Performance Delivered: Recent Episodes
Steffen Horst and Dave Antil
How can you make public relations measurable?
Numbers are a powerful way to demonstrate the value of PR and negotiate for a higher budget…
But is there a way to track PR numbers in the same way you can with digital marketing?
My guest Travis Murdock is the US general manager at Sonus PR, a B2B agency focused on cutting-edge tech.
With 25 years of tech experience in B2B and consumer companies, Travis is on a mission to help entrepreneurs build their brands and tell their stories—and in this episode, he’ll share his expertise with you.
What are the best strategies to scale a team and agency?
My guest Ellyn Savage is the VP of Media at Mindgruve, a global independent digital agency that leads media strategies that help brands identify and acquire new customers.
In this episode, she’ll share her expertise on scaling, including:
- Retaining talent in a sustainable way
- Developing processes for growth
- How to avoid a siloed approach
- The top 5 lessons she’s learned on her journey
- And more
How will the search landscape change in an AI/ChatGPT world?
And what can marketing teams do to succeed as these changes occur?
My guest David Wilson oversees the digital marketing team at Zozimus agency and has over 20 years of digital experience in marketing.
In this episode, he’ll share his thoughts on the relationship between search and AI, analyze how new technology will impact marketing, and weigh in on Bing’s new AI chatbot.
How can companies dominate SEO in the era of ChatGPT?
My guest Kevin Lee is the Co-Founder of Didit, a fully integrated marketing and communications firm, where he invents marketing technology solutions.
In this episode, he’ll delve into SEO in the AI era, analyzing how the landscape will change and what strategies brands can use to stay on top.
He’ll also share best practices for content teams that leverage AI—and his take on who will win the AI war.
These days, brands can no longer lean on direct-to-consumer as an identity…
With most brands now selling online, direct-to-consumer has become one of many channels that brands can leverage.
My guest Ashly Knox is here to break down this shift and how brands can thrive using DTC as a channel.
The COO and CMO of Henson Shaving, a DTC razor manufacturer based in Canada, Ashly has over 20 years of experience in sales and marketing, working for both global brands and startups alike.
In this episode, he’ll cover the challenges of DTC and the levers brands can pull for customer retention.
It’s more important than ever to create a framework for experimentation…
Yet why are so many companies behind on using experimentation to improve their digital footprint?
My guest Shamir Duverseau is the Co-Founder of Smart Panda Labs, a company that helps enterprise organizations in the early stages of digital transformation with management and consulting services.
Shamir will cover how you can use experimentation to convert more prospects.
He’ll also share why most companies focus on the wrong phase of the funnel and how you can improve the collaboration between IT and marketing.
How can we lead through challenging times?
The hybrid/remote work environment has shifted the nature of work over the last few years…
It takes remarkable adaptability to help a team navigate these new challenges and get results.
In this episode, I’m joined by Leesa Eichberger, SVP of corporate marketing at RingCentral.
Leesa will share her wisdom on managing hybrid/remote teams—and how leaders can ensure their people are cared for.
How can brands optimize the customer’s journey through the funnel?
And how can brands leverage contact scoring to increase sales?
Stephen Cuccio is here to share his digital marketing expertise.
Stephen is the Vice President of Business Development at AirTank, a full-service design, development, and marketing consultancy with a track record of increasing sales for their clients.
In this episode, he’ll cover:
- What is lead nurturing
- Top questions to ask a new prospect
- Building long-term partnerships with clients
- How to approach lead scoring
- And more
If you’re not using incrementality, your competitors are…
Trevor Testwuide is here to break down marketing attribution and incrementality measurement.
Trevor is the co-founder and CEO of Measured, the only measurement and optimization platform powered by incrementality.
An expert and pioneer in marketing attribution, Trevor believes incrementality is more effective at last touch for showing brands where to invest.
In this episode, he’ll share how brands can successfully implement incrementality—and why last touch methodology falls short.
Why do LinkedIn ads crush Facebook, Twitter, TikTok, and Instagram for return on advertising spend?
When it comes to B2B social ads, my guest Ryan Draving believes that LinkedIn is the most effective platform—and in this episode he’ll share why.
As the co-founder and head of strategy at The Moving Company, Ryan collaborates with B2B marketing teams to drive MQLs, SQLs, and revenue.
He’ll cover:
- Why LinkedIn is a great place for early and mid stage content
- How to gain quality leads on LinkedIn
- Using LinkedIn for partnerships
- AB…Z Testing
- And more
What size influencer should companies work with?
Bill Hildebolt is the CEO of gen.video, a premier performance-based influencer marketing platform that enables creative and video storytelling to drive conversation and inspire e-commerce purchases.
In this episode, he’ll share what brands need to know about working with influencers, including:
- The difference between nano, micro, and macro influencers
- Why macro influencers are more cost effective
- Understanding engagement vs audience
- Best approaches to using influencers
- And more
TikTok is impossible to ignore…
It’s changing the way people consume content online…
So how can brands use it as a growth strategy?
My guest Morry Mitrani currently leads the growth and marketing team at Citizen. He was the first growth marketing hire at Bumble, where he built the team from early stage to post-IPO.
In this episode, he’ll share what brands need to know about TikTok, including:
- Setting up a company profile vs working with creators
- What tactics align with the TikTok advertising model
- How to brief a content creator (and why scripts don’t work)
- What parts of the funnel does TikTok address
- The top 3 tips to get started
- And more
How can you balance performance and brand to achieve full funnel efficacy?
My guest Christian Jones is the SVP of Marketing and Client Development at Hawthorne Advertising.
He has over 20 years of proven success in marketing, creative, business development and technology.
In this episode, he’ll cover the crossover between brand and performance, including:
- Keeping customers engaged with your brand (beyond your product)
- Balancing the rational and emotional to create impact
- How to ensure ROI on your marketing
- And more
How can marketers drive full funnel impact with revenue systems?
My guest Ahin Thomas is the VP of Revenue Operations at LeagueApps.
In this episode, he’ll share his guide to revenue systems, including:
- What is revenue operations?
- How to determine which campaigns will drive revenue
- The model that has the most impact for 98% of companies
- And more
Business development has changed rapidly over the last two years…
It can be hard to know if you’re making the right moves to grow…
You’re not sure how to get invited for a pitch—or maybe you’re not sure which pitches are even worth your time…
What are the top agencies of today doing to build referral networks that produce an ongoing flow of opportunities?
Amy Mierzwinski of WHITE64 is here to share her expertise on business development—and reveal how you can get new clients without ever having to do a pitch again.
What makes a hit product?
And how do you take your idea from its inception…
To being sold by major retailers?
In this episode, I’m joined by Tim Swindle, a seasoned entrepreneur who has launched multiple companies in the toy, game, and novelty space.
Tim is going to walk you through the process of creating and selling his products.
He’ll also discuss:
- How to capitalize on online trends to create hit products
- The best strategies for pitching your product to retailers
- And more
What trends can we expect from Q4 2022?
The holiday season is a crucial opportunity for brands…
You can’t afford to get your approach wrong this year…
But what are the most up-to-date strategies to win sales and stand out in the market?
In this episode, I’m joined by Elaine Kwon for a deep dive into retail trends and expectations for Q4 2022.
We’ll also discuss:
- How to create sales without devaluing your brand
- The post-pandemic retail landscape
- E-commerce growth strategies for 2023
- Supply chain updates for Q4
- What makes fashion/beauty brands successful online
- And more
Are you tapping into the full potential of zero and first-party data?
Zero and first-party data are eclipsing third-party data…
When brands use this data strategically, they can drive more sales and acquire more customers because they know exactly who they’re selling to.
But a majority of brands are missing out on this opportunity—are you one of them?
Sean Simon, founder of Cogent, is here to break down how brands can use zero and first-party data to drive performance in media and e-commerce.
We’ll cover:
- What happens when third-party data disappears
- The difference between zero and first-party data
- How brands can capture first-party data in a privacy compliant way
- Why brands shouldn’t outsource their first-party data
- Untapped resources for zero-party data
- And more
Content creators are the entrepreneurs of the future…
And user-generated content has enormous potential in the influencer marketing space…
With user-generated content done right, you can drive exponential conversions…
But many brands don’t understand how to make user-generated content that works.
Daniel Salcedo, the founder of Bolder, is here to give you an inside look at user-generated content.
Listen to learn:
- The role of content creators in the marketing funnel
- When to use UGC vs influencer marketing
- What makes videos work
- How to find the right UGC creator for your brand
- And more
These days, you NEED to master omnichannel…
But many brands go wrong in their approach…
The thing is, being a leader in physical retail doesn’t guarantee online success.
You need to understand the customer’s path to purchase in the digital world so you can optimize for maximum sales.
Scott Benedict of digital commerce company WhyteSpyder is here to break down best practices for omnichannel.
We’ll also cover:
- How brands are adapting to the new challenges of the digital world
- What brands get wrong about omnichannel
- How eCommerce has changed over the years
- Strategies for utilizing consumer data
- And more
Does your marketing work?
Many companies produce marketing content that looks great but doesn’t get results.
But what is the secret to converting leads with marketing?
And how can you sync your marketing with your financial model?
John Harlow, a seasoned CEO and consulting leader, is here to share a CEO’s view of marketing partnerships.
Listen to learn:
- Why you need to reduce leads to grow conversion
- How to measure marketing effectiveness
- The pros and cons of internal marketing teams vs. agencies
- Why great ideas get lost in the execution
- How to use consumer data to refine marketing
- And more
Consumer behavior can give you powerful insights on your business…
When you analyze the purchase behavior of your best customers…
Your next growth and acquisition strategies become clear…
And you can tailor your marketing to maximize advertising efficiency…
Jim Davis of clothing brand Buck Mason is here to show you how to read consumer purchase behavior so you can drive sales and convert leads into long-term customers.
Listen to learn:
- How seasonality affects consumers
- When consumers decide vs. when consumers purchase
- Why purchase behavior shows you where to invest
- And more
Is it time for a rebrand?
Whether you need to refresh outdated content…
Reflect changes in your scale…
Or fix branding mistakes keeping you stagnant…
Getting your rebrand right can impact your bottom line.
My guest Dorit Baxter, Chief Marketing Officer at Connect America, is a marketing professional with 20+ years of experience developing corporate and product brand identities.
Listen to find out:
- How you know it’s time for a rebrand
- Why your brand impacts performance
- The most important steps in the branding process
- How to get your team aligned around a rebrand
- And more
Value pricing puts you in charge…
Equalizing the playing field between you and your customer…
But how do you price your services so you and your clients get the best value?
Julie Cohen is the Founder and CEO of Across the Pond, a global creative agency helping tech brands create a better world.
Julie believes that culture is the key to a successful business—and that value pricing establishes a culture that empowers employees.
In this episode, she’ll break down value pricing and reveal how she created an award-winning workplace culture.
Are your marketing tactics really converting clients?
Without data, it’s all guesswork.
You might be wasting thousands of dollars on a campaign that doesn’t bring in revenue.
My guest, Tim Luukkonen, is here to fix that.
He’s going to show you how to tell a compelling marketing story with data…
So you can make informed decisions to get prospects through your pipeline.
