How ethical is your marketing practice? Imagine describing your job to your best non-marketing friend. What’s your response if they think your work is ethically gray or morally suspect? Today’s guest is Robin Cangie from The Empowered Freelancer. Robin talks about how to do work that’s radically effective and ethical, where marketers avoid ethical shortcuts by focusing on work that is genuinely helpful for leads, prospects, and customers.&nbsp; &nbsp; Some of the highlights of the show include:  The Empowered Freelancer: Real, raw talk about being self-employed Radically Ethical Marketing: Honesty, transparency, and genuine helpfulness What isn’t radically ethical?  Retargeting ads without permission from customers Copy designed to deceive rather than inform Goal is to get users to convert rather than help them see product value   Why should marketers choose tactics or structure strategy? Right thing to do Quit or speak up? Figure out your threshold, values, and what you can do What is a smart way to do good and better without the approach backfiring? Marketers/Leaders: Think about how negative perceptions harm the business Valid but Risky: Raising ethical concerns takes a tremendous amount of courage Beloved Brands: Wonderful products/services and messaging tone aligns values  &nbsp; Links:         &nbsp; Quotes from Robin Cangie: “Radically Ethical Marketing is simply marketing that puts honesty, transparency, and genuine helpfulness at its center.” “People are becoming more wise to ways that marketers try to manipulate their perceptions, use their data to get them to buy as much stuff as possible.” “Being radically ethical is a more sustainable long-term choice.” “Truth be told, it was a matter of needing to look in the mirror every morning and feel good about the work that I was doing. That is something that’s very important to me.” “You may have more power than you realize to effect change.”

AMP 231: Making Marketing Radically Ethical and Growing Your Business the Right Way With Robin Cangie From The Empowered Freelancer

Data and thought leadership are two things that work better together, especially in public relations and content marketing. Today’s guest is Amy Littleton, Executive Vice President of Public Relations and Content at KemperLesnik. Amy talks about how to make thought leadership more accurate and authoritative to land massive PR wins. She knows what it takes to use data-backed insights to tell stories that earn media attention. &nbsp; Some of the highlights of the show include:  Thought Leadership: Common reasons it fails and doesn’t produce results Good and Bad News: Search for and find information that is right, not wrong Authenticity and Credibility: Marketing agenda vs. thoughtful data-driven advisory Proof Points: Always better to have examples and information you need to know Research Resources: Surveys are simple to complex and everything in between Content Length: Consumed on multiple channels, equipment, and platforms Curiosity: Gives info to get customers to care, explore new things, drive results Inputs In/Out: Fill your brain to produce better ideas and make better decisions  &nbsp; Links:           &nbsp; Quotes from Amy Littleton: “Even the way that we search for news and information in our personal lives, in business, you’re looking for news and information, and you can get that from multiple sources.” “The first thing you would do is lose trust with your audience if you put out crappy content. You’re not going to get people to want to come back to you for information if the information you put out is really a marketing piece disguised as thought leadership.” “Data can come from anywhere. I think your own curated data, third-party data, information that you’ve found that is already publicly available, and any combination of that, can help you to inform a thought leadership piece.” “It’s about credibility. You want your piece to have credibility.”

AMP 232: Bringing Data and Thought Leadership Together for Massive PR Wins With Amy Littleton From Kemper Lesnik

In 2011, Google introduced the term, Zero Moment of Truth (ZMOT), also known as the moment that a consumer decides to research a product or service online before they enter a store or contact a business. A lot has changed since Google conducted that research and published the ZMOT ebook. Now, it’s normal behavior and what consumers do online before deciding to make a purchase.&nbsp; Today’s guest is Paul Mackiewicz, CEO and Founder of #Smart Marketing. He talks about how to hack consumer behavior using ZMOT. Businesses and marketers often overlook small details in their overall online presence that add up to a big difference between who wins or loses. Stay on the winning side by understanding when and where ZMOT happens for your customers.&nbsp; &nbsp; Some of the highlights of the show include:  Ebook: Explains how increased access to information impacts buying decisions 3-Step Marketing Process: Awareness, experience, and compare product/service Business Directory/Review Management Systems: Convert eyeballs to invoices Control Messaging/Ratings: First impressions are everything in most industries ZMOT Concept: Who you choose based off your emotional reaction to info online Build Business Persona: If you could be any celebrity online, who would you be? Big Business Benefits: Foot traffic is less and people like to look and buy online Getting Started: Claim Google, Yelp business listings, and get pro pics and tools Future of Marketing: Know, like, and trust small businesses to do your marketing  &nbsp; Links:               &nbsp; Quotes from Paul Mackiewicz: “The best way really to conceptualize what ZMOT is, is just how our access to information through increased technology has changed how we get to that final decision-making process.” “It’s very difficult to get eyeballs on your business, and what these directories and these review sites and social media allow you to do is quickly convert eyeballs to invoices.” “Synergy - it’s a big thing with digital marketing, but I think a lot of marketing companies don’t talk about it enough and I think a lot of businesses don’t consider it enough.” “It’s only going to become more and more important as foot traffic becomes less of a determiner - determination factor - for buying decisions.”

