Marketing Mavericks Show

A lot of businesses have the belief that pretty websites sell more of their product or service.

But does a website need to be optimized for the best visual appearance?

No, says James Canter, Conversion Rate Optimization Specialist who's been in this field for more than 10 years. Working with e-commerce and B2B business on improving lead generation and sales from their websites, he always asked a critical question first:

Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO) aims to improve the performance of websites, in terms of generated leads or sales. 

There are no set-in-stone rules on what makes a website convert better, which is why data and testing are so important. James shares his principle of optimizing websites in the e-commerce space as well as for service businesses. 

We chat about the use of quantitative testing, using methods like A/B testing. Also, James talks about the massive importance of qualitative data like surveys, polls and interview to hear more opinions on the website and buying experience.

CRO evolved since James started in this industry more than 10 years ago. He takes an outlook into the future of CRO and the use of automation and artificial intelligence shaping testing and analysis.

Check out James' CRO agency Converted.co.uk

Turning Google Ads into Profit in B2B Lead Generation – David Koves

#googleads #googleadvertising #googleppc #b2b #advertising #marketing #digitalmarketing

Why negative reviews are hurting the reputation your B2B business and how to fix it:

In this episode, we are speaking with Curtis from Objection.co, a fake review sniffer tool. Learn how the tool is able to automatically flag and remove illegitimate reviews from the major sites like Yelp, Google and Trustpilot. 

Learn how Curtis draws the line between illegitimate and legitimate negative reviews, differences between platforms, and how businesses can build more positive reviews from their customers.

What we chat about with Curtis:

Listen in to this episode of the Marketing Mavericks Show. If you enjoy the content, make sure you like the video and subscribe and let us know any questions in the comments below!

For more actionable B2B marketing content, join our Facebook Community Marketing Mavericks: https://www.facebook.com/groups/leadgenapp

#reviews #digitalmarketing #customersuccess #entrepreneurship

One of the places where super passionate software enthusiasts meet is the online community of ProductHunt. 

It’s a place to discover new software and engage with founders. We asked ourselves what it takes to pull off a big launch on ProductHunt, to get tons of upvotes and got a product which generates curiosity.

Greg from Claimer.com, a R&D tax credit service from the UK, managed a ProductHunt launch of their software in February this year. In this new episode, Greg reveals what made their launch a success, reaching one of the highest trading products of their launch day, growing to more than 200 upvotes.   

ProductHunt is about much more than getting upvotes. It's an opportunity to get free traffic, get known to thousands of people and to gain feedback on the product. Greg mentioned that he got lots of value from the conversations with users on the platform. 

Learn from Greg how to Prepare, Manage and Promote a ProductHunt launch:

- When is the best time to launch on ProductHunt in the lifespan of a software business

- Why the freshness of upvotes matters

- The role of PH for the tech ecosystem & community

- How to prepare for a big launch (The weeks and months ahead)

- The right timing and day to launch and get engagement 

- How to use PH to gain valuable product feedback

- What Greg would do differently if he launched again

- How to grow a brand without outbound marketing, entirely with word of mouth and referrals and affiliate marketing

Listen in to this episode of the Marketing Mavericks Show. If you enjoy the content, make sure you like the video and subscribe and let us know any questions in the comments below!

#producthunt #launch #software #saas #producthuntlaunch #digitalmarketing #B2b #B2BSaaS

Is Facebook the right medium to grow B2B sales? 

Absolutely, says Arman Ananian, agency owner and Facebook ads specialist. We talk with Arman about all things Facebook Advertising, from targeting strategies, creatives to the importance of the sales team and follow-up.

Arman started running ads for his own drop-shipping business. Being specialized in Facebook ads, in 2019 he got recruited to join the newly formed advertising agency CardoneKern.com, run by paid media expert Frank Kern and sales expert and business owner Grant Cardone.

We talk about his time in the US, working with Frank and his team, managing big client accounts. As CardoneKern transformed in Cardone Advertising, he made the jump to fully focus on his own agency, Arev Media.

We get into the nitty gritty of Facebook ads, going deep into the numbers of two different B2B case studies. Arman highlights the importance of asking for phone numbers in lead ads, nuances in ads set-up and the use of creatives to maximize clicks.

What You Will Learn In this Show

· The top factors to make Facebook ads profitable

· How Facebook ads can work in B2B

· Minimum and optimal budget for running PPC ads

· Behind the scenes of working with Grant Cardone and Frank Kern at Cardone Advertising

· Running ad funnels with educational content

· Discussing 2 case studies with number of ad spend, cost per leads, and return (ROI)

Quotes

“The most important factor for making Facebook ads profitable is that the business has a functioning sales process and team to handle incoming leads quickly”.

