- Don't try to go viral.
Post COVID what you're going to see is
a lot of people continuing with online commerce.
Which is going to increase the demand for digital marketing,
but it's also going to increase how competitive
digital marketing is as well.
Focus on what you're naturally better at
because that's what you'll enjoy.
And just double down on being the best person
at that one thing.
(upbeat music)
- [Neil] Before we get started
make sure you subscribe to this channel.
And if you're on YouTube click the alert notification.
- With the pandemic, there's been a big boom
on anything internet based.
It's convenient, you can get it delivered to you,
you don't have to worry about COVID.
And what you'll end up seeing in the future as well is
because people are starting to order off of Amazon.
People who have never ordered before,
like my parents or people who are older,
ordered online sites now, right?
Like they're ordering from e-commerce sites.
They're getting used to it,
they're seeing how actually it can be cheaper
and more convenient than even going to the store.
So post COVID what you're going to see is
a lot of people continuing with online commerce,
which is going to increase the demand for digital marketing.
But it's also going to increase how competitive
digital marketing is as well.
Which means you're going to have to spend more money,
spend more time, more resources to get the same results
that you were getting before.
- On the topic of digital marketing trends.
We also wanted to cover,
is there such a thing as content situation?
The answer might surprise you.
- When we look at content marketing.
The stats are pretty basic
in which there's over a billion blogs
and there's roughly 7 billion people in this world.
So you have roughly one blog for every seven people.
That's a lot of content.
And then you have TikTok, you have LinkedIn,
you have Clubhouse, you have Instagram.
The number of social platforms out there
has continually been increasing.
People are now repurposing content,
continually trying to build an audience.
There's so much noise in the marketplace
that it's harder to stand out.
No matter what you're doing,
you can jump over Lamborghini's
and if you're jumping over Lamborghini's
and it used to go viral on YouTube
everyone's jumping over Lamborghini's right now,
and it doesn't go that viral anymore.
The point I'm trying to make is
there is a lot of content
and they'll continually be more content.
And even though people are producing content at mass scale
I personally don't see it actually decreasing over time.
What I do see is people struggling to stand out.
So you're going to see more noise
and even if more content is being produced
you're not going to see as much content stand out.
Or you're not going to notice much.
Just like, you know how you have banner blindness,
you see banner ads so often you tend to ignore them.
You'll start doing similar things with content.
And there's a lot of tools that are coming up
which AI is helping you create content,
actually becoming easier to create it.
There's tools like Canva
that help you create the visual images even quicker.
So it's just going to cause more people
to create even more content.
But again, I believe people are going to have
quote unquote, content blindness,
similar to banner blindness,
in which they're going to ignore most of the content.
- And because we began the topic of content marketing
I had to ask, what would his predictions
for some content marketing trends be?
- There's two big ones.
So one is lives like this.
Think about doing a podcast interview but on Facebook.
And you can use the streaming platforms to go live
on Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, Instagram.
And you can do an interview everywhere at the same time,
which can help you grow quicker.
The second content format that
I'm experimenting with is reels.
Okay, so everyone has a different version of reel.
Shorts, there's TikTok, right?
It's been a very pro platform,
but the content is pretty much the same.
If you create these quote unquote reels,
what ends up happening is the people
who see that content can be more
than just your followers,
so it's another easy way to grow.
- Actually Pinterest recently launched their story pins.
Not sure if you have heard about them
but there are basically the same kind
of format such as reels,
but they enable you to create story pins
which are up to 20 pages long.
So you can combine your reels
and they are super, super powerful
for organic reach as well.
So anyone looking to repurpose their TikToks,
their reels, their YouTube shorts,
Pinterest story pins are definitely
a viable options as well.
- And it's funny, not to many people talk about Pinterest.
Pinterest is one of the best sites if you're in e-commerce
and you're trying to generate sales.
- But because content marketing is only one portion
of digital marketing.
I also wanted to ask Neil,
how can a beginner at digital marketing
learn it effectively?
Here is his best advice.
- The easiest way to learn digital marketing
is just go and do it.
Create your own website, go start a WordPress website.
You can do it for free on wordpress.com
or you can buy your own domain name
and you know, pop up like a site on DreamHost
and crank something out.
And just try to learn to market your own site.
Go read sites, whether it's, you know,
mine at Neilpatel.com or someone else's, that's fine.
And just go and try to market your own site and get traffic.
The best way of learning is just doing it yourself.
It's just not, you can read all you want but,
if you don't actually implement
it's not going to take you that far.