AMP 263: How to Hack Consumer Behavior Using ZMOT (Zero Moment of Truth) With Paul Mackiewicz

When it comes to content marketing, failing to plan is planning to fail. Why do some marketers struggle with content planning? It isn’t easy nor is it always properly valued. Sometimes, content planning gets overlooked. Today’s guest is Vassilena Valchanova, a digital strategist, trainer, speaker, and blogger. She talks about why it is important to plan content consistently with a repeatable and effective framework by sharing her blueprint for content planning. &nbsp; Some of the highlights of the show include:  Content Planning: Focus on the right things and follow a predefined structure Pros: Goal is to promote products and give people helpful information Cons: Without a clear process for planning content, promotional content fills gap Out of Necessity: Why Vissilena created content marketing blueprint/framework Purpose: Blueprint is a strategy document that helps with daily content planning Process: How Vissilena’s content blueprint strategy works from start to finish How to create your own content planning blueprint/framework for your company Compare/Contrast: Plan different content pieces across different channels  &nbsp; Links:          &nbsp; Quotes from&nbsp; Vassilena Valchanova: “We don't spend enough time properly planning out what messages we’ll be sharing, what different types of content we’ll be promoting, and how we engage our audience in different channels and in different formats.” “We start creating content that pretty much feels and looks the same because we're trying to push something out quicker and will go for just an image with a standardized template design rather than focusing on really creating something unique at that point.” “What the content blueprint does is allow you to document that strategy in an easy-to-use format. ” “The four different segments will be the mission statement, setting up the goals, channel plan, and topic plans.”

AMP 272: The Content Planning Blueprint You Need for Success With Vassilena Valchanova

CoSchedule started the Actionable Marketing Podcast (AMP) in 2015 and has recorded and published more than 300 episodes. CoSchedule has worked with some of the smartest minds out there that share their stories with you through this podcast. This season, CoSchedule brings back some of the best of the best evergreen content.&nbsp; CoSchedule’s blog and content engine generate more than 1 million views and 20,000 leads every month. How do we do it? Listen and learn. Today’s guest is Leah DeKrey, content marketing strategist and blog manager at CoSchedule. To know that a million people read the blog posts she writes every month is terrifying, thrilling, and core to CoSchedule’s growth. &nbsp; Some of the highlights of the show include:  Reasons for Successful Blog:  Corporate and managerial buy-in Standards of performance   Blog Posts: Be different than the rest, as the best 4 Performance Pillars for Blog Posts:  Comprehensive; at least 3,000 words Actionable Relevant Content upgrade/value-add included   Keyword Domination Strategy: Drive content by Googling around to search and seek high-volume, low-difficulty keywords Measure Success of Content and Blog: Give it time because reaching the top doesn't happen overnight and takes patience What you know now: College system is ripe for disruption, real world is where you learn 90% of what you do Tools to Try: Ahrefs, Google Analytics, and KISSmetrics  &nbsp; Links:    by Garrett Moon      &nbsp; Quotes from Leah DeKrey: “The number one thing that got us kicked off on the right foot was having that executive and managerial buy-in.” “We aim to be the most in-depth blog posts that you can find on any topic on the Internet.” “How much is too much? How much time is too much time? You're not alone in wondering those things.” “Finding those sweet spots of keywords is really important for your content strategy. Otherwise, it's not going to be justified spending so much time.”

[Best of Season] AMP 144: This is How To Grow Your Blog From Zilch To 1 Million Monthly Views With Leah DeKrey From CoSchedule

CoSchedule started the Actionable Marketing Podcast (AMP) in 2015 and has recorded and published more than 300 episodes. CoSchedule has worked with some of the smartest minds out there that share their stories with you through this podcast. This season, CoSchedule brings back some of the best of the best evergreen content.&nbsp; &nbsp; Where do your customers hang out? What kinds of things do they like? What publications do they read? Customer research involves a lot of leg work, so does this information even matter? How can you leverage such insight for SEO? &nbsp; Today, we’re talking to Rand Fishkin, founder of SparkToro and author of Lost and Founder. He is a powerhouse in the content marketing and SEO world. &nbsp; Some of the highlights of the show include:  Background, origination, and purpose of SparkToro Reaching/Researching Audiences: Slow, frustrating, and inaccurate process Companies spend money contracting agencies for a list of top customers, blogs, podcasts, and events Bones of Audience Intelligence: 1) Identify audiences across channels; 2) Know audience density; 3) Use trustworthy and valuable metrics How to obtain, benchmark, filter, and analyze data Data Points: Which to focus on and where to get them Social Network Profiles: Report follower count and engagement Biases generate unrepresentative data influenced by SEO Significant sample sizes and diverse groups are needed for true coverage Examples of missing specific audiences SparkToro lets you find people who practice specific fields Does current audience intelligence data represent the market as a whole? Improve SEO by helping audience accomplish tasks, and identifying and broadening link sources  &nbsp; Links:  Rand Fishkin on           &nbsp; Quotes by Rand Fishkin: “If you’re looking at a social network profile, don’t just report on follower count, go look at the last 20 or 50 posts...report on how much engagement did each of those get.” “Go out there, build a company, make mistakes, just don’t make exactly the same ones I did.” “You get biased by your existing understanding of the field.”

