Performance Delivered

For years, so-called experts have been touting the demise of email marketing. But, says Elisabeth Willits, this marketing channel is far from dead. In fact, in many ways it’s more relevant than ever.   As a senior content marketing specialist at AWeber, over the last six years Elisabeth has seen the industry up close and personal every day. Along the way, she’s collected data from emails sent to m...

In my second chat with Daniel Englebretson, we’re taking a deeper dive into the world of account-based marketing—specifically how to get started with this channel, from identifying targets to what metrics to track to measure success.   It’s pretty in-depth – if you want to do it right, at least. Daniel shares the step-by-step process he uses to figure out which accounts to go after and the key rol...

Joris Bryon, founder of the Dexter Agency, is passionate about helping eCommerce business owners grow methodically using almost “scientific” methods.   In the first episode with Joris, we talked about a potential untapped goldmine for eCommerce businesses: converting more of your current traffic to boost profits instead of buying additional traffic, which gets very expensive – especially these day...

Joris Bryon, founder of Dexter Agency, sees a lot of ecommerce entrepreneurs taking the wrong approach to designing their online presence.  They base the design on personal preference instead of data, so instead of being able to make changes that continually boost response – and profits – they spin their wheels.   Another issue: too much money and effort is spent on generating traffic without a so...

Many eCommerce entrepreneurs forget that the fundamental accounting principles and financial metrics that gauge the health of your business and should guide your future plans always remain the same, no matter what industry or sector you’re in.   That being said,   book-keeping specialist Cyndi Thomason knows there are key ways online businesses differ, not to mention they face unique challenges. W...

As founder of The CFO Project, Adam Lean consults with small businesses who’ve stalled and helps them to grow while maintaining a healthy profit – something the owners haven’t been able to do themselves.    Every business has its own set of obstacles to achieving that goal, of course. But, says Adam, there are several specific things that he sees most businesses doing wrong… or not doing at all wh...

When starting a business, many entrepreneurs think their first step should be to sink a bunch of money into advertising and marketing to get the word out.   But what if you don’t have much – if any – startup cash? Or you simply realize putting money into marketing doesn’t guarantee a return, especially with an untested product.   Eric Bandholz, founder of Beardbrand, turned this challenge into an...

Eric Bandholz, founder and creative director of Beardbrand, doesn’t just sell men’s grooming products. He gives his customers confidence, a feeling of well-being, and a sense of community.    That’s what every brand should do. Unfortunately too many are just customers and transactions. We talk about how Eric and his partners have built an engaged community of followers using social media and other...

Brad Moss, CEO of Product Labs, and I continue our conversation about Amazon advertising. If you haven’t checked out our previous podcast on the topic, check out Part 1 here.   This time we talk about how companies can start selling on Amazon – and what contemporary methods they need to utilize to be successful. One of the first things is to set up an effective keyword strategy... and even conside...

Amazon is a crowded place. As a veteran of Amazon, having managed the third-party seller platform, Brad Moss should know. It’s used in 10 countries, by over 2 million merchants, with more than 200 million customers and over 60 billion products.   This episode is all about the Amazon advertising strategies Brad recommends to his clients as CEO of consulting firm Product Labs.    Even if you don’t s...

Si Quan Ong, of SEO firm Ahrefs is back. During our first conversation, we discussed how to come up with evergreen topics for SEO-friendly content for your website. This time around, we’re talking about how to actually create that evergreen content.   The main issue, says SQ, is that many businesses go about content marketing all wrong. They do what everybody else is doing… don’t see great results...

When Google tweaks their algorithm, many website owners scramble to figure out new tricks to stay on top of the search results. But not Si Quan Ong and his colleagues at SEO firm Ahrefs.  They know whatever Google does, quality content will always be a key part of an effective SEO strategy. However, they don’t focus on posting every day or publishing timely content. Instead, they post blogs and ar...

