of a good infographic. Neil has seen more traffic and backlinks from infographics than from anything else. Learn how you can create an all-star graphic that drives up traffic on your site.

• 00:24 – What goes into creating a viral infographic
• 00:40 – Links effect Google rankings
  • 00:53 – Take complex info and make it visual, and people will link to it.
  • 01:15 – Your rankings will skyrocket
• 01:30 – For Neil, backlinks and traffic have come mostly from infographics.
• 02:00 – There are a lot of crappy infographics.
  • 02:10 – Start at Visual.ly to see examples of good infographics.
  • 02:40 – Pull out elements that work in those designs.
  • 02:50 – Dribbble is another resource to contact designers.
• 03:17 – The first step is to get good data.
  • 03:28 – Get a researcher off of Upwork to collect and outlined data.
  • 03:45 – Don’t have more than six main points.
  • 04:05 – Flow these points into a story.
  • 04:25 – Publish the blog and get an embed code generator so that people can share your graphic.
• 05:00 – You need to go to Buzzsumo to find a good topic.
• 05:25 – Upwork is a great way to keep your costs low.
  • 06:08 – Their friend uses 99designs for his infographics.
• 06:30 – How did your infographic go viral?
  • 06:45 – Find data from other sources.
  • 07:00 – See who shared that original data on Ahrefs.
  • 07:20 – Email those people to ask them to share your infographic.
  • 07:52 – Reach out to people that linked to the original article.
• 08:40 – Think about repurposing your infographics
  • 09:00 – It makes it worth the time and money.
• 09:38 – That’s the end of today’s episode!

1. Don’t make crappy infographics.
2. Contact people who shared the original source of your graphic, and invite them to share your design.
3. If you use infographics effectively, your site’s rankings will skyrocket.

• Visual.ly and Dribbble – See examples of good design
• Upwork – Hire researchers and designers
• Buzzsumo – Find a good topic for your infographic
• 99designs – Another tool to hire designers and get inspiration
• Ahrefs – See who’s sharing certain articles and posts

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In Episode #36 Eric and Neil talk about why you should create blog posts, and what the best process is to do it. Learn the tricks of the pros, and find out what resources are available to you to make your blog writing not only entertaining or educational but actually capable of converting customers.

• 00:24 – How to write amazing blog posts
• 00:35 – Educate and provide great information, and people will see you as an expert.
  • 00:55 – People will share you and refer friends to you.
• 01:15 – The number one way they generate sign-ups for multiple companies.
• 01:20 – Thomas Tunguz’s Post
  • 01:55 – The effects of content marketing over time
  • 02:05 – It’s like compounding interest.
• 02:34 – You need one thing that stands out.
  • 02:45 – Long-form blog posts backed by data.
  • 03:04 – Not just content for content’s sake.
  • 03:15 – Show something unique and useful.
• 03:29 – eHow is a great example of what you shouldn’t do.
• 04:12 – WaitButWhy.com
  • 04:25 – Humor and long-form articles with stick figures
• 04:50 – Updating sites over time
• 05:26 – Write in a conversational tone.
  • 06:18 – Engaging the audience and then going into your topic
• 06:45 – The intro, body, and conclusion
  • 07:20 – End your blog post with a question.
  • 07:45 – Don’t forget your conclusion! People will ready your conclusion first.
• 08:20 – WP blog checklists on WordPress
• 08:54 – Design Pickle for unlimited new images
• 09:13 – Stock Unlimited for stock images
• 09:30 – Hemingwayapp.com
  • 10:04 – Learn how to educate and convert customers.
• 10:28 – Create an actual process.
• 10:42 – That’s the end of this episode!

1. Content marketing will have a compounding effect on your sales.
2. Structure your article with an intro, body and conclusion.
3. Use a conversational tone and be unique.

• Thomas Tunguz’s Post – Learn about the very real effects of content marketing
• WaitButWhy.com – An example of a unique and entertaining blog
• WP blog checklists – Stay organized with your writing process
• Design Pickle and Stock Unlimited – Sources for images to add to your blog
• Hemingwayapp.com – Learn what you need to change in your own writing to actually engage customers

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In Episode #35 Eric and Neil debate whether marketing certifications are worth it—and here’s a hint: they’re not! Certifications are much like college degrees. They may get you in the right direction, but they will not give you the real experience that you need.