[Best of Season] AMP 081: How To Do Remarkable Customer Research With Rand Fishkin From SparkToro

CoSchedule started the Actionable Marketing Podcast (AMP) in 2015 and has recorded and published more than 300 episodes. CoSchedule has worked with some of the smartest minds out there that share their stories with you through this podcast. This season, CoSchedule brings back some of the best of the best evergreen content.&nbsp; Have you ever wondered what the process would be like to start something from scratch and end up with a million users? Our conversation is going to help you set better goals and achieve more than you ever have before. Today, we’re talking to Noah Kagan, the chief sumo at sumo.com and AppSumo. He also hosts Noah Kagan Presents, which is an awesome podcast, and has a steady stream of stuff on okdork.com. &nbsp; Some of the highlights of the show include:  How Noah handles the marketing at Sumo.com and what has the most potential. How Noah ended up at Mint, where he helped grow the company from zero to more than a million users. Why Noah doesn’t believe in hope in the business world. The process Noah used to put his plan together, come up with ideas, figure out how much traffic he had, and more. Common mistakes that Noah sees other people making. Why copying methods described on other people’s blog posts doesn’t work. The greatest piece of marketing advice Noah has received.  &nbsp; Links:        &nbsp; Quotes by Noah Kagan: “I believe in hope in fantasy and fairytales in the real world or in the non-business world, but in business, no.” “If you're not making mistakes, you're probably not experimenting enough.” “At the end of the day, it really just comes down to you got to do it yourself... go and experiment yourself, go and promote something.”

[Best of Season] AMP 056: How To Grow From 0 to 1 Million Customers With Noah Kagan From SumoMe and OkDork

CoSchedule started the Actionable Marketing Podcast (AMP) in 2015 and has recorded and published more than 300 episodes. CoSchedule has worked with some of the smartest minds out there that share their stories with you through this podcast. This season, CoSchedule brings back some of the best of the best evergreen content.&nbsp; How much attention do you pay to keywords in your content? For too many people, the answer is “none” or “nearly none.” While having engaging  is vital, ignoring keywords is going to make it difficult for those human readers to find your content in the first place. This bad advice to ignore keywords has made it so some marketers really don’t know how to use keywords effectively at all. Today, we’re talking to Julia McCoy, the CEO of Express Writers. She’s not only an amazing writer but also considered a thought leader in her industry. She talks to us about using keywords well when creating content. &nbsp; Some of the highlights of the show include:  How Julia got into freelance writing, what made her start Express Writers, and what she does there. An overview of the content strategy at Express Writers. How Julia helps older content maintain a high ranking in the search engines. Why targeting low-competition keywords works. How Julia finds the keywords and what tools she uses. How Julia defines good content for Express Writers. Tips on weaving keywords into great content. Why long-form content is important when it comes to ranking. Where to focus first if you’re a content marketer getting started with keywords.  &nbsp; Links:          &nbsp; Quotes by Julia McCoy: “Just having engaging writing is number one.&nbsp; You have to write to be read. Number two, you have to be super thorough on the topic.” &nbsp; “Once we have that keyword, it’s not just about the keyword, it’s about creating content where that keyword is the topic." “Consistency is key. Whenever you start, give your audience something to look forward to.”

[Best of Season] AMP 057: How To Create Content That Ranks For 11,000+ Keywords With Julia McCoy From Express Writers

CoSchedule started the Actionable Marketing Podcast (AMP) in 2015 and has recorded and published more than 300 episodes. CoSchedule has worked with some of the smartest minds out there that share their stories with you through this podcast. This season, CoSchedule brings back some of the best of the best evergreen content.&nbsp; These days, you need to create both a great Website and great content to rank on Google. Today, we’re talking to Brian Dean, an SEO expert and founder of Backlinko, about how to fuel your 10x content using his research method called the Skyscraper Technique. &nbsp; Some of the highlights of the show include:  Black Hat SEO: Stuffing keywords and creating fake signals to rank in Google Google penalized sites using Black Hat SEO strategy White Hat SEO: Show Google everything you did to optimize your site Backlinko teaches people White Hat SEO strategies SEO Elements: Keyword and topic research; create content around them Two types of keywords: Information and commercial Create and optimize content that gets the most searches around keywords/topics Differences between well-researched and not researched content and topics Provide one-stop shopping for all the information customers need Skyscraper Technique: Research to figure out what content will perform well Ways to improve content - go bigger and better, , storytelling, and more Focus on quality over quantity; create less content, make it more valuable Common missteps when implementing “less is more” strategy and ranking  &nbsp; Links:           &nbsp; Quotes by Brian Dean: “You really have to create legitimately great content and a legitimately great Website to rank in Google.” “Everything starts with a keyword with SEO.” “They just regurgitate what’s already out there and that’s not the type of content that’s going to rank as well on Google.” “There’s tons of ways to make your content more valuable than the competition.”

