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Actionable Marketing Podcast

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Now displaying: June, 2021
Jun 29, 2021

Old school press releases never get much hype. Usually, they are not interesting to write or read. Smart marketers and PR professionals know that well-written press releases are crucial to land press coverage and influencer relationships that build brand awareness and establish companies as the authority in their niche.

Today’s guest is Mickie Kennedy from eReleases, a press release distribution company. Mickie discusses how to get press releases right to get coverage from even the biggest media outlets.

 

Some of the highlights of the show include:

  • Why have press releases as part of a successful marketing strategy? Leverage
  • Strategic/Smart: Craft your news/announcements to do well with press releases
  • Same Message: Safe press releases or contrarian quotes are reasons for failure
  • Justify Expense: Press releases take time and money to reach their full potential
  • People respond to surveys/polls; include odd questions to be picked up by press
  • Newsworthy Criteria: When’s the right time to write and send a press release?
  • Industry Coverage: Local media is most accessible and easiest media to get
  • Improve Odds: Share press release with many people for implied endorsements
  • Positive impact? Press releases are worst marketing tool to measure ROI metrics

 

Links:

 

Quotes from Mickie Kennedy:

“That leverage, you just can’t capture elsewhere in marketing. That’s the fun thing that you sit back and watch. When it works, it works well.”

“If you can be strategic with what you’re announcing and sort of craft your own news, you can really get out there and do really well with press releases.”

“I love working with startups. About a third of the people that go on Shark Tank use eReleases to announce their segment coming up when it airs.”

“Press releases are the worst marketing tool because it’s hard as heck to measure the ROI.”

Jun 22, 2021

Brands are churning out more content now than ever before. Even though companies are paying more money to create more content to compete in a more crowded space, sometimes content falls flat and does not perform. The content doesn’t build business or drive results, rankings, or traffic. Is it time to prioritize quality over quantity?

Today’s guest is Gaetano DiNardi from Nextiva, a Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) software company. Gaetano talks about what can go wrong from publishing too much content without a strategy. He discusses how to balance content quality with content quantity based on personal and professional experience.

 

Some of the highlights of the show include:

  • Marketing Mistakes: Brands can’t buy ads to become a famous brand
  • Common Content Problems:
    • Companies don’t think about distribution
    • Lacks subject matter expertise and authoritativeness
  • Compounding Effects: Time, money, and effort spent on quantity over quality
  • Content Cleanup: Audit current content to create new optimized, quality content
  • Content Considerations:
    • Is the content good or not?
    • Does the content produce leads and signups?
    • Does the content educate and inform audiences?
    • Is content measured to evaluate effectiveness and engagement?
  • Content Creation Process and Less is More Strategy:
    • Search Google for every topic before producing content
    • Compare rankings to create better quality, higher relevance, more value
    • Develop cornerstone pillars of content and associated pages to get results

 

Links:

 

Quotes from Gaetano DiNardi:

“Companies don’t think about distribution. They just produce.”

“Most content actually lacks expertise, authoritativeness, and it doesn’t always seem like it’s coming from a subject matter expert because oftentimes, it’s not.”

“All this quantity, you have to keep maintaining it, and you have to keep it up to date.”

“These are assets that never die. They live forever if they are good quality.”

Jun 15, 2021

The marketing industry is full of talented people who come from all kinds of educational and professional backgrounds. If you want to get into the industry, but you don’t have a directly relevant college degree or previous work experience, how do you break into marketing to succeed?

Today’s guest is Melissa Berrios from Melissa Berrios Consulting and Virtualmente Libre, where she helps consult six- and seven-figure entrepreneurs on how to grow their brands and audiences. Before being a marketing consultant, Melissa spent 13 years as a project engineer.

 

Some of the highlights of the show include:

  • Unplanned Accident: How Melissa pivoted from engineering to marketing
  • Corporate Roles: Engineers who climb the corporate ladder lose creativity
  • Creative Outlets: Melissa got bit by the online world bug and started blogging
  • Content Creation: How to run, manage, market, and promote blogs
  • Decision Time: Severe depression forced Melissa to take time off and not return
  • What can I do? Continue to blog and help clients grow blogs, brands, businesses
  • Education: Melissa taught and coached herself marketing to coach clients
  • Mindset and Skillset: Engineers are problem-solvers and figure things out
  • Customer Service Skills: Marketers need to understand people, as well
  • Feel like an imposter? If you are passionate about something, start to pivot

 

Links:

 

Quotes from Melissa Berrios:

“I’ve always been a very creative person growing up and even when I was in engineering school, I was involved in a lot of the arts.”

