Need prospects who engage with your written, video and/or audio media to take an action like responding to a CTA?
In other words, smash a button on your landing page, reply back to that sales email or hit subscribe on your podcast?
Outside of the dry (and boring) parameters of marketingspeak, what you really need when discussing content that converts is that you need …
HOT CONTENT
You need fetching and amorous content that gets hot and steamy with a prospect’s twitchy finger.
Why You Should Care?
In this post, you’ll learn how to raw dog a search engine with three easy digital tools, so Google et al. will serve you up prospects who can embrace all you have to offer digitally. Reach your content ideas, check off your content marketing goals and consummate a value proposition that cures your audience’s aching pain point.
Is Pepé Le Pew Content That Converts?
Let’s change the arc here to non-problematic subject matter. Let’s discuss engineering. Let’s discuss digital tools you should be using to get content marketing that converts!
You are starting out or pivoting in your career in the drive to create content. You have heard or tried using fancy digital tools like Google Analytics or Semrush and, well, uh …
… things are way too complicated! You want to create content and improve your conversion rate, not nerd out as a pinch-hitting software engineer. You need effective and easy-to-use. Even better if it’s free or doesn’t cost a fortune.
Before we discuss three digital tools that an idiot or Dostoevsky could use, we would like to present the clickbait …
Content Marketing Case Study: How We Improved 40 Ranking Positions in 1 Week
Realtor John Garuti III wanted to target a new community called Verandah in Southwest Florida. He hired Content for Teeth for content marketing work in order to rank organically for keywords related to the community.
Follow this step-by-step case study with us to find out how we hit that goal. Copy and paste the content strategy to ultimately boost conversions, increase engagement and, overall, boost your content marketing efforts.
Stupidly Easy Tool Content That Converts #1: Ubersuggest
How do you find things? You use certain words or phrases to indicate what you are looking for. In onlandia, these are called keywords. Finding the right keywords can help people find your content. Ubersuggest is a keyword research tool that isn’t overly complicated and overpriced. Here’s how to use it.
Step #1
Neophyte content marketers, head to Ubersuggest and find the Keyword tab from the panel on your left. Insert the keyword into the “Get a detailed keyword overview” box and hit SEARCH.
Step #2
Check the search volume, SEO difficulty, and CPC (cost per click of your keyword).
Step #3
Scroll down to examine other keyword ideas.
Step #4
We chose “the verandah fort Myers”. At first, we’ll look at the “SUGGESTIONS” tab.
Next, valient content marketers should click on the orange arrow next to your chosen keyword.
Click on “Search Results”.
Scroll down to see the websites that rank top for your keyword. You can see how many backlinks they have, the paid difficulty and the SEO difficulty.
In this case, examine the blog content of your competitors that you want to rank against.
If you move to the “RELATED” tab, you can see similar results for keywords that are related to the one you chose.
Under the “QUESTIONS” tab you can notice the questions that are being asked around that keyword.
Investigate different keywords and choose the keyword that matches the level of difficulty you can handle when creating content.
Regarding cost, Ubersuggest is great because it is useful and not overpriced. You can find a subscription level to match your budget or pay a one-time lifetime access cost to jettison annoying monthly charges.
Stupidly Easy Tool for Content That Converts #2: Surfer SEO
When creating content, Surfer SEO is a tool where you can optimize your content and get it to rank faster. Let’s take a look at how it works.
Step #1
Head to Surfer SEO and log into your account. Under tools, click on “Create” next to Content Editor.
Step #2
Whether it’s a blog post, landing pages or a web page, write down your title and keyword that you got from Ubersuggest. Next, examine the tools that you have.
On the panel to your right, you will see 3 different tabs:
GUIDELINES: Shows content score (and details), content structure (number of words, headings, paragraphs, images), and terms you need to be using.
OUTLINE: Contains the Outline Builder (Surfer AI-generated Titles (H1), Headings (H2), and Subheadings (H3-H6)) and Topics & Questions section.
BRIEF: Contains Notes and links to Competitors.
Step #3
Hit the gear icon on the top left of the right panel to start customizing.
Now, you need to examine the top 10 competitor links and turn on the link that has a high content score and domain authority with a reasonable number of words that you are willing to write.
