Marketing From The Trenches Podcast

A closed deal starts with a good pitch. Good pitches come from good proposals. But how do you create proposals that will get you more customers and leads? A lot of businesses have gotten used to the customary proposal where they read the first page, the last page, and then make a decision of whether it’s a yes or no. Today, we will be hearing a lot of valuable insights from our guest, Adam Hempenstall—founder of Better Proposals. Today, Adam will tell us about how they create better proposals, in such a way that you’ll make your client want to read every single word of it. I hope you’re excited as I am with today’s episode because this will surely give you a lot of fresh insights you can apply to your businesses. About Adam Hempenstall (3:30) Adam started rebuilding websites since he was 14 years old. From being an agency to becoming a software company. Creating software that served as little tracking devices for the proposals they sent out. Getting more leads from Better Proposals in 24 hours compared to the one they’ve been working on in the last 12 months. Moving Better Proposals into full-time mode. Adam talks about the lifetime deal he made with AppSumo. Things that are Hurting Your Sales Conversion Rate (10:00) Sending proposals that cannot be opened on a mobile phone gives your potential clients a bad impression/experience. Data shows that 71% of people open their emails through a mobile phone. Tip: Make sure your proposals look good on mobile phones and/or tablets. Sending proposals at a much later time. Data reveals that there’s a 14% chance of winning a deal if you send your proposal within 24 hours. Important Point: Not getting on to a new lead within 5 minutes, the chances of converting that lead into a sale falls off the cliff. Not having a “NEXT STEP” on your proposal. Integrating Live Chat with Proposals (22:20) Adam talks about the integration of live chat in proposals. The reason being, you can answer clients’ questions on the spot with a live chat messenger. Data shows a 13.2% higher conversion rate upon the integration of live chat. What is the data for certain issues? (23:55) Does including videos in proposals make a difference? Data says “not really”. If putting in a video is meaningful to your business, go ahead and post a video. If not, then don’t bother. It will only prove to be a waste of time. Good ideas (25:36) Adam talks about some excellent ideas he has seen on the platforms. Fully understand what your clients need, prove that you can deliver and you’ll do great. Adam shares stories about reviewing some old proposals and finding unique ways to present proposals. Framing the mindset of your clients. Positioning yourself and showing that you can add extra value. Never forget the basics. A good mix of clever stuff and the basics will result in a nice blend.  More Tips (39:04) Get away from the tactics and just focus on the basics. Attaching yourself to your clients’ excitement and giving them something that will make them say yes. For every proposal you send, give your clients something to say yes and/or no to. Don’t leave your client hanging about what to do next. Our Guest: Adam Hempenstall is the founder and CEO of Better Proposals. Better Proposals is a software that creates stunning and relevant business proposals- fast. The mission of their company is to empower clients to succeed in both business and life. If you want to know more about what Adam does, just go to their website: Better Proposals. There you’ll be able to discover a lot regarding better proposals.

With outsourcing, businesses have found a way to gain leverage but with lower costs. The question is, how do you find the perfect person for your team? Where do you get high-quality members who will give you high-quality results? Today on the podcast, we have a good friend of mine who’s an absolute expert at outsourcing and helping businesses grow. Linh Podetti, founder of Outsourcing Angel is here with us today to talk about how you can find the right people for your team. We go into detail about how important outsourcing is. So for business owners who want to learn more about this topic, tune in and enjoy!   Linh’s Backstory (3:10) Starting a nail polish business to get to the next step. Learning how to get a website up and running. Learning marketing on the job. Getting ripped off because of limited knowledge about the outsourcing world. BIG TIP: Never do things just for money. Linh shares how she got into her first business of outsourcing back in 2010. Linh talks about the startup of Outsourcing Angel.   Outsourcing (8:11) What’s the process of outsourcing? What do you look for in a candidate for outsourcing jobs? Linh gives tips on what to do for the onboarding of staff. What are some of the most common obstacles to outsourcing? What are some of the most common beliefs which are wrong around outsourcing? Offshore outsourcing versus local outsourcing. Are foreign employers exploiting offshore employees? How Outsourcing Angel goes beyond outsourcing. The “win-win” situation of all teams both local and offshore.   What to do when looking for content writers? (17:39) Get someone who understands your content as much as you do. Give specific instructions. Give a test task to see if their output is what you want to see as a result. Train yourself to give the right briefing and the right examples to empower the people to do the right job. If you can’t outsource 100% of the job, outsource at least 80% to minimize time expenditure. Build a relationship, give outsourced employees time to adjust and get familiar with the way you run your business.   Outsourcing Platforms (25:11) Upwork Onlinejobs.ph   Tips for Outsourcing (27:28) Instead of cutting down the team, get more sales for more business. Commit. Go all in and NEVER back out! It will be scary at every stage of growth but you CAN because you’re committed. Morning routines are the biggest reason for success. Linh shares her morning routine over the past two years.   Our Guest: Linh Podetti is the Founder of Outsourcing Angel, an offshore recruitment agency that aims to help businesses in finding the right match of a quality virtual assistant for their clients. Linh has undergone a lot of struggles at an early age but through Outsourcing Angel, she has been able to provide home-based job opportunities for people around the world. If you wish to connect with Linh and find out more about what they do, connect with her through the following channels: Outsourcing Angel Linh Podetti Instagram Facebook   Resources: Do you want more high-quality B2B leads for your business? To get you started, we opened a resources page. These resources will be constantly updated, so be certain to check back every now and then!

Marketing is not the only crucial aspect of a business. You also need the right business model for your strategy to work. Aside from these factors, a business owner must possess the right mindset and sufficient knowledge to manage the company better. In this episode, digital marketing profit strategist and coach Greg Cassar shares his insights about his journey from running his own digital marketing agency to earning a million dollars in sales on Amazon. He also talks about exceptional business models that work. Check these show highlights and listen to the podcast for guides on how to grow a business using exceptional strategies!   Engineer Your Luck (03:21) Aim to be the better version of yourself so that when opportunities come along, you can identify them and take action. Greg is in the corporate world, with a safe and decent job. But, for him, he is not where he is supposed to be. Thus, he built an agency and quit corporate. He started The Collective, a high-end digital marketing mastermind. He emphasized the importance of resilience in running a company. When the issues get tough to resolve, people tend to quit. Company owners should not have that attitude. Business Model Freedom Scale (06:21) There is a direct association between leverage and level of freedom. An excellent business model paired with an amount of marketing can yield more outstanding results compared to a good enough business model paired with the same amount of marketing. Business owners must realize that marketing is only one part of the business. It must be suitable for the kind of business, products, and business model that the company has. The Proper Mindset (09:05) It is essential to have the proper knowledge and mindset when running a company. Most business owners are like operators than owners. However, they must focus on marketing to grow the business. Entrepreneurs must learn about financial IQ, proper mindset, marketing, and sales. Small Business Formula (12:02) The director of first impressions is your website. Have direct response elements on your site. People must also know what your business is all about and what they can get from your company. Site visitors must also know how and where to contact you for fast communication. Incentive-Based Marketing (17:33) Make sure your business offers stand out. Standing out does not mean lowering your price to a point where you don’t have profit anymore. Present incredible and attractive offers to your customers. If you want to get exceptional results, think and act differently from other players in the industry. E-Commerce (30:01) He learned about e-commerce by working with agency clients. The fastest way to be a marketing expert is to speak to your clients. It is impressive to sell on Amazon because there are a lot of customers every day. Greg’s company is focused on listing optimization and advertising. Choose What Matters (42:29) They chose to close the Collective Mastermind to focus on what matters: health, happiness, and freedom.   Our Guest: Greg Cassar is a marketer, growth hacker, tech founder, and a philanthropist. He specializes in e-commerce and Amazon. After working in the corporate world, Greg decided that he wanted to start an agency that can help clients with traffic and conversion. He is one of the founders of The Collective and has positively impacted a lot of lives through his work. Greg is also a tech founder at Modshow TV. Connect with Greg Cassar through his website or LinkedIn profile for more great and inspiring content.   Resources: Do you want more high-quality B2B leads for your business? To get you started, we opened a resources page. These resources will be constantly updated, so be certain to check back every now and then!

