Marketing School - Digital Marketing and Online Marketing Tips

In Episode #64 Eric and Neil talk about marketing tactics for entrepreneurs just getting started. Listen as they highlight free, easy-to-implement tools, the importance of knowing your strengths, and why your initial entrepreneurial marketing efforts need to focus exclusively on one area or offer. Time Stamped Show Notes: 00:28 – Today’s Topic: Marketing tactics for entrepreneurs just getting started 00:55 – Start with a blog 01:36 – Look for stuff to give away for FREE 01:40 – Use content and social media 01:49 – Know your strengths 01:58 – Organic vs Paid 02:18 – Pick tactics that will compliment your skills 02:28 – Take the concepts and test them out 03:08 – Airbnb as an example 04:01 – Driving people from Facebook 04:16 – Built relationships with people 05:07 – Focus on one area first 05:38 – Consider your website 06:14 – Make sure to cover the basics 06:18 – Start with Google Analytics 07:15 – Don’t set up yourself to fail 07:32 – Leadpages 08:17 – Look at Google tag manager 08:41 – The Measure School on Youtube 09:10 – That’s it for today’s episode! 3 Key Points: Start a blog so you can easily distribute valuable content for free. Look at your skill sets—chose an avenue that naturally complements those skills. Don’t try all marketing tools and techniques at once—focus one thing first. Resources Mentioned: Airbnb – Company that Neil set as an example Facebook –Social media platform where you can drive audience from Google Analytics – A tool you can use to track your website’s performance Leadpages – Tool to design your landing page Measure School – Where you can get information on tracking with Google Analytics 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/adchoicesSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Welcome to The Marketing School Podcast—your 10-minute resource to learn, grown, and nurture your passion for online marketing! In Episode #63 Eric and Neil talk about the art of emailing your list. Listen as they talk about the frequency with which you should email your list, how you can better preserve the trust between you and your list, and why email-based sales promotions should be both tactful and scheduled.  Time Stamped Show Notes: 00:28 – Today’s Topic: How often to email your list 00:47 – Make your audience look forward to the next email 00:56 – Put value in your emails 01:11 – Email audience as long as they’re engaged 01:18 – Don’t send emails to people without engagement 02:14 – Send emails based on how often people engage 02:23 – Drip 03:07 – Tell a consistent story 03:27 – Consider what you are emailing 04:13 – Build trust with you audience before sending sales stuff 04:27 – Have a ratio between value content and sales emails 3 Key Points: Each email should make your audience look forward to the next. You need to put value in each email. Trust between you and your audience needs to be established. Resources Mentioned: Mailchimp – Another email system Neil mentioned Drip – Email system mentioned by Eric 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/adchoicesSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The hosts unveil their trusty recording tools, including microphones like the Blue Yeti and ATR2100. They stress the importance of backup recordings to prevent losing material. Promotional strategies take center stage as they discuss email blasts and leveraging platforms like Product Hunt. Interviewing well-known guests is highlighted as a powerful way to boost visibility. Automating promotions while keeping listener engagement high is crucial for success. Ultimately, providing consistent value is the key to growth.

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. Time Stamped Show Notes:  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! 3 Key Points: Agencies bring convenience, but significant expense as well. Hiring for what you need done and what fits your culture. Don’t look at just the costs; look at the results as well. Resources Mentioned: 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 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/adchoicesSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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. Time Stamped Show Notes:  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 3 Key Points: Owning good communication and practicing understanding can go a long way – always make sure that you’re on the same page with your clients. Treat each of your customers with care—you are here because of them and they are in front of you because they need you. Know your money’s worth—it’s never a crime to ask questions. 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/adchoicesSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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.  Time Stamped Show Notes:  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  3 Key Points: Utilize your resources—your team and family can help you increase traffic. Don’t just blog—create something of value and you’ll actually pique people’s interest. Increasing traffic means increasing your connections. Learn how to interact with people and return the good deed. 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/adchoicesSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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. Time Stamped Show Notes:  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 3 Key Points: Build two budgets, short term and long term. When you’re just starting out, your funds are (probably) limited, so put the money where the returns are greatest. If you want to be successful in link building, spend money to develop marquee content. 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/adchoicesSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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. Time Stamped Show Notes: 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 3 Key Points: Your time and focus are limited—that alone means rare is the time when it make sense to split brands. If you’ve already established a brand, domain, and good traffic volume, why divert your attention from that? Unless the brands/products/offerings are going to be EXTREMELY different, it usually doesn’t make sense to kick-off a new brand. 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/adchoicesSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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. Time Stamped Show Notes:  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 3 Key Points: Looking for a talented freelancer? Look word of mouth FIRST. Be extremely upfront and explicit in your expectations before hiring. Feel free to get creative—try plundering LinkedIn for talent in your industry. 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/adchoicesSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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. Time Stamped Show Notes: 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 3 Key Points: Take advantage of 301 redirects. If you’re thinking about terminating your website, ask yourself WHY before doing so and evaluate the alternative options. Always hold on to a premium domain—that’s a digital real estate investment. 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/adchoicesSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.