[00:00:00] Jeff Sieh: Welcome to Social Media News Live I’m Jeff Sieh, and you’re not….

[00:00:04] Grace Duffy: And I’m Grace Duffy. And this is the show that keeps you up-to-date in the world of social media

[00:00:10] Jeff Sieh: today. Our great friend, Colin is joining us today. We’re going to be getting into campaign strategy and planning for 2022.

[00:00:19] What we learned from 2021. And what’s ahead. For 2022 in the marketing space. So Colin, so excited, been wanting to have you on the show for awhile. How are you doing today? My friend,

[00:00:30] Colin Lepiscopo: I am doing great. So happy to be here. I’ve got some Christmas lights to put up this weekend. Yeah. And celebrating a 41st birthday.

[00:00:40] So it’s a block coming up. So happy birthday. That was great in a few days. So yeah. That’s what’s going on here. It’s kinda, rain in San Diego where I’m doing you know, it

[00:00:54] Jeff Sieh: And I saw some posts about this. It kind of states when your birthday is this close to Christmas, growing up when it’s oh,

[00:01:00] Colin Lepiscopo: Combo gift city all day.

[00:01:03] Yeah, that happens a lot. And as a kid, as an adult, you’re like, oh, that’s right, grandma. I appreciate everything you can do. But as a kid, you’re like, I want two toys. Okay. First,

[00:01:14] Jeff Sieh: know? Yes.

[00:01:16] Colin Lepiscopo: That is true. As kids in June, man, they’re getting

[00:01:18] Jeff Sieh: hooked up. Mine was in July. It was amazing. So it was perfect right in the middle.

[00:01:23] All right. If you guys don’t know who you are, if you don’t know who Colin is, he is a column. Pensacola Piscopo is the director of campaign strategy for global leadership network. And he has nine plus years of experience marketing, live events, TV, production, Broadway musicals, best-selling books, and online products.

[00:01:42] He is also the founder of medic inversions, a CRO agency that helps businesses grow. He is also. A Brazilian jujitsu, blue belt who trains in San Diego. So he can kill you just by looking at you. So he’s amazing. Okay.

[00:01:56] Colin Lepiscopo: Ashton Kutcher could beat me up the cheekbone.

[00:01:59] Jeff Sieh: Exactly.

[00:02:00] Grace Duffy: Yes, it can kill you,

[00:02:03] Colin Lepiscopo: so Colin Belkin carotid artery, right?

[00:02:08] Grace Duffy: It’s just slice you. So Colin, we’re so excited to have you. I love that you told Jeff, like y’all come by sometime next year. And we’re like, how about in two days? And you came because you want. And all things, but before we get started, tell us about your organizations, both global leadership network and medic conversions.

[00:02:30] Not to be confused with the other meta, but tell us what they each do and what you do at the w.

[00:02:38] Colin Lepiscopo: Yeah. So the global leadership network basically has a big summit that they do each year in August called the global leadership summit, where it’s actually in host sites all over the world. And there’s hundreds of thousands of people that gather they learn important.

[00:02:56] Formational leadership values and things, and take those back to their communities, businesses, churches, organizations, and and help lead their teams and grow in that way. And it’s really awesome, nonprofit and happy to be there. And medical versions is my personal CRO agency where I help businesses grow and increase their conversions.

[00:03:18] Mainly through digital marketing. Also help them with business consulting and strategy.

[00:03:23] Jeff Sieh: Yeah. So pretend like you didn’t know what a CRO agency was, what is CRO.

[00:03:28] Colin Lepiscopo: Yeah. So CRO is conversion rate optimization, which to put it very simply, it’s basically looking to increase the percentage of conversions that could be new leads that could be, more sales.

[00:03:42] And and we do that through testing and optimizing, usually the whole funnel and testing landing pages testing. Yeah.

[00:03:52] Jeff Sieh: Awesome. Awesome. So we’ve got some comments. We’ve got our friend always saying it’s Sabrina and she says, hello, it’s me Sabrina. Same message. Every week. I get so excited when I see her popping in.

[00:04:02] Thank you, Sabrina for stopping by, but she goes Broadway musicals last night. She went and saw MJ the music. That’s cool. I want to know what musical that you were, you did cause I’m kind of a musical.

[00:04:14] Colin Lepiscopo: We did. This was back when I was at a turning point, which is the, another global a broadcast company.

[00:04:20] And they did a big Christmas show on Broadway. So I got to be in New York. On Broadway for Christmas, which was, I wasn’t on the stage, but like just being in Kristen, being in new Christmas is a magical experience if you can ever do it. And yeah, it it was awesome. We put on an awesome Christmas show there and it’s it’s if you’ve ever done a Broadway musical, it’s just this flurry, set up air down within a week or a few days.

[00:04:47] And it was a

[00:04:48] Jeff Sieh: little. And the global leadership summit. I wanted to mention that real quick, because I went to, I’ve gone through the last couple of years and I got to see a, one of my cars. They have really big name speakers. There, I got to Sue Todd Henry was one of them and I’m a big fan of his accidental creative podcast and books, all the books that he’s put out.

[00:05:05] So that was really cool. So if you have a chance to check that out, make sure that you guys, and we’ll try to drop a link down below where you guys can find out more about it. Cause it’s got some really great stuff.

[00:05:14] Colin Lepiscopo: And I will tell you, the speaker lineup for next year is pretty awesome. I’m pretty excited about it.

[00:05:21] I’ve got some people where I’m like, them

[00:05:26] And it’s, it’s awesome. So I’m pretty excited. I wish I could. I wish I could say, but I might get fired. So we

[00:05:34] Jeff Sieh: just started, we don’t want to mess that up, so we don’t want to

[00:05:36] Grace Duffy: get you fired. When is the conference?

[00:05:41] Colin Lepiscopo: I think it would think it’s August 4th and fifth this year. It’s a two day that, yeah

[00:05:44] Cool.

[00:05:44] Jeff Sieh: And and they simulcasts around the country. So you can probably find someplace close to you. So we’ll drop the link

[00:05:50] Colin Lepiscopo: in and let you go. And there’s probably a host site near you. There’s host sites all over the country. Yeah.