• 00:24 – Are marketing certifications worth it? No!
• 00:45 – Most certifications take very little effort.
  • 01:00 – It teaches you nothing.
  • 01:15 – You need practical experience.
• 01:30 – One example of someone on Neil’s team
  • 01:50 – It comes down to experience.
• 01:58 – Eric tried to get everyone on his team certified, but that didn’t really help anything.
• 02:35 – You’re better off learning on your own.
• 03:00 – Prove that you have real world skills.
• 03:10 – Certification is a starting point. It does not qualify you.
• 03:30 – Certifications are like college degrees.
  • 03:45 – Neil’s friend who hires kids from Stanford.
  • 04:05 – They are generating zero sales.
• 04:35 – It’s a resume builder, but it won’t help your business.
• 05:00 – Neil’s first experience with internet marketing as an intern.
• 05:45 – Internships give you real experience.
  • 06:05 – Look for a free internship first.
  • 06:25 – Employers don’t want to have to hold your hand.
• 07:00 – Don’t waste your time with certifications.
• 07:55 – That’s the end of this episode!

1. Certifications just teach you how to memorize things.
2. You need to get real, practical experience.
3. Don’t waste your time with certifications!

• N/A

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In Episode #34 Eric and Neil discuss how to perform a competitive analysis. This process is not just a way to steal from your competitors—it’s also a great way to motivate your team to see where you’re lacking and start making changes.

• 00:22 – How you can do a competitive analysis.
• 00:45 – If you use a tool like SEMrush or Ahrefs, you can find top performing pages.
  • 01:10 – See what you can steal from those pages.
  • 01:45 – An example: Companies using a hub-and-spoke model
• 02:40 – The BuiltWith Tool
• 03:04 – WhatRunsWhere captures your competition’s ads
• 03:20 –SEMrush tells you the keywords your customers are bidding on.
• 04:19 – Using ahrefs to look at a monthly graph and see how many links your competitor is adding
• 05:20 – Moz to compare competitors side by side
  • 05:50 – You can show your team where you are lacking and ultimately drive action.
• 06:30 – Go to NeilPatel.com for his social media analysis tool.
• 07:35 – Use SimilarWeb to see even more details of your competitors.
• 08:15 – Don’t do too much at once.
  • 08:25 – Pick one category and compare what you’re doing to your competitors.
• 08:45 – See you tomorrow!

1. Make yourself aware of the resources available to you for competitive analyses.
2. Use competitive analysis to drive your own team to change.
3. Pick one marketing category at a time to see what your competitors are doing.

• SEMrush, Ahrefs, BuiltWith, WhatRunsWhere, Moz, and SimilarWeb – All valuable resources to help you see what your competitors are doing for their marketing.
• NeilPatel.com – Access to a social media analysis tool

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In Episode #33 Eric and Neil discuss affiliate marketing. This marketing tactic, when pursued correctly, can be a very lucrative method for driving traffic.

• 00:22 – What is affiliate marketing?
  • 00:30 – Performance marketing. Someone else pushes your product.
  • 01:00 – The seller collects the margin.
• 01:35 – There is a risk, but it can be very lucrative.
• 01:57 – Great opportunity if you don’t want to pay for marketing.
• 02:20 – Google search for affiliate networks and reach out to them.
  • 02:40 – Release offers.
• 03:30 – Don’t jump the gun!
  • 03:50 – Avoid legal battles and have good quality control.
  • 04:10 – Use CallRail, LeadDyno, HasOffers
• 04:30 – Monitor the ads that affiliates are running.
  • 05:00 – Bad traffic will give you bad reviews.
  • 05:30 – The bigger the affiliate, the better.
• 05:45 – You need a strong website to give them a strong return.
• 06:10 – Read Affiliate Program Management: An Hour a Day
• 06:30 – If you’re starting out, affiliate marketing is a great way to start out.
• 07:10 – Learn more online about finding affiliates.
• 07:35 – Partners aiming for the same thing.
  • 08:20 – Build a relationship.
• 08:45 – Rate and review our podcast!

1. Affiliate marketing is a great way to start out!
2. Make sure that you make smart decisions to avoid legal battles and maintain quality control.
3. Look at affiliate marketing as a partnership, and foster that relationship.

• CallRail, LeadDyno, HasOffers – Tools to help you with quality control.
• Read Affiliate Program Management: An Hour a Day

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In Episode #32 Eric and Neil describe influencer marketing and teach you the most effective way to use it for your product. If you thought influencer marketing wasn’t for your new company, think again. It’s a lot easier than it may seem.

