Marketers With Attitudes

Imagine you’re an aspiring graphic designer and music fanatic from Missouri.

You move all the way to New York City so you can attend art school at SVA.

You graduate and land your dream job: Art Director at Atlantic Records.

You cannot believe Atlantic Records hired you straight out of art school, and because you suffer from imposter syndrome, you always feel like you don’t belong, that you aren’t good enough.

But instead of panicking, you learn meditation and completely transform your mindset.

Then, after more than 3 years of hard work and mindfulness, you’re blessed with a breakthrough:

Within the span of only a few months, your work appears as cover art on 2 of the number-1 albums in the country.

   

Stop imagining, because this kind of a success story can happen for you too.

This success story belongs to Matt Meiners, and in this interview, he’s going to share actionable tips and tactics, and equip you with the mental tools necessary to reach your own breakthrough moment.

Enjoy the interview.

You’ve done album art for Lil Uzi Vert, A Boogie Wit Da Hoodie, and 21 Savage, among others. Tell us about what led you to a career in graphic design?

Matt Meiners: I went to school to study biology, and I ended up failing miserably. And then I went to community college and started taking graphic design classes and loved it.

I could tap every point of interest, from research, how to communicate different things with people and subject matter, drawing and illustration, and just being expansive in that way. And that's what led me to graphic design.

Matt Meiners collaborated with Virgilio Tzaj on the design work of 21 Savage’s number 1 album, I am > I was.

When I met you at The School Of Visual Arts (SVA) you were rebounding from a low point in your life. Can you tell me about that dark patch and how you got yourself out of it?

Matt Meiners: It was one of those moments where I didn't feel like myself, and I didn't know how to deal with that. I was failing and had never failed before.

I was leaning on things, you know, drinking too much, partying too much, eating bad food and trying to avoid reality.

I realized I had to change my work habits, that I have to be accountable for what I created. That was kind of like what I was missing in my life.

When you’re creating art for superstars like 21 Savage and Lil Uzi Vert, is there any added pressure knowing that millions of people are going to see your work?

Matt Meiners: When you say it like that, I do kind of feel some pressure, but it really only hits me after it's out and I'm like, “Oh damn, I hope I didn't leave some weird layer on."

But honestly, it depends on the project and the artist. I’m trying to fight to the finish line.

Do you communicate with artists while you’re working on their album art?

Matt Meiners: Yeah, it varies from project to project. Like, sometimes you might be working through a management person or somebody with the label, or you might be working directly with an artist.

Sometimes it's communication through email and pitches and I just kind of throw-in what I think is cool. Artists have a lot of vision for the way a visual should look.

So sometimes it's very direct. Like, “I want to be on a horse in the middle of the desert,” and then you try to figure out how to make that happen.

As for the Uzi project, I've never met him, but I worked with another creative who does really good work. His name's Spike Jordan, and we worked together on that.

Spike has a long relationship with Uzi, so he was doing like the interfacing with him. Together we created all the visuals for Luv is Rage 2.

   

In this article, we’ll give you 10 reasons why your video marketing campaign is failing to produce revenue for your business.

And the best part is: we’ll help you correct your mistakes and get on the path to profitable video marketing.

Let’s get started. There’s a lot for you to learn, young Jedi.

1). You aren’t creating videos for every stage of the sales funnel

People rarely watch a single video and pull out their credit card to make a purchase.

   

If you want people to purchase your product or service, you have to build trust, and trust isn’t built overnight (especially if you sell high-ticket items). 

To build trust with your prospects, create a body of videos that moves them along the sales funnel. Every video you create should answer a different set of questions your prospects might have.

Understanding the sales funnel will improve your video marketing efforts

Imagine if 10 people walk into a car dealership and all look at the same car.  Should the car salesman approach all 10 people with the same brochures and sales pitch? Of course not.

Some people might know everything about the car already. While others may need a basic briefing on the car features and safety record. 

Whether it’s in real life or online, every customer needs to be spoken to differently. And your job is to create a video marketing campaign that speaks to each of your prospects directly. And while this can feel impossible, it can be done.

