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2016 Traffic & Conversion Summit Table of Contents The Future of Traffic: How to Balance Branding and Direct Response ....................................... 4 3 Steps To Getting All Of The Customers You Ever Wanted: Use Paid Traffic & Media to Acquire Customers at Breakeven or Better ...............................................................................15 Promo Mapping: How To Craft The Perfect Promotional Calendar............................................21 Case Study - How DigitalMarketer Uses Google Tag Manager to Grow Sales and Leads ........25 Selling the Click: How To Multiply Opens, Clicks and Conversions In Your Email Campaigns ..29 [Case Study] How the Golden State Warriors Made $29 For Every $1 Invested In Facebook Ads .................................................................................................................................................36 [Case Study] How IBM and DigitalMarketer Use New Adult Education Strategies to Radically Increase Student Online Course and Certification Graduation Rates ........................................40 The Ad Grid: How To Build Traffic Campaigns That Convert Higher and Scale Faster ..............43 Proven Email Tricks: Secrets Learned From Sending More Than 7 Billion Emails Across 35,000+ Campaigns ..................................................................................................................47 Two Automation Case Studies: SixthDivision and EntreLeadership ..........................................52 Content Engine 2.0: How To Quickly Crank Out Share-Worthy, Clickable Blog Content That Converts Traffic Into Sales ........................................................................................................55 List CPR: How To Clean and Revive Dead (or Nearly Dead) Email Lists ..................................57 Marketer‘s Toolbox: 22 Tools We Use to Get Higher Rankings, Increase Conversions, Lower Our PPC Costs, Automate Our Conversion Paths and Find Holes In The Market Our Competitors Have Missed .........................................................................................................64
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KEYNOTE: Gary Vaynerchuck ..................................................................................................73 The New Model for Monetizing Content and Building Great Brands ..........................................77 Brand Alchemy: Build REAL Brands For Your Media Properties and Products That Will Outlive You ...........................................................................................................................................83 Death To Churn: A 90-Day Plan to Reduce Refunds, Increase Stick, and Convert Customers into Raving Fans .......................................................................................................................87 How to Convert More Clients and Build the Most Powerful Agency in the World .......................89 The New SEO: 5 Types of Content Google Simply Can‘t Resist ...............................................94 Social Selling: Generate Leads and Customers (and Retain The Ones You Have) Using Social Media ........................................................................................................................................96 How to Generate at Least 25 Leads a Day (Every Day) for Your Agency ................................101 How Boom Sells $1MM/ Month in Physical Product using Shopify, Facebook, and Instagram 107 Conversion Hacks: 10 Critical Tests You Should Be Running .................................................113 3 Things Successful Agencies Do That Ordinary Agencies Don't ............................................115 Sideways Listbuilding: How To Use Contest, Survey and Live Chat To Monetize Your Content and Build Highly-Engaged Lists ..............................................................................................118 Onsite Retargeting: How We Generated 22k Leads From Free Traffic ....................................122 Agency Success Panel - What We Wish We'd Done Differently the First Time .......................125 KEYNOTE: Scaling Up............................................................................................................130 Strategies, Tools & Tactics For Ridiculously-Rapid Growth .....................................................136 Scaling Your Sales: 7 Copy & Paste Strategies From The Fastest Growing Internet Retailers 148
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Podcasting - "Finding Your Voice"...........................................................................................159 Case Study - How DigitalMarketer 6X'd an AdWords Campaign (and 4 other Hidden AdWords Gems) .....................................................................................................................................163 How E-Commerce Companies like Amazon, Bonobos, and Evelopes.com Drive Millions with Email Marketing ......................................................................................................................165 Building Up Your Bench: 5 Part System To Recruit, Retain and Motivate a ―Rock Star" Team To Scale Your Company ..............................................................................................................168 How to Drive Your Podcast to the Top of the Charts... and Keep it There ...............................175 Case Study - More Humility Drives Faster Growth, and Other Mysteries of Influence .............179 Funding Your Vision: Attract All The Money You Could Ever Need To Grow Your Brand & Compete with Anybody ...........................................................................................................184 6 Step Podcasting Workflow - How We Produce & Manage A Podcast With 300k Downloads 188 Case Study - How I Drove $12,357.00 in Sales In 12 Minutes on Periscope ...........................192 How Andy Harrison Gets 388% ROI from 3 Simple YouTube Ad Campaigns .........................196 Making a Dent: How To Discover Your Company's True Identity, Scale Your Mission, and Create a Brand That's Worthy of Growth .................................................................................199 Podcasting - How to Monetize Your Podcast ..........................................................................203 Case Study - How Wistia Built a Human Brand with Video Marketing, and Doubled Their Traffic in the Process .........................................................................................................................206 How Un-Trapping The Entrepreneur From The Business Increased Fully Accountable Revenue By 10 Fold...............................................................................................................................207 KEYNOTE: The ONE Thing You Absolutely, Positively Must Do Next ....................................208
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The Future of Traffic: How to Balance Branding and Direct Response Ryan Deiss Ryan Deiss ● ● ● ●
Launched my first ―startup‖ from my dorm room in 1999 Founded Idea Incubator in 2008 Co-Founder and CEO of DigitalMarketer.com Co-Founder and Managing Partner of NativeCommerce.com
Some of our Brands: ● Survival Life ● Makeup Tutorials ● Hong Kong Suits When we tell you this stuff works, it‘s because it works. We‘ve tested it across many different niches.
What Happens Next What‘s happening next in digital commerce in 2016?
Big Shift #1: Merging of branding and direct response There are two traditional methods of marketing: direct response and branding. However, this divide today represents a false dichotomy. The problem: Companies that focus on branding alone will go broke if they never figure out how to ask for the order, but… Companies that focus on direct response alone eventually go broke because everyone on planet Earth HATES them. Has this ever happened to you?
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[Click the image to watch the video, it‘s good for a quick laugh] Direct response can be irritating and over stimulating to the customers causing them to eventually get upset with you and your marketing tactics. Facebook and Google have been successful because they realize that their customers are not the advertisers, but the viewers. If viewers complain about in-your-face, ―monster truck ad‖ marketers, you may get the Facebook and Google SLAP, which can affect your site rankings and ad accounts. Think of your relationship with customers as a bank vault Some marketers view customers as an unlimited bank vault that they can constantly make withdraws from, but the vault is actually empty at the beginning of the relationship. It‘s up to the business to build trust and goodwill with customers PRIOR to asking for the sale. The bank doesn‘t give you money when you set up a bank account, and the same thing is true of your customers. Too often, we‘re in withdrawal mode with our prospects and customers. Instead, we should focus on making deposits. 5
Ask yourself: Would you give $1 to a stranger? Our willingness to give the $1 depends on the person asking – example: a person in a suit asking for money for the pay phone vs a disheveled drunken stranger who is making you uncomfortable. As long as we feel comfortable, most of us would be willing to give $1 to a stranger in need. What if the amount were $1000? Almost nobody will say yes to a stranger who asks for this amount. But when your best friend asks for $1000, you at least consider giving it to them. It‘s all about building relational equity! When you ask a prospect or customer for money, they ask themselves: ―Do I know you?‖ ―Do I like you?‖ ―Do I trust you?‖
Consider a new definition of branding and selling: Branding is anything that makes a deposit into a customer or prospect‘s relational equity account. Selling is anything that makes a withdrawal from a customer or prospect‘s relational equity account. Any time you ask someone to buy something, you‘re making a relational equity withdrawal. Too many withdrawals can break customer trust. Important: there‘s nothing wrong with making a withdrawal if the ―funds‖ are available.
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How to Build Relational Equity with Marketing Method 1: Make them laugh Budweiser‘s Wazzup ad campaign sold 2.4 million additional barrels of beer. Being funny is easy when the product is funny (ex. PooPourri), but humor can be difficult with ordinary products. One successful example of funny marketing of boring product is Dollar Shave Club.
[Click the image to watch the video] Any time you make someone laugh, they like you more and it builds relational equity. But it doesn‘t always work. Quiznos ran this ad using singing roadkill. It made people laugh, but it also repelled customers. Quiznos ended up going bankrupt. It‘s funny when you can make fun of yourselves and show people you don‘t take yourself too seriously. If you aren‘t a naturally funny person, try creating a blooper video.
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Method 2: Make them cry This is very difficult, but extremely powerful when it works. Even though we know it‘s an ad, we can‘t help but feel affected.
[Click the image to watch the video] How can you tap into deeper memory, pull it out and attach your brand to it? Create nostalgia. Forrest Gump was successful because it brought nostalgia to Baby Boomers watching the movie who associated their memories with certain brands and experiences. How can you tap into deeper memory, pull it out and attach your brand to it?
Method 3: Make them feel a part of something Apple‘s 1984 Super Bowl Commercial Introducing Macintosh Computer effectively launched Apple as a company. It was so successful because people felt included in their mission. 8
[Click the image to watch the video] Consequently, when Apple has struggled, people stayed loyal to their brand over the years. Apple can sell whatever they want to sell because their customers are loyal to the brand and identify themselves by it. Be authentic and take a stand - let people know what you‘re about so people can know if they want to be a part of it. Action Step - Make a list of what you believe (brand), what you stand against, and anything else that might help customers identify with you. Tim’s Tip: Take 30 minutes and write down a list of your accomplishments, your struggles, and things that people might be attracted to. So if I were going to do this I would write things down like – debt free at 31, married, dog owner, hockey fan, seven figure business owner, etc. Each one of these things could be a blog post, an email, a video that allows me to identify with my target customers and gives them something to know, like, and trust about me. 9
Method 4: Deliver actual value in advance In other words, give your prospects valuable, usable content they actually want before you ask for money. Balance branding with direct response. Example: Ryan‘s dad was stuck in the sand on a Texas beach. A guy comes by with a truck and winch, but he asked for money before he would help pull them out. Ryan‘s dad paid the money, but he was not happy about it. What if instead, the person hooked up the car and pulled them out without asking for money at first? His dad would have gladly offered money - because he provided value in advance – and been happy to do so. The problem - you can‘t just rely on the kindness of strangers because that is not a business model. That is why there has been two camps - direct response / branding. What if… the guy pulls the truck out of the sand for free? Then someone else says, the person who helped you works at the local restaurant. Maybe you can go eat there tonight and ask for him. Most people would go, and that guy would get a huge tip. We can do this with retargeting. Retargeting allows you to deliver value in advance and know there will be follow up even if you don‘t get an email address or the sale. How a Content-First Strategy Works
Facebook Ad
Good Content (Pull them out of the sand)
Retargeting Pixel
Landing Page
It‘s not advertising - it‘s content amplification. (Make sure you content is great.) Then you are a position to send them to the landing page related to the content they read through retargeting. This method yields lower cost per lead than using an ad directly to the landing page you just have to wait a little longer to make the sale.
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The goal isn‘t to convert upon the first interaction - it is to indoctrinate and build relational equity with your potential customer. So GOAL #1 is to build a pixeled audience. (Google and Facebook) It is how you deliver value in advance without going broke in the process Big Lesson: The future of traffic isn‘t about who can get the most clicks the cheapest… it‘s who has the most people pixeled. This is enabled by delivering value in advance – making people like you. Big Shift #2: Omnichannel retail and the shift toward market-centric business models Although most buying research is done on the internet, fewer than 6% of total transactions are currently happening online. Recognizing this, even online retailer Amazon is opening physical stores.
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Important: A website is NOT a business model - it’s a LOCATION DigitalMarketer is planning to build physical locations for training their staff and seeing what customers like and dislike about certain products. Survival Life sells on their own website, on Amazon… and soon in an offline store. Why? Screw Focus (the way most people think about it) People have told us we‘re stupid for going offline and not FOCUSING on ecommerce. We disagree - our business model is not defined by the way we sell, it‘s defined by who we serve. People told us we‘re stupid for not FOCUSING on proprietary technology so we can get ―tech valuations‖ We are not about ―tech valuations‖ - we are about providing value to our customers. People said we are stupid for hosting the Traffic & Conversion Summit event because we should be FOCUSED on recurring revenue models… Focus on pleasing the customer – be a customer-centric… not product-centric business All that really matters is… ―Are you serving your customers?‖ Focus on that. Stop defining your business by the way you sell! You are in the business of taking people from where they are to where they want to be. Start defining your business by WHY you serve… not WHAT you do. Dell = product Apple = customer 12
Serve a market. Consumers want transparency - start with them… not the product. Engage with the conversations your market is having - don‘t try to start your own. Offer them the products they want, even if you have to get it for them as an affiliate. Meet them where they are (even if it‘s at lower margins) and help them get to where they want to be. Great marketers… get this. ● It‘s about the benefits, not the features. ● It‘s about winning hearts, not just wallets. ● You can have the best product, and still be Betamax. ● You can have the best location, and still be Blockbuster. Great marketers get that sometimes they need to tell investors and ops people to ―stick it.‖ That‘s why I love marketers… and that‘s why every business on earth needs professional marketers on their team.
Big Shift #3: The emergence of digital marketing as a true profession 60% of the people at the 2016 Traffic & Conversion Summit are marketing professionals here to learn for their company vs. small business owners. One Big Problem - even the best business owners don‘t have time to figure this stuff out. Example: Ryan Deiss doesn‘t run Facebook ads… he doesn‘t have time. Dentist - Deiss‘ dentist knew about him and the Traffic & Conversion Summit. He SHOULD be all about dentistry - he should have someone else worry about the marketing and not know about this event.
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And the market is starting to take notice. 10 high-paying job you can get without going to grad school - Business Insider #6 - Digital Marketing #5 - Product and Brand Marketing Our Updated Mission DigitalMarketer‘s new mission is not directly training 10,000 small business owners, but instead to train 10,000 digital marketers to serve small businesses. DigitalMarketer now has a service where you can become a ―Certified Partner.‖ There are 8 critical core disciplines of digital marketing represented by the certifications: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8.
Conversion Funnels Content Marketing Customer Acquisition Email Marketing Social Media Search Marketing Data and Analytics Testing and Optimization
You can become a certified digital marketing professional – CDMP. But that still isn‘t enough, so they are also launching DigitalMarketer HQ – where you can assign out certain certifications to members of your team. Get unlimited training and certifications starting at just $95/month.
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3 Steps To Getting All Of The Customers You Ever Wanted: Use Paid Traffic & Media to Acquire Customers at Breakeven or Better Molly Pittman
As Ryan mentioned in the keynote session, there are 4 methods used to build relational equity with marketing. ● Method #1 - Make ‗Em Laugh ● Method #2 - Make ‗Em Cry ● Method #3 - Make Them Feel a Part of Something ● Method #4 - Deliver Actual Value in Advance
What does this have to do with buying traffic? The purpose of buying traffic is to put your ―message‖ in front of prospects / customers. This message can DEPOSIT into a customer‘s relational equity account (branding/great content) or this message can WITHDRAW from a customer‘s relationship equity account (selling / direct response) Both are good. Each is appropriate at different times - they must be used together to build a traffic system that acquires customers on autopilot. Use a system that builds a relationship with customers / prospects, just like you would in real life. Think, ―This is the first message the person will see from me. What is the first impression I am giving?‖ Don‘t do ―One-hit wonder campaigns.‖ (not scalable, these campaigns don‘t last… and you repel as many people as you acquire)
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On social ad platforms, you can invest with as little as $5 a day to get started. Running ―branding‖ ads used to be impossible for small business owners due to the cost (Super Bowl). Now you can run a $5 a day video ad and introduce yourself to your prospective customers. And now you can attribute and track revenue back to ―branding‖ ads. They are even easier to justify. Let‘s dive into this 3-step system. In its most basic form, you would have three campaigns working together to move someone through your marketing funnel. Traffic Temperature Target
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Step #1 - COLD Traffic Use COLD TRAFFIC to enter a market, introduce yourself, and establish authority while you drop a pixel. (Facebook ads using interests, etc.) This is how you bring in new blood to your business so you‘re not swimming in the same pond of people who have already seen your products. This is where you make a good first impression. Cold Traffic Ideas: ● ● ● ● ● ● ●
Blog posts Social media updates (video on YouTube or your blog) Content videos Podcasts Lead magnets (opt in in return for something of value) Quiz / survey (everyone loves to takes quizzes) White papers (for b2b)
Examples of Cold Traffic ads from DigitalMarketer.com
You‘re depositing into the relationship and building assets, too…
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Step #2 - WARM Traffic Retarget your warm audience to generate leads or low dollar sales. ● ● ● ● ● ● ●
Lead magnet Quiz - opt in for results Free or paid webinar (pitch a product during the webinar) Flash sales / low dollar offers / tripwire Product demo Book (free plus shipping or paid) Free trial
Examples of Warm Traffic Ads from DigitalMarketer.com
Another example of lead magnets / trials is GoDaddy‘s $1 domain deal. You‘re making a withdraw from the relationship equity at a low level with a small and discounted offer to try and acquire a customer. Step #3 - HOT Traffic Retarget your HOT AUDIENCE throughout the funnel - almost no one does this… and they‘re leaving a lot of money on the table. 18
Hot Traffic Offers: Run traffic to past buyers to get them to buy again. ● ● ● ●
Events Paid webinar High dollar offers Done-for-you services
Examples from DigitalMarketer.com ● Built-for-you funnels ● Previous buyers of Traffic & Conversion Summit
Example Funnel: Facebook ad to blog post → Retargeting pixel on the blog post→ Facebook Ad to opt-in → $7 offer → $1 trial (for non-buyers of $7 product)→ Mail additional offers How Much Should You Spend? DigitalMarketer uses the 6/3/1 rule. 60% of your budget should go to cold traffic to bring in new prospects 30% of your budget should go to retarget warm traffic 10% of your budget should go to retarget hot traffic 19
You may lose money on the cold traffic, but you are looking for an overall high ROI across the whole funnel. This works on any traffic platform. (FACEBOOK, YouTube, Twitter) Think about where your market is hanging out. It‘s all about creating campaigns that work together. Your lifetime value will increase, and you‘ll have an automated acquisition system that builds your business.
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Promo Mapping: How To Craft The Perfect Promotional Calendar Richard Lindner
Your promotional calendar is more than just a list of what you‘re sending to your email list. With the right planning, it can help drive and hit overall company goals and initiatives. Ways Your Promotional Calendar Can Help Your Business ● Break down large goals into milestones and success checkpoints ● Set deadlines & keep projects on track ● Tell you how and when to allocate resources ● Increase brand awareness and market share ● Increase revenue from owned media (aka your email list) You should focus on your strategic planning and goals first, the marketing calendar second. A product & service catalog help create a marketing calendar that breaks everything down by quarter, month, and year for you. Create a promotional asset sheet for every product and service you offer. Include the following information: ● Name of product or service ● Price (full price and sale price) ● Where the buying transaction occurs (online, phone, appointment) ● Have you sold it via email before? ● Did it work?
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● When did you promote it last? ● How many emails did you send? ● Is it currently available to promote? ● If no, why not? ● Time to figure out when and who you‘re going to send it to
12 Steps To Figuring Out Your Goals for Your Planned Promotions 1. What worked last year (and what didn‘t work?) The goal is for you to build a staple of proven promotions that you can keep promoting when you need something to sell. Slot in your proven promotions and then focus on optimizing and improving them each year. If you want to go really deep do this for the last 36 months of your business. See what promotions and offers worked and which ones didn‘t. 2. List 12 month revenue goal – but don‘t miss milestone goals Where do you want to be and when do you need to be there? Where do you want to grow per project and result? What are your revenue goals and non-revenue goals (blog post, # of certified partners)? 3. Slot holiday promotions into the appropriate month. ● January - Health, Fitness, Diet, Organization, Resolution ● February - Valentine‘s Day, Presidents‘ Day, Black History, Heart Health ● March - Easter, St. Patrick‘s Day, March Madness, Women‘s History ● April - Passover, April Fool‘s Day, Earth Day, Autism Awareness
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● May - National Teacher Day, Cinco De Mayo, Mother‘s Day, Kentucky Derby ● June - Father‘s Day, Graduation, Flag Day ● July - 4th of July, Tequila Day, Ice Cream Day ● August - Back to School, Football, Beer Day, Sister Day ● September -Labor Day, Grandparents Day, Fall begins ● October - Yom Kippur, World Food Day, Halloween ● November - Thanksgiving, Black Friday, Cyber Monday, Elections, Veterans Day ● December - Christmas and Hanukkah, Holiday promotions, end of year sales
4. Slot annual promotions into the appropriate month 5. Denote seasonality (slow and busy months) in your business. When is your audience paying attention to you? Trying to promote to them while they are on vacation is only going to build up resentment towards you. If it‘s the summer for example, consider selling them a book vs. a mega course on something. Example: If it‘s towards the end of the year use people‘s natural desires for improvement to help sell your business improvement course 6. List non-revenue goals (launch blog, podcast, books, # of members, etc.) Break down your goals and projections so you don‘t miss them and also so you can plan for them on the calendar as well. 7. Break out revenue goals monthly (keep seasonality in mind) Keep seasonality in mind and understand that your business is not even in it‘s income across all 12 months. 23
8. Add revenue projections (set promos, plus expected revenue) For each project figure out what is your target goal, what is expected and once you hit that goal what remains to accomplish the overall goal (e.g. this promotion had a target goal of $180,000, it only brought in $100,000 so now I have $480,000 left to reach my 2016 goal). 9. Subtract ―expected‖ from ―target‖ and fill in ―remaining‖ revenue needed 10. Brainstorm additional promo ideas (list in potential promotions) If you aren‘t going to hit your expected target revenue you need to verbalize it with your team, adjust your goal, and see how you can compensation for it with additional promotions and ideas. 11. Once your promotional calendar is complete, spot check and adjust (does it meet your goals? Is it achievable?) 12. List additional needs (new product/service, new lead, etc.) to help you accomplish your goal.