[00:05:55] Jeff Sieh: Yeah. So very cool. Something else. That’s. And that we love so much is

[00:06:00] The show is also sponsored by Ecamm thats socialmedianewslive.com/ecamm. I see Ecamm they’re doing a very special Vlogmas in their community. They have some really cool trainings, a lot of fun stuff, doc rocks there, and a bunch of other guests are training on all the people who saw.

[00:06:19] For Ecamm this last month and it’s some fun stuff going on. So do a search inside of Facebook, just search for Ecamm community. You’ll find that, and you can participate as well in Vlogmas. It’s really a lot of fun. So go check that out on Facebook. So make sure you check them out. Also at socialmedianewslive.com/ecamm And appreciate them sponsoring the show.

[00:06:41] All right. First section planning. This is just a little bit, it’s not a big topic, but planning for 2022. In the midst of everything going on. So talk, I know

[00:06:51] Grace Duffy: it’s the most joyous season of the year for every marketer. It is planning season and while the challenges and changes brought on by the pandemic, continue to impact brands and nonprofits and.

[00:07:04] Yeah, entrepreneurs in very unexpected ways in 2021 and ongoing into 2022, there are some big topics on every marketer’s mind. There’s an article by think with Google in which they highlighted three big things which were supply chain issues, remote working, and employment and low consumer trust. Now I know that’s was more of a general thing based on their own research, but Colin you’ve been through this last couple of years.

[00:07:33] The year before we were together. So what have you learned from this past year? What went well for you and what were you looking? What are you looking to change as a marketer?

What Will You Change as a Marketer for the New Year?

[00:07:43] Colin Lepiscopo: Yeah. Question. It’s been interesting. I remember having a conversation with my mom, like in the middle of this and I said, I think there’s going to be a post COVID world and landscape, and it’s going to leave its mark in a lot of ways and things are going to be changed forever.

[00:08:04] And you’ve seen that with consumer behavior and there’s just a lot of things like there’s mental health there’s distances. There’s a convenience thing. There’s like stocking up. There’s some short term effects and long-term effects. You know, as far as like mental health I think four and 10 adults have reported like higher stress anxiety, depressive disorder, where in 2019, it was one of them.

[00:08:29] And that’s just the people that have, that were brave enough to say something we’re more distanced and you know, there’s a lot of things that have gone remote. There’s been a lot of dispersion in the market with education. Medical and healthcare media, you’ve got movies that are releasing, directly to digital finance with crypto and PayPal, things like that.

[00:08:54] And, uh, and also just in person, like I’ve noticed out here in California, we have, um, a little bit bigger of a personal space than maybe areas like the east coast. Well, now that personal space is I just noticed people are just spread out more in general and convenience.

[00:09:13] Like we value convenience now more as consumers. So that means more online orders. That means more delivery. You probably even have noticed this more like you might be ordering food more. It might be ordering groceries more. And people are stocking up. So that means cost per sale is going to go up.

[00:09:30] That means subscription models are more important, things like that. Um, I would say just like overall, think about how that affects your business, think about your customer, how they’ve been affected for short-term and long-term and also other things that are going on in their lives, not just their consumer behavior.

[00:09:46] So have there been new schools, has there been lost of friends and family? Hesitant have there, are they less connected? What did they have to give up or what did they lose from the pandemic? You know, everyone has usually has less time and they’re more overwhelmed. That’s what we’re hearing from a lot of a lot of people in our, in our partnership network.

[00:10:06] And then the long-term, uh, Grace hinted at this a little bit, there’s less trust, there’s increased stress. It’s going to be harder to make decisions for consumers. So that’s a lot of the, like maybe things that are going on. Um, So, and then that’s not even talking about like hiring churn and inflation and there’s a baby boom and the supply chain issues.

[00:10:28] So there’s, there’s a lot of disturbance going on.

[00:10:33] Jeff Sieh: So, so, um, yeah I, I want to talk a little bit about, okay. I get, I mean, yes, my online shopping and my business was everybody wanted to get online and learn how to do video. So it was great, and it’s changed behaviors. Like I’ve got.

[00:10:48] Toilet paper for the zombie apocalypse, because I’m never going to, that was I don’t need to eat, I just need toilet paper. Uh, I have plenty of that. But what, I mean, if you listen to, what we just were talking about, it can be super overwhelming for marketers. Oh my gosh, I get all this.

[00:11:05] I see all this stuff happening. And it can be a little overwhelming. So what do marketers need? To consider include in there, their analysis, because that can be super overwhelming, especially for like small businesses, solopreneurs, what do they really need to focus on the most out of that kind of list that you said that you’ve been.

Marketing Takeaways from 2021

[00:11:29] Colin Lepiscopo: Yeah. What do you do with all that? So, um, I would actually do sit down and think about your customer. And if you have ways of interacting with them and talking about talking with them, interviewing find out what’s going on in their lives, find out what all those effects have been.

[00:11:45] Um, and we’ll talk about that a little bit of like, when you’re reviewing your 20, 21 plan. After I would say the biggest thing is you have to be able to adapt to your customers. Adapting needs, like their needs are adapting. Their pain points are changing. You need to be able to adapt so you can meet them there.

[00:12:00] And I’d also say the big thing is, the trust there’s less trust. So that means you need to meet that with more transparency, especially about any negative experiences that, that your brand might or services or product might be. So if there’s something negative, like be upfront about it, the more you can be transparent, the more that we’ll continue to build

[00:12:21] trust,

[00:12:23] Jeff Sieh: I’ve seen that a lot happening.

[00:12:26] things aren’t happening with the supply chain and people are like, I’ve gotten some things like, Hey, sorry, your order’s delayed. here’s a $5 off coupon for next time. So those companies are doing it well, then other ones are like, it’s just, you can’t get any information from them. those ones. that are Able to communicate, I think, are really going to win in the end.

[00:12:48] Colin Lepiscopo: absolutely.

[00:12:49] And those ones that aren’t, it’s not that they don’t know, they know what the issue is. They’re just not communicating it to their customer. So communicate it. when you don’t address the negative experience, it doesn’t just go away.

