Podcasts Archives - OMCP

What does a conversion optimization professional need to know?  Talia Wolf, Founder and Chief Optimizer at GetUplift discusses thank you pages, AB testing, persona mapping, and how to understand what makes our customers take the next step in the buying journey. 

Talia Wolf, Founder and Chief Optimizer at GetUplift

The OMCP Podcast is where top authors and industry leaders share authoritative practices in online marketing which are covered by the OMCP standard, competencies, and exams.  This is an OMCP pilot program that may continue based on member interest and support. Stay subscribed to the OMCP newsletter to get new episodes.

Michael Stebbins:

All right. Welcome back to the OMCP Podcast and with us today is Talia Wolf, founder and chief optimizer at GetUplift, author, speaker, and thought leader in conversion optimization. Talia, welcome to the OMCP Best Practices Podcast.

Talia Wolf:

Hello, hello. Thank you for having me.

Michael Stebbins:

Now, Talia, We know your agency is GetUplift. We know you speak on and teach conversion optimization in some of the most prestigious stages in the world. We know you’re a skydiver with over 1000 jumps, for those of you who haven’t read your blog, followed you on Twitter, or heard you speak, tell our audience something we don’t know about you, and what it is you’ve been working on lately.

Talia Wolf:

Oh, my God, there’s nothing no one knows about me. I’m like an open book. What don’t people know about me? I love Harry Potter, but I think people know that. And other than that, I have two kids under three, which I was just confessing to that I’m basically sleep deprived. And what am I working on right now? I’m actually working on some super cool client work and opening enrollment for my new course, The Income Engine.

Michael Stebbins:

Yes. And we’re going to include a link for that here in the podcast and make sure listeners have a chance to get training from you. Talia, I mean, obviously it’s impressive that you’ve jumped out of perfectly good planes for awhile. 

A few other questions for you just to find out more about you, dogs or cats?

Talia Wolf:

Dogs, a hundred percent.

Michael Stebbins:

SEO or paid?

Talia Wolf:

Hmm, SEO.

Michael Stebbins:

Bitcoin or Ethereum?

Talia Wolf:

I actually have a terrible story about that, about Bitcoin. So about, I think it was six years ago. My husband said that, “we should buy one of the mining machines and we should do it. And it was like nothing. And we should spend like $5,000 and buy this whole thing.” And I said, “Are you crazy? $5000, we’re not doing that.” So, here we are.

Michael Stebbins:

What you want to know is how they do the work itself and that it actually has depth to it.–Talia Wolf

And now Elon is an endorser, we’re seeing it go through the ceiling, but who knows people listening to this podcast a year from now may be laughing and saying,

Which digital marketing course should you choose?

One of the most common questions asked of OMCP is “Which Digital Marketing Courses are right for me?” In this special training series, we interview the leaders of seven digital marketing course providers to learn the differences.

In this episode, Mordy Golding, Director of Content for LinkedIn Learning shares what to expect in LinkedIn Learning training, his own thoughts on the value of certification, and where LinkedIn Learning is headed in the future.

Listen to the interview below, on iTunes or on Google Play

Michael:All right. Welcome back to the OMCP studio. With us today is Mordy Golding, Director of Content for LinkedIn Learning. I’m your host, Michael Stebbins, and today we’ll be discussing digital marketing training and some of the differences you should be aware of. Mordy, welcome.

Mordy Golding, Director of Content for LinkedIn Learning

Mordy Golding:It is my pleasure to be here.

Michael:I know you have a great history in graphic design, some time as Adobe’s product manager for Illustrator. Then 15 or so years ago, a jump into education and training. What drove you to make the change?

Mordy Golding:I don’t know if I would say it’s a jump, I think I maybe fell backwards into it.

Michael:Join the dark side, if you will.

What drove you to get into the business of training?

Mordy Golding:Yeah. Well, so here’s the thing. I am very passionate about design. I left Adobe and basically went around the world teaching people how to use Adobe software. I was just blown away by the response and how people really kind of came around to valuing … when you leave college or you leave school, you have a certain skillset and that skillset doesn’t end. As new digital tools come out, people need to kind of reinvent how they kind of learn. But more so, technology kind of completely changes your approach to how you do work.