SEO is the current trend that online businesses utilize to get more leads and scale. However, I’ll be the first to admit that SEO is not my specialty. But although I’ve got a very limited understanding of making SEO work, a good friend of mine is an absolute expert at it. James Norquay, the owner of Prosperity Media, runs an SEO agency that offers all things SEO. In today’s episode, he will be walking us through the process of making SEO work in your favour. We will be talking about the do’s and don’ts of SEO—making sure it all works well for you in the long run. If you’re interested in learning about SEO or know someone who is, don’t hesitate to tune in to this value-adding episode.   James’ Backstory (3:01) James started making money online around 14 years ago. James started an SEO team for a large media agency in Sydney back in 2008-2009. Late 2012-Early 2013, James started Prosperity Media. Basic “to-dos” for Small Business Owners to Improve Their SEO (6:18) For small business owners with little budget, start with a basic site audit. Ensure that your website is indexed. Get an SSL certificate. Set up your site on Google My Business. Fix technical issues, and start building relevant landing pages, do keyword research. Set up tracking, start monitoring things. SEO Factors (8:07) On-Site (technical setup, content, schema markup, etc.) Off-Site (brand mentions, backlinks) The basic setup matters because if you don’t have it, everything else you’re doing doesn’t matter. One big mistake is spending too much on ads but having little to no budget for SEO. The budget should go mostly to paid advertising and organic SEO channels because that’s where the highest ROI comes from. Index (10:12) A “no index tag” is a preventive measure that web developers use to stop Google from indexing your website. Error: Going live with your site but forgetting to take the “no index tag” down. Not taking the tag down means you won’t be getting any traffic to your site. Common Mistakes in Starter Websites (11:21) Using large images. Larger images mean a slower website.  Tip: Resize your images to get faster site speed. Not setting up your site on Google My Business. Tip: Don’t be spam heavy. Talk to a professional. Tip: DON’T put white text on a white background; this will easily penalize your site. Tip: Don’t “keyword stuff,” Google quickly detects that. Tip: DO THINGS THE RIGHT WAY TO AVOID GETTING PENALTIES FROM GOOGLE. Most Effective Way to Increase Results from SEO According to James (17:27) It depends on the vertical that the client wants to work in. It depends on the competitiveness of the niche. New websites take longer to see results because you have to build trust by building the authority of the site. TIP: Pick people who are the right fit for what you’re doing. Budgeting: How much budget should go to SEO in the overall marketing mix? (25:06) Traditionally, SEO gets a smaller portion of the pie when it comes to budgeting. Some clients are entirely dependent on SEO, like large affiliate clients and crypto clients. You have to be able to see the value in SEO as you could be making excellent ROI from it. What is the difference between PPC and SEO? James shares how he gets the big businesses (30:23) Attending events. Some clients come from SEO traffic. The relationship is KEY. Speak at events, be known for a certain thing. Don’t try to be an expert at everything; stay in your lane.   Our Guest: James Norquay is the founder and consulting director of Prosperity Media. James is an absolute expert at SEO. He has already helped quite a number of companies to grow through SEO. James’ company, Prosperity Media, strives to help their clients achieve success with their excellent customer service. If you wish to contact James, you can reach him through their website: Prosperity Media. You can also connect with him on his LinkedIn profile: James Norquay.   Resources: We now have a free resources section on our website. In this section, we are dedicated to helping you grow your business, whether it’s through generating more leads or getting more sales to increase your revenue and profit. This section is constantly being updated to serve you better by suiting your needs. To check out our updated resources section, head over to growthlabz.com/resources to download your free resources today.

Today’s guest is one of my mentors, John Logar, the founder of Consulting Unleashed. When I first started in this industry, I knew absolutely nothing about being in business. But John—being one of the top guns in marketing—reshaped the way I thought about sales. He turned me from a geeky dude into a decent salesperson. This episode may be longer than usual but sit tight and stay with us until the end. John and I will be discussing valuable information that will surely help you in your venture into marketing.   Sharing Golden Nuggets (3:37) Choose your words very carefully. Frame your reference from JUST selling to ACTUALLY get what they need/want. From productization comes retention. Retention is essential in growing and scaling your business. Your mindset needs to be: “This client is not just exploring the idea of working with me because at the end of this call, this client WILL work with me.” Position your frame of thoughts in such a way that the client understands you can solve their problem. John tells clients to do what they do best, and he’ll be responsible for bringing in the customers.   John’s Three Pillars of Conversion (4:34) Clarity – Be clear about your offer. Conversion – About your marketing. Leverage — Productize what you do.   John’s Three Fastest Ways of Generating Leads (7:03) Getting leads is the easy part—if someone says they don’t have any leads, they’re not doing any work. Go direct. Work with a channel—customers you can add value to will introduce you to new clients. Buying leads.   Before Setting Up a Sales Presentation(10:15) Qualify the person first—do they need your help? Can you help them? Will they pay you?   The Sales Presentation (12:34) Set an expectation of the budget; set an expectation of the outcome. What are the objectives? How can we attach the objectives to tangible results? What is stopping you from achieving or adding extra revenue to your business? What’s the bottleneck?   Three Things You Need to Know From Your Client So You Can Work Together(16:20) They are a reputable business that wants to scale and grow—having a vision for the company. They understand that they need to invest if they want to scale and grow. They will look after every person that is put in front of them.   John gives us a firsthand experience about what happens during his sales calls (17:43) Involving important people to make sure that everybody is on the same page about scaling and growing a business. Knowing whether the action needs to be taken now or on a later date—not being able to move forward is a waste of time. Just exploring the idea of working with you doesn’t turn into a sale. Showing your client that you actually want to help them makes a great difference—a hug or a firm handshake to affirm them that you are there to help them gives a certain kind of energy. Understanding the client’s business will give you leverage. If you want to be an expert in the niche market, work with one client and understand their niche. Ask as many questions as possible—you need to know what you need to know NOT what you THINK you need to know. Confidence comes with experience—showing clients that you are confident assures them that you know what you’re doing. John recommends listening to Rejection Training. It helps you understand that to succeed, you need to go through rejection.   The Sales Process (41:12) Give your client an “out.” Don’t intimidate them by making them feel like they’re obliged to buy anything at the end of the call. John gives an idea of important questions to ask before you begin with the whole talk. Show your clients a bird’s eye view of the plans you have that will help them achieve their objectives. A walkthrough of the execution of the presented plan Talk to your clients about the costs, give them a yes or a yes option, not a yes and no option. Set up your agreement, including the list of services. John reveals one trick that he uses during his sales calls. Make sure to thank your clients for choosing you. Send them a thank you card, a personal handwritten note, or anything to tell them you appreciate them for choosing you. It’s important to scale your business by establishing a great relationship with customers.   Dealing with Negative Responses (58:48) “I need to think about this.” — Throw a rebuttal by reminding them of how sure they were before you presented your proposal. Give them space to sort their thoughts out. If they really need to think about it, let them have the moment but stick to 24-48 hours. You choose the time of the callback. Take control of that. “The money issue” — Ask them if money is the only thing that’s stopping them from moving forward with the proposal. Give them options. If you’re so quick to give a discount on what you’re doing, there must be something wrong with your services. Always have an initial setup fee—it takes time to put things into place.   Our Guest: John Logar is the Founder of Consulting Unleashed. He specializes in targeting profitable niche markets for your business. John is one of the top guns in marketing. He is a speaker, trainer and internet consultant in Internet marketing, social media, niche marketing, niche market lead generation and business development. If you wish to contact John Logar, you can reach him through this website: Consulting Unleashed. You’ll find a mini-course with a five-step process that’ll help you get a deal opportunity the fastest way.   Resources: We now have a free resources section on our website. In this section, we are dedicated to helping you grow your business, whether it’s through generating more leads or getting more sales to increase your revenue and profit. This section is constantly being updated to serve you better by suiting your needs. To check out our updated resources section, head over to growthlabz.com/resources to download your free resources today.