[00:13:01] your customer still experiences it and then they know you ignored them. So it’s even worse.

[00:13:06] Jeff Sieh: Yeah. Great points about communication.

[00:13:08] Grace Duffy: And it’s funny though, because like you, you talk about communication and being open and honest, and that brings up a question of personalization. So the being able to personalize an experience and go to them and say, Hey, Colin, I know you had this problem.

[00:13:22] And then there’s the other end of that? Where like, how’d, my name is Colin, like we’re having.

[00:13:27] Colin Lepiscopo: Wait a second. I thought I had privacy here. Right.

Marketing and Privacy Issues

[00:13:31] Grace Duffy: And I know we’ve all gone through it last couple of years with the questions about privacy and there’s that I listened to a lot of podcasts.

[00:13:37] Obviously there’s a Facebook ad that they’ve been running where they’re like, we’re at the forefront of privacy. And I was like, okay, whatever does that good or bad. And of course, we’ve been on the other side of it as social media marketers. We’re like that’s our data. It’s, whatever.

[00:13:52] So how do you balance being able to create a personalized Empathic experience for your customers versus respecting privacy security concerns that may come up if they don’t really understand how you got that information.

[00:14:07] Colin Lepiscopo: Yeah. Good. That’s a good question. So private the privacy thing it’s interesting because you have a lot of companies that are, fighting over privacy with apple and Google and Facebook, and really all it is it’s.

[00:14:21] They, they want their piece of the pie. They want your information. So they guys it, as they want to protect you, but that’s really not what’s going on. That’s what’s going on in the background. So that’s actually decreasing trustee even more. Again, I think it comes to transparency as a consumer.

[00:14:38] They want transparency on their privacy. So yes, they want to have these meaningful experiences. They want it to be valuable as an individual. I would say try to make it memorable if they can recall when they shared their information, you want to make that sharing voluntarily, right? Oh, I, I put in my name, I told you that my name is Colin.

[00:14:57] So now you’re going to be able to address me as Colin. I gave that information to you voluntarily. If you make it memorable, then. They will remember giving that information hopefully, or that will help them remember. And there’s, different ways to do it, make it very clear. Like just tell them like what you’re gonna do.

[00:15:15] Hey, here’s what we’re going to do with your information. Again, give, communicate, be transparent. And you can also give, make it more manageable, give them agency, maybe they only want you to know their name or they only want you to know a few things about them. So make it so that they can review and manage how their data’s being used.

[00:15:34] And then again, tell them how you’re going to use that. Hey, we want your name so that we can, we know who you are and we can address you that way. We want, this, your location so we can better serve you and show you things in your area that are more relevant to you. Tell them how you’re going to use it.

[00:15:49] Cause a lot of times it’s to serve them it’s to help. And you just want to make that transparent for them.

[00:15:57] Yeah.

[00:15:58] Jeff Sieh: So go ahead.

[00:16:01] No, you go ahead. You go ahead ladies first. No,

[00:16:03] Grace Duffy: you go ahead. No, just kidding. We do this every week, but so what, okay. I have a question about like actual tactics.

[00:16:10] So what are the top platforms or initiatives that businesses are investing in and why I was asked this question of, you know, out of everything you could be doing as a marketer. The places you could be, because there’s no shortage of places where you can be, why choose X or Y choose Y and Z.

[00:16:29] So what are some of these top platforms that your company and your clients, what are they looking to do in 20, 20, 22? I

What Platforms to Focus on In 2022

[00:16:38] Colin Lepiscopo: think the big thing we’re looking to do is, uh, invest in awareness really. I would say, and that’s more of a general thing. But video for sure. Investing in video and content marketing still, we can talk a little bit more of that probably later.

[00:16:57] But content, video awareness, like very top of funnel because we just realized that there’s a lot of people out there that still don’t know who we are and and spreading that awareness. So it’s really going to be a combination. All the channels of strategy. It’s it’s going to encompass organic.

[00:17:18] It’s going to encompass paid social. It’ll encompass public relations and SEO. But a lot of focus on video marketing and content marketing.

[00:17:28] Jeff Sieh: So on that. So I would assume for the global leadership summit and network. That you would do really well on LinkedIn. So do you mean I want to, I’d like to know like specific networks.

[00:17:40] Are you going to be doing more video on LinkedIn? Are you going to just, do you have one that you prioritize over another when it comes to Social or.

[00:17:48] Colin Lepiscopo: We, we kind use both, I would say LinkedIn and Facebook are the two. Okay.

[00:17:54] Jeff Sieh: Okay. Yeah. I was just, I just, because of that niche, I was thinking that was probably one that would focus on quite a bit.

[00:18:02] Um, so I want to talk about, and I want to dive deep in this because this is a, I hear more and more people talk about. And how, and everyone’s I’m going to double down this year and I say the same thing. And then I ended up not, I know Ian Anderson, gray, who’s watching right now. He said the same thing.

[00:18:17] And so we’re holding each other accountable, but it’s all about the future of email marketing and what people are going to be doing for 2022. You know, there’s the whole thing that people are like, emails are. And like, where do they ever go? We’re still, uh, it’s grace had written, it’s, it’s so 2000, but it’s, but more and more businesses are used lighting utilizing it over social media.

[00:18:40] In fact I talked a little bit last week. The thing I read every day is marketing brew and the morning brew, and it’s a specific newsletter that comes out daily. That I w I read more than I do the other stuff, and there’s certain ones I always open. Like I always opened once from Ian. I opened ones from Mike Alden.

[00:18:57] I opened ones from Ann Handley. So there’s these emails that I work that these long newsletters that are, I find very valuable and more and more companies I think are doing this. Uh, entrepreneur said, even in the age of social media, more than 70% of people still like to hear from businesses via email, which I was really surprised at.

[00:19:17] And the other thing I would love to talk about as we talk about optimization is in this survey that about email that I was reading, it said 42% of all email opens happen on mobile. And I know that I do that a lot too, but the problem is a lot of these, even big companies that are sending their flyers and sales out, aren’t optimized for mobile.

