- Hey there, my friend.
Adam here.
And today I wanna share with you a few
of the best and most promising marketing strategies,
tactics, tools, and tips in order to make this
your best year in business yet.
Starting with one of the most popular trends
and hottest topics right now
and ending with what I believe is one
of the best opportunities available to you right now.
So with that said, let's dive straight
into marketing strategy number one,
which is all about using AI, artificial intelligence,
in order to get better results from your marketing
and do it faster than you ever thought possible.
Artificial intelligence,
more commonly referred to as AI today,
has been around for a while now.
But even though previous generations were told
that we'd have flying cars and fully automated homes
and basically robots that were gonna be able
to do everything for us by this point,
what we actually got was this.
(lighthearted music plays)
(record scratches)
And it's only recently that AI
has started to prove itself useful,
at least in the world of business and marketing.
And the one piece of technology that's making the most noise
and the biggest disruptor in the space right now
is a little piece of software called ChatGPT
that can do, well, a whole lot of crazy things.
For example, I can ask it to come up
with 15 marketing ideas, and there it is.
Then, I could decide I want even more ideas.
And just like that, a whole new list appears.
I can ask it to write me a Facebook ad
for the Digital Marketing Academy.
And while there are some tweaks and changes I would make,
it's not a half bad start.
But after looking it over,
I think it would work better
if I used the proven copywriting framework of PAS.
So I get it to rewrite the ad using that instead,
and well, there it is.
But it looks like it used the wrong PAS
of pitch, action, subject,
instead of what I actually wanted,
which was problem, agitate, solve.
But hey, no worries.
I'll tell it to do it again.
And just like that, another entirely new ad is created.
I mean, I could even ask it to tell me a bedtime story
about a little marketer named Adam
who wanted to make the world a better place
by helping solve people's problems.
And much to my surprise, the story's actually pretty good.
So it looks like ChatGPT FTW.
- I got a fun fact for you, Adam.
Did you know that the GPT in ChatGPT stands for
generative pre-trained transformer?
- I did not know that.
(gentle music plays)
Now as cool as this is, there are limitations.
Some pretty big ones too.
And ChatGPT comes right out
and says it right there on the front page.
Things like how it may occasionally
generate incorrect information, which let's be honest,
this is not great.
But you can and should fact check things anyway,
so it's not too bad I guess.
But next, and this one's kind of a big deal,
it may occasionally produce harmful instructions
or biased content.
Again, this is clearly not good.
After all, the last thing that you want to do
is have it give you some sketchy instructions
on something like setting your phone's alarm
that ends up resulting in some kind of catastrophic failure.
(explosion booms)
And finally, ChatGPT has limited knowledge
of world and events after 2021.
And this is a bit of a downer,
especially when it comes to marketing
where things change pretty quickly.
All that said, it's still a really powerful tool
that you can use in your marketing,
and it can also help you take advantage
of this next marketing trend,
which is a bit of a switch or pivot
to how things have been in the past.
You see, the secret to getting the most bang
for your marketing buck now is all about
prioritizing quality over quantity
by creating better content.
So let's talk about that now.
For as long as content marketing has been a thing,
there's been a debate on which approach is better.
Quantity, where the strategy is to produce
as much content as is humanly possible,
or quality, where the goal and focus
is on creating fewer, but higher quality pieces of content.
And here's the thing,
the reason that you still see people advocating
for both of these different approaches
is because they both still work.
But at least right now for most people most of the time,
focusing on creating less, but higher quality
pieces of content is gonna provide a better return
on your time and energy investment.
For proof of this, all you need to do is look right here
on YouTube where you can see the change
and this trend in action with many channels switching away
from a consistent upload schedule favoring, instead,
for releasing a video when it's ready.
All that said, I've got two warnings for you here.
First, this trend,
away from quantity and more towards quality,
is a perfectionist procrastinator's dream.
So if that's you, be very careful not to let
your perfectionism kick in and stop you
from ever releasing or posting any kind of content
because it's just not good enough yet.
And next, if you're just getting started
with content creation or marketing
or posting on social media,
my advice here is to still favor quantity over quality,
at least in the beginning.
This is because quality often comes from quantity,
and you're really going to need to put in the reps,
especially in the early days,
to build up that content creation muscle.
Not to mention until you have some posts
and some kind of content created and published,
it's hard to actually know what better actually is.
This is because better is subjective.
What's good for you may not be good for me,
and what's good for me may not be good for you.
Which is why the only thing that really matters
and the only metrics that you want to take a look at
and actually take into consideration
is how your audience and how your customers
are engaging with and responding to what you're creating.
That said, to help get you started and to keep you
on track in the direction of creating better content,
I've got three rules for you
that I want you to keep in mind.
First, better content is relevant content.
