Growth Mapping Podcast

Today we’re going to talk about how to get started in your digital marketing career. We’re going to talk about how both Aaron and Sujan got started, so this will be interesting for anyone who is considering starting this type of career. We’re going to share what we wish we knew when we first started, so maybe you can learn from our triumphs and tribulations along the way.

Some of the highlights of the show include:

● 1:30: How Sujan got started with his first website: What motivated him and how he managed to handle obstacles.

● 6:30: Aaron’s story about how he got started, what type of experience he had, and how he learned about online marketing from scratch.

● 10:20: Different ways you can make money online, including affiliate marketing, consulting, coaching, and creating products.

● 11:55: Places you can go and strategies to use to learn about digital marketing.

● 15:00: The next steps after you learn a lot of information, and how to find opportunities to get experience.

● 17:30: Why narrowing your focus is beneficial.

Today we are going to be covering influencer marketing. We’ll talk about how to connect with influencers, as well as becoming the influencer yourself. We’ve got a lot to cover, and we’re excited to talk about it because there’s a lot of misinformation out there! Whether you don’t know what influencer marketing is or you are just not sure how to get past the “connecting with influencers” phase, you won’t want to miss this episode!

Some of the highlights of the show include:

● 1:15: The two common ways that people become influencers, and the difference between influencer marketing in the B2B and the B2C strategies.

● 4:30: Tips on how to do influencer marketing without overstepping, being annoying, or “being douchey.”

● 7:40: Some ways to reach out to and connect with influencers using platforms and websites.

● 10:50: Suggestions on how to include influencers in your content once you have connected and created a relationship.

● 13:15: Tips on becoming the influencer that others look up to and try to connect with.

● 16:20: Some thoughts on virtual summits and how they can help you connect with and ultimately become an influencer.

Today we’re talking how to build a social media strategy that gets good results. The bigger your presence online, the more of an influence you can make. Social media is a good way to build your brand, to communicate with your readers, and to distribute content. When someone looks for your Twitter profile or Facebook page and finds that it’s nonexistent or sub-par, that can be a disappointment. If you’re not sure how to build your social media presence for awesome results, you won’t want to miss today’s show.

Some of the highlights of this episode include:

● 1:45: Tips on choosing which networks and platforms to focus on based on where your readers are engaging.

● 5:00: What it takes to build out your profiles. It’s essential to realize that this is where you are representing your brand.

● 7:30: What not to put out there. Social media is not only to share about yourself.

● 9:00: What to put on your social media platforms besides just content.

● 11:10: The importance of knowing when to post for the best engagement.

● 13:20: Some advice on getting shoutouts and how this can benefit your brand.

● 15:00: Tools that can help with posting and managing content.

● 16:30: Why automation is not the be-all end-all of social media interaction.

Today we are talking about long-form versus short-form content. You might not realize that the two different types of content have different advantages and purposes. You also might not know what the characteristics are of teach type. If you’re not sure what you should be using when, then you won’t want to miss today’s episode.

Some of the highlights of today’s show include:

● 1:35: Why people choose long-form over short-form content: It’s a good way to build an audience from scratch and it can work better to engage your audience than short-form.

● 3:30: Why journalists have different habits when it comes to creating content, meeting deadlines, and building teams, and how these habits can be detrimental to creating effective long-form content.

● 5:10: A definition of short-form and long-form content: number of words, features, and links. Also some examples of effective long-form content.

● 10:00: Some of the ways that Aaron pulls together data for clients to find out what type of content and publishing schedule will work best for that particular customer.

● 13:20: When short-form content works best and why.

A lot of people ask us about how to get leads and sales through content marketing. With so many trying to jump on the content marketing bandwagon, it’s natural to want to do it right so you can succeed. Today we’re going to focus on the marketing side of content marketing. You can have the best content ever, but if you’re not promoting it, no one will see it.

Some of the highlights of the show include:

● 2:40: The importance of becoming an influencer and some tips on how to do that.

● 3:50: Things to focus on in terms of your content to get leads and sales.

● 6:30: Specific tactics to ask for and get conversion. Don’t forget that you are more likely to receive if you ask!

● 10:00: How a drip campaign can help you gain conversions.

● 13:00: Retargeting: how retargeting campaigns can help you get more leads and sales.

● 16:15: Some options for live chat to help you boost your business.

Are you in a “boring” industry? If your business creates seemingly boring products or doesn’t seem interesting, you might be stuck for content ideas. Since blogging and content marketing can help you leverage more organic inbound results, you're missing out on a huge chunk of traffic if you aren’t using this to your advantage. If it seems impossible to create content that is engaging, compelling, and relevant to your industry, you will not want to miss today’s episode! Sujan and Aaron can help you deliver the content that people want to read, even if you’re in what might seem like a bland or uninteresting niche.

Some of the highlights of today’s show include:

● 2:45: Some common mistakes that people make when they create industry blogs. The takeaway here is that if you’re talking about yourself and your company, it’s not likely to be interesting to people outside of your company.

● 5:30: Advice on what businesses should be doing: educating, entertaining, answering questions, solving problems, and generally giving people what they want.

