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Tune in weekly and hear Trent Dyrsmid interview today's leading digital marketing professionals to uncover the strategies, systems, and processes they are using to scale their businesses to seven figu... more
FAQs about The Scale Your Agency Podcast | Bright Ideas:How many episodes does The Scale Your Agency Podcast | Bright Ideas have?The podcast currently has 388 episodes available.
February 09, 2021BI 351: How Nutribullet Achieved 134% YOY Revenue Increase (Ft Jason Magee) Episode Highlights [02:54] Scaling Marketplaces with Jason Magee Jason is a Senior Director of Sales and Business Development at Teikametrics. His job involves helping retailers scale on the most valuable marketplaces such as Amazon. Incrementality answers the question as to whether investing money in advertising isn’t moving the needle in top sales. According to Jason, incrementality is what Nutribullet wanted. Once Jason helped Nutribullet rebuild its campaign, the company was able to reach a 134% increase in revenue. [06:00] Beginning with Advertising According to Jason, if you like burning money, advertise right away. Before going into advertising, the first thing you have to do is to understand the most critical business metrics such as top-line sales, profitability at a company level, and advertising performance. In addition to business metrics, you also need to understand product metrics. These include pre- and post-advertising profitability, product goals based on its lifecycle, and how people buy your products. [08:46] Listing Optimization and Best Practices for Images A product should convince a customer to purchase based on high-quality images alone. The first best practice you have to observe is that the image must be on a white background. Images also need to highlight the product’s details. You can also optimize your listing with a video. Videos should show the actual components of the product. Videos and images should tell the story of your products. [13:04] What Comes After Listing Optimization The most fundamental way to advertise is through sponsored product advertising. It is search-based, wherein a keyword would ensure that your product shows up at the customer’s search. This allows you to leverage advertising even if your product does not rank well organically. Sponsored product advertising is a blend of automatic and manual campaigns. [14:44] Segmenting Your Campaigns In addition to your own brand terms, you also need to use competitor and generic terms. You need a strategy for each segment. Identify where your audience is in their buyer’s journey. Learn more by tuning in to the podcast! [17:44] Biggest Advertising Mistakes One of the biggest mistakes is advertising without considering your goals and margins. It is all about context because if you don’t know anything about the product, how could you effectively advertise it? [19:10] All About Teikametrics and Flywheel Looking at the evolution of Teikametrics, it was one of the first API partners of Amazon. They were very ad-focused. With Flywheel, they’re not only bringing in the advertising component in the app, but they are also incorporating inventory. Another exciting thing about Flywheel is the ability to understand market intelligence. Join Flowster’s Teikametrics webinar on February 11! ...more30minPlay
February 02, 2021BI 350: How New Entrepreneurs Can Create A Launch Pad For Their Online Empire Episode Highlights [03:44] — A Launchpad’s Benefits Most businesses are not scalable: more customers are offset by needing more employees. A launchpad business focuses on leveling up and career progression. After you succeed with your business launch, you can think about products or building marketplaces. [06:12] — How Eric Bought Single Grain, for $2 In 2012, Google’s updated algorithms rendered Single Grain's business model useless. Eric owned 10% at the time, and all the other investors jumped ship. He bought two 10% stakes from his colleagues at a dollar each. For the rest of the equity, he negotiated and eventually acquired 100% ownership of the agency. [09:38] — Tips on Getting Your First Client When starting, scour for emails or LinkedIn accounts that can connect you with potential clients. Catch a client’s attention is by offering free services. In Eric's case, he offered 20-minute diagnosis videos of the mistakes his leads were doing when managing their websites. Eric says that a 10–20% response rate is good progress. Check out the resource section for a list of valuable podcasts and books that helped Eric win his first client! [11:47] — Attracting the Initial Wave of Customers If you have a full-time gig, it would be best to ask for testimonials instead of charging fees immediately to establish social proof. It is possible to arbitrage the price of marketing efforts offshore, but make sure you have a system set up first. A mistake many first-time business founders make is not verifying. [13:28] — The Importance of Specialization For Single Grain, they focus on SaaS companies, specifically paid ads and SEO work. It’s essential to figure out what you are interested in and where you have experience. If you don’t specialize, you’ll end up doing mergers and acquisitions. [15:26] — Baby Steps of Building a Team Single Grain was left with one