This means it resonates with the person it was created for.
In other words, when they see it or hear it
or come across it, they think,
"Hey, cool. This is... This is for me."
And the best way to do this is to make sure
you understand your customers
and what their pains and problems and fears
and frustrations actually are.
Next, better content is valuable content.
This means your content provides value
to your audience in some way.
Now, it could be to teach them something or to inspire them,
even offer entertainment or tension relieving value.
And again, the best way to make sure
you're creating valuable content is by keeping your focus
on your customers and the people that you want to reach.
And then asking yourself what can you do or offer
or create that'll make their lives just a little bit better?
And finally, better content is entertaining content.
Now, I'm not suggesting you need to go out there
and create a Hollywood level production,
or that you start creating entertainment style only content.
Just that you put a little thought into how you can make
whatever it is that you do just a little bit more engaging,
and most importantly of all, not boring.
And like I said before, the best way to do this
is by really focusing on trying to learn
and understand your customers and where they're coming from.
And that kind of leads me, nicely, to this next point,
which is all about tribe building.
One of the best marketing strategies that continues
to deliver outstanding results and outsized returns
for the effort that you have to put into it
is tribe building,
which has to do with creating a community
or a group of like-minded people around
whatever topic or business or industry
or market that you're a part of.
Being the one to bring a group
of like-minded people together
and being the source of information
for that group just builds a tremendous amount
of trust and authority and goodwill,
and it establishes you and your business and your content
as kind of a go-to resource that other people can count on.
Most importantly and most powerful of all though
is that focusing on tribe building
can build real relationships,
which extend far beyond those simple transactions
that most businesses out there are trying to compete for.
Now, there are a ton of ways to build your tribe
and to host it or to engage with them,
including online discussion groups and forums.
There's memberships or possibly hosting a Q and A,
a question and answer session,
maybe doing a webinar.
Essentially anything that allows you
to gather people together and to provide information
and to help foster and encourage discussion.
But where the focus in years past
used to be on the social graph,
which are tribes built around personal
and social connections,
and more on this in just a second.
Now, thanks to our largely, completely interconnected world,
it's tribes that are built on the interest graph
that are the strongest.
So if you're not familiar with the social graph
and the interest graph, these are important points,
so let me break it down for you now.
Basically, the social graph is how you're connected
to other people, and you have a number
of different social graphs in your life,
including your family, your friends, your work,
and even casual acquaintances.
And in the past, it was through these people
that you were introduced to different ideas
and concepts and content.
And while the social graph is still
very much real and important,
there's another important graph taking over
which is the interest graph.
This is where your first interaction or engagement
with an idea or a piece of content comes
from your interest in a certain topic or trend
rather than the people.
This leads to consuming content around that,
which leads to discussions and conversations
with other like-minded people.
And then, that leads to social connection and learning more
about the other people who are interested
in the same things as you are.
Let me give you an example.
In the social graph context,
I could be chatting with a brand new friend of mine,
and I just happened to find out
that he's super into rollerblading.
Like, crazy into rollerblading.
So he starts talking and sharing
about the rollerblading lifestyle and how fun it is,
and how exciting, and how it's making a comeback,
and how it's a great way to stay in shape
and build coordination,
and how there's a lot of other people who are living
this rock and roller blade lifestyle.
And so, against my better judgment,
I decide to dust off my old pair of roller blades
and give it another shot.
Hmm.
So apparently, a lot of bad things can happen.
So that's the social graphic work.
The interest graph, on the other hand,
works in the complete opposite way.
For example, let's say that one day you get
this wild and crazy idea to go out there
and start your own business.
Good for you, by the way.
And you decide that marketing is the single most
important element to your business's success,
so you seek to find new and innovative
marketing strategies to help you make more sales
and get more customers and increase your revenue.
Again, good for you.
So you head over to YouTube,
and you type in "marketing" in the search bar.
This brings up a video which leads you to click it
and to watch it.
Hopefully, you enjoy the video and off to click
the "like" button and subscribe
and maybe even leave a comment,
which leads you to discover an entire community
of like-minded people just like you
all interested in starting and building and growing
successful and profitable businesses.
Connections are made, relationships are built,
and an entire new social circle is created and formed
around a common interest that you and others share.
And the beauty of this is that
while the social graph is kind of limited
to your personal and social and friends
and family and work connections,
the interest graph is essentially unlimited
and allows you to connect with anyone from anywhere
in the world who happens to be interested
in the same kind of things as you are.
And seeing as the first step of tapping
into the interest graph has to do with content discovery,
well, we need to make sure that you're creating
the right kind of content for the right kind of people.
Which leads me perfectly to this next marketing strategy
which is all about the kind of content
that's working better than ever before.
That kind of content is video.
If you've been following me for any length of time,
then I'm really hoping this doesn't come as a surprise.
