The document summarizes tips from 11 marketing experts on growing businesses. Some key recommendations include focusing on conversion rate optimization testing and discovering what customers want through expanded research; prioritizing content creation from the start; leveraging influencer relationships; and taking a holistic approach to webinars that drives desired actions. The newsletter also spotlights a business counselor from the Mississippi Small Business Development Center.

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Jo Ann Harris
From: Mississippi SBDC <user3188-1049172662@systememerge.com> on behalf of MSBDC
<msbdc@olemiss.edu>
Sent: Thursday, October 15, 2015 6:13 AM
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11 Marketing Wizards Share Their Best Tricks
Contributor: Eric Samson Entrepreneur.com
There are no silver bullets in marketing. What make businesses successful are scaleable and
repeatable processes. A solid approach to generating consumer interest and promoting your brand will
go a long way in building a profitable and sustainable company.
Here, 11 of the world's most talented marketers share their best secrets, strategies and tips for growing
big businesses.
1. James Mahon: Discovering what people really want.
Your customers will consistently surprise you, but they are not the only people worth surveying.
James Mahon, an award-winning CBS affiliate TV reporter and media and marketing advisor,
recommends, "Don't overlook those who you feel are not your traditional client base. They are the ones
who can often teach you the most." Companies consistently discover new opportunities when they
expand the scope of their consumer research.
2. Peep Laja: Mastering conversion rate optimization.
Peep Laja, founder of ConversionXL, knows process is more important than any single tactic. "If you're
focusing on tactics (make the button bigger, etc.), you're doing it wrong. Focus on mastering the CRO
process." This includes in-depth research and extensive testing.
Assumptions and hypotheses must be regularly challenged. Laja adds, "The most important thing in
conversion optimization is the discovery of what matters. If you don't know what specific elements on

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any page of your site might have an impact when you change/test them, you're wasting everybody's
time."
3. Noah Kagan: Converting email audiences to subscribers.
Roll out the Welcome Mat, insists SumoMe founder Noah Kagan. Ask audiences for permission to
share interesting and relevant content with them and, consequently, earn their loyalty and trust.
To deliver emails worth opening, include these five elements to boost your email marketing ROI:
 Powerful subject lines.
 Empathy toward customer intent.
 Compelling images.
 Compelling calls to action.
 Mobile optimization.
4. Mike Allton: Circling the right people with Google+.
Social media can get a bit noisy. Filter out unwanted messages by only following users who are mindful
with the content they share. Mike Allton, editor of The Social Media Hat, says, "My best advice for new
(and existing) Google+ users is to be very particular about who you circle. [Give] careful consideration to
how you intend to use the network."
Unlike Facebook, use Google+ "to discover and connect with the people you don't know. This way,
every time you log into Google+, instead of seeing random posts and discussions in your stream, it will
be a rich dialogue that you'll be excited to jump into every day."
5. Bryan Eisenberg: The importance of relationships to influencer marketing.
Instead of building a homegrown audience, clever marketers leverage others' authority, influence and
reach. Influencers with half a million fans on Facebook and two hundred thousand followers on Pinterest
spend years cultivating large fan bases. They've done all the hard work and to get in front of their
audience, all you need to do is develop a single key relationship -- with the influencer.
But remember that "influencer marketing is not a transactional deal but an ongoing relationship. Spend
time understanding your influencer and their goals," says Bryan Eisenberg, co-founder and CMO of
IdealSpot and New York Times Best Selling author.
6. Dharmesh Shah: Inbound marketing needs an early start with content.
Brands everywhere are in love with content, and rightfully so. Businesses looking to market their
products and services throw absurd amounts of money on ads that never get seen. Instead, businesses
should invest their marketing budgets intelligently and Dharmesh Shah, CTO of HubSpot and founder of
Inbound.org, believes the first thing they should do is "start creating content and building reach the day
you start building the product."
Shah's two arguments for prioritizing content include:
 "First, marketing is not just about finding customers for the product you've built -- in the early days,
it's also about better understanding the market you're building for."
 "Second, inbound marketing takes time. It's a long-term investment, and the sooner you start, the
better."
7. Alex Attinger: Native advertising focus is engagement over conversion.
By 2018, eMarketer estimates U.S. native advertising spending to be $8.8 billion dollars, up from $3.2
billion in 2014. To take full advantages of native advertising, Alex Attinger, Group MD of millennial

