Flip the Switch Episode 5: The Importance of a Brand

[00:00:06] SOPHIA: [Intro] This week on flip the switch. Google introduces some new advanced security features at your expense. Bitcoin continues to be unpredictable. Although we did predict it and everyone’s favorite streaming service Netflix is now under the watchful eye of Nielsen ratings. We also discussed some reading material that you may find useful. Our main topic revolves around the key components of being a marketable brand and hopefully shine some light on what it takes to succeed in the digital world. Let’s get into it.[00:01:03] AUSTIN: Welcome to flip the switch the podcast presented by Power Digital Marketing. We hope your week is going well. We’ve got some great topics to discuss today along the lines of marketing and branding and we’ll also be bringing some news and analysis on that.

[00:01:17] PAT: Oh yeah. Real excited to kind of go through some of this. I think what I’m most excited for is our Bitcoin segment though you’re kind of a little bit of a Tony Romo on this one. You predicted this a while ago. I’m excited to dive into it and show off your expertise.

[00:01:32] AUSTIN: Yeah we may have spoiled that a little bit. But yeah as you said we’re going to be talking Bitcoin per usual some more information coming out along that. Before we get to Bitcoin let’s get into our overall business news and trends starting with the world leader Google. So Google is rolling out a new advanced security feature where they are definitely making it a lot harder for hackers to get into your computer.

[00:01:53] PAT: Right. And from what we saw so this is an article that I’m kind of referencing off of quartz right now and what we’re seeing too is that this is actually going to be little bit harder for the consumer to get into their own Google accounts and stuff to what it’s called Advanced protection feature. And basically you can have a special USP stick that you can plug into your computer or a Bluetooth Bluetooth device excuse me purge your phone. They’re going to sell for about 20 bucks they’re used as security keys and you know I think that this is kind of in response to a lot of data breaches that we’ve seen. We covered the Equifax breach a few episodes ago but what’s most interesting to me about this is that this is one of the first updates Google has rolled out as a company or products that isn’t know supposed to put IIS in the consumer experience.

[00:02:35] AUSTIN: I know a lot of people have been getting the Two-Step Verification emails that have been coming through on our e-mail addresses from this previous year due to a lot of phishing that occurs where people steal your information. So Google is you know this almost seems like a you know a step backwards and a way of securing your digital assets by having it be you know a tangible aspect something bulbul that you keep in your pocket pocket. But that’s where we’re at where the sophistication of hacking is at a degree where the normal database user is vulnerable at all times.

[00:03:04] PAT: Yeah it’s matching the sophistication level of data encryption. You know hackers are moving at a speed right now where they can get into data that previously was unreachable. Again going back to the Equifax example they were able to get into personal consumer level data that was you know date of birth first and last name address credit card number social security number. I think that Google is kind of taking a measure right now in just knowing how much personal information they have about people. Think about those forms you fill out. You know when you register for a Google account you’re putting your date of birth in there might not be the right one but it’s probably kind of close just because that’s the way your brain is going to work when you you know fill something out like that you’re probably putting your real first and last name specially if it’s like a company e-mail that’s through e-mail. So there’s a lot of personal data at risk. I think this is a good move. I think that people you know Google people when people engage with the brand rather are a little bit spoiled in the sense they’re used to really fast internet look at Chrome really easy to access e-mail. Look at gmail and now this like kind of a two layer process that’s supposed to save their information a little bit. You know it might not go over very well with them I think they’re in for a bit of a rude awakening but I think it’s necessary.

[00:04:10] AUSTIN: I hope it can go on your key chain because this sounds like something that you could lose very quickly and what a hassle that would be if you lose that key because you won’t be able to access anything at all.

[00:04:20] JOE: Yeah exactly. Do you think we’re past the point of return in terms of how much of our personal information is out on the internet for all these years for us to even lose sleep over this or just kind of depend that companies like Google are going to be protecting all over information.

[00:04:35] AUSTIN: It seems more setting it straight for future generations. So hey you need to be secure because look at the massive amount of data that’s been hacked and you know in the last couple of years at this point I think our vulnerabilities are. You can’t recoup those losses to a degree but you can’t fix the way that people secure their data. And what happens in the future.

[00:04:54] PAT: I actually agree with Austin there. I think it’s more of a preventative measure moving forward. I don’t think this is supposed to keep your current you know user information safe. That being said I wouldn’t lose sleep over it. I think that Google still has an incredible level of you know security. But you know it’s it’s definitely not supposed to address people whose information is out there now it’s supposed to put you know for future generations at less risk.

