The Big Idea

We live in a world where there is a template, hack, or blueprint for every facet of life and business: whether it's a “high-converting” landing page or how to organize your closet. But in order to go beyond your competition, it has never been a more important time to think outside of the box when it comes to expanding on your greatest ideas. Grant Perry got to catch up with Marcus Ho from Stansberry Churchouse and Hung Ngo of 123personality.com to discuss how they were able to build a list to 1.5 million people over 1 ½ years by using quizzes. With incredible growth and over 20% open rates, they've definitely found a way to getting solid engagement from their customers. As marketers, we are constantly trying to get the right balance between acquisition and lifetime value. Unfortunately, there's no “magic formula,” or hack to get there because every business is different. If you want to learn more on the right tactics to mix up your strategy and how to test ensure there's opportunity for scale on your product, you can't miss this episode.

As a marketer, it doesn't happen often that you share a room with people from every industry, vertical, and corner of the globe who have been in your shoes, who have faced the same problems you have, and who have overcome the same obstacles. If you are invested and interested in digital marketing, then there is one event that will give you the opportunity to do exactly that. Traffic and Conversion Summit in San Diego is the single largest event for marketers in the US. With 5,500+ attendees every year, it is the place to be for learning, sharing, networking, and recruiting. In fact, next year the event promises to be even bigger with nearly 8,000 people attending, which is also why the Agora companies have decided to sign on as a major partner for Traffic and Conversion Summit 2019. To get the lowdown on why this is an event that cannot be missed, tune into this month's The Big Idea podcast, where Brian York and Grant Perry highlight the benefits of attending Traffic and Conversion Summit 2019.

The world of publishing has changed drastically since The Agora started as a direct mailing company, nearly 40 years ago, in a small office in Baltimore. Today, what began as a simple idea driven by a small group of passionate people has grown into a publishing powerhouse with a global footprint covering all corners of the world — Australia, Europe, the Americas, Africa, and Asia. In today's The Big Idea podcast, Grant Perry speaks with The Agora's International CEO, Erika Nolan and International Publisher Catherine Flannery about their vision for further global expansion and positioning The Agora as a group of international premiere media companies. Some of the new territories that Erika and Catherine are looking to break into in the next 24 months include Japan, Poland, Mexico, and Italy… to name a few. Establishing a new business in a foreign country will always be unchartered territory, even when following a clear (albeit unique) business model. However, if there is one thing that Erika and Catherine know, then it is that the success of this global vision depends on finding the right candidates — individuals with a certain caliber of talent and skill, and who can fold fluidly into a team of highly competitive people and begin contributing immediately. To find out more about what we do at The Agora companies, why we are so successful and whether there is a place for you to be part of our global vision, tune into today's The Big Idea podcast.

Living and working in multi-cultural environments means that a lot can gets “lost in translation.” This could lead to confusion, embarrassment, misunderstandings, offense and a breakdown in communication. The same applies to businesses, especially when you are working with multiple stakeholders across various continents. Thanks to technological advances making it possible for anyone to be reached at almost any time no matter where they are, many businesses now face the question: how do you lead and collaborate with teams that span over various continents and nationalities, and who have very different ethnical and cultural values? Tricky question, right? Erin Myer skilfully answers this question in her book The Culture Map. In today's The Big Idea podcast, Francois Lubbe and Christina Clapp discuss The Culture Map and how the framework provided in this book can help businesses to better understand and manage the growing challenge of navigating cultural differences in the workplace.

In late 2017, Southbank Investment Research, an Agora company based in London, ran a Copywriter's Bootcamp as part of a recruitment drive. For the bootcamp, publisher Nick O'Connor invited aspiring copywriters to join two weeks of intensive copy training from some of the leading copywriters in the industry. At the end of the two weeks, based on their performance, the most promising attendees were invited to work for one of the Agora companies in London. Out of the 20 attendees, only 7 were selected of which 2 were female, Ellie Daghlian and Sally O'Sullivan. In today's The Big Idea podcast, Francois Lubbe speaks with both Ellie and Sally about working in a traditionally male environment, how they approach copywriting, and the qualities they believe set them apart from their male counterparts.