[Best of Season] AMP 082: How To Drive 10x More Traffic With This SEO Technique From Brian Dean Of Backlink.io

CoSchedule started the Actionable Marketing Podcast (AMP) in 2015 and has recorded and published more than 300 episodes. CoSchedule has worked with some of the smartest minds out there that share their stories with you through this podcast. This season, CoSchedule brings back some of the best of the best evergreen content.&nbsp; Has your smartphone ever beeped or vibrated to let you know that something, some piece of information or message, is waiting, just for you? Without even thinking, you read, listen to, or watch, and become completely absorbed in it. How have these pieces gained so much power over our behavior and attention? How do software companies hook us, and what can marketers learn from this phenomenon? Today’s guest is Nir Eyal, who says today’s smartest companies have melded psychology, business, and technology into habit-forming products. Nir is the best-selling author of Hooked: How to Build Habit-Forming Products. He’s an angel investor and expert in behavioral design. He unveils some psychological principles behind some of today’s biggest and most valuable companies. &nbsp; Some of the highlights of the show include:  Skill of the century is the ability to cultivate focus Behavioral Design: Engaging, habit forming products built with consumer psychology in mind People use the Hooked model to engage with a product or service Step 1: Internal trigger (reason why you use a product - to modulate your mood, to feel something different; products and services cater to emotional discomfort) What’s the user’s itch? What’s their pain point that occurs frequently enough to build a habit around? Step 2: Action (the simplest behavior done in anticipation of a reward and relief from discomfort; technology shortens the distance between the need and reward) Lewin’s Equation: “People act in accordance to their personality and their environment” - the easier something is, the more likely people are to do it Step 3: Reward Phase (the itch gets scratched, the customer’s need is satiated, and their problems are solved) Element of Variability: Something of mystery, something of uncertainty 3 Variable Reward Types: Rewards of the tribe, the hunt, and of the self If you can form a habit, you can engage people with your brand through a community/content habit, and monetization is the result of engagement Step 4: Investment Phase (increases likelihood of the next pass through the hook by loading the next trigger and storing value) Content, data, followers, and reputation get users to invest in your product Companies should make a deliberate effort to understand consumers better; what makes people click and tick, so you can build services that they want  &nbsp; Links:        &nbsp; Quotes by Nir Eyal:  “Where we always start is what’s the user’s itch? What’s their pain point that occurs frequently enough to build a habit around?” “The easier something is, the more likely people are to do it.” “Monetization is a result of engagement.”

[Best of Season] AMP085: How To Use The Psychology Of Habit Formation To Be A Better Marketer With Best-Selling Author Nir Eyal

CoSchedule started the Actionable Marketing Podcast (AMP) in 2015 and has recorded and published more than 300 episodes. CoSchedule has worked with some of the smartest minds out there that share their stories with you through this podcast. This season, CoSchedule brings back some of the best of the best evergreen content.&nbsp; Planning and creating content that ranks well on the search engines can be difficult. It comes down to keyword selection and use, but that’s not all. You’ve heard the expression, “content is king,” and that’s still true. Your success has everything to do with the value and uniqueness that your content has to offer the people who will be seeing it! Today, we’re talking to Tim Soulo, the head of marketing and product strategy at Ahrefs. Tim knows how to create valuable content, and he shares his best tips on finding keywords, promoting your content, and standing out from your competition. &nbsp; Some of the highlights of the show include:  Information about Ahrefs and what Tim does there. The most successful content produced by Ahrefs: the types of articles and pieces, as well as how they promote and analyze them. Tips on ranking for not only your core keyword, but also relevant keywords. The process Tim uses for coming up with content ideas. What it takes to outperform your competition. Why it’s important for an SEO marketer to do research that no other blog has written about or compiled. Tim’s thoughts on length and why it might not be important in the way that you are thinking. Tim also talks about long “ultimate guides” and gives his advice on making them more user-friendly. How to use backlinks to promote a piece to help it rank.  &nbsp; Links:        &nbsp; Quotes by Tim Soulo:  “The only way to outdo, to outperform the competition is to offer something unique and something better than they have.” “You have to have something to offer which wasn’t published, which wasn’t said before you. You usually need to be at the forefront of your industry, you need to be a so-called thought leader.” “It’s not about trying to crank everything you can into the article, it's about delivering value and persuading people that you can solve their problem in as [few] words as possible.”