employee and had to reset itself. Outside contractors will never be aligned with the company culture. His first most vital hire was an account manager that had multiple responsibilities. The company founder is the visionary; an integrator (or operations person) implements the founder’s ideas. [18:30] — Finding Online Opportunities Amazon is still a leading opportunity, with lots of tools that you can use to jumpstart your online business. Exploding keywords and influencer marketing are trends that you can focus on. YouTube and content creation is a big opportunity at the moment. Gaming is also on the rise. [19:42] — Biggest Back-Breakers as You Approach the Million-Dollar Mark As much as young people need a chance to grow, promoting them too quickly can prematurely cap out their skills. Experienced, high-level seniors are worth the premiums you pay them. If you want to lift strategically and have less time taken out of your day, proactive and experienced employees will do the job. There's still a time and place for hiring rockstars versus having systems run by average employees, and it's all relative. [25:49] — How to Level Up Your Business After the Initial Business Launch It's time to transition to high leverage activities, whether learning new skills, establishing relationships, or creating content. Ask yourself what you can invest in, whether that's your systems or new small-scale online businesses. An audience is one of the most prominent forms of leverage that you can have. [29:39] — The Content and SEO Strategy for a Successful business launch Google always tries to fill its index with niche content. Attacking something brand new allows the algorithm to rank you high. Any form of content marketing is a long-term journey. Eric used to bring in guest posts to establish link authority. ...more34minPlay
January 26, 2021BI 349: How Brendan Kane helped scaled A Supplement Brand from $1M to $100M in 2 years Episode Highlights [3:07] – Brendan Kane talks about how he grew a company from $1M to $100M in revenue Brendan was able to grow two companies in just two to three years. Brendan works with companies first to assess a company’s strengths and weaknesses. From here, he can determine what aspects you can focus on to scale your business. Know your media buying techniques, your actual creative, and your conversion mechanism. [9:53] – Brendan shares his methodology for testing Brendan shares that you should look within and beyond your industry. Look at both positives and negatives — you can learn from failures and successes. After collecting data, you can form a hypothesis that you can test. If the strategy you test doesn’t work, that’s where Brendan pivots and moves onto the next thing. [12:37] – How does Brendan drive traffic into platforms like Amazon? Brendan shares that you can use platforms outside of Amazon to drive brand awareness. This brand awareness, in turn, will increase your brand’s lifetime value. The visibility from social media platforms becomes transactions on Amazon, which helps you further scale your business. [13:37] – Brendan talks about choosing the right keyword Brendan comments on the bell curve of keywords and how marketing all boils down to choosing the right keyword. Brendan says every keyword depends on the product, as each product is different. There’s no hard rule: choose the right keyword, choose the right creative. [16:10] – How Brendan optimizes his CPA Brendan sets a 30% rule for himself to optimize CPA, for example. It’s not always a guarantee he can bring down CPA even with his rules, but Brendan says the more data you have, the smarter you get. [17:56] – Brendan discusses how to relate to a consumer Brendan shares how to change the dynamic of a conversation. He describes questions you should ask when you look for strategies to help scale your business. You should figure out what a consumer wants first, and from there, bring attention to the product you are selling. [20:35] – Brendan shares how to disrupt patterns to grab a consumer’s attention Brendan says that in this digital age, you’re competing with everyone who publishes content, not just your direct competitors. To grab a consumer’s attention, sometimes you have to take a different route and disrupt the pattern. One way to disrupt a pattern is to subvert expectations or present an idea that goes against cliches. Brendan gives an example using meditation and how you can say it hasn’t worked for you to gain empathy and establish a connection. [24:42] – Why Brendan believes you should master one channel first Rather than spreading yourself too thin, Brendan believes you should master one channel first before moving on to the next. Beyond Amazon, there are limitless ways you can drive traffic and build your brand’s following. Be ready to pivot off your top-of-funnel awareness strategy ...more30minPlay
