I'm unsure about entrepreneurship... But this is my year!
I've been on the forum for about two years. I don't have much to show about it. But this is what i got.
I started a marketing business. Hired a coach. My friend let me sell her product. But i crumbled under pressure! I ended up quitting. Far to soon. I'm living with my mom and she would be constantly in my ear telling me the coach was ripping me off. I should not have let that happen. I respect her views, and she should in turn...
This post is a comprehensive explanation of this idea all the way up to what I have now.
The idea: A business marketplace website that connects businesses with contractors to meet any need.
Businesses and contractors can create free accounts. Businesses can post to the marketplace to request bids on a complete project or just sections of a project. Contractors can go onto the marketplace and look for work based on their approved trades. This website will work kind of like Uship.
10 years ago, I was living in my hometown as an unmotivated high school student with no money, no girlfriend, no idea what I wanted to do with my life, and no goals.
Now I'm happier than I've ever been, doing high value work for companies that need help with their advertising and media buy teams. I'm engaged and am living in a supportive environment with people I love.
I'm not where I want to be yet (far from it) but I've made significant progress since being a high school student who only...
So this is my first thread on this forum, but I guess it's a good way to monitor my progress as a freelancer and at the same time give you some insights on what's going on.
Okay, first things first...
In September 2018 I started on the side as a freelance copywriter. With all the tipps from this forum I setup an Upwork account and got my first client by sending him the article he was looking for, for free. He was impressed and gave my more work for the next two months. This was a content...
My xmas gift to the forum. Bit of value to whoever could use a read of the inside threads. @MJ DeMarco
CONTEST TIME!
Make a plan for the first quarter of the year. Meaning, a 3-month plan. S.M.A.R.T. Goals (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant and Time-based)...
First of all I have read the Fastlane Millionaire every year for the past 3 years or so. I love the book. And yes I already order Unscripted I'm still waiting for it in the mail.
I respect MJ Demarco and his work but since the the first time I read his book I can't get over the fact that he says that money is more important than your passion. That doing what you love will not make you rich.
Imagine you're on your deathbed sweaty, nervous, trying your best to stay awake because you know...
Sometimes the universe gives you a kick in the a$$.
Yesterday my chef fired me because he can't trust me to manage the bookstore i'm working in. I'm a pretty spacey and unorganized guy. Most of the time i just read books and ignored everything around me when I'm alone. I can't keep track of what belongs to where and to be honest i just don't give a shit. So its clear that his decision is fair, i would do the same thing. We even had a laugh about it and the whole thing was rather friendly...
Hey guys, I've been lurking for a while. Read the millionaire fastlane a couple times and keep recommending it to people. Today I just ordered "unscripted" and felt like sharing my journey so far
So here's a little story of how I started my business and what I'm planning to do. Except for relations with family and my health, I'm willing to sacrifice anything in order to grow this thing. I feel like growth is almost like my happiness.
In 2013, while studying engineering, I got an idea...
I am curious if anyone on the forum is in or familiar with the auto glass business?
My cousin has owned a locally-operated auto glass business for 13 years. He has been asking me to come work for him managing the business for 3 years now. I have been hesistant because he has zero business sense. But, late last year he hried me to build a website and establish his online presence. He had built a 6-figure profit business without being online. He did it mainly through word-of-mouth and...
Hi at all, from Brescia ( Italy).
I'm a mechanical engineer and since I can remember always dream to be an entrepreneur.
I have always been the black sheep of the family because, also if my dad have two industries in the steel field, my family has never been able to put me completely in the "slowlane" box.
My first attempt of a business was when I was attending university.
At this age ( around 23 ) I was very, very shy with women, so start to learn how to approach ladies. It was a funny...
Okay, we’re going to get into some deep and really cool stuff here. I bounced back and forth for almost a year on this forum as to whether I even wanted to post about this, since I’m planning on saving the materials for a book. But the more I think about it I think it's such an essential thread that I'd feel like a dick for not posting. Plus putting things out there helps you refine your ideas.
I know there's a lot of info here but this post is going to go over ways to actual...
We have to stay on our toes if we want to stay relevant with the never ending changes to algorithms and regulations—and part of that is positioning ourselves for success.
What is digital marketing going to look like in 2020?
We had had 17 digital marketers weigh in to let us know what they see on the horizon, so we can all plan accordingly and have a great year of engagement, clicks, and conversions.
Here are 17 predictions for digital marketing in 2020.
Ad platforms (looking at you Facebook) will continue to emphasize shorter content (of course, they want to sell more impressions). Short-form, however, limits your ability to build your brand character, voice, and universe.
We predict the winning strategy will be to play marketing chess, not checkers. In chess your pieces have different strengths and weaknesses, whereas all checkers pieces are the same. When you build your marketing strategy use a mix of short, medium, and long-form content. Use the short-form content to appease Facebook’s algorithms, but don’t stop building your brand character, voice, and universe with longer-form content.
