Growth Machine Marketing Podcast: Recent Episodes
Amanda Natividad
The Growth Machine Marketing Podcast is your go-to resource for learning how to grow your business through Content Marketing, Search Engine Optimization, Advertising, Social Media, Email Marketing, and more.
Each week, your host Amanda Natividad will share lessons from the Growth Machine team, a 7-figure marketing agency, or lessons that guests have learned through growing their own businesses.
Whether you're an experienced marketer looking for new techniques to try, or a complete newcomer trying to get their footing, each episode is sure to teach you something of value.
In the season finale of the Growth Machine Marketing podcast, CEO Nora Schlesinger and Head of Marketing Amanda Natividad debrief on SEO and content.
They discuss:
- How SEO knowledge can make you a better writer
- Why SEOs and writers also need empathy to be effective
- What we wish clients and marketers knew about SEO
- When it’s time for you to focus on SEO
- When it’s not time for you to focus on SEO
And so much more.
Show Notes
1:16 - Nora shares what she wishes more website owners knew about SEO.
3:14 - The content you invest in early on can set you up for SEO success in the long-run.
7:44 - SEO knowledge can improve the quality of your written content.
11:38 - Managing client expectations.
15:29 - Different issues that may impact a site’s ability to rank.
21:10 - If your site speed isn’t up to par, there are a few factors that could be causing it.
23:43 - How Growth Machine has been impactful for a variety of clients, including Fortune 100 and Fortune 500 companies.
29:20 - When is it time for a company to focus on their content and SEO? (And when is a company not ready yet?)
34:29 - Unpopular opinion: You can’t do it all. Hire as much help that you can afford to.
40:04 - Amanda shares a special announcement as we wrap up this season of the Growth Machine Marketing Podcast.
Links: How We Hire Great Writers at Growth Machine (9:52)
The Critical Authority Threshold: Why Patience Pays in SEO (13:30)
PageSpeed Insights (20:12)
How a Gig Economy Website Hit 100,000 Monthly Visitors in 6 Months (23:52)
How a D2C Beverage Company Grew 4x in Search Traffic in 3 Months (23:56)
How a Recruiting Website Tripled Organic Traffic in 6 Months (24:01)
Gong (32:18)
Connect with Amanda Natividad: https://amandanat.com/
https://twitter.com/amandanat
Connect with Growth Machine: https://growthmachine.com/
https://twitter.com/growthmachine__
Here’s a milestone for the Growth Machine team: our first unblinded case study!
Ben Siegel, CEO and co-founder of Scholars, joined us in a webinar where he talks about Scholars’s content and marketing strategy.
We edited this webinar into this week’s 25-minute episode.
Enjoy!
Show Notes 1:21 - Ben Siegel, CEO and Co-Founder of Scholars, talks about their decision to include content from the very start of their marketing strategy.
4:01 - How Scholars first began working with Growth Machine.
5:08 - The original content plan pivoted to support the direction Scholars was heading in, and from there, traffic saw an increase.
9:11 - The increase in traffic helped Scholars grow an email list of over 20,000 subscribers.
12:00 - Why Scholars decided to start their podcast The Internship Show, and how their podcast ties in with their overall marketing strategy.
15:44 - Ben discusses a few of Scholars’ customers and how they initially entered the sales funnel.
19:00 - What’s next for Scholars?
20:02 - Audience Q&A
Links: How a Recruiting Website Tripled Organic Traffic in 6 Months
Scholars (1:18)
Demand Curve (4:18)
The Writer Finder (4:48)
The Internship Show (12:00)
Growth Machine: https://growthmachine.com/
https://twitter.com/growthmachine__
Impulse purchases are just a story we tell ourselves.
Stewart Hillhouse, Head of Growth at Customer Camp, joins the show to tell us why. He explains: it’s actually a series of experiences that ultimately trigger customers to purchase. And in the end, “impulse purchase” is the excuse given in the event a purchase doesn’t work out.
Stew and I also discuss:
- Measuring success of his podcast
- What to know about Jobs To Be Done (JTBD) customer interviews
- How content fits into Customer Camps’ marketing strategy
- And some little-known facts about trees. Yes, trees.
Show Notes
0:54 - Stew shares how he made his switch from a career in forestry to a career in marketing.
4:17 - Podcasting as a form of networking.
5:01 - How Stew came to the decision to study forestry in college (and some bonus fun facts!).
9:20 - Stew talks about his role as Head of Audience Growth at Customer Camp, and the way that job title came to be.
14:33 - Customer Camp gives their clients concrete and actionable steps to improve their marketing campaigns.
18:29 - Conducting customer interviews. Why the buyer’s full journey is important in learning new insights on your product or service.
24:41 - Is there such a thing as an impulse buy? (See Stew’s Twitter thread)
29:42 - Stew takes us through his thought process behind his last major purchase.
33:04 - What Stew has learned from his last major purchase and whether his original need for the purchase was met.
35:03 - How content fits into the overall marketing strategy at Customer Camp.
39:41 - Measuring podcast success - why it’s essentially different depending on the type of podcast you’re creating.
43:38 - The future of marketing; with everything today being so screen-focused, what evolutions will we see in the upcoming years?
Links: Customer Camp (0:30)
OLIPOP (0:42)
Venture for Canada Program (2:39)
Charboys (16:31)
Stewart’s Twitter thread (24:41)
Peloton (25:53)
Stew’s takeaways from interview with Amanda (26:47)
WHOOP (32:19)
Imperfect Foods (38:34)
Top of Mind with Stewart Hillhouse (39:44)
Customer Show (39:46)
Connect with Stewart Hillhouse: https://stewarthillhouse.com/
https://customercamp.co/
https://twitter.com/stew_hillhouse
Growth Machine & Amanda Natividad: https://growthmachine.com/
https://twitter.com/growthmachine__
https://twitter.com/amandanat
If you work in content marketing, you know John Bonini. He’s the Director of Marketing at Databox, and he also owns the widely popular Some Good Content Patreon, where he distills expert yet tactical advice for content marketers at ever level.
He joined us on the show to discuss:
- How journalism informs good marketing
- Brand content that has a point of view (and why it matters)
- How content fuels marketing at Databox
- John’s strategy for the Metrics and Chill podcast
And more!
Show Notes 0:57 - John talks about how his learned lessons in journalism have carried over to his work in content marketing.
4:59 - Why point of view matters in the content you produce.
8:18 - How Google’s Penguin update (~2012) played a role in the evolution of content marketing.
12:36 - Growing your career in content marketing and the importance of finding a company that sees the value in your marketing efforts.
19:55 - Databox has been strategic in how they have scaled their outputs while ensuring they are all cohesive.
25:23 - John shares the strategy behind the Metrics and Chill podcast, and how they structure their episodes to align with the value of their product.
30:20 - A lot of the general content advice is overplayed. John ensures he delivers more usable information to his Patreon community.
34:17 - What excites John the most about content?
Links Databox (1:19)
Litmus (13:30)
Metrics and Chill (20:10)
John’s Patreon (30:24)
Clubhouse (35:40)
Connect with John Bonini: https://www.patreon.com/somegoodcontent
https://www.linkedin.com/in/jbonini/
https://twitter.com/Bonini84
Growth Machine & Amanda Natividad: https://growthmachine.com/
https://twitter.com/growthmachine__
https://twitter.com/amandanat
One of the questions we hear most is: How do you hire and manage content services when you yourself are not a content marketer or an editor?
Our very own VP of Content, Heather Leith, joins us today to answer that question. Heather manages our team of editors who publish over 100 articles per month for Growth Machine’s clients.
We chat about:
- A scalable way to properly learn brands’ various styles and voices
- Managing client expectations
- Advice for freelance writers
And much more!
Show Notes: 0:54 - VP of Content, Heather Leith, describes how the editorial team and processes at Growth Machine have evolved.
7:12 - SEO-informed writing and editing: What makes it different?
9:03 - How Growth Machine finds great writers for client projects.
11:27 - The process of discovering each client’s style and brand voice.
19:00 - How do our in-house editors work with our freelance writers to ensure each piece of content captures the style of the client?
20:54 - Client management and the importance of working through initial concerns from the client.
25:45 - Heather describes a common concern from new clients and how we typically address it.
28:39 - Price per word vs. price per article.
30:54 - Setting your prices as a freelance writer starts with being mindful of both your ideal rate and what the market is paying.
34:16 - In speed round style, Heather talks about red flags in a writer, how to prepare for hiring a content marketing agency, and what content managers need to be mindful of.
46:25 - Heather leaves her advice for business owners who are looking to outsource their SEO and content marketing efforts.
Links: The Writer Finder (9:23)
How We Hire Great Writers at Growth Machine (9:28)
How to Make a Content Style Guide (20:45)
Connect with Heather Leith: https://twitter.com/heatherleithal
Growth Machine & Amanda Natividad: https://growthmachine.com/
https://twitter.com/growthmachine__
https://twitter.com/amandanat
As soon as I began following SEO expert Kameron Jenkins’ work, it was clear to me how friendly and accessible she makes SEO to everyone at all levels.
So I was super excited to have her on the show. Kameron is now a content lead at Shopify and we got to talk about:
- Communicating the value of SEO to the c-suite
- Balancing a content strategy across short and long tail keywords
- Knowing when it’s time to refresh content
And lots more!
Show Notes 0:53 - Kameron talks about how she got into SEO and what Google’s changes in algorithm have taught her along the way.
4:51 - How Kameron’s experiences working on the agency side of things helped develop her expertise in SEO.
6:46 - Why invest in SEO, and how do you communicate that to your C-level officers?
9:19 - SEO can be just as attributable as paid ads.
10:30 - Kameron shares more about her current role as a Content Lead at Shopify.
13:15 - Short and long tail keywords. Investing in content that supports your brand.
17:49 - Setting traffic goals: It’s not always about more eyeballs to your offer, it’s about getting the right eyeballs to your offer.
20:28 - Should you date your content, and when is it time to refresh an existing post?
26:19 - Using link building to build your site’s authority and trust with Google.
29:56 - Kameron gives her recommendation on where you can host and manage your new site when starting out.
33:38 - The future of SEO.
Links Marketo (9:07)
Shopify (12:57)
Conde Nast (22:21)
Aleyda Solis’ Template (24:38)
HARO (27:33)
Wordpress (30:32)
Squarespace (30:55)
Wix (30:56)
Podia (31:50)
Substack (31:51)
Connect with Kameron Jenkins: https://twitter.com/Kammie_Jenkins
Growth Machine & Amanda Natividad: https://growthmachine.com/
https://twitter.com/growthmachine__
https://twitter.com/amandanat
There’s a three-step framework to user onboarding. And you can apply to your marketing efforts as well — to ensure that your brand is top of mind to your audience.
Adapted from psychologist BJ Fogg’s habit-forming framework, Ramli John, Managing Director and ProductLed and author of the new book, “Eureka,” explains how it applies to user onboarding journeys:
- Make it easy. (Create helpful content that can grow your organic traffic.)
- Increase motivation. (Explain the outcomes you give your customers.)
- Add prompts. (Remind customers of your value.)
Listen to the episode to learn how to apply it to your content and user onboarding strategy.
You’ll also learn:
- User onboarding done right
- The importance of saying “no”
- How Ramli secured his first podcast sponsorship for Growth Marketing Today.
You can read the first chapter of Ramli’s new book, “Eureka,” on ProductLed.com/Eureka.
Show Notes: 1:08 - Saying “no” to opportunities that don’t fit the direction you’re heading in.
5:40 - Ramli talks about the intersection of teaching and marketing and what his experience as a college professor has taught him.
8:58 - Human connection: Why successful podcasts are far more than just the numbers and stats behind it.
14:06 - Ramli talks about Growth Marketing Today’s LinkedIn sponsorship.
