SUMMARY This episode features Daniel McGowan and Louise Flynn, Growth Marketing Consultants for Fractal as they provide a marketing review and analysis of SEMrush. They analyze the company’s dependence on Google and the way the brand appeals to their niche: end-users of a certain size that want to take their analyses in-house. They also discuss SEMrush’s legacy as a fast brand, its wins and losses in pursuing an all-in-one offering, their evolution as an award-giving body, and what all this means for the company moving forward. HIGHLIGHTS 02:35 SEMrush: An interface to Google and a vulnerability to redundancy 07:02 Target market: Appealing to agencies versus end-users 16:05 Offering an all-in-one product: Pros and Cons 20:43 SEMrush Search Awards: Driving community forward 25:15 Certificates: A specialization or lock-in? QUOTES 07:12 “We’re not looking to be a platform that supports every type of marketer–brand marketers, automation marketers. We are going with the prevailing wind which is, in the last 5 years, all the new jobs are digitally-focused.” 07:38 “There is a lot of benefit and growth in the automation space but ultimately where the money is and where the focus is for most business is in their digital space and supporting their digital teams.” 20:18 “They’re making sure that everyone around the digital operation is covered. There’s the analyst, the PPC guy, the SEO guy, and now the supporting content, bringing them all into the ecosystem. It’s all-in-one. You’re all using the same tool.” 21:46 “The benefit of being a company that’s been around a while now is that you now have a community that can do the work for you. And yes, that can be case studies and testimonials and all that sort of things, but awards are even better.” 26:53 “It actually hurts someone who has a SEMrush certificate, who does all this stuff, who knows all that, to go to a competitor because those competitors may have different ways of doing things and that certificate that you spent all that time getting means nothing.”  

This episode of Fractal Marketing features Lachlan Kirkwood, Digital Marketing Specialist and Founder of ClickThrough. He discusses Webflow, a champion of the no-code movement, and drills down their marketing strategies from content to paid advertising that fosters a robust online community of success stories. By building a great product supported by informative content, Webflow creates lock-in with their users while still providing exportable features—ultimately resulting in social proof. The company is poised to take on WordPress and Wix by offering a similar service with the benefits of using no-code in the process. HIGHLIGHTS 01:29 Introduction to Webflow and the no-code movement 07:00 Webflow’s content strategy: Blogs, YouTube, and forums, 14:04 Paid advertising strategy and branding 19:55 Creating lock-in with a genuinely good product 32:35 Generating social proof with a product that integrates with third-parties QUOTES 08:46 “Their main educational content is things like a series where they actually educate those users or those personas on how to better themselves. So they’ve got a blog series for building an agency or building a website with good SEO.” 10:35 “What they really focused on with YouTube is just putting out, again, really good tutorials on how to use their products, how to use no-code, how to build replica products, things like Uber or Instagram with no-code.” 20:09 “Webflow is, similar to Bubble, is free-to-use while you build your product. You’ll only pay for it once you put it into production environment. So by that point you’ve really built your application. You’re not going to want to rebuild that on another platform.” 27:47 “They do want to become the next WordPress or Wix and they have the chance of that becoming a real scenario so they want to, for the new people coming into no-code, to be able to provide those services where it is a one-click web hosting” 29:05 “Webflow, being more of a static kind of website builder that integrates with third-party tools to make that kind of logic possible, you can just export all your custom HTMLs and CSS.” RESOURCES Webflow’s website: https://webflow.com/ ClickThrough’s website: https://clickthrough.marketing/ Lachlan’s Twitter: https://twitter.com/lachlankirkwood  

