Sure Oak: Digital Marketing, SEO, Online Business Strategy, & More

How to reach out to Lior Ohayon: Finding and pitching leads is one of the more stressful but vital components of growing your business online. You never know where your next big client or project will come from, so pitching your product or service to those most likely to need it is a component of your growth strategy that you can't afford to neglect. Getting your message to the right audience and capturing their attention is a bit of art and a bit of science. In this installment of the Sure Oak podcast, Lior Ohayon from ScopeLeads helps us understand how to up our game for getting the right leads and delivering the pitch that will help drive sales. Automation Should be One of Your Last Steps, Not Your First There are plenty of tools online that can help you mass-distribute emails and scour the internet for leads, but jumping right into automation can be detrimental if you haven’t first established a foundation of a working and viable lead collection strategy. Take the time to do some manual work to determine quality leads; essentially, you’ll need to decide how you can best mine and collect leads before you begin scaling your operation with tools that can be customized to gather them automatically. Skipping the research and elbow grease to head directly for the automated tools is a good way to get your emails sent to your contact’s spam filters and to waste your valuable time and energy. Experiment to Find the Right Fit Fine-tuning your pitch, e-mail formatting, and lead collection strategies take a bit of time, but the return on investment is well worth it. Give yourself a bit of leeway in the beginning so you can create and send a few different e-mail pitches and templates before figuring which is the most successful in garnering replies and moving potential clients through your sales and marketing funnel. If you’re looking for leads, make sure you’re getting the most qualified potential clients. For example, if you’re pitching a reputation management service, you may want to find local businesses on Yelp or Google Maps who have inconsistent listing data or an ineffective way of responding to negative reviews; these businesses are most likely to need your services. From there, it’s important to find the best contact information for these potential clients, to ensure your message is seen by the right team member or employee. Doing some initial research into vetting leads and honing your e-mail messaging is the best way to improve the success of future automation and lead conversion. Avoid Common Pitfalls of E-Mail Writing and Lead Generation First and foremost, don’t pay for leads. While it’s tempting to dole out money to a broker who can send you a list of so-called high-quality leads, the best pay-off comes from doing your own investigating, as mentioned above. Doing your research does take more time, but it’s worth the pay-off in improved conversions and messaging accuracy. Once you have your leads researched and you have the correct contact information for them, it’s time to send your expertly-crafted and engaging e-mail pitch. Many business owners overthink this part of the process, imagining that they have to be funny, long-winded, or provide links to every resource, website, and client that could corroborate the greatness of their service. However, this couldn’t be further from the truth. While it seems counter-intuitive, Lior actually advises against linking to your company’s website in your cold emails, as this can circumvent your planned sales pitch and lead the client to decide that your service ...

How to reach out to Lior Ohayon: Finding and pitching leads is one of the more stressful but vital components of growing your business online. You never know where your next big client or project will come from, so pitching your product or service to those most likely to need it is a component of your growth strategy that you can't afford to neglect. Getting your message to the right audience and capturing their attention is a bit of art and a bit of science. In this installment of the Sure Oak podcast, Lior Ohayon from ScopeLeads helps us understand how to up our game for getting the right leads and delivering the pitch that will help drive sales. Automation Should be One of Your Last Steps, Not Your First There are plenty of tools online that can help you mass-distribute emails and scour the internet for leads, but jumping right into automation can be detrimental if you haven’t first established a foundation of a working and viable lead collection strategy. Take the time to do some manual work to determine quality leads; essentially, you’ll need to decide how you can best mine and collect leads before you begin scaling your operation with tools that can be customized to gather them automatically. Skipping the research and elbow grease to head directly for the automated tools is a good way to get your emails sent to your contact’s spam filters and to waste your valuable time and energy. Experiment to Find the Right Fit Fine-tuning your pitch, e-mail formatting, and lead collection strategies take a bit of time, but the return on investment is well worth it. Give yourself a bit of leeway in the beginning so you can create and send a few different e-mail pitches and templates before figuring which is the most successful in garnering replies and moving potential clients through your sales and marketing funnel. If you’re looking for leads, make sure you’re getting the most qualified potential clients. For example, if you’re pitching a reputation management service, you may want to find local businesses on Yelp or Google Maps who have inconsistent listing data or an ineffective way of responding to negative reviews; these businesses are most likely to need your services. From there, it’s important to find the best contact information for these potential clients, to ensure your message is seen by the right team member or employee. Doing some initial research into vetting leads and honing your e-mail messaging is the best way to improve the success of future automation and lead conversion. Avoid Common Pitfalls of E-Mail Writing and Lead Generation First and foremost, don’t pay for leads. While it’s tempting to dole out money to a broker who can send you a list of so-called high-quality leads, the best pay-off comes from doing your own investigating, as mentioned above. Doing your research does take more time, but it’s worth the pay-off in improved conversions and messaging accuracy. Once you have your leads researched and you have the correct contact information for them, it’s time to send your expertly-crafted and engaging e-mail pitch. Many business owners overthink this part of the process, imagining that they have to be funny, long-winded, or provide links to every resource, website, and client that could corroborate the greatness of their service. However, this couldn’t be further from the truth. While it seems counter-intuitive, Lior actually advises against linking to your company’s website in your cold emails, as this can circumvent your planned sales pitch and lead the client to decide that your service ...

