AI Is Changing the Workplace, Agency Reality Check, Cold Emails That Work, and Marketing’s New Price Tag

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 01:20 – You can free up your time to do things that are more worthy of your time 01:28 – Learning to prioritize first will help you delegate better 01:35 – The 2 types of people that you can delegate things to—first, there are the self-sufficient ones who can do things their own 01:41 – Second, the ones that need training and are not that good at figuring things out on their own 01:50 – What Neil does is he figures out what kind of a person someone is 01:53 – When Neil gets to the ones that can do things their own, he gives them instructions and asks them to make a replicable process so other people will know how to do the task 02:04 – If the person isn’t creative and cannot figure out steps on their own, Neil or someone from the team will teach that person 02:43 – Even if the person doesn’t do it the way you want, you can give him a few rounds of critique; then, he’ll start to do it the way you like 03:04 – People somehow cringe on the topic of having a process 03:25 – If you want to take your business to another level, you have to create a culture of documentation or creating screencast so you can easily hand it to another person   03:34 – Training people repeatedly consumes time 03:42 – When Eric hires new marketing staff, they’re subscribed in an entrepreneur campaign 04:01 – After they’ve gone through it automatically, they’ll understand and move faster 04:30 – What’s empowering for Eric, is that, as a leader you tell them exactly what you want them to do and let them do it 04:45 – Having a good hiring process makes it more about the team and not just about you 04:53 – Just make sure when you’re delegating a task, you always create a process 05:00 – The biggest mistake that people make is that they don’t try things out for themselves and don’t know how difficult things are 05:20 – A process should always be tweaked 05:45 – Marketing School is giving away a free 1 year annual subscription of Design Pickle, a design service where you can request unlimited design each month 05:58 – Subscribe, rate and review Marketing School 06:00 – Text MARKETINGSCHOOL to 33444 06:25– That’s it for today’s episode! 3 Key Points: Delegation is important in every business—there’s no way around it, especially if your company continues to grow. Having a process in place makes it easier for the team and new hires to adapt to your workflow and what you need as a leader. When you delegate a task to someone else, ask them to create a replicable process and make sure you’ve done the task first so you know what to expect. 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.

17 Mai 20179min

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 be 02:11 – You don’t want to have a dog website then get redirected to a marketing website 02:36 – You can buy dropped domains from GoDaddy 02:45 – You can go to GoDaddy.com and they have the list of auctioned domains 02:51 – You have to filter through the list to see the sites that have the most bids, offers, traffic and then take the site to Ahrefs to see if it is relevant to yours 03:13 – Go to Wayback Machine to see what the website used to be in the past 03:53 – There are website brokers like FE International and Flippa if you’re willing to buy a more established site 04:11 – Doing this with a more established website is way better than using dropped domains 04:15 – Most people buy dropped domains and put a website on there or they take the domain to redirect traffic to their site 04:36 – If you think of the black hat SEO that works, why not just do it in a white hat way? 05:11 – Marketing School is giving away a free 1 year subscription to Design Pickle, a design service where Eric gets unlimited designs for blog and ad images 05:33 – Subscribe, rate and review Marketing School 05:30 – Text MARKETINGSCHOOL to 33444 06:03 – That’s it for today’s episode! 3 Key Points: Choose a dropped domain that is relevant to your site. Don’t just buy a well performing website – make sure that it targets your market, is consistent and has the keywords that you’re needing. You can use black hat SEO in a white hat way. 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.

16 Mai 20179min

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 from position 10 to position 2, your click-through rate might go from 2% to 20% 01:39 – Then you can map out the estimated revenue or return 02:02 – Once you have the formula, go to SEMrush or Ahrefs 02:16 – Look at all the traffic sources that your competitor is getting traffic from 02:22 – Look at your competitors volume and compare it to your Ahrefs or SEMrush volume 02:27 – Neil goes to Ahrefs; it says he has 100K visitors and his competitors have 200K 02:36 – Ahrefs’ numbers are from Google Analytics 03:15 – Let Eric and Neil know if the formula works for you 03:32 – Most agencies fail to quantify projected ROI 03:52 – Marketing School is giving away a free 1 year subscription to Design Pickle, an awesome design service that Eric has been using 04:27 – Subscribe, rate and review Marketing School 04:31 – Text MARKETINGSCHOOL to 33444 04:41 – If you have other services that you want to give away and Eric and Neil like them, just send them a message 04:50 – That’s it for today’s episode! 3 Key Points: It is quite hard to quantify the ROI, but there is a way. Your clients need to know their ROI—this will inform them of whether or not it’s worth it to invest in SEO. A projected, estimated ROI is better than not having any idea or information at all. 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.

15 Mai 20178min

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 and move to the next thing 02:37 – Same goes for business and marketing, focus on one thing first 02:44 – Get that one service or product right for business and get that one marketing channel right for marketing 02:49 – Don’t try to do two things at once 03:17 – If you’re a new marketer going into a new company, take a look at their numbers and look at what’s working for them 03:23 – Treehouse focuses on YouTube ads 03:42 – Neil still remembers how Eric was crushing it with Treehouse 04:04 – YouTube ads are not Neil’s core competency, and so he wasn’t as successful as Eric was 04:18 – Marketing School is giving away a free 1 year annual subscription to Mixmax, a sales and marketing tool 04:33 – Subscribe, rate and review Marketing School 04:37 – Text MARKETINGSCHOOL to 33444 04:59 – That’s it for today’s episode! 3 Key Points: If you focus on what you’re good at, this will drive the best results. Don’t do a couple of things at the same time—focus your energy on one thing, master it, then move on to the next. If you’re a new marketer going into a new company—look at their numbers and find what’s working for them and what isn’t. 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.

