How to Harness AI and Email Marketing for Your Creator Business; Part One

Summary

En el podcast LevelUp, Amanda Northcut conversa con Casey Hill, experto en crecimiento y marketing de correo electrónico, sobre estrategias para creadores digitales. Casey comparte su experiencia en la industria de software y cómo las empresas pueden escalar rápidamente. Discuten la importancia de los activos propios, como el marketing por correo electrónico, y cómo estos pueden ser más efectivos que las alianzas de marca. Casey también ofrece consejos sobre cómo mejorar la entrega y participación de los correos electrónicos, destacando la personalización y la expectativa establecida como claves para el éxito en marketing por correo electrónico.

Takeaways

• 🚀 Casey Hill es un veterano del crecimiento con más de una década de experiencia ayudando a escalas rápidamente las empresas de software.
• 📈 En su rol actual, Casey lidera el crecimiento en Active Campaign, construyendo motores de crecimiento orgánico para alcanzar un rendimiento anual de 1 mil millones de dólares.
• 💼 Casey también trabaja como consultor para algunas de las firmas más grandes del mundo, proporcionando orientación institucional a equipos de capital privado y de capital de riesgo.
• 📩 Active Campaign es una herramienta de marketing por correo electrónico y CRM para gestionar relaciones, integrada en una sola plataforma.
• 📊 La clave del crecimiento en marketing es tener una perspectiva hacia la distribución y amplificación, asegurándose de que el contenido llegue a más ojos.
• ⏰ Es importante equilibrar jugadas rápidas e impactantes con jugadas lentas e impactantes en la estrategia de crecimiento.
• 📚 Casey comparte su conocimiento en la universidad, enseñando sobre estrategias de crecimiento y marketing digital.
• 📧 En el marketing por correo electrónico, es crucial establecer expectativas claras sobre el contenido y la frecuencia de los correos electrónicos.
• 🔍 La segmentación y personalización son importantes, pero es necesario hacer preguntas específicas y relevantes para personalizar efectivamente.
• 📈 Para mejorar la entrega de correos electrónicos, es esencial aumentar la tasa de respuestas de los destinatarios.
• 🛠️ La mejora de la entrega y la interacción con el correo electrónico requiere un enfoque táctico, centrado en los leads más comprometidos y en la mejora de la señal positiva.

Q & A

¿Qué es ActiveCampaign y cómo ayuda a los creadores y propietarios de negocios en línea?

ActiveCampaign es una herramienta de marketing por correo electrónico y CRM que permite gestionar relaciones con los clientes. Ayuda a los negocios a escala al proporcionar una solución integrada para marketing por correo electrónico y gestión de relaciones, lo que es especialmente útil para aquellos que han superado la etapa básica de marketing por correo y buscan una solución más sofisticada.

¿Cómo se describe el crecimiento en marketing según Casey Hill?

El crecimiento en marketing, según Casey Hill, se enfoca en la distribución y amplificación de contenido, balance entre jugadas rápidas e impactantes y lentas e impactantes, y la combinación de mantenimiento y viraje viral en el plan de marketing.

¿Qué es un 'test de Reddit' y cómo se utiliza para medir la calidad del contenido?

El 'test de Reddit' es un método utilizado por Casey Hill para probar si el contenido es valioso y no promocional. Consiste en publicar el contenido en Reddit y asegurarse de que obtenga al menos 10 upvotes. Si el contenido no es lo suficientemente valioso o es demasiado promocional, es probable que no tenga éxito en esta plataforma.

¿Qué es un 'activo propio' y por qué es importante para los creadores y propietarios de negocios?

Un 'activo propio' se refiere a los recursos que un creador o empresario controla directamente, como una lista de correo electrónico, un podcast o una marca. Es importante porque proporciona autonomía y permite construir relaciones y conexiones estratégicas a largo plazo, a diferencia de 'alquilar' audiencias a través de plataformas de redes sociales o acuerdos de marca afiliados.

¿Qué son las mejores prácticas para el marketing por correo electrónico según Casey Hill?

Las mejores prácticas incluyen establecer expectativas claras sobre el contenido y la frecuencia de los correos, mejorar la entrega y participación del correo, segmentar y personalizar el contenido de manera efectiva, y centrarse en preguntas específicas para aumentar la interacción con los destinatarios.

¿Cómo afecta la expectativa en el marketing por correo electrónico la relación de confianza con los destinatarios?

Establecer expectativas claras sobre el contenido y la frecuencia de los correos ayuda a construir confianza con los destinatarios, ya que proporciona transparencia y permite a los usuarios saber exactamente qué esperar de los correos, lo que a su vez aumenta la probabilidad de que lean y respondan a los mismos.

¿Por qué es importante la segmentación y personalización en el marketing por correo electrónico?

La segmentación y personalización son cruciales porque permiten enviar contenido relevante y específicamente diseñado para los diferentes segmentos de la audiencia, lo que aumenta la probabilidad de que los correos sean abiertos y respondidos, mejorando así la eficacia del marketing por correo electrónico.

¿Qué sucede si un negocio cambia frecuentemente entre herramientas de marketing por correo electrónico?

Cambiar frecuentemente entre herramientas de marketing por correo electrónico no solucionará problemas de entrega o participación. La mayoría de las principales herramientas de marketing por correo electrónico comparten una池 de IPs y utilizan métodos similares de envío en masa, por lo que es más efectivo enfocarse en mejorar las prácticas tácticas y la interacción con los destinatarios.

¿Qué es un 'Spamometer' y cómo ayuda a mejorar la entrega de correos electrónicos?

Un 'Spamometer' es una herramienta que ActiveCampaign utiliza para analizar el contenido de los correos electrónicos y detectar palabras o frases que puedan parecer spamosas. Ayuda a mejorar la entrega al proporcionar retroalimentación sobre cómo se puede optimizar el contenido para evitar que los correos sean marcados como spam por los ISPs.

