Wed, 31 December 2014
On this episode of Rhodes to Success, I interview Greg Hickman who is an entrepreneur, mobile marketing consultant, and creator of the Mobile Mixed podcast. If you want to know how to build your email list, increase webinar conversion, and drive sales with text messaging then this is an absolute must listen!
Main Questions Asked: - Why is SMS marketing so powerful for podcasters? - How does SMS marketing work, and how do you get people to opt in? - What is your take on high downloads versus people who listen to every episode? - What should lead magnets be? - What are examples that will get people to opt in? - Talk about your video training series and all the different ways you are putting out content. - What is your business relationships philosophy?
Key Lessons Learned: - If you are a podcaster and don’t blog, there is little reason for listeners to visit your site. - Connect with listeners where they are (on their mobile device). - Podcasts are great for authority, getting yourself on other shows, and creating relationships with people, but blog posts, such as tutorials, are what gets shared. - It is much more difficult to create a viral podcast episode, as sharing is not as easy as blog content.
Two Types of Shows: - 1) Passive listeners - E.g 20,000 passive listeners who are not going to show notes or opting in - 2) Active listeners – E.g 500 active listeners who download every episode and offer a high conversion rate
SMS Marketing: - 65% of podcasts are listened to on a smart phone. - If you can’t get people to your show notes, then the odds of getting someone on your email list is low. - Listening to a podcast is something people do while they are doing other things. - The odds of people listening to your podcast from in front of their computer are low. - You need a solid call to action and reason for listeners to participate, such as registering for a webinar, free content, or event registration. - Text message marketing software is available, such as Call Loop. - Only a few software platforms have two-way interaction that allows you to capture email addresses. - Example – Podcaster announces “text ‘lead pages’ to 38470.” The listener will receive a bounce back text “to confirm your registration, reply with your email address.” - Once you have the email address, the listener is on your list and you can add to platforms, such as Mailchimp or Infusionsoft. - By offering this text opt-in option, you are giving the people who want to take action the ability to join your email list no matter where they are listening. - Look at SMS marketing as a new opportunity to capture people that might be audio-only listeners by enabling text call to action.
Downloads Versus Loyal Listeners: - As a podcaster, you have to ask yourself “what is my goal?” - Is the goal to get a high number of downloads in order to gain sponsorship, or is the goal to use the podcast as a lead generation tool? - Most podcasters aren’t going to make a living from sponsorship so it is best to use the podcast as a lead generation tool. - Focus on repeat listeners and people who are going to join your list.
Lead Magnets & Content Upgrades: - Lead Magnets - webinars and free courses work well, and is something that provides the listener a lot of value. - Content upgrades – creating a unique piece of content that is pulled from each episode, e.g screenshots, checklist, or process flows. - Content upgrades are something you will want to download, and is heavily promoted. This helps increase your opt-in and conversion rate. - Most podcasters and bloggers constantly promote the same lead magnet; however, if someone isn’t interested, then they will never opt in. - By having unique lead magnets for every piece of content, you are giving yourself an opportunity for people to opt in.
Business Relationships: - As long as you put yourself out there, engage with people, and try to deliver value, then it will come back to you. - Often, you may not find people in your area who are also entrepreneurs, so you may want to create opportunities to find them. - Meeting face-to-face is important. Going to conferences and live events is a great way to engage. - Once you create relationships with people, you need to actively stay in touch and continue to deliver value.
Subscribe to the show in iTunes or Stitcher Radio!
The music in today's episode was written by The Danger Os and produced by Nick Palmer. Check them out at https://www.facebook.com/thedangerosmakemusic
Links to Resources Mentioned
Text ‘convert’ to 38470 to get started with Greg’s free video training |
Wed, 24 December 2014
On this episode of Rhodes to Success, I interview Steven Daar who is the founder of the Conversion For Good marketing agency that serves businesses and non-profit organizations with a mission. As an entrepreneur, Steven started his first business at age twenty-two before working in the corporate world of advertising and marketing for Fortune 500 businesses. He is also the author of Profit Hacking, so if you want to know how to double your business, then this is the podcast for you!
Main Questions Asked: - Talk about what kind of coaching and training you invested in, and why that was crucial for you to now have a successful business? - What do you mean by ‘investing in your network?’ - What are some of the things you have advised people to do differently? - What are common mistakes that are bringing people’s conversion rates down? - How does improving client retention lead to higher profits? - What are other ways business owners can double their profits? - What is the secret to getting more traffic to your website? - Why did you decide to write a book so early on in your business?
