If you are working in the digital marketing industry you are familiar with Kissmetrics, Quicksprout, Crazy Egg or Hello Bar. More than that, you know who is Neil Patel and you don’t need a fancy introduction about him.
In the following interview you can read about Neil’s career, how banner ads work for his companies and what is the most common mistake when it come to display advertising.
Offical website: www.neilpatel.com
Twitter: @neilpatel
First of all, let’s start with the introduction. Who are you and why do you do what you do?
“My name is Neil Patel, I’m a serial entrepreneur and I just enjoy creating companies that help other people especially in marketing and business round.
I do everything because I just love it. So, I don’t just try to do a business just for the sake of doing business. If I’m not passionate about it, I’m not doing it. And with every business I do, I’m really passionate about the problem it solves and that it helps other people who have the same problem.”
You’ve reached a high point in your career. You’ve been featured in major business publications and you’re recognized as an authority in the industry. How do you keep growing once you’ve reached such a high level?
“I don’t think I’ve reached the high level as I keep going because I love what I do. Once you’re passionate and once you really enjoy it, when you love what you do – like helping others, helping other business grow or solving problems – you enjoy the product and you want to continually do more and more.
It’s kind like a drug – business is addictive.”
You’ve launched Kissmetrics, HelloBar, CrazyEgg. If you had to start all over again, what tactics would you change to make your startups better?
“From the beginning I would focus more on paid advertising
and here’s why I would do this: it grows fast, it has a huge impact on customer acquisition.
I would also start blogging earlier.
Content marketing is a huge,
I didn’t get it into it later until I started cranking away. It takes a while.”
Which project has given you the most satisfaction so far and why?
“They all have. I actually love all my projects. I don’t just create one, I do it because I really do love it. ”
You’ve worked with a lot of startups and companies. Can you tell us the 3 biggest digital marketing mistakes they make and the solutions you see for those?
“1. Companies really don’t try to market early enough.
2. Companies try to market too late – once you have a product/service they keep waiting and they didn’t get more and more into it. Just go out there and try to multiple marketing channels and focus.
3. Everyone is focused on traffic acquisition and they don’t focus on conversion – conversion optimization is very important too.”
What do you think of digital marketing today? Where will it be 5 years from now?
“I think that digital marketing will change drastically in 5 years. I also think you will definitely see more personalization in marketing campaigns, that’s something we don’t see a lot of today.”
If you were to build a digital marketing department for a brand— what would be the first 3 steps you would start with and why?
“There is really no regular recipe for success. And that depends on the industry, the marketing and also on the purpose of the brand. You just need to test tactics and strategies for every single business.”
Do you do display advertising with one of your companies? What do you think of it compared to content marketing?
“We do a lot of banner ads, they work very well.
Banner ad compared to content marketing is like they work both. You just need to figure out what’s the best for you and that can range a lot. You need to figure out what’s working and what’s not working. And if both work for you, why not do both of them?”
What is the most common or the biggest mistake when it comes to display advertising?
“They are not rotating banners enough.”
What are the biggest challenges for the digital marketers today?
“I don’t think there is just one big challenge, but I have a specific one in mind. That’s the cost of ads are going up, which already everybody knows about. Also, it is really hard to get conversions.
[Tweet “Most advertisers don’t know a lot about conversion optimization.”]That’s a huge challenge.”
Final question, could you recommend one or two resources for advertising professionals reading our blog?
“I would recommend MOZ, Hubspot and Search EngineLand.”
Thank you Neil.