Outlines

00:00

🎤 Introducción al podcast LevelUp y presentación de Casey Hill

Amanda Northcut, fundadora y CEO de LevelUp, presenta el podcast destinado a ayudadores digitales a construir negocios sostenibles. Se anuncia a Casey Hill como invitado, un veterano en crecimiento con experiencia en software companies. Casey está liderando el crecimiento en Active Campaign y también brinda consultoría a grandes firmas. Se menciona que Casey es conocido por sus métodos creativos y enfocados en el valor.

05:02

🚀 Experiencia y trayectoria profesional de Casey Hill

Casey Hill explica su carrera en el sector de software y SaaS, trabajando principalmente con pequeñas empresas y ayudándolas a crecer. Ha trabajado en varias empresas, incluyendo una competencia de Active Campaign, y ha lanzado su propio negocio en línea. Además, Casey ha impartido clases en UCSD y Stanford, y ha compartido su experiencia en el ámbito de la educación y la consultoría.

10:03

📈 Estrategias de crecimiento y marketing de Casey Hill

Casey Hill discute sobre su enfoque en el crecimiento y marketing, destacando la importancia de la distribución y amplificación de contenido, así como la balance entre tácticas rápidas y lentas. Aboga por la maximización del impacto del tiempo invertido en la creación de contenido y la importancia de tener una combinación de estrategias de mantenimiento y tácticas virales en el plan de marketing.

15:03

📧 Consejos de email marketing y creación de contenido

Casey Hill comparte sus estrategias para el email marketing, enfatizando la importancia de establecer expectativas con los destinatarios, mejorar la entrega y compromiso de los correos, y la segmentación y personalización efectivas. Se menciona la relevancia de obtener respuestas de los destinatarios para mejorar la entrega de los correos y cómo preguntar preguntas específicas para obtener resultados más útiles.

20:05

💌 Mejora de la entrega y compromiso en email marketing

Se discuten las estrategias para mejorar la entrega y compromiso de los correos electrónicos, incluyendo la importancia de los correos personales y la respuesta a ellos. Se sugiere enfocarse en los leads más comprometidos para crear señales positivas y mejorar la reputación con el proveedor de servicios de correo electrónico. Se menciona que cambiar de herramienta de email no es la solución a los problemas de entrega.

25:07

🌟 Conclusión y recursos adicionales de LevelUp Creators

La entrevista culmina con una reflexión sobre la importancia de la expectativa y la confianza en las relaciones, tanto personales como profesionales. Se mencionan los recursos adicionales de LevelUp Creators, como el boletín semanal con consejos de negocio y un curso sobre ingresos de creadores y el camino del cliente.

Keywords

💡Creator economy

El término 'economía de creadores' se refiere a un modelo económico emergente donde las personas creativas y emprendedores utilizan plataformas digitales para monetizar su contenido y habilidades. En el video, se discute cómo los creadores digitales pueden construir negocios sostenibles y prósperos a través de estrategias de marketing de correo electrónico y AI. Un ejemplo sería el uso de herramientas como ActiveCampaign para gestionar relaciones con el público y aumentar la visibilidad de su contenido.

💡Email marketing

El marketing por correo electrónico es una estrategia de marketing digital que involucra la envío de mensajes promocionales a una lista de contactos para aumentar la conciencia de una marca, producto o servicio. En el contexto del video, se abordan prácticas recomendadas para mejorar la entrega y apertura de correos electrónicos, como la segmentación y personalización, así como la importancia de establecer expectativas claras con los destinatarios.

💡AI (Inteligencia Artificial)

La inteligencia artificial, o AI, se refiere a la capacidad de las máquinas de realizar tareas que normalmente requerirían inteligencia humana. En el video, se menciona cómo la AI puede influir en el marketing de correo electrónico y la creación de contenido, ayudando a los creadores a optimizar sus estrategias y a llegar a un público más amplio de manera más eficiente.

💡Owned assets

Los 'activos propios' se refieren a los recursos o plataformas que un creador o empresa posee y controla directamente, en contraposición a las plataformas externas o 'rentadas'. En el video, se enfatiza la importancia de construir activos propios, como una lista de correo electrónico o un podcast, que permiten una conexión más directa y personalizada con la audiencia y ofrecen mayor autonomía en la estrategia de marketing.

💡Growth marketing

El marketing de crecimiento es un enfoque en el marketing que se centra en la expansión y el aumento de la base de clientes a través de estrategias innovadoras y a menudo de bajo costo. En el video, se discuten las prácticas recomendadas para el marketing de crecimiento, como la distribución y amplificación de contenido, así como la combinación de tácticas rápidas e impactantes con estrategias a largo plazo.

💡Deliverability

La 'entregabilidad' se refiere a la capacidad de un mensaje de correo electrónico de llegar a la bandeja de entrada del destinatario en lugar de la carpeta de spam. En el video, se abordan estrategias para mejorar la entregabilidad, como aumentar las respuestas de los destinatarios y segmentar la lista de contactos de manera efectiva.

💡Segmentation

La 'segmentación' es el proceso de dividir una lista de contactos en grupos más pequeños basados en características comunes, como intereses o comportamiento. Esto permite una personalización más efectiva de los mensajes de marketing. En el video, se sugiere que la segmentación debe ser cuidadosa y basada en preguntas que realmente influyan en la estrategia de marketing.

💡Personalization

La 'personalización' implica adaptar los contenidos y mensajes de marketing para satisfacer las necesidades y preferencias individuales de los destinatarios. En el video, se enfatiza la importancia de personalizar los correos electrónicos en base a información relevante para el destinatario, como su industria o tamaño de la empresa, para mejorar la relevancia y la interacción.

💡Content calendar

Un 'calendario de contenido' es un plan o programa que detalla qué contenido se creará, cuándo se publicará y quién será responsable de su creación. En el video, se menciona la importancia de no solo planificar el contenido, sino también un plan de distribución para maximizar su visibilidad y impacto.

