Top 10 Takeaways from Traffic & Conversion Summit 2019 Every Marketer Should Know

A LOT happened over the last 3 days at Traffic & Conversion Summit 2019.

But over the course of 119 sessions, we noticed some common themes and takeaways that we think every marketer should know…

Takeaway #1: The Marketing World is About to Be Massively Disrupted

In 2019, we are living in a time of innovation and disruption. Marketers who don’t create a movement will be left behind.

During his Day 1 Keynote, Ryan Deiss outlined his strategy to ensure DigitalMarketer is one of those game changers.

He is implementing one strategy: Do the complete opposite of what used to work really well.

• Everything that is fast becomes slow
• Everything that is big becomes small
• Everything that is small becomes big

Let’s use DM as a case study to see how Ryan is applying this strategy so you can use it as inspiration in your business…

To Shift from Fast to Slow, DigitalMarketer Is:

Placing emphasis on journeys (i.e. the Customer Value Journey) over funnels.

This is being done by changing automated customer interactions to one-on-one conversations. We use automation to start the conversation with our customers and move it toward a human interaction.

Plus, we’re removing the focus from scalable ideas and trackable strategies to ideas that don’t scale and strategies that can’t be tracked. Like when we launched 2 new podcasts last year. We’re doing this because it feels like the right thing to do for our customers.

To Shift from Big to Small, DigitalMarketer Is:

Segmenting our customers into the following categories:

And we’re using longer form fields to do just that. It may sacrifice some conversions in the process, but it’s leading to better data and more qualified leads.

Then, we use the customer’s self-identification to pair them with the best DigitalMarketer products for them (i.e. WarRoom, certifications, the Certified Partner program, etc.).

To Shift from Small to Big, DigitalMarketer Is:

Asking what do we fundamentally believe to be true about the universe and our place in it?

In 2019, marketers need to create movements.

Don’t tell stories about your product—change the stories the customers tell about themselves.

Movements matter and if you want your business to matter, start a movement.

We’re doing this with our products, like with our newly launched company and product, Praxio.

(NOTE: Need a helping hand with your digital marketing efforts? Or maybe you just want proven, actionable marketing tools, tactics, and templates to implement in your business? Check out the latest deal from DigitalMarketer, and you will be on your way to helping your business grow.)

Takeaway #2: There Are 2 Things in Digital Marketing that Will Never Change

Ryan closed out his Day 1 Keynote with a reminder to all marketers: no matter what the future of digital marketing holds, there will always be 2 certainties:

1. We will always need to generate traffic
2. We will always need to convert that traffic into revenue

It all comes down to traffic and conversion.

So at the end of the day, it all comes down to this.

No matter how your company may change in the future, no matter what you’re implementing next, it all comes down to traffic and conversion.

So make sure you keep traffic and conversion at the core of your digital marketing strategy.

Takeaway #3: Use Authority to Capture the Heart, Mind & Wallet of Your Audience

In his Day 2 Keynote, Ryan reminded people about the importance of creating a movement.

But, you can’t create a movement unless you have authority.

No one will deny the importance of creating authority for your brand. But building authority is easier said than done.

So how do you do it?

There are 5 elements of authority:

1. A Plan

It is impossible to have a movement without a plan. Nobody wants to follow a leader without a map.

Do you have a plan people can tell others about?

Ask yourself, what is the step-by-step plan for success that you have created for your clients and customers? 

2. Answer Your Customers’ Questions

You need to come down and meet your customers where they are by answering their specific questions.

Why is Dave Ramsey so popular? One reason is because he answers the same questions over, and over… and over, again. He may be answering the same few questions about personal finance, but the question comes from a different person each time.

So answer your customers’ questions, no matter how many times you’ve said the same thing. New customers will have the same questions.

Use AnswerThePublic.com to find the questions your customers are asking and use Quora to answer those questions. Or create a FAQ section on your homepage like we do here…

So, ask yourself, what are 10-20 ultra-specific questions your customers are asking that you can answer?

3. Speak in Absolutes

Tell your customers what they can and can’t do. This is a strategy you’ll see Dave Ramsey, Grant Cardone, and Gary Vaynerchuk using.

They speak in absolutes. Just like Gary does here.

Love ’em or hate ’em. Agree with them or not, they stand for something. Speaking in absolutes tells people what you stand for.

If you qualify everything you say, you may never be wrong, and you may never piss anyone off, but you will risk sounding like you don’t stand for anything.

If you stand for everything, you stand for nothing, sort of thing.

So, use these words to convey your authority:

• All
• None
• Always
• Now
• Never
• Period
• Guaranteed
• I promise
• Going to happen
• Fact
• Evil
• Dumb
• Stupid
• Genius
• Best
• Greatest
• Worst
• One thing
• Everything
• Nothing
• Everyone
• No one

When you start getting haters, this is when you know your absolutes are working. This also means you have to be prepared to support your absolutes and be prepared to be challenged.

So answer this, what absolutes are you willing to maintain even in the face of haters?

4. Define Your Core Beliefs

Your core belief speaks to your place in the universe. How would you define your place in the universe? Your business’ place?

This belief is the reason people want to buy or work with your business. If your core belief aligns with your audiences’ core belief, they will get behind what you are saying and they will become a customer.

For example, at DigitalMarketer our core belief is that the best product or service should win.

Think about and answer, what do you fundamentally believe to be true about the universe and your place in it? Your brands place in it?

5. Change Their Rites or Rituals

There are 3 options to get people to become raving fans of your brand.

Option 1: Get People to Do Something They Normally Wouldn’t Do

Tony Robbins does this by getting people to walk on fire.

Dave Ramsey does this by getting people to call into his radio show and yell, “I’m debt free!”.

None of these behaviors are “normal.”

But getting people to do just that builds a community. And there’s power in that.

(RELATED: 8 Essential Strategies to Build a Thriving Customer Community)

Option 2: Get People to Alter an Existing Routine

Is coffee part of your morning ritual?

Do you start your coffee maker before you’ve even used the bathroom?

What about putting butter in that freshly brewed cup of coffee? Is that also part of your routine?

It is for some people.

Bulletproof Coffee got people to make butter coffee. They nailed this option and altered a pre-existing routine for many of us.

And because of it, Bulletproof Coffee created a movement.

Option 3: Get People to “Lick” Your Brand by Giving Them Free Promotional Items

As a kid, did you ever lick something to claim it?

Your big brother wants the last cookie. Nope! Lick. Mine. Claimed.

So along those lines, how can you get your customers to “lick” your brand? To claim you.

Offering free incentive items is one way to do it.

Beachbody is the perfect example of this—if you send in a before and after picture, they’ll send you a t-shirt. A t-shirt that you can wear with pride for all the hard work you’ve put into changing your body.

It serves as a trophy or reward for your customer. And it also serves as a promotional item for your brand.

And promotional items start conversations. “Cool t-shirt. Where’d you get it?” And with that, people are talking about your brand. And it all happened naturally.

At DigitalMarketer, we give away stickers of our branded gears. And people put them on their laptops. Customers send in pictures of it, and we see the gears throughout Austin where we’re based. People are claiming us.

So finally, what customs and rituals should you promote and institutionalize?

Keep in mind, it’s hard to embody all 5 of these elements of authority. Really, only the world’s dominant religions have come close.

But if you can start bringing in these elements to your overall business strategy, you’ll see positive results.