“Retargeting users visiting your website with Facebook is very powerful”.

“The phone number is the most valuable piece of information to ask for in Facebook lead ads”.

“You got to leave dynamic creatives running on it own for some time to let it keep optimizing”.

Resources

Arman's Facebook ads agency Arev Media: https://arevmedia.com

Listen in to this episode of the Marketing Mavericks Show. If you enjoy the content, make sure you like the video and subscribe.

#leadgeneration #b2bsaas #facebookads #facebookadvertising #mediabuyer #agencyowner #marketingagency

Wish to learn more about starting and scaling a successful agency business?

On today’s show, Chris speak with interview Apexure founder, Waseem Bashir who shares with us his distilled wisdom on growth, hiring practices, and lean implementation. Starting off as a freelancer in 2015, Waseem today helms a fast-growing conversion-focused agency employing 15 people.

Back in 2015, Waseem quit his job to follow his entrepreneurial dreams. However, he soon realized that he had to focus on a niche service in order to make his mark in a competitive space. So, after much deliberation, Waseem zeroed in on his primary service – landing pages.

Over time, he has started offering services like website development and marketing automation. And in the process, Waseem has gone from being a solo-entrepreneur to leading a team of 15 people.

Looking back, Waseem shares the different challenges that he has encountered while growing and scaling his agency. Specifically, you will get some great insights on how to find and hire great talent.

Once you find someone who is a good fit, how can you train them and ensure lean implementation? Apart from growing via the traditional route, we also explore how agencies can grow through strategic partnerships.

Towards the end, Waseem shares his big goals for 2021 and beyond.

Enjoy!

What You Will Learn In this Show

Quotes

“If you enjoy interacting with customers, sharing and solving customer problems, then the agency model can work for you”.

“Figure out the things that you don’t want to do because you will easily burn out”.

“You got to be a consultant rather than a salesperson when you are selling agency services”.

Resources

Apexure

If you starting out in business, which route should you go:

The two approaches are fundamentally different.

Developing a product sounds great: High growth, high margins, less stress, chances for taking on venture capital, etc.

But what is it really like, especially when you are starting out?

We invited someone on the show that has been doing both, growing a service business model and now branching out by developing a new software-as-service (SaaS) business.

We are speaking with Max Louis, a web agency owner from the South East UK. He and his team are designing websites and 3D art for companies and creatives in the gaming industry.

His agency Max Louis Creative is operating internationally, using a remote team with designers in countries including the UK, USA, South Africa, Argentina, and Columbia.

In 2018, he added a new service of social media marketing into his portfolio, under a newly formed brand “Oleso”. Just last year, he then started working towards turning Oleso from an agency service model into a software product – a very audacious move.

He shares learnings on why the initial Oleso model was tricky: Customer expectation management, pricing and positioning problems, etc.

Max had the plan of creating a scalable business model for some time, now realizes theses ambitions in turning Oleso into a SaaS tool. He gives insight into his model of hiring talent, the benefits of managing a remote team, the journey from idea to product and more.

Oleso promises to be “The Social Media Tool to Replace Them All, Built By Social Media Managers For Social Media Managers”, an interesting value proposition.

The tool is an evolution from managing social media content marketing for brands, addressing key problems that Max’ team faced themselves.

What you'll learn:

- How Max manages to run build his new digital business

- How to get beta testers and advertise in the early stages of the business

- Building and managing a global remote team

- Office vs. remote work

- Plans to raise venture capital

- Learnings from building a social media agency

Here are the links to Oleso’s website to check out the tool yourself www.oleso.co and to Max Louis Creative, Max’ web design agency: www.maxlouiscreative.com

For more actionable B2B marketing content, join our Facebook Community Marketing Mavericks: https://www.facebook.com/groups/leadgenapp

How to Research Your Market and Launch a Winning and Scalable Product

Struggling to assess the requirements of your market? And to launch a product that will build you your own tribe of raving fans?

We speak with Lead Venture Architect, BCG Digital Ventures, Siddika Jaffer who shares with us her thoughts on product-market fit, and differentiation. You will learn how you can adopt a scientific approach to finding the right product.

We start this show by attempting to answer a question that most start-ups struggle with – How do you find a good product-market fit? How can you find a product or service that has the potential to attract a large user base even without a large marketing push?

You will learn the important metrics that Siddika uses to validate a new product.

