The term has gotten a bit of a bad reputation over the past few years, so we wanted to learn about what it takes to be a true affiliate and set the record straight. 

To learn more about affiliate marketing, we chatted with Kendra Losee, a marketing coach, consultant, and ActiveCampaign affiliate, in a new episode of Growth Decoded. 

Here are some of the highlights:

• To be a successful affiliate, you need to take the time to test different tools, this builds a trust with your audience that earns you long term credibility. 
• True affiliates have invested a lot of time and effort in learning every tool that can help YOU make the best decision possible for your business. 
• If you truly believe in the tool you are affiliating with, that will naturally reflect in your recommendation, helping you be successful in your affiliate program. 

To learn about what that means in practice—we chat with community builder, online education expert, and author, Alex Hillman in a new episode of Growth Decoded.

Here are some of the highlights:

• How to take the online learning experience beyond repurposing offline tactics
• Bring the best of “hallway chats” to online conferences and courses
• The key to getting students to do the thing they signed up to do

You’ve probably seen those chat buttons at the bottom of many websites, but is it the right move for your website? Will a community around your product or service help you create a better customer experience? 

Find out in this new episode of Growth Decoded, where we chat with Sara Pion, an expert in chatbots and community-led growth. She’s also the co-host of a podcast called Self-Control and Cheese.

You’ll learn:

• Why a community can be the “moat” for your product
• How to build community with new customers
• Where to start with chatbots and testing best practices
• How to add the human element to your customer experience

And some only the wrong ones?

It starts with the statement that brands are making.

It’s what our guest in this new episode of Growth Decoded calls, “The Statement Piece”

Listen in as Hillary Weiss, founder of Statement Piece Studio, talks about how to put a stake in the ground and create content that is unique to your passion and personality.

You’ll also learn about:

• How to go beyond content that’s about “who’s your audience, what’s their problem, how to solve it”
• The 3 sources of ideas to create amazing statement content
• How to tie positioning, branding, and content all together

We’ve all heard of these trends, but what are their practical applications? How will everyday businesses take part in it? We get to the bottom of this and more in this episode of Growth Decoded.

Tune into a new episode of Growth Decoded, where we chat with Michael Stelzner, founder of Social Media Examiner, and Brian Fanzo, digital futurist and host of NFT365.

You’ll learn:

• What Web 3.0 is all about
• The opportunities Web 3.0 brings
• Where cryptocurrency, NFTs, and social tokens fit into Web 3.0
• Where to learn about the latest trends
• And more!

A strong positioning statement.

Join us for an incredible new episode of Growth Decoded featuring Ryan Stewart!

Ryan is a marketing consultant, author, and CEO of SEO agency, Webris. As a self-proclaimed “process nerd,” he’ll take us on a deep dive into positioning and how to carve out a space in the market where your business can succeed.

You’ll learn:

• How positioning streamlines your operations
• The first thing you need with positioning
• When you should re-evaluate your positioning statement
• The 3 parts of your offer statement that simplifies your content and sales strategy
• The relationship and difference between branding and positioning

When your customers are growing and learning from each other, and you’re the connection between them all…everyone wins.

Join us for another brand new episode of Growth Decoded featuring Andrew and Pete from ATOMIC.

Andrew and Pete run a community of small (but mighty) business owners and entrepreneurs looking to earn more, and do more of what they love.

You’ll discover:

• How and why you should build a community
• How to scale if you fall within these 3 phases of growth
• What role do software and tools play in scaling your business
• Advice for entrepreneurs just getting started

And much more!

Instead, focus on becoming your customer’s FAVORITE. This does a few things:

 First — it’s a more attainable goal. Because, what does it mean to be the BEST?

It’s hard to define, and it’s impossible to attain. Who’s to say that you’re actually the best?

Second (and most importantly) — it shifts the focus of your messaging and marketing off of your own business, and onto your customers and audience.

So how do you do this? We spoke with Jay Acunzo and talked about this exact problem on the next episode of Growth Decoded. Join us on July 21!

But what does it mean to monetize? How and when should you do it?

On July 7, 2022 join us for a brand new episode of Growth Decoded where we sit down with business coach and content creator, Leslie Samuel.