15:55 - Ramli talks about his upcoming book, Eureka, which is geared towards those looking to improve their user onboarding.
18:10 - What are the 3 key stages in user onboarding?
21:06 - How product marketers can help consumers reach their "Aha!" moments early on in the process.
24:50 - The critical role content plays in communicating value to customers.
30:50 - Ramli shares an example of a company who continues to provide value through the onboarding process.
32:45 - How does onboarding play into retention rates?
36:16 - It should be clear from the start the role each department plays in the onboarding process.
Links: Andrew Capland on LinkedIn - Work Horse vs. Show Horse (3:53)
Growth Marketing Today Podcast (9:00)
Positive Human - Marketing Lessons (10:10)
How I Built This Podcast (15:12)
ProductLed (16:44)
The Mom Test by Rob Fitzpatrick (17:08)
Product-Led Growth by Wes Bush (17:48)
Wave Accounting (22:36)
BJ Fogg's Behavior Model (25:50)
1st Chapter of Eureka (40:06)
Connect with Ramli John: https://twitter.com/RamliJohn
https://www.linkedin.com/in/ramlijohn/
https://productled.com/
https://growthtoday.fm/listen/
Growth Machine & Amanda Natividad: https://growthmachine.com/
https://twitter.com/growthmachine__
https://twitter.com/amandanat
Having grown dozens of brand new websites, we’ve never seen a smooth up-and-to-the-right chart of organic traffic growth.
Our theory is that this has to do with the Critical Authority Threshold, a threshold you cross after some combination of publishing regularly, link building, and patience. It usually takes six months.
Learn more about this theory in our 8-minute audio version of our blog post, “The Critical Authority Threshold: Why Patience Pays in SEO,” read by Amanda Natividad, Head of Marketing for Growth Machine.
Show Notes: 1:09 - The Critical Authority Threshold
2:10 - How to Cross the Critical Authority Threshold
4:39 - Why "No Results" Isn't "No Results"
5:29 - Quitting Early and the Critical Authority Threshold
6:46 - Analyzing Your Strategy: Is the CAT Holding You Back?
Links: The Critical Authority Threshold: Why Patience Pays in SEO
Link Building (2:16)
Tracking Metrics (4:59)
Publishing Cadence (5:05)
SEO Strategy (7:53)
Contact Growth Machine (8:25)
Find us on Twitter: Amanda Natividad: @amandanat
Growth Machine: @growthmachine__
There are two ways a company can carve out its differentiation: by out-innovating the competition, or by competing on your messaging. As categories become more crowded, brands nailing their messaging is going to become more important.
Peep Laja, CEO of Wynter, joins the show today to dive deeper into his marketing philosophies, and how Wynter is helping companies validate the effectiveness of their website copy — and in turn, scale their businesses.
We discussed…
- How Peep’s SEO background informs his outlook on marketing
- Uncovering blind spots in your copywriting
- One piece of marketing advice he would give his younger, data-driven self
...and so much more.
Show Notes:
1:16 - Differentiation can best be done in one of two ways...
4:39 - How Peep’s SEO knowledge informs his outlook on marketing.
8:38 - Having a strong point of view can lead to higher engagement and interest.
12:05 - Peep talks about his company, Wynter, and the copywriting problems they’re solving.
17:22 - Qualitative vs. quantitative data.
19:06 - You can improve your copywriting by uncovering “blind spots,” and knowing what the right problem to address is.
24:31 - Discovering what your selling point is and how to frame it.
27:27 - Why the delivery of your message is often more important than the channel.
28:35 - Peep shares his advice on the importance of brand.
33:20 - Differentiation vs. distinction. In what ways can you give your brand a competitive edge?
Links: Typeform (3:08)
Black Rifle Coffee (4:07)
CXL (5:05)
Wynter (6:14)
Wynter Games (8:07)
Connect with Peep Laja: https://peeplaja.com/
https://twitter.com/peeplaja
https://wynter.com/
Growth Machine & Amanda Natividad: https://growthmachine.com/
https://twitter.com/growthmachine__
https://twitter.com/amandanat
A viral loop within The Knot accomplishes something you’d never guess.
Their wedding style quiz gives brides and grooms-to-be suggested venues and style inspiration.
But it actually grows their B2B business with wedding vendors.
Learn more about this viral loop — and how you can create your own — in this 9-minute audio version of our blog post, “Create Viral Engagement Loops To Drive Customer Retention,” read by Amanda Natividad, Head of Marketing for Growth Machine.
Show Notes: 1:12 - What Is a Viral Loop, Anyway?
3:28 - How To Use Viral Engagement Loops To Grow Your Startup
6:33 - Types of Viral Loops: Choosing the Engagement Loop for Your Company
8:29 - Increase Virality Through Engagement Loops
Links: Amanda Goetz (0:45)
House of Wise (0:47)
#19 Amanda Goetz Tells You How to Tap into Your Superfans (0:56)
How we built a large team of freelancers (3:21)
wedding style & vision quiz (3:58)
How to Boost Email Signups by 528% With a Simple Quiz Funnel (7:49)
Finding Balance Between Content Creation and Distribution (8:15)
Contact Growth Machine (9:17)
Find us on Twitter: Amanda Natividad: @amandanat
Growth Machine: @growthmachine__
We’ll just say it up front: spend half your time creating, and half your time distributing.
In this 9-minute audio blog post, “Finding Balance Between Content Creation and Distribution” Amanda Natividad, Head of Marketing for Growth Machine, distills the expert content creation and distribution advice of Steph Smith, Head of Trends for The Hustle.
What makes Steph the expert? She published a wildly successful ebook — $40K in sales in a single month.
Show Notes: 0:59 - Content Distribution vs. Content Creation: Why Distribution Matters
2:04 - How Steph Smith Leveraged Content Distribution To Garner $40,000 in eBook Sales
5:17 - How To Develop an Effective Content Distribution Strategy
7:55 - Content Distribution vs. Content Creation: You Need Both To Reach Your Audience
Links: Original post: Finding Balance Between Content Creation and Distribution
Steph Smith (0:03)
#15 How Steph Smith Made $40K+ from Her Ebook in 1 Month (1:09)
Trends (1:21)
Steph's Twitter (3:03)
Growth Machine Marketing Podcast (3:22)
Growth Machine's Twitter (3:30)
Growth Machine's LinkedIn (3:30)
DTC Beverage Company Case Study (4:19)
Creating a Content Marketing Persona (5:53)
Repurposing a Longer Piece of Content (6:25)
Implementing an Effective SEO Strategy (6:57)
Inserting New Backlinks (7:42)
Contact us (8:47)
Find us on Twitter: Amanda: @amandanat
Growth Machine: @growthmachine__
YouTube is 16 years old. But it’s only recently that companies have realized the value in having a channel. One of those companies who has seen success? B2B app agency Headway.io.
Amanda Natividad, Head of Marketing for Growth Machine, talks with marketer Jacob Miller about how YouTube fits into Headway’s marketing strategy.
You don’t want to miss this episode because it’s not often you hear from a company who’s willing to share their secrets to YouTube success.
Show Notes: 1:18 - How marketing at Headway, an app design and development company, has evolved.
4:48 - CEO and marketing team alignment.
9:21 - Content for your ideal customer begins with understanding their ‘why’.
13:43 - Idea validation and gauging the value of your business ideas.
18:14 - How live events fit into Headway’s marketing strategy.
22:55 - Jacob talks about Headway’s YouTube channel growth: from 90 to 1,500 subscribers.
26:53 - YouTube has two purposes: entertainment and education.
30:56 - How companies can use YouTube to provide value to their viewers.
34:18 - Why follower count isn’t a great KPI for YouTube.
37:34 - Speed round: Jacob answers burning questions about YouTube channel setup.
Links: Headway (1:00)
Discord (21:02)
Product Hunt (21:09)
Headway’s Youtube Channel (22:49)
TubeBuddy (24:45)
Youtube Creator Academy (38:11)
Think Media Course (44:05)
Connect with Headway & Jacob Miller: https://www.headway.io/
https://www.youtube.com/headwayio
https://twitter.com/headwayio
https://twitter.com/kineticbear
Growth Machine & Amanda Natividad: https://growthmachine.com/
https://www.growthmachine.com/contact
https://twitter.com/growthmachine__
https://twitter.com/amandanat
In content marketing, you’re often told to find your niche — to carve a path through unchartered territory with a narrowly defined audience.
But what if instead, you zeroed in on your key differentiator? And THAT was your competitive edge?
In this 9-minute audio version of our blog post, “Don’t Find Your Niche — Find Your Key Differentiator,” Amanda Natividad, Head of Marketing for Growth Machine, dives deeper into this strategy.
Show Notes: 1:01 - What’s Your Key Differentiator?
5:20 - How To Find Your Key Differentiator: Defining Your Competitive Edge
8:38 - Your Key Differentiator Helps You Stand Out
Links: Original post: Don’t Find Your Niche — Find Your Key Differentiator
Steph Smith (0:14)
Trends (0:20)
The Hustle (0:20)
#15 How Steph Smith Made $40K+ from Her Ebook in 1 Month (0:31)
Zappos (1:16)
Chartr (1:19)
Standing Out in 2020: Doing Content Right (2:29)
How We Run Growth Machine (3:58)
How We Hire Great Writers at Growth Machine (4:01)
Steph's Goals (7:21)
How To Be Great (8:00)
How a Gig Economy Website Hit 100,000 Monthly Visitors in 6 Months (8:19)
Contact Growth Machine (9:20)
Find us on Twitter: Amanda: @amandanat
Growth Machine: @growthmachine__
Growth Machine’s Head of Marketing, Amanda Natividad, recently joined the Cart Overflow podcast hosted by Gen Furukawa.
We’re publishing this bonus episode here so you can learn about applying content marketing strategy to your company — no matter what stage of business you’re in.
Show notes: 1:22 - Amanda talks about how she joined Growth Machine.
3:40 - Missed opportunities in content marketing. Content should be sustainable and able to support all other areas of the business.
7:58 - The two-pronged approach: Choosing high volume, low difficulty keywords to grow organic traffic, and creating conversion-focused content for high-intent users.
13:51 - Amanda describes how Growth Machine is able to create content that’s in line with other brands’ style and demonstrates expertise in their respective niches.
17:14 - Creating content that is accessible and consumer-friendly.
20:13 - How you can use Ahrefs to increase traffic and rank higher, even if you’re not an expert in SEO.
24:11 - The “Critical Authority Threshold”: What is it, and how does it apply to content marketing?
27:15 - Amanda shares strategies for smaller marketing teams in how they can think about their content output and goals.
30:39 - When it comes to standing out among other brands, think about your key differentiator.
Check out the original episode with video: The “Us Vs. Them” Narrative & Other Content Frameworks to Stand Out, with Amanda Natividad
Links: Cart Overflow (0:48)
Nat Eliason (3:02)
The Writer Finder (15:01)
Clearscope (19:07)
Ahrefs (20:20)
Critical Authority Threshold (24:20)
Slice and Dice (34:08)
Growth Machine & Amanda Natividad: https://growthmachine.com/
https://www.growthmachine.com/contact
https://twitter.com/growthmachine__
https://twitter.com/amandanat
When you build a community, you create a space where real people discover answers to real problems.
In this 9-minute audio version of our blog post, “How to Build a Community Online,” Amanda Natividad, Head of Marketing for Growth Machine, explains how to build an online community and question of how to monetize it.
Show Notes: 0:56 - What Is an Online Community?
2:53 - How To Build an Online Community
6:51 - Can You Monetize an Online Community?