How to reach out to Nate Woodbury: YouTube offers seemingly endless opportunities for video content creation and publishing, and now more than ever, users are interested in seeing this type of content online. But how do you stand out among the noise and how do you get your YouTube content to work for you? If you’re a business owner trying to make your mark online and appeal to more users and consumers, YouTube can prove to be a serious game-changer. In this episode, Nate from Be the Hero helps us understand what you can do to help turn your video content into the ultimate lead generation tool for your business. The Value of Specific Keyword Research Before you start creating content, it’s essential to understand what your audience wants to watch. You may have tons of ideas about the content you’d like to create, and keyword research helps ground and refine those ideas with real-world data about users’ search interests. Using online tools, such as SEMrush (as specifically cited by Nate), can help you hone in on specific and valuable information about what kind of content you can use to populate your YouTube channel. But don’t be blinded by big numbers. Keywords with significant search volume – or online interest from users – are likely what every business is going after. If you’re just starting your YouTube channel or trying to get ahead, you may all too easily get lost in the chatter by going after high-volume keywords. Instead, Nate advises business owners and marketers to look for a smaller pond, where they can be the big fish. Look for specific search queries that may have far less volume but which will be highly relevant to that group of individuals. By appealing directly to nuanced questions, you can position your content in front of users who are more likely to click on your videos and watch them until the end – an important metric for ranking on YouTube as well as overall SEO performance. Making the Jump from Content Production to Lead Generation Developing and publishing great content is just the beginning of turning your YouTube channel into a lead-generation gold mine. Building a following and a community by posting content that appeals to them is the foundation of future lead generation. At the end of each video, it’s important to have a call to action – much like you would add to a website or a landing page. Nate suggests prompts to download digital assets, such as ebooks or online courses. Have a Powerful Lead Magnet Now that your user base feels familiar with you, they’re more likely to continue the interaction by consuming additional content, specifically the digital assets mentioned above. To build your list of leads, be sure to include a contact form or a landing page with a sign-up prompt so you can re-market to these individuals later. As your following continues to grow and as users watch your YouTube content, this list of warm leads will continue to gain steam. Build Community, Momentum, and Continued Lead Generation Building momentum and a community help create a well of leads that keeps giving. While you may have a break-neck content production pace, in the beginning, you will be able to slow production after the first year as new users continue to find and engage with your existing content. However, you don’t need to burn the candle at both ends. Use keyword research tools to collect a year’s worth of topics ahead of time,

How to reach out to Nate Woodbury: YouTube offers seemingly endless opportunities for video content creation and publishing, and now more than ever, users are interested in seeing this type of content online. But how do you stand out among the noise and how do you get your YouTube content to work for you? If you’re a business owner trying to make your mark online and appeal to more users and consumers, YouTube can prove to be a serious game-changer. In this episode, Nate from Be the Hero helps us understand what you can do to help turn your video content into the ultimate lead generation tool for your business. The Value of Specific Keyword Research Before you start creating content, it’s essential to understand what your audience wants to watch. You may have tons of ideas about the content you’d like to create, and keyword research helps ground and refine those ideas with real-world data about users’ search interests. Using online tools, such as SEMrush (as specifically cited by Nate), can help you hone in on specific and valuable information about what kind of content you can use to populate your YouTube channel. But don’t be blinded by big numbers. Keywords with significant search volume – or online interest from users – are likely what every business is going after. If you’re just starting your YouTube channel or trying to get ahead, you may all too easily get lost in the chatter by going after high-volume keywords. Instead, Nate advises business owners and marketers to look for a smaller pond, where they can be the big fish. Look for specific search queries that may have far less volume but which will be highly relevant to that group of individuals. By appealing directly to nuanced questions, you can position your content in front of users who are more likely to click on your videos and watch them until the end – an important metric for ranking on YouTube as well as overall SEO performance. Making the Jump from Content Production to Lead Generation Developing and publishing great content is just the beginning of turning your YouTube channel into a lead-generation gold mine. Building a following and a community by posting content that appeals to them is the foundation of future lead generation. At the end of each video, it’s important to have a call to action – much like you would add to a website or a landing page. Nate suggests prompts to download digital assets, such as ebooks or online courses. Have a Powerful Lead Magnet Now that your user base feels familiar with you, they’re more likely to continue the interaction by consuming additional content, specifically the digital assets mentioned above. To build your list of leads, be sure to include a contact form or a landing page with a sign-up prompt so you can re-market to these individuals later. As your following continues to grow and as users watch your YouTube content, this list of warm leads will continue to gain steam. Build Community, Momentum, and Continued Lead Generation Building momentum and a community help create a well of leads that keeps giving. While you may have a break-neck content production pace, in the beginning, you will be able to slow production after the first year as new users continue to find and engage with your existing content. However, you don’t need to burn the candle at both ends. Use keyword research tools to collect a year’s worth of topics ahead of time,