[Best of Season] AMP071: How To Get Your Content To Rank #1 On Google With Tim Soulo Of Ahrefs

CoSchedule started the Actionable Marketing Podcast (AMP) in 2015 and has recorded and published more than 300 episodes. CoSchedule has worked with some of the smartest minds out there that share their stories with you through this podcast. This season, CoSchedule brings back some of the best of the best evergreen content.&nbsp; The success of your company depends on the marketing you do, how you choose to present the benefits of a product or service, and which audience to target. How you position a product or service can make or break your company. Stop right there. Forget everything you thought you knew about product positioning. Connecting your product or service with buyers is not a matter of following trends, selling harder, or trying to attract the widest customer base. Today, my guest is April Dunford, who has launched more than a dozen products and shares some of the biggest mistakes that startups, marketers, and entrepreneurs make with product positioning. Also, she’s the author of Obviously Awesome: How to Nail Product Positioning So Customers Get It, Buy It, Love It. April’s book describes her point of view on positioning and offers a step-by-step process to perfectly position your product or service. &nbsp; Some of the highlights of the show include:  Career Change: Fake it til you figure it out. How hard can it be? Do it right, and the company grows quickly, gets acquired; you get bored and do another startup Definition of Positioning: How to win at doing something that a well-defined market cares about Perfect marketing execution won’t save you from weak positioning; marketing execution and results are only as good as positioning that feeds into them Who should decide the positioning for your product? Everybody Siebel Story: Too small to buy out beyond a billion dollars Positioning Pitfalls: People don’t do positioning deliberately; and when they try to fix it, they don’t follow a process but wing it or write a “Positioning Statement” Positioning Statement Components:  Who’s your competitive alternatives? What are the unique capabilities or features that your product has? What’s the value that those features can enable for customers? Who’s my target customer? Is this a market that I’m going to win?   Signs of weak positioning include:  How a customer reacts to your product/service They compare you to a non-competitor; not in the right market Customer knows what you do, but not the value or why they should care    &nbsp; Links:      &nbsp; Quotes by April Dunford:  “Not only is positioning a thing I should figure out, it's potentially a super powerful thing.” “Two years after graduating from engineering, I'm running this great big marketing team. It's global. I’ve got this giant budget...even though I was completely unqualified for it.” “I focus on positioning, mainly because I think people do a really terrible job at positioning. There's not many people that know how to do it right.” “A shift in positioning can totally result in a shift in the product roadmap, a shift in your pricing, a shift in a way you sell, a shift in your channels.” "You see signs of weak positioning across your entire sales , but often the place where it’s most obvious is looking at how a customer reacts when they first encounter your product or your offering."

[Best of Season] AMP139: This Is How To Nail Product Positioning So Customers Get It, Buy It, Love It With April Dunford Author Of Obviously Awesome

CoSchedule started the Actionable Marketing Podcast (AMP) in 2015 and has recorded and published more than 300 episodes. CoSchedule has worked with some of the smartest minds out there that share their stories with you through this podcast. This season, CoSchedule brings back some of the best of the best evergreen content.&nbsp; Content marketing is a highly competitive space. Every single day, nearly 60 million blog posts are published and five billion YouTube videos are watched. Are you always trying to edge out search results to be on top? Discover how to reframe your mindset when it comes to content marketing. Today, we’re talking to Garrett Moon, CoSchedule CEO, about how to handle such competition when it comes to content marketing and his new book, 10X Marketing Formula: Your Blueprint for Creating Competition-Free Content That Stands Out and Gets Results. &nbsp; Some of the highlights of the show include:  Marketers are responsible for bringing in leads, sales, people - big tasks - to support core business metrics. Garrett’s book describes taking the formula, process, tips and tricks, and things that work and don’t for CoSchedule and making them available to anybody to use and implement in their business and marketing process. Gartner’s Hype Cycle: How new technology is adopted. When content marketing took shape a few years back, all of a sudden, everyone was adopting it and reworking their marketing teams, creating content, doing blogging, building email lists, and other tasks. Content marketing made a lot of promises to us. Now, Garrett believes we are entering the trough of disillusionment. We adopted content marketing, but what about those big promises that were made? What about the results? Why are you not getting the results you were promised? How do marketing teams provide business value? Content marketing needs to be reinvented. Garrett describes the "copy cat" epidemic in marketing. There is so much free content online where pieces of strategies, tactics, and other items are copied and pasted. However, it does not create an entire picture or blueprint. The goal is to create a framework from start to finish to find something unique to your business that only you can do and be successful with. Something that stands out and gets results. Creating Competition-Free Content: Not only is your business and products in competition, but your marketing is in competition with other marketing. Find a way to break past that barrier created by competitors. The book, Blue Ocean Strategy, refers to the Bloody Red Ocean, which is full of competition and where businesses are fighting each other to stand out - they’re at war with each other. However, the Blue Ocean is wide-open and uncontested. You're free to swim around and move about because you have successfully been able to differentiate yourself from the competition. To differentiate your content marketing, focus on your topics, how you create content, and how to connect that content and share it with your customers. 10X reference: look at what you are doing and ask if what you are doing will help your team multiply results, including increasing sales leads and the number of visitors to your Website. Marketing teams need to focus on 10x growth rather than increments of 10 percent improvements. Marketing teams are designed to produce results, not worry about risks. Agile Manifesto: focuses on how software development could be better. A powerful way to cause engineers to rethink and reframe what they’re doing. 10X Manifesto: focuses on how so much of marketing is about mindset when it comes to how we do and approach things. Results or Die: 10X marketers work in a results or die oriented business, not 10 percenters allowed. Many think of marketing as a process for things they do - marketing is the blog, social media channels, conference booth, etc. There’s all these deliverables that a marketing team creates and hands off to others, such as the sales and...