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Case Study - How DigitalMarketer Uses Google Tag Manager to Grow Sales and Leads Chris Mercer
There are 2 main tools you‘ll need – Google Analytics and Google Tag Manager. What this session is and what it isn‘t: Google does have training at its Analytics Academy, but doesn‘t address everything, so this session will attempt to help. This session will address how to use Google Tag Manager, but not the technical details. Google Tag Manager does have a large learning curve; the intention here is to demystify it. Google Tag Manager is made for enterprise operations marketing teams. How it goes without Google Tag Manager: Companies wanted to place pixels on a website, but marketing departments weren‘t able to put campaigns out quickly. Ads would be irrelevant or outdated by the time they reached customers. Tag manager allows you to control when you are activating your pixels. It‘s like a video game controller – there are predetermined combinations of moves, but you activate them at your own discretion. There are lots of choices for tag managers. ● ● ● ● ●
Ensighten Adobe Tealium DC Storm Tag Manager Tag Commander
Google Tag Manager is free, and simple to use when you understand it. Successful marketers gather market insights and adapt quickly. Google Tag Manager gives digital marketers better control over their tracking so that they can get better insights 25
Beginner Version (1, 2, 3s): There are 2 main parts to Google Tag Manager: Tags and Triggers. A tag represents ―what should I do?‖ (ex. ―fire a Facebook pixel‖). A trigger represents ―when should I do it?‖ (ex. ―fire the pixel on every page‖). There are lots of built-in tags, with many approved vendors (ex. LinkedIn, SearchForce, Google AdWords). Protip: If you have the option, use the built in tags – they will always work right. However, sometimes you see there‘s no built-in? No problem! One common issue is that there‘s no built-in Facebook pixel. What you can do is copy and paste in a pixel code by making a Custom HTML Tag. When accessing Tag Manager options, always use Universal Analytics for the Configure Tag option. The section ―Fire On‖ represents all the triggers. Why use Google Tag Manager for pixels and tracking? To eliminate trash data. Consider one scenario: you have a website and clone pages for simplicity. Your conversion pixels include the data from the cloned page and add their own. Every time you clone a page, you‘re creating trash data which clogs your system and gives you false information. Google Tag Manager helps you keep your data clean and uncluttered. You can get real insights when you have a ―useful truth‖ from your data. Realize that no one application will give you the perfect truth. Your goal is to filter out information which is useful to you. Each application (Google, etc.) will give you a version of the truth, which you then use to make decisions. Your goal is to eliminate the trash data which obscures the truth. 26
Intermediate Version (4, 5, 6, 7s): Cross domain tracking Setup: [Facebook Ad Lead Magnet Core Offer (http://mysite.com)] Cart (Checkout) Thank You (http://mysite.com and cart gets credit) This process can cause problems with viewing the source as only the shopping cart. With Google Tag Manager, you can easily do Cross Domain Tracking. You have the option of auto linking domains – ex. Digitalmarketer.com and the ad directly. This allows you to discern whether a pixel is giving you leads or sales. Then, you can automatically track every click. The basic version gives you general data. This will give you more. Event tracking can track specific actions on a page (e.g. whether someone watched video, how long they watched it for, etc.). Why track clicks? You can get reports in Google Analytics to see which blog posts generate which clicks which tells you which posts cause people to continue on to your site. Using Google Tag Manager to automatically track clicks helps DigitalMarketer figure out which blog posts are producing and which aren‘t. One of the triggers you can activate is a timer. This can delay data activation and allows an Adjusted Bounce Rate. What happens otherwise is that Google Analytics usually only registers the hit on the page – if people are looking at page and reading, it doesn‘t register activity. With a timer, then Google Analytics can tell that it‘s not a bounce. The Adjusted Bounce Rate gives you more information about how effective your pages are. Your goal is to collect quality pixels. These will allow you to track only people who are engaged in the site, not just simple clicks. Then you can target your messages to people who are engaged with you. 27
Using Google Tag Manager timers helps DigitalMarketer target remarketing. Advanced Version (8, 9, 10s): Google Tag Manager collects all of the information it receives and pushes it into the Data Layer. All this remains stored there, but usually you don‘t access it. When you become advanced with Tag Manager, then you can use this information. You can tell Google Tag Manager which information you would like to access from this data layer. Use Google Tag Manager with the data layer to send ecommerce transactions. Then you can use the information from Google Tag Manager to tell your story. Use Google Tag Manager to track data. For example, you can tell what reaction a Facebook ad can provoke. Takeaway information: Google Tag Manger has so many resources that you can do anything with it. When you‘re starting out, don‘t try to access the data layer, because it‘s overwhelming. Focus on tags and triggers at first and then move on to intermediate and advanced versions. What you can do: Beginners: Create an account and set up a tracking pixel. Create a Facebook ad on all pages and get a feel for it. Intermediates: Start using events, timers, and the data layer. For further information, there‘s a course for understanding Google Analytics and Google Tag Manger: ssm.tips/tcs2016. ($200 off for Traffic & Conversion Summit members) Resources: Google Analytics Academy Seriously Simple Marketing [emailprotected]
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Selling the Click: How To Multiply Opens, Clicks and Conversions In Your Email Campaigns Perry Belcher
The email you send readers is likely the most important copy you write, so take some time and think about it! Why this all matters: Hypothetical: 100,000 emails that gets a 10% open rate with 15% of the readers clicking on the link and then 5% of them buy = 75 total sales. But if instead you double your open and click rate: 100,000 emails, 20% open rate, 30% of that click, then 5% buy = 300 total sales. Increasing your open and click rate leads to a 400% increase in sales. When starting out, know your audience. Then clean, enhance, and personalize your message and marketing towards them. Tower Data can do this for you, as it allows you to go through statistics on the people on your list and find out more about them.
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14 email subject line formulas in order of their success rate: Getting people to open the email is the most important thing in email marketing. 1. Reason Why Headlines
Why do men have nipples?‖ ―Why 82% of coffee shops fail‖
2. Big Number Headlines ● ―Obama‘s $9,726,772,918,991 LIE!‖ ● ―775 email addresses to get free things‖ ● ―Call Me 512-555-1212‖ ―Call me‖ phone number headlines are very effective because they seem personal. 3. Benefit Headlines ● ―Make him BEG to be your boyfriend‖ ● ―Make your hair grow faster?‖ ● ―Improve your visions w/ this chart [PDF]‖ Indicating that there‘s a PDF, pic, etc. adds clicks. Benefit subject lines usually aren‘t highest click rate, but are more likely to generate sales. 4. Question Headlines ● [Vid] Can you do this in the shower?‖ ● ―Are you making as much as your neighbor?‖ ● ―Would you get a tattoo here [pic]‖ 5. Testimonial Headlines These do have regulatory issues, so be careful. ● ―How I made $2,000,000 in the stock market‖ ● ―How a bald barber grows hair with rice‖ ● ―450 lb. man ONLY dates supermodels‖
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You can stack these techniques – ex. numbers with testimonials. 6. Fascination Headlines ● ―Headless body in topless bar‖ ● ―Weiner Exposed‖ (best-selling New York Post headline of all time) ● ―Michael Jackson‘s final words REVEALED?‖ Huffington Post‘s AOL Weird News is a great source for fascination headlines examples. 7. Target Headlines ● ―Attention Veterans 50-80‖ ● ―For women only, NO men!‖ ● ―REAL republicans listen up‖ 8. Personalized Headlines These are probably most poorly utilized element of email marketing. ● ● ● ● ● ●
―Ryan, grow 3 more inches by this summer‖ ―1289 Hillsborough Cove delivery attempt‖ ―Is your number still (728) 78108761‖ ―[IMAGE] Deiss family crest artwork complete‖ ―Boiled water alert in Paducah, KY‖ ―[emailprotected] did you get my message?‖
9. Lists Headlines You can find great examples on Buzzfeed. ● ―29 toughest survival knives reviewed‖ ● ―23 best makeup blogs on the web‖ ● ―10 best sergers (HINT: there‘s really only 9)‖ 10. Seasonal Headlines ● ―20 5-minute Christmas crafts‖ ● ―Put that turkey sandwich down‖ ● ―33 Dumbest New Year‘s resolutions‖ 31
11. News Headlines ● ―Will North Korea bomb Pearl Harbor… again?‖ ● ―Manning Super Bowl DANGER!‖ ● ―Sanders on SNL is a joke‖ Check PopURLS to see what news is relevant, then use it to craft your current headlines. You can also set your homepage as Alexa‘s What‘s Hot. 12. Anger Headlines ● ● ● ● ●
―Pre-impeach Hillary NOW!‖ ―You‘ve been lied to… a lot‖ ―Christians jailed by Muslim children‖ ―Obama plans [insert anything here]‖ ―Why your DUMB friends are richer‖
These are the opposite of benefit emails. They have high clicks, but you‘ve already preframed the customer, so it can backfire. 13. Scarcity Headlines ● ―L-O-S-E-R at midnight‖ ● ―We have 3 of these left… for now‖ ● ―T&C almost SOLD OUT!‖ 14. Positive Subject Line Keywords Positive Keywords: Exclusive; Free delivery; Gift; Latest; New; Sale; Alert; News; Video; Daily; Weekly; Editor; Update; Breaking; Limited; Review. Don‘t use the following negative subject line keywords: Free; Only; Learn (Discover is way better); Report; Today; Webinar (use Conference Call); Win; News; fw; Forecast; Subscription; ?; Discount; Trial; Facebook; % Off.
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3 proven copywriting formulas to get your emails read and ultimately clicked If they don‘t read your mail, they won‘t click the links inside of them. 1. The P.A.S. Copywriting Formula (Away from Pain) ● Pain – ex. ―Still biting your nails?‖ ● Agitation – ex. ―Do people look at your nails in public and wonder if you have some kind of disease? Do they bleed? Do you have to spit out chewed off nail fragments?‖ ● Solution – ex. ―Have you heard about the accidental test scientists discovered stops nail biting in chimps in 60 seconds or less? Click Here to see the study.‖ Don‘t write the email to sell the product, but instead to sell the click.
2. The 4P Copywriting Formula (Toward Pleasure) ● Picture – ex. Imagine, you on Shark Tank! ● Promise – ex. Tonight, Shark Tank Star Kevin Harrington reveals his secrets ● Prove – ex. No show guests have even been funded without passing this question ● Push – ex. CLICK HERE to registers for tonight‘s conference call with Kevin and I tonight and boost your chances 728%
3. The FABA Copywriting Formula ● Feature – a shovel that‘s a Stun Gun +16 more things ● Advantages – this 16 in 1 ultimate multi-tool is a complete survival kit by itself [WATCH] ● Benefits – You‘ll see that you can [insert benefit] ● Action – CLICK HERE to see it in action. You‘ll be blown away with what this tool can do. 33
5 Sneaky Little Tricks to Get Your Clicks All you‘re selling in any email is the click… that‘s it, just the click. 1. Only ever have clickable links in blue 2. Add a CSS button 3. Surveys, Quizzes, and Votes 4. Thumbnail videos - ―Click here to reveal‖ 5. ―Click to zoom‖ as link
3 Tests to Evaluate your Copy Copywriting is a 2 person (minimum) job. No copywriter should EVER test their own work. 1. CUB Exam – Make sure it‘s not Confusing, Unbelievable, or Boring. Resource: Copy Logic! By Michael Masterson and Mike Palmer 2. 4C‘s test – Make it Clear; Concise; Compelling; and Credible 3. 4U‘s test – Make it Useful, urgent, unique, ultra-specific
10 Rules to Improve Your Copy Rule 1 – ―You‖ is the best word Rule 2 – Link above the fold to make it easy for people on mobile devices to click Rule 3 – 7 is better than seven Rule 4 – 16 point font gets more readers (especially on mobile). Serif fonts are stronger than sans serif fonts. Rule 5 – Sell the click, not the widget Rule 6 – Give them lots of ways to click in the email 34
Rule 7 – The mouse loves reflex blue (the color of links) Rule 8 – 50 numbers and letters max in subject lines Rule 9 – Test something in every mail Rule 10 – Make 3 calls to action in each email
Further Resources: BriteVerify Email Verification - clears junk emails from your list Stamplia Builder - builds mobile-responsive emails Litmus - a paid option to build mobile-able emails Email on Acid - simplifies email testing and analytics. Marapost - does analytics, but it‘s expensive. Visual Website Optimizer - does split testing.
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[Case Study] How the Golden State Warriors Made $29 For Every $1 Invested In Facebook Ads Dennis Yu
Our highest grossing Facebook ad this season announcing ticket sales for the Warriors / Cavs rematch. We made $44,000 from a $300 ad spend. (ROI = 14,667%) Think about how you can bring trends to the shopping cart. Amplify your success by taking what is already working, and doing more of it.
The 6-Phase Social Amplification System 1. 2. 3. 4.
Plumbing - use Google tags / pixels Goals - cost per lead / cost per sale Content - use that information to create your content Targeting - take audiences that are working and reach them - retargeting / tracking 5. Ads Create - once you have the above information, you can create ads 6. Optimization - monitor and adjust ads as needed
They Organize by 4 Areas of Business Value 1. 2. 3. 4.
Advertising - campaign set up, monitoring and optimization Strategy - weekly updates and monthly reporting Corporate Partners - creating data charts for sponsors Engineers - building a social funnel
When the team is winning, engagement and revenue increase. The Golden State Warriors had a 108% growth rate on their Facebook fan page after winning a big game. That is double the growth of the #2 team (Cavs at 54%) The story is the same on Instagram and Twitter - large audience growth driven by strong engagement and a successful team.
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Facebook Dominates in Sending Traffic Compared to Twitter ● Facebook referred 6.1 times as many visitors to the Warrior‘s webinar as Twitter ● The bounce rate for Facebook referrals is 16% lower than it is for Twitter ● Facebook is the most effective social channel for engagement and sales.
Warrior’s App ● Median time on website is 1 minute ● Median time on app is 4 minutes ● The app is more engaging and self-selecting for fans They target audiences by app stage and objective (install, visit, revenue) Mobile to desktop conversions rising rapidly for ticket conversions on Facebook. More people are logging in with Facebook rather than Google. (Did you know you can retarget between Facebook and Instagram?)
Social traffic drives search traffic Keywords that brought the highest total revenue to the Warriors. ● ● ● ●
Warriors tickets Warrior tickets Golden State Warriors tickets Ticketmaster Warriors
They create Facebook custom audiences of people who click each post. Increasing audiences during success streaks allows them to increase ticket sales later. If you have a post that is doing very well, add fuel to the fire by boosting it inside of Facebook. The Warriors marketing team uses Facebook Signal to find relevant trends, but right now it is only available to journalists.
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Maximize Profit by Using the Digital Demand Curve ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ●
Team Winning Audience Growing Process Improvement Creative Optimization Cross-channel Remarketing Tighter Relevancy Budget Allocations Watch for Frequency Burnout
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[Case Study] How IBM and DigitalMarketer Use New Adult Education Strategies to Radically Increase Student Online Course and Certification Graduation Rates Mike Weiss You are to good at marketing. We spend 90% of our time studying traffic and conversion. That shouldn‘t be the end - that should only be the beginning. We should also be trying to improve customer retention. Brands get dumped when expectations are not met. Have you ever asked yourself, ―Why don‘t more of my clients complete my courses and become successful?‖ The completion rate for business opportunity products is only 3%. If you sell 1,000 copies of a course, only 30 will actually complete it.
Attrition or Retention The cost to acquire a new client is 5x higher than the cost to sell to an existing client. You want to retain customers after their initial purchase. Your number one asset is your clients / list and that list is how you can quickly test and scale up new ideas. 55% of customers recommend a company if it is easy to access what they bought.
Client Engagement Academy How they increase client engagement: 1. LMS Structure - Students need to know = where you were, where you are, where you need to go
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2. Reporting - measure clients successes, timelines and comprehension (where is there anxiety / friction) 3. Digital Badges - Digital Education Currency / Return on Education. Sell the fact that they will graduate and get certified When you use client engagement academy, your students get a digital badge. They place this in their social media like LinkedIn and Facebook. When someone clicks a digital badge online, they go to the school website and can get information on the courses the student has taken and the results. This is a great way to get your customers to use your badge as a show of status to their clients, customers, and friends.
The Ascension Model An example of good marketing is the ascension model, where students can reach increasing levels of success. (like the black belt system for martial arts) IBM leads the way. ● 87% of IBM badge earners feel more engaged with IBM and are motivated to learn more. ● Badges are accepted in more than 80 countries. ● 70% increase in students taking courses. ● 50% of badge earners return to earn more IBM badges. ● Average badge earner shared the achievement on FACEBOOK and Linked In. ● Direct increase in product downloads - 60% increase DigitalMarketer Example: ● 29% of all clients graduate and get certified. ● 40% of clients that logged in, graduate and get certified.
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● 60% of clients that complete module 1, graduate and get certified ● 67% of clients that complete module 2, graduate and get certified This is compared to 3% on typical courses. That means you want to focus on getting buyers to log in and do the first module of your course.
Viral Social Look (How to get your customers to share success stories for you) When students complete a course, they often want to share their badge. Facebook - 19% LinkedIn - 81% People who click the badges are now on your site = free referrals for your courses. Pixel them and get them in your funnels. How can you use this in YOUR business?
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The Ad Grid: How To Build Traffic Campaigns That Convert Higher and Scale Faster Molly Pittman
How to 20x your ad production and success rate… Rather than single ads for a single purpose - DigitalMarketer is now building ad campaigns. QUIT CREATING ―ONE-OFF‖ ADS Many people show one ad to one audience, and it‘s not working. You‘re probably creating ―one-off‖ ad campaigns without a system or plan. One-off ad campaigns… ● Don‘t reflect the customer journey ● Relevance / quality scores are low ● Are not scalable long term They work, sometimes… But… You‘re putting all of your eggs in one basket. If that one ad doesn‘t work, you may think people don‘t want your product, when in actuality, you need an ad campaign. Don‘t give yourself just one swing at the plate. (it‘s hard to hit a homerun that way). It‘s difficult to systemize a creative process. We can teach you what buttons to press in the ad platform. We can teach you how to write ad copy. We can teach you how to find our target market. But… What about the actual strategy?
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7-Step Process of the Ad Grid - (link to the template) Step 1: Identify Your Avatars (specific to the offers) You Want To Attract ● ● ● ●
Social media manager The ―boss‖ Agency owner Solopreneur
Step 2: Identify the Hooks (what makes this thing cool - marketing messages) ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ●
Have (what will they have after they take action) Feel (how are they going to feel) Average Day (how are you going to change their average day) Status (how will taking action change their status) Proof / Results Speed / Automation ―10 Minutes - More Engagement, traffic and followers from Social Media‖ ―Get a Grade‖ ―Create a Report‖ ―Grade Your Competition‖ ―Know Your Goals‖
Step 3: Create Your Segmented Messaging (Copy) Variations Use your completed grid to create a different message to each square. (example: talk to a social media manager about taking a 10-minute test to get a grade to show boss…. example: talk to a boss about using the 10-minute test with their social media manager)
Step 4: Avatar Research Look at each column and research each avatar to figure out targeting. What events do they attend, what do they read, where do they hang out, etc. ―Social Media Manager‖ avatar research and search (Google / Facebook) ● Social media conferences ● Social media books ● Social media tools 44
● Social media schools / courses ● Social media blogs ● Social media magazines Repeat this process for each avatar.
Step 5: Create or Outsource Ad Creatives What do you need? (videos, images, etc) Images should represent the hooks. DesignPickle.com - unlimited designs
Now, you have an entire AD CAMPAIGN! YOU should establish the avatars and hooks, but you can outsource the actual ad creation. Run the campaign….
Step 6: Compile Your Results What is the cost per action (CPA) on each square of your grid?
Step 7: SCALE UP the segments that are working Find out which hooks work and which don‘t. Let‘s write more about this hook. Let‘s never use this hook again.
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Find out which avatars respond to your message the best. How can I show this message to more of this avatar? Where can I go to find more of this avatar? Which avatar / hook matches are ―winners?‖ Scale those! It‘s hard to predict results - that‘s why testing is important. The Ad Grid will help you scale in two ways… ● Scaling past just ―doing more with what you have‖... ● Scaling out a traffic / media team…. THIS IS A PROCESS You don‘t have to do everything yourself. Do the 10% of planning at the beginning - and the 10% seeing what worked at the end. Let someone else do the 80% busy work. Go from creating one ad… to creating 20. You will be 20x more likely to succeed. bit.ly/ad-grid - Ad Grid Template Now start creating ad campaigns!
