Marketing School | Digital Marketing | Online Marketing

In Episode #216, Eric and Neil discuss the 7-point SEO checklist. Add these pointers to your checklist of things to look for in order to amplify your website’s SEO and boost your Google ranking. Find out the importance of mobile usability as well as page load speed to optimize your user experience. Time Stamped Show Notes: 00:27 – Today’s topic: 7-Point SEO Checklist 00:43 – First is to use Screaming Frog Spider and OnPage to crawl your site 01:11 – Go through your pages in your sites and find duplicates 01:20 – Pages with the same topics should be combined 01:52 – You’re sending Google conflicting data 02:02 – Make sure to implement accelerated mobile pages 02:13 – It is a better experience for users 02:22 – Fourth, update your most popular content 02:45 – Fifth is mobile usability 02:49 – Run Google, mobile-friendly tests on your site to make sure your site is running well 03:04 – Sixth, check your bounce rate 03:15 – Make sure that it is decreasing 03:24 – As it decreases, your mobi

In Episode #215, Eric and Neil discuss their favorite marketing books. They give you a quick synopsis of the value offered by each book and how these principles can help your marketing strategy. Whether you’re starting out or are an experienced marketer, there’s always more you can learn to up your marketing game. Time Stamped Show Notes: 00:27 – Today’s topic: Our Favorite Marketing Books 00:35 – Breakthrough Advertising 00:45 – Talks about people’s desires 01:09 – Explains the concepts of good copywriting 01:25 – Don’t Make Me Think 01:28 – This book includes design concepts 01:44 – Most marketers think having a good design equates to greater conversion rates 01:57 – Influence 02:01 – Discusses how you influence people to do something, like buying a product 02:07 – Concept of price anchoring: anchoring a price so high that when a customer comes in, you drop the price for them significantly that they can’t walk away from the purchase 03:06 – The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing 03:12

In Episode #214, Eric and Neil discuss how you can efficiently manage your marketing projects. Tune in to learn a few project management tools that you can use today. Find out also how marketing experiments and campaigns are worth the effort and the importance of having the whole team on board. Time Stamped Show Notes: 00:27 – Today’s topic: How to Efficiently Manage Your Marketing Projects 00:35 – Eric uses growth hacker experiments and combines them with Google sheets 00:50 – Run 3 experiments in a week and have 2 new ideas added into the Growth Hackers Project weekly 01:01 – Growth Hackers Project is a tool for running projects 01:09 – Someone should assess how the company is doing using these experiments 01:34 – Just continue experimenting over time 01:45 – Managing your marketing is more about cutting back what you’re doing 02:04 – Neil doesn’t do a lot of marketing 02:11 – Do one or two things at a time, once you get it right, add more 02:17 – Don’t keep adding more to your plate just bec

In Episode #213, Eric and Neil discuss whether or not black hat SEO still works. Black hat SEO refers to any practice that you use to boost your website’s ranking in a way that violates the search engine’s terms of service. Tune in to find out if black hat SEO still works and the advantages and disadvantages of using this practice. Time Stamped Show Notes: 00:27 – Today’s topic: Does Black Hat SEO Still Work? 00:35 – PBN is also considered black hat SEO 00:41 – Black hat SEO still works 00:45 – Black hat SEO isn’t really for business or marketing 01:07 – Neil used to do black hat SEO 01:27 – “It never did last” 01:37 – Black hat SEO can give you short term income, but not recommended for a client’s website 01:55 – The only good thing about black hat SEO is that it can help you be more creative and adapt its concept to white hat SEO 02:13 – It is not worth the time and energy 02:41 – The link wheel tactic of black hat SEO described 03:26 – Build your own blog network the legitimate way 03:4

In Episode #212, Eric and Neil discuss the 7 ideal tasks to give your new marketing intern. Tune in and take note of how to maximize your intern’s time. These specific tasks will contribute to your company’s growth and improve your processes. Time Stamped Show Notes: 00:27 – Today’s topic: 7 Ideal Tasks to Give Your New Marketing Intern 00:35 – First task is to list out all your competitors and track their growth and activities using a spreadsheet on a daily and weekly basis 01:11 – You can check how your activities are comparing with your competitors 01:25 – The diminishing return explained 01:46 – Have an on-going link building process 02:00 – Use BuzzSumo to find the right people to reach out to 02:09 – Use BuzzStream to keep track of the report 02:30 – Your intern should focus on social media and respond to anyone who is upset in your space 02:45 – They don’t have to be necessarily picking on your product 02:50 – Helping out will build trust and royalty 02:57 – Do reporting 03:00 –

