Thursday 31 March 2022

The Simple Guide To Podcasting

The Simple Guide To Podcasting written by John Jantsch read more at Duct Tape Marketing

Marketing Podcast with Alex Sanfilippo

In this episode of the Duct Tape Marketing Podcast, I interview Alex Sanfilippo. Alex is the host of the top-rated podcast called Podcasting Made Simple. He is also the founder of PodPros.com, a software company focused specifically on the podcasting industry. Alex and his team have created popular services like PodMatch, a service that matches podcast guests and hosts together for interviews, and PodcastSOP, a project management tool that helps podcasters keep up with their episode releases.

Key Takeaway:

One of the burning questions that are often asked when it comes to podcasting is — is it too late to start a podcast? The short answer is, no. It’s not too late. In this episode, I interview top-rated podcast host, Alex Sanfilippo, and we’re sharing the simple guide to podcasting today. We dive into the strategies that work, what the future of podcasting looks like, and all things pre and post-show production.

Questions I ask Alex Sanfilippo:

  • [2:10] Could you dive into your journey – why did you choose to focus on podcasting tools?
  • [5:02] If someone is thinking about starting a podcast today, should they?
  • [6:51] What are some out-of-the-box podcast formats that you’re seeing people do today?
    [10:53] Do you feel that it’s a mistake to not have a pattern or strategy when it comes to the length of your podcast or the style of your show?
  • [12:15] Where do you send people to figure out the tech they should be using?
  • [17:28] Could you talk a little bit about your post-production process?
  • [19:58] Let’s flip to the other side of the mic, what are your thoughts on being a podcast guest?
  • [22:06] Where do you see podcasting going?

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John Jantsch (00:00): This episode of the duct tape marketing podcast is brought to you by the Gain Grow, Retain podcast, hosted by Jeff Brunsbach and Jay Nathan brought to you by the HubSpot podcast network gain grow retain is built to inspire SaaS and technology leaders who are facing day to day. Challenges of scaling Jeff and Jay share conversations about growing and scaling subscription businesses with a customer first approach, check out all the episodes. Recently, they did one on onboarding, such a key thing when you wanna get going, keep and retain those clients. So listen to Gain, Grow, Retain wherever you get your podcast.

John Jantsch (00:48): And welcome to another episode of the duct tape marketing podcast. This is John Jan and my guest today is Alex San Filippo. He is the host of the top rated podcast called podcasting made simple. He's also the found of podcasts.com a software company focus specifically on the podcast industry, Alex and his team have created popular services like pod match, a service that matches podcast guests and hosts together for interviews and podcast. So P a project management tool that helps podcasters keep up with their episode releases. So guess what we're gonna to talk about today,

Alex Sanfilippo (01:22): Alex? I'm guessing it's gonna be podcasting, but I just have a hunch.

John Jantsch (01:25): We're gonna talk to podcasters. Yeah. Welcome to the

Alex Sanfilippo (01:28): Show me, you know, I'm gonna tell a quick little story here. I'm gonna, I'm gonna hand it over to you cuz it is your show. But when I was getting ready to start podcasting, I looked up podcast episodes about podcasting and I actually found your show. It was an episode that you did with John Lee Dumas and it was titled everything you need to know about podcasting. It was actually May 1st, 2019 still holds up today. I went back and re-listened to it, but he talked about getting your hands, dirty, learning everything in podcasting, and you completely agreed with that. And that really shaped me as a podcaster early on. So I'm kinda a product of what you've done on this show. So thank you again for having me. This is like the biggest honor ever to be here, so thanks.

John Jantsch (02:02): Oh wow. Well, I, I always love to hear that a few words that I, uh, bale, you know, sometimes help people. So that's awesome. So, so let's hear a little bit about your journey. I mean, why focused on podcasting and podcast tools?

Alex Sanfilippo (02:15): Yeah. So before this, I have a long background in the aerospace industry and before somebody's listening thinks I was somebody cool. I wasn't an astronaut. I wasn't a fighter pilot it and I wasn't even a real engineer. I just worked behind a computer and, and basically ran operations for an organization. And I was working all way to a senior position and that company thoroughly enjoyed it. One thing about the aerospace industry and I'm not dogging the company I was with because they were a really nice group of people, but it's a very competitive space. And after I think that year 12, I was like, you know what? I think I want some sort of change. And I think I wanna try being an entrepreneur cuz as a kid, I had a few interactions as an entrepreneur and I was like, I think I wanna go back to that.

Alex Sanfilippo (02:53): I really like that feeling. And so for me, John, not knowing what I was doing as an entrepreneur, I was like, I'm gonna start a podcast and talk to people who have successfully left a nine to five job and moved into some sort of entrepreneurship role. I'm like, I'm gonna, I'm gonna start doing that. And something I realized right when I got into podcasting, I mean, I just referenced your episode. Like that was free. I didn't pay to listen to that. It's such an abundant mindset area. Like, I mean this part of the world, I can't even call it. Like even like I sort of marketing, like it's just like the channel of podcasting for like lack of better term is just a great group of people. And I just saw this abundant mindset in the industry and I was like, you know what, I'm gonna go all in on this. Like I love this. So I stepped into podcasting, did a good job growing my show at that time. And the first chance, like I got to develop software for the industry, I jumped all in on that.

John Jantsch (03:41): So, you know, you mentioned something as I listen to you talk about it. I think one of the best ways, best motivations for getting into podcasting is something you just mentioned. I, you know, it's, it almost started as a research project for you right? Talking to people. Same for me. I started my first couple episodes were with authors who were way more established than me, but I, I knew I could give them something a little bit of an audience and, but I really wanted to talk to them. You know, it wasn't about like who's listening or can I attract advertisers? It just became a vehicle. And I think that's a really pure reason to start is,

Alex Sanfilippo (04:11): You know, I really think it is because here's the one reason for that. And it's the same for you. I'm willing to bet. You're curious. So you ask really good questions. Even if you don't have experience as an interviewer, you still ask good questions cuz you actually want to know the answer versus just what's the next question I can ask this guy, right? Or this lady like how do I continue the conversation? No, it's, you're truly curious. And that makes for a great episode for somebody to listen to.

John Jantsch (04:34): I can't tell you how many free coaching sessions I have acquired over the years from doing this. I've definitely had people on the show. I'm like, they really, really know how to do that. I wanna know how to do that. And Hey, maybe somebody will get some benefits,

Alex Sanfilippo (04:46): John guys like you or I ever get the bill from all these coaches we've had on we're in some serious trouble.

John Jantsch (04:53): So, so, you know, here's the burning question. We'll get this out of the way. I, you know, there are billions of podcasts now. I don't know what the real number is, but I'm just gonna go with billions. Should I start a podcast?

Alex Sanfilippo (05:04): Yeah, I think so. And you know, you had a great episode with Dan Franks, uh, on February 23rd, uh, 2022 that covered this question really well. Like is it too late to start a podcast? I say, no, it's not. As long as you don't go general. So I'm gonna add that to it. If you say I want to be the next and I hate that everyone gives this example, I'm gonna do it. You already know what name I'm gonna say, but if you wanna be the next Joe Rogan, it's just not going to work. And I don't say it to be negative or mean to anybody, but you've gotta have a very narrow, specific focus and not even go after all of the listeners, I'm doing air quotes there, but you know, all the listeners, the idea is to really hone in on what you're looking for. And if that's the case, I say starting a podcast is a great move for just about anybody or any company.