Good old Facebook… The media super-power has very much turned into Marmite — you either love the social media platform or you hate it. The latest controversy surrounding Facebook is its plunging share prices. Last week, the social media giant announced disappointing earnings, which wiped out about $120 billion of shareholder wealth. As a result, shareholder James Kacouris filed a lawsuit against Mark Zuckerberg and Facebook's chief financial officer, David Wehner, on Friday, July 27. Kacouris is accusing Zuckerberg and Wehner of misleading shareholders by failing to disclose slowing revenue growth, falling operating margins and a decline in active users. The lawsuit seeks class-action status and unspecified damages. It's thought to be the first lawsuit of many to follow. 2018 is most definitely not a good year for Facebook, and while these latest developments may not have a direct and immediate impact on marketers, the future is very uncertain for the social media giant. Is it time to think about a ‘world without Facebook'? Or is it still too early to jump ship? In this week's The Big Idea podcast, Brian York and Grant Perry share their thoughts on the latest Facebook debacle as they discuss alternative marketing opportunities and strategies waiting to be explored.

In the past year, Google has made quite a few changes to advance its Ad Platform. We've already seen Standard Text Ads being replaced with the much meatier Expanded Text Ads and now, the latest addition is Responsive Search Ads. Responsive Search Ads display up to three headlines consisting of 30 characters each, simultaneously. They also display up to two lines of description, consisting of 90 characters each – giving your ads over 80% more real estate on the SERP. In addition, with these multiple ad elements, Google employs its machine-learning skills to identify which elements of your ads are most effective over time. In today's The Big Idea podcast, Francois Lubbe speaks Christina Clapp about the benefits of using Responsive Search Ads as an additional tool for multivariate testing, as well as highlighting some its potential drawbacks.

The world is getting smaller by the day and it comes down to the fact that the Internet has completely infiltrated our daily existence. As much as consumers rely on the Internet for their every need, businesses now too depend on it for their existence. With online reviews now playing a major role in how consumers consider purchases, we no longer control this relationship as we did in the old days. The consumer controls the relationship now. As a result, one of your most valuable and fragile assets is your online reputation. The old adage of “any publicity is good publicity” simply does not apply to bad or negative online reviews. If you don't own your online reputation, then somebody else will. In today's The Big Idea podcast, Brian York and Grant Perry speak with Darius Fisher, CEO and co-Founder of Status Labs, about why it's important that your business looks its best in search results.

How often do you conduct a website audit? In other words, how often do you test SEO performance, analyse content and find gaps and opportunities that could potentially generate and improve organic traffic to your website? In a recent audit of 54 different websites, Technical SEO Specialist Colm O'Sullivan found three critical issues that affected their visibility in Search and ultimately their bottom line. Chances are, your website's performance could fall victim to the same issues… especially if you don't audit your site on a regular basis. In today's The Big Idea podcast, Brian York and Grant Perry speak with Colm about why it is important to conduct regular site audits and how to specifically fix the critical issues that he identified in his recent site audits.

Talk to anyone who has been working at one of the Agora companies for some time, and you will almost certainly hear that it takes a certain kind of hustle to carve out your very own unique career path. One thing is clear, there are plenty of opportunities available for you to succeed in whatever direction you choose to take – whether it is in copywriting, editorial, digital marketing, creative and design, or information technology. Another thing you'll also find, is that during your time with The Agora, you will very likely wear a few different hats. In today's The Big Idea podcast, Brian York and Grant Perry speak with Francois Lubbe – the latest addition to the AIM team. Francois has been with the Agora companies for nearly 15 years, during which he has worked in customer service, SEO, web design and digital marketing, until he finally ended up in editorial. Listen to today's The Big Idea podcast to get Francois' perspective on what it means to work for The Agora.

Google is rolling out with important security updates on Chrome in the next few months. These updates will not only affect the credibility of your website, but they could also cost you your customers. When it comes to the web browsing market, Google Chrome holds the lion's share. So, chances are that these upcoming security updates will inevitably affect your website, especially if you collect email addresses and credit card information on your website. In today's The Big Idea podcast, Brian York and Grant Perry speak with SEO specialist Colm O'Sullivan about how to identify any potential security issues on your website. To avoid a negative impact on your site's bounce rates, advertising impressions, affiliate clicks, and e-commerce sales in the future, tune into today's The Big Idea podcast to find out how to ensure that your website is secure and ready by July 2018.