In Episode #211, Eric and Neil discuss the 7 key elements of a high converting homepage. Your homepage should be the star as this is the page that generates the most traffic. Tune in to find out how you can convert your traffic to sales making these important changes to your homepage—creating that successful funnel. Time Stamped Show Notes: 00:27 – Today’s topic: 7 Key Elements of a High Converting Homepage 00:35 – Make sure you have a great headline that emphasizes what you do 00:49 – Have a call-to-action that goes with the headline 01:08 – Answer objections: 01:20 – People are more likely to buy and be more comfortable if you will answer their objections 01:30 – Talk to people and ask about their hesitations in buying a product 01:39 – Use Qualaroo to put up a quick survey 01:52 – Use testimonials and case studies 02:14 – Fourth is to add a benefit-driven headline 02:21 – Talk to your paying customers and ask them why they bought your product 03:17 – Fifth is page load speed 03:46 – Thi

In Episode #210, Eric and Neil discuss what a private blog network (PBN) is and its usefulness. Tune in to learn why you should avoid PBNs as well as the alternatives that you can use in the SEO space to grow your following. Time Stamped Show Notes: 00:27 – Today’s topic: What Is a PBN? 00:35 – A PBN is a private blog network that can be used to make your SEO more effective 01:16 – Build My Rank is one of the most popular blog networks 01:27 – People thought blog networks wouldn’t leave a footprint on their website, but Google found them 01:42 – PBN still works, but is not recommended 01:58 – PBN is not a good viable solution for the long-term 02:08 – Focus on creating amazing sites with amazing content 02:36 – ViperChill has a blog regarding the effectivity of PBNs 03:21 – The typical PBNs price 04:25 – Use a blog network, like SitePoint 05:03 – “Try avoiding PBNs at all cost” 05:24 – Instead, think about black hat and white hat SEO 05:35 – That’s it for today’s episode! 3 Key Points: P

In Episode #209, Eric and Neil discuss how to recruit great marketers. Tune in to learn how you can recruit someone who is the BEST in the marketing field and why going to local marketing meetups or conferences are fantastic places to find that next hire. Time Stamped Show Notes: 00:27 – Today’s topic: How to Recruit Great Marketers 00:45 – Use your website as a source of referrals or ask friends 01:09 – Force the hiring concept from Hubstaff 01:47 – Reach out to other sites which can help guide you 02:10 – Some of the best hires are from local meetups that are marketing related 03:15 – Recruiters are also an option 03:33 – They bring results because of their network 03:40 – Use Workable—it allows job postings to seed into different sites 04:00 – Eric’s job site is SingleGrain.com/jobs 04:10 – Eric can retarget the people who have visited his website 04:37 – People will then go to Eric’s interview video using Spark Hire 05:04 – Look at performance 05:10 – Check marketers’ blogs or webs

In Episode #208, Eric and Neil discuss how effective 301 redirects are. Tune in to know how 301 and 302 redirects work, when you would use either of them, and what Eric and Neil did to boost their website traffic. Time Stamped Show Notes: 00:27 – Today’s topic: How Effective Are 301 Redirects? 00:35 – A 301 redirect is you signaling that links have been moved 01:03 – 2 ways to do a 301 redirect is through direct links 01:26 – Eric bought a gun website and a site that was inactive 01:55 – The inactive site had a hundred backlinks 02:00 – The number of visitors from Google per day 02:10 – Eric’s backlinks number 02:36 – Eric’s site is now getting a thousand visitors a month 02:50 – Took him two weeks before he started seeing the traffic 03:00 – After 3 months, traffic went up to 40K a month 03:10 – Eric spent $2500 for the domain 03:27 – It is helpful, depending on your niche 04:00 – Neil did a 301 redirect recently 04:20 – The traffic is changing 04:41 – Neil submitted the website to webmas

In Episode #207, Eric and Neil discuss how you can build a sellable website. Tune in to learn how to create a sellable website, why you should think long-term in regards to what you build, and how to choose a niche big enough to leave room for growth. Time Stamped Show Notes: 00:27 – Today’s topic: How to Build a Sellable Website 00:35 – “Don’t think about trying to make a cookbook and sell it off the bat” 00:41 – Create value 00:53 – Check FEInternational for resources on how to value your website 01:06 – Look for something with repeatable and scalable traffic sources 01:32 – Check acquisitions, all your traffic, and your channels 01:45 – Make sure your website has clean code 01:52 – Neil doesn’t buy websites with messy code 02:25 – Have a clean layout and design 02:35 – “Nicely designed websites convert better” 02:55 – Have a clean backlink profile 03:01 – Use Ahrefs or SEMrush 03:12 – Check for the bad links coming in 03:34 – Think long-term 03:45 – Don’t do shady stuff or use