January 19, 2021BI 348: How To Be A Part Time Entrepreneur Without Quitting Your JobEpisode Highlights [4:29] — Patrick talks about how he started in entrepreneurship Patrick first started his career in Wall Street, following the usual finance and MBA route. He left after many team eliminations, with the 2008 financial crisis being the last straw. During this time, he transitioned to Silicon Valley because it continued to boom despite the financial crisis. He used to be afraid of full-time entrepreneurship because he didn't have an idea yet, and he was very risk-averse. With 10% of your time, you can invest in a side venture and build it into something valuable. [8:58] — The importance of creating different streams of income There are many strategies regarding passive income, but the main point is being a shareholder for as many ventures as possible. Side-hustles and freelancing are okay for paying the bills but not for generating wealth. Taking ownership and growing your business should be the end goal. [11:19] — Investing in companies and gaining equity Providing labor through having an advisory role can be an excellent method of sweat equity. Patrick recalls a time where he did consulting work in exchange for a percentage of the company. Seeing the trajectory of your equity's value raise over time is critical, but don't forget that the end goal is to monetize your share. Ultimately, your stock certificates won't be able to feed you. Create an exit plan. [13:23] — How to become an entrepreneur by starting part-time Part-time entrepreneurship can be the gateway to full-time entrepreneurship. Patrick's friend was able to simultaneously work at a bank and launch a successful seafood business. Entrepreneurs who start part-time are less likely to fail because of the chance to experiment. [15:22] — The pros and cons of part-time entrepreneurship Being a part-time entrepreneur means that you are diversified. Full-time entrepreneurship is stressful. You can still develop entrepreneurial skills without going through the traditional pressure. Sometimes full-time entrepreneurs already have the luxury of starting capital either from family inheritances or other existing businesses. The media often glamorize entrepreneurship, but they don't show the failures and sad endings behind it. [19:06] — Obstacles to getting started with entrepreneurship Not having money and time can be solved by assessing priorities, budgeting, and allocating what you can, even if it's small. Identify what you're good at and what you want to do by thinking thoroughly and carefully looking at what you do in your day job, such as Excel and PowerPoint. It's essential to know how to deal with the office policies in your work regarding entrepreneurship. Confident business leaders who provide flexibility to their employees can be a retention tool that will make them value their job more. [22:21] — Patrick's advice to his younger self on how to become an entrepreneur It takes a lot of time and patience. Entrepreneurship is a lifestyle and commitment. Finding the first business investment is the hardest part of learning how to become an entrepreneur. It gets less complicated once you get the hang of it. Take more calculated risks to make the initial process easier. [24:34] — Initial concrete steps to start your entrepreneurial journey Pre-pandemic, Patrick would advise aspirants to go to as many conferences as possible to network with many people. Now, they can simply go online and make connections there. LinkedIn is a powerful tool to expand your network, gain knowledge, and get recognized. Figure out your topic of expertise and unique selling proposition. Ensure that you also overlap the things you love to do, as having a passion will give you the drive to go for it. ...more28minPlay
January 12, 2021BI 347: How To Achieve Max Growth On Amazon And Set Up A Profitable Exit Episode Highlights [3:35] — Ryan's background and business growth on Amazon Ryan is the CEO of Recom Brands, a company focused on buying and growing businesses on Amazon. In their second year on Amazon, they made $15 million through wholesale trading of footwear and apparel. Although Ryan's background is in physical commodities trading, he saw Amazon as an opportunity, and this led him to the eCommerce path. [8:03] — Recom Brands' business growth and shift of focus to acquisition Amazon's Terms of Service used to make it difficult to own more than one Amazon account. As Amazon loosened their policy, Recom Brands was able to buy and acquire businesses. The company raised $2 million in debt financing from an investor to boost its growth. eCommerce has so much opportunity that they changed their model a few times before finding their sustainable niche. [13:07] — Why buying and acquiring is better for business growth Building a business from scratch is extremely difficult. The risk-to-reward ratio for buying existing and functioning businesses is better than launching one yourself. It is easier to take over and keep the business afloat from a risk-adjusted point of view. On the other hand, Amazon has made it easy for third-party sellers to start a business. Online businesses are faster but riskier. It is not as straightforward and can be tricky. [19:47] — Identifying the right company to buy The primary criteria they look for in brands are great reviews from a solid product. They tend to prefer mature products that have been in the market for at least two years instead of new products that have been available for a few months. Favor sustainable products with stable sales instead of trends and fads that only had a surge in demand. Their company is open to any product category. For more information, tune in and listen to the podcast. [23:03] — Valuing a company's purchase