The Captain Coder Podcast

If you've been building websites for any length of time, chances are you've had a client ask you about running Google and/or Facebook ads.

After all, running paid ads through Google, Facebook, and other online platforms can help you accelerate your clients' marketing and leads generation.

Unfortunately, paid ads on digital platforms can feel pretty overwhelming and unless you set up everything correctly, can end up costing more money than they should or need to.

But here's the secret - you can do everything on the ads themselves to optimize them, set up everything the way that Facebook or Google loves, but unless you've done the work on the destination website first, it won't matter much.

In this week's episode, I'm going to take you through exactly the work you need to do before you start that next ad campaign.

Mentioned Resources

• Google Page Speed
• WP Engine
• Autoptimize

Were you or a client personally victimized by the Facebook shutdown of 2021?

Chances are, the largest social media sites being down for several hours affected your own business and also your clients'. Ads stopped running, posts couldn't be published, and some companies lost their entire web presence because they rely only on Facebook and Instagram to do business.

Which is the biggest mistake a business can make.

In this week's episode, learn how you can protect yours and your clients' businesses from being affected by the whims of a social media giant.

The age old debate in marketing has long been how do you switch up your strategies when you're a B2B company or a B2C one.

If you're dealing with businesses as your main customers, surely that's so incredibly different than when you're selling directly to a consumer, right?

Well, frankly, that's kind of wrong.

Cause the thing is, whether you're a B2B brand or a B2C one, your customers all have one thing in common - they're human.

In this week's episode, learn the real differences between B2B and B2C marketing and how you can connect with your target audience in an authentic, human way.

Want to hear a secret?

Everyone, at times, finds digital marketing overwhelming.

While in theory it sounds great to learn about social media marketing, video, content marketing, email marketing, websites, SEO, and more, what it can do is cause overwhelm.

There are so many options to choose from. There are so many opinions, so many methods, so many things changing every. single. second.

In today's episode, I'm going to talk you through why it's OK that you don't know everything and how to combat the overwhelm that comes with an industry that changes by the second.

When we think of stories, we think of heroes and larger than life moments. We think of fictional characters and people we might want to be like.  But how in the world does that translate to a brand and marketing?

That’s actually one of the hardest parts about storytelling when it comes to marketing. You have to take this seemingly inhuman thing – a company – and give it humanity that we can and want to connect to.

If you’ve been struggling with how to create your own brand story, knowing what you need to do, and how you want to present your own brand, let me help.

In today's episode, I walk you through how to find the main components in your brand story, what your goals should be in telling your brand story, and how to craft your own.

Want to learn how to put together a simple content marketing strategy? I'll take you through step by step how to create your own, all in less than a 15 minute episode!

With the advent of social media and all of the digital channels where we spend our time, we can get bombarded with marketing messages.

We also have an increasing amount of control over our interruptions. To earn eyeballs as marketers, we simply have to create better content (easier said than done, I'm well aware).

But in this episode, I'll walk you through exactly what research you need to do, how to think in your target audience's terms, and how to choose the content you should be publishing.

Get out a pen and paper and let's dive in!

Have you ever wondered how some websites have those rich results on Google?

You know, where they are answering a question, or showcasing a review, or even have their hours listed right under their search result.

The answer? Schema!

If you have clients who want to know how their competitors' search results have more information than their own, this episode is for you.

Mentioned Resources:
Schema.org
Structured Data Markup Helper
Structured Data Testing Tool

Do you find yourself launching websites for clients and they call you annoyed that they “can’t find it” within a couple of hours or days?

We don’t have a lot of control over when Google will index a website. And while you can do a lot to help Google find that website you just launched by how you build and structure it, there’s an awesome shortcut to make that all work much faster and get listed on Google in a matter of hours instead of weeks.

Want to know what it is?

In this week's episode, I'm going to introduce you to your favorite new tool. And bonus! It's completely free!

Mentioned Resources:
Google Search Console
Yoast SEO

When I started developing websites professionally 16 years ago, I only had to worry about a couple of screen sizes. Most monitors came in roughly the same size and we didn't have to even think about phones.

Now, we have so many devices to plan for that when you develop a website you're managing multiple breakpoints.

But if you haven't made the switch to mobile-first design yet, you're at the risk of being behind a pretty big curve.

Designing mobile first isn't just about following the industry's trends, either. Let me walk you through five big reasons why you should be designing and developing websites mobile-first.

A website on its own will not bring customers in droves.

A poorly built website is, frankly, just a waste of money.

Unless you build a website that has the components it needs to actually convert browsers into buyers, a website won't do much for your clients.

In my 16 (really 20, but let’s not get into that) years of building websites, the key pieces that make a website go from present to great haven’t really changed a whole lot.

While yes, technology and some best practices have and will continue to change, the focus with each of these components is making the journey for the customer as easy as possible from first search impression through their entire experience throughout your website. And after all, that simple strategy doesn’t care what you build the website in.

So what components do you need to create a website that actually converts and can work as a marketing machine? Let's dive in to my top 10.