How to reach out to Geoff Atkinson: Google has a perfect world, and if you want to see long-term success with your business, it’s time your website started living in it. The most successful businesses follow Google’s ideal model, and they’ve seen some huge returns from their online efforts. In this episode, Geoff Atkinson of Huckabuy delves into that perfect world and the methods you can implement to find your place in it. Keep reading to find out more. Google’s Perfect World In Google’s perfect world, all websites would look as if they were built for Google, not humans. This is because the Google bot acts as a “bouncer” that grants your website access to the customers beyond. They’re your most important visitor, and what they look for is different from a human’s perfect website experience. These are the top 3 characteristics they look for. Fast Page Speed and Loading Time For years now, Google has hammered on the importance of having a good page speed and loading time. This is important no matter what platform is used to access your website, so much so that slower websites often see huge penalties in their search engine rankings. These penalties are largely the result of Google’s inability to fully crawl the websites. Google bots have a finite amount of time to crawl each website, and when your pages take too long, they tend to give up and move onto the next site on their list. No Complicated Coding Languages The next characteristic Google crawlers search for is flat HTML. The more simplistically your website is coded, the more likely they will be to promote it. Think of it as UX for Google. You want Google to keep coming back to your site each time you add a new page or piece of content. They won’t do that if you make it difficult to navigate with complicated coding languages. Automation of Structured Data Markup In every algorithm update over the last 5 years, Google has given more and more weight to mobile-friendliness and the structured data of websites. If your website is currently designed without flat HTML, you can benefit from structured data. This is because it helps make your website more understandable, which translates into better indexation, more clicks, more customers, and significantly higher revenue. An example of this would be rich snippets. These enable you to target users who can qualify themselves as potential customers. Don’t worry, though, a complete redesign of your website isn’t necessary to make structured data or any of the other characteristics available for Google. A new “wrinkle” in the website called dynamic rendering now makes it possible for websites to load dynamically based on what “calls” them. So when a Google bot calls up a page on your website, they’ll see a simplified version of the website you show users. Businesses that take advantage of dynamic rendering on their websites see a more defined role in Google’s perfect world than those that don’t. Google just wants to be able to access the world’s information. If you want to succeed, your website information should be made as available as possible. KEY INSIGHTS * Google’s perfect world involves simple websites that load quickly. * Google’s search bots give up on indexing your site if pages don’t load within a certain timeframe. * Dynamic rendering is a great way to give Google a simple website without affecting customer experience. GEOFF’S TAKEAWAYS * Wikipedia is a great example of Google’s perfect world.

How to reach out to Geoff Atkinson: Google has a perfect world, and if you want to see long-term success with your business, it’s time your website started living in it. The most successful businesses follow Google’s ideal model, and they’ve seen some huge returns from their online efforts. In this episode, Geoff Atkinson of Huckabuy delves into that perfect world and the methods you can implement to find your place in it. Keep reading to find out more. Google’s Perfect World In Google’s perfect world, all websites would look as if they were built for Google, not humans. This is because the Google bot acts as a “bouncer” that grants your website access to the customers beyond. They’re your most important visitor, and what they look for is different from a human’s perfect website experience. These are the top 3 characteristics they look for. Fast Page Speed and Loading Time For years now, Google has hammered on the importance of having a good page speed and loading time. This is important no matter what platform is used to access your website, so much so that slower websites often see huge penalties in their search engine rankings. These penalties are largely the result of Google’s inability to fully crawl the websites. Google bots have a finite amount of time to crawl each website, and when your pages take too long, they tend to give up and move onto the next site on their list. No Complicated Coding Languages The next characteristic Google crawlers search for is flat HTML. The more simplistically your website is coded, the more likely they will be to promote it. Think of it as UX for Google. You want Google to keep coming back to your site each time you add a new page or piece of content. They won’t do that if you make it difficult to navigate with complicated coding languages. Automation of Structured Data Markup In every algorithm update over the last 5 years, Google has given more and more weight to mobile-friendliness and the structured data of websites. If your website is currently designed without flat HTML, you can benefit from structured data. This is because it helps make your website more understandable, which translates into better indexation, more clicks, more customers, and significantly higher revenue. An example of this would be rich snippets. These enable you to target users who can qualify themselves as potential customers. Don’t worry, though, a complete redesign of your website isn’t necessary to make structured data or any of the other characteristics available for Google. A new “wrinkle” in the website called dynamic rendering now makes it possible for websites to load dynamically based on what “calls” them. So when a Google bot calls up a page on your website, they’ll see a simplified version of the website you show users. Businesses that take advantage of dynamic rendering on their websites see a more defined role in Google’s perfect world than those that don’t. Google just wants to be able to access the world’s information. If you want to succeed, your website information should be made as available as possible. KEY INSIGHTS * Google’s perfect world involves simple websites that load quickly. * Google’s search bots give up on indexing your site if pages don’t load within a certain timeframe. * Dynamic rendering is a great way to give Google a simple website without affecting customer experience. GEOFF’S TAKEAWAYS * Wikipedia is a great example of Google’s perfect world.