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Proven Email Tricks: Secrets Learned From Sending More Than 7 Billion Emails Across 35,000+ Campaigns Bob Frady, CMO of Maropost; @thebfce Secrets to great email marketing There‘s no short answer to great email marketing, but these tools will help you. 1. Minimize the number of “experts” in your life. Always be testing whether your methods work, so you can become the expert in your field. Don‘t be afraid to be wrong - try new things. 2. Properly measure your results. People aren‘t linear, so results don‘t always correlate with your expectations. Go to the database and see what behavior over time is, not just for specific campaigns. Outside factors may be influencing individual campaigns. If you only look at online purchases direct from email, you miss sales data. Some people will see your email campaign and buy the product in your physical locations. 3. You aren’t marketing to YOU. Find out what gets your audience excited, then give them more of it. Don‘t fixate on what you think they want, actually figure out what they do want. 4. Discovery Email has 2 jobs – to keep the ball moving of a successful model, and to create interest through discovery. People love finding great new things, and great email marketing activates discovery. Discovery is created by your brand. Ask yourselves – What does your brand stand for? What does your brand stand for in email marketing? You can‘t deliver everything through email, so strategize and make sure that you‘re being specific to email. For example, a car dealership can‘t sell its experience through an email, so instead they provide offers for accessories and services. People aren‘t signing up for your email program, they‘re signing up for you. 47
Example at Live Nation: ―Don‘t miss a show because you don‘t know about it.‖ Every show in our market was sent to the entire database every week. Why do you send everything? It gives you the opportunity to learn more about your audience and what they like. Always remember that your audience is divided in 3 parts: 1. People you know a lot about – 10-15% of your universe 2. People who you know a little about – 25% of your universe 3. The rest are people you know ALMOST NOTHING about = the hard part of email marketing Even when people don‘t read your email, sales are 8% up from no emailing. In this example, they discover us and we discover them. A large majority of your email database is undiscovered territory. Email is an excellent behavior capture device, so use it. Each click on this ―discovery‖ email allowed for targeting that was TWICE as effective at selling tickets as general segmentation. Example 2: ―Get it Free‖: Campaign = ―people come to us to discover great freebies and deals.‖ We offered people paid insertion to make money. We put these paid insertions at the top of the email. This didn‘t work. Then we changed our model – we delivered our company promise by putting deals and freebies at top, then had 50% open rate increase. This tripled email revenue, as customers also looked at the products below. Tying to your brand promise is the single most effective way to improve your email program 5. Subject Lines The only trick to it is telling people what‘s in the email. You‘re not really trying to trick them at all. Tricks don‘t work as well as honesty An example of this I‘ve seen is a campaign at Live Nation. We sent out emails with subject lines of simple ―Artist – Location.‖ This wasn‘t entirely successful because it only interested people who were interested in the specific artist. So we tried to change our model. The Best way to drive engagement long-term is represented by a campaign at getitfree.us. The subject line was ―[4 freebies contained in the email].‖ 48
6. Segmentation Don‘t segment too much. Mostly because you can‘t. Segmentation works very well on people you know a lot about, but not as well as on the less known customer base. The math of segmentation doesn‘t work – it‘s a relic of the direct mailing days, where shipping was very expensive. They had to strategize their mailings. In contrast, email is very inexpensive to send, so you shouldn‘t be as concerned with segmentation. Don‘t spend too much effort on segmentation and not enough on researching your customers. 10% of 1 million is way better than 50% of 150,000 7. How to stay out of inbox jail 3 methods to avoid deliverability issues 1. Acquire well = if you‘re buying lists, you‘ll have problems Do some basic hygiene on your signup forms via regex = http://www.regular-expressions.info/email.html 2. Use a welcome message Welcome message bounce rates are between 2 and 30% of the time – removes bounces from invalid emails immediately, so it doesn‘t clog your list. Put welcome message on separate IPs if you acquire a lot = single easiest way to clean email list. But don‘t remove emails from those who don‘t double opt-in, as a lot of people who receive the email will not opt-in but still are valuable as part of your list. 3. Send your most recent opens/clicks first If you have enough data, use personalized send times. This spreads out the load, and optimizes results. Maropost allows you do both of these things. 8. Have good KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) Extremely important 49
Bad KPIs = open rate, click to open rate, ROI When you have bad KPIs, you‘re focused on the process, not the result. Good KPIs = ask yourself how much additional money did we make Don‘t worry about engagement metrics, but do consider trends in engagement metrics. Individual metrics can be confusing or misleading, but over time they provide valuable information. Trend data to look at are opens, clicks, unsubs, revenue. Good KPI = Overall customer engagement rate; net customer addition rate (if subscriptions are greater than unsubscriptions, then you‘re okay!) 9. Triggers Maximize your use of triggers. These target the customers you know less about. These are 5% of your volume. These are also 50% of your email ―Revenue‖ (for etailers). Triggers only scale with your business. Triggers ideally create a repeatable, known process. Good triggers provide the logical next step in customer journey. Bad triggers are an exercise in cookie stuffing. Example 1. Expedia email tells customer to find information on the site, diverts revenue to site without a link. This email does not create any additional revenue, it just shifts the revenue between company divisions. Better example: Southwest Airlines sends email detail travel itinerary, surrounds with ads. They deliver your purchase and advertise for future sales. By giving a clear travel itinerary, they also lessen calls to customer service. This is a hidden financial benefit. Best example: Amazon email gives transaction information and provides ad of items that customers bought after buying the items. They properly target their ads, and can garner more information about customers. Takeaways: Align to your brand promise. Always be discovering. 50
Make it easy for customers to work with (by giving them information in the emails). Change is the only constant thing, so you constantly have to be testing. Your competitors will be testing too, so even if your current model works it could stop being as successful. Learn these things for yourself. Don‘t rely on outside interpretation or assumptions.
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Two Automation Case Studies: SixthDivision and EntreLeadership Brad Martineau
SixthDivision Built a $3mm Services and Coaching Business in Less Than 4 Years Happy customers are greater than everything else you can do in your business. ―Do what you do so well they will want to come again. And bring their friends.‖ - Walt Disney Experience Trumps Value ―Action breeds confidence and courage. Inaction breeds doubt and fear. If you want to conquer fear, don‘t sit at home and think about it. Go out and get busy.‖ - Dale Carnegie ―When given the option, consumers prefer to do business with individuals that they know, like and trust.‖ - Nick Nanton Converting Leads to Clients - the SixthDivision Journey Playbook
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SixthDivision gains their leads through 4 different advertising methods. ● ● ● ●
Facebook Google Live Events Partners
After gaining leads through advertising, they invite them to a webinar where they have to opportunity to purchase a product, therefore making them a buyer. Once a buyer, they can become a long term client. SixthDivision has a three email series they use when a potential client schedules a consult. 1. The first email is a video. Here are the important parts of the email. This email is all about the potential client getting to know you. ● Letting them know you are excited to meet with them in the subject line. ● Confirming time and date of the consult ● Let them know the video below will show them what to expect from the consult 2. The second email reminds them of the upcoming appointment. The date and time should be in three places: subject line, picture and closing sentence. 3. The third email is a ―day of‖ reminder which includes what they need to have prepared for the call. If the customer becomes a client, they send a very personal email welcoming them to the family with a personalized picture. They also have a 3 email system for first-time buyers in hopes of cultivating a long term relationship with them. 1. The first email welcomes them to the family. It also has a video that helps the buyer feel connected to the company. 2. The second email has a video in it which talks about some important aspects of working with SixthDivision. 3. The third email introduces the buyer to the support staff. The email shows a personal side to the staff and lets them know that they understand the needs of the buyer. 53
[Case Study] How EntreLeadership had a 600% Webinar Attendance Increase At the start, advertising efforts produced minimal results: ● ● ● ●
200 Registered 100 Showed Up 1 Buyer $3,588
The next webinar produced these results ● ● ● ●
938 Registered 408 Showed Up 11 Buyers $39,468
The best month: ● ● ● ●
2,057 Registered 958 Show Up 45 Buyers $161,460
They used a three email system that provided clients with info on the webinar and free reports. People who did not sign up for the webinar were sent to a series of emails to nurture the potential client and try to get them to sign up to webinar. They used 1 day events, premium events and webinars to help find clients. Having an email funnel set in place helps to increase conversion rates. Additional e-mail lineups are set in place if they did not convert into a customer on the webinar and to help continue to build the relationship with the client.
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Content Engine 2.0: How To Quickly Crank Out ShareWorthy, Clickable Blog Content That Converts Traffic Into Sales Russ Henneberry Your goal should be to have a ―Redwood Blog‖ where blog posts live longer and grow over time. The Serial Post Don‘t shoot all your ammo at once into one long blog post. Break it up into several parts – this has a better impact. Google likes serial posts or multiple layers. One way to do a serial post is to start with beginner information and then do a follow up post with advanced information. Resource: Buzzsumo (free version) - find what content performs the best for any topic. http://buzzsumo.com/
If you DO want a long blog post, publish part 1 first. Then in 2 to 4 weeks publish the other parts on the exact same URL. Create ―in-page‖ links for easy navigation and make note of future publish dates of upcoming blog posts. Use email and social media to promote all posts
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The “Now with More” Post Choose a post that is already doing well. Write a ―new and improved‖ version of it. The hook being that the post is ―now with more.‖ The traffic results are immediate, long-lasting and have a high ―applause rate.‖ On some posts, you can simply add multimedia or an infographic to an existing post to breathe new life into it. You can also fix inaccuracies and add examples to older post. Promote the ―now with more‖ post through email - ―2nd edition available now…if you liked it before check out an updated version of our most popular blog posts.‖ The Perennial Post If you have a quality blog post with information that changes periodically, revive this gem at least once a year. Add the new content on the same URL, pushing last year‘s content down with a new headline Then prime the pump with social advertising and email marketing to tell everyone about the updates. Why does this work? There are 2.7 million blog posts published every day. Google rewards those who keep up their content. When you send Google new signals to show that you made changes to content, you are likely to get more traffic and SEO benefits from Google.
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List CPR: How To Clean and Revive Dead (or Nearly Dead) Email Lists Richard Lindner
Warning: your email list is nearly dying. Yes, you. At least 25% of your list expires every year … and that‘s if you‘re doing everything right. Unengaged subscribers mark your mail as SPAM (9x more than engaged subscribers), rather than unsubscribing. Unengaged subscribers keep your emails from hitting your engaged subscribers‘ inboxes. Why do subscribers stop engaging with your emails? ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ●
Email frequency (too much or little) Boring or repetitive content Irrelevant or dated content Too many other emails Only wanted the freebie Changed email addresses Abandoned email addresses Engaged with a competitor
What does a subscriber do when he becomes unengaged? ● ● ● ● ●
Clicks unsubscribe Click spams Immediately deletes your email Ignores you Auto archives or negative filters
3 Reasons You Must Reengage Your Subscribers: 1. You paid to acquire them. 2. They were interested in what you had to say, and what you were once selling. 3. They‘re costing you money 58
3 Steps for a Reengagement Campaign The first step to creating your reengagement campaign = determine who has become unengaged. Unengaged people are anyone who hasn‘t opened or clicked an email in the past 60-90 days. Or anyone who hasn‘t purchased in the last 6 months (maybe 1 year). However, you can‘t be too aggressive with previous proven buyers.
What do you say to unengaged subscribers? Phase 1: Reengagement (aka passive aggressive) Remind them they used to read emails; tell them what they‘ve missed; go super passive aggressive; offer to help them; ask them to help you These emails are very personal by design. Don‘t professionalize them or change the I‘s to We‘s or anything that will de-personalize these emails. If your readers are going to stay engaged, they need to know they‘re doing business with a single person, not a nameless, faceless company. Message #1 - 30 Days After No Opens Subject lines: ―Hello… (knock, knock)… anyone there?‖; ―Are you ok?‖; ―Hey [first name] is everything ok?‖ Email: ―Hey… It‘s been a little while since you‘ve responded to any of my emails, so I thought I‘d check in on you to find out what‘s been going on. Check it out: [insert bulleted list of most popular blog posts, reports, videos, infographics, etc from the past 30 days…] I know with travel, family, and the daily grind of work it‘s hard to stay on top of things, but you subscribed to this newsletter because you wanted [insert known benefits and desired end results]… So you‘ll forgive me if I give you the occasional ―poke‖ just to make sure I haven‘t somehow slipped through the cracks. Talk soon, [your first name] 59
P.S. I know that time management is something we all struggle with, so as an added gift I thought I‘d let you in on my favorite productivity strategy of all time: http://pomodorotechnique.com/get-started It really works and best of all it‘s totally free! I hope you find it helpful…‖
Message #2 – 2 Days After Previous This message is less subtle, note that it references the 30 days Subject lines: ―Is this your best email address?‖; ―Is this still [first name]‘s email‖; ―Am I bugging you?‖ Email: ―It‘s me again… Sorry if I‘m bugging you, but it‘s been over [XX] days since you‘ve opened or clicked on a link in one of my emails, and I‘m starting to think that you‘ve moved on. Then again, according to ReturnPath.com, 30% of people change their email address annually, so there‘s a chance we just don‘t have your best email address on file. By keeping your contact information up to date, you‘ll continue to receive all the most current and important information on [insert topic] straight to your inbox. Reactivate your subscription NOW while it‘s fresh on your mind: [Link to update contact record page] Talk soon, [your first name]
Message #3 - Sent if no response to previous 2 messages Subject Lines: ―Are you stuck?‖; ―What has you stuck?‖; How can I help YOU?‖ Email: ―There are lots of things in this [industry/business/world] that can get us stuck… So what has you stuck?
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Tell me here: [LINK TO SURVEY] … so I know that I‘m delivering the right kind of content to you. Seriously, it‘ll take less than 30 seconds, and it will truly ―HELP ME, HELP YOU‖ Here‘s that link again: [LINK TO SURVEY] It‘s literally just one question, and if you help me out I just might reward you with something cool on the other side. (Hint, hint…) Thanks in advance, [YOUR FIRST NAME]‖
Message #4 - Follow up to message #3 This is the second email in the survey siphon campaign. As you can see, it‘s essentially the same offer, just positioned more as an ―I need help‖ message than the first email. Subject Lines: ―I need your help… please‖; ―[FIRST NAME] can you help? Please?‖; ―[FIRST NAME] I need your help‖ Email: ―I‘m burning the midnight oil to produce a new [VIDEO/BLOG/ETC.] series for you, but I want to make sure I‘m covering the topics that YOU are most interested in. Will you go here and let me know if I‘m on the right track? [LINK TO SURVEY] If you do, you‘ll not only help shape the content I send you each week… I‘ll also have a little ―thank you gift‖ waiting for you on the other side. So can you do it now while it‘s fresh on your mind? [LINK TO SURVEY]
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It‘ll take less than 30 seconds [literally!!] and I will be forever grateful! Thanks much, [YOUR FIRST NAME]‖
Phase 2: Win-Back Campaign – Re-engagement series At this point the re-engagement campaign has ended. If the prospect still hasn‘t responded it‘s time to turn up the heat. Bribe them; go super passive aggressive again; bribe them; go super passive aggressive again; deploy the take away; give them a deadline. For people who got the reengagement campaign but didn‘t reengage.
Phase 3: Welcome back (aka re-indoctrination) This campaign is simple. It should be sent to anyone who reengages with your messages by clicking any link in any message in the re-engagement campaign OR the win-back campaign. The goal of this email is to make sure the engagement ―sticks.‖ Welcome them back; reward the positive action; set expectations; get them to connect on other channels. Message #1: Send immediately after an un-engaged subscriber becomes re-engaged. ―Subject: ―Welcome back!‖ Thanks for updating your information. I‘m thrilled to have you as an active subscriber again! Here‘s a link to some of the content you missed while you were on your ―hiatus‖: [INSERT BULLETED LIST OF MOST POPULAR BLOG POSTS, REPORTS, VIDEOS, INFOGRAPHICS, ETC. FROM THE PAST 30 DAYS]
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– and here‘s a ―mystery gift‖ I want you to have to further welcome you back into the fold: [LINK TO MYSTERY GIFT PAGE] Finally, since email is less than perfect, make sure you‘re also following us on Facebook and Twitter just to ensure you never miss us again. [LINK TO FACEBOOK PAGE] [LINK TO TWITTER PAGE] Again, it‘s good to have you back. Talk soon, [ENTER YOUR NAME HERE] [ENTER YOUR TITLE HERE]‖
What if they don’t reengage? Stop emailing them, but you don‘t have to unsubscribe them. The average success rate on a reengagement campaign is 2-3%, and an extremely successful rate is 5-6%. It‘s good to keep this in mind. If you‘ve told your unengaged customers that you will be removing them from your emails, stick to this promise. They may decide to re-engage independently of anything you do.