Key Lessons Learned: - You can invest in your network by following up with people and giving. - Make your call to action specific to what the audience is going to get, and a reinforcement of what you are giving them as opposed as to what they are giving you. - Nobody wants to ‘submit,’ but an option to ‘get the video that will change your business’ is far more compelling. - When anyone visits your website, they are subconsciously thinking ‘what’s in it for me? What can I do here? What is the value of this page/ website to me?’ - If the value or ‘what’s in it for me’ isn’t obvious within seconds, the odds of a person bouncing from your site are high. - Remember your website exists to serve the audience/customers and to be of value to them. - Your copy, design, layout, and images should be oriented around the benefit the audience is going to get so they know the value of them taking the next step in the process. - It is more profitable to keep a client than it is to find a new one.
There are three types of investments you won’t regret: 1. Investment in yourself (growing your skills and knowledge) 2. Investments in top performers (someone at the top of their craft), e.g designer, marketer, editing/ copywriting 3. Investment in your network
Three Ways to Double Your Business: 1. Increase your traffic 2. Convert that traffic into leads, subscribers, customers, or clients 3. Increase the lifetime customer value, average order value, or how often people buy - This is the power or ‘what else do we do?’ - If you are not offering a premium version of your product or service, then you are missing out. - There is a percentage in every market of customers who are premium buyers, where price is not their number one deciding factor. They may want prestige or ease, and are willing to pay for it. - One change or split test has the potential to increase profits by at least 20%. - Traffic is the lowest leverage way to double your business.
Secret to More Traffic: - It has everything to do with conversion and economics. - Every visitor has a cost, whether it be cost per click or cost per visitor. - You also have a figure such as earnings or revenue per visitor. - Revenue per visitor is the function of conversion times economics, e.g $100 per conversion/customer and you convert 5% of your customers, then you are making $5. - As long as your revenue per click is higher than your cost per click, you have a green light to buy as much traffic from that source as possible. - If you are earing $1.50 and you are paying $1.00, then you want to make that trade as many times as you can. - The higher your earnings per visitor are, the easier it will be to get traffic.
Subscribe to the show in iTunes or Stitcher Radio!
The music in today's episode was written by The Danger Os and produced by Nick Palmer. Check them out at https://www.facebook.com/thedangerosmakemusic
Links to Resources Mentioned GKIC (conference)
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Wed, 17 December 2014
On this episode of Rhodes to Success, I interview Gary George from Blazin Multi Media. Gary has worked with numerous high profile clients including Virgin Records, United Nations, Panasonic, Rockafella Records, and Jay Z. As a consultant, Gary has generated more than $48 million for his clients within the past 5 years by identifying and reversing limiting patterns in their marketing strategy. If you want to know more about apps, Facebook ads, LinkedIn, YouTube, SEO, and pay per click then this is a great podcast for you!
Main Questions Asked: - Talk to us about apps and why everyone should have an app for their business. - What kind of investment does it take to get an app built? - Why should we like LinkedIn and what kind of power is there on the platform? - What are your thoughts on LinkedIn groups with regards to owning versus being interactive in other groups? - How can you leverage the power of LinkedIn? Would you suggest outsourcing? - Should I pay for the advanced membership on LinkedIn or is it not worth my investment? - What should people be focusing on when they have a YouTube channel? - Should a podcaster who is not doing videos post on YouTube with a still image and podcast audio only? - Who are some of the biggest celebrities you’ve worked with? - What are some of the things you learned from musicians in their marketing?
Key Lessons Learned: - The bread and butter of online marketing is keyword research, e.g Google keyword planner. - You can reverse engineer based on CPC (cost per click) and know what to optimize in other places. - Consumers don’t care what format media comes in, they simply care that it’s convenient. - Brand is important, but you have to show results first and have the goods to back it up.
Apps: - If you don’t have a mobile application (app), now is the time to beat your competition. - Apps are untapped ways of exposure for brands. - A huge benefit of an app is that it sends push notifications. - Push notifications act like a text message and ring your phone. - 96% of people read their text messages within in the first 60 seconds of receipt. - People don’t have to open your app and can still receive push notifications. - The iTunes app store has become the third largest search engine (after Google and YouTube). - What would take you eight months to rank on Google would take you about 8 days in the app store.
LinkedIn: - If you sell to another business in any capacity, you should be on LinkedIn. - You will win at LinkedIn by doing organic marketing, and targeting people on specific criteria. - LinkedIn allows you to pinpoint and solicit people, such as C level executives. - LinkedIn has groups, which is a great weapon to become a thought leader. - If you are looking to target someone on LinkedIn, then you should join a group they are in and communicate. - If you have the capability, an established following, and a niche that isn’t over saturated, then it is a good idea to create your own group. - Creating your own group is a way to have the power to message group members all at once. - When you are looking at groups, don’t just focus on the number of members, but rather the date of recent activity and level of interaction. - Investing in a paid membership on LinkedIn is not worth it unless you are ready to go ‘heavy’ with prospecting.