Little hint 1: Make sure the form of content you are creating and ranking against are compatible. In other words, if you are writing a blog post, you want to turn on blog posts too instead of web pages. Similarly, if you are creating a sales page, you need to avoid trying to rank against a blog post and choose web pages instead.
Little hint 2: You want to avoid ranking against industry behemoths such as Zillow and Airbnb, in our case. Remember to always make your goals attainable, this is not to say that you cannot surpass their ranking one day!
In our case study, we have chosen to proceed with ranks 1, 7, and 10 and clicked “Let’s go”.
Step #4
According to your selection of competitor sites, Surfer SEO will reveal the content guidelines or the ideal range of words, headings, paragraphs and images you need to target in order to compete against and even surpass the rank of competitor sites.
Step #5
You initially did keyword rsearch in Ubersuggest. Now check out the keywords (and their corresponding frequency) in the right panel under “Terms”. Make sure to include them when writing content and to respect the suggested range.
Surfer SEO also presents some headline suggestions in “Topic & Questions” in that “HEADINGS” tab that can improve your content score.
Step #6
Make use of the”OUTLINE” tab to generate ideas and to make sure you talk about topics that will significantly improve your content score. This tab makes writing content less of a burden. Remember to not copy-paste content, but to recreate it by adding your own unique touch.
Step #7
Check out what your competitors are all about in the “BRIEF” tab under “Competitors”.
That’s it! You now have a “blueprint” to seduce Google.
Actionable Tricks
Aim for a minimum content score of 65.
Always start by writing content as a draft. Afterward, start adding/replacing with the keywords.
Try to hit the target number of the top half of the keywords in the NLP section. You can also include the lower half of the keywords, but that won’t increase your score as much. Steer clear of keyword stuffing as Google seriously penalizes websites that do so.
Keep your goals S.M.A.R.T: Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound.
Stupidly Easy Tool for Content That Converts#3: Tweak Your Headline With Biz Title Generator
A great deal of effort spent creating content should be dedicated to crafting your headline. According to research cited by Neil Patel, 80% of the people who come across your post will never read beyond the headline. Only 20% will read the thing.
Why Should You Care?
Your headlines are responsible for your traffic. If your headlines suck, so will your traffic. If it summarizes everything the user is wishing to see right away, you won the battle. No one wants to waste their most valuable asset: their time. If your headline is worth it, they’ll go for it. Remember, it doesn’t end at the headline. Attractive headlines bring guests to your door. You have to make sure the welcome is warm afterward for them to stay and spend time in your digital home.
Type your topic in the box and pick whether it is a noun or a verb. Click SUBMIT
Step #3
Go over the results. They are categorized into Lists, Best, How To, Questions etc…
Pick one that is most relevant to your content and tweak it. Make sure to not lose your authenticity by copy-pasting the title as is. Now you can proceed to create content that ties back to your attention-grabbing headline.
Headlining 101: The 3C’s
Clarity: Make sure the reader can understand all that your content is about by just reading the few words in the headline.
Conciseness: Remember that there is a character length for headlines for different forms of copies (an email, a blog post, a landing page, etc…). Make sure you don’t exceed that length as you risk cutting off your headline.
Credibility: You can sugarcoat your headline to make it as clickable as possible, but it is never okay to swindle people into clicking your headline. Avoid clickbaity titles like: “How to Gain 90000 Followers in 1 Hour” or the even more cringey “3 Stupidly Easy Tools to Create Content that Converts“.
BONUS: Tool #4: Yoast SEO Plugin
We’re not done! We have another low-cost and totally useful digital tool.
What is the Yoast SEO Plugin All About? How Is That Relevant to My Content Marketing?
We have previously mentioned how the headline can make or break your work.
The Yoast SEO plugin ensures your headline is optimal and that the character count is well in the required range.
You can start with a basic version of Yoast SEO for free! Now that you are done creating content, it’s time to optimize. Scroll down your draft where your plugin resides.
Just insert the keyphrase you formulated in Ubersuggest into the focus keyphrase box as shown below.
If you are creating content, this plugin offers you a range of different suggestions to make your page rank better. However, in this blog post we’ll focus on the headline improvement function. Yoast tells you whether:
You have the exact match of the focus keyphrase that appears in the SEO title.
Your focus keyphrase is at the beginning of your SEO title.
SEO title width is optimal.
Ok… But Umm …?