• 00:22 – What is influencer marketing?
  • 00:35 – The Beats by Dre example
  • 00:57 – Famous and popular people using products to attract more customers
• 01:30 – How can you leverage influencer marketing?
  • 01:45 – Paying models per post.
  • 02:10 – The numbers can be very lucrative for your company.
• 03:00 – One key thing: How loyal is someone’s following?
  • 03:50 – Don’t pick the influencers with the biggest following. Look at their followers’ engagement.
  • 04:25 – Buying ads in bulk packages
• 04:50 – You don’t have to reach out to these influencers on their own. Use Famebit.com.
• 05:50 – Make sure your influencer is the right fit for your product.
• 06:25 – Sporadic posts don’t have a big impact.
  • 06:40 – A consistent weekly post will have a bigger impact.
• 07:20 – Using a specific coupon with influencer marketing
  • 07:40 – You can track that ad’s success.
• 08:00 – See you tomorrow!

1. You can leverage influencer marketing to bring in a lot of revenue.
2. Look at someone’s follower loyalty—not the number of followers.
3. Consistent posts will have a bigger impact.

• Famebit.com – A great place to start when you are first getting into influencer marketing.

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In Episode #31 Eric and Neil teach you how to find a great consultant. They’ll discuss different sites and sources to find contracted workers and how you can find people with high-quality work for a low price.

• 00:22 – How you can find a great consultant.
• 00:40 – Where can you find them?
  • 00:54 – ProBlogger, AngelList, Hired.com, Crew.co
• 01:03 – You need a great process.
• 01:45 – Go to Upwork.com.
  • 02:00 – Look for people related to the task you need done, and look over their reviews and portfolio.
  • 02:25 – Be specific with what you need done.
  • 02:45 – You will find people who are creative and are a good fit.
  • 03:15 – Find out quickly who’s qualified.
• 03:30 – One of Eric and Neil’s main developers is a contracted worker.
• 04:36 – Another contracted worker from Growth Everywhere
• 05:05 – Use LinkedIn and search for people that work at your competition.
  • 06:00 – Little to no risk.
• 06:24 – Force Hiring, from The Sale Acceleration Formula
  • 07:40 – Reach out to people on LinkedIn.
• 08:10 – Don’t hire people from major cities.
  • 09:15 – Get work done for a lot cheaper.
• 09:30 – Subscribe to our podcast learn more!

1. Use hiring sites to find qualified workers.
2. Create a process that will help you identify a good fit.
3. Hire people in small cities, where the cost of living is lower.

• ProBlogger, AngelList, Hired.com, Crew.co, Upwork.com, Growth Everywhere, and LinkedIn – Reliable sites that will help you find great workers
• The Sale Acceleration Formula – A sales book that teaches about Force Hiring

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Welcome to The Marketing School Podcast—your 10-minute resource to learn, grown, and nurture your passion for online marketing! In Episode #30 Eric and Neil continue the discussion from yesterday and talk about how to cut your Google AdWords costs. Enjoy!

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Welcome to The Marketing School Podcast—your 10-minute resource to learn, grown, and nurture your passion for online marketing! In Episode #29 Eric and Neil discuss how to cut your Facebook advertising costs. Enjoy!

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In Episode #28 Eric and Neil teach you how to market ANY product without any funding. Get your product out there and generate more traffic without spending a dime.

• 00:22 – How you can market anything with no budget
• 00:50 – SEO and content: Setting a foundation for your site
• 01:55 – See what people search for on Quora
  • 02:20 – Look for the most popular questions, and create content
  • 02:40 – You’ll get a lot of search traffic
  • 02:50 – Make sure it’s relevant to your business.
• 03:00 – Marketing and sales go hand in hand
• 03:25 – Reach out to people
  • 03:40 – Use emailhunter.co and LinkedIn
  • 03:55 – Layer on Clearbit to find out who is using your website
  • 04:05 – Make sure you are set up to develop a retarget list
• 04:25 – Joining the LinkedIn groups that are related to what you do
  • 04:50 – Don’t just be self-promotional
• 05:18 – Answering questions on Quora and other sites
  • 05:45 – Your own site is the foundation
  • 06:00 – Try Reddit, Growth Hackers, Inbound.org
• 06:20 – Get on podcasts
  • 06:35 – Getting interviewed can be highly profitable
• 06:50 – How to use Twitter
  • 07:00 – Find the top keywords in your industry at Buzzsumo
  • 07:25 – Collect an email list from Twitter and send out your article
  • 08:40 – It’s a really effective strategy
• 09:00 – Use social channels like Instagram, Snapchat, and YouTube
  • 09:45 – You will be able to stand out
• 10:00 – Be sure to subscribe to The Marketing School!