In this episode, Tim reveals:
- The basic data collection systems you need to implement
- How to take advantage of data trends
- Why some data is more valuable than others
- And more.
SEO is crucial for driving leads to your website and converting them to clients.
But too many people leave SEO as an afterthought…
And lose clients to sites who put optimization first.
In this episode, Rich Guth reveals why SEO needs to be part of your messaging from the beginning.
Rich is an SEO expert with 25+ years in marketing. Listen to him break down his winning SEO research process—and tell you how to get your site in the top ten results for competitive keywords.
Email marketing has become so much white noise because too many companies are failing to implement smart strategies.
- They don’t know who is on their listservs so they can’t target content
- They create content that is too long and detailed
- They jump right into the sale before establishing credibility
Sam Erdheim, VP of Marketing at GuidePoint Security, has over two decades of marketing experience. He shares his expertise and what you can do to get your marketing emails opened by the right people.
Get smart, break through the clutter, and let email marketing drive your business success.
Secure more sales meetings while cutting the cost of inhouse sales development reps?
It’s a no-brainer for any company looking to succeed in our increasingly remote work environment.
airSales CEO Jeremy Camilloni has helped businesses crack the code of remote selling and can do the same for you. On this episode, he dives into detail on everything you don’t yet know but need to, including:
- How remote selling will save you money
- Which parts of your sales team to take remote first
- The traits of a successful remote SDR
- And more
Listen in to learn about all the advantages of moving to a remote sales model.
Too many brands are trying to keep up with competitors and fail to differentiate.
Too many brands are getting lost in the digital clutter.
Don’t be one of the too many brands.
Martin Pazzani is a veteran of the marketing and brand building industry. His experience managing some of the world’s largest and most iconic brands has given him unmatched insight into what works... and what trends to avoid.
This conversation is a must listen for everyone looking to build their brand equity, break through to consumers, and avoid the pitfalls too many brands are falling into today.
We all know the importance of networking and building connections when you are growing your business.
But how can you leverage that network to successfully market your product for you?
Annie Davis, CMO at Legends Boxing, has tapped into their existing client base to help the company grow and franchise gyms nationwide. Member created content is now 99% of Legends’ online marketing.
Get in the ring with Annie and find out how you can get your clients to fight for you.
B2B selling has become increasingly difficult as buyers have become increasingly resistant to outreach and other marketing efforts.
Buyers want to spend less time with vendors and educate themselves before making purchasing decisions.
Companies that don’t evolve with changes in buyer’s behavior will lose out on revenue potential and market share.
Guest Sandra Moran is the CMO at WorkForce Software and a veteran marketer in the B2B and enterprise space. She joins the show to lay out concrete solutions you can implement today in order to meet resistant buyers where they are and help them to see you as the solution to their business problems.
If you want to be on the front foot when marketing to your ideal clients, you need to listen to this episode!
The role of influencers in marketing is an untapped resource across all B2B industries.
Leveraging these experts and thought leaders to build your brand is a competitive advantage that simply cannot be wasted.
Fortunately, guest Patrick Ward is here to help listeners set up and succeed with B2B influencer partnerships. The VP of Marketing at Rootstrap explains:
- How to identify influencers your buyers trust
- How to approach and initiate a partnership
- How to tap into and optimize their network
- And, how to build a roster of in-house influencers to further your reach
Listen now and be the first in your market to exploit the power of B2B influencer marketing.
You would want to have a solid foundation if you were building your house.
The same goes for building your demand gen. If it isn’t solid, your revenue returns will be shaky.
Guest Deidre Hudson is the CMO at Payability, a financing solutions company for ecommerce sellers. She breaks down her 4 Pillars of Digital Demand Generation and how you can build up the right: people, processes, programs, and performance for marketing success.
In this episode you’ll discover:
- Who should be your first key hires?
- Where do you start your demand gen opportunities?
- Which pillar is the most important?
Listen in for these critical insights and more!
Your demand gen engine will determine your business’s success... or failure.
But you don’t need unlimited resources in order to turbocharge your engine’s ROI. There are just three key elements to any winning strategy: People, Tech, and Alignment. Get those right and you’re off to the races.
Lauren McCormack knows how to get these elements dialed in. The VP of Marketing at BuildFire is an award-winning marketer and Marketo Certified Expert. Her strategies will get your demand gen engine up and running in no time.
Don’t miss this game-changing episode!
With all the buzz around the Metaverse, what are the opportunities for your brand to expand and find success in this growing, virtual space?
Luxury and global brands like Gucci and Nike have been early adopters in the Metaverse marketplace. But, with a critical mass of users spending an increasing amount of time, and currency, plugged in and purchasing virtual products, there are endless ways in which smaller brands can monetize their goods and expand their brand awareness.
Dan Wallace-Brewster is the Senior Vice President of Marketing at Scalefast. A pioneer in ecommerce for entertainment and consumer brands, he is the perfect resource to help you understand, and incorporate, the Metaverse into your future brand strategy.
Don’t miss this episode or your chance to get in on this young and exciting market!
How can you expand your brand with digital marketing?
What has caused well-known brands to fall out of favor with their target customers?
How can you use digital to accelerate marketing feedback and adapt to your customers?
David Cunningham, President of Brand Partnerships at MySureFit, is a 20-year veteran of some of the biggest names in the apparel industry. He shares lessons and case studies from brands like Ralph Lauren, Nautica, and Burberry. His expertise in both B2B and B2C digital channels will set you up for success in digital marketing and digital customer experience.
Listen in to learn more, and find out how you can start making marketing changes within 48 hours.
Everyone is looking for better ways to convert – and keep – prospects as customers. In this episode, we are pleased to welcome someone who has valuable insights into just that.
Scott King is the Head of Marketing at Krista Software, an intelligent automation platform company. Scott helps enterprise software companies build better content and tell better value-based stories that create life-long customers. His background in sales and current position in marketing gives him a unique take on the prospect conversion process.
Scott’s approach is all about authenticity, connection, and how marketing can better utilize feedback from sales. Listen in to discover:
- Next steps after identifying the target audience
- How can marketing build familiarity with prospects
- How should sales provide feedback to marketing
- And much more
This episode has takeaways for both sales and marketing leaders. And don’t miss his final secret – Why the best product doesn’t always win the deal.
For everyone out there who sells products and services, we have a special conversation with best-selling author and Master Level Certified Profit First Professional Cyndi Thomason. Cyndi is also the Founder and President of Bookskeep, a worldwide bookkeeping and consulting services company. She knew there had to be a way to help her struggling clients create more cash flow and the Profit First technique became the solution.
From startups to established businesses, no matter which industry you operate in, Profit First has something to improve your company, including:
- Understand exactly where your money goes each month
- Flipping the formula to set aside profits before expenses
- Operating more efficiently
- And more
Bookkeeping is often the first thing to go when times get busy. Set up a system that simplifies processes. Start to see results in just a few months. Listen in and learn more about Profit First.
Everything a company does influences their brand. Every single touchpoint a company has in the world becomes part of their brand identity. And, with the world becoming increasingly more digital, those touch points are increasingly more digital as well.
You need to think digital first when designing or updating your brand. There are a multitude of technical considerations for digital branding from positioning in digital markets to color differences between physical and digital properties. Haraldur Thorleifsson lives in the digital branding space. He is the Founder of Ueno, an agency that uses tech design and strategy to create brands, products, and experiences for a variety of companies.
Our conversation with Haraldur covers a range of important topics in digital branding, including:
- Steps a company must take to outline their brand
- How to take an older brand into the digital world
- The elements of digital branding that will produce results
- Mistakes companies make in their digital branding plans
- And more
Whether your company is just beginning to develop their brand, looking to update or solidify an existing brand, or wants to move their brand into a digital space, this episode is a must listen.
Are you tired of stressing over hourly billing for your services? Feeling like your income is limited by the hours in a day? Dread going back to clients for change orders and having to explain why you’re going to be over budget?
There is a better way: Value Based Pricing
Jonathan Stark is on a mission to rid the world of hourly billing. The author and former software developer details how you can stop trading time for money and start optimizing your expertise. He lays out why and how you can start value pricing your services, including:
- Which projects work best for value pricing
- Why you should look at scope last, not first
- How to convince clients on value pricing
- And much more
Get control over project creep. Never go over budget on a client again. And set your prices based on what clients are willing to pay, not what it will cost you to complete the work. Listen in now and ditch hourly!
The B2B sales process is becoming ever more like that of B2C sales. Behind this long-term trend is the understanding that the people behind B2B buying decisions are behaving more and more the way they do as B2C buyers. All of this makes my conversation with Bryant Lau all the timelier and more important for anyone involved in B2B marketing.
Bryant is the Head of Demand at Flockjay, a business services company that both recruits and trains candidates for positions in tech sales and connects them with companies looking to add motivated, diverse members to their sales teams. His role places him squarely between B2C and B2B marketing and sales. Bryant shares his lessons for success in both areas, including:
- The structure of a marketing team that incorporates B2B and B2C sales
- The differing channel needs of B2B and B2C
- How to balance the marketing needs of each
- And more
To get the most out of your B2B efforts, you need to better understand B2C marketing, and to better understand that, you need to listen here.
Too often, sales development reps are tied up chasing leads instead of being able to qualify them. The ability to structure the marketing/sales lead generation in a more efficient and effective way is the key to creating the opportunity for exponential growth. A key that Scott Logan holds as the VP of Marketing for Kronologic.
Scott has spent 15 years in both B2B sales AND marketing roles and 7 years building high growth demand gen teams from the bottom up. His experience in both marketing and sales has given him the insights that have led to developing improvements for the lead gen and sales process, insights he shares with listeners, including:
- How to establish a feedback loop between sales and marketing
- How to break the early-stage sales bottleneck
- How to uplevel the skill set of your entire sales team
- And more
Scott also shares Kronologic’s Calendar First™ sales engagement methodology. Listeners are invited to try it for themselves and see the difference it can make in removing the pain points of connecting with prospects. Don’t miss out!
If done correctly, brand marketing can boost the success of your organization’s performance marketing efforts. Educating prospects from the beginning reduces friction in the sales funnel and shortens the time between lead and opportunity. Aligning the work of these two teams, brand marketing and performance marketing, is the smart approach to getting more out of your company’s messaging.
InVia Robotics CMO Kristen Moore joins this episode, bringing over 20 years of experience in marketing within the tech and ecommerce sectors to our conversation on aligning brand and performance marketing. Her important insights include:
- Assembling the right marketing talent for alignment
- The metrics to show the impact of aligned efforts
- Specific team actions to align brand and performance messaging
- And much more
Don’t miss out. Start boosting your efforts today!
Trying out a new recipe in the kitchen often requires working with new ingredients, learning new techniques, as well as a healthy dose of trial and error. Sometimes you come away with a delicious meal and sometimes you’re left with lessons of what to do, or not to do, next time.