So, I found a lot of people had old mindsets. Digital tools that Adobe was creating really allowed designers to completely think differently about how they do their work. I was friendly with Linda Wyman. I recorded some courses for her online, and realized through the response of the people, from members and from learners, that this was way beyond just design. I think it was an opportunity for me to kind of think about how do we actually take this idea, which I’m always passionate about teaching people something, beyond just graphic design, into really all the topic areas that we cover?

Michael:Mordy, you’re responsible for all of the content, I believe, that’s in English on LinkedIn Learning.

Mordy Golding:Correct.

Michael:Of that spectrum, how do you measure the success of the courses or programs that you deliver?

How do you measure the success of your courses and programs?

Mordy Golding:It’s a great question. I say this a very simple way. We measure success, which is we ask people, was this content worth your time? A lot of companies think about using assessments and test scores, and I’m not saying that those are not valuable, there’s a place for each of those. But high level, because today’s environment requires people to ...

SEO: Determining Algorithm Changes

Google’s recent updates are leaning heavily towards knowledge-based search. How does it work and how should our content be optimized for it?  What signals are they looking for for inclusion in the knowledge graph? Find out here in this interview with SEO and Google patent analyst Bill Slawski who is also Director of SEO Research at Go Fish Digital, and author at SEO by the Sea. Here Bill covers knowledge graph usage, ontology based images, augmented queries based on knowledge graphs, and how to stay up to date with the changes in search.

The OMCP Online Marketing Best Practices Podcast is where top authors and industry leaders share authoritative best practices in online marketing which are covered by the OMCP standard, competencies, and exams.  This is an OMCP pilot program that may continue based on member interest and support. Stay subscribed to the OMCP newsletter to get new episodes.

Interview with Bill Slawski

Bill Slawski helps us understand the systems behind search results.

Michael:All right. Welcome back to the OMCP Studio, and with us today is Bill Slawski, Director of SEO Research at Go Fish Digital, author at SEO by the Sea. Bill, welcome to the OMCP Best Practices Podcast.

Bill Slawski:Thank you for having me here, Michael.

Michael:We know your blog SEO by the Sea for your insights on algorithm interpretation based on patents. We know you’re the director of research at Go Fish Digital, but some may not know he studied law, but before we get started, for those who haven’t read your blog or followed your Twitter or heard you speak, tell our audience something we don’t know about you, and what it is you’ve been working on lately.

Bill Slawski:Okay. I graduated from law school just before the web came round, and I was interested in environmental law. And one of my professors was rewriting a paper he had written previously and updating it on finding electronic sources of information to do natural resource damage assessment. Sources like LexisNexis and so on. And eventually that became just like the web. So I had an introduction to the electronic databases that were in the world before there was a web, which was an interesting experience.

Michael:So you were, in some ways, helping categorize knowledge from the start. What brought you into the digital era?

Bill Slawski:So I had a friend who was a service manager at a car dealership, and he hated his job. He couldn’t stand it. I was reading a book on how to incorporate people in Delaware and be the registered agent as a business. The only technical requirement for performing that job was having a postal address in Delaware, so you can receive notice of process in case there was a lawsuit against one of these companies. So the idea was, you charge people to be the registered agent, you act as a registered agent, and register with the Department of Corporations for the state. I suggested it to him. He said, “Well that sounds like good idea, except I don’t have a website,” and I said, “Well, let me see what I can do about that,” and I learned HTML in two weeks and spent two weeks and built a website.

Michael:And since then, you’ve helped countless businesses set up strategy for SEO. You’re considered an authority on how search engines work. So it just makes sense that we’re going to cover how marketers can understand how en...

Which digital marketing course should you choose?

One of the most common questions asked of OMCP is “Which Digital Marketing Courses are right for me?” In this Winter 2019 education series, we interview the leaders of seven digital marketing course providers to learn the differences.

Richard Townsend, CEO of Circus Street was kind enough to sit with us and share what the industry can expect from his company and training courses; now and in the future.

Listen to the interview below, on iTunes or on Google Play

Michael:All right. Welcome back to the OMCP studio and with us today is Richard Townsend, CEO and cofounder of Circus Street. I’m your host, Michael Stebbins and today we’ll be discussing digital marketing training and some of the differences you should be aware of. Richard, welcome.