Leslie went from high school biology teach to college professor — by creating videos about science on YouTube. His channel, Interactive Biology, boasts over 200k subscribers. He’s an expert on blogging, content, and — monetization.

We sat down with Leslie to learn how he approaches the topic of monetization, and how you can get started.

Just kidding. They’re far from dead. But now that you’re paying attention…

Your email newsletter has the potential to be the launch pad for your entire business, the engine that drives everything forward, and the most direct line of communication with your audience.

It’s a cornerstone of your email marketing strategy.

But how do you start a newsletter and actually grow it? Is there someone who can tell us?

Yes, there is. He’s Jay Clouse, and he’s the brain behind the Creative Companion Newsletter, Community, and the Creative Elements Podcast.

What do you write about? What types of content or posts should you make? What’s the best way to get started?

On the next episode of Growth Decoded, we sat down with LinkedIn maven, and founder of LinkedIn Business Accelerator, Judi Fox — and got some answers.

You’ll learn:

• How Judi grew her LinkedIn profile into a revenue engine (and how you can, too!)
• 1 HUGE, underutilized area of opportunity for business and personal profile growth
• Ways to transfer your LinkedIn audience to other channels
• Judi’s acronym for creating LinkedIn content that gets traction
• 3 content voices that resonate on LinkedIn

If you ask Justin Welsh, it’s all about the system you implement.

Join us for a brand new episode of Growth Decoded featuring Entrepreneur, Angel investor, Mentor, Coach, and Creator Justin Welsh!

Justin is an expert in the world of solopreneurship. He has successfully launched multiple digital and knowledge-based products, a successful newsletter, and amassed a huge social media following.

You can learn more about Justin through his website: https://justinwelsh.me
Or by following him on LInkedIn or Twitter!
— https://www.linkedin.com/in/justinwelsh/
— https://twitter.com/thejustinwelsh

You’ll learn:

→ The 3 questions that will make you measurably more productive

→ The first step toward building an audience online

→ How to refine and perfect your messaging

→ The 4 things that determine whether content is high-quality or not

→ A proven way to figure out what you should automate next

And more!

When it comes time to dive into the data, do you feel confident in your ability and process to get what you need, or what you want?

Join us for a brand new episode of Growth Decoded, featuring Brie Anderson!

Brie is a marketing strategist and consultant, and the owner of Beast Analytics. She has developed a simple framework for analytics that helps inform your approach, strategy, analysis, and data collection.

You’ll learn:

→ Brie’s BEAST cycle for approaching analytics

→ How to determine which metrics to measure (and which to ignore!)

→ The metrics that tell the story best

→ Why you should only implement 1 thing at a time

→ The 3 S’s of analytics strategy

Ramon is passionate about helping businesses to start and build their personal brands, and using that to market and sell BETTER. In this conversation, Ramon stopped by to talk through his approach to finding the right audience.

You'll learn:
→ The rule that comes before, "Know your customer"
→ Why you should take a stand and "plant a flag in the ground"
→ How to find your target audience
→ How to build a community around your business

Subscribe to Growth Decoded to watch new episodes LIVE — and to get more tips, information, and marketing best practices!
https://www.activecampaign.com/resources/growth-decoded

Connect with ActiveCampaign on social!

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/activecampaign-inc-
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/activecampaign
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/activecampaign/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/ActiveCampaign

Tim stopped by and spoke about the importance of restoring creativity and human connection to our business communications — and the critical role that humor and comedy can play.

You'll learn:
→ A 5-step way to incorporate comedy into your messaging
→ Why you should "follow the fear"
→ Why making a human connection is so important
→ How humor contributes to creating a real relationship and a human moment

You'll learn:

• The difference between "email delivery" and "email deliverability"
• The different factors that impact email deliverability
• What the acronyms DKIM, DMARC, and SPF mean
• What is email engagement and why is it important?
• Ways to automatically track email engagement
• Why unsubscribes might actually be a good thing
• Common mistakes and best practices for improving your email engagement

In this episode we're breaking down the blogging process from topic selection to publishing. Join us as we talk through the benefits of blogging, tips for writing, and processes for creating consistent, high-quality blog content that's relevant to your audience.