Machine learning and A.I. is already in the world of media and online communication all around us. But it’s broken into marketing and advertising too, even if you don’t realize it.   Will A.I. ever replace a human’s expertise when buying ads? Bant Breen, founder of innovative reputation management firm Qnary, discusses this question. And it’s not cut-and-dry. One thing’s for sure. Just because it’...

Can artificial intelligence be creative… be original? Could AI come up with effective marketing? Those are the big questions that Bant Breen, founder of reputation management firm Qnary, studies. He says too many people in business – and marketing in particular – lack a true understanding of what AI is… and what it’s capable of. Not to mention the key ways it’s used in marketing already and the po...

Ray Carbonell and the team at Qnary have helped radically change the way we think of thought leadership and reputation management. Ray says thought leadership isn’t about a TED Talk that goes viral… and if you only worry about reputation management when something goes wrong – then you’ve missed a big opportunity. They show companies in a wide variety of industries how they can use thought leadersh...

Marketing automation is the only way to accelerate the growth of your business and get it to the next level, says Robin Alex, president of agency Innovate Fast. But simply installing automation software and systems to drive new leads isn’t enough, says Robin, and won’t have any impact unless you take an extra step. We talk about how to effectively integrate marketing automation into a business, ho...

Tech startup Phononic has semiconductor products that could well revolutionize the refrigeration and cooling industries. As Director of Integrated Marketing for the company, it’s Daniel Englebretson’s job to make sure the world takes notice. He’s found the best way to target ideal prospects – the right companies and the right decision-makers at those companies – is with an account-based marketing...

One of Heather Molina’s bosses early in her career had a big influence on how she leads her team today as VP of cross channel marketing at Red Door Interactive.  No, it wasn’t a valued mentor (although plenty of those too) but rather a bad manager. She says she thinks about how he handled situations… and does the opposite. In her role, she oversees teams doing everything from SEO to social media t...

Ben Shapiro is building a mini podcast empire, with the popular show, Martech, leading the way. The podcast is all about how industry leaders use marketing and technology to drive business growth. Not surprisingly, Ben has used some of those same techniques to garner 30,000 downloads each month. We talk about how he leverages podcast content in all sorts of ways to expand his reach, as well as… Ho...

With all the tools and software available, marketers have more data than ever about their prospects and customers. They’re drowning in it.  The trick is, says John Durham of Catalyst, is wading into that data, finding out what works, and turning it into action that gets real results. That means figuring why people buy – and who they are. Marketing 101, right? But John says not all clients get what...

Gerard Doyle, of Fractal, loves working with startups as he can influence the positioning of a client’s product or service… even the design.  He also says the most effective way to get the best clients is to go after a limited number of them. He explains how this strategy actually starts making clients come to you. It’s quite counterintuitive. We also discuss… Software tools that help you track le...

With AI, machine learning, and big data, companies have more information than ever on their customers. But, says Jason Harper, too many companies collect data for the sake of collecting data. They’re not analyzing it effectively, which means they can’t use it to guide business decisions. Jason, CEO of data science company RXA, shares how you can get clarity on how to determine what data is importa...

Akvile DeFazio took the leap from employee to self-employed with her digital marketing agency, Akvertise. The transition wasn’t always easy… but she wouldn’t trade the experience for anything because of what she learned about business, marketing, and herself. We talk about the strategies Akvile used to build her agency from the ground up… and continues to use for business development and client re...

Facebook ads are cheap. You can segment your audience to the nth degree. But all that doesn't matter if you don’t take one more step, says Bud Torcom, CEO and co-founder of digital marketing agency Mazama Media. Bud sees a lot of companies going about their social media marketing all wrong. The solution: a blend of tried-and-true marketing principles and taking advantage of the innovation availabl...

For most businesses, a main goal is turning website visitors into leads. Jay Rice, founder and CEO of Thinking Chat, says that’s a good starting point… but he’s refined that process using some very unique technology in order to engage visitors and increase conversions – while also screening out leads that aren’t a fit. Thinking Chat provides its clients with a “chatbot” – but unlike any you’ve see...