John Jantsch (05:44): Well, yeah, and I think one of the ways to really narrow it is, you know, I tell business owners all the time. I mean, who's your target market start interviewing them. Yeah. That'll be a great show because it'll be great content for you. And who knows. You might actually stumble across somebody who could become a client. So it doesn't have to be, as you said, you don't have to say, I'm gonna take on the world of marketing. You know, even, I mean it, it can be really in your

Alex Sanfilippo (06:06): Backyard, you know, something else really interesting that you just mentioned there, I've never had this happen, but I used to hire a lot of people like in aerospace, like one of my primary things was hiring people for, it was a massive organization and I never once had this happen. But if somebody said, oh, I learned how to do marketing. Let's just use that as an example, because I started a podcast and interview people about it. You can check it out here. I would've hired that person on the spot. Even if the podcast never had a listener, because that means they were really devoted to learning the craft in a way that I'd never seen anyone else do it. So something as simple as that, like think about like creatively, what a podcast could be for you. That's one example that I just thought of off the top of my head. Like there's many other applications I could have used there as well.

John Jantsch (06:44): So many people are familiar with this format that you and I are doing, cuz obviously they're listeners and I've been interviewing people for years. What, what are some kind of out of the box formats that you're seeing people do or even applications? I, I ran me the other day. They said that they've got, you know, a hundred employees and they're distributed now and this just, they do a podcast that is purely an internal vehicle communication vehicle. So what are some things?

Alex Sanfilippo (07:09): Yeah, that one is really smart. I think we're gonna see more and more of that. Even with small companies, cuz it just keeps the culture. Right? Everyone's hearing it every day. That's a smart one, one that's like, I've not seen a lot of John, but I really wanna start saying more of is more of the, the story type podcast. Like right now you see like the big ones, like wander is a big network that does this. Yeah. They have like business awards as one of I really enjoy or NPR and it's more like a story it's got sound effects in it. I would love to see somebody do something more like that, but not such, such a big network, right? With just a few employees, maybe doing something like that. I think there's a lot of room for growth there because the engagement is really solid on those.

Alex Sanfilippo (07:44): But that's one type of podcast I'd actually love to hear more of now. I'm not ever gonna undersell the power of interview. Like this is the, in my mind, the most powerful form of podcasting. But the other thing is solo casting. And John, you probably know this about it. It can be hard to listen to. If they're long episodes, they've got to be short, they've gotta have one single topic and the person has to have the right cadence. I've done a few solo episodes, but if I can be fully, fully transparent here, I think I talk too fast. So I think some people are like, oh my gosh, it's so much information. But if you get somebody that has the right cadence with their voice and they can keep it really precise and really short, I think that there's a lot of room in the solo world too.

John Jantsch (08:22): You know, it's funny. And of course this is gonna sound like I'm patting myself on the back, but I, I do. I don't know how often once a month maybe a solo show and I get more feedback from those from people because I Doty, typically take a topic and just teach on it. And so I do think sometimes the, the listener who's out, it's like, oh, that's, you know, a different thing. They get, they feel like they take something away. Sometimes these interviews, you get great actionable things. Sometimes you just hear people kind of, you know, talking to each other.

Alex Sanfilippo (08:50): No, I I'd love to ask you a question on that because you've got a bit of a hybrid nut model. Now you've been interviewing since 2005 on this show, but then at some point you introduce the, the solo episodes. Do you find, like, you're saying you get more feedback on 'em. Do you find that the audience also learns from those? Like, is it a good model to have like the, the hybrid? Is that something you're gonna stick with?

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John Jantsch (10:05): I think I'm gonna stick with it because it, because of the feedback, you know, if I wasn't getting positive affirmation, I'd probably say, oh, you know, I'm shedding listeners, you know, by doing those. But, but I don't think exact that's the case. In fact though, they get downloaded more too. So I think that, I think that it's, you know, I don't know if it's an interruption to the people that are used to, you know, the normal thing. But I do think partly because of my style is I, I, I treat them almost like works many workshops. So, you know, I do give a lot of actionable things and you know, so hopefully people do, but whether, you know, that's something I want to dive into. I is some of the, you know, the run of show, you know, kind of stuff. Um, I, I always think, find it funny when I look at somebody, you know, you go on iTune and you listen the length of all their shows and like one show's five minutes, one's 92 minutes. And I, I wonder if, you know, we get comfortable listening, like what to expect from a show. Do you feel like that's a mistake to be kind of all over the place? You know, one time I'm gonna talk about this one time, I'm gonna go a lot longer. One time it's gonna be me.

Alex Sanfilippo (11:06): You know, I think that podcast episodes should be as long as they're good for, for lack of better term. Sure. Like as long as it's good, it should be, it, it should continue to be an episode, but it's better to have some sort of rhythm. I imagine if you're watching a TV show, like let's just compare it to that because a lot of people do that. If it's Tuesday, like let's go back when you couldn't watch them in whenever you wanted. Right. But if it was Thursday at five 30, I remember it was like even a kid watching shows at that time. And my mom knew it was over at six. So I was guaranteed to sit down for dinner. I could start at five 30. She was fine with it. If that episode or that show was 40 minutes, sometimes 50, sometimes 10 sometimes.

Alex Sanfilippo (11:40): Yeah. She would say, no, you're not watching that show because I don't know when it's gonna be over. And I think subconsciously many of us are still wired that way. So I think sure you can see the amount of time that it's going to be. But I think that people are used to, okay, my commute, I get to listen to John. It's always up the same amount of time or it's gonna last just as long as my workout. I'm happy with that. But if people start having to feel like, oh, it's over already or, oh man, this episode's really long. I'm have to listen to it over three workouts. I think that's a little bit of a problem. The consistency in the amount of time of a podcast I've seen with my numbers has always helped it. Now, granted, there's always an exception I had in episode one, I think was 50 minutes or like 49 minutes in change. And all the rest are about 30, 35 minutes. That episode did well, but it was really good the entire time people stayed engaged with it. Yeah,

John Jantsch (12:23): Yeah. Yeah. I think to your first point, you know, it's like people would say, how long should a video be? You know? Well, as long as you can be entertained right on a video and not, and most people can't be entertaining very long. So I, you know, that's always been my belief that people have listening behaviors and you know, they walk the dog or they run on the treadmill or something and, and that's when they want to consume. And so you kind of established that habit. So it's a little bit risky to break it up. I think a lot of people, I get a lot of questions for, you know, tech, the tech side of, of podcasting, where do wait, you know, there's great blog posts. There's great. You know, John Lee Dumas, I think you mentioned maybe at the, of the show. I can't remember if we were recording it, but we mentioned John show

Alex Sanfilippo (13:06): We're recording.

John Jantsch (13:06): Okay. And he, he really got his start in that pod, you know, podcast paradise or paradise podcast thing. So he was really heavily into teaching people that he's got some rate info there. Where do you send people to, to kind of figure out the tech they need?

