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Transcript
[0:01] Oh fantastic. That's awesome.

[0:05] And it's amazing day another amazing day.
And we are here on the pirate broadcasts that I want to bring to you interesting people doing interesting things and share a few interesting aspects of life.

[0:20] And you know some of the things that are taking place today. I have Samantha Glover.
Ed Samantha is not only a growth hacker marketing strategist but she's also a mathematician.
And I want to dig in and find out a little bit more about that combination because you know big data and analytics and our all thing it play a big huge role. So thank you so much and all gratitude in the world for being here. Samantha how are you today.

[0:46] I'm doing well. Thank you so much rice for having me here. I'm j. I'm very grateful to be here.

[0:52] Well you know one of the things that I like to do is there's a lot of people out there doing some amazing work.
And you're the box of Ambrosia piqued my interest in something about your brand and your your message and some of the things you were doing online.
It's like I want to know a little bit more about this individual and I want to share this individual with other people because I think you have something special and I wanted to talk to you about that today.
And how did how did you arrive at being a market in the marketing world as a mathematician. That's that's a connection that you don't see all of the time. And.
So I've had some experience with both sides of the world that I and I don't see it very often so I thought well I'm going to ask you tell you tell us how you arrived here today.

[1:47] Well that's an amazing question. Well believe it or not it's in today's society mathematicians.
They're actually data scientists and with data science you can apply it to marketing solving world problems.
And when you're marketing online it's very algorithmic. It's you know it works on an algorithm.
So it requires a lot of calculations being able to build prediction models algorithms being able to calculate what potentially may happen.
So you can make strategic decisions. So.
And I think just to make it compact I first started getting interested in marketing is,
you know for a brief time when I was under age I was actually homeless temporarily and I played music in the streets because I also played music and people would just give me donations and money.
So it's like wow this is pretty cool. And then I got like a little email list and people started to sign up.
And when I put together a show people actually started to come.
So that was my first introduction to our form of marketing.

[3:01] When I was under aged that is you know we share a few threads and now in the while I was drawn to you as I grew up as a musician.
I started playing clubs when I was 16 as a drummer and I played for years until I fell three stories and shattered my arm in one of the things it allows.
And that got me into advertising.
So it's like that was a transition in advertising. Another story for another day however I'm fascinated by that that you're that you discovered the.
The marketing piece. As a musician because musicians right now the world is changing around that whole industry,
and you know going through the challenge of being homeless and you know being out there and having to put yourself out there is is really raw and real.
And you know I've been there I know what it's like. I understand and appreciate it.
And also there's some lessons that come out of that. There's some really big lessons that come out of that.
And one of the things that you could do is it's like OK you make it through there. You make it through this process.
You learn a few things and then you kind of graduate to the next thing.
So what was the next thing after discovering marketing music in and how did you evolve in the.

[4:31] Well I've always been interested in math. I won my first competition when I was just in elementary school.
I even won an award from the government for high achievement in mathematics while still in school so math has always been a huge part of my life.
I competed in competitions where you would have to compete with other kids from both public and private schools to be able to calculate equations and whoever would get the answer would win.
So I actually. Oh well my first competition was when I was in elementary school and competed with people that were in middle school and actually got second place which I know was a first place.
But then when I started to compete as I got older then I started to go on a winning streak where I would win back to back to back.

[5:23] But my anxiety was something that like made me overwhelmed.
Where that was kind of my crutch where I would just feel a lack of confidence in myself at certain times.
So I think that's what it was because I had the ability but it's just at times I lacked confidence.
But yes I've always done that. And as far as,
playing music in the streets I was just like you know going to have to take it off the streets and maybe into a venue so that's why I got the email list and so that just gave me an interesting introduction into marketing the power of being able to connect with people,
and to grow to growth hack and to a different level of doing things.
Because I spoke to this one guy.
He was a veteran and I was like Well how long you been playing in the subways. Because he actually taught me how to play music in the subway.
There's a guy doing this for like you know 13 15 years.
And I was in my mind like as I I am not doing this for no that's what I was thinking as I was like. So it has to be a way to transition out of it.

[6:27] Yeah. So what instrument did you play.

[6:31] Well I play a few different instruments. My first instrument was a violin. So I've had the same teacher since since I was in elementary school.
Then flute piano then acoustic and electric guitars not acoustic and electric guitars.
I kind of transitioned into that because you know music is a universal language it's just a matter of being able to place what you're doing to a different instrument.