Every website has backend support. It’s impossible not to have one. The backend support is responsible for how your site is presented to users. However, there are some things we end up doing that end up breaking our websites more than fixing them. So today, our guest, Justin Meadows, managing director of TunedWP and an expert when it comes to the tech behind websites—will share with us some informative facts about the common mistakes websites usually make. These mistakes take away the effectiveness of marketing. As someone involved in online marketing, it’s essential to address these issues so you can improve your marketing strategies and get better results. Make sure to listen to this episode to get amazing information on how to do digital marketing right.   Justin’s Backstory (4:03) Learning SEO and playing around with websites To get results for SEO, fixing the site is the way to go. Justin ensures website optimization for clients. How Justin’s business has grown over the last 10 years Where Justin got the name of their company, TunedWP.   How to Prevent Infection of Sites (7:35) Once your site is infected, stop the ads to stop wasting money. Clean your website. If your site is left unchecked, Google will take you out of their index. It’s vital to keep your website secure because trust and brand damage happens when your site visitors get a message or notification that your site is infected. Keep your sites updated with the latest security patches to combat malware. Insecure hosting environments, bad passwords, no firewalls—these things trigger a site to get infected.    3-4 Most Common Mistakes that People Make with their Websites (11:50) Speed—most websites need substantial improvements in terms of speed. Putting a lot of focus on the desktop version of their website while leaving out the experience for mobile users, not realizing that 50-70% of their traffic is coming from mobile phones. Storytelling—about content; the journey you want your clients to take on upon encountering your brand. Make sure your homepage has a very clear message and is not cluttered with too many things. Building trust—focusing on sales messages makes you overlook the trust factor, which is crucial in establishing a good relationship with potential clients.   Tips on Getting Around these Most Common Mistakes (17:23) Speed implement Cloudflare CDN have an excellent caching plugin setup optimize images for faster loading use dedicated video hosts for your videos make sure that unnecessary codes are not at the top of your scripts Mobile experience optimization consider how the mobile layout goes from the desktop to phone condense menu, strip out unnecessary things for easier navigation resizing elements correctly have a call to action in the header website speed optimization on mobile Justin gives recommendations on Google tools to use (web.dev) Storytelling—user experience and copy declutter your site identify what you can remove from your website that won’t affect the results you’re getting don’t load your page up on lead magnets; one strong, relevant lead magnet is enough a good option is making a page for your resources so people can choose   “Know that your website is not a set and forget thing, you need to constantly work on it since it is a valuable asset and part of your business.” - Justin Meadows. Our Guest: Justin Meadows is the Managing Director of TunedWP, a business that aims to help people improve their websites. He believes that sites are an essential part of your business. Trust is built on what you can offer your clients via the face of your business—your website. If you wish to contact Justin Meadows, you can reach him through their website: TunedWP or send an email to support@tunedwp.com    Resources: We now have a free resources section on our website. In this section, we are dedicated to helping you grow your business, whether it’s through generating more leads or getting more sales to increase your revenue and profit. This section is constantly being updated to serve you better by suiting your needs. To check out our updated resources section, head over to growthlabz.com/resources to download your free resources today.

Everybody’s into the world of online marketing nowadays. Even small businesses have a place online where they market the products they offer. That’s why today’s episode will surely be interesting and informative for everyone who is using Facebook ads at the moment, or those who have eCommerce sites. Today I’ll be speaking to Tyler Garner, founder of Standout Social, about what’s working with Facebook ads at present. We’ll also discuss marketing as we see it in the future, as well as what Tyler does in social media for himself and his clients. If you’re keen on knowing about these topics, check out the show notes and stay tuned until the end for a ton of valuable insights.   Tyler’s Story (3:35) Being in sales How Tyler started his journey into Facebook Building Tyler’s first digital agency How Tyler’s first experience made him more eager to venture into digital marketing What Does Tyler Offer (7:35) Online businesses of all kinds eCommerce stores Digital Info Products Direct Response Advertising Facebook Sales Funnels: What works nowadays? (9:34) Top Funnels – For those who have never engaged with the seller’s products in any way.      – Content needs to be as native as possible.      – Use user-generated content (videos, images). Middle Funnels – For those who have visited a seller’s site.   – For those who engage on Facebook and Instagram. Bottom Funnels – For regular site visitors.    – For those who took actions from purchase up to post-purchase. Coming back to solid foundations and fundamentals is the way to grow steadily. It doesn’t need to be over-complicated. It’s essential to test the marketing tools to figure out the best way to go. How Tyler keeps up with the trends despite not buying any courses (15:21) The funny truth behind Tyler’s success story. Two critical areas you need to be good at on Facebook to make marketing work. Tyler’s additional tips on how you could make marketing work on Facebook. Observe successful competitors and take a look at how they got to where they are. Success is a collaborative approach—build connections and learn from each other. Future Trends in Technical Marketing (19:40) Videos are going to be big, but the platforms are ever-changing. Be ready to pivot and change. What Tyler thinks about TikTok. The most important thing is going to be how you position an offer. It’s not going to be an ongoing perfect picture.  Be recession-proof through digital marketing. Don’t rely on one platform alone. Do we still see Webinars as a trend in the future? One of the struggles marketers usually face. The right people will buy, the wrong people won’t. More marketing tips from Tyler and Will (24:44) Don’t overcomplicate your marketing. Respect the marketplace. Show the people why they need you—tell them how you can help them solve their problems. Be light years ahead of everyone by going specific on how you can help people. Keep pushing the solutions. Tyler’s take on Courses and Course Pricing (30:40) Courses will always be needed. If you know you can GENUINELY help people, you’d be foolish not to sell it. Buying courses is a practical thing to do right now. Will and Tyler share stories about degrees and courses.   Our Guest: Tyler Garner is the Founder of Standout Social, who aims to help entrepreneurs achieve their dreams and visions through Digital Marketing. Tyler has helped clients who were at the brink of bankruptcy rise and earn $90-$100k in less than three months. For contacts, you can either send an email to Tyler at tyler@standoutsocial.com.au, visit his website: Standout Social or add him on Facebook.   Resources: We now have a free resources section on our website. In this section, you can find a bunch of free resources that will definitely help you grow your business, get more leads, sales, and grow your revenue. Just head over to growthlabz.com/resources to download your free resources today.

