Eric Schwartzman

Kate Bradley Chernis

In the dynamic realm of social media and content marketing, staying ahead of the curve is crucial for businesses and influencers alike. Imagine a tool that leverages artificial intelligence (AI) to automate your social media posts and boost your engagement rates across various platforms.

Kate Bradley Chernis, the Founder & CEO of Lately, has brought this innovative vision to life.

Lately's platform utilizes AI to transform podcasts, videos, and text articles into compelling social posts that captivate audiences. In this article, we delve into the discussion points from a podcast featuring Kate Bradley Chernis, where she unveils the potential of AI for automating social media posting and elevating engagement.

Empowering Content Transformation with AI

Lately is at the forefront of a revolution in content transformation. This startup has developed a platform that harnesses AI to auto-generate social media posts, simplifying the content creation process for businesses and individuals.

Its versatility sets Lately apart, allowing users to seamlessly transform rich media content, such as audio and video clips, into engaging social posts. This innovation has captured the attention of industry leaders like Gary Vaynerchuk, known as Gary Vee, who has embraced Lately to enhance his social media presence.

By integrating AI-generated video clips into his Twitter feed, Gary Vee has witnessed impressive growth, accumulating nearly 10,000 followers.

A Winning Endeavor Backed by Jason Calacanis

The success of Lately extends beyond its user base and caught the eye of notable investor Jason Calacanis. Jason recognized the potential of Lately's AI-driven platform and became an investor in the company.

Lately's journey to prominence includes its victory in the LAUNCH ACCELERATOR program's demo day, solidifying its position as a trailblazing force in the tech industry.

The Genesis of Lately: Kate Bradley Chernis' Vision

Kate Bradley Chernis, the mind behind Lately, traces the inspiration for her innovative platform to her days managing a marketing agency. During this time, while overseeing social media editorial calendars, she faced the formidable challenge of creating engaging content manually. Her efforts yielded impressive results, driving a remarkable 130% ROI for a Walmart client. However, the labor-intensive process pushed her to explore a more efficient solution.

In-Depth Podcast Discussion

The podcast featuring Kate Bradley Chernis delves into various AI-powered social media engagement aspects. The discussion covers topics such as guiding a startup during the COVID era, the evolving landscape of investor and customer engagement, and critical challenges marketers encounter in enhancing social media engagement. Additionally, Kate shares valuable insights on measuring the effectiveness of social media engagement in terms of its impact on business objectives. Kate Bradley Chernis explores the essential elements of an engaging social media post and guides those who diligently adhere to content rules but struggle to engage their audience.

Lately's Algorithmic Brilliance

Kate Bradley Chernis also delves into the inner workings of Lately's algorithm, shedding light on how it identifies viral content within long-form videos. The podcast explores the implications of AI in the workforce and addresses concerns about job displacement. Kate Bradley Chernis shares her learnings from AI, highlighting the valuable knowledge gained beyond just identifying resonating words with target customers.

Unleash the Power of AI for Social Media Engagement

As the conversation with Kate Bradley Chernis unfolds, it becomes clear that AI is no longer a futuristic concept but a practical tool to revolutionize social media engagement. Businesses and content creators can now harness the capabilities of AI-driven platforms like Lately to streamline content creation, increase engagement, and stay ahead in the ever-evolving world of social media.

Embracing the AI Revolution in Social Media Engagement

My podcast with Kate Bradley Chernis paints a compelling picture of AI's transformative role in social media engagement. It serves as a clarion call for businesses, marketers, and content creators to embrace the AI revolution, streamline content creation, and propel their social media presence to new heights. With tools like Lately at their disposal, the future of social media engagement is not just promising; it's powered by AI-driven innovation.

Boosting Social Media Engagement with AI: Lately Product Demo

https://youtu.be/yZiO3YiSYIo

Photo by Franck V. on Unsplash

If you’re white like me, it can be easy to think, “If I’m not racist...there’s no racism.” Or, “I don’t see it, so it must not be happening.” 

But that would be denying that the past influences the present or that our upbringing has no impact on our outlook. 

And that would be denial.

The truth is that racism in America is alive and well - and deeply embedded in our country’s history. You could even say that America is a living definition of what institutional racism is. 

To understand what that means, how it impacts organizational communications professionals, and what we can do to change it, I hosted a panel of experts on multicultural issues.

We discussed diversity and racism in America. And we talked about how it impacts corporate and social media communications to find practical solutions for change. 

We also discussed the impact of racism on public relations, social media communications, and governance.

But before we jump into that conversation, let's look back at how we got here.

“Because when it comes to truly explaining racial injustice in this country, the table should never be set quickly. There is too much to know, and yet we aggressively choose not to know it,” says Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter Nikole Hannah-Jones in What is Owed, which appeared in The New York Times Sunday Magazine.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cB50M9luiH8

History of Racism in America

Our first president, George Washington, was a slave owner.

So were 10 of the first 12 US presidents.

America was founded as a slavocracy. We separated from England because they were ending slavery...and we didn’t want to. 

This is why Fredrick Douglas spoke about the US as much more of a hypocrisy than a democracy.

We only became a democracy because Black people demanded equal rights - rights that they still haven’t received. 

If it wasn't for Black Americans, there would have been no civil rights movement, and many others besides Blacks who experienced discrimination wouldn't have benefited.

“We’ve known for years that there’s racism, injustice...classism in our country, and yet no one does anything about it,” said Bill Imada, CEO of IW Group, in our discussion.

But before we dive into that, we need more context first.

“Minneapolis is not a Black problem. It’s an American problem. Equality before the law is as American as the flag. We will have change when all Americans realize that this is a problem and that all Black Lives Matter,” said former Director of Homeland Security Jeh Johnson on CNN.

After World War ll, Germany took collective action to “rid German and Austrian society, culture, press, economy, judiciary, and politics of the National Socialist ideology.” It was called denazification.

But not only did we fail to root out white supremacists, they've become more robust, more organized, and more politically connected.

Preserving the Confederacy

When The Defense Commissary Agency retained me to advise on their digital marketing strategy, I traveled to their headquarters at Fort Lee in Virginia.

General Robert E. Lee commanded the Confederate Army during the American Civil War to defend slavery. He committed treason, and there’s a military base named after him.

Instead of a National Garden of American Heroes, why not haul all the statues of those who perpetrated slavery and establish a National Garden of American Slave Owners so they can accurately preserve history?

National Garden of American Slave Owners- Proposed Exhibit Format

If we had a national museum on slave ownership, we could collect the facts and exhibit these statues alongside relevant information such as:

How many slaves they owned

Who are the descendants of the people they owned

How many slaves did they killed

How many slaves they bred

How many children did they separate from their mothers

How much money they made off of slave labor

How has their wealth been handed down through generations

This would be a great way for us to finally appreciate the roots of systemic injustice today and figure out what is owed.

By following the money.

As author James Baldwin said in a radio interview in 1961, “To be a Negro in this country and to be relatively conscious is to be in a state of rage almost all of the time.”