In Episode #206, Eric and Neil discuss the 7 key strategies that you must learn from Apple’s marketing. Apple stresses the importance of keeping things simple—from their written copy to how they display their products. Tune in to find out how Apple’s products reach a vast audience with ease and how you can adopt their marketing principles. Time Stamped Show Notes: 00:27 – Today’s topic: 7 Key Strategies You Can Learn from Apple’s Marketing 00:35 – First is simplicity 00:43 – Great design is invisible 00:57 – Second, rethink how you do product placing 01:16 – Get influencers to have product placements 01:42 – Third, don’t be afraid to stand-out 02:00 – Apple’s Airpods is getting good reviews 02:26 – Fourth, avoid price wars 02:34 – If you have a great product, price it as is 03:06 – Apple emphasizes why their products are amazing 03:09 – Fifth, have a different ecosystem 03:27 – “When iTunes came out, it changed everything” 04:00 – Sixth, know your audience and talk to them in the

In Episode #205, Eric and Neil discuss how to get 300 real targeted followers in Instagram per day. Tune in to learn how you can grow your following on Instagram from zero to 300K. Also find out how Neil Patel's powerful campaign made his presence known to people outside of his field. Time Stamped Show Notes: 00:27 – Today’s topic: How to Get 300 Real Targeted Followers in Instagram per Day 00:46 – Eric interviewed Nathan Chan of Foundr Magazine 00:57 – Nathan got his Instagram following from 0 to 300K 01:10 – Nathan used the tool, Crowdstrike 01:42 – Crowdstrike looks “spammy”, but it works 02:02 – After establishing legitimacy, do shout for shout 02:40 – Use hashtags 03:10 – Pay powerful influencers to like your photos 03:23 – Your photos will start spreading 03:50 – Neil Patel’s Instagram campaign explained 04:30 – The campaign worked really well 05:08 – It is a lot of work to get to your first 300 followers 05:28 – Follow and unfollow people 05:34 – Every time you upload a photo,

In Episode #204, Eric and Neil discuss how you can get actionable data with Google analytics for 10 minutes. Tune in to learn how tracking and assessing your data from Google analytics can help you optimize your website’s performance. Time Stamped Show Notes: 00:27 – Today’s topic: How to Get Actionable Data from Google Analytics in 10 Minutes 00:40 – Look at your reports 00:50 – Avinash Kaushik has different reports on Google Analytics 01:40 – You can optimize things from the results of your reports 02:00 – “If you don’t have goals setup, analytics is useless” 02:20 – Analytics can help you look at the reasons why your data is spiking and if you’re hitting your goal 02:30 – Neil’s goal tracking 03:20 – Hook your Google Analytics to your Google Search Console 03:30 – It can save you time 03:40 – You can cross check the goals that you have 04:00 – It is also good for campaigns 05:00 – There’s a lot of decisions that you can make by just looking at your data 05:10 – “Track your bounce ra

In Episode #203, Eric and Neil discuss how to get your content into Google’s featured snippets. Tune in to learn how your content can land on Google’s 1st page, search results by optimizing your paragraphs, lists and tables. Time Stamped Show Notes: 00:27 – Today’s topic: How to Get Your Content into Google’s Featured Snippets 00:35 – The Snippet is also called ranking zero 01:21 – Optimize the paragraph after headline 1 for search engines to read them 02:11 – Google featured the snippets that answer questions with the proper keywords 02:47 – Think about what people type that is related to your field 02:50 – Use keyword tools like Google Keyword Planner 03:15 – You should be answering questions that can drive more organic traffic 03:56 – There are 3 key points to look at when you’re targeting featured snippets: 04:00 – First is the paragraph 04:15 – Next is a list and last is table 04:50 – For paragraph, the maximum number of words is 97 and average is 45 04:58 – For a list, maximum of 8 ite

In Episode #202, Eric and Neil discuss how to grow your business with YouTube in 2017. Tune in to learn what type of videos attract a larger audience and how to get the most out of your videos through collaborating with others and repurposing your content across many different platforms. Time Stamped Show Notes: 00:27 – Today’s topic: How to Grow Your Business with YouTube in 2017 00:35 – YouTube is the number 2 search engine in the world and is owned by Google 00:50 – First, go live on YouTube 01:05 – Use Wirecast or ScreenFlow for Mac to stream simultaneously on other platforms 01:39 – Second, create educational videos 01:51 – Neil shares what he does when goes to the studio and records 02:09 – The video clips pop out in Facebook and encourages a following 02:14 – Educational or tutorial videos work for corporate brands as well 02:50 – You can convert people into customers 03:00 – Repurpose your video 03:11 – Chop up your video and add catchy titles and captions 03:35 – Ryan Moran of Fre