In today’s episode of Marketing From The Trenches, I’ll be speaking to Marius du Preez, a good friend of mine and an expert when it comes to marketing for mortgage brokers. Marius is currently the director and in-charge of Lead Generation for Swell Marketing. We’ll be tackling valuable information regarding the current mortgage industry. First, we’re going to discuss the strategies that are working in the mortgage industry. Next, we’ll be tackling the changes he did to his business that allowed it to grow exponentially and quickly over the past few months. So, it’ll be a bit of a two-in-one podcast and if you’re interested in learning new things about the mortgage industry or with Facebook advertising, then this episode is for you. Check out our show notes to get more valuable information and be sure to tune in to this episode.   Marius’ Story: How He Got Into Marketing (3:34) Marius previously belonged to the IT industry How Marius started his own business Marius shares his fear of starting another business because of previous failures Why Marius Chose The Mortgage Industry (7:04) The challenges Marius faced during his startup When you start to scale your business, the lower price becomes irrelevant If you wish to speed up the scaling of your business, invest in personal development The advantages of dealing with a mortgage broker The Agency Landscape (10:00) What will happen to “newbies” in the marketing industry? Marius never talks about leads. Why? Choose one: Get the coin or get time The ugly truth behind marketing  — of selling over and over again plus rotating between niches The Mortgage Industry (13:12) What works in the current mortgage industry — about marketing? Marius talks about why it’s fine to serve everyone but keep the marketing messages to a limited number of people Marius gives advice about niching down on certain industries to reach out to a more specific market If you don’t have an onpoint message for a person, you’re never going to get the clicking You can serve multiple people but your message needs to be congruent with who you’re serving The Best Platform To Use For Mortgage Brokers (16:10) Why Facebook? Why Instagram? What is a cost effective way to enter the market? Is Google expensive? The disadvantages of using Facebook as a platform for marketing The Main Thing That Marius Offers His Clients — The Brokers (20:17) Free content with free training Educating people about the systems and processes involved in the mortgage market Paid services including ads, marketing automation, and the sales process An option for the clients who can’t afford a certain price point Courses: What Does Marius Offer? (22:34) Teaching ads Survey style = higher intent from leads The whole process of mortgage marketing Why picking a niche is essential? Potential challenges and how you can solve them Transitioning Into Courses (25:25) Why Marius decided to do courses Facebook Basics Lead Ads Survey Ads No selling on emails Understanding the different ways you can gain a referral’s trust Two Ways Marius Finds Students For The Course (30:18) Facebook Groups From Facebook to VSL (Video Sales Letter) What is VSL? Providing value before asking for anything in return Consistency is key Plans For The Next 6-12 Months (32:36) Expanding out to other niches Growth Advice For Viewers (34:06) Invest heavily on personal development Learn from failures because you only have two things — Time and Money — it’s either you spend time failing or you pay someone to learn and skip the “failure” part.   Our Guest: Marius du Preez is the Director for Mortgage Lead Generation and Mortgage Marketing at Swell Marketing. After working in the IT industry for several years, Marius realized that no matter how good your product is, if no one has seen or heard about it, it will never land in the right hands. Therefore, pushing him to learn about marketing leading him into the finance industry. To contact Marius, you can go to his website, Swell Marketing. Or you can connect with him through LinkedIn. If you enjoyed this episode, then catch the next episode as well for more insightful and valuable information.   Resources: We now have a free resources section on our website, which has just been built. In this section, you can find a bunch of free resources that will definitely help you grow your business, get more leads, sales, and grow your revenue. Just head over to growthlabz.com/resources to download your free resources today.

How do you define a great marketer? Is it from the assets he’s acquired? From the websites he’s built? Or do you have to be well-known in the industry to be considered one? If those are the criteria, then we have just the right person to talk to you about marketing today. In today’s episode of Marketing From The Trenches, I’ll be talking to a really good friend of mine, Stephen Esketzis, the Founder of Digital Marketers Australia. Stephen is well-known in the industry as one of the great marketers despite his young age. Systems, assets, reputation, he’s known for all that and I even call him a “marketer’s marketer.” For someone who wants to know all that it takes to be called a great marketer. Join us in this episode and stay tuned until the end. Stephen’s Story: How He Got Into Marketing (4:29) Knowing that marketing was for him since high school From selling iPhone cases on eBay to Mobile App Developer From developer to interviewing DJs From interviewing DJs to guesting on Spreechat From guesting on Spreechat to Freelancing while studying how to build funnels Being an affiliate in ClickFunnels Stephen started to build his own sites (media, content) Getting over a million visitors to his site in 10 months and 30,000-50,000 unique visitors per day Launching Stephen’s company Stephen has an eCommerce company that’ll be launched soon Marketing Comes Down To These Three Things (14:45) Good copywriting and creative Good targeting Good offer Content (16:12) Why outsource? Bringing the right people to the game and leveraging their knowledge Having the right team and being consistent Consistency is key to growth What is the hard part in getting the right team? Dynamics of Money VS Time How To Play The Game If You Don’t Have The Financial Resources (23:35) Grow lean, grow fast Don’t waste money on things that have no ROI Get results Why choose the Philippines? Why you should invest in good, knowledgeable writers? What is the process for content and how many people are involved? Why evergreen content? How Long Does It Take To See Results From Content Marketing? (27:56) It depends on how aggressive you are What is link building’s role in getting your content seen? How does Stephen get traffic and rise up in SEO ranking? Links and Content The numbers are 2-4 months Digital Marketers Australia (30:01) What was the inspiration? What made Stephen decide to run DMA events in Australia? What about the market? Who are the attendees? What happens at these events? Who are the speakers? Is it going to be plain boring or exciting? What are the topics to be discussed? When is the next DMA event? What are the goals of the event? NO PITCHING How To Do Events Marketing? Stephen’s Marketing Mix (36:24) Stephen tried everything (LinkedIn, Google, YouTube) Hit the marketing from all angles to fill an event Facebook Strategies YouTube Strategies Google Strategies LinkedIn Strategies Social Media for Organic Content Creative is important for advertising Email marketing Stephen’s Hobbies And Passion Outside Marketing (41:55) Travel Hacking Growth Hacking Tennis Networking and catching up with people Finding friends and family in the industry through events Our Guest: Stephen Esketzis is the Founder of Digital Marketers Australia. He’s a well-known marketer in the industry and community. Stephen has acquired websites and assets and is a master in content marketing. He acquired assets and built sites where he is responsible for SEO building, resulting in over a million views in just a matter of 10 months. He still gets 30,000-50,000 unique visitors to his website per day. So you can just imagine why he is called a “marketer’s marketer.” If you wish to reach out to Stephen Esketzis, you can reach him through their website DigitalMarketersAustralia. Or through his Facebook, Stephen Esk. Resources: We now have a free resources section on our website, which has just been built. In this section, you can find a bunch of free resources that will definitely help you grow your business, get more leads, sales, and grow your revenue. So head over to growthlabz.com/resources to download your free resources today.