7:46 - Building an Online Community Starts With Authentic Conversations
Links: Tim Stoddart (0:26)
Copyblogger (0:34)
Sober Nation (0:35)
How to Succeed at SEO Without Tools (3:42)
The Tim Stodz Podcast (5:06)
#12 Tim Stoddart: The Key to Success is Being Specific (8:32)
#23 How Content and Community Empower Each Other (8:40)
Contact Growth Machine (8:54)
Find us on Twitter: Amanda Natividad: @amandanat
Growth Machine: @growthmachine__
If you have even the slightest interest in creating a movement, this is the episode for you. Amanda Natividad, Head of Marketing for Growth Machine, talks with Stew Fortier, Co-Founder of Compound Writing, about what it takes to build a successful community.
And it all starts with defining that community’s purpose. Doing that one thing ridiculously well.
We also discuss...
- Becoming a better writer
- Ensuring community discussions stay productive
- What’s next for the creator economy
- TED Talks’ laser focus on its talks
Show Notes: 0:52 - Stew tells how his projects, particularly his writing community Compound Writing, are driven by his interests.
5:35 - About Compound Writing and its cohort structure.
11:04 - Being inclined to write vs. being inclined to publish.
14:27 - The role of link building in Compound Writing.
19:42 - How the Compound community’s feedback supports others’ writing.
24:10 - What does it take to create a community that’s both positive and focused on the workflow?
31:46 - When to create a new Slack channel (and when you probably shouldn’t).
34:58 - Do one thing ridiculously well: the importance of sticking to your intention.
38:21 - What’s next for the creator economy.
41:05 - Recommended tools for writing online.
44:33 - Some of Stew’s favorite online writers and newsletter recommendations.
Links: Compound Writing (0:55)
Marie Poulin of Notion Mastery (1:22)
30 Day Writing Challenge (11:15)
TED Conferences (35:15)
Medium (38:33)
Substack (38:42)
Patreon (38:43)
Gumroad (38:43)
WordPress (41:57)
ConvertKit (42:00)
Sara Campbell - Tiny Revolutions (44:52)
Tom White - White Noise (45:40)
Nick deWilde - The Jungle Gym (46:21)
Connect with Stew Fortier: https://twitter.com/stewfortier
https://stewfortier.com/
https://www.compoundwriting.com/
Growth Machine & Amanda Natividad: https://growthmachine.com/
https://www.growthmachine.com/contact
https://twitter.com/growthmachine__
https://twitter.com/amandanat
I don’t know who needs to hear this, but you’re not getting enough out of your content.
In this 10-minute audio version of our blog post, “How to Repurpose Content Without Sounding Redundant,” Amanda Natividad, Head of Marketing for Growth Machine, explains the art of repurposing your content, and getting the most bang for your buck.
Show Notes: 2:01 - 3 reasons why you should repurpose your content.
5:20 - Tried and true ways to repurpose content.
7:50 - Use data & insights to figure out where to start.
9:22 - Ultimately, repurposing your content is meeting your audience where they are.
Links: Blog post: How to Repurpose Content Without Sounding Redundant
How to Attract Customers, Not Just Readers (2:17)
Episode #14 Content Has 4 Goals (And They’re Not What You Think) (2:58)
Wavve (5:42)
ConvertKit (8:49)
Contact Growth Machine (10:12)
Find us on Twitter: Amanda Natividad: @amandanat
Growth Machine: @growthmachine__
How meta: a podcast about podcasting. If you’re thinking of launching your own show, start here. Amanda Natividad, Head of Marketing for Growth Machine, talks with Tristan Pelligrino, Co-founder of Motion, a done-for-you B2B podcast agency.
We talk about:
- Why your podcast needs a theme statement
- Metrics to track
- 3 phases of podcast content
- Motion’s new podcasting course!
...and we do a speed round of podcast FAQs.
And good news: Growth Machine listeners get an exclusive offer for Motion’s B2B podcast course! Simply use code GM30 at checkout to get 30% off.
Show notes: 1:03 - What does it mean to have a done-for-you podcasting service?
3:58 - How transparency leads to trust.
8:24 - Creating your ‘theme statement’ starts with two questions: Who are you trying to help and where do they want to go?
11:46 - You’re not the hero of the story. Womp womp.
16:39 - The importance of genuine curiosity towards crafting each episode.
20:45 - Which metrics are most important when tracking the success of your podcast, and what about metrics that are immeasurable?
26:28 - Setting short-term and long-term KPI goals when you’re starting from scratch.
28:52 - Getting the most out of your podcast content through 3 phases: repurposing, distribution, and enrichment.
30:47 - The importance of consistency.
35:42 - Playing into different ways of interacting with your audience and guests to complement the traditional format of the podcast.
39:54 - In speed round style, Tristan answers all the getting-started podcast questions you’ve always wanted to ask.
Want Motion’s B2B course? Growth Machine listeners get an exclusive offer! Use code GM30 at checkout to get 30% off.
Links: Motion Agency (1:05)
Tech Qualified podcast with Jay Acunzo (8:44)
Nudge Podcast (10:51)
Google Analytics (22:24)
Buzzsprout (26:46)
Clubhouse (33:51)
Microphone recommendations on Motion’s site (40:40)
Squadcast (42:04)
Riverside (42:16)
Descript (44:10)
Motion Agency's podcast course [use code GM30!] (48:20)
Connect with Tristan Pelligrino: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tristanpelligrino/
https://twitter.com/tpelligrino
https://motionagency.io/
Growth Machine & Amanda Natividad: https://growthmachine.com/
https://www.growthmachine.com/contact
https://twitter.com/growthmachine__
https://twitter.com/amandanat
The beauty of content marketing is the foundational role it plays across all other marketing efforts. B2B SaaS content expert Adrienne Barnes joins us today to tell us all about that and:
- Writing your best hook
- How your customers’ language should kick off your keyword strategy
- Reaching out to your greatest enemies for feedback
Show Notes: 5:21 - A quick detour: Prioritizing physical and mental health.
8:45 - Adrienne shares her new writing habits.
11:52 - Writing process for clients vs. personal writing process.
16:43 - Where is it best to place your hook, the beginning or end of the writing piece?
20:28 - Why B2B SaaS.
22:52 - You can better serve others when you deeply understand their needs.
24:42 - Content marketing is multi-tiered: engagement, brand awareness, product marketing.
27:38 - How both “relational analysis keywords” and SEO keywords fit together.
31:39 - Building buyer personas.
35:33 - Strategies to approaching your greatest enemies to get feedback.
37:41 - Content marketing and retention.
42:18 - Create a solution for your customers before they face that given problem.
42:51 - KPIs and measuring success should be driven by your goals.
Links: Atomic Habits (0:55)
Oura Ring (6:15)
750 Words (10:45)
Buffer (32:08)
Monday (38:42)
Adrienne's Website (45:01)
Adrienne’s Twitter (45:07)
Best Buyer Persona
Connect with Adrienne Barnes: https://twitter.com/adriennenakohl
https://www.adriennenakohl.com/
https://bestbuyerpersona.com/
Growth Machine & Amanda Natividad: https://growthmachine.com/
https://www.growthmachine.com/contact
https://twitter.com/growthmachine__
https://twitter.com/amandanat
It’s hard to start a website from scratch. And one of our clients wanted to break 100,000 monthly visitors as soon as possible. In this 7-minute audio case study, “How a Gig Economy Website Hit 100,000 Monthly Visitors in 6 Months,” Amanda Natividad, Head of Marketing for Growth Machine, breaks down how.
If you want to learn even more about this informational site case study, be sure to check out our interview episode with Growth Machine CEO Nora Schlesinger.
Show Notes:
1:05 - We focused on SEO optimization from day one
2:09 - We planned and created a ton of content prior to launch
3:35 - “Scorching the earth” paid off
4:52 - We co-created milestones of success
5:50 - It wasn’t “set it and forget it”
6:28 - Outcomes and next steps
Links:
How a Gig Economy Website Hit 100,000 Monthly Visitors in 6 Months
Our podcast episode on this case study (1:01)
The Step-by-Step Guide to Setting Your Blog Up for SEO Success (2:06)
How to Find Great Target Keywords for Your Content (4:48)
Check out our free 7-part series (7:22)
Contact Growth Machine (7:31)
Find us on Twitter:
Amanda: @amandanat
Growth Machine: @growthmachine__
When it comes to organic growth and customer retention, Kristen LaFrance, Head of Resilient Retail for Shopify, is one of the best and brightest. Today, we talk about:
- Nailing all those customer touchpoints
- The one huge advantage brick and mortar stores have over ecommerce
- And what ecommerce touchpoint has a 100% open rate
Show Notes: 1:07 - One channel vs. many in organic growth.
4:38 - How Kristen went from total introvert to all-in podcast host.
7:56 - The story behind the Resilient Retail podcast.
13:17 - The meaning of resilience — told through 2 local businesses’ Covid struggles
20:44 - How communities rallied around to save small businesses.
23:25 - What is micro retail and what insights can it provide to ecommerce-only brands?
30:01 - Retention marketing strategies.
32:47 - Subscription businesses. How can you make it more valuable to the customer than just the product they’re subscribing for?
36:39 - Now more than ever, consumers are looking for a true experience.
40:05 - Content is the vehicle for customer engagement, and engagement drives retention.
42:20 - The advantage in-store retailers have over ecommerce stores.
45:31 - The advantage ecommerce stores have over in-store retailers who are moving online.
48:06 - It’s not fluff: why you need a brand declaration
Links: Resilient Retail (4:08)
Churn Buster (4:46)
Playing for Keeps Podcast (4:48)
TC Running Company (16:26)
Great Lakes Brewery (18:08)
Shopify (23:32)
Customer Acquisition vs. Retention: A battle for DTC Brand Focus (30:45)
BarkBox (35:07)
BarkBox Instagram (42:17)
Universal Standard (43:34)
Connect with Kristen LaFrance: https://twitter.com/kdlafrance
https://www.kristenlafrance.com/
Growth Machine & Amanda Natividad: https://growthmachine.com/
https://www.growthmachine.com/contact
https://twitter.com/growthmachine__
https://twitter.com/amandanat
A style guide isn’t just for design or brand teams to ensure consistency. It can apply to other teams too — especially content marketing teams, where there are various creative stakeholders involved. In this 13-minute audio version of our blog post, “From Grammar Tips to Business Goals: How to Make a Content Style Guide,” Amanda Natividad, Head of Marketing for Growth Machine, walks you through the most useful elements of a style guide. Plus, you can even use our template as your starting point.
Show Notes:
1:48 - Define best practices for SEO and blog post structure
7:57 - Nip common mistakes in the bud with grammar guidance
9:37 - Be specific about your unique style principles
10:25 - Explain how your content ties to your business goals
12:48 - Use our style guide template
Links:
From Grammar Tips to Business Goals: How to Make a Content Style Guide
How We Hire Great Writers at Growth Machine (0:30)
How We Run Growth Machine (0:33)
Notion (1:15)
How to Find 100+ Great Keywords in Less than 1 Hour (2:48)
Google's reference page (5:35)
Active vs. Passive Voice (6:40)
U.S. literacy rate (6:55)
Hemingway (7:12)
Readable (7:24)
Grammarly (7:43)
Cheat sheet to AP Style (8:37)
How a Gig Economy Website Hit 100,000 Monthly Visitors in 6 Months (9:05)
Find us on Twitter:
Amanda: @amandanat
Growth Machine: @growthmachine__
This isn’t a salesy episode. But it kind of is. Growth Machine’s Head of Sales & New Client Strategy, Nathan Daly, joins the show to talk about FAQs from our clients and gives advice for how you can vet the agencies you hire. We also talk about how content marketing should fit into your overall business strategy.
Show Notes: 1:04 - Nathan shares how he prepares for client calls.
3:37 - What types of businesses contact Growth Machine?
8:00 - Indicators of a successful prospect call.
9:20 - Guidance for people in vetting agencies.
11:25 - The role content plays in multi-step conversions.