You'll learn about:

→ Topic selection
→ SERP (search engine results page) analysis
→ Keyword research
→ Outlining and researching
→ Writing and editing
→ Best practices for blog format
→ Common mistakes to avoid
→ Tools you can use to help

Better yet — what if there was an automated system that monitored the actions your contacts took, assigned them points based on those actions, tagged your contacts based on their points, and notified you any time you needed to know something?

Good news — there is. And that system is lead scoring.

You'll learn:

→ What is lead scoring and why is it important?

→ Key factor to consider when building your lead scoring system

→ How to weigh the actions your contacts take

→ Why subtracting points is just as important as adding points to your contact scores

→ Common mistakes and best practices for creating your lead scoring system

You'll learn:
→ Best practices for webinar production, promotion, and communication
→ Common webinar and digital event mistakes
→ The different webinar formats, and which is right for your content

• How do you get started with email automation?
• How do you keep going? How do you decide what to build, improve, or test?
• What are the foundational email automations that businesses need?

You'll hear from co-founder of Boundless Labs and email marketing expert, Chase Dimond! Chase has sent over 1 billion emails resulting in $75+ million in email attributable revenue.

In this episode you'll learn:

→ Strategies for finding opportunities to build email automations
→ How and when you should test your email automations to improve them
→ The playbook for incorporating more email automations that actually work into your business

1. What is lead generation and how should you think about it?
2. What are some common and effective tactics for lead generation?

You'll hear from internationally-acclaimed speaker, business and marketing consultant, college educator, prolific blogger and best-selling author: Mark W. Schaefer!

In this episode you'll learn:

• What is lead generation? What is a "lead" ?
• Why is lead generation so difficult?
• The question you must be able to answer if you want your marketing strategy to work. 
• Why the internet is an archipelago (what is an archipelago?)

Site Tracking connects the actions your contacts take across your website to your sales and marketing efforts. It is, effectually, your websites ears or digital listening system. Site Tracking gives you the ability to see what your contacts are interested in, and store that information via segmentation for future use in your targeted communications.

In this episode you'll get answers to the questions:

• What is site tracking?
• How do you set it up?
• What are some different use cases for site tracking?
• How can you use site tracking to improve your customer experience?

You'll hear from Founder and CEO of Sneleentaxi, Sven Braam, about how his company used site tracking to raise €500k, send emails at exactly the right time, and turn customer complaints into an opportunity to improve customer service.

Connect with ActiveCampaign on social!

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/activecampaign-inc-
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/activecampaign
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/activecampaign/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/ActiveCampaign

The holiday and end-of-year period are changing and look different to businesses and consumers. More holiday shopping is moving online creating a hybrid holiday experience, split between online and in-store shopping. Consumers expect positive customer experiences, and businesses must adapt the processes and prepare to deliver the experience in both places.

We’ll work to understand:

Best practices for holiday preparation and campaigns that have a positive impact on your business
When you should start preparing for the holidays
The end-of-year activities that have the biggest impact on your business
Holiday strategies for businesses that aren’t ecommerce
How you can carry the momentum of the holidays into the new year
Common mistakes to avoid when approaching the holiday season and end-of-year

You’ll hear from Jovana & Milena Vujnic, Brandon Kirkland, and John Jansch:

Jovana & Milena manage Bumper Leads — a marketing automation agency based in Melbourne that helps businesses of all shapes and sizes simplify and automate their sales and marketing systems, to save them time and money.

Brandon is the founder and chief strategist of EpicShops, a digital agency that helps businesses sell more online through web design, and improving the digital customer experience.

John Jantsch is an author, speaker, and marketing consultant who specializes in assisting small businesses. He is the author of Duct Tape Marketing, The Referral Engine, and The Commitment Engine.

Connect with ActiveCampaign on social!

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/activecampaign-inc-
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/activecampaign
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/activecampaign/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/ActiveCampaign

The Grow Team attended Content Marketing World and had the incredible opportunity to sit down with some of the best and brightest minds in the content marketing universe. Our guests for this episode include:
— Joe Pulizzi
— Zontee Hou
— Michael Barber
— Melanie Deziel
— Jay Baer
— Ann Handley
— Rachel Mann
— Lee Odden
— Carla Johnson
— John Jantsch

We sat down with each guest to discuss the topic of thought leadership and get answers to the questions:

• What is thought leadership?
• How important is it, really?
• What does the process to thought leadership look like?
• Do you need a "unique point of view" to get there?
• How do you arrive at a "unique point of view" or a differentiator?
• Is thought leadership a conversation?
• Can small brands be thought leaders?
• What are some brands/businesses that are doing thought leadership well?