14 Mai 20178min

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 and type keywords within your space 02:24 – You can see everything from views to comments, and you can see what is currently trending 02:35 – Neil creates presentations using Keynote or Powerpoint and saves them as PDFs 02:44 – From there, Neil does the webinar in GoToWebinar or WebinarJam 03:00 – Others are also saving their webinars on YouTube 03:04 – Russell Brunson has a perfect webinar script 03:20 – They’re really good templates to follow 03:28 – Make sure you can figure out your own way of doing webinars if you want to create a solo webinar 03:40 – Neil met up with Jermaine Griggs, Tai Lopez, Sam Ovens 03:56 – Neil learned that everyone who makes webinars have their own formula 04:01 – “You got to figure out what works for you and your audience” 04:04 – You know your audience better than anyone else 04:22 – DO what you feel resonates well with your audience 04:30 – When Eric first started doing webinars, he used Russell Brunson’s approach and it didn’t work out for him 04:54 – Educating works really well for Eric 05:01 – Marketing School is giving away a free 1 year annual subscription to Mixmax, a sales and marketing tool 05:18 – Subscribe, rate and review Marketing School 05:21 – Text MARKETINGSCHOOL to 33444 05:43 – That’s it for today’s episode! 3 Key Points: Effective and valuable webinar content includes EDUCATING your audience—don’t just focus on selling your product to your audience. Plan your webinar according to your audience’s preferences. Create your own webinar formula—one size does not fit all. 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.

13 Mai 20179min

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 adjusting your messaging 02:10 – For creating a unique angle, you choose between Neil’s agency and a big marketing agency who usually hires new graduates 02:46 – Do you want to trust your account with a new graduate or with a small boutique agency where you can work directly with the owner 03:35 – Figuring out a specific angle is the “easiest way to differentiate” 03:45 – You don’t always have to differentiate by changing your product, it’s just about how you pitch it to the consumers 04:06 – AirBnb gives you the opportunity to make money from your home versus HomeAway’s vacation rentals 04:54 – How would you differentiate a product? 05:00 – Neil’s Crazy Egg may not have all the features that everyone has, but it’s easy to use and it’s accurate 05:09 – Crazy Egg is easier to use than Hotjar 05:27 – Neil’s market loves Crazy Egg 05:35 – Marketing School is giving away a free 1 year annual subscription to Mixmax, a sales and marketing tool 05:52 – Subscribe, rate and review Marketing School 05:57 – Text MARKETINGSCHOOL to 33444 06:19 – That’s it for today’s episode! 3 Key Points: Offer your service in the way you’d use it yourself. Adjust your pitch to your consumers so that it is appealing and comprehensible. Try to create a better product than your competitors by making your product user-friendly. 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.

12 Mai 20179min

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 to Growth Hackers and Inbound.org to find people 02:36 – You can also look at designer’s portfolio to see their work 03:20 – There are online communities that have message boards where you can find possible bloggers 03:28 – Go to Reddit to see what people are sharing and talking about, in general 03:48 – Bloggers usually break their consistency so make sure you have a huge backlog 04:02 – Having a number of bloggers and a backlog will solve your reliability issues 04:10 – Marketing School is giving away a free, 1 year annual subscription to Mixmax, a sales and marketing tool 04:36 – Subscribe, rate and review Marketing School 04:41 – Text MARKETINGSCHOOL to 33444 05:20 – That’s it for today’s episode! 3 Key Points: When looking for a blogger, set a criteria that is right for you. Reliability and consistency can be a problem with some bloggers so keep a huge backlog. Go through different, online communities to see what people are sharing and talking about. 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.

11 Mai 20178min

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 this new stuff going on with marketing, all the time” 03:45 – Eric always like to learn, but it’s hard to stay on top of his game 03:55 – “My frustration is not being able to touch everything” 03:59 – If you hire a really good team, just let them go 04:10 – One of Eric’s friends from Entrepreneurs' Organization just grew his company from $3M to $22M in revenue 04:23 – That friend just hired a really good team 04:35 – It’s OK to have marketing frustrations 04:45 – “You don’t have to be perfect to create a big business, you just have to do 1 thing right” 05:00 – Prioritize! 05:12 – Prioritize better, otherwise, you get stuck with all the frustrations 05:21 – Marketing School is giving away access to Mixmax, a sales and marketing outreach tool 05:53 – Subscribe, rate and review Marketing School 05:56 – Text MARKETINGSCHOOL to 33444 06:16 – You can try a lot of tools with the same features to find the one that fits your business well 06:30 – That’s it for today’s episode! 3 Key Points: Use the tools that will work well with your business and that will GROW it, not just those that are easiest to use. Hire a GREAT team that will help you grow your business – you can’t do it all by yourself. Use your frustrations as motivation to move forward and improve. Simply put, STICK with it! 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.

10 Mai 20179min