Dennis Yu

Doing One Thing Well is What Scales

advice, Strategy /

Doing One Thing Well is What Scales. You can always change your niche later. It’s easier to serve 50 clients in the same industry, implementing the same package– than 50 random clients in 50 different industries. Narrowing down to one industry can feel “limiting”–after all, if we offer everything to everyone, we can be bigger, right? Being involved in many agencies, I can tell you the reality is that doing one thing well is what scales. Don’t diversify until you have $20 million annual recurring revenue in ONE industry. Besides the operational efficiencies of being able to do one thing really well for one type of client (SEO for law firms, for example), you also create the perception of excellence in that category. After all, would you trust a doctor who says they can do 1,000 different types of surgeries or a doctor who has done 1,000 appendectomies? You can always change your niche later.

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Run Engagement Campaigns on Twitter

twitter, Personal Growth, Strategy /

I’ve been testing Twitter ads for the last ten years, and here’s what I’ve learned. Engagement campaigns (boosted posts) are the only worthwhile campaign objective. For example, in growing small Twitter accounts, don’t run follower campaigns with only a 0.3% follow rate. Run engagement campaigns on high-value posts, giving you a 25% follow rate. Your cost per follower will be almost 100 times better. Only follower look-alikes are worth targeting. Don’t use interest or demographics, which are faulty and sparse. I typically get a 10% engagement rate on my ads, meaning 1 in 10 people will click. It is 50 times better than average ads. My video campaigns get a 50% or higher watch rate. Not because my video is killer or edited fancy, but because I target the followers of the people in the video. People will watch those they’re already familiar with. Think about what this means for your podcasting strategy, especially to repurpose clips of people who have interviewed you and vice-versa. Thus, leverage your podcast and those you’ve been on. Twitter has been notoriously bad for referral traffic (website clicks). You could choose website clicks or slightly better visits (pixel fires to confirm visits). But you’ll still be better off with an engagement campaign. The CPC (Cost per Click) will be slightly higher, but it’s worth the extra engagement and organic reach. Do you think this will change with Elon making adjustments on the platform? It will get better! Has immediate ad monetization on Twitter ever worked? The answer is no. The Dollar Day Strategy works perfectly on Twitter since you can still target even the smallest handles. And the price is still super low ($2-6 CPMs). With Elon Musk now the owner of Twitter, expect it to be a better place for marketers who use the principles we teach.

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Secret Hacks to Drive High-Quality Referrals

Strategy, Leads, Success /

Let’s talk about the power of niching down and how that drives referrals. Niching down helps in referrals. When you choose a niche and you’re known for something, let’s say one of my friends is a world-class PR, and I’m pretty good at VAs and locals. So, any lead you get will always be worthwhile because if he receives a lead for hiring VAs, he’ll send it to me. And if I get a lead in PR, I will send it to him. So it is worth talking to any person who is a customer, even if you can’t service them directly, because either they are your client or they become a referral you can give to somebody else. You may try to do everything for everybody and keep happy big-ticket clients, but it will not work as there are many moving parts if you do everything. I would loop in an expert with his skills, as that might complement my skills and would benefit a client in a package. That way, you can confidently take on any particular client because anything you can’t do, you can form a partnership with others, and there’s absolutely nothing wrong with partnering.  If you are a potential client, it’s better to go through a referral than to go through direct, as you will have someone else’s relationship and trust in that. Getting referred by others So, not to say the other vendor or the agency will not take good care of you, but for example, if it’s coming through my friend, then I know that whoever he is referring to me is going to take care of me. Because his reputation is on the line, so they must do good.  It is nice to work with people you trust and know are good at what they do. You don’t have to micromanage them as they are great at what they do. There will be a sense of ownership as their establishments are hard, and they can step in. Think about what you want to be known for So, consider your niche and what you want to be known for. And when you’re known for that, you will be a source of referrals for all other people. Your business will grow without lots of salespeople and cold calling. It’s a lot easier to close a referral, especially when it’s a higher ticket package and doing a lot of work for the client to get excellent results, than trying to get all these little deals to add it all. Have the right client Having the right client is more important if you’re a service business. But many agencies or service providers waste a lot of time talking to people who are nightmare clients. When it’s a referral, it’s more likely to be a high-quality client. For example, if we do PR for a small e-commerce site, they will not get nearly the same ROI as a big eCommerce client. If you get a 5% increase on a company doing $10,000 a month versus doing $10 million a month, you’re still doing 5%, but your value is way higher, and you get a longer runway. When you provide more value, you can also charge more for that. So it’s a win-win all around. It would be best if you had the higher authority to increase your brand and to be better known in a particular niche instead of you talking about yourself. You will reciprocate when you honour other people, and more will speak well of you. So if you want better word of mouth and more referrals, start by talking well about other people you respect. And that is a huge personal brand authority hack. Almost nobody does it. You should ensure you’re edifying good people at work because otherwise, it can have adverse effects. Also, Check out: Empathy Firm: Gavin Lira and Grant Lira Boast How They Run a Fake PR Agency RAW: Gavin Lira, Dennis Yu on Coachyu Show Dennis Yu & Gavin Lira Visited in Al Qadir Welfare Foundation