- After you've gained knowledge in digital marketing
as a whole you'd also want to gain knowledge
in one specific industry.
Here's how to pick your niche according to Neil Patel.
- Figure out what you have more natural skills
and start with that.
And just focus.
People used to tell you that you can do everything.
You can't do everything.
I can't be a doctor.
I'm not good at it.
I don't have the stomach to see the insides of someone
or their blood.
Like that's just not me.
Focus on what you're naturally better at
because that's what you'll enjoy.
And just double down on it.
Be the best person at that one thing.
- And to wrap up the topic of digital marketing,
I also wanted to learn what are some of the best resources
that Neil Patel utilizes himself.
Here is his list.
- I read a lot of blogs, more than books because
they tend to be more up-to-date.
And then I do a ton of experimentation.
- Straight to the point answer.
Do you have any book suggestions for our audience?
- I keep up with Search Engine Land,
Search Engine Journal, MAS, Backlinko.
But yeah, those are the main blogs that I'm keeping
up to date with.
And then the other thing I do is
track all your competitors
and see what they're doing
and see what kind of content they're pushing out.
And it'll give you ideas.
The other thing to do is
continue to look out for your competitions
on podcast interviews.
A lot of times they spill their beans on
how they're growing or what tactics they're doing
and listen to that because it will give you ideas as well.
- After we have discussed digital marketing as a whole
as well as the future of digital marketing,
I wanted to learn what is Neil Patel's
social media strategy.
Here's what he's shared with us.
- I have this formula that's been working really well
in which 40% of the time I create beginner content.
Beginner content being like how to tie a tie,
how to install a toilet, stuff like that.
I know that's extremely beginner but
that's the stuff that people are searching for
but it doesn't create tons of social shares
and it doesn't create tons of backlinks.
10% of the time I'm creating advanced content.
Content with stats, data, that shows me as an expert.
Stuff that'll get a lot of social shares, backlinks,
but it doesn't generate that many links.
Then 20% of the time I'm focusing on
rewriting older articles.
I go into Google search console,
I see the older articles and I compare from,
I take my last 30 days compared to
the previous 30 days of the last year.
So I'm comparing my last 30 days to the last year
during the same time period in essence.
And I'm seeing which content generated
more traffic back then than it does now.
And I look at that content pieces
and I see my competitors ones
and I rewrite mine and try to make it
way better than theirs.
So that way I can get more traffic to my older articles.
And I do that 20% of time and 30% time,
which gets me to 100%,
I go and I promote my content.
Hitting up people on social media,
asking them to share my content,
offering to share their content.
Emailing people I link out to
asking them to share my content.
But like processes like that
just really help get more traffic.
- And because I know that a lot of the audience
of Neil Patel as well as my audience
is from the younger generation,
I had to ask him,
what would the best advice for his younger self be?
- I'd tell them to focus.
When I was 20 years old at A-D-D.
I tried doing way too many things.
I should've just focused.
And if I stuck with marketing
and I stuck with just practicing and helping them
with their marketing versus trying to do too many companies
I would have had one company that was much bigger,
much larger, doing much better, but I didn't do that.
I had A-D-D.
I would, you know, people would tell me
about a really cool idea.
Like, Hey, we should end up creating Invisalign
through 3D printers or we should do some random stuff.
And I'd be like, ah, cool.
Let me give you some money.
Or let me try that.
I should've just focused my energy and my efforts.
- And there is actually a great quote
from my native language.
It says from two chairs on the ground,
basically if you try to move fast,
if you try too many things,
your focus is going to be diverted.
And you're going to be ending up with nothing.
This is something which a lot of people,
especially in the social media marketing world
should not take for granted.
Yes, you can repurpose content.
Yes, you can be on multiple places at the same time
and grow simultaneously
but unless you have those processes set in place
you're going to struggle with
multiple social media platforms.
I couldn't also miss the chance to ask him
what would his best advice
to social media marketing experts be?
This is what Neil Patel had to say.
- Don't try to go viral.
You know, the other day I was talking to a friend
and he's like, how many video views do you have?
And I'm like, I have 37 million video views.
And I did it without going viral.
And I was like, it's just consistency.
You keep creating content.
You keep pushing it out there on the social platforms.
You'll keep doing well.
And people are gunning for that.
Let me just create that one hit wonder and get lucky.
And I'm like, that's not in your control
but what is in your control is consistency, hard work,
and just doing it for a very, very long time.