Start by focusing on 1 element to build your authority.

Takeaway #4: It’s Good to Be Better, But It’s Better to Be Different

Do you want to fascinate? To cut through the noise and grab and hold people’s attention.

What business wouldn’t? Which is why we asked the Queen of Fascination, Sally Hogshead, to kick off Day 3 of T&C.

Sally’s expertise lies in helping brands discover what makes them more fascinating than the competition.

In her Day 3 Opening Keynote, Sally explained fascination is an intense state of focus where a person is bewitched and held captive by what they’re seeing.

What qualities make people fascinated by you and showcase you as intensely valuable?

This can be a hard question for many to answer. You can start by focusing in on what makes you different. As Sally said throughout her presentation, “It’s good to be better, but it’s better to be different.”

She also dove into the Personal Brand Archetypes. This is how the world sees you. This is what makes you different and therefore fascinating. Based off of your Primary Advantage and your Secondary Advantage, you’ll understand what makes you captivating.

For example, Ryan Deiss, CEO of DigitalMarketer, is positioned as a thought leader in digital marketing. Why? Because he is the “Maestro” personality archetype and is seen with power and prestige. The adjectives that best describe Ryan are ambitious, focused, and confident.

Ryan can use these words to differentiate himself from the competition.

What YOU Took Away from T&C

But we weren’t the only ones who had key takeaways. We loved hearing the aha moments our attendees had, like…

Brands that tell stories create movements and go on to rule the world.

Business partners should complement each other, not be copies of each other. Perry Belcher pointed out the reason he, Ryan, and Roland have been so successful is because of their varying personality traits that cumulate to a power trio.

How do you save your business? By putting in the work. Choose 3 specific takeaways from the 119 presentations at Traffic & Conversion 2019, and start implementing those in your business.

Remember what Ryan said in his Day One Opening Keynote? Everything big needs to become smaller.

If you can get people to feel something, you can get them to take their wallet out.

Last Key Takeaway

There is nothing that is out of our league.

As business owners, and specifically as humans, we have the ability to solve any problem or adversity that we are facing. That was the theme of Sir Richard Branson’s Day 1 Closing Keynote.

Case in point, after wrapping up his keynote, Branson planned to fly back to Necker Island to meet with entrepreneurs who are trying to decrease the amount of carbon in the atmosphere by figuring out a way to vacuum it out and transform it into something less harmful.

If there’s anything we want you to take away from the 10th Traffic & Conversion Summit, it’s this:

“Changing the world begins with a small group of people who simply refuse to accept the unacceptable.” ~Richard Branson

See you next year!

(NOTE: Need a helping hand with your digital marketing efforts? Or maybe you just want proven, actionable marketing tools, tactics, and templates to implement in your business? Check out the latest deal from DigitalMarketer, and you will be on your way to helping your business grow.)

The post Top 10 Takeaways from Traffic & Conversion Summit 2019 Every Marketer Should Know appeared first on DigitalMarketer.

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Episode 39: T&C Special Episode Part 2: Live at T&C 2019 with Ryan Levesque

It’s finally the 10th Traffic & Conversion Summit! And we recorded this special episode live from the event floor. Garrett goes over some of the top takeaways of T&C 2019. He covers the biggest shift yet in digital marketing, embracing the marketing community, and then talks quiz funnels with Ryan Levesque.

Links and Resources Mentioned In This Episode

Traffic & Conversion Summit
Ryan Deiss on the End of Marketing As We Know It (And I Feel Fine)
Bucket.io

The post Episode 39: T&C Special Episode Part 2: Live at T&C 2019 with Ryan Levesque appeared first on DigitalMarketer.

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18 Ways to Create Scannable Content for Your Blog

The post 18 Ways to Create Scannable Content for Your Blog appeared first on ProBlogger.

This post is based on Episode 176 of the ProBlogger podcast.

You’ve chosen your words with care, and put a lot of thought into them.

But no-one’s even reading your posts, let alone commenting or sharing.

If you want more readers, more engagement, and more sharing of your content (and let’s face it, why doesn’t?) then this post is for you.

Why Readers Won’t Read Every Word – and What You Can Do About It

Only 16% of people read websites word for word. Most people scan, and I expect you’re one of them.

I know I am.

When I arrive at a website or blog, I quickly scan the page to see if it looks relevant to me. If something intrigues me, I might scroll down to see what’s “below the fold”.

People make decisions in seconds. They decide whether your content is relevant to them, and whether it’s worth spending time reading it.

If they can’t see the benefits of reading on, they’ll click away from your site. They won’t read your content. They won’t leave a comment. They won’t share it. And chances are they won’t ever come back.

This means you need to learn to write scannable content. Because people will decide whether or not to read it based on their initial scan.

I’m going to give you eighteen techniques for doing just that.

#1: Write Great Headlines

The first thing people will see is your headline. It should draw their eye. Your blog design should help your headline pop off the screen. (If it doesn’t, you might want to change or tweak your theme.)

In terms of wording, your headline should be compelling and offer the reader a clear benefit if they read the post.

If you want some help with writing great headlines, check out Episode 156 of the ProBlogger podcast, or Seven Easy Ways to Write Better Headlines for Your Blog Posts.

#2: Write a Great Opening Line

Aside from your headline, the most read part of your blog post will be your first line. You want this to communicate a benefit, or create some curiosity. In your first line, you need to give people a good reason to read more.

If you need some help coming up with a strong opening line, check out 10 Tips for Opening Your Next Blog Post.

#3: Keep Your Paragraphs Short

Large slabs of text will turn readers off. If you keep your paragraphs short, it gives readers a visual clue that your content will be easy to read and put into action. If they see huge, daunting chunks of text, it’ll all seem too hard.

Stick to one idea per paragraph, and keep those paragraphs short.

#4: Keep Your Sentences Short

Short, clear sentences help readers feel your content is accessible. If your opening sentence is 40 or 50 words long and confusing to follow, they won’t want to read on.

I once heard a suggestion that you should keep your sentences to no more than 16 words, which sounds like a good rule of thumb.

For more on both short sentences and short paragraphs, check out How to Write Short Sentences and Paragraphs the Right Way (and Why It Matters).

#5: Choose Simple Words

Back in high school, my English teacher once commented on my essay saying that while words with four or more syllables may sound impressive, they make the writing inaccessible to anyone reading it. (I pointed out to her that the word “inaccessible” is a five-syllable word. That didn’t go down too well.)

Aim to write like you speak, and choose words that simply and accurately convey your meaning. Don’t use big words to try and sound impressive.

#6: Use Lists

On both ProBlogger and Digital Photography School, I’ve found that posts written in a list format do much better than essay-style content.

When readers can see your content is structured as a list, they know you’ve broken it down to make it easy for them.

You don’t necessarily have to create your whole post as a list, though. Even using bullet points throughout a post can help people scan your content.

For more on lists, check out How to Create a List Post (a podcast episode) and How to Use Lists Effectively in Your Blog Posts.

#7: Use Subheadings to Break Up Your Post

If people come to your site and just see text (even if it’s broken up into short paragraphs), nothing will stand out to them. This makes it harder for them to figure out what your post actually covers.

You want to break that post into four or five sections and give each a subheading that clearly communicates what the section is about. That way your readers have a visual cue about what’s coming up, and whether there’s a section of your post that’s particularly relevant to them.

