There’s no business without sales, so it’s no wonder that selling is of continuous interest to agencies and consultancies. It’s hard work, and as much as you learn, there’s always another layer of subtlety and expertise you can develop. The Google Partners Podcast now kicks off a mini-series of episodes that dive into different aspects of sales. You’ll hear ideas, insights and resources you can use to get better at pursuing the kinds of clients and contracts you want. We start by looking...

Recent episodes of our podcast have talked about positioning, seasonality, landing pages, and digital assistants. With the complexity and fast-paced evolution of many topics in marketing, it’s easy to forget that so much of what we do all comes down to words. There’s a lot riding on our ability to find the right message at the right time for any audience we’re reaching. If we’re going to succeed, we need to create or curate copy that sparkles, engages, convinces—and converts. The good news...

Twenty-five years ago, it was websites. Twelve years ago, it was mobile. Today, it’s voice assistance. By 2022, voice commerce sales are expected to top $45B in the US and UK, and even today 72% of people with voice-activated speakers use them as part of their daily routine. Clearly, if you’re in the digital agency space, you need to understand voice user interfaces (VUIs) and get yourself in front of the trend. Wally Brill, Head of Conversation Design Advocacy & Education for the...

Since we’re nearing the holiday season and the annual retail apex of Black Friday/Cyber Monday, the Google Partners Podcast brings you an early holiday treat. Hana Abaza, Head of Marketing at Shopify Plus, shares insights about seasonal campaigns and campaign strategies as well as year-round wisdom for effective positioning whether you’re a digital agency or a marketer in the B2B or B2C space. A featured speaker at conferences about tech, startups and marketing, Hana is passionate about...

The conversation about pricing can be a dicey one. Not only because what businesses charge is proprietary, but also because methods of pricing can vary quite a bit. Some have buttoned down processes that track expenses, calculate hourly rates, and arrive at a margin. Others go mainly on instinct or observations of what other companies are doing. But if marketers avoid looking closely at their pricing, do they run the risk of losing money? What are the gains of pricing more...

Whether we sell services, products or ideas, the first thing we need to do is find and understand our audience. Because no matter how effective we may be at communicating our value proposition and connecting to a need, we’re not going to see the results we want if we’re talking to the wrong people—or talking about our offering in the wrong way. Positioning is about defining your market and your relationship to it. So you can see why it’s a necessary process before effective marketing can...

Entrepreneurs today can get a lot of inspiration from reading books by people like Dale Carnegie, Barbara Corcoran, Guy Kawasaki, Richard Branson—people who achieved exceptional things over the course of their lives. But for the generation now at the start of their careers, few figures could be as interesting as Brian Wong. At 27, has has already pioneered a category-defining rewards network that’s redefining mobile advertising. And he has amassed a level of savvy far beyond his years. In...

For anyone even thinking about building and testing landing pages, Unbounce is an essential tool and the platform that almost single-handedly created the field. Oli Gardner, the company’s co-founder, travels the world speaking and evangelizing about the importance of the landing page experience in marketing. He’s taken a hard look at more landing pages than anyone on the planet, and he’s obsessed with identifying and reversing bad practices. His rants against marketers who send...

Building a business is hard, particularly when growing revenue depends on the staff needed to recognize that revenue. When growth is fundamentally tied to scale—as it is in service-based businesses—market cycles and other factors can create serious challenges. For instance, what happens when your enterprise becomes the hot commodity? How do you manage through meteoric growth without compromising quality? And when revenue drops, how do you protect morale and preserve the company’s culture...

Big or small, regardless of industry or sector, most if not all organizations would say that they’re interested in innovation. But what does that actually mean, and how can individuals and companies innovate in ways that create value? Can we take a vague, overworked buzzword like innovation and make it practical? Enter Michelle Greenwald, CEO of Inventours. She has transformed herself and her career by making innovation more than just something to talk about. Now she shares strategically...

Google’s marketing machine is truly massive, operating across a huge range of fronts at an incredible scale. They not only use but also pioneer analytical tools that enable them to work in groundbreaking ways to reach audiences in the “moments that matter.” In this episode, Fab Dolan, Head of Google Marketing in Canada, pulls back the curtain and shares insights into how Google runs its marketing. And he ties what Google does to strategically tactical steps that companies with a fraction of...

Google has a well deserved reputation for being an innovative organization, and that’s by design. Because while it’s a popular buzzword, innovation as an enterprise-level priority really does make a difference in a company’s capacity to adapt, grow and thrive. That’s why Google does so much to foster creativity. It informs who they hire, how they acculturate employees, how they design workspaces, how employees collaborate, and so on. We’re excited to have as our guest Frederik G. Pferdt,...