One of the core strategies that big companies use to scale their businesses is direct outreach. If this strategy is done right, it is proven to be effective in building a name for your brand. However, if done wrong, you can ruin your brand altogether. And that is exactly why I invited Guillaume Moubeche; CEO of Lemlist, to join us in today’s episode of Marketing from the Trenches. We will be talking about what they do at Lemlist to give direct outreach its own personal touch. All the way from the images used up to the in-depth research of prospects. Today’s episode is going to be insane so sit back and tune in until the end.   Personalisation: Trends Of Yesterday, Changes Of Today, What’s In The Future? (5:15) The advantages of personalising cold emails The most common mistake people make when sending out cold emails What will personalisation look like in the next five years? Why most people won’t go for personalisation Why work with agencies? Why personalisation is really important Building Relationships (10:09) Establishing a fit ROI matters The beauty of building relationships in B2B What other strategies work in terms of personalisation? (12:22) Text personalisation - Icebreakers Image personalisation Understanding who your targets are Knowing the right attributes you need to reach your targets Take advantage of the information you get from a person visiting your website Images and Links in Cold Emails: Does it affect deliverability? (18:38) Images don’t affect deliverability Email providers go for more interactive and heavier emails Testing is important to find out what works best for your cold emails Factors that affect email deliverability With Google’s recent changes, what happens to images included in cold emails? (22:44) Are images treated differently by Google’s analysis? Do you need personalisation on top of your images?  Warm Emails: Is anybody still using them? (23:55) Existing users Backlink Outreach Press Relationship Podcast Outreach   Our Guest: Guillaume Moubeche is the founder and CEO of Lemlist, a software program that helps business owners and marketers generate more results from their email outreach campaigns. Lemlist has quickly grown to be one of the best email personalisation tools in the world. If you wish to connect with Guillaume Moubeche, the best way you can reach him is through his Linkedin profile. — https://www.linkedin.com/in/guillaumemoubeche/   Resources: We now have a free resources section on our website, which has just been built.  From this section, you can download, for free, the resources we use for ourselves and for our clients to help them execute deals like the one we have examined today.  Visit growthlabz.com/resources to download your free resources today.

The marketing industry can be a dangerous place at times. The reason why I say that is because there can be a lot of smoke and mirrors, and a lot of bad agencies.  Our guest for today is definitely one of the best marketers in Australia, if not the world. His results for both himself and his clients speak volumes. In today’s episode, I will be talking to Kim Barrett, CEO and founder of Your Social Voice. We will be having a chat about principles we both share when it comes to marketing, running campaigns, and our thought processes for when we market for ourselves and for clients. Having a bird’s eye view on the recent issues in the industry will definitely give you leverage, so we’ll be discussing all of that in today’s episode of Marketing From The Trenches, be sure to tune in.   Kim’s Story: How He Got Into Marketing (2:25) From Fish Breeder to Email Marketer From Basic Employee to Professional Marketer At Present: What Kim Does For Clients (7:22) Education (How to put marketing systems into businesses) Actual Work (Trainings, Lead Generation, Social Media Optimization, Back End Marketing, etc.) Professional Services Facebook Ads: What Works For Kim? Where Do The Trends Lead? (9:34) A lot depends on the type of client and their goal Having a relatively decent audience size is important What are Facebook ad sets and how do they work? How do ad set limits affect your marketing campaigns? Being in control of the money you spend on Facebook ad sets What is more beneficial for your business in terms of campaign optimisation? Differences in Terms of Copy and Design: Are There Any? (13:27) The big focus is in standing out and differentiating yourself from other people NOC method: Niche-Offer-Copy Who to talk to on Facebook: Be specific, personalized, customized, and tailored Understanding that the right offer put into the right niche gets you to to the right clients The importance of branding for performance Kim’s Upcoming Event: What To Expect (19:44) Certified Ballers Live Becoming a Baller in your business What is a Baller? Importance of being a Baller Events To Watch Out For (23:39) Mastermind Events Grant Cardone Events Perry Marshall Events Super Fast Business Live Events The Dark Side Of Businesses And Agencies (27:00)   Responsibilities Pressures       Our Guest: Kim Barrett is the CEO and founder of Your Social Voice. He is a world-renowned marketer, author and digital marketing master. His online marketing agency aims to help his clients generate awareness, leads, and sales. They have helped businesses scale by using the latest marketing strategies and tactics, therefore, keeping their clients ahead of their competitors. Kim is super active answering questions and helping people via his Instagram account @realkimbarrett. For those who would like to know about the latest trends in marketing, get to meet and greet the big names in the marketing industry, and learn from them live, check out this event: Certified Ballers Live.   Resources: We now have a free resources section on our website, which has just been built.  From this section, you can download, for free, the resources we use for ourselves and for our clients to help them execute deals like the one we have examined today. Visit growthlabz.com/resources to download your free resources today.

Who wants to grow their business? I’m sure everybody wants that. That’s why in today’s episode of Marketing From The Trenches, we’ll get into something a little different from what we usually do.  Usually we talk about the technical stuff and strategies for creating good campaigns or good social media strategies, however, this time around I speak with Nigell Lee, the CEO of Xpresso Delight USA. We’ll be talking about high-level strategies in terms of growing your business through franchising. We’ll discuss franchises comprehensively and how you can grow your business using this model. If you want to know if franchising is for you, you’ll surely find out by the end of this episode. So be sure to tune in until the end. What were the challenges you’ve encountered in taking your business from Australia to the United States? (6:07) Being a stranger Building proof of concept Adapting the business to a new environment Localizing proof of concept Making sure that systems and processes are always in check What kind of business does franchising work on? (8:40) Franchising is for those who don’t want to take the risk Franchising is a good opportunity for those who want to leverage time and money Franchising could cover a number of different industries Training and support are essential for the franchisee Reasons why people opt for franchising (9:12) Standard consistency Increase in governance Steps to take in opening a franchise (10:34) Documentation (Processes, Systems) Get good advice on the legal aspect Identify whether you’d like to go just local, regional or national Understanding the economics and profitability of the places you’d like to saturate Franchisees: How do you find them? (14:28) They need to have the experience and resources The initial franchisees that were signed on Keep the costs in mind Understand who your target market is Use 20-30% of franchisees in the same market as your benchmark in choosing franchisee candidates Main things to look out for after starting three franchises (18:35) Training Modules: Improve as needed Back-end Support How do you manage franchisees who don’t follow your protocols and standards? (21:36) Allow franchisees to understand that following the system will bring them to success Aim to get all franchisees to success by giving support To franchise or not to franchise? (24:37) Get a lot of advice in franchising Understand the environment you’re in Build and test around 4-5 franchise units in different areas The importance of proof of concept Future plans: Lessons you can learn (27:28) Change experiences Get to the top in the next 3-5 years Spin-off a number of different but related brands Our Guest: Nigell Lee is the CEO of Xpresso Delight USA. He is an expert when it comes to franchising and growing organizations through franchising and has been responsible for the growth of Xpresso Delight from a few locations in Australia to over 200 franchises all across the world.

If you’re thinking about using videos to help your business grow, this episode will enlighten you. Today will be all about explaining how you can use the power of videos to help grow your business. We’ll deep dive into the details: the tips, tricks, and processes of creating great videos for advertising and marketing. In today’s episode of Marketing from the Trenches, I’ll be speaking with Tim Nagle, managing director of Apostle Digital. It’s not a surprise that I tapped him for this particular episode because of his expertise in creating videos for ads and marketing. So if you want to learn more about creating video content for your business, just listen to this podcast. And be sure to stay tuned until the end. About Tim Nagle and Tesla (4:28) What did Tim showcase in his entry for Tesla's open campaign? How did it feel to be part of the Tesla pre-sales campaign? What’s the reason behind strong engagement for unpaid media? Things to think about when making creative content (7:25) Originality Emotional Engagement Execution of the craft The importance of being able to tell the story of a brand Are there different approaches to different brands? Questions to ask before creating videos for a brand Creating videos for marketing, advertising, and pushing brand awareness (10:53) The ideal length of a video The necessity of engaging your viewers within the first three seconds Delivering the purpose of your content What do you look for in a video production company? (13:01) Large scale VS small scale production What is the most favoured content at the moment? What kind of content are you creating? The most important thing to take note of no matter the scale of production What are the essential steps to take for a video to get results? (15:03) Showcasing what it is you really do Tips to showcase what you do in an engaging manner Basic formula for creating videos and scripts with creativity (16:12) Questions to ask before going into a brand meeting The pre-production phase The post-production phase Is video ready to stay come 2020 and beyond? (18:02) Statistics: Where is the web traffic directed to? What format will connectivity all around the world be in? The types of videos we will be seeing in the next few years Opportunities that videos can give to businesses especially in the future Our Guest: Tim Nagle is a freelance Director of Photography and is currently the managing director of Apostle Digital. He was featured in different magazines and publications because of his work for Tesla, and the launch video of Tesla Model 3. His clients also include big names such as Gucci and Adidas. The aim of his service is to create content that tells the unique story of your brand. Resources: We now have a free resources section on our website, which has just been built.  From this section, you can download, for free, the resources we use for ourselves and for our clients to help them execute deals like the one we have examined today.  Visit growthlabz.com/resources to download your free resources today.