America author James Baldwin.

How would you feel if your ancestors were robbed of participating in the fruits of their labor?

Fast forward almost 60 years later, and it's easy to see how what happened to George Floyd is outrageous because it is chronic and persistent.

The difference between what’s been happening all these years and what just happened to George Floyd is that we could see it.

Mobile phones and YouTube let us see systemic racism in real-time.

If you can see, you can't deny it.

Understanding systemic racism

Systemic racism or institutional racism is about money. 

It is a system put in place to create and maintain white privilege as a societal norm.

That system puts Black and Brown people of color at the receiving end of economic, educational and opportunity inequality.

While we are focusing on the institution of our police force right now -- and given how it came to be, reform is overdue -- but that’s not the only sector where white supremacy is prevalent.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CCL79D6lJKJ/

Housing, healthcare, education, jobs, media...there is little untouched by racism in America.

“I think this kind of sentiment you can find in all aspects of our daily lives...but I think for the first time we are going to see real change and it’s going to be very uncomfortable for those systems to stay intact.” says Cheryl Procter-Rogers, principal at A Step Ahead Consulting & Coaching and former President of the Public Relations Society of America. 

Public education does not adequately teach the brutality of slavery or the injustice of Jim Crow laws.

“Sometimes teachers would offer analogies and none of us would really relate to them because it just wasn’t something that was part of our culture...it’s not just in K-12, it happens in college and it happens in corporate America.” said Rosanna Fiske, SVP of Corporate Communications at Wells Fargo.

If we want to provide avenues for people of color to succeed in society, we need to change the systems that hold them back. Systems where they don’t see themselves portrayed.

Anti-racism: how to be an anti-racist

It’s not enough to be “not racist.”

You have to be against racism and be a good ally by actively:

Continuing to have hard conversations: If you hear a friend, colleague, or family member say something racist, make it a teachable moment. Don’t let the fear of retaliation from racists deter you from being an upstander.

Diversifying your own life: Form a group of peers that helps you check your biases. Ask why if you are at a dinner party and there is no diversity at your table. If everyone around you looks like you, it’s time to change things up.

Volunteering to be an ally: Support people of color or those fighting against racism. Ask how you can help. Be a good listener. And most importantly, do not be afraid to take a stand against racism.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h8jUA7JBkF4

Educating yourself: Learn about racism through shows, literature, and YouTube. Change up your entertainment choices too and start watching shows about cultures other than yours. And check out Uncomfortable Conversations with a Black Man.

VOTE, VOTE, VOTE! Making changes through politics helps change institutions. You may not think it matters, but it does. Because elected officials can either preserve existing systems or let the wheels of progress advance. If you want change, vote for it.

Hope has no color

Racism in America is not a political problem.

It is an ethical problem.

This is our chance to create a better world than the one we’re in now.  A better world for our children.

A more compassionate, tolerant world.

Call out racial injustice when you see it.

Do your homework to become an anti-racist.

Stand up for justice!

Learn how to listen and keep your eye on the future. 

Thank you for reading and/or listening.

The phone rang. It was the Toyota digital marketing manager calling.

It was one of those phone calls that was exciting, scary, and life-changing, all at the same time.

Mind you, this was many moons before the coronavirus or on-demand webinar services like Zoom, GoToMeeting and Google Hangouts existed.

In fact, it was before using live webinars as part of B2B content marketing campaign was popular because it was still pretty tough technically to pull off.

Back then, live streaming video online was a risky proposition for even the slickest digital PR consultant.

It was hard enough to get online marketing consultants to agree on what a webinar is, let alone agree on how best to produce webcasts vs. webinars.

No Easy Way to Live Stream

Back to the phone call. The internet marketing team at Toyota was concerned.

In the past, they’d always revealed their new models exclusively for the news media at the Detroit Auto Show.

But the economy was in bad shape, and only a third of the press pool had preregistered to attend their press conference. 

At this time, newspapers were canceling their Automotive sections altogether.

Automotive advertisers were strapped for cash too, and the mainstream press has already started to feel the impact of classified advertising defecting to digital media.

It no longer made sense to give their news exclusively to the mainstream media.

It was time to go direct to consumers with their news, much as the movie studios are doing these days with the movie theaters shut by COVID-19.

The financial meltdowns and pandemics accelerate digital transformation.

Dawn of Owned Media

My owned media marketing channel framework. Owned media should be the first step of an organic growth marketing campaign. Download this graphic.

If they wanted to get their news out broadly, Toyota would have to become a media company almost overnight, and they needed help.

Toyota Motors USA wanted to livestream the reveal of the new Prius online. They had no idea how many people would view concurrently. And they wanted my startup to produce a live internet broadcast.

And to make it even tougher, they didn't want it password protected. They wanted anyone to be able to watch the live stream on the internet.

Well it took a small army of engineers and a lot of sleepless nights, but my company did it. We took the live video feed via satellite and encoded and streamed it live to their website in near real time.  

It was the world’s first live stream of an automotive reveal.

Someone posted a link to the stream on Digg, a popular social link-sharing service. 

And we saw a huge spike in traffic.

But we managed to keep the stream and their website up with the help of a team of streaming video specialists working behind the scenes.

The good news is, you don't need a streaming video team anymore. Now you can do it yourself.

Tools like Restream make it possible to simulcast live-streaming events to multiple destinations at the same time.

Marketing in Times of Crisis 

The risk of infection has resulted in the cancellation of nearly all B2B events like trade shows and conferences.

Everyone is comfortably teleconferencing these days and digital marketing experts are experimenting with virtualizing real-world events with live-streaming video.

For example, Apple announced in March they’re going to livestream their next developer’s conference. 

Virtual events are the new normal.

Live streaming from Zoom to Facebook

 If you want to live stream from Zoom to Facebook, you can connect restream to zoom, Andre stream to Facebook.

Restream acts as a sort of middleware application. You move your Zoom event to restream and then divvy it among as many social networking sites as you like.

You can stream to personal profiles or Facebook pages. And you can stream to multiple Facebook pages as well, as long as you have the right account level. The more you pay, the more destinations you can stream to simultaneously.

Facebook automatically archives the video of the Zoom live stream.

Live Streaming from Zoom to Twitter

Since Twitter doesn't accommodate live streams, you need to sign up for a Periscope account. 

The Periscope account should be attached to your Twitter account. 

Then when you simulcast the Zoom live stream to Periscope, it'll show up on Twitter as well.

 Periscope automatically archives a copy of the live stream on Twitter as well.

Live Streaming from Zoom to LinkedIn

LinkedIn Live, which is a feature that allows user to live stream long form content, is still in beta and requires approval.

LinkedIn also archives your video as the post on your activity stream, so all video files live streamed from Zoom through Restream to LinkedIn remain on your profile indefinitely.

According to Linkedin, Linkedin Live streams get 24x more comments than video upload posts and 62% of companies plan to adopt live broadcasting in the future.

Live streaming from Zoom to YouTube 

You can also live stream a Zoom meeting to YouTube through the Restream platform as well. 