This episode of Fractal Marketing features Andrew Miller, Startup Marketing Advisor & Coach at AndrewStartups. He discusses Numa, an AI that answers calls for businesses and the strategies they use to pitch to retail SMB’s. Gerard and Andrew take a closer look at their website and the ways Numa creates trust in their ideal customers. Andrew details the way companies can utilize concepts like loss aversion and split testing to really figure out who they should be marketing to. He also provides actionable tips on outreach to provide real value in their messaging because the desire to help allows businesses to be aggressive in their marketing. HIGHLIGHTS 01:01 Introduction to Numa: Andrew’s experience 06:35 Capitalizing on loss aversion and utilizing split testing 10:26 Examining Numa’s on-site tools and strategies 20:32 Outreach strategies: How to catching attention with value propositions 25:44 A desire to help enables aggressive marketing QUOTES 06:22 “Numa’s a hundred bucks a month. It’s an incredible way for any business to get a couple more sales a month guaranteed for just a hundred bucks. It’s an easier pitch than you think now.” 12:55 “The bottom line is, if you’re a bootstrapped company, use every single opportunity to not pay for something.” 17:24 “Social proof is the reason why influencer marketing exists and sometimes beats paid advertising. We are social creatures. Even if it’s fake, we believe it. And we believe it more than if we just saw the company talk about it on their own.” 23:46 “I’m focused on what am I saying, how am I saying it, and is there a lot of value in my message. And if there is, I know it’s going to be received well enough. The same has been true with hundreds of companies I’ve run automated campaigns for.” 28:29 “When you really feel like you’re spending this time and this effort in your life trying to solve this problem, then you can be aggressive in the marketing. You’re always focused on helping this segment.” 25:44 A desire to help enables aggressive marketing RESOURCES Numa’s website: https://numa.com Andrew’s website: https://andrewstartups.com Andrew’s email: [email protected] Andrew’s Book https://publishizer.com/0-growth/ 25% off my course link and write up for the episode: https://andrewstartups.mykajabi.com/offers/LEyiwCGp?coupon_code=FRACTAL25

This episode features Louise Flynn, Founder and Marketing Advisor at Rulu Marketing. She talks about Kajabi, an online business platform that replaces multiple tools and offers a full-stack solution to solopreneurs, and how it positions itself to this very specific target market. Louise and Gerard discuss their free trial offer and the curious credit card requirement that comes with it. They also break down the company’s acquisition strategies, marketing funnels, as well as their incidental success with the world’s increased reliance on digital communication today. HIGHLIGHTS 02:51 Kajabi: Offering a full-stack solution 08:06 Leveraging the community of brands that use Kajabi 14:53 Kajabi’s 14-day free trial and credit card requirement 19:45 Discussing acquisition strategies and marketing funnels 33:38 Product marketing successes QUOTES 07:13 “For some who find the technology a little bit overwhelming, the aspirational brand messaging really brings them forward, brings them through and they begin to see the life with Kajabi in it.” 09:20 “They have a heroes program that they talk about where they’re constantly sending out merch just to reward people for hitting certain revenue targets on the platform. So they’re trying to actively engage the community.” 21:20 “I don’t see a lot of marketing outside of the website and I wonder why that is whether they just were used to being bootstrapped and they haven’t built a big enough acquisition funnel with enough different aspects to it.” 27:09 “If you pick a very specific persona, that promise has to really land. You can’t really build the huge dream. It’s got to be so relevant and they seem to be targeting a persona which is business-driven coaches and consultants.” 34:59 “Instead of trying to kind of be everything to everyone and not being able to secure any of the market, they’ve just decided on the type of person that’s interesting to them.” RESOURCES Kajabi demo (credit card required): https://kajabi.com/demo Kajabi Access for $99: https://kajabi.com/access Kajabi on Facebook Business: https://www.facebook.com/ads/library/?active_status=all&ad_type=all&country=ALL&view_all_page_id=113897981972497