price The math behind the purchase price is from a multiple of the seller's discretionary earnings. A business with a lot of skews will be valued less because it is more difficult to manage. Another factor is the competitive landscape of the business and whether there's room to improve. [25:00] — Managing the risk of having a single channel They manage separate accounts just in case. If your product is authentic and you follow the rules, your account will get back up even if you get suspended for some reason. Amazon will not be getting rid of the third-party marketplace anytime soon as it constitutes most of the platform’s volume. [26:43] — Recent progress for Recom Brands They currently have ten acquisitions. The company is starting to gain momentum, with as much as acquiring three brands a month. In the following weeks, they expect more financing and funds raised to expand further. With the abundance of competition, they just focus on themselves and being more efficient every day. They are taking a long-term approach by building their reputation and network. ...more32minPlay
January 05, 2021BI 346: Using Only Social Media, This Guy Sold 375 Homes In One Year Episode Highlights [02:56] — Jimmy introduces his work Jimmy has been a real estate agent for 15 years in the state of Utah. He also developed a coaching program. To this day, he runs the Jimmy Rex Show podcast. He has also written books in real estate and entrepreneurship. [03:28] — How Jimmy began learning social media strategies Jimmy relied on traditional calls for the first five years in the business. Garrett Gee and Charly Jordan inspired him to look into digital marketing for his business. His social media strategy built a consistent lead generation that works faster than one-on-one calls. [08:05] — Jimmy shares how he built his following At first, Jimmy tried to use different platforms but eventually focused on Instagram and his podcast. Jimmy was able to get guests on his podcast that attracted people to his social media pages. His social media focused more on building a platform for his voice rather than just selling all the time. [10:22] — The importance of reaching out Jimmy reached out to people for his interviews, even the high profile guests. The more his podcast grew, the more he could use it as a presentation card for potential guests. Developing relationships requires providing value. Work with your existing circles and continually expand. [15:37] — How does Jimmy view his podcast? Jimmy makes sure that he studies his guest before the interview. Being prepared allows him to get into details about the topics he discusses with his guests. Getting good guests is more important to him than getting sponsorships. [19:11] — Social media strategies from Instagram He talks about the importance of consistency. It is essential to understand how a platform works. Focus on five things that make you interesting. Partner with others. Choose your target followers. [25:08] — On practicing authenticity When people build their pages, there is a tendency to focus on selling all the time. Use the page to track and attract people first. Jimmy wanted to show who he is behind the real estate agent. [26:45] — On content planning When he was first building his platform, he planned to post once a day. He does not post as regularly as before since he is not trying to grow his following anymore. Instead, he focuses on providing value to his current followers. [28:03] — Different platform, different social media strategy All social media platforms have different purposes. Jimmy curates his content depending on which platform he's going to post it on. [29:09] — Discussing common social media mistakes Do not sell all the time. Before posting anything, ask yourself if this is something you will share with your friends. Maintain consistent quality. Take your social media strategy seriously. If one platform does not come naturally, find others that will. [33:06] — Jimmy's social media strategy Pick five interesting categories to post about. Have a system to post once a day for 60 days, cycling between categories. If the system works for you, stick to it. But it's okay to abandon it if it doesn't. Know that this takes effort and time. You need to take it seriously. ...more37minPlay
December 29, 2020BI 345: How This Product Had a Six-Figure Launch on Social Media Episode Highlights [3:16] — Brian introduces himself and his company, Posted Social Brian is the CEO and owner of Posted Social. Posted Social is a digital marketing company specialized in eCommerce sales through social media advertising and B2B lead generation. [4:25] — Brian introduces their recent product launch, the Hurt Skurt The Hurt Skurt is an ice pack sleeve that has compression built into it. It can easily slide onto your arm or leg and stay in place. People can use it for postoperative rehabilitation or everyday knee or elbow pain. The Hurt Skurt’s 30-day trailing sales after its product launch was $130,000. Currently, the product’s trailing 30-day sales already increased by 20%. [6:54] — How did Posted Social and Hurt Skurt start to collaborate? Brian's partner in another business held a pitch event, where the inventor of Hurt Skurt pitched a wine bottle cooler. Brian's partner suggested using his items on people's bodies instead. Posted