You’ve read this far and I sense a disturbance in the force …
If you want attention-grabbing headlines and a shot at higher conversions and generating leads with your target audience, BUT you don’t want to cook AND do the dishes …
Find Someone Else to Do It
We at Content with Teeth create content and have oodles of experience as an agency specializing in copywriting and video production. Let us get your content marketing strategy over the goal line.
Creating Better Days, a Fort Myers-based company that specializes in CBD gummies, recently dropped 75 pounds of pet edibles for the dogs at a Southwest Florida human society in a philanthropic mission to soothe animals’ separation anxiety and other issues.
Apparently, the pet CBD market is big business. You’ll learn why in our interview with Creating Better Days Owner Kai Pfretzschner in Content with Teeth’s The Come Up video podcast of notable Southwest Florida entrepreneurs.
CBD Kingpin
You’ll meet the Creating Better Days leader and learn how the German-born Kai went from studying to be a Mercedes mechanic to running the fifth largest producer of gummy edibles in the United States and manufacturer of 350k gummies a day right here in Fort Myers.
Creating Better Podcasts Highlights
Here are the highlights of The Come Up Episode 6:
No Scrappy, You Won’t Get High from Drinking 33 Bottles of CBD: Kai explains how Creating Better Days CBD rich hemp oil is non-psychoactive and won’t make you an extra in a Hollywood reboot of Cheech and Chong.
What Is Cannabidiol: Kai explains what creates a healthy endocannabinoid system, how CBD made from mature industrial hemp can safely replace some prescription medications and fight a serious medical condition while serving as naturally occurring antioxidants . Kai is not a doctor offering medical advice, but he drops serious CBD knowledge!
Nano amplified CBD: Kai explains what this type of CBD product is and why it might be helpful for people who don’t absorb CBD products well.
Scrappy’s Parole Officer Would Like a Word:The Come Up host Scrappy Jackson jokes if ingesting CBD products will trigger a call from his P.O. Watch the episode to learn Kai’s response. It will totally surprise you!
Learn to delegate: Creating Better Days Chief Development Officer Kai gives advice to budding entrepreneurs who think they have to do it all. Watch the episode to learn how to make your organization more productive by empowering the people around you.
About Kai Pfretzschner & Content with Teeth
For UnBoring Content like The Come Up, contact Content with Teeth HERE. Find out more about Kai Pfretzschner’s Creating Better Days CBD products HERE.
The Come Up Episode 6 Video Transcript
Scrappy Jackson:
What up? What up? What up? What up? What up? Welcome to The Come Up, a podcast featuring Southwest Florida’s ambitious, innovating, forward thinking entrepreneurs. I’m Scrappy, and we’re brought to you by Content with Teeth. They’re an amazing content marketing agency for real, right here in Southwest Florida. 20 years experience. They do it big, real big, just like this fat head behind me. Content with Teeth. Check them out. Today’s guest is fascinating to me. Kai Pfretzschner, owner of Creating Better Days, a CBD manufacturer in Fort Myers. What’s going on Kai?
Kai Pfretzschner:
Not too much. How are you doing?
Scrappy Jackson:
Good. Real good. When we think of CBD, I’m like, well, it’s kind of cool, but I’m not really sure what it is. Does it give me a buzz? Does it help me with pain? Does it relieve anxiety? There’s still a little confusion about it. Can you break it down for us?
Kai Pfretzschner:
Right. So CBD is one of 140 cannabinoids that occur in a cannabis plant and it’s non-psychoactive. So it does not get you high, but it helps with certain ailments. So it calms you down and relieves anxiety. It’s an anti-inflammatory, so it helps with recovery after certain sports injuries and all kind of stuff.
Scrappy Jackson:
Very nice. Very nice. I understand that THC is there a little bit, like 3%. So can I drink 33 bottles and get high like weed?
Kai Pfretzschner:
Well, full spectrum CBD by law is allowed to have 0.3% THC. So some products, if you take a little bit more, you can definitely feel it. We have a line of gummies that’s called Spectrum Plus. They do have about 10 milligrams of THC, legally, in a gummy. So you definitely feel it.
Scrappy Jackson:
I’ve never taken CBD before. What’s the sensation like?
Kai Pfretzschner:
It’s more like a calming feeling. It kind of takes the edge off a little bit. So if you worry too much, it calms you down a little bit. But like I said, you don’t really get a head high or anything.