When you start live streaming, YouTube followers will get a notification that you’re live and the stream will be available on your channel. 

The archive, however, will be available as a YouTube live video, although you can add that video to any playlist once it's done.

since it's hard to Beyond camera and live streaming, while promoting your stream on social networks at the same time, it's a good idea to have some help.

Ideally you want someone tweeting, Facebooking, and sharing on other social media that you're alive when you're live to try and get people to watch.

The nice thing about a livestream, is it tends to attract people together at the same time, since they want to participate while it's still alive. So live streaming is a way to leverage immediacy as part of your digital marketing program.

Live Streaming from Zoom to Restream

Attaching Restream to Zoom is quite simple. All you need to do is plug in aqui from restream.

Before you start your live stream on Zoom however, go to Restream and specify a title for the stream and a description of what you'll be discussing.

In the description field, make sure and include a link to a landing page where people watching the stream can take some sort of action, like sign up to attend live or download bonus content. 

This will allow you to convert their interest into some sort of microtransaction.

If you live stream directly from Zoom through Restream to multiple social networks, you won't be able to use Facebook live or YouTube Live pre-scheduled Events. Instead you'll just go live on those networks and your followers will get a notification in their activity dream that you're live.

Conclusion

If you are producing B2B events on Zoom already or if you're keynoting events, it makes sense to extend the reach of those happenings to your social networking as well. 

Compared to the amount of time it takes to produce a good online event, the incremental effort required to extend the reach via live streaming is nominal.

Plus you get the on-demand content which makes it discoverable through organic search after the fact.

Follow the steps in this post stream your Zoom meetings and webinars to as many social networks as you like.

Subscribe to the podcast

If you're wondering what is growth marketing or what is a growth marketer, this post is for you.

Digital marketer, entrepreneur & angel investor Neil Patel

I’m a Los Angeles-based digital marketing consultant and had the honor of connecting with global lead generation and demand generation master Neil Patel.

He graciously walked me through what it takes to be a growth marketer.  As an SEO consultant leader and content marketer, it was an honor to connect with him.

In terms of credentials, here are some of his:

US President Obama's Top 100 Entrepreneurs Under 30 list

The United Nations' Top 100 Entrepreneurs Under 35 list

And Forbes Magazine's top-10 marketing guru list

But that still doesn’t do him justice because he’s also nice. Humble, approachable, and easy to talk to.

And I can't be alone because his CEO, Mike Kamo, has a 100% approval rating on Glassdoor, and Neil hired him.

Neil Patel Digital's ratings on Glassdoor.

If you're in a rush and this post is TLDR, you can jump to the specific section you're interested in here.

Table of Contents

Why Neil Patel Shares Growth Marketing Hacks

How Neil Patel Picks Tech Startups to Invest In

Personality Traits Neil Patel Looks for in Founders

How Neil Patel Creates Top Ranking Blog Posts

Neil Patel's Headline Optimization Strategy

How Neil Patel Creates Top-Ranking Podcasts

How Neil Patel Ranks for Competitive Keywords

How Neil Patel Decides When to Blog and Podcast

Sliders and Pop-Ups vs Content Injections

Neil Patel's Favorite Lead Gen Tools

Neil is the real deal. If you follow these easy growth marketing techniques, you're organic traffic will grow.

1. Sharing Growth Marketing Hacks

He’s probably the most generous digital marketer alive, sharing tons of useful, evergreen “how to” growth marketing hacks for free.

Neil publishes tactical growth marketing content on his popular Neil Patel blog.

He produces a daily podcast called Marketing School with Eric Sui.

And he maintains a popular YouTube channel that's always overflowing with fresh, informative, useful content.

In my opinion, his collection of work are probably the best growth marketing hacks of all time.

He’s entirely an self-made man who has bootstrapped a veritable empire from next to nothing.

He’d never call it an empire.

But it is.

And if you know me, you know that I always call a spade a space.

Neil also invests in and has grown a number of his own self-serve, lower-priced software-as-a-service offerings.

They're all digital marketing related and include Crazy Egg, Kissmetrics, Hello Bar and Ubersuggest.

He’s also established a global digital marketing agency called Neil Patel Digital with 7 offices worldwide. 

His firm grows traffic for small and medium-sized businesses and enterprise clients through SEO, paid digital, conversion optimization and email marketing funnels.

Here’s how he decides which tech startups to invest in.

2. How Neil Picks Startups to Fund

OK, so this one isn't a growth marketing strategy. But stick with me. It does apply.

Unless you're willing to roll up your sleeves and get dirty, you're not going to be successful at growth marketing. Let me explain.

One of Neil's first Investments was a company called WalkScore which is a data service that rates a neighborhood’s walkability.

The service was integrated into quickly into a number of mobile real estate apps.

Homebuyers searching for listings in say, Santa Monica could see how walkable, bike-friendly and public transportation ready that neighborhood is.

When coupled with real estate listing information, that data became exponentially more valuable and company was acquired by Redfin. Neil has backed a number of startups through successful exits.

His first three software-as-a-service companies -- Crazy Egg, Kissmetrics and Hello Bar -- were and are all digital marketing information services.

When coupled with Google Analytics, they make it easier for content marketers to:

Improve their Search Rankings

Get more Organic Search Traffic

And Generate More Leads

But the number one thing he looks for, is the founder. Ideas are a dime a dozen. It's all about execution.

3. Who Neil Invests In

Neil looks for self-reliant founders who aren’t afraid to roll up their sleeves. He want people willing to do whatever it takes themselves to drive growth, rather than those who rely on others.

He told me a story about an Ivy League educated founder who had received backing from a top incubator. This founder was unwilling to engage in enterprise sales.

Instead, he asked Neil if he knew any good sales people he could recommend to help them hunt for enterprise deals.

He also told me about a young man named Pierre Laguerre who founded a company called Fleeting, a Marketplace for truck drivers.

Unlike the Ivy leaguer, Pierre called and emailed prospective customers himself. He rolled up his sleeves and networked through to the decision maker and convinced them to try his service out.

Pierre is not a sales guy. But he's self-reliant, and willing to do whatever it takes to make it happen. He’s the type of founder that Neil likes to back.

4. How to publish top-ranking posts

What does it take to publish consistently top-ranking blog posts that reach on average 21,000 readers each? 

You might think Neil has an army behind him churning out content with him, dotting the I's and crossing the t's.

But he’s also surprisingly self-reliant. He authors all his own content. And he’s shared a good deal of content about his streamlined writing process.

Ubersuggest helps you generate keyword ideas for your content marketing strategy and production.

To summarize, his basic process starts with the headline, which he uses Ubersuggest to help come up with. He looks at the headlines around his keyword that have been shared most on social media by pulling a “Content Ideas” report. 

Based on most shared posts that are similar to the topic he’s writing about, he comes up with 4 or 5 headlines. And he runs them by his editor Grant. 