💡Viral swings

Los 'viral swings' son tácticas de marketing que tienen un potencial de gran impacto, aunque su éxito no es garantizado. Estas tácticas pueden incluir campañas de marketing creativas o eventos que, si tienen éxito, pueden generar una gran cantidad de tráfico y visibilidad. En el video, se sugiere que incluir estos elementos en el plan de marketing puede ayudar a atraer una mayor audiencia.

Highlights

Casey Hill, a growth veteran with over a decade of experience, discusses AI and email marketing in the context of the creator economy.

ActiveCampaign is an email marketing and CRM tool designed for businesses beyond the basic email marketing stage.

Casey's career path includes working with small businesses, consulting for major firms, and launching his own e-commerce and course businesses.

Growth marketing involves distribution, amplification, and balancing fast and slow impact strategies.

The importance of setting clear expectations for email content and delivery timing for subscribers.

Maximizing impact by distributing content across multiple platforms and leveraging partnerships.

The balance between fast high-impact plays (like price changes) and slow high-impact plays (like building brand image).

The concept of owned assets, such as podcasts and newsletters, versus rented audiences on social media.

The importance of email deliverability and engagement, and how to improve it through specific questions and actions.

Casey's approach to teaching and consulting, including his work with UCSD and Stanford.

The evolution of email marketing from company updates to more personalized and engaging content.

The significance of reply rates in determining the promotional nature of an email and its deliverability.

The importance of segmenting and personalizing email campaigns based on meaningful data.

Casey's advice on focusing on the most engaged leads first to improve email deliverability.

The misconception that switching email marketing tools will solve deliverability issues, emphasizing the need for tactical improvements.

The role of email marketing in building and maintaining relationships with customers.