VP of Marketing at OneDay, and cooking enthusiast, Carter Severns shares his expertise in startup marketing and the similarities to trying something new in the kitchen. Carter began as a marketing team of one and set about creating the company’s entire marketing plan from scratch. As with a new dish, his marketing methods rely heavily on the principles of test, learn, optimize, and repeat. He walks listeners through everything they will need to know about marketing in the startup environment, including:
- What you need in your tech stack
- Strategic budgeting
- How to create the ideal buyer persona
- Setting expectations for success
- And much more
Understanding that, when beginning something entirely new, not everything will work out is key to Carter’s success. In the kitchen or in the office, it’s important to learn from failures and build on successes. Don’t miss this episode.
Most companies build a sales team and expect them to self-generate leads; few have an efficient method to feed their sales pipeline.
Today’s guest, Ian Bellais, spearheads the partner marketing efforts as VP of Business Development at Verified First. With over 20 years of experience creating thriving, robust pipelines and revenue streams, Ian shares the power of partner marketing and what it takes to get any company into, and benefiting from, marketing through organizations to their end users in mutually beneficial partnerships, including:
- How to structure a partner marketing arrangement
- The types of marketing events partners can provide
- How to identify partners that will be a great fit
- The keys to a healthy partner marketing relationship
- And more
Ian has created a system where almost 100% of his company’s pipeline is fed by partner marketing and that results in close rates as high as 65%. Listen in and learn how to boost your own numbers.
Personalizing the customer experience is the smartest way to improve retention, add value, and increase revenue. But how do you collect the right data, and how do you use it intelligently to create highly relevant experiences across the entire customer journey?
Brian Border is the Head of Marketing for JustAnswer, the leader in connecting customers to professional services experts. JustAnswer is revolutionizing the way customer data is collected and used to build robust consumer profiles across their platform and marketing efforts. Using data science, machine learning, paid media, and more, they create relationships with their customers that grow over time. Brian details their approach for anyone wanting to make better use of their customer data efforts, including:
- How to extract data from hesitant customers
- How to build in-depth profiles
- 3 recommendations for companies just beginning
- And much more
Go beyond the basics and start building better customer relationships.
Going to market with your product, service, or experience is the most important moment in your company’s development. Deciding HOW to get there is critical.
Dirk Schart is the CMO and President of RE’FLEKT. A brand and growth leader and creator of the Tech Circle community, Dirk understands how to bring complex products to the right markets. While most companies only focus on a single lane of the go-to-market highway, Dirk advises startups to have the flexibility and vision to utilize multiple lanes, enabling them to reach the right audience in such a way that they are creating a 10x user experience. This includes:
- How to define the go-to lanes of marketing, product, and sales
- How to select the correct lane for your business
- Determining the right time to switch lanes
- And more
Whether you are a large or small company, taking your first or third product to market, this episode is worth a listen.
There is often a lot of uncertainty surrounding social media marketing, especially among B2B companies. There is the time crunch to create content for the various platforms. The pressure to keep up with other brands. And questions about future trends.
Kathy Dunlay helps bring clarity and direction to companies looking to maximize their social media efforts. The Founder of New England Sales & Marketing has over 30 years of strategic marketing experience in the tech and digital spaces. Her firm leverages multi-channel campaigns to generate sales demands and she brings her expertise to answering the big social media marketing questions, including:
- How has B2B social marketing evolved
- What are the most effective ways to utilize social media for sales
- Have we reached the limits of marketing automation
- What is next for social media marketing
- And more
Kathy’s mantra is “don’t implement other people’s best practices, figure out your own.” Listen now to start figuring out what social marketing efforts are right for you.
Getting your brand awareness to the tipping point will have the greatest impact on future sales.
How to get there can be a mystery. Too many marketing execs focus on sales and demand gen rather than efforts that engage your target market and warm them up before they enter the sales pipeline.
Angus Robertson is the CMO at Chief Outsiders. He helps companies accelerate growth by building their brand awareness in a strategic way that results in a more productive sales pipeline. Angus understands what it means and what it takes to create – and measure – brand awareness, and he shares the key strategies, including:
- The different brand awareness needs for startups and established companies
- Execution tactics to generate awareness within a target market
- His favorite metrics for measuring brand awareness activities
- And more
When you have a prospective customer who already knows your brand, your product or service, and your company, they are more inclined to move through the sales pipeline than a prospect who needs to learn about your business at the same time you are attempting to sell to them. Listen in and start introducing your band today!
Marketing success is no longer simply measured by filling the sales pipeline.
Marketing teams are increasingly responsible for revenue generation. Businesses that can align their marketing and sales efforts will succeed, and those whose teams are misaligned will suffer and fail.
How can you ensure alignment and, ultimately, growth? Our guest, VP of Global Revenue Marketing for ActiveCampaign, Jenny Coupe goes in depth on the topic. An expert in the area, Jenny shares insights, examples, and steps you can take now, including:
- How to approach sales and marketing alignment
- What are the problems an alignment can solve
- How to create a common set of metrics to measure the success of the relationship
- How to maintain the partnership to create a long-term impact
- And more
Make sure your marketing and sales teams understand their common goals and complementary roles and responsibilities. Don’t let misalignment mistakes hold back your business. Listen now!
Where should you start when building out an early-stage marketing team?
What will be the best use of your resources?
And, once you are rolling, how do you know when to scale up?
It’s a mistake to try to emulate a large marketing org from the beginning.
Our guest, Daniel Rodriguez, is an experienced marketing executive and entrepreneur. In both VP of Marketing and CMO roles for startups, Daniel has built multiple, successful marketing teams from the ground up. He knows where to start and what to do next. He joins this episode to share his insights into the process, including:
- Which area of marketing needs a 6x headcount and resource allocation
- How to leverage outsourced work to create more capacity
- Which metrics will determine when it is necessary to bring tasks in-house
- And much more
The only way to move an early-stage company from point A to point B is to generate customer demand. Being smart about constructing a marketing team that can generate that demand will determine the success of the company. Listen in and learn how!
Many early-stage companies make the mistake of jumping right into performance marketing – using paid advertising to try and generate sales and grab market share. They fail to invest in building their brand first. The result is that their marketing is less effective because there is insufficient brand awareness, reputation, or loyalty to convert potential customers.
Jean-Michel Boujon is a veteran brand builder. The SVP of Global Marketing at Outdoorsy, he has over 16 years of experience and a proven track record of building brands and steering multinational marketing teams. He joins the show to explain and outline how companies need to think and act as they build their brand, including:
- Why some brands are perceived stronger than others
- What does brand marketing do that performance marketing doesn’t
- How to progress from brand persona and voice to messaging
- And more
The conversation with Jean-Michel goes from theory to practice to measuring efficacy. A must-listen for anyone involved in business development and marketing success.
Don’t overlook the importance of investing in your expansion sales pipeline.
New business is important for any company, but conversion rates are often low and closing timelines can be drawn out.
Expanding business with existing clients is key to growth, and it requires its own set of considerations and tactics.
In this episode, Chris Willis gives a comprehensive guide to expansion marketing. The CMO at AI content analytics firm Acrolinx, Chris has over 20 years of experience growing tech companies and has focused on optimizing marketing for expansion sales pipelines. His best practices for expanding business with existing customers includes:
- A tiered approach to existing client marketing needs
- Creating campaigns specific to those top tier customers
- Developing “champion enablement” contacts within target orgs
- Effectively tracking expansion marketing efforts
- And much more
If you are looking to boost sales numbers quickly or want to remain relevant to your existing customer base, you need to listen to this interview with Chris. You’ve got your new sales pipeline flowing, now it’s time to do the same with an expansion sales pipeline.
Whether you are a startup or established company, building your marketing team is the most critical factor in determining success or failure.
Knowing how to build a high-performance team isn’t difficult, and it doesn’t have to be a gamble.
Dennis Behrman is a Vice President of Marketing and Growth with extensive experience creating marketing teams for a variety of different businesses and objectives. He has established a system that is able to consistently find and hire the right people, and in this episode, he explains exactly how it works and how you can use it in your business. Our conversation covers the entire team construction process, including:
- The three things you must consider before you start to hire
- The key attributes successful team candidates must exhibit
- How to conduct high-performance interviews for the best candidates
- And much, much more
Whether you are looking to begin to build your marketing team or need to revamp your team’s structure, this interview is for you.
Today on the show we welcome Michael O’Connell, Vice President of Marketing at AnyRoad to talk with us about how to use experiential marketing to create 1st-party data collection for digital marketing. Experiential marketing is when brands use experiences to invite customers to experience the brand.
Michael is a B2B marketing and demand generation professional specializing in leveraging data and results driven marketing technology. He says, “Marketing has changed from when I started. So much more is measurable and trackable, we're trying to add digital-like measurement capabilities to offline experiences.”
Listen as he explains the new approach to using experiential marketing, as well as:
- How BIG brands are bonding with customers using live events—and how you can, too
- How to motivate customers to show up for in person experiences in a post pandemic era (and why the virtual event isn’t going away)
- The three keys to making your next on-ground marketing event more impactful (plus the most important component of any offline experience)
- And much more
On this episode of Performance Delivered, we welcome guest Keith Hagen to talk with us about powering incremental improvements with insights.
Keith is the Vice President of Digital Marketing at SelectHub. SelectHub offers a streamlined solution to company stakeholders for enterprise software product evaluation, vendor sourcing, and IT procurement.
Keith says, “getting the customer insights as to what our audience wanted helped us narrow down what we needed to do.” Listen as he shares:
- A dirt-cheap, simple do-it-yourself way to garner customer feedback in 2021 - it’s a little bit old school and really pretty simple
- How to get better (and faster) insights and make the right incremental improvements to your website
- Three sure-fire ways to take your insights to the next level
- And much more
Your ideal B2B customers are inundated with marketing material.
You’re tired of wasting resources on spray-and-pray marketing.
How do you cut through the clutter and get in front of the right people at the right time with the right message?
Miguel Adao joins us on this episode to explain how you can revamp your marketing to better connect with your ideal customers. The Senior Vice President of Marketing at KloudGin is on a mission to bring the emotional power of B2C marketing into the B2B sphere. Our conversation with Miguel goes in depth on a number of actionable steps you can take right now to improve your marketing ROI, including:
- Messaging efficiently with cluster marketing
- Leveraging success with lookalike customers
- Elevating the ecosystem to amplify your message for you
- And much more
Listen now and change your marketing strategy from a volume game into a value game.
On this week’s episode of the Performance Delivered Podcast, we talk to Kirby Wadsworth,
Chief Marketing Officer at Ionir. Kirby has more than two decades of marketing leadership in both large enterprises and smaller startups with experience in targeting, segmentation, and ICP.
Today, we’re talking to him about effective ways to approach targeting.
Kirby says, “It doesn’t matter how many leads you generate, it’s how many conversations you start with targeted accounts.”
Listen in as we discuss:
- What happens when you are selling to the wrong customer?—(Hint: everything you don't want)
- When is the right time for a company to start targeting?
- How narrow your targets should be in B2B and how to use the right metrics to find the “magic”
- And much more
Today on the show we welcome Stephanie Cox to talk with us about how agencies can benefit from adopting SaaS solutions for their clients.
Stephanie has over 15 years of marketing experience, with companies such as Salesforce and Project Lead the Way. She’s also the host of the REAL Marketer's podcast. Stephanie is the President of Lumavate, a leading no code mobile app platform that enables marketers to quickly publish apps with no code required.