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Marketer‘s Toolbox: 22 Tools We Use to Get Higher Rankings, Increase Conversions, Lower Our PPC Costs, Automate Our Conversion Paths and Find Holes In The Market Our Competitors Have Missed Roland Frasier These are some of the tools used by DigitalMarketer. Use their ideas to think about what is possible for you in your business. How do you find out about tools that you can use. Competition Research ● Datanyze.com - use to find new tools in a variety of industries ● BuiltWith - Find out what websites are built with Business Management ● Quickbooks Enterprise ● Qvinci ● Moving to NetSuite - $70k a year Ecommerce + CRM Tools ● InfusionSoft ● Magento ● SixthDivision ● 1AutomationWiz (1ShoppingCart) ● Limelight CRM ● Memberium (Membership Sites) Keyword Research ● SEMRush ● FreshKey ● WordTracker ● UberSuggest ● iSpionage ● Google Adwords KW Planner ● Keyword Spy ● Google Trends ● KeywordTool.io ● Soovle 64
● VideoCents ● MerchantWords Search ● SEMRush ● Run a domain level keyword report ● Export to Excel ● Sort by Rank (low to high) + Traffic (high to low) ● Create + Publish content for keyword rankings 2-10 ● Use influencer outreach, paid media to content + email to list about new content to drive traffic and links to content You are trying to move your content that is targeting specific keywords that are ranked 2-10 up to number 1 in Google. Competitive Intelligence ● SimilarWeb ● AdClarity ● AdBeat ● BuzzSumo ● Compete ● Follow.net ● NativeAdBuzz ● Box of Ads ● SpyFu ● WhatRunsWhere ● AudienceDrill ● Ispionage ● Alexa ● WhosMailingWhat ● Adsviser Page Builders ● LeadPages ● ClickFunnels ● OptimizePress ● Thrive Content Builder + Landing Pages ● Instapage ● Unbounce ● Adobe Muse 65
● Edge Reflow (no longer being developed) Video Tools ● FreshKey ● Wistia ● VeeRoll ● Video Cents ● Blab ● KeywordTool.io ● Smartzer ● Invodo ● Tubular Labs ($2500 a month) ● Tunes to Tube Amazon ● FreshKey ● MerchantWords ● Feedback Genius ● Terapeak ● K-Lytics (Kindle categories) ● Price Blink (lowest price tracker) ● AMZ Tracker ● FeedVisor (dynamic price updater) Social Media ● Buffer.com - schedule posts, post content as you browse using extensions ● Buffer Pablo - Quickly create + Post Perfect Images ● TailWindApp.com - Discover content, schedule posts, analyze results on Pinterest & Instagram Monetization ● AdButler - Ad Serving. Simplified ○ Rotates Best-Performing, Highest-Paying Ads ○ Real-Time Reporting ● SkimLinks.com - turns your links into affiliate links ○ Non-Obtrusive Supplemental Monetization From Branded Products in Your Content ○ 20,000 Merchants in Network ○ Automatically Turns Links To Products in Your Content Into Affiliate Links ● RevContent.com - native commerce content recommendation network 66
○ Native Commerce Content Recommendation Network Recommending 200 Billion Pieces of Content Per Month ○ Allow Us to Generate Income From Posts with Post-specific Ads ● AddThis.com - adds share and follow buttons to your site. ○ Automatically Add Share+ Follow Buttons to your site ○ Automatically recommend additional content on your site ○ On-site retargeting exit pops based on where your visitors came from, interest or behavior ○ Add or promotion bars at top of bottom of your site ● SnapEngage.com - live chat support ○ captures and exports leads - pulls user info - saves chat transcript ○ can make chat box match your website ○ made $59,000 last month adding to customer care ● HelpScout.com - integrates with snapengage - suggests products for customers ○ Built in knowledge base integrates with the help-desk ○ Keeps an ever-growing list of products for customer care agents organized so they can pull on the fly Affiliate Networks ● SkimLinks.com ● RevContent.com ● ClickBank - added 3.1 million to our revenue in 2015 ○ 200 million customers ○ 500,000 affiliates in network ○ remarketing Analytics ● HotJar.com - creates session recordings ○ improve form design to improve conversions ○ form analysis ○ heat maps (like crazy egg) ○ user surveys ● GoogleAnalytics.com ○ check acquisition → all traffic → source medium for new traffic channels ○ check for referrals ○ check behavior → behavior flow → site content → All pages to find best performing content ○ check sessions by hour to find best times to interact, post content, etc. with your visitors ● CrazyEgg.com 67
○ Heat Map: We found that a section of our home page got a lot of clicks, but didn‘t link anywhere. We added a link to a sales page and saw a 49% increase in DM lab sales from the homepage ○ Scroll Mapping: Find how far visitors scroll on your site ○ Confetti: Find out what people who come to your site from different traffic sources click on the most. ● Quettra - Mobile App Intelligence for Android + iOS Device Users ○ creates personas based on your audience demographics and deliver personalized content ● Grytics - Facebook Group Analytics + Management ○ Find when members are most active + Learn best times to interact with them and post ○ Reward Active members with ―Wall of fame‖ leaderboard for likes, comments, posts & Influence On Site Retargeting ● OptiMonk - contextual exit pops, scroll pops and hello bar ○ based on where visitors come from (FACEBOOK/Google) and the kind of content they are consuming ○ DigitalMarketer Used to Generate an additional 22,689 leads ○ Increased DM Lab sales by 30.22% ○ Decreased bounce rate by 8.52% and increased time on site by 35% ● Gleam.io - contests, social share rewards and on-site retargeting ○ single-step scroll pop lead capture form ○ T&C thank you page share requests > $69105 Organic Ticket Sales from FAcebook & Twitter ○ Double your sales campaign for sharing lead Magnets Live Chat ● SnapEngage ○ Easy to capture and export leads ○ Great integrations with other solutions (i.e. HelpScout) ○ Customize the look and feel to match your websites ● Google Tag Manager - TagManager.Google.com ○ add new code to your site without dev team (gleam, hotjar, Facebook pixels, adwords pixels) ○ Add & update tags on your website & mobile apps ○ used to set up sequence in GTM to get accurate ecommerce data measuring campaign effectiveness from purchase to final upsell
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Research ● StatisticBrain.com ● SearchEngineLand.com / MarketingLand.com ● Intelligence.BusinessInsider.com ● DigitalMarketer.com ● VerticalWebMedia.com Conversion Optimization ● VisualWebsiteOptimizer.com ○ A/B + multi-variant split testing ○ Case studies on the DM blog ○ Recommended over Optimizely because DM found that Optimizely slowed some of their sites significantly ● EmailOnAcid.com - checks appearance of emails across all formats, all devices ○ Link / image validation - never send broken link again ○ defeats image blocking with ―mozify‖ styled text replacement feature for blocked images Tip: Run a split Test Calendar and track conversions in a spreadsheet Reporting ● WickedReports.com ○ Gives easy-to-understand reports based on UTMs that connects directly to Infusionsoft. ○ More of a closed system than ecommerce reporting in GA. It‘s how they measured Gleam‘s effectiveness on revenue ○ Connect your Email, PPC, Social & CRM data in one place Project Management ● GetFlow.com - turns chats into tasks - very visual ● Blossom - SCRUM project development ● Podio - for tech groups. Creates separate web-apps for calendars, Gantt Charts, Agile SCRUM Boards, Kanban Boards, Etc. ● Slack - for intra-company communication Lead Gen/ Email Deliverability ● BriteVerify - real time email verification ● OpinionStage - quizzes, polls, lists ● ContestDomination.com - added $100k / month to DM revenue (CameraGiveaways.com) 69
● Qzzr.com - creating and embedding quizzes ○ Export to CRM + Segment Base on replies to personalize for highly targeted Follow-up ○ Adds calls to action to end of quiz to drive traffic to opt-in + tripwire pages, boost Facebook likes, etc. ● LeadSift - helps target correct audience ● Socedo - Automated Social media lead generation ● KeyHole - tracks hashtags Productivity ● Gliffy - For charting out funnels & Flowcharting offers. Also helps with QA having everything linked and viewable ● Balsamiq.com - Rapid Wire-framing tool. Gets business team, developers, and designers on the same page before development starts ● moqups.com - Another quick mockup tool ● grammarly.com - checking articles for grammar and originality ● Copyscape - For QA + Legal liability reduction checking content prior to publishing and finding other people's content that infringes on yours ● Piktochart - Quickly and easily make beautiful graphs, charts, and infographics. ● FreePik.com - free vector graphics Hiring & HR ● Workable.com ○ For hiring, posts to top 15 career sites, creates career center, tracks entire process of hiring ● TimeDoctor.com ○ Monitoring & Improving employee performance ● TestDome.com ○ Tests programmers before you hire them QC, De-Bugging Tech ● Bugherd - sticky notes on webpage ● Loader - test that your page isn‘t going to crash ● Twilio - appointment reminders, 2-factor authentication Fulfillment ● ShipStation - Integrates with everything; Amazon, Shopify, Magento, LimeLight, SKUVault, etc. ○ Integrates with all major shippers: DHL, FedEx, USPS, UPS ● SKUVault - inventory management 70
● ShipGooder - finds best shipping rates Facebook Tools ● AdExpresso - get more money from your FACEBOOK ads with less work - gives you ad variations and split test them and make the best ones show up * things to test slide - request ● LikeAlyzer ● Adsviser.io - facebook ads spy ● AudienceDrill.co ● ConnectLeads.io ● Qwaya ● DriftRock Instagram ● IconoSquare ● Curalate ● Soldsie.com ● Candidio ● OlaPic ● PixLee Email ● Maropost - best solution at enterprise level ○ EmailDelivered - medium solution up from GetResponse ● OuttaTimr - countdown timer in email ● Robomail - if people don't open your emails, put them on Robomail for ―spam‖ emails without burning your main lists Highest Impact Split-Tests Ranked in Order of Impactfulness 1. Countries 2. Precise Interests 3. Images 4. User OS 5. Age Range 6. Genders 7. Broad Categories 8. Titles 9. Cities 10. User Device 11. Body Copy 71
12. Sexual Preference 13. Relationship Status 14. Regions 15. Education 16. Language
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KEYNOTE: Gary Vaynerchuck Gary‘s first success online came in 1996 with the creation of his WineLibrary.com ecommerce site. By 1997, he had a 200,000 person email wine newsletter with a 91.2% open rate and a 61% click rate. His newest venture is figuring out how to ―systematically ruin Snapchat.‖ Branding is important! Most people at Traffic & Conversion Summit are in the sales business - trying to get more sales. Fewer are in the marketing / branding business, even though it is just as important. Gary gets paid $80k to speak. Other speakers get $4k. Why? That‘s called Brand. Not everyone is charismatic - you don‘t have to build personal branding. You can make real money building brands around your businesses. If you are good at branding, you build wealth instead of just being rich. Are you willing to take 20% of your ad investments to build brand? In 36-48 months, your brand will bring you wealth - if you are good at branding. Gary‘s businesses are successful because he‘s not worrying constantly about profit - he makes every dollar work at building brand. Eyes and ears are the only thing that matters. Big companies don‘t know if their branding is converting. Smaller businesses can track conversions. You need both - branding and conversions People are advertising in the wrong places. The real place to market is online / social media.
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People are watching television on their time - and fast forwarding through all commercials. If they are not fast forwarding, it is because people are not paying attention. They are on their phones. Daytrade attention (arbitrage attention) - direct mail still works, but it‘s overpriced. Facebook ads can be used about direct mail and make exponentially more. Outdoor media is not as effective as it used to be - people are looking at their phones. So why have billboard prices gone up? ● Twitter is not as effective as it used to be. ● Google ad clicks are down 19% over the past year. ● Facebook is more valuable today than it will be in a year. Technology is taking over - society is ―down-aging.‖ The popular social media sites will follow where the youth are going. They were the first on Facebook and parents / grandparents followed. Now they are on Snapchat. Google AdWords → Facebook → Snapchat People keep their phone within reach 24 hours a day. 53% of phone attention is spent on social networks. Cell phones now… are the televisions of the 60‘s.. in the 60‘s, television was the radio of the 30‘s. Reverse engineer that attention and sell something. If you understand who you are selling to, find the most cost effective way to make a commercial (ie video). If someone watches your whole 4 minute video, you can retarget to them… and it converts. Snapchat is about getting attention Facebook bought Instagram to keep the younger crowd. Facebook tried to buy Snapchat two years ago. Many people are ignoring Snapchat because you can‘t track transactions. 74
Snapchat is the platform that Gary uses to make more sales and get people to do things better than any other platform… and he just started 45 days ago. You can‘t see conversion stats, but branding matters and the attention is there. Businesses can use Snapchat - funny guy in the office, product demo Google: How to use Snapchat Resources: ● AfterSchool app - ―high school Facebook‖ ● Musically.com - data from the music business ● Ground Signal - get mini influencers Instagram is killing in sales of products from $20-$100. It is the modern day version of print magazines for females ages 15-35. Focus on influencers and fashion in that space and see if you can work with them to help promote your product and or service. Look at yourself to see where you are on the pendulum of sales and marketing. The closer you are to 50% content / 50% selling the better. You have to look for the next big thing - pay attention to where attention is going. Don‘t get too attached about how you have made money - things will change. If you use to make money on Google, and they make changes… see where the attention has gone and where it is shifting to. If the attention goes away, figure out the next thing. The attention goes somewhere, and that‘s where the money is. Evaluate yourself - know what you‘re good at. It doesn‘t matter if you ―get‖ Instagram or Snapchat. If you market to the younger demographic, that‘s where their attention is. 150 million users a day are on Snapchat watching videos. Videos - you have to create your video FOR the platform it will be on. The first three seconds are the most important. That plus correct targeting. 75
Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat are ABC, NBC and CBS. Gary thinks of himself as the M.A.S.H. and Friends. Q: How do I sell more books? A: Know the worth of your brand. Offer deals if someone buys multiple copies. ―If you buy 2 books, you get ____. If you buy 5 books, you get _____, etc. (Example: Crush It)‖ Email everyone on your email list, based on your relationship. Do the non-scalable things. If you don‘t have width (large following), you need to use depth (skills and influence)
A: Would you move to Snapchat if you were an orthodontist trying to find new clients? Q: The mothers are probably making that decision, and mothers of teenage children are still on Facebook. Their attention is there, so you should be there. Go where the attention is.
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The New Model for Monetizing Content and Building Great Brands Ryan Deiss / Perry Belcher
Last year I made a bold prediction… The future of ecommerce is MEDIA! I talked about how the web doesn‘t need more Walmarts or Amazon It needs more of these… Bass Pro Shop - pond with fish in the fishing section for you to try out your new fishing rod and reel (enjoyable shopping experience)
Case Study: Thrillist.com In 2009 they generated 8 million in revenue. In 2010 they bought an ecommerce site JackThreads.com.
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Thrillest was able to grow quickly because they had already done the hard work of gathered the crowd. This proved the power of ―owned media.‖ It proved that content and commerce were the future of business. Then, just months later, Thrillest and JackThreads raised $54 million and split into separate companies. Fortune: Here‘s the Problem with Trendy E-Commerce Businesses ―Content and Commerce, a trend that peaked so fast it’s more of a blip than a fullfledged fad. The idea—tacking an editorial operation onto a store—failed to increase profits for most startups, and last year the leader of the pack, Thrillist, split its ecommerce and media businesses.‖ Fortune R.I.P. Content and Commerce ―Today, with the split of Thrillist and JackThreads, content and commerce officially died. Thrillist might have been the only company still carrying the content-and-commerce torch. Since the trend emerged, many of the media companies that waded into commerce found that shipping, inventory, logistics, fulfillment, and customer support is too complicated to execute.‖
Well crap, now what do we do?
Fortunately, we choose to side with data instead of journalists. We chose to keep doing what was working instead of what was ―hip and cool.‖
In 2013, we began testing the model we call native commerce.
2013 - $1 million in sales 2015 - $7 million in sales We wanted to talk about it Traffic & Conversion Summit 2014, but we were negative net at that time. In 2015, net profits began to rise, hitting $1 million in net profit. 78
2016 Goal: $50 million in native commerce profits. Why everyone else is WRONG… Fact: ―Content and Commerce‖ is not actually a new business model. This is what Disney has been doing forever. The experience is magical… and the rides all exit into a gift shop. Other examples: Starbucks / Apple / Harley Davidson - how people express their identity It‘s NOT about slapping a blog on an ecommerce site. It‘s NOT about slapping a t-shirt site or CafePress page on a blog. It‘s about building real community and serving that community with real brands. It‘s about aggregated attention and helping your target market / community out. Resource: The Information: A History, A Theory, A Flood - James Gleick ―When information is cheap, attention becomes expensive.‖ Media is anything that aggregates the attention of a definable market segment into a specific location at a predictable time. We aren‘t just marketers, we are Attention Aggregators.
The Formula Build a tribe → engage with the tribe → market to the tribe Native Commerce - Matching passion with commerce
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(This concept wouldn‘t work for Bass Pro Clothing because people aren‘t passionate about clothing - they are passionate about fishing.) The mission: Associate 10 Million people around what they find fun and interesting by the end of 2020. Affinity - not just eyeballs. Big news sites have lots of eyeballs, but those eyeballs don‘t all self-identify as a unified group. Whereas if you have a website like NRA.com you not only have traffic and eyeballs but also know what those eyeballs are most interested in. Community - not just content. People come for the commerce and stay for the content. It‘s about exclusive brands - not ―me too‖ affiliate offers. (Example: Hoffman Richter knife brand that was created by Ryan Deiss ) Use your “owned media” to birth other media properties. Survival Life → DIY Ready → Makeup Tutorials Through research Ryan and Perry were able to see that customers who visited Survival life were also interested in do it yourself projects. So they took that owned media traffic of Survival Life and used it to help build DIY Ready. Then they took that traffic and
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noticed a large percentage of them were interested in makeup. Again they used their owned media to birth their Makeup Company. Example: Swiss Colony figured out that after Christmas, people bought other things besides just their product. They started selling gardening supplies, home decor, etc. They became customer focused rather than product focused. Native Commerce turns the media world upside-down. Most people have a content site and eventually try to sell something or get them to join a community. Native Commerce starts with a tripwire offer BEFORE starting a media property. They do NOT launch a content site until after they prove an interest with an offer.
For instance they would not start a new survival brand without first testing various offers to ensure they could easily identify the end user and build a community around them. A low-risk tripwire offer that defines the passion of the audience you want to build a community around. Example: credit card knife (free with shipping) → membership offer (free bigger knife when you join) → exit to community (SurvivalLife.com - and we email them twice a day)
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When someone buys something from you, they give you a little bit of attention. We are leveraging digital to build real-life brands. Once you have them on your list in your community, you can send them anywhere to buy things. (Example: Amazon, Clickbank) Send people to the sales pages, and prime the pump to get good sales rankings. Our next step: taking the product to physical stores (knife to Bass Pro Shops, Walmart, etc) 91% of discretionary income is spent within 5 miles of the home.
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Brand Alchemy: Build REAL Brands For Your Media Properties and Products That Will Outlive You Perry Belcher and Jeremy Gee
―A company with no brand is like a person with no face… they are very hard to get to know.‖ Your company or brand name should tell you audience who you are and what you do.
Naming Goals: ● Media Brands - go for keyword dominance (SEO) ● Commerce Brands - you don‘t have to use keywords, make it sound like it could be a physical store ● Products - create trust and familiarity (Maslow's hierarchy of needs physiological, safety, love / belonging, esteem, self-actualization)
Create a brand diamond: ● Rational benefits - function (physical elements), process (ease of use), customer experience (how the brand is delivered) ● Presence - marketing activities (what the brand says), brand presentation (how the brand looks) ● Emotional benefits - internal (how it makes me feel), external (what it says about me), perceived value (do I get what I pay for?) ● Intangible benefits - origin (history of the brand), reputation (what is the brand known for), personality (brand‘s character), evolution (where can the brand go) Don‘t start with your logo - do the logo last. People buy things and use things that remind themselves and tell others who they are.
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Example: Tip jars where people get to vote with their money between two options (who would win - Donald Duck or Daffy Duck… Iron Man or Batman)
People want to tell you who they are and what they stand for. Create a brand that makes people feel proud of who they are. 2016 Plan for Native Commerce Media - create media properties built around news, food, men‘s, pets, sports, outdoor, entertainment, business, women‘s, home and garden “How do I get the friggin domain I want for my brand?” Your domain is your biggest location - spend money to get a good address (URL). DigitalMarketer.com owns 2,400 domains. Here is where they find them: (from least to most expensive)
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● Expired domains - FreshDrop.com (shows recently expired domains), RegisterCompass.com (find domains with backlinks, pagerank, traffic) SurvivalLife.com was an expired domain they registered for $9 on GoDaddy. ● Auction domains - TDnam.com (GoDaddy auctions) SnapNames.com (find already taken and expired names - they can grab a domain as soon as it expires) NameJet.com (most successful at grabbing a domain as it ends) Pool.com ● Premium domains - Using a broker to get a domain you really want JustDropped.com ($60-$70) FabulousDomains.com ($1,500-$4,000) BuyDomains.com ($5,000-$10,000) Mark.com (domains for rent homesteading.com $350 x 12 months - $50,000 buyout at the end of 12 months) Sedo.com (have a lot of domains), DomainNameSales.com (best domains - Alan Crowe is Perry‘s broker) ● Live market domains - Find someone who already is using a domain and is ranking on Google. Offer to buy their site for what you would pay for the domain… and be ahead of the game - even better if they have an out-of-date copyright - or a list (look for an optin form) Ask to test the list before you buy. You may be able to make enough to buy the site just doing that. Estibot.com - values domains
A Billion Dollars in Free Branding Research Study magazines! Look for logo styles, colors at big magazines in the industry. Belcher bought GetRid.com for a pest spray company. Before choosing his logo and branding, he looked at Raid, Hot Shot, Black Flag, etc. - send this to your logo designer to show what you want. Logos are letters - most large companies don‘t have an image. WordMark.it - go to dafont or fontsquirrel and download the 100 most popular fonts. WorkMark will show what your logo looks like in every font on your computer. Send this to logo designer also. 99designs.com - if you don‘t have a design team
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Crowdspring.com - like 99designs.com If you didn‘t get the domain you REALLY wanted, improve your site and you can move to better domain later. Improve Your Land If you have physical products, constantly improve them. The Hoffman-Richter knife improves over time based on customer feedback. The packaging has also improved over time - from a plain box to a shrink-wrapped box with a stamped silver logo. It‘s the hardest time to get the first sale online - It‘s the easiest time to get report sales if you do it right.
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Death To Churn: A 90-Day Plan to Reduce Refunds, Increase Stick, and Convert Customers into Raving Fans Richard Lindner
Keeping more of the sales you’re already making - our tests plus research show that first 90 days after a purchase are critical. For the first 30 days focus on consumption, little victories, micro-commitment, social proof for your customers. Give them hope show them what the future looks like…then prove it! Day 1 -7: on-boarding, consumption and little victory ● Strategy #1: Email walkthrough video the day after product is sent. Resource: walkme.com ● Strategy #2: Evernote‘s simple but useful onboarding emails—one to model your walkthrough video ● Strategy #3: The one-on-one walkthrough where schedule a test drive or a GoToMeeting to help customers use the product and fully understand its power. Now it‘s time for a micro-commitment & social proof. Get new members to post on FACEBOOK post inside a community and get them to reply to that post. You have to encourage that and celebrate when they do. Day 15 - 30: Focus on Social Proof - show them testimonials, and reward them for leaving a testimonial on social media. If you have an online community or forum, tell older members to go congratulate new members when they arrive and/or accomplish something.
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The Second 30 days Get measurable results. You have to determine measurable results for your product or service. Once you do set that as a goal for your customers to accomplish within the first 90 days of owning your product / service. When they achieve that result, or get close to it, have them document it in some way and share it with you and others. Have them share on social networks using specific hashtags. Instruct them- be specific to give them confidence and show them how far they have come since owning your product. The Third 30 Days Encouraging advocacy with your brand. Have them share your product or service with others and share what it has done for them. Get more testimonials and proof of results, reward action takers and continue to show new people what is possible. It‘s almost impossible for someone to cancel after they sold all their friends on why they should join. The more you can get people to use your product or service, the better their chances of getting results, sharing those results with others and proving that your brand is the solution to their problems.