If you aren’t posting videos on social media, 2020 NEEDS to be the year you start, otherwise, you’ll get left behind.
Beyond that, we foresee an increased presence of companies on social media, as they try to create a strategy that will help them get an edge on competitors. Video on social platforms is going to continue to be at the fore-front of successful strategies.
Not only are B2B companies going to focus on creating video for LinkedIn, but they will also start to take notice of IGTV. With updates to Instagram’s algorithm, video posted on IGTV will go to the top of your followers’ feeds, as well as be found more prevalently on users’ explore pages. This is going to lead to more video leads, a larger audience, and more benefits.
What else will we see in 2020? We think that marketers will start focusing more on client needs, instead of “marketing needs.” Marketers will start answering customers’ questions directly and create campaigns that answer these questions. The only people that really matter are the people that we want using our product or service. Refocusing what is delivered to clients will be a trend in 2020 that many companies won’t be able to ignore.
The Amazon marketplace is constantly in flux. There are more private label sellers now than ever and the marketplace will become even more competitive. To stay in the game, sellers have to be resilient and adaptable.
One of the most important ways to adapt is to have a brand-mindset. A brand isn’t just about showing up with a single product—it’s about building a community of passionate buyers. The easiest and best way to start is with driving your own external traffic using Chat Marketing strategies through ManyChat.
ManyChat makes chat marketing an omni-channel experience. Now sellers can run multichannel campaigns thru one tool and reach their audience in the most efficient ways possible. Chat marketing will definitely make audience building, product launching, and product promotion seamless for Amazon Sellers.
Tara Robertson, Director of Customer Marketing at Sprout Social
2020 is all about refinement. Brands not only need to focus on who they are but more importantly, how they differ from competitors and create remarkable experiences for their customers. In the year ahead, marketers will focus more on being customer obsessed by ensuring every touchpoint is consistent and deliberate. Providing exceptional customer experiences is no longer a “nice to have,” but an expectation—especially as businesses strive to stand out in their saturated markets.
To that end, there will be a greater need for content and experiences that favors quality over quantity. We are living in the age of authentic marketing and the more relevant and relatable your marketing is, the more loyal your audience will become. It’s not just about the new platform, advanced AI, or a robust tech stack. In fact, I actually think it will be the opposite.
We need to spend less time thinking about our automation and more time thinking about how we can connect with our customers and each other. We expect more personalization than ever as consumers and it’s critical that marketing and sales teams understand this and the importance of connection.
Jenna Snavely, Production Content Manager at DigitalMarketer
As host of The DigitalMarketer Podcast, I talk to a lot of experts in the industry. From all my podcast interviews over the least year, the market trends we’ve been watching closely at DM, and my own buying behavior—I think the best way to catch back up in 2020 (or keep your lead) will be serialized consumable video content.
It’s a huge opportunity to define your brand voice and build an audience, and most importantly…it’s a way to over-deliver.
In 2020, I predict that more people will continue to “cut the cord” from cable and move to streaming options for their entertainment. It’s estimated that 45 million adults will leave their cable or satellite providers in 2020.
What does that have to do with digital marketing?
It means that as attention shifts away from traditional TV advertising, more advertisers will need to get creative and find ways to reach people online instead.
That is both a blessing and a curse: it’s going to create more work for digital agencies, but it’s going to raise the cost of advertising on the hottest platforms like Facebook, YouTube, and Google.
Brands might not be shifting all of their dollars to “pay per click” advertising, they might also up their content marketing budgets in an effort to appear in social shares and conversations, too! Content marketing agencies, take note!
Splintering Community Platforms
For businesses who want to grow their communities online (and who doesn’t?) there’s an intensifying need to take ownership of community space.
For many years the best place to host a community has been through Facebook groups. There’s a lot of engagement and growth on Facebook, because of an already a built-in habit (or is it an addiction?!).
However, the tech giant has experienced some political and ethical backlash and more digital business owners are looking for alternatives.
I predict that platforms that allow you to create community “on your own turf” like Palapa, Mighty Networks, BuddyBoss, and WordPress are going to see a lot of growth.
However, as much as I see people building these networks outside of the Facebook ecosystem, those that have tried and failed say the the vortex is strong… and engagement isn’t as high.
So there will likely be a splintering of communities across different platforms, and I suspect also a consolidation for those groups that don’t get enough traction off Facebook when they return.
Intensifying Polarization & Woke Marketing
As the planet’s climate continues to heat up, so will the political polarization in 2020.
Brands will have a choice to make: stay neutral or have a point of view.
The companies that stay above the fray will avoid the drama and the volatility that comes with entering the conversation on everyone’s mind.
