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How to Actually Win at SEO & Marketing in a Tough Environment with Eric Siu

Eric Siu is the founder of digital marketing agency Single Grain. He also hosts two podcasts: Marketing School & Leveling Up, which get over 2.1M monthly downloads combined. Over the years, he has helped companies such as Amazon, Uber, Airbnb, and Salesforce acquire more customers.

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Guest Resources

Leveling Up with Eric Siu on YouTube – Check out Eric’s channel on YouTube!

Marketing School – Check out the Marketing School Podcast.

3 Value Bombs

1) To create something truly lasting, often requires more time than people expect, more like two or three decades. However many people lack the endurance for such a long-term commitment.

2) Many believe SEO is losing its relevance, but that is not entirely true. As long as people search for things online, SEO remains important.

3) Those who embrace AI and prioritize continuous learning will thrive, while others may rely on universal basic income. This shift is exciting as it is an opportunity for the best to rise to the top.

Sponsors

HubSpot: Starting a business doesn’t have to be so hard. Go to ClickHubSpot.com/ent to download HubSpot’s Entrepreneurship Kit for free right now!

ThriveTime Show: Attend the world’s highest rated and most reviewed business growth workshop taught personally by Clay Clark & football great Tim Tebow at ThriveTimeShow.com/eofire!

Ziprecruiter: Four out of five employers who post on ZipRecruiter get a quality candidate within the first day! Try it for free at this exclusive web address: ZipRecruiter.com/fire! ZipRecruiter. The smartest way to hire.

Show Notes

**Click the time stamp to jump directly to that point in the episode.

Today’s Audio MASTERCLASS:  How To Actually Win At SEO & Marketing In A Tough Environment with Eric Siu

[1:14] – Eric shares some things he believes about becoming successful that most people disagree with.

  • He believes that to create something truly lasting, often requires more time than people expect, more like two or three decades. However many people lack the endurance for such a long-term commitment.

[2:14] – What is working in SEO today?

  • Many believe SEO is losing its relevance, but that is not entirely true. As long as people search for things online, SEO remains important.
    • One effective strategy they use at their ad agency, and for their clients, is called programmatic SEO.
    • For example, TripAdvisor, attracts millions of visitors from Google each month without paying for ads. They have mastered this over decades, but now, thanks to advancements like ChatGPT and APIs, even smaller players can create and rank for numerous pages efficiently.
    • They have targeted various permutations of service pages for their agency.
    • Similarly, TripAdvisor ranks for countless phrases related to travel destinations and activities. This approach allows for massive scalability in today’s AI-driven landscape.

[4:13] – Eric gives another example.

  • Another aspect is AI-assisted content creation. For their weekday podcast, they record 15-minute audio episodes. They realized they were missing out on SEO by not having text content. So, they use the automatic AI transcription provided by riverside.fm and feed it into tools like ChatGPT.
  • It converts the transcript into a blog post with headers and a headline, covering about 60 to 70% of the work. Then, a human steps in to fact-check, and add statistics, links, and media, completing the remaining 30 to 40%.
  • The result is a well-rounded piece that showcases the synergy between AI and human input, proving even more effective than our programmatic SEO efforts.
  • Those are just two examples of successful SEO strategies they have implemented.

[5:12] – What does Programmatic SEO mean?

  • Programmatic SEO involves creating pages in bulk to target specific keywords you want to rank for.
  • You compile a list of these keywords, potentially hundreds or thousands, and then create pages around them.
  • For example, pages like “Things to do in Rome” or “Things to do in Japan” are typical examples.

[6:40] – Eric talks about AI AI-assisted content and gives some examples.

  • Eric provided an example with Marketing School, where they take their podcast transcripts and involve a human to expand on them.
  • This is done because the original content might not be sufficient for SEO purposes. By using tools like ChatGPT to expand the transcript before human intervention, you can increase the potential to rank for long-tail keywords.
  • These are more specific phrases, like “red basketball shoes,” rather than just “shoes.”

