Dennis Yu

Performance Benchmarks for Digital Marketing

Training /

We have a chronic problem with using stock art. Not only is stock art not authentic, but most of the time, it’s not relevant. It’s just wasting space on the page. We’re trying to eliminate stock art from all our materials by mentioning why not to use it in specific threads and teaching it in our training. But somehow, it keeps coming back. And I’m puzzled about how to stop it. If we can fix this stock art issue and get a basic understanding of what I’ve mentioned about TikTok performance benchmarks, then we’ll be in great shape here. For example, notice how my explanation from a few days ago (below) is based on the funnel metrics. Funnel Metrics The eBook “Standards of Excellence“ is about performance benchmarks for digital marketing campaigns. The current set of standards covers the basic objectives, arranged in a funnel diagram so that our users can clearly see which metric sits at what stage in the funnel. But instead of organizing these benchmarks into the funnel shape, we are putting in random stock art of stick figures in groups… because it’s easier to mindlessly paste in stock art instead of actually understanding our material. TikTok has only some of these objectives, and the medium is a short-form video. We haven’t added short-form video benchmarks to the SOE documents, though we mentioned them in our TikTok and 15-second story training. Primary Metrics In short, the primary metrics that we are looking at TCPL is for lead gen, and CPA is for e-commerce, so use the benchmark you’re already using. Secondary Metrics All other metrics below are diagnostic (secondary). a. CPM (Cost-Per-Impressions) We know that CPMs vary from $2 to $10, depending on engagement rate and targeting, much like Facebook. b. View Through Rate View-through rates (impression to view) is higher on TikTok since they count a view at 2 second (or less) instead of a standard 3-second view). So getting over 50% here is good. c. Engagement Rate 10% engagement rate (likes/impressions) is a good organic or paid benchmark not just on TikTok but on all platforms. A “killer” TikTok can get 35% engagement, which drives the effective cost per like down to 3 cents. d. Cost-Per-Follower The cost per follower on TikTok is much like the cost per fan on Facebook– expect 10 cents for viral categories (entertainment, fashion, sports) and north of $5 for unsexy (B2B, SaaS, enterprise/industrial). Note This is a snippet from our project management system as we’re tuning up our TikTok ads course. We practice #LDT (learn, do, teach), which means we teach from an example. Thus, people who work on our training are not just mindlessly decorating our materials with stock art or robotically pasting modules into our Academy but are active practitioners who understand the material they’re working on. Want to learn more about how we are creating amazing content, take a look at my “Content Marketing Course”

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Warning: We Immediately Reject VA Applicants Who Make These 3 Mistakes

Virtual Assistant, Training /

The journey to getting a $2,000 a month job and beyond is not a single step. You must diligently put in the time to learn communication skills, technical skills, and build connections. Once you have these 3 components solidly– to be qualified enough to work with the clients who expect excellence– then and only then can you begin at this level. It may seem unfair that we (our agencies and those businesses who follow us) won’t hire people who aren’t qualified or won’t start paying on your first day of training. But this is what causes so many young adults, who are otherwise bright and hard-working, to be stuck where they are. They might have great technical SEO skills, but lack communication skills or lack the network. You need to have all 3 components— and this is what we teach. Over the years, I’ve hired hundreds of freelancers, VAs, and team members and I’ve noticed three common mistakes that candidates keep making. We want to help you improve your chances of getting a job with us by highlighting these mistakes and how to avoid them. Mistake #1: Reaching Out to Me Directly One common mistake applicants make is reaching out directly to me or other team members without any preparation. If you send a generic message that says, ‘Dear Sir, please hire me,’ it shows you haven’t taken the time to research our company. It becomes clear that you’re not following us on social media or understanding the types of projects we’re involved in. This lack of effort makes you blend in with the thousands of others who are just blasting out their resumes. Before you post or message with “hi sir” or “hire me” watch this video: We have a structured hiring process in place, so it’s crucial to follow the instructions and personalize your approach. Doing so will help you stand out and put you ahead of 95% of other candidates. Mistake #2: Lack of Personalization If your potential client already knows who you are, they are 10 times more likely to hire you and they will pay 10 times more. Why? Because hiring someone halfway across the planet is all about trust. The best way to build trust is to engage professionally. Personalize your message and mention something specific you’ve learned about our company. This will set you apart from most other candidates. For example, look at this guy. He has no idea what we do, but expects us to hire him to manage our team. Before you reach to a potential client, spend 5 minutes looking up what they do. This is the most common mistake freelancers and agencies make. They believe if they message enough people, they will get clients. Build a relationship before asking for business. Mistake #3: Not Checking Your Message for Grammatical Errors Always pay attention to grammatical errors, capitalization, and punctuation. We assess your ability to communicate clearly, and mistakes in your message can hurt your chances, even if English isn’t your first language. While you don’t need to be a professional writer, it’s important to avoid sloppy errors. Clear communication is crucial, so make sure your message is well-polished before sending it. A Players Only – No Exceptions We have an A Player only rule. The key is that competent people should rarely ever need correcting. And they are fast– not because they hurry or are sloppy, but because they are competent. Anyone coming into the company needs to be qualified before they can start charging us. We want everyone to become excellent at processing content– these are paid positions where we expect excellent work. In the case of clients who pay us to provide support and training, we render services. We’ve made our training 100% free to anyone who wants to learn and demonstrate the necessary competency to be hired at Level 1, the lowest acceptable level of quality. And then we expect them to progress up through the levels. It usually takes a few iterations to get something of decent quality, since there is a learning phase– and hopefully not too much QA or personal support to get there. With any task or skill, there is a clear pattern to follow which anyone can publicly and openly learn from for free, though many prefer private one-on-one mentoring for grammar and such. Most people will take 10-20 iterations to get something of barely usable quality, if they can even get to that point. And if they’re not reliable, this can drag on for weeks and months– taking up a lot of my time and other people’s time to chase– which is a multiple of the minutes it would take a competent and reliable person to do it. Understanding the GCT (Goals, Content, Targeting) Being capable of adding critical context requires understanding the GCT (goals, content, targeting) of the original video/article. When VAs disregard GCT, for many reasons that appear valid to them, they make the #1 VA mistake. The result is vandalism of our assets, the need for someone senior to come repair, and also providing one-on-one coaching to the VA about why skipping GCT isn’t a good thing.  Trying to convince a vandal usually results in failure– because they are unwilling or unable to see the problem. They insist on how they’re well-meaning and are competent. And when that fails (it always does), we attempt to ask them to practice active listening (which sometimes works). Anyone who works on ANY content must understand the GCT of that particular piece of content, which also means understanding how it fits into the related topics– not just the tangential topics, but the ones upstream (larger topics) that fit into the bigger picture. The “expert” in video editing, copywriting, Google Ads, or whatever technical skill is most likely to make the #1 VA mistake– because they blindly believe their one functional expertise exempts them from having to understand the content they’re working on. And, thus, the reason why the #1 VA mistake is so powerfully