But those businesses that are able to sincerely share their perspective, will gain long term loyalty for being willing to put their values over short term profits. According to Cone Communications, 92% of consumers say they have a more positive image of a company when the company supports a social or environmental issue.
Yes, there will be fall out from companies that engage in “woke marketing” and mix activism or politics into their message.
My prediction is that more businesses will be willing to put their reputations on the line to connect with Gen Z and Millennials who are more discerning about where they spend their hard earned dollars… and how it impacts the world at large.
Rachel Pedersen, CEO of The Viral Touch & Social Media United
2020 is the year the facade of perfectly polished marketing crashes and burns. Too many people have been burned by influencers faking it with perfect photoshoots, and consumers are desperate for authenticity.
As consumers get hungry for REAL answers, they will be looking for context outside of keynotes. They’re looking for signs of congruency – proof that their favorite people on platforms are actually walking the walk.
In 2020 the marketer who provides all-access, behind the scenes, contextual marketing wins. It’s the year of humanized marketing.
Here is how to beat the bandwagon marketers in 2020:
Tik. Tok: The clock is ticking. TikTok is a rare platform that shows more dimensions and allows audiences to fall in love with your creative, unpolished, impromptu, or UCG content.
Go live. Anywhere. Showcase the chaos of getting ready for an event with 3 kids when your baby has the flu and your last clean outfit was *cough* messed up.
Record your podcast in real life scenarios. Allow your audience to FEEL your life and surroundings through the audio.
Drop Photoshop. So you have a scar on your eyebrow? The holiday eating magically added an extra 15 pounds on your photos? Let it be. Let them see.
Video tells all. Consumers are looking for contextual clues in your video marketing. They want more than a perfect set and script. They want to see who you are. Give them more to work with.
Tell the truth. So 2019 was a hard year? Tell them. And don’t just brush it off with the usual ‘Oh man, it was a challenging year!’ Tell them what went wrong. Tell them how your heart broke. Tell them about the night when you almost quit. Tell them about the mistakes that nearly destroyed you. Just tell them the truth.
A game changer for Coaches and Digital course creators going into 2020 will be to include a Self Liquidating Offer (SLO) at the front end of their Facebook Advertising. Over the years coaches have been told to drop the low ticket offers and focus entirely on High ticket sales, because with the rising costs of Facebook ads, these offers weren’t profitable.
But that’s EXACTLY why they need to be part of product suite in 2020. We’re seeing people making 6 figures in under a year with a $27 offer. For example, Allie Bjerk, runs Facebook ads to cold traffic for her SLO with a $27 offer. This has generated nearly $500,000 in 9 months with an overall 2.4 x ROAS. So not only is she generating leads and covering her ad spend, she’s also making money. Then when she promoted her high ticket offer she had a quality audience of buyers and of the people who joined, 70% had purchased her $27 offer.
Then there’s Ashley who has an SLO for Freelance writers and is covering her ad spend as she grows her email list. By having people come into her community via a paid offer she’s seeing significant growth in her Facebook Group with a lively, engaged community and her SLO was a major contributor to the success of her five figure program launch.
A great SLO can not only cover your ad spend but also make you money while bringing in a quality audience of buyers, rather than loads of tyre kicking cheap leads who never even go and open your emails. When the intitial front end offer is combined in a sales funnel with complementary upsells, we’re seeing what starts with a $27 offer actually have an average order value of $61 and an average cost per sale of $33.
So rather than pouring money into free lead magnets and filling up your CRM with cheap unqualified leads, turning that lead magnet into an excellent low ticket offer to bring in quality customers who are actually paying to get on your email list, will make a massive difference to your Facebook Ad Budget and business in 2020.
(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.)
#1: The first prediction is the continued rise of Podcasting as a content platform and its mainstream adoption Podcasting has (finally) gone mainstream and will continue its exponential growth.
First, let me explain what’s driving this massive growth in podcasting.
Podcasting is predominantly an audio platform (although there are video podcasts). Audiences are feeling increasingly overwhelmed by the multiple screens bombarding them with information every minute of every day, and quite frankly, the screen has become a source of overwhelm.
The audio medium is relatively untouched and doesn’t represent as much anxiety to most audiences…yet. Podcasting, therefore, presents a great way to gain cut through to prospective buyers and facilitates deeper engagement. Eighty percent of listeners listen to all or most of each podcast episode and they listen to an average of 7 shows per week!
In today’s hyper distracted world, that’s off the charts!
Podcast listeners are loyal, affluent and educated. There’s a correlation between affluence and time poverty and these affluent people tend to self educate in pockets of what they consider ‘dead time’. e.g. while commuting to work, while at the gym etc.
The rise of voice-based search (more on this later) and products such as car play are driving a greater number of people to search for their favorite podcasts using voice-activated search. With the rise of smart speakers, we’re seeing lower friction to access relevant information via podcasts.