Social focused on building traction through advertisements and Amazon before the product launch of Hurt Skurt on social media. The leading demographic of Hurt Skurt is 45- to 55-year-old females. [9:06] — Creating an eCommerce campaign for Hurt Skurt Posted Social did not have a previous customer history with Hurt Skurt, so they had to start from the ground up. The best-performing assets for their ads are ten second-long cellphone videos. Posted Social collected data and tested different audiences on Facebook to find their buyer. After that, they used that look alike data from purchases and tracked them. Currently, their highest return is on ad spend, where they are working on retargeting audience. Hurt Skurt is not the type of product that takes time to decide a purchase. Nonetheless, Posted Social still tried a funnel. [17:39] — What are the best practices in scaling up the ads for an eCommerce campaign? They duplicated their ad campaign after they hit a plateau with their previous ads. The offering was hindering the performance of their ads. [20:31] — Learning opportunities from Hurt Skurt's eCommerce campaign Focus on selling to a specific demographic, your sure-paying customers. They learned that you have to spend a little money to keep learning. [22:08] — Channel expansion This month, Hurt Skurt is finally going to be on HSN. Thanks to having one all-star entrepreneur for HSN partner and to having a product that fits HSN's crowd of 58-year-old females is that they were able to get in. Expanding to Instagram is not fruitful, so they are focusing on Facebook through the holiday season. They created an Amazon account three months prior to the Facebook product launch. Instead of going to their website, people search for the product on Google and buy on Amazon. ...more29minPlay
December 22, 2020BI 344: How Swag.com Growth Hacked Their Way to the Inc 5000 List Episode Highlight [04:13] – Jeremy gives a background of his business Jeremy started a product distribution company online called Swag.com in 2016. He discovered a problem with antiquated catalog presentations. His solution was to streamline the entire experience allowing buyers to personalize their products. [05:20] – What is so special about Swag.com? Swag.com is different because of the product personalization and distribution platform. What is being distributed is an experience. Sales talk is not always required to sell products. [07:21] – How Swag.com gained traction Initially, they targeted big brands to build strong client portofolio. A catchy name was essential. For Jeremy, Swag.com says everything about the business without having to say anything explicitly. With consistent content creation, they built a strong SEO strategy to increase their organic visitors. Their main focus is not on making viral posts but on getting to their target customers. [8:25] – Getting the domain and starting up the business Jeremy got the domain from day one with no funds thanks to a deal they made with the owner; they eventually paid $200,000 for it. An outbound strategy works in the initial stages of startup businesses. Starting from top to bottom is not disadvantageous contrary to what other entrepreneurs believe. Rise above the challenges, get in the door and do everything you need to do. [14:48] – Strategies to control traffic Using Google is too expensive to focus all your strategy based on it. One content strategy is creating consistent content to catch the attention of potential customers. From an SEO perspective, using longtail keywords in blog posts is effective when it´s focused to a specific target audience. Using traction channels or joining partnerships is a strategy in growth hacking. [24:29] – Best conversion hacks The first conversion hack is to label products with Swag’s tagline “we made this”. After expansion, they started adding shipping labels saying “powered by swag.com” to every package. To gain more organic buyers, conducting giveaways is useful. Reciprocity helps solve the problem of cold outbound emails. The best way to raise money is through the press. [30:58] – Jeremy’s number one goal for the year ahead Jeremy intends to push hard on the Swag distribution platform. The platform will have unbelievably new features by then. The next phase is for the platform to allow people to automate Swag distribution by themselves. ...more34minPlay
December 15, 2020BI 343: How to Double Customer Engagement By Leveraging Chatbots Episode Highlights [3:45] — Mackensie shares how she got into Messenger chatbot marketing Marketing and business were the last thing in her mind upon graduating. She has a bachelor’s degree in biology and worked as a clinically-certified psychogeneticist for a decade. She decided to find a job that didn´t get her stuck in the lab with her outgoing personality and allowed her to work from home and be with her family. That’s when she found out about digital marketing and chatbots. [7:02] — The current landscape of chatbot marketing Because of the user complaints on pages who are spamming messages, Facebook created the 24-hour rule. With this, carriers can only message users who engaged within 24 hours of their previous message engagement. However, there are some ways to reach subscribers outside those 24-hours like: Message tags Confirmed event updates Account