Transcripts

hey hey you're listening to the LevelUp

creators podcast Amanda northcut here

founder and CEO we help digital creators

build thriving sustainable businesses

they love and we are so glad you're here

welcome I am super excited to introduce

my brilliant guest today because he and

I are going to cover a lot of ground

especially on AI and all things email

marketing all through the lens of the

Creator economy but before I do here's a

little bit more about my guest Casey

Hill Casey is a growth veteran with over

a decade of experience in helping

software companies scale fast whether

it's garnering millions of views on Kora

and Linkedin or pioneering New Growth

levers like booking his team on hundreds

of podcast literally Casey is always

looking for creative and value-led ways

to grab attention and break free from

the mold in his current role leading

growth at active campaign He is building

organic growth engines to propel the

team to $1 billion in ARR that's annual

run rate that's 1 billion with a B to be

clear and on the Consulting side Casey

also works with some of the world's

biggest firms including firms like

McKenzie Black Rock Coleman's GLG

guidepoint and others where he provides

institutional guidance to private equity

and Venture Capital teams around topics

like SNB marketing vendor selection SAS

pricing SAS marketing and CRM tool

differentiation market analysis inbound

marketing and marketing automation

welcome Casey hey Amanda thanks so much

for having me so excited to to be with

you today and I mean this conversation

is going to be such a treat for our

listeners because Casey you are so good

at taking your massive breadth of

experience and applying it so clearly

and effectively to any audience so thank

you for putting on your creator economy

hat today to chat with me about AI best

practices around all things email from

newsletters to onboarding to

reactivations and importantly we're also

going to talk about the value of owned

assets which we jump into here in just a

minute first Casey in case someone's uh

this is someone's first time listening

to the show and maybe doesn't quite know

what active campaign does and how it

helps creators and online business

owners could you give a quick intro

yeah absolutely so first off I'm super

excited there's so many changes that are

about to happen in 2024 across a lot of

these topics um from automation email

marketing AI um I think there's going to

be some kind of watershed moments so

super excited to unpack those um active

campaign is a email marketing tool as

well as a CRM tool um to manage

relationships kind of bundled into one

so the way I kind of explain it to folks

the way I explain it to my friends who

are launching startups or creating

businesses is when people are first

starting out there's a lot of tools that

I think facilitate kind of basic email

functionality there's tools like

MailChimp and convert kid and a new one

called beehive which I think is great

and these are really powerful tools to

be able to essentially execute on

creating your first kind of email

marketing drips but I think that as

businesses grow a little bit they often

kind of hit these inflection points

where they say hey it'd be really cool

to be able to manage relationships I

just went to an event and I want to

follow up with certain people that I ran

into or I have certain deal deals that

I'm trying to kind of Monitor and that's

where that CRM piece kind of comes into

play so often times that person will be

like okay I have this email tool now I'm

going to get this separate kind of CRM

tool to manage some of these

relationships and as we all know in

business today you often use even as a

small business a d dozen different Tech

tools right I got cly because I need to

book stuff and I start using you know

clickup or notion to start monitoring

things and so the other factor I think

that's really important with businesses

is to find a tool that a lot of things

can plug into so you're not having to

constantly go with these complex outside

Integrations so that's essentially where

AC sits it's for that business that's

matured beyond that kind of just basic

email marketing stage looking for a

little bit more sophistication looking

for something that works with all their

tools as they kind of scale um to that

next kind of stage of their business

nice yeah that's a great explanation and

um if listeners if you've heard any of

our previous episodes you've probably

heard us talk about active campaign and

or convert kit and so we feel that those

are an essential piece of a Creator

first business Tech stack and active

campaign is such an unbelievably

powerful tool and we have gotten

unbelievable results for our clients by

fully leveraging kind of

the uh Swiss army knife that active

campaign is and so I'm super excited

again to have this combo and dig into it

a little bit more uh but first i'm going

to roll back just a second uh I want to

point out that you have a lot going on

based on what I just read through on

your bio and um I'm realizing that the

teaching gig that you have did not even

make it onto the show intro so can you

give us a little backstory on your

career path and kind of how you got to

where you are today yeah for sure so

I've been basically in software in SAS

as an industry for almost my entire

career in terms of kind of my day job so

I've been doing that for about 13 years

now and during the course of various

different businesses I've kind of always

been focused on that SMB sector so

working with a lot of small e-commerce

companies creators Consultants agencies

who are often that four-person team that

eight person team sometimes even that

solopreneur team so spent a long time

with people kind of in that initial

inflection stage throughout my career um

I've worked a lot in mtek specifically

so working now at active campaign worked

for a competitor called entrep a handful

of years back and during that time also

started to do a lot of consultation so

because I was very exposed to this

industry started to meet with a lot of

different companies and help with vendor

section talk about kind of what's

happening in mtek what are the trends so

I got kind of this unique lens to be

able to spend a lot of time behind the

hood of almost all the major players

spent a lot of time in HubSpot and pipe

drive and convertkit and MailChimp

Constant Contact mailer light keep I

mean I could keep rolling and rolling um

but what was cool is to get a little bit

of like that 30,000 foot view oftentimes

I think that you know we choose a tool

we kind of jump in and we're not quite

aware of what's happening in the overall

ecosystem so I've been lucky enough to

be able to work with a wide range of

clients and a wide range of tools kind

of in that space and then starting in

2016 I actually launched my own

e-commerce business that I took to

Kickstarter we raised 40K and then we

kind of had a phase where we went direct

to Consumer and then we went to retail

so that was cool to be able to take some

of these skills that I was learning

every day actually working with folks

and be able to kind of build that small

business on the side so that was really

fulfilling and enjoyable and definitely

learned a ton about you know add spend

learned a ton about kind of monitoring

those relationships and because it was a

physical e-commerce business also a lot

about shipping and fulfillment and those

different pieces so that was an

adventure then because for a number of

reasons one of them being that the

margins in physical product businesses

are really tough in 2021 I also launched

a course business so I started kind of

down that path of of basically running

digital courses seeing how that kind of

varied building an email list kind of

going through those motions um once

again on the side so all of these

businesses that I was running I was

running concurrent while working

full-time um in basically that SMB mtech

space across entrep then a company

called bonjoro and now active campaign

um over the last nine or 10 years or so

those three those three companies um so

that's kind of what I was doing and

during that time getting a little bit

more also into institutional Consulting

so Consulting I started out I started

out doing small business Consulting

right conversion rate optimization email

that type of thing and then I stumbled

upon a company called guidepoint and

guidepoint essentially was like hey we

have questions about SNB mtek um and

we'll pay you a lot of money for an hour

of your time to talk about these things

and I said oh what the heck I'll try it

um and it went well and they booked more

sessions and then that's what got me

onto the GLG path and eventually some of

these companies started to reach out

directly hence the connections in with

McKenzie and black rock and some of

those other firms that basically were

looking at often times like large series

Investments and they wanted to talk with

people that were deep in the industry

that used these tools that understood

them to know like what does the partner