Alex Sanfilippo (13:18): So I use buzz sprout as my hosting provider, which most people that are familiar with podcasting these days, you have to have a hosting provider. Buzz sprout has a really good tutorial on how to start a podcast and they have all these subcategories. They've done a really good job, just building like the ultimate guide to launching a show and then understanding the, my problem, John. And you had an even bigger problem when you got started cuz of how long ago it was, there was no education out there when you started for me, it was figuring out what kind of mic I needed. Like there's so many options out there. And I finally ended with one that, that has, I forget the name. I'm not the technical guy at all, but basically if I step two feet away from this mic, you can't hear it. And when I started my podcast, I was in a condo.

Alex Sanfilippo (13:54): And so you have shared one. And at first I started with like a Yeti mic, which was a great mic. But if my neighbors were walking, you could hear it. If someone flushes the toilet, you can hear it. Right. Like I need, I didn't have a true studio. So I need a mic that if you're two feet away, you can't hear it. Learning those things was a really tough thing for me. But now yeah, I think buzz, Sprout's doing a good job with it. There's a ton of YouTube channels now basically I'd look it up topically, but I do think still the number one piece of advice I give to people is to find somebody who's experienced that you like their style that you've learned from. Yeah. And find a way to connect with that individual. Even if you pay them for a little bit of coaching time, I'm telling you can save thousands of dollars just by meeting with that person, getting their advice.

John Jantsch (14:33): Yeah. It's funny. Um, you mentioned that, you know, back in the day kind of talk, it was actually not only hard to do a show, it was hard to get people to listen to a show. I mean, they, we didn't have, you know, the apps on, you know, you

Alex Sanfilippo (14:45): Couldn't even listen that wasn't an option, right?

John Jantsch (14:48): Yeah. It was, we had pod catchers. You had to subscribe to a specific tool that you would, you know, log into then and you would, it you'd tell it what show you used. RSS feeds. You would tell it what show. And then you could listen to that show. But I mean, teaching people how to actually listen to your show was as much a battle as getting it recorded. So pretty, we, you know, this technology, you and I were recording on Riverside today. You know, we're both using, I don't know, $600 microphones that make us sound good. Uh, we're recording 'em locally. You know, this show gets uploaded. Um, so that even if you and I have a bad connection, it, it still comes up, you know, crystal clear. So I mean the, you know, and, but I do think that I do think the expectations have been raised. Right. You know, when I first started it, people listen to a crappy show because what option did they have? But now, you know, you've got NPR in, in the game and you've got, you know, these professional studios in the game. So I think, uh, the, it is worth spending maybe twice what you thought you were gonna have to spend for some of the equipment. I think because people expect,

Alex Sanfilippo (15:47): Yeah. I, I completely agree with that. Talking about like the change of tools, like back in the day for casting, I mean, back in the day definitely meant 2005, but also meant 2018. When I started like just a few years in the past at this point, like the, the technology and the rate of change in podcasting is huge. And going back to what we were just talking about, I do recommend making a small upfront investment because you might for, this is my forever mic. I'll be real. There's better microphones out there, but I don't, I'm never gonna need another microphone. I'm never gonna need another video camera. Like I've got all the tools that I need and it's streamlined it so much. You kinda have to compare what's it worth my time or my money. I will always rather spend money than give up my time. And thankfully that podcastings hit this point. Now the tools are just getting better and better that you just have to make that consideration for yourself, which would I rather do? And one little hint for somebody who's listening. Like, oh, I don't know if I wanna spend $500 on a mic right now in today's world. You can almost sell a mic with, with, for what you bought it for. So you should be okay. Worst case scenario used something like Facebook marketplace and someone will pick it up tomorrow. So you'll be okay. Yeah.

John Jantsch (16:44): Yeah. Certain mics certainly hold their value. The, the part that probably a not of people don't realize, they think, oh, you and I are talking, we recorded this. We've got a podcast. Right. But a lot depend upon how much editing you wanna do, how much stuff you wanna put into it. There can be a lot of post-production that, that goes into actually getting it to a point where somebody can listen to it on, on iTunes. The good news is we were talking about tools out there. They're now complete services out there that will do that part of it for you. Which, and, and then I know at, uh, podcast pros you have, or podcast pros, I'm sorry. You have a, you actually even have some SOPs or a service where somebody can actually get kind of the here's, you know, here's some tools that streamline that. Talk a little bit about your postproduction

Alex Sanfilippo (17:30): Process. Yeah. So for the longest time, going back to that, that first episode of your show, I heard of about with JD talking about getting your hands dirty and learning it all. I learned it all. It was a mess, but when you do that, and you've said this as well, like you're able to, when you know it, you can, you're able to actually sub it out. Like, you know what you're doing and you can save a lot of money by knowing these things up front. You don't need to become the best in the world, but if you understand them, it's easier to sub out. So I'm thankful to say, just after the second year of my podcast, I don't touch any of that anymore. I don't edit, I don't even have the software on my computer anymore. None of it. And I'm thankful for that, but it all came from starting from a place of building an SOP, which stands for standard operating procedure.

Alex Sanfilippo (18:04): So basically knowing and documenting every step, you make a on the way. I mean, and I'm a little OCD with this stuff. So I even said like set up my mic, like, and after that, make sure that it sounds good, like every single step, but when I started going through and doing that, I went from being really stressed out and feeling like frantically like, oh no, did I forget anything that I missed something? Like, what am I doing here to being very organized of? Okay. Check done with that check done with that, having that available tells you what you can sub out pretty easily. And the way that I always start with that is I, I put how much time things would take me. So I started an Excel spreadsheet is what I did. And I'd organized it by the amount of time it was taking me to do stuff. And obviously the most time consuming part was editing. So my mind, the first thing I needed to sub out was editing. Cuz now I'm saving four hours a week by doing that. I was doing it one episode a week at that point with my show. But yeah, having all that organized and in one place is so helpful cuz it tells you, this is exactly what I need to do to make it to the next level.

John Jantsch (19:01): Yeah. And you, you know, obviously what you just explained is something that is a principle we need to bring to our businesses in general, every aspect of our business. And, and especially, I love the idea of how much time is it taking, cuz basically what you're saying is how much money am I losing or how much money am I investing when I could be out, you know, networking or doing whatever probably makes me a lot more money. So it's a great way to look at it. Let's, let's flip the, to the other side of the mic and that is being a guest on podcast. I'm, you know, I'm a huge fan of being guests on podcasts. I think today it, you know, it, it replaces guest blog posting in my mind because you know, those guest blog posts just get buried somewhere. Whereas, you know, I, I can just tell you, Alex, I'm gonna promote the crap out of this show. Right. Because I want people to listen to it. Right. And I'm gonna link to some, some resources that you tell me. So, you know, I think being a guest on a podcast is today. One of today's best its audience it's exposure, but it's also backlinks too. So tell me how you view, because I know you have a little experience in matching people. So tell me how you view, you know, you know, not everybody needs to start a podcast. I think you can get a lot of benefit outta podcasting, but

Alex Sanfilippo (20:09): You know, I'm glad you brought that up. Cause earlier we talk about starting a podcast being really important. It, it's not for everybody like you may, if someone was thinking about, and they're listening to somebody be like, you know what, I don't wanna do this, but then at least if you have a product service, something you're trying to get out there, you're a speaker, whatever. It might be a marketer of some sort, right. Uh, get on podcast is a guess. I think it's a huge opportunity. The back links alone, as you know, John art. Um, amazing. I mean, when you have a link coming from apple to you or from Spotify or Amazon coming to your website, that looks good and we're not gonna get into SEO obviously. But I think it's a great way to grow your craft. As a matter of fact, I've been telling people recently, John don't start a podcast until you've been on some, make sure you like the medium.