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How to Convert More Clients and Build the Most Powerful Agency in the World Ryan Deiss
DigitalMarketer has launched a certification program and is interested in pairing with agencies. Its goal is to share its expertise with 10,000 small businesses. A powerful agency is one that gets more clients who are easier to manage and who pay you a lot more money to do work you actually enjoy doing. The most powerful person in the world isn‘t who you think. Maybe you‘d imagine it‘s the President of the United States. But no. It‘s Captain Ronny Jackson, MD, ―White House Doctor.‖ We give doctors and physicians have enormous power, and completely control their situation and people. Dr. Jackson has this amount of power even over the President. Your goal is to become the situational alpha with your agency. Tip 1: Establish a carefully choreographed client on-boarding process Have you ever watched Jerry Seinfeld‘s stand-up about waiting rooms and their careful choreographing? Take a cue from him, and ask yourself what your process is. DigitalMarketer‘s client on-boarding process is Customer Value Optimization. Step 1: Deliver great content = webinar, presentation, etc. This is leading to an offer to provide the explained expertise, or offer for free consult. No matter the subject matter, the close comes at the end of presentation. After they‘re done with the content, THEN ask audience a question – ―What are you going to do with this information? If you‘ve done this sort of thing before but have trouble implementing, ask yourself how you‘re going to use the information.‖ 89
Then you build a bridge for them to another presentation/webinar. Step 2: Walk through the 73-point checklist In a presentation, tell everyone how many steps there are to improve/grow every business. Outline one and give a short introduction to the entire checklist. Specificity is important, so use a checklist – then clients can self-assess their situation; seeing your steps, they become hopeful for change and that you can help make that change possible. Then, calculate the new opportunities for your clients and frame them with a positive outcome. Your clients should be looking forward to improvement that they can see. Your checklist gives them a place to start. Step 3: Determine low-hanging fruit opportunity What a client wants you to do isn‘t always what they need, and sometimes you need to manage this temptation. What you should do is hold off doing the thing the client wants by saying that you‘ll do what they need first. With this, you agree with what people want, but prioritize what they need. If the client leaves, all you‘ve lost is a pain-in-the-ass client who is difficult to manage and won‘t follow your advice anyway. It‘s important to filter out the crazy clients, in order to streamline for your own business and give yourself room to grow. Step 4: Deliver a ―little victory‖ a la carte service Give them a small result off the bat, not just data. They will see that you‘re worth paying. Step 5: Sell your core service offering (start with questionnaire to find out what their needs are) Step 6: Deliver core service (start with questionnaire to find out what their needs are) 90
Step 7: Delight and repeat
Tip 2: Prescribe the solution Be authoritative and take charge of the situation. Don‘t ask them what they want, tell them what they need. Every business needs a basic automated follow-up process to show your clients. It should quickly deliver the ―little victory‖ so that the client realizes your potential to help them. If your prospects have an unconverted list of leads, you‘re building their business for them. This isn‘t your job, so think about turning them down because of how much risk and work doing this involves. There are already so many businesses that have more than just an idea that you don‘t have to start their businesses for them. Look for established business that you can quickly help and achieve a fast win for them that helps position you as the person they need to work with. In the above example you could work with one of the two businesses. Business #1 is just someone with an idea and maybe a few email addresses. Business #2 is someone with a product or service, with an email list that you could quickly help create an autoresponder sequence in or help with a flash sale that shows immediate results.
Tip 3: Be on-board like a generalist, but prescribe (and charge) like a specialist You can contract out the specifics that you‘re not equipped to handle, and we can help you with that.
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What DigitalMarketer offers to affiliates: ● ● ● ● ● ●
Tools and strategies to get more clients Press release templates Opportunities to get more clients and increase your conversion rates Opportunities to increase sales of existing clients Access to our ―machine‖ = campaign templates Access to DigitalMarketer HQ = all certifications available in one area (otherwise $295) ● An opportunity to re-sell DigitalMarketer certifications to your clients ● A 2-page marketing plan ● A listing on Certified Partner directory of DigitalMarketer.com with location search function Client Filters You should not take on a client if the client won‘t do what you say, or the client doesn‘t have a list/database. You can always create a tripwire offer that serves to diagnose your clients as manageable or not before taking them on. If a business has no unconverted leads, it‘s not a problem as long as they sell more than 1 product. There‘s an exception to taking an unorganized business – if they do have large funds, it may be worth it to you. Using surveys and reviews on your clients can be a subset of your offerings.
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The New SEO: 5 Types of Content Google Simply Can‘t Resist Perry Belcher and Jayson Matthews
Earned media is 100% worth it! iSpionage shows you how much keywords are worth per click on Google. ● Example: Fashion = $2.55 ● Example: Investing = $10.87 ● Example: Makeup = $4.34 Let‘s take a keyword that is worth $0.24 cents. If you rank #1 for that keyword and get 5.676 visitors per day in organic traffic. You save $1,362.24 a day over people advertising for that keyword. That comes out to $497,217.60 per year. Make ranking easier by getting an important keyword in your domain. $313,253,293 = annual organic traffic value for DigitalMarketer because they own DigitalMarketer.com The Lift, The Float, and the Dead Cat Bounce Copywriting is important for SEO. DigitalMarketer uses 5 X 5 Navigation to create content - 5 categories across the top, and 5 sub-categories under each main category. How does Google know your page is good? ● Click through rates – write copy to get clicks from the homepage to inside your website 94
● Headlines really matters –test your headlines constantly ● Scroll rates—they can‘t buy if they can‘t see the buy button, go to codepen scroll arrow to help increase your scroll rates. ● Time on page—people will not give you money if they don‘t spend time on your page. ● Write subject lines that command reader attention. ● Create original content. ● Use videos and lots of photos to keep people on your site and engaged in your content. ● Make your videos long and in-depth to show your customers how to use your product or service. ● Bounce rate –please don‘t leave me. Put options on your homepage so they don‘t leave. ●
Grammar and Spelling—Use Grammarly.com to help you improve grammar when writing online
● Quality links, Relevant images, Social shares, Captions, Author Authority all help keep customers on your website longer and improve your SEO score as a result.
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Social Selling: Generate Leads and Customers (and Retain The Ones You Have) Using Social Media Russ Henneberry
Ascension / Retention Ascension - using social media to graduate a prospect / customer from one stage of the funnel to the next Lead Capture → Sales Page → Order Form → Upsell → Thank You Retention - using social media to reduce churn and increase purchase frequency Social Media is one traffic source you can use to get people to enter your funnels. Employ ―value first‖ offers - lead magnets, tripwires and flash sales to make a deposit with customers and provide immediate value to them. It‘s creepy to propose marriage (ask for the sale) in social channels - and it rarely works as the first transaction. Use social channels to build Know, Like, Trust with potential customers. #1 - Lead with Value Send them to an ungated offer like a blog post - don‘t ask for anything (even an email) in order to read the blog post but pixel them when they hit the content so you can market to them later. You could also send them to a gated offer (like a webinar or a white paper) - things that get an email – before they are able to consume the content. You could also try a deep discount offer - two for one, $10 software, ridiculous deals (not about profit, it‘s about leads and buyers) example: Groupon DigitalMarketer does this with their inexpensive software, SurvivalLife.com does it with their credit card knife. Use value-first offers to drive traffic out of social media and to your website or platform.
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#2 - Embed Offers in Content Lead them to an ungated offer of content (like a blog post), but then embed an offer in the content for them to purchase or join (a deep discount offer or webinar). #3 - Upsell from Deep Discounts For every group of buyers, some percentage would have bought more. Offer a deep discount for a limited time (flash sale). Example: DigitalMarketer offered Fresh Key software for $10
Upsell from that offer - this is where you make money #4 Segment & Retarget A click from social media indicates interest and intent - pixel them when their reach your page. Create custom audiences for each interest you might be going after. The visitor segments themselves by what they click. Retarget them based on their interests. Example: People who read an article on YouTube ad types may buy a product on how to steal your competitor‘s traffic with YouTube ads. 97
Example: People who read ―How we grew a blog from ZERO to $6 million‖ may opt in to get 212 blog posts ideas. Retention and Social Media - Keeping the Customers You Already Have and Making Them Come Back for More When we talk about retention and media, we are really talking about customer service. 67% of customers turn to social media for customer service. If you don‘t respond, you can lose 15% of sales. If you do respond, there is a 20% chance they will become a repeat customer.
#1 - The Customer Service Feedback Loop Community member voices issue → respond with a ―you‘ve been heard‖ response in less than 12 hours and try to have a resolution in fewer than 24 hours. Lowe‘s sends commenters to a Rant or Rave feedback app. Your customers are talking about all sorts of things… Make sure everyone on your team is part of the customer service feedback loop. Tag whoever is the best to respond to each issue.
#2 - Use the 3-step customer service process Step 1: Respond in a timely manner. (77% of customers say valuing their time is the best way a company can provide customer service) This is where the Feedback Loop comes into play. Have a team member actively monitoring social media platforms and when someone expresses a concern or frustration, have them respond or tag the appropriate person to help the customer. Use Empathy - agree that you‘d feel the same way if you were in their shoes (Example: We understand you had a bad experience, we understand that ―-----‖ is very important, etc.)
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Then ask the person to send you a private message with more information so you can help them. Any company with solid social customer service in place will use this plan.
#3 - Use social listening tools Take a look at all the places a customer can be talking about your brand. Google Search: The Conversation Prism 31% of Tweets don‘t contain the Twitter handle of the company they are talking about. There are ways to listen to social media. ● HootSuite.com - entry-level searchable tool monitors your social medias ● Mention.com - mid-level tool that monitors streams - listen for keywords ● Radian6.com - enterprise-level tool to monitor social media
#4 Build Private Communities Platform and purpose are the two most important factors to consider before starting an online community. ● Drive sales ● Acquire customers If you want to retain customers, private communities are awesome. Private community = exclusivity (criteria to become member - example: War Room) If you want a large group, make criteria easy to meet. If you want high loyalty, retention, make criteria harder to meet. ● Example: VIP members ● Example: DM Engage - (members only) 99
● Example: Triathlon Training for Real People Private communities increase retention, reduce refunds and increase customer satisfaction. Private communities can be branded - they are your property. Resources: Book: Community Management for Dummies Discourse community by FeverBee myCMGR.com
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How to Generate at Least 25 Leads a Day (Every Day) for Your Agency Jason Swenk
Is your main source of revenue referrals? Do you have a long sales cycle? Are you taking on the wrong clients? Either you have bad prospects or a bad process. Right now you have a partner that can easily mislead you. This partner is hope (that you‘ll get business, referrals, etc.) Instead of hope, you need the right system. Don‘t model after others who represent where you want to go, but instead find out how they got there.
Market Breakdown ● ● ● ● ●
3% = Active market, the people looking for you, crowded market 7% = Open to working with you 30% = Not yet open to working with you 30% = Market unconscious of you 30% = Clients who will never work with you
Your opportunity is with to the 67% of clients in the middle. Gated Strategy vs Un-Gated Most people think they need to start with an un-gated strategy. Small businesses & B2B are not target markets. 102
If your model isn‘t working, you are a ―Me Too Agency‖ – not what you want to be.
Step 1: Be specific on who you are Target and uncover their challenges. For example, you might be looking at Facebook and wanting to copy their success. But instead of trying to copy what Facebook is doing, look at the origins of Thefacebook.com. What originally made them successful? You can‘t build Rome in a day. Specialize at first, but create practice areas when you are small. Don‘t focus on you, focus on your clients and getting results for them. Use those results to help open yourself up for new business. Solving a challenge is the easiest way to get their attention. From the get-go on your website focus on your clients‘ concerns, not your company. When you pick a niche, you‘re just marketing to your niche. You can still take on work from other niches.
Step 2: Capture information Change your terminology – don‘t use the term ―Free Consultation.‖ Your clients know that ―free consultation‖ is just a sales pitch, and don‘t fill it out. Instead, on your site, offer to map out a personal blueprint for them, ask if they want it, and charge for the service. Don‘t have a section to subscribe to your system. When people see a form on a page, they assume you‘re taking something from them, so make them feel differently. Make people feel like you‘re giving them something in exchange for their information. 103
Instead, to get their email, offer them something ―cool‖ (information easily accessible) and take away something ―uncool‖ (having to dig through the website). Have optin pop-ups. Be specific about opt-ins – specific about what you‘re giving them when you‘re receiving something from them. On your ―About Page,‖ ask the clients questions, present a brief list of your qualifications, a brief bio, then have another opt-in. Ask yourself – How many opportunities are you missing out on? Look at your amount of monthly visitors and compare with number of leads. Your number of leads multiplied by your Conversion Rate multiplied by your Revenue per Client is your Lost Revenue. You don‘t have a trafficking problem, you have a targeting problem. Step 3: Paid “Targeted” Traffic When advertising on Facebook, keep your ads current and differentiate them for each specific customer you‘re trying to attract and do business with. Step 4: Progressive Profiling Not a lot of people are doing this yet. After someone has opted-in, don‘t have a thank you page. Instead, segment them – ask them what best describes them and then segment them based upon their answers. Why? It segments your list so the right people go into the right campaign. You can deliver the best content that‘s relevant to them. You determine who‘s on your list. With this information, break your campaigns into simple milestones that dynamically behave differently based on the user‘s engagement. 104
How to start: 1. Determine the last thing a prospect has to do before they will engage in your core offering. (Example: Calling you on the phone) 2. List out all the decisions they need to make in order to get them to the end of the sales process. 3. Every decision is a milestone, and every milestone has a contingency (plan B). 4. Contingencies lead to other campaigns bolted together. Milestone marketing – usually people go straight from opt-in to the application process. What you can do: create an engagement series that educates them after the opt-in and gently nudges them towards the application process. It also removes the waste of time by pre-qualifying them based upon their actual interest in what you‘re currently offering. Don‘t use e-books! They take time to consume, and are hard to digest and if they don‘t digest them, they will never reach out to you to work together. Cheat sheets work very well because it saves their time. Your job is to provide value and help them achieve their end result. Don‘t base your decisions just on money, but instead long-term considerations and what you‘re able to actually help the client achieve. If the prospect doesn‘t engage in what you‘re offering, divert them into a contingency offer for something unrelated but interesting to them. If you‘re too busy, raise your prices until you free up some space for new clients, then fulfil their needs and raise your prices again.
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Don‘t worry if people aren‘t ready to hire you yet, your engagement series will do the work for you while they decide and if they end up not working with you, you will still have built up goodwill with them. Systems outperform talent every time, so make sure you have a great system in place that is repeatable and trackable. Always ask the prospect what they‘re looking for, don‘t talk about yourself, to help establish trust and find out their real needs. It can be helpful to structure your client relationship by accepting an initial project and see if it‘s a good fit, then see about longer contracts between the two of you.
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How Boom Sells $1MM/ Month in Physical Product using Shopify, Facebook, and Instagram Ezra Firestone
Ezra’s Spending in the Last 30 Days ● ● ● ●
Facebook = $407,014.02 Instagram = $22,000.00 Google = $5,242.70 Pinterest = $0.00 (temporarily stopped Pinterest advertising)
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Total Spent: $434,256.72 Total Revenue Generated: $1,422,500.15 Profit Before Ad Spend: $810,825.08 Profit After Ad Spend: $376,568.365
About Ezra He builds multi-million dollar ecommerce brands and document the process. He‘s been driving traffic online for 10 years. He‘s spent millions on FACEBOOK and Google ads. He‘s spent $233k on Pinterest. He knows how to turn traffic into sales.
A little bit about BOOM! In society, men are valued for production. Women are valued for youth and beauty. Baby Boomers are having the collective experience of growing older, and people telling them that is bad. The Boom philosophy is about celebrating women for who they are now.
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On a recent trip to South America, Ezra and his wife gave up the routine of their daily lives and replaced it with NOTHING. He got perspective. When his mind went to business… he realized, every successful enterprise starts with one successful offer.
How Do You Get One Successful Offer? Visibility - people have to know that you exist. The Big Four - FACEBOOK, Instagram, Pinterest, Google Start with Facebook. We used to mainly have query based advertising (keywords). Now we have mainly contextual advertising (identity based advertising). The thing that makes contextual advertising work today is we have all the data points for targeting.
Three Most Common Ad Mistakes when Trying to Scale 1. Targeting too broadly - the success of your advertising hinges on your targeting. You are like an archer and need to hit the middle of the target. (50k - 500k audiences) Use interest and behavior STACKING - (Example: Women ages 45-65+ who purchase cosmetics and like fitness) Break out ad sets by placement - put all devices in different ad sets - try targeting to only iPad and only connected to wi-fi for example. Use geographic testing - California, Florida, Texas
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2. Not targeting the click - use upper third or lower third text with a face or cartoon Ad creative and landing page must be congruent with the ad they clicked on. If you have a cartoon in the ad, you need to have the same or similar cartoon on the page so the customer knows they are in the right place. Two goals for every ad 1. Frame the prospect 2. Get the click Tip: Rhyme in the text of the ad. 3. Post click engagement - post engagement selling - Engage prospects in a conversation - get them to say yes to consuming your sales message. It‘s all about flow - you need a yes at every step and have them subconsciously nodding their heads.
Most Effective Sales Funnel We Use Before visibility you need an effective sales process. It starts with 1 core front end customer acquisition funnel. Dipsy-Doodle and the Don Daliber We don‘t chase our prospects - we let them chase us. Target a group of people with FACEBOOK ads that lead to content. Example: 5 Top _____ Tips Have them consume the content before seeing an offer. Pop-up in browser visitor is in - for more content about ____, enter your email address. (Accountable for 6,553 email leads and revenue of $44,817)
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1st Email - thanks so much for joining the club. Here is a new video / content / etc. We also have retargeting ads for people who visit the page - send them to a video that is the same content they read before…. or retarget with same content piece. The above part of the funnel brought 25% of our revenue. Next we move on to the offer sequence. Drive people to category page → product page → shopping cart You can also drive to webinar signup or other offers. If someone leaves your store pages, offer them a coupon. (coupons are responsible for ⅙ of our sales) Your offer page / sequence must be optimized for conversion. People seem to be scrolling more these days. Longer-form pages with videos increases sales by 16%. Use product sales video + hero shots of the product + text above the fold! Use more than 1 sales video - Use one large video for your main sales letter. Use the smaller videos for 3rd parties pitching the product. Get customer video reviews by offering a $10 coupon in exchange for them. FameBit.com - hire someone to pitch product Check out page - ask for email address first (scrape this info - 68% of people who start to check out will abandon cart. If you got their email, you can write to them and say, you forgot to check out) Cart abandonment - send 1 email a day for 7 days How can you get a larger order value - upsell? ―Wait - your order is not complete. I‘d like to make a special offer.‖ You can see a 15-30% increase in front-end revenue when you add a one-click upsell that is relevant. 110
Thank You Page Incentivize sharing their purchase on social sites - FriendBuy (Shopify) - ―Share this with a friend and get a coupon.‖ Include a thank you video telling them what to expect next and asking them to join your FACEBOOK page. Have an email sequence setup ahead of time. ● ● ● ● ●
Thanks and welcome Pre-arrival excitement email Selfie Request - win $100 Survey request Video review request
Survey - People want acknowledgement, to hear that they are right, and someone to listen to them. Advanced Tip: combine win-back campaigns and promo ladders with surveys to encourage engagement When is someone MOST likely to buy again after a purchase? Within 60 days of their orginial purchase. After 60 days, we offer a discount to ―win them back.‖ Advanced Tip: Use behaviors to make specific offers ● ● ● ●
Bought X but didn‘t buy Y Opened but didn‘t Click Watched 25%, 50%, 75% of the video Send a PDF of the video to get them to consume your content in a different modality than the original content was created.
Key to Success = Consistency Keep showing up every day, taking the next step ahead of you. Repetition creates mastery - (example - Ms. Pac Man). If you keep doing something, you will get better at it. 111
It‘s not about how much you work - it‘s about what you produce while you work. It‘s not over until you decide it‘s over.
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Conversion Hacks: 10 Critical Tests You Should Be Running Justin Rondeau
1. Form field reduction landing page 2. Standard Call To Action (CTA‘s) vs. Active CTA clicks 3. Top left logo opt-in 4. Reducing options purchase 5. Single step opt-in 6. And free to CTA opt-in 7. Use numbers in headline opt-in 8. Use an image of a person opt-in 9. Add social proof purchase 10. Stop using a slider clicks
Resources: Instapage.com - create a landing page in just 3 minutes Unbounce.com - build and test landing pages without I.T.
Other Things to Test: ● Offer tests - product bundling, targeted messaging, benefit copy, DO NOT price test (if you have to - offer a coupon) ● Personalization Tests - this is a game changer. 56% of people will be using this, this year. You want to get the right offer, in front of the right person, at the right time. ● Geolocation tests - (different images, wording, etc) 113
● Source message page message match (easy implementation on a single URL) ● Shopping cart recovery/abandonment. ● Button colors and standard CTA‘s (call to action) Create multiple variations of ―duh‖ elements. Be sure to do Mobile only tests - one test per device type. Important thing to note about devices - a device will dictate behavior of the user. Don‘t think ―responsive‘ will solve your problem. Plan your sites, advertising, and content for desktop, mobile, and tablets.
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3 Things Successful Agencies Do That Ordinary Agencies Don't Chad Kerby
In his book Invisible Selling Machine , Ryan Deiss walks you through all 5 phases of the prospect/customer lifestyle, and shows how each step can be automated and perpetuated to invisibly convert strangers into friends, friends into customers and customers into raving fans. ● ● ● ● ●
Indoctrination Engagement Ascension Segmentation Re-engagement
3 Things Successful Agencies Do that Ordinary Agencies Don’t 1. Systems ―If you want something done right, create a process.‖ Think about this key to systems – compare them to brownies. When Kerby started working with Infusionsoft, he looked at the on-board indoctrination process of their most successful agent. When asked about the reason behind his success, Ramon said that his secret was just following ―the recipe,‖ like with brownies. Consistency is most important, as it puts you above the pack. 4 Elements of a System 1. 2. 3. 4.