Listen in as we discuss:
- The shortcut to finding the best MarTech solutions for your customers
- The top 3 questions to ask your customer before making MarTech recommendations
- How to benefit from being an early adopter
- 2 ways to select the top players to partner with
- And more
On this week’s episode of the Performance Delivered Podcast, we talk to Dan Dillon. He is a strategic marketing and communications executive with over 20 years’ experience in high growth software. Dan serves as the CMO of Reveal Mobile, a company that provides location-based marketing and analytics.
Today we are talking with Dan about geofencing marketing, and location-based advertising to extend retailers’ reach, as well as:
- The post pandemic impact on retail shopping—it’s not what you think
- The critical element in consumer data sharing
- The real value of an in-store visit
- His prediction on what the new “big 3” social media platforms will be
- And more
On this week’s episode of the Performance Delivered Podcast, we talk to Sam Erdheim, VP of Corporate Marketing at GuidePoint Security. Sam has two decades of experience across all facets of marketing and product management for enterprise software companies, with 15 years focused on cybersecurity.
Today we sit down with him to talk about digital marketing in 2021, and:
- Directing, differentiating, and solving problems with your content
- Hitting the right target with your content every time
- Where to get the biggest bang for your buck on social
- And more
On this week’s episode of our Performance Delivered Podcast, our guest is Charity Araoz. Referred to as the Warrior of Marketing, Charity has over 20 years of experience, and serves as the Vice President of Marketing at PCS Software, an AI-driven transportation management platform.
The energy, fun, and even the uncertainty in the marketing courses she took in school attracted Charity to the field.
Today on the show she’ll tell us how a transition in 2011 led her to her marketing home. We’ll talk to her about why marketing for SaaS is different from other marketing experiences, as well as:
- Blending your SaaS marketing cocktail
- Using your product as your call to action
- Customer retention vs customer acquisition—where to focus
- And more
On this week’s episode of the Performance Delivered Podcast, our guest is Kevin O'Connor. Kevin is the Marketing Director at Scripted, an online marketplace that connects businesses with freelance writers who write content from blogs to white papers.
Kevin will lead us through the aspects of working with freelance writers to develop a solid content marketing plan. Tune in now to find out…
- Which type of writer you need for your project
- The key points to include in your content brief
- How to measure the success of your content marketing plan
- And more
On this week’s episode of the Performance Delivered Podcast, we talk to Chris Raniere of Lumanu, about influencer marketing. Chris has worked in and alongside both billion-dollar organizations and start-ups in B2B and B2C markets, with roles ranging from Director to CEO.
Chris is a returning guest, so we welcome him back to talk about changes in the influencer marketing landscape, as well as,
- The friction points for creators and brands
- The difficulty in connecting creators with brands
- The future of the creator economy
- The mission of Lumanu
- And more
On this week’s episode of the Performance Delivered Podcast, we chat with Gal Borenstein, CEO and Founder of the Borenstein Group. Gal is a recognized international digital B2B and B2G branding expert and an accomplished strategist in digital branding, marketing, social media, advertising, online reputation management, and public relations matters.
Gal says, “Trust isn’t something that is given, trust is something that has to be earned, especially in the digital arena.”
Today we talk with him about:
- The evolution of branding
- The relationship between strategy, connection, and analytics
- How to reverse engineer the trust-building process
- Aligning your analytics with your customer
- And more
Our special guest on this week’s episode of the Performance Delivered Podcast is Alex Caragiannides. Alex is the Founder of BSM Vault, the social media and digital marketing agency built to serve real estate agents. He helps real estate professionals build their brand awareness and introduces automation software to solve their problems with the ultimate goal of driving more leads.
We chat about sales funnels focused on nurturing, as well as:
- How marketing professionals tend to use LinkedIn in the wrong way
- Marketing vs. selling
- What you need more than the technical skills
- Refining your real estate messaging to serve your ideal clients
- And more
Our special guest on this week’s episode of Performance Delivered is Luke Shankula, CEO of Paragon Digital Marketing Group. Luke is a leading mortgage marketing expert who aims to help people systemize their work and go beyond lead generation. Besides running a successful seven-figure mortgage marketing agency, Luke is a Facebook Ad Expert and Mortgage Appointment Generator.
We chat about utilizing Facebook Ads, as well as:
- Luke’s start as a mortgage lender
- Improving the quality of lending leads
- The impact of low-interest rates on the mortgage market
- Optimizing more local keywords in your strategies
- And more
On this week’s episode of our Performance Delivered Podcast, we speak with Dr. Joseph Sallustio. He is the Executive VP and Chief Operating Officer at Claremont Lincoln University, a nonprofit Graduate University that provides Master's degree programs online to engage in positive social change. Joe is one of the nation's foremost online higher education experts and has led a broad range of educational institutions, including regionally accredited nonprofit and for-profit universities, and a nationally accredited for-profit college.
We chat about the changes to university settings due to coronavirus, as well as:
- The expansion of education delivery options
- Differentiating the value in higher education
- Offering socially conscious education
- Awarding credit to degree seekers with relevant professional experience
- Speaking directly to students with a specific buying criteria
- And more
On this week’s episode of Performance Delivered, we speak with Maggie Mistovich, the Vice President of Marketing at TextUs, a leading business-class text messaging software. TextUs is the world's first real-time communication platform designed to dramatically improve how businesses communicate with their leads, candidates, and customers.
Maggie has over 15 years of experience directing marketing programs in a variety of industries and holds an MBA from the University of Colorado Denver, as well as a Bachelor of Science in Marketing from the Kelley School of Business at Indiana University.
We chat about her career beginnings in yoga apparel and hotel marketing, as well as:
- The similar objectives of B2B and B2C marketing
- Minimizing unqualified leads and maximizing the sales funnel
- Social media as a holistic marketing strategy
- Which platforms are most effectively used for which purposes
- And more
Our special guest on this week’s episode of Performance Delivered is Kayla Elliott, VP of Marketing at PC Matic and the Founder of ell Consulting. She is skilled in social media management, public relations, digital advertising, and content creation, holds a Master's degree in Business Administration, and currently helps small businesses that do not have a marketing or a key person in house to thrive.
Kayla says, “Reinforce building those relationships. Realistically, over the last year, we found that face to face interaction has significantly diminished, so moving that to social media has had a huge impact on rural businesses because they're not limited to the people that walk into their store.”
We chat about adapting marketing strategies for rural businesses, as well as:
- The biggest competition for small businesses
- Client retention— how to keep your clients coming back
- Narrowing down your perfect client list
- The best ways to set up stronger organic SEO
- And more
Our special guest on this week’s episode of Performance Delivered is Kenneth Burke, the VP of Marketing at Text Request, a software company that helps businesses increase profits through powerful text messaging software. He’s received awards for his work in psychological research and sales, and has helped dozens of businesses, from pre-launch startups to billion-dollar companies, achieve their goals.
Kenneth says, “At the end of the day, the North Star should be what's bringing you the most new sales opportunities. If you're in marketing in particular, a lot of times you can't control the sales conversations, but you can control who you're targeting, how you're bringing them in, and where you're choosing to spend your time and effort.”
We chat about bootstrapping a start-up, as well as:
- Honing in on marketing tactics that actually work
- Steps to finding your first customer
- Optimizing the evaluation of KPIs
- The best tools for a young company
- The differences in approach between start-ups and venture-backed companies
- And more
On this week’s episode of Performance Delivered, we speak with Juliana Pereira, the Vice President at Flow Commerce, Inc., a turnkey platform for international e-commerce companies to go global. The platform enables merchants to configure cross-border supply chain requirements and fulfill their overseas demand. Julia is a senior marketing professional with experience growing B2C and B2B businesses with her expertise in development of content strategy and product marketing.
We chat about long-form content, as well as:
- Building short and long-term content to fit SEO preferences
- E-commerce in various markets around the world
- Developing multiple pieces of content from a single source
- Determining necessary content to include in a successful SEO website
- Reviewing analytics during the creation of new content
- And more
On this week’s episode of Performance Delivered, our special guest is Hugh Kelly, Vice President of Marketing for Volta Networks. Hugh brings over 25 years of experience in software, networking and related technology businesses, from start-ups to publicly traded companies, to Volta Networks today.
Hugh says, “I think it's really important that companies understand that it's not the amount that you create, it's the quality, if you end up creating low quality content, people will will not stay on your site, they're not going to go further into your site and choose to consume more content, or to find out more about your company. So it’s better to have fewer pieces but of higher quality than more pieces of lower quality.”
We chat about customizing and personalizing marketing solutions, as well as:
- Marketing Automation Platforms
- Qualifying Leads
- Providing Useful Information to your Target Audience
- Intent Data
- And more
On this week’s episode of the Performance Delivered Podcast, we speak with Devin Schumacher, the founder and CEO at SERP, a digital marketing company that helps businesses grow using the internet. Devin is now a recognized search engine optimization expert and digital marketing consultant.
We discuss Devin’s entrepreneurial roots, his time as a DJ, and how he has set and surpassed revenue goals. He has set up detailed systems and processes to scale his own companies. This allows his team to increase not only their clients' leads, but their clients’ revenue, and now he teaches others how to do the same in SERP University.
We discuss his formulas for growth, as well as:
- Scaling revenue and planning the personnel to handle the workload
- Best Hiring Practices for expanding your team virtually
- Developing systems and processes to hire effectively
- Maximizing your presence on paid advertising platforms
- Client acquisition and predictable growth
- And more
On this week’s episode of Performance Delivered, our special guest is Angela Hill. She is the CEO at Incitrio, an award-winning, San Diego based full service agency. Chief Brand Strategist, Marketing Visionary, and Professional Speaker, Angela shares Incitrio’s unique approach to tackling marketing challenges and ultimately and unfailingly increasing revenue for her clients.
Angela says, “I like to think of marketing strategies and tactics as a toolbox, so I have a lot of tools at my disposal. If I'm a craftsman, I'm going to choose the right tool, the best tool to solve your problem instead of whatever's easiest or whatever I think I should push.”
We chat about customizing and personalizing marketing solutions, as well as:
- Recognizing the need to improve quality of life
- Translating feedback into action
- Improving communication and coordination with sales and marketing departments
- Data Tracking and Transparency
- And more
On this week’s episode of Performance Delivered, we speak with Stephen Akhterov, CEO of Something About Marketing, an agency that helps SMBs grow with personalized marketing strategies. Stephen’s area of expertise lies in social media strategy, PPC advertising, content marketing, SEO, website development, and most importantly, branding.
Stephen says, “We want to take people through a process that we know works. It starts with awareness, getting them to know your product, then we get more specific on how they would use the product, then we make sure to throw them some kind of conversion to show them why people just like them are purchasing this product. So, we determine what channel or what specific ad gets them to close the deal, but, it's important to know how you led them up to that point.”
