Marketing School - Digital Marketing and Online Marketing Tips

Growth Newsletter: https://levelingup.beehiiv.com/subscribeNeed marketing help? Visit: https://www.singlegrain.com/ and https://npdigital.com/Want to recruit great marketers? Find them here: https://marketingschool.io/hireIt took 64 clicks to buy a Tesla online, 30 of them signing loan documents. Eric explains the five-step algorithm from the book of the same name (question, delete, simplify, speed up, automate) and how it 20x'd Tesla's website sales. Then the data: AI-generated ads are beating human creative on completion rate (92% vs 90% on connected TV), Shopify's Q2 shows $116 billion in GMV and a platform built for AI agents, and Neil's case that SEO and GEO are merging into one thing, brand. Eric on the new agents he is testing, Instinct and Meta Muse, and the week's grand finale: Rohan Nayak's post on how Pocket FM went from zero to $500 million in ARR with an AI ad machine that makes 17,500 ads a month.

Key takeaways◾Question, delete, simplify, speed up, then automate; most people automate first and fail◾SEO or GEO, the long game is brand; you have to show up everywhere◾A 2% to 2.25% CTR lift cut Pocket FM's CAC by 30%; build the ad machine around that insight

Chapters00:00 Tesla 20x'd website sales: 64 clicks to 301:35 Buying a car on a website02:55 AI ads beat human creative on completion04:19 Shopify Q2: $116B GMV and AI commerce05:38 SEO and GEO are merging into brand08:04 Search everywhere optimization, again10:49 A SaaS company diversifying off SEO11:46 Instinct and Meta Muse agents14:15 Pocket FM: $0 to $500M ARR with 17,500 ads a month17:11 Build your own ad machine

Growth Newsletter: https://levelingup.beehiiv.com/subscribeNeed marketing help? Visit: https://www.singlegrain.com/ and https://npdigital.com/Want to recruit great marketers? Find them here: https://marketingschool.io/hireEric and Neil open up their own marketing week. Eric's $250 test assignment that turned into a $2,000 quote, the GrokBots he built in his free time (a call bot that phoned a spa and confirmed a booking, a haggle bot renegotiating every software bill, and a speed-to-lead bot that calls every form fill within 60 seconds), and the 2x2 he uses to decide which agency work becomes a reusable workflow and which gets killed. Neil on speed to learning, why wins on one channel take too long to reach the rest of the company, and how he finds agencies that stopped growing and buys the ones losing deals only because they are too small. Then the social tests: Neil's new screen-share format and LinkedIn engagement scraping, Eric's comment-to-DM flow with Lead Shark and Goji Berry, and the YouTube video that was edited entirely by AI.

Key takeaways◾Every lead gets a call within 60 seconds; a bot can do it and sound good◾Speed to learning is the bottleneck: move a win from one channel to every channel fast◾Reusable workflows beat custom premium work; build them, then hand them to the team

Chapters00:00 Our marketing week: the $250 test that failed02:42 The GrokBot that booked Eric's massage04:17 Haggle bot and speed-to-lead in 60 seconds05:18 Neil: speed to learning07:46 Buying agencies that stopped growing10:24 Eric's 2x2: reusable workflows13:14 Neil's new screen-share format15:40 Scraping your LinkedIn engagers16:38 Comment-to-DM with Lead Shark and Goji Berry18:21 YouTube: relevant views beat viral views19:54 A fully AI-edited video22:16 AI thumbnails that actually look like you

Growth Newsletter: https://levelingup.beehiiv.com/subscribeNeed marketing help? Visit: https://www.singlegrain.com/ and https://npdigital.com/Want to recruit great marketers? Find them here: https://marketingschool.io/hireNike's market cap peaked at $280 billion in 2021 and has lost $223 billion since. Eric walks through Trung Phan's breakdown of how it happened: McKinsey advised Nike to eliminate its running, basketball and soccer categories, the marketing budget moved from brand advertising to programmatic retargeting, and hundreds of wholesale partners were cut for a direct-to-consumer bet that collapsed when shoppers went back to stores. Neil on why consultants who never ran a business should not be running yours, and why a kid asking for Nikes is what good brand advertising looks like. Then LeBron James' Polymarket partnership and why both hosts call it brand eroding, and the shirtless YouTuber Eric calls the Sam Sulek of e-commerce.

Key takeaways◾Nike cut what worked (categories, brand ads, retail partners) for what was easier to measure◾A brand is what people say about you when you're not in the room; retargeting does not build it◾It takes decades to build a brand and five minutes to erode it

Chapters00:00 Nike lost $223B: McKinsey killed the categories01:32 Consultants who never ran a business04:06 Locked in: adapt or die04:34 Nike swapped brand ads for retargeting06:36 Why kids wanted Nikes07:59 Neil's Tesla09:16 Nike burnt its wholesale partners10:07 LeBron x Polymarket: a brand-eroding move13:07 The Sam Sulek of e-commerce15:22 What views actually matter

Growth Newsletter: https://levelingup.beehiiv.com/subscribeNeed marketing help? Visit: https://www.singlegrain.com/ and https://npdigital.com/Want to recruit great marketers? Find them here: https://marketingschool.io/hireWil Reynolds of Seer Interactive says agency owners are dishonest about how business is really going, and that most have been flat for three or four years. Eric reads the post and Neil agrees the downturn started around 2022 and is the longest he has seen, then explains why NP Digital kept growing anyway. Eric's take: the agencies dying are the ones still doing what they did five years ago, and tough markets are exactly when adaptable founders win the deals against the holding companies. The episode closes on the part of being a founder nobody talks about: watching the people you trained go on to build their own companies, why mindset separates the people who survive the downs, and why a business win feels the way it does.

Key takeaways◾Be honest about how business is going; it keeps leads and opportunities flowing to you◾The agencies in trouble are still running the 2021 playbook; adapt or die◾You can't train mindset, and hard years are what build it

Chapters00:00 Agency owners are lying about how business is going (Wil Reynolds)01:41 Neil: why NP Digital is still growing03:54 Eric: adapt or die, the invisible hammer07:06 Flat for 4 years? You're doing the same thing08:06 The burn-victim YouTuber: keep going10:34 If you're going through hell, keep going11:14 The best part of being a founder12:44 Mindset: people can't handle the downs13:48 The business high

Growth Newsletter: https://levelingup.beehiiv.com/subscribeNeed marketing help? Visit: https://www.singlegrain.com/ and https://npdigital.com/Want to recruit great marketers? Find them here: https://marketingschool.io/hireEric asks Neil to finally explain digital PR and how it helps with AEO and SEO. Neil gets there via a Huawei phone with a screen on the back, how ByteDance ran AI inside Lark two years before the rest of us, where America really ranks in K-12 education (34th, per Google AI Mode), what China mandates instead, and the FOMO playbook behind Alpha School's marketing. Then the answer: digital PR is the new link building, you're optimizing for the mention, not the link, and you want your product included everywhere the models read. They close on the only marketing advantage that compounds: consistency.

Key takeaways◾Digital PR is optimizing for the mention, not the link. That's what the models read◾America ranks 34th in K-12; China mandates 9 years and tracks 40% into vocational paths◾Consistency compounds. Grey-hat wins evaporate, and one channel is never enough

Chapters00:00 What is digital PR, actually?00:27 Huawei's phone with a screen on the back01:07 ByteDance and Lark were doing this two years ago02:43 America is 34th in K-12 (Google AI Mode)05:36 Compulsory schooling: US vs China06:14 Alpha School's FOMO marketing10:28 Digital PR: optimize for the mention15:15 Consistency compounds