[00:05:16] JOHN: Yeah and just for more preventative action for this is just advice for everyone out there if you use Chrome use the extension last pass and that basically generates the strongest passwords you could possibly have and saves all of them for you. It’s all encrypted. Nobody can access that stuff. I use it on a day to day basis because I was tired of using the same password for everything. Which is a total wrong move. So just some advice out there if you’re looking for something to manage that.

[00:05:42] PAT: It’s a very smart idea. Great advice from John as usual.

[00:05:45] AUSTIN: Well put your all of that last pass chrome link in the bio of this episode. Ooh. Yeah.

[00:05:51] PAT: Well share a little bit of the blog. We have dropped some knowledge out there. All right let’s get into my favorite topic. We’re getting into bitcoin. The many bubbles seem to collapse on the price skyrocketing as people start to take their profits due to the U.S. commodity futures trade commission saying that if cryptos fall into the derivative market they will be due for regulation in the U.S. government. So this is everyone’s biggest fear with cryptos is regulation of a centralized figure and the U.S. seems to finally be putting their stamp on that.

[00:06:24] AUSTIN: Yeah and you can see the reaction from the market almost immediately Bitcoin fell almost eight and a half percent which is its biggest loss in a month. Taking it all the way down to about fifty one hundred dollars. Again you take a look at Bitcoins value this time. You know even a month ago that’s still up by a certain degree. But taking a look you know last episode that we recorded it was up over fifty five hundred dollars approaching fifty six hundred. Because of the upcoming fork that was supposed to take place on Monday. Now we’re seeing the Bitcoin price fall by eight and a half percent. And this is actually something that you called on the last episode.

[00:06:55] PAT: Right. As we were talking about the emotional buys were continuing and the price was still spiking which is definitely a good time for people that were at the bottom of this spike to start cashing out. So you know when news like this one just a little bit of negative news comes out it’s definitely time for people to say all right that’s enough. I’m going to take these profits here and we’ll see what happens. Yeah exactly. And then this triggers the the opposite emotional if you will where people start to see the price drop. They don’t necessarily look into what’s causing it or why. Right and they start selling as well which triggers these massive cell walls which in turn causes the price to dip pretty rapidly devalues the currency if you will because there’s so much kind of speculation around it.

[00:07:35] AUSTIN: This is like a fear driven move by a lot of people because they see negative news like this coming out. I am interested to see how this goes though in the sense that this was intended to be a decentralized form of currency. And it looks like governments may be stepping in and having their hand in it to an extent. Is that right.

[00:07:50] PAT: Yes. So the only way that the U.S. government can really have a hand in this is if there is a type of let’s say electronic fund an ETF created around Bitcoin that can be traded and you know regulated by the FCC and then as they’re saying for future commodities so puts and calls. Anything like that that can be regulated by the FCC and the U.S. government. So outside of that if you’re trading you know X amount of bitcoin on a crypto currency exchange the U.S. government will never be able to regulate that. So you liquidate and turn into cash because it’s untaxable you know there’s no tax regulations around Bitcoin.

[00:08:26] AUSTIN: There is tax regulations around us dollars so right because it falls under FIAT right.

[00:08:30] PAT: Correct. Yes. So once you turn into Fiat’s that is when the tax regulation will occur and the U.S. government can put their stamp on your money.

[00:08:38] AUSTIN: OK. That does make some sense but nonetheless has been super interesting to see this. You know one other thing that I’m kind of reading this is a Bloomberg article that we’re referencing right now by the way this came out just a couple of days ago but it says that traders waiting for a pullback in bitcoins price to rebuild positions in the world’s largest crypto currency may have the U.S. commodity futures trading commission to thank for that. So again that goes back to what you were saying about the U.S. FTC stepping in and potentially having a hand in some of this previously untaxed money should it end up becoming an ETF or some kind of you know actual Fiat endorsed currency.

[00:09:11] PAT: It’s going to be a hard pressed time stopping this from becoming an ETF. I think that you know major traders and large banks are going to want to capitalize on that from their just day to day investor side of things. So you know they want the mainstream population to be investing in these because it’s hot. They know that capital will ensue because of this so.

[00:09:30] AUSTIN: Right. The same thing that happened during the dotcom boom.

[00:09:32] PAT: Right. Exactly so I’m sure that there’s a lot of funds that occurred there and there and so we see volatility in each side of this. You know and now entering into the regulation of the United States we’ll keep a close eye on this and keep everyone updated on what’s coming next. All right hopping into Netflix we’ve got some very interesting news coming from you know the audience era of this deal since which is a very large company is going to start tracking audiences for Netflix shows.