But here's the cold hard truth.
The future of marketing is video.
The current present of marketing is video too.
Actually, the past of marketing is kind of video too,
especially the last five years or so,
and almost every single social media platform out there
is continuing to make prioritizing video content
their primary goal.
From the obvious players, like YouTube and TikTok,
to less obvious ones, like Instagram and LinkedIn,
video is taking up more and more of the newsfeed,
and every year it gets bigger and stronger.
Significantly more important.
This report from Wise Owl shows 86% of businesses
use video as a marketing tool,
87% of marketers say video has helped them increase traffic,
and 81% of marketers say video has helped them
directly increase sales.
But where things get really exciting
is from the customer's perspective
with people now watching an average of, wait for it,
19 hours of online video per week.
This is an increase of just one hour per week
compared to 12 months ago,
but it's an almost mind blowing 8.5 hour increase
per week over the past three years.
I mean, it's a lot of video.
And one of the best things about video marketing
is that it makes it really easy to reformat
and repurpose your content.
Essentially, I want you to imagine
that you just recorded a long form video
for your brand new YouTube channel,
and instead of just posting it
to your YouTube channel, calling it a day,
well, you could also get it transcribed.
So you now have a text version of the video
that you can post on your blog and across social media.
Use the audio from that YouTube video,
and now you have a standalone podcast episode.
Add video to your email marketing
which could increase your clicks by 300%.
And my personal favorite right now,
you could take that video and splice and dice it,
and then share it across all kinds
of different social media platforms,
including YouTube has a short,
Facebook and Instagram has reels, TikTok,
not to mention Twitter, Pinterest, and LinkedIn.
The simple fact is that most of the businesses
that I take a look at on a daily basis,
if they're feeling stuck or stalled
or they're just not getting the results
that they were hoping from
from their marketing or from their social media,
it's usually just because they're not posting
enough good video or they're not posting it at all.
Now, I appreciate the advice to just go out there
and start making videos.
Can seem kind of overwhelming.
So next, let me break down a strategy
that you can use to get started with
and possibly even end with.
That's right, this one simple thing
could be your entire marketing strategy all wrapped up
in one great, amazing, profitable point.
And that is to start by focusing on shorts.
If I had to pick a single kind of marketing media to create,
one that would work for most people most of the time
with most audiences, most markets, most industries,
most businesses out there, well my friend,
it would have to be short form vertical video.
The kind of videos that you see as YouTube shorts,
as Facebook and Instagram reels, and as TikToks.
Now, the length of a short form piece of content
is gonna vary depending on what platform
we're talking about,
and they do tend to change these things all the time
as they're experimenting with what
that perfect length actually is.
But typically, we're talking
about a video that's 60 seconds or less.
So if you're already familiar
with things like Instagram stories,
well I want you to think of an Instagram reel
or YouTube short or a TikTok as a slightly longer story.
Or if you happen to already be creating longer form videos,
like you do say on YouTube,
well then I want you to think of a short or a reel
or a TikTok as a shorter long form video.
See? Marketing's pretty easy.
Anyway, the big point here is that this
is the kind of content that's proving itself
not only with consumers right now,
but also with the algorithms,
and they're giving it a little bit of an extra push
in order to try to establish themselves
as the short form video leader.
Plus, at least when compared to creating, say,
a long form video like you would for YouTube,
well creating short form vertical video
takes a lot less time, a lot less energy.
You can record it from your phone,
you can edit it on your phone,
you can publish and really upload it
directly from your phone too.
Now, when it comes to the best places
to post your short form vertical content,
well my advice here really is everywhere and anywhere.
Now, I'm not suggesting that you go out
and start creating entire social media campaigns
and strategies for every single
different social media network.
That's exhausting and overwhelming and unnecessary.
But if you're already creating a short form vertical video,
well there's no reason not to upload it
to all of the different platforms
in order to essentially help you reach more people
for a lot less effort.
That said, if I had to pick one,
one main driver to focus on,
one main platform to create content for first,
it would have to be YouTube and YouTube shorts.
Now, this is due to a number of factors,
including some of the struggles
that other platforms have had,
namely Facebook and Instagram.
Also has to do with some of the algorithm challenges
that TikTok has gone through
as well as the leads to conversion ratio
that we're seeing there and how it's less
than other platforms.
But most importantly of all,
it's because YouTube appears to be the best position
to capitalize on this short form vertical video,
both now, over the next year,
and possibly over the next few years as well.
So start there, and if you're looking
for some other options in order to grow your business,
get more leads, and make more sales,
I do have a couple other strategies
that I wanna share with you,
and that's why I've put together some of my best
marketing tips and tricks in this video right here.
So make sure to check that out now,
and I'll see you in there in just a second.