[00:19:37] And it’s just like garbage on there and I can’t click off their pop-up and it just drives me nuts. And so I want you to talk about some of this stuff like optimizing and the bounce rate and all this stuff, what you’ve seen, because I know you’re specialized in this what should we do in 2020 to see I rhymed look how cool that.

Email Marketing in 2022

[00:19:56] Colin Lepiscopo: Yes. There’s, there’s a lot too, and there’s a lot to be said about Hey, reviewing your everything you did for 2021. But More email marketing is not dead. I don’t know. Or it didn’t go away. You might’ve stopped sending emails, but no one else did. People’s inboxes were still getting hit and a lot of revenues still come, like 79% of revenues coming from email.

[00:20:24] So, you know, we recently did an event a few days ago and I filled all those registrations strictly from email. So I would say it is still very important. And you know, we can talk about the iOS 15 changes as well and how that’s affecting like open rates and things like that. But you know, email is still a very important and very should be a vital You know, medium for your marketing strategy.

[00:20:55] Um, it’s, it’s a big way you’re going to stay top of mind and communicate with your

[00:21:00] Jeff Sieh: customers. A couple, I want to bring up to a couple of comments from our audience. Gary says, Anne Handley’s newsletter rocks. It really does. So if you don’t do it and she’s so funny, I guess I wish I could write like her.

[00:21:11] Her book and her emails are amazing. So check her out. If you haven’t done that. Sabrina says she always opens emails from the coach outlet store. That’s funny. Yeah. I, my, my wife didn’t her Kohl’s cash. He always opens those emails too. Uh, and then Anna says email marketing has never gone away.

[00:21:26] People just don’t like to use it. Like they should. Jenna Kutcher has always talked about the importance of your email list. Yeah. Amy Porterfield, a lot of those people talk about it, but here’s the question I would love for your thoughts on it’s from Ian. He goes, how do you know. If your emails, newsletters are working or not, it’s easy to lose sight of reality when you run your own business on your own, man, I think he’s echoing a lot of people right there.

[00:21:49] So how do you know if it’s worth doing?

How Do You Know if Your Email Marketing is Working?

[00:21:51] Colin Lepiscopo: Yeah. I mean, you have to look at your metrics, right? You have to look at the data, because the data’s going to inform that, but they’re also, and we can talk the specifics about that, but there also is things you cannot…like you just can’t measure And if you think about how you interact with your inbox, you’ll see these things, when you pull up your inbox and you look through your emails, you’re looking through your tabs might be like, sometimes I just nuke my promotions tab.

[00:22:26] I like that means I go all the way I go to the top. I click, I go to the bottom, I click and I just nuke it. Right. Cause it’s just filling up. There are some. Emails. I get that. I make sure I never missed that email. I’m clicking it and I’m opening it and I’m looking at it. I’m seeing what’s in there because it’s a brand I interact with.

[00:22:47] I really care about. There are also emails that I just see and I see that it’s from like what company is from, and I don’t open it And I might do that for four or five emails and it might be a subject line that gets me to open, or I might just, it might just be timing. So I think timing is a big part, but I’ll open it.

[00:23:07] And then I’m, reading the email and then maybe it takes another two emails before I’m like opening. I’m reading it now I’m clicking through your site. W when it gets to the metrics, right? Cause you can look at like how much traffic are my emails driving, how many sales am I getting directly from emailing?

[00:23:23] You can look at the last click attribution. You can look at your assisted conversion value in Google analytics, right? what, did, that email play a part in the conversion? Which it surely did, but there’s also those unseen metrics of Hey, you were just in my inbox and I’m seeing your brand and Your brand is top of mind, even though I’m not opening those emails the data can sometimes just not inform what’s actually going on, which is Hey, you got some awareness. You stay top of mind, there’s brands where I’m like, Hey, I, forgot about them because they weren’t my inbox, even if I wasn’t ready to open their email. So sometimes like the timing’s just, off people, aren’t checking their inbox at the right time.

[00:24:06] They’re just nuking it. So I would say, look at those metrics. That’s how, whether it’s working or not, but also. I don’t give up on email because you’re like people aren’t opening it. So I guess it’s not working. maybe, look at changing up your subject lines or change something up to disrupt the pattern a little bit or change.

[00:24:25] Sender is a good way to throw up people like, wait, who’s this, person. And they might just open the email and that, works a lot. Also think about those, kind of an unseen metrics that you, won’t get, especially with the changes that are coming. But those are also a contributing factor to everything as well.

[00:24:45] Grace Duffy: So what’s a time range that you should look at because I just, as you were talking, I realized my own email behaviors, which is I prioritize certain things like emails from my kid’s school. And then. For work and over at restraint, like we’ve actually switched over to another platform that is AF we barely send emails.

[00:25:02] But then like, so there’ll be one day a week where I’m like looking at all my emails. So I might get something sent to me on Monday. I don’t want to opening it till Friday, but I’m still opening it. I’m still getting it right. But if they’re only looking at, oh, it had an open rate of such and such within 24 hours.

[00:25:16] They’re not going to catch me.

[00:25:19] Colin Lepiscopo: No that’s a good, that’s a good point. I’ve seen emails perform like a month later. Okay. Especially with the holidays, like you might be sending emails, especially like people, people are getting blown up right now. Like everything going on with like the holidays, but then people are also like taking breaks and other things and they’re only interested in certain emails around this time.

[00:25:46] And so, um, you might see people open emails from a month. Or even later, depending on what’s going on. Um, and depending on all those things like, you timing and events and um, yeah, you need that. To look at those open rates further down the line as well. One

[00:26:06] Jeff Sieh: of the things, just a perfect example of that is so like Ian and a lot of live ear video producers like myself, like we send out reminder emails about the show.

[00:26:15] A lot of times, like when I see it, I w I’ll be reminded of it, but I won’t even open it. Like you were saying, I just see it like, Hey, sh show today at 3:00 PM. I’m like, oh yeah, he’s got a show. I’ll go to it. And I don’t open it. And so I think that’s a great example of what you’re saying. Let’s talk about.

[00:26:31] Colin Lepiscopo: Yeah, no, absolutely. It worked, but you can’t measure that it worked

[00:26:34] Jeff Sieh: right. What’s the good, I know that. I know you probably get this all the time and I know it’s probably, it varies. What’s a good email open percentage rate. I saw that there’s an industry standard, but then it varies by industry.