Podcasting listenership has grown from 10% of the US population to almost 35% of the US population in 2019.
Techcrunch believes the increase in celebrity podcasters is also boosting listenership. I see this trend continuing in 2020.
#2: The second prediction is that over 50% of searches will be voice-based and voice search is set to grow exponentially going forward according to Quora Creative we’re going to see at least 50% of online searches happen using voice.
This means that your content will need to be optimized for voice search in 2020 if you want to be found by 50% of those searches.
How do you make yourself easier to be found? Your content needs to be far more conversational. For instance rather than optimizing for the words “SEO audit” you need to optimize for “Hey Google, what is SEO audit?”
Here are some tips to be more voice-search friendly in terms of your content:
Write content in a more conversational tone
Focus less on keywords
Focus more on semantic search
Try to work on user intent
Provide an answer in a context
User longer tail keyword phrases
Try to be concise where possible
Given Apple’s track record of building complementary offerings across it’s devices (such as handoff) I don’t think it’s inconceivable for Apple to come out with search capabilities that allow you to search your computer using your HomePod or your iPhone or your Apple watch as the ‘voice search input tool’ that then displays results on your larger screen like your TV or your computer.
This is something I’d like to see and it’s quite possible in the near future. Apple clearly appears to have the capability to deliver this.
Voice search is in its infancy right now, just like the internet was in the 90s. We ain’t seen nothin’ yet.
We’re also likely to see an explosion in voice commerce in the coming years. According to this article on Wordstream, the US is set to see a rise in voice commerce sales from $1.8b to $40b by 2022
Copywriters are going to have to up their game on Facebook in 2020.
Here’s the thing: Facebook rocks. The ability to reach an audience that’s massive AND targeted, with native-feeling content, makes it a tremendous ad platform.
But it’s getting more competitive. And on top of that, Facebook’s inventory is more limited than some other ad platforms (GDN and YouTube, for example, have ad placements galore), which means that as Facebook ads become more mainstream…they also become more expensive.
That’s why, if your Facebook ads are going to succeed in 2020 and beyond, they’ll have to do an even better job of grabbing your prospects’ attention and delivering an effective sales message.
So how do you do that?
Let’s start with what you should NOT do. You should NOT use misleading copy—clickbait headlines, sensational claims, and so on—to trick or manipulate people into clicking your ad. Facebook is constantly updating and expanding their ad policies to prohibit this kind of thing, and if you ignore those policies, it’s going to get you in trouble sooner or later.
Instead, get back to these 3 rock-solid basics of good conversion copywriting:
1) Enter the conversation taking place in the prospect’s head.
In a Facebook ad, you’ve got only a few seconds to make people stop scrolling and pay attention. To maximize your chances of success, use that time to talk about something your prospect cares about. Now what you think they should care about—what they ALREAY care about.
This means you’ll have to know your avatars inside and out. You may need to send out surveys, do some review mining, perform competitive analyses, and even—gasp—talk to your customers in person. (Or over the phone.)
One trick I use, whenever I’m working with a new company, is to call up their customer service department. Customer service reps know exactly what questions and objections people are voicing regularly, making them a great source of valuable customer information.
2) Tell a good story.
We humans are wired for story. It’s in our DNA. So when you work stories into your copy, you’ll be tapping into our primal human instinct and making us want to know more.
And as a side-effect, your copy will feel less “salesy” and more authentic.
Bonus!
3) Use open loops to create reader momentum and compel the user to click.
Have you ever watched a TV show where the hero faces sudden danger—maybe she’s hanging on the edge of a cliff with one hand—and then, right at that moment of high drama, the show cuts to a commercial?
Don’t you hate that?!
Well, that’s no accident. TV shows place these cliffhangers right before the commercial break because they want to make sure you’ll sit through the next few minutes of Old Spice and Tide ads to find out what happens next.
So resist the urge to tie up your ad copy in a neat little bow. Instead, leave a little bit of mystery at the end—so that your users will have to click the ad to satisfy their curiosity.
So there you go, guys: 3 tips that I use to craft high-converting Facebook ad copy. Keep these in mind when writing your ads, and you’ll be putting yourself in a position to succeed on Facebook in 2020 and beyond.
The concept of a sales or marketing funnel has become ubiquitous these days. Most buyers or prospects even know when they are ‘in a funnel’.
The idea of a funnel has been around forever but now every small business owner is focused on setting up their funnel due to a handful of very successful software and training programs to come out in the past decade.
But this widespread adoption has led to some pretty cookie cutter approaches to prospect engagement, content, emails and more.
An automated funnel has led to a lot of new practitioners to overlook the basic concept of needing to first build TRUST with their prospects if they ever plan on making a sale.
