Authority Alchemy with Brian Horn and Jack Mize

Getting noticed is becoming increasing difficult in the competitive markets of today.

In years past, a blog might set you apart from your competitors, while today it’s a requirement for basic operation.

That’s right. In this day and age, you have to do more to get noticed.

This is especially true in ultra competitive markets like small business marketing.

Thankfully, we have some good news.

We know a way you can stand above your competitors. This secret is podcasting.

Podcasting is still a relatively easy way to get your name out there. To be discovered amid the sea of others within your niche market.

But, how do you start a podcast?

Well, it’s easier than you think.

Read below for some easy-to-follow steps on how to start a podcast:

This is probably the easiest step. After all, you can likely come up with several good ideas for podcasts right off the top of your head.

However, before you settle on the topic you want to cover, do a quick search of iTunes.

This will show you if the topic you chose has been covered too death.

You want a fresh topic.

Not one that has been gone over time after time.

It’s okay if there are a few podcasts already out there about the topic you want to cover. Just make sure there aren’t tons.

What will the format for your show look like?

Will you host a show and interview an “expert” on a topic?

Will you be the expert who provides content?

Will you have one or two hosts?

How long will each of your episodes be?

How frequently will you post new episodes?

Do you want a weekly podcast, daily or something entirely different?

Will you show be audio podcast or video format?

To answer all these questions, consider your target audience.

What will they enjoy the most?

Are they busy professionals who prefer short episodes?

Would they actually be able to listen to a 40 minute podcast?

Some audiences love long podcasts.

Others can’t handle more than five minutes of content at a time. It’s up to you to read your own audience accurately.

The following is a list of some items you will need to create a high-quality podcast:

• A good microphone: You don’t have to invest in the best quality microphone on the market. But, your audience does need to be able to hear you accurately.It’s a good idea to avoid built-in microphones that come with a computer. We recommendBlue Micorphones Yeti USB or Audio Technica ATR-2100-USB.
• Headphones: Again, they don’t have to be the best out there, but good headphones are helpful. You need to hear yourself and what your guests are saying. It’s wise to stick with the on-the-ear type. Audio-Technica ATH-M30x is a good example of what we mean. Avoid headphone mic combos in general.
• Pop filter: When you talk directly into a microphone, your p’s and b’s will be amplified. So, you can either speak into the side of mic, or get a pop filter.
• Boom: This isn’t something you need to start out. But, it can be helpful down the road. A suspension boom takes your podcast up a notch. It simply holds the mic for you. This ensures consistent high-quality sound.
• Skype Account: You will almost certainly need to use Skype at some point when hosting a podcast. This is an easy way to interview guests and the sound quality is excellent, making it a preferred program by many podcast pros.
• Editing And Recording Software: Adobe Audition and GarageBand are two free editing and recording programs you can use.Auphonic is Jack's personal choice for our show.You will need a way to edit your audio when creating a podcast. So, some sort of recording and editing software is a must.
• ID3 Editor: This tool, the ID3 editor, allows you to store important information like track numbers, artists and the like. It will even ap...

In today's show, we go over how you can create your first authority content marketing campaign.

Authority Content Marketing is a series of content pieces that are specifically designed to increase your authority positioning.

This is type of campaign is a hybrid of our style of our authority marketing, and content marketing which has been exploding in popularity.

Content marketing is a strategic marketing approach focused on creating and distributing valuable, relevant, and consistent content to attract and retain a clearly-defined audience — and, ultimately, to drive profitable customer action.

So, in this podcast episode and post, we show how you can use content marketing to position yourself as an authority in your market.

And as with anything you hope to achieve in life, creating a plan to meet your goals most often results in the best possible outcome.

For example, when creating this first authority content marketing campaign, there are 6 steps to follow in order to give yourself the greatest chance of success.

You need to decide what you are trying to achieve with your marketing campaign, and no, saying you want more business isn’t enough.

Be more specific. To give you an idea of what we mean, read the following data:

According the Ascend2’s 2015 Content Marketing Trends Summary Report, the following were the objectives behind most content strategies:

• Improvement in customer engagement.
• An increase in lead generation.
• A more heightened brand awareness.
• An increase in revenue from sales.
• An improvement in lead nurturing.
• An increase in traffic on a website.
• An improvement in customer retention.
• An improvement in search engine rankings.

...and in today's show, and this post, we talk about another reason: positioning yourself as an authority and influencer in your market.

At the Traffic & Conversion Summit, noted marketer Frank Kern stated:

Positioning, most importantly positioning yourself as an authority, is the single most important thing you can do increase your perceived value to the market place.

Increasing your perceived value leads to many benefits which impact every part of the sales cycle.

For instance, once you develop authority, you no longer have to chase sales leads and prospects. People find him because of his positioning and once they do, they will stop looking.

People that are seen as authorities also have a higher value position, and are therefore expected to have higher rates.

Another benefit is “trust.” You trust opinions and advice are trusted by clients.

No longer will you devise a plan that will help one of your clients, only to have them question every step, and in the end, only do certain parts.

So, now that we know the objective of this authority content marketing campaign, let's move on to Step 2.

For some businesses, webinar attendees or repeat customers impact their financial bottom line more than other elements.

Others find different conversions more important.

It’s up to you to define what your personal objective is in order to hit your target.

What conversions do you need?

Otherwise, you will be tossing stuff at the wall, hoping something sticks.

So, determine what the key conversions are, or what gives you the best return on your investment, and then build content which promotes that end.

For this authority content marketing campaign, the conversion we want is the ability to get our content in front of them again.