Marketing system - generate a consistent flow of leads into the business Sales system - nurture, follow up, and conversion Fulfillment system - what you deliver in exchange for the customer‘s money Administration system - supports business functions 115
Look at all of these elements and grade yourself – don‘t be too self-critical. The point is to see where you can make improvements. Hyper-criticism will get in the way of progress. Regardless of where you are in your business, it‘s okay to stop and realize that you‘re not perfect. Always ask yourself where you can be better. Infusionsoft‘s system, for example, is a cycle of Attract Sell Wow Attract (Again).
2. “True” Partnering 7 Areas of True Partnership 1. Aligned Values, Mission, and Purpose 2. Focus on Need 3. Clear division of responsibilities 4. Understood accountability 5. Clear vision of success 6. Address misalignment quickly 7. Recognize and celebrate success – enhances motivation If any one of these things is deficient, you will come into conflict with your partner. Carefully consider this before entering into a partnership.
3. Mastering Automation ―In today‘s competitive environment, automation is not a luxury; it‘s a requirement for keeping a competitive edge. In fact, the benefits of automation are so numerous, you can‘t afford to ignore them.‖ – Entrepreneurship Magazine Purpose of Automation = to establish trust, educate, and convert. Make sure your automation fulfills each of the following requirements: Targeted; Timely; Relevant; Personalized; Building a Relationship
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Automation allows you to stay focused. Entrepreneurs are especially susceptible to losing focus, so automation is key. The definition of to nurture is to bring up, train, or educate. Automation will help you do this. There are 25 things every small business should automate. Text TANDC to 480-4284150; see the automated response with a follow-up and series of prompts; and you‘ll receive the 25 things, as well as see the benefits of an automated system.
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Sideways Listbuilding: How To Use Contest, Survey and Live Chat To Monetize Your Content and Build HighlyEngaged Lists Perry Belcher
When you don‘t have a lot of money, sometimes entering a new niche feels like stepping in front of a freight train because of the competition. Don‘t walk into the freight train - try sideways list building. ―Everyone has a plan until you get punched in the face.‖ - Mike Tyson You need to enter a market that has size and competition - there is no untapped market. “Nobody does just one thing…” Swiss Colony has grown because they are now selling a variety of things throughout the year instead of just selling treats at Christmas to their customers. The Magic of Affinity Markets We ran our Survival List list through TowerData.com - you get instant data back - age, gender, income, zip code and more. You also get a snapshot of your market - home market value, length of residence, net worth, marital status, presence of children, charitable donors You can also get interest data from TowerData.com- Are your customers interested in arts and crafts, books, business, health, news, etc? You can also get purchase data from TowerData.com - automotive, baby product, beauty, charitable donor, cooking, discount shopper, high-end brand buyer, home & garden, home improvement, outdoor, pets, sports, technology, travel Based on the data we received, we started the site DIYready.com.
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Sideways Traffic Value SpyFu.com - find out what people are paying to advertise for certain keywords According to Tower Data, 25% of my survival leads have a high net worth. Survival leads cost $0.52 per click. Investing advice leads cost $6.02 cents per click. So I buy 1,000 survival leads for .52 cents each = $520. In the process, I get 252 high net worth leads for free. $520 @ 80% ROI = $416 252 x $1,517.04 @ 50% ROI = $758.57 Total Immediate Value = $1,174 or 223% immediate ROI Other Keyword Values: ● ● ● ● ●
Survival - $.49 Gun carrier - $.85 DIY - $.19 Absolute Rights - $1.12 Absolute Wealth - $3.03
An example of sideways selling. Go into the golf niche, but sell luxury cars, properties, and financial services to those golfers because they are interested in those topics outside of the golf market. What‘s next for DigitalMarketer - wine, cigars, aviation, classic cars, sailing, tennis, golf ...because people with those interests are generally affluent. ● Wine = $0.38 a click ● Cigars = $0.19 a click If you are trying to reach people searching for ―business loan‖, you will pay $18.02 per click. Think about what else someone who needs a business loan will search to reach them for a lower cost. 119
● Startup - $0.42 a click Create a startup site because 25% of them will need a business loan. You can get clicks for ―dog breeds‖ for just $0.03. How do you make money from that? Create a free tripwire (dog tags). Then sell them pet insurance ($6.86 a click) Think about what people in your market are doing… when they aren‘t doing what you promote or sell. Run an affinity check on them and find out. Filters example: If you sell filters, you should also sell the metal vessels they go in. What else does your customer need? Makeup tutorials - $0.24 a click Makeup artist school $4.21 a click Could you get someone into your funnel with a few tutorial videos and then offer them a chance to attend a school as well?
5 Ways to PREDICTABLY Get Subscribers for FREE or Almost Free 1. Contests - ContestDomination.com/dm ($100 off business version) contest ads on FACEBOOK are VERY low cost per click - 1st email to them are contest results - Invite your friend by email and get more entries. Want more entries - post to FACEBOOK, Twitter, etc. It worked in all the niches we tried - Survival Life, DIY Ready, etc - 116.73% opt in rate for scrapbooking machine - 141.6% opt in rate for copper pot set. 2. Live Chat - SnapEngage.com (allows you to capture email addresses - customer must enter email to chat) EZ Texting - 31% conversion increase from adding chat tab Results: ● 4500-7500 high-quality leads per week 120
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Calls dropped from 3500 week to 2000 week Conversion rate increased 1-5% (modest) Q&A database is booming Current sales from CS from zero to $25,838 last week
3. Surveys - OpinionStage.com - slides up from the bottom (Trump survey - 30,000 leads - please enter your email to submit your vote and get the results) Email optin form in pop-up between landing page and order form. ● 477% increase leads ● 4.9% → 12.9% FE conversion rate ● 3.8% from 1st 3 autoresponders boost to 16.8% P.S. the purest way to get sideways leads is tripwires. DigitalMarketer has 1,823,726 new tripwire buyers since the last Traffic & Conversion Summit conference. We used to send one credit card knife for $4.95 shipping - now we send 3 credit card knives for $2.95 shipping. Our one offer that built Survival Life = credit card knife You are ONE offer away from making all the money you could ever want.
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Onsite Retargeting: How We Generated 22k Leads From Free Traffic Justin Rondeau & Molly Pittman
Only 2% of shoppers convert to buyers on the first visit—visitors who are retargeted are 70% more likely to spend money with you. DigitalMarketer.com uses a retargeting strategy. They‘ve generated 22,000 extra leads from traffic they already had. This works for anyone. Pick up that low hanging fruit. It’s all about segmentation. Give your audience three options / niche topics and have them choose one. (Example vegetarian, gluten-free, vegan) Now you know specifics about your customer and you can offer better options. And then, use retargeting to remarket to them. You can also use content to segment audiences by where they came from with the URL tag. (Social, AdWords, YouTube, eCommerce, Email marketing, Blog) Segmentation doesn‘t have to revolve around content. You can also use pictures in ads. (Example: showing how these shoes go with the bag you just bought). Run ads based on customer behavior. Retargeting - Reminding customers to take the next step, by giving them a little push towards the finish line. DM uses exit intent popups using OptiMonk Gleam.
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How on earth do you do this?! Universal campaign settings: 4 total campaigns - 1 generic and 3 content specific ● On-site for at least 15 seconds ● Only show 1 time ● Trigger on exit intent ● All ―yes‖ clicks linked to offer landing page Generic offer: new visitor, exclude blog posts, lab, and offer pages, exclude newsletter Specific offer: all visitors, URL contains FACEBOOK, excludes all other blog content, lab, and offer pages, exclude newsletter and paid traffic How we pull our numbers: ● Use UTM parameters to identify the campaign ● Check the thank you page ● Record unique page views ● Verify with Wicked Reports Different triggers = different results Overall DigitalMarketers single step scroll traffic offers had a higher conversion rate. Examples to get more traffic from what you already have: Offer discount for first time offer, save $10 on $50. How can you salvage the relationship before customer leaves? Corner pop up offer for new customers.
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Agency Success Panel - What We Wish We'd Done Differently the First Time Note: you don‘t have to go through all 8 of the DM Certifications before attending the one-day training in Austin (only the CEO one). So if you‘re considering the training session, don‘t let it get in the way. Panel = “How I Made 8 Clients Fall in Love with me in 30 Minutes” Ian Garlic, authenticWEB, @iangarlic This is how I generated $60,000 in revenue from 1 event after giving a 1 hour talk. During the talk, I told personal stories to connect with audience. I then geared them up to accept by negating their denials with one simple statement – ―That‘s great. I have excuses, too.‖ Everyone can plead excuses, but it‘s important to recognize that it doesn‘t matter what thinking goes into your decisions, ultimately you decide whether to act or not. They need to take action. I also addressed ―logical lies‖ (which also on one of my podcast), one of which is that ―they don‘t know who to choose.‖ Ultimately, it‘s their job to decide. At the end, I offered them 8 30 minute sessions to plan an ―About Me‖ video. All I talked about during their sessions was creating the ―About Me‖ videos (for $1300, worked as a tripwire to filter out bad prospects), but was approached by several of them for further work. It‘s important to realize that when you ask a client about themselves, they like you. By focusing on your client, you can provide them what they want.
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Double The Amount of Eyeballs on Your Offer-link Clicks Without Any Ad Spend Increase – Marketing Automation Wizard @markautowiz; Guillaume Cuillard What you may not yet realize is the potential of SMS campaigning. The average email open rate is 35-40% at best (and more around 15-26% on average in the US). However, SMS open rates are between 70-103% in the U.S. Our campaign goals were to, ―Meet your audience where they are (mobile phones),‖ as said by Gary Vaynerchuk. To do this, we built a PDF and had people opt-in via mobile phone to receive information. 80% of people chose to opt-in (25/30 people).
How We Doubled The Sales From Live Webinar Attendees Ross Walker, Ross Walker Online Marketing A client of ours has a history of great sales using live webinars, but wanted to close even more sales of people attending. One of your best tools can be to separate yourself from the pack. A great tool is to utilize SMS, which is beginning to be used in Canada and abroad. To do this, we used Infusionsoft Campaign Builder. Our process worked like this, given a sample client: Attended Webinar → Post Webinar Delay → Send SMS Offer Purchased Product
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Our SMS campaign functioned as a follow-up on people who watched webinar. However, if no cell phone is provided, then you can always use email. A sample SMS campaign is this: ―This is Ross. I added a LIMITED surprise bonus as an experiment. Simply REPLY if you are interested. Text STOP if you no longer wish to receive text messages from me.‖ Using the live SMS dashboard in FixYouFunnel, 1 sales person handled a few dozen conversations at once. Our end result was that we were able to double the number of webinar attendees.
3,212.79% ROI – Fill a High Price Program In A Small Niche Jeanna Pool, Marketing for Solos What can and does happen, is that when implementing DM style marketing for your own business (not just your clients‘ businesses as an agency), you can encounter several issues getting started. During this panel, I will talk about what we did for ourselves. We started out with no list. We were starting from 0, except for a handful of testimonials and a few referrals from Beta Program. What we wanted from this was to generate a list and to get more exposure about the program in the niche. Our plan was to accept 12 new clients and implement a 12-month coaching program. What we did was we created ―epic content,‖ with a combination of a simple lead magnet video (slides! not even a talking head) and a ―Blog Launch‖ of only 6 articles, not the full funnel, and not completely built out. Our video was built from the simple template of ―Join me in congratulating‖ (Wicked Smart: Facebook video ad) (part of DM‘s ―Machine‖)
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At the end of the video, we gave an offer, which led into the application and then the phone interview. Our result was 191 new leads (from a list of exactly 0). Our Facebook audiences totaled 8799 from the video, and 1100 website visitors. We spent $4,419.24 on Facebook ads, and received 16 application of which we accepted 11 as a good fit. Be your own best client! Take what you do for your clients and use it for yourself. Your method doesn‘t have to be perfect to work really well.
Ask, Create, Sell, and Deliver 10 X Josh Marsden, CVO Acceleration, Online Sales Funnels I specialize in strategizing and optimizing sales funnels with specific clients. Your first step is to ASK. I recently read a book, Ask., by Ryan Levesque which talks about the importance of this. It‘s important for you to realize the value of market research. Taking this information, I asked Ryan Deiss what to do. His advice was simple: ―Get them on the phone and sell them something.‖ Then we made a Funnel acceleration success course – BETA. This provided accountability, easy to understand steps, feedback and support, conversion tips, funnel optimization. Then what you do is DELIVER.
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The lesson to take away from this is that going to your customers and finding what they want is very powerful.
How To Get Paid $1000 An Hour Without Breaking A sweat Dave Albano, CEO and Founder, JOZA Marketing, @DaveAlbano, [emailprotected] Seeing this amount of success is largely dependent on your mindset going in. So here‘s the breakdown of what I did to get paid $1000 an hour: I got very clear on my target market, then I went where they hang out (a conference I was invited to). I delivered massive value in advance by giving audience members on the spot hot-seats. With this, I taught them the CVO process, which got them to approach me. Once their interest was already secured, I was able to set my rates. Because they were impressed with me and I got them to make the approach, they fully believed that I deserved the rate. Another method to create interest are flash sales. They convert previously unconverted leads. Dave used this process and got a 1400% increase.
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KEYNOTE: Scaling Up Verne Harnish
Book: Mastering the Rockefeller Habits (the reason Deiss is in business today) Book: Scaling Up: How a Few Companies Make it… and Why the Rest Don‘t Book: The Greatest Business Decisions of All Time Many companies start up - but not many scale up. What are the barriers? Marketing Effectiveness Book: Relationship Marketing - Regis McKenna Verne cold called Regis and gave him his elevator speech, asking for help. Regis taught him that the key to marketing is this… Spend 1 hour a week to focus on brand and marketing. Then he asked a question, ―Who are your top 25 influencers that you have to get behind your venture to get it to scale? During your hour each week, figure out how to get those people behind you.‖ Verne‘s list included Ronald Reagan, Steve Jobs, Michael Dell - and within 3 years he had a conference that included those people. Who are the top 5 influencers that come to mind when you think of the best people to back your idea / product? Your first question should always be a ―who?‖ question. You should never be the smartest person in a room. Steve Jobs - ―The computer is like a bicycle for the mind.‖
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You have to have a passion for what you‘re doing, because it‘s hard. If you don‘t love it, you won‘t be successful… because you won‘t persevere when it gets tough. Scaling Up 1. Passion / Obsession with What You‘re Doing 2. Purpose Behind What You‘re Doing 3. Persistence Apple and Starbucks Both Hit Their 10x Success after 25 Years in Business. Scaling up a significant business requires DISCIPLINE and FOCUS. Catch the wave by knowing where the markets are right now. Don‘t get sucked into operational tasks. Spend 80% on market-facing activities. Have your team all get on the same page: 4 Practical Ideas 1. 2. 3. 4.
Who do you need behind your ventures? What are the two words you are going to own? Where do you focus your attention? What is the universal truth about making money?
Bottom Line: Routine sets you free and make goals reality. Example: Mark Zuckerberg - has ONE main goal each year ● ● ● ● ● ● ●
2009: Wear a tie to work every day. 2010: Learn Mandarin. 2011: Only eat animals he kills himself. 2012: Code every day. 2013: Meet a new person outside of Facebook every day. 2014: Write one thoughtful thank-you note every day 2015 : Read a book per week.
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The most important routine? Reading on a regular basis. That is how you get new ideas. ● ● ● ●
Bill Gates has a Think Week twice a year and plows through dozens of books. 3M - Allows employees 15% of their time to invent whatever they want Google - gives their employees 20% creative time Warren Buffett - first priority is reserving time for quiet reading and thinking
If you want to 10x the company; you have to 10x the people. Scaling Up People - Would you enthusiastically rehire everyone on the team? Book: The No Asshole Rule - Robert Sutton Book: Never Eat Alone - Keith Ferrazzi (do you eat alone at events - or did you set up plans with influencers?)
Ogilvy’s 4 P’s / E’s of Marketing Product, Price, Place, Promotion Experience, Exchange, Everyplace, Evangelism Book: Confessions of the Pricing Man: How Price Affects Everything - Hermann Simon London Olympics - generated more revenue than the previous 3 Olympics combined One strategy: pay by age (5-year old pays $5, 50-year old pays $50) Raising Funds - Kickstarter, IndieGoGo Example: Flow Hive - Beekeeper product raised $12,180,456 in one month.
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They raised the first $1 million by having 25 key influencers on board. Once they hit that, media took over and they raised the other $11 million. Kaggle.com - competition to solve very tough problems for companies Can you state your strategy simply? 1. 2. 3. 4.
Own a word or two Declare brand promises Establish Catalytic Mechanism Create one-phrase strategy
Own a word or two… Tim Ferris - Four Hour Gary V - F*CK Verne - Growth Guy We are #1 in the #2 business - poop pumpers Example: Clacktion - where science meets business (luxury SEO) Problem - they had a stupid name. If you want to scale, the name matters. What do all luxury brands have in common? - two word names New Name: Gauss and Neumann - SEM Technologies like you have never seen 133
Take the names of your products seriously. MASK - massive array of structured keywords New Rules of Marketing and PR = David Meerman Scott ―You are what you publish‖ What are your two words?
The Hidden Champions Strategy ―The main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing.‖ Revisit your main thing every 90 days… and focus on that one thing. 2011 - FACEBOOK‘s one thing wasn‘t going public… it was going mobile. Book: The Goal - Eli Goldratt (1974-2011)
Theory of Constraints When Softsoap first launched, they knew the constraint for competitors would be the spring pump. The Softsoap CEO bought the spring pump company to keep his competition from catching them quickly. Follow the constraints. Your job - Find the front domino Set aside 90 minutes to 3 hours each day to think / plan Book: Customer Funded Business Book: Rich Dad: Poor Dad Book: Give and Take - Grant Book: Soul of Money - Lynne Twist 134
4 Practical Ideas 1. 2. 3. 4.
Get your list of 25 influencers Two Words - Brand Focus Effort - Constraint Universal Truth - Give First
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Strategies, Tools & Tactics For Ridiculously-Rapid Growth Roland Frasier
Here is a snapshot of Idea incubator's Q4 2015. ● ● ● ● ●
211 employees Add ~13k customers per week Ship 5k-58 packages per day 1 billion emails 10,000 sq ft warehouses in Austin and LA
Focus on Strategy Scaling Valuation – You may be planning to keep your company long-term, or you may want to grow it and then sell. In order to have leave all of your options open, figure out how to build the value of your existing company to the max. Ask yourself – What business are you in? What‘s the valuation multiple for that industry? Industry & Multiples (Enterprise Value per $100k) ● ● ● ● ● ●
Education Services = 8.5 Publishing = 10.18 Business Services = 12.52 Entertainment = 12.61 Diversified = 19.82 Finance Services = 35.29
The weighted average multiple for Idea Incubator in 2012 was 12.5x. We made some changes to our business model so that in 2015 our weighted average multiple grew to 28.6x = 272% valuation increase.
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Things Investors are Looking for in Your Company ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ●
YOY Growth (year over year) Employee Depth + Tenure Audited Financials Legal / HR / SOP (standard operating procedures) EBITDA > $10MM (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization) Proven Team Lots of Blue Sky Left (you haven‘t hit a ceiling in your business) Defensible IP (what gives you the competitive advantage - Amazon business won‘t work) Product / Customer Diversity (don‘t depend on just one thing) Risk Profile (not supplements, MLM, or other places with extra risk)
For your investors, you have to figure out a business model that‘s consistent and has a defensible IP. Example: Walmart Express Walmart decided to compete with local dollar stores by opening Walmart Express. They were 1/10 the size and had discount prices.
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They didn't work. The stores didn‘t fit the Walmart business model or customer expectations. They lost huge amounts of money and had to close. Ways to Help Your Business Consider having an online Wiki where you document all of the processes your business uses. Or turn your Standard Operating Procedures into a product like DigitalMarketer did with their execution plans. Take a closer look at your model – consider your value curve. Compare your values to the values of other companies in your field (price, prestige, awards, etc). Then ask yourself – where do you want to be in 2016? ● ● ● ●
Is there anything you should cut that doesn‘t move you towards your goal? How will you get there? What‘s the roadmap? Look at your incomes, expenditures, services/products. Judge what‘s existing, extended, and new.
Look at your profit center → revenue target → goals → needs Is there anything you should cut that doesn‘t move you toward your goal? How will you get there? What is the roadmap? Planning Your Initiatives List your markets / customers down the left of the chart. List services / products across the top Decide who is going to be responsible for each part of the chart. Make another chart with profit channels down the left and traffic channels across the top. 139
Where are your missing traffic opportunities? For each profit center, figure out the ad spend needed to make target income. Create a marketing calendar. Create a promotion planner.