We chat about Stephen’s journey to founding Something About Marketing, as well as:
- Multi-touch marketing and the benefits of utilizing multiple channels
- Visualizing the impact of different channels within your sales funnel
- Determining the most appropriate attribution model for your marketing campaign
- Fine-tuning your target audience
- And more
This week’s episode of Performance Delivered features Chad Burmeister. Chad is the CEO of ScaleX.ai, and the author of AI for Sales: How Artificial Intelligence is Changing Sales.Today, Chad shares with us his experiences on the ground floor of sales. He served as an inside sales leader and disruptor at companies including Cisco-WebEx, ON24, ConnectAndSell, and RingCentral. In these roles, he learned exactly what it takes to become a great sales professional!
In his time in leadership, Chad saw just how much valuable time sales professionals were spending reaching out to prospects… which sparked Chad’s interest in artificial intelligence and the role it could serve in the sales world.
We chat with Chad about how the sales market has changed since the tech boom, as well as…
- The secret to streamlining the sales experience
- Pipelining leads
- The future of sales and its merger with AI
- The difference between EQ and IQ in sales
- And more
On this week’s episode of Performance Delivered, we’re joined by Bob Gold, Founder and CEO of Bob Gold & Associates, one of the premier independent integrated communications and public relations agencies in the country. He is also managing partner of Hemisphere Technologies, Inc., which is dedicated to investing in publicly traded and privately held technology companies. Bob holds a Master’s degree from the Annenberg School of Communications at the University of Southern California, and is the author of the popular children's book, The Shiny Penny.
“The reality is that working remotely is not going to go away. I think we're going to see, as we progress further and further, a hybrid approach to all businesses, not just to an agency business. We're going to see that, with conferences, some people will still want to gather and some people won’t want to travel. So, that's going to be our challenge— accepting this new hybrid model.” says Bob
We chat about growing your business from home, as well as:
- The balance between physical and virtual in the workplace
- Keeping collaboration and innovation flowing in a virtual setting
- The challenges of WFH
- Taking measures to create a safe office environment for returning employees
- And more
In this episode of Performance Delivered, we chat with Bryan Clayton— CEO and co-founder of Green Pal, an online marketplace that connects homeowners with lawn care professionals and has even been called the “Uber of lawn care” by Entrepreneur Magazine.
If you’re wondering what else makes Bryan a valuable guest… Prior to starting Green Pal, Bryan founded Peach Tree Inc., one of the largest landscaping companies in the state of Tennessee, growing it into over 10 million/year in revenue!
We’ll chat with Bryan about his origin story and how he came to be an entrepreneur, how he was turned onto the benefits of digital marketing in the early 00’s, as well as…
- Why you have to innovate in order to get ahead
- How startups should be navigating digital marketing when they’re on a tight budget
- The marketing recipe for success
- Why revenue is the best form of financing
- The get, keep, grow approach
- And more
On this week’s episode of Performance Delivered, we are once again speaking with Richard Fallah, CEO of VBOUT, an adaptive marketing automation platform that aims to help business owners and marketing professionals centralize and automate their tasks in a simple, effective way. Richard joined us last week to discuss marketing automation and how it can help put your lead generation on steroids. This week, we’re taking that concept a step further by speaking about how to actually plan and implement a marketing automation buildout for your business.
“Assuming you have picked a platform for your marketing automation, take an inventory of any existing tools you are using, as well as an inventory of how you’re capturing your leads. Once you've taken that inventory of what your funnel looks like, you know exactly what you need to implement in your marketing automation. This is very high level, but technically it's taking existing processes and building them over your marketing automation platform of choice,” says Richard.
We chat about marketing automation across industries, as well as:
- Important terminology within marketing automation, including triggers, actions, filters, and funnels
- Expectations for seeing tangible results from implementing automation
- Using data analytics to tweak your automation process
- Secrets to a successful marketing automation campaign
- And more
On this week’s episode of Performance Delivered, we speak with special guest, Richard Fallah. Richard is the CEO of VBOUT, an adaptive marketing automation platform that aims to help business owners and marketing professionals centralize and automate their tasks in a simple, effective way. The platform includes powerful email and social media tools, lead intelligence, and comprehensive analytics.
“A lot of people fear deploying marketing automation, or a marketing stack, because they think it's way too complicated to do that. It's actually the total opposite; a bit of investment, a few hours of your time, and you should be set for the rest of your usage. And, it reaps results. You start really seeing tangible results in your lead generation every three to six months,” says Richard.
We chat about what marketing automation means, as well as:
- What areas marketing automation can help with
- The direct benefits of automating your marketing
- The importance of accurate data analytics
- Determining the right tools for your business’ needs
- And more
Your company’s positioning, says Lee Wochner, is what determines your marketing, design elements, and messaging.
Get it right, says the CEO of L.A.-based full-service marketing agency Counterintuity, and positioning can be key to setting your business apart from the competition… not to mention help you refine your target market and spot what you’re doing wrong with your marketing… and ensure you aren’t wasting money on campaigns that don’t work.
We take a deep dive into that, including…
- A multi-step strategy to determine if your positioning could be improved
- Why your ideal prospect can help you come up with effective positioning
- A lesson you can learn from Apple’s early days
- How to figure out if your product or company name is sabotaging you
- And more
Even before the pandemic, Jeremy Camilloni embraced the concept of having a remote sales force instead of in-house employees for prospecting for potential new customers.
As CEO of airSales, Jeremy helps B2B companies implement these virtual sales systems, which he says can deliver even better results than working in an office under direct supervision of a sales manager.
But success in remote selling is far from assured. It all starts with, what else, the people. Jeremy shares his hiring secrets, explains what he looks for in a new salesperson (it’s not what you might think), and more.
Tune in to discover…
- The right messaging you need to set a meeting (and the quickest way to “turn off” a prospect)
- Common prospect objections during a sales call… and how to overcome them
- Why he recommends “closers” stay in-house
- What you can automate in the sales process – and what has to be done “manually”
- And more
On this week’s episode of Performance Delivered, we’re joined by special guest, Haraldur Thorleifsson, CEO of Ueno. Ueno is an agency that creates brands, products, and experiences using strategy, design, content, and technology. They focus on creating a strong through-line of brand energy with every project they take on.
“Ultimately, a brand is how you feel about a certain company or a certain product,” says Haraldur. “If you think about it through that lens, everything that the company does influences their branding because everything the company does influences how people feel about them. So, good branding comes through at every single touchpoint that you have with a company, whether it's their marketing campaign, the customer experience of using their product, or when you have to reach the company.”
We chat in detail about digital branding, as well as:
- What elements constitute successful branding
- Why strong branding is often overlooked by young businesses
- Whether there is a difference between traditional and digital branding
- Creating an emotional connection between your audience and your brand
- And more
On this week’s episode of Polishing Your Digital Marketing, we sit down with Shawn Walker, VP of Strategy and Product Development at Symphonic Digital. Shawn is a digital marketing expert and the mind behind all of the great digital marketing campaigns we develop for our clients.
We decided to focus this episode on Google Discovery Ads and how they can be leveraged in your digital marketing. Discovery Ads were announced as a new format last May, during a Google Live event, and were originally only available to beta testers. However, they were made available to the public in April of this year. Since this is a new ad format, we thought it would be great to talk about it and share the knowledge that we've collected over the last couple of months with our listeners.
We chat further with Shawn about:
- Google Discover and what Discovery Ads are
- The differences between display ads and Discovery Ads
- What businesses/industries Discovery Ads would be best-suited to
- The positive and negative aspects of this new ad format
- And more
On this week’s episode of Performance Delivered, we speak with special guest Sam Richter. Sam is the founder of High Profile Sales Coaching, as well as an award-winning keynote speaker, and the author of the best-selling book, Take The Cold Out Of Cold-Calling.
“I probably do about 100 dates a year, all over the globe, speaking on what's called sales intelligence, which is really all about how to find information about other people before you prospect them, before you call on them, so that you're highly relevant to what they care about. It can be summed up as: how do you find the right person at the right time? What's going on in their world?” says Sam.
We chat more about Sam’s coaching, as well as:
- The biggest challenges for salespeople
- The importance of different channels for outreach
- Properly gauging the efficacy of your sales calling efforts
- Sales triggers— what they are and how to find them
- And more
On this week’s episode of Performance Delivered, we’re speaking about leadership marketing with special guest Lacy Boggs. Lacy is the Director of The Content Direction Agency, which helps busy thought leaders to consistently publish content that moves them closer to their business goals and captures their voices perfectly.
“When I was getting started, I started working with a brand strategist, and she pointed out to me that I had the gift of being able to write in other people's voices. I honestly didn't know that was something that other writers didn't do, I thought that was something we all did. She told me that she thought a lot of people who had personality-driven brands, whether it was a person, for example, a coach who is the brand, or a product that has a strong personality brand, they would be very interested in having a writer that could mimic that brand voice that was already established. And so that's sort of what I leaned into as we were growing the business,” says Lacy.
We chat about what it takes to be able to write in someone else’s voice, as well as:
- The differences between leadership marketing and thought leadership marketing
- The importance of channels to your leadership marketing
- Developing a brand personality
- Marketing strategies
- And more
What works in SEO is always evolving, says Angelo Frisina, founder of Sunlight Media. And that means if you provide SEO services, you have to always be evolving too to continue a steady flow of traffic to your site.
Angelo shares the strategies he uses for staying on top of Google’s algorithm changes – and to make sure his clients’ websites stay highly ranked. We also explore some previous SEO techniques that don’t work today – and could even get your blacklisted.
In many ways, says Angelo, Google looks a lot different than they used to, with less emphasis on organic search results. That makes those top spots on page one extremely competitive, he says.
We discuss that issue in detail, as well as…
- The best sources of “inside” information on Google’s algorithm updates
- The two most important elements of SEO strategy
- A must-do task for effective link building (and a practice to avoid)
- What quality content really means today
- And more
Mattan Danino, CEO of WEBITMD, sees a gap in digital marketing services. And he’s passionate about working with small and medium-sized businesses who aren’t served by bigger agencies.
To that end, he strives to provide better results for clients by looking not only at the performance from individual marketing channels but also activities across all channels. He leverages technology to track – and act on – those results, including CRM, advanced automation tools, and more.
He says that helps bridge the gap between the theory of what should work… and what’s actually working.
We discuss that issue in-depth, including…
- The importance of KPIs and the right ones to use to measure digital marketing results
- How to integrate inbound marketing and sales – automatically
- The fatal flaw of the last touch attribution model – and what to do about it
- Why a CRM is an essential tool – but not for the reason you might think
- And more
Objectives and key results – OKRs – are a key part of a planning system that helps your team work in an organized way towards a common goal, explains Garrett Mehrguth, co-founder and CEO of Directive.
Accountability is a key part of this strategy, with regular check-ins to make sure you’re on track to meet your quarterly goals.
Garrett says it’s the perfect process to apply to his company’s work in SEO because OKRs provide strategic and deep-thinking consulting work for clients with long-term impacts, while still allowing for quick action on day-to-day tasks related to optimizing SEO or paid media work.
Involving your team is key because understanding the bigger goal behind their work allows them to be more effective. Plus, longer timelines for much-needed deep changes allow for more creative and effective solutions.