[6:56] Yeah absolutely. Absolutely. And it's also a lot of math goes into music you know a lot of the eighth notes quarter notes sixteenth notes you know the the scales and everything else that goes along with it.
There's a lot a lot of similarities between the two and a lot of respects at least.
That's why I think it. As a drummer you know you get triplets and you get you know that you get the patterns and things like that.
But what's really fascinating though is that you were able to go through this process at the end and then now,
there's a lot a lot of you know mystery around the growth hacking topic in the title and it means a lot of different things to a lot of different people.
So Howard how do you see that applying today now for yourself and are you promoting your music with that or are you promoting marketing for other people or what.
What is it that you're you're passionate about working on right now. Today.

[8:00] Well besides you know math which was always a love of mine.
I'm an all around artists from doing visual arts for TV shows of composed music for shows.
The marketing aspect came in because you can be the most talented person in the world but you don't have the ability to market.
Nobody will ever know you'll just be a starving artist. But in regards to growth hacking you know it happens a lot.
I have a huge respect for those who do different parts of marketing online social media marketing which is not necessarily the same. It's part of digital marketing.
The digital marketing is more scientific and then you have growth hackers that are more on the data science side conversion rate optimization side.
So to me growth hacking or what most that are in growth hacking do they have the ability to be able to understand in a mathematical sense how to scale ad campaigns.
I build all of the data architectures that comes with it because you may have some for example there's this one company that I,
that I've worked with are still kind of work with on a project by project basis where they have a Facebook marketer but you know he's not really a growth hacker per say.

[9:18] You know where they've made millions of dollars but you know there's no control over the costs of fluctuates where a growth hacker is able to control the costs a little bit better.

[9:33] They're able to do things on a more advanced level.
So with that you know it happens a lot where the profit margins are deeply negative and there's no way to really scale based on location price,
being able to create market groups and understand on a granular level details about these different market groups and how to scale them. That's really a talent to do that.

[9:59] Absolutely. Know segmentation in your your market groups.
And being able to build segments and analyze what what the different you know,
your different communities are doing you know like Facebook isn't the same as linked in isn't the same as Graham isn't the same as you know YouTube.
So all of these different algorithms and different processes and you know optimizing some of these campaigns or it takes a lot of,
takes a lot of effort to really look at it and analyze it and understand what what the data is telling us right.

[10:38] Absolutely. And there's lifetime value that's something that a lot of marketers or maybe social media marketers don't consider being able to build prediction models.
Let's just say you have consumers that you have ten different products and you have different groups of people that buy in patterns,
where you can create a prediction model on a pipeline based on people that bought a series of products and then be able to prepare people that are similar to them and have data events that not only evolve around I'm sorry revolve around,
someone making a purchase but their journey through the purchase what influenced them to take that specific action and what they bought afterwards. Yeah. It's.

[11:22] It's amazing. It's amazing to see this take place and when it really works on a large scale it's it's phenomenal.
And much like I want to I'm going to give a shout out here and to the audience too it's like we've got a lot of people here joining us today.
Samantha and Sherry Lolly Laurie Brenda Lewis Wendy read a lot.
Good morning from Houston trash Sean sigh.
Gabriel Roddy.
Cathy. Gina good morning. Great information.
Nick Dorsey Angie you know these are all people in a community around linked in a lot of times and you know I also like I mentioned before the show started,
I stream out on YouTube I stream out on Facebook I stream out on Periscope. I'm starting to.
And then by before the end of the day. Samantha this will be transcribed and then uploaded to my my or my Web site.
Russ Johns dot com as an episode in the transcription and the podcast will be there as well.
And that goes out on Spotify and Apple iTunes and all of the podcasting platforms.

[12:45] Oh well. We'll be taking taking notes from you.

[12:48] Yeah. So so building systems and and analytics together is incredibly powerful machine.
I just said it's. And you know I'm just I'm just you know fishing in my own sea here doing experiments.

[13:04] You know a lot of what I do.

[13:06] I love experimenting I love you know cause and effect in watching.
OK. If I could do this and I can actually generate some interest in an area and then can I grow that and can I get a response.
And I love helping people so you know a lot of what I do is you know also I love sharing these little tips in in the pirate broadcast and now that you're a pirate you're in the community here watching a pirate.
Yeah. So you could share with you could share with this great information so as as a small entrepreneurs you know somebody that doesn't have you know is selling 100 or you know book in hundred thousand dollars a month in ads or something like that.
Is there something that we can do is as a coach a speaker and an author you know somebody that's out there doing a freelancing or you know a small entrepreneur or a small business.
What what did a couple of things that you could share with us that really bring on some attention or attraction or conversions.
Is there one thing you or can you share with us.