[00:26:47] What would like when you’re looking at yours for your company, you’re a nonprofit you know, marketing and you have a one big event a year. What is a good email rate for you?

[00:26:57] Colin Lepiscopo: I’d say if you’re over 20%, 25% that’s good. It’s, it’s going to be dependent depending on your list size.

[00:27:07] Um, but I would say if you’re in that range, that’s awesome. Um,

[00:27:12] Jeff Sieh: have a big, higher, I think the industry standard, I read something like was like three, like it was bad. I was like really? And I know nonprofits are a lot. So that’s why I was asking about that.

[00:27:25] Colin Lepiscopo: So I would think if you’re hopefully like in the 15% range, 17% rate, but if you push on for 20, you’re doing really well.

[00:27:34] Yeah. Yeah. So we have

[00:27:35] Jeff Sieh: a question from uh, Lisa really quickly and she goes, I thought this will run YouTube. She said, I thought open rate reporting was going away. Did they delay that? I don’t know where they’re delaying it, but let’s talk about these iOS 15 updates, because I think maybe that’s what she’s talking about with some of the reporting.

[00:27:53] Colin Lepiscopo: Yeah. If you’ve updated to iOS 15, you’ve seen this cause I’ve actually seen this. And basically what it is iOS 15 is like implementing this male privacy protection. And it’s an opt-in feature with app the apple mail app. Okay. So that means everybody that has iOS 15 on their iPhone, their iPad.

[00:28:15] Or their iPod, this affects them. And what it’s going to do is it will make it to where the reporting of the email open. Will automatically happen. So you’ll see open rates change from you know, 20% to 50%. Like, because everybody with, um, iOS 15 on those devices is going to have their emails automatically opened on the device.

[00:28:42] It’s going to count it as open, whether they open it or not. So that just means that the open. Data is going to be skewed. That’s basically all it means now. And it also means if you’re doing like open rates, split tests like that, it’s going to be, effective.

[00:28:59] Jeff Sieh: Yeah. Yeah. Okay. So is there any remedy?

[00:29:03] W how can we, I know, you this Facebook thing and the tracking and all that stuff, so one thing, but what do we do, like back to Ian’s question, how do we know for successful? Are we tracking it by. Link clicks. How are we, is

[00:29:21] Colin Lepiscopo: that what we’re doing? Okay. Yeah. Like I would say you could still if you were testing if you were testing subject lines and open rates, you could still do that.

[00:29:31] But the metrics you would use would be like, you’d be looking more at your click through rate, and you’d be looking more at your conversions, your overall conversions. And those are still important metrics when you’re doing subject line testing. Anyway, because you might get a higher open rate, like in the past, you might’ve gotten a higher open rate but your click-through would drop a little bit or you get higher open rate.

[00:29:52] Your click through rate would be up, but then the sales would be lowered. Things like that. You always have to keep the last conversion in mind when you’re doing those types of tests.

[00:30:02] Jeff Sieh: Okay. And that’s getting more complicated. Grace, I know you had a question. No, just focus on

[00:30:09] Colin Lepiscopo: sales. It’s this it’s easier.

[00:30:10] It’s okay.

[00:30:11] Grace Duffy: Yeah. Or focus on who clicks on the last link in your article, right? Or your email, because that means they made it all the way down to the bottom, right? Yeah. So I just to wrap up their segment on email, because we could talk forever, we could do a whole show just on email marketing. In fact, I tried to do a whole show on email marketing and they were like, we have all this other stuff to talk about, but I want to talk about best practices.

[00:30:32] Now you already talked about some of them, like with the links and the. Subject lines and then looking at the open rate, timing, standing that period, but what are some of your tips overall for improving your email marketing initiatives? Whatever your goals might be.

Tips for Improving Your Email Marketing

[00:30:47] Colin Lepiscopo: Test keeps testing Keep doing split tests, AB tests with your emails, there’s lots of different things.

[00:30:55] you can continue to test subject line and see the effects, right? Just look at the different metrics, look at your click throughs look, at your open rates. you can test body copy. You can test, the HTML versus the simple Test All those things continue to do that. I would also say, if you stopped emailing or you slowed your emailing, like re-engage re-engage if you stopped.

[00:31:18] And, I’d also say if you don’t have a re-engagement campaign for people that have lapsed, do that Because, you can get people back in and engaged and back into your mainstream of messaging. and you can also learn a lot when you do a re-engagement campaign because people will respond.

[00:31:39] Like people will be like, I stopped. Because of this and you’ll be like, okay, that’s valuable information. this person said no for this reason. And then you can start to, maybe you make a shift. but you can at least get some information for your customers. And then you have a chance to, I would say reply, reply, continue to, answer questions when people reach out.

[00:32:03] it is still a way to communicate. it is a communication. We’re not just shouting in people’s inboxes. we also wanna have the conversation there, if we can.

[00:32:11] Jeff Sieh: Yeah. Okay. I want to throw an audible. I got ahead.

[00:32:15] Grace Duffy: Oh, sorry, Jeff. I was going to ask Collin, like there’s a lot of tools and a lot of technologies and a lot of platforms that you can use to distribute email.

[00:32:23] We have one at a restaurant called Iterable and apparently it just blows past, like all the challenges with Google, right? The Gmail issues. Like getting it marked as legitimate email. And I never missed an email for my own company because of that. And it’s amazing. So what are some of the tools that you recommend that you’ve used that have been successful for your email?

[00:32:44] Colin Lepiscopo: Yeah. Um, I’ve used stripped in the past. I’ve used we’re currently using active campaign and there’s a lot of tools in there, to just make sure you’re staying out of spam. You’re getting to the inbox, you’re getting through clean. There’s also, um, things you can do to test your, make sure your IP is good and things like that and make sure it’s clean.

[00:33:05] Jeff Sieh: Cool. So I want to throw a little like audible in this. Did I do we didn’t tell you, we’re gonna talk about, but I wanted to talk a little bit about frequency. Like how often should you email and the other one would be like welcome sequences. Cause I stink at that and I’m just getting, going to get free consulting right now.