[Best of Season] AMP075: Getting 10x Results From Your Content With Garrett Moon Of CoSchedule

Some people learn best from reading, but others prefer to watch or listen to content. Although you probably put a lot of time into your blog, website, and other written marketing products, multimedia content is becoming increasingly more popular. Knowing where to begin and how to make the process more efficient just might be the key to your success as a marketer. Today, we’re talking to Ander Frischer, the marketing educator at Instapage. He’s going to share his insights on how he handles the process of creating multimedia content, plus a whole lot more. You won’t want to miss today’s episode! Some of the highlights of the show include:  Information about Instapage, including their impressive conversion rate. A few tips on landing page advertising personalization and why A/B testing is so important. Why it’s so important to include multimedia content in any marketing strategy. How Ander got into multimedia content as part of his marketing strategy for Instapage and what he was hoping to achieve. How personalization has helped boost project results at Instapage. Some insights on the process for launching a webinar. Ander’s process for organizing a podcast. Tips for getting quality engagement from your listeners or readers. Ander’s best advice for someone who wants to get started with adding multimedia content to their marketing strategy.  Links: Ander Frischer Instapage Coschedule &nbsp; Quotes by Ander: &nbsp; “I like to hold back from giving one-size-fits-all optimization tips because every business is different.” &nbsp; “A podcast is a great opportunity to cultivate relationships.” &nbsp; “The most rewarding thing about what I do is hearing from people.”

AMP023: How To Use Multimedia Content To Bolster Your Marketing Strategy With Ander Frischer From Instapage

What triggers your readers to buy? How can you write better calls to action and get more conversions? Today we’re going to be talking to Roger Dooley, the brains behind the book Brainfluence: 100 Ways to Persuade and Convince Consumers With Neuromarketing. He also writes the Neuromarketing blog and regularly contributes to Entrepreneur and Forbes about neuromarketing. What is neuromarketing, and how can you use it to connect with your audience and get better results? That’s what we’re going to be talking to Roger about today. You won’t want to miss it! Some of the highlights of the show include:  How Roger defines neuromarketing, the different types of neuromarketing, and how large and small businesses take advantage of the different types. Some of the principles of why neuromarketing techniques work, including social proof, authority, and reciprocity. Roger’s thoughts on case studies, emotions, and the words that potential customers and marketing professionals use. Why it’s important to understand your target buyer’s unconscious needs as well as their conscious needs. Roger’s best tips on building trust with your audience. How to turn your fans into buyers and how to create effective calls to action. Roger’s advice to a marketer who is just starting out in learning about and implementing some neuromarketing techniques.  Links:  Brainfluence Neuromarketing blog Roger on Entrepreneur  Roger on Forbes  Robert Cialdini’s Pre-Suasion  The Persuasion Slide  Perennial Seller

AMP061: How Use Neuromarketing To Connect With Your Audience With Rodger Dooley, Author of “Brainfluence"

Planning and creating content that ranks well on the search engines can be difficult. It comes down to keyword selection and use, but that’s not all. You’ve heard the expression, “content is king,” and that’s still true: Your success has everything to do with the value and uniqueness that your content has to offer the people who will be seeing it! Today, we’re talking to Tim Soulo, the head of marketing and product strategy at Ahrefs. Tim knows how to create valuable content, and today he’s going to share his best tips on finding keywords, promoting your content, and standing out from your competition. Some of the highlights of the show include:  Information about Ahrefs and what Tim does there. The most successful content produced by Ahrefs: the types of articles and pieces, as well as how they promote and analyze them. Tips on ranking for not only your core keyword, but also relevant keywords. The process Tim uses for coming up with content ideas. What it takes to outperform your competition. Why it’s important for an SEO marketer to do research that no other blog has written about or compiled. Tim’s thoughts on length and why it might not be important in the way that you are thinking. Tim also talks about long “ultimate guides” and gives his advice on making them more user-friendly. How to use backlinks to promote a piece to help it rank.   Links: Tim Soulo Ahrefs How to Do Keyword Research for SEO  How to Submit Your Website to Search Engines Send a screenshot of your iTunes review to podcast@coschedule.com