Alex Sanfilippo (20:49): Yeah. Make sure that you think you can actually add value. Make sure people like to listen to you, like make sure that it works out for you. Cause that's a good way to test the water. But I think that being a guest on a podcast is so important, but here's what matters. It's not one size fits all. And I'm not saying that some podcasts are better than others, but I'm saying that some podcast are better for you than for others. Here's the thing if you like golf, but you're trying to, to, to explore like SEO marketing, don't go on golf podcasts, right. Unless it's just a hobby, you wanna do it for fun. Fine. But no, you need to find podcasts that are about marketing, but specifically SEO podcast. And don't look for the biggest one. Like John, it's an honor to be on your show today.

Alex Sanfilippo (21:25): But my target is you usually shows with under a hundred listeners, which maybe sounds crazy. But the way I view a podcast listener is not like social media. I view it as somebody sitting in a seat. And if you told me there's a room right behind you, John, with a hundred people sitting in it or 50 people sitting in it that are interested in my exact expertise and topic, I would skip anything else in my life to make sure that I'm there. So I can speak to those people. That to me is the power of podcast guessing when you have the right niche in mind.

John Jantsch (21:51): Yeah. And, and, and there are so many shows, just like what you described. And in many cases, you know, you're gonna have a better shot at getting on that show as well because they, you know, they obviously they want good quality content, I'm assuming, but you know, they're not necessarily having household names on their show as well. So I think that, that it, it be better time spent for sure. I always like to ask people that are in certain, uh, industries, the future question. So let's end today with kinda where do you see this going other than just continued

Alex Sanfilippo (22:22): Growth? Yeah. So the obvious answer of course is continued growth as you said, but there's a specific reason that I bring that up and it's because right now we are seeing an influx of marketing dollars hitting podcasting at an unprecedented rate. Yes. I mean, it is just flowing into podcasting right now. And along with that, the big players now we've got Amazon, we've got Google, we've got Spotify, YouTube just hired LinkedIn. LinkedIn,

John Jantsch (22:43): LinkedIn is doing a network now

Alex Sanfilippo (22:45): HubSpot as you're very familiar with, but, but YouTube just hired a director of podcast, which is, is interesting for YouTube. And we actually show that Netflix got announced as well, that they hired a director of podcasting. So we don't know what's coming, but here's the thing. All these big networks they're focused on the top 500 shows out of everybody. And most of them are celebrities at this point, right? Like those are the big ones, but all the tools get better for the individual creators because that just drips down into the entire industry. That's why I think that get being part of podcasting is really, it's gonna be the future. And I think we're gonna see more and more great things happen in the industry. So I think it's an exciting time to be on either side of the mic right now.

John Jantsch (23:21): Yeah. So Alex, thanks so much for showing up and uh, at the duct tape marketing podcast and sharing your expertise and hopefully we'll, uh, run a, into each other one of these days soon after

Alex Sanfilippo (23:32): I'm hoping. So John, I really appreciate time. It was absolutely an honor to be here. Thank you.

John Jantsch (23:36): All right. So that wraps up another episode. I wanna thank you so much for tuning in and you know, we love those reviews and comments and just generally tell me what you think also did you know that you could offer the duct tape marketing system, our system to your clients and build a complete marketing consulting coaching business, or maybe level up an agency with some additional services. That's right. Check out the duct tape marketing consultant network. You can find it at ducttapemarketing.com And just scroll down a little and find that offer our system to your client's tab.

This episode of the Duct Tape Marketing Podcast is brought to you by the HubSpot Podcast Network.

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Wednesday 30 March 2022

How To Build Trust, Increase Authority, And Rank High With Google

How To Build Trust, Increase Authority, And Rank High With Google written by John Jantsch read more at Duct Tape Marketing

Marketing Podcast with Dale Bertrand

In this episode of the Duct Tape Marketing Podcast, I interview Dale Bertrand. Dale has been an SEO specialist for fortune 500 companies and venture-backed startups around the world for two decades. He speaks at industry conferences, leads, corporate training events, and serves as entrepreneur in residence at the Harvard Alumni Entrepreneurs Organization.

Key Takeaway:

Foundationally, what Google is trying to do is help people find the right information — the answer to their questions. As technology and algorithms are constantly changing, the world of SEO as we know it continuously evolves along with it.

In this episode, I talk with long-time SEO specialist for Fortune 500 companies and venture-backed startups, Dale Bertrand, about the evolution of SEO and where it stands today, the biggest changes happening, and what you need to do to build trust, increase authority, and rank high today with Google.

Questions I ask Dale Bertrand:

  • [2:01] What are some of the biggest changes in SEO that you are following?
  • [4:56] Could you talk about something you’ve written about — the end of technical SEO?
  • [5:43] Do things like keywords in your titles, metadata, and your URL matter anymore?
  • [9:14] What’s the value of backlinks today?
  • [11:41] Do you see it that it is almost like three disciplines of content?
  • [15:36] Human influence and desire haven’t changed, they’re just on different journeys. Would you say that we just need to remember those principles and apply them to today’s technology?
  • [18:04] How should companies go about finding and activating the right influencer?
  • [19:15] On SEO-related sites, how valuable are signals in social media — meaning people linking to you on social platforms like Twitter?
  • [20:41] Where can people find out more about Fire & Spark and the work that you’re doing?

More About Dale Bertrand:

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John Jantsch (00:00): This episode of the duct tape marketing podcast is brought to you by the Gain Grow, Retain podcast, hosted by Jeff Brunsbach and Jay Nathan brought to you by the HubSpot podcast network gain grow retain is built to inspire SaaS and technology leaders who are facing day to day. Challenges of scaling Jeff and Jay share conversations about grow growing and scaling subscription businesses with a customer first approach, check out all the episodes. Recently, they did one on onboarding, such a key thing when you wanna get going, keep and retain those clients. So listen to gain, grow, retain wherever you get your podcast.

John Jantsch (00:49): Hello, and welcome to another episode of the duct tape marketing podcast. This is John Jantsch. My guest today is Dale Bertrand. He has been an SEO specialist to fortune 500 companies in venture back startups around the world for two decades. He speaks in industry conferences, leads, corporate training events, and serves as entrepreneur in residents at the Harvard alumni entrepreneurs organization. So Dale, welcome to the show.

Dale Bertrand (01:17): Well, John, welcome to, well thank you for having me. I must welcome you to your own show.