We take a deep dive into this topic, including…
- The reason quick “wins” lead to lukewarm strategic plans and long-term outcomes
- A strategy for organizing your team member’s time for better client results
- How to make sure agencies guide, not serve clients
- Factors beyond SEO you must consider – and will surprise you – to create an effective SEO strategy
- And more
On this week’s episode of Performance Delivered, we sit down with Shana Starr, CEO of Bastion Elevate, a PR, social media, and digital marketing firm that is part of Bastion Collective. In her role, Shana is dedicated to providing clients with rock star talent and a results-driven strategy for businesses around the world. She has over 20 years of experience running successful communication campaigns and working with both large and small brands.
“The importance of consistent messaging has never been more important today than in the past because you just don't have the time to spend with editors and they don't have the time to get to know you, so it's a different approach. I see brands now coming out with all kinds of different things and everybody's trying to offer everything to just hope they hit something that's popular, and it's confusing because nobody is going to take the time to understand exactly what you're offering,” says Shana.
We chat more about the importance of consistent messaging, as well as:
- Differentiating your brand through your value-adds
- Communicating your message across different channels
- How to ensure consistency across departments
- Teaching executives to understand the importance of clear brand messaging
- And more
If you’re losing web traffic, it’s time for a SEO audit, says Lindsie Nelson, VP of client strategy at Transistor, a digital marketing agency that specializes in SEO and PPC.
In fact, any website that hasn’t done an in-depth SEO audit should do one because that will inform any SEO efforts and make them more effective.
We get into detail about the four main parts of a SEO audit, when it should be done, how to interpret results – and how the findings should guide SEO strategy moving forward. Lindsie shares what she looks for first and gets into the nitty-gritty of potential fixes – practical information anyone with a website should pay attention to.
Tune in to discover…
- How to tell if Google is “flying blind” on your website and how to fix it
- The simplest “back end” SEO mistakes to correct – you can do it yourself right now
- What many companies forget when building a new website (that kills their traffic)
- The best tools for conducting SEO audits
- And more
What works in SEO and digital marketing overall?
That answer is always changing, says Kevin Indig, VP of SEO and content marketing at G2. But it’s that “continuous development” that attracted him to work in this field, along with the chance to stretch his creative and analytic muscles on a regular basis.
There is an issue he’s particularly concerned with these days. Google has gone from simply displaying ads and search results and sending searchers to other websites to actually answering queries themselves – and reducing traffic to other sites as a result.
We talk about how that impacts companies that buy Google ads and their SEO efforts, the regulatory implications, and more, as well as…
- The types of sites that are particularly vulnerable to the changes
- Industries that are benefiting from Google’s new business model
- How search marketers are adapting to this reality
- Potential channels that are ideal alternatives to Google
- And more
As senior VP of creative and operations at Eclipse, a full-service marketing agency, Michelle Azzopardi has worked with some of the biggest studios in Hollywood.
She says just as filmmakers tell stories; she sees marketers as storytellers as well.
She talks about the role of creativity in her work, as well as some of the day-to-day of working in an agency, like powerful ways of mentoring junior employees, how to channel creative energy in the right direction, management and leadership strategies that work best in this industry, and more.
We also discuss…
- How to make sure creatives “play nice"
- What to look for in hiring a creative – and what doesn’t matter as much as you think
- Finding the balance between fighting for your ideas… and taking criticism
- Creating a supportive company culture that pays off in more ways than one
- And more
Influencers aren’t just celebrities anymore. They come in all shapes and sizes – and command different rates, says Jordan Dahlquist, director of social media with marketing agency Bastion Elevate.
These days companies don’t necessarily need someone well-known or have millions of followers to effectively “influence” their audience. In fact, companies with a small budget can actually do quite well working with the right “microinfluencers.”
We talk about how much you should pay influencers, how to find the right influencers for your audience, and more, including…
- The differences of working with microinfluencers versus macroinfluencers
- The best way to pay influencers so you get the result you want
- The biggest challenges to finding influencers today
- How to counteract the problem of fake followers
- And more
On this week’s episode, we chat with Jonathan Stark, author of Hourly Billing Is Nuts and host of Ditching Hourly.
Jonathan is the former VP of a boutique software firm who became dissatisfied with the hourly billing method and decided to branch out on his own as an author, aiming to convince businesses that value-based pricing is the way forward.
“It was kind of an organic transition from me leaving the hourly billing... going out on my own and moving over to value pricing, but, you know, I’m not trading time for money. Ultimately, people asked me so much about it that I started to move in that direction,” says Jonathan when asked about his career transition.
On this episode, we chat about transitioning from hourly billing to value-based pricing, as well as...
- What types of projects are ideal for value-based pricing
- What factors you should be looking at to determine if value-based pricing is a good fit for your project
- How value-based pricing can be used to optimize your labor
- The caveats of value-based pricing (they’re likely not what you think)
- And more
On this week’s episode of Polishing Your Digital Marketing, we sit down with Shawn Walker, VP of Strategy and Product Development at Symphonic Digital. Shawn is a digital marketing expert who works to develop strategies for digital media investment to maximize ROI.
When asked about the importance of Google ad bid modifiers, Shawn says, “I think the number one thing is people don't know they're there. Number two, if they know they’re there, they focus on other things that maybe they think have a greater opportunity to be more efficient, like working on ad copy, or adding keywords. I would argue this is just as important. If you're using the correct keywords but you're not targeting the right people, that could be just as bad as having irrelevant keywords.”
We chat further with Shawn about…
- What bid modifiers are
- What levels they can be applied to
- How they can help to optimize a digital marketing campaign
- Why human supervision is still necessary when automating your ad campaigns
- And more
On this week’s episode of Performance Delivered, we speak with Jan Risher, principal at Shift Key Content Marketing and Public Relations Agency. Jan has been a newspaper columnist since 2002, has been awarded an International Fellowship for journalism, and has taught English in six countries.
“You have to have the balance even on your own social media of giving people news that they can use, versus the occasional self-promotional item. But traditional media is just not going to, well, traditional media worth their salt is not going to pick up completely self-promotional items, period,” says Jan when asked what she means by “ditch your pitch”.
We speak with Jan about how she got her start in content marketing and PR, as well as…
- What traits make a story great and how a PR agency can help businesses identify which stories are worth telling
- Ways for businesses to improve on news judgment
- Tips for getting a story picked up or featured
- Methods for getting results with a smaller budget
- And more
Part 2 of our two-part series with the Queen of Cold Calling, Wendy Weiss, is here! If you tuned into Part 1, you know what Wendy is all about, but if you didn’t…
Wendy is an author, speaker, sales trainer, and so much more! Wendy’s track record is impressive— she’s recognized as one of the leading authorities on lead generation, cold calling, and new business development.
In this episode, we’ll pick right up where we left off and chat with Wendy about overcoming rejection, why you need to optimize your calling scripts, and…
- The structure of a successful call
- How you should design your voicemail messages
- Should you always follow your script to the letter?
- How to know if your script is working
- Quality vs. quantity
- And more
It’s part 1 of our special 2 part series! In this episode, we sit down with Wendy Weiss— the Queen of Cold Calling, and an author, speaker, sales trainer, and so much more! Wendy’s track record is impressive— she’s recognized as one of the leading authorities on lead generation, cold calling, and new business development!
Wendy is passionate about helping her clients speed up their sales cycles, reach more prospects directly, and generate more sales revenue. Her impressive client list includes Avon Products, ADT, Sprint, and thousands of entrepreneurs throughout the country.
We’ll chat with Wendy about how cold calling has changed over the years, why you need to have a target audience, as well as…
- How to not overthink what you’re going to say— and why a script is important to have
- How to micro-target your audience
- Why knowing your audience’s pain points is important
- What you need to do in order to set yourself up for cold calling success
- And more
Digital marketing agency Flying V Group takes a multi-pronged approach to boosting traffic, leads, and sales for its clients, encompassing SEO, paid search, social media, content marketing, and more.
Robb Fahrion, co-founder, partner, and SEO lead, says their main goal is to build a digital marketing strategy that drives growth. And if there is anything that remains constant in digital marketing, says Robb, it’s that what works is always changing, which forces you to closely watch trends and tweak campaigns as needed.
Now, the COVID-19 pandemic has thrown another layer of difficulty on the whole process.
Robb talks about how what they do for their clients has changed, the adjustments they’ve made to digital marketing strategy, and more.
Tune in for tips on what you can do to reduce the impact of coronavirus on your business and plenty of strategies that get great results even in normal times.
Discover…
- A way to save money on marketing when budgets are tight
- What sort of projects you should focus on right now (to reap returns later)
- Why SEO is more important than ever – and what you should be doing now in this area
- A marketing channel that is more important now than ever – and how to get started
- And more
In this episode, we launch our new series: Polishing Your Digital Marketing! This series is aimed at helping business owners overcome digital marketing related challenges and identify opportunities.
You’ll join Steffen and Shawn in a casual discussion about digital marketing topics you’re always wondering about— and leave feeling informed and empowered to make marketing decisions in your business.
Today, we’re going to talk about what attribution solution is best for a company. Specifically, we’ll chat about…
- Available attribution models
- Building brand awareness
- Hand-holding buyers to speed up the buying process
- How trying different ad platforms can benefit your business
- Deciding which attribution model to use
- And more
In her work as VP of Client Strategy at digital marketing agency Transistor, Lindsie Nelson focuses mostly on SEO, using search trends and keywords to develop content that drives traffic.
One thing she says digital marketers and their clients must never forget is that content can’t just speak to search engines – it needs to connect with people in a meaningful way as well so that they get the information they need about products and services.
Part of that strategy is to have long-term goals in mind, while still being able to make short-term changes to capitalize on emerging trends… like the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
We talk about how you might tweak your SEO in uncertain times, as well as…
- Blending creativity with data-driven decision-making
- One of the most useful tools to improve your landing pages – and it’s free
- Long-term plans versus short-term SEO decisions
- Best practices for messaging in pages, title tags, and meta descriptions
- And more
Does your marketing actually engage your potential customers? Elevate My Brand CEO Laurel Mintz says that too many companies have embraced digital marketing but have forgotten the basics of how to connect with their target market.
Laurel says it’s all about being “real”… sometimes even outrageous… and you have to combine online efforts with real world engagement to effectively build your brand.
But that doesn’t mean just holding events or setting up a booth at a trade show. Experiential marketing done right takes more effort. We talk about that, as well as…
- The KPIs to pay attention to when building a brand
- The best way to test new experiential marketing efforts
- How to create brand awareness with those who matter
- Making experiential marketing memorable… and accountable
- And more
Copywriter and comedian Lianna Patch is on a mission: to inject humor into your marketing to make it more engaging, actionable, and profitable.
Humor shouldn’t be used in all industries, of course. But Lianna says you’d be surprised in which niches prospects are open to having their funny bones tickled a bit.
It’s not all fun and games. Humor in sales copy goes a long way to building strong, long-term relationships with customers, says Lianna.
We dive deep into this topic, covering…
- The marketing channels where humor works… and where to get started
- A strategy for testing if funny marketing will work with your audience
- The best place to insert jokes in your sales copy – and the types of jokes that do best
- How to write humorous copy… even if you don’t think you’re funny
- And more
LinkedIn is the easiest social network to go viral on, says AJ Wilcox of B2Linked. And that means it has tremendous potential to expand your business’s organic reach. But to make this free marketing method work, you have to take a very specific approach, adds AJ.