YouTube: - YouTube is the second largest search engine in the world. - The #1 thing to focus on in YouTube is to rank your videos for specific search keywords. - YouTube users are more likely to type searches in first person, e.g “How do I make a podcast?” - Make sure to position yourself for people actively searching for a product or service. - Title your videos as above to match that behavior. - YouTube has its own keyword tool so you can see the best search terms. - People expose their intent to buy more frequently through YouTube searches. - You should be asking yourself “How can I title this better so more people find it?”
Subscribe to the show in iTunes or Stitcher Radio!
The music in today's episode was written by The Danger Os and produced by Nick Palmer. Check them out at https://www.facebook.com/thedangerosmakemusic
Links to Resources Mentioned
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Wed, 10 December 2014
On this episode of Rhodes to Success I interview Brad Szollose, the international bestselling author of Liquid Leadership. Brad is a serial entrepreneur, former C level executive of a public company, business advisor, and a millennial expert. If you have any interest in becoming a speaker then this episode is definitely for you!
Main Questions Asked - What has made you a millennial expert? - What are some of the steps entrepreneurs can take to becoming a keynote speaker? - Talk about how comedy, improv, and storytelling help you to be a better speaker? - Can you give us tips on how to start the actual presentation? - Talk more about switching from ‘I’ language to ‘you’ language
Key Lessons Learned - No one is going to know about your brand, who you are, and what you do unless you are going to stand up and be a ‘celebrity.’ - If you are going to increase the amount of money you can make or attract people to your product or service, you have to learn to stand up on stage and deliver the goods. - If you are an interesting and a dynamic presenter then people will flock to you because they like what you are doing. - In the 21st century people have to know, like, and trust you before they buy from you (speaking gets you there faster.) - Toastmasters is great if you want to become good at giving the perfect speech. - Be careful not to be trapped in the mode of being a ‘lecturer.’ - As a keynote speaker, your job is to give the audience three memorable experiences that they can take home and use as a tool or strategy to solve a problem. - Start out with the stories you want to tell. What is the point you want to make? - When you start a keynote speech don’t begin with “I am x and today we are taking about x.” The trick is to get straight into a story. - The beginning point of your keynote speech should be the same as the end point but worded a little differently. - If you are overwhelmed by having to prepare for a long speaking engagement then just start with 10 minutes at time. The structure should be a point, a story, and an end point. - Switch from ‘I’ language to ‘you’ language then everyone can place your story in their imagination. - ‘I’ language is simply you are telling a story, however, ‘you’ language engages the listener.
Subscribe to the show in iTunes or Stitcher Radio!
The music in today's episode was written by The Danger Os and produced by Nick Palmer. Check them out at https://www.facebook.com/thedangerosmakemusic
Links to Resources Mentioned Liquid Leadership (website) Liquid Leadership (book)
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Wed, 3 December 2014
On this episode of Rhodes to Success, I share the recording of a live interview I did in St. Louis with James Malinchak of Big Money Speaker. James is a business coach who runs live events twice a year and trains people on how to have a successful speaking career. In this episode, you’ll find out how James’ appearance on the ABC hit TV show Secret Millionaire came about through a relationship.
Main Questions Asked: - Talk about the importance of building and maintaining relationships. - Do you see any mistakes made by attendees at your live events?
Key Lessons Learned: - Content marketing is about getting content made. - If you wait for everything, you create to be perfect you won’t be creating much content. - Content marketing is about being consistent, persistent and getting content out. - Everyone likes to consume their content differently, so think about how you can repurpose your content. - Networking means you are trying to make connections, but it’s not about connections, it’s about relationships. - Instead of thinking what you can ‘take,’ think ‘what can I do for this person?’ - Sending a thank you note and showing gratitude is still being a ‘giver’. - Building relationships is all about positioning and how people think of you, as well as how people talk about you. - Its not about ‘who’ you say you know, but rather about who knows you, how they think about you, and how they talk to others about you. - Being a ‘server’ or ‘giver’ positions you totally different to everybody else who approaches people as a ‘taker’. - Some of the worst advice you can get is to go to an event and take hundreds of business cards. - Nobody cares unless you show you care about them first. - “When you meet someone new, they don’t want to talk about you.” - One of the human secondary needs is the need to talk about yourself. - Start living in other people’s worlds and talk about them.
- Always approach people with the following in mind: 1) ‘what interests this person?’ 2) What’s important to this person? 3) What inspires me about him/her?
Links to Resources Mentioned |
Monetize the Mic
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