[9:08] – A timeout to thank our sponsors!

  • HubSpot: Starting a business doesn’t have to be so hard. Go to ClickHubSpot.com/ent to download HubSpot’s Entrepreneurship Kit for free right now!
  • Ziprecruiter: Four out of five employers who post on ZipRecruiter get a quality candidate within the first day! Try it for free at this exclusive web address: ZipRecruiter.com/fire! ZipRecruiter. The smartest way to hire.
  • ThriveTime Show: Attend the world’s highest rated and most reviewed business growth workshop taught personally by Clay Clark & football great Tim Tebow at ThriveTimeShow.com/eofire!

[12:02] – How are you diversifying your marketing and why is doing so important?

  • Eric would not choose to start an SEO venture today because it is becoming increasingly challenging, despite his expertise in the field. Instead, he is focused on leveraging his podcasts, “Marketing School” and “Leveling Up,” which are recorded live with interviews and discussions.
  • They repurpose the content into various formats, including long-form videos for YouTube and audio for podcasts. They create shorter clips for platforms like YouTube Shorts, Instagram Reels, and TikTok to increase discoverability. They are also prioritizing Twitter for engagement and idea generation.
  • Recently, their social media efforts have garnered around 12 million views in the last month, with plans to potentially increase that by three to four times.

[13:36] – What is another strategy that you and Neil, either together or separately, have found effective and are discussing on the show or suggesting to clients?

  • Eric invested in a company called School about two years ago, led by Sam Ovens, who strongly believes in the power of communities. Rather than just building an audience, the focus is on nurturing and retaining people through community engagement.
  • These communities can take various forms like Facebook groups, Reddit, Discord, or Slack channels. The school operates like a private Facebook group but offers more control. Eric emphasizes the importance of community building for retention and nurturing relationships.
  • He draws parallels to his experiences with groups like YPO and EO, predicting a trend towards niche communities like those for podcasters or marketers. Eric and Neil recently created a group called the Agency Owners Association, targeting agency owners.
  • They aim to drive people to these communities after opt-ins, recognizing the potential for retention and offering tailored services or products within them.

[16:00] – What else are you doing in the AI marketing area and what else do we need to know?

  • Internally, they have a system where they can identify visitors to their website, and enrich their data with information such as their email and LinkedIn URL, as well as pages they have visited.
  •  Using AI, they can then continue to provide them with relevant content from their YouTube channel, podcasts, or blog for the past 90 days. This approach focuses on nurturing visitors with helpful content, even if they are not immediately interested in working with their agency.
  • In the B2B space, it is crucial to market to the majority of visitors who are not ready to buy right away. They are developing a customer acquisition system aimed at increasing booked meetings, eventually targeting enterprises willing to pay for qualified meetings.
  • By streamlining this process with minimal human involvement, we aim to enhance efficiency and satisfaction for both individuals and companies.

[18:31] – Eric gives his takeaway.

  • Those who embrace AI and prioritize continuous learning will thrive, while others may rely on universal basic income. This shift is exciting as it is an opportunity for the best to rise to the top.

[19:48] – Eric gives his call to action.

[21:00] – Thank you to our Sponsors!

  • HubSpot: Starting a business doesn’t have to be so hard. Go to ClickHubSpot.com/ent to download HubSpot’s Entrepreneurship Kit for free right now!
  • ThriveTime Show: Attend the world’s highest rated and most reviewed business growth workshop taught personally by Clay Clark & football great Tim Tebow at ThriveTimeShow.com/eofire!

Killer Resources!

1) The Common Path to Uncommon Success: JLD’s 1st traditionally published book! Over 3000 interviews with the world’s most successful Entrepreneurs compiled into a 17-step roadmap to financial freedom and fulfillment!

2) Free Podcast Course: Learn from JLD how to create and launch your podcast!

3) Podcasters’ Paradise: The #1 podcasting community in the world!

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