Scrappy Jackson:
And the government, they seem to be supportive of it. But not to the point where they’re like… They’re still saying May, probably. Well, sometimes, potential… How come the government hasn’t put the rubber stamp on this?
Kai Pfretzschner:
Yeah, it just seems like the FDA, as every government agency, is moving fairly slow. So we’ve been doing this for eight years now. So ever since we started in this business… And the beginning was a total gray area. Then legislation came down a little bit through the FDA. The FDA didn’t want to deal with it. And especially in Florida, so they gave the Department of Agriculture the authority to regulate us. So businesses like mine are now regulated by the Department of Agriculture for labeling, product standards, manufacturing practices, and all that good stuff.
Scrappy Jackson:
I’ve been on your website. I know you tried to educate your customers there, but on a daily basis, how do you sensitize your customers to what you have, this great product that you have?
Kai Pfretzschner:
Well, I mean, the customer educates themselves usually through online searches. So people gotten very knowledgeable with CBD. We do have a quiz on our website and kind of ask a couple of questions and then suggest you a product. But grand scheme of things, people gotten pretty knowledgeable about CBD. And now there’s many other cannabinoids out there, Delta-8, D9, all kind of different ones. CBN for more calming, relaxing, and nighttime relief. So there’s a bunch of things to choose from.
Scrappy Jackson:
My brother takes it, but he says his gastrointestinal tract doesn’t absorb it fast enough. Is that why nano is available?
Kai Pfretzschner:
That’s why nano is available. It just downsizes the molecule size a little bit. Usually you kind of need a medium chain triglyceride oil, a fatty acid, with any cannabinoid. So your stomach can absorb it faster. If you nanofy, you break down the size, the absorption rate goes up, and you feel the effects a little bit faster.
Scrappy Jackson:
Kai, you have anti-depressants and also anti-psychotics in your CBD. That’s pretty cool. I mean, that’s really awesome. Can you elaborate on that a little bit?
Kai Pfretzschner:
I’m not sure about anti-depressant and anti-psychotic. There is a couple of things that we offer. So there’s an entourage effect between CBD, CBN, and melatonin. So we sometimes use an over the counter, like melatonin, a sleep aid, and couple it together with CBD and CBN, to give you a better effect. So there’s some people that can’t sleep sort of take melatonin. They get used to melatonin. Well, it turns out if you throw together a CBD and melatonin in one edible… in a gummy, for example, it really helps.
Scrappy Jackson:
Sleep, anxiety, pain. You’re doing really good stuff here, but the public really is still not sensitized to completely. So what will you say to the public, to all Southwest Florida, when it comes to buy my CBDs, damn it?
Kai Pfretzschner:
All I can tell them, give it a try. There’s really no side effects to CBD. Like I said, not psychoactive. So don’t be afraid that you are not going to be able to drive a car. The label state, if you use something new in your diet, like you add something like CBD, ask you physician first, “Hey, is this good for me? Hey, I’m taking X, Y, Z prescriptions. Is that going to affect it?” So you should always ask you physician. That’s something. But other than that, give it a try. Start with a low dosage. A lot of people just go way too high in the beginning and then… Start low.
Scrappy Jackson:
My parole officer’s always asking me, “Scrappy, you got to take a test.” Will I pass a test if I take CBD?
Kai Pfretzschner:
If you do an isolated CBD, CBD isolate meaning it’s just CBD, there’s Delta-9 THC in it, then you are not going to have any issues with the drug test. If you use a full spectrum product, there’s trace amounts of THC in it, then that might show up. So you got to be careful which product you choose. We got several different ones, so.
Scrappy Jackson:
I’m just kidding about the parole thing.
Kai Pfretzschner:
Hey man, I don’t know. Judgment-free zone.
Scrappy Jackson:
You mentioned gummies. What other products do you have?
Kai Pfretzschner:
Right now, our main product is gummies. So we produce about 350,000 gummies a day.
Scrappy Jackson:
Wow.
Kai Pfretzschner:
And yeah, that’s our main business right now, but we offer anything from oils to topicals. We got pet-related products, pet treats. There’s a lot of products to choose from. But we dialed it down a little bit since gummies is now our main road.
Scrappy Jackson:
Okay. Well, I’m curious about the gummies, but pets? You’re giving this stuff to pets?