16:27 - Content should never be a “Hail Mary” or a “silver bullet”.
19:50 - First-touch, last-touch, and multi-touch attribution.
22:46 - In speed round style, Nathan answers Growth Machine sales FAQs.
28:56 - Amanda asks Nathan the questions he wishes he heard more often.
32:02 - Why investing in high-quality content is better in the long run for your business.
Links: Ahrefs (1:25)
Moz (1:29)
6 Red Flags to Look for When Hiring a Content or Marketing Agency (9:31)
The Writer Finder (24:59)
How We Hire Great Writers at Growth Machine (27:10)
Contact Growth Machine
Growth Machine: https://growthmachine.com/
https://www.growthmachine.com/contact
https://twitter.com/growthmachine__
https://twitter.com/amandanat
Here’s the problem with most buyer personas: they’re too general to actually be useful to individuals on your marketing team. In this 11-minute audio version of our blog post, “Unlocking Great Content: How to Create a Content Marketing Persona,” Amanda Natividad, Head of Marketing for Growth Machine, walks you through creating a persona that works best for your content creation efforts.
Show Notes:
2:03 - What You Need in a Content Marketing Persona
6:38 - Create Your Content Marketing Persona
10:05 - Summary: What are the steps in building your content marketing persona?
Links:
Buyer persona (0:37)
Increase conversions (2:22)
Zapier’s blog (3:17)
Viewers vs. customers (5:57)
Contact Growth Machine (11:07)
Find us on Twitter:
Amanda: @amandanat
Growth Machine: @growthmachine__
This episode is all about marketing automation and operations. So we talked to the best of the best: Darrell Alfonso, who runs the show at Amazon Web Services (AWS).
Show Notes: 1:10 - Darrell shares what marketing looks like in his role at Amazon Web Services (AWS).
3:52 - Honing a skill set in marketing automation.
9:50 - How marketing operations is different across businesses.
15:42 - Automation tools at AWS and other large companies, and how smaller companies can get the most out of their marketing automation and CRM platforms.
19:32 - You don’t need the newest tools and tech to personalize your messaging.
24:04 - One thing you need for segmentation and personalization.
25:56 - When one thing is broken in your system, how can you respond?
30:31 - Creating content on LinkedIn.
39:38 - Darrell’s advice for staying sharp and growing your marketing skills.
Links: Amazon Web Services (1:20)
Marketo (2:25)
HubSpot (8:25)
Pardot (8:27)
Asana (15:58)
Zapier (16:00)
Airtable (16:05)
Darrell’s Linkedin (30:31)
Connect with Darrell Alfonso: https://www.linkedin.com/in/darrellalfonso
https://twitter.com/DemandDarrell
Growth Machine & Amanda Natividad: https://growthmachine.com/
https://www.growthmachine.com/contact
https://twitter.com/growthmachine__
https://twitter.com/amandanat
It all started in a pub.
Last summer, Christina Pashialis organized a casual meetup for UK-based content marketers.
She mobilized the group on Twitter and LinkedIn, and as followup, she set up a Slack community for everyone to stay in touch.
That group evolved into the ContentUK community, which Christina now manages full time.
Today, she talks with us about community engagement and retention, and how content and community can and should feed into each other to create a virtuous cycle.
Show Notes:
0:50 - The understated advantages to webinars over podcasts.
3:56 - How can content support community building?
9:21 - Being specific with your niche.
10:10 - Do things that don’t scale: community engagement, retention, and growth.
14:12 - How to track success and engagement metrics in your community.
17:32 - Monetizing your community.
19:55 - Rules and guidelines within the community.
24:06 - Advice on content distribution.
30:29 - The value you get from free and paid communities.
Connect with Christina Pashialis:
https://twitter.com/christina_p
https://www.christina-pashialis.com/
https://www.contentuk.co/
Growth Machine & Amanda Natividad:
https://growthmachine.com/
https://www.growthmachine.com/contact
https://twitter.com/growthmachine__
https://twitter.com/amandanat
Full show notes on the Growth Machine Marketing Podcast page (https://www.growthmachine.com/podcast).
Sometimes we see immediate results with our clients. For a direct-to-consumer beverage company, we started ranking for keywords right away. By Month 3, we grew organic traffic to 8,000 monthly visitors — up 4x from 2,000.
And we’re able to attribute over $1,000 per month from a single blog post.
In this 8-minute audio version of our case study, “How a D2C Beverage Company Grew 4x in Search Traffic in 3 Months,” Amanda Natividad, Head of Marketing for Growth Machine, gives you the full story.
Show Notes:
1:30 Pinpointing a Niche to Unlock SEO Success
4:07 Creating Evergreen Content — in a Timely Way
5:43 Content Marketing as One Piece in the Sales Puzzle
6:40 A Two-Pronged Approach: Bringing in Leads and Converting Them Into Customers
8:00 What Can This Mean for You?
Links:
Original article: How a D2C Beverage Company Grew 4x in Search Traffic in 3 Months
How We Run Growth Machine (1:47)
Creating the Content (1:55)
Critical Authority Threshold (3:00)
Nielson Report (4:22)
Conversion-focused Keywords (7:05)
Contact Growth Machine (8:32)
Find us on Twitter:
Amanda: @amandanat
Growth Machine: @growthmachine__
What does it mean to be a more prolific marketer?
It means creating a marketing flywheel for yourself — so you can work smarter, not harder.
When Corey Haines took on the Head of Growth role at Baremetrics, he spent the first two months digging into customer research. Gaining a deep understanding of his customers meant he didn’t have to guess what they wanted. Customer research as the foundation of his marketing flywheel.
In today’s episode, Corey also talks about creating Swipe Files, the curated library of detailed marketing examples and membership-based community for marketers.
Good news for you: Growth Machine fans get 50% off Swipe Files memberships! Simply sign up on SwipeFiles.co, reply to the Welcome email mentioning this special offer, and Corey will process your discount.
Show Notes:
6:01 - How can you apply the ‘Briefcase Technique’ when looking for a marketing job?
12:04 - Customer marketing, retention, and understanding customer pain points.
15:06 - Customer research as a marketing flywheel.
28:06 - The origin story of Swipe Files.
36:13 - Everything is Marketing: Corey’s new podcast!
41:18 - Podcast teardown. What are Corey and Amanda’s current favorite podcasts?
Connect with Corey Haines:
https://www.coreyhaines.co/
https://www.swipefiles.co/
https://twitter.com/coreyhainesco
Growth Machine & Amanda Natividad:
https://growthmachine.com/
https://www.growthmachine.com/contact
https://twitter.com/growthmachine__
https://twitter.com/amandanat
--
Full show notes on the Growth Machine Marketing Podcast page (https://www.growthmachine.com/podcast).
--
Get 50% off your Swipe Files membership: Sign up on SwipeFiles.co, reply to the Welcome email mentioning this special offer, and Corey will process your discount.
In this 11-minute audio version of our blog post, “How to Attract Customers, Not Just Readers,” Amanda Natividad, Head of Marketing for Growth Machine, explains how to create content that drives your readers to purchase — in a way that isn’t spammy or salesy.
Show Notes:
1:39 - First, uncover the true needs of your customer
5:58 - Try these 4 frameworks for conversion-focused content
9:44 - 3 ways to get started today
Links:
Blog post: How to Attract Customers, Not Just Readers
300% More Sales in 2 Months (2:04)
Buyer Personas (3:08)
Kinsta (4:15)
WP Engine (4:!5)
Gong (6:27)
The #1 Signal All Winning Deals Have In Common (6:44)
Kinsta Comparison Post (7:05)
WP Engine Comparison Post (7:05)
Liftopia’s Holiday Gift Guide (7:55)
Zendesk (8:58)
How We Run Growth Machine (9:20)
Contact Growth Machine (10:48)
It typically makes sense to create a content strategy based on high volume keywords.
But for Doopoll, an online survey company, publishing content based on low volume, high intent keywords was the silver bullet. One of their articles converts 20% of website visitors.
Marc Thomas, co-founder & CEO of Doopoll, and curator of B2B SaaS newsletter Positive Hüman, used our Wiki strategy to level up his content. He explained all this and more in this episode.
Show Notes:
0:37 - What is Doopoll and how can this tool be used?
2:55 - Marc shares how he originally got into B2B marketing, and how Doopoll came to be.
7:13 - How Doopoll was built to solve common pain points with giving feedback.
10:14 - How customer research should inform your product.
15:40 - How customer service is viewed at Doopoll.
17:33 - The chicken and egg question of GTM strategy and customer research.
20:23 - The surprising niche of Doopoll.
24:53 - Growing organic traffic through pain-point SEO.
26:24 - How Doopoll utilized low volume, high intent keywords and search terms to increase conversion rates.
29:20 - Creating authority through content.
35:16 - Evergreen content done in a timely way.
37:21 - How Doopoll got 150+ free backlinks with PR.
41:22 - Aligning with current issues and trends while staying personable.
You can keep getting great B2B content and marketing insights from his newsletter, Positive Hüman.
Links:
Doopoll (0:37)
Demand Curve’s Growth Training Program (4:59)
Slido (32:51)
Evergreen content (34:48) (Example of Growth Machine creating evergreen content for a client)
HARO (36:11)
Read the Room - Rand Fishkin (42:15)
Positive Hüman
Find us on Twitter:
Marc Thomas: @iammarcthomas
Amanda Natividad: @amandanat
Growth Machine: @growthmachine__
Public relations is an art. And incorporating a PR strategy into your blog can be tough to do. You want to make sure your news & announcement-related blog posts are still adding value to your readers.
In this 9-minute audio version of our blog post, “How to Use Your Company Blog for PR & News (the Right Way),” Amanda Natividad, Head of Marketing for Growth Machine, shows you how.
Show Notes:
1:35 - How to know: press release or blog post?
4:23 - How company news should fit within your content strategy
6:00 - How to write that news-y blog post
Links:
How to Use Your Company Blog for PR & News (the Right Way)
How to Get Executive Buy-in for Content Marketing (0:06)
PR Newswire (0:36)
Business Wire (0:37)
4 Signs You’re Ready for Link Building (1:06)
First Round Review (5:06)
Zendesk’s Blog (5:24)
Ahrefs' Red-highlighted Boxes (8:32)
Charts of Glycemic Responses (8:41)
Growth Machine on Twitter (9:26)
Contact Growth Machine (9:31)
Find us on Twitter:
Amanda: @amandanat
Growth Machine: @growthmachine__
If there’s one thing you take away from this episode, it’s the importance of following attribution all the way to the end of the funnel.
Katie Mitchell, Head of Marketing at UserLeap, is a seasoned marketer with nearly a decade of experience at brands like Campbell Soup, PBS, EVERFI, and more. She joined the podcast to discuss:
- Creating on LinkedIn: It's a platform that's trying to get people to create more content — and so it rewards content, not people with followers.
- Early stage hiring: Katie is thinking about brand marketing priorities and improving the user experience for UserLeap first.
- Common mistakes in attribution: Advice for demand generation or performance marketers: make sure to look at total customer acquisition cost (CAC).
We also discussed Katie’s marketing influences, and how she thinks less of work/life balance and more about work/life integration.
Show Notes:
0:58 - Katie talks about how she grew her LinkedIn following to over 13,000.
5:15 - On LinkedIn, good content wins.
7:10 - Publishing content is ultimately how you learn about your audience and customers.
9:24 - Individual and company profiles on LinkedIn, and how they differ in their strategies.
12:24 - What does it take to be consistent with quality posts?
16:36 - LinkedIn as both a distribution channel and content platform.
17:40 - The long shelf-life of content, and why it’s okay to republish your content.
20:09 - How UserLeap continuously collects user insights to inform product teams.
25:16 - Paid advertising and the common problem with attribution.
30:58 - Are you relationship-focused vs. results-driven?