How to reach out to John Bellamy: The goal of every business is to engage in meaningful conversations that turn prospects into customers, but many fail to provide the value necessary for those transitions to occur. Many also fail to actually start conversations with their prospective customers, choosing instead to let the fear of failure keep them from trying. John Bellamy of Direct MSGing says this is especially true of LinkedIn, where there’s a lot of potential profit that companies leave on the table. To harness that profit, John recommends approaching LinkedIn with the goal of building a foundation of trust and credibility. Let’s get into what that entails. Your Foundational Assets The entire process for engaging in successful conversations on LinkedIn rests upon the strength of your foundational assets. These are your personal profile and company page. Both of these assets need to share a story that speaks directly with your target market, meaning people should be able to see a clear connection between your profile and the services your company provides. Each page should also include content that encourages engagement and connections. To put it simply, you want people to WANT to connect with you. And you want the decision of whether to connect to be a simple “yes” or “no”, not a “maybe”. This isn’t possible if your foundational assets don’t support the authority and credibility your outreach success relies on. Once you solidify your foundation, your ability to engage in meaningful conversations becomes a matter of marketing outreach. The process: there’s a whole bunch of things to cover. Top level - foundational asset. Personal profile and company page. Make sure foundational asset shares story, speaks to the target market, engaging w/them so they want to connect with you. Once you get that right, it’s a matter of marketing outreach. Most people are okay at sending or accepting a connection request, but few follow up. This is true in sales in general. We believe there’s a cost to that connection. How do you maximize them and get a return on that? What does a proper follow up look like? There’s the process of getting the profile right. We typically look at LI from an OB marketing perspective. Leverage sales navigator, get really clear on the target market you want to reach out to. Send personalized connection request. Typically, send 3-5 messages over the next 45-60 days. Not going traditional internet marketing where you send an email every day. Intention isn’t to get a person to buy something immediately. Want to build connections w/them, add value around what they might require, then have an opportunity for them to take the next step. Nailing the Messaging Sequence Most people are comfortable sending and accepting connection requests, but few actually know what to do from there in order to maximize the cost of those connections and get a return. This is where you can differentiate yourself from your competitors. All it takes is a solid messaging sequence that drives conversations, captures people’s interests, and addresses topics that are relevant to your target audience. This sequence should typically consist of 3 to 5 messages over the course of 45 to 60 days after connect. Crafting Your Messages To begin, though, be sure you send a “thank you for connecting” message that doesn’t go straight into a sales pitch. Instead, make it relevant to the individual person you’ve connected with and include a short video about you,

How to reach out to John Bellamy: The goal of every business is to engage in meaningful conversations that turn prospects into customers, but many fail to provide the value necessary for those transitions to occur. Many also fail to actually start conversations with their prospective customers, choosing instead to let the fear of failure keep them from trying. John Bellamy of Direct MSGing says this is especially true of LinkedIn, where there’s a lot of potential profit that companies leave on the table. To harness that profit, John recommends approaching LinkedIn with the goal of building a foundation of trust and credibility. Let’s get into what that entails. Your Foundational Assets The entire process for engaging in successful conversations on LinkedIn rests upon the strength of your foundational assets. These are your personal profile and company page. Both of these assets need to share a story that speaks directly with your target market, meaning people should be able to see a clear connection between your profile and the services your company provides. Each page should also include content that encourages engagement and connections. To put it simply, you want people to WANT to connect with you. And you want the decision of whether to connect to be a simple “yes” or “no”, not a “maybe”. This isn’t possible if your foundational assets don’t support the authority and credibility your outreach success relies on. Once you solidify your foundation, your ability to engage in meaningful conversations becomes a matter of marketing outreach. The process: there’s a whole bunch of things to cover. Top level - foundational asset. Personal profile and company page. Make sure foundational asset shares story, speaks to the target market, engaging w/them so they want to connect with you. Once you get that right, it’s a matter of marketing outreach. Most people are okay at sending or accepting a connection request, but few follow up. This is true in sales in general. We believe there’s a cost to that connection. How do you maximize them and get a return on that? What does a proper follow up look like? There’s the process of getting the profile right. We typically look at LI from an OB marketing perspective. Leverage sales navigator, get really clear on the target market you want to reach out to. Send personalized connection request. Typically, send 3-5 messages over the next 45-60 days. Not going traditional internet marketing where you send an email every day. Intention isn’t to get a person to buy something immediately. Want to build connections w/them, add value around what they might require, then have an opportunity for them to take the next step. Nailing the Messaging Sequence Most people are comfortable sending and accepting connection requests, but few actually know what to do from there in order to maximize the cost of those connections and get a return. This is where you can differentiate yourself from your competitors. All it takes is a solid messaging sequence that drives conversations, captures people’s interests, and addresses topics that are relevant to your target audience. This sequence should typically consist of 3 to 5 messages over the course of 45 to 60 days after connect. Crafting Your Messages To begin, though, be sure you send a “thank you for connecting” message that doesn’t go straight into a sales pitch. Instead, make it relevant to the individual person you’ve connected with and include a short video about you,