Iterate Through Split-testing: Track and Improve - schedule the ads out and compare results with expectations. Get a log of all the split test you are going to do and keep track of their results. Daily stats for every product - weekly average, KPIs (key performance indicators)
Evolve Business Models - Bigger Picture: Are you in the right industry? Should you change your business model to bump valuation? Create a list of your strategic initiatives as well as tactical initiatives. Using this model, Native Commerce has had 3-digit growth every year since 2012.
Strategic Initiatives ● ● ● ● ●
Micro to Macro Brand Evolution Deconstructed Growth Affinity + Seasonality Domain Strategies
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Tactical Initiatives ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ●
Expanded follow up Marketplace sales High ROI lead generation Broad market exp Expanded house brands Affiliate expansion Big ticket / webinar sales Association retention
Micro to Macro – figure out if you‘ve maximized your current market niche and whether you need to expand to new horizons. What‘s your broad market offer? ● How big is your current market? ● Where are growth opportunities ● What will your market offering be? Example: Preppers 2012-2013: Survival Life - 3 MM preppers base 2014: Survival Life - 40 MM campers (13x increase) 2015: Native Commerce - 141 MM outdoor sports (47x increase) Example: Real Estate Investors 2014: Real Estate Investors - 7 MM base 2015: REWW - 37 mm (5x increase) VOXIENT - 165 MM (24x increase) Your Goal: Increase the size of your market by expanding the niche
Broad Market Offer Increase your leads with a broad market offer (survival to camping for example).
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Example: Give away a niche t-shirt (free plus shipping) T-Shirt → OTO #1: Want Another One → OTO #2: Association ● ● ● ●
Lead Magnet: ―Get this shirt free.‖ OTO: ―Want more than one? OTO 2: Ask them to join the niche association Thank you page
You can do the same thing with other lead magnets such as inspirational jewelry. Brand Elevation Build your brand, not yourself. If you ever want to sell your business… you don‘t want to BE the brand. Move from GURU to a brand Example of moving from a guru to a brand: Kent Clothier → Voxient Fire the gurus, hire celebrities ● Product Spokesperson Model ● Staff as spokespeople ● Celebrity brokers + IMDB Evolve your business models from generic to brands. Example: Hoffman-Richter knife
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We tested our offer with a generic knife. When it was tested and worked, we built our own brand. How can you do this? Deconstructed Growth Survival Life → Affinity Sites (DIY Ready) → Makeup tutorials → Native Commerce → biggest customer of our wholesale company → brand name distribution After research, we realized that many of our Survival Life members were also interested in DIY products and began DIY Ready. Many people interested in DIY were also interested in makeup, which led us to the creation of Makeup Tutorials. What are the other things that your audience is doing? Evolve Business Model: Layer Your Business for Multiple Exits You want to be able to sell your businesses altogether, or in groups, or each media property separately. Can your business support your ultimate goal? Affinity + Seasonality ● see what customer buy ● make seasonal offerings ● send customers to new media properties People Magazine has tabs at the top of the site that send people to their other properties (exp. PeoplePets.com) Survival Life does the same thing. It has tabs to its other properties - GunCarrier, PioneerSettler, DIYReady. Resource: SimilarWeb.com - tells you referral traffic and outgoing destination traffic Resource: TowerData.com - what are your customer‘s demographics
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Domain Strategies Exact Match Domain (EDM) → Partial Match Domain → Branded Domain Name You get a 4x clickthrough rate on EMD so get the EMD when possible. Example: EMD - ―electric bicycles‖ 45% higher CTR than ―Your Bikes‖ 105% higher CTR than ―In a Hurry‖ Many of our native commerce sites are either EMD or PMD. What‘s the traffic worth? Find out at iSpionage.com. The free traffic we received to our sites last year using the domain strategy was worth $26,104,441 in paid clicks.
Online to Offline Amazon, Warby Parker, Indochino are going offline. 93% of retail is in physical stores 7% of retail sales occur online It actually costs less to get an offline customer. DigitalMarketer ● ● ● ●
2012-2013 - offer driven model (broken) 2014-2015 - certified partner beta / certifications 2016+ - CPs can deliver + make money general assembly / EDU Model
What offline plays can you make with your online business?
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Continuity $xx/month - content subscription ● ● ● ●
B2B - 2.0 - certification B2B - content license B2C - association B2C - buyer‘s club
Leverage Content Scripted.com - content writing services ContentOro.com - $6k - $10k per book per year - text + images ...or hire your own editorial team Editor in chief - $120k, property editor - $70k, section chief - $35k Expect five 1,000 word articles a day. AcquireMedia.com - License content from brands: books, periodicals, comics (field and stream, DK books, Inc, etc) Create a content calendar and determine who will create it.
Find strategic partners who can… ● ● ● ● ●
reduce inventory costs tap customer base access sales rep networks leverage celebrities add brand affinity credibility
Equity Deals ● ● ● ●
Ozark Mountain Foods - supplier lockup + inventory play Ventury capital - EBITDAarbitrage play Positive You - affinity market play NewCo - physical market play
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List Rentals 1. Identify affinity markets 2. Test new offers 3. Rent your lists out
Embrace Trends ―Skate to where the puck is going; not to where it is‖ - Wayne Gretzky Schema.org - structured data language (that‘s how you show up in enhanced Google results) It doesn‘t matter what your domain authority is (example: how to tie a tie) Also how to create sitelinks search box and breadcrumbs, YouTube videos App Indexing: get someone to help you with this (Google delivers results to people who have certain apps - so get indexed - example: OpenTable.app, TripAdvisor app, Zagat app)
Involuntary Churn How will you address involuntary churn? In your gateway, check recurring payment box (CVV will not be expected). Vantiv.com - account updater - Submit credit cards in batch before you submit. They will give you any updated information before you submit for payment. You only pay for updates received. Amex card refresher - only looks back 6 months - not 12 for annual subscriptions
Dealing with Ad Blocking $21.8 billion in ad revenue blocked in 2015 Own your own media - shift to native marketing Resources to Deal with Ad Blocking: 146
Intently.com HookLogic.com HelloToken.com
Next upcoming opportunity: The U.S. Hispanic population 55 million Hispanics in the U.S. - half speak both English and Spanish States with large Hispanic communities - CA, NM, TX, AZ, NV, FL Spanish language question word searches have doubled - target Spanish keywords. Target Spanish browsers. Feature Hispanic culture contextually (food, future, faith, holidays). Use Transposh plugin for WP: 47% increase in traffic.
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Scaling Your Sales: 7 Copy & Paste Strategies From The Fastest Growing Internet Retailers Roland Frasier
We looked for the companies with the largest growth - InternetRetailer.com (#1 - Blue Apron) They all have a BIG missions. Our Bigger Mission: DigitalMarketer: Double the sales of 10,000 business over the next 5 years Native Commerce: Association 10 million people with common interests in communities around what they find fun and interesting. What is YOUR Bigger Mission? ● Is there a wrong you are righting or a big problem you are solving through your business? ● How will what you are doing right the wrong or solve the problem and change the world? ● Who will be impacted by what you do? ● What is your timeline? Charitable Commerce - combined charity and commerce Honest.com AlexAndAni.com DollarShaveClub.com Toms.com WarbyParker.com Is there a good that you can do through your business? Can you donate a digital or physical product?
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A Better Model BlueApron.com: Eliminate inconvenience of grocery shopping. Make cooking easier. Cut out middle men. Subscription groceries. Honest.com - Eliminate inconvenience of shopping for hard to find natural baby products. Subscription diapers + related products DollarShaveClub.com - Eliminate inconvenience and price of shopping for razors What is your business model? What unique thing can you do to not be just another ―me-too‖ business? What thing that has always been done that way could be done differently and better? Example: Blue Apron sends measured ingredients to make cooking easier. Would your business be better if you were fully vertically integrated manufacturing to distribution? Free Shipping + Speedy Delivery (example: Amazon) Target.com - $25 order gets FREE SHIPPING BlueApron.com - FREE Shipping Amazon - Amazon Dash + Amazon Prime NOW (delivery in one hour) Choxi.com - deal site - dropshipping Personalization - one of the most important parts of native commerce. BlueApron.com - choose plan, food preference, and delivery date StitchFix.com - personalized stylist for women on the go MakeUpGenius.com - try makeup on virtually
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Create a Personalized Web Experience eSalon.com - custom hair color based on user input (upload photo) Sephora.com - virtual artist app - try on lipstick instantly AlexandAni.com - chain station builder, custom jewelry How can you personalize your customer experience? Use personalized email. Choxi.com - based on page visit data Example: If you click to view Ugg boots but don‘t buy, you get an email with a link to shopping cart with boots already there. Tool: RetentionScience.com - predictive analytics - big companies use it - DM will try Use dynamic websites to improve engagement like ZuLily.com Different site for each user based on data - example: kids clothes ConversantMedia.com - what Zulily uses What can you do? A survey? A customized product? Omni-channel - customer experience seamless across all channels - being everywhere the customer is going to be Tool: MarketingCharts.com - people will spend money on email marketing, social media, online display advertising, mobile marketing, search, public relations, direct mail, tradeshows and events
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Online to Offline NeimanMarcus.com - site features encourage users to connect with in-store associates. Facetime style sessions. If you started online, you know where most of your customer live. So you know the best place to start an offline store. JCPenny.com - buy online and pickup in store Pier1Imports.com - in-store associates order out of stock items online - 30% of online orders originates in-store. Another 30% of online orders are picked up in-store. WarbyParker.com - pop-up stores, yurts, school bus stores, retail Honest.com - big 5 Social channels, TV, retail, amazon, app Uniqlo.com - big 5 social, TV, owned media, retail DollarShaveClub.com - big 5 social, TV. owned media, podcast ads Etailz.com - retail, Ebay, Amazon, Newegg, Walmart, AliExpress
What Traffic Channels Do Your Competitors Use? SimilarWeb.com offers great insights into traffic and channels Competitors → similar site → keyword competitors Compare how much exposure you have in different places compared to competition. Look at your competitor‘s Referral Traffic from Other Sites on SimilarWeb.com Find places to advertise / list your site (pandora.com, buzzfeed.com, etc) Run a vertical report on AdBeat. Shows their ad sizes, top networks, top publishers - which gives you ideas for your ads. So how can you turn online into offline?
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Pixlee - Shoppers who interact with UGC photos are 2x more likely to purchase Increase engagement + amplify your brand message - organically increasing total brand reach UGC photo raise conversion rate by 12% Ecommerce conversion Facebook is the best - 1.85% Vimeo - 1.16% Polyvore - 0.58% Remove friction + encourage social engagement BlueApron - share creations app Julep.com - #MavenUnboxing - 20 million social users over Christmas CharlotteRusse.com - #CharlotteLook - Pixlee - Curalte WarbyParker.com - #WarbyHomeTryOn - increasre shares by 40% Rafflecopter.com - easiest way to do a giveaway Pixlee.com - turns real customer content into site content - clones site pictures to Instagram pictures with links Curalate - make instagram shoppable - ―like2b.uy‖ AlexandAni.com - asks followers to post pics of themselves wearing the jewelry provides place to post to Instagram - grew 77% (olapic.com - collects customer image that you can curate and publish - they get the rights automatically) SimilarWeb.com - run a social analysis = idenitfy network strengths, weaknesses and untapped opportunities Add social commerce to your marketing mix Instagram - add a URL to your brands bio - shoppable gallery Facebook - social storefront page tab 152
Search - 25 fastest growing retailers pay 4x more on paid search SEMrush.com - search tool - run comparative analysis on competitors keywords (desktop / mobile) blueapron has many more than competitors. SEO research how-to - SEONick.com Content marketing is the most cost-effective way to do SEO Viral Content Machine Narrow Niche to Broad Market DollarShaveClub.com: razors > own the bathroom cabinet Honest.com: baby > cleaning BirchBox: women‘s > men‘s NatureBox: snacks > wine Amazon: books > everything Are you in a broad or narrow niche? How much of current niche do you own? What is natural expansion? Recurring Revenue / Subscription revenue ● more stable and predictable cash flow ● helps predictability of inventory Fastest Growing Companies with Subscription Revenue BlueApron.com – Discover a better way to cook with original recipes, fresh ingredients and convenient delivery DollarShaveClub.com – A great shave for a few bucks a month. They send new shaving supplies monthly for a low price eSalon.com – Kits of custom DIY hair color and other hair care products from expert stylists Honest.com – All natural home and baby care products NatureBox.com – Delicious unique low calorie snacks that range from healthy to indulgent delivered to your door 153
NakedWines.com – Get exclusive wines from independent winemakers at wholesale prices How can you turn your business into a subscription? Engagement State Welcome Series ● Introduction to brand values (photo / personal touch) ● Testimonials + reviews – short and consumable ● social media engagement - ask them to engage on social media Retention Stage: Provide value and reiterate why remaining a subscriber is good choice. Instead of purchase incentives - explain new way to use existing subscription / product. Tim Ferriss - in box - this is why I picked these things for you - curate the box for them (Our Three Picks for this Month)
Customer Churn Warning signs - pauses, low email open, not returning to site Reasons - not enough value or too much focus on acquisition Not enough value - customers will add prices of items to see if value is there. Full-size products win. Give them good deals and take care of them. Exit Surveys - as part of cancellation process - see what you can change. We miss you letter. Keep them engaged: curate engaging content
What is your recurring revenue plan?
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Do you have one? Be on Trend: TrendWatching.com - identify each year‘s top 16 trends 2016: status, you-niverse 53% of consumers are willing to share personal data in return for tools to make their shopping experience better. What trends are taking place in your market? Graze.com - show the box you got - you rate the food to see what you like and don‘t like to help choose your snacks for future deliveries
Tools: Localytics.com - customized mobile experinece CultureAmp.com - surveys and insight for engaged employees
Provide a frictionless online experience Low page load time - max time 5 seconds - longer than 3 seconds loses 40% of customers. What can you do to bundle your products to increase order value? Products that go together, products that complement each other Be different from Amazon - give a personal touch. Own the process + own the brand
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Tools Magento – eCommerce platform, solutions and services to help grow your business FriendBuy – referral tracking and campaign optimization - customer referral - drive 530% of total acquisition Nanigans – multichannel advertising automation software Looker – data analytics for teams SteelHouse – advertising suite to help build campaigns NewRelic – software analytics that uses real time data Tapad – marketing technology firm renowned for its breakthrough, unified, cross-device solutions theTradeDesk – a buy-side platform providing access to all RTB inventory for display, television, video, social, mobile, and more Yieldify – conversion experts who build, manage and measure personalized campaigns that nurture relationships with site visitors to create value Gleam – marketing apps designed to help you grow your business SociableLabs – provides guaranteed ROI refer a friend programs that drive new customer acquisition on a pay for performance basis tvsquared – the most accurate same-day TV attribution platform in the industry
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Podcasting - "Finding Your Voice" Pat Flynn
July 2015, DigitalMarketer launched its podcast Perpetual Traffic. T&C 2016 is the first time DigitalMarketer is discussing podcasts. Pat Flynn has spent 6 years in 10 top podcasts, 20 million downloads, written for Forbes, published top 20 book in Amazon. He started his podcast in 2010 – Smart Passive Income. Then in 2012, AskPat.com. He also has a side project started, Food Trucker School. He‘s accrued 23.8 million downloads working in his home office. Many people in the room listen to podcasts of 1.5+ hours and incorporate it into their daily lives. People want media when it‘s convenient to them – it‘s why podcast is outperforming radio. Over time, you become an expert by association by hosting people on your podcast and listening to their expertise. The relationship you build with your listeners is even better – directly in people‘s ear The most important step is starting the process of finding your voice, even and especially when the first one is bad. Smart Passive Income‘s first podcast – July 2010 In Steven Pressfield‘s The War of Art, Steven talks about creating art when you leave your comfort zone. According to him, self-doubt is a natural by-product of creation, and shouldn‘t get in the way of you trying something new. To get anybody to listen to you, you first need to have quality audio.
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Keep it simple – here are your Basic Tools: ● Mic (AudioTechnica ATR-2100 plugs into your USB) ● GarageBand & Audacity free apps ● Call Recorder or eCamm (Mac) What you create first will likely be poor, but don‘t be too much of a perfectionist as you‘re going to improve over time. Podcasting is a great storytelling tool – teach people something, with stories as your marketing hook. As an interviewer, you need to ask the right questions and make the interviewee comfortable. When thinking about how to craft your podcast, aim to provoke a transformation with your content. Then work backwards from the transformation – look at what questions will provoke your intended transformation/effect. One great prompt – ―Tell me about a time when…‖ Don‘t script your conversation ahead of time – you‘re doing a disservice to your audience, as it sounds like someone reading from a script. People can tell when it sounds natural. Consistency is key – both in your content and timing of your podcasts People will get very emotional if you fail to be consistent. Here‘s an actual email I received: ―WHERE THE FUCK IS EPISODE 112?!?! Thanks, love your stuff. – Steve‖ As a podcaster, your audience sees you as a human being and small details about yourself can engage your audience. For example, you can see Pat‘s audience tweeting about his love of Back to the Future. One man sent him a gift of Back to the Future
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poster made of string on beeswax. People want to follow you when they see you as a human. It‘s all about P2P relationships. The best advice I can give you is to ―embrace your weird.‖ In 2011, I became bored with podcast and felt like it was a chore. Then I got an email from someone (Michal) in Poland about how I saved his life with my advice – after having ankles shattered, was depressed but read my advice about setting amazingly high goals and ran a marathon 1.5 years later. It‘s hard to know how many lives you reach with what you create. This feedback and emotional response can keep you motivated. If you‘re intending on converting a video interview into a podcast, make sure you‘re not referencing visuals when you‘re recording. Otherwise people will get frustrated and feel they‘re missing out. If you‘re doing this, another option is using a program to get the transcription of your video and post it as a blog post. If you want to get a good interviewee, look at people who have just released books etc. (who will want to promote them), as well as those who have given interviews before. You can also interview owners of groups and forums who will share it with their groups. PodcastingTutorials.com has great tutorials for beginners. When branding your social media presence, consider if people are listening to you or to the brand when creating a new account. Because people are listening to Pat Flynn, his Twitter handle is @PatFlynn. To monetize your podcast, you can promote your products or promote products as an affiliate. Mix it up so people don‘t filter it out. To find your ideal format, experiment. When you‘re beginning, try to launch at least 3-5 episodes. Ask your audience what they liked.
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At some point if you want to create more content, you might need an assistant for administrative work. The voice is always you, but there can be a checklist of standards that an assistant can help with. (Intros, scheduling, editing, etc.)
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Case Study - How DigitalMarketer 6X'd an AdWords Campaign (and 4 other Hidden AdWords Gems) John Grimshaw
Google AdWords launched dozens new features in the last year like Google Smart List. Pros Google curated retargeting list Based on crunching visit and transaction data Big returns Cons No way to see who‘s on list Little scale You should use Google Smart List if you... ● Use google analytics and google Adwords ● Have multiple products to test and sell ● Have an email list you can upload ● Have a high leverage audience you want to show a specific offer ● Minimum audience size is a thousand ● Remarketing list for search ads search + retargeting Who should use RLSA (remarketing lists for search ads) ● Have a limited budget ● Have visitor segments whose pain points you know Pros ● Call out extensions—little extra bits of information to ad without paying more ● Double your click rates ● Makes it simple to call out specific benefits 163
● Gmail ads Pros Inexpensive way to put your content in front of many people (.14 cents) Unique ad type and targeting options Cons Low percentage of viewers become convertors
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How E-Commerce Companies like Amazon, Bonobos, and Evelopes.com Drive Millions with Email Marketing Speaker, John McIntyre www.reengager.com/tnc
Today’s big promise - add 15-25% or more to your business. Email beats just about everything for ROI. In fact, according to the Relevancy Group‘s findings, email alone drives the same amount of revenue as social media, website and display ad efforts combined.
Yet, in a recent survey, just under one in four respondents said that email marketing drove at least 25% of their overall revenues.
Is your email marketing revenue at least 25% of YOUR total revenue?
Email marketing is like having an army of salespeople that go out to sell to each of your customers… if it is PERSONALIZED. Most online retailers and ecommerce stores don‘t get this.
Typical Email Blast from E-Commerce Company
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One-to-many Discount (boring) Everyone does this
(ugh)
How Envelopes.com Doubled the Typical Improvement of Cart Abandon Emails
Personalization - they use 3 abandonment triggers instead of only one.
1. Category abandonment (people who visit category and leave) 2. Shopping Cart abandonment (people who add things to cart and leave) 3. Checkout abandonment (people who start the checkout process and leave) How many emails are in your cart abandonment strategy?
How Bonobos.com Sends Fewer Emails, but Generates More Sales
The sent one email about Daily Grind shirts to two groups - one with no targeting and one with specific targeting.
Which group generated the most revenue?
The targeted group produced an income lift four times greater than the control.
Takeaway: Instead of emailing everyone, send targeted emails to people who are most likely to buy. Your database will be healthier, and you‘ll make more money.