32:56 - Katie describes her marketing superpower and work-life integration.
38:26 - Tips for remaining productive. Katie shares a few of her favorite resources.
Links:
UserLeap (7:42)
Devin Reed from Gong (10:13)
Dave Gerhardt (15:13)
Chris Walker (15:25)
Hubspot (24:45)
Ryan Bonnici - CMO at G2 (31:16)
The GrowthTLDR Podcast (40:32)
Dave Gerhardt’s Marketing Group (40:51)
Demand Gen Live (41:06)
Find us on Twitter:
Katie Mitchell: @ksmitchell86
Amanda Natividad: @amandanat
Growth Machine: @growthmachine__
If you want to listen to only one podcast about brand marketing, this is the one.
Amanda Goetz spent more than five years at The Knot, helping to grow the wedding juggernaut into the household name it is today.
She’s now the Chief Marketing Officer for Teal, and she’s starting up her own luxury CBD company for women, House of Wise. In this episode we cover…
- Building a community on Twitter
- A hot take on net promoter scores
- The beauty of building viral loops into your product
- A sneak peek of Amanda’s semi-stealth startup, House of Wise
Show Notes:
0:51 - Curating your Twitter feed and utilizing Twitter to build your network.
5:45 - Forming personal connections on social media. (Hint: vulnerability)
9:35 - Why values and connections are key in brand-building.
13:51 - Most companies fail in their retention strategy.
17:10 - Strategies for finding your superfans or loyalists and using their feedback.
20:24 - NPS and use of data from consumers.
22:30 - A brand/product secret: building viral loops into your product.
28:20 - Amanda shares her initial thoughts on marketing strategy for her own startup
31:18 - Middle management and how senior leadership can support their growth.
38:13 - How do you come to an agreement with someone who is “strong but wrong?”
Links:
How To Build a Community Online
Growing your Twitter following - Amanda Goetz YouTube (0:51)
Fast (14:02)
Matthew Kobach tweet (14:05)
The Knot (22:33)
Drybar - Alli Webb (30:21)
Find us on Twitter:
Amanda Goetz: @AmandaMGoetz
Amanda Natividad: @amandanat
Growth Machine: @growthmachine__
This is a must-listen for every in-house content marketer or marketing leader who’s thinking about investing in content. In this 10-minute audio version of our blog post, “How to Get Executive Buy-in for Content Marketing,” Amanda Natividad, Head of Marketing for Growth Machine, helps you make the case.
Show Notes
1:14 Show the Missed Opportunity
3:01 Make a Case for PR Announcements and Owning the Traffic
4:43 Enhance the Customer Experience
6:23 Create Value With Business Partners
7:30 Enable Your Sales Team
8:26 Once You Have Buy-In, Collaborate on KPIs
Links
Original post: How to Get Executive Buy-in for Content Marketing
Setting up a blog (1:18)
WordPress themes (2:13)
Traffic projection spreadsheet (2:27)
PR Newswire (3:15)
Ahrefs (4:54)
Zapier (4:55)
Zapier's recent blog post (5:13)
Levels (5:45)
Corinne Watson Podcast episode (7:19)
Growth Machine case study (8:02)
SEO-focused metrics for success (9:07)
Contact Growth Machine (9:56)
Find us on Twitter:
Amanda: @amandanat
Growth Machine: @growthmachine__
If you’re looking for a masterclass in direct-to-consumer marketing, start here.
Ecommerce coach Austin Brawner has helped over 200 ecommerce brands — like Ancient Nutrition, Kettle & Fire, and MVMT Watches — grow to eight-figure businesses.
In this episode, we discuss:
- Special offers: Why gift cards to your own store are better than discount codes
- KPIs: How to use KPIs to foster your long-term marketing strategy
- Effective social media ads: Creative that fits in natively with the platform but also stands out
- Black Friday Cyber Monday: How it’s poised to be a logistics nightmare and how you can set yourself up for success
Show Notes:
0:36 - Austin talks about his work as an Ecommerce Business Coach, and why that title best suits the services he provides to clients.
4:55 - Challenges clients often face while managing their budget in relation to their growth.
6:48 - Allocation of marketing spend: when should you start diversifying across different channels?
9:44 - Demand generation vs. demand capture. Importance of knowing the fundamentals of the platform you are advertising on.
15:42 - Coupon codes and special offers have become not only common but expected in ecommerce today; ways to track performance and cost effectiveness of your offer.
20:29 - How price points can increase the consumer’s desire for a product.
24:48 - Pricing dynamic in subscription-based businesses.
30:17 - Customer acquisition cost in organic vs. paid traffic.
32:43 - Key performance indicators in email marketing. Long-term thinking.
38:14 - What the upcoming holiday season may bring for ecommerce stores and brands.
43:08 - Be sure to check out Austin’s website Brand Growth Experts and podcast, Ecommerce Influence.
Links:
Austin’s community (join here) (16:30)
Honest Company (26:15)
Winc (26: 22)
Four Sigmatic Coffee (27:04)
ARPU (28:20)
Electric SMS (28:22)
Recharge (28:25)
Austin's coaching business: Brand Growth Experts
Austin's podcast: Ecommerce Influence
Find us on Twitter:
Austin: @a_brawn
Amanda: @amandanat
Growth Machine: @growthmachine__
Few would disagree that link building helps build your site’s authority. In this 12-minute audio version of our blog post, “4 Signs You're Ready for Link Building,” Amanda Natividad, Head of Marketing for Growth Machine, breaks down how to know you need it.
Show Notes:
2:39 - When you have something worth linking to
3:43 - When you’ve optimized content production
5:02 - When you change your URL or rebrand
6:18 - When you’re in a competitive niche or need faster results
9:02 - Different ways to do link building
12:04 - The positive feedback loop
Links:
Ski-related Zoom backgrounds (1:05)
The Washington Post article (1:06)
Webflow University (4:56)
Ahrefs (5:22)
Moz (5:23)
How Growth Machine does link building (9:06)
Backlinko’s Technique (9:40)
Dead Link Checker (10:36)
Ahrefs’ Broken Link Checker (10:38)
Buzzfeed Food (11:16)
Foodbeast (11:17)
Help a Reporter Out (11:27)
Publishing SEO-Optimized Content (12:08)
Hire Growth Machine (12:26)
Find us on Twitter:
Amanda: @amandanat
Growth Machine: @growthmachine__
Whether you’re a business owner, retailer, freelancer, or copywriter — Ecommerce Expert and Writer Kaleigh Moore has advice for you.
There are lots lessons to unpack, such as:
- How to ask for (and get!) a seat at the table
- Building a personal brand by being authentic and curious
- Improving your writing skills by being open to fierce questions from an editor
- Hot takes and trends in the e-commerce space — especially in time for Black Friday and Cyber Monday.
Show Notes
1:01 - How to adapt your writing style to match the tone of your work and align with your goals.
3:32 - Utilizing feedback from your editor in order to strengthen your writing.
5:02 - Kaleigh talks about the path to making her freelance work sustainable, and how her mindset has shifted from the start of her journey.
8:35 - Why authenticity and storytelling is important in building your personal brand. Sticking to your message and mission.
15:08 - Engaging with your audience, tapping into resources from your followers, and receiving consumer feedback.
22:09 - Kaleigh shares her process for networking and marketing herself.
25:51 - How to be strategic in educating and “activating” your subscribers for more engagement with your email content.
27:56 - Kaleigh tells her story of how she went from a student of Creative Class to a co-teacher along with course creator, Paul Jarvis.
29:56 - Opportunities in ecommerce and retail for eco-friendly products, and the higher price tag that comes with sustainable goods.
35:38 - Over-saturation of the eco-friendly market. Are companies jumping on board because it makes them look good or does it actually align with their mission?
37:17 - The current trends in the market, and why companies should focus on their core product rather than dipping into multiple industries or niches.
42:56 - How Black Friday and Cyber Monday may be different this year for both companies and consumers.
44:40 - Check out Kaleigh’s resources and templates for writers and freelancers, and follow Kaleigh on Twitter here!
Links:
Creative Class with Paul Jarvis (0:27)
MailChimp (22:19)
Convertkit (22:20)
Kaleigh’s newsletter (25:30)
Creative Class, a podcast for freelancers (28:31)
Haus (39:21)
Brightland (39:56)
Find us on Twitter:
Kaleigh: @kaleighf
Amanda: @amandanat
Growth Machine: @growthmachine__
In this 9-minute audio version of our blog post, “How to Succeed at SEO Without Tools,” Amanda Natividad, Head of Marketing for Growth Machine, explores the idea of creating successful content by using Google Search and focusing on the reader experience.
Show Notes
0:54 - Use these tricks to figure out if there’s an SEO opportunity
2:10 - Generate keyword ideas
2:50 - Learn how to create good content
6:18 - Focus on creating valuable link-worthy content
7:37 - Share, don’t promote
8:56 - The bottom line is...
Links:
Question from Twitter (0:02)
Growth Machine Podcast Episode 8 (0:14)
How to Find Great Target Keywords (0:40)
Ahrefs (1:00)
Mangools (1:01)
Cup and Leaf case study (8:36)
Help A Reporter Out (HARO) (8:41)
Contact Growth Machine (9:30)
How are you being proactive about your content strategy?
Growth Machine’s Nora Schlesinger (Chief Operating Office) and Amanda Natividad (Head of Marketing) talk about the importance of banking your content ahead of the holiday season.
We cover:
- Which topics should expect higher traffic during the holidays
- How to plan out your content
- The balance of maximizing the holiday season and setting up your content for success
Show Notes:
0:58 - Planning content in advance and the potential for business growth, especially during the holiday season.
5:43 - When is it best to ramp up your content? How niches may thrive in different times throughout the calendar year.
10:38 - Burnout can be common - it’s important to know when you can slow down the pace of your content.
14:06 - Banking content in advance to allow for a reset or breaks for the holiday season.
15:36 - The process of planning your content. Nora talks about what that looks like at Growth Machine.
20:01 - Clients’ perceptions of the content schedule around the holiday season.
22:08 - Nora shares how she schedules and prepares content for her personal blog, A Clean Bake.
27:29 - How concerned should business owners be about content during the holiday season?
Links:
- A Clean Bake (0:22)
- Asana (19:16)
- How We Run Growth Machine
Find us on Twitter:
- Amanda: @amandanat
- Growth Machine: @growthmachine__
In this 14-minute mini episode, Amanda Natividad, Head of Marketing for Growth Machine, does an audio version of our blog post, “6 Red Flags to Look for When Hiring a Content or Marketing Agency.” Consider this a list of all the things she wishes someone told her in her eight years of managing marketing agencies.
Show Notes
1:24 - Red Flag #1: Saying they can do it all
3:05 - Red Flag #2: Referring to proprietary key performance indicators
5:31 - Red Flag #3: Hesitating to give you advice
7:38 - Red Flag #4: Being “yes” people
9:54 - Red Flag #5: Not asking you about your audience
11:14 - Red Flag #6: Being vague about their fees
Links:
6 Red Flags to Look for When Hiring a Content or Marketing Agency
Firebell (1:48)
How We Run Growth Machine (2:12)
Growth Machine's Link Building (2:15)
Side projects (2:30)
Key Performance Indicators for SEO-Focused Content Marketing (4:46)
Free seven-part email course (6:17)
How We Hire Great Writers at Growth Machine (11:10) (Or, listen to the previous mini episode!)
Contact us (14:29)
Steph Smith doesn’t want you to read her book from beginning to end.
And if there’s a chapter that doesn’t apply to you? Skip it.
In her new ebook, “Standing Out in 2020: Doing Content Right,” Steph takes her learnings of content creation and distribution — from her years of leading content at Toptal and now leading Trends at The Hustle — and distills them into actionable advice.