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Decouple Content Production from Content Distribution

Strategy, Dollar a Day, social media /

Here is a dirty little secret. It takes ten times longer to upload, edit, coordinate, QA, post, and cross-post than to make the content itself. I recorded a 5-minute video yesterday on TikTok ads that will be turned into an article and a set of social media posts, editing and distributing them into many channels (blog, book, podcast, Facebook, LinkedIn, email, TikTok, etc.) But it will take over an hour, even with Descript, Jasper, and other AI tools, to get it processed. I did a killer 90-minute training with John Jonas on how he built a site with 2 million virtual assistants and how to hire your own VAs to do your marketing.  But it will take 2-3 weeks to turn around this episode, maybe longer because of follow-ups and confusion from many cooks in the kitchen. Grant Cardone made a one-minute video for me on how to make a one-minute video.  Ironic. But it will take days to run it through the Content Factory and turn it into social media posts that we boost for a Dollar a Day. The dread of how long it takes to go through this whole thing prevents you from making content, even if you use Fiverr or have an army of VAs. But what if you needed only 1/10th the time? Create Content Factory Would you be willing to make more content like a “walk and talk” in your morning exercise routine, a 15-second tip while you’re driving (hands-free and safely, of course), or a 5-minute “how to” after a frustrating client meeting? A galloping horde of robots is coming our way, eagerly peddling their automation and tools, proclaiming content nirvana. It’s all a lie. Because there is no one tool that “does it all,” even though these software companies put their logo in the center of a diagram with spokes outward to all the other tools they integrate with or replace. And the social media agencies incessantly bang on our doors, hoping we’ll buy their packages attractively dressed up like Girl Scout Cookies. But mindlessly posting content X times per week on Y social media channels is dumping more turds into the punchbowl. No amount of fake followers or bogus influencer campaigns will drive sales. And you know it. They’re robots, too, just more expensive. The solution, which is not available for $1,997 or a “secret” mastermind, is to build your Content Factory to process the content you and your customers create. Check out the Content Factory, a process more than a focus on any particular tool. It will change how you think about marketing. I think you’ll find that it’s more about the process to extract what’s in your head. We are decoupling content production from content distribution. Sshhh! The social media “experts” will get mad if you know this. What used to cost us $500 per episode to edit by humans using expensive software over a week now costs $1 and takes 3 minutes. Automatically trimming the “um’s” and “ah’s,” cleaning up the sound, transcribing, creating social snippets, etc. Are you excited to finally get your Content Factory going and have the wool lifted from your eyes?

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Everything I Do is Content Production

Virtual Assistant, Dollar a Day, Strategy /

I just came to a weird realization. Everything I do is content production. Attend a meeting, respond to an email, write a few lines of code, build a landing page, film a course, negotiate a contract, speak on stage, run an ad campaign, and even make this post. It’s just content production. Contrast that with someone that builds physical products or renders a physical service, where you have physical raw materials, equipment, and inventory. Because I don’t render a physical product or service (except those clever face socks), I’m a VA. A few friends have stated that I’m the world’s most prominent VA since we have hired an army of them and helped others employ many more. But if you are a coach, consultant, speaker, author, counselor, or service provider, are you not a VA too? Why Content Production is Impactful Most of your job is content production, even if you are technically an attorney or a doctor. If so, the maximum leverage of your time is to produce “content” instead of processing it, posting it across many channels, or promoting it. I want to redefine VA as the latter three stages while we, as practitioners, are in the first stage. If you agree, perhaps we should all be staffing our Content Factories with VAs to handle those three other stages. My life mission is to create a million jobs for international workers to serve us in this way. I have explained “how”; it has an embedded video explaining the people, processes, and platforms to enable this for us all. How to have a significant impact on small ad budgets? It’s just such an intelligent way to manage risk for people that are risk-averse and hate losing money on ads. Do a dollar-a-day strategy against your top content that has worked with organic; also have 1-minute video ads that drive eyeballs to the top content. What do you think?