1. SEO and your content are the foundation for your site.
2. Marketing and sales work together.
3. Use social channels to set yourself apart from your competitors.

• Quora – A site that you can use to see what the popular questions are that people have right now.
• emailhunter.co and LinkedIn – Tools to find people and build a prospecting list
• Clearbit – A tool to help you track who visits your site
• Reddit, Growth Hackers, Inbound.org – Sites you can put your content on
• Buzzsumo – Find the top keywords in your industry
• Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, and YouTube – Social channels that you should utilize in order to stand out

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In Episode #27 Eric and Neil give you some secrets to collecting more email signups. They’ll provide you with some useful tools, and they teach what makes someone want to give you their email.

• 00:22 – How you can collect more email signups
• 00:38 – The importance of emails
  • 01:15 – You have more control over your audience
• 01:25 – The easy way is to use an exit pop-up
  • 02:00 – Hello Bar is a great place to start
  • 02:25 – You can also use SumoMe
• 02:30 – Adding content upgrades to your posts
  • 03:00 – Drive up your conversion rate
• 03:10 – Page takeovers
  • 03:25 – Blends in with design and doesn’t look like a pop-up
  • 03:50 – The power of a specific page takeover
• 04:30 – Use eBooks to generate traffic
  • 05:10 – eBooks and partnerships
  • 05:35 – Collect thousands of emails in a short time
• 05:45 – A helpful article on how to get tons of emails
• 06:33 – Building a product and using it to drive leads
• 07:15 – Tools are one of the most effective ways to collect emails
  • 07:40 – It’s a way to give people value
• 07:50 – Animated GIFs for page takeovers
• 08:22 – Join us tomorrow!

1. Using an exit pop-up is the easiest way to collect more emails.
2. Use products to drive leads.
3. Offer people something a value. That will make them actually want to give you their email.

• ConversionXL, Conversion Rate Experts, and Swiped.co – Tools to help you run tests on your site
• Wayback Machine – How to see what successful sites have done over time

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In Episode #26 Eric and Neil talk about their CRO “wins.” These unexpected successes drove more traffic and closed more sales. Learn what you can do to see the same results.

• 00:22 – The best unexpected/weird CRO wins
• 00:39 – Conversion rate optimization: CRO
• 01:15 – SEO and CRO go hand in hand
• 01:30 – How Eric made transcripts for videos to boost SEO
• 02:10 – Letting people “log in” with Facebook, Twitter, or Google instead of using form fields
• 03:00 – Moving products out of the eye frames
• 03:40 – Using a story format
• 04:20 – There are a lot of tests you can run
  • 04:30 – ConversionXL, Conversion Rate Experts, and Swiped.co
  • 04:40 – The Wayback Machine
• 04:58 – Check out Google Search Console
  • 05:10 – Take the keywords from Google and run a test
  • 05:35 – See an increase in traffic after 30 days
• 06:06 – A final test: update posts over and over
  • 06:40 – Updated posts move higher in the rankings
• 07:15 – Leave us a rating or review! Let us know what you like and what you don’t!

1. SEO and CRO go hand in hand.
2. Use stories to get better results.
3. Update your posts to move them higher up in the rankings.

• ConversionXL, Conversion Rate Experts, and Swiped.co – Tools to help you run tests on your site
• Wayback Machine – How to see what successful sites have done over time

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In Episode #25 Eric and Neil talk about how to monetize your blog. If you’re a passionate blogger with a good following, it’s time to start elevating your blog to a potential revenue source.

• 00:22 – The best ways to monetize your blog
• 00:35 – Look into affiliate marketing or performance marketing
  • 01:10 – Collect money from sales
  • 01:17 – ClickBank, Commission Junction, Share A Sale, Skimlinks
• 01:29 – Avoid ads at all costs
  • 01:50 – You’ll make the least amount of money from ads
• 02:00 – Generate an email list
  • 02:15 – You can sell your products through your email list
  • 02:35 – Continually market to those people
• 02:45 – The concept of courses
  • 03:00 – People making seven figures a year
  • 03:20 – An example with eBooks and courses
• 03:57 – Don’t be too aggressive at the beginning. Wait for a loyal audience.
• 04:25 – Collect leads
  • 04:45 – Take your blog content and create lead pages
  • 04:55 – How to drive traffic to your lead page
• 05:45 – Monetizing a blog takes time. Think about your value to others first.
• 06:20 – Don’t push anything until you have a loyal following.
• 06:50 – Survey your audience to find out what problems they are facing.
  • 07:10 – Work to solve those problems.
• 08:12 – Get people to commit before you launch your service.
• 09:00 – See you in tomorrow’s episode!