To sign up for updates on future episodes and get exclusive content, visit:
https://www.activecampaign.com/events/growth-decoded

Connect with ActiveCampaign on social!

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/activecampaign-inc-
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/activecampaign
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/activecampaign/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/ActiveCampaign

In this episode, we investigate the topic of “Email Subject Lines” and explore how important the subject line is to getting your recipients to open your email. We also investigate how to write better subject lines, best practices for creating curiosity and intrigue, and explore the benefits and mechanics of A/B testing subject lines.

You'll hear from past Growth Decoded guests Melissa Love, Jonathan Young, and Joel Klettke — and see some email subject line "Hot Takes" and insights from Eddie Shleyner, Dave Gerhardt, Devin Reed, and Jacob Sappington.

Our featured guest is Scott Frothingham, author of "Instant Inspiration for Copywriters" and founder of FastForward Results.

To learn more about Scott you can check out his website and book below:

https://fastforward.convertri.com/fastforwardresults
https://www.amazon.com/Instant-Inspiration-Copywriters-Scott-Frothingham/dp/B087H9K2PB

To sign up for updates on future episodes and get exclusive content, visit: https://www.activecampaign.com/resources/growth-decoded

In this episode, we investigate the topic of “Email Analytics” and explore how you can use them to segment your audience, learn who your engaged contacts are, keep your contact list clean, and improve your email deliverability.

You'll learn how to move past open and click-through-rates, strategies to increase email engagement, and hear new perspectives on the Apple iOS 15 update.

You'll hear from Dr. Ada Barlatt — founder and data scientist at Operations Ally. You'll hear from Elan Zusman, — founder of Zigi Media, and you'll hear from Mike Donnelly — Co-Founder and CEO at TheSeventhSense.

To learn more about our guests you can check out their websites below:

https://operations-ally.com/
https://zigimedia.com/
https://www.theseventhsense.com/

To sign up for updates on future episodes and get exclusive content, visit: https://www.activecampaign.com/resources/growth-decoded

Connect with ActiveCampaign on social!

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/activecampaign-inc-
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/activecampaign
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/activecampaign/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/ActiveCampaign

In this episode, we investigate the topic of “Facebook Custom Audiences” and learn how to use them to re-target individuals who have shown an interest in your brand. You'll hear from a Facebook ads expert, and a successful business owner who successfully uses custom audiences to sell, upsell, re-target, and educate!

How do they work? What do folks get wrong about them? What are the different types of them and when should you use those? Let's find out!

If you're curious about integrating your ActiveCampaign account with your Facebook Custom Audiences, you can check out these resources:

https://www.activecampaign.com/learn/guides/how-to-use-facebook-custom-audiences-with-activecampaign

https://help.activecampaign.com/hc/en-us/articles/115001648370-Facebook-Custom-Audiences-integration

Melissa is the founder of The Design Space, a business that specializes in beautiful WordPress website themes. Melissa believes that that everyone can build a beautiful website that they feel empowered to edit, grow and control. The secret is knowing what order to do things in, and having someone in your corner — which is where she comes in.

You can check out The Design Space here:
https://thedesignspace.co/

Amanda Robinson is a Facebook Ads Expert (and The Digital Gal) who specializes in training business owners on how to be more successful with their Facebook ad programs.

If you're interested in learning more about (or from) Amanda you can check out her 4-week bootcamp "A Swift Kick in the Ads" on her website:
https://www.thedigitalgal.com

To sign up for updates on future episodes and get exclusive content, visit:
https://www.activecampaign.com/events/growth-decoded

Connect with ActiveCampaign on social!

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/activecampaign-inc-
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/activecampaign
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/activecampaign/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/ActiveCampaign

#FacebookAds #FacebookCustomAudience #MarketingAutomation

In this episode, we investigate the topic of “Abandoned Cart” and how ecommerce businesses and digital storefronts can use simple reminder emails to reclaim a significant percentage of lost revenue.

