MackCollier.com

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Marketing Writing Bootcamp is #Blogchat’s Sponsor For May

UPDATE: Here’s the transcript from tonight’s #Blogchat on your blogging voice and tone.

I’m delighted to announce that MarketingProfs’ Marketing Writing Bootcamp is sponsoring #Blogchat in May!  They are also sponsoring The Fan-Damn-Tastic Marketing Show in May and June as well, so I’m thrilled to have them on board.

Here’s the basics about the Marketing Writing Bootcamp:

Course begins June 11

· 13 classes, each 30-40 minutes long

· Entirely online, available on computer, tablet, phone

· Nearly 8 hours of online instruction

· This is the fifth (5th) year MarketingProfs has held the course. It’s been a different mix of instructors and topics each year, and continues to grow.

· Each class is taught by a subject matter expert, specific to that each topic

· Certificate issued upon completion of the course

· Over $1000 in freebies for registering (online seminars, video tutorials, additional writing classes, how-to-guides, and more!)

· Ideal for anyone who writes as part of their job responsibilities

 

And if you register via this link and use promo code BLOGCHAT you will receive an additional $200 discount!

Now the great thing about having the Marketing Writing Bootcamp sponsor #Blogchat in May is that we will focus on writing topics each Sunday in the month of May!  Writing is always a popular topic among #Blogchat members and we’ll focus there in May.  Tonight’s (5-3-2015) topic will be How to Find Your Blogging Voice and Select the Proper Tone For the Writing on Your Blog.

But wait….there’s more!

The Marketing Writing Bootcamp is focused on helping you solve your writing problems and becoming a better writer.  To that end, MarketingProfs will be giving away one free pass to the online Marketing Writing Bootcamp.  In order to be eligible to win the pass, all you have to do is write and publish a blog post by 5-31, discussing your biggest writing challenge.  When it comes to writing, what holds you back?  Share what your biggest writing challenge and MarketingProfs will select one post at the end of the 5-31 #Blogchat to win a free pass to its online Marketing Writing Bootcamp!  You can start sharing your entries during the 5-10 #Blogchat!  Make sure in your post that you note that the post is written as your chance to win a pass to the Marketing Writing Bootcamp and please link to the Marketing Writing Bootcamp at URL http://mprofs.com/blogchatmwb

So remember, use promo code BLOGCHAT to register for the Marketing Writing Bootcamp and you will receive a $200 discount off the $595 price!

See y’all tonight at 8pm Central on Twitter!

 

 

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My Blog Traffic and Podcast Audience Results For April

For every month in 2015, I’ve set specific goals for growing my blog readership, and podcast audience.  The end goal is that by December this blog will have at least 100,000 visitors for that month, and the podcast will be downloaded at least 10,000 times for December.  Every month I am going to write a post like this recapping how I did in the previous month, and share any lessons I have learned.  The goal is to help you learn how to build a blog readership and podcast audience as I do.

First, here were my goals for April:

Blog – At least 62,000 visitors

Podcast – At least 1,500 downloads

Let’s start out by looking at how the blog did in March.

My blog traffic in April was 40,980 visitors, averaging 1,366 visitors a day.  In March, the blog’s traffic was 48,901, averaging 1,577 a day.  So this is another big traffic dip after one in March as well.  If you’ve been following these monthly updates, you know that in February I made some backend changes to the blog.  I switched from Godaddy’s shared to managed WordPress hosting, and I deleted a ton of plugins.  The upside to these moves is that site performance, especially load times, was greatly improved.  Avg load times for the site went from about 6 seconds before, to around 2-3 seconds now.  Unfortunately, as soon as I made these changes, I noticed that traffic started dropping, especially search traffic.  Here’s how each category of traffic did in April vs March:

Search traffic – Down 6%

Direct traffic – Down 24%

Referral – Down 9%

Social – Down 80%

Email – Up 133%

One of the reasons why I wanted to do this monthly update on my blog traffic and podcast audience numbers is that it forces me to learn exactly why any numbers are moving up or down.  Lets look at each of the numbers above:

First, search traffic is down 6%, although that’s not as much as it dropped from February to March.  In fact, let’s look at the last four weeks of April vs the last four weeks of March as far as search traffic:

BlogSearchTrafficApril

Now when you look at search traffic this way, search traffic for April was actually fractionally above search traffic in March.  Here’s why (I think): As I said, in February I made a lot of backend changes, and almost as soon as I did, search traffic started falling.  One of the changes I made was to deactivate the JetPack plugin.  So I added it back (around April 3rd), and noticed when I did that one of the services the Jetpack plugin has is ‘Enhanced Distribution’, which Jetpack describes as “Jetpack will automatically take the great published content from your blog or website and share it instantly with third party services like search engines, increasing your reach and traffic.”