[14:12] Absolutely. I would say for small businesses some people say oh you know we don't really need data but you do need data because as mentioned you know with,
Facebook LinkedIn and all these different places there are different codes and events that you don't have to necessarily be a coder that you can track.
So I would say first and foremost is to always have a data architecture even if it's basic because if not then you won't know what's working and what's not working.
And then if you plan on running ad campaigns even on a larger scale you know some people they don't do that.
You can actually control your cost. So if it's let's just say one set of copy you know brought in leads,
at only a dollar opposed to a different set of copy brings and leads about nine dollars you can do conversion rate optimization of the ad set that brought in,
or the leads that came in for a dollar you know and.

[15:09] First and foremost understand the journey of your your consumers.
So just look at your website or your funnel and ask yourself Is this something that you know would I be confused if you know me as a consumer would I be confused.
You know how would the consumer interact or engage with this content just being able to learn.
Be a test you know marketing is an experiment.
So I'm not I'm not going to say try not to be cheap but you know it's going to be an investment your first initial investment is going to be finding your audience and finding out which content.

[15:48] Is going to cause conversions and targeting doesn't sell copy and content sells your messaging sells.
So no matter how well you target you have to.

[15:59] Get some somehow get people to click over to go to your funnel and then when you get to the funnel that doesn't just solve the problem your funnel and the coffee and the messaging on your funnel is responsible for getting people to take another step or an action.
So a lot of people say oh my ad campaigns they fail you're not working.
The thing is is that you know if you don't have data you won't be able to understand.
And I'll make this really quick but there was one particular example where well I'll use the same company as an example where they made a lot of money and it was like a 60 percent not know that what the test was a 60 percent.
There was another funnel that they had just like at 80 90 percent bounce rate.
So only 10 you know 10 to 20 percent of the traffic that they were paying for was actually going a little bit further into the funnel and it wasn't only until we made some changes and adjustments that it changed from,
you know to a 60 percent sales rate where we opened it up we're 40 percent of the people were coming through and taking deeper behavior so you know analyzing data is going to help you.
Especially for smaller businesses because you have as you know you may have a smaller budget that you're working with.
So it's it's more strategic for you to be able to understand that information.

[17:12] And I think the key takeaway for that is we have to start somewhere.
You know we have some copy we might have a Web site at the very least put Google Analytics and maybe a Facebook pixel on there so you can kind of,
understand where traffic is coming from and then then start putting some things out there and measuring the results and then you know the more you put out there and you create some content,
and see what the response is,
and have a journey for the individual visiting your page there.
Where are they going to. What is the call to action. And I think it's.

[17:48] The big the big thing that I'm always caught by or I'm I'm lacking is clarity in the message because you know I think OK I'm going to do this fancy you know I'm going to do some fancy words and things like that.
Yeah I'll do some you know I get too complicated and I just make it super simple does this break it down make it super simple and make it easy for people understand don't make it fancy just make it simple.
And that seems to work a lot better than you know then then you're attracting people into the funnel you're attracting people to what you're doing.
And you know at that point in time then they can you know the conversion you can measure conversion around that.
And I think it's it's a whole process it's an entire process. So data is so important to watch and to understand what you know.
It's not. It's not necessarily a skill that everybody has or wants to wants to acquire and someone like yourself is a special individual and I really appreciate what you do Samantha.

[18:56] Oh thank you. Thank you so much. And definitely with the pixel two you need data events as well.
So let's just say you have your lead events I most don't do but I also build other kinds of data events too that you can see with your Google Analytics.
So let's just say you're even if you're not paying for advertising. If you have linked and also has a data infrastructure you can put in two. So that's something everyone can put in if you're using LinkedIn.
They have an inside tag is free to start a LinkedIn.

[19:29] Ads manager and pretty just like Facebook they have a tag where you can put that on your Web sites or your funnel so all of this links in traffic that you're getting.
If you plan on running ads on links and sponsored emails or news feed ad campaigns you could also retarget people and create matched audience just like Facebook or look like audience.
Now there are more advanced data events than just the pixels such as leads certain page behaviors tracking people that may have clicked and watched a certain amount of the video,
on your actual funnel your page and you know that's something that you could do as well if that's what people wanted to do because I know with LinkedIn most people they they rely on organic traffic.
But you know you can take this organic traffic and later use it towards paid ads.
So let's just say for from this LinkedIn you get 50 people or 100 people that sign up for something,
you can actually use what's called a youth team parameter are you team link and all the people that complete that particular action even though it wasn't paid you could actually use people that fell on that event and do conversion rate optimization and read it on Facebook.