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The difference between courses and programs is commitment.

Training, Courses /

Anyone can buy or sell a course— an info-product that’s a self-serve experience, not much different than producing a record for sale that potentially millions of people can consume. The success rate on books, courses, and other formats is single digits– as few even complete the training– and then a fraction of these folks do the exercises necessary to achieve whatever result. A program, however, has the hidden promise of results– like a college degree has the hidden promise of a job.Thus, programs are courses that also have coaching, support, and other components beyond a series of videos you can play– even if it’s LightSpeed interactive videos. We’ve sold millions of courses for Rosetta Stone to help people learn Spanish.Most of these DVDs sit on the bookshelf, like all the other beautiful aspirational decorations, collecting dust for the one eventual day when we just might want to use it. We’re happy to sell COURSES via LightSpeed– free and paid. The system has all the functionality necessary for the basics, much like Kajabi, LearnDash, Thinkific, and even GoHighLevel. But a PROGRAM means we can’t accept a 2% success rate, as is normal for courses.We would want to flip this into a 98% success rate with only a 2% fail rate. People joining a program must be committed, qualified, and able to do what it takes to win– like what each of us has discussed about winning being the absence of not quitting.And only upon this commitment, which is to be earned, not granted by default, are we willing to let people into any of our programs to invest in their success with our network, our time, and our money.   The “turd in the punchbowl” is that course creators peddle their wares as if it were a PROGRAM.But there’s no valid certification, implementation, accountability, support, or backing. The way I closed one of our clients — when he was the one who attended my workshop and called me, not me calling him– was asking him if he was here just to make millions selling courses or if he wanted to actually help people succeed. The latter requires measurement, which none of his famous course-creating buddies are doing.

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I want to work with you

Training /

My job is to get more money into your pocket. If you’re a local service business, that means you’re serving more customers– you make more money by helping people with their problems. If you’re good at what you do, you deserve to get more clients, even if your marketing is terrible. And if you’re a digital marketing agency, who is competent/certified at what you do, you make more money by helping local service businesses. So all of us, no matter who we are, make money when we can help others get more of what they want. Every dollar I make goes right back into creating more training programs, which creates more jobs and more customers for everyone. I want to work with you if you also believe in supporting local businesses– whether you’re a local business, an agency serving local businesses, or a partner with tools and knowledge.

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Come join us!

advice, Training /

A whopping 80% of Americans live paycheck-to-paycheck. Even 25% of folks making over $150,000 a year live paycheck-to-paycheck. Those stats were from last year, before COVID-19, so imagine what they are now. If you want to make a little extra money to pay the bills or go all-in as an entrepreneur, consider helping struggling local businesses. There are 3 million local businesses that could use your help driving leads via digital marketing. And we’re training folks up at no charge right now in our program, with hundreds of folks just like you. Come join us!