As an experienced growth strategist, Siddika calls out the common mistakes that start-up founders make when they bring a new product into the market. Market research and product iteration often come to a complete standstill upon launch. In today’s show, you will learn how a consistent “build-iterate” approach can help you beat the competition and stay ahead of the curve.

Enjoy!

What You Will Learn In This Show

Quotes

“If the demand for your product is great, you don’t require to market it so much”.

“The relationship with the customer does not end once you find a great product-market fit”.

“It is okay to build new features but you have to let go of them if they are not performing”.

Listen in to this episode of the Marketing Mavericks Show. If you enjoy the content, make sure you like the video and subscribe and let us know any questions in the comments below!

#ProductMarketFit #TechProduct #Startup #ScaleUp #Venture #VentureArchitect #SiddikiaJaffer

Revenue Operations, also called RevOps helps companies find new sales and growth opportunities by optimizing several functions across the business. It’s quiet a new discipline that has found great resonance in Silicon Valley, seeing growth as an interplay of marketing, sales, customer success and operations. In simple terms, RevOps, helps companies grow revenue with new customers as well as strengthening existing customer relationships. 

In this podcast episode we speak with Jason Reichl, RevOps expert and founder of GoNimbly, a company that advises businesses on Revenue Operations with the promise to increase each customer’s lifetime value by 26%.

Jason shared some inspirational learnings from his work. For example, why Revenue Operations is finding such great adoption and why RevOps is a fundamental shift in the marketplace, making us rethink how we market and sell. 

Traditionally, companies have marketing, sales, operations, and customer success departments. Sales people think differently than a customer success person. There’s good reason for running things that way, but at the of the day it is inefficient, leaving revenue opportunities on the table. 

Why?

Because when working “silos” as Jason calls it, you will hit walls. You will never have fully transparency, insight, and intelligence about what is best for the customer and where you can create sales opportunity and service the customer even more. Jason’s focused on closing those gaps in the customer journey, breaking down silos, bringing teams together and facilitating better results.

Jason’s background is in marketing. Over time he realized what matters most is analysing the buyer’s engagement pattern rather than just focusing on growing customer acquisition numbers. 

He says” Customers come to the website to buy”. Making a website convert customers is all about removing gap points to ease the visitor’s concerns, making the site demonstrate trust, authority, solution-orientation, and other important factors. He uses various frameworks and methods to improve the website and buying experience, particularly through personalization.

Most importantly however is prioritization, understanding where in the funnel or customer experience journey are the real gaps. If your website is good at generating conversions, bringing leads into the door that are relevant, qualified for what you can offer them, then it’s probably time to look more into other areas first. 

Understand whether the bigger challenge is sales-conversions (turning those customers into paying users), retaining customers or making customers spend more money and thereby increase lifetime value.

This was a very educational and inspiring conversion and opportunity to get insight into Revenue Operations tactics that the top companies in Silicon Valley are using.

Listen in to this episode of the Marketing Mavericks Show. If you enjoy the content, make sure you like the video and subscribe and let us know any questions in the comments below!

How Focus and “Quick Thinking” Helped Us Chalk Up Some Incredible Wins

2020 was a watershed year for the digital marketing industry. There were some agency owners who managed to score massive wins even as others struggled to adapt.

In this episode, Waseem and Chris bring to you their distilled wisdom on mindset, adaptability, and growth hacking.

When the pandemic struck, and the world first went into lockdown, Christopher found himself overwhelmed by all the disarray. The startup and business scene in London has been shaken up and he shares how quickly he had to find a new office within 10 days. He also shares how getting abroad in all for a break, helped him to “get his head right” so that he could resume with renewed gusto.

Waseem, on the other hand, was quick to realize that being nimble was the need of the hour. And, while he doubled down on content marketing and SEO, he added marketing automation and Google ads to his repertoire.

From staying productive and finding your own path in a work-from-home environment to focusing on your client’s biggest pain points, we reveal some golden nuggets that can catapult you miles ahead.

As owners of fast-growing businesses, Waseem and Christopher call out some of the common mistakes made by agency owners and share how you can strategize growth even in the most challenging markets.

Enjoy!

What You Will Learn In This Show

Quotes

“Build a relationship with existing customers and try to understand their problems…not just like fixing one thing and then closing off the project, but thinking of a very strategic level”.

“You have to cut down things that are not helping on your trajectory, and you have to focus on the things that are relevant. And this year, I think we really got challenged to figure out what the relevant things are”.

“Pivoting is sometimes actually good if you do it with accountability and base your judgment on systems”.