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advertising platform ContentClick, advises, "stop thinking about [yourself] and instead take the
consumer down an engagement journey. Too many brands focus on what they're going to offer
(coupons, special offers, trials etc) without truly engaging and interacting with consumers in a two-way
conversation."
8. Arjun Dev Arora: Retargeting, segmentation and testing.
For powerful retargeting campaigns, Arjun Dev Arora, chairman of Retargeter and co-founder of
Immediately, suggests brands "segment and target" their ads. The secret is creating "multiple
campaigns based on and targeted from unique and defined places on your website."
Every customer follows a different buyer journey. Avoid applying a mass-marketing approach to
retargeting. Also, "make sure that you test a vast variety of creatives," adds Arora.
9. Muray Newlands: Partner with likeminded publications.
What I love about the digital age is how accessible expert knowledge is. If I want to learn from Richard
Branson, I read his column on Entrepreneur. Many brilliant professionals similarly contribute to leading
publications to get in front of their target audience. When developing thought leadership content, co-
founder of Due.com Murray Newlands suggests, "Find the publications which influence the market you
want to connect with and contribute to those publications. Win with big ideas and great content that
establishes you as a thought leader. Write about the whole industry not just your narrow interest."
10. Alex Debelov: Procative video distribution.
Alex Debelov, CEO of programmatic video advertising platform Virool, tells entrepreneurs to, "Consider
the video's distribution as a proactive part of the process rather than a reaction to a lackluster view
count. Once in front of the right viewers, they will do the work for you and the organic traffic will keep
flowing."
To be strategic about your video distribution efforts, Debelov shares, "One tip we like to tell our clients is
to use your social audience to test content before distributing it. For example, post three thumbnails to
Facebook and see which one gets the most likes. This is an easy, unpaid way to optimize your
thumbnail and drive an increase in clicks."
11. Georgiana Laudi: Thinking holistically about webinars.
"There's more to webinars, than the webinar," says Georgiana Laudi, VP Marketing at Unbounce. "From
the topic selection, choice of guest, registration landing page, to how you leverage the webinar
recording. Every detail needs deliberate and strategic thinking behind it. It's not that the webinar itself
isn't hugely important (of course it is), but too often it's the opportunities surrounding the webinar that
are overlooked or under-estimated, and they make all the difference."
For example, "The topic you choose for your webinar should be irresistibly useful, while inspiring
attendees to take your desired action (purchase your product or service), without being the slightest bit
pitchy. Your guest should bring not only expertise and credibility with them, but ideally a totally new
audience to your brand too. Your email invitation and promos should encourage people to register even
if they can't attend the live event (you can send them the recording). Your registration page should be
free from distraction like navigation to the rest of your site or social share buttons (ask for that after
they've registered)."
This ensures every webinar you produce is successful. At Unbounce, "It's these details (and plenty
more) that helped turn webinars into our largest acquisition channel in only a few short months."

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Business Counselor's Spotlight: Dana Cawthon, Tupelo, MS.
Dana Cawthon is one of our loved and well known business counselors
for the Mississippi Small Business Development Center in Tupelo. She
was transitioned to a business counselor for the SBDC in 2014 after
holding a part-time position with the Jobs Act Program. She is an
accomplished executive leader coordinating all aspects of management,
operations, finance and accounting for established organizations and
start-ups. Her key strengths are leadership and operational positions and
implementing strategic goals based on the need of the organization. She
works effectively with customers, management and staff of the
organization. She builds a workforce culture that reflects the
organization's values, encourages outstanding performance and rewards
productivity. She is an energetic, conscientious and a resourceful
individual who is efficient and analytical with a love of laughter.
Dana received her Bachelors of Accountancy at the University of
Mississippi. She then moved to Denver, Colorado where she gained her
Executive Leadership MBA at the University of Denver, Daniels Business School. Dana is very qualified
to lead our entrepreneurs towards their goals and dreams of being business owners. Starting out with
multiple recognitions in the U.S. Air Force, Dana then owned her own management and financial
consulting firm where she served over 200 businesses and individuals.
Dana has been recognized by the Secretary of State, Donald Rumsfeld and received awards from the
Air Force such as the Good Conduct Medal, National Defense Service Medal and the American
Campaign Medal.
As Dana enjoys her work and states, "I am blessed to have the opportunity to service small business
clients in Northeast Mississippi. It is very rewarding to witness the remarkable turnarounds of how my
clients alter the way they target consumers and improve customer service based on my
recommendations. In return, they see increases in revenues and have more control over their expenses
on monthly bases. To have the SBDC platform in the state is invaluable to business owners and
stakeholders. It is a pleasure working for the Mississippi SBDC and the University of Mississippi team,
led by James Carden in Oxford. Mr. Carden allows me the freedom to be proactive in the areas I serve
to promote growth and prosperity."
Many people have great things to say about Dana and as Mr. Robert Forster, Associate Director of
MSBDC, says "Dana, is a very experienced counselor who does her level best and in a professional
way assure that her clients are getting a broad counseling experience and, as such, getting a leg up as
they develop their business plans and strategies."
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The Mississippi Small Business Development Center is an accredited member of America's Small Business Development
Centers and is funded in part through a cooperative agreement with the U.S. Small Business Administration through The
University of Mississippi. All opinions, conclusions or recommendations expressed are those of the author(s) and do not
necessarily reflect the views of the SBA or The University of Mississippi.
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