Aside from her book, we discussed:
- The myth about successful content creators
- Figuring out your true differentiator
- How to reframe your view of SEO
Show Notes:
0:48 - How Steph is ensuring readers get value from their purchase.
5:45 - "Doing Content Right" live sessions.
9:08 - Strategies for distribution and launching an ebook.
14:25 - The importance of building an audience.
17:55 - Steph describes her sense of clarity during the writing process.
22:01 - Your niche = what you’re knowledgeable in + where you can provide value
26:17 - How to find your differentiator (and what The Hustle’s differentiator is).
30:48 - Steph shares the story behind her most shared article, How To Be Great.
36:55 - Comparing yourself to others (hint: don’t do it!)
41:22 - Acknowledging jealousy and turning it into positive action.
45:37 - Reframe your view of SEO to improve your content creation.
52:43 - Most people aren’t focused enough on content distribution.
Grab a copy of Doing Content Right by Steph Smith using the code “growthmachine” to get 25% off.
Links:
Doing Content Right (0:48) (Use code growthmachine to save 25%)
Writing is Thinking: Learning to Write with Confidence (18:10)
NerdWallet (21:12)
Harry Dry (21:17)
David Perell (21:18)
The Hustle - Costco feature (25:35)
Sunday Stories (25:50)
The Hustle (25:58)
Chartr.co (27:32)
Stratechery (28:50)
How To Be Great by Steph Smith (30:08)
I sell onions on the Internet (48:59)
Find us on Twitter:
Steph: @stephsmithio
Amanda: @amandanat
Growth Machine: @growthmachine__
In this 9-minute mini episode, Amanda does an audio version of our blog post, “How We Hire Great Writers at Growth Machine.” She explains our unique approach to hiring and training writers, and how we match them up with our clients.
Show Notes: 0:36 - Where We Find Writers
1:33 - How We Pick a Writer
5:12 - What We Look For in a Writer
Links: How We Hire Great Writers at Growth Machine (original post)
The Writer Finder (hire from our database of over 5,000 writers!)
Contact Us (hire us to do all this for you!)
Find us on Twitter: Amanda: @amandanat
Growth Machine: @growthmachine__
You’ve probably heard that a goal with content marketing is building trust. Today, we question that goal.
Tommy Walker, who previously led global content marketing at Quickbooks and was the first marketing hire at Shopify Plus, makes the case that you can’t measure “building trust” — and therefore, it’s not a goal.
We also discussed:
- Leveraging the same topic across an entire year
- Shareable content as a goal
- How to extract meaningful insights from your metrics
Show Notes: 1:40 - How do you know whether you’re building trust with your audience?
5:16 - The way people consume media and the effect it has on content formats.
7:54 - Tracking success and metrics among different forms of content.
10:32 - People tend to follow common patterns while reading written content.
14:46 - Getting executive buy-in for content marketing.
17:42 - Repurposing content without sounding repetitive.
19:44 - Tommy's 4 content marketing goals.
26:31 - Strategies to getting your content shared.
31:24 - What makes Mary Meeker’s annual internet trends report so successful?
35:25 - Confirmation bias in content marketing, news and media.
43:38 - Understanding how visitors are interacting with your content.
49:52 - Reporting metrics in a way that aligns with your story.
Links: 99% Invisible (6:42)
Airtable (11:41)
Chartbeart research (22:03)
Orbit Media by Andy Crestodina (25:41)
Blogging Statistics (25:49)
Content marketing goals (30:52)
Mary Meeker - Meeker Report (30:54)
Mailchimp (36:49)
Unbounce (36:55)
Quickbooks (38:35)
Adobe Analytics (44:01)
Chartbeat (44:08)
Tommy’s site: Tommy Is My Name
Growth Machine Blog
Find us on Twitter: Tommy: @tommyismyname
Amanda: @amandanat
Growth Machine: @growthmachine__
Sometimes the best way to break into a new career or industry is to do the work for free.
Adam Rogers did this when he decided to pivot his teaching career into marketing. All he asked for in return was a testimonial or a reference for his resume. Over a year, he built up his portfolio and he landed a full-time content marketing role at Kayako. Today, Adam does content marketing for Shopify.
We caught up with him recently to discuss his journey.
Show Notes: 0:40 - How Adam got started in content marketing.
4:06 - Building up a portfolio when you’re just starting out.
8:24 - How to spot red flags as a freelancer to ensure you’re not taken advantage of by a client.
12:45 - From intern to manager in less than a year at Kayako.
16:35 - Learning from other content marketers and advocating for yourself.
22:27 - Why good content marketing can make the rest of your marketing more sustainable.
26:20 - Adam shares how content marketing looks in his current role with Shopify.
32:01 - The strategy of republishing.
34:20 - How to handle link building and spammy backlink requests.
38:24 - Leveling up your content marketing.
42:40 - Thanks for listening! Be on the lookout for next week’s episode. If you have questions or suggestions, you can find us on Twitter @growthmachine__.
Links: Boston Content Podcast (0:58)
Kayako (3:29)
Shopify (17:08)
Zendesk (17:15)
Freshdesk (17:24)
Groove HQ (17:26)
Sumo (17:54)
NerdWallet (31:13)
Find us on Twitter: Adam: @AdamRogersUK
Amanda: @amandanat
Growth Machine: @growthmachine__
If you’re starting a new business or launching your marketing career, start with this episode. Amanda talks with Tim Stoddart, a writer & editor (at Copyblogger), a community leader (of Sober Nation), a healthcare marketer (for Stodzy Internet Marketing), and a podcast host (of the Tim Stodz Podcast).
Tim opens up about his sobriety, his idea of a perfect business, and the importance of specificity when starting a company or progressing in your career.
Topics:
0:45 - Discovering Copyblogger: How the site ultimately educated Tim on writing effective content for the internet.
5:52 - Copyblogger Pro: New membership service comes with monthly masterclasses, a community of content marketers, and more.
8:42 - Writing advice: Overcoming resistance as a writer.
11:16 - Sober Nation: How Tim’s past led him to begin a blog about sobriety which would eventually become the world's leading online recovery community.
16:11 - What is the perfect business?
18:47 - Building in public vs. building in private.
23:28 - Stodzy Internet Marketing: The importance of specializing in one thing.
26:50 - Local search: The opportunity for businesses and healthcare.
30:27 - Producing podcasts: Preparing for podcasts.
36:42 - Connecting with others: In a way that’s authentic and thoughtful.
38:53 - Time management: Eliminating the need for decision-making wherever possible.
43:15 - Advice for founders: (It’s NOT “Just get started…”)
46:23 - Thanks for listening! Subscribe, leave a review, and reach out to us on Twitter @growthmachine__.
Links Discussed:
Copyblogger (0:45)
Copyblogger Pro (6:00)
The War of Art by Steven Pressfield (10:21)
Sober Nation (11:17)
Success Magazine (12:52)
Purple Cow by Seth Godin (13:19)
Stodzy Internet Marketing (23:28)
Mike Ramsey - Moz article (25:09)
Drive Local Traffic to Your Business Using These 8 Local SEO Ranking Factors (30:09)
The E Myth by Michael Gerber (30:45)
Tim Stodz Podcast episode with Shaan Puri (32:40)
Roam Research (42:36)
Additional Links:
Growth Machine Blog
Tim on Twitter
Amanda on Twitter
This episode is about all things ecommerce and content marketing. Amanda talks with Corinne Watson, Senior Content Marketing Manager for Postscript.io, about: where the path has been, which trends need to die, and why content needs to take a big step forward.
Topics:
0:37 - Professional networking and how connection with others has changed since jobs have gone remote due to COVID.
3:45 - The importance of creating solid content with strong SEO, while also making it educational. Corinne describes the editorial strategy during her time with BigCommerce.
7:44 - Making the switch to SMS marketing.
9:35 - Working at a startup, you have room to experiment and room to make mistakes.
12:07 - How SMS marketing today compares to email marketing in 2014.
17:55 - Uses for SMS marketing.
19:38 - Predictions about Black Friday Cyber Monday, and the upcoming holiday season.
22:28 - Opportunities for content in ecommerce.
28:41- Where in the marketing funnel should a case study live and how can it be used in content?
31:15 - Postscript’s SMS marketing certification.
33:35 - Corinne talks about her work-life balance as a mom and adjusting to her new roles.
38:38 - Thanks for listening! Be on the lookout for next week’s episode. If you have questions or suggestions, you can find us on Twitter @growthmachine__.
Links:
Postscript’s Black Friday Cyber Monday Resource Center
BigCommerce (3:47)
Postscript (7:50)
Postscript’s SMS Marketing Certification (31:15)
2PM by Web Smith (38:14)
Lean Luxe (38:16)
One of our Directors of Client Strategy, Gedaly Guberek, talks SEO and content metrics. Gedaly has 10+ years of experience in building websites and designing successful SEO strategies. He offers advice on which key performance indicators (KPIs) to look out for — and which two you should approach with caution.
Topics 0:25 - Director of Client Strategy at Growth Machine, Gedaly Guberek, talks about his SEO experience starting from the first blog he started in 2007.
4:50 - Gedaly’s Shakespeare blog. How Gedaly got his content to differ from existing content.
6:07 - Being data-informed vs. data-driven.
8:06 - Key performance indicator (KPI) as an indicator rather than a strict measurement of how you’re doing. What you’re measuring will change over time.
13:18 - Effective goal setting is essential in understanding how to make use of the analytics.
15:04 - Gedaly describes why ranking is dependent on a variety of factors such as domain authority, niche, choice of keywords, and more.
20:30 - Different analytics tools for a variety of metrics.
23:32 - How heat maps can be utilized: tracking user behaviors, how people respond to one landing page over another, and scroll data.
27:38 - Reporting and presenting data. Gedaly describes the importance of recognizing what metrics are consistent with your goals.
Links: Google Search Console (0:45)
Google Analytics (20:39)
Google Analytics Academy (20:52)
Google Data Studio (21:05)
Fathom Analytics (22:11)
Articles:
Key Performance Indicators for SEO-Focused Content Marketing
Growth Machine Links:
Twitter: @growthmachine__
Blog: The Growth Machine Blog
In this episode of the Growth Machine Podcast, Chief Operating Officer Nora Schlesinger talks candidly about a client case study. Amanda asks Nora about how the Growth Machine team helped launch this client’s website about the gig economy, how they tracked KPIs, the importance of evergreen content (especially in the time of COVID), and how they got to an impressive 19,000 monthly visitors in less than two months. Then to 100,000+ monthly visitors within six months. Listen to get the scoop. And send your questions to amanda@growthmachine.com or tweet us at @growthmachine__. Show Topics 0:45 - Amanda and Nora discuss one of Growth Machine’s earliest clients who wanted to be a frontrunner in the gig economy both for consumers using gig services and those who wanted to provide those services.
4:31 - Being a true partner. Importance of being on the same page as the client and communicating on what the foundational content of the site will look like.
9:12 - Setting up a site for SEO success. Nora explains two things that contribute to setting up a website for SEO success: 1. A good content management system (CMS) and 2. Organizing the site to enable a positive user experience. Factors of ranking on Google.
14:25 - Which CMS? Content and goals of the website should be considered when factoring in which CMS to use.
15:15 - Measuring a company’s success through key performance indicators (KPIs). Why other factors may matter more than traffic in SEO success. Choosing keywords; volume and difficulty.
20:25 - Website traffic. By week 6, the new website already had an impressive 19,000 monthly visitors with the content Growth Machine provided being one of the main driving forces behind the positive results.
24:07 - Starting a new website. Should you build up content before the launch? How established is your brand?
30:03 - Publishing cadence. By month 6, the brand new website had scaled to 100,000+ monthly visits. How the content publishing schedule changed as the site grew in visitors.