As soon as I reactivated Jetpack, I noticed a slight tick up in search traffic.  So I am cautiously optimistic that search traffic will increase in May.

Direct traffic was also down, but I think with the way Google Analytics reports that a lot of the traffic it classifies as direct is actually search.  An example of why I believe this is the Direct traffic GA reported for this page, creating a brand ambassador program.  This is actually a page here, not a post, and it’s not easy to find (I need to change that). But if you google the term ‘creating a brand ambassador program’, it’s one of the top results.  And in March it had 33 visitors, and in April that shot up to 121 visitors.  So who knows?

Referral traffic is down 9% but I’m not too worried about that since referral traffic from the top 4 sources were up and 7 of the top 10.

Social traffic was way down, but that’s because I stopped sharing as many links to my posts on Twitter last month.  At one point a few weeks ago I was tweeting out links to my articles every 30 minutes all day.  I did that mainly as an experiment to see how much social traffic would jump and it did.  But it also began to honk off some of my followers to see so many links so I scaled back to one or 2 a day now.

Email jumped, but it was mostly from one post on 4-12-2015 about making your blog mobile-friendly and the #Blogchat topic.

I wrote 12 posts in April, versus 13 in March.  The goal for May is to get up at least 16 posts.

Podcast Numbers and Overview for April

While blog traffic was down sharply last month, podcast downloads spiked sharply in April.

The goal for April was at least 1,500 downloads of the podcast, and The Fan-Damn-Tastic Marketing Show actually had 3,784 downloads in April. HUGE numbers.  Here’s the number of daily downloads so far this year:

Podcast DLs April
 As you can see, nice gains in March and even greater gains in April.  I’m beyond thrilled with the growth of the podcast.

So those are my blog and podcast results for April.  Here’s my goals for May:

Blog traffic – At least 65,000 visitors

Podcast – At least 2,000 downloads

These were the goals I set for both at the start of the year.  So it looks like the blog’s goal will be all but impossible to hit, and it looks like the podcast’s goal will be all but impossible to miss.  Honestly I will be happy with any growth for both at this point.

I’ll be back in one month to share my results for May!

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The Fan-Damn-Tastic Marketing Show Episode 24: How to Create Fans Like a REAL Rock Star Does

Hey y’all!  Welcome to the 24th episode of The Fan-Damn-Tastic Marketing Show!  In today’s episode I talk about Amanda Palmer leverages social media to create and cultivate fans, and also what your brand can learn from her efforts.  I am mention a recent Forbes article where Amanda talked about some of the things she’s learned from using social media as a channel to connect with her fans.

PPC_200x200 Standard no codeBut before I get into the Show Notes, a special thank you to MarketingProfs for becoming The Fan-Damn-Tastic Marketing Show’s first sponsor!  This episode is brought to you by the Marketing Writing Bootcamp, from Marketing Profs.  The Marketing Writing Bootcamp begins on June 11th and features 13 classes with almost 8 hours of instruction!  You can learn more here about the Marketing Writing Bootcamp and if you enroll with promo code FANDAMN you’ll save $200 on Marketing writing bootcamp. Plus, you’ll get over $1,000 worth of Marketing Profs seminars, classes, and video tutorials, free – just for registering!

The Marketing Writing Bootcamp will be the sponsor of The Fan-Damn-Tastic Marketing Show for the next 2 months.  If your company is interested in sponsoring #FanDamnShow, slots are available starting in July.  You can learn more about sponsoring The Fan-Damn-Tastic Marketing Show and get rates by clicking here.

Show Notes:

1:04 – How Amanda Palmer connects with her fans via social media

3:14 – How Amanda uses Twitter as a platform to directly connect with her fans

4:04 – How Amanda used #LOFNOTC to generate $11,000 in merchandise sales in 12 hours, via Twitter

6:55 – The success of Amanda’s Kickstarter project in 2012

10:00 – Insights from the Forbes interview with Amanda into what she’s learned from connecting with her fans via social media.

