Author Archives: Rich Brooks

Improve Your Impact Equation with Chris Brogan

By
Reply

Chris BroganTo build your business should you be shoring up your weakness, or exploiting your strengths?

In this episode of The Marketing Agents Podcast, we explore where to put your focus, developing a platform, and owning the inbox. 

We’ll also talk about how to get your adoring audience to pony up for paid content after they’ve been lapping up all your free stuff, and where Ricky Gervais went wrong.

Plus, don’t forget to stick around for the end of the podcast for a special offer for TMAP listeners!

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: RSS

Big Ideas:

  • The Impact Equation: 

    Impact = C x (R + E + A + T + E)

    C= Contrast

    R = Reach

    E = Exposure

    A = Articulation

    T = Trust

    E = Echo

  • Play to your strengths. You need to look at each one of the elements in the Impact Equation, and determine where your strengths lie. Focus on those as they will have the biggest impact on your impact.
  • Get a platform. Without a platform you own, you don’t control your destiny.
  • Own the inbox. It’s where most of us start and end our day. It has its limitations (Google doesn’t care about it and there’s little social proof in an email delivered to you), but it’s a powerful one-on-one communications tool.
  • Create an emotional connection with you audience. Use storytelling to connect. Chris gave the example of the two types of recipe books, one that’s all about recipes, and one that tells a backstory.

Show Notes:

  • The Agents of Change Digital Marketing Conference: See Chris Brogan keynote the 2nd annual conference all about search, social & mobile marketing! Save $25 on your physical or digital pass with the discount code TMAP. 
  • Chris Brogan: Where you can find all things Broganesque. 
  • 30/30: Chris recommends this powerful productivity app for iOS.
  • Work Like You’re On Vacation: A six week course delivered via email, run through Chris’s Human Business Works (by friend Rob Hatch), that provides you with a framework for more focused, productive work habits that are based on how YOU work. 
  • Marvel Unlimited: Think Netflix for Marvel Comics. 

Rich Brooks
Strengthening My Strengths

Michael Stelzner On Creating Content That Grows Your Business

By
2

Michael StelznerHave you ever wondered if you can really grow your business through content creation? 

In this week’s episode, Michael Stelzner, founder of Social Media Examiner and author of the book Launch: How to Quickly Propel Your Business Beyond the Competition, shares with us the secrets of how your business can create valuable content that will attract an audience and build your business.
 
From fire starters to different types of content fuel, you’ll discover how to grow your business by creating the right type of content.
 
And be sure to check out the show notes below for an amazing deal on Social Media Success Summit & The Agents of Change Digital Marketing Conference!
 
 

Big Ideas:

  • There are two types of content “fuel” that will propel your business to success: primary fuel and nuclear fuel.
  • Primary fuel can be used regularly and liberally. These include how-to’s, case studies, news and so on.
  • Nuclear fuel creates a big splash. These are in depth reviews, longer format content, industry surveys and more. They take too much time to create regularly, so space them out and consider using them if you’re trying to reach a goal for opt-ins or registrations.
  • Use “fire starters” to quickly build your reach. Fire starters are the people who have access to the audience you are targeting. 
  • To market your content without being pushy, consider looking for guest blogging opportunities to leverage existing audiences, as well as asking your current readers to share your content with their networks. 

Show Notes:

  • Use this link to grab your Social Media Success Summit tickets and get a free digital pass to The Agents of Change Digital Marketing Conference! That’s a $149 ticket to AOC for free! If you grab your ticket for SMSS by Friday, August 16th, you can save an additional $320 off your ticket to the world’s largest online social media conference.
  • Check out Social Media Examiner, the daily blog with great how-to content on social media marketing. 
  • Be sure to subscribe to Mike’s Social Media Marketing Podcast on iTunes…required listening if social media marketing is part of your job!
  • And if you haven’t yet, please head on over to iTunes and give The Marketing Agents Podcast a review! We appreciate any feedback you’ve got. Thanks!

Rich Brooks
Content Creator

How to Launch a Successful Podcast with John Dumas

By
8

John Dumas on PodcastingA podcast can help attract an audience, extend your reach and establish your credibility.

In this week’s episode, John Dumas shares how you can plan, launch and promote a successful podcast. There is an amazing amount of resources he talks to help make launching your podcast even easier, which are all listed down below.

