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Who do you follow for marketing advice?

Kung Fu Steve

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Who do you follow for marketing advice these days?
 
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BizyDad

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Ask friends in my industry.
 

Andy Black

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Who do you follow for marketing advice these days?
Laurel Portie, Dan Wardrope, and Rachel Miller. Not religiously. I like their content and how they create it.
 

Kung Fu Steve

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Hmmm I guess I need to be more specific somehow.

"When it comes to marketing and advertising your business specifically... Whose advice do you take regularly?"

The data, sure. But who taught you to read that data? Google? YouTube?

Which friends in your industry? Where did they pick up their tricks? Experience? Or did they learn it from somewhere?
 

Kevin88660

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Who do you follow for marketing advice these days?
Observe how existing successful business do it and draw inspiration from it.

Most are running some sort of loss leader strategy.

Offer something for free or at very low cost, be it product, service or just content education, then find ways to upsell higher ticket item.
 
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Or did they learn it from somewhere?
Trial and error.

The ones I trust do this. Only reason I go to friends for advice is when I'm not sure of what the data I see is telling me, so I go to them and look for correlation or corroboration and draw better inferences. Or if I need advice in an arena I don't have competency in, but there's so much schlock online about any marketing field that I just surround myself with a small handful of people I trust to be at least approaching subject matter expertise and I'll ask them to shoot it to me quick and straight.

But back when I was still hungry for marketing knowledge, I read blogs like conversionxl, psyblog, SEO by the Sea. The last two I'm sure are still solid sources of info, psyblog isn't just marketing - marketing is a small piece of their articles, and I don't know if CXL is or isn't any good these days.

Maybe you just need some newer marketers to respond...
 

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Hmmm I guess I need to be more specific somehow.

"Which friends in your industry? Where did they pick up their tricks? Experience? Or did they learn it from somewhere?
I have to give a lot of credit to @Andy Black. I scaled my business from 0-$13,000/month from his Google Ads course alone.

It taught me how to get infront of the people already looking for me.

His posts here on the forum and his course taught me from knowing just the basics on Google Ads and spreadsheets to now having 50 campaigns targeting different locations by zip codes so that the headlines can be hyper targeted and having complicated spreadsheets to track everything and create the campaigns.

Every business's needs are obviously different but he taught me the skills to be able to learn by trial and error.

Now i know how to analyze my data to make informed decisions.

Not sure if I ever said it formally but thank you @Andy Black . Your courses and posts have been a life changer for me.
 

BizyDad

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I have to give a lot of credit to @Andy Black. I scaled my business from 0-$13,000/month from his Google Ads course alone.

It taught me how to get infront of the people already looking for me.

His posts here on the forum and his course taught me from knowing just the basics on Google Ads and spreadsheets to now having 50 campaigns targeting different locations by zip codes so that the headlines can be hyper targeted and having complicated spreadsheets to track everything and create the campaigns.

Every business's needs are obviously different but he taught me the skills to be able to learn by trial and error.

Now i know how to analyze my data to make informed decisions.

Not sure if I ever said it formally but thank you @Andy Black . Your courses and posts have been a life changer for me.
If Andy is still selling his course, you should copy this onto that thread. That's great to hear.

And kudos to you for growing to $13k. Andy didn't do that for you and a lot of people take courses and don't act or give up. Keep going Empires.
 
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Andy Black

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I have to give a lot of credit to @Andy Black. I scaled my business from 0-$13,000/month from his Google Ads course alone.

It taught me how to get infront of the people already looking for me.

His posts here on the forum and his course taught me from knowing just the basics on Google Ads and spreadsheets to now having 50 campaigns targeting different locations by zip codes so that the headlines can be hyper targeted and having complicated spreadsheets to track everything and create the campaigns.

Every business's needs are obviously different but he taught me the skills to be able to learn by trial and error.

Now i know how to analyze my data to make informed decisions.