ecosystem look like what are the

differentiations uh is it sales Le is it

marketing Le those types of questions um

so that was kind of the Arc of that then

last year I decided to try to reach out

and do some teaching so I actually cold

reached out to UCSD and and part of the

reason I did this is I was going through

a hiring phase and I was a little bit

frustrated with the challenge of hiring

brand new people with marketing degrees

who didn't seem to have a lot of like

actionable industry skills they didn't

know a lot of like Channel specific

knowledge it felt like education was

very Theory based we were teaching

people about stages of the funnel we're

teaching people about icps and buyer

personas and all these stuff but what

about how to write on Twitter how to

write on LinkedIn how to actually run an

email campaign like what actually

converts some of those skills that are

applicable and valuable to a company

when you bring someone on were kind of

lacking so so I reached out to UCSD

essentially with the pitch of saying if

you want an industry practitioner who

will talk about what we're actually

doing day-to-day the actual Channel

specific stuff um I would love to do

that and luckily they said that sounds

brilliant we'd like to do that um and so

I built curriculum taught it went really

well so I taught it for a second

semester um and then Stanford actually

recently reached out and was like we

feel like demand generation is changing

would you be open to doing a course um

through our Stanford extension around

demand creation and where that exists

today and I said that sounds brilliant

so I'm looking to do that in April of

2024 um so that's kind of what started

the uh the teaching Arc so cool that is

so awesome I mean yeah the university

model is uh fairly arcan as it goes

anyway and yeah I mean universities are

are research institutions and I could

talk about that situation all day in the

conundrum with the hiring Pipeline and

all those kinds of things that's one of

the reasons like we hire young people

and college intern turns and have a

specific College internship program um

so we can kind of like influence those

outcomes and learning so I think that's

super cool that you are giving back in

that way I love um kind of the The Arc

of your career narrative as well I mean

your experience in Consulting and

digging under the hood of like all these

different businesses is so interesting

and that uh in agregate

really enables you to give so much

better advice to other people one when

you're looking at a whole bunch of

businesses and also when you're doing

that work yourself running your own

e-commerce business running your own

digital products and things like that it

gives you so much empathy for the people

that you're helping and it totally

changes your way um or changes your

level of impact because just like at the

University model you're talking about it

being uh more steeped in theory than

action Consulting can often be uh more

steeped in theory than action that's

like that whole um what's that saying

it's like those who cannot do teach or

those who cannot do consult or something

like that so if you can can bridge the

gap where you're actually doing uh

practicing what you preach and things

like that I think that's really really

valuable and again like I mentioned kind

of in your intro like your ability to uh

distill your learnings into

actionable you know strategic and

tactical methodology for any audience

kind of within that umbrella that needs

like marketing technology and all of the

growth marketing and things like that

which is just about everybody these days

uh it's such a unique skill so I'm super

excited to talk about uh the Creator

econ me

today and this next question is

intentionally broad but what makes you

so good at growth marketing and how can

our creator economy listeners apply your

learnings in their own businesses yeah

it's a great question growth marketing

is is so interesting and it's changed so

much and even the term like head of

growth feel like is very kind of

nebulous no one knows exactly what that

means is that a marketing role is that a

sales role I think that um it's an

interesting term but the way that I

think about growth at this stage growth

marketing specifically is it kind of

starts by having an eye towards

distribution and amplification so it's

funny actually in my class where it kind

of culminated in people building a

Content calendar one of the things that

I was very focused on in that class was

to make sure that it wasn't just a

Content calendar but it was also a

distribution plan one of the things that

when I work with teams and in my own

role all the companies I work with is I

push really hard in saying how are you

Distributing this and how are you

getting this in front of more eyes so so

it's not enough in today's world to just

make content and just post it on social

right you need to be finding those ways

to hop on a podcast to talk about it to

tie in on a collaboration with a partner

and get them to email out about it you

need to be thinking with that hat of how

am I going to amplify this and on social

one of the things I've always been a big

Pusher of as well is to maximize impact

to time so when I when I spend time

crafting a LinkedIn post I'm also going

to move that into SLS on Reddit and SL

entrepreneur and I'm also going to put

it onto my Twitter and I'm also going to

put it onto specific like demand curve

on slack specific communities on

Facebook so the footprint of that post

that might get 20,000 views might be

100,000 views for literally maybe 10

minutes more of my time you have to

sometimes craft to the medium a little

bit but if your focus is just generating

really good content often you'll find

that it could be applicable in a lot of

places so that there's a lot of

different ways and arms of distribution

but I think one think about any content

that you build with that lens

distribution and amplification the next

thing I think it's really important

about growth marketing is to have this

balance between fast high impact plays

and slow high impact plays so the way I

describe this to folks is if you go

change your prices overnight you just go

raise your prices $10 a month now higher

usually what happens is the following

you will see a immediate step change in

your revenues that will move up

sometimes there'll be a little dip

because you often will get a little bit

of a churn bump right you you you'll

raise your prices it'll increase your

average revenue per user you'll get a

little bit of a churn bump but for the

majority of people that are using that

discretionarily like you're not raising

prices 10 times a year usually it's net

positive is is the honest thing it might

frustrate people but usually it's net

positive for the business so that's a

fast lever it's a fast lever that

creates high impact within your

organization same thing with website

optimization like changing your core

copy or changing something on your

pricing page that can create a big

impact quickly but the challenge is as I

just kind of noted you can't do that

continually you can't just keep getting

that same benefit by optimizing your

website you can't keep getting that same

you can't raise prices 20 times so it's

finite so you have to balance that with

these slower levers that build over time

and that's things like your owned assets

a podcast that you launch a newsletter

that you launch building up your brand

image all of these things that can be

really powerful SEO but they take time

there are these cumulative levers that

slowly build and so I think that my step

one is think distribution amplification

my step two is where is your combination

of those fast and slow plays in your

road map and I can tell from working

with a lot of Brands if you just focus

on fast you're going to have a bunch of

peak and valleys and if you just focus

on slow you're going to be moving so

slow you'll see that continual growth

but you'll often have too much of a burn

rate that people will you know you'll

Peter out you'll quit you'll fall out

because you're not getting to that Point

fast enough so that's my second pillar

and then the final one this comes from

my mentor Pat Campbell who sold his

business for $ 200 plus million do I

think he's brilliant in the content

sector and one of the things he always

pushed me on was he said you need to

have a combination of Maintenance and

viral swings in your marketing plan so

maintenance is the stuff we all know you

need to have the case studies that say

we solve x problem we do you know we're

inserted at this point of the funnel and

and it's all the stuff that you know you

need to be doing and mistake to not do

those things because there is you know

people are going to search for terms you

need to have some sort of visibility so

maintenance swings are important but you

also don't want to have just maintenance

swings you want to go out and create

that creative show that has a 20% chance

of success but if it works it could be

something that could get you hundreds of

