Performance Delivered

Copywriter and comedian Lianna Patch is on a mission: to inject humor into your marketing to make it more engaging, actionable, and profitable.

Humor shouldn’t be used in all industries, of course. But Lianna says you’d be surprised in which niches prospects are open to having their funny bones tickled a bit. 

It’s not all fun and games. Humor in sales copy goes a long way to building strong, long-term relationships with customers, says Lianna. 

We dive deep into this topic, covering…

• The marketing channels where humor works… and where to get started

• A strategy for testing if funny marketing will work with your audience

• The best place to insert jokes in your sales copy – and the types of jokes that do best

• How to write humorous copy… even if you don’t think you’re funny

• And more

LinkedIn is the easiest social network to go viral on, says AJ Wilcox of B2Linked. And that means it has tremendous potential to expand your business’s organic reach. But to make this free marketing method work, you have to take a very specific approach, adds AJ. 

In part 1 of this interview, AJ highlighted the advantages of LinkedIn over Facebook and Google, the best ad formats, and why this business-oriented social network isn’t a good advertising fit for every business.

Here in part 2, we expand on the organic side, including how to expand your influence using your personal and company profiles.

• The main reason most company LinkedIn profiles don’t much attention or traffic
• How the latest LinkedIn update leveled the playing field 
• The most effective content to post on LinkedIn – and when to post it
• What you need to know about how LinkedIn’s algorithm “judges” your new content 
• And more

Even though LinkedIn advertising can be incredibly effective for certain industries and businesses, not many agencies specialize in serving clients using this social network. 

There’s no better authority to speak with than AJ Wilcox, of B2Linked, who, at one point, managed five of LinkedIn’s top 10 ad customers. 

Like with many ad networks, being effective on LinkedIn is all about getting quality leads. You should also be able to track what spend gives you what results – and best contributes to your bottom line. 

But you’ll have to use different tactics than you would with Google or Facebook ads.

AJ gets into all the details, including…

• Why many companies are “priced out” of LinkedIn – and how to figure out if yours is
• How to figure out if your audience is on LinkedIn – and if you can target them
• The key element of an effective LinkedIn ad campaign that will engage your target market
• The minimum amount you need to spend per month to get results
• And more

Elisabeth Willits, a senior content marketing specialist with AWeber, is back again sharing her top tips for email marketing based on the data she’s gleaned about what works and what doesn’t based on sending out millions of emails. 

In the first part, we talked about why email marketing is the ideal way to grow an ecommerce business. We also cleared up some misconceptions about email that all too many marketers still believe.

This time we focus on how to improve your current email marketing strategy (it can probably be performing much better) or ways to kick-start your email marketing efforts if you’ve never done it before. 

Listen in to find out…

• What your welcome emails must have
• The most important purpose of every email you send out
• How to make sure your subject line stands out in your prospects’ inboxes 
• The power of the “story” email
• Clear and concise instructions on how to set up an effective automated email marketing funnel

For years, so-called experts have been touting the demise of email marketing. But, says Elisabeth Willits, this marketing channel is far from dead. In fact, in many ways it’s more relevant than ever.

As a senior content marketing specialist at AWeber, over the last six years Elisabeth has seen the industry up close and personal every day. Along the way, she’s collected data from emails sent to millions of subscribers, allowing her to figure out what works and what doesn’t in email.

She shares her results and insights into how to grow a business with this veteran marketing channel, including…

• The factors that most influence click-through rates
• Creating effective – and deliverable – email content
• The three types of emails ecommerce stores must send their prospects and customers
• An email list you should never mail to… in fact, it could be dangerous to your business
• Exciting new innovations in email marketing and the opportunities they offer

In my second chat with Daniel Englebretson, we’re taking a deeper dive into the world of account-based marketing—specifically how to get started with this channel, from identifying targets to what metrics to track to measure success.

It’s pretty in-depth – if you want to do it right, at least. Daniel shares the step-by-step process he uses to figure out which accounts to go after and the key role the sales team plays in developing that list. 

Account-based marketing isn’t right for every company. But, Daniel reveals a certain type of company for which it’s the best option. 

Tune in to find out if your business qualifies, as well as…

• The key differences between account-based and inbound marketing
• Strategies to ensure that prospects come to you (and why they’re much more valuable)
• What you must always keep in mind when choosing your ABM targets
• How your sales team needs to be involved with your account-based marketing campaigns 
• And more

Joris Bryon, founder of the Dexter Agency, is passionate about helping eCommerce business owners grow methodically using almost “scientific” methods.

In the first episode with Joris, we talked about a potential untapped goldmine for eCommerce businesses: converting more of your current traffic to boost profits instead of buying additional traffic, which gets very expensive – especially these days.

In today’s conversation, we focus on how exactly to do that by creating and executing a conversion optimization plan that encompasses the overall user experience, checkout process, landing pages, marketing campaigns, and more.

Tune in to find out…

• Top conversion killers to watch out for
• The right way to test (most people get it wrong)
• What you should never let your web developer be in charge of 
• The best ways to collect key data from real users
• And more

Joris Bryon, founder of Dexter Agency, sees a lot of ecommerce entrepreneurs taking the wrong approach to designing their online presence. 

They base the design on personal preference instead of data, so instead of being able to make changes that continually boost response – and profits – they spin their wheels.

Another issue: too much money and effort is spent on generating traffic without a solid plan for what to do with potential customers once they get to your site. Again, most lost opportunity for sales and revenue.

Joris focuses on converting more of the traffic you already have, which is an untapped goldmine for many ecommerce businesses. 

Tune in to find out…

• What to do with cold traffic
• How to reduce your conversion percentage… and increase profit
• The four ways you can increase your revenue
• Avoiding the web traffic plateau
• And many more valuable pointers that will help you turn your prospects into paying customers

Many eCommerce entrepreneurs forget that the fundamental accounting principles and financial metrics that gauge the health of your business and should guide your future plans always remain the same, no matter what industry or sector you’re in.

That being said,   book-keeping specialist Cyndi Thomason knows there are key ways online businesses differ, not to mention they face unique challenges. With her company, bookskeep, she helps clients doing business online increase their cash flow and keep it steady.

A lot of what she does is somewhat counterintuitive… but very effective. We talk about…

• Why she doesn’t use QuickBooks (at least not for these key tasks)
• How to get an instantly updated snapshot of your financial health
• What it really means to put profits first
• Using multiple bank accounts to track your business’s finances
• And more

As founder of The CFO Project, Adam Lean consults with small businesses who’ve stalled and helps them to grow while maintaining a healthy profit – something the owners haven’t been able to do themselves. 

Every business has its own set of obstacles to achieving that goal, of course. But, says Adam, there are several specific things that he sees most businesses doing wrong… or not doing at all when they should be.

One major point to keep in mind: more sales does not always equal more money in the bank. It’s a lesson he learned the hard way in the early days of his ecommerce business. We get into detail on all of this, including…

• The biggest myth about profitability
• Why an accountant or bookkeeper can’t help you
• A four-step process for growing profitability and cash flow in your small business
• The five most important numbers to watch in your business
• Various invaluable tips and pointers which can vastly alter the long-term outcome of your business