“Working in engineering is something, it could be really a creative job, which it’s fine. But as you climb the corporate ladder and you climb into more of a management role, more of a corporate role, you lose that creativity aspect of engineering.”

“I was creating a lot of content, so content creation was very strong. I became very strong at it just because blogging required me to edit video, create graphics, and do all that stuff. I became really passionate about it.”

“If you really want to pivot and do something that you are really passionate about, you need to start.”

Jun 8, 2021

Traditional public relations (PR) is still one of the most powerful and cost-effective tactics that brands use to get attention and build a business. It may not be the latest and greatest shiny object to chase after, but it is a proven and time-tested option.

Today’s guest is Megan Bennett, CEO of Light Years Ahead. She focuses on managing clients and exceeding their expectations. Megan has helped all kinds of clients get press coverage and measure effectiveness connected to sales and revenue.

 

Some of the highlights of the show include:

  • Why do PR and media relations still matter? Best bang for marketing buck
  • Why should you invest in such tactics? Puts product, brand, message into media
  • Challenges: Self-promoting companies and cutting through competition clutter
  • Affiliate Program: Incentivize the media to cover your brand, make a commission
  • How do you find writers/editors who care? Stay in touch and stay current
  • PR Promise: Megan can't guarantee ROI, but can guarantee brand awareness
  • Case Study: How KC Cattle Company’s Wigya hot dog broke the Internet
  • Don't have money to hire PR agency? Know your audience, subscribe to service
  • Next Thing To Do: Write a really good email pitch with compelling subject line
  • Maturing Media Relations: Reach Out and don’t take ‘no’ for an answer
  • Scrubbing Lists: Target right reporters/editors by beat, geography - Google them
  • Be persistent, not annoying or repeatedly pester people who aren’t a good target
  • Keep pushing and sending pitches for more coverage from relevant targets
  • How to write a pitch: Identify story and angle, then tailor it to your media contact
  • PR Pressure: If hiring an agency, consider chemistry and feeling comfortable

 

Links:

 

Quotes from Megan Bennett:

“Once you get one good media hit, it helps to build brand awareness, so that consumers know about you.”

“You have to find a way to make your brand stand out from the rest when you're telling a story to the media.”

“Keep shopping around until you find people that you feel are really going to be passionate about your brand and want to help grow with you, not just take your money.”

“Find ways to spread the word because that’s what’s going to give your brand the credibility to move forward is the public relations and the media reviews.”

Jun 1, 2021

How can marketers leverage social media to influence search engine optimization (SEO) and boost their content? Social media does and does not influence organic search performance for content.

Today’s guest is Dmitry Dragilev is a public relations (PR) and SEO expert from Criminally Prolific. Dmitry talks about what he knows based on what Google does, what works in the industry, and what works for himself and his clients. He describes how to leverage social media to drive short- and long-term SEO gains and amplify your content through channels. 

 

Some of the highlights of the show include:

  • Remember: Social signals are not used by Google for ranking purposes
  • Why? Too much volume/information to go through; Google can’t index everything
  • What ranks? Getting your brand reputation and recognition on social media
  • Google indexes social media content when assets are used to share information
  • Simple Idea: Get people to share content w/ other people to find and link to it
  • No Shortcuts: Google always keeps quality content at the top of search results
  • Relationship Building: Help people bring value to people, then they will help you
  • Two Things: To rank on Google, your need epic content with links and traffic

 

Links:

 

Quotes from Dmitry Dragilev:

“Social signals are not used by Google for ranking purposes. I think that's really important to remember. If you are trying to think about that or trying to rank that Google will not use those social signals to rank you.”

“Your brand reputation, your brand recognition, and getting that out there via social media do indirectly impact your rankings.”

“Those assets, which are going to be linked to from many different pages, many different sites, and used in all these different posts, that's where I think the gold mine really lies with sharing information on social that people can use in all sorts of different avenues.”

“The name of the game should be spending time and money to create quality, engaging content. I think that is worth every penny. Whether it works well on social media or organically, it should probably be both.”

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