In part 1 of this interview, AJ highlighted the advantages of LinkedIn over Facebook and Google, the best ad formats, and why this business-oriented social network isn’t a good advertising fit for every business.
Here in part 2, we expand on the organic side, including how to expand your influence using your personal and company profiles.
- The main reason most company LinkedIn profiles don’t much attention or traffic
- How the latest LinkedIn update leveled the playing field
- The most effective content to post on LinkedIn – and when to post it
- What you need to know about how LinkedIn’s algorithm “judges” your new content
- And more
Even though LinkedIn advertising can be incredibly effective for certain industries and businesses, not many agencies specialize in serving clients using this social network.
There’s no better authority to speak with than AJ Wilcox, of B2Linked, who, at one point, managed five of LinkedIn’s top 10 ad customers.
Like with many ad networks, being effective on LinkedIn is all about getting quality leads. You should also be able to track what spend gives you what results – and best contributes to your bottom line.
But you’ll have to use different tactics than you would with Google or Facebook ads.
AJ gets into all the details, including…
- Why many companies are “priced out” of LinkedIn – and how to figure out if yours is
- How to figure out if your audience is on LinkedIn – and if you can target them
- The key element of an effective LinkedIn ad campaign that will engage your target market
- The minimum amount you need to spend per month to get results
- And more
Elisabeth Willits, a senior content marketing specialist with AWeber, is back again sharing her top tips for email marketing based on the data she’s gleaned about what works and what doesn’t based on sending out millions of emails.
In the first part, we talked about why email marketing is the ideal way to grow an ecommerce business. We also cleared up some misconceptions about email that all too many marketers still believe.
This time we focus on how to improve your current email marketing strategy (it can probably be performing much better) or ways to kick-start your email marketing efforts if you’ve never done it before.
Listen in to find out…
- What your welcome emails must have
- The most important purpose of every email you send out
- How to make sure your subject line stands out in your prospects’ inboxes
- The power of the “story” email
- Clear and concise instructions on how to set up an effective automated email marketing funnel
For years, so-called experts have been touting the demise of email marketing. But, says Elisabeth Willits, this marketing channel is far from dead. In fact, in many ways it’s more relevant than ever.
As a senior content marketing specialist at AWeber, over the last six years Elisabeth has seen the industry up close and personal every day. Along the way, she’s collected data from emails sent to millions of subscribers, allowing her to figure out what works and what doesn’t in email.
She shares her results and insights into how to grow a business with this veteran marketing channel, including…
- The factors that most influence click-through rates
- Creating effective – and deliverable – email content
- The three types of emails ecommerce stores must send their prospects and customers
- An email list you should never mail to… in fact, it could be dangerous to your business
- Exciting new innovations in email marketing and the opportunities they offer
In my second chat with Daniel Englebretson, we’re taking a deeper dive into the world of account-based marketing—specifically how to get started with this channel, from identifying targets to what metrics to track to measure success.
It’s pretty in-depth – if you want to do it right, at least. Daniel shares the step-by-step process he uses to figure out which accounts to go after and the key role the sales team plays in developing that list.
Account-based marketing isn’t right for every company. But, Daniel reveals a certain type of company for which it’s the best option.
Tune in to find out if your business qualifies, as well as…
- The key differences between account-based and inbound marketing
- Strategies to ensure that prospects come to you (and why they’re much more valuable)
- What you must always keep in mind when choosing your ABM targets
- How your sales team needs to be involved with your account-based marketing campaigns
- And more
Joris Bryon, founder of the Dexter Agency, is passionate about helping eCommerce business owners grow methodically using almost “scientific” methods.
In the first episode with Joris, we talked about a potential untapped goldmine for eCommerce businesses: converting more of your current traffic to boost profits instead of buying additional traffic, which gets very expensive – especially these days.
In today’s conversation, we focus on how exactly to do that by creating and executing a conversion optimization plan that encompasses the overall user experience, checkout process, landing pages, marketing campaigns, and more.
Tune in to find out…
- Top conversion killers to watch out for
- The right way to test (most people get it wrong)
- What you should never let your web developer be in charge of
- The best ways to collect key data from real users
- And more
Joris Bryon, founder of Dexter Agency, sees a lot of ecommerce entrepreneurs taking the wrong approach to designing their online presence.
They base the design on personal preference instead of data, so instead of being able to make changes that continually boost response – and profits – they spin their wheels.
Another issue: too much money and effort is spent on generating traffic without a solid plan for what to do with potential customers once they get to your site. Again, most lost opportunity for sales and revenue.
Joris focuses on converting more of the traffic you already have, which is an untapped goldmine for many ecommerce businesses.
Tune in to find out…
- What to do with cold traffic
- How to reduce your conversion percentage… and increase profit
- The four ways you can increase your revenue
- Avoiding the web traffic plateau
- And many more valuable pointers that will help you turn your prospects into paying customers
Many eCommerce entrepreneurs forget that the fundamental accounting principles and financial metrics that gauge the health of your business and should guide your future plans always remain the same, no matter what industry or sector you’re in.
That being said, book-keeping specialist Cyndi Thomason knows there are key ways online businesses differ, not to mention they face unique challenges. With her company, bookskeep, she helps clients doing business online increase their cash flow and keep it steady.
A lot of what she does is somewhat counterintuitive… but very effective. We talk about…
- Why she doesn’t use QuickBooks (at least not for these key tasks)
- How to get an instantly updated snapshot of your financial health
- What it really means to put profits first
- Using multiple bank accounts to track your business’s finances
- And more
As founder of The CFO Project, Adam Lean consults with small businesses who’ve stalled and helps them to grow while maintaining a healthy profit – something the owners haven’t been able to do themselves.
Every business has its own set of obstacles to achieving that goal, of course. But, says Adam, there are several specific things that he sees most businesses doing wrong… or not doing at all when they should be.
One major point to keep in mind: more sales does not always equal more money in the bank. It’s a lesson he learned the hard way in the early days of his ecommerce business. We get into detail on all of this, including…
- The biggest myth about profitability
- Why an accountant or bookkeeper can’t help you
- A four-step process for growing profitability and cash flow in your small business
- The five most important numbers to watch in your business
- Various invaluable tips and pointers which can vastly alter the long-term outcome of your business
When starting a business, many entrepreneurs think their first step should be to sink a bunch of money into advertising and marketing to get the word out.
But what if you don’t have much – if any – startup cash? Or you simply realize putting money into marketing doesn’t guarantee a return, especially with an untested product.
Eric Bandholz, founder of Beardbrand, turned this challenge into an asset. It forced him to grow his brand organically… and created a solid foundation for the thriving business he has today. He talks about how he marketed in the startup days, with no money, and how that philosophy still guides Beardbrand to this day.
Listen in to discover…
- The best places to market online – if you don’t have any money
- How to avoid having a “boring” business
- When it’s time to get into paid media activities
- Why you need to be part of your own target market
- And more
Eric Bandholz, founder and creative director of Beardbrand, doesn’t just sell men’s grooming products. He gives his customers confidence, a feeling of well-being, and a sense of community.
That’s what every brand should do. Unfortunately too many are just customers and transactions. We talk about how Eric and his partners have built an engaged community of followers using social media and other channels.
This tactic has enabled Eric and his partners to see steady growth, without outside investment. It’s a true bootstrapped ecommerce business.
Tune in to find out…
- Overcoming the biggest hurdles of a bootstrapped business
- The “Top Grading” process for hiring the best candidates
- How to “talk” to your prospects… so they don’t feel like they’re being sold
- Creating a company culture based on your core values – and getting buy in from employees
- And more
Brad Moss, CEO of Product Labs, and I continue our conversation about Amazon advertising. If you haven’t checked out our previous podcast on the topic, check out Part 1 here.
This time we talk about how companies can start selling on Amazon – and what contemporary methods they need to utilize to be successful. One of the first things is to set up an effective keyword strategy... and even consider some paid ads.
But this is a whole different ballgame than how you’ve done that sort of thing on Google. Brad talks about what metrics Amazon is looking for which can place you on top of your category.
We chat about conversion rate – what happens once you get people to your product page. As it turns out, here are four key parts of that page that impact this metric. And Brad also gives us the low down on the broader display ad system inside Amazon – which offers ads spots in many places you wouldn’t think about…
Tune in to get all the details on that, as well as…
- The four parts of your Amazon product page that influence conversion rate
- What you don’t want to do with keywords on your Amazon product listing
- The metric for Amazon sales too many people are focused on… but should forget about
- The KPIs that matter when selling on Amazon
- Up to date methods to place in the top rankings and significantly boost conversions
Amazon is a crowded place. As a veteran of Amazon, having managed the third-party seller platform, Brad Moss should know. It’s used in 10 countries, by over 2 million merchants, with more than 200 million customers and over 60 billion products.
This episode is all about the Amazon advertising strategies Brad recommends to his clients as CEO of consulting firm Product Labs.
Even if you don’t sell on Amazon (or at least not yet), it pays to listen because this platform is only getting more ubiquitous, and many of the concepts and best practices translate to online marketing in general.
Tune in to find out…
- The difference between an Amazon vendor and an Amazon seller
- Things to watch to make sure your Amazon product listings are effective
- Why you must match your supply chain with your marketing funnel
- How Amazon’s advertising platform actually works
- In-depth details and insights about the highly-complex inner workings of Amazon ads
Si Quan Ong, of SEO firm Ahrefs is back. During our first conversation, we discussed how to come up with evergreen topics for SEO-friendly content for your website. This time around, we’re talking about how to actually create that evergreen content.
The main issue, says SQ, is that many businesses go about content marketing all wrong. They do what everybody else is doing… don’t see great results… and so they give up, thinking content marketing doesn’t work.
SQ explains the pitfalls to watch out for… and best practices to adopt so that content marketing is a huge asset to your business. Among other things, we cover…
- The #1 thing Google wants to see in your content
- The 3 characteristics of “good” content
- How to increase “dwell time”
- Does readability matter with your SEO-friendly web content?
- And more
When Google tweaks their algorithm, many website owners scramble to figure out new tricks to stay on top of the search results. But not Si Quan Ong and his colleagues at SEO firm Ahrefs.
They know whatever Google does, quality content will always be a key part of an effective SEO strategy. However, they don’t focus on posting every day or publishing timely content. Instead, they post blogs and articles that will always be relevant.
We talk about how that slow but steady evergreen approach pays off in more and higher-value traffic, as well as…
- The difference between evergreen content and evergreen topics
- How to deal with keywords and search terms with a lot of competition
- The best platforms to find keywords for your SEO efforts (it’s not what most people consider #1)
- One of the best ways to gather intelligence on your competition
- And more
Machine learning and A.I. is already in the world of media and online communication all around us. But it’s broken into marketing and advertising too, even if you don’t realize it.
Will A.I. ever replace a human’s expertise when buying ads? Bant Breen, founder of innovative reputation management firm Qnary, discusses this question. And it’s not cut-and-dry. One thing’s for sure. Just because it’s a shiny new object doesn’t mean you should be using it in your marketing efforts.