Ask just about anyone how they’re doing, and an all-too-common answer is “busy.” Being busy—or too busy—seems like the normal state of things. Maybe that’s why mindfulness is becoming a more predominant subject in our culture as a response to the high levels of stress so many of us face in our professional lives. If we aren’t giving attention to our personal state and to our close relationships, our lives can fall apart regardless of how successful we are at work. This episode sheds light...

Is there a mindset that engenders success as an entrepreneur and a leader? Certainly the right combination of beliefs and aptitudes emerges from our upbringing, our background, our culture and so on. But the power of personality also comes from what we tell ourselves, the ideals we adhere to and the experiences we seek out. Jean Lin, a powerhouse in the world of digital marketing, shares five potent ideas that have led her toward the success and recognition she continues to achieve. If...

For Karen Brown, it started with the audacious goal of competing in the Ironman World Championship. An active recreational athlete, she nevertheless held herself back from that big dream for many years. Finally, she dove deep into the study and psychology of limiting beliefs—and conquered her own. She competed in the IWC in 2012, only two years after concretely deciding to pursue that goal. In this episode, Karen talks about five essential ways to get beyond limiting beliefs, starting with...

Many companies sense the value of inbound marketing and use it to some degree. But beyond simply posting articles, keeping up an obligatory blog, or investing more in SEO, what can we do to build real trust and grow business? Marcus Sheridan, author of one of the definitive books on the subject, They Ask, You Answer, is generous with concrete, practical ideas on how to use inbound marketing to drive growth. In fact, his advice is so useful and plentiful, we split his interview into two...

Many companies sense the value of inbound marketing and use it to some degree. But beyond simply posting articles, keeping up an obligatory blog, or investing more in SEO, what can we do to build real trust and grow business? Marcus Sheridan, author of one of the definitive books on the subject, They Ask, You Answer, is generous with concrete, practical ideas on how to use inbound marketing to drive growth. In fact, his advice is so useful and plentiful, we split his interview into two...

Many are getting into the podcast game in order to connect with an interested audience and build a brand. But creating a successful podcast is a lot more complicated than buying a couple of microphones and clicking “record.” If you’re in the marketing world, there’s a good chance you’ve heard John Wall on the “Marketing Over Coffee” podcast. In this episode, John shares five strategically tactical ideas for people venturing into the podcast world. John Wall, VP of Marketing,...

High performers: they can transform an agency and handle huge, difficult deals all while publishing, speaking and being active in their communities. How do they do it? What are the factors that enable them “to exist on a different plane of productivity” (to quote Charles Duhigg)? Elite athletes give us a good example of the mental preparation required to achieve that powerful, energized focus. In this episode, elite coach Razor Ray Franklin shares what top athletes do — from a strategically...

You’ve had a good run on a lucrative business, but it’s time to move on. Selling your agency is a (typically) once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, and a very complex process, so you have to make sure you do it right. Should you hire an advisor? What makes you attractive to potential buyers? How do you know it’s a good fit? Tom Crowley joins us to share his expertise and advice on the most important steps to selling your business. From how to get organized to how selling is like marriage, he...

Starting a new business can be an exciting time, full of possibilities! However, it’s not all fun and games - growing a business can be difficult, especially for those that have no prior experience. Are you looking for business coaching or advice on starting and growing a business? If so, you’re in luck! In this episode, Robert Craven shares with us 5 tactical lesson he has learned over the years as an entrepreneur and business growth consultant. Guest: Robert Craven, International Keynote...

In today’s day and age, we wear many hats. A full-time mother can be a working professional, a part-time graduate student, and a community leader, all at the same time. It’s common. Though some people seem to have it all figured out, many of us struggle to keep it together and stay on top of it all. How do people manage multiple different pursuits and maintain that fine balance between work and life? What drives us to excel in all aspect of life? In this episode, Mitch Joel lets us in on...

You've likely heard the terms Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning thrown around quite a bit. But what does it mean for you? What exactly is AI and how does it differ from Machine Learning? How will it affect marketing and what can we do to prepare for its impact on us? What are concrete examples of its use and what does it mean for our jobs? Should we be concerned? Join us as we invite Jim Sterne to look back at the future and answer this question for us: “If today is 10 years in...

The way in which we communicate and share information with our staff can be very revealing about a person, their management style and their industry. Consider how often have you found yourself leaving a leadership meeting and asking “how much should I share with my staff?”. It’s a good and important question, and there is no wrong answer – everybody’s situation is different and some people have constraints to operate within that are outside of their control. But when it comes to...