Richard:Hello!

Richard Townsend, CEO and Co-Founder of Circus Street

Michael:I’m glad you’re with us today. So, Circus Street has been a good success story in digital marketing training. You and your co founder started this—how long ago?

Richard:It was about eight or nine years ago. We started building a pilot about nine years ago and then we launched that pilot eight years ago.

What drove you to get into the business of training?

Richard:Essentially, we saw an opportunity within the marketplace, so we could see from my experience working in digital marketing and in marketing generally, that there was very low levels of understanding about what appeared to be a growing subject. We could see that it was much larger than most companies thought it would be in terms of the levels of knowledge required in the businesses that we were going to work with. And we knew that technology had to be part of the answer to that problem.

Michael:Were you providing services prior to that and just educating your customer and it grew out of that?

Richard:So essentially I was a digital marketer working in an agency. I was head of digital for a company called Starcom Mediavest with part of the Publicis group in the UK. And my brother was working in an online learning business, but his background had been more in the mobile networks in the mobile industry, but it happened to end up as an MD for a learning business who had a mobile product. I’d started to do some consultancy and part of that was sitting in rooms with senior folk and discussing digital, which became sort of the basis of the training program because it was clear that many of them had very low levels of knowledge around the subject, technology in general, how technology was impacting on marketing and then digital marketing. And so we could then see that there was this emerging opportunity, but that what we needed to do was solve a problem that existed within learning from an online learning perspective, which was most online learning that we’d seen in most of our learners had seen at that point, wasn’t very good.

Michael:Just in the last few years I can think of two companies, at least, that have been recognized for training practice success and they were customers of Circus Street. How do you measure the success of your courses and programs?

How do you measure the success of your courses and programs?

Which digital marketing course should you choose?

One of the most common questions asked of OMCP is “Which Digital Marketing Courses are right for me?” In this education series, we interview seven leaders in digital marketing training to learn the differences.

In this episode, industry veteran and Jump Digital Founder Alex Clyne shares what to expect in Jump Digital’s marketing courses and where they are headed in the future.

Listen to the interview below, on iTunes or on Google Play

Michael:All right. Welcome back to the OMCP studios, and with us today is Alex Clyne, co-founder of Jump Digital, makers of best-in-class digital education content and training courses. I’m your host, Michael Stebbins. Today we’ll be discussing digital marketing training and some of the differences you should be aware of. Alex, welcome.

Alex:Thanks, Michael.

Michael:We do know you’ve been involved in digital successfully, I might add, since the mid-nineties so as a founder, we want to know what drove you to get into the business of education and training.

What got you into digital marketing training?

Alex Clyne, Industry Leader and Co-Founder of Jump Digital

Alex:Sure. We were delivering through our digital marketing strategy organization strategy to corporates, and we were, our business model has always been to up-skill the internal people, so that they could own it going forward, because we believe that’s where digital marketing will live in the future. And we’re building bespoke training for these organizations. At the same time, we’re sort of witnessing this gap between IT and marketing, and the lack of practitioner led training in this new digital marketing field.So we were visiting lecturers at the University of Aberdeen, and we convinced them to allow us to build their first ever online master’s program, which ends up in an MSC in digital marketing leadership, which has now been running for, successfully for over three years globally, and takes a very strategic vision of digital marketing. At the same time, we wanted to try and understand how people were learning now compared with in the past.

Alex:So we built a platform that allows us to basically take an hour long lecture that you would get at a university and condense it into a seven, eight minute TV script, and then use them with the appropriate tool to transfer that knowledge. So it could be Camtasia, it could be animation, it could be straight face to camera, and so on. This has become really successful from the MSC prospective. And we embellish that with the relevant Ted talks and the most recent appropriate articles. Alongside this, there’s a sort of transcript, all the video material, so that people can read as well as listen and look at the appropriate materials.

And then two years ago we decided to develop a shorter version of the MSC, which we’ve called the accredited digital marketing professional. And we’ve used the same approach, the same learning methodology, and it’s now been accredited to the OMCA. So I suppose in summary, we came at it from a business perspective saying, “Look, we think there’s a gap in the market, and we think it should be practitioner led, so let’s go and do something about it.”