10:45 – Why Amanda purposely over-delivered on her Kickstarter project

13:08 – The ‘real’ secret to how Amanda successfully uses social media to create and cultivate so many fans

16:30 – The power of being second, and how it can help your social media marketing efforts be successful

 

Here is the link to the Forbes article that I reference in this episode.  And here’s the link to learn more about MarketingProfs’ Marketing Writing Bootcamp.  Make sure if you register for the Bootcamp to use the promo code FANDAMN to save $200 on the course!

Here’s where you can download and listen to the episode directly.  And if you can, please subscribe to The Fan-Damn-Tastic Marketing Show on iTunes, and I would *love* it if you could review the podcast on iTunes as well.  Also, #FanDamnShow is now available on Stitcher as well!

Also, don’t forget that sponsorships are now available for The Fan-Damn-Tastic Marketing Show. This page that has all the information on how your brand can sponsor #FanDamnShow and the rates. Please note that all available sponsor slots (starting with July) will be filled on a first-come, first-served basis, so please email me if you are interested in sponsoring #FanDamnShow.

We’ll talk again next week!

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The Fan-Damn-Tastic Marketing Show Episode 23: Your Fans Are the Cool Kids

Hey y’all! In this episode of #FanDamnShow, I talk about how your fans drive sales by encouraging non-committed customers to try your brand.  I also reference a study done by a Princeton professor who wanted to learn if a product’s popularity was driven more by quality or positive WOM.  The results might surprise you, and I talk about the study and what was uncovered in this episode.

Here’s the NPR episode that talks about the study and interviews the Princeton professor that conducted it.  Just fascinating!

Here’s where you can download and listen to the episode directly.  And if you can, please subscribe to The Fan-Damn-Tastic Marketing Show on iTunes, and I would *love* it if you could review the podcast on iTunes as well.  Also, #FanDamnShow is now available on Stitcher as well!

Also, don’t forget that sponsorships are now available for The Fan-Damn-Tastic Marketing Show. This page that has all the information on how your brand can sponsor #FanDamnShow and the rates. Please note that the sponsorship slots for May and June are on hold.  All available sponsor slots (starting with July) will be filled on a first-come, first-served basis, so please email me if you are interested in sponsoring #FanDamnShow.

We’ll talk again next week!

 

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The Fan-Damn-Tastic Marketing Show Episode 22: Your Brand’s Guide to Dealing with Trolls

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In last week’s episode of #FanDamnShow, we discussed how to respond to a customer that leaves a complaint or negative comment online.  But what happens if you aren’t dealing with a customer?  What if you encounter a troll that’s trying to make your brand look bad?  This week’s episode walks you through exactly how to identify a troll, and how to respond to them!

Here’s where you can download and listen to the episode directly.  And if you can, please subscribe to The Fan-Damn-Tastic Marketing Show on iTunes, and I would *love* it if you could review the podcast on iTunes as well.  Also, #FanDamnShow is now available on Stitcher as well! BTW, thank y’all SO much for helping to grow #fandamnshow, the podcast had over 1,500 downloads in March and it’s almost topped that for this month just two weeks into April.  As a result, I’ve started to get requests for sponsor #FanDamnShow so I’ve created a custom page that has all the information on how your brand can sponsor #FanDamnShow and the rates. All available sponsor slots will be filled on a first-come, first-served basis, so please email me if you are interested in sponsoring #FanDamnShow.

We’ll talk again next week!

Pic via Flickr user sboneham

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Has Content Glut Killed Content Engagement?

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Or do we simply need to change our expectations for engagement around the content we create?

Last year when I decided to launch The Fan-Damn-Tastic Marketing Show, I tried to focus on how I could make my podcast different to help it stand out from everyone else that was jumping into podcasting.  I came up with three ideas:

1 – I didn’t want to have a co-host, and I didn’t want to make the podcast an interview podcast.  So many podcasts interview guests, and IMO few do it well.  And the few that do, like Kerry Gorgone’s Marketing Smarts do it so well that you’re probably not going to come close to what Kerry does, so it’s better to fight the battles you have a chance of winning.

2 – I didn’t want to have every episode be 45 minutes to an hour.  I just don’t have time for it, and now that more and more people are listening to podcasts during travels back and forth from work (which is typically a trip that takes less than 30 mins), a longer episode doesn’t work as well.  Plus, what I’ve noticed from a lot of podcasts, whether they have a co-host or not, is that many podcasters seem to approach their podcast as a pseudo radio show.  The opening 5-10 mins of the podcast is off-topic banter and small talk that has zero to do with that show’s topic.  Some listeners love it, I hate it.  Don’t waste my time, get into the show and cut out the fluff.  So I wanted to shoot for 20 mins or less per episode for my podcast.