For more on subheadings, check out How to Use Subheadings to Add Structure to Your Blog Posts.

#8: Add Other Types of Formatting

Beyond subheadings, there are other types of formatting you can use. You might use bold, italics, or even all-caps to emphasise key points. You might even change the size or colour of the text.

These things can really draw your reader’s eyes to important points in your post.

But show some restraint with this type of formatting. You don’t want your content to become a mismatch of these different techniques, or it’ll just look a mess.

If you’re not sure how to add formatting, check out our post How to Use the WordPress WYSIWYG Toolbar to Format Your Blog Posts Like a Pro.

#9: Use Images

You might already be using a featured image at the top of your posts. But are you using images within the posts?

Research shows that readers’ eyes are drawn to images. So putting images beside your key points – especially when those images closely relate to the content – increases the chance of readers getting to the end of your post.

However, make sure you’re not infringing anyone’s copyright. If you’re not sure how to find images you can legally use, take a look at How to Find Images for Your Blog That Won’t Get You Sued.

#10: Use Image Captions

In WordPress, it’s really easy to insert a caption for your image. Just click on the image to edit it, and type whatever you want into the “Caption” box. The caption will then appear just below the image in your post.

People naturally look at the descriptions below images. I suspect they’re one of the most read parts of your post (after your subheadings). So you could use an image caption that emphasises a point you’re trying to make, or even one that includes a call to action.

#11: Use Other Visual Content

Images are great. But there are other types of visual content you could create. For instance, you might use charts or even tables in your post to show information.

Anything that’s visual and conveys information differently can help draw the eye. It shows readers you’ve got something for them to look at – not just text for them to read.

You could even take a key quote from your post, create a nice image with it layered over a photo, and put in into your content to act like a subheader. This gives readers a reason to read more.

#12: Use Blockquotes

Almost all WordPress themes have a “blockquotes” style. This allows you to highlight a particular part of your content in some way. It’s normally used to highlight a quote, but you can use it in different ways if you want.

With WordPress, you can apply blockquotes formatting by highlighting the paragraph in question and clicking the “Blockquotes” icon in the visual editor.

If you want more help using quotes on your blog, check out The Why, How and When of Using Quotations on Your Blog.

#13: Use Whitespace

You don’t have to fill every inch of the screen. Creating space within and around your content means your readers won’t feel so overwhelmed.

Again, space can draw the reader’s eye down the page. While this is partly affected by design, you can also add more line breaks to create short paragraphs (which we looked at earlier) and space things out a bit more.

#14: Use a Good Design

Often, blogs are difficult to read simply because their design is cluttered. SImplifying things, or even switching to a different theme (template), can really help.

Two key things you can do are:

• choose fonts that aren’t too small
• add a little distance between the lines of your content.

Getting the advice of a good designer can also help.

If you’d like to dig into blog design, try our podcast episode How to Give Your Blog Design a Spring Clean.

#15: Make Your Main Point(s) Clear

One trap many bloggers fall into is burying their main point deep within their content where it probably won’t be noticed.

If there’s a key point you want your readers to understand or remember, just say it upfront.

If you’re writing a long post (say 2,000–3,000 words), try using summary statements underneath each subheading to help readers see what the point of that section is.

This gives readers an immediate reason to read the rest of that section. It’s like using a title and opening line, but throughout your post rather than just at the start.

#16: Repeat Your Important Points

Hopefully, you’ve got a clear idea of what you want people to get from your content. Repeat it – more than once.

Most people aren’t reading word for word. So you need to emphasise your key point several times throughout your content.

You’ll probably want to have it in your opening, in some of your summary statements, in your conclusion, and maybe in a piece of visual content as well. That way, your readers are much more likely to get that main point or call to action.

#17: Don’t Introduce Too Many Ideas in One Post

If you’ve got a lot of ideas you want to cover, it might be worth breaking them up into a series of posts.

While long pieces of content can work well, they can also be overwhelming for readers. The more points you make within a post, the less likely your readers will actually get all of them.

For more about structuring your content as a series of posts, check out How to Write a Series for Your Blog (and Why You’ll Want To).

#18: Write Like a Human Being

The more human-like your writing is, the better. People are more likely to keep reading if they feel a sense of connection with you.

That means you could tell stories, show readers who you are in some way, and write in a more conversational style.

For help with that, I recommend listening to 10 Writing Tips to Help You Sound More Human, where I interview Beth Dunn, the Product Editor-in-Chief at HubSpot.

We’ve covered a lot of different techniques in this post. You won’t necessarily want to use all of them for every piece of content you write. But using a handful of them could make a huge difference to how scannable your content is, and and how much it gets read.

Here’s the list of techniques again:

1. Write great headlines
2. Write a great opening line
3. Keep your paragraphs short
4. Keep your sentences short
5. Choose simple words
6. Use lists
7. Use subheadings to break up your post
8. Add other types of formatting
9. Use images
10. Use image captions
11. Use other visual content
12. Use blockquotes
13. Use whitespace
14. Use a good design
15. Make your main point(s) clear
16. Repeat your important points
17. Don’t introduce too many ideas
18. Write like a human being

Give some of these a try with your next post. And leave a comment below to tell us how you got on.

The post 18 Ways to Create Scannable Content for Your Blog appeared first on ProBlogger.

      

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Passion is Foolish. Pursue it Anyway.

“She’ll sob for hours staring at the wall. Nothing I say helps.”

I happened to overhear this as I sat outside of El Cortez in Brooklyn last week preparing for a night of Karaoke with an old friend. There were two guys, perhaps late 20’s early 30’s, having a conversation. They were just drunk enough to be entirely oblivious to my presence but still perfectly articulate. Score

The Boyfriend: “She got a badass degree doing some sort of high-risk-youth social work, but as soon as she finished and found out what the jobs in her field really looked like she totally abandoned it.”

The Friend: “Man, that sucks…another one chewed up and spat out.”

The Boyfriend: “Yea…she’s still bartending, and she likes it and all, but every once in awhile she’ll get hit with these waves of hopelessness that she’s never gonna do anything with her life. Some of the other bartenders have been there for like 10 years, “lifers” y’know, and she’s absolutely terrified that she’ll wind up like these people…waking up at 4:00 p.m., working nights, partying on the job…forever. Plus it totally sucks for her, cuz these people are her friends, but she hates them in some weird way for showing her what her life might look like if she doesn’t figure it out.

The Friend: “At least she makes good money though right? I mean, she could totally take some more classes during the day and keep lookin’ for her thing.”

The Boyfriend: “I suggested that. The thing is, she’s $50k in debt with student loans, and the thought of going back to school only to have what happened before happen again is just too much. She’s already locked into the bartending gig because of the money she makes and the loan payments and whatnot. She feels like it would only trap her more…and honestly I totally agree…the system’s fucked man.

The Friend: “Yea, I getchya…what about some sort of side-hustle? Didn’t she do some jewelry shit on Etsy a while back?”

The Boyfriend: “Totally! Get this man: She had this one friend that worked there that had been making her own hot-sauce…y’know…just for herself and for friends. But she took it pretty seriously, honing her recipe, bottling it herself and doing label art ‘n all that. Last year she happened to be at a barbecue with some friends who had a band staying with them. These guys weren’t big time or nothing, but they loved the shit out of her hot-sauce! Long story short, they had some buddy back home in Portland who owned a pizza place…”Sizzle Pie“…dunno if you’ve had it…but the place is something of an underground-culty-staple there. They took some bottles back home with them and BOOM…licensing, production and distribution deal out of nowhere!”