John Jantsch (01:23): Well, I appreciate that. I don't think anybody's ever done that. So that that's awesome. So, you know, we're gonna talk about SEO. Uh, we're gonna specifically talk about maybe a brand or an evolution of SEO, but it's funny before we get into it, you know, a lot of people, you know, I bet you get this question a lot, you know, what are the big changes recently, you know, in SEO and, you know, I think SEOs, like a lot of things just kind of evolves, you know, like some of the big, like the, probably the biggest change, if there was one is, you know, rank brain, which really changed how SEO people need to think about SEO, but that's coming up on seven years ago. So I think a lot of, a lot of people want to see like sudden change, but I think there's this evolution, but I'm gonna ask you anyway, what are some of the biggest changes in SEO that, that you are following?

Dale Bertrand (02:11): Well, thinking of it as an evolution is definitely the right way to think about it. When I started with SEO, believe it or not was in 1999, long time ago. And, um, even back then we knew where the puck was going. So to speak, like, you know, the metaphor like skate to where the puck is going. So we've known for a very long time that what Google's trying to do is help people find the right information, the answer to their question. So Google's just getting a lot better at it with, um, AI and, and all of the different algorithms that, that the fall under the AI umbrella. So we, we call Google an AI based search engine now. And AI based search engines are just a lot better at choosing the right content for the query, giving you the right answer at scale than the rules based search engine, where, where Google started out

John Jantsch (03:00): Well. And I think you can test this for yourself. I mean, you start doing a search anymore and on nine times outta 10, they know what you're searching for before you finish. Right? I mean, yeah,

Dale Bertrand (03:10): Yeah. They've got the data. I mean, they process billions of searches a day and every time you interact with Google, every time you enter something into it or click on a result, it's watching you and Google's using that to, to basically serve up better rankings.

John Jantsch (03:24): Yeah. And it really, you know, a lot of times people look at SEO as a way to trick Google, I guess. I mean, and that's kind of how we used to look at it right. In some ways. And really the thing people forget is Google doesn't care about us or our SEO or our websites. I mean, they're trying to serve their customer, right?

Dale Bertrand (03:47): Yeah. That's really important. And I think how you frame SEO and how you think about it matters a lot. So if you understand that you are trying to help Google serve its audience, its searchers, right. Help by giving Google the content that it needs. If you're writing, let's say you're writing a recipe for a Manhattan or any other bourbon drink, right? Like Google has already has access to thousands and thousands of recipes for Manhattans. So like you're just not giving it something useful. So that's one way to think about it. And then the other part of it is,

John Jantsch (04:18): You know, it's only two o'clock or I am Dale, but Manhattan sounds really good. I'm sorry, go ahead.

Dale Bertrand (04:24): I should a drink cocktail mixed box before this. So we could really have some fun and record it at the same time. So the other way people think about SEO is whether it's like a technical discipline. Like people think of, well, I'm optimizing my website, so I'm moving the HTML tags around or I'm moving the elements around or, um, adding words like adding my keywords and, and that's, what's gonna make all the difference. And that's really the biggest change that we see with the evolution that Google's undergone as they switch to AI algorithms.

John Jantsch (04:56): So, so I'm taking this directly from something you've written the end of, uh, technical SEO doesn't mean SEO's dead. It means that your SEO resources are better spent optimizing for your customers, not Google's algorithm.

Dale Bertrand (05:10): Absolutely. So Google's algorithm is trained to find the right content to find the content that your customers are looking for when they're making a buying decision. So the better, you know, your customers, uh, the information they need, the questions they're asking and then how to answer those questions and give them the information they need to facilitate the purchase. Hopefully they buy from you, but the better you understand your customers and better, you'll be able to create content that Google serves because Google's doing like a damn good job of figuring it out nowadays does

John Jantsch (05:44): Do things like keywords in your titles and metadata and your URL to have a keyword. I mean, does that stuff not matter anymore because they know what it says.

Dale Bertrand (05:54): It's not that it doesn't matter. Like it it's just that it makes it harder and easier at the same time. Like it's simple, but it's hard to do like, you know, just creating the right content, creating the content that your, um, customers are looking for, but you can really boil it down to a three step process. Like the first one is building your platform. So making sure that there isn't anything very broken about your website that would prevent Google from calling your indexing, your content. So that doesn't mean you're optimizing for, to get the last millisecond of page speed on your site, but you're fixing big issues that would prevent Google from seeing your content. And then the second step would be keyword, visibility. What are the right keywords? Make sure they're in the right places. That's different from keyword stuffing, or even making sure that, you know, you, you have, you have dispelling or synonym and all of that.

Dale Bertrand (06:43): Like it, it's really more about the intent behind the keywords. You want people, you want purchase intent keywords. So yeah, whatever you sell, you wanna make sure these are keywords that people are typing in. When they're trying to decide, you know, what they're gonna buy in that category. And then the third step is really building targeted content and what I call multifactor authority. So the targeted content is the right type of content around the intent behind those keywords that you identified in the first step. And that could take a number of different forms, but it really depends on what you're selling and what your customers are looking for us. So remember you need to know your customers. And then the other part, multifactor author is proving to Google that you have the answer. So if I'm writing about I'm making something up here, non-alcoholic drink recipes or something like that because I sell non-alcoholic, um, spirit.

Dale Bertrand (07:35): Then Google needs to believe that we are the brand. We're the website that that information should be coming from. And so that's back links, that's engagement with the site, reducing your bounce rate, making sure that when people come to your site, they stay, cuz Google will notice if they just bounce directly back to Google's, uh, search page and then the company you keep matters. So like if you were selling non-alcoholic drinks, you could imagine that there are a number of medical or organizations or mothers against drunk driving that would care about the mission behind your product. And you wanna make sure that Google can see that you've got endorsements of all types. You can imagine from authoritative folks in your space.

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John Jantsch (09:11): And I know the answer to this, but you know, I'm just gonna tee it up for you. Okay. So, so some might interpret what you just said as getting back links, but you're talking about something much deeper, aren't you?

Dale Bertrand (09:22): Yeah. So back links are still important and you know, we work to get white hat, you know, to sorry we work to earn back links, um, on our projects. So that could be PR, but a lot of it is just making sure that you're running a good business. So you've got customers that are raving about you. You've got products worth writing about, and your business is making an impact with your customers or a community or something, uh, where Google can see that you're gaining traction. So, so that's why it goes beyond back links. Because if you think about it back links are really a proxy for something there, a proxy for endorsements in your space, in your market. The, if you're maybe you're in the medical space and you've got the Mayo clinic, you know, writing about you, you might have a partnership with them. And an artifact of that is the fact that they're linking to you. Yeah. So, so we wanna start on, we wanna start with the run, a good business, make good friends, you know, make you earn those endorsement. And then once, once we have that, then we're looking at ways to translate those into technical artifacts on the web that Google can see.

John Jantsch (10:25): And, and certainly one of the things that they can see better than ever is that they're the right links, right? There's they're links back links. That make sense. That would be logical, that would actually contribute to the conversation, you know, as opposed the, you know, round Robin directories that, you know, nobody ever actually sees and they have no authority at all. I mean, that, I think has been something that's been with us maybe at least five or six years, hasn't it?