1. Avoid ads at all costs.
2. Generate a following before you push sales.
3. Develop eBooks, courses, and other services that you can promote to people on your email list.

• ClickBank, Commission Junction, Share A Sale, and Skimlinks – Resources to help you get into affiliate marketing with your blog

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Welcome to The Marketing School Podcast—your resource to learn, grown, and nurture your passion for online marketing! In Episode #24 Eric and Neil share their biggest marketing failures -- and the lessons they learned from them. Enjoy!

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Welcome to The Marketing School Podcast—your resource to learn, grown, and nurture your passion for online marketing! In Episode #23 Eric and Neil help you figure out whether it's actually worth it to attend marketing events. The biggest mistake that people make when they go to a marketing conference is that they don't have a value proposition. 

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Welcome to The Marketing School Podcast—your resource to learn, grown, and nurture your passion for online marketing! In Episode #22 Eric and Neil discuss the importance of being a t-shaped marketer. There are specialists and there are t-shaped marketers -- also called growth hackers -- who understand a lot of different concepts of digital marketing. Enjoy!

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Welcome to The Marketing School Podcast—your resource to learn, grown, and nurture your passion for online marketing! In Episode #21 Eric and Neil talk about what A/B testing is and why you should be doing it. Enjoy!

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In Episode #20 Eric and Neil teach you how to become a better marketer. Start taking advantage of new technology and new strategies, and study the marketing tactics of the pros.

• 00:25 – How to become a better marketer
• 00:50 – Talking to the highest performers
  • 01:20 – Find what’s working and what’s not
• 01:38 – Learning through reading
  • 01:45 – Looking for case studies and then trying it out yourself
  • 02:30 – Look for recent studies
• 03:00 – Where to find these case studies
  • 03:10 – land-book.com, swiped.co, Growth Hacker
  • 04:00 – What Runs Where, Which Test Won
• 04:30 – Looking for innovative stuff
  • 04:40 – Infographics that are animated
  • 05:30 – Going to social sites to see what’s new and replicating those strategies
• 06:30 – Having the right mindset
  • 06:40 – Persistence and stubbornness
  • 08:00 – Don’t give up too quickly
• 08:15 – Look at your data and survey your customers
  • 09:00 – Find out where people are dropping off and why they aren’t buying
  • 09:20 – Quantitative and qualitative data
• 09:50 – Develop an experimentation process (Brian Balfour’s blog post)
• 10:50 – Subscribe to get more marketing tactics!

1. Connect with high performers to see what’s working for them.
2. Read case studies and model successful marketing strategies.
3. Analyze your data and survey your customers.

• land-book.com, swiped.co, Growth Hacker, What Runs Where, and Which Test Won – Numerous resources to find marketing case studies and learn what the top marketing campaigns are doing
• Brian Balfour’s blog post – Tips to develop your experimentation process

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In Episode #19 Eric and Neil give you the ins and outs of marketing your consulting company. From when you’re first starting out to when you have a more stable revenue, they’ll teach you the best tactics to get more leads fast.

• 00:25 – How to market a consulting company
• 00:55 – Blogging to get more traffic
  • 01:28 – Content marketing is the number-one channel for leads
• 01:40 – In the beginning, you need to generate revenue as quick as possible.
• 01:50 – Identifying your ideal clients
  • 02:15 – Finding the smaller companies, and showing them how they can improve
  • 03:00 – Sending that info out to multiple employees and their investors
• 03:50 – Do the things most people aren’t willing to do
• 04:00 – Using webinars once you have money coming in
• 04:37 – Creating a tool
• 05:20 – Associating yourself with the biggest brands
• 06:25 – Podcasting can lead to business opportunities
• 07:15 – Using videos to show how you analyze websites
• 08:15 – Specialization
  • 08:30 – Find a niche for your company
• 09:15 – See you at our next episode!

1. Start with content marketing.
2. Do the things that most people aren’t willing to do so that you can get your foot in the door.
3. Offer free tools and videos to help people see the value that you are providing.

• N/A

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In Episode #18 Eric and Neil talk about how to get people to open up your emails. They’ll teach you how to up your open rates and avoid the spam folder.