Kai Pfretzschner:
Yeah. The pet CBD market has been highly successful maybe for the last five years. So obviously, pets, dogs, cats deal with things like separation anxiety. They get nervous during storm and CBD helps calm them down. So we have several dog treats and tinctures for cats and docs available too.
Scrappy Jackson:
I noticed on your website, you have Better Days, Better Nights, Better Defense, Better Delights, and you have Better Pets. But you need Better Babies, man. Babies on an airplane. They’re getting a little unruly, just give them a gummy and they’ll sleep for hours.
Kai Pfretzschner:
Yeah. This 18 years and older is a thing in Florida, so.
Scrappy Jackson:
So 350,000 gummies a day. That’s amazing, man. You’re right here in Fort Myers. Where does that put you industry wise, nationwide, globally?
Kai Pfretzschner:
In the US, right now, we’re one of the fifth largest producers of gummy edibles in the US. So yeah, we’re up there. We’re pretty busy.
Scrappy Jackson:
One of the things that’s really, really cool about you guys is the fact that you do nonprofit work. You have your quarterly donations, is it? Quarterly… What is it called?
Kai Pfretzschner:
Yeah, we choose a charity every quarter and we help them either out with donations or we help them funding-wise or we advertise for them. We do cross collaborations with all kind of charities that in our area specifically, and that target a couple things that we feel that we can help and contribute a little bit to give back.
Scrappy Jackson:
Yeah. I noticed you’re helping out the veterans, breast cancer, humane society, man. I commend you on that. That’s really awesome.
Kai Pfretzschner:
Thank you. Thank you. I mean, giving back is one of the things that I think are important I mean a business is designed to make money, but giving back is important, especially to things that you feel are close to your… you know?
Scrappy Jackson:
Absolutely. Absolutely. And you dropped off, what, 75 pounds of gummies to the dogs at the Ford Myers Humane Society. They must have been sleeping for days.
Kai Pfretzschner:
No. No, no. We helped them out with treats. We donated bulk treats. We had our team. We currently have about 85 people working for us. So they made dog toys. So we helped them out with adoption drives, treats, we built toys for them. So everybody chips in their time a little bit.
Scrappy Jackson:
You mentioned you’ve been in business for eight years, but you’ve really skyrocketed under your leadership. How have you evolved so quickly?
Kai Pfretzschner:
Oh, good question. I mean, it’s a combination. So you are in a business. You’re trying to figure out what drives your business a little bit quicker. You hone in, there’s a thing called the power law. 20% of anything you do usually gives you about 80% of your return. So in our case, we honed into the gummies. So two and a half years ago, we decided to manufacture our own gummies. Not a lot of people did. It took about six months to get the machinery up and going, to get the R&D work together, get all the licenses together. And producing our own gummy edibles really made a difference. So that’s propelled our business.
Scrappy Jackson:
You have a fascinating background. You’re from Germany and you were studying Mercedes-Benz. You were going to be a mechanic for Mercedes-Benz. So in coming over here, you’re somewhat of a scientist, aren’t you? You’re kind of like an engineer that tinkers a lot, right?
Kai Pfretzschner:
Well yeah, that’s how I started. I was an engineer for Mercedes and, yeah. Then I moved here about 20 years ago, went through a couple different businesses, anything from construction, real estate, and then ended up in the cannabis industry. And in the beginning it was all self taught. Right? So a lot of reading. How do I come up with a formula for a gummy? What’s picked and what’s glucose and what’s everything that’s in there, right? So in the beginning it was all that. Now, we have chemists employed that check all their formulas. I’m the chief development officer so I’ll come up with new ideas, new gummies. And then I go to them and say, “Here, this is my idea. Can we do it or not?” And then we work together on the formulation and SOPs and all that good stuff.
Scrappy Jackson:
As entrepreneur, we highlight entrepreneurs here locally in Southwest Florida, courtesy of Content with Teeth. I think it’s fascinating that you have two incredible skills. You’re not just a scientist/engineer, but you’re also a driver. You really drive a business. You’re very ambitious. How do you go about complimenting your team so that all the parts around you work properly?