In Episode #201, Eric and Neil discuss how to rank for head terms. Tune in to know if the head terms and long-tail terms you are using are ranking well. Also, find out how easy it is for Google to read and rank your head terms. Time Stamped Show Notes: 00:27 – Today’s topic: How to Rank for Head Terms 00:35 – Head terms are 1 or 2 keywords or a phrase like: shoes, basketball shoes, running shoes 01:18 – Long-tail terms are three or more keyword phrases like “gray Nike running shoes” 01:36 – To rank for head terms, first look at your external links; the more that people link to you, the better 01:45 – “The sites with the highest domain authority tend to do well in ranking head terms” 01:53 – Second is brand queries; the more people type in your brand name, the more likely you are to rank 02:04 – If your term is the head term itself, it is easier to rank 02:30 – Read the case study of Glen Allsopp of ViperChill 02:36 – Glen studied a group of companies who linked to each other internally 02:50 –

In Episode #200, Eric and Neil discuss how you should approach SEO for a 10,000-page website. Internal linking, SEO audits, and long-term brand campaigns are all key strategies that will optimize your ranking on Google. Eric and Neil break down these strategies geared towards your large website so that you can optimize your topical relevancy for Google. Time Stamped Show Notes: 00:27 – Today’s topic: How to Approach SEO for a 10,000-Page Website 00:40 – Use Google Search Console to spot areas on your site such as crawl issues and specific penalties 00:54 – Combine Google Search Console with Screaming Frog SEO Spider 01:07 – Read Neil’s post on Quicksprout on how to perform an SEO audit the right way 01:27 – Make sure your website is set for the right URL hierarchy—this will help your Google relevance 01:59 – Reasons why you’re creating a website 02:20 – When you have tons of pages, your content might overlap 02:44 – Your biggest ROI bank should be on-page SEO 03:10 – Combining posts is good 0

In Episode #199, Eric and Neil discuss how to get your first thousand email subscribers. What can be a tedious process is broken down into proven strategies that Eric and Neil have used in the past to grow their own email lists. Tune in to find the best way to improve your blog in order to grow your list and the many online tools you can access that will help you draw people in. Time Stamped Show Notes: 00:27 – Today’s topic: How to Get Your First Thousand Email Subscribers 00:35 – Email still performs really well because you get to control the message and audience 01:15 – Upgrade your content 01:26 – Providing resources that relate to your topic is going to increase your conversion rate 02:06 – Neil’s first blog didn’t do okay at first 02:24 – Quicksprout, which is Neil’s second blog, performed better 02:33 – Neil’s simple tactic is to improve your blog 02:43 – Find similar blog posts in your space that are ranking and check their comments 03:03 – Check the number of comments per blog post

In Episode #198, Eric and Neil discuss whether you should syndicate your content. Syndication simply means reposting content that you have onto other sites. Eric and Neil discuss how to best syndicate your content and why it is important to know where you post. They also address people’s hesitations in, essentially, duplicating their posts and discuss the advantages of doing just that. Time Stamped Show Notes: 00:27 – Today’s topic: Should You Be Syndicating Your Content? 00:35 – Syndication is reposting content in another website 00:50 – You don’t need to worry if you’re syndicating only a couple of times 01:23 – If you’re syndicating with a higher authority website and your website is brand new, the high-authority website might take over 02:01 – If you want to reuse and repurpose your content on different medium platforms—do it! 02:38 – There are different audiences who prefer different audio and video formats 02:40 – Try to resyndicate 03:10 – Medium allows you to add a canonical tag to your cont

In Episode #197, Eric and Neil discuss the 7-point Facebook advertising checklist. Tune in to find out how you can best leverage Facebook advertising for your marketing campaign. Eric and Neil discuss 7 key tips that will get you on track to increasing your sales and click-through rates. Time Stamped Show Notes: 00:27 – Today’s topic: 7-Point Facebook Advertising Checklist 00:35 – First, have a good image 00:48 – Use tools like Canva 00:53 – A good image drive means a good click-through rate 01:06 – Second, have a lot of text 01:18 – The more persuasive the text and the more stories you have, the better the conversion 01:37 – Third, try different objectives and see the results 02:21 – If you need people to register for something, go with the website conversion objective if that’s what you need if you want conversion in your website 02:28 – If that isn’t working or you want to try something new, try clicks and see what works better for you 02:42 – Fourth, make sure that ad frequency is le