3 – I wanted to create a way for listeners and fans of the show to have a real stake in the direction that the podcast took.  My idea was, since #fandamnshow is focused on how companies can create and cultivate fans, I wanted to let the fans and loyal listeners of the podcast have ownership of the show’s direction.  I didn’t really see any other podcasts really making an effort to empower their listeners and give them a way to make the show feel like their own.  The way I wanted to do this was to encourage listeners to engage with me and fellow listeners via the #fandamnshow tweets.  My thinking was that this would be a way for listeners to share their thoughts on the show and also suggest future topics, etc.  And I could pick topics that listeners suggested, give them shoutouts during the podcasts, and they could see that their voice was being incorporated into the flow of #fandamnshow so in many ways it would become their podcast, as much as it was mine.

 

Fast-forward almost a year, and #3 hasn’t happened at all.  I’ve been lucky enough to have some listeners (thank y’all!) use the #fandamnshow hashtag to promote the podcast, but there’s been almost none of the discussion around the podcast itself via the hashtag that I was hoping for.

And yet, the audience for #fandamnshow is growing at a rate that I never would have dreamed was possible when I launched the show.  Last month the show had over 1,500 downloads, which was a 170% increase over the previous month.  April looks like it could double the number of downloads from March.  So the show’s audience is rapidly expanding, but the engagement via discussions I am getting around the show via comments here, emails and tweets with #fandamnshow continue to be very low.

Now granted, a lot of that is simply a byproduct of podcasts not being the best channels for creating engagement via discussions.  As I said, a lot of people listen to podcasts while they are on the go, and mobile commenting isn’t a very convenient way to engage.  At the same time, I see discussions here have fallen for the last couple of years as well, and I’ve already talked about how no one is talking on Twitter anymore (Although I do like the recent ability Twitter added that lets you add a comment to a RT.  That’s a nice touch).

The reality is that most of us have decided that we would rather spend our time consuming content, than engaging in discussions about and around that content.  The time I spend crafting a comment about a post/podcast/video is time I could take to read another post or watch another cat video on Facebook.

From a business context, this change in how we define engagement could be a good thing.  For too long, businesses have relied on ‘soft’ metrics to try to measure social media success.  Comments, Likes, RTs and Favorites were tracked, metrics that have little correlation to real business growth.  Since these forms of engagement are harder to find, businesses will have to adapt and measure/track more relevant forms of engagement, like leads generated, white papers downloaded and click throughs.

But for all of us, I think we need to realize that the heady days of 2006-2008, when you could create almost any piece of social content and a discussion would spring up around it, are gone.

Pic via Flickr user Udo Springfield

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The Fan-Damn-Tastic Marketing Show Episode 21: From Rants to Raving Fans

Hey y’all! Welcome to the 21st episode of #Fandamnshow! Today I talk to you about how to respond to complaints from customers online and turn them into raving fans of your brand! This topic is SO misunderstood by brands, so I wanted to spend an episode walking you through the process for not only responding to an angry customer, but doing so in a way that converts them into a passionate fan of your brand.

Show notes:

2:00 – Understanding the mindset of the customer that’s complaining about your brand.  Understanding what’s motivating their behavior is vital to your brand responding to them correctly.

2:50 – How does the average customer handle a problem they have with a product or service?  What’s their response?

4:00 – By the time the customer complains about your brand online, they are already aggravated, and here’s why.

5:50 – What every customer that complains about your brand online wishes you understood about WHY they are complaining.

6:20 – The seven steps you should take to respond to an angry customer online, and convert them into a passionate fan of your brand.

 

Here’s where you can download and listen to the episode directly.  And if you can, please subscribe to The Fan-Damn-Tastic Marketing Show on iTunes, and I would *love* it if you could review the podcast on iTunes as well.  Also, #FanDamnShow is now available on Stitcher as well! BTW, thank y’all SO much for helping to grow #fandamnshow, the podcast had over 1,500 downloads in March at it looks like it will easily top that in April.  As a result, I’ve started to get requests for sponsor #FanDamnShow so I’ve created a custom page that has all the information on how your brand can sponsor #FanDamnShow and the rates. All available sponsor slots will be filled on a first-come, first-served basis, so please email me if you are interested in sponsoring #FanDamnShow.