Kai Pfretzschner:
Well, that was actually one of the things that I see a lot when entrepreneurs start their business. They underestimate how important it is to have a good team, right? So when you start a business, you think this was my idea, I can do it better, and I also do it by myself because nobody else can do this, but myself. Not true. Without a team, you can’t grow a business. So our team is amazing. They do a lot of work with us. We do a lot of stuff for them. Every month, we do a employee appreciation dinner. We take them out to dinner and we cater stuff. We do fun activities at least once a month. And it’s important that everybody’s comfortable. It doesn’t have to be all work, right? So it’s good to socialize and make everybody feel they belong to that company.
Scrappy Jackson:
You create a culture.
Kai Pfretzschner:
You have to.
Scrappy Jackson:
That’s awesome. That’s awesome. From a business perspective, you mentioned that you’re fifth in the United States with the gummy business. What about competition otherwise? What are you doing to stave them off and differentiate yourself moving forward?
Kai Pfretzschner:
Well, a company our size is obviously all for regulation. In our industry, it’s always been like that, that a lot of people started it out of their garage and their homes and stuff. We adhere to every regulation there is. We got [inaudible 00:13:00], which is the agricultural in the state, in Florida right now, working close together with us. So we adhere to label guidelines. We do third party testing. So we spend large amounts of money every month to make sure that all of our product that’s produced and goes out is tested and approved before it hits the market. Right? So there’s a lot that goes into it. You have to do it right, otherwise you can’t sustain a business.
Scrappy Jackson:
Sure, sure. I find your company to be very creative as well, from the packaging to the website. What goes into that?
Kai Pfretzschner:
Yeah. We have a team of designers. So they’re the creative people. It’s definitely not me. Yeah. We design logos. We have a whole marketing team. So they do photo shoots. They plan out all the promotions, all the holidays they’re coming up three to six months ahead. They take pictures, they do videos for online, social media, ads, all kinds of stuff, so.
Scrappy Jackson:
So when you were kicking in Germany as a teenager, did you ever think in your wildest dreams you’d be selling gummies in Southwest Florida for a living?
Kai Pfretzschner:
Definitely not, really. I always was interested in the cannabis industry, like every 16-year-old is, I guess. But to make a business out of it was definitely something amazing. And yeah, it’s going great. I like it.
Scrappy Jackson:
Okay. Well, I want you to give a shout out to three groups. First of all, I want you to talk to the people that are potential consumers. What’s your pitch to them?
Kai Pfretzschner:
My pitch would be that the cannabis plant can be a perfect substitute for any kind of pharmaceuticals. You don’t have to take Vicodin and painkillers. There is a natural alternative with less to non side effects. So for one, you got a lot of customers that tell us… Oh, feedback is crazy. Older ladies and gentlemen come to us like, “Wow. I started taking CBD and Delta-8, Delta-9 THC instead of my painkillers. I feel much better.” So in my opinion, that’s one of the biggest drivers. Veterans, we sponsor them because of PTSD, right? So CBD, Delta-8 THC, Delta-9 THC helps a lot to calm them down and take the edge of a little bit. So there’s a lot of pros.
Scrappy Jackson:
Oxycodine, fentanyl. Are people actually getting off of it because of CBD?
Kai Pfretzschner:
I can’t say for sure, but I sure hope they would substitute a little bit and get off all the hard stuff.
Scrappy Jackson:
Okay. Well, another group I want you to talk to are budding entrepreneurs right here in Southwest Florida. I mean, you’re doing it. You’re doing it really big. What do you suggest for them? As far as, let’s say they’re getting out of FGCU next week, what do you tell them?
Kai Pfretzschner:
Well, if they have the entrepreneurial spirit, they most likely have an idea, right? So they think X, Y, Z, I’m interested in this. Maybe I want to start a business. You got to do your research first. What’s your competition look like? In my opinion, it helps to find a niche. Little bit something that’s right in the middle that not everybody’s doing. If you get out of FGCU and say, “Hey, I want come out with an energy drink,” well, good luck. Your competition is going to be high. They’re probably going to squish you like a bug, as they say, right?
Scrappy Jackson:
Right.
Kai Pfretzschner:
Then do your homework, right? Make sure you’re solid. Get legal representation. You need to have a legal backup. And then it’s going to be much more work than you ever thought it would be. If you don’t put in your time… Extraordinary access comes through extreme sacrifices. So you got to sacrifice your time.
Scrappy Jackson:
Yeah, definitely.
Kai Pfretzschner:
Don’t be in it for the money. Okay? The money will come later on, but hard work and just don’t give up.
