Performance Delivered

When starting a business, many entrepreneurs think their first step should be to sink a bunch of money into advertising and marketing to get the word out.

But what if you don’t have much – if any – startup cash? Or you simply realize putting money into marketing doesn’t guarantee a return, especially with an untested product.

Eric Bandholz, founder of Beardbrand, turned this challenge into an asset. It forced him to grow his brand organically… and created a solid foundation for the thriving business he has today. He talks about how he marketed in the startup days, with no money, and how that philosophy still guides Beardbrand to this day.

Listen in to discover…

• The best places to market online – if you don’t have any money
• How to avoid having a “boring” business
• When it’s time to get into paid media activities
• Why you need to be part of your own target market
• And more

Eric Bandholz, founder and creative director of Beardbrand, doesn’t just sell men’s grooming products. He gives his customers confidence, a feeling of well-being, and a sense of community. 

That’s what every brand should do. Unfortunately too many are just customers and transactions. We talk about how Eric and his partners have built an engaged community of followers using social media and other channels. 

This tactic has enabled Eric and his partners to see steady growth, without outside investment. It’s a true bootstrapped ecommerce business.

Tune in to find out…

• Overcoming the biggest hurdles of a bootstrapped business
• The “Top Grading” process for hiring the best candidates
• How to “talk” to your prospects… so they don’t feel like they’re being sold
• Creating a company culture based on your core values – and getting buy in from employees
• And more

Brad Moss, CEO of Product Labs, and I continue our conversation about Amazon advertising. If you haven’t checked out our previous podcast on the topic, check out Part 1 here.

This time we talk about how companies can start selling on Amazon – and what contemporary methods they need to utilize to be successful. One of the first things is to set up an effective keyword strategy... and even consider some paid ads. 

But this is a whole different ballgame than how you’ve done that sort of thing on Google. Brad talks about what metrics Amazon is looking for which can place you on top of your category.

We chat about conversion rate – what happens once you get people to your product page. As it turns out, here are four key parts of that page that impact this metric. And Brad also gives us the low down on the broader display ad system inside Amazon – which offers ads spots in many places you wouldn’t think about…

Tune in to get all the details on that, as well as…

• The four parts of your Amazon product page that influence conversion rate
• What you don’t want to do with keywords on your Amazon product listing
• The metric for Amazon sales too many people are focused on… but should forget about
• The KPIs that matter when selling on Amazon
• Up to date methods to place in the top rankings and significantly boost conversions

Amazon is a crowded place. As a veteran of Amazon, having managed the third-party seller platform, Brad Moss should know. It’s used in 10 countries, by over 2 million merchants, with more than 200 million customers and over 60 billion products.

This episode is all about the Amazon advertising strategies Brad recommends to his clients as CEO of consulting firm Product Labs. 

Even if you don’t sell on Amazon (or at least not yet), it pays to listen because this platform is only getting more ubiquitous, and many of the concepts and best practices translate to online marketing in general.

Tune in to find out…

• The difference between an Amazon vendor and an Amazon seller
• Things to watch to make sure your Amazon product listings are effective
• Why you must match your supply chain with your marketing funnel
• How Amazon’s advertising platform actually works
• In-depth details and insights about the highly-complex inner workings of Amazon ads

Si Quan Ong, of SEO firm Ahrefs is back. During our first conversation, we discussed how to come up with evergreen topics for SEO-friendly content for your website. This time around, we’re talking about how to actually create that evergreen content.

The main issue, says SQ, is that many businesses go about content marketing all wrong. They do what everybody else is doing… don’t see great results… and so they give up, thinking content marketing doesn’t work.

SQ explains the pitfalls to watch out for… and best practices to adopt so that content marketing is a huge asset to your business. Among other things, we cover…

• The #1 thing Google wants to see in your content
• The 3 characteristics of “good” content 
• How to increase “dwell time”
• Does readability matter with your SEO-friendly web content?
• And more

When Google tweaks their algorithm, many website owners scramble to figure out new tricks to stay on top of the search results. But not Si Quan Ong and his colleagues at SEO firm Ahrefs. 

They know whatever Google does, quality content will always be a key part of an effective SEO strategy. However, they don’t focus on posting every day or publishing timely content. Instead, they post blogs and articles that will always be relevant.

We talk about how that slow but steady evergreen approach pays off in more and higher-value traffic, as well as…

• The difference between evergreen content and evergreen topics
• How to deal with keywords and search terms with a lot of competition
• The best platforms to find keywords for your SEO efforts (it’s not what most people consider #1)
• One of the best ways to gather intelligence on your competition
• And more

Machine learning and A.I. is already in the world of media and online communication all around us. But it’s broken into marketing and advertising too, even if you don’t realize it.

Will A.I. ever replace a human’s expertise when buying ads? Bant Breen, founder of innovative reputation management firm Qnary, discusses this question. And it’s not cut-and-dry. One thing’s for sure. Just because it’s a shiny new object doesn’t mean you should be using it in your marketing efforts.

In fact, many agencies shouldn’t be using these systems at all… at least not until they have the right “infrastructure” set up.

We discuss that in detail, as well as…

• The first place to start if you’re interested in A.I. 
• What machine learning can and can’t do – at least right now
• The biggest challenge in implementing A.I. solutions
• “Off the shelf” A.I. you can use now in your marketing efforts
• And more

Can artificial intelligence be creative… be original? Could AI come up with effective marketing?

Those are the big questions that Bant Breen, founder of reputation management firm Qnary, studies.

He says too many people in business – and marketing in particular – lack a true understanding of what AI is… and what it’s capable of. Not to mention the key ways it’s used in marketing already and the potential it has to impact the industry in the near future.

Bant maintains that too many executives are dismissive of AI and machine learning and its potential to change the face of marketing and business. 

We talk about the latest developments in this field, as well as…

• How a machine might replace a marketing executive
• Why AI is way beyond chatbots
• How machine learning and AI are the same… and different
• The surprising uses of AI in advertising you probably missed
• And more

Ray Carbonell and the team at Qnary have helped radically change the way we think of thought leadership and reputation management. Ray says thought leadership isn’t about a TED Talk that goes viral… and if you only worry about reputation management when something goes wrong – then you’ve missed a big opportunity.

They show companies in a wide variety of industries how they can use thought leadership to boost engagement with their audience, land new business, and boost recruitment of top-notch new employees.

But they don’t focus on building the brand. Today’s consumers want a more personal connection, and that means building up the online profile of key executives.

We talk about the strategies they implement for their clients, including…

• The top 5+ social networks for creating thought leaders from the ground up
• Why helping executives build an individual brand actually increases retention
• How to use social media to create an exponential boost in audience engagement
• What to include in your online bios – and what to leave out
• And more

Marketing automation is the only way to accelerate the growth of your business and get it to the next level, says Robin Alex, president of agency Innovate Fast. But simply installing automation software and systems to drive new leads isn’t enough, says Robin, and won’t have any impact unless you take an extra step.

We talk about how to effectively integrate marketing automation into a business, how to use it to close more sales, the top platforms available today (especially for small businesses), and more.

Tune in to find out…

• How automation fits into overall marketing strategy – and when to implement it
• The ways people are still key to the success of a marketing automation system
• Strategies for converting automated leads – this sometimes is a hands-on process
• The biggest challenge facing anybody using marketing automation systems – and how to overcome it
• And more