Dale Bertrand (10:47): Oh, longer than that. So I, I should know because we, I mean, I was doing, I've been doing SEO for a very long time. So there used to be black hat techniques that worked and, and we did it because it worked nowadays. It just, they have to be natural links. Like you really do need to be building a community around your brand and content. A lot of it depends on whether you're B2C or B2B. If your B2C, you want to build a community, um, around your brand, get traction and make sure Google can see it. And then if your B2B, then the number searches is gonna be lower, just gonna be lower volume, but still they're gonna be valuable. Organic traffic is valuable. But in that case, it's more that you want to make sure that Google can see the company you keep so that you're, you've got relationships with the industry trade organizations and conferences. And if you're in the medical space, it's PhDs, sorry, MDs or MD PhDs, which is even better and what, whatever works in your industry.

John Jantsch (11:42): So there's really a lot of elements here. I mean, there is the technical aspects of content of website that, that lead SEO there's the, the actual good deep content itself. But then in a way it's actually promotion of that content, you know, to the right audiences that, that then drives, you know, the right links or drives the right mentions or right. Traffic. So, I mean, do you see it that way as almost like three disciplines?

Dale Bertrand (12:11): I, I try. So, yes, but I try not to. So when it comes to like a, a successful SEO campaign, there's gonna be a lot of elements. Like you said, the technical platform, keyword research, the customer research, the content, and then the authority building. And then there's, you know, there's PR within that, there's a lot of dis disciplines within that, but it's really hard, especially for small business owners to think about, uh, to, to even, you know, have the courage to do SEO when it requires so much. So instead. And, and I, I think I learned about this, John sitting next to you at a dinner a long time ago, where you kind of helped me simplify some of my ideas, the way that I like to think about it. We, you have a purpose behind your SEO and what I, and when I say you have a purpose behind your SEO is that you've got a purpose behind your brand, a purpose behind your business. And, and a quick example, I'll give you is that we worked with a company that was a manufacturing company and what they manufactured was Velcro straps. And it it's pretty darn boring. And I hope they're not listening to this cause they get excited about manufacturing. It's run by two engineers. And these Velcro strap are used by electricians. If you're installing bundles of wires into a big building, you need a lot of these Velcro straps to make sure that it's not spaghetti of wires everywhere. I

John Jantsch (13:23): Got a few of 'em here with all my technology that hooked up here.

Dale Bertrand (13:26): Perfect, perfect. And for them, we, they wanted to do SEO. They wanted to build content, but what were they gonna do? They gonna write 50 articles about like, Hey, Velcro's awesome. For all these reasons, we'll write one article about each reason. So you could do that, but it's not gonna help you build a community, build authority and have Google see that you're gaining traction. So what, what we realized when we were talking to them is one of the founders of this company was he was volunteering weekends at a technical high school near, near where they're located. And so what we did was we put together a campaign. We called it the campaign to recruit the next generation of electricians. And basically it was, you know, they were going to identify young people, help them pay for some exams, some licensure, and also help them put a little bit of money towards their schooling.

Dale Bertrand (14:15): And what we did was we promoted that campaign. We said, Hey, if you care, and we reached out to like-minded organizations like organizations that care about providing, you know, job opportunities for young people. And there was one that was about finding job opportunities for recently incarcerated people. And we told them like, we're looking for kids to help. Could you help promote this campaign? And basically when we look at it that way, and the reason why I call it purpose driven SEO is because we wanna find something behind our brand that we can promote and build a campaign around. And then we get all of those other artifacts of SEO, the, the content, the technical platform, the traction, the links, the authority building the, the endorsements of like relationships with other organizations that are helping us promote our campaign. We get all of that by just focusing on this one purpose. So that, that's why I like to think of, uh, SEO campaigns as like purpose driven SEO campaigns.

John Jantsch (15:11): And, and I love that. And before people think, oh, I have to learn this new, you know, tactic or this new technique. What you just described is what people like me were doing in the eighties. Right. It was just PR and community building, but we pitched a newspaper, you know, or we went out to a nonprofit agency and got them, you know, to partner what? So, so the more things change, the more they say the same, I mean, yeah,

Dale Bertrand (15:35): Yeah.

John Jantsch (15:36): Human influence hasn't really changed or what people's desires are or what lights them up. Hasn't changed. We just have to figure out now they're on different journeys. They're, they're in different platforms, they're in different places to get their information differently. And we just have to, we have to just remember those principles. Yeah. And then apply it to the technology. Don't we,

Dale Bertrand (15:56): And then also realized that there was a hiccup in the fabric of time in the marketing space where all of a sudden these technical people, I have a technical background. I was a programmer before I started doing SEO, but technical people for all of a sudden had all this value because the web came along. And if you could optimize a website, just write or get your programmer to do it, you would get traffic from Google. Yeah. And, and those days are, are really behind us. Yeah. Where like Google's AI has gotten to the point where it understands when a brand is building traction or if, or if you like sell a B2B service or something like that. When you have, have endorsements and relationships with folks in your space that makes you worthy of organic traffic and rankings. So now Google's getting like, it's just getting so good at what they do that we're reverting back to actually generating the, the right content that your customers are looking for and proving to Google that you're authoritative in your space.

John Jantsch (16:52): So, so that example that you gave you, you give that a name or at least a point of view, which I think people I'd love you to kind of riff on this a little bit, because I think people need to acknowledge this and, and think about this more and you call it promoting the story, you know, not promoting your content or not promoting your products or your, you know, web pages or whatever, but promoting kind of the whole story, which to me was that was the technical, you know, school, you know, story that, that people got interested in and the byproduct was you got links and you got traffic and you got eyeballs.

Dale Bertrand (17:29): Yeah, exactly. That's what Google is, is looking. So just think of it as like brands that are building traction or building like an audience. And if you can show that initial uptick, then Google will give you the rest of the traffic and kind of have to help you go along that trajectory help you grow along that trajectory.

John Jantsch (17:47): So one of the elements of this kind of authority ideas is actually finding and activating influencers. I mean, people that you, you know, we all think about the, oh, you know, the top 10 names, every single person can name. Sure. We want them to talk about us and our stories and, uh, content. But you know, for that you're Velcro person, Gary V talking about them is probably not gonna really do a much good, you know, how, how does the Velcro, you know, manufacturer go out there and find the right influencers to, to talk about their story.

Dale Bertrand (18:17): So what you would love is if it was your customers and it depends a lot of it depends on what you sell. So you could be in a consumer space where you're basically, um, you're basically incentivizing and your customers to, to be brand evangelists and talk about the products, review the products, whatever you can do to get them to do that would work. It could be an ambassador program. And then in the B2B space, it, it might not be your customers. Another example I gave is we work with the 3d printing company that sold, you know, multimillion dollar high end 3d prints, but there's just not enough customers to really, you know, turn that into links and, and relationships that Google would see. So we focused on 3d printing hobbyists in order to generate content and build a community around the brand, even though what we were selling and making our money off was high end 3d printing machines that, that they could never afford. But we were able to build a community around the brand that Google saw and, and generated rankings in traffic.