Event marketing is a pretty solid strategy that will help you introduce your brand to a wider network. It helps you connect with potential clients in a more personal way. To make your brand stand out in a crowded marketplace, running an event is a strategy you should definitely consider. In this episode of Marketing from the Trenches, I talk to Daniel Hersee, owner and digital marketing specialist at Black Lion Digital, about using events to generate leads. We also discuss the strategies they are using so they can deliver successful events that, in turn, you can quickly and easily implement in your business. Tune into this episode and discover everything you need to know about event marketing. Questions You Need to Ask Before Starting Events (4:32) Who are you doing it for? What type of businesses are you doing it for? What benefits do you see from running events? Types of Events (4:41) B2B (Business to Business) One on One Coaching Workshops Full day implementations Free Events vs. Paid Events (5:57) Main reason for drop-offs How do you get your invites to attend your event? Which is better? Free or paid? Major Factors to Consider Before Doing an Event (8:04) Objectives The Target Market Things You Need to Know if You’re a First Timer at Events (9:28) Why would someone want to go to your event? What assets do you have that will give you leverage? Identify the problems of your potential clients that you can offer solutions to. The importance of Facebook ads in events marketing. Marketing smart for a start. Reasons Why People Come to An Event (13:19) Stagnancy Repurposing or Upscaling Looking for new ideas and concepts with a face to face element. Tips for First-Timers Event Holders (16:44) Do a free event. Go freestyle. Do smaller events first. Follow up potential attendees. Advertising Strategies that Help Fill Events (20:51) Emails and Referrals Facebook Ads Podcasts Sales Navigator on Linkedin Retargeting Ads Understanding the psychology of your market of potential attendees. Video advertisements The Main Take Away (30:07) Sending the RIGHT message to your prospects. Our Guest: Daniel Hersee Daniel Hersee is the Owner and Digital Marketing Specialist at Black Lion Digital, who prides himself on knowing the latest and greatest Digital Marketing strategies. Creating tailor-made marketing strategies for businesses and their goals, Daniel’s services range from implementation to consulting and digital marketing workshops to suit all budgets. Resources: We now have a free resources section on our website, which has just been built.  From this section, you can download, for free, the resources we use for ourselves and for our clients to help them execute deals like the one we have examined today.  Visit growthlabz.com/resources to download your free resources today.

Compared to traditional advertising methods such as print and radio, digital advertising often produces a greater ROI, and you are able to dig into the numbers on a much deeper level. However, you need to spend on the right advertising strategies to be able to maximise your reach effectively. In this episode of Marketing From The Trenches, I speak with Rohan Sheth, CEO of High Impact Group, who shares with us the learning experiences he has gained from spending over $50 million dollars on advertising. We talk about the strategies he uses to help businesses grow profitably and quickly. As we go along, Rohan will also drop some golden nuggets to ponder on that will make a really big difference in your marketing, so be sure to tune in to the whole episode for a more in-depth discussion about the topic. Think Outside the Box (9:58) Opportunities in the non-English speaking market. How to scale and build your company. Best Marketing Strategies that Work in 2019 (10:58) Build different niches for clients. The importance of a creative team in advertising. Creating new and fresh ideas to buy media for your business. The Native Marketing Route (14:36) The advantage of starting off with the native market. How to use the native market to your advantage. The human psychology of the native market and its effectiveness. Facebook and Advertising: Is it still effective? (17:26) The power of Facebook Ads in optimizing and scaling your business. How do you use Facebook to its full potential in scaling your business? Facebook doesn’t need your money. Diversify or Double Down? (20:38) Understanding that doubling your budget does not automatically equate to double leads. The importance of human psychology in connecting to your target market. Things you need to know before doubling down. How should you increase your investment in Facebook Ads and why? Golden Nuggets for the Future of Marketing Two things you need to pay attention to in the present market. Ask yourself, what am I going to do for my clients in 2020? Consult your clients and potential clients. Take good care of your salespeople. Resources: We now have a free resources section on our website, which has just been built.  From this section, you can download, for free, the resources we use for ourselves and for our clients to help them execute deals like the one we have examined today.  Visit growthlabz.com/resources to download your free resources today.

We have built our business on the back of creating strong email campaigns for ourselves and for our clients, and we believe our strength in this area is what sets us apart from our competition and makes us world-class. To be able to really engage with and nurture potential clients, you need to be able to stay in touch via regular emails that add value, and to do this you need a strong CRM to support you.  In this episode of Marketing From The Trenches, I speak with Adam Tuttle, APAC Director of Sales for ActiveCampaign, about current trends in email, technical aspects you should pay attention to, and how to get more of your emails opened, read, and actioned. Be sure to tune in to the whole episode for a more in-depth discussion about the topic. Email Trends of 2019 (5:25) The importance of personalised emails. Finding the best time to send an email. Cleansing your email list. Using data to segment your audience. How to Collect More Personal Information (10:43) Create an email sequence that starts when someone joins your list. Outline what they can expect, ie email frequency and type of content they can expect.. Send a survey, pre-framed with the benefit of not filling their inbox with irrelevant information. Collect ‘last open date’ in your CRM so you can see when people engage with your emails. How to Cleanse Your Email List (15:44) First ask yourself, what are you trying to achieve with your list? Match your content to what you’re trying to achieve. Make your call to action prominent, not an afterthought. Remove people if they are not engaging with your content for 90 days or more. Email Open Rates - Industry Benchmarks (22:33) Less than 10% is not good, your list needs cleansing and your content needs reviewing. Between 10-15% is ok, but you’re sliding towards not good. From 15-20% you’re doing well, but there is room for improvement. 20% above is excellent, and if you hit 30% you’re an email rockstar.   Resources: Get a free trial of ActiveCampaign by visiting https://www.activecampaign.com/free/ We now have a free resources section on our website, which has just been built.  From this section you can download, for free, the resources we use for ourselves and for our clients to help them execute deals like the one we have examined today.  Visit growthlabz.com/resources to download your free resources today.

There are three common reasons why your marketing isn’t working, but it’s probably not what you think…  When we sit down with business owners who are unhappy with their marketing efforts, they often blame the technical side of the equation for the problem, such as the ad not being set up correctly, the wrong copy, or even a landing page that hasn’t been optimised. However, these things are actually on the bottom of the pile. In this episode of Marketing From The Trenches, I’m going to take you through the three biggest reasons your marketing isn’t working, and explain step by step what you can do to get the results you want. Be sure to tune in to the whole episode for a more in-depth discussion about the topic. Here are the three most important parts of any campaign, which are also the three things most business owners get wrong in their marketing. Step 1: Plan (2:12) Map out the customer journey. Know who your best customer is (the person you want to do business with). What are their pain points, and how does your product or service solve them? Step 2: Resources (6:03) Resources mean both time and budget for ad spend. Be prepared to launch a campaign, and have it take some time before seeing great results. Review the data, then have a tailored approach, rather than scattered. Step 3: Execution (10:47) First look at click-through rates (or open rates for email). Are people seeing your message? 0.5% in the first month is a good result. Of the people who see your message, how many visit your page? 20% in the first month is a good result. The third metric to check is leads to conversions. How many people saw your message, clicked through to your page, then became a customer?  Resources: We now have a free resources section on our website, which has just been built. From this section, you can download for free, The resources we use for ourselves and for our clients to help them execute deals like the one we have examined today.  Visit growthlabz.com/resources to download your free resources today.