Pinterest is synonymous with DIY weddings, home decorating tips, vintage furniture, fat-burning workouts, and cupcakes. Unless you are focusing on a very specific demographic, none of these are ideal sources for leads. So, when it comes to using Pinterest as a potential ad platform, many marketers scoff at it...But don't be too quick to roll your eyes.Even though it may seem like an unlikely lead generation candidate, with 37 million wealthy customers, this visual search engine definitely has some hidden and untapped potential... and then we're not even talking about specialized audience targeting options such as “act alike audiences” (similar to lookalike audiences) and a robust keyword targeting mechanism, which could be a goldmine for low-cost leads.In this week's The Big Idea podcast, Christina Clapp and David Jackman share their thoughts and observations with Grant Perry about using Pinterest as part of diversified marketing strategy.Correction: It was previously mentioned that Christina's team hit CPCs that were around $1.50; however, while the bids were $1.50, actual CPCs of $.60-.70 were achieved for Actalike targeting, and $.95 for keyword targeting.

In our very first episode of The Big Idea podcast, Grant Perry, Brian York and Natalie Eagling spoke about the challenges of finding the right marketing talent. For marketers, of course, there is an equal challenge in finding the right company to work with and convincing them you are the best person for the job. So, what's the solution? How do you side-step the restrictions of impersonal interviews that offer limited opportunities to find out what talent and skills candidates can bring to the table? Here at The Agora companies, we've run bootcamp-style recruitment initiatives for a few years now, which have proven to be very effective in bringing in the right talent. In this week's The Big Idea podcast, Grant Perry speaks with the two newest additions to the AIM team, Will Palmer and David Jackman, about their experience at the marketing bootcamp held in Ireland earlier this year, and what attracted them to work for The Agora companies in the first place.

Where do you begin if you are looking to start an ad campaign? What copy do you use? What images do you to select? And if it's a lead generation campaign, what lead magnet do you use? These are all important questions, but finding the right answer can often be a massive hurdle. In this week's The Big Idea podcast, Grant Perry is flying solo as he discusses a simple strategy that can help you translate the core ideas of a promotion into a congruent ad campaign.

For some of us, virtual assistants (like Siri, Alexa and Google Home) have slowly permeated our lives to the point that we almost can't live without them. Then for others, despite its tremendous potential, Artificial Intelligence (AI) — Voice Search in particular — has not been met with a great deal of enthusiasm.That's the topic of discussion in today's The Big Idea podcast with Brian York, Grant Perry, and Colm O'Sullivan as they talk about the future of AI, Smart Homes and Voice Search.Whether you are ready to embrace AI or if it is something that you don't have a need for (yet), the fact is by 2020, 50% of all search queries will be image or voice searches and by 2021, 8 billion devices will have digital assistants built-in. The robots are coming! Tune into today's The Big Idea podcast to find out where all of this heading…

As a regular listener to The Big Idea podcast, you already know that The Agora companies operate in a unique space. We are mostly financial and health publishers that specialize in direct response. Understandably, the niche market that we've created for ourselves also takes our requirement efforts to a completely new level. Following on from last week's episode, Brian York and Grant Perry speak with Jennifer DiFolco, the manager of Talent Acquisition. Over the years, Jennifer has seen The Agora companies grow into a global enterprise that often searches for talented candidates that have that “special something” that we are looking for… It's not always an easy find. So, what does it take to be a really successful direct response marketer with The Agora Companies? Or a copywriter? Or an editor? Or even a front-end developer? To find out, tune into today's The Big Idea podcast.

A stroke of genius? Or a man desperately trying to regain the trust of the 2.2 billion active users on Facebook? That's what many people asked themselves after Mark Zuckerberg announced the launch of FaceDate at this year's F8 – the annual developers conference held by Facebook. Come to think of it, with all the data Facebook holds on its users, developing an algorithm that matches Facebook users who are looking for love is kind of a brilliant idea… Of course, the next question is: why did it take Zuckerberg this long? But this year's F8 was not all about casual hook-ups and marriage proposals. Tune into The Big Idea podcast with Brian York and Grant Perry as they unpack the big F8 announcements that could have a real impact on direct response marketers. Things like Facebook Groups getting their own tab on the app, the Messenger makeover that will make it simpler and faster, and WhatsApp new group video chat feature. Listen to this week's The Big Idea podcast to get the full scoop on this year's F8.