How Amazon Drives BILLIONS of Dollars in Sales by Focusing on Personalization in Their Email Marketing
Amazon sends 8 different types of emails to their customers.
1. Welcome 2. Receipt 3. Shipping 166
4. 5. 6. 7. 8.
Thank You Upsell Invite Review Browse
Welcome emails generate 3X‘s the transactions and revenue per email compared with regular promotional emails.
Want 75% profits - increase customer retention by just 5%.
RECAP: 3 Most Important Actions
1. Abandonment (category, shopping cart, checkout) 2. Most Likely to Buy (gender, age, hobbies, algorithm) 3. Send Welcome Email (and build your customer sequence) Need an email software that can do all this?
Klaviyo - includes automatic product recommendation Use coupon REENGAGER for 15% off your first year (valid until Feb. 29th)
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Building Up Your Bench: 5 Part System To Recruit, Retain and Motivate a ―Rock Star" Team To Scale Your Company Keren Kang Speaker: Keren Kang CEO said Native Commerce made $30 million in revenue 2015 and is projected to make $50 million in 2016 How did we do it? Core Fundamentals of every Native Commerce Hire: 1. Be smart (you have to keep up) 2. Be curious (you have to have people who want to dissect things and see how it works 3. Be measured (you want people who are ok with being measured – they want to win. Competitive spirit 5 Part Hiring Process The Posting The Audition The Interview The Training The Rewards Step #1: The Posting Tip #1 – Be Specific (specific salary information) seems to get the better candidate Tip #2 – Be Real (company culture, what it‘s like to work with us)
Don‘t romanticize or hide the hardships of the company They change constantly Your boss will change every week, your job title might change weekly, you may never match your job title Can you handle that? Convince them NOT to apply in the job description
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Tip #3 – Include Goals Responsibilities & Goals What will they be measured against Make the goals measurable Tip #4 – Weeding Out
Random question for vetting the trigger happy applicants Put in a random question and ask them to reply to that question in the cover letter Ask them why they like a certain food
Step #2: The Audition Interviews on paper (online assignment) Do a test job with them to ensure they actually can do what they say Audition – Basic Office Skills
The Email Test (1 of 5) – test their writing skills and have them write Concise language Bullet points The Favorites Test (2 of 5) Top 3 favorite websites Top 3 favorite brands Why they picked them?
The Website Improvement Test (3 of 5) Attention to detail and accuracy test Ask them for a list of improvements from one of our sites (at least 5) The more the better
The Skill Test (4 of 5) Graphic Designer: Have them design a logo 169
Give them a deadline to make it happen The Process Test (5 of 5) Create an idea board for visualization of the logo Most of them never look at the competition before making your logo You want people who have a process for how they accomplish a task and not just wing it every time they try to create something. We just want to see the foundation We want to see if they use competitive analysis before creating our logo To test their actual skill To see if they can actually follow a process and accomplish our desired results The Audition is tedious and that‘s the point Time is the only commodity that cannot be replaced I want to hire the ones who really want the job Step #3: The Interview The first half (15 minutes each)
What drew you to this ad? Work (past work to improve future work) Opportunity (why they weren‘t given same opportunity at last job) Salary (what you made in the past, why you think you deserve more)
Trip Up Question Throw them off their rhythm Writer: What is Your Favorite Headline? (example) ―Explain what you think our company is and does …‖
The Second Half
Tell them what sucks, what we hate about what we love so much One person can ruin everything so protect it by being honest about it
Lack of communication
How are you dealing with it? We suck at this, but here is what we‘re working on fixing 170
Don‘t hide the flaws Get their input on the problem
Step #4: The Training Training Period Week 1: Company & Tech Familiarity Week 2: Get to know the job Week 3: Assist the job Week 4: Do the job Train in pairs, shadow their manager We assign a project with a deadline Assessment
Process Map (how did you do it) Analysis of Work (what can be improved) Future Improvements Next project (next project and deadline)
3 month training to see if this is a right place for you If you suck, you‘re out If you‘re toxic, you‘re out We also have all employees go through all the DM certifications within 90 days of employment The goal of all new hires to expand your talent Autonomy
This is the goal Feedback on the project they completed Allow for mistakes, this builds ownership Once there is ownership, the toad to autonomy is close
Step #5: Rewards
Happy hours Employee of the month (vacations, Ipad) 171
We hang out outside of work
80% of the staff promotions come from within Leadership roles Tech we love Workable.com (helps you keep track of your employees) TestDome.com (automated testing of programming skills Payscale.com (salary information and what you should pay someone in your location) 15Five.com Know the Pulse Of Your Company
Fun questions Digital high fives
Productivity Hack Tested Employee
Gets assigned 1-3 overseas assistants (10% increase in cost) Takes busy work off US employees US employee makes breakthroughs
To get copies of the job descriptions and test projects go here: Bit.ly/TNC2016Bench These are a few of the best questions asked during the Q&A session: Salary: Above or below market?
We like to post a little higher salary than what we actually pay If they don‘t meet the requirements, they get paid last
Interview: # of people you interview for each position?
Writers: a ton of them Depends on the position Graphic design / web developer (when we find a good one we hold on for dear life)
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Employee Process – Do you give it to them or have them create it?
Depends on a position, if it‘s a proven process, we already have it down and that is what they need to do For new ideas, projects, etc – then we bring in a senior hirer to make out the process
Send all the task they need to do at once, overwhelm the prospect, 90% drop rate
We go hourly at first, then we can change to salary when they reach the exempt range
Results only vs # hours / certain number of hours per week
Perks of NC is you can work from home as long as you can prove you could do it. If they can‘t, they have to come back into the office Use slack when they go to lunch, be late, signing off If you suck, we are taking this away from you Set the expectation to be proactive
Scaling Your Team – Who do you hire first?
Always hire your project manager first to help establish the process and build the team
Hiring a web developer team
Do you test them? A bit of a wildcard 90 day trial period Give them a project to complete within that 90 days Is this someone we can work with and improve
Hiring Customer Service
Have your manager hire customer support
Lying
Listen to people‘s tones to see if they are lying to you Look for a lie Patterns vs tells
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Communication
Daily scrum meeting Get them accustomed to a time when they need to be prepared to speak, then let them work
Deal breakers
Lying on the resume (testing the skill & the process)
How do we hire a CEO?
Gamespace (cutthroat, stressful) Overworked, stressed out, PM who are use to deadlines and stress Visionary founders who expect the world LinkedIn is a great resource
Personality Profiles
I use to use them to hire people, but they are all bullshit
Catch 22 - Cashflow vs need to hire more employees
Work for free for 6 months Share you vision Get them believing in your vision Equity in company Timeframe for pay Halfpay at first, maybe pay them back
Making a hire
Bonuses? % of company We never offer performance bonuses to brand new hires (unless it‘s sales or commission only) Surprise them with bonus instead of giving the expectation of bonuses we just give it to them and they love us for that
Progressive Salary - Raise from X to the full salary in 6 months?
Check out with your HR department I wouldn‘t recommend it because they might stop when they hit the cap in salary Prefers something stabile (set salary vs surprised bonuses)
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How to Drive Your Podcast to the Top of the Charts... and Keep it There Molly Pittman
DigitalMarketer‘s Perpetual Traffic podcast was launched on July 28, 2015. Now there are 30 episodes. It hit #1 in Business Category on iTunes in less than 8 hours, and reached New & Noteworthy within a week. 6 months later: 340,000 downloads; ~11,000 downloads/episode; 65,000 unique visitors to the show notes; 22,400 pixeled visitors But the value of a podcast is much more than the numbers. With the podcast, you can give value to people who‘ve never heard of you (TOFU); prospects who‘re interested but haven‘t decided to buy yet (MOFU); and existing customers (BOFU) – by giving them another media to consume your content. A podcast appeals to different learning styles, so some people might prefer this medium. DigitalMarketer has had people approach them for hire directly from the podcast, without needing to pre-qualify themselves to the client. The podcast was enough positioning to get them hired. Podcast establishes authority and makes the buying process very, very easy. You can filter your audience for quality leads. 4 Steps to Drive Traffic to Your Podcast 1. Concept & “Style” – Create entertaining and valuable content on a specific topic that people want to listen to. Creating a podcast series requires a pre-planned strategy Examples:
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Interview Style of ―Talking Wine with Levi Dalton‖ – each episode is titled after an interview. The ―Meat Eater‖ podcast has episodes based on locations. You can have a mix of styles, but every episode should be well-structured. You can‘t really revise your strategy when you‘ve already begun, and you can‘t edit old episodes. Consider how you‘ll balance the presenters of the podcast – too much switching between voices can be confusing. Always look at successful media and try to figure out what makes the story work. Have a team that can commit to working together on & make sure you‘re passionate about. 2. Record 3 “Pillar” Episodes – aka the foundation of your podcast These are great to reference back to in future episodes. Referring to these keeps you from repeating yourself. These will be some of your most downloaded episodes. If you already create content, what is popular? That gives you a starting point for pillar episodes. If these first episodes are high quality, it‘s good for your rankings, because you‘ll have consistent downloads. Perpetual Traffic‘s first 3 episodes: The Future of Paid Traffic; Acquiring Customers One Pixel at a Time; Facebook Video Ad Game Plan 3. Launch with a Contest – you want reviews, subscribers, and downloads Make the prize specific to your content, for your market. If you give away a random prize, like an iPad, people will not want to remain loyal to your podcast. Example: Perpetual Traffic gave away tickets to Traffic & Conversion Summit If you own media, call on your community for support, send emails (PT sent 3 over a span of 2 weeks), and run ads to owned media. 176
If not, run ads to cold traffic (ensure your prize is enticing yet qualifies the audience) and partner with people in your market that have an existing audience. Launch takeaways ● Run a contest (ours was 2 weeks) that asks people to subscribe and leave a review ● Distribute to your owned media and/or… ● Run ads to cold traffic and/or… ● Partner with people in your market that have an existing audience ● Create as much buzz around the podcast as possible 4. Continue to generate a buzz – the subscribers, downloads, and reviews can’t stop after the launch It‘s all about consistency – if you start too fast, you won‘t be able to keep the momentum. Create a distribution schedule, and stick to it. This also means that you should publish episodes earlier than your schedule dictates. Mistake example: PT was publishing and distributing on the same day. This will cause a peak, not a regular flow. iTunes wants a regular flow, and uses this data to determine your ranking. You‘ll get more downloads if you publish, and then later remind people. PT’s Distribution Schedule ● An episode goes live every Tuesday ● We distribute episodes on social media consistently ● We mail our new episodes every Thursday ● We include banners for podcast episodes in newsletter mails ● We run ads to every new episode for a week. We also rotate in ads for older episodes Additional Notes 177
● One episode a week can be more effective than every day. ● Get creative. For example. Perpetual Traffic‘s carousel ad engages attention. ● Niche episodes are great to run to cold traffic. For example Episode 28 – 7 Ways to Grow Local Businesses Using Paid Traffic. These episodes may have fewer downloads, but will increase your total audience. ● The copyrighting aspect of your titles is essential. Tips ● Create a mini-series (2 or 3 parts) – people will come back to listen to the rest of the story. ● Invite guests on that will distribute the episode to their audience. Make sure that the guest works in your framework, or else you‘re just building their name. ● Refer to past episodes to increase downloads. ● Bread crumb future episodes by mentioning them at the end, this will increase excitement for future episodes.
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Case Study - More Humility Drives Faster Growth, and Other Mysteries of Influence Laura Fitton
Book: Twitter for Dummies - Laura Fitton You don‘t have to be ―Rah Rah‖ and pushing sales to have explosive sales. You can be relaxed and humble and get the same results. We like people with HEART. ● ● ● ● ●
Humble Effective Adaptable Remarkable Transparent
Hubris - the opposite of humble (condescending, arrogant, disrespectful) Hubris can kill your company. Benjamin Franklin paraphrase - ―If you follow these rules, you‘re going to be an asshole. Being arrogant, being too self-promotional, talking about your company ALL the time, if a customer is upset, find a way to insult them and stand up for yourself, get on a soapbox and be louder, if someone says something better you should interrupt them. Please yourself and others when you‘re not there.‖ ● ● ● ● ●
Condescending - assuming you know what people want to share or buy Cockiness - you need what I am selling Selfishness - DO THIS FOR ME - download my book, buy my product Arrogance - Our cat food rocks. You have cats. You obviously should buy it Disrespect - You have a lot of readers so share my thing.
Example of Hubris: the Tortoise and the Hare Example: Enron
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The Stadium Indicator - there is a surprising number of companies that go bankrupt or lose sales when they buy name rights to a stadium How do we flip these on their heads? ● ● ● ● ●
Condescension → Valuing time and attention Cockiness → Quiet Confidence Selfishness → Selflessness Arrogance → Curiosity Disrespect → Respect
Humility - a Multiplier for Growth Humble - Self-aware AND Respectful Humility does NOT mean low self-esteem. It means your business is about the customer. You create products that are the best for them. The very best people are self-aware and self-critical - NOT arrogant. ―Humility is not thinking less of yourself; it is thinking of yourself less.‖ - C.S. Lewis Frame everything through the mindset of your potential and current customers. Competitor obsession in a distraction, but customer obsession is constructive. The lower you go, the more flows to you. When you make a mistake, realize it, admit it and correct it. It‘s a process. Effort does matter. So does gratitude. Try this at home. When something goes wrong, say ―Thank you for everything. I have no complaint whatsoever.‖
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Pretend haters already like you. Look for the nugget of good in what they are saying and turn them around into one of your supporters. Nourish Your People Prospects, customers, employees, blog readers Seth Godin embodies humility - short blog posts to be considerate, still answers all his email, quiet confidence, cleans up after his event breaks Book: Good to Great - Jim Collins - companies with humble CEOs have companies that are the most profitable Zappos - powered by service - Tony Hsieh - ―How can I delight my customers and employees?‖ Someone called Zappos customer service and told them they wanted to order a pizza they did it. Shoes returned because customer passed away - Zappos cs sent flowers and card Mashuga Shack - Show Up and Sparkle - The coffee shop is in a shipping container. They have personality. Speaker choose them over Starbucks or other chains. Do you have a ―Show Up and Sparkle‖ phrase for your company? Tim Merrill - HubSpot design manager - ―Hey. I don‘t have a master plan. Yet. My goal right now is to listen, to as many of you as I can possibly meet with. The master plan is coffee, and lots of mental note-taking.‖ Andrew Rodwin - HubSpot senior manager - ―If your idea isn‘t getting traction, rather than putting energy into arguing their point and trying to force it on others, invest that same energy into understanding the counter position. Listening is the soul of humility.‖
Humility - This is How You Do It So, you‘ve got this thing… (offer, promotion, photo, etc) - don‘t target people with it Nourish your prospect - how can you put it out there so they pull it toward themselves?
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● ● ● ●
Have I heard of them? Have they heard of me? Do I know them? Do they know me?
Approach them differently depending on how many of the above four things are true. Build on the relationship you have. Is Your Offer Relevant and Useful? Is the offer relevant to them? Do they have an opinion on it? Do they want it? Did they help create it? Will the offer help them? Will the offer make them look good? Will the offer serve their audience? Think about it - would you ever build a brand by sharing random shit? No - so why should other people? ―If you want someone to share your stuff… why don‘t you start by… talking to her or him?‖ - Amy Vernon Yielding = Victory - When two forces meet, the victory goes to the person who knows how to yield. Management - Servant Leadership Not being subservient - but being of service Customers → individuals → managers → directors → VPs → Execs (inverted triangle)
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Funding Your Vision: Attract All The Money You Could Ever Need To Grow Your Brand & Compete with Anybody Roland Frasier
Stages of Funding Back of the Napkin ● This is the idea stage. ● You are looking for a product / market fit. ● It can be used to raise 0-1 million. ● Ask friends. ● Ship something. ● It should convert early. 6 People and a Dog ● Figure it out or quit ● Raise 0-3 million ● Local seed angels ● AngelList ● Kickstarter ● Get product/market fit, The Rocket Ship ● Needs an experienced team ● Big addressable market ● Raise 3-10 million ● Super-Angels ● Venture capitalists ● Use Guy Kawasaki method -build a team, then step on the gas Controlled Chaos ● When you‘re growing profitably ● Corporate governance 184
● Lots of customers ● Raise 10-50 million ● Leadership positions ● Building moat Funding Help: stevencox.com/startup-library/ Alice Pettine, Venture Capitalist Funding Options ● Credit cards ● Self ● Incubator programs ● Revenue ● Crowdfunding 10 tips for Angel Funding 1. Tell a great story - play emotional heartstrings 2. Be clear problem and solution 3. A minute to win it - develop 60 second pitch 4. Have a customer. Two is even better 5. Understand your strengths and weaknesses. Disclose them. 6. Know your business - Know basic facts about your business. Know a little about everything. 7. Spend time with investors who get it 8. Invest in yourself - time and money, quit your job, be invested. 9. Be reasonable (and flexible) on valuation 10. Graciously accept no - it may one day be a yes
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Jon Belmonte, COO, CEO for Active, Founder Cedar Ridge Ventures, CEO Spoutable
General Advice ● Bigger isn‘t always better ● Investors want to invest in growth initiatives ● You‘re always auditioning Several Investor Types ● Passive ● Involved ● Sophisticated ● Unsophisticated What Investors Look For ● CEO ● Domain Expertise ● Advisors & Support ● Commitment The Business ● Problem/unmet need ● Big opportunity ● The solution ● Why we win ● Our progress ● Core metrics ● The plan ● Next steps Telling the Story ● Answer all the questions…anticipate questions ● High quality—no typos, grammar in presentation ● Show investor how they‘re going to make money ● Project how you‘re adding more clients 186
● Be someone investors want to back ● Push forward until you win
Mike Guitz, Jungo Strategies ● Commit to delayed gratification ● Understand…It‘s all on you ● Focus and Grind ● Avoid Distractions ● Get good at saying no ● The path has rewards
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6 Step Podcasting Workflow - How We Produce & Manage A Podcast With 300k Downloads Panel
Step 1. Record your podcast. A good basic mic is the Rode Podcaster (approx. $229). There are two different types of microphones: condensed vs dynamic microphone. Dynamic microphones reject ambient noise, so I recommend them. Condensed microphones are better for studios, so they probably don‘t fit your needs. A good, less expensive mic is the ATR-2100 (approx. $59), which is able to plug into your USB. Step 2. Edit your podcast. Step 1. Listen through and chop out major edits = get rid of the fluff You‘ll need Logic Pro Software ($200). The aim of this step is not to perfect the sound, but to make it enjoyable to listen to. Step 2. Go Through and Do Fine Editing on the Sentences While doing the podcast, you can move sections around. Feel free to play with the order of the episode. You can also tell your editor to remove irrelevant sections. When recording, it can be good to use Skype for multi-person podcast because it gives you social cues, and the conversation sounds more organic. Ideally, however, try to be in the same room – these tend to be the best episodes. If recording while apart, each person should record their own sound files, for the editor to compile the best versions.
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Step 3. Clean Up Audio Files For this, use Izotope RX Audio Restoration Software ($1200) Step 4. Use Music to Shape the Episode The goal of adding music is to serve the content and story. Music can add energy and create mood, provide transitions and segues, provide a moment to let a powerful thought sink in, provide a ―brain break‖ after a section of very technical information, as well as cover bad audio that otherwise can‘t be fixed. Step 5. Polish the Audio Here‘s a cheat sheet for polishing audio. ● Equalize the voices. Pull out the problem areas in the low frequencies and the high h frequencies. ● Compress the voices – this gives you a smooth sound ● Equalize the voices again, boosting the bass and treble and making it sound smooth ● Use a limiter on all the audio tracks (music and voices) for consistency You might want to create your own audio brand. For this, you might want to work with a music producer, who will build your brand with sounds and instruments, define the flavor (mood/style) of your podcast, create some ―dynamic bumpers,‖ design a palette of signature music themes to draw from. Or you can license music from a 3rd party agency. For each episode, have an Intro Quote – this can be a teaser or a synopsis of the episode content. The first segue from intro to episode is important to break up information for the listeners – like punctuation, it makes the large episode more digestible.
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Step 3: Show Notes – after you have it recorded, to give to editorial, helps with SEO Post these notes to your website for people to check show details Keep the show notes section easy to access and for people to remember after hearing you refer to it in the podcast. 4 Sections for Show Notes 1. Title ● Get to the point or cut it off – consider what people will see in iTunes ● Be direct, not cute ● Hyphens can be great to focus attention on the topic ● Don‘t use ―Episode 1: Welcome.‖ This is too generic and won‘t generate interest. 2. Brief Description ● Consider how much of the description will show in iTunes ● Easy method to engage audience – ask a question as the first sentence ● Skip the obvious info in the description. Instead, call out to the audience. ● Build credibility for guests 3. Benefit Bullets In these bullet points, demonstrate both the curiosity and the benefit Example Bullets: ● What ―ad scent‖ is and why it‘s crucial to getting conversions AFTER the click ● Why you should add more copy to your cold traffic Facebook ads (