AMP071: How To Get Your Content To Rank #1 On Google With Tim Soulo Of Ahrefs

Have you spent a ton of time on a piece of content, only for it to get no traction or traffic? Does it end up in the graveyard of the Internet? What about a piece of content that drives traffic, but not to conversions? These are huge problems for content marketers.&nbsp; Today, we’re talking to Garrett Moon, CoSchedule’s co-founder and CEO. He will share content solutions and information from his new book, 10X Marketing Formula.&nbsp; Some of the highlights of the show include:&nbsp;  Content marketing is not living up to the hype that it promised and not generating the results that were expected. Who’s who in content marketing have provided positive testimonials for Garrett’s book. One core reason why marketers are not getting results with their content is that it is not good or unique enough to stand out. Need to Create Competition-Free Content: As a marketer that is creating content, your content is in competition with other content. Find ways to differentiate yourself. What are your top 5 competitors doing for content marketing? If it looks like what you are doing, then do something different. When CoSchedule performed an assessment of its competitors, it noticed a similarity in length of posts, consistent use of imagery, and low usage of resources in posts. Find opportunities that move you away from the competition. Garrett shared a case study of Groove HQ. It had a regular content marketing blog that focused on useful things for professionals. There was moderate success, but it was not great. The company needed to do something different with it. So, it launched a brand new blog called, Groove’s Journey to 100K in Monthly Recurring Revenue. The company shared what worked and didn’t, and the blog experienced overnight success. You need to have an appetite for risk to really stand out, but risk is not the problem. It is failure. Marketing has become about the methods we use. However, if you’re constantly building your marketing on top of methods, you’re just copycating what everyone else is doing. Take a risk and try something new. Stick with the plan, even if it doesn’t work. Content Core: What does your audience want to read about? What interests them enough to click on a link? Clicks don’t necessarily equal value and results. Don’t fall into that trap! Find an overlap between the topics you need to cover for your audience of existing and potential customers and the content you need to produce as a company. It’s about what your audience cares about and what value as a business you provide. What is the customer’s problem that made them hire CoSchedule to solve? How do you turn solving their problem into content? Marketing Projects: Allows customers to manage multi-media marketing campaigns. CoSchedule helps customers solve complex problems by offering free, simple tools. If you help your audience be successful without you, they’ll be dying to be successful with you! The best way to get results with content is to talk to your customers.  Links:&nbsp; 10X Marketing Formula Jay Baer Joe Pulizzi  Blue Ocean Strategy Groove HQ AMP on  iTunes - leave a review and send screenshot to podcast@coschedule.com&nbsp; Quotes by Garrett:&nbsp; “Content marketing is just not always living up to the hype that was promised. It’s not always giving them the results that they feel they deserved.” “As a marketer and a content marketer that is creating content, we have to actually realize is that our content is now in competition with other content.” “Risk is all about failure, and I think you have to learn to sort of embrace failure and use it as a learning exercise and a way to improve what you are doing.” &nbsp;

AMP078: The Real Reason Your Content Doesn’t Get Results With Garrett Moon From CoSchedule

Copywriting can happen anywhere - from blogs to cereal boxes. It includes the whole world of marketing words. Conversion copywriting helps businesses build their business. Conversion copywriting is about getting people to say “Yes” and generating more leads and buyers. It measures results to see if something converted or not. Today, we’re talking to Joanna Wiebe, a conversion copywriter, creator of Copy Hackers, and co-founder of Airstory. She is an absolute authority on copywriting and conversions.&nbsp; Some of the highlights of the show include:&nbsp;  What makes people say, “Yes?” Whether it is clicking or trying something. There are different formulas you can use for this goal. Ask customers, “What was going on in your life that brought you to…” Then, you can identify their motivation. If you put a button on a Web page, people will click it because it is there. Lots of things will move people to click, but rarely lead to conversions. Stages of Awareness: Unaware, Pain Aware, Solution Aware, Product Aware, and Most Aware. Persuasion techniques are typically triggers used at the late stages in hope that you will make people buy. “Don’t put pressure on poor, little button.” It’s going to get clicked, but don’t put too many fancy marketing tricks within it. Where does it go? What will it say? Push best people to the most highly optimized button. There’s buttons for Calls to Value or Calls to Action. A Call to Action button is to tell the user exactly what you want them to do. For example, Download Ebook or Complete Purchase. A Calls to Value button regards why a customer is performing an action and completes the phrase, “I want to…” Change your button approach depending on the type of medium you are using. It depends on the context for an action or engagement. Map out actions based on context and location - email, Website, blog, etc. Map Calls to Action to move customers to the next stage of awareness.  Links:&nbsp;  10X Marketing Formula by Garrett Moon Copyhackers Airstory Google Analytics  Breakthrough Advertising by Eugene Schwartz Intuit Aaron Orendorff MarketingExperiments Robert Cialdini’s  Persuasion Techniques AMP on  iTunes - leave a review and send screenshot to podcast@coschedule.com&nbsp;  Quotes by Joanna Wiebe:&nbsp; “It wasn’t the digital atmosphere we have today in marketing where everything, everything gets measured.” “The real thing is we want to convert. We want more leads and we want more buyers. That’s what conversion copywriting is about.” “We can’t do a lot of motivating with copy, but you can take someone’s motivation and turn it into something.” “People want to click things. Mostly because they just want to move through life and get their problems solved.”