Not sure if I ever said it formally but thank you @Andy Black . Your courses and posts have been a life changer for me.
Wow. I didn’t know that. Thanks for the feedback.

I agree with @BizyDad … my course was just the Jumpstart to get you going. I threw the ball out there, but you caught it and ran with it.


he taught me the skills to be able to learn by trial and error.
This is music to my ears. The goal of the course was to help people figure it out themselves.

The latest incarnation of the course is linked to in my signature. I’d love it if you could drop a note into there so I can find it again. One day I’ll get all the testimonials and put them onto a sales page.
 

Andy Black

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"When it comes to marketing and advertising your business specifically... Whose advice do you take regularly?"
I’m like @BizyDad. I don’t really read or follow folks much now.

I figured out years ago a few things that work for me. I’m constantly figuring out new things (which I document in here), and much prefer to do it myself.
 

Kung Fu Steve

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Now we're getting somewhere. Thanks for the meaningful responses!

If we were having an in-person conversation I'd pepper you all looking for other examples "who do you follow for motivation, who do you follow for entertainment, who do you follow for fitness advice"

So far it's pretty inconclusive but there doesn't seem to be a standout name. I was expecting someone to say Gary V (but he really doesn't teach marketing besides "post more"), I'm happy to see Dan Kennedy's name. I'm a fan, too.

I'm curious where the beginners go and where the advanced folks go... And if the advanced folks have stopped looking and learning... I'm curious if that's effecting business growth? (Honest question, not a judgement)
 
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DNA

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I'd recommend and do follow James Wedmore (sales, video marketing, copywriting), Frank Kern (direct internet marketing), Rory Vaden (branding), Neil Patel (all internet marketing) and Joe Pulizzi (content marketing), just to name a few.
 

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I've learned that instead of following marketing "experts" it's best to learn from those who do. In my case, I simply try to analyze what the top authors in my genre are doing or if they have their own resources for authors, listen to that. I'm wary of self-publishing "gurus" who aren't recognized authors or whose book rankings indicate low sales.

In business in general, I'd say the same is probably true. If you want to build, say, a successful newsletter, find a similar newsletter in your niche and copy what they did in the beginning (or if possible, pay the owner to coach you).
 

Andy Black

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And if the advanced folks have stopped looking and learning... I'm curious if that's effecting business growth?
I’ve stopped actively “learning marketing”. It’s not lack of marketing knowledge that’s holding me back. I believe I know more than enough.

What would move the needle more for me is the implementation of even a fraction of my knowledge, figuring out a business model that suits me and my goals, the creation of repeatable processes and systems, etc.

When I started out I followed Perry Marshall and Dr Glenn Livingston.

Later I followed Gary V for a bit till it ended up being repetitive (because he is repetitive - which is smart on his part btw).

I prefer marketing and business podcasts to books. I find the books fluff out a simple concept that could have been explained in a 30 minute podcast.
 
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Andy Black

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In business in general, I'd say the same is probably true. If you want to build, say, a successful newsletter, find a similar newsletter in your niche and copy what they did in the beginning (or if possible, pay the owner to coach you).
^^^ This.

I follow and subscribe to Laurel Portié’s membership at www.adcoachingfor7.com because:

1) Her business model is already similar to mine, but she’s further along the path I’d like to travel.

2) So I can watch how she does things in her membership. (I learn way more watching what she does than consuming her content.)

3) Because her content is good (if too lengthy in her membership compared to her free content on her podcast / YouTube channel).

I ranked the above in order of importance to me.

First and foremost is that I like her values, business model, ethics, and goals.

Another reason I stopped following Gary V is that he’s building a business I have no desire to run.

I prefer to follow people slightly further along the path I’d like to travel, and who move in the manner and speed I’d like to travel.
 

Kung Fu Steve

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Another reason I stopped following Gary V is that he’s building a business I have no desire to run.