thousands of views your bottom of the

funnel maintenance swings is not going

to drive that top of funnel stuff so the

viral swings is where you get out and

you really try those things that are

more out there to get that top of funnel

strong and I think if you do that with a

good Tempo then over the course of the

year you maybe have four Flo viral

swings but you have one or two that land

and that works out in creating a strong

top of funnel momentum so those are kind

of the three pillars balancing the

maintenance in the viral having the fast

and slow and having that distribution

lens that I think really help make the

most effective growth marketers I love

that yeah and then kind of thinking like

in rhythms like what do we do on a

recurring BAS basis whether it's the

podcast or you know long form YouTube

video or whatever yeah I love I love

that lens that's a really good kind of

one two three punch and I think I want

to double click really quickly on the

distribution amplification Point number

one of of like growth marketing pillars

so I have two diagrams on my whiteboard

right here and one of them is

distribution channels and the other is

um content maximization diagram and so

uh we use this video podcast as what we

call our source content and from this

piece of source content comes at least

four newsletters at least four blog

posts or articles and we can make I

guess at least seven Clips or shorts

that we'll put out on YouTube and

Linkedin and then um I just kicked off

an Instagram account that I'm committing

to post on every day for at least a year

it's CEO unor Creator my face is right

there so it's easy to find but um I mean

it's just like an infinite content

creation machine if you have that like

long form content especially something

like a podcast or something that's

interview style and you are both pulling

the maximization levers to trickle down

through all of your available um

distribution channels and then you know

plugging them in in the right places so

there's just infinite ways that you can

slice and dice and that is so important

as a content creator Andor you know

online business owner solopreneur

anything like that people with limited

bandwidth and not necessarily like a

team to help them um thinking through

that lens is so so so important I'm so

glad you shared that thank you yeah to

totally and I think it also extends to

say you know you create all those assets

and then you reach out to me you say hey

Casey here's a clip that I think might

be valuable to your audience and maybe

you have Partners or you have other

people that work within the organization

you say hey I think this might be

valuable to your audience and then they

post it and so that becomes kind of the

ripple effect too you create all these

assets and then you can deploy them

across these channels that bring

amplification because they have unique

audiences they have people that aren't

exposed to you and that's I think where

the magic happens when you invest in

just high quality content and high

quality advice instruction all those

different things that enables you to

have a really good distribution plan

that's one thing I'll just I'll just

kind of say as the final point on this

is that I think a lot of times folks

will ask me well like why would a

partner share this thing that's just

about like my company and what I tell

them is if people wouldn't share your

content it's too like company specific

like you need to take that higher level

like if if you're looking at it and

you're like why would anyone share this

they probably won't right it's probably

something where you're just like

Shilling your brain

and it's not like actual wisdom that's

system agnostic and is applicable for a

lot of people so I think that's a really

good litness test is you want to be

non-promotional enough that people would

inherently want to share it I actually

push myself to do what I call the Reddit

test I will take content I will post it

on Reddit and I will make sure that it

can get 10 up votes and if my content

can't get 10 up votes on Reddit then I

will basically be like it's too

promotional I need to go back to the

drawing board and it can be it can be

tough because Reddit is a harsh

environment and ecosystem like people

will call you out people will slice if

it has even a shred of promotional

aspect but I think it's a great way to

test yourself to be like hey if this is

genuinely valuable to a wide array of

people and it's not just Product

Promotion I should be able to find

success on those channels and so just as

a simple way if you're thinking in your

head like I'm not sure how promotional

it is go run the Reddit test and see

you'll be it'll be interesting to

experiment with yes Casey maybe we

should have scheduled two hours for this

but I think it would turn into something

like highly self-indulgent because we

could talk about this stuff all day I'm

sitting here thinking about our before I

hit the record button on um the show

today you and I were talking about like

the importance of having ad spend ready

to deploy to amplify a post on any

social media platform that is

organically doing well so that's kind of

another lover that you can pull when you

are maximizing your content from a

source piece of content and you're using

uh lots of different distribution

channels including Partners we are

really big on Partner Market marketing

so thank you for mentioning that and

then putting a couple bucks behind

something that's already doing well you

know putting good money after good

instead of potentially like good money

after bad when something's already doing

well you have a proof of concept there

you're clearly providing the value that

your audience wanted to hear which is

the litus test that Casey is talking

about that you should not hit the host

or schedule button on any piece of

content that does not provide value even

if there is a call to action for you

know to pick up a lead magnet join my

email list for a newsletter buy this buy

that whatever um if there's not Value

First it's it comes across as like

pretty toned deaf and and a lack of

empathy for your audience so yeah

definitely absolutely yeah all right I'm

going to shift us here uh I want to talk

about this concept of owned assets so at

level up we do a fair amount of

educating on the importance of owning

your audience not just quote renting it

meaning having an email list is owning

your audience still on their terms of

course they're still in the driver's

seat whereas your social media followers

are your rented audience when you're on

social you're you're playing in someone

else's sandbox so to speak and the rules

can change on a dime uh social media

ownership can change on a dime as we've

seen in

2023 and um yeah that that can have

significant implications for your

account and therefore on your followers

and there are some parallels I want to

call out here when it comes to Brand

deals and or affiliate relationships

versus creating and selling your own

products and services so I think it's

fair to say you're renting products to

sell through brand deals and affiliate

relationships but it's far better to

create and sell products and services

that you own 100% of it's much better

for business and can actually help you

build your business on a solid

foundation rather than relying on spotty

brand deals and helping other brands

that you're affiliated with get rich

right so Casey can you kind of build on

that concept of owned assets and talk

about how that relates back to email

marketing yeah for sure so I think owned

assets is are super important and are

becoming increasingly important I think

as we move forward as we see so many

different changes that are occurring one

of the things I often have a

conversation with folks new startups who

are just kind of like trying to find new

organic plays to grow I have a

conversation with them about starting

your own podcast versus guesting on

other people's podcasts right and I

think that they actually serve different

purposes it goes back to this fast and

slow type of thing when I hopped on the

SPI podcast that might get 100,000

downloads right in that Creator space we

can go look at our sales when that

episode goes live this is back at my

time at bonjoro and we see like those

acute spikes right we might see 150

Trials come in day one and 80 Trials

come in day two like it is a pronounced

way that we're amplifying but again it's

rented I have no control over that

ecosystem I have no control over what

links go up I have no control over those

pieces so guesting on podcasts is a good

example of a lever that you can pull

relatively quickly you can get in front

of a lot of right fit folks but you have

very limited control on the flip side of

that when you start your own podcast you

start from Ground Zero you have no

followers you have to build this thing

up but you start from this relationship

building phase so one of the first

things I tell folks is when you start

you really want to think about the

relationships with folks that you're