31:20 - A big jump in traffic. After steady numbers for 8 consecutive months, the traffic jumped to over 250,000 visitors in a month. Amanda and Nora talk about the term ‘Critical Authority Threshold’.
34:22 - Site maintenance and recognizing trends. Best practices in ongoing website maintenance in regards to SEO and content. Keeping a watch for competition in your niche. How COVID shifted the content published surrounding the gig economy.
38:50 - Creating evergreen content. While many things changed due COVID, it was made sure that the content delivered would be suitable for years to come, not just relevant for today.
40:01 - Doing it right… Nora explains how their ‘hypothesis’ was affirmed when working with this client and what was learned in the process.
Questions? Comments? Contact Amanda at amanda@growthmachine.com with questions or tweet at @growthmachine__
Links from the Episode: Growth Machine (0:01)
Wordpress (9:50)
Webflow (12:37)
Cup and Leaf (13:05)
Articles: The Step-by-Step Guide to Setting Your Blog Up for SEO Success (9:12)
The Critical Authority Threshold: Why Patience Pays in SEO (32:05)
Case study: How a Gig Economy Website Hit 100,000 Monthly Visitors in 6 Months
We’re back with the Growth Machine Podcast! In this episode, Nat Eliason introduces our new Head of Marketing, Amanda Natividad. Then they dive into mail bag questions — one to help content creators get started, and one for those further along with their website:
- If you had no SEO tools, how would you advise someone to approach their content strategy?
- What is the impact of adding semantic keywords to existing blog posts or other pages as part of a content refresh?
Listen for quick advice you can enact today. And send your questions to amanda@growthmachine.com or tweet us at @growthmachine__.
Show Topics 2:41 - How to approach content strategy without SEO tools. Using Google to research keywords. Outlining information that has already been written in articles for content ideas on your topic. Looking at media usage in articles ranking on the 1st page.
9:47 - Using backlinks. Creating content others can use to link back to your site. Being mindful about your content goals and providing value.
11:39 - Tools for SEO and rank tracking. Utilizing trials and different pricing plans to fit your budget. As a beginner, learn new tools on your own without having to hire out the work.
15:15 - Adding semantic keywords to existing pages. Content refresh; how blogs can be re-optimized and re-promoted to increase rankings. Adding terms that Google is rewarding by ranking higher.
17:58 - Timeline of results from SEO. Differences between publishing on a new site vs. republishing on an existing site. Optimizing content that you already have on the site.
22:08 - Pain point SEO. Recognizing if the content is driving traffic that leads to conversions. The rate at which your readers move along the sales process. How to optimize your call to action.
25:44 - Quiz funnels. Consumers can self-direct themselves into the sales funnel. How quiz funnels mirror the traditional store experience in the online space.
30:46 - Future podcast plans. Contact Amanda at amanda@growthmachine.com with questions or tweet at @growthmachine__
Links from the Episode Links: Ahrefs 3:08 https://ahrefs.com/
Clearscope 3:10 https://www.clearscope.io/
Grammarly 3:11 https://www.grammarly.com/
Webflow 3:14 https://webflow.com/
Wordpress 3:14 https://wordpress.com/
Mangools 11:37 https://mangools.com/
Accuranker 12:41 https://www.accuranker.com/
Google Data Studio 13:27 https://datastudio.google.com/
100,000 Visitors: A 7-Part Series 13:58 https://www.growthmachine.com/free-course
Cup and Leaf 22:47 https://www.cupandleaf.com/
Typeform 29:32 https://www.typeform.com/
Zapier 29:32 https://zapier.com/
Podcasts: 22:08 - The Power of Pain-Point SEO with Benji Hyam from Grow and Convert
Articles: 3:42 - Growing Cup & Leaf: 0 to 150,000 Monthly Organic Visitors in 8 Months
3:44 - The Wiki Strategy: How to Grow Your Blog to 100k+ Monthly Visitors
In this episode of the Growth Machine Podcast Nat Eliason connects with Mike Colavita from Fat Buddha Glass. Mike heard about Nat on an Ecommerce Influence Podcast episode talking about recovering from the most recent Google Medic Update (2019). He implemented some of the tips discussed on the podcast to improve his website (after losing 89% of organic traffic).
Links from the Episode Mentioned in the show * Ecommerce Influence Podcast - Making A Comeback After The Google Medic Update with Nat Eliason [0:20] * Austin Brawner [0:21] * Fat Buddha Glass [2:28] * Ahrefs [5:21]
Show Topics 2:40 – Mike describes the comfortable situation of Fat Buddha Glass, a glass pipes company founded after a hobby he shared with a friend of him. Ranking for important keywords (waterpipes, bongs, etc) and getting a lot of traffic from a lightly planned marketing campaign. How it was getting a hit from the last Google Medical Update.
4:30 – After the shock of the initial surprise, they started taking action, learning and improving the website. Step 1: Educating themselves. Step 2: in-depth SEO audit. Bad content = bad links. Getting rid of bad content and toxic backlinks. “People have problems paying for good writing, and that was us”. Step 3: Mindset, good content and paying for it. Voice and characteristics of good content. Domain authority score rising after the actions taken.
9:21 – How to evaluate bad links to disavow. Considering score and relevancy of the website linking back. Does it make sense a gardening website pointing to Fat Buddha Glass?
10:56 – Reading all articles and copy, pruning old content. New and better content through investing in industry-experienced writers. Finding good writers for this specific niche.
14:10 – Conversion rate. Structure of the website. Adding internal linking. Making people go from reading the blog to the product page. Goal: answer questions people have. Linking back to collections pages.
16:38 – “At the time we though the Google Update punch was the worst thing it could happen to us. Now that we are moving forward we feel it’s the best thing that had happened”. Future actions: adding product and “how to” videos. Improving the About Us page making people relate more to the founders.
18:34 – Good reasons to include video. Benefits: 1) keep people on the site, 2) double ranking on Google AND on YouTube. How working in a guitar retail store influenced Mike’s decision to invest in video.
20:48 – Getting friends and family audit the website. Feedback and AB testing. Finding out navigation was not optimal and reducing sessions. Contact Mike through email mike@fatbud.com or Instagram https://www.instagram.com/fatbuddhaglass/
In this episode of the Growth Machine Podcast Nora Schlesinger joins Nat Eliason. Nora is Growth Machine’s Chief Operating Officer as well as the founder of A Clean Bake, a very popular gluten free and healthy focused baking blog. Nora shares how to be successful in an extremely competitive space, and her ideas about the changes with Google, social media and marketing related to food, health and recipes blogging.
Heads up! Nora and Nat are planning a Q&A episode about SEO, content, marketing, and everything related. Send your questions to nat@growthmachine.com and subscribe to the mailing list.
Links from the Episode Mentioned in the show * Cup and Leaf [8:00] * Blogspot [12:19] * Moz [17:00] * Ahrefs [17:07] * Hashtag Jeff [17:30] * Build your own content machine [17:58] * Dr. Axe [22:07] * Austin Brawner [23:02] * Ecommerce Influencer podcast with Nat Eliason [23:02] * All Recipes [25:07] * Epicurious [25:04] * The Kitchn [25:05] * Food Network [25:06] * Parks and Recreation [38:50]
Articles mentioned * Grow Your Pinterest: The 10 Best Practices for Growth in 2019 [32:50]
Show Topics 1:50 – Nora’s role inside Growth Machine and what she has to do to run her recipes blog on the side. SEO and search traffic.
3:19 – How much traffic is the blog doing now. What are the biggest sources of traffic. Steady and seasonal traffic from Google and Pinterest.
5:13 – Seasonality and blog visitors. People’s behaviour related to weather and new year’s resolutions. “New Year New Me”. Impact on healthy focused sites. Why Nora started focusing in SEO. The seasons with most traffic baking or special occasions type of content. Cup & Leaf example.
9:45 – What were the motivations to start a blog about baking cakes. Stress baking, or blogging to release stress during business school. People asking for recipes, almost the same story for every food blog. Complementing with professional food photography. Health issues that forced to change her diet. Knowing the purpose and niching down. Keyword research. Online courses. Community in food blogging.
16:16 – How to find the most useful SEO information. Google the specific questions and look for patterns in the most reliable sites (Moz and Ahrefs blogs). The courses Nora highly recommends for bloggers (Hashtag Jeff and Growth Machine free course).
18:39 – Breaking down A Clean Bake visitors analytics. The problem with Medical content and how Nora avoided being hit by the Google Medical Update. How GM clients and others were hit by the Medical Update.
24:26 – SEO changes to the food and recipe space in the last few years. How competitiveness has changed really drastically and quickly in the last 5 years. Now it’s very difficult to rank, you’re competing with bloggers and content machines with entire teams creating content, optimizing pages, creating videos. Google Updates on food blogs.
27:21 – The correlation between Pinterest and Google performance. Traffic as ranking factor. Value in terms of traffic from Pinterest and Instagram. Topics that do well on Pinterest: food, lifestyle, travel, fashion. What food bloggers should prioritize.
32:42 – How do you start on Pinterest. Prioritization. Mistakes food related bloggers do. Portrait vs landscape pictures for food pictures. How to optimize for food porn. Passion is not enough. If you are not treating it as work, you’re not going anywhere. Finding your purpose. 80/20 planning for food bloggers. "Never half-ass two things. Whole-ass one thing."
40:07 – Find Nora at her site A Clean Bake, e-mail her at nora@acleanbake.com or follow her on instagram at @nora_acleanbake.
Nora and Nat are planning a Q&A episode about SEO, content, marketing, and everything related. So don’t forget to send your questions to nat@growthmachine.com or nora@growthmachine.com!
Go to growthmachinepodcast.com/freecourse to get the 7 part, in-depth series about building a blog to success. Go to growthmachinepodcast.com and subscribe for future episodes. Lookf for growthmachinepodcast.com on iTunes and Stitcher. If you are enjoying the show, leave a review!
In this episode of the Growth Machine Podcast we are joined by Wilson Hung, the Director of Growth for Kettle & Fire. Wilson wrote a phenomenal tweetstorm and article about the relationship between the cost to acquire new customers and their lifetime value.
Links from the Episode Mentioned in the show * Wilson Hung * Kettle & Fire * Sumome [1:31] * Justin Mares [1:54] * Ahrefs [2:17] * Joe Rogan podcast [4:49] * Tim Ferriss podcast [4:49] * Perfect Keto [9:11] * Google Trends [9:24] * Shopify [13:17] * Bridgerock Data [16:39] * Babak Azad [18:25] * Beachbody [18:25] * Blue Apron [20:59] * Hello Fresh [20:59] * getARPU [23:15] * Carthook [24:35]
Articles mentioned * The golden era of DNVB is over on Twitter * The Golden Era of DNVBs Are Over
Show Topics 0:41 - How Wilson and Nat new of each other in Sumome’s awesome Alumni network. 30 day strategy proposal to get a new job. Ahrefs and link building with affiliates. Videos and indirectly ranking for bone broth.
3:14 - Saturating growth channels, ads cost started rising. Thought: if customer acquisition costs (CAC) continue to grow, then customer lifetime value (LTV) is the variable to act on to hit the top line revenue targets.
5:25 - Improving LTV. Identifying points of direct LTV improvement (data infrastructure, margins, repeat purchases, etc). Slowing down the rate of increase of CAC (increasing efficiency, diversifying to non-paid acquisition channels, SEO, referrals, etc). Benefits of scaling Facebook Ads when you already have a large audience. When to try non-paid before than paid channels and vice versa.
9:53 - Increasing LTV. Less mature brands tend to measure success only on the first purchase, revenue per visitor or the return on ad spend on the first purchase, vs considering subscriptions. Attention to metrics that aren’t in line with long term goals.