This episode of Fractal Marketing features Jason Wright, New York Times Bestselling Author and Speaker, as he discusses the branding of Smart Passive Income (SPI) by Pat Flynn. Gerard and Jason look at Pat’s success in blogging and podcasting, as well as break down SPI’s branding elements like their website and mission statement. They also discuss the relevance of social media platforms and how effective LinkedIn and Facebook groups are for particular niches. QUOTES 05:48 “He was really early on the podcast scene. So his podcast, you kind of scroll down the main page, 60 million-plus downloads. That alone, it’s nuts. And he’s able to drive so much traffic in all of his affiliate offers.” 12:27 “It doesn’t strike me that his site has been built for acquisition. It feels to me like it’s about conversion. In other words, if you’ve got 60 million podcast downloads, you’ve got that rate.” 12:49 “I don’t think this website anymore is designed to draw new people in. I think people he’s got, I think this is about building up his personal brand and trust.” 17:02 “Video allows people to watch and say, do I believe this person? Do I think they’re full of crap or do they seem honest? You can pick up on a lot of that through video so I think anything with video is going to remain relevant.” 23:45 “I get very little through LinkedIn so for my business it’s not a significant platform. It’s like Facebook really. It’s really a pay to play space now. It doesn’t have the reach it used to have.” —————————–   HIGHLIGHTS 03:56 Smart Passive Income: Building trust with transparency 10:57 Breaking down SPI’s branding and website 16:03 Discussing video in digital marketing 19:13 Critiquing SPI marketing strategies 22:54 LinkedIn: Is it really effective? ——————————   RESOURCES https://www.smartpassiveincome.com https://patflynn.com/ https://intentionallyinspirational.com/ https://www.facebook.com/groups/funnelbuildingforprofit

In this episode of Fractal Marketing features Daniel McGowan, Co-Founder at Humble Links, discusses the almost overnight rise to fame of Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout. Today, Daniel introduces what makes the game so unique and its appeal to gamers. He explains the role of their Twitter in growing the brand and how having a gamer manage it had been central in communicating the language of gamers to gamers. Daniel also explores the advantages of indie game developers and how the stage is set for them to achieve massive success moving forward. RESOURCES https://twitter.com/fallguysgame https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AyADwdiW7rQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vXdeNa9d9sg https://www.linkedin.com/in/daniel-mcgowan/ https://www.hmbl.ink/directory QUOTES 01:23 “It’s kind of like those original Japanese game shows where they put their contestants through hell, except these ones are like jelly beans with legs.” 04:19 “They just had a really good Twitter account. They really pushed memes everywhere and I think it really captured their audience because their audience, gamers, are just who they are.” 16:13 “Most of the user content has come from people griefing other people. Like there’s a special stage where there’s only one little bridge and people can stand on that bridge and other people try to get on it, they get knocked off.” 21:57 “Any branding, or any marketing for any company, is community. Community with a face. Not so much community but a community with a face. Having someone behind who is driving your community that everybody knows. And independent studios get to do that.” 22:54 “I think indie developers are in a really good position to be able to use that to push forward that thing.”   HIGHLIGHTS 01:07 Introducing Fall Guys 04:08 Utilizing “memekating” and TimTheTatman’s accidental influence 11:37 Putting a gamer in charge of the Fall Guys Twitter 20:07 Indie game developers: Growing the community and finding success 26:57 Humble Links: Cultivating influencers and their relationships with brands

This episode of Fractal Marketing is called “JB HI-Fi, Marketing Darling or Dead End?” with Jason Le, Managing Director at JRNY Digital. Today, Jason and Gerard pick apart the brand’s omnichannel approach to marketing to see which are effective in a shrinking market.  They discuss Click & Collect in an apparent bid to upsell their other inventory with higher profit margins. They also discuss the decision to pass up on zipPay and Afterpay, the purpose of maintaining physical stores, and a possible long term strategy to pivot the brand and stand out. HIGHLIGHTS 02:21 Click & Collect: A hybrid e-commerce model that tailors the user experience   14:17 Avoiding zipPay and Afterpay, a strategic profitability decision? 16:32 Physical stores: Fostering trust and brand recall 22:55 Jobkeeper reduction and discretionary purchasing will hurt retail  27:09 Adding a face to the brand to build customer loyalty QUOTES 02:33 “The other option is Click & Collect which is where they have to purchase something online but they come in store where they have to pick it up and then they get upsold all these different items.” 15:21 “If you offered Afterpay on JB Hi-Fi products or zipPay or something like that for a thousand dollar, two thousand dollar laptops, your sales would probably go through the roof. However, in terms of your bottom line, I don’t know how beneficial that would actually be.” 21:45 “Maybe the physical stores would serve a different purpose, more like showrooms like you mentioned, educating people on what they can buy and maybe anchoring people through value-adding.” 25:41 “Payments are going to be winding back. People probably aren’t going to be as willing to spend money. They really need to find out a way to either maintain that spending with a lot of value to customer or figure out how to incentivize those large purchases.” 29:08 “You need to build that loyalty to the customer. Whether it’s getting influencers in or having more of a face to the brand, showing what you stand for, I think that’s probably where I’d look at.” RESOURCES https://www.jrnydigital.com.au/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/jason-le1/