• 00:25 – How to get more people to open up your email.
• 00:50 – Don’t just test the subject line
• 01:05 – The sender name makes a huge impact
  • 02:10 – Use a person’s name or a company name
• 02:30 – What are good open rates?
  • 02:40 – Look at unique opens.
  • 03:00 – Don’t let your open rates drop under 20%
  • 03:20 – Remove people who aren’t opening your emails for several months
  • 03:40 – Don’t waste money sending emails to people who aren’t interested
• 04:00 – Maropost and Infusionsoft
• 04:15 – An email hack
  • 04:25 – Put emojis in your subject line to get people’s attention
  • 05:00 – Lower-cased, casual subject lines
• 05:50 – Examples of good subject lines
• 07:00 – Personalized subject lines, using the first name
  • 07:40 – It makes it more relevant
• 09:10 – Doing something that makes you stand out
• 09:25 – Watch out for being marked as spam
• 10:20 – See you tomorrow at our next episode!

1. Don’t let your open rate fall below 20%.
2. Look at your subject line as well as the sender name that you use.
3. Make your subject line unique and personal.

• Maropost and Infusionsoft – programs to use for sending out emails

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In Episode #17 Eric and Neil explain what a marketing funnel is. Then they’ll walk you through how to create your own marketing funnel, with advice on automated tools to help you get the best results. 

• 00:23 – What is a marketing funnel?
• 00:25 – Google a “marketing funnel” and see Neil’s site at the top
• 01:00 – Funneling down from 100 to one or two people
• 01:44 – A marketing funnel is a great way to get people to convert
  • 01:55 – The chances of a random person on the street to agree to marry you vs. agree to go on a date with you
  • 02:50 – Getting to know your visitors over time
  • 03:10 – Collect emails and educate people to build trust
  • 03:28 – They will be much more likely to say ‘yes’ a month or so later
• 02:55 – The top of the funnel
• 04:12 – The middle of the funnel
• 04:33 – The bottom of the funnel, closing them on an offer
• 04:49 – The importance of collecting emails
• 05:02 – Drip is an easy email automation tool
  • 05:20 – Acquired by Leadpages
• 05:28 – Infusionsoft has more advanced features
• 05:40 – An example of how the tool is used
  • 06:20 – Tracking what type of emails people open
  • 06:50 – Getting people involved in a free trial
  • 07:25 – Taking them through multiple funnels
  • 07:55 – Infusionsoft lets you track everything so that you can use multiple funnels
• 09:00 – You don’t have to start out with an advanced method
• 09:25 – Simple processes when you’re starting out
• 10:00 – Use software later on to stay organized
• 11:20 – Keep it simple and make it more complex as it is successful
• 10:54 – We’ll see you in the next episode!

1. A marketing funnel is a strategy to get people to convert.
2. The funnel is divided into three processes, at the top, middle, and bottom of the funnel.
3. Start out with a simple funnel, and adjust that funnel until you see success. Then you can start to make your marketing funnel more complex.

• Drip, Leadpages, and Infusionsoft: Automated marketing tools

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In Episode #16 Eric and Neil talk about how to create great links that boost your website’s ranking. Hear about specific strategies that you can implement to create stellar links with high relevancy.

• 00:23 – What goes into a great link?
• 00:40 – The more people link to you, the better you will rank.
• 00:55 – Not all links are created equal.
  • 01:20 – Look for domain authority
  • 02:00 – Look at how relevant a link is
  • 02:30 – Linking sites with related topics
  • 02:55 – Do-follow links vs. no-follow links
  • 03:50 – Study by Moz: The effects of links and where you’re linking from
• 04:30 – How easy is it for someone to build a certain link?
  • 05:05 – Google knows the difference between user-generated content and non-user-generated content
  • 05:30 – Links that can’t be easily manipulated are much more powerful.
• 06:00 – Don’t make too many links too quickly.
  • 06:38 – Continuing with the same velocity will eventually make your ranking jump
  • 07:00 – Stay consistent with your speed as you build links.
• 07:30 – Link Blending
  • 07:40 – Mentioning other people in the same category so that Google can recognize the relevancy of your links
• 08:30 – Getting links from high-ranked sites by using the same keywords
• 09:40 – A Link Wheel
  • 10:00 – Cross linking and multiple tiers of links
  • 10:20 – All the sites are boosting each other up
  • 10:45 – Apply this tactic in a “white hat” way.
• 11:30 – Check out tomorrow’s episode! 

1. Not all links are created equal—look for domain authority and relevancy.
2. Use links that can’t be easily manipulated.
3. Stay consistent with the number of links you are adding throughout the life of your website.