How to reach out to Garrett Mehrguth: Setting a Marketing Budget When setting a marketing budget for your business, it’s important to make sure you use every penny wisely. This means not stretching your company too thin and not assuming your level of income. This may seem like a simple rule, but for many businesses, it’s difficult to execute correctly. That’s why we sat down with Garret Mehrguth of Directive Consulting. In this episode, Garrett explains how to set a marketing budget that gives you the most bang for your buck, as well as the tips he wishes he knew when starting out in marketing. So if you’re looking to outline a marketing budget that can help you reach your business goals, don’t stop scrolling. The Importance of Setting a Marketing Budget Every business owner knows they should set a marketing budget, but do you truly know why it’s important for your future success? The data you use to determine your budget plays a HUGE role in your ability to scale effectively. In fact, if you choose to base your budget on assumptions of what you’ll be making, rather than on your historical revenue, you’ll be much more likely to eventually run out of cash. Think of it this way: your marketing efforts should be bringing in money, NOT sucking your business dry. When you bank on future sales that may or may not come to fruition, you decrease your chances of achieving the revenue and growth goals you’ve set. This is because future sales are unpredictable. The market is always changing, and it’s impossible to plan for every potentiality. However, when you base your projected earnings, and therefore, your marketing budget, on the revenue you KNOW your business can generate, you maximize your ability to scale your company effectively. If that still seems complicated, follow this simple rule. Your marketing budget should be equivalent to 10 percent of the revenue you expect to generate in that same period of time. So if you’re planning your budget for an entire year, it should be equal to 10% of what you can solidly project you’ll generate in revenue that year. Make sense? Here’s why. What Garrett Wishes He Knew BEFORE He Started Marketing When you’re a business owner, you can grow and want to grow, but if you do it too fast, you won’t be able to sustain it. If you can’t sustain the amount of velocity you’re striving toward, then it’s time to tone down your spending. It may sound counterintuitive to grow by spending less, but in truth, it’s all about strategy. People often have an idea that once something “works”, they’ll increase its volume and spend anything. This isn’t the best approach to growth. In fact, the best approach is to actually raise rates while keeping your volume the same. Doing this enables you to bring in revenue without growing too fast. Once you’ve grown your revenue intake to a level that allows you to invest more in your company infrastructure, you can begin to slowly increase the volume of your marketing efforts. Before you do, though ask yourself the following questions: * What’s your average contract value? * Do you have the ability to service new customers with the same level of care that you have been with current customers? * Do you have the capital necessary to service your company's infrastructure? * How does your desired marketing budget compare to your historical revenue? * Have you evaluated your historical revenue to determine what your marketing budget should be? Once your answers to those questions are positive,