[00:10:03] AUSTIN: Yeah that’s exactly right. So pretty much what Nielsen is giving doing is measuring viewership numbers for Netflix programs starting very very soon. It’s not going to just track the number of people that are streaming a show but it’s going to attract the audience make. Now this is the crucial part because it’s going to show viewers ages for example and other demographic data. It’s also going to help some of the content producers track their shows full lifecycle from airing on TV to being shifted to kind of on demand within Netflix. I think this is an unprecedented thing and it just adds some more validity to Netflix not just as a platform but as a viable source of demographic data. And in this day and age what this tells me is that you know people see this. See Netflix as a just as much of an index as TV once was today as TV was you know back in the 80s 90s and early 2000s. I think that this is just the beginning. From a tech crunch article that came out today we’re seeing that Nielsen could expand this type of measurement to Hulu Plus Amazon Prime and other platforms. Very very shortly here so I think the question for me that I want to raise to you guys around this is you know is this the end of TV. Does this kind of officially trademark the end of conventional TV where even a conventional measurement system is stepping in and almost solidifying it.

[00:11:18] JOHN: I think it’s not going to be the end of conventional TV but I think this is them trying to take a step towards that not happening if that makes sense. I mean they’re trying to step in on what Netflix is doing. And the whole Nielsen thing is propping up certain TV shows and that’s what Netflix has been trying to stay away from. So I feel like this is something that Netflix doesn’t want to accept because then they’re just going into the norm of everybody else. And then there are TV shows become a part of everybody else’s ratings which then you know in turn turns you know those ratings into propping up certain shows monetizing the streaming services.

[00:11:52] AUSTIN: It definitely creates competition. So you know we know Disney’s rolling out a streaming service pretty soon. They’re stripping all their shows from Netflix. So once this is monetized and they have a number on how much revenue is being generated on this audience this is going to invite a lot of competition from I’m sure you know Comcast Time Warner the big ones the box the big TV spots right in which you want will ensure also that ad dollars go that general direction. So I definitely understand from Netflix’s side of this they did have such a stranglehold on this market for so long. Hulu has some but you know Netflix Netflix has shows you know it’s a verb in the United States. You know we’re going to Netflix and chill. So. So that side of it is of course they don’t want to release their numbers. It’s not because they are hiding you know the fact that they’re doing so well their attitude is what they’re hiding they’re hiding the fact that they’re doing so well why wouldn’t they.

[00:12:38] PAT: Right and I think a part of it too is they don’t want anyone to know that one of the shows that they produced is better doing better than any of the other shows that they produced. I’d venture to say they probably don’t have too much of a problem saying that yeah the office is getting more streams or the U.S. version of The Office is getting more streams than the UK version of The Office you know. Right. It’s not really something that’s going to be an issue. The issue is going to become the House of Cards is getting five times as many streams on a monthly basis as you know Ozarks or something like that right. That’s true. Yeah and because that hurts them. Part of the detriment of them kind of embarking and doing their own studio production for these shows is that if they can be measured and people know that one shows better than the other it’s not as you know cost effective for them to embark on those ventures across the board as it has been because right now everyone just you know just like you and I probably think Netflix shows are good. We know that they’re good. And if a Netflix show comes out we know that it’s good we’re going to watch it. But if Netflix show comes out we see some initial you know data around who’s watching it the most. How many people will have a better scope of whether or not we’re probably going to want to watch it too.

[00:13:37] JOHN: Yeah I feel like they just want to stay away from this and in all forms I mean they want to stay away from being anything similar to you know cable television. So going into that rating system doesn’t make any sense for them because why would they do that. That just makes them a part of the same rating system as every other TV show and Netflix has never been just any other TV show or any other platform to watch TV on.

[00:14:01] PAT: You know what. Sorry to cut you off real quick. I was thinking of something very interesting and if you know they can put a market cap on this on the total amount of viewers that what they pay per month and then get that that entire market cap and maybe a company like Amazon they can say well they’re charging 10 $10 a month for X amount of clients. Well we can charge less and get that many viewers as well and just undercut the margin they’re creating which would in turn take a lot of market share from half of them. So right now other companies don’t know what the market cap is because they can’t keep aware of how many viewers are getting what that number comes out someone like Amazon says well you know let’s cut into that. Let’s get to that many users by just charging less per month.