[20:39] So I think example is like like I was explaining you know because I'm I'm putting this broadcast out the pirate broadcasts out on multiple platforms.
It would be great for me to actually put a link in pixel on my Web site and then actually ask people how you can get notified when I launch a new episode.
So if you missed the replay on LinkedIn and can't find it in the feed you can always go to my Web site. March 3 play.

[21:06] Exactly. Exactly so that way all this linked organic traffic that you're getting you know it's it's massive because some people the when you're paying for advertising you're paying to find your audience.
But if you already have data events on your Web site it's like all the people that is your audience you're not actually paying for that.
You're gaining that traffic in that data organically.
So that would save you money right there.

[21:33] Yeah. Because then you know to you know who you're attracting already.
So what you need to do is give them exactly what they're looking for. Right.
Exactly kind of the same thing. It's like OK. Find what people need. Create what they need and offer it to them.

[21:51] And then you know it.

[21:53] I mean that's the simplest terms however there's lots of steps in between.
And data is the difference between spending a lot of money on your campaigns and not spending enough on the right places. Right. So.

[22:06] Exactly. So if you get all of these organic traffic you just saved yourself some money.
If you have those data events and if you run ads on LinkedIn you could just you know select OK.
LinkedIn this insight tag that I put on my lead conversion page.
I want a target retarget those individuals to sell another product or I want to create an audience similar to them.
I want to look like audience right.
Look alike like audience. And also Google it's a matched audience. So if you have both Facebook Google and links and tags and you collect all this data at one time you can actually retarget all of these audience simultaneously,
on all these different platforms and even like you mentioned before about keeping it simple it depends.
Like there's some people that wants that are may gravitate towards the complexity of your content.
And there are those who don't. I did something similar for a really big brand.
Actually it was for well I don't know if I'm allowed to mention it.
But you know we did a split testing for different types of copying content and they both did really really well. We also did two different prices.
And the one that where it was more expensive actually sold more.

[23:18] Isn't that amazing. Exactly. I just find that fascinating to me. It's just like crazy.

[23:26] Hey I wanted to give a shout out. Nick thank you so much for being here. Gina I hope you're finding this valuable.
Randi good morning. Nearly. Kindness is cool you know that Gabriel.
Really great stuff. Gabriel says windy.

[23:44] Good morning. And also Frank.
Opie doing well today. You know I see a lot of people that and I'm guilty of this Samantha because I'm,
I know enough to be dangerous and I know enough that I want to you know talk to you more about some of the things that you're doing and how we could work together and you know how we could,
you know expand your your experience in linked in community here as well because there's so many people that and I think there's a mis understanding about how.

[24:22] Linked in campaigns work.
It's not as prevalent as Facebook ads or Google ads or anything like that.
And I think it's really important for people to optimize their campaigns too with what we're talking about.
And data is the only way that you can really do that.
And having somebody like yourself that can look through the data and say here's some trends that you need to think about here's some here's some groups and individuals that are really,
you know gravitating to your content because when you look at it from an organic side and you just look at your feet and you say OK somebody people like my stuff and so you know somebody's comments and so many shares it's not necessarily the whole picture,
when there's no there's no personality behind those numbers,
so I'm sure that there are other analytics that we can discover along the way.
And I think there's just just announcement length and just change their user you know their terms of an agreement and their Terms of Service.

[25:24] And I haven't dug into that yet but I'm going to be looking at that. Gina if view if anybody here has looked at that announcement to see if there's any changes in their analytics or the data or the way the data is handled.

[25:36] Essentially they're saying this is your data. If you leave you can take your data with you which is pretty common and it's.
So have you looked at the link to data to see what actual how deep you can go with that data compared to other parties.

[25:54] Absolutely. Well for LinkedIn I find at this time because they've improved it I've tested their new system and beta sponsored email campaigns where,
a lot of people open those I have some data where it's I've had conversion rates as far as people opening the message at over 55 percent.