John Jantsch (19:15): So I, I have kind of one final question that I'm just curious your opinion on this, cuz there's a lot of various opinions, you know, on, on SEO related sites, how valuable are signals in social media. So people linking from Twitter, people talking about your brand from a pure SEO standpoint, how valuable are those?

Dale Bertrand (19:37): So there's two answers, both are correct, which is the direct value of the links. And the mention is not valuable. Yeah. But we still use social media as a tool for PR, which helps us build real relationships, get back links on, on websites that Google can see stuff like that. And we know that it's not valuable cuz short version of the story, Bing had tried to use social media instead of back links because Google started out, you know, really focused on back links to determine authority and the best websites. And when Microsoft started its search engine, they said, oh, we're gonna do it better. We're gonna rely on social media. And it just didn't work. Yeah. So they abandoned it. They went to links just like Google and now Google and, and Microsoft are both trying to figure out how to incorporate social signals. But uh, apparently what we see in the research is that it it's just not, it's just not good. Like it doesn't help them. I identify the best content, the same way back links, engagement, and these other artifacts of real world relationships too.

John Jantsch (20:41): So Dale tell people where they can find out more about fire and spark and uh, the work that you're uh, doing.

Dale Bertrand (20:48): Yeah. So we're at fire and spark.com all spelled out and you can email me directly Dale, D a L E fire and spark.com um, all spelled out. And um, always, I, I love talking about SEO. So if anybody has any SEO questions, I'm, I'm happy to hear it.

John Jantsch (21:03): Awesome. Well, I appreciate you, uh, taking a moment to stop by dot tape marketing podcast and hopefully we'll see you out there on the road again, maybe in beautiful, uh, state of Maine.

Dale Bertrand (21:12): Awesome, John, and thank you for the opportunity.

John Jantsch (21:15): All right. That wraps up another episode of the duct tape marketing podcast. I wanna thank you so much for tuning in. Feel free to share this show. Feel free to give us reviews. You know, we love those things. Also. Did you know that we had created training, marketing training for your team? If you've got employees, if you've got a staff member that wants to learn a marketing system, how to install that marketing system in your business, check it out. It's called the certified marketing manager program from duct tape marketing. You can find it at ducttapemarketing.com and just scroll down a little. And in that tab that says training for your team.

This episode of the Duct Tape Marketing Podcast is brought to you by the HubSpot Podcast Network.

HubSpot Podcast Network is the audio destination for business professionals who seek the best education and inspiration on how to grow a business.

 

 



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The Key To A Successful Non-Profit Marketing Campaign

The Key To A Successful Non-Profit Marketing Campaign written by Sara Nay read more at Duct Tape Marketing



About the show:

The Agency Spark Podcast, hosted by Sara Nay, is a collection of short-form interviews from thought leaders in the marketing consultancy and agency space. Each episode focuses on a single topic with actionable insights you can apply today. Check out the new Spark Lab Consulting page here!

About this episode:

In this episode of the Agency Spark Podcast, Sara talks with Emily Heck on the key to a successful non-profit marketing campaign.

Emily Heck is a Central Indiana marketing strategy consultant and owner of Evergreen Strategic Communications.

After years of working in the nonprofit and higher education industries, Emily launched Evergreen in 2019 with the goal of helping nonprofits and small businesses who may not have the time, resources, or skillset to grow their engagement through marketing.

Emily is a graduate of Butler University and earned her Master of Business Administration from University of Indianapolis where she currently teaches undergraduate marketing courses.

More from Emily Heck:

 

 

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Virtual Vision: 5 New LinkedIn Features & How B2B Marketers Can Use Them To Succeed

5 new LinkedIn features for B2B marketers closeup image of eyes.

5 new LinkedIn features for B2B marketers closeup image of eyes. What are the newest features on LinkedIn*, and how can B2B marketers best use them to attract, engage, and convert business professionals? As the world’s leading business social platform, Microsoft’s LinkedIn has released a surprising array of innovative new ways for B2B marketers and brands to build new connections and forge even stronger existing relationships. LinkedIn has undoubtedly witnessed numerous social platforms adding elements to attract B2B marketers, yet it remains the dominant player in the massive business sector. An important factor in LinkedIn’s continuing dominance and growth has been its steadfast determination to innovate with an abundance of new features. 75 percent of enterprise content marketers have said that LinkedIn produced the best results among social media platforms over the past year, followed by Facebook with 42 percent and Instagram with 32 percent. With so many new tools and options available on LinkedIn, it can at first seem somewhat overwhelming to know which ones to try first. Let’s take a look at a selection of some of the recent features LinkedIn has launched that are particularly well suited for B2B marketers looking to elevate connections, communities, and creativity.

1 — Robust LinkedIn Newsletters For Company Pages

A powerful feature for connecting with audiences is LinkedIn’s on-platform newsletter creation and distribution system — a largely undiscovered gem for B2B marketers that has recently been expanded in scope. LinkedIn’s newsletter system lets users who qualify for creator mode access publish written content at regular intervals, which is a boon for subject matter experts and influencers looking for new ways to share and promote material they’ve written or co-created with others. The latest addition to LinkedIn’s newsletter offering, however, has expanded the system to qualified LinkedIn pages, allowing brands of all sizes to fully harness the professional platform’s powerful scope and reach. Initial newsletter qualification requirements included LinkedIn users and pages with over 150 followers or connections, a recent history of sharing original content on the platform, and adherence to standard LinkedIn community policies. LinkedIn’s newsletter feature offers a wealth of options for B2B marketers that go well beyond what’s available using the platform’s traditional article format, whether for individual users or through LinkedIn’s specific articles for pages offering. A robust array of personalization options are included when creating a newsletter as a company page, and when a page publishes its first article using the feature, all of the page’s followers automatically get a notification to subscribe. Those followers who choose to subscribe — and by already being a fan of a page, it’s much more likely that members will do so — will subsequently get both an email and a notification when new newsletter articles from the company page are published — both of which can optionally be turned off. The ramifications of B2B marketers and brands using LinkedIn’s newly expanded newsletter capabilities are far-reaching, and the coming months will be a fascinating time to observe the creative uses LinkedIn members find for newsletter distribution on the platform. When it comes down to it, your marketing message and how it drives your readers to action or even enlightenment is paramount to success, and not particularly the medium or format in which it’s delivered. There are, however, many positive things to be said for the venerable newsletter format, whether sent in the traditional email format or using a social platform-based system such as the one LinkedIn has made available. To learn more about how B2B marketers can craft a great newsletter that stands out and stands the test of time, here are four articles we’ve published that explore the art and science of newsletter content and distribution: [bctt tweet="“The most important part of a newsletter is the letter, not the news.” — Ann Handley @AnnHandley" username="toprank"]

