Evergreen Marketing Principles
Discussing how adding value, asking questions, and listening to the customer can help grow a business, with John D Saunders (S3E5)
Listen to this episode on: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Overcast or any of your favorite podcasting players
Or watch it here:
John D Saunders, founder of 5four Digital is an experienced serial entrepreneur who excels at marketing. After selling several online stores, and a career as an advertising executive for the automotive industry, John decided to start his own marketing agency. The need to learn more and provide more value to others were the main principles behind his decision to take the entrepreneurial route.
In our conversation, we go through a variety of topics and John mentions a lot of resources which you can start using today in your own business. Some of the things we covered — working in a remote environment, constantly learning new things and sharing those with the world, building a business on core principles such as adding value, asking questions and listening to consumers. We also dived deep into strategies for social media marketing and growing e-commerce stores.
As usual, below you can find all the topics we touched on, as well as all the tools and resources mentioned in the episode.
Topics we cover in this episode:
01:35 — How John started his life in advertising
03:10 — Starting 5four
03:40 — Working with a remote team
04:13 — The transition from working on the side to full-time entrepreneurship
05:40 — Taking a leap of faith and having a contingency plan
06:30 — Finding 5four’s first clients and the importance of networking
07:30 — Educating yourself and sharing everything new you learn
08:22 — Add value, ask questions, listening to your consumer
09:08 — Getting used to being your own boss
09:53 — Being a facilitator rather than a boss
10:25 — The process of self-improvement and self-education
12:37 — Balancing learning with execution
14:34 — Project and task management tools
16:40 — Starting 5four solo — the good and the bad
17:24 — Standard operating procedures (SOPs) and collaborating with others when scaling your efforts
17:56 — Having the confidence to hire your first full-time employees
20:22 — The benefits and disadvantages of working with a remote team
22:56 — Balancing time for internal marketing and business development
24:46 — Moving into a marketing manager role and out of the project manager role
25:37 — Social media platforms and content strategies with the highest ROI
32:40 — Tools and apps to have when starting an ecommerce store
35:34 — Recommendations for building out the Product Description Page on your store
37:10 — Documenting your life online
39:28 — Plans for the near future
42:10 — Links and handles
Useful Resources and Links:
Say hi to John on twitter and instagram
JohnDSaunders.co — personal website
Digital Marketing Mastery Lounge Group — John’s private Facebook group
Check out 5four Digital
Ogilvy on advertising by David Ogilvy
Slack — team collaboration
Asana — project management
How to win friends and influence people by Dale Carnegie
digitalmarketer.com — a collection of online courses dedicated to digital marketing
Neil Patel — digital marketing expert
Webris.org — a digital marketing agency
John Lumer — advanced Facebook marketing advice
Blueprint by Facebook — free online training by Facebook
John’s resource list for digital marketers
DotCom Secrets by Russell Brunson
Basecamp — project management software
Trello — another project management tool
Google Drive — free document cloud storage and apps
Loom — video and screen sharing app
Automattic (remote company example)
InVision (remote company example)
Calendly — Planning software
Noah Kagan — growth and marketing advice
Sumo — tools for growing an online business
Shopify — ecommerce platform
RetargetApp — A Shopify app to launch retargeting ads
Facebook Pixel — tracking pixel from Facebook
Lucky Orange — analytics software
The Millionaire Real Estate Investor by Gary Keller
We are the proud makers of the effortlessly stylish, delightfully comfortable Performance Shirt. If you are looking for a boost in confidence and looks without the usual hassle, look no further. We’ve got you covered. Literally :)