Scrappy Jackson:
And Kai, what kind of advice would you give yourself when you were 12 years old?
Kai Pfretzschner:
Nothing. Everything is great. Just do exactly what you’re doing. It’s all going to be great.
Scrappy Jackson:
Really?
Kai Pfretzschner:
I wouldn’t do anything. So I could have moved a little bit earlier. Okay? So I waited until I was 20, 21 years old before I moved over here. Other than that, the only thing that I could have learned a little bit faster is delegating. We talked about it earlier, the mindset that only you can do it the right way. You need a good team of people that you can trust. You got to learn how to delegate stuff to them. That way you can get 10 times the workload done with three people in a day that would’ve taken yourself two weeks and then the customer’s already gone. So yeah.
Scrappy Jackson:
So what’s next for you, man?
Kai Pfretzschner:
Well, we’re trying to expand in a couple of different states. We’re trying to get into the regulated THC market in Michigan and a couple other projects that we have going on. So traveling a lot back and forward, just trying to make things happen.
Scrappy Jackson:
I’m kind of curious, if there’s recreational states where they allow marijuana, no problem, no medical card, can you actually up your CBD percentage, just for those states?
Kai Pfretzschner:
They’re doing it. If you blend CBD and THC together, it takes the potency of the THC away a little bit. So there’s certain products that are doing it. But usually in those states, it’s state regulated manufacturers. So you have to have a state license to operate in that state.
Scrappy Jackson:
Okay. Finally, Kai, in your success, you’ve afforded yourself the opportunity to travel. You’ve traveled extensively. And what lessons have you learned?
Kai Pfretzschner:
So traveling, I love to travel because I love to experience different cultures, different food. In my opinion, if you stay in one spot for too long, you’re in a little bubble, in a little box, right? And your mind is not as broad as it should be. So traveling, I experience other people how they do things. And then I realize that the way I’m doing it is probably not the only right way. That there’s more than one right way of doing it.
Scrappy Jackson:
True.
Kai Pfretzschner:
Yeah. I’ve been to Asia a lot, China, to our manufacturers for machinery over there. We’ve been several, four or five times to Shanghai. Those are all great people. Not so lucky right now, but those are awesome people. They hustle hard. Their work mentality is something I admire. They never give up. And, yeah.
Scrappy Jackson:
There’s… I’m sorry. There’s cannaboid oil. Okay? CBD. And Creating Better Days, I finally figured it out, man, CBD.
Kai Pfretzschner:
Ah, CBD. Create Better Days. There you go.
Scrappy Jackson:
My man, Kai Pfretzschner. Creating Better Days, a CBD manufacturer right here in Southwest Florida, doing it really big, courtesy of Content with Teeth. We’re doing this podcast. Content with Teeth, a marketing agency, doing incredible content. I’m Scrappy. Kai, peace out.
If you’re a B2B business, you might be curious about the benefits of LinkedIn marketing.
If you’re not, you should be! You’re jumping out of an airplane without a parachute, missing an opportunity to strip mine the largest business database in the world.
What Is LinkedIn Marketing?
LinkedIn marketing is the use of the online social networking site LinkedIn to build connections, mutually beneficial relationships, and rapport with different stakeholders from and outside your industry. These can be business partners, prospective customers, or potential employees/team members.
Why You Should Be Marketing on LinkedIn Right Now?
LinkedIn is a medium that forms an indispensable part of your social media marketing campaigns. It allows users to achieve marketing goals and business objectives such as generating leads, increasing brand reputation and awareness, and driving sales.
It provides you with handy business analysis tools. It’s where you’ll meet most of your ideal clients or customers.
Basically, we’re living in such a digital marketing and social media era that if you are not promoting yourself on the largest business database in the world, then you are lacking “drip,” as the young people say.
The Evidence on LinkedIn Is Clear
Most of the LinkedIn B2B marketers use the platform for organic marketing. This network has a great reputation for yielding the most relevant organic results. It is also the go-to lead generation for companies regardless of their industry. Check out these interesting stats that are not necessarily seen on other social media platforms.
What Is LinkedIn Organic?
“Organic” content is basically content that you do not pay to show. It’s nonpaid advertising and does not appear as a paid promotion on your future customer’s news feed.
Your LinkedIn Success Is a Few Trackable Metrics Away
The site offers some internal analytics that you can track to make data-driven decisions, achieve your goals, and optimize your efforts.