Prospects don’t want to be ‘in a funnel.’
They don’t want an automated reply.
They want something that feels like a personal experience.
Something that is different from what most are doing.
We foresee a shift in the approach to the most successful ‘funnels’ being those that put a higher priority on building a unique, different outreach approach that feels personal to their prospects.
In 2020 qualitative content is going to beat quantitative content.
Instagram is testing out hiding likes which pushes the idea that one day, likes, comments, and shares might be irrelevant. What will be relevant is the quality of your content.
Did your article on marketing actually have actionable advice that changed the reader’s marketing strategy for the better?
Will your Instagram post make somebody change one of their most deeply routed habits?
Was your last podcast episode the reason your customer decided that today was the day they would change their business strategy?
Or,
Did a clickbait headline garner a lot of views and a huge bounce rate?
Will buying 50,000 fake Instagram followers boost your follower count and drastically decrease your post’s visibility in the algorithm?
Was double counting subscribers from both iTunes and Spotify as good for sponsorship opportunities as it was for losing the trust of your audience?
Qualitative content that actually answers your customer’s problems and inspires them to make a change that involves your business is what will beat out the clickbait headlines, the fake followers, and the inflated engagement metrics.
And that’s what consumers will care about in 2020.
If you’ve been keeping up-to-date with Facebook’s policy changes—and if you’re running ads on Facebook, you absolutely SHOULD be—then you already know that Facebook has been adding a lot of new restrictions lately.
For example, Facebook has officially created policies prohibiting the use of…
Engagement bait that urges people to inauthentically engage with an ad (“LIKE this or LOVE this if you love puppies”).
Exaggerated copy that commands an action (“All jazz fans must check this out”) or supposes a reaction (“These diets will blow your mind”).
Landing pages with minimal content and a majority of unrelated or low-quality ads.
And guess what?
You can expect a LOT more Facebook policy changes and advertising restrictions in 2020.
There are a number of reasons for this:
Facebook knows they’re being scrutinized. They also know that privacy is a big issue today. So they will continue to disapprove ads that make people think their privacy is being violated.
Facebook has had more time to build out their ad platform’s infrastructure. As they build more systems and hire more employees, they have more resources at their disposal to dedicate to improving their ad review process.
Last but not least, Facebook wants to protect their platform. They know that if people start having a negative experience on Facebook, they’ll stop using it. So they’ll continue to ban ads that use underhanded tactics.
Now there are two ways to take this news.
You could see it as a negative, and try to find ways to “game the system.” This approach could work…a little bit…maybe…in the short term…but over time, it’s just going to hurt your ad account and your Facebook advertising results.
Or you could take this news as a positive thing. Realize that Facebook isn’t just restricting what you’re allowed to do…they’re telling you what’s most likely to WORK on their platform!
At the end of the day, Facebook wants you to succeed. They want advertisers like you to get good results, because then you’ll spend more and more money advertising on Facebook.
So none of these changes are meant to hurt you. They’re meant to help.
With that in mind, here’s what we recommend you should do:
It’s updated frequently, and like I said, that will only increase in 2020.
Pro tip: you can use a tool like visualping.io to email you anytime there’s a change made to this page. All you have to do is tell it what URL you want to monitor:
Then enter your email, and it will automatically let you know when that page gets updated:
And last but not least, make sure your ads actually FOLLOW these policies!
Not only will you avoid disapproved ads and potential account shutdown, you’ll also get better results on Facebook because you’ll be giving people a more positive experience with your brand and creating ads that work WITH the algorithm (not against it).
There are a LOT of smart people on this blog with predictions on a wide range of subjects, so I’ll keep mine focused on the Google Ads side of things.
In 2020 we’re going to see a lot more about:
Forced Automation
Google started playing with Machine Learning in 2011. They spent $400m buying DeepMind 5 years ago & they’re not going to backtrack now – so expect more Machine Learning coming to Google Ads in 2020. The plus side of this: the Machine will remove the need for some of the repetitive tasks that you currently do, it will use its enormous data & knowledge about all of us to serve ever more targeted ads. The down side? This means less control for you & having to trust a machine that doesn’t always get things right.
What can you do? The game in 2020 will be to know where the Machine is strong & also where it’s weak. How can you complement this. And in particular, how can you monitor the Machine to know when the automation is working & should continue, or when it’s not & you need to find a workaround. Brush up on your Scripts & use tools like Data Studio to visualise the data you need to inform your decision making.
The future of advertising (& all work) is smart people working with smart machines. So work out (quickly) where you can add the most value.
Data/Tracking
Apple & the ad platforms are at war about tracking & in particular 3rd-party cookies that track behaviour on websites. This can only escalate & it’s possible we’ll see new tracking methods rise to the fore in 2020.