The Urban Dictionary defines “hustle” as having “the courage, confidence, self-belief, and self-determination to go out there and work it out until you find the opportunities you want in life.” Anyone who has ever worked for The Agora will tell you that the hustle is part of what makes working for The Agora so appealing and unique, because career progression is 100% self-determined. That is, as long as you embrace the virtue of thinking independently and taking individual responsibility for your future. If you are curious about what it is like to work in an environment where you are not pigeonholed by corporate structures and where your creativity and ideas are celebrated, then tune into todayrsquo;s The Big Idea podcast with Brian York and Grant Perry.

It's no secret that Facebook has taken a few hard knocks during the past month in light of the Cambridge Analytica data scandal. Coupled with changes the company made earlier this year to its newsfeed as well as a surprise clampdown on crypto currency ads, many marketers now look at the platform with great apprehension and skepticism… Is this media giant about to fall? Hardly. There's the old saying: The highest trees get the strongest winds. And it's certainly true for Facebook (and Zuckerberg!). While Facebook is going through a few hiccups and challenges, this uncertainty has created a perfect environment for digital marketers to get creative with their creative. The question on everybody's minds is: With more selective competitors on Facebook, potentially fever ad spots and stricter “community guidelines,” what can advertisers do to get their content seen? In this week's The Big Idea podcast, Grant Perry, Brian York and Natalie Eagling discuss one of the biggest and easiest wins on Facebook that most publishers probably don't do: Facebook Videos. So, if you want to know how to make Facebook Videos work for your business during a time of rapid change, tune into this week's The Big Idea podcast.

Today we are broadcasting our 10th The Big Idea podcast. To mark this event, we asked our listeners a couple of weeks ago to send in their big ideas and topics that they would like to have covered. We received quite a lot of feedback and suggestions, and one of the most common topics that came up was around lead generation and how to monetize leads. Generating leads can be relatively easy but making sure that those leads become loyal, paying customers is where things become a bit trickier. Today, Grant Perry talks about one of the easiest (and most under-utilized) ways to accelerate your leads into paying customers… and it all comes down to one single page. To find out how you can turn this page into a handy little money-spinner, tune into today's The Big Idea podcast.

If your revenue stream depends heavily on reaching your customers via email, then today's The Big Idea podcast is just for you, as Grant Perry speaks with Brian York and Natalie Eagling about email deliverability. In a world where more and more businesses are being blocked from getting into readers' inboxes (or worse, blacklisted and labelled as spam), it's become crucial for marketers to stay on the forefront of best practices in email deliverability. To that end, we've decided to rebroadcast a podcast we recorded in November about email deliverability. In this, Brian York shares three crucial aspects of email deliverability we should be focusing on. If you want to know how to improve the conversation with your readers and to get a better chance of getting into their inboxes, tune into today's The Big Idea podcast.

In this week's The Big Idea podcast, Brian York speaks with Brian Swift about his “four day marathon of awesomeness” at Funnel Hacking Live 2018.Apart from being blown away by powerful speakers like Tony Robbins, Brian Swift also brought home a few very insightful takeaways. One topic that was of particular interest to him was how to leverage webinars to improve your conversion funnel.If you want to know more about the insider strategies that could get more people to show up to your webinar and actually BUY, then tune into today's The Big Idea podcast.

In this week's The Big Idea podcast, Brian York and Grant Perry speak with SEO specialist Colm O'Sullivan, who has just returned from the Search Marketing Expo (SMX), in San Jose California.Colm plays a pivotal role in helping many of The Agora Companies lay down the foundation for a structured and effective SEO strategy, and to ensure higher search rankings for a wider organic reach.In today's edition of The Big Idea, Colm highlights his top takeaways from SMX and speaks in particular about the importance of Structured Data, or Schema Mark-Up, and how it dramatically impacts SEO.Google, Bing, and Yahoo use Structured Data to understand the content of a page better. In a world where we are moving fast towards Voice Search, Schema Mark-Up is super-important. Without it, search engines probably won't ever pick your site for any voice search query.Later this week, Colm will also do a deep-dive into Structured Data in an article he wrote. So, keep an eye out for when it drops in your inbox in a day or two. In the meantime, tune into today's The Big Idea podcast to find out how to incorporate Structured Data as part of your SEO strategy.