We'll hear from Jonathan Young, the Ecommerce Manager at J!NX  and Dawn Manske, Founder & CEO at Made for Freedom about how they use abandoned cart automations.

• Join us for today's episode on Abandoned Cart and you'll learn:
• What is Abandoned Cart, actually?
• How should you think about it?
• What makes a good Abandoned Cart email?
• What do successful Abandoned Cart emails and email automations look like?
• What do we get wrong about it?
• How does it work?

To sign up for updates on future episodes and get exclusive content, visit: https://www.activecampaign.com/resources/growth-decoded

Connect with ActiveCampaign on social!

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/activecampaign-inc-
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/activecampaign
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/activecampaign/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/ActiveCampaign

#AbandonedCart #Ecommerce #EmailAutomation

Integrations are connections between your software tools that allow them to exchange information from one another. Integrations are critical because there is no magical, "all-in-one" software tool that can do everything for you. Different tools specialize in different things. And you want the ones that are the best at what they do for your situation and unique business case.

Early in the episode you'll learn about 3 different ways to integrate your software tools:
- Native
- 3rd Party
- Custom API

You'll hear from Sophia Sithole, partner manager at Zapier, who explains 3rd party integrations and the different benefits they can bring to your business.

You can learn more about Zapier and connect with Sophia here:
https://www.zapier.com
https://www.linkedin.com/in/sophiasit...

We then turn our attention towards how integrations help you improve the customer experience, your day-to-day functions, and ultimately how they help you grow and develop your business.

Throughout the episode you'll hear from featured guests as they discuss various aspects of the importance of software integrations, and how they can help you provide a better customer experience.

We sat down with Neha Varshneya, Senior Manager of platform marketing at Thinkific, to discuss the recent launch of the Thinkific App Store, integrations that help course creators and entrepreneurs, and to discuss the different tools that Thinkific uses and integrates in their own tech stack.

You can connect with Neha and learn more about Thinkific here:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/nehavarsh...
https://www.thinkific.com/

We also sat down with Peter Coffee, VP for Strategic Research at Salesforce. Peter talks about the importance of integrations to your bottom line, tips for figuring out which things to integrate, and shares his insights on how you should think about integrating your tools in a way that contributes to long-term success and sustainability. You can connect with Peter and learn more about Salesforce here:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/petercoffee/
https://www.salesforce.com

To sign up for updates on future episodes and get exclusive content, visit:
https://www.activecampaign.com/events...

Connect with ActiveCampaign on social!

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/acti...
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/activecampaign
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/activecampaign/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/ActiveCampaign

We then turn our focus to answer the question, "How do landing pages work?" and investigated from 2 angles:

1. What do you need to build a landing page?
2. How do you make your landing pages more successful?

We take a look at the mechanics of a landing page, the different elements they have or don't have, and how you actually set them up to get new leads in exchange for your offer.

Tim and Molly answer a question from the ActiveCampaign community and break down gated content delivery and landing page form best practices.

Ernie then sits down with renowned conversion rate optimization (CRO) and conversion copywriting expert, Joel Klettke. Joel is the founder of Business Casual Copywriting and Case Study Buddy, and has helped businesses like HubSpot, WP Engine, Safelite, and more.

Joel provides expert advice for improving the conversion rate of your landing pages, how to write copy that converts, tips on using Voice of Customer and determining your audience's level of awareness, design tips for landing pages, and the importance of knowing your customer.

To connect with Joel or learn more about his work:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/joelklettke/
https://twitter.com/JoelKlettke
https://businesscasualcopywriting.com/
https://casestudybuddy.com/

To sign up for updates on future episodes and get exclusive content, visit:
https://www.activecampaign.com/events...

Connect with ActiveCampaign on social!

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/acti...
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/activecampaign
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/activecampaign/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/ActiveCampaign

Ernie is joined by Tabitha from the ActiveCampaign Education Team — as they seek to find answers to these questions.

In this episode we sit down with renowned sales coach and founder of Smart Gets Paid, Leah Neaderthal. Smart Gets Paid helps women learn to consistently and comfortably land new clients in their B2B consulting and coaching businesses. Through tools, programs, and coaching, women land the clients they want, get more yes’s, and get paid dramatically more for every client engagement.