This episode of Fractal Marketing is called “Koala Mattresses: A Brand Strategy Review” with Melissa Packham, Chief Brand Strategist at A Brand Is Not A Logo. Today, Melissa starts off with Koala’s name recall and going international. They then discuss Koala’s guerilla marketing choices, their disruption of the industry with superior offerings, and their success in challenging titans in the business. Melissa also unpacks Koala’s logo and their choice to be transparent as an ethical and socially-conscious brand. HIGHLIGHTS 01:38 Analyzing Koala as a brand name  07:00 Disrupting the industry and challenging the competition  13:53 Discussing traditional marketing channels and Koala’s logo 21:52 Embracing the future and being a socially-conscious brand QUOTES 02:35 “It’s obviously a strong hook for them overseas because the association with cuddly koalas and Australia is so strong.” 07:49 “They set out not with the intention to launch a mattress, they set out to disrupt a category by improving customer experience.” 20:19 “The lower case kinds of suggests that it’s more approachable and modern than a very Times New Roman kind of Serif typography choice there. In terms of visual, it’s already saying that it’s a modern brand.” 22:30 “The reason more businesses are stepping up to the plate on doing social good is because, quite frankly, consumers are demanding it and have been demanding it for years. And it is definitely the global majority now.” 27:00 “People trust brands. They trust brands to take action and so that’s why they’ve trusted brands for so long and now they’re actively choosing brands that align with their values. And, in fact, they trust them more than governments.”

Today, Gerard Doyle features Iain Calvert, eCommerce Consultant at Boom Ecommerce training, to talk about the branding success of Allbirds in carving out its own niche.  They identify Allbird’s key strengths and discuss the brand’s core messaging. They further break down the brand’s strategy to create buy-in, its solid value proposition, and the simple yet effective use of online tools, with Shopify in particular.  QUOTES 06:07 “The core message is they’re really comfortable, simple, straightforward shoes that pretty much anybody can wear. It’s not a case of the pure runners that you try and run marathons in them.” 14:19 “Businesses or manufacturers have this ability to sell directly to customers, not having to sell to retailers and take a wholesale margin, because you’ve got systems like Shopify.” 22:57 “I implore anybody that is thinking about setting up an e-commerce business or building theirs, is to not copy what other people do but to use the tools, apply it to their strategy.” 31:54 “Because people like that brand, they’re more likely to open the email, so the delivery rate is going to be higher. And because it’s a high profile client, MailChimp probably looks after them.” 32:19 “If you do not spend time developing the products, the brand message, and you spend all your time picking the tech stack and what platform you’re going to go on and all these bits and pieces, you’ve actually missed the point.” HIGHLIGHTS 02:52 The origins & core message of Allbirds  09:05 Buy-in & the California tech influence  14:10 B to C brands thriving through Shopify 20:13 Exploring Allbirds SEO and MailChimp email marketing 32:36 A good product will sell —————————— RESOURCES https://www.boomecommerce.com.au/

In the US, voting is optional, just like our consumer spending is. And Trump (maybe unwittingly) has discovered that it doesn’t matter how many people hate you, just how many people love you. Because if your ‘love’ something, then you get out and vote for it. or you’ll get out and buy it.   In this short podcast episode, I discuss why great brands will always attract some haters, and we need to learn to embrace that.