How to reach out to Garrett Mehrguth: Setting a Marketing Budget When setting a marketing budget for your business, it’s important to make sure you use every penny wisely. This means not stretching your company too thin and not assuming your level of income. This may seem like a simple rule, but for many businesses, it’s difficult to execute correctly. That’s why we sat down with Garret Mehrguth of Directive Consulting. In this episode, Garrett explains how to set a marketing budget that gives you the most bang for your buck, as well as the tips he wishes he knew when starting out in marketing. So if you’re looking to outline a marketing budget that can help you reach your business goals, don’t stop scrolling. The Importance of Setting a Marketing Budget Every business owner knows they should set a marketing budget, but do you truly know why it’s important for your future success? The data you use to determine your budget plays a HUGE role in your ability to scale effectively. In fact, if you choose to base your budget on assumptions of what you’ll be making, rather than on your historical revenue, you’ll be much more likely to eventually run out of cash. Think of it this way: your marketing efforts should be bringing in money, NOT sucking your business dry. When you bank on future sales that may or may not come to fruition, you decrease your chances of achieving the revenue and growth goals you’ve set. This is because future sales are unpredictable. The market is always changing, and it’s impossible to plan for every potentiality. However, when you base your projected earnings, and therefore, your marketing budget, on the revenue you KNOW your business can generate, you maximize your ability to scale your company effectively. If that still seems complicated, follow this simple rule. Your marketing budget should be equivalent to 10 percent of the revenue you expect to generate in that same period of time. So if you’re planning your budget for an entire year, it should be equal to 10% of what you can solidly project you’ll generate in revenue that year. Make sense? Here’s why. What Garrett Wishes He Knew BEFORE He Started Marketing When you’re a business owner, you can grow and want to grow, but if you do it too fast, you won’t be able to sustain it. If you can’t sustain the amount of velocity you’re striving toward, then it’s time to tone down your spending. It may sound counterintuitive to grow by spending less, but in truth, it’s all about strategy. People often have an idea that once something “works”, they’ll increase its volume and spend anything. This isn’t the best approach to growth. In fact, the best approach is to actually raise rates while keeping your volume the same. Doing this enables you to bring in revenue without growing too fast. Once you’ve grown your revenue intake to a level that allows you to invest more in your company infrastructure, you can begin to slowly increase the volume of your marketing efforts. Before you do, though ask yourself the following questions: * What’s your average contract value? * Do you have the ability to service new customers with the same level of care that you have been with current customers? * Do you have the capital necessary to service your company's infrastructure? * How does your desired marketing budget compare to your historical revenue? * Have you evaluated your historical revenue to determine what your marketing budget should be? Once your answers to those questions are positive,

How to reach out to James Winter: The marketing industry is constantly changing, especially when it comes to content. If you want to make it long term, you have to stay up-to-date on those changes. This week, we sat down with James Winter of Brandfolder to learn what trends are currently taking content marketing by storm and how to take advantage of them (and any others that become big) for your business. Biggest Trends in Content Today At the moment, there are two major trends in content that James recommends keeping in mind as you work on your content marketing strategy. The first is the decreasing shelf life of content. This can be anything from videos or photos to GIFs or whitepapers. It doesn’t just mean written content. In today’s mobile world, people are constantly looking for the most up-to-date information. To perform well on different online channels, your content assets need to be regularly refreshed, and in many cases, evergreen. This translates to a need for higher production of assets, meaning you can’t always get away with only producing one piece of content for every one of your social channels. To stay relevant, you have to create relevant content. This means paying special attention to the shelf life of each asset. The second trend to be aware of is the rise of video. YouTube is no longer the only platform where video performs well. In fact, it’s quickly become a solid strategy for reaching consumers and fostering engagement for your business. In many cases, including Facebook and Instagram, ads that contain videos are prioritized over those with only photos or text. The same applies to simple posts that contain videos. This is because videos invite users to engage much more than just words or a photo can do. People relate more to businesses that are relatable. Video helps make your company more relatable by putting a face and personality to it. Although these trends are currently taking the content world by storm, it’s important to keep in mind that they can change at any time. This is where staying aware of the direction marketing is headed comes into play. The most successful companies are on the cutting edge of content and other marketing strategies, as well as SEO and Google’s algorithm focus. There isn’t one particular location you can look to for up-to-date information, but there are still a number of ways to say on top of the changing landscape. These are the two James recommends looking into if you want to stay on top of trends. Staying Up to Date On Changing Trends The first place you should look for up-to-date information on current marketing trends is the list of podcasts for your niche industry. Podcasts are great because they’re timely and you can rest assured the information contained in recent episodes is relevant to what you’re trying to do. The second location you can look to for relevant information on changing content trends is your network. This can include people you know personally, as well as experts in the industry who you only know by their content. And if you have trouble finding the right people to follow, James is happy to offer some suggestions. Just reach out to him via Twitter or LinkedIn. The Bottom Line If you’re still a little reticent about the importance of staying atop current content trends, here’s the bottom line: The creative your company creates is responsible for 85% of your ads’ performance, as well as a large portion of how your website performs overall. If you have the right creative for your content assets, you’ll be that much more successful than your competitors who have fallen into the trap of “over-wordsmithing” and a subpar reliance on relevan...