Recently we set up a campaign for a client, and it has already landed them one 7-figure deal, with several more in their sales pipeline ready to be closed. The company we set this up for is a professional services company in PR, and they are targeting Fortune 500 companies to work with. In this episode of Marketing From The Trenches, I’m going to break down step by step exactly how we set their campaign up so that you can follow the same strategies and implement them in our business today. Be sure to tune in to the whole episode for a more in-depth discussion about the topic.   Step 1: Target Market & Planning (3:01) Most people skip the planning phase Most important question is ‘what is the biggest problem the target market has?’ Understand the biggest difficulties the person making the decisions has Step 2: Angle + Value Offers (4:48) How can our service help our target market? Relate the service to their problem uncovered in Step 1 Understand the risk the decision-maker is taking   Step 3: Social Proof (9:46) Use social proof to build trust Show that you have achieved the result they want for other people Anchor your results to your offer Step 4: Execution (7:34) Three approaches; cold email, direct mail, and phone call Set up a cold email sequence Track the data to know who is opening the emails, who is interested, and who would like more information Move from email  to direct mailing physical envelopes to interested parties Re-connect and ask to have a phone call Step 5: Sales Process (14:19) Brought sales and marketing teams together to share data Create a sales process that nurtured while accelerating the sale Use a process that spoke to each person in the decision-making process

The eCommerce world is getting more and more challenging, yet with the right team behind you, it is possible to go from $60k a month in revenue to over $1 million a month in revenue, like the example we are going to show you. In this episode of Marketing From The Trenches, I speak with Dim Niko from DimNiko.com about how he has helped brands with physical products to sell to increase their revenue exponentially with highly targeted ad campaigns. Be sure to tune in to the whole episode for a more in-depth discussion about the topic. About Dim Niko (2:27) Started in eCommerce straight out of high school. Listened to parents and went to university to study law. Knew that going to university and getting a job wasn’t for him, so looked for business opportunities. Took a course on how to create an agency. Now works with clients generating 6-7 figures a month in revenue. The Importance of Systems For Scaling (6:58) Remote vs In house. Onboarding new clients. Removing yourself as the central hub. Finding the right people to get results for clients without you. What’s Working in eComm Right Now? (9:46) Harnessing granular strategy vs high-level strategy. Remember you’re marketing to humans. Nail the strategy behind the campaign. Breaking the funnel into three steps. Getting retargeting profitable.  Media Buying (16:55) How to set up a winning campaign. How Facebook analyses campaign data. Split testing ad spend strategies. Being prepared to wait to collect data. What Happens When There Is A Facebook Update? (22:15) One change can alter results dramatically. How to change your media buying strategy to cope with changes. Why ad strategy should be a longer-term plan. Avoiding short-term thinking traps that burn leads.   Resources: Learn to scale your brand by visiting dimniko.com/scale Follow Dim on Facebook for daily content at Dimitri Nikolakakis For more info and more podcast episodes, Visit https://www.growthlabz.com/ 

There are a lot of people who focus on branding, and a lot who focus on marketing. But there are very few companies who can fuse the two together to help people accelerate their results. When branding and marketing are merged together, the outcome for a campaign is it will deliver results on every level of the sales funnel. In this episode of Marketing From The Trenches, I speak with Dan Ratner from uberbrand about how he has developed a system and framework that helps companies from startups to enterprises develop a brand, then use that brand to drive lower cost client acquisitions.  Be sure to tune in to the whole episode for a more in-depth discussion about the topic. About Dan Ratner (2:16) Created a branding communications agency. Found companies were good at either creating a beautiful funnel or something very sales-oriented, but not both. uberbrand brings these two approaches together. Ensure what you do and say in the market are a reflection of who and what you are. Case Study: Power Club (3:39) Work out how to position your brand vs competitors. How to communicate the brand message at launch. Understand how consumers make their decisions. Find the tension, the big issues facing people before making a decision. Why does your company exist? How do you disrupt an industry? How To Build Brand Awareness (13:51) It’s easy to reach people, but not easy to engage them. Analyse success based on brand recall, not brand reach. Brand awareness leads to direct enquiries organically. Direct enquiries indicate the strength of a brand. Placement and Quality (18:58) Combine good content with good placement. Make moving through each step of the funnel as simple as possible. Integrate each arm, branding, creative, performance, digital, all under one roof for consistency. Every activity should lad towards the one outcome. Start with branding, then integrate that into communications. Communication Drives Leads (22:03) If you don’t know your brand identity, you can’t speak to your target market. What you say forms an impression, especially on people who haven’t heard of you before. Even if a piece of communication doesn’t deliver a sale, make sure it delivers a positive impression. A rejection should be a ‘no thanks not today’ not a burnt relationship. To learn more about how uberbrand help brand performance, visit uberbrand.com.au For more info and more podcast episodes, Visit https://www.growthlabz.com/ 

The future of marketing is personalisation, which means the businesses who can personalise marketing at scale will increase their conversions, and ultimately win more business. Whether you’re running paid ads, email nurturing email campaigns, or even cold emailing, personalising your message is going to get you much better results. In this episode of Marketing From The Trenches, I speak with Nik Thakorlal from Leads Hook about how marketers and business owners can use software to personalise their campaigns and achieve better results. Be sure to tune in to the whole episode for a more in-depth discussion about the topic. About Nik Thakorlal (2:39) Background in banking. Grew family business from 7-figures to mid 8-figures rapidly. Uses an analytical and numbers based approach to business. Grew a business to over 150 employees Firm believer in the importance of the vision helping everyone towork towards one goal. Traditional Marketing vs Online Marketing (6:39) Nik’s business was still usng taditional methods, such as TV, radio, billboards. Mistakes were expensive! Sometimes hundreds of thousands of dollars. Understood the importance of testing, so studied the world of online marketing. Thinking of products like stocks How A Decision Tree Works (9:53) Before selling a product, you need to understand who the client is and what they need. There can be over 50,000 data points per customer. Use multiple message types to filter prospective clients. Each answer takes the potential customer down a different path. Use the answers to find out who your real target market is, based on data. How To Use Decision Tree Data (15:47) Use the data you receive to find out where ad spend is failing to bring in sales. Make decisions on future ad spend based on analysis. If you’re a small business, go micro and get ahead of your competition. If you’re in a hyper-competitive market you can go macro because the numbers are bigger. You don’t have to use all of the data, but just using some of it will put you ahead of your competitors. Decision Trees Change How Lead Magnets Operate (18:04) The problem with traditional lead magnets is the consumer doesn’t know the value until after they have consumed the content in the lead magnet. Traditional lead magnets often don’t explain how to use the information. A decision tree helps compress data down to a handful of bullet points and an action plan for the consumer, in real time.. A decision tree provides clean data, as the answers provided are used to create the personalised lead magnet. What Equipment Do You Need To Start A Podcast? (25:35) Webcam - Logitech C920 or C922, or Logitech Brio. Microphone - Audio Technica ATR 2100. Recording video - Zoom. Recording Audio - Audacity. Note: This is a bare-bones approach that, at the time of publication will cost around $200AUD. How Do You Edit Each Episode? (28:01) Recording the episode is the easy part, editing it well is the most important step. Someone needs to adjust and balance the volume, and run a high pass over the audio. Use a syndication platform such as Omny to distribute each episode across iTunes, Spotify, Google, Stitcher, and more. Create ‘show notes’ that tell a potential listener what the show is about. Create an image thumbnail with the title of each episode. What Are The Best Ways To Reach New Listeners? (31:02) Recording video is the simplest way to stand out from the crowd. Make trailer/teaser snippets for social media, then link to the full episode. Publish each episode in full, natively, on platforms such as Facebook and YouTube. Boost each episode to your target market. Retarget to people who have already consumed your content. Only feed traffic into your funnel from people who have consumed your content. How Can You Grow A Podcast Organically? (38:00) Invite industry leaders to be a guest on your show. Reach out to other podcast owners and pitch them to be on their show. Use guest appearances on other shows to build backlinks to your website. Look for big names who are launching a book, as they will want to appear on shows to talk about their book. Stack all these approaches (even stack paid and unpaid) on top of each other to create even more leverage. If you are interested to learn more about how your business can personalise your marketing efforts at scale, then visit leadshook.com for more. See you in the next episode!