So, we'll track two types of conversions, people that opt-in to our email list and people that we've tagged with our Facebook pixel.

Pixels allow us to follow up with people who have visited our website in general, specific pages on the site, a sales pages, etc.

The key is that pixels allow you to make TARGETED offers to individuals based off of pages they’ve visited.

For example, we run ads to promote blog posts on getting leads from Facebook. Then, we retarget the people who read the article with a specific lead magnet for...Free Custom Facebook Covers.

It’s much more powerful than making them a broad offer... it allows us to solve a SPECIFIC problem for them.

W...

We are living through an extraordinary moment in human history.

Technology is advancing faster than ever before.

Just a handful of years ago, you were the cool guy if you had a beeper. Now, its impossible to get by with out a smartphone with a huge data plan.

...heck...even my car has wifi.

And I can't imagine being without it now.

While that may be a little extreme, you can't deny that adapting to technology is crucial. If you aren't using it, your business will be left behind.

These are 7 of the apps we use to run our marketing agency.

Slack

If there was a Usain Bolt equivalent of apps, it would be Slack, an enterprise application that grew 667 percent in 2015.

The free messaging app boasts to be for “team communication for the 21st century”, and allows channels to be created for different team conversations, including private ones.

All files and images can be dropped into the app and shared with colleagues, while any files on Google Drive, Dropbox or Box can also be synced to and searched on Slack.

Oh, did we forget to mention that NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory also uses Slack? I mean, if it works for them...

ToDoist

If you're looking for a to-do app that works on all your devices, has great features for monitoring your productivity, and lets you geek out with how you organize your tasks, Todoist is the app for you.

This excellent productivity service has apps and plugins for mobile devices, email, browsers, as well as laptop and desktop computers. It even supports collaboration, so you can share your tasks and projects with others.

There is a free version, but I grabbed the premium for $29. Worth every penny.

Ecover Wizard

This is one of our in house apps. It makes it easy to create gorgeous 3D renderings of flat images to use as “hero shots”. We'll make 3D book covers for our clients books, TV's for their media appearances, software boxes for trainings we sell, etc.

You just upload an image, pick the design you want, and press enter. Super easy to use.

The only way to get access to it, is to join our Authority Agency membership.

SaneBox

SaneBox works with your existing email service, so you don't have to install any new apps or learn a new interface.

It goes into your email on the back end and figures out what's important and what's not, moving everything in the latter group to a folder that you can check on periodically.

It is easily among the top productivity apps I've ever used.

Clarify

Clarify is a smart, well-designed app that allows users to capture multiple images, add annotations and compile everything into one concise document. Clarify is a positive step between the standard screenshot app and screen recording.

It allows you to capture, edit and share without using multiple apps. Clarify streamlines the process and simplifies workflows.

We use it to crank out step-by-step instructions for our clients and products.

Keeper

As a password manager, Keeper has the basics covered. It captures login info and passwords for you as you browse the Web, securely stores them in a neatly organized vault that's easy to access, and generates passwords for you on the fly.

I've not used any other, so I can't give too much comparison. But this one keeps me from having to remember a zillion passwords.

Category Detective

This is another one of our own apps inside Authority Agency.

Its specifically for consultants that do Kindle and book publishing for their clients. It allows you to drill down to different categories in Amazon and see how difficult it would be to hit a #1 best seller in it.

Well...that's it. Those are 7 of the apps we use almost daily in our marketing agency. Click the play button above to find out exactly how we use them.

The post The 7 Apps We Rely On To Run Our Marketing Agency appeared first on Authority Alchemy | Authority Marketing Tactics.

The first impression your users get of your products and services is typically through some type of lead gen page they land on. Those very pages you’ve been feverishly tweaking away at and — we presume — constantly analyzing.

But we’re betting that many of your landing pages just aren’t cutting the mustard.

To help you, we discuss the 8 crucial lead gen page elements you need to focus on now.

And joining us today as a special guest co-host is the HILARIOUS, Kevin Rogers.

Kevin spent years traveling the country as a dead-broke stand-up comedian until he discovered how a simple joke formula could be used as a powerful marketing hook and began teaching it to marketers.

Entrepreneurs and business owners all over the world have used Kevin’s techniques to skyrocket their profits and grow their businesses at record pace. Today Kevin is one of the most in-demand sales consultants online, working closely with high-volume information marketers, corporations and local brick and mortar businesses alike to turn around sluggish ad campaigns.

Grab a free copy of Kevin's book, The 60 Second Sales Hook right here.

Jack and I both bought and loved this book before we ever started working together. It's a brilliant book to study on many levels.

Click play above to hear the 3 of us walk through the process of creating the perfect lead generation page for your business.

The post The 8 Required Elements of The Perfect Lead Gen Page appeared first on Authority Alchemy | Authority Marketing Tactics.

Vanity is the reason many think is the reason to work toward influencer status.

Julian Casablancas, leader singer for The Strokes said, “Vanity can easily overtake wisdom. It usually overtakes common sense. ”

So the reason behind the desire to become an influencer CAN'T be vanity.

It must be for POSITIONING.

You have to do the things that make it easy for others to recognize you as influencer, and then you will be able to leverage that positioning to further your career or business.

Click play above, and get the details on this very important difference.

IF YOU HAVEN'T JOINED OUR PRIVATE FACEBOOK GROUP YET,
YOU CAN DO IT TODAY FOR FREE RIGHT HERE.

The post Vanity vs Positioning appeared first on Authority Alchemy | Authority Marketing Tactics.