How to reach out to James Winter: The marketing industry is constantly changing, especially when it comes to content. If you want to make it long term, you have to stay up-to-date on those changes. This week, we sat down with James Winter of Brandfolder to learn what trends are currently taking content marketing by storm and how to take advantage of them (and any others that become big) for your business. Biggest Trends in Content Today At the moment, there are two major trends in content that James recommends keeping in mind as you work on your content marketing strategy. The first is the decreasing shelf life of content. This can be anything from videos or photos to GIFs or whitepapers. It doesn’t just mean written content. In today’s mobile world, people are constantly looking for the most up-to-date information. To perform well on different online channels, your content assets need to be regularly refreshed, and in many cases, evergreen. This translates to a need for higher production of assets, meaning you can’t always get away with only producing one piece of content for every one of your social channels. To stay relevant, you have to create relevant content. This means paying special attention to the shelf life of each asset. The second trend to be aware of is the rise of video. YouTube is no longer the only platform where video performs well. In fact, it’s quickly become a solid strategy for reaching consumers and fostering engagement for your business. In many cases, including Facebook and Instagram, ads that contain videos are prioritized over those with only photos or text. The same applies to simple posts that contain videos. This is because videos invite users to engage much more than just words or a photo can do. People relate more to businesses that are relatable. Video helps make your company more relatable by putting a face and personality to it. Although these trends are currently taking the content world by storm, it’s important to keep in mind that they can change at any time. This is where staying aware of the direction marketing is headed comes into play. The most successful companies are on the cutting edge of content and other marketing strategies, as well as SEO and Google’s algorithm focus. There isn’t one particular location you can look to for up-to-date information, but there are still a number of ways to say on top of the changing landscape. These are the two James recommends looking into if you want to stay on top of trends. Staying Up to Date On Changing Trends The first place you should look for up-to-date information on current marketing trends is the list of podcasts for your niche industry. Podcasts are great because they’re timely and you can rest assured the information contained in recent episodes is relevant to what you’re trying to do. The second location you can look to for relevant information on changing content trends is your network. This can include people you know personally, as well as experts in the industry who you only know by their content. And if you have trouble finding the right people to follow, James is happy to offer some suggestions. Just reach out to him via Twitter or LinkedIn. The Bottom Line If you’re still a little reticent about the importance of staying atop current content trends, here’s the bottom line: The creative your company creates is responsible for 85% of your ads’ performance, as well as a large portion of how your website performs overall. If you have the right creative for your content assets, you’ll be that much more successful than your competitors who have fallen into the trap of “over-wordsmithing” and a subpar reliance on relevan...

How to reach out to Darryl Praill: What Is a Brand Ambassador? Every company will say they have a brand ambassador, but not all actually have one. To be a brand ambassador, you must be the spokesperson or one of the designated spokespersons for your company. It’s a personal brand that cannot be attributed to corporate channels. Instead, a spokesperson should be someone who works for or runs your company. This is because people are better able to engage with and relate to a person than a company. So what, besides the obvious, distinguishes a brand ambassador from the company itself? It all lies in personality. This can be defined in any way. For VanillaSoft’s Darryl Praill, it meant a mix of “smartass” and “truth teller”. A truth teller, Darryl says, is an important personality for your brand ambassador(s) to have, as truth tellers are not afraid to constructively tell people when they’re wrong. Although this may sound messy and scary for many brands, it’s much more relatable than the “glorified automated voice recording” personality that is often used. This willingness to engage with people can have significant benefits if done correctly. The key is to know when truth telling is necessary and when it would be a better idea to “agree to disagree” on a point of contention. Here’s how having a brand ambassador who knows how to constructively engage with people can help position your brand as the right choice for those seeking help in your field. The Benefits of Having a Brand Ambassador There are multiple benefits to having a brand ambassador, but the three main ones are reputation, visibility, and influence. Reputation When your brand ambassador consistently reacts to online conversations in the same way, people are much more likely to believe them when they say whether something is wrong or correct. This is where being known as a truth teller comes into play. Having reliable, valid opinions that are backed up by fact helps build an ambassador’s reputation -- and your company’s by default. Visibility Having a brand ambassador can significantly improve your brand’s visibility. Remember, people are more likely to engage with a person they can relate to than a faceless company. So long as the content, comments, opinions, and expertise your brand ambassador shares consistently add value to the conversation and convey knowledge, your brand will reach a far broader audience than any of your other marketing methods. This, in turn, will snowball into the higher reputation we just mentioned, as well as more influence in your company’s industry. Influence Every business has competitors, and in some cases, those competitors have been in business a lot longer. It can be difficult to drive the conversation away from your competitors and toward your business, but having a brand ambassador makes it possible to stand out against larger, more established rivals. When your brand ambassador has a well-established reputation as a truth-teller and value provider, they are able to drive the conversation around topics related to your industry. Similarly, the high reputation, visibility, and influence of a good ambassador increases brand recognition. This means when someone from your sales or marketing team reaches out to a prospect, they’re much more likely to have heard of your company through interactions with the ambassador. As a result, the sales cycle can start immediately instead of after your sales or marketing team have managed to establish a relationship with the prospect.