● 8:15: Tips on identifying some of the problems and questions that people have about the industry.

● 10:45: Real-life examples of how Aaron and Sujan have handled creating content for boring industries.

● 16:00: Final tips on finding out what clients and customers want to read about when it comes to your industry.

As you grow and scale your business, you’ll find, if you haven’t already, that you simply can’t be everywhere you want and need to be at the same time. You likely have many different social media channels, groups, email lists, and so on, and it’s impossible for one person to handle everything that needs to be done.

Automation might be the answer to this prevalent issue. Today Sujan and Aaron are going to be talking about the different tools they use to make automation simpler, tactics for using automation and, just as important, tips on when and how not to use automation.

Some of the highlights of today’s show include:

● 1:40: Sujan explains how Quuu.co can help you automate the things you share.

● 3:10: Aaron and Sujan discuss IFTTT and Zapier and how they can help with automation, content curation, syndication and promotion.

● 6:40: Aaron talks about one of his go-tools, Buffer, to link his social media platforms and to publish according to the most effective schedules.

● 8:15: Sujan recommends Drip for email drip campaigns and explains how he uses it for a content marketing boot camp email course. He also talks about Revue to help with creating the content.

● 10:15: Aaron discusses the virtues of Infusionsoft when it comes to onboarding, email marketing, and other tasks you must do on a regular basis.

● 11:30: Sujan and Aaron talk about tactics that can kick off your marketing automation. For example, send out a welcome email and keep track of what your competition is doing using tools like Brand24, BuzzSumo and Mention. Also, link your tools together when possible.

● 16:00: Important tips on when and when not to use automation.

Last time, we talked about some ways to acquire customers for your seven-figure agency. Today we’ll talk about managing your million-dollar business. Aaron and Sujan are both going to share tips on how to remain agile while managing a successful company. We both do things differently, so there’s no one formula, but there are some basic truths that can apply to just about any business. If you’re planning on having (or if you currently have) a seven-figure agency, you won’t want to miss today’s episode!

Some of the highlights of today’s show include:

● 2:00: The way Sujan manages people at his agency, with strategists being trained from the ground up with an intensive training program.

● 3:30: How Aaron handles the client-facing people at his agency, including characteristics that he looks for when hiring.

● 7:00: Tips on creating structure systems. Aaron and Sujan have different structures in their agencies, but both have them laid out to benefit the way the companies operate.

● 9:30: How involved Sujan and Aaron are with their agencies’ clients.

● 12:20: Tips from both men for onboarding clients: Be selective when choosing which clients you will work with, and ask the right questions.

● 16:45: A discussion on managing client expectations. This requires proactive, consistent communication.

How can you create a content strategy that is going to drive huge results? Creating the content itself is important, but it’s a small percentage of the work that you need to do to achieve success. What you need to do is have a brilliant strategy in place before creating the content in the first place. One common mistake is that people will create content without having a strategy in place. We’re excited to talk to you today about how to boost your chances for content marketing success.

Some of the highlights of today’s show include:

● 1:20: Why matching the style of your blog to the style of your brand is the key to consistency. Your work needs to be readable and able to help you create a bond with your readers.

● 2:30: How and why the length and the formatting of your pieces can affect how well your content does, especially in the B2B world.

● 6:30: Why looking at a competitor analysis can help you create better content for your target audience. Check out their voice, their tone, their structure, their strengths and their weaknesses.

● 12:15: The importance of being realistic. Content marketing will not help you build authority quickly; it takes time.

● 14:00: Ways to come up with ideas for content topics. (If you’re having trouble thinking of lots of different ideas, you won’t want to miss this segment.)

● 18:50: How promotion and design can be integrated into your content strategy.

● 21:10: Sujan’s biggest pet peeve when it comes to content marketing.

Today we are covering how to create a content strategy that will create huge results. There is a huge need to put a strategy in place before creating any type of content.

Today Sujan and Aaron are going to be talking about how to build a seven-figure agency. There’s a lot to say on this topic, so we’re going to split it into two parts. Today’s part will be a fun one! We’ll talk about the most important ways to grow a marketing agency. There are, as Aaron says, about a million different things you can do, but we’re going to concentrate on a few great ideas.

Some of the highlights of today’s show include:

● 1:30: Why and how you need to practice what you preach. Don’t get into the trap of advising your clients to post great content, regularly contribute to columns, tweak content for the target readers, and so on, without doing so yourself.

● 4:20: Ideas for getting links. Remember, this is how you increase your SEO value, so you’ll be driving search traffic. You might not think you have time for inbound marketing, but you’ll regret waiting if you don’t get started on it now.

● 7:15: Information about outbound marketing. Cold emails and cold calls are examples of outbound marketing, and Aaron and Sujan share their thoughts on these strategies.

● 11:00: How to build partnerships and referrals. Referrals are going to be high-converting leads, so capitalize on them!

● 14:15: Some important thoughts on branding -- it can set you apart from your competitors, but it can be in a positive or negative way, so it’s vital to make sure your brand is giving the best first impression possible.