update One-time notification Paid ads [12:23] — Navigating the one-time notification (OTN) settings When users opt into OTN, they will get a message from your page. Every time they click the 'Notify me' button, you get a token. Once the 24-hour window opens up, you can send another message and a follow-up. Make sure to make your message template conversational. [16:04] — Why you should use a multi-channel communication If your traffic is not yet in a chatbot and SMS, you can include a link called Ref URL Growth Tool. It is a tool in ManyChat which will take them into Messenger. Once they're in Messenger, you can ask them to opt-in for SMS notifications. You can use ManyChat to accomplish all of these. [17:49] — Mackensie shares the most effective strategies to get people into your bot funnel Getting people into your funnel would mainly depend on your type of offer and business. You can use paid ads, organic strategies like email, and engaging strategies like quizzes, giveaways, and coupons. [20:47] — What are the best customer engagement strategy practices? Segment your users. You have to make sure that your messages are relevant to your users. Otherwise, they will ignore your promotions. Ask people about your message and get their feedback. Provide them with your latest offers. [24:23] — The importance of the 24-hour window Even a button click counts as an engagement. You have to make sure that the attention is back and forth. Don't be spammy. Remember that you won't keep the 24-hour window opened repeatedly. Make sure to get your engagements' contact information within the initial 24-hour window. You have to re-engage engagements both outside and back into Messenger to reopen the 24-hour window. [26:39] — What are the most common mistakes in chatbot marketing? Not setting up your foundational bot Copy-pasting messages out of email campaigns Not utilizing reminders or follow-ups ...more31minPlay
December 08, 2020BI 342: How to Ignite Scalable eCommerce Growth with Brent Weaver Episode Highlights [2:56] — Brent introduces his business, uGurus He runs a company called uGurus. They do business training and coaching programs for digital agency owners and entrepreneurs. He founded the company in 2012 after he sold his successful web agency that ran for 13 years. [3:55] — The most significant threats for agency owners today The reliance on referrals and word of mouth is the biggest challenge of agencies. Most agencies are busy working with their clients; they don´t take the time to work on their own business. Due to the pandemic, many agency owners got caught up and had to pause or delay projects for not having strong lead generation and marketing engines. [6:13] — The importance of selecting a niche for your business A generalist motto is saying yes to every business. If you choose a specialization, you will have to turn down clients that don´t align with your niche. In choosing a niche, it should directly relate to your level of expertise. [8:48] — Finding solutions for your chosen niche Finding your niche or specialization might not work on the first try. Define your target audience and figure out where those people hang out. Create awareness about your business. [10:35] — Brent shares how to test ideas and see what works for the business To know the language that his market responds to, Brent uses ad platforms to run ad tests. Advertising is an excellent scale platform when you're ready to scale in your market. Go slow, go smooth so that you can go fast. Find inroads with people who have embedded in your target market with trust and credibility and do customer development interviews. Create more exciting marketing opportunities, such as publishing your niche, content, and webinars. Use ads as an amplification and leverage tools in the market. [14:47] — Know your target audience and talk to your customers to know how to grow your business online Ask your clients about their experience using your products or services and how you can better market your products. By building a relationship with them, you can grasp how to grow your business online effectively. Through conversations with your customers, you can generate a marketing strategy for your business. Brent shares that they used their customers' language, quotes, and phrases as content and marketing strategy. [21:11] — Why should you niche down? Some companies that serve broad audiences today were once very niche. Going from specialized to a more general market has helped some companies gain clients. Brent saw that service companies, once they specialized in a niche, they tend to stay in their domain and become even more experts in their space. The specialization provides a better path to generalization than generalization does the specialization. [24:46] — Get Rich in the Deep End Get Rich in the Deep End is a book where Brent tells his and his client's stories. The five A's in the book are: Audience, Awareness, Attract, Authority, and Acquire. Ensure that when you publish content, you do it where your target audience will listen and read. Don't fall into the garage band trap by not taking risks ...more37minPlay
FAQs about The Scale Your Agency Podcast | Bright Ideas:How many episodes does The Scale Your Agency Podcast | Bright Ideas have?The podcast currently has 388 episodes available.