The Friend: “NO WAY! That’s amazing! How lucky…

The Boyfriend: “Well, yes and no…and this is what I’ve been trying to tell her. By her own account her friend worked her ass off, maybe she never thought it would lead to where it led, but she still bled and sweat into “her thing”. No doubt there was a lucky break in meeting the band dudes, but if she hadn’t already put all that time into it nothing would have happened. And chances are, if the dudes never came along, something else would’ve.

Her sauce is obviously more than just “pretty good” or it wouldn’t have been picked up by the joint in the first place, so it goes to reason that being as good as it is, it would’ve been appreciated by some big wig somewhere eventually. I guess my point is that hard work creates luck…or at least if you work hard enough for long enough the probability of luck gets greater and greater.”

The Friend: “I can see that. So what now? Is she gonna start a hot sauce line?”

The Boyfriend: “….maybe…I sure hope so (laughs). The tough thing for her now is comparing her results to this cinderella story. Every idea she has she follows up with ‘…but there’s no way it’ll turn into that.’ or ‘there’s no way I’ll have those results.’ And I totally get it…It’s damn near impossible not to have some sort of expectation on whatever you build, but when it keeps you from starting…that’s the real problem.”

The Friend: “Totally paralyzing huh? Damn…Well shit, I wish her the best of luck. Gotta just start I guess. And isn’t she just wanting something that gives her life purpose anyway? Purpose doesn’t have to be defined as financial success, even though I guess money coming in could validate your purpose to some extent. But yea! If she could find something she cares about then the end result wouldn’t matter right? At least not as much? Sounds like she’s much closer than she thinks actually…

The Boyfriend: “Hmmm…I guess you’re right. She definitely cares enough about not having purpose…that’s probably the most motivating factor you could ever ask for. Damn…the despair she has NOW might just be the missing link she never had before! So long as it motivates and stops being paralyzing like you said.

The Friend: “Totally!”

Freddie Mercury: Is this the real life? Is this just fantasy?

The Boyfriend: “Shit! I’m up! Come on, I’m singing Bohemian Rhapsody…watch me make a fool out of myself doing something I care about with no expectations of success.”

They struggled to their feet and stumbled inside. I sat there delighted.

I whipped out my phone and began furiously taking notes piecing their conversation back together. I’d found a diamond in Brooklyn. These two dudes had leaked such a wonderful illustration of the pains of student debt, the trap of a well paying job, and that awful cocktail of envy and demoralization when you witness friends launch their thing successfully. And when they finally settled on that paralytic despair duo of not believing in your passion and not knowing where to begin…the spine-chills physically shook me.

But then their takeaway! So rich and poignant:

Follow your passion with no expectations. Chase your curiosity!

I must disclaim: I took an ounce or two of liberties when reconstructing this conversation, but let me reassure you; this conversation happened, it was heavy, and there was hope!

The pain and fear and hopelessness is very real, but so are the solutions.

Give your thing a whirl! Just START! Be a fool if you need to.

You will be in great company

The post Passion is Foolish. Pursue it Anyway. appeared first on Fizzle.

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SPI 360: How to Plan and Manage Projects and Programs Successfully—with Janna Maron from Team SPI

Janna Maron—Team SPI's Editorial Director—breaks down the tips, workflows, and strategies she uses to schedule and organize massive programs and projects and keep overwhelm to a minimum.

SPI 360: How to Plan and Manage Projects and Programs Successfully—with Janna Maron from Team SPI from The Smart Passive Income Blog.

from SPI 360: How to Plan and Manage Projects and Programs Successfully—with Janna Maron from Team SPI

#1719 Why a failed fighter pilot made a better founder (and took a company public)

Joining me is a founder who has been in the security space for years. He launched and sold one company. He launched and took another company public. Now he wants people to learn from his experiences and he’s investing in other entrepreneurs. I want to find out specifically how he tool a company public. Ron Gula is the founder of Tenable, tech vulnerability management company.

Ron Gula is the founder of Tenable, tech vulnerability management company.

Sponsored by

Toptal – If you’re having trouble finding developers, Toptal is a network of elite pre-vetted software developers. You tell Toptal what you’re looking for, they search their network for the best people, they test the candidates, and then they present you with only the candidates who meet your individual needs. Once you pick someone you can start work with them the next day. They offer a no-risk trial period. Go to Toptal.com. Get the best of the best right now.

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HostGator – Ready to take your website to the next level? Whether you’re a first-time blogger or an experienced web pro, HostGator has all the tools you need to create a great-looking website or online store. A wide range of options includes cloud-based web hosting, reseller hosting, VPS hosting and dedicated servers. Founded in 2002, HostGator is the perfect web partner for business owners and individuals seeking hands-on support. Visit https://ift.tt/2HikPBw to see what HostGator can do for your website.

More interviews -> https://mixergy.com/moreint
Rate this interview -> https://mixergy.com/rateint

from #1719 Why a failed fighter pilot made a better founder (and took a company public)

Fastest Way to Make $500

If you can write well, a quick way to make $500 is to join one of the freelance writing services such as iWriter.com as a writer, and start accepting ...

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Marketing, what to do next?

What we do: Debt collection for companies with international sales. Our customer: decision makers in companies with international sales and with a ...

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Recommended Reading

Just want to recommend two threads that beginner and even seasoned marketers may find interesting. I find them to be 'interesting' as well a.

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USA cell phone leads needed

Here's a simple way to 10X your website traffic* by leveraging influencers for massive exposure. It's a modern twist on an old technique. You can use ...

from USA cell phone leads needed

MariaBBreton

MariaBBreton is a New Warrior Member of Warrior Forum. Check to see what MariaBBreton is saying about Internet Marketing.

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Episode 190: How Facebook’s Ad Delivery System Works: Part 1

An understanding of how Facebook’s ad delivery system works is essential to mastering the platform.

In this episode, Ralph and Molly explain that Facebook is an auction and surprisingly, the advertiser who is willing to pay the most doesn’t always win. Here’s an in-depth explanation of how to win both the Facebook auction and the customer’s attention.

IN THIS EPISODE YOU’LL LEARN:

• How the Facebook’s Ad Auction works
• How Facebook uses their Pacing Feature to get you the best results for your ad goals
• The 3 factors that make up the total value of your Facebook ad—bidding, estimated action rate, and user value

LINKS AND RESOURCES MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

Facebook Blueprint
Facebook’s Ad Policy
Facebook’s Policy on Low Quality or Disruptive Experiences
Avoid Creating Negative Experiences with Ads on Facebook
Pingdom
GTMetrix
Tier Eleven
Episode 144: Why This is Still the Best Time to Be a Facebook Marketer (Plus… Insights from Facebook’s NYC Office)
Episode 183: How Facebook’s New Campaign Budget Optimization Tool Can Get You Leads Faster (Part 1)
Episode 184: Using Facebook’s Campaign Budget Optimization Tool to Increase Social Proof (Part 2)

Thanks for joining us this week. Want to subscribe to The Perpetual Traffic Podcast? Connect with us on iTunes and leave us a review.

iTunes not your thing? Find us on Spotify, Stitcher, or TuneIn.