[00:33:24] Uh, so talk about like how often should you email your audience and then also. What, what’s, uh, you know how many, because I’ve seen some sequences that they’d got it, like it’s like a choose your own adventure novel. And I’m like, ah, I don’t have time for that. How do you, how, how, detailed, you need to be with your opening

How Often Should You Email Your List?

[00:33:46] sequence.

[00:33:46] Colin Lepiscopo: Yeah. That’s good. That’s good. So as far as frequency, that’s a tough one because it really depends on what’s going on. If you have a CA campaign going on, you might have a steady rhythm. Like we’re like, Hey, we’re going to email you. Every week because we have an update and there’s, kind of set things.

[00:34:05] But it, it can fluctuate depending on what’s going on. I would say if you have something important to say that. Up your frequency and let people know about it. If you’re providing value, like consistently, like that’s good. So there’s no like hard and fast rule with frequency of like, how am I sending too many emails?

[00:34:26] Am I not sending enough emails? If people are just like, if your unsubscribe rate is going through. Thank you. Your frequency is probably too high, right? That’s the metric I would look at as you’re on subs. And then as far as welcome sequences, I think some of the best ones I’ve seen you can do yet, like the choose your own adventure thing.

[00:34:45] I think I would keep that to a minimum because anytime you, you offer all these options, people tend to do nothing. So like you were saying, you’re like I don’t want to I’ll choose. Nothing choose none of the above. And I think some of the best ones have been this like guided experience and you’ve put them into, like usually it’s going to start with some sort of opt-in or a freebie, from the welcome sequence. And you just guide them through that content, and, and, and hold their hand through each step and tell them what’s next. And that I would say is going to be high frequency. It’s you’re going to get. Like immediately after you download, it’s going to be in your inbox, go check it out.

[00:35:24] Cause I want you to make sure you see this part of it right now. They’re going into their inbox and they’re engaging and sorry. I have a military plane flight. I’m going to be okay. Folks. I’m going to be okay. Yeah, we did have a plane crash out here, but oh my gosh. Okay. Um, so now they’re going to go to their inbox.

[00:35:42] Then you would say, Hey, I’m going to email you for the next seven days. And we’re gonna walk through this, like this resource that you gave them, or what have you, you want them to see them or get them to know your brand and all the different aspects, and then tell them what’s next. Hey tomorrow, I’m going to email you about this.

[00:35:57] I want you to check out this page, or I want you to check out this at this minute, mark in the video like give give them points that they can go to tell them what they’re going to get, tell them what’s next. And now they’re expecting that email. I’m going to email you this is the subject line.

[00:36:12] You’re going to see it. Like it’s as simple as that and just walk them through your hold their hand, through that experience. That’s some of the best welcome sequences I’ve seen. And you’re just like getting value every step of the way. And cause a lot of times people, I’m sure you’ve seen this, people will get the freebie.

[00:36:26] Like at the download, nothing happens. They never opened it and they never do anything ever again. And that’s not the type of person you want on your email list. You want somebody who’s engaged with that? They’ve gotten value from it. They’ve got to know you and your brand, and they’ve had a good experience in that welcome sequence.

[00:36:42] Like you, you welcome them,

[00:36:44] Jeff Sieh: that’s great. That’s great advice. Now I’m going to go back and rewind and listen to that all again, because that was really good. And, um, Brian says maybe I need to tell the Bitcoins camera’s at 10 meals a day. It’s a little bit too many.

[00:36:57] Colin Lepiscopo: Yeah. That’s probably

[00:36:58] Jeff Sieh: a little, it’s probably a little excessive.

[00:37:00] You know, this is about, we talked a little bit about the future of email marketing. What is it just the same old best practices? There’s nothing really new under the sun. Is it just for 20, 22? Do you see anything changing an email other than really focusing and testing more and having maybe some new tools to do that?

[00:37:19] Is there anything like crazy on horizon that you’ve seen? Not that

[00:37:23] I

[00:37:23] Colin Lepiscopo: see. I think that the biggest disruption was the iOS 15. Okay. Yeah. Okay. I don’t see anything else coming up. That’s

[00:37:32] Jeff Sieh: alarming. And this is going to go into our next section, but I’d love to get your thoughts because we do it is, uh, um, text marketing.

[00:37:40] And one of the things, cause this ties into the privacy thing is I tell people like, Hey, sign up for this text reminder and we’re not going to spam you with anything. It’s just a reminder about the show. And I think it’s really important and I’ve seen other companies do this is if you say you’re going to only get.

[00:37:56] You don’t dump them into your general list. Love your thoughts on text-based marketing and also you know, doing what you say you’re going to do because so many people just dump you in that big funnel. And you’re like, I didn’t sign up for that. I don’t want,

[00:38:09] Colin Lepiscopo: you know, Yeah. As the SMS and WhatsApp are huge, and those are, those integrations with Shopify and stuff.

[00:38:17] Those are great ways to automate and have those conversations. Like they have higher open rates, higher responses. Then I think something like a 98% rate there through the roof and it is like, people are pretty protective of their like phone numbers and their, their, their messaging inbox on their phones.

[00:38:41] They’re texting. So I would. Caution, like you said do what you say you’re going to do there because it’s it’s, it’s, it’s more sacred than the email inbox, right? I would say that. So don’t abuse it. But it is powerful. It’s a powerful way to communicate. We all have our devices with us, usually 24 hours a day.

[00:39:01] So we’re going to get those alerts. We have watches with them. We’re going to get it on our wall. Like people are going to see those messages. So make sure they’re worth seeing, um, make sure they’re important enough. Because I think it can be really easy to burn people out and they’re going to opt out if it’s not something that’s helpful for them or serving them, like, think about the types of SMS alerts that you want.

[00:39:28] And there are things like helpful reminders, and, um, maybe it’s like upcoming appointments and stuff like that. Like I always opt in for the appointments yeah, blast me, let me know. I don’t want to forget about that appointment. Things like that. Totally. Okay. Yeah. So if you think about things like that, like for events, how you can use that for events and letting people know about events and Hey, we want to make sure you don’t miss this.