I prefer to follow people slightly further along the path I’d like to travel, and who move in the manner and speed I’d like to travel.

I think this is where most advanced folks are. They get honest about what they want and don't want and narrow down.

I'd never heard of Laurel though. I'm excited to pick up these names!
 

Andy Black

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Watch Laurel on her YouTube channel. The production is raw, but she’s very good in front of camera, and it’s instantly obvious she knows her stuff. I’m turned off when the production is “too good”, and I want to follow people who are in the trenches.

Happy to hop on a Zoom if you want to pick my brains on who I do and don’t follow and why. Maybe I’ve blind-spots, hangups, excuses, etc that you see in other people at my stage and it can help with your marketing (I don’t know if I’m your market or not).

Plus we’ve never chatted and good things happen when things go to Zoom. (I can also elaborate on why I keep an eye on Laurel first and foremost.)
 
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Kung Fu Steve

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Watch Laurel on her YouTube channel. The production is raw, but she’s very good in front of camera, and it’s instantly obvious she knows her stuff. I’m turned off when the production is “too good”, and I want to follow people who are in the trenches.

Happy to hop on a Zoom if you want to pick my brains on who I do and don’t follow and why. Maybe I’ve blind-spots, hangups, excuses, etc that you see in other people at my stage and it can help with your marketing (I don’t know if I’m your market or not).

Plus we’ve never chatted and good things happen when things go to Zoom. (I can also elaborate on why I keep an eye on Laurel first and foremost.)
I'll take you up on that
 

Kung Fu Steve

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I used to read a ton of copywriting & marketing books. Stopped when they all started sounding the same.

Nowadays I'm subscribed to all kinds of newsletters. Mostly for inspiration.

Similar experience. I love old school copy books from the 1920s and 30s. They really cut through the fluff.

Which newsletters do you read?
 

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But I'm not someone who has implemented any real marketing tactics yet, and it clearly shows at times. -__-
 

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Similar experience. I love old school copy books from the 1920s and 30s. They really cut through the fluff.

Which newsletters do you read?
More than I can remember. They all go to the promo section in Gmail anyway so I don't mind the extra emails.

Went through my inbox and these are the names I found (mostly email copywriters):

Email marketers/copywriters
- Chris Orzechowski
- Robert Allen
- Ben Settle
- Daniel Throssell
- John McIntyre
- Alex Garcia (Marketing Examined)

SEO/Content/General Business
-
@lludwig's list
- A couple of newsletters I found via this site Learning SEO: A Roadmap to Learn SEO with Free Guides & Tools (in the "keep updated" tab).

Before signing up for them I'd recommend investing in some books that teach big-picture marketing concepts.
Newsletters and YouTube videos can't do that.

For books (not that anyone asked ha):
- Hopkins's Scientific Advertising
- Cialdini's Influence
- Schwartz's Breakthrough Advertising
- Sugarman's Adweek Copywriting Handbook
- 1 academic marketing book, think Kotler's Marketing Management is still popular.

These books are obviously more copy-related. It's been my experience that general marketing books are too wordy, vague, and abstract. That's why I only added one of them. Should be enough.

And before I forget...
If anyone on this forum has a newsletter I'd love to sign up!
 
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David Fitz

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^^^ This.

I follow and subscribe to Laurel Portié’s membership at www.adcoachingfor7.com because:

1) Her business model is already similar to mine, but she’s further along the path I’d like to travel.

2) So I can watch how she does things in her membership. (I learn way more watching what she does than consuming her content.)

3) Because her content is good (if too lengthy in her membership compared to her free content on her podcast / YouTube channel).

I ranked the above in order of importance to me.

First and foremost is that I like her values, business model, ethics, and goals.

Another reason I stopped following Gary V is that he’s building a business I have no desire to run.

I prefer to follow people slightly further along the path I’d like to travel, and who move in the manner and speed I’d like to travel.

I see her ads all the time.
 

Andy Black

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