Before you read the rest of this section, STOP for a moment and really take this in: 

5. Neil's Headline Optimization Strategy

Neil’s process is very methodical. He’s writing to rank for a keyword. So by starting with most shared headlines related to the keyword, he has a very clear direction from which to write his article. 

He’s not going to waste time later trying to shoehorn his piece to work for a headline he writes after the fact. This is a key distinction if you want to work efficiently. 

And it’s counterintuitive to most of us, because we often use the writing process to get clear about what we want to say. That doesn’t work if you're writing to get found by searchers.

In creative writing and journalism, we’re taught to write first and then create a headline summarizing our piece after it’s already been written.

If you’re a growth marketing specialist writing content to solve problems based on keywords, start with the headline. That way you know you'll be addressing the reader's pain point.

Then, you create the content to back up your promise. You've got to deliver. If your page bounces visitors, it’s not going to rank, even if it does get found.

It’s a different way of thinking about the process. But always, always, always start with your headline.

Once he and Grant agree on what the headline will be, Neil starts by writing the introductory paragraphs first. Next he jumps straight to the end and writes the conclusion.  

Heatmap and behavioral analytics research (using tools like Crazy Egg and Hot Jar) show that blog readers check the introduction first. Then, they scroll to the bottom to read the whole article.

By writing the conclusion, he tells the reader what they'll get if they read the whole piece.

That growth marketing tactics works to get them to spend more time on the page. Especially if they're curious to know how he arrived at those conclusions.

It's an amazingly clever, strategic approach to writing blog posts that grow traffic through organic search and social media sharing.

It's why I call him an owned and shared media master.

Ubersuggest is a free SEO tool that specializes in generating new keyword ideas. Originally founded as a tool that scraped Google Suggest terms, Ubersuggest was recently acquired by entrepreneur Neil Patel, who has since expanded the feature set significantly.

After his headline, opening paragraphs and conclusion are in place, he inserts his sub headlines, or H2 tags, between the headline and the conclusion. And these are all semantically related terms he’s pulled from “Keyword Ideas” report in Ubersuggest.

In the old days, we used to call this keyword theming. Neil has taken the practice to the next level by showing how to put it into action.

Then, he fills in the body text under each of the sub headlines with his body copy. From there, it goes to his editor who takes it final. After it’s done, Neil pushes and shares.

He creates his own images, usually screenshots, and the whole shebang takes anywhere from 2 to 5 hours to produce the initial draft. He moves articles on his blog once a week.

A growth marketers guide to hacking blog headlines from Copyblogger.

Neil works with freelancers to translate his blog posts into Portuguese, German and Italian. He says going international is the easiest way to grow traffic. He has a great post about using hreflang tags on your website to help Google find and index blog posts in other languages.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GcIRv2AE59I 

The Search Engine Journal Podcast recently interviewed Bill Hunt about properly implementing hreflang tags as well, which is pretty advanced but worth checking out.

For B2B companies, search engine optimization is just one part of lead generation. Equally important are content marketing, social media, email marketing, A/B testing, and conversion optimization.

In this episode, we go deep with demand gen maverick Gaetano DeNardi about assessing an existing site, increasing its organic traffic through SEO, growing your email list, and converting more leads to revenue.

Gaetano led demand generation at Saleshacker, growing traffic from 17,000 to 100,000 monthly unique visitors, which helped propel the company to a successful acquisition by Outreach.

He currently serves as Director of Demand Generation at Nextiva, which sells cloud phone systems.

Creativity and science go hand-in-hand for Gaetano, who talks about his favorite approaches for optimizing sites for search, leveraging top pages to build an email list through content injection strategies, and how to draw engagement through organic posts on LinkedIn.

Some of his favorite tools, which we discussed in the podcast, include:

SEMrush and ahrefs - He said he has no preference and is a customer of both.

Clearscope -  Provides semantically relevant terms, recommended article length, and other recommendations about writing quality.

VWO -  Combines heat maps, a/b testing, and exportable click tracking

Hotjar - Website user behavior mapping 

Opt-In Monster - Content injection tool that loads faster than Sumo

BriteVerify -  integrates with form handlers and blocks junk from Bots

Pardot -  The salesforce.com marketing automation solution.

HubSpot -  The company that defined Inbound Marketing

Amazon Polly - Text to voice generator from AWS

While there’s plenty of competition from new outlets like Cheddar and Business Insider, Forbes is still one of the world's most influential business media brands.

As a result of their annual power lists, Forbes has an enormous brand cachet.

It symbolizes success and wealth, but it's also so much more.

It's a community helping business leaders across various industries connect and grow. Not to mention share their hard-earned business insights with a captive audience of business professionals.

One way Forbes has embraced community-building is through Forbes Councils, which, for select leaders, offers a powerful platform for business success by providing members access to visibility, connections, and growth.

I recently spoke to Ryan Paugh, COO / Co-Founder of The Community Company and the coauthor of Superconnector.

https://youtu.be/OvwtSnZNJ44

In 2016, his company partnered with Forbes to launch Forbes Councils.

This is not a Forbes Council Review. I am not a member, so I have no first-hand experience. But it is an interview with one of its founders, which sheds light on the benefits of Forbes Council membership.

Community Matters, Now More Than Ever

In talking with Ryan, one common theme was the importance of surrounding yourself with the right group of people if you want to be successful. We discussed Malcolm Gladwell's Outliers and how the highest achievers maneuver a finite group of exceptional people around them.

We also discussed how incredibly difficult this is to achieve in our modern-day social media era without some form of curation.

Superconnector, the book Ryan co-wrote with his business partner Scott Gerber, touches on many of the same principles.

They make a point to debunk the fallacy of "bigger is better" and dare readers to shrink the size of their inner circle. Scott even wrote a piece about this in the Harvard Business Review. 

That's one of the things that The Community Company focuses on with all of its projects, including Forbes Councils.

Everything is by invitation only, and applications are vetted by several members of their internal selection committee. In most cases, you're also going to pick up the phone and talk to a member of their team.

Share Your Insights & Expertise

When Ryan and I spoke, we discussed their company's thesis: why thought leadership is so important. When you publish and share valuable, non-promotional content regularly, it builds credibility, which then creates more business opportunities.

Regarding thought leadership on Forbes Councils, an editorial staff works with members to develop high-quality content. Based on a comprehensive set of guidelines, member articles get published on Forbes.com as a Council Post. 

Because it is a paid program, you are not becoming a Forbes contributor.

Forbes Council’s editorial staff reviews all submissions, not the Forbes editorial staff.

The frequency at which a member can publish depends on a few things. First is the quality of the writing and the creativity of the content. Is it well thought out? Is it succinct? Is it exciting and credible?

Second is their content approval process, which runs on average for four to six weeks. So, even if you’re firing on all cylinders, the reviewing process slows things down.

Forbes Councils provides editorial support to help develop top-notch thought leadership content.

Though, as Ryan points out, members often overlook the time it takes because of the value they get from working with a professional editor who can help them craft their ideas into a well-written piece of work that readers enjoy.