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Why you need a good mentor to succeed, and how to get one

Leave a Comment / advice, Communication, mentorship, Networking, promoting yourself, Training /

Do you feel as though you’re working tirelessly with little to no progress being made? You want to succeed so badly, but it’s very difficult if you’re relying upon your own knowledge and your own network. Luckily, there’s another person who wants to see you succeed, and who can help you grow and realize more of your potential much sooner than you dreamed. That person is a mentor. Mentorship is the reason I am where I am today. My mentor was the former CEO of American Airlines, and without his influence in my life, I would likely not be doing what I am now in my career. The great thing about having a mentor in your life is that it’s proven expertise– they’ve achieved what you want to do. A mentor can provide you with the money, connections, and experience that you would otherwise have to gain through many years of failure and painful lessons. Some good practices I have found in seeking a mentor, if you’re interested: Follow people who do what you want to do. If you don’t know what it is you want to do, you’ll never be able to boil the ocean to fry the fish. You’ve got to zero in on the people you want to be like. Study their content. When you can show that you’ve done your homework and know how you want to contribute, you are much more likely to gain their respect. Demonstrate gratitude. Coming from a place of gratitude and humility will increase your chances of eliciting a positive response. Offer a small favor. This could be simply asking in what ways you could help them, and you may be surprised by the opportunities that present themselves. I get hit up constantly by people seeking favors or advice, but the people who take the above approach are often the only I’ll take the time out of my day to respond to. Now, understand this isn’t me suggesting you immediately reach out to Richard Branson or Tony Robbins for mentorship, but what you will find is that there are many other people who you can seek after that can help you do the things you want to do– IF you’re specific and know exactly what it is you want to do. Does this make sense to you? Listen to this podcast I did on how mentorship can enhance your life, income, and impact to gain deeper insights into this subject and learn more in-depth strategies.

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Don’t work more than 4 hours per day

Leave a Comment / advice, Training /

My buddy Markus Frind famously claimed that he worked 10 hours per week building his website. All by himself, he was the CEO, CMO, lone support rep, server admin, PR agent, and everything else. Two years ago, he sold it for $575 million in cash. Not everyone will have that combination of genius and luck. But if you’re an entrepreneur, consultant, or agency owner, listen up. If your revenue model is billable hours, then you have an incentive to increase occupancy (billed time divided by total time). Industry standard is 70%, which means you or your people must bill 6 hours in each 8.5-hour day. Keep in mind what Paul Sokol says: “Time isn’t money. Valuable time is money. You have to know which are your most revenue producing activities and focus on those so you can price accordingly” But if you’re in an area like marketing technology or a field where there is a steep learning curve, you need to maximize your effectiveness first. I have been doing this for twenty years and still spend 3 hours a day learning, if not more, as Molly Pittman of DigitalMarketer.com suggests: I believe you should pursue growth and learning everyday. Blocking out time on your calendar for education is essential, no matter the number of hours you “work”. That’s time you can’t bill– at least if you’re ethical.  And that’s not counting non-client time for general chit-chat (what did you do last weekend), organizing your desk, and surfing the web. Assume you have one hour for such pleasantries each day. That means you can’t work more than 4 hours per day unless you extend your workday beyond what is sustainable long-term. This also means that if you can bill only half as many hours, you have to charge at least twice as much per hour. If you bill at $50/hour, then you need to start charging at least $100/hour, for example. But I’ll have fewer clients, you say– I’m afraid my business will dry up! Actually, you’ll find you get better clients who pay you more, respect your expertise, and treat you better. There are clients that value results and clients that just want the cheapest wage slaves. You figure out which of these two are the better clients to have. If you want to buy an hour of consulting with me, it’s $750. We actually get more clients at $750 than at $150, which we’ve tested over the years. And the $750 ensures we have serious inquiries– plus gives us room to over-deliver. We usually put in two hours and also share the internal documents that will help them implement a particular fix. But how much should YOU be charging? We discuss that in more detail here. If you’re just starting out, sure, you need to charge a low rate to get your initial base of clients. And then you can raise your rate, while also transitioning to packages. When you sell a package of services (driven by your checklist), should the client care if it takes you 2 hours or 20 hours to get results? If they’re paying you by the hour, you have an incentive to drag your feet– take twice as long and earn twice as much. And if you’re not operating according to a checklist of items as part of a package, you have no control over your quality nor can the client effectively manage you. With a checklist, everyone is clear at the start about what you will do and not do. No need to negotiate a SOW, suffer from scope creep, or agonize over missed expectations. Are you selling your time or your expertise? If you’re still selling time, start to package up what you do and attach a cost to it. The more you can reliably repeat something, the faster you get, the more competent you become, and the more you can delegate to others to do it. Follow the content > checklist strategy to scale up your business and squish execution problems at the same time. And what would have taken you 6 hours, you can do in an hour, plus no need to keep explaining what you do (which is likely 30% of your time). This is not about a “4-hour workweek” or automating/delegating your life to assistants and software. Rather, I’m saying you need to actively invest in yourself– to treat your learning time with the same respect as a big client meeting. Now do you agree with me that you should “work” no more than 4 hours per day?

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