Which digital marketing course should you choose?

One of the most common questions asked of OMCP is “Which Digital Marketing Courses are right for me?” In this special interview series, we interview seven leaders in digital marketing education to learn the differences.

Mark Moran, the Chief Marketing Officer with Simplilearn shared what to expect in Simplilearn’s digital marketing courses and where they are headed in the future.

Listen to the interview on iTunes or on Google Play

Michael:All right. Welcome back to the OMCP studios and with us today is Mark Moran, the Chief Marketing Officer with Simplilearn, long time digital marketing veteran with some of the world’s leading companies. I’m your host Michael Stebbins and today we’ll be discussing digital marketing courses. Mark, welcome to the podcast. I’m glad you’re here.

Mark:Hey Michael, great to be here. Thanks for having me.

Mark Moran, CMO Simplilearn

Michael:Now Mark, I know your role is to lead marketing, but first question really has to do with what drove the founders to get into the business of education and training and how did you come to join the company?

What got you into digital marketing training?

Mark:Right. So Simplilearn’s been around almost 10 years now and our original founder who is still our CEO and driving the company is a man named Krishna Kumar, and he had just sold a previous company where he was a founder and he had started a blog on project management, which is his area of expertise. And over the course of 6 to 12 months, it evolved. It went from having a readership to having people asking more and more questions and saying, “Hey can I get on a chat with you, can I talk with you?” to then people asking, “Can you help me pass the exam?”.

Mark:And in the case of project management, PMI, the Project Management Institute is the definitive certification body and this sort of cascaded and he realized, “Hey, this is a business,” and he also looked, starting in India, but really some of his first customers were in the US as well, and saw that this whole online training thing was really taking off. And so went from a personal passion project to really wanting to help people learn first in project management, and then it’s evolved to what we call digital economy skills, which includes digital marketing, cybersecurity, really anything that is driving sort of the modern economy is where we focus.

And so fast forward about three plus years ago and one of the board members approached me and I had just exited from a consumer e-commerce company and we had a fantastic exit, and was really looking to do something that was a little more mission-driven. I’d always been involved mostly in consumer web and started looking into this company, super interesting company. I hadn’t worked internationally, predominant number of our head count is out of Bangalore, India, and one thing led to another and I’m driving marketing here in San Francisco with a big team in India and folks all around the US. The whole mission is, I like to say, is keeping humans one step ahead of AI and robots, and keeping us all relevant and employed. So that’s what motivates me and gets me up in the morning.

Which digital marketing course should you choose?

One of the most common questions asked of OMCP is “Which Digital Marketing Courses are right for me?” In this special interview series, we talk with seven leaders in digital marketing training to learn the differences.

We interviewed Jefferson Flanders, President and CEO of MindEdge Learning who shared what the industry can expect from the MindEdge Learning digital marketing courses now, and in the future.

Listen to the interview on iTunes or on Google

Michael:All right. Welcome back to the OMCP studio, and with us today is Jefferson Flanders, President and CEO of MindEdge Learning. I’m your host, Michael Stebbins, and today we’ll be discussing digital marketing training and some of the differences you should be aware of. Jeff, welcome to the podcast.

Jefferson:Thank you, Michael.

Jefferson Flanders, President and CEO MindEdge

Michael:Really glad you’re here and excited to get into some of the differences in MindEdge. I know that MindEdge was founded by some highly educated people with a passion for learning. You’re in the role of President and CEO. What drove you to get into business of education and training?

Training Background

Jefferson:I worked in the newspaper industry for 20 years, and in 2000 I made a career shift. I’d always been interested in education and I shifted, and I started teaching at NYU and at Boston University. I also spent time with Harvard Business School Publishing. Then I came to MindEdge in 2004, and from that point on I’ve been focused on adult learners, which is our target market. Those are the sorts of people that we want to help, and our motto, which is, Improving the Way the World Learns, I think, aligns and dovetails perfectly with people who are looking to advance themselves in their professions and careers.

Michael:When people are participating in the courses, how would you measure the success of that type of learning that you just described?