Forbes Councils has members who publish only several times a year and keep returning because they see immense value in the opportunity. For the right person, it’s a great value.

Curated Business Connections & Growth

Forbes Councils also offers a wealth of opportunities to build your network, get mentored by industry peers, and achieve higher business results. 

One of the ways they do this is through a private, members-only app where members post business challenges and opportunities for each other, which in the crowded world of mainstream social media is a welcomed change of pace.

Forbes Councils also regularly host meet-ups for their members, which mostly happen virtually. They are focused on bringing industry-specific and geography-specific groups together for more intimate peer masterminds.

Building Visibility and Credibility

Joining the Forbes Council can also complement hiring a public relations agency because membership brings immediate credibility and authority, boosting an individual's or organization's reputation.

Moreover, Forbes Council membership comes with publishing consideration on Forbes.com, enabling PR agencies to help members articulate their thoughts and ideas in written essays and op-eds with the potential to appear on Forbes.com.

It serves as a platform for showcasing thought leadership, which PR firms can leverage to position their clients as industry experts, thereby attracting more backers for crowdfunding campaigns.

To sum it up, the news media exposure and content creation avenues available to Forbes Council members can be harnessed by PR agencies to expand the reach of crowdfunding efforts.

What To Look For In a Business Community

CMX Summit 2019

According to Ryan, the best membership communities promote generosity and goodwill among members. The technology and the platform you use aren’t nearly as important as the tone you set as a community leader. The people are the product.

Regarding other organizations operating communities that do it right, Ryan particularly likes the Community for Community Builders or CMX, run by David Spinks, which was acquired by Bevy last year.

Also worth noting is that Ryan shares three things to look for in your search for the perfect community and some other examples of organizations doing it right.

Conclusion

We're living in unpredictable economic times. Businesses of all shapes and sizes are anxious and working harder than ever to keep the lights on, but there's still hope.

Strength in numbers, and we're not talking Facebook-sized numbers, offers business executives and entrepreneurs the support they need to keep their businesses afloat.The difference between success and failure may genuinely be in the power of the community. Whether it's Forbes Councils or a similar type of investment, maybe we should all consider what communities we should lean into.

If you're a digital PR consultant looking to keep abreast of the latest tools, this discussion with Linkedin Learning instructor Martin Waxman on the Earned Media Podcast.

https://youtu.be/OJK7rP-3x7g

We started with a passage from Arundhati Roy's essay, which appeared in the Financial Times and talked about the opportunity to make intentional decisions about what practices to take with us as we travel through the portal to the new world and which ones to disregard.

Digital Public Relations Consulting Tools

8:23 - We discuss Anna Lebedeva from SEMrush, who shared her expertise in a previous podcast episode about B2B content marketing strategy, offering valuable guidance for digital PR consultants looking to enhance their content marketing efforts.

23:46 - We discuss Serena Ehrlich, a digital PR consultant at BusinessWire, who emphasized the importance of thinking about headlines as URLs in the context of effective digital PR strategies.

24:18 - Practical aspects of SEO, with insights on using the Yoast for WordPress plugin to optimize content, an essential tool for any digital PR consultant seeking to improve their website's search engine visibility.

25:58 - Sarah Evans, a renowned digital PR consultant, brought up the Ink for All web content optimization tool during last week's video chat. This tool has become a valuable asset for digital PR consultants seeking to enhance their content optimization processes.

31:48 - Exploring the realm of video content, Lumen5, a video maker tool that transforms words into engaging videos. This tool offers digital PR consultants an innovative way to convey their messages and engage their audience through multimedia content.

36:43 - Persado takes the spotlight, presenting itself as an AI-powered tool designed to generate optimized headlines. Digital PR consultants can leverage this tool to craft attention-grabbing headlines that resonate with their target audience.

43:09 - The podcast also delves into the impact of Google's new BERT AI algorithm on SEO, providing digital PR consultants with valuable insights into adapting their SEO strategies to stay competitive in the ever-evolving digital landscape.

48:39 - An article I wrote on Muck Rack about SWAK emails (Stuff We All Know), shedding light on a crucial aspect of communication for digital PR consultants.

52:2 - CIPR's #AIlinPR tool stack is introduced, offering digital PR consultants a comprehensive toolkit for harnessing the power of artificial intelligence in their public relations efforts.

52:23 - The podcast touches on the indispensable role of Evernote. This versatile note-taking tool has become an essential companion for digital PR consultants in managing their tasks and projects efficiently.

Martin shared helpful info about tools and tactics for leveraging tech and AI for digital public relations and content marketing.

In this insightful podcast, a diverse range of topics relevant to digital PR consultants were explored and dissected by a panel of experts. From effective B2B content marketing strategies to the impact of Google's BERT AI algorithm on SEO, this podcast offered valuable insights and recommendations. The discussion highlighted essential tools and resources, such as the Yoast for WordPress plugin, the Ink for All web content optimization tool, Lumen5 for video creation, and Persado for headline optimization, providing digital PR consultants with practical solutions to enhance their strategies.

Additionally, the podcast touched on the evolving nature of headlines in the digital age and emphasized the critical role of URLs in effective communication. It also sheds light on SWAK emails, a pertinent topic for modern PR practitioners.

Furthermore, incorporating AI into PR efforts through tools like CIPR's #AIlinPR tool stack showcased the growing importance of technology in the field. Lastly, the discussion recognized Evernote's indispensable role in streamlining digital PR consultants' tasks and projects.

Overall, this podcast served as a valuable resource for digital PR consultants, offering them diverse insights, strategies, and tools to thrive in the dynamic landscape of digital public relations.

B2B content marketing companies are helped by Semrush, which has utilized B2B content marketing as the lead generation channel for many years, entirely with in-house resources.

The irony is that Semrush promotes it's SaaS SEO toolkit platform to SEO consultants and content marketing agencies to guide their keyword research and competitive analysis.

I sat down with Anna Lebedeva, Head of Growth Marketing at Semrush and she opened the playbook into their B2B content marketing strategy.

Her goal is to position Semrush as the best way to automate the optimization-based part of content marketing. The value, she says, is offloading the the quant work to Semrush and focus on creative content marketing, collaborating with coworkers and developing new business.

Table of Contents

Is Content Marketing Indispensable for Global B2B Marketing?

What are the Best Ways to do B2B Content Marketing?

How Do I Find Topics for B2B Content Marketing?

How to Do Curated B2B Content Marketing

Is Content Marketing Overtaking Digital Marketing?

How To Generate B2B Leads with Content Marketing

Sales Funnel Optimization for B2B Marketers

What is B2B Content Marketing?

B2B Customer Journey Mapping

What B2Bs Blog About

One-to-One vs One-to-Many Marketing

Global B2B Content Marketing Strategy

Anna is responsible for driving worldwide demand. B2B content marketing strategy is not one size fits all.

Photo by Kyle Glenn on Unsplash

She localizes her approach to each market. And she starts by reviewing local blog posts and other types of B2B content marketing to see what resonate.