[00:14:37] AUSTIN: My thing too about this you know kind of shifting gears. I agree with you on that but I think the biggest thing is that from Nielsen’s perspective this is a goldmine. Netflix is almost you can treat it just kind of like how we talked about how Amazon is an index for e-commerce and the e-commerce world in general consumer behavior trends as a whole. Netflix is a basic index for TV watchers as a whole. There’s hardly any households in the United States that don’t have at least one Netflix membership right. I’m actually reading right now the company just surpassed its own expectations it added 5.3 million new subscribers over the course of the last year 850000 those are from the U.S. but 4.4 five million of those subscribers are from international markets. People from other countries. So now from Nielsen’s perspective they’re getting data rich in the sense that they don’t have just U.S. data to go off of anymore to base their viewership numbers on. They have no viewership numbers from all over the world and it’s all comprised in the Netflix index is what I would call it.

[00:15:34] PAT: It’ll be interesting to see a competitor Weiss who’s going after Nielsens because right now that they are the only ones in this market since they figured out how to monetize viewership. But you can bet there’ll be some changes coming down the line there. Exactly.

[00:15:48] AUSTIN: The main conversation for today is we’re going to be talking about what makes a brand so marketable we want to talk about the key components of the different channels that we represent here in this room. And you know what successes have we seen from various brands.

[00:16:05] PAT: Yeah I think that this is a conversation long overdue. You know really I think a common misconception with digital marketing is that people think that if you can figure out how to get a website made create an online store and get some ad dollars behind you know either Google Facebook ads. Your brand is going to do well no matter what their objective is. And you know in our experience frankly that isn’t the case. There’s a few pieces that really kind of go into making a brand super marketable. Now that’s not to say you know disclaimer here is not to say by any means that there isn’t a niche for you online but it just might not be as fruitful for you as you think you know. And so I think opening up this discussion like traits of a marketable brand. The first thing you know a saw is there’s there’s a bunch that are going to go through here. I think the first thing is just having a strong brand identity. I think that you can’t be trying to simultaneously brand a company while trying to actually you know achieve marketing objectives for it simultaneously. That’s a very very hard thing to do and that translates from the individuals that you work with and what your company to be. That translates into the digital environment correct.

[00:17:14] AUSTIN: Correct. Yes so think about it in a traditional sense you wouldn’t be trying to figure out what your color scheme is what kind of you know how you want to be portrayed what you know kind of the full identity of your company while also pushing out messages about what your company is. It just doesn’t really make logical sense. There’s a sequential order that these things in my opinion kind of need to go in. I think there’s instances where it can go a little bit more hand-in-hand a little bit more conjunction if you will but really you shouldn’t be doing both of those at the same time.

[00:17:43] JOHN: Yeah I think it goes further than just the design aspect when you’re talking about color schemes and stuff like that. That’s even after the first step which should be what are people going to think about when they hear my brand name or they see my brand. A lot of people think like and you hear this all the time but a lot of people think that your logo is your brand and that’s it. You know and you have to put together more than just the ask that appeal of the brand you had to put together what people should actually be feeling when they’re interacting with your brand.

[00:18:16] PAT: Right. The sentiment that you want the brand to evoke within people and that’s that comes down to just pure bred just branding. That’s something that you need to figure out right away.

[00:18:26] AUSTIN: Yeah. That can be translated to who you are as a person and what your vision was for the company. Branding can be the way someone feels when they type in your name of the company into Google. Branding can be the way that someone feels when they have a conversation about your company and they’re going to get that feeling from you so you have to provide a clear set of guidelines on what that feeling is and what that feeling represents.

[00:18:48] PAT: Take a look as a case example for some really established brands in this space. If I type in Oakley’s brand name Google I’m getting a sense of sportiness sleekness a little bit of a futuristic style. You know you take a look at some of those Oakley sunglasses and it fits. It fits that feeling. They make you look a little bit like a cyborg or something like that but that’s exactly what good branding is Nike think of traditionally and now they’re getting into other avenues. But you think of sports where you think of runners you know big time athletes LeBron James stuff like that. And that’s kind of what the brand is supposed to be. So you need to have that piece done first because you know a lot of the stuff that we do on our side especially as CEO search related stuff advertising it’s just reinforcing that notion that people are already supposed to have about your brand is to the right audience. You know you’re supposed to be pushing out the right messaging using the right guidelines the right kinds of words and the right portrayal of the company to the right people because that’s what achieves your marketing objectives.

[00:19:51] AUSTIN: Looking at Nike’s title tag for their home page inspiration and innovation for every athlete in the world love it. They want the person who typed in Nike to get a sort of feeling from these words that they’re reading. So they totally did something that was pretty it’s pretty incredible in this day and age. They took a feeling they package it up and they presented it to a user through the Internet through Google search in like five words and like five words right. And so you know they they’ve attracted their user through these set of feelings and then now here they are presented in tangible words directly in front of them. This is what Nike represents.