In this week's The Big Idea podcast, Grant Perry and Brian York speak with Kevin Rogers, author of the Amazon best-selling book The 60-Second Sales Hook. After working as a copywriter for over a decade, Kevin discovered that great copywriters have trouble finding great clients and that business owners, who desperately need better copy, struggle to connect with great copywriters. Kevin solved this problem by creating CopyChief.com - a place where business owners and copywriters can get expert feedback on their copy, exclusive marketing and freelancer training, and opportunities to connect with true professionals. Today's episode focuses on the importance of copywriting and how good copy is the magic bullet to effective and successful marketing, and Kevin generously shares his insights and wisdom on how marketers can up their copy game. If you want to take your writing craft to the next level and improve your copy skills, tune into today's The Big Idea podcast.

In this week's The Big Idea podcast, Brian York, Grant Perry, and Brian Swift discuss their top takeaways from the Digital Marketer Traffic & Conversion Summit in San Diego – the largest conversion conference in the world. Every year, the world's smartest digital marketers descend on San Diego to learn what is new, what is hot, and what is actually working right now in digital marketing – highlighting new traffic channels, the latest conversion breakthroughs and selling models that yield higher sales and happier customers. Keep your finger on the pulse of digital marketing trends and tune into today's The Big Idea podcast.

In this week's The Big Idea podcast, Brian York and Tye Binuyo discuss the problem of low-quality keyword scores and high cost per acquisitions when it comes to running a campaign on Google's Search network. Low-quality keyword scores can quickly ruin a campaign on the Search network, and before you know it, you are dealing with higher cost-per-clicks and escalating lead acquisition costs... which is the last thing you want. Fortunately, there are a few quick and easy steps you can follow that will help increase your keyword scores and ultimately lower your cost-per-clicks and lead acquisition costs. To find out more tune into today's The Big Idea podcast. (Note: To get more detailed tips on how to successfully optimize your Adwords campaigns, check out the Show Notes below.)

In this week's The Big Idea Podcast Brian York, Grant Perry, and Christina Clapp discuss why Bing is such an undervalued PPC platform and why it shouldn't be overlooked when it comes to diversifying your marketing campaigns. Many marketers give a slight groan whenever Bing is mentioned as a potential Ad Platform. However, the recent crypto slap down on Facebook and the "misleading content" ban on Google Adwords once again highlighted the need for diversifying your marketing campaigns. If there is one thing all marketers have learned by now, it is that if all your marketing eggs are in one basket, you run a very high risk of getting shut down... and then you end up with no channels working. The bottom line: Diversification is key across the board and Bing - with its growing market share - could hold the answer to potentially yielding double the leads for your business with the click of a button.

In this week's The Big Idea Podcast, Brian York and Grant Perry speak with Customer Retention Specialist, Robert Skrob. Robert specializes in subscription retention, living and breathing the customer relationship. When it comes to a subscription-based business, like most of the Agora businesses, a lot of energy and creativity goes into acquiring new leads. However, if a similar focus is not given to maximize customer value after the sale - customers renewing year on year - then all of that frontline hard work amounts to absolutely nothing. So, how do you avoid being on the chopping block of canceled subscriptions and purchase refunds? How do you get that first sale to stick and generate more sales on the back of it? How do you increase your customer value, which will enable you to spend more and give you the edge over your competitors? It all comes down to becoming a master in the art of "dating your customers." And if there is one man who can show you how to turn customer "one night stands" into solid "relationships," it's Robert Skrob.

In this week's The Big Idea Podcast, Grant Perry will discuss a topic that has been on everybody's mind the past few weeks: changes to the Facebook News Feed Algorithm. By now, you've probably already had a few conversations about Facebook's recent announcement about changes they're making to their News Feed.Moving forward, Facebook will favor user content or content that users actively engage with - like posts from friends and family. This effectively means that publishers' content (advertising and advertorials) won't be given priority in users' News Feeds.

Welcome to our very first The Big Idea Podcast, with digital marketing experts Brian York, Grant Perry and Natalie Eagling. The Big Idea Podcast will focus on proven results and experiences gained from years of trial and error in direct marketing within The Agora Companies. The focal point of The Big Idea Podcast will always be direct response marketing — bringing you big ideas that will help improve results for your business and accelerate your marketing career. Today's podcast will focus on one of the biggest challenges for business owners and marketing directors: finding the right marketing talent. Equally, there is also a challenge for marketers in finding the right company to work with and convincing them you are the best person for the job. For business owners and marketing managers, we'll tell you how to side-step the broken requirement system by sharing a new and innovative way to find the right marketing talent, fit for your business.