Diversify your videos so every stage of the sales funnel is accounted for.

Top of funnel content - for people who are unfamiliar with your product or service. Or know of it a little bit.

 

Top Funnel

- Facebook Video Ads

- Instagram Video Ads

- Youtube Video Ads

- Blog posts (with embedded videos)

 

Middle of the funnel - for people who are interested and want more info about your product or service

 

Middle Funnel

- Webinars

- Facebook Videos

- Instagram Videos

- Youtube Videos

- Blog posts (with embedded videos)

 

Bottom of the funnel - for people who are really close to making a decision about buying your product or service.

 

Bottom Funnel

- Case studies

- Testimonials

- Demos

- Webinars

 

Keep in mind that there is overlap. A single piece of content can satisfy several stages in the sales funnel. However, you do want to create each piece of content with one stage of the sales funnel in mind.

2). You only do paid marketing

If you want to create a video marketing campaign that boosts revenue and strengthens relationships with customers, you need both paid and organic marketing strategies in place. 

Let’s look at the pros and cons of paid marketing.

Pros of paid marketing

Running video

   

Are you missing out on opportunities to make more money with your video marketing efforts?

Video marketing is evolving fast. It’s difficult to stay on top of every new tactic, strategy, and opportunity.

In this post, I’ll let you in on 3 mostly-untapped video marketing opportunities and the tactics you can use to seize them.

As my favorite Italian plumber would say, “Let’s a-go.” 

1). Video SEO

Since the beginning of the internet, text-based content has led the charge in SEO efforts. But that’s starting to change.

Google now ranks videos at the top of its search results. In addition to that, Youtube (owned by Google’s parent company Alphabet) is the 2nd largest search engine in the world, processing more than 3 billion searches a month.

   

Let’s talk about the ways you can utilize video to improve your SEO.

Optimize your blog posts by adding video

Even today, blogging is one of the best ways to generate more revenue. According to Hubspot’s State Of Inbound 2018 report, your business is 13X more likely to see positive ROI if you implement a well-crafted blog strategy.

Yes, blogging is still effective. But it has changed. The success of your blog now depends more on video content.

Every time you write a new blog, your text and images should be accompanied by a video. To drive this point home stronger, look at this blog post from one of the world’s most successful marketers, Neil Patel.

Neil has 4 videos embedded in this blog post (which also happens to rank on the 1st page of Google).

We’re not endorsing Neil Patel and his agency. But you can’t deny his ability to rank content on Google.

   

On just about every single one of Neil’s blog posts, he has an embedded Youtube Video. Keep in mind that Neil always adds a video that is related to the topic of the blog. He isn’t just embedding random videos on his blog posts.

By embedding your YouTube videos on your blog posts, you can gain an unfair advantage against your competitors who still rely solely on text and images.

Here’s another mind-blowing stat that reinforces my point.

According to Martech.zone, embedding a video on your page increases its chances of ranking at the top of Google by a factor of 53.

Video keeps users on your webpages longer (Dwell Time)

Google rewards web pages that keep people’s attention.

If a user clicks your web page in the SERPs and then immediately leaves the page, it sends a powerful signal to Google: Your web page is not satisfying the intent of the searcher and, therefore, your page should not be at the top of Google’s search results.

By embedding a YouTube video at the top of your blog post, it keeps users’ on your web page longer. That’s because video content is more engaging than text and static images. According to Forbes, users’ spend 88% more time on websites with video.

If you’re not doing it already, start embedding video content on your blog posts. You can thank me later.

We don’t have a video embedded in this blog post, but that’s because we haven’t yet produced a video that relates to this given topic. But we will very soon, rest assured.

2). Video marketing empowers your sales team

Your company has to make sales to stay in business. Ya gotta sell, baby.

With that being said, it always surprises me when I learn about just how inefficient the average sales rep is. Sales reps are only spending 35% of their time selling. That means your average sales rep is spending most of his or her time NOT SELLING. 

Now, before you yell at your sales team and do your impression of Alec Baldwin in Glengarry Glen Ross, consider the challenges your salespeople face every day. The research, the emails, the time they spend on software like SalesForce.