[00:20:25] PAT: This is what I feel when I go to Nike and I just received this message through the Internet and here’s the next part you look just below that there are the products that evoke the same exact feeling. So that’s why branding has to come first. Marketing has to come second. It’s not just a sequential order in terms of your campaigns. It’s also sequential in the sense that that’s how the user decides what they’re going to buy. In my opinion I think people do look solution based. You know we see it a lot with search non-branded search queries all the time. People are looking for like oh I need a face mask. Not like I need this specific model of facemasks made by this company. But then when the search has come up you get a feeling when you see one of the brands relative to another one and it’s hard to kind of explain why that is. But then you’re you feel yourself kind of innately more likely to engage with that brand and then purchase from it. And it’s because the products are reflective of the feeling that you got when you saw it in the first place. So in my opinion that’s why that kind of needs. It needs to go in that order not just because that it makes sense from a logistical standpoint a strategic standpoint but because that mimics the kind of user journey that’s going to occur when they get to that purchase point as well. I don’t know what are your thoughts on that.

[00:21:31] AUSTIN: Yeah. You know I keep thinking about the purchase point right. And then that goes back to the product. And then you know what that product invokes tying in with the brand. So once you’ve come up with that overall feeling that drove you to create this business and then you need to decide what what your product represents. You know inside that brand and then what you know what will that fulfill what need will that fulfill for that user that gets this feeling from your brand and that will also tie into the way that you present yourself digitally.

[00:21:59] JOHN: Yeah I think you guys are talking about products a lot too and you know products are obviously a huge part of somebody’s brand but even services in things like that. I mean you can use color you can use you know the words within your brand to invoke the quality of a service you know what I mean. So there’s a lot that goes into that and a lot of people try to set up their brands or their companies before really thinking about what they’re offering people or what they can bring to the table. And that’s what makes up the brand. So I think that’s a big mistake that people make is they try too hard to get things going too fast and then they end up stumbling into this disorganization of not really knowing who they are.

[00:22:37] PAT: Yeah I do. That does make some sense because from an advertisers perspective you know talking about my niche specifically the brand is all great. It’s obviously like I said super important at the end of the day it comes down to the product or service you know the best branding in the world the best consumer experience. But still if people don’t like what you’re putting in front of them they don’t like what’s on the table they’re going to reject it. They’re not going to like it. So it has to mimic that feeling that they had when they see the brand and they engage with it for the first time I feel like or else you know there’s that disconnect. It kind of brings into question the whole stick like strategy around the consumer experience the consumer journey in the first place. For Nike for instance taking that example you think of like sleek innovative sporty and you know wide reaching sports apparel and athletic apparel. And then if you got to the web and you saw like legates sells like toolboxes and wrenches and stuff you wouldn’t just be oh that’s kind of weird you’d be like what is this. This makes absolutely no sense.

[00:23:36] JOHN: If it was bright colors directly in your face and there is no former function the way you click around the way that you scan their Web site for products.

[00:23:43] PAT: And I think that that’s part of human human nature of human processes in general the way human psychology works. We’re looking for patterns we’re looking for sequence we’re looking for a little bit of predictability. Right. That’s why you know especially you see people who are like Type A They’re planners they need to make to do lists. Even people who are a type B needs some kind of pattern or sequence because that’s just the way the human brain works. I actually read something very short sidebar that’s really interesting. You know how you ever find yourself looking at a fire and you kind of are mesmerized by it because your brain subconsciously is trying to find patterns within the flames that aren’t there. And so if you’re not trying to help get that connection between a brand and a product there’s actually a disconnect within the human psyche that is going to reject them from being likely to actually engage with the brand or service you’re advocating for.

[00:24:30] JOHN: Yeah and I think with design I mean Joe can speak to it too but when you’re thinking about your brand and the clients we work on one of the biggest words that comes up and making sure we’re doing is consistency because the first thing that turns off a user or somebody that’s coming to the Web site or a customer or even even you know a past customer is somebody who’s been there multiple times. If it’s inconsistent they’re automatically turned away. The brand has to be on point every single time. So what you’re saying you know looking for patterns. People are looking for those patterns in your brain.

[00:25:01] AUSTIN: Yeah absolutely. I think it’s interesting too that different colors and I know that you guys see this. John John from the creative side a lot different colors evoke different sentiments within people. I learned about that when I was back in college. I didn’t really put a lot of thought into it but now we run S.R.O tests AB test where we’re testing button colors between red and green. We’re testing buttons that are different like banners that are different designs that include different color schemes. Is that because of you know they can evoke that you know different sentiment within the user or is it just strictly an aesthetic thing that makes the website look better. Do you think there’s some psychology to it.