AMP080: How To Use Conversion Psychology To Get Better Results With Joanna Wiebe From Copyhackers

A sales and marketing funnel is when people have an awareness of your brand and move closer to a buying decision. You want them to know, like, and trust you, so there is enough value for them to become your customer. What does your customer’s journey look like?&nbsp; Fortunately, today’s episode features Daniel McGaw, the founder of Effin Amazing and creator of UTM.io. Daniel is a conversion rate optimization and sales funnel expert. Find out about the magic you can get from links and how to increase Website and content conversions. What are the superpowers of what can be done with a link when shared online?&nbsp; Some of the highlights of the show include:&nbsp;  Urchin tracking module (UTM) tags are bits of code you can add to the end of any link; it’s the only universal tracking method available Daniel’s product offers presets for teams to keep tags consistent Most entrepreneurs think about business in the wrong way; they focus on the logo, brand, mission, and other factors before they acquire customers Daniel thinks of business this way: Where is the demand? Do we have a customer? If we have a customer, then we have a business. How Effin Amazing got its name and gets a lot of attention Don’t ask for tons of information; just get an email address to optimize for leads Funnel Anatomy: Awareness, top of funnel (TOFU), middle of funnel (MOFU), bottom of funnel (BOFU), and referrals of the funnel (ROFU) &nbsp; Daniel’s company uses the Velocity/Impact/Confidence/Easy (VICE) framework to map a funnel, which includes documenting information, developing strategies, and building benchmarks Evaluate your team’s skills and abilities to augment VICE scores Most marketers and businesses go wrong when they expect people to buy too quickly; and do not get enough email addresses - email is king and the lynchpin to success Learn more about your customers during the funnel stages, and try to educate them  Links:&nbsp;  Daniel McGaw Effin Amazing UTM Trello RealtimeBoard AMP on  iTunes - leave a review and send screenshot to podcast@coschedule.com  &nbsp; &nbsp;

AMP087: Smart Conversion Rate And Sales Funnel Secrets From Daniel McGaw Of Effin Amazing

What does marketing look like today? Well, it’s a blend of art and science. It brings together creative visuals and copy with marketing research and analytics. Marketers are now creative creators dressed in lab coats. And, conversion rate optimization (CRO) - a system that increases the percentage of visitors to a Website that are converted into customers - is a perfect example.&nbsp; Today, we’re talking to Talia Wolf of GetUplift, which offers businesses and entrepreneurs training on how to increase conversions. Talia tells the truth and dispels myths about CRO. She also explains why CRO needs to be more customer centric and what it’s like when done right.&nbsp; Some of the highlights of the show include:&nbsp;  CRO is not just about changing elements on a page and hoping for the best; it’s about solving people’s problems and improving the customer’s journey Talia gets into people’s heads because they buy on emotion and then rationalize with different reasons; she focuses on people behind the screen rather than data Emotional Targeting Process: Identifying emotions and getting to know customers better Utilize customer surveys/interviews and competitor analysis; talk to people, ask the right questions, and analyze answers Conversion Psychology: You’re not buying a product, but higher self-esteem and better versions of yourself People browse and search for solutions via Google, then hit Command and open a bunch of tabs; 3 seconds to grab their attention and understand their pain Do groundwork and run meaningful tests on strategies, concepts, or hypothesis Color Psychology: People are influenced by colors in different ways due to their culture, emotions, experience, and more factors  Links:&nbsp;  GetUplift GetUplift Blog Joanna Wiebe Claire Suellentrop Tiffany daSilva  Color Psychology in Marketing  Write and send a review to receive a CoSchedule care package

AMP107: Why Your Customer Is The Key To Skyrocketing Conversion Rates with Talia Wolf from Get UpLift

What does “strategic ambiguity” mean? Marketers, politicians, and others use it all the time. It’s the art of making a claim using language that avoids specifics. So, you can be purposefully vague to derive personal organizational benefit. On the other hand, it creates an environment at companies where employees try to avoid blame. Today, my guest is Karen Martin, president of TKMG and author of Clarity First. She describes how a pervasive lack of clarity strangles business performance and leadership on marketing teams. &nbsp; Some of the highlights of the show include:  Definition of Clarity: State of something being easily and accurately understood; similar to transparency, but different from certainty Conveying and receiving information can cause ambiguity or clarity for employees and customers Primary reasons for lack of clarity all come down to fear Ramifications of lack of clarity: Takes time, builds frustration, and creates inefficiencies Five Ps for clarity:   Purpose Priorities Process Performance Problem-solving   Key Performance Indicators (KPIs): Visual of the marketing team’s health Profit is not your purpose; profit is the outcome of delivering high value to customers, and purpose is to solve a customer’s problem Are you a clarity avoider, pursuer, or blind? Take Karen’s Clarity First Quiz Where to start to focus on clarity: What do you do? What do you really do? Why does that product, and not something else, to solve a problem? Fearless Workplace: Multiple perspectives, but not a single understanding; feel comfortable having difficult conversations  Links:  TKMG Clarity First by Karen Martin Clarity First Quiz Clarity Webinars presented by Karen Martin The Outstanding Organization Write a review on iTunes and send a screenshot of it to receive cool CoSchedule swag!  &nbsp;

Actionable Content Marketing from CoSchedule

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