Measurements of Success

Jefferson:We ask learners, we give them the opportunity at the end of every module and every course to assess how well they feel that training has progressed. At the moment, we’re at a 96.5% learner satisfaction rate. Our goal is 98%, which is going to be tough, because as you know, there’s a little bit of subjectivity that goes into that.

First we look for learner satisfaction, and then we also look for their success when they move on to take a certification exam. We, essentially, have a money-back guarantee, which we have to this date never had to actually … We’ve never really had a problem with that, because if you can pass our courses, we’re very confident you’ll be able to pass the certification exam that they’re aimed at.

Michael:Now, I know you cover a lot of practices and disciplines, but asking specifically about the digital marketing courses that you’ve just come out with, who’s the ideal customer or the ideal candidate for the courses for MindEdge?

The Ideal Course Participant

Jefferson:I think it’s anyone who’s looking to learn about digital marketing and is looking for validation through OMCP, either with an OMCA or OMCP credential.

Which digital marketing course should you choose?

One of the most common questions asked of OMCP is “Which Digital Marketing Courses are right for me?” For this special series OMCP interviewed the leaders of seven digital marketing course providers to learn the differences. We start with the most recent to earn OMCP approval, Boot Camp Digital.

Allison Chaney, the chief digital training officer at Boot Camp Digital, and Krista Neher, CEO of Boot Camp Digital were kind enough to sit with us and share what the industry can expect from their company and training courses; now and in the future.

Listen to the interview on iTunes or on Google Play

Michael:All right. Welcome back to the OMCP studios, and with us today is Allison Chaney, the chief digital training officer at Boot Camp Digital, and Krista Neher, CEO of Boot Camp Digital. Allison and Krista are at the forefront of digital marketing training, delivering keynotes around the globe.

Allison Chaney, Chief Digital Training Officer at Boot Camp Digital

I’m your host Michael Stebbins, and today we’ll be discussing digital marketing training, specifically that from Boot Camp Digital, to help our audience understand how to choose a digital marketing training course specifically.

Allison and Krista, welcome.

Allison & Krista:Thank you. Thanks for having us.

What got you into digital marketing training?

Michael:As founders, what drove you to get into the business of education and training?

Krista Neher, CEO of Boot Camp Digital

Krista:Yeah, so that’s a great question, and I would say I came into it a little bit by accident, and then a little bit more on purpose. I started my business about 12 years ago just as social media was really taking off. What I found was that a lot of people, whether they were doing it themselves or hiring an agency, just didn’t understand enough to really get results. And so I became really interested in trying to help them learn how to use the tools themselves to get better results, whether they were a decision maker, an evaluator, or an implementer.

And so, I actually ran my first training class about 10 years ago, and I remember thinking, “Oh no, I wonder if people will show up.” Sure enough, it sold out. Since then, I’ve gotten even more focused on helping businesses and individuals to figure out how do they use these tools smartly to get better results faster? And so that’s really what inspires me is helping, whether it’s an implementer, or a business owner, or a decision maker in a large organization, helping them to make smarter decisions with their budgets. Because you just see so much waste, and so many executions that don’t even meet basic best practices, and it breaks my heart. I want to help people do a better job with this stuff, so they see the results.

Michael:When people are taking the courses, you’re passionate, you want to see them make the most use of their tools and their decisions, how would you measure the success of people who are going through the Boot Camp Digital courses and programs?

How do you measure training success?

Krista:I mean for me, the success always comes down to results. Are there actionable things that you can and will do that are going to improve your busi...

Which digital marketing course should you choose?

One of the most common questions asked of OMCP is “Which Digital Marketing Courses are right for me?” In this special training series, we interview the leaders of seven digital marketing course providers to learn the differences.

Meredith Gray Stone, Program Manager, Professional Certificate Programs at Duke University, was kind enough to sit with us and share what the industry can expect from the Duke University Digital Marketing Programs.

Listen to the interview on iTunes or on Google Play or here on this page.

Michael:Welcome back to the OMCP studios, and with us today is Meredith Gray Stone, Program Manager, Professional Certificate Programs at Duke University. I’m your host, Michael Stebbins, and today we’ll be discussing digital marketing training and some of the differences you should be aware of. Meredith, welcome to the program.

Meredith:Thanks for having me, Michael. Glad to be here.