[00:39:50] And those can be important ways, but yeah, definitely. Don’t just throw them into your main marketing channel and just start blasting them unless they’re game for that, they might be like, yep. Give it to me. I want it all. That’s where I’m getting back into, like letting them choose what information they’re giving you.

[00:40:06] And what they’re opting into is really valuable.

[00:40:09] Jeff Sieh: That’s great advice. And Brian says yeah. Dumping them, everybody in a funnel is probably the quickest way to lose trust. And so I think that’s true as well. And what I, I think of anybody who’s given us the their, their phone number for the email, the text reminders.

[00:40:24] That’s almost automatically what. Flynn calls super fans. So that’s what I treat them as. These are, they love our stuff. They want to get reminded about the show. I am not going to mess up that relationship. They’re only going to get what I said they’re going to get. So I think, yeah. Yeah, that’s great.

[00:40:38] So that leads right into our next section, digital marketing predictions. So he’s going to put on his little. And, he’s going to, what was the Carson? He would always do the great oh, I can’t even, I can’t even remember.

[00:40:54] Colin Lepiscopo: Yeah, that’s right. Yeah. The ambulance Karnak.

[00:40:59] Jeff Sieh: Yeah. So Colin is Colin Karnak is what we’re going to have today.

[00:41:02] So Grace,

[00:41:05] Grace Duffy: you held up your phone to your forehead because that is where my. Actually in the phone. So that is accurate. Thank you. I

[00:41:12] Colin Lepiscopo: didn’t have the envelope

[00:41:13] Jeff Sieh: on who uses those

[00:41:16] Grace Duffy: anymore? Just send an email column. Just kidding. So for published, it’s five digital marketing predictions. When D 22, of course the top three of there were hybrid events as being the new normal.

[00:41:30] I know you and I can both have a long conversation about what that is uh, AI, and then of course, content, which you touched on at the top of our show. So Jeff and I had our little prediction show a few weeks ago. It was just a rat based on a Roundup of the news he’d been seeing. But tell us, what are your digital marketing trends?

[00:41:50] What are the digital marketing trends that you are seeing?

Digital Marketing Trends for 2022

[00:41:52] Colin Lepiscopo: Yeah. For sure hybrid events is, the new normal. That means partially in person and partially digital. And, at, the GLM, we have a very, I think, unique model where we have these, host sites. We have these host site partners all over the world that are in-person events, and they’re, hosting our event and live streaming it there.

[00:42:18] And then we, also needed to adapt to. The digital experience. And so now that yes, hybrid events are the new normal. I think the, big thing is, Hey, how are you serving both of those? And how are you creating, important experiences for both the digital and the in-person? because there’s, two now to focus on.

[00:42:43] And I think a lot of people don’t focus on the digital experience as much, especially if they Came out of the in-person. if they’re purely digital, they are because that’s, the main focus, but if they’re in-person, they might neglect the digital experience. And you just want to make sure that you’re making that As good as a interaction and experience as possible with like second screens and, the information and just everything that they get to interact with so that they get to feel a little bit of the experience they can’t be there. you just want to make that as, impactful as possible for them instead of just oh, they’re just like, they’ve got to watch page and that’s it.

[00:43:26] I think we’ve, we’ve moved past, just having a watch page. People expect a little bit more.

[00:43:31] than that

[00:43:32] Jeff Sieh: Yeah, I think you’re right. Um, one of the things is we wanted to talk a little bit about one of the articles we had. We had did some research on stock talking about nonprofits as business opportunities.

[00:43:44] And it was according to this was in 2018 report from act act center, 60, 62% of customers want companies to take a stand on current and broadly relevant issues like sustainability, transparency, or fair employment practices. And the chances are good in 2022, that brands will continue to emphasize these values in their marketing.

[00:44:07] Uh, there’s been a lot of talk about building partnerships with non-profit organizations that are actively helping the community, preserving the environment and generally making the world a better place. There’s also been people who’ve got in trouble because you shouldn’t just collaborate just to say you know, we’re doing this just because we can, there’s a, we have a great podcast coming out on Geico Kawasaki show about the fashion industry and the sustainability of that.

[00:44:32] And those genes that say are made from, bottles or whatever. It’s just a big pipe. It’s and they’re all fighting over the same resources. So when you find out that you’re like, oh my gosh, that’s, they’re not really doing anything. I’m the one recycling, they’re just buy it, whatever.

[00:44:47] And so you gotta be careful of you know, yoking yourself to somebody that’s not really doing what they say they’re doing. So how can, you talked to us a little bit about how companies can align their values with maybe some other nonprofits or somebody else. Who’s got a vision that fits into this and doing it in a way that’s not just using them to have a good night.

Mission Based Marketing

[00:45:10] Colin Lepiscopo: Yeah. Yeah. I think yeah. Companies that are using that, trying to leverage that in a way that’s not authentic. It’s, it’s just not going to come off. You know, with customers, like you’re saying, if it’s not really authentic I think the key is yeah, if you can find common values or similar values or maybe it’s just a nonprofit like you, Hey, we believe in them.

[00:45:37] We just believe in the mission. Like for me, we we give 10% of all revenue to charity water. It’s cause we believe in that mission that they’re bringing clean water to to places all around the world that don’t have it like that. It’s a necessity for human life. So that’s just an easy one, um, there aren’t really, that’s not tied to CRO in any specific way.

[00:46:01] That’s just a nonprofit that I believe in. And so I think if you can find similar values that’s great. But I know that there’s lots of companies. Yeah. That partner with non-profits and it’s just because they believe in that cause, but it’s gotta be authentic, if your customers see that a mile away when you’re just doing it to you know, to look good or to say that.

[00:46:26] Jeff Sieh: Right. And I think there’s going to be more and more of those kinds of companies that will get in trouble in 2022, because they’re going to find out like, oh, they really didn’t give. And what was it called? Grace greenwashing.

[00:46:36] Grace Duffy: Yeah, it was greenwashing. They have another word for virtue signaling.