The post Episode 190: How Facebook’s Ad Delivery System Works: Part 1 appeared first on DigitalMarketer.

from Episode 190: How Facebook’s Ad Delivery System Works: Part 1

#1718 How to manage a team of engineers (even if you’re a founder who doesn’t know code)

Today’s guest is Natalie Nagele. EIGHT years ago, her husband was on Mixergy to talk about this little company called Wildbit. At the time, they had just launched Postmark and it was doing over $1M in sales. I want to see where they are now after nearly 10 years of bootstrapping. Natalie Nagele is the co-Founder of Wildbit, a software company that builds web apps to help software developers collaborate better.

Natalie Nagele is the co-Founder of Wildbit, a software company that builds web apps to help software developers collaborate better.

Sponsored by

Toptal – If you’re having trouble finding developers, Toptal is a network of elite pre-vetted software developers. You tell Toptal what you’re looking for, they search their network for the best people, they test the candidates, and then they present you with only the candidates who meet your individual needs. Once you pick someone you can start work with them the next day. They offer a no-risk trial period. Go to Toptal.com. Get the best of the best right now.

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HostGator – Ready to take your website to the next level? Whether you’re a first-time blogger or an experienced web pro, HostGator has all the tools you need to create a great-looking website or online store. A wide range of options includes cloud-based web hosting, reseller hosting, VPS hosting and dedicated servers. Founded in 2002, HostGator is the perfect web partner for business owners and individuals seeking hands-on support. Visit https://ift.tt/2HikPBw to see what HostGator can do for your website.

More interviews -> https://mixergy.com/moreint
Rate this interview -> https://mixergy.com/rateint

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Motivation Books...

Methods of Persuasion is a pretty cool book. It is about psychology and has helped me with marketing and selling quite a bit. [ 1 ] Thank this user ...

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Social Media Content Calendar: Your Key to Successful Social Media Marketing Strategy

Social media marketing planning is key to successful content marketing. It makes your team more productive and allows you to catch all the seasonal trends and trending hashtags. Furthermore, it streamlines content planning and helps you focus more on community building aspects and other long-term goals of social media marketing.

One of the best ways to plan your social media marketing campaigns, is to create a year-long content roundup including all big holidays, related awareness weeks and trends and other seasonal trends.

Why Planning Early Is Crucial

Holidays and seasonal trends are an opportunity for savvy marketers to take advantage of a mass feeling of goodwill, positivity and cheerfulness, and make it work for them. Why else would the biggest brands in the world spend the biggest bulk of their annual budgets making holiday-specific advertisements, or running massive campaigns on social media pages? It doesn’t just work for giant corporations that are doing direct sales. It works for everyone.

Best of all, holiday posts have the three most important elements of popular social posts: they capitalize on an emotional response, they are time-specific and so generate a lot of shares and engagement, and they are ridiculously easy to produce.

The sooner you get the prepared, the better off you are going to be. So here are some tips on how to start planning your social posts today.

How to Create a Social Media Content Calendar

So how to create your social media calendar?

• Make a list of holidays, awareness days and seasonal trends you want to catch
• Come up with the list of hashtags, questions, visual marketing ideas and time-sensitive lead magnets
• Put together everything using a calendar

ContentCal is a great way to create an actionable social media content calendar your whole team can collaborate on. Start with its “Campaigns” feature: Put your holidays and ideas there, specify start and end dates and create a detailed campaign brief including all the keywords and hashtags you have identified.

Once a campaign is created, it will show up as a ribbon on your social media content calendar view:

Clicking the ribbon will take you (and your team) to your campaign brief where you can see (and add) related hashtags and angles around the trend.

From there your whole team can add social media updates to your shared “Pinboard” for you (or your moderators) to review and put on the specified days.

This is a great way to involve your whole team into social media content planning for more and better results

A Note of Planning

Not all seasonal trends are obvious. I suggest running your core topics and keyword through Google Trends to get a better idea on how to time your social media content better:

Stand Out

No one is saying that you have to produce a John Lewis Christmas ad for your social media pages. That would be an insane amount of effort, and holiday posts should be simple and fairly easy to produce and share. But that doesn’t mean you can’t look at what others have done, and follow suit.

REI Coop had a brilliant holiday campaign that tried to get their followers away from stores and into nature. Their Twitter used the hashtag #OptOutside, encouraging people to comment with pictures or stories about what they were doing with loved ones in the great outdoors, instead of spending hours of their life in malls buying expensive gifts. It was a roaring success, and it produced opportunities for user made content, email newsletters, and a lot of shareable moments. Without adequate planning they never would have been able to make such an impact.

Run a Contest

Contests are always huge draws for your audience, and the holidays are the perfect time to host them. With a couple weeks of promotion and planning you can automate the majority of the contest, and just manage it in the weeks leading up to each holiday of your choice. People are already in a festive mood, and more likely to take part.

Don’t just do a drawing or giveaway. Make it something create, fun challenging, and otherwise interesting. This is also a great idea because it works and is easily adaptable for any platform that you happen to be active on. So you can customize it to most appeal to your audience.

Proceed here for some useful resources: How to Host a Successful Social Media Contest: Your Ultimate List of Tools & Resources

Get Visual

Holidays are ripe for visual content. Creating a simple, but beautiful graphic is easy, since so much imagery is already in popular culture for you to draw on. You don’t have to struggle to find things to connect with your audience; a snowman, sparkling lights, snowy mountains… they are all non-culturally specific visuals that you can use, which still immediately cause your viewers to relate. That is one of the best things about holiday posts.

Canva always offers lots of timely holiday themes for holidays

If you have the expertise or access, also consider holiday specific videos. These are passed around like hotcakes, and are a great addition to your campaign. It doesn’t have to be anything too fancy.

Wave is any easy way to put together festive videos and they have a few awesome holiday themes too. And they also have a handy calendar listing big and small holidays for you to prepare for:

Get People Spending Money With Special Coupons

Why does your social media profile exist? Branding and promotion, engagement and interaction, but mostly to improve profits in the end. Everything you do is with that end goal in mind. If you sell direct products you can vastly boost your sales over the coming months by offering coupons good only during specific time blocks until the end of the holidays.

Now, when I say specific time blocks, I don’t mean coupon codes that are good for the entire month. I am talking time sensitive super deals that last hours, maybe a day, and where you can only find them through links on social media. Amazon has a version of this, where they have deals which are good for a day that they advertise on a single page, and then post about.

Do you have any tips for creating a social media content calendar well before the holiday comes about? Let us know in the comments below!

The post Social Media Content Calendar: Your Key to Successful Social Media Marketing Strategy appeared first on Internet Marketing Ninjas Blog.

from Social Media Content Calendar: Your Key to Successful Social Media Marketing Strategy

Connecting with potential new clients on LinkedIn

I do freelance marketing and want to reach out to potential new clients on LinkedIn requesting to connect, adding a note asking if they would be ...

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How to Make Your List Items and Bullet Points Super Smooth

The post How to Make Your List Items and Bullet Points Super Smooth appeared first on ProBlogger.

This is a post by ProBlogger writing expert Ali Luke

Do you ever use lists in your blogging?

They might be bullet points, tips that you’re sharing in a list post, or even a simple list of three or four items in a sentence.

If you’ve been writing blog posts for a while, coming up with bullet points or list items might seem like second nature. But there could be a crucial factor you’re overlooking.