In fact, many agencies shouldn’t be using these systems at all… at least not until they have the right “infrastructure” set up.
We discuss that in detail, as well as…
- The first place to start if you’re interested in A.I.
- What machine learning can and can’t do – at least right now
- The biggest challenge in implementing A.I. solutions
- “Off the shelf” A.I. you can use now in your marketing efforts
- And more
Can artificial intelligence be creative… be original? Could AI come up with effective marketing?
Those are the big questions that Bant Breen, founder of reputation management firm Qnary, studies.
He says too many people in business – and marketing in particular – lack a true understanding of what AI is… and what it’s capable of. Not to mention the key ways it’s used in marketing already and the potential it has to impact the industry in the near future.
Bant maintains that too many executives are dismissive of AI and machine learning and its potential to change the face of marketing and business.
We talk about the latest developments in this field, as well as…
- How a machine might replace a marketing executive
- Why AI is way beyond chatbots
- How machine learning and AI are the same… and different
- The surprising uses of AI in advertising you probably missed
- And more
Ray Carbonell and the team at Qnary have helped radically change the way we think of thought leadership and reputation management. Ray says thought leadership isn’t about a TED Talk that goes viral… and if you only worry about reputation management when something goes wrong – then you’ve missed a big opportunity.
They show companies in a wide variety of industries how they can use thought leadership to boost engagement with their audience, land new business, and boost recruitment of top-notch new employees.
But they don’t focus on building the brand. Today’s consumers want a more personal connection, and that means building up the online profile of key executives.
We talk about the strategies they implement for their clients, including…
- The top 5+ social networks for creating thought leaders from the ground up
- Why helping executives build an individual brand actually increases retention
- How to use social media to create an exponential boost in audience engagement
- What to include in your online bios – and what to leave out
- And more
Marketing automation is the only way to accelerate the growth of your business and get it to the next level, says Robin Alex, president of agency Innovate Fast. But simply installing automation software and systems to drive new leads isn’t enough, says Robin, and won’t have any impact unless you take an extra step.
We talk about how to effectively integrate marketing automation into a business, how to use it to close more sales, the top platforms available today (especially for small businesses), and more.
Tune in to find out…
- How automation fits into overall marketing strategy – and when to implement it
- The ways people are still key to the success of a marketing automation system
- Strategies for converting automated leads – this sometimes is a hands-on process
- The biggest challenge facing anybody using marketing automation systems – and how to overcome it
- And more
Tech startup Phononic has semiconductor products that could well revolutionize the refrigeration and cooling industries. As Director of Integrated Marketing for the company, it’s Daniel Englebretson’s job to make sure the world takes notice.
He’s found the best way to target ideal prospects – the right companies and the right decision-makers at those companies – is with an account-based marketing approach. But if you think you know account-based marketing, it’s changed quite a lot in just the last few years, says Daniel.
We talk about…
- What account-based marketing meant three years ago… and how it’s changed radically today
- The integral part your sales team plays in these efforts
- How to avoid being “creepy” in personalized marketing
- Key ways account-based marketing is different for startups and established companies
- And more
One of Heather Molina’s bosses early in her career had a big influence on how she leads her team today as VP of cross channel marketing at Red Door Interactive.
No, it wasn’t a valued mentor (although plenty of those too) but rather a bad manager. She says she thinks about how he handled situations… and does the opposite.
In her role, she oversees teams doing everything from SEO to social media to TV ads and beyond. But no matter what type of marketing they’re doing there are definitely some common strategies she uses to keep her employees on track and producing results for clients.
Tune in to find out…
- The most important trait she looks at when hiring – it has nothing to do with skills or experience
- A surprising way to brainstorm new services to offer
- The best way to build trust with employees (and why trust is so important in the first place)
- A test that identifies a person’s most powerful strengths and motivators
- And more…
Ben Shapiro is building a mini podcast empire, with the popular show, Martech, leading the way. The podcast is all about how industry leaders use marketing and technology to drive business growth.
Not surprisingly, Ben has used some of those same techniques to garner 30,000 downloads each month. We talk about how he leverages podcast content in all sorts of ways to expand his reach, as well as…
- How you could start a podcast with equipment you have right now
- The top 3 reasons to have a podcast – and who should have one
- Who makes the best podcast guest – it’s not who you might think
- An effective engagement hook to keep your audience coming back
- And more
With all the tools and software available, marketers have more data than ever about their prospects and customers. They’re drowning in it.
The trick is, says John Durham of Catalyst, is wading into that data, finding out what works, and turning it into action that gets real results.
That means figuring why people buy – and who they are. Marketing 101, right? But John says not all clients get what it takes to do that. We talk about that, as well as…
- The low-cost, high-quality alternative to Salesforce for startups
- How to identify – and get rid of – bad clients
- The first person you must hire as a one-person startup
- The advantages of a project-based business model
- And more
Gerard Doyle, of Fractal, loves working with startups as he can influence the positioning of a client’s product or service… even the design.
He also says the most effective way to get the best clients is to go after a limited number of them. He explains how this strategy actually starts making clients come to you. It’s quite counterintuitive.
We also discuss…
- Software tools that help you track leads and land clients almost automatically
- The first employee you should hire
- The personal appointment you should always have on your schedule no matter how busy you are
- An unusual – but easy – way to get referrals
- And more
With AI, machine learning, and big data, companies have more information than ever on their customers.
But, says Jason Harper, too many companies collect data for the sake of collecting data. They’re not analyzing it effectively, which means they can’t use it to guide business decisions.
Jason, CEO of data science company RXA, shares how you can get clarity on how to determine what data is important… and the latest technology you can use to make sure your data actually has value.
We also discuss…
- A shocking fact about data collection and analysis
- What you must do to use analytics to increase marketing ROI
- A new way to collect - and distill - customer feedback
- The unexpected ways AI has changed the face of data collection
- And more
Akvile DeFazio took the leap from employee to self-employed with her digital marketing agency, Akvertise. The transition wasn’t always easy… but she wouldn’t trade the experience for anything because of what she learned about business, marketing, and herself.
We talk about the strategies Akvile used to build her agency from the ground up… and continues to use for business development and client retention.
Listen in to find out…
- How speaking at events can boost your bottom-line
- Where paid social is heading next
- Why normal networking doesn’t work
- Strategies to be more visible to potential clients
- And more
Facebook ads are cheap. You can segment your audience to the nth degree.
But all that doesn't matter if you don’t take one more step, says Bud Torcom, CEO and co-founder of digital marketing agency Mazama Media.
Bud sees a lot of companies going about their social media marketing all wrong. The solution: a blend of tried-and-true marketing principles and taking advantage of the innovation available on platforms like Facebook and Instagram.
If you think Facebook doesn’t work… Bud tells you what you may be doing wrong, as well as…
- The role of creative with segmented audiences
- The best way for a new company to capitalize on social media
- Why branding still matters
- Facebook and Instagram’s next sweet spot
- And more
For most businesses, a main goal is turning website visitors into leads.
Jay Rice, founder and CEO of Thinking Chat, says that’s a good starting point… but he’s refined that process using some very unique technology in order to engage visitors and increase conversions – while also screening out leads that aren’t a fit.
Thinking Chat provides its clients with a “chatbot” – but unlike any you’ve seen before.
We talk about this unique approach to using AI in lead generation and how it impacts marketing and shortens the sales cycle.
Tune in to find out…
- How to keep the wrong prospects out of your funnel
- Where marketing automation falls short - and how to get around it
- Going beyond FAQs
- Where live chat often misses the mark – and a chatbot does better
- And more
Jake Baadsgaard, founder of Disruptive Advertising, is very selective about who he works with. In fact, after they go through his vetting process, only about 20% of potential clients make the cut.
He breaks down what makes a client a good fit and how he and his team figure it out. It’s a key part of a well-oiled business development machine they’ve put into place.
Disruptive Advertising does no outbound marketing of its services. We find out why they don’t need to and get all the details on the other seemingly counterintuitive strategies they use on a daily basis.
Tune in to find out…
- Ways to deal with unrealistic expectations from clients
- How many companies are sabotaging their Facebook marketing – and don’t even know it
- Two reasons for price objections and how to handle them
- The right way to use marketing automation
- And more
How does a small digital marketing agency compete for top employees against big firms in such a competitive environment like the Bay Area?
For Richard Bumgarner and Lyn Rundell, founders of Hero Marketing, the secret has been providing a great place to work, simply put. And that doesn’t mean a foosball table in the break room.
Rather, they focus on providing true work/life balance, giving many employees the chance to work from home, and benefits the right employees prefer to higher pay.
But this approach hasn’t come without its challenges. We talk about…
- Ways they keep their remote workforce on the same page and on task
- The little touches that keep employees motivated
- Where to hire the employees that mesh best with your team – it’s not the big name job sites
- The types of freelancers you must avoid
- And more
Chris Raniere, founder and president of San Francisco-based digital marketing agency 46Mile, has seen a lot since his days at early search engine Ask Jeeves and other companies of that era.
One thing that has remained a constant is that many clients don’t understand the value of the work agencies do in paid search and other marketing channels and, as a result, try to lowball them when it comes to fees.
Chris has little patience for that attitude and explains how he deals with potential clients who want to pay as little as possible, as well as…
- Why you shouldn’t do RFPs – with one exception
- Where large regional brands are moving their marketing efforts
- When you shouldn’t back down on price
- How to show a client you’re worth a higher fee than the competition
- And more
Jeff Rosenblum, founding partner of digital marketing agency Questus, has a unique perspective on the industry. His agency’s fortunes rose in the Dot-Com Era. But they survived the crash and came out stronger on the other side with lessons learned that guide their work to this day with companies like Apple, Suzuki, General Mills, and more.
He knows that most companies waste the vast majority of their marketing dollars as they try to make something stick. His approach: combine creativity and data to create targeted marketing that benefits brands and empowers audiences.
We talk about…
- Competing as a small firm against the world’s biggest marketing agencies
- Turning customers into evangelists
- Using the Fair Price Matrix to always get paid what you deserve
- When you should say no thanks to a prospective client
- And more
Working with Hollywood’s biggest movie studios keeps Los Angeles-based Daniel Heale and his team on their toes.
As Chief Strategic Officer of global agency Way to Blue, he’s always on the cutting edge of what works and what doesn’t in digital marketing.
But Daniel says that there are two elements a successful agency needs that have nothing to do with technology or so-called best practices.
We talk about…
- How to hit the moving target of marketing success
- The best way to form long-term client relationships
- Ways small agencies can deliver big campaigns without breaking the bank
- Strategies for attracting – and retaining – the talent you need
- And more
For agency owners and executives, the digital marketing landscape is always changing.
With interviews with thought leaders and those “in the trenches” of the industry, the Performance Delivered podcast will keep you up-to-date with current industry best practices… and also give you a glimpse into what innovations the future holds.
Hosts Steffen Horst and Dave Antil are big agency “refugees” who know that the industry is going through drastic changes right now. And they offer insights you can use to stay on top.
Tune in now to find out…
- A new take on marketing at the agency level
- The most important elements of digital marketing today
- The way performance marketing fits in to your current efforts
- How you can be “first in line” for new episodes
- And more