By starting with a media audit in the local language, she sees what topics are popular. She uses Google Translate to get the gist of what's people are saying that market.

The SEMrush blog publishes posts in 7 languages.

She's interested in seeing, at high level, what the topics are so she can tailor her content creation for each audience.

Then, she tries to get a sense of how knowledgeable the majority of B2B marketers are in that geographic area about search engine optimization. That way, she knows who to create relevant content for.

B2B Content Marketing in Brazil

In Brazil, digital marketers are great at the process of high quality content creation. They know how to develop rich buyer personas and generate engaging content for their ideal customer profile.

Photo by Agustín Diaz on Unsplash

But when it comes to the more technical aspects of SEO, they're a little less experienced. She entered the Brazial market with content marketing oriented material.

B2B Content Marketing in Northern Europe

In Northern Europe, like Scandinavian countries and Germany, digital marketers want technical information. And this makes repurposing B2B content developed for English speaking audiences, who are more interested in qualitative information, ineffective.

You can't just translate content developed for the US and UK into Scandinavian languages or German because these audiences demand quantitative back up. She focuses on creating technical content for Northern Europe.

B2B Content Marketing in Australia

When SEMrush creates content that specifically addresses the Australian market, instead of just repurposing content for the US and UK markets, Aussies appreciate it. Most marketers just rehash their English language B2B content created for Australia and New Zealand.

Anna says Australia is the most appreciative market she's developed, probably because they're so far away geographically from everyone else. When content marketers develop material specifically addressing their needs, they absolutely gravitate to that provider.

Photo by Joey Csunyo on Unsplash

In many niche B2B categories, Australia is an under served market. Whereas the US is developed and mature with respect to digital marketing and SEO, Australia is a bit more nascent.

That's not say Australia doesn't have its share of digital marketing thought leaders says Anna. There are a number of top SEOs in Australia.

But for most part, digital marketing is much less evolved in Australia than it is in the US.

B2B Content Marketing in the US

The US is the most advanced digital marketing market. She didn't say this, but my guess is its more a result of the US leading the global IT industry. Although with China taking the lead in the artificial intelligence industry, we could see that lead dwindle.

Photo by Luke Stackpoole on Unsplash

Purchasing decisions happen faster and sales cycles are shorter in the US than anywhere else in the world. That's why it's the leading economy, Anna says.

In comparing the US to Australia, Anna says the US digital marketing industry is mature and very competitive. If you're looking to start a digital marketing agency, she says Australia's the market to go to because there's much less competition.

From a global audience standpoint, Anna says basic introductory "101" and "How To" content performs best for SEMrush.

What are the Best Ways to do B2B Content Marketing?

Competition for traffic is fierce online.

So unless your content is the best content, it's not going to rank on page one in search results.

And if doesn't rank on page one, no one is going to see it.

Seventy-seven percent of purchasing decisions start on Google. If you don't get found there, you can't be considered. And you can't make the short list.

I remember one time getting a call from a guy who said he'd pay me anything if I could get him to rank first for the phrase "language translation."

Photo by Benjamin Dada on Unsplash

I searched it and Google Translate come up first.

Then, I checked out his site. It was a chains of schools that taught people to speak English as a second language.

I told him if he wants to rank first for "language translation," he needed to build a better site that Google Translate.

But that's not why he called. He liked his website and didn't want to change it. He just wanted to come up first for "language translation."

Needless to say, as much as I'd like to be paid anything, I didn't take the job. Becuase that's not how search engine optimization works.

You can't pour some special sauce on your existing website and make it come up first. You have to actually improve the quality of the content (text, images, video, layout) on your website.

It's all about having the best content for that search query. Develop the best content for a search term and you'll come up first.

It's a lot work. But it's worth it. Becuase organic traffic is more qualified and converts at a higher rate.

How Do I Find Topics for B2B Content Marketing?

Ann and the SEMrush B2B content marketing team use Quora extensively to see which problems are trending.

A search for "content marketing" on Quora shows which questions are trending on that topic.

I like to use Reddit as well, myself.

A search for "content marketing" on Reddit.

She also likes following the Twitter accounts of SEO industry thought leaders. When it comes to questions around SEO, the SEMrush Twitter account maintains lists to see what experts are talking about.

If experts are talking about similar topics, that means those topics are popular.

@SEMrush Twitter Lists

And they also use their own tool, SEMrush to see what people search for. There's a topic research section where you can actually see which questions people are asking Google.

They also invest a lot in talking to their customers. They go to industry events and schedule customers meetings. She calls customers on the phone. And Anna says this is one of the most important inspirations for their content marketing program.

But across the board, she says entry level SEO content always performs the best. They publish mostly 101 guides and how to tutorials to help new customers utilize and be successful with their products.

For SaaS companies, keeping clients is as important as getting them. To circumvent churn, she focuses on publishing a ton of content for new SEOs to drive product utilization.

These are articles about the basics of SEO and content marketing. And the basic of digital marketing in general.

How to Do Curated Content Marketing

Eighty percent of the posts that run on the SEMrush blog are written by outside experts, most of who are customers. They write expert opinion pieces that appeal to advanced SEOs. The other 20% are product oriented articles by their SEMrush content team.

So the SEMrush content team invites experts to write some of the posts. And SEOs seeking the implied endorsement of an article on the SEMrush blog submit posts on their own as well.

The experts and unsolicited authors don't get paid to write for the SEMrush blog. But they get the visibility of an article they wrote on a high profile site. And they get a link from the SEMrush blog back to their website.

Links from one site to another are called "back links."

Like footsteps in the sand, hyperlinks tell Google which sites people are going to and think are important.

All the back links from the SEMrush blog get tagged with a "nofollow" reference. That tells Google not to associate the linked to site with the SEMrush domain.

No follow links have less value from an SEO perspective, but they're still valuable.

But even though guest contributors don't get any link authority from SEMrush.com, they still get published on a prestigious blog, and that has value. Plus, these are valid links that drive qualified traffic.

From the guest contributor's perspective, writing for the SEMrush blog is an earned media tactic. The more prestigious the site they publish on, the more credibility they earn.

The prospect of earning a post on the SEMrush blog is enticing enough that they enjoy a steady stream of submissions.

In the early days,

Tactics for getting press coverage with digital PR are as broad and varied as the public relations agencies and clients that pursue them. The news media is influential, so everybody wants to get press. But a skilled digital PR consultant like Sarah knows how to get it.

In this post, I'm going to share the digital PR strategies Sarah Evans uses to generate media coverage for her clients.

Paypal, Cox Communications, MGM International and WalMart are just a few of the companies she works with.

If this post TLDR, use these links to jump to what you're interested in.

Table of Contents

Digital PR vs. Traditional PR

If It's too Polished, It's Less Newsworthy

If It's Really News, It Has To Be New

How to Get Press Coverage with Digital PR Tools

State of Online Media Monitoring

Traditional Public Relations Best Practices

Digital PR Starts with Owned Media

The Risk of DIY Public Relations

Your Website is Your Press Kit

https://youtu.be/bR4K5DaWl3Q

I connected with Sarah today. She's among the most talented and influential digital media PR professionals I know.