Parallelism.

Say what?

“Parallelism”, in this context, simply means making sure the items on your list correspond to one another – that is, they’re parallel.

It’s often easiest to understand through examples.

Seeing Parallelism in Action

Here’s an example of a list that doesn’t work.

When you’re writing a blog post, it’s important to:

• Give it a great title
• Crafting a strong opening line
• To use subheadings

All of those bullet points could work. But not in the same list.

Notice how the list is introduced: it’s important to. Every item on the list needs to fit with this opening phrase.

It’s important to … give it a great title. (Yep, that works.)

It’s important to … crafting a strong opening line. (Nope. It should be “craft” not “crafting”.)

It’s important to … to use subheadings. (Nope. It repeats “to”.)

To work properly, the full list needs to read:

When you’re writing a blog post, it’s important to:

• Give it a great title
• Craft a strong opening line
• Use subheadings

But a lack of parallelism isn’t always obvious at first glance.

Take a look at these (fictitious) bullet points from a sales page.

• Grow your business faster than ever before
• Money while you sleep
• This is the easiest system ever invented – you can use it straight away
• Discover the secrets you’ve been missing all this time

As well as having a rather dubious “get rich quick” vibe, those bullet points don’t quite fit together as a list. They’re grammatically correct, as there’s no introductory text. But they’d read more smoothly if they all started with an imperative verb and were all roughly the same length, like this:

• Grow your business faster than ever before
• Make money while you’re asleep
• Start using this super-easy system instantly
• Discover the secrets you’ve been missing all this time

This might seem like a small thing. But when you’re crafting a sales page, you want to make it as easy to read as possible.

Great Places to Use Parallelism in Lists on Your Blog

Within your blog posts, look out for opportunities to use parallelism:

• Whenever you have a short list within a sentence. For instance, “Today, I wrote a letter, visited my grandma, and went for a jog”. Note how each verb is in the past tense. You probably do this naturally already, but it’s worth double-checking when you edit your post to make sure all your lists are working correctly.
• Whenever you create a list of bullet points. Even if you don’t have a specific phrase introducing your bullet points, make them all match. That usually means starting them all in the same way – with a verb in the right form, a noun, an adjective, or whatever works for your list. It could also mean ending them all in the same way (e.g. with a question mark).
• Whenever you write a list post. The list items (usually the subheadings) in a list post might be separated by several paragraphs of text. But they should still match one another if you want your post to seem well constructed.

Elsewhere on your blog, look out for things like:

• Calls to action on your About or Start Here page. If you’re offering readers several options, have you phrased them all so they match?
• Lists of bullet points on your sales pages. We took a look at this earlier: parallel bullet points look polished and professional, and help create a good first impression on a potential customer.

As well as using parallelism within a single list, it often makes sense to create several lists that all match with one another. For instance, on the home page of my Blogger’s Guides website (where I sell premium ebooks) each Guide is summarised in five bullet points, and each bullet point starts with a verb (construct, write, produce, revise, develop).

Your readers may not notice that one product has four bullet points, one has five and another has six. They might not realise you’re only using parallelism within individual lists, and not to tie all your lists together.

But even if they can’t quite explain it, they’ll probably get a sense there’s something not quite right about your blog post or sales page. And that’s definitely not what you want.

Parallelism is a simple trick, and quite possibly one you’re already using. But if you’re not, or you’re not paying conscious attention to it, try revising a recent post or a key page on your blog to incorporate it.

By making your list items match one another your writing will read more smoothly, adding that extra little bit of polish to your blog posts and (even more importantly) your sales pages.

 

 

 

New bio:

Ali Luke is the author of the Blogger’s Guides, a set of value-packed ebooks that are on sale until Friday 1st March for just $20 (instead of the usual $60): that gets you all four ebooks plus various bonuses, as well as all future updates. You can find out more and get your hands on a great bargain here.

 

 

The post How to Make Your List Items and Bullet Points Super Smooth appeared first on ProBlogger.

      

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15 Gig Economy Jobs To Fund Your Dream Business (FS308)

What are gig economy jobs? Can entrepreneurs cleverly utilize these opportunities to help them along their own journey? Can you find a gig the suits your needs or skills that can help supplement your dream business?

Spoiler alert: PROBABLY!

Today we are unpacking the exciting new world that is opening up for anybody interested; introducing the gig economy! This might be Uber or Lyft, Airbnb or Upwork, there are new services and platforms every day that you could be using to make a little extra money and boost your hustle.

In this episode, our focus is finding the right gig for your skills and needs in order to stay afloat while you keep your entrepreneurial dreams alive. There are many ways to skin this cat but the simplest might be to just use these gigs as a means to a financial end in the interim with your own business.

We talk about why these gigs are usually so much better than a day-job you hate, potential drawbacks of this marketplace, the paradox of the gig economy and more!

For this and a bunch of other great stuff, be sure to join us on the Fizzle Show today!

Listen to the episode:

Subscribe to The Fizzle Show in your favorite podcast player:

iTunes | Overcast | Pocket Casts | Stitcher | Soundcloud | RSS

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Key Points From This Episode:

• A new kind of opportunity. [0:06:50.2]
• Considering options other than a dead-end job. [0:09:35.8]
• The perceived negative sides of the gig economy. [0:13:18.3]
• Freedom from testing and relieving the burden and pressure. [0:15:47.5]
• Some driving and vehicle gigs besides the obvious ones. [0:20:35.1]
• Staying open to ideas and niches within this job market. [0:28:56.6]
• Omni, storage, innovation in rental space and the last wave of ownership. [0:39:15.8]
• Airbnb, legalities and the evolving world of home rental. [0:41:50.6]
• Walking dogs with Rover! [0:46:38.4]
• TaskRabbit, Poshmark and everything in between. [0:49:10.2]
• Feastly and the network for freelance chefs. [0:55:01.7]
• The tech niche surrounding Upwork. [0:58:49.2]
• Our picks for overlapping and useful usage of skills. [1:04:22.2] 
• And much more!

Links Mentioned in Today’s Episode:

• Fizzle — https://fizzle.co/
• Fizzle on Twitter — https://twitter.com/fizzle
• Gusto — http://gusto.com/fizzle
• Uber — https://www.uber.com
• Lyft — https://www.lyft.com/
• Rover — https://www.rover.com/
• HopSkipDrive — https://www.hopskipdrive.com/
• Bubbl — https://www.bubbl-rides.com/
• Turo — https://turo.com/
• Dolly — https://dolly.com/
• Crate&Barrel — https://www.crateandbarrel.com/
• Postmates — https://postmates.com/
• Amazon Flex — https://flex.amazon.com/
• Ryan Delk — https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryandelk
• Omni — https://www.beomni.com
• Airbnb — https://www.airbnb.com/
• Onefinestay — https://www.onefinestay.com/
• Rocky IV — https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0089927/
• TaskRabbit — https://www.taskrabbit.com/
• Parks and Recreation — https://ift.tt/2tDKlM8
• Aziz Ansari — https://www.azizansari.com/
• Closet Collective — https://www.instagram.com/closetcollective_/?hl=en
• Poshmark — https://poshmark.com/
• Marie Kondo — https://konmari.com/
• Feastly — https://eatfeastly.com/
• Upwork — https://www.upwork.com/
• SpareHire — https://www.sparehire.com/
• HelloTech — https://www.hellotech.com/
• GeekSquad — http://www.bestbuy-jobs.com/job-family/geek-squad/
• Fizzle Defining Your Audience — https://fizzle.co/guides/defining-your-audience
• Fizzle Journaling Course — https://fizzle.co/courses/journal
• Fizzle Goals Course — https://fizzle.co/courses/goals
• Fizzle Try 5 — http://fizzle.co/try5
• Fizzle Roadmap — https://fizzle.co/sparkline/small-business-roadmap-1-clarity
• Fizzle Just Ship It Challenge — https://fizzle.co/sparkline/join-30-day-just-ship-challenge
• Fizzle Customer Conversation Course —  https://app.fizzle.co/courses/customer-conversations
• Fizzle Just Ship It Challenge — https://app.fizzle.co/just-ship-it-challenge
• Fizzle Post Mortem Workbook — https://fizzle.co/sparkline/learning-from-pain-via-post-mortems-fs295/
• Aiden Fishbein — https://vitals.agency/blog/author/aiden/
• Vitals Agency — https://vitals.agency/
• Courage and Clarity — https://www.courageandclarity.com/
• Steph Crowder on Twitter — https://twitter.com/stephcrowder_
• Corbett Barr on Twitter — https://twitter.com/CorbettBarr
• Chase Reeves on Twitter — https://twitter.com/chase_reeves
• Chase Reeves Reviews — https://www.youtube.com/user/chasereeves
• Aiden Fishbein on Twitter — https://twitter.com/megafishbein
• Fizzle Sparkline — https://fizzle.co/sparkline
• Fizzle Essentials of Web Design Course — https://fizzle.co/library/essentials-of-website-design-for-business-builders
• Fizzle Website Tune Up Curse — https://fizzle.co/courses/tuneup
• Start A Blog That Matters Course — https://fizzle.co/start-a-blog-that-matters
• Fizzle 80/20 Copywriting Guide — https://fizzle.co/sparkline/writing-copy-for-web
• Fizzle Toolkit — https://fizzle.co/toolkit
• Fizzle Craft + Commerce — https://fizzle.co/sparkline/craft-commerce
• Fizzle Project Management for Entrepreneurs — https://fizzle.co/sparkline/project-management-for-entrepreneurs
• Fizzle Hosting — https://fizzle.co/hosting

The post 15 Gig Economy Jobs To Fund Your Dream Business (FS308) appeared first on Fizzle.

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Ryan Deiss on the End of Marketing As We Know It (And I Feel Fine)

There is a huge event happening that directly affects digital marketers, agencies, entrepreneurs, and founders.

As Ryan Deiss pointed out during his opening keynote at Traffic & Conversion Summit 2019, change occurs in a cyclical pattern. Just like the seasons change, the world of marketing is changing in phases.

And right now, we’re at the end of a cycle—which means the opportunity for innovation and disruption is the largest that it’ll be for years.

To learn more about this opportunity and how to make it work for you (and not against you), watch Ryan Deiss’ opening keynote from Traffic & Conversion Summit 2019:

Ryan covers:

• Why it’s the end of marketing as we know it… and why he’s not worried about it
• 3 digital marketing strategies to help you rise above the noise
• A brief history of digital marketing and what the future of digital marketing holds

Don’t have time to watch an hour-long presentation? Read on to learn the highlights from Ryan’s keynote!

(NOTE: Need a helping hand with your digital marketing efforts? Or maybe you just want proven, actionable marketing tools, tactics, and templates to implement in your business? Check out the latest deal from DigitalMarketer, and you will be on your way to helping your business grow.)

The 5 Phases of Technology

History has shown us this cycle over and over again.

In 1801, the first steam engine was unveiled.

In 1830, railroads were opened across the US and UK.

By 1880, there were 2,000+ railroad companies causing a necessary standardization that regulated the industry in 1886.

By 1906, all of the rail lines were owned by just 7 entities.

Alexander Bell patented the first phone in 1876.

His patent expired in 1894, and immediately 6,000 phone companies were launched.

Today, there are only 4 major phone service providers.

We see the same pattern with the newspaper industry and the automobile industry.

The world is moving in cyclical phases which means—technology is too.

There are 5 phases of technology:

Phase 1: Discovery and Invention

In Phase 1, there is a new technology that benefits an industry or is even so large that it changes society.

To succeed during Phase 1, you have to be in the right place, at the right time.

The invention of the steam engine and the phone are examples of Phase 1.

Phase 2: Proliferation

The proliferation phase is the gold rush and becomes the wild west of the new technology.

In an ideal world, our business enters at this stage. Here, we have the first mover advantage.

It’s during this phase that businesses spring up and grow at a rapid pace, like the railroads in the US and UK. And—unfortunately for those like Alexander Bell—patents expire and entrepreneurs rush to launch their own company causing a ton of new companies to start.

Phase 3: Standardization

By Phase 3, there are so many companies selling the new product that the economy, government, or industry itself has to create regulations for the benefit of everybody.

It’s at this stage that a lot of companies fail because they don’t get with the program.

Instead of adapting to standardization, they fight the change and go out of business or get bought up, which leads to the next phase…

Phase 4: Consolidation

During consolidation, companies get gobbled up and the industry becomes consolidated in the hands of only a handful of dominant companies.

For instance, the 2,000+ railroad companies and 6,000+ phone companies of the past merged into 7 railroad companies and 4 phone companies.

This is the phase where the rich get richer.

Phase 5: Innovation Or Disruption

In the final stage, the company that was once on the cusp of the brand new has become so normal, so part of the every day that the companies that own them become comfortable and the level of competition that once existed goes away.

This is a crucial stage because there are only 2 directions to go: avoiding or embracing innovation.

Companies rather become stagnant and will have a harder time competing when a new player comes onto the stage and starts to disrupt the status quo.

Or companies lean into innovation and push the boundaries of the current technology and create a brand new cycle.

The process of discovery and invention begins again.

This cycle has been happening for centuries, and it is happening in the digital marketing world…

The History of Digital Marketing

Discovery: 1994-2000

This is when the first banner ad was displayed (and had a 78% click-through rate!!!)…

…the Dotcom bubble placed the internet in the news and Google AdWords launched.

Proliferation: 2001-2009

During proliferation, the first (of many) mommy blogs were created, WordPress launched, and the major social media players were established (Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter).

Facebooks ads rolled out and the first iPhone was released. 

Standardization: 2010-2014

In 2009, Google introduced its newest ad ranking feature, Quality Score. This forced advertisers to completely change tactics as Google now favored high-quality ads and landing pages. Paired with Panda, this standardization is now referred to as, “ The Google Slap.”

During this time, Facebook started to audit advertisements, banning dating sites and weapons in 2014.

The whole era can be best described as a giant flaming pile of poop for marketers as the rug was ripped out from under them.

And then it got worse…

Consolidation: 2015-2019

The technology wave of consolidation placed Google and Facebook at the top of the advertisement world. They control 84% of the ad space, allowing them to push their prices up.

Facebook’s ad revenue doubled in 2009 and 2018. Think about this… they doubled their revenue without doubling the number of users. And they did this in a very short amount of time… by increasing their prices.

Then came Amazon, who is accountable for nearly 50% of all US ecommerce sales. FIFTY PERCENT!

Startups are currently spending almost 40 cents of every VC dollar on Google, Facebook, and Amazon advertisements.