We’ll talk again next week!

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The Fan-Damn-Tastic Marketing Show Episode 20: Earning the Trust of Your Customers

Hey y’all! Welcome to the 20th episode of The Fan-Damn-Tastic Marketing Show! In this episode I discuss the value of appreciating the point-of-view of your customer and how it helps your brand win your customer’s trust.

Show Notes:

1:20 – History lesson: How James Baker secured a key agreement with Russia by focusing on what the Soviets needed to make the deal work for them

4:15 – A smart brand thinks like a smart politician, and considers the point of view of the customer and ‘what do they want out of this?’

4:50 – How this can be applied to your marketing and social media strategy, how to create valuable content and experiences for your customers

5:30 – Getting your customers ‘on board’ with your efforts by addressing their wants and needs

6:30 – Customer-centric marketing wins trust.  Period.

8:30 – Creating a win-win, what do we (the brand) get out of this, what does the customer get out of it?  Both parties need to benefit.

 

Here’s where you can download and listen to the episode directly.  And if you can, please subscribe to The Fan-Damn-Tastic Marketing Show on iTunes, and I would *love* it if you could review the podcast on iTunes as well.  Also, #FanDamnShow is now available on Stitcher as well! BTW, thank y’all SO much for helping to grow #fandamnshow, I will have a comprehensive write-up tomorrow here, but the number of downloads grew in March by 170% over February!  Love that the show is starting to build momentum, and I’ll talk about that more tomorrow.

Thanks for listening!

 

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The Fan-Damn-Tastic Marketing Show Episode 19: Learning From Your Unhappy Customers

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Hey y’all! Welcome to the 19th episode of The Fan-Damn-Tastic Marketing Show! In this episode I talk about the value of your unhappy customers (don’t you love that quote?).  Unhappy customers are such an amazing source of vital business feedback that is often overlooked.  We’ll talk about harnessing that value in this episode of #fandamnshow.

Show Notes:

1:30 – Why you should listen to your unhappy customers

3:00 – Two types of unhappy customers, and the differences between them

3:15 – Why your fans are sometimes not the best source of feedback when it comes to your business’ problems

4:45 – Fans sometimes re-interpret problems as actually being positives or non-issues

9:20 – Unhappy customers will go the extra mile to bring issues to your attention.

 

Here’s where you can download and listen to the episode directly.  And if you can, please subscribe to The Fan-Damn-Tastic Marketing Show on iTunes, and I would *love* it if you could review the podcast on iTunes as well.  Also, #FanDamnShow is now available on Stitcher as well! Thanks for listening!

Pic via Flickr user Celestine Chua

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The Fan-Damn-Tastic Marketing Show Episode 18: Your Customer Cultivation Strategy

Hey y’all!  Welcome to the 18th episode of The Fan-Damn-Tastic Marketing Show!  Last week’s episode talked about cultivating customers, and I wanted to talk a bit more about that this week and give you a few very simple examples of how you can do this on Twitter by showing you how I do the same thing in growing the #blogchat community.

Show Notes:

1:20 – The problem with focusing on customer acquisition vs retaining existing customers.

2:15 – How I cultivate new members for #blogchat and how you can do the same thing to cultivate existing customers on Twitter into fans of your brand.

3:00 – Segmenting your customers and understanding how each group has different needs and how you can engage with each to move them to the next level and cultivate them into ultimately being fans of your brand.

4:15 – New #blogchat users vs new customers of your brand.  What I do to help them come back the following week and how you can do the same to convince them to keep interacting with you and buying from your brand.

9:15 – How I engage existing #blogchat members and how you can do the same with existing customers.

12:00 – How I look to engage and reward the most active members of #blogchat and ideas for how you can do the same with customers that frequently engage with you, especially in a positive way.

The idea is, how can we first identify which segment a customer falls into (New, Existing, Customer with some affinity toward our brand, Brand Advocate), and what can we do to move them to the next level?  I think this episode will really help you frame your thoughts for how to do this and create a Customer Cultivation Strategy.

Here’s where you can download the episode directly.  And if you can, please subscribe to The Fan-Damn-Tastic Marketing Show on iTunes, and I would *love* it if you could review the podcast on iTunes as well.  Also, #FanDamnShow is now available on Stitcher as well! Thanks for listening!