building by having on guests that are in

your space that have different topical

expertise but that might have

connections it might be partnership

opportunities there might be a whole

range of things and so you're starting

out not from a direct driving business

but you're going to go through that

slower burn but you have full control if

you want to put a plugin for your

product if you want to advertise if you

want to have outside advertising one of

the things about owned assets although

they're slower you gain full autonomy to

use that however you want strategically

and I think it's important to note that

it's not only about being able to plug

in an advertisement at the end of your

own asset it's actually also about using

owned assets to open doors to be able to

work with a part partner to be able to

give them visibility to be able to give

them space you have this chip that you

now have full control over that you can

leverage in these kind of strategic ways

so similarly with email and I want to be

clear here that although there's changes

all the time happening on the algorithm

and you might go from getting 10,000

views to 2,000 views on social and

that's why we use that term renting even

email is you're still you know there's

changes all the time happening in email

right we all know Big Apple changes and

the auto opens and so that environment

is not as if you you know have no

challenges to contend with with the isps

but the advantage is as you build that

asset you have that space once again to

leverage and advertise and use it to

have on guest collaborators in that

exact same way to drive kind of

relationship growth so I think that as a

business you really especially if you're

a smaller business you want to be

plotting that one two three years ahead

and asking yourself what relationships

what connections what Partnerships are

going to take my business to that next

level because when you get into that

much larger Pond that much larger

ecosystem you use it to open that

strategic doorway that can be something

that has a profound change in your

business um and so I think that it's

very important for folks to be thinking

about both of these to be honest the

rented as well as the owned audiences as

you kind of build out your game plan

yeah totally I mean you should think of

top of funnel as you know rented

audience that's totally cool you just

you want to have this thoughtful

customer Journey uh laid out where

you're offering your email newsletter

you're offering offering a lead magnet

which is like a valuable download that

you give people in exchange for their

email address build up that owned

audience over time continue to add value

build relationships relationships

relationships and then you're looking to

sort of not flip a switch but kind of a

slowburn on creating reciprocal value

between yourself and your community of

followers and your owned audience uh

where you're going going to eventually

ask them to buy things right like I mean

we're our whole POV here is that like uh

totally calling my shot creators are the

future of direct to consumer spending I

mean influencers brands are already

obviously very much catching up here but

Legacy Global Brands maybe not so much

but um people want to buy from people

that they like that they feel that they

know trust and are getting value from

and so that's why brand deals are so

incredibly effective as compared to so

many other types of marketing and

distribution channels like we were

talking about a minute ago um but I mean

the the

the ethos the yeah of control is

Shifting very much toward creators and

influencers because like we have the

attention and and people are always I

mean brands are trying to buy attention

right that's how we make sales is

through attention so if you can couple

the attention with relationships with

creators and influencers you can make

lots of sales right but what I think

we're saying here in terms of owned

assets is like sell your own make

awesome for for your audience

specifically and they will buy it from

you so that's great to get a brand deal

um and get paid for that but you're

helping make somebody else Rich right

you've built the audience you have

expertise in something make your own

stuff and sell it Own It own your

audience own your stuff own your

business own your revenue streams right

100% uh and just kind of building on the

this concept of of relationship building

and the importance there let's talk

about best practices with your email

list so there's very much a right way to

do email marketing that will produce

great results for creators and on the

flip side of that coin there is a very

detrimental way that email marketing can

be used as well so Casey can you break

this down for us and give us maybe like

the top five or so most important uh

important and impactful best practices

around email marketing yeah for sure so

there's a lot to unpack and obviously

the tactics are going to vary depending

on exactly what you're trying to do with

email but I think the first thing is

that email has evolved and changed a lot

from you know if you go back a decade

and you remember all those newsletters

that were just like company updates you

remember if you would get like this long

thing that was like we're launching this

product and we're doing this and we're

doing this and it was like 12 different

ctas in every single one I think that

there's so much noise in your inbox the

very first most important thing that I

advise people is is set

expectations what are you going to send

people and when are you going to send it

and the actual when are you going to

send it I find is actually done by very

few businesses and is actually still a

huge opportunity so I mean by that is

saying like we will contact you each

Friday at 9:00 a.m. PST with a use case

of how a Creator went one to 10K a month

as an example right and then you have a

crystal clear expectation exactly what

that person's going to get they're going

to get a use case it's going to be a use

case that's applicable to that Creator

at that stage very clear expectation so

that's one of the first things I think

that is super important is to make sure

that you set that expectation the next

thing I think that is super critical is

I've done a lot of work over the last

maybe eight years now around

deliverability around engagement and

it's been this evolving art and there's

been all sorts of changes with inboxes

and so I think that one thing that's

super important is you need your emails

to actually be read and to be engaged

with and a lot of the kind of benchmarks

that the industry has set out you'll see

I think campaign Monitor and a handful

of others they post like the annual

benchmarks right and they'll tell you

that hey your industry has a 21% average

open rate and a 1.2% clickthrough rate

and they'll give you all of these kind

standard benchmarks what I have found is

that this has led people to often have a

standard of like okay 20% 20% it's

awesome 20% is great well unless you are

a huge brand you know if you're Nike if

you're some massive brand okay when I

look at those people's emails campaigns

I've been behind the hood of a couple of

those Brands yes those are going to be

lower because you're sending to 15

million people per blast but especially

for small creators your Dynamic should

be different if you're setting

expectation if you're bringing people

into that funnel the last email

newsletter that I created which was

called growth corner and was

specifically focused around like growth

tactics we had about a 74% open rate and

about a 12 to 15% click the rate

depending and that was you know across I

think ended we had something like 40 to

50 emails that kind of dripped out so I

think that the first thing is to

challenge that status quo but going back

to deliverability like how do you at a

face level get better deliverability

well or deliverability engagement I want

to be clear here too I'm talking about

people not just you delivering but also

people opening it so the first thing is

like I said before is you said

expectation that's super important but

the next thing is replies are being

heavily prioritized in terms of inboxing

so one of the big ways that inboxes know

whether your message is essentially

promotional is when you send a personal

message to someone it has like an 80%

reply rate if you send a message to like

a colleague or your family right whereas

if you look at the reply rates for

promotional marketing campaigns I mean

those are super low right so it's an

easy tag where if someone sends out a

thousand emails and it has a 2% response

rate they're like okay that's

promotional so one of the first things

and Pat Flynn who also has done a lot of

work around deliverability I've chatted

with him a lot about this and he has

actually created videos where he calls

out and talks about this structurally

but the idea is ask very specific

questions early on and start ramping up

that reply rate and so an example of a

bad question is something like hey do

you have any questions or even something