And yet the quality of the data you capture will be one of the major differentiating factors that separate the good from the great agencies (& businesses) in 2020. Data is the lifeblood of Machine Learning. All businesses must get better at using the data they have & working out what additional data they use to make better business decisions.
What can you do? Start using the tracking IDs that Google & Facebook offer (just research GCLID & FBCLID). Start by passing these long strings of gobbledygook into your CRM systems. Once you’ve cracked that, start working out how to analyse the data & discover which leads turn into actual sales. Or which clicks generate the best LTV.
Targeting
The death of keywords has been exaggerated. They’re not going anywhere. Yet. However as the ability to target precisely continues to be eroded (exact & phrase match aren’t that exact any more!) we may find an email from Google one day in the future that does away with Match Types & only allows broad match keywords. Idiotic? Who knows. But it could happen.
Audience targeting continues to get more powerful as well. Google recently announced Combined Audiences which will have marketers frothing at the mouth. We love additional power.
But as always expect to lose some control as these new features roll out.
What can you do? Get good at using audiences with your search campaigns in addition to keyword targeting. Layer these on top of every search & shopping campaign and prepare for the day when it’s the only targeting option available!
Messaging
Search Ads continue to contain more characters, pushing organic results further down the page & making great copy all the more important. It’s no longer enough to stuff the keywords in the ad & hope for the best.
A/B testing is dead too. It’s not about finding the ‘perfect ad’ any more & testing until you get it. But instead the Machine wants to create the best ad for each user on the fly, based on everything it knows about that person (& it knows a LOT!)
Google’s answer is the Responsive Search Ad (there’s a Display version too). Your job is to write the ‘assets’; up to 15 headlines & up to 4 descriptions that the Machine will mix’n’match in real-time to craft what it believes is the best ad. So get good at persuasive copy!
Reporting for these continues to suck (despite promises from Google for 18 months) so again expect to lose control & have to trust in the Machine.
What can you do?
Add an RSA to all high volume ad groups in your Search campaigns & test. Monitor the performance of not just the click thru rate (CTR%) but importantly the profitability of these dads (conversion rate, cost per conversion & profit per conversion).
Again we may find ourselves in a future where these are the only type of ad allowable, so start testing now & get great at using them before you have to.
Cross Channel
Lastly, I implore you to improve your knowledge of other platforms & how they play together.
Businesses are getting more savvy & want to know about attribution & incremental cost/revenue. Finding the answers to these hard questions is often near-impossible, but with a good Analytics setup (see Chris Mercer) you can at least get directional data & start making informed decisions instead of pure guesswork!
The digital marketing landscape will continue to change – probably faster every year. You can view this as an impossible mountain to climb, or as a huge opportunity for your agency or personal brand.
In 2020, your Google My Business profile will replace your home page. When people do a search for a local business, at the top of search results they will typically see the “Local 3-Pack” above organic search results:
Since most searchers tend to trust the results that rank higher in search results, the businesses in the top results generally get clicked on more frequently. That means businesses in the Local 3-Pack have prime spots and get more clicks.
Additionally, according to a recent study by BrightLocal, 49% of businesses receive more than 1,000 Google My Business Views on search per month. That’s a lot of eyeballs!
With a Google My Business profile, searchers can get a ton of information about your business directly on Google – they don’t even need to go to your website:
With a properly optimized GMB profile, your potential customers can see everything from your address, phone number, business hours, photos, reviews, business description, a list of products/services, people can ask you questions – and you should answer them — and more!
Depending on your type of business, other features may be available to you. For instance, people can even book an appointment with your company directly from Google.
With all of your company’s information available right from Google’s search engine, people will be able to make much of their purchasing decisions at that exact moment – often without even having to visit your website for more information. Your website will become more of a secondary resource after a searcher has already looked at your information on your Google My Business profile.
It looks like 2020 is going to quite the year.
Which one of these strategies best suits your business goals in 2020?
Stick around the DM blog to see what we choose to execute on and how we use it to market our products, memberships, and live events.
(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.)
My Background: I've been developing websites for 25 years+, and had an affiliate blog for 10 years which 80% of the traffic was from SEO. Starting from zero, I had over 300,000 unique visitors per month. I sold my affiliate blog 2018 for $6M.
Hello, I just started a Digital Marketing Business that is mostly growth marketing via social medias. My problem is how to obtain clients? I emailed local businesses my pitch, but I get no response...
What is the best way to start getting clients for my business? Can someone steer me in the right direction.. would it be better to cold call businesses instead of email?
Hi everyone,
I'm Roberto an italian 37-ish yo single man.
I've been working in the pharmaceutical business from 2009, mainly in the marketing field and starting from 2017 I've been appointed as teacher also in the pharma marketing field.
I strongly believe that our personal success is made essentially by how big is our impact in others' lifes.