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As a leader, I often lose sight of the actual business goal.

advice, Business, Strategy /

When I get pulled into the details of tasks, it’s easy to start focusing on the number of hours, number of meetings, and number of messages. Stuff that takes $3/hour 30 hours to complete can be done faster, better, and cheaper by a $50/hour person in 20 minutes. And someone who bills $6,000 a month will believe that time had elapsed is sufficient proof to get paid, month after month. It’s our responsibility as leaders to make sure everyone is aligned with the business goal. Focus on the business impact and let your loyal, competent team members figure out how to get there. Instead of you trying to micro-manage them. Build an army of intrapreneurs who are well-trained to help you achieve your goals.

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What are you doing to scale up the value you generate?

Strategy, Clients /

An employee just asked me for a 50% raise. I approved her request but with one caveat… That she focuses on creating at least 50% more value for clients, instead of only on how she can be paid more. Because what we earn as an employee or business owners is based more on the value we can provide than how well we negotiate. In the short run, you can haggle, change jobs, or raise prices. But in the long run, when you create massive value– usually via scaled-up people, processes, and platforms– you get massively rewarded economically. Focus more on solving problems in the outward marketplace than an inward justification of what you think you’re worth. What are you doing to scale up the value you generate?

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I charged $2,000 for a $100,000 project, yet the client was pissed.

Strategy /

He wanted Facebook ads but didn’t have any landing pages, videos, tracking,  or even a strategy. It took me 3 months to build these components– but he expected leads the next day. Moral of the story: Building something from scratch costs way more than maintaining it. I pay the maid $50 for housekeeping every week.  Would you like to live in a 3-story, 6-bedroom house for only $50 per week?You must get the house first. If you’re an agency, make sure to properly charge for the building phase, which is 50X more effort than monthly maintenance. You need to have plumbing first, to track your performance and disqualify nightmare clients. Then ensure they have a strategy, meaning their GCT (goals, content, targeting). If they don’t have a clear strategy, then you’ve got a risky, expensive build phase.  Set expectations and charge appropriately, or walk away. And only then can you build your campaigns. After these 5 stages come “optimization”, which is the ongoing maintenance and tuning.  Clients want to skip this out of ignorance and impatience.  Your job is to qualify and educate first– then charge appropriately.

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Leverage your weak connections for a network boost.

Driving leads via Facebook is now about strategy, not about tactical tricks anymore.

Facebook Advertising, facebook analytics, Strategy /

Years ago, Facebook had a LIKE button on ads– do you remember? Back then, fan growth was all the rage– and it was before there was a newsfeed or even mobile. We could even drive 600 fans for a dollar– not a typo since traffic was about 20 cents for every thousand impressions. So we drove millions of fans for major brands, as well as some sales, though digital plumbing hasn’t evolved to where it is today. Ten years ago, I thought paying $1 per thousand impressions was a lot of money. And now I think $6 per thousand is doing pretty well. Curiously, even though the price of traffic is literally 5,000% higher than back then, the ROI is almost as good. Why? Because the algorithm has gotten smarter (to optimize for us), the creatives are more effective (more video), and we have better strategies to measure and manage social. Driving leads via Facebook is now about strategy, not about tactical tricks anymore.

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Beware the Penny Cliff

advice, Strategy /

Driving free leads versus getting even a dollar from someone are universes apart. There is a concept called the “penny cliff”, where product companies who offer their stuff for free assume that they can get nearly the same number of subscribers at $1 a month or even $10/per month. Turns out that the distance between free and a penny is greater than from a penny to $10/month– because the psychological cost to decide to buy (no matter the price) is nearly the same, whether a penny or $10. Free is not a good proxy for sales unless you’ve tested small paid offerings against that same audience. Since if you don’t have the right audience, no amount of testing will overcome this. And that’s why we shouldn’t make big bets without testing via the Dollar-a-Day strategy or against lists that we own. I saw a successful entrepreneur last week sign a $900,000 deal to buy traffic without having a product for sale nor making sure the audiences were even a fit. It’s a massive bonfire of money– spectacular to watch, except for the poor guy who invested the money. You can’t make chicken salad out of chicken shit-ake– so test first, then scale up.

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