[26:17] And you know as mentioned after people open the message you have a little subject line that that's what causes people to open and then,
you know the cost per lead is lowest five dollars sometimes it could be higher you know as mentioned your copy in your email is what's going to sell people.
The next step. But as far as open rates they're like his lowest fifty five cents sixty cents.
If you're at your door your tagline is really really good.
I find that sponsored emails are really good and are probably effective for small businesses.
Now I wouldn't go rush to go do it just yet because it's still in beta to make sure that you have enough to invest in.
You have different sets of copy and make sure your targeting is on point now when you go to the ads manager is going to tell you what the potential costs would be where you can bid for the for the costs.
And I just wanted to mention really quickly when you mentioned about organic traffic I've done an analysis for social media marketers where,
one is like they have a bunch of shares but nobody actually bought anything like I had one company over a whole year not even one person that shared a post ever bought anything on Facebook or someone else.

[27:34] The social media manager her content was so good that she received more sign ups and conversions than the people that were doing handling the Google ads because her content was just that good.
So yes so sharing a post liking it doesn't mean people will buy but with you team tags you can actually have a special link for each of your posts that will actually tell you from this specific post,
how many people bought something how many people went to the Web site how many conversions did I get from this specific post,
and then you can segment by different types of content as well.

[28:08] Yeah that's that's incredibly powerful. And I know that a lot of people have not leverage the power of Team codes and you know in wood called action and you can have it actually.
You know when I did a lot more email marketing years ago you know the subject line was like you.
You look for magic words like get them to open you know it's like open rates and get the open rates going.
And I've had open rates as high as 60 percent on something like my copy and which is incredible.
You know and it's it's going down because a lot of people are you know it's changing and evolving all the time.
However I haven't used your time codes recently and it's like you know I don't know why because I know you can put posts in and create post with you codes and start measuring that result so you can retarget too.

[29:04] So the specific post if you know a thousand people from this post went over to your funnel you could actually create a matched audience and look alike.
Audience based on this specific post and you can combine it to so if you had a similar content and you want to say OK,
these are my 10 top posts I want to combine these 10 audiences that engaged with my content at this level and I want to retargeting them or I want to create an audience similar to them and I want to run a LinkedIn ad toward this video,
because based on these similar people that engage because this they proved to be successful.

[29:47] And and I have to imagine that when this thing works and it's all and it's all a system and you know what your long term value of your client is in your customer,
you know there's a lot of different campaigns you can run and you can retarget in,
lots of things that you can do to generate additional income off your audience that have already purchased from you as a business owner that's incredibly powerful because then you keep the engagement as high the the,
authority and the attraction is high and everything is just amazing.
It's amazing when it's it works altogether. So this has been incredibly valuable. Samantha thank you so much for being here.

[30:30] Thank you so much for having me here.

[30:33] Well I I want to share everybody you know all everybody that's here today.
Thank you for being here. All the gratitude in the world read trash Wendy Shawn sigh.
GABRIEL I mean all of these individuals are you know it's it's it's individuals like this that bring value to the community and we all have a gift.
We all have a message. And Samantha I.
All the gratitude in the world for sharing a couple of ideas and thoughts with us today and your value and thank you so much for being here.
So LinkedIn. If you're not connected with Samantha connect with Samantha she's awesome.
And I know this is only like a fraction of what she is.
She could bring to us if we continue to have this conversation and also where could people find you.
You have box of Ambrosia that you you have is linked in the best place to find you or or wherever you go.

[31:33] I would say Lincoln is the best because just like your other guest I'm just now starting to do social media for myself. She's correct.
You can be very talented at digital marketing but not have a huge following. So she was very correct in saying that.

[31:46] Yeah it's awesome. It's awesome. Well thank you so much Samantha.
I know that we're gonna be talking again because there's some things that I want to work with you on and I've got some projects it's like OK I'm thinking about that.
Yeah I think maybe I had to talk to Samantha about that.

[32:03] So as a friend I could probably just help you with a couple of things. Just reach out to me and here's anything I could do for you. Just reach out.

[32:10] I would. I would love to and I will. And so thanks again.
Like I said this will this broadcast will be up on rush John Scone slash pirate broadcast.
Now that you're a pirate rock to start communicating a little closer.
And also in the community if you if you join us on Linked In Like and Share the comments if it's been valuable I'd appreciate any feedback you can have.
If you have questions also let me know so I can ask questions I could find guests to give us answers so it's a simple process and you know kindness is cool smiles are free,
and you enjoy the day thank you Rose.

[32:53] Thank you.