I strongly want to impact even more others ' lifes so I want to start my own pharma/food supplementation/ medical devices /healthcare business.
Hi there, I decided to create a progress thread, so I'll have to feel ashamed if I don't make good progress
A bit of context: I'm a software developer. I quit my job a few months ago to work on personal projects and move back to my country, after saving enough money to survive for some time (I couldn't stand working on a day job any longer anyway). My original plan was to make a SaaS platform, but I did a better market research and my idea didn't look as good as I thought.
My personal goal for 2019 is daily 15 minutes meditation
I've bee able to do average 8 - 10 minutes of meditation for 80 days. I recently took a break for a week or so since my family are visiting and it's kinda like a family gathering house now, sofa sleeping and stuff. I will resume meditation in 2020.
My goal more specifically is.
Improve from 10 minutes to 15 minutes meditation.
Meditate without checking the time (reach time limit naturally)...
I’m building a productised “wing” to my freelance business, which will be about smaller, simpler jobs than my bespoke work. I’m planning to sub a lot of it out once it’s up and running, and wondering how others handle this.
My sales platform works like a ticketing system, so I can assign jobs to other users, but I’ve heard some horror stories about client-poaching. If I get big enough to bring employees on I’ll be able to vet them a bit more, but in the early stages I’ll be...
Personal and professional development is my primary focus in implementation in a person's life. I help you make a relevant difference in your life and in the lives of others.
Hi all
So as many of you know I have a tech startup that if it get executed and built right , might be a multi million worth. But I was and still in my 9 to 5 job , beside my limited experience in entrepreneurship, and my high talk to do ratio tendency I decided to get a mentor.
The first mentor seem good on paper whoever he wasnt competent and didn't add anything to my knowledge. So I dumped him and ask the org to assign another one, this one was gold , he is already fastlaner with two...
“Every action you take is a vote for the type of person you wish to become. No single instance will transform your beliefs, but as the votes build up, so does the evidence of your new identity.” – James Clear
James Clear is the New York Times bestselling author of Atomic Habits, which has sold over one million copies. James also writes weekly about habits, decisions, human performance and more over at jamesclear.com, where over half a million people subscribe to his weekly email newsletter.
In this interview James shares the habits that he used to build his business and write a bestselling book over the past several years. This conversation is essential for anyone who wants to improve habits or grow an audience online.
Listen to the episode:
Subscribe to The Fizzle Show in your favorite podcast player:
I make a decent living from my Slowlane job, but obviously its not what I want in life, which is why I am here. Recently my family and I upgraded to a much nicer home on a bigger piece of land. I knew that money was going to be tight, but didn't realize it was going to be THIS tight. We've been racking up some debt on the credit cards and are just barely able to cover all the bills. I have a few loans that will be paid off soon, making it easier...
Hey @MJDeMarco and every fellow fastlane forum member,
I am Thomas and I am 24 years old, I have a 4 year old daughter and I just got out of prison after doing 4 years.
One big thing I learned in the last four years is that there are a lot of good people that make huge mistakes in their life but isn't that true for everyone? If we didn't make mistakes we wouldn't learn and if we didn't learn we could never become better. Prison is not like how they make it seem in the movies, honestly the...
I am selling my ecommerce Shopify business for $77,950.
This is a 2.3x valuation ($66,900) of the company plus ~$19000 of inventory valued at a discounted amount of $11,050.
I am going to be very transparent about this business, so ask any questions you want. If it doesn't sell by January 31, I am taking it off the market. This is because I believe a buyer needs to be in place by February 1 for the buyer to be able to take full advantage of the Spring season upswing, which...
I did my graduation work about building sidecar bikes.
My professor 30 years ago said“ its a absolutely shit, but i ll give you the best grade though!
So since nearly 30 years I m thinking about making a book and selling it.
1.Problem: I used some pictures i had no copyright. That didn matter than, but for publishing it does.
2.Problem: I dont know, whether anybody wants to read that.
Should I do the work and rework it with new pics and than publish?
Hallo,
all my life I remember: when my father had a skinn issue( dry skin, red spots , itching), he used a special natural cream, which solved the issue relative sure, but a bit slow, because it is natural.
I didn t like it, because it doesn’t smell too good. I had to grow older untill I re- found it for me. And I use it quite often.
now I thought about to mix an ointment with that substance in a well smelling way and than let some people test it and tell me, what they think about it.
I nearly refused to start an execution thread because of several reasons.
- i m 54 years old now, I have good slowlane job,
-with rising age my endurance with a business working decreases.
-I see my remaining time being endless,
- I have much fun living, working, making sports and I have good friends for drinking beer, too.
-because these reasons I want and will not spend 60 hours working and thats the reason, why I refused to make a such promise to me or others.