She generously shared which digital PR tactics are working best for her right now, during this economic uncertainty.

YouTube video replay of PR Tech Wednesdays with Sarah Evans

Digital PR vs. Traditional PR

She provided all sorts of digital PR examples, digital PR activities, and details about the types of digital PR programs she has underway. And Sarah also made a point to say that as a result of the pandemic, everything old is new again.

She's combining digital PR tools with old-school mainstream media relations tactics to increase her effectiveness in these lean times.

"I think we're at 23,000 reporters either furloughed or laid off. Things are changing so quickly. We need resources to get reporters the types of stories being covered," says Sarah.

She uses digital PR tactics to gauge what types of stories are gaining traction in the news media. And she uses email to develop Weekly Stories email pitches. They're not too formal. And they give journalists an easy way to glance over the various stories she's pitching on behalf of clients.

If It's too Polished, It's Less Newsworthy

The not-too-formal part is an important distinction because the more polished it is, the more it looks like mass communications.

Longtime Rogers & Cowan Entertainment Publicist Julie Nathanson

When I was at Rogers & Cowan, I was in a meeting with Julie Nathanson, who passed at 68 years old this week. I'll never forget her as helpful and kind.

We were talking about putting together press materials for a new client. These were the days of press releases, bios, fact sheets, and backgrounders stuffed into dual-pocket presentation folders.

Only the Grammys -- with the help of IBM and Ron Bloom -- could pull off an online press room in those days. But that's another story.

Anyway, in the meeting with Julie, I suggested printing slick folders with the client's picture and logo on the front. Then, we could do a mass mailing to all relevant media.

Julie took a Post-it note. She wrote the client's name on it, stuck it on the front of a blank presentation folder, and said, “Here, send this.”

She wanted the client to look undiscovered.

News is New

Reporters want a scoop. They want something newsworthy, not something everyone knows already.

But since no one prints less than 500 of anything. A printed folder would have signaled to journalists that we were pitching the client far and wide.

My boss, Steve Doctrow, jokingly referred to my suggestion as a pamphlet airdrop, a form of psychological warfare in which leaflets (flyers) are scattered in the air.

An American leaflet container with 22,500 pamphlets was loaded during the Korean War.

So if the media bit, they were likely to publish a piece everyone else would post simultaneously.

If everyone covers it, it's not a scoop. Reporters want exclusives. It's called news for a reason.

Julie understood the concept of creating newsworthiness before it was called earned media. She was a master at how to get press. It was a lesson I’ll never forget.

So rather than carpet bomb journalists with several individual one-off media pitches for different clients, she sends one round-up pitch. She personalizes each and sends them weekly at the start of each media contact's news cycle.

This approach gives clients something they can't get with DIY PR. They get to present in a collection of pitches, which are more likely to be read.

How to Get Press with Digital PR Tools

Let's start with her and her team's digital PR activities to determine what stories are currently trending in the news.

Twitter Lists - Sarah has built the most comprehensive collection of Twitter media lists ever. Check them out here. And they're all available on her account publicly. It is an incredible act of generosity to anyone looking to get press.

Sarah uses those lists to see what stories are getting coverage in each news category and tweaks her media pitches accordingly. She calls it her digital PR litmus test.

Muck Rack Trends - Muck Rack, which maintains lists of journalists by topic and category, recently introduced a product called Muck Rack Trends. It allow you to see what's trending in the news media.

SEM Rush - Sarah uses Semrush (I'm also a fan) to see what people are searching for. She can see people's interest by looking at the search volume.

She uses that intelligence to inform her pitch, niche out her topics, and embrace popular language. I've long believed there's perhaps no digital PR skill more valuable than basic SEO.

Digital PR and SEO go hand in hand. If you're interested in learning basic SEO, I have a free Basics of SEO course you’ll love.

Google Trends - This is a great tool for comparing relative search volume among five keyword phrases. Google Trends is a free online tool, but it only shows data for fairly high-volume keyword phrases. If you want more narrow terms, like B2B oriented phrases, you're going to need a premium service like SEM Rush.

Networking - There's nothing like good old-fashioned networking. If she can't meet with journalists in person, Sarah calls them on the phone to see how she can help. It's taken years to build those relationships. But that's what it takes to get press.

Johna Burke, CEO of the International Association for the Measurement and Evaluation of Communications, recommended a bonus tool. She suggested checking out popular search phrases called Answer the Public.

State of Online Media Monitoring

Johna was incredibly supportive when I was writing the Media Monitoring Buyer's Guide. I wrote an in-depth vendor-neutral report with a side-by-side features comparison chart, analysis and reviews of the top 10 media monitoring platforms.

Feel free to use to find the best media monitoring solution. I was frustrated with what was out there to make a purchasing decision myself. That's why I wrote it.

She introduced me to Jonny Bentwood and Eric Koefoot. They both provided amazing insights on what buyers should look for.

Newbies don't know it, but listening is the first step if you want to get press.

Jonny shared his free and premium PR Tech stacks. Eric K. spoke to me in detail about the risks of over-reliance on automated solutions.

Listen before you start talking

For me, it was an opportunity to dig deep and learn about artificial intelligence and whether it's a threat or an opportunity and why.

I learned the difference between neural networks (AI that solve a focused task) and artificial general intelligence (which we're nowhere near at this point).

Artificial general intelligence is what would required to replace humans. You'd need tools that could understand natural language.

As part of my research, I connected with the chief scientist at Pinterest, a professor of computer science at Stanford. I asked him why AI couldn’t solve the fake news problem.

He said that to get rid of fake news, you must build software that knows all the truth. Because unless you know what's true, how can you say what's false?

Not quite so easy, right? So as cool as PR tech is, it still has its limits and will for a long time.

Nevertheless, these are the tools Sarah uses to figure out what topics are trending and most likely to resonate with her news media contacts.

From there, she develops a weekly stories email that she segments and sends out to her contacts to secure media placements. So let's start by taking a look at he she structures those emails.

Traditional Public Relations Best Practices

Here's what goes into Sarah's Weekly Stories Emails (she creates print, TV and digital versions) which she keeps short and sweet:

Each email starts with a personalized intro

5-7 bulleted story ideas with brief descriptions

If it's a TV pitch there are links to visual assets on Dropbox

If it's a print pitch, there are links to background info

I use a tool called YesWare. It which connects with my Gmail and lets me see how many times someone opens my emails. If I want, I can also see whether they click any of the links in the email.

YesWare Email opens report

For me, this is useful because I don't have to send out a mass email to track the opens and click-thrus. And I don't waste time manually inserting bitly links and Google campaign builder tracking links either.

I find that having a sense of whether or not someone has seen something helps me gauge how aggressive to be with my follow-up. There is a whole universe of useful email productivity tools like Right Inbox, but that's something for another post.