Why?

Because the average Facebook organic reach is 0.5%.

In 2019, traffic costs are up and conversions and engagement are down. And they have been for some time now.

The question digital marketers are asking themselves today is, do we innovate or disrupt?

Innovation or Disrupt: 2019-?

“Today digital becomes king.” ~Ronan Shields

2019 is the year that US digital ad spend will surpass offline ad spend. Digital marketing is disrupting the world of marketing.

The digital marketers, agencies, entrepreneurs, and founders who don’t want to accept that it’s time to disrupt are going to be left behind.

DigitalMarketer is not one of them. Change is here and Ryan’s strategy to become a disruptor is simple. And it can be applied in your business, too.

Do the opposite of what used to work:

Everything that is fast, needs to be slow.

Everything that is big, needs to be small.

Everything that is small, needs to be big.

What does Ryan mean? Let’s take a look…

Strategy #1: Shifting from Fast to Slow

There are 3 ways to make this shift.

1. Fast to Slow
2. Automation to Conversation
3. Scalable to Unscalable and Untrackable

Let’s start with…

1. Fast to Slow

Funnels need to be shifted into a journey.

I have nothing against funnels, but in 2019, they focus too heavily on value extraction (how do we get customers to buy?) instead of completing the Customer Value Journey (how do we get customers to sell our product without being asked?)

The Journey starts with the customer coming to us in an incomplete and sad state and shifts to them being in a complete, happy state.

This is known as the Before & After.

In the “Before” state, the customer is discontent in some way. They might be in pain, bored, frightened, or unhappy for any number of reasons.

In the “After” state—life is better. They are free of pain, entertained, or unafraid of what previously plagued them. All thanks to your product or service that solved their problem.

And to get them to buy your product, you need to move them through your Customer Value Journey…

The Customer Value Journey

The Customer Value Journey starts at Step 1 with Awareness and moves to Step 8: Promote.

To get customers to sell your product by becoming a promoter, you need them to be successful. You need to help them get to their ideal After state.

Have you mapped your customers’ Journey? You can do it for free (without having to opt-in) here.

2. Automation to Conversation

I’m sure you’ve heard Newton’s famous law that for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.

The action in the past decade has been toward automation, and we are about to see a significant reaction to it.

The reaction is going to come as a solution, talk to your customers.

Chat with them on Facebook, use Drift to automate chat conversations on your website and have bots filter (but not replace) basic human interaction.

Or, here’s a crazy idea, answer the phone.

Here’s an even crazier idea, send emails without links—this feels more like a personal conversation.

Ryan believes the future of digital marketing belongs to companies that are willing to invest in real-time, one-to-one interactions.

Now, there are 2 questions to ask yourself during this time of disruption:

1. Do you know how much it costs you to acquire a conversation?
2. How much is a conversation worth?

Answer those questions to help your company focus and grow.

3. Scalable to Unscalable & Untrackable

If you want to kill any idea, say, “It doesn’t scale.”

What “it doesn’t scale” really means is—we don’t know if it’s working and we don’t know how to track it.

But if you’re not careful, saying something doesn’t scale can hurt you in the long run by killing a good idea.

Here’s a new idea, do the things you cannot track.

Untrackable Idea #1: Send Emails Without Links

Instead of links, ask for replies or ask if your customer has any questions.

The response you get can lead to a conversation that generates a sale.

Or at the very least, can help strengthen your relationship with your customer and continue to move them through your Customer Value Journey.

Untrackable Idea #2: Managed Facebook Groups

Do you have a Facebook group? Assign a team member to manage that community so it becomes a community that delivers value.

Does your community actually make you any money? It’s hard to tell. We’re unsure if our private community does.

But we know it helps retain customers.

So while we may not be able to track how much, we know the DigitalMarketer Engage Community makes us money through retention and happy, successful customers.

Untrackable Idea #3: Post Unrelated Content

At DigitalMarketer, one of our most popular blog posts is, “100 Books Every Marketer Should Read.”

And this post actually helped generate a lot of buzz for Traffic & Conversion.

What does it have to do with selling tickets to the event?

Not a whole lot.

But it was unrelated content that our customers wanted and responded to when we distributed it throughout our channels.

Untrackable Idea #4: Answer Stupid Questions

When you’ve been doing something a while, the easy, intro questions start to sound pretty basic and stupid to you. You may even get tired of answering them because they’re not what you want to talk about.

But that doesn’t matter because they’re the questions your customers want to talk about.

Find ways to answer questions that your customers inevitably have.

For example, you can use Quora to answer questions about your industry or place a “Questions and Answers” section on your homepage, like we do here…

Untrackable Idea #5: One-on-One Onboarding

Assign a team member to onboard each new client.

Give them that special white glove treatment and make them feel special. We do this for the highest level of our membership.

Untrackable Idea #6: Write a Book… or 2

Writing a book is a painful process with absolutely no trackability—do it anyway.

It exposes your brand to new audiences.

Ryan wrote Invisible Selling Machine years ago, and people still ask him to sign it. Since then, he’s worked on Digital Marketing for Dummies and another book is in the works.

Untrackable Idea #7: Publish a Podcast

DigitalMarketer has 2 podcasts, Perpetual Traffic and The DigitalMarketer Podcast, and helped launch Roland Frasier’s Business Lunch, and we have absolutely no idea if these podcasts are helping us acquire more clients.

But the podcasts have helped build the DigitalMarketer brand and expose us to different audiences.

All of these ideas are very hard to track and therefore, hard to scale. But we do them because they feel right. They feel like the right thing to do for our customers.

More businesses should start doing things that feel right for their customers.

If you want to know more about becoming an expert at these techniques, read this book.

Strategy #2: Big to Small

At DigitalMarketer we’ve created a system that segments our customers. And we’ve done this by adding in more fields as a customer signs up for our products—be it for our free membership of Lab or one of our products.

While this longer form has decreased our conversions, it has increased the value we are able to deliver to our customers.

And we’re happy to accept lower conversion rates for better data. We’re able to get better customer segmentation.

And through this customer segmentation, we’re able to…

• Figure out the best products to pair customers to so we can help them reach their ideal After state
• Increase the number of customers in those programs
• And get a better idea of the ROI of a customer

Strategy #3: Small to Big

Fact: No one willingly follows a small idea.

But as companies have niched down, their focus has become so granular that they’ve stopped thinking big. They’ve become kings of tiny, little ant hills.

As marketers, we need to start thinking big again.

Marketers need to define new categories for themselves.

Drift has defined a new category of conversational marketing and entrepreneurs like Sir Richard Branson have defined a new category of celebrity entrepreneurship. These are examples of companies and brands thinking bigger.

Want to get in on this? Ryan suggests reading Play Bigger, the playbook for category creation.

In 2019, Marketers need to create movements.

Don’t tell stories about your product—change the stories the customers tell about themselves.

Movements matter and if you want your business to matter, start a movement.

Ask yourself, what do we fundamentally believe to be true about the universe and our place in it?

But despite all that’s changing or will change, in digital marketing, we can be certain that 2 things will never change:

1. The need to generate traffic
2. The need to convert that traffic into revenue

(NOTE: Need a helping hand with your digital marketing efforts? Or maybe you just want proven, actionable marketing tools, tactics, and templates to implement in your business? Check out the latest deal from DigitalMarketer, and you will be on your way to helping your business grow.)

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