like what is your top challenge can

sometimes be a little bit broad because

it can go a lot of places whereas if you

kind of sharpen it a little bit and you

say like what is your biggest challenge

with customer acquisition right now or

what is your biggest challenge with

insert something that helps kind of

focus because if you're a Creator you

know how many hats you wear someone's

like what's my biggest challenge I'm

like oh geez where do I start like I

have turnover problems Tech is confusing

acquisition is challenging so you might

not answer that question because it's

just like this huge open bag whereas if

someone's like what are you struggling

right now with your paid Facebook

campaign you're like oh yeah well my my

cost for acquisition has gone through

the roof and my targeting I've keep

trying to change it the retargeting

isn't giving me the same returns like

that kind of stuff is more top of mind

so another big question or big thing I

would focus on is try to get more

replies try to get people communicating

ask very specific questions to try to

get there the next thing I would kind of

say is segmentation and personalization

are super important but I have a little

bit of like a bone to pick with this one

of the things I know is that a lot of

people that come on and they tell you

like you need to segment and you need to

personalize they don't even do it

themselves I've been behind the hoods of

the gurus who are like personalization

is the most important thing and then I

look at their campaigns and they're not

doing any personalization so I think

when it comes to personalization what

you want to do is think really carefully

about what actually structurally matters

and make sure that you're asking less

questions but the right ones to

personalize based on on so what I mean

by that is instead of on intake being

like what's your industry what's your

company size what's your role you know

like you have like 20 questions right

what is actually meaningful so in some

cases it might be industry you might say

look my e-commerce customer versus my

SAS customer like if I know that

information I can send them use cases

that are tailored to that and that is

what is most important but what I found

in other cases is you might say actually

really company size is more important a

5,000 person B2B brand is more similar

to a 5,000 employee direct to Consumer

e-commerce brand than it is to a

solopreneur brand of either type so it

actually is the company size that is

going to be most relevant to you

supporting that person in the right way

you providing that use case imagine

you're an Enterprise brand who signs up

and you get a use case like you're an

e-commerce brand but you sign up and

you're you know beard brand some huge

brand and you get a use case from a

solopreneur that's not a good hit you're

like whoa okay this doesn't seem like my

type of you know like they operate with

a different type of clientele so the the

next kind of pillar I would really push

people to focus in on is to ask less

questions but ask questions that you're

actually going to do something about and

that should be I think your your litmus

if you will um kind of going into it so

I'll pause there for a moment I think

there's a lot of specific strategic you

know if I'm talking with people about

like you know onboarding your first two

weeks and how many emails you should

send in like you can go down the rabbit

hole of different types segments but I

hopefully some of these are kind of like

the high-end scaffolding that in many

cases I find a lot of Brands probably

aren't doing you're probably not telling

people the exact timing you're sending

to them you're probably not going

through and having a really good

targeted question at the right time and

so these are things you can actually go

and audit your flows tomorrow and just

look at what is the difference like I'm

a big fan of data and experimentation

like everything I said here you should

be able to test and see that lift thaten

happens from following those best

practices yeah and man we talk about

expectation setting for a long time that

is so foundational to trust in

relationships right and that's not just

in business you could you can draw that

out for any of your like personal

relationships but um I like what you're

talking about with regard to um setting

expectations delivering on expectations

and doing that over time and that's in

all of your marketing as well so um I

know this is a little a bit different

than email marketability or email

deliverability but uh especially with

recurring Revenue products which we love

an active campaign helps us really U

maximize like LTV customer numbers

retention everything like that um with

email marketing automation

but you damn well better be prepared to

deliver on what you promised throughout

your marketing efforts and probably like

10 to 25% more right kind of that

Delight surprise and Delight your

customers and um I think that's just so

important in every aspect of your

business and your life so that's like a

really broad kind of umbrella lesson

that you could overlay on anything but

really glad that you said that um okay

and then I'm G to shift us again a

little bit but I I do again appreciate

like talking about how email

deliverability works is super important

because I mean a lot of uh content

creators like don't quite know that yet

right I think a lot of people a lot of

people throughout even like B2B

businesses don't quite understand how

that works and so um I think that's

super great that you're kind of hit the

nail on the head there on get people to

respond to your emails and that will

really help you in the future and active

campaign has something that I called a

Spam ometer it's when you uh test your

email and it it runs a little like spam

check on your your wording and verbiage

throughout like in the subject and

preheader text and in the tech actual

body of the email and it will tell you

like hey you can't use that specific

word um in the subject line like that

looks really spammy and icky and and

even like I send nothing that's spammy

or icky and we don't send anything on

our clients behalf that's spammy or icky

but I mean even at the beginning of this

year I didn't know you couldn't use

certain words in subject lines or that

would really damage your uh

deliverability so I think that's really

important to be thinking about yeah that

the Tactical piece of that I I think is

so so often when people think about

deliverability they get so fixated on

the technical right they're like okay

I'm going to do this in my dmark I'm G

to do that like and there's all these

different steps and those can be

important I tell people like if you see

some dramatic step change and you're

doing 40% and overnight you're doing 10%

yes maybe you go get MX toolkit or

something and you go check to see if

you're on Blacklist and you can go

through that whole technical side but

for 95 plus percent of folks it's

tactical when I get in with a client

who's struggling and we help elevate it

it's all about okay focus on your most

engaged leads first we'll start creating

positive signals from your ESP we'll

start bringing all those open and

engagement rates way up and people are

like uncomfortable I'm only going to

send to 1/5th or one tenth of my list

list I'm like trust the process we're

going to work on creating that

reputational change over time the

Tactical piece is so critical and so

important and so definitely if you are

struggling right now to not getting the

open rates or the clickthrough rates

that you want strongly encourage folks

to start at that tactical level start

smaller start with less folks take your

most engaged people and begin that

journey of trying to create those

positive signals and the other thing

I'll say and this is coming from someone

who works at an email marketing company

I will say Don't just jump around

Solutions hope oh I'm getting a 20% open

on MailChimp so I'm going to go hop over

to this tool to get better better

deliverability like this just hopping

between email tools will not solve your

deliverability problem most of the major

esps send in a similar way which is a

shared pool of ips basically you have

100 companies and you have you know say

50 IPS and they're all routing through

these bulk IPS that method ology is

quite similar across Brands so you might

see there are third- party tests that

will run and say you know a brand like

clavo for example that might work with a

ton of e-commerce Brands they might have

slightly more deliverability challenges

just the nature of certain people they

work with but in general the rule of

thumb is focus on the Tactical side

don't think of I'm just going to switch

tool switch tool switch tool as kind of

this end all to solve your

deliverability challenges because you're

just going to stay mired down in that in

that challenge until you fix those best

practices cool yeah thank you time is

precious thank you so much for sharing

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