Sarah's digital media relations tactics help her figure out which stories are most likely to be well-received. Then she writes a good old-fashioned email summarizing her pitches, which she personalizes and sends to her media contacts.

In this post, I’ll tell you how to evaluate digital marketing strategy in this time of uncertainty.

Eric Siu is a digital marketing agency owner and strategist who runs a modest, multi-million dollar empire that includes a SaaS company called ClickFlow (an SEO Experimentation Tool), a SaaS digital marketing agency, and a portfolio of mega profitable, digital marketing-oriented online media properties that collectively draw millions of unique monthly visitors.

That’s right. Millions of uniques every month.

Eric Siu is a living, walking case study if you want to know how to start a digital marketing agency or a SaaS company from scratch.

And if you just want a few digital marketing tips to grow your startup, Eric is a geek famous, living legend. 

I caught up with him and shared how he creates successful digital marketing strategies to generate qualified B2B leads for clients, what considerations go into growth hacking, the basics of website marketing, and how to develop a digital marketing program to drive software trials for SaaS offerings.

ClickFlow and Single Grain Founder Eric Siu

Siu grew his digital advertising agency from nothing, and today he represents some of the biggest SaaS brands in the world, including Amazon, Airbnb, and Uber. Nuff said. 

Single Grain specializes in ROI-focused marketing programs that generate sales accepted leads for complex B2B SaaS subscriptions.

Eric Siu is a big believer in product lead growth, which usually means offering a free version of a premium service to give people a way to try your product without having to bleed excessive customer service resources trying to get functional.  Let them churn and support customers with the where-with-all to be successful.  

According to a conversation Siu had with HubSpot VP marketing Keiran Flanigan, it wasn’t until HubSpot introduced an entry-level, freemium product that their business took off.

Impact of Digital Marketing

Orbit Media just published a study with Drew McLellan about the impact of COVID-19 on digital marketing spends, and it showed B2C getting hit much harder than B2B, although marketing across the board is way down. 

Siu spoke about the impact of the pandemic on ClickFlow and Single Grain. But his recommendations for what marketers should do at this point may be counterintuitive to many listeners because it's far from what most people seem to be doing. 

Listen to the podcast if you want to hear what he’s doing to get through this rough patch.

Digital media strategy framework from Start-Ups Guide to PR.

I will share what he said about his discussions with venture capitalists in Silicon Valley, who are essentially writing this year off.  But he thinks that when business resumes, don’t expect to see the same aggressive approach to paid media as a primary traffic source. 

Instead, expect to see start-ups and change-ups take a more innovative approach to digital media marketing, and closer look at owned and shared media, like this.

Digital Transformation’s iPhone Moment

For a lot of companies who still haven't gotten their arms around digital transformation -- meaning they don't have a digital business infrastructure or much sophistication around revenue operations --  the pandemic has accelerated the need for adoption big time, and now is really the time to go big or go home.

Now is the time to re-examine your digital infrastructure and ensure you have the tools to process transactions and deliver products and services online. Whether you take a best-of-breed, point solution or vertically integrated approach, it's a mad rush right now to get yourself situated. 

Check out this digital transformation primer post I wrote about digital transformation strategy last year.

Which Owned Media Channels Deliver Best?

Leveling Up Podcast

Owned media marketing is Eric’s sweet spot.  He has two podcasts (Leveling Up and Marketing School with Neil Patel), a blog, and a YouTube Channel. 

In terms of which channels work best at demand and lead generation, here's what Eric has to say about his owned media channels:

Lead Generation from Blogging and SEO

It's important to realize that publishing a blog and search engine optimization go hand-in-hand.

If what you're looking to do is generate leads, then it's important to embrace popular language so that people can find you when they're searching for types of products and services you have, even if they don't know you.  

Doing that means researching keywords and phrases most likely to be searched by qualified prospects.

Eric’s team invests the time to search and optimize important articles; as a result, they see 50% of their leads come from organic search.  His blog is the number one search result for “podcast advertising” and other high-volume terms with strong purchase intent.

More #1 ranked keywords achieved by the Single Grain Blog.

Lead Generation from Speaking and Networking

Eric estimates 35% of his leads come through speaking at conferences, which isn't happening anymore, and networking add events, which also no longer exist due to the pandemic.

But Eric is a subject matter expert and thought leader in digital marketing, and once we have containment, no doubt this category will continue to yield rewards for him.

Lead Generation from Podcasts

So this is interesting. Only 15% of his leads come from podcasting, but they're his best leads because they're pre-qualified, having listened to him for so long and developed a relationship with him and an affinity for his style through listening. He also said leads that come in via podcast close faster and spend more.

I don't want to date myself, but I started my first podcast on the record online in 2005. It led to a best-selling book and a ton of Consulting internationally with federal government agencies, military commands and some of the biggest companies in the world.

I'm so glad to hear my experience is not a fluke. Eric also shared that Marketing School generates nearly $800k in annual advertising revenue.

Lead Generation via YouTube

Eric's YouTube channel has 36,000 subscribers, which is certainly nothing to sneeze at. But he doesn't consider it a big audience. Interestingly enough, he tailors the content on YouTube to appeal to beginners and folks who may not be able to hire his digital marketing agency but may be good ClickFlow customers or Marketing School listeners.In terms of what works best on YouTube he recommends making your videos 10 minutes or longer, since YouTube's algorithm looks to drive total viewing time, and shorter videos result in shorter viewing times. When it comes to headlines, he says spend 80% of your time getting your headline right. The headline is way more important than the body text.

https://youtu.be/BwuN_LisZOY

We spoke a bit about mega influencer Gary Vaynerchuk's Tik Tok Channel, and Eric shared some inside information on how Gary Vee is feeding that channel. He also advises aspiring marketers to look at Tik Tok as potential channel for lead generation. 

I've been watching a lot of Tik Tok lately and was encouraged to see that getting an audience is possible even if you don't look great in a bikini.

Preferred Digital Marketing Tech Stack

Jonny Bentwood, Global Head of Data & Analytics at public relations agency Golin

Figuring out which digital marketing tools to go with can be brain damage. I was so frustrated with the process of finding an online news and social media monitoring platform that I wrote 54 page, vendor-neutral Media Monitoring white paper so I could make a good choice.

Johnny Bentwood at Golin shared his preferred free PR tech stack back on a recent episode of the Earned Media Podcast.

But this is Eric Siu's preferred martech stack:

Hull.io - Data alignment and enrichment

Outreach - Sales Enablement

Intercom - Customer messaging

Stripe - Ecommerce

ProfitWell - Subscription growth

Eric Siu is a really impressive guy, who has made it on his own and plays by his own rules. But despite his success, he's gracious and humble, and speaking with him was a pleasure.

There are a lot of digital marketing agencies out there. But there aren't many you necessarily want to hang with. Eric is one of those people. He's relaxed, easygoing, and not full of himself, even though, given his extraordinary success, he may be entitled to be so.

He mentioned that he's currently doing free 15-minute consultations with companies about how they are adapting to The New Normal.