[00:25:38] JOHN: Definitely what I’m doing with like C.R.O. So I mean blue has always been a comforting type of color or it’s the most universal color so you can use it for the most any type of audience basically right for the longest time red was something that you didn’t want to use on like a button. Right now it feels right. You know what I mean. So it’s interesting. Yeah it’s interesting that stuff can change up all the time. I always thought red wasn’t the one to use but now it is. I don’t know. It’s different but when you’re working with brands you know and working on their colors you have to very carefully tweak that stuff because to me that psychology is worth less than the psychology of somebody brand. That makes sense.

[00:26:19] PAT: Yeah you don’t want to sacrifice potentially evoking one. You don’t want to sacrifice brand equity and brand consistency for the sake of some it’s just a color test ride so it probably needs still to be within the same color scheme that they use brand wide.

[00:26:35] JOHN: Right. Yeah. And we always trickle that stuff out if we’re going to test something like if my client’s colors are all green and I bring to the table a test where it’s like let’s change this to orange. That’s that’s something that’s got to be gradually rolled out. You know and that’s that goes back to the brand. Making sure the brand still stays intact.

[00:26:52] PAT: Yeah that’s super interesting really on the advertising side too it has to be super consistent. You don’t want to disrupt too much. I think that advertising already has enough of a stigma around it especially in the online space. You think immediately spammy and like you know that’s just kind of the concept that people have about it. And I think that it’s off base because oftentimes advertising is going to take you directly where you would have wanted to go. We just happened to pay for the right to do that right. That’s kind of what I think of it as it’s a vehicle to get you to the most relevant part of the site based on you as a person. But you know if it’s if you’re inconsistent with your messaging across two different ads that a user sees or even if you see you know a messaging type of messaging within an ad that differs from the messaging that’s on the Web site there’s a huge disconnect there and the users are less likely to engage with you.

[00:27:42] AUSTIN: A word I think about when you say consistency is comfortable. So you know the idea that a great brand or great Web site will drive into their consumer and and you know that continuing consumerism over a long period of time is making them comfortable coming back to the Web site so they consistently know where to find their product in this place. They don’t have to think about it they’re comfortable visiting it they’re comfortable clicking where they need to click to receive what they want. And you know I think that this is almost a form of minimalism in a way that we’ve seen a lot of companies take to the Internet now is the amount of chaos that we have in 21st century with constant devices the world coming closer you know closer if we will if they’re interconnected. Technology is Web sites are slimming down the amount of stuff on the Web sites and making it very easy for you to receive what you need.

[00:28:29] PAT: Yeah exactly. They’re trying to minimize the path for you to achieve your end goal. That’s that’s the whole best practice behind C.R.O what John does is find the most efficient path to get these users where they probably wanted to go anyway you know a lot of people I think associated almost with like pushing somebody to a lead form decision or e-commerce purchase depending on if you’re Legion or you know e-commerce client and this can be be the BBC as well. People kind of associated with that. That’s definitely not true. It’s more just like trying to take out unnecessary steps that are disrupting the user flow. Not because we’re trying to get that end objective but because we’re trying to make sure the user has the experience that they signed on for going really quickly back to that that consistency thing that we talked about that comfortability is actually a measurement for that within AD words.

[00:29:14] AUSTIN: Now its quality score basically what a quality score does will take the relevancy of this search of the user’s search like their keyword paired with how relevant the ad experience is with that keyword and then they also layer on how good the landing page experience is with the Ad.

[00:29:29] PAT: So they want to make sure that there is a consistency between those three things. Right. And now thats not to say that you cant bid on competitor terms and do some more competitive advertising that way because if youre looking for a competitor’s brand name you’re probably still eligible to be comfortable when you get to a website that offers the same thing and thinking on the flip side with Google of the flip side of advertising is organic search and Google X to give you give your brand another element to as well.

[00:29:55] AUSTIN: When you rank well and that’s authority right you’re seen as the top if someone were to type in for non-branded search. Let’s say you know books on business and your book comes up first. Google has just made you the authoritative figure your brand the authoritative figure for books on business. You know your online marketing strategy is a part of your brand and being consistent across all levels. Being you know having quality across you know your paid ads and your organic search will allow your brand to have that authority authoritative aspect to it.

[00:30:25] PAT: Right. And so I think the big takeaways here just a few of the key components that we talked about today being a marketable brand you need to have an established identity need to have a set consistent manner with which you deliver your message and your mission to people and you need to make sure that the user experience whether you use an agency to do this whether you do this in-house is in line with what the users signed up for because if it isn’t you’re going to get some disruption you’re not going to get people signing up or or purchasing from you which is not going to happen.