[00:46:40] There’s there’s a lot of little like code words out there from people. Essentially what they’re getting at is this doesn’t feel real. This doesn’t feel authentic. Right. So,

[00:46:50] Jeff Sieh: so let’s talk about this for so, you know, most people. Our good and want to do good things, but it doesn’t always mean that, like, especially like companies like mine and eons, and sometimes we don’t have the resources to, to join in or whatever.

[00:47:05] So what can we do? I know that. I think a great example, maybe like Lumon jello, who we found on the show before he partners with Make-A-Wish and he’s just organically raised over the years, like 150 $200,000 to bring kids from the Make-A-Wish foundation to Disney through. He sponsors running teams and does events and stuff.

[00:47:24] And so is that the best way for, smaller companies and solopreneurs is to maybe partner with one of these big organizations and just maybe drive awareness.

[00:47:35] Colin Lepiscopo: Yeah, I think so. Like you could, you don’t necessarily have to be giving revenue, but even if you can just partner with them in that way, bring awareness use your platform and leverage that and say that this is a cause that you believe in that’s that might get every your customers or your base interested in that, that nonprofit and that, cause it might be relevant to them again, especially if the.

[00:47:59] There’s similar values there, or but if you’re, if you’re a donor, you believe in the mission, you shouldn’t be able to communicate that to,

[00:48:06] Jeff Sieh: to your. Awesome. Great. Did you have anything to follow up before I

[00:48:11] Grace Duffy: yeah, absolutely. Yeah, essentially we want to know what are some companies that are doing a great job collaborating with nonprofits or charitable organizations, but I want to flip that around a little bit, because you do work for a nonprofit and you also have your own company.

[00:48:26] So let’s say. Some brand comes to you at glitter global leadership network and says that, we want to partner with you. We believe in you. What are some questions you’d have for that company before you agree to partner with them or allow them to partner with you? However, that relationship goes what are, what would you be looking for in a company partner and a brand.

What A Non-Profit Looks For In A Partner

[00:48:44] Colin Lepiscopo: Yeah. I think we’d, we’d obviously want to know like what they’re doing, what the impact is make sure that it’s in alignment with our company vision and you know, we want. A lot of times it would be like communities or businesses you know, in, in local areas. And it might not necessarily be like big companies, but it might be like smaller partnerships and we wouldn’t want to overlook them if they’re having an impact in the community.

[00:49:14] Like we want to empower them and help them to do that. So to be, just make, making sure the vision is in alignment with what we’re trying to do. But we’re trying to have a positive impact in those communities. Like when the leaders get back. Every everybody gets better. The organization gets better. The community gets better.

[00:49:30] And so we would just want to make sure it’s in alignment with that. And and, and overall what the growth of that community or business or areas.

[00:49:40] Jeff Sieh: Awesome. Colin, I’m so glad that we, Hey, we’ll have this chat because if anybody knows what’s going to happen in 2022, it’s you. Uh,

[00:49:48] Colin Lepiscopo: I appreciate you coming,

[00:49:51] Jeff Sieh: but you have a lot of stuff.

[00:49:53] Colin Lepiscopo: Yeah, we can do our due diligence to be as prepared as possible. And we know some things that are coming. Right, right. So I don’t know if there’s a Zeta Varian or not. I can’t tell you that.

[00:50:04] Grace Duffy: I’ve learned enough about the Greek alphabet that I’ve ever wanted to know. Like I’ve done. I’m learning about

[00:50:11] Jeff Sieh: Greek.

[00:50:12] I do want to bring uh, coming up. So when we’re talking about superfan, Sabrina says I am a super fan Sabrina. You are, and you are super awesome. And we super appreciate you. Thank you for all you do and sharing it out. She is

[00:50:25] Colin Lepiscopo: today. Yeah, she

[00:50:27] Jeff Sieh: is. So anyway, Colin, where can people we’ve been in with flashing up your lower third, but let’s go ahead and say it for people listening to the podcast.

[00:50:34] Where can people find out more

[00:50:36] Colin Lepiscopo: about. Yeah. If you’re interested in conversion rate optimization or just, you want to work with me, you can go to live dot metadata site.com/contact. Just fill that out, let me know what you want to talk about, and we can talk there. You can find me on LinkedIn as well.

[00:50:51] And, uh, those are the best two ways to find me awesome.

[00:50:57] Jeff Sieh: Grace, Duffy, where can we find out about all things? Grace, Duffy, and

[00:51:01] Grace Duffy: here every week, Friday with you Jeff, every week, every Friday, except I’m here wakes up what? I’m not. That’s what I say now I’m over at restream come check us out. We are live streaming platform that allows you to multistream to multiple different places.

[00:51:16] So come check that out. That’s where I am. When I’m not with Jeff on Fridays

[00:51:20] Colin Lepiscopo: here. That’s

[00:51:20] Jeff Sieh: right. And you guys thank you guys so much for being a part of the show. Thank you, Sabrina. As always Dustin for stopping by all the great comments, Alisa, Brian, all, everybody who’s participated, whatever platform you’re on leaving us great comments and suggestions, and we would love to give a shout out and we’re going to give a shout out to our friends over at Ecamm.

[00:51:40] They make all this possible. If you’d like to make an awesome live video. This make sure you guys go check them out at socialmedianewslive.com/ecamm Check out their community. They’re doing Vlogmas this right now. You can just do a search for them in Facebook, just search for Ecamm community, and you should be able to find that and join there because they are amazing.

[00:51:57] And we appreciate them sponsoring the show. And so, uh, before we end, I want to bring up this by Brian. He goes, thank you to all. And I want Colin’s lamp. I know it’s an awesome. The star wars lamp for you guys listening on podcast. It’s amazing. I don’t know. I haven’t seen it before now. I have to go do a search on Pinterest and find it out.

[00:52:15] So

[00:52:16] Colin Lepiscopo: I don’t know where you get that. And that’s where my dad found that. It’s

[00:52:18] Jeff Sieh: amazing. So thank you guys for watching. We appreciate all you and we will see you guys next week. We’re at the same time. It’s on a what’s the date next week. It is the 17th at 11:00 AM. Eastern 10:00 AM central. We’re always on Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube and Amazon live.

[00:52:35] We’ll see you guys next time. Bye.