Neil Patel Reviews 3 Hacks That Will Grow Your Business
By: Vikas Agrawal
Maybe you’ve used his keyword research tools, read his blog, watched his videos, or listened to his podcasts. You’ve likely heard that name Neil Patel somewhere, somehow.
With over 18 years of experience at the forefront of internet marketing, Neil has earned his expert status and trusted reputation. It also helps that he makes sure to stay on top of the latest trends in SEO, social media, advertising and content marketing, sharing his take on things as they develop.
Here are three of his best hacks for growing your business online.
Give away your best for free
Neil Patel differentiates himself from other marketing thought leaders by publishing much of his best content, tools and resources without any lead capture gates or access fees.
If you’ve been in the internet marketing world for a while, you’ve likely read, seen, or used Neil Patel’s content. This is even more remarkable when you consider how many internet marketers with far smaller followings have seriously monetized their blogs and content either through selling courses or affiliate marketing.
Here’s a prime example of Neil’s free-access projects, an SEO tool called Ubersuggest.
Neil acquired this tool and made it completely free for users. What’s more, he says he’s spending a premium—hundreds of thousands of dollars—monthly to host and maintain it without charging a dime for it.
He’s also written thousands of articles all over the web not just on his site.
I’m sure you’re wondering, what’s he getting from spending so much time and other resources on free content? A lot. The benefits include but are not limited to:
- The publicity that has lead to consulting gigs, speaking gigs, connections, and well, articles about his techniques like the one you’re reading right now
- Credibility, which has lead to his undeniable expert status
- Money, which is a by-product of the first two benefits
- Career growth, where content has helped him build a career as an entrepreneur, digital marketer and, since 2017, the figurehead of the agency that bears his name, Neil Patel Digital
Neil himself has this to say about giving his best content away for free:
Instead of forcing someone to give me their information up front and likely driving them away, I hook them in with incredibly valuable, free content.
Then I ask them to convert only when they’re ready.
Instead of saving your best content for a minority of leads, expose it for free to any visitor and watch as your credibility skyrockets.
And these are just some benefits. Sure, it took years before he got to this point. But if you can put in the time and work needed to create and give away excellent content for free, you’ll build a credible brand, and as a bonus, even make money too.
Use quizzes and polls to spark engagement
Neil Patel has probably tried almost all major types of marketing content. If you’ve read posts written by him on his blog, you’ve noticed that he often asks users what they think about the concept his post discussed.
This shows he cares about engaging with his audience. And he often tries his best to reply to comments on his posts where possible.
Neil has also long used quizzes to boost conversion rates on his sites. On his current site, he has a dedicated quiz page. Here’s what it looks like.
When you complete the quiz, you’re prompted to input your name and the email address where you want the results sent to.
Notice this isn’t just a personality quiz, which isn’t bad in itself. But it’s a quiz where a business owner gives facts about their business and gets tips on how to improve their business in the quiz results. I don’t have access to his performance numbers, but I’m pretty confident Neil Patel has extensively built his email list and generated leads for his agency with this quiz.
Why such confidence? A quiz can get as high as a 64 percent conversion rate. And quizzes generally have an 81 completion rate. Neil himself says:
Whenever I create a quiz on my website, I find that 60% of people click through to the end and fill out their email addresses.
It’s one of the most effective lead-generation tools I use.
Again, creating an interactive quiz will be expensive. But if you can spend the money upfront, you’ll see excellent long-term results for your business.
Host regular webinars
Webinars are a “winning” marketing tactic. And there’s data to back this up. A study from Inside Sales found that 73 percent of marketing and sales leaders see webinars a top way to generate quality leads.
Neil Patel has used webinars in the past to build his email lists and get new consulting leads, and currently, leads for his agency. Here’s an example of a webinar promo he ran on Facebook that featured advanced customer acquisition tips:
In Neil’s words:
I host webinars all the time on my own site because they work. I wouldn’t be doing them if they didn’t.
As a general rule of thumb, if you have done something and achieved great results while at it, webinars are a great way to show off your expertise and subsequently pitch your product or service.
Interestingly, when he wrote this piece two years ago, Neil said he’s had “74,381 attendees in 77 webinars and converted 16,394 of them.” That’s a 22 percent conversion rate! To put this in perspective, ConvertKit has revealed that conversion rates in webinars are about 15 percent, and an older Adobe study in 2014 pegged it at 19 percent.
Neil Patel’s webinars have consistently achieved above-average conversion rates. This means he’s been offering loads of value to his webinar attendees.
Reviewing the key principles
In all three of the above hacks, one thing stands out: Give and people will give to you.
It’s that simple, and it’s that difficult. Simple because it’s straightforward advice. Difficult because it takes discipline, patience, and self-sacrifice to truly give of your time and financial resources to help people genuinely even without expecting returns for the most part.
But what’s counterintuitive is that returns will come, just like it has for Neil Patel, and sometimes it will be overwhelming. And you know the best part? You’ll be in a position to give even more than when you started out to your audience. Why not start today?
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