Podcasting is experiencing tremendous growth, but how can you generate leads from podcasting? In this day and age, it is getting harder to find success through traditional channels such as Facebook ads, webinars, and nurturing your email list as people are becoming disengaged. This is where podcasting comes in, as it is an opportunity for you to be your authentic self and connect with people on a deeper level, and really provide people with massive value on a regular basis. In this episode of Marketing From The Trenches, I speak with Charley Valher of Valher Media and ask him to share with us his specific strategies for generating leads from podcasting. Be sure to tune in to the whole episode for a more in-depth discussion about the topic. About Charley Valher (2:46) Early adopter of Facebook ads Grew an agency that was running 7-figure Facebook ad campaigns Early adopter of outsourcing Co-founded an outsourcing company with annual 7-figure revenue Started buying and selling other businesses Launched Valher Media in 2019 Traditional Marketing Channels Not Working (4:44) Facebook ads worked really well in 2017 and 2018, but at the start of 2019, numbers dropped while costs increased. Webinar registrations have been decreasing. Lead magnet opt-ins have been decreasing. Show up rates have been decreasing. Email open hates have been decreasing. How Podcasting Will Look In 12-24 Months (10:26) Spotify has recently invested $500 million in acquiring companies that deal in podcasting. Google is going to be indexing podcasts and showing them in search results. Apple announced iTunes will be creating a podcast-specific app. With better tech and better connections, more and more people are listening to podcasts on their daily commute. Video podcasting will be the next big thing in podcasting. What Should You Know Before Starting A Podcast? (13:53) Use a podcast as a growth engine for an existing business Be prepared to invest 12 months of time to gain traction, then reap the benefits of compound interest. Releasing one episode a week is the best way to start. Episodes that run for between 20-45 minutes have the best success. Record your intro after the interview is complete so you can really highlight some of the golden nuggets that listeners will receive by consuming the full episode. Set aside 1-2 days per month and record all your episodes during that time, and create a month's worth of content in a day. How Do You Decide What Content To Make? (19:14) Make content your audience wants to consume! Use Buzzsumo or Ahrefs to find out what content is performing well. Use Google Keyword Planner to find out what people are searching. Email your list and ask them what they would like to learn more about. Research Quora and Reddit to find out what topics people need help with. What Equipment Do You Need To Start A Podcast? (25:35) Webcam - Logitech C920 or C922, or Logitech Brio. Microphone - Audio Technica ATR 2100. Recording video - Zoom. Recording Audio - Audacity. Note: This is a bare-bones approach that, at the time of publication will cost around $200AUD. How Do You Edit Each Episode? (28:01) Recording the episode is the easy part, editing it well is the most important step. Someone needs to adjust and balance the volume, and run a high pass over the audio. Use a syndication platform such as Omny to distribute each episode across iTunes, Spotify, Google, Stitcher, and more. Create ‘show notes’ that tell a potential listener what the show is about. Create an image thumbnail with the title of each episode. What Are The Best Ways To Reach New Listeners? (31:02) Recording video is the simplest way to stand out from the crowd. Make trailer/teaser snippets for social media, then link to the full episode. Publish each episode in full, natively, on platforms such as Facebook and YouTube. Boost each episode to your target market. Retarget to people who have already consumed your content. Only feed traffic into your funnel from people who have consumed your content. How Can You Grow A Podcast Organically? (38:00) Invite industry leaders to be a guest on your show. Reach out to other podcast owners and pitch them to be on their show. Use guest appearances on other shows to build backlinks to your website. Look for big names who are launching a book, as they will want to appear on shows to talk about their book. Stack all these approaches (even stack paid and unpaid) on top of each other to create even more leverage. If you are interested to learn more about how your business can profit from podcasting, then visit valhermedia.com for more. See you in the next episode!

Almost all startups have difficulty positioning themselves and their products on the leaderboard, especially if they have big and dominant competitors. Questions like "How can we stand out?" and "How can we beat our competitors?" come to the minds of novice entrepreneurs. So with limited budget and resources, how can you attract potential clients and convert them into leads? In this episode of Marketing From The Trenches, I will be giving an overview of how you can make your company stand out from the rest. Be sure to tune in to the whole episode for a more in-depth discussion about the topic. How To Tell Stories (1:23) Get creative and innovative with sales talk. Consider the following factors⁠—practical copywriting, incorporation of psychology, and stating what your business could offer. Incorporate examples in the market and weave them into a story. Let your clients understand, trust, and like you and your products or services. Create human-centered stories to make your clients want to do more business with you. How To Approach The Market (2:13) Small businesses can never outplay the leading and dominant competitors—how can you go against them? Change everything about your company. Modify the way you talk about yourself, your customers, and team. Apply the three-point principle to build connections, authority, and trust. Give focus on empathy, on yourselves, and the customers. Appear more genuine and approachable. How To Position Yourself In The Market (11:56) Traditional sales talk: the benefits of their products or services, tax minimization, and possibly less costly and time-consuming operational processes. To carve yourself a high position in the market: go against the traditional way. How To Write Your Copy (12:58) When writing your copy, consider the three-point principle, the market, and the common enemy. Your competitors are your common enemies.  It is vital to effectively show how and why you are different. This includes a reason for starting your business, the inefficiencies of other leading companies, and how your business can rise above your competitors in the most cost-effective way as possible. If you are interested to learn more about how your company can stand out from the rest, then do not hesitate to contact me. I would love to share my experiences and insights about marketing to help you and your company grow. Visit https://www.growthlabz.com. I look forward to answering your questions. See you in the next episode!

This podcast episode is brought to you by Will, the host of Marketing From The Trenches Podcast. Are you looking for effective lead generation strategies for B2B business? If YES, this episode will give you the answers you are looking for. Grab a pen and paper, sit tight, and tune in as we will discuss: 5 Most Effective B2B Lead Generation Strategies and how to use them Additional resources to help you apply the following strategies A checklist you can use to keep you on track for lead generation Bio of the Guest: William Wong is the director of Growth Labz and the host of Marketing From the Trenches Podcast who shares the most proven and effective strategies for marketing and sales. His mission is to help your business grow by attracting and landing high-value clients.