[00:30:54] JOHN: So make sure you have those things in tact.

[00:31:00] PAT: All right guys jumping into our next segment here. We decided to do a countdown this week of everyone’s favorite business books. You know just in terms of the response that we’ve gotten from our listeners people that were colleagues with we know that people are big readers a lot of people who are podcast subscribers also read a lot of books self-development books and business books in particular. So we thought this be especially pertinent for you and you know might even might even spark a little bit of an interest in a book that you might want to read down the line. So we’re going to go around the table. No one knows what anybody else has picked. We don’t really know what anyone’s book is about. Probably this will be a good discussion. I’m going to get it started with Joe holler up. What did you pick.

[00:31:39] JOE: My book is steal like an artist by Austin Cleavon. And essentially it was a book that spurred from a speech he did at a college when someone asked him about 10 things he wished someone had told him when he was starting out as a designer as a creative etc.. This was suggested to me by a friend and I sat down and it’s something you could read in one sitting essentially it’s not a long book but it makes a lot of good points about how there is no such thing as originality. Everybody pulls inspiration from everyone else. There’s a lack of original ideas in a way and people will be hindered from doing things because they’re scared that it isn’t original and it’s just a matter of kind of finding your own path pulling inspiration from other things that other people are doing and kind of developing your own style based off of your influences and hopefully kind of knocks down those roadblocks. And you know starts opening up that path to you to start doing what you want to do and how you want to do it and developing your own style. And I was a little skeptical going into this when I first found out about it.

[00:32:47] PAT: Sure but it was a quick probably to three hour read.

[00:32:51] JOE: It was really really useful kind of changes your mindset in the way you approach a project or something you’re doing or taking a look at what you’re currently doing in your life and give you some ideas on how to look at things in a new light and approach some of the work you’re doing or kind of goals you have in a way that you normally wouldn’t. And you know stop hindering yourself from doing what you want to do.

[00:33:16] PAT: That’s a really good that might be one of the best Synopsys of a book I’ve ever heard in my life. That sounded like you you know pulled up some spark notes or something for that. I think that’s a really interesting train of thought I’d be interested to read that book just because it kind of talks about how you know kind of there’s a workaround for creative block. Right. There’s a way to pull inspiration in a way that is still king. You know it’s it’s original but at the same time it is and I think that’s super valuable it’s a good lesson for anybody that’s trying to aspire to. You don’t have any kind of success that any one of that they’ve seen you know has had or the next person we’re going to go to here. John Saunders. Johnny what did you pick.

[00:33:52] JOHN: All right. I got one. You know I’m probably a lot of people when asked what their favorite business book is. I’d probably say this but mine is the lean startup by Eric Rees or rise and however you say his last name. I like this book because well let me first explain what it’s about the the lean startup is basically explaining that when you start a business or you have a product you don’t need to hit a home run right off the bat. You don’t need to start with a Ferrari you can start with a bicycle basically saying you know start with the least amount possible or what they call an MVP. And you know run with that. And that starting something is starting a business whatever it is is learned. It’s not something that you know it just happens right away. You learn from the failure you learn from you know different feedback whatever you’re getting and you kind of run with it as you’re moving along.

[00:34:48] PAT: And in that scenario MVP stands for minimally viable product. Is that right.

[00:34:52] JOHN: Yes.

[00:34:52] PAT: OK what does that mean for listeners that might not know.

[00:34:55] JOHN: So that means you know get something that works get something that you know is the epitome of of what you’re trying to do but don’t try to overdo it. Yes. Like a real life example for me is you know developing something. Don’t try to put all the bells and whistles on it right at the start. You know add to it as you move along but put out what you know is a viable product first and see if it works. And if it doesn’t work pivot it. You’ve got to pivot right you’re going to have to pivot. Right. Exactly so that’s that’s kind of where this methodology come from. The book has a lot of other really good tactics for starting a business and it dives into it but that’s kind of the main key takeaway that I have from it.

[00:35:37] PAT: Super interesting yeah. That’s that’s a book that I’ve read too. I know it’s super good and you see a lot more in you know modern day management styles too is definitely being employed. So super tactical super useful. All right Austin what do you got for us.