• Study by Moz: An article that discusses the effects of links from different sources

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In Episode #15 Eric and Neil talk about link building. When you want to up your rating on Google, you need to have strong links to sites with a good standing. Build relationships with sites similar to your industry, and put in the effort to get your links out there.

• 00:25 – What is link building?
• 00:40 – Google and the value of links
• 01:05 – You get to the top ranking on Google by having strong content and links
• 01:30 – Not all links are created equal
  • 01:45 – Google can discern the authority of your links
• 02:00 – How to build great links
  • 02:10 – Ahrefs.com pulls up links on your competitors’ sites and ranks those links based on domain authority
  • 02:30 – It’s like a richter scale
  • 02:45 – You want a domain authority of 60 or higher
  • 03:00 – Hit up those sites and ask if they would be willing to link to your content
• 03:35 – Email relevant sites to get them to link to you
  • 04:00 – Tools like Outreach.io and PersistIQ will send emails out for you
  • 04:30 – Don’t automate the process too much
• 04:45 – Guest posting is another way to get great links
  • 04:55 – Look for sites that are relevant to you
  • 05:20 – Make everything easy for the site you are reaching out to
  • 05:40 – Link building should start with building a relationship
  • 06:15 – Guest post to drive customers and help your brand
• 06:50 – Using broken links from sites that go down every day
  • 07:20 – Google “broken link checker”
  • 07:30 – Find broken links in your industry
  • 07:40 – Put your URL into Archive.org and make a better version of the original site
  • 08:05 – Email the sites linking to that dead page, and offer your new content
  • 08:25 – 20 to 30% success rate with broken links
• 09:10 – Roundup building
  • 09:25 – Create a roundup for your niche, and people will reach out to you
• 09:55 – Subscribe to learn more marketing tactics!

1. Link to quality sites that are related to your industry.
2. Make the process easy for the site you are reaching out to.
3. Look at building links as a byproduct of building relationships.

• Ahrefs.com – Helps you find sites where you can link your content
• Outreach.io and PersistIQ – Tools to send out automated emails

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In Episode #14 Eric and Neil encourage you to use cu. Learn how to create engaging videos and build up your brand and customer base. Eric and Neil will give you simple, straightforward guidelines to leverage the future of Facebook.

• 00:25 – How to leverage Facebook Live
• 00:35 – It allows you to broadcast what you’re doing live.
• 01:00 – It’s a more personal experience with your customers
• 01:15 – Videos on Facebook will continue to grow
• 01:30 – The importance of Facebook Live
  • 01:40 – Videos are pushed to the top of a newsfeed
  • 02:00 – You get more comments, views, and shares
• 2:30 – Competitors, like Snapchat and YouTube
• 03:00 – This is one way to build a brand
• 03:15 – An opportunity to stand out and get people to buy from you
• 03:30 – Neil’s experience with Facebook Live is that the longer you stay on, the more people will view it
• 04:00 – Likes, shares, and comments will get your video to do better
  • 04:30 – Neil does a Q and A on his live videos to get more comments
• 04:50 – Waiting rooms before a live video
• 05:35 – Playing two live videos at once
• 06:00 – Educational videos can drive business
• 06:30 – If you want the most engagement, announce your video the day before
• 06:50 – Timing makes a huge difference. Be consistent with when you do a Facebook Live video.
• 07:40 – Facebook Insights will let you know when your followers are most active on your page
• 08:05 – You need a verified account
• 08:25 – Leonard Kim’s article on how to get a verified page
• 08:58 – You want to reach an audience beyond your Facebook friends
• 09:25 – Test what material has most engagement
• 09:55 – Tweet @NeilPatel and @EricOsiu if you think news would be an interesting topic for live videos
• 10:35 – Leave a rating and review, and please subscribe!

1. Facebook Live will continue to grow and become a prominent platform on Facebook.
2. Use Facebook Live as a marketing tool to develop your brand.
3. Find the most effective way to get people engaged in your videos.

• Facebook Live – A new and growing tool that will help you build your brand
• Facebook Insights – How to find out when your follows are most active
• Leonard Kim’s article – Easy steps to get your page verified on Facebook

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In Episode #13 Eric and Neil provide useful tips to help you stay consistent with your blog content. They’ll talk about the value of consistent posts, and they’ll give you the resources you need to keep producing content and stay organized.