How to reach out to Darryl Praill: What Is a Brand Ambassador? Every company will say they have a brand ambassador, but not all actually have one. To be a brand ambassador, you must be the spokesperson or one of the designated spokespersons for your company. It’s a personal brand that cannot be attributed to corporate channels. Instead, a spokesperson should be someone who works for or runs your company. This is because people are better able to engage with and relate to a person than a company. So what, besides the obvious, distinguishes a brand ambassador from the company itself? It all lies in personality. This can be defined in any way. For VanillaSoft’s Darryl Praill, it meant a mix of “smartass” and “truth teller”. A truth teller, Darryl says, is an important personality for your brand ambassador(s) to have, as truth tellers are not afraid to constructively tell people when they’re wrong. Although this may sound messy and scary for many brands, it’s much more relatable than the “glorified automated voice recording” personality that is often used. This willingness to engage with people can have significant benefits if done correctly. The key is to know when truth telling is necessary and when it would be a better idea to “agree to disagree” on a point of contention. Here’s how having a brand ambassador who knows how to constructively engage with people can help position your brand as the right choice for those seeking help in your field. The Benefits of Having a Brand Ambassador There are multiple benefits to having a brand ambassador, but the three main ones are reputation, visibility, and influence. Reputation When your brand ambassador consistently reacts to online conversations in the same way, people are much more likely to believe them when they say whether something is wrong or correct. This is where being known as a truth teller comes into play. Having reliable, valid opinions that are backed up by fact helps build an ambassador’s reputation -- and your company’s by default. Visibility Having a brand ambassador can significantly improve your brand’s visibility. Remember, people are more likely to engage with a person they can relate to than a faceless company. So long as the content, comments, opinions, and expertise your brand ambassador shares consistently add value to the conversation and convey knowledge, your brand will reach a far broader audience than any of your other marketing methods. This, in turn, will snowball into the higher reputation we just mentioned, as well as more influence in your company’s industry. Influence Every business has competitors, and in some cases, those competitors have been in business a lot longer. It can be difficult to drive the conversation away from your competitors and toward your business, but having a brand ambassador makes it possible to stand out against larger, more established rivals. When your brand ambassador has a well-established reputation as a truth-teller and value provider, they are able to drive the conversation around topics related to your industry. Similarly, the high reputation, visibility, and influence of a good ambassador increases brand recognition. This means when someone from your sales or marketing team reaches out to a prospect, they’re much more likely to have heard of your company through interactions with the ambassador. As a result, the sales cycle can start immediately instead of after your sales or marketing team have managed to establish a relationship with the prospect.

How to reach out to Tommy Griffith: The Side Project Development Phase What circumstances come to mind when you think of starting a business? Do you picture someone working full-time and devoting all their free time toward the development of their project, or do you imagine something different? Quite often, small businesses begin as side hustles with the potential to become something more. Unfortunately, many small businesses fail within their first few years. But what if there was something you could do to give your side project a fighting chance at success? To find out, we sat down with ClickMinded’s Tommy Griffith, who turned his side project into a full-time, profitable business. This week, Tommy shared his secret to success and tips for giving your business ideas a fighting chance in the deadly startup wasteland. If you’ve ever thought about starting a business of your own, this episode is for you. Choosing Your Side Hustle The first thing you need to think about when starting a side hustle is what it will be. Oftentimes, new business owners will choose to do something completely unrelated to their current job description or skill set. Think a doctor selling sandals or a lawyer giving personal training advice. Unless you have passion and experience in the subject, Tommy says this isn’t the best approach. This is because it prevents you from taking advantage of exit velocity when you choose to transition into a more concentrated focus on your side project. What’s Exit Velocity? It’s a term coined by Dan Andrews, who runs a digital marketing group called The Dynamite Circle. Exit velocity is defined as “the amount of professional and entrepreneurial momentum you have when quitting your job and starting a new venture. Momentum can come from a variety of sources: investment capital, experience, anchor clients, industry knowledge, or connections (aka unfair advantage).” Simply put, your knowledge of the industry you work in gives you an “unfair” advantage over entrepreneurs who are just trying to break in using side projects that are unrelated to their skills. You already put so much time and effort into working and learning during your daily job. Why wouldn’t you transfer that knowledge into your side hustle? To give your side project the biggest chance of succeeding, Tommy recommends using the skills you’ve already learned and turning them into a business. Once you’ve done that, it’s time to shift your focus to growth, and hopefully, a transition from side project to full-time. The Biggest Engine (and Secret) for Growing Your Side Project Have you ever needed to finish an assignment that seemed interesting at first, but as time wore on, became more and more boring? Therein lies the reason for many failed businesses. Search engine rankings are all about customer experience, and a major component of customer experience is how interesting and helpful your product and surrounding marketing copy are. Why, then, would you expect a potential customer to be interested in your side project if you aren’t? The answer is that you shouldn’t. The single biggest driver of growth and success with side projects is the creator’s interest. If you aren’t passionate and interested in what you’re working on, your motivation will quickly wane. Soon after, your entire project will likely follow suit.