12:08 - Valuing customers differently. Willingness to pay more for a subscriber than a non subscriber. Segmenting customers by the acquisition channel (paid/non-paid). How to build the company’s customer data. Cumulative revenue and blended margins. Cashflow issues if you pick the wrong LTV timeframe. Maintenance and guardrails. Past performance is not a guarantee for future performance. Metrics Wilson receives weekly.
18:55 - Guiding people to subscriptions. Increasing subscription opt-ins at first purchase or at upgrade. How dev agencies come into play to increase subscriptions. Examples of how they are improving opt-ins at K&F. Finding way people subscribe by surveys and identifying potential subscriptors based on keyword search.
22:19 - Developing clever tools for helping do better with LTV. What to focus when sales are in the $10k-$20k range. Tools to optimize for revenue per visitor. Paying attention not over optimizing bundles to break the free shipping barrier, to the point conversion rates start to diminish.
25:52 - Sweet spots with free shipping and pop-up discounts. Understanding the costs of fulfillment. LTV is not just revenue, margins play an important role too. With better margins one can afford more expensive customer acquisition. Margin improvements.
29:25 - LTV and CAC summary.
30:41 - Find Wilson at his website and @.
Go to growthmachinepodcast.com/freecourse to get the 7 part, in-depth series about building a blog to success. Go to growthmachinepodcast.com and subscribe for future episodes. Lookf for growthmachinepodcast.com on iTunes and Stitcher. If you are enjoying the show, leave a review!
In this special episode of the Growth Machine Podcast, Nat interviews Julian Shapiro and Asher King Abramson to talk about learning growth. Julian and Asher are partners of the Bell Curve growth agency, and also Demand Curve, a growth school where they teach everything they’ve learned about growing businesses.
Links from the Episode Mentioned in the show * Julian Shapiro * Asher King Abramson * Bell Curve * Demand Curve * Streak [1:04] * Clearbit [1:04] * Imperfect Produce [1:04] * Tovala [1:06] * Envoy [1:07] * Facebook Ads [11:07] * Instagram Ads [11:07] * Webflow [12:57] * Heap Analytics [12:57] * Cup & Leaf [14:16] * UpWork [15:09] * Google Shopping [16:35] * Pinterest Ads [16:57] * Shopify [22:00] * Recharge Payments [27:55] * Google Analytics [29:24] * Mixpanel [31:34] * Whois [36:52]
Articles mentioned * First part of the training [16:57] * Julian Shapiro Growth Marketing Guide [18:10]
Show Topics 1:04 – How Julian faked till he make it to learn growth to the point that companies hired him. “Once you get growth results for yourself and people start seeing them, they start asking if you can help them”. What is one of the most important labor shortages in Silicon Valley.
3:33 – How Julian and Asher met at a dinner because of their unique skills: guide writing and freestyle rap. How software engineers neglect the importance of growth. What is growth. Asher first experiences cold outreaching recruiters.
5:42 – How Asher started learning about growth and moving away from engineering. Working for a Private Equity firm that flipped websites. Experimenting and specializing in conversion. Joining Bell Curve. The principles Julian used to partner with Asher and how he thought him growth.
8:45 – Why it is hard to find good growth people, if one can learn in 90 days. Structure and data as the keys to accelerate your growth. Learning alone vs learning from an expert. Instilling confidence with data. A specific example of a subscription ecommerce business: giving the specs, which ad channel one should use, what messaging and which segmentation?
11:36 – The amount of money and time needed to test growth. The need to spend money to learn ads, compared to other skills that don’t. How they get advantage of previous clients’ experience.
14:15 – Starting ads for Cup & Leaf case example. How to approach spending on ads without expertise and with a limited amount of cash. Why going with a freelancer or a new agency is cheaper than going alone. Prioritizing ads channels based on the type of product and business model. Mastering Google Shopping in an afternoon.
18:02 – Julian’s original approach to get insights directly from the source. How to get first hand information from other marketing agency owners. Places to level up growth without saturating the technique.
21:02 – Conversion Rate Optimization. The symbiosis about ads and CRO. Qualitative approaches looking for low hanging fruits. Free Shipping under the Buy Now button. Removing the Buy button from above-the-fold portion of website. Quantitative process and stripping it down looking where people get stuck in the funnel. When to skip A/B testing. When to apply and what to expect from qualitative and quantitative improvements.
26:00 – The bugged health insurance app story. Debugging a funnel to find why people don’t buy even after selecting a plan. Recharge vs the shopping cart on Cup & Leaf. Auditing websites to find what’s broken and setting up tools to track anomalies.
29:20 – The principle to get the best from Google Analytics. “I use Google Analytics as a fundamental source of truth”.
32:14 – How the growth training works at Demand Curve. 4 stages: strategy, acquisition, conversion, job placement. The 2 arms: startups training and income share.
35:20 – Which areas someone should focus to be more useful for their employer as a growth marketer. 3 core skills that people should know: Facebook and Instagram Ads, Google Ads, intelligent cold outreach. A different type of outreach. The channels that work most for Bell Curve clients.
38:20 – Find Julian at his blog julian.com or on twitter at @julian and Asher on @akingabramson
Go to growthmachinepodcast.com/freecourse to get the 7 part, in-depth series about building a blog to success. Go to growthmachinepodcast.com and subscribe for future episodes. Lookf for growthmachinepodcast.com on iTunes and Stitcher. If you are enjoying the show, leave a review!
In this episode Benji Hyam from Grow and Convert joins Nat Eliason to talk about how you can use Pain-Point SEO to create content that will convert for your business. Benji is Nat’s long time friend and collaborator, and co-founder of Grow and Convert, one of the best content web marketing agencies.
Links from the Episode Mentioned in the show * Benji Hyam on Twitter * Grow and Convert * Pain Point SEO: How to Produce SEO Contents that Drives Conversions [4:56] * Medium [9:10] * Mailchimp [11:14] * Convert Kit [11:44] * 5 Reasons You Should NOT Switch From MailChimp To ConvertKit [11:45] * Soylent [16:05] * Creative Commons Licenses [16:32] * Clearscope [26:05] * Ahrefs [26:19]
Articles mentioned * Growing Cup & Leaf: 0 to 150,000 Monthly Organic Visitors in 8 Months * Does Your Blog Has SEO Potential? [4:54] * How to Find 100+ Great Keywords in Less than 1 Hour [7:29]
Show Topics 0:44 – How Benji got started with content marketing. The problem most agencies had and why Benji focused on improve his tracking and reporting skill to be accountable of content results. What metrics Benji focuses on. When to check traffic growth, lead growth, first and last click attributions.
3:35 – How much the topic influences the sale vs on-page improvements. Introducing the “Pain Point SEO” idea. Tying the search intent with a blog post content. Which posts will convert better. Why looking at keyword volume alone is not a good tactic. B2B customers compared to B2C. High keyword volume = beginners questions = lower buying intent. Low keyword volume = experts’ pain points = higher buying intent.
7:25 – Types of pain-points blog posts. Why Comparison posts work well in SaaS and competitive eCommerce. Mistakes beginners do with Best Top Services/Products posts. Insights on how to include our service/product in these posts.
10:40 – Alternative to X lists compared to Best Top lists. The difference in buying intent on both types of lists, and how one can “steal” users from their competitors.
11:50 – Reusing content from other posts. How to avoid copying and pasting. Where to look for original content within companies. Pricing. Getting advantage when your competitors’ don’t show their pricing.
13:58 – Ranking on competitors’ terms. How to get traffic if you are a small competitor in the landscape. Risks on trademark infringement. More sources to find content for Comparison posts.
18:02 – Product/Service Use Case post. The most difficult concepts to grasp: how people are using your product and what their intent is behind using it to go after a pain point. Take your products’ most important feature and figure out how a user may be looking to solve for that, or search terms related to the problem.
20:24 – Process to strategize the content plan. The figures and position within a company Benji engages when planning the content. Customer research before content planning. Why it’s important to talk to sales and customer support employees.
23:29 – On-page SEO. Customizing the Call to Action. Where to include the CTAs. Comparing to top-5 ranking posts and improving on them. The way to think when competing with other posts.
27:13 – Examples of the Pain Point strategies applied to an ecommerce site. Purposes of posts on different industries. Ecommerce and SaaS posts are more about discovery mode, while for services it’s more about building trust and alleviate all concerns a client may have about working with you.
31:05 – Where Nat will focus when producing new content for Growth Machine. The importance on still building content based on our own expertise.
33:56 – Find Benji at growandcovert.com and on twitter.com/benjihyam.
Go to growthmachinepodcast.com/freecourse to get the 7 part, in-depth series on going from 0 to 100,000 organic visitors.
If you are enjoying the show, please leave a review!
In this episode of the Growth Machine Podcast, Nat Eliason talks about growing a blog from scratch using Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and Content Marketing. This is an audio version –not a transcription– of the post Growing Cup & Leaf: 0 to 150,000 Monthly Organic Visitors in 8 Months. Nat talks about points to consider before starting a blog, how to grow traffic to it and steps to rank on top of Google.
Mentioned in the show * Cup and Leaf [00:46] * Bluehost [5:20] * WPEngine [5:40] * CloudOptimus [5:40] * WordPress [5:50] * Webflow [6:03] * Mangools [06:56] * Ahrefs [07:06] * The Writer Finder [11:09] * Upwork [11:14] * Clearscope [13:30] * Reddit [15:00] * Facebook Groups [18:40] * Cup & Leaf on Pinterest [20:40] * Nat Eliason Blog [21:30] * A Clean Bake [21:40] * Made You Think Podcast [21:45] * 100,000 Visitors: A 7-Part Series [26:10]
Articles mentioned
- Growing Cup & Leaf: 0 to 150,000 Monthly Organic Visitors in 8 Months
- Does Your Blog Have SEO Potential? [4:54]
- How to Find 100+ Great Keywords in Less than 1 Hour [7:29]
Show Topics 0:45 - Cup & Leaf is a property born as a side project at Growth Machine. It’s a blog about Tea, types, benefits, etc. It started out of interests with the aim to create, hopefully, a case study about SEO well applied. By today it has hit the 150.000 monthly visitors mark in just 8 months, appearing at first position for most tea related searches.
2:00 - How to create a 100.000 monthly viewers site? The 3 criteria your chosen niche must meet to attract that many people. Why ‘tea’ is better than ‘hamster sweaters’. An article can rank #1 on Google but nobody is clicking; how to avoid that. The niches you should avoid. How to assess competition.
5:04 – Setting your blog for SEO success. Which CMS to use, and which host you should totally avoid. Recommended hosts for your site. WordPress vs Webflow.
6:22 – Finding your target keywords. How to write your posts to make them SEO-driven. Tools for keyword research. How to choose the first articles to write and rank. The metric to prioritize articles writing.
09:07 - Creating content. How many posts/week? The #1 reason people fail when creating a blog. How much you will have to wait until you see results. Detailed timeline of visitors per month for Cup & Leaf. How much you can expect paying a writer.
11:45 - Tips for those who write their own articles. How to make a better articles than the competition: adding more information, providing up-to-date info, making it more actionable, making it more readable. A tool for accelerating article writing.
14:00 - Promoting the article. How much should you spend on promotion. Tips on how to promote on Reddit, Facebook Groups and Pinterest, keeping in mind each platform idiosyncrasy and rules.
21:00 - More on promoting: how we want with the first backlinks. How to get links with ease. Podcasts, broken link building, guest posting.
23:37 – The biggest ingredient for SEO. Areas where people fail.
26:04 – Go to growthmachinepodcast.com/freecourse to get the 7 part, in-depth series about building a blog to success. Go to growthmachinepodcast.com and subscribe for future episodes. Lookf for growthmachinepodcast.com on iTunes and Stitcher. If you are enjoying the show, leave a review!
In this quick intro episode, your host Nat Eliason goes over what to expect from the new Growth Machine Marketing Podcast.