Meredith Gray Stone, Program Manager, Professional Certificate Programs at Duke University

Michael:Glad you’re here as well. Now, I know you manage five certificate programs at Duke. You’ve been in education, in some capacity, for over 10 years as a Program Manager. What drove you to get into the business of education and training?

Training Background

Meredith:Well, I was a high school English teacher for many years, prior to doing this. I was working with high school students, as you know, and then eventually I moved into working with the Huntington Learning Center, and there I was able to work with a wide variety of students, of all ages, and I noticed that I started to have a yearning to work with an older audience, just for a change. Even though I can’t really take credit for founding this Digital Media Marketing Course here at Duke, or even in founding Duke Continuing Studies itself, I can provide some history about how it all began.

Since 1969

As everyone knows, Duke has a very long, rich history of academic excellence, we’ve been on the map for a long time. But our continuing studies has really only been around since 1969. That’s the year it started. And it actually started in order to really try to bring female students back into the college setting and encouraging them to finish their undergraduate degrees. That’s how it all started, which I think is pretty interesting. From there it’s really blossomed into providing a lot of different opportunities.

In the 70s, it was mostly about the female students, and then eventually we started catering to an older audience, with folks who were retired and just wanted to get out of the house and delve into some of these random topics and have the opportunity for enrichment classes. It was in the 80s that we started moving towards having these summer conferences. We started inviting younger audiences to Duke to have these academic camps and these summer experiences here at Duke so they could get a taste of the college life, while still being in Junior High or High School, whatever age it was that they came and experienced it.

Then from there we moved into more of a professional type of setting. We were still doing all those other things I mentioned, but to focus our energy more on things like corporate trainin...

Podcast with Matt Bailey

Managers and digital marketers: What are the marketing skills necessary for the 21st century? One market leader posed this question to author-expert Matt Bailey who in turn discusses this with OMCP’s Michael Stebbins.

This episode is  brought to you by:  MindEdge.  MindEdge Learning’s Digital Marketing Course covers strategic & technical topics of digital marketing with a series of nine online courses . Enroll today to prepare for your OMCA certification exam at MindEdge.com

The OMCP Online Marketing Best Practices Podcast is where top authors and industry leaders share authoritative best practices in online marketing which are covered by the OMCP standard, competencies, and exams.  This is an OMCP pilot program that may continue based on member interest and support. Stay subscribed to the OMCP newsletter to get new episodes.

Transcript:

Michael: All right, welcome back to the OMCP Studios. And with us today is Matt Bailey, author, educator, and CEO of SiteLogic. Matt is at the forefront of digital marketing best practices, training for some of the largest brands in the world. I’m your host, Michael Stebbins, and today we’ll be discussing a topic that Matt raised, what marketers need to know in the 21st century. Matt, as I pointed out, we’re kind of co-guests today. This will also go on “Endless Coffee Cup” but it will go on to OMCP. So welcome.

Download your MP3 of “Marketing Skills for the 21st Century” here.

Recording with Author Matt Bailey

Matt: Hey, thank you, yeah. I’m looking forward to this. It’ll be a dual-purpose podcast.

Michael: Yeah, a little bit different format. In the past, you’ve helped us out with best practices, but today it’s a little bit more of a discussion.

Matt: Great. Let’s get on it.

Michael: What do marketers need to know in the 21st century? So just a few days ago you raised this topic and we both went out and did a little bit of diligence. In my case, been working with a few Fortune 100 companies in terms of their digital marketing and raised the question internally. Through OMCP, did a little bit of conversation with some of the folks who are putting their teams through, and got some interesting answers. But first talk…

Matt: Wow, you did your homework. Wow.

Michael: Well, it’s an honor to be on “Endless Coffee Cup.” So tell me what some of the constraints are, where do you want to fit this in, what people need to know, what they need to do, how they need to think?

Matt: Okay. So let’s start here. If I am in charge of a team, an agency, a department, how do I prepare my employees or how do I look for prepared employees? I think that is the context that I am looking for.

Michael: And again, the consistent cry I hear from hiring managers is, “I can’t find qualified people.” That’s a great intro to start talking to folks. So the first thing I want to pull out centers around the value of a liberal arts degree or a theatrical degree being a criteria that more than two hiring managers are looking for.

Matt: Really?