[00:35:50] AUSTIN: All right. I’ve got the compound effect by Darren Hardy the front of it says jumpstart your income your life your success. So those words right there really drew me in because I’d like to have success and all those things. But you know what really is great about the compound effect is that you have to take it you have to understand the little things in your life that add up to to be the bigger picture. So it kind of reminds you of the 10000 hour rule where consistency is going to create success but this dies a little bit deeper into every single little decisions that you make throughout the day. So being aware of the good and the bad. And you know what trends do you see in that and every little micro moment it’s going to add up to the bigger picture. So it’s always great to have a massive goal that you want to reach you know something that is going to really propel your life and be fulfilled. But the steps to get there you know are are very small right. You don’t need to take a big leap today you can take a couple of steps and as long as it’s in the right direction you know you’re good. You’ll get there eventually right.

[00:36:52] PAT: Right. I think consistency is the word that I would take away from the compound effect so you can get on a roll. So when you’re consistent you fall into that groove. You know one the positive aspects or the continuous learning aspect of it it will allow you to you know really gain that momentum.

[00:37:10] JOE: I think that would be a good book to read especially nowadays with the instant gratification kind of lifestyle that a lot of people are living. People want to get out of college and so they start making a hundred K a year and you just kind of got to realize that there is going to be a lot of hard work into anything that you want. I feel like that book kind of would outline that perfectly or give you a perspective of exactly what needs to go into you know success.

[00:37:34] AUSTIN: And you know he makes a good point about gratitude in the book says that acknowledging there are people in your life who have done things for you that you couldn’t do yourself is what gratitude it is so it’s not you know that feeling you get right away from looking at your phone or those little micro moments if maybe you know watching netflix. We talked about it. It’s realizing that there the people that surround you are helping you build that better life. And they also affect the little decisions you make throughout the day.

[00:38:01] PAT: That’s super interesting and I think that’s something that gets employed a lot. You see some of the most successful people in the history of the world Steve Jobs Mark Zuckerberg to people that you know really stick out to me. Super consistent guys to the point where they even wear the same outfit to work every single day. You know they’re trying to eliminate as many monotonous decisions from their day as they can by being consistent in things that they don’t need to critically think about and then they’re also consistently trying to innovate and move forward. Super interesting book I’ve read that one too. You know definitely highly recommended. My book is actually it’s kind of like a compilation of a ton of different little stories in the sense that it’s it’s Tim Ferriss is tools of titans. If you guys ever heard of that one pretty much what it is is it’s like every single interview he’s ever had from his podcast or his favorite interviews top 200 favorite interviews and going along that same vein as consistency. He asks all of his interviewees essentially the same stuff. It’s a really good book. It’s like 600 pages long though it has so much information and I think even longer than that. But you get you know you learn about these successful people’s daily routines a little bit about their background what drives them habits that they form or they think that or are you know a component of their success if you will. There’s some people in here that really stick out. I mean he’s interviewed you know Arnold Schwarzenegger Tony Robbins Jamie Foxx. Jamie Foxx ended up being one of my favorite interviews in the entire book.

[00:39:25] AUSTIN: By the way I think that this is a really useful book for anybody who’s not just an aspiring you know entrepreneur or or business person but anybody that cares about self-development.

[00:39:37] PAT: This is a book that’s really for you. You know it talks about how the commonalities that you see among all of the most successful people that he interviews you know they super consistent with what they do. They have a end goal that they set for themselves. A lot of them do positive affirmations you know letting themselves know that they’re going to get this gold done no matter what it takes. It’s a really inspirational book. You know Tim Ferriss is totally that guy too. He loves that kind of stuff. Right. You know he’s create his whole identity around optimizing his life by experimenting with a bunch of different stuff. You know he’s like a human guinea pig. He experience different lifestyles and different habits and things like that to see what’s going to be the most fruitful for his success. And just getting to read this was a really enriching experience for me. I actually the way you’re supposed to read it. He cluster’s related people together. It’s not alphabetically. It will be like all the business people are kind of in one section or all the like inventors or engineers or innovators or in another one. So you can just flip around and see which ones that you like. I legitimately ended up reading this almost front to back and it was super interesting book. Definitely one that I would highly recommend to anybody who is hellbent on business success entrepreneurship or just self development as a whole.

[00:40:49] AUSTIN: I think a cool thing that we realize after picking four books is there is no perfect way to success so these four books outlined different ways and different people you know and what they did to become successful. So definitely grab what you can learn from others because that will affect the decisions you make and then you know helping you grow to be a stronger better businessman or businesswoman.

[00:41:16] PAT: All right you guys that just about wraps up everything from Episode 5 of flip the switch presented by power digital. Again if you ever have questions for us any feedback anything that you think we can be doing better. Hit us up on our social media. We have clips which cast on both Twitter and Instagram at clips which cast this has been packed Kreidler Mahaffey John Saunders And Joe Hollerup signing off. [End]