2 — Professional Skill Tool & Trend-Finding Data Resources

LinkedIn recently launched an interactive “Future of Skills” tool, which is a helpful way for B2B marketers to learn precisely which skills are the most in-demand and relevant for careers in different parts of the world, in various industries, and perhaps most importantly, in particular job titles. The data-backed tool is also a good way to learn how demand for certain skills has grown or waned over the years, and LinkedIn has made it convenient to learn more about each skill by tying the system to selections from its comprehensive educational offerings through LinkedIn Learning. That makes the task of augmenting certain skills simple to begin, through the use of on-demand video courses that range in length from under ten minutes to over three hours. LinkedIn took the time to share a selection of its top LinkedIn Learning courses for marketers, as Connie Chen, insights program manager, thought leadership and narratives at LinkedIn, explored in “Solidify Your Skill Set: The Top 10 Learning Courses for Marketers.” Another example of some of the recent insightful on-demand webinar content on tap from LinkedIn is the “2021 B2B Thought Leadership Impact Study,” of particular interest to B2B marketers. B2B marketers can use the insights from LinkedIn’s “Future of Skills” tool — which contains aggregated information from the past six years for some 800-million-plus users — in many ways, from expanding their own repertoire of expertise and audience research, to examining job trends and how they will interact with new brand marketing efforts in the future. When it comes to what the data reveals, digital marketing specialists and account executives joined social media managers as the most in-demand marketing occupations, while digital marketing, advertising, and social media skills had the biggest mismatch when looking at job supply and demand, according to additional recently-released LinkedIn survey data. Elevating careers is a win-win pursuit for everyone involved in B2B marketing, and we recently tapped some of the world’s top marketing executives for their key advice and insight, which our own CEO Lee Odden shared in “How to Elevate Your B2B Marketing Career: Advice from Execs at Top B2B Brands.” Som Puangladda Quote image. [bctt tweet="“Always seek the opportunity to acquire new ways to do marketing, because the ability to pivot & adapt to the unknown is the most valuable skill set.” — Som Puangladda @sompny" username="toprank"] LinkedIn has also focused on highlighting how the record number of career changes the world has seen over the past several years has affected particular demographics of professionals, such as woman in the world of marketing in its recent “The Great Reshuffle: What Women in Marketing Want From Their Employers,” by Tequia Burt, editor in chief of the LinkedIn Marketing Solutions Blog. To learn more about building skills for the future of B2B marketing, here are four pieces we’re published containing helpful tips and information:

3 — LinkedIn’s Intriguing New Podcast Network

Another recent LinkedIn tool that presents new opportunities for B2B marketers came in the form of the launch of the LinkedIn Podcast Network — a pilot program of podcast shows with an emphasis on professional career-building — that also encourages listeners to make connections and build community with show hosts. In the initial pilot, podcast listeners will have access on LinkedIn to programming and conversations from industry leading creators such as Winnie Sun, Morra Aarons-Mele, Jonathan Fields, Mita Mallick and Dee C. Marshall, as well as shows created in-house by LinkedIn News. The LinkedIn Podcast Network incorporates the full gamut of the professional social platform’s technology, such as the aforementioned newsletters along with live-streaming events plus video and written content — a potent combination that when fully rolled out will offer B2B marketers intriguing new options for podcast-related efforts. As we recently covered in our TopRank Marketing Friday news, 53 percent of marketers say they plan to spend more on podcast advertising in 2022, with listening having grown some 200 percent over the past five years. Additionally, overall podcast advertising spending climbed by 60 percent in 2021, with accompanying growth rate forecasts seeing $2.2 billion in spending by 2023. Podcasting for B2B marketers is an area we’ve also focused on over the years, and in that vein here are four helpful articles to get you started: [bctt tweet="“Podcasting is the new 'blog'. At one time, businesses wondered if they needed one.” — A. Lee Judge @ALeeJudge" username="toprank"]

4 — LinkedIn’s Expanded Analytics Tools & Data

LinkedIn has released a preview of an expanded set of analytics information that will offer new details on individual posts on the platform. In addition to singular post performance data, the expanded information will also allow LinkedIn content creators to view a new selection of overall analytics statistics. Combined, the expanded post and overall analytics will bring more detailed audience insight to B2B marketers, and help them find out more about the people engaging with their posts. LinkedIn Articles Analytics Screenshot Another new addition on the analytics front at LinkedIn came in its recent acquisition of marketing analytics platform Oribi, which has technology that focuses on finding key top-performing marketing efforts. By combining Oribi’s technology with LinkedIn’s vast data, marketers can look forward to enhanced measurement for maximizing return on investment (ROI). LinkedIn has also worked to augment its company pages with new features, such as more powerful forecasting for post reach and frequency. “One of the biggest challenges facing most organizations on social platforms is knowing whether you’re reaching the right people, and what exactly they’re seeing,” Mary Yang, director of product at LinkedIn recently observed in “LinkedIn Pages: Our Latest and Greatest Features.” “Reach Optimization is one of the tools offered by LinkedIn to maximize the potential for this engagement,” Yang added. When it comes to crafting successful LinkedIn posts that hit the mark and utilize some of the many new features to find the right audience, LinkedIn’s head of creator programs Callie Schweitzer recently shared a selection of tips in a helpful Forbes article, “LinkedIn’s Global Creator Programs Lead Shares 4 Tips For Crafting Your First LinkedIn Post.”

5 — Keep Current With LinkedIn’s New Publications & Toolkit

LinkedIn also regularly publishes insightful takes on not only the new features it has rolled out to users, but deep looks at industry shifts and trends. Keeping on top of LinkedIn’s latest feature updates and industry-specific publications can be a great way for B2B marketers to make the most of their marketing efforts, both on LinkedIn and in more general terms. For sales professionals, LinkedIn recently rolled out a new edition of its digital magazine — The Pitch — featuring an array of strategic marketing tips for utilizing the professional social platform, along with thought leader interviews and reports of interest to B2B marketers. For marketing professionals, LinkedIn recently published a collection of handy tips and best practices for using a variety of tools, along with insights on advertising on the platform. This has all been gathered together in a new technology marketing guide, covered in “Driving Technology Leads on LinkedIn: A Toolkit to Help.” Sometimes even small enhancements to a social platform can resonate particularly well with users, as has been the case with LinkedIn’s recent announcement about its expanded handling of career breaks in member profiles, as the firm shared in “LinkedIn Members Can Now Spotlight Career Breaks on Their Profiles.” Through both minor adjustments and truly innovating features, LinkedIn has continued to offer its members new ways to engage and connect.

Eying Up New LinkedIn B2B Marketing Features

via GIPHY B2B marketers and brands have been wooed by the likes of TikTik, Pinterest, Snapchat, Clubhouse and many other social platforms with increasing frequency over the past five years.  Despite this, LinkedIn has remained atop the social B2B mountain, and with the many new features we’ve explored here, there’s little question why successful B2B marketers continue to not only eye up but embrace the platform. We hope you’ve found this look at some of the latest LinkedIn features for B2B marketers to be helpful, and that you’ll be able to apply this insight to your own efforts throughout 2022 and beyond. Creating award-winning B2B marketing that elevates, gives voice to talent, and humanizes with authenticity takes considerable time and effort, which is why an increasing number of firms are choosing to work with a top digital marketing agency such as TopRank Marketing. Contact us to learn how we can help, as we’ve done for over 20 years for businesses ranging from LinkedIn, Dell and 3M to Adobe, Oracle, monday.com and others. * LinkedIn is a TopRank Marketing client.

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