Subscribe to The Marketing Agents Podcast on iTunes!

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: RSS

Big Ideas:

  • A podcast allows you to make a deeper connection with your audience than a blog, because they can hear your enthusiasm and passion.
  • A podcast allows you to literally get inside your ideal customer’s head while they’re doing simple tasks like commuting or climbing the stairmaster…letting them focus on what you’re saying.
  • A podcast is a subscription based model, meaning you can deliver fresh content to them without them having to return to your website to see if there’s anything new.

Show Notes:

  • The Agents of Change Digital Marketing Conference: Join dozens of marketing experts for the 2nd annual Agents of Change conference! In Portland, Maine, or online! 
  • Voice123: A site to find professional voice overs. It’s like 99 Designs for VOs.
  • Fiverr: A site where you can find almost anyone to do almost anything for five bucks. Beware: you often get what you pay for. 
  • Audacity: Free software for editing a podcast.
  • GarageBand: Mac-based software for editing a podcast. (What we use here at The Marketing Agents.)
  • Adobe Audition: Professional-level software from Adobe. It also comes as part of the Creative Cloud which gives you the full Adobe suite for $50/mo.
  • Call Recorder: An app that lets you record your audio and video on Skype for podcast interviews. 
  • Libsyn: Hosting for your podcast. 
  • Amazon S3: Another hosting option for your podcast. Might be a better option if you do video podcasts.
  • Entrepreneur On Fire: John Dumas’s popular podcast about the entrepreneurial journey.
  • Podcast Launch: John’s amazing ebook that walks you through every step of launching your podcast and getting into New & Noteworthy.

Derek Halpern on List Building and Online Marketing

By
2

Derek Halpern of Social TriggersHey, my Pretty Links is all funky! So here’s where you’ll find the Jon Wuebben interview until I get this fixed. 🙂

Growing your business online isn’t about knowing the latest Twitter tricks, SEO hacks, or secrets of Pinterest.

In this week’s episode of The Marketing Agents podcast, Derek Halpern shares with us some of the psychological and social triggers that we can use to reach a wider audience and build our business.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: RSS

Big Ideas:

  • Differentiate yourself. Even in a crowded marketplace, you can stand out. There were thousands of marketing blogs when Derek started up Social Triggers, but he studied the competition and found an angle that none of them were covering.
  • Don’t rely on SEO. You can’t control Google or the Google algorithm. Use best practices, but focus on social triggers that get people to share your content with their network.
  • Email list building is critical. You can’t transfer Facebook friends to Twitter. You don’t own your followings on social networks. But you own your list. Put all your focus on building your email list.

Show Notes:

The Agents of Change Digital Marketing Conference: Join dozens of marketing experts for the 2nd annual Agents of Change conference! In Portland, Maine, or online! Early bird tickets available through 7/31/2013.

Social Triggers, Derek Halpern’s critically important marketing blog, is where you can learn more, dig deeper, and sign up for his email list.

Improve Your Business Youtility with Jay Baer [Podcast]

By
3

Jay Baer Talks YoutilityThe best marketing is about help, not hype, and you need to create marketing so good people would be willing to pay for it.

So argues Jay Baer, author of the new book Youtility. In this episode of The Marketing Agents Podcast, Jay talks about how businesses can become invaluable to their ideal customers and clients by providing help…marketing one would be willing to pay for. 

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: RSS

Big Ideas:

  • Being found doesn’t create demand, it fulfills it. In other words, while SEO is incredibly valuable, it only helps when someone knows what they are looking for.
  • We compete for attention against the friends and family of our prospects. In the Facebook feed (and everywhere else in social media) we are competing not just against companies providing similar services, but also against photos from a recent picnic, updates from Mom, and everything shared by George Takei.
  • Businesses need to display “radical transparency” in their marketing. Your customers have access to almost all the data in the world…there’s no point in trying to hide information from them.

Show Notes:

The Agents of Change Digital Marketing Conference: Join dozens of marketing experts for the 2nd annual Agents of Change conference! In Portland, Maine, or online! Early bird tickets available through 7/31/2013.

Youtility, the book. As opposed to the musical. Which would be AWESOME! And yes, that’s an affiliate link. 

To learn more about Youtility at the official website. 

Learn more about Jay at Convince and Convert.