My name is Janince, I'm a single mom of 3 kids from Detroit, MI. I am being evicted from my home in 30 days. I'm in desperate need for opportunity and not a hand out. I was depending on a job that decided to lay me off right before Christmas and the New Year. I'm down on my luck right now but I refuse to give up. I'm asking, please, for a physical copy of the millionaire fastlane, the prosperity bible and maybe a decent laptop where I can work from home and look after my children. My...
Guys, how would you set up customer service as a new company with little to no monetary resources?
The biggest hurdle is setting up a free hotline. Would you hire a company/call center, or do it on your own?
E-Mail is no problem for most of us, we can sit down for 2-3 hours and reply the same day.
But what if there are 50 people calling in at once, but we only have 10 phones?
I dont want them to hold the line for more than 2 minutes (you hate it too as a customer probably).
My name is Janince, I'm a single mom of 3 kids from Detroit, MI. I am being evicted from my home in 30 days. I'm in desperate need for opportunity and not a hand out. I was depending on a job that decided to lay me off right before Christmas and the New Year. I'm down on my luck right now but I refuse to give up. I'm asking, please, for a physical copy of the millionaire fastlane, the prosperity bible and maybe a decent laptop where I can work from home and look after my children. My...
I have decided to purchase my first property in the DFW area. I have read some books, been listening to a lot of podcasts on Bigger Pockets and also G. Alexander's threads on real estate inspired me. I believe that real estate is a great financial vehicle and it has been proven over time to work.
The main reason for me wanting to do this is so I no longer have to rent from apartments, and every time I pay my mortgage it is actually going into something that I will eventually...
Joining me is an entrepreneur from Italy who wanted to start a business so bad that he was doing it even as a child. But he went on to a very safe corporate job that made his friends envious and his parents proud. And then he left. He risked it to start a company. Simone Di Somma is the founder of Askdata, a natural language data access platform that simplifies data access.
Simone Di Somma is the founder of Askdata, a natural language data access platform that simplifies data access.
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Fellow multiple Income Store contracts Site Partner here.
Pending recent developments, I've connected with the investors I know starting an invite-only group for current site partners only, so we can collectively help each other maximize our individual investor interests on the investments.
I still don't understand why people here want to learn to code!
Spend that time learning to market and write sales copy. Spending 1000 hours to learn to code to spend 200 hours writing an app is STUPID.
Spend the 1000 hours learning to market and write copy, and you can use that skill for the life of the app, plus the life of the next app, and other peoples apps AND it makes you money. Writing code just means you have something, but it won't sell itself.
My name is Sarah. I’m 42, a single of mom of two with a 7 year old son, and 18 year old daughter.
I’ve spent the last 20 years as a nurse in Colorado. I’ve worked incredibly hard as a wage slave to save up for my kids’ college educations. My work is rewarding from an emotional standpoint, but not from a financial one.
I recently read both of MJ’s books, and I’m not sure I’ve finished two books that fast in my entire life! What...
As I was doing my yearly review, I thought I would share it here in the forum. It’s a process I’ve been doing for the last three years to get really clear on:
- What worked well
- What hasn’t worked well
- What I’ve learned
- What to focus on and what to stop doing
And to put focus on appreciating all that has happened over the past year. As entrepreneurs, we can sometimes fall in the trap of getting so focused with the future, that we forget to acknowledge all that has been...
When I first came across this forum I thought I'm the only one. Then I came across a thread where many people said they are from India. I thought the total must be not more than 10. Now, it seems like there are even more Indians. So, can anyone tell me how many Indians are there in this forum?
Either I paid more attention or it just felt like we got an influx of new people and lots of intro threads, and I got curious and went back and read my own, when I joined in 2015 : INTRO - The struggle for freedom
One of my client is Dental equipment manufacturer like dental chairs etc. I have been doing social media management for them like managing and posting.
2 months back we discussed to start doing fb ads and email marketing. I created buyers persona, created lead magnet(free checklist for dentist), op-tin page, landing page, sales section and email campaign.
I created 2 email sequences as drip email with high value content but now i am stuck. I am not getting ideas on what kind of content i...
You are the average of the 5 people closest to you.
But nobody said those people have to be in the same room, or be your best friends or family. They are just the people with who you exchange ideas the most with.
So that means they can be forum members.
I’ve changed my identity and achieved goals as a result of this method twice and I am in the middle of doing it a third time.
1st time:
I’ve hated my family since I was 5-6 years old but never admitted it to myself until some years ago...
as the title suggests i am going to have my head buried in the internet and books for research into a business starting opportunity. i have been working in the industrial field for almost 10 years. i have learned of a demand for my skill set in the commercial side of construction in Florida. i already have a way to land the contracts on jobs, because of the man who is in demand that i have been talking with. my struggles now will consist of properly start a business in the area ( i live...