• 00:25 – How to stay consistent with content output
• 00:55 – Neil’s blog Quick Sprout and what happened when he took a break from blogging
• 01:15 – Keep on top of your blog
• 01:40 – Block out time to create your content
• 02:27 – If you’re not sure what to write on, go to Buzzsumo.com
• 02:40 – Find a blogger online and clearly label what you need from them. Ask for writing samples and know their rate.
  • 03:20 – Pay should be between $50 to $200 for one blog post
• 03:40 – Schedule out your content with your writers
• 03:55 – Publish posts once you have a backlog of posts
• 04:10 – You will speed up with blog writing as you keep doing it
• 04:30 – You have to have a content bank
• 04:50 – Create an editorial calendar
  • 05:20 – See what’s going to be posted in the future, and let people know what’s coming
  • 05:30 – The calendar is a helpful tool for a book launch
  • 06:00 – Editorial calendars will help you with organization
  • 06:15 – The calendar helps you know what you should be writing on
  • 06:35 – It will help you make sure you are targeting the right people
• 07:30 – Tools for an editorial calendar
  • 07:35 – Coschedule is what Eric and Neil use
  • 08:15 – Editorial Calendar plugin on WordPress
• 08:30 – Start out your blog at a pace that you can handle
• 09:10 – You need to have a process for writing
  • 09:35 – A process can be handed off easily to other writers
  • 10:00 – Make sure you don’t make things too complicated
• 10:45 – Leave a rating and review, and please subscribe!

1. Have a backlog of content ready to post to your blog.
2. Create an editorial calendar to help you stay organized and know what you should be writing about.
3. Develop a process that can easily be handed off to other writers.

• Quick Sprout – Neil’s blog
• Buzzsumo.com – A tool to help you find new topics to write about
• CoSchedule and Editorial Calendar plugin – Two tools you can use to create an editorial calendar

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:

• NeilPatel.com
• Quick Sprout
• Growth Everywhere
• Single Grain
• Twitter @neilpatel
• Twitter @ericosiu

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In Episode #11 Eric and Neil discuss premium quality backlinks. They’ll explain what the heck that means, and they’ll give you clear tools to help you create the best backlinks. As you find ways to connect people with your content, using the resources available to you and being proactive will drive up your rankings in no time.

• 00:25 – How can you build premium quality backlinks?
• 00:45 – Get to the top of Google with backlinks and content
• 01:00 – Big websites have a high domain authority
• 01:25 – Backlinks are a vote of confidence
• 01:40 – You will up your rankings with better backlinks
• 01:55 – Network with people you know already
  • 02:10 – Give each other value by posting on each other’s blogs
• 02:30 – Buzzsumo ranks most popular blog posts
  • 2:45 – Take those posts and turn them into infographics
  • 03:00 – Use Dribbble.com and Ahrefs.com to see who has linked to that post, and share your infographics with those readers
  • 03:40 – Infographics can do even better than the original data-driven blog posts
  • 04:30 – Your site will rank higher
• 04:40 – The Skyscraper Technique (from Brian Dean of Backlinko)
  • 05:00 – Find who is sharing and linking certain content
  • 05:30 – Find a way to expand the most popular content
  • 06:00 – Reach out to people to share your newer, better content
  • 06:25 – Making something that is better than what’s already out there
• 06:55 – Broken Link Checker and Ahrefs
  • 07:25 – Create a better version of content that is no longer on the internet
  • 08:00 – Reach out to the sites that have the dead links, and offer them your new version of the content
• 08:25 – Find resource pages and request that they link to your content
• 09:00 – Find people who are willing to be guest bloggers
• 09:25 – Get access to publishers and use their links
• 10:00 – PRServe
  • 10:15 – Revolutionizing the PR industry
  • 10:40 – You pay them only when your content gets in the press.
  • 11:00 – The service drove more customers for Eric and Neil
• 12:00 – Subscribe to get content daily!

1. Premium quality backlinks will boost your rankings.
2. Start with people you already know, and then utilize online tools to create better backlinks.
3. Create the best version of the most popular content on the web.

• Buzzsumo – A resource to find the most popular content on the internet right now
• Dribbble.com – A resource to help you design infographics
• Ahrefs.com – Tracks backlinks and keywords for you and your competitors
• Backlinko – Brian Dean’s blog with helpful insights to strong web content
• Broken Link Checker – How to find dead links on the internet
• PRServe – A PR agency that only requires payment when your blog gets publicity

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:

• NeilPatel.com
• Quick Sprout
• Growth Everywhere
• Single Grain
• Twitter @neilpatel
• Twitter @ericosiu

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.