Your sa

A fake, reputation-damning claim was published about your business on Ripoff Report. You’re panicking. You’re upset. You’re angry.

But most of all, you want to know how to get the fake claim removed from Ripoff Report, and you want to do so as cheaply as possible.

Well, you’ve come to the right place. We’ve been in your shoes.

A jealous competitor published a fake Ripoff Report claim about our business, Ouster Marketing, and we fought to get the issue resolved—successfully—without spending money.

When it comes to resolving fake claims on Ripoff Report, most of your options are prohibitively expensive (we’re talking thousands of dollars).

In this post, I’ll show you the most cost-effective ways to deal with false Ripoff Report claims, as well as every other option you have at your disposal.

But first, let’s go over the basic stuff you must understand about Ripoff Report.

It’s almost impossible to completely remove fake Ripoff Report Claims

Because of a little-known piece of legislation called the Communications Decency Act, Ripoff Report isn’t responsible for any falsified claims made about your business on their website.

Ripoff Report is an extortion racket

   

Because anyone can publish a fake claim about your business on Ripoff Report, scammers and grudge-holders can use the site as a way to extort money from innocent business owners.

In addition to scammers and grudge-holders, you must also watch out for competitors who are eager to sink your reputation with unethical tactics via Ripoff Report.

What can you actually do about false claims on Ripoff Report?

Let’s go over your list of options and the PROS and CONS of each.

Contact the person who made the false claims about your business

 

PROS:

If you know the person who published the false claim about your business on Ripoff Report, perhaps you can persuade them to edit the claim and admit that it was fake. This way, if potential customers read the report, at least they’ll know it isn’t true.

CONS:

Even if the person who made the false claim about your business agrees to cooperate with you, they will not be able to delete the claim from Ripoff Report. The original author of the false claim is only granted the ability to edit the post. This means that the fake claim about your business will still be visible on Ripoff Report.

 

Give your side of the story

 

Finding the right marketing agency to partner with can be a game changer for you and your business.

If you hire the right marketing agency, you will get more leads, see a substantial increase in revenue, and you’ll build stronger relationships with your customers, making them happy and loyal.

But if you hire the wrong marketing agency, your business is going to lose insane amounts of money, and you might end up sleeping on the air mattress in your father-in-law's dusty basement.

(No disrespect to your father-in-law’s dusty basement.)

Luckily for you and your father-in-law, this article will show you how to choose a great marketing agency, one that you can partner with and expect to see big returns on your marketing budget.

Let's get started, your business needs an awesome marketing agency to partner with.

Here are 6 things to look for in a great marketing agency.

1). Understand exactly how the marketing agency produces real-world business results 

No marketing agency can solve the challenges of every business.

When looking for an agency, you need to find out how they’re producing results.

This way, you’ll know if they can use their marketing tactics to solve the specific challenges facing you and your business.

Here are a few things to deeply consider:

The Methodology they use to produce results

   

Marketers love to hurl acronyms at you like snowballs (SEO, PPC, KPI, CLTV). Don’t be scared to ask questions about the specific details.

After all, if the marketing agency can’t explain to you, in easy-to-understand language, the exact process they use to achieve results, run away from that agency faster than Indiana Jones runs away from a giant boulder.

Every successful marketing agency follows a process, a step-by-step formula which helps them produce repeatable results for their clients.

Ask the marketing agency to explain to you every step of their process. And if you don’t understand something, ask them for more explanation.

Digital Marketing is not esoteric black magic; hire an agency whose methodology you can easily understand.

I know what you might be thinking, "I don't understand digital marketing and the language associated with it."

While that is completely understandable, you can always ask the people in your circle for help.

For example, find a friend or relative who is savvy in marketing, and invite them to help you inspect each marketing agency until you find a perfect fit.

   

Look for unique talents and specialization

A sound methodology is required for marketing success. But methodologies can only be executed upon with the right talent.

Some agencies are masterful with link building and SEO, some are great with pay-per-click advertising, and