Reach signifies how many times the content you have shared has been seen by users.
Impression is the amount of times your content has been displayed on profiles’ feeds.
Follower demographic that includes job seniority, location, industry….
Clicks which is the number of clicks you get on your content to land on your website.
Targeting
The LinkedIn platform allows you to customize your industry-specific variable searches which is ideal for B2B businesses. If you have a company page or are using your personal LinkedIn profile, you can easily reach out to your target audience or future customers. We can even start calling this process professional networking instead of targeting!
Pocket-Friendly Platform
You can start joining groups and interact and exchange information with your group members. You often hear gurus preaching LinkedIn advertising. You may be using a free account or subscribing to one of LinkedIn’s services. One of the tools businesses are increasingly using is Sales Navigator, LinkedIn’s premium offering offering advanced search capability.
If sign up for Sales Nav, LinkedIn will automatically give you one month free. We at Content with Teeth can get you two free months to check out the platform and see if it’s a good fit. Sign up for a free consultation and we’ll hook you up.
What About Your LinkedIn Marketing Strategy
Your LinkedIn marketing strategy is basically similar to any other social media marketing strategy. However, you need to work on positioning yourself as a thought leader in your industry. This also depends on what you are really there to do. Are you on LinkedIn to attract new talent, increase your sales or brand awareness, engage with your target audience, reveal your expertise or connect with similar professionals in your field?
The Beginner’s Guide to Organic LinkedIn Marketing
Fully utilize the magic search tool LinkedIn offers that allows companies to target the users they are looking for. This isn’t necessarily found on other social media platforms or social networking sites.
Is Marketing on LinkedIn Worth It?
Totally, and we’re skipping the LinkedIn ads too! We’ll spill some tea here: you don’t have to spend tons of money on advertising anymore!
One thing you really need to take care of though is generating high-quality content. Opt for quality over quantity.
Advanced Search on LinkedIn for Free
If you don’t have the budget to invest in LinkedIn Sales Navigator now, don’t worry. We’ve got you covered. You have the ability to narrow down your audience and exclude specific people with Boolean search terms.
Although the number of times you can search something on a LinkedIn free version is limited to a certain number and period of time.
Hijack Boolean Terms in Your Search Hunt
Employ Boolean to narrow your focus in any version of LinkedIn from the free version to Sales Navigator.
The table below will teach you some of the parameters:
Get Your Hands Dirty with a Real Search for Professionals on LinkedIn
Let’s imagine you are a marketing professional in the Miami area and your niche market is local IT companies that offer cloud solutions. You intend to target COO’s.
Head to your LI profile and type in “cloud solutions” AND COO
Hit enter
You will get a list of results like the one below
4. The first level of search is the filter. You can pick any or all, depending on what you’re looking for.
7. Next, scroll down choose your location. We are choosing the Miami-Fort Lauderdale Area.
8. Now, you have a whole bunch of other practical filters you can use such as current company, past company, school, industry, etc…
9. In our case, we’ll check the Information Technology and Services box.
10. You can add in keywords, then hit “Show Results”.
11. You will get a list of individuals that meet these criteria.
12. Choose a profile you’re interested in.
13. Hit “Connect” on your prospect profile to send them a Connect Request or invite to engage.
14. Click on “Add a note” to write a customized message. You should be politely asking the person for a connect request and stating what’s in it for them. Remember that you have a 300-character limit. Hit send and congratulations! You’re utlizing the power of LinkedIn marketing at minimal cost and time.
What About LinkedIn Sales Navigator?
There are more than 20 categories you can choose from. These include company size, seniority level, etc…
This precious LinkedIn tool has become indispensable to countless marketers out there. Basically, this takes your lead generation efforts to a new level and allows you to build meaningful business relationships. You may even skip social media!
However, if you are not currently ready to invest in SalesNav, the regular LinkedIn search function will get it done!
If you would like two months of LinkedIn Sales Navigator, please get in touch!
LinkedIn Organic Social Media Marketing Best Practices
Optimize your company pages (about, title, cover photo, profile photo, posts…). Remember, this is not Facebook. So, forget the personal and focus on the educational and professional.
Make sure you have a website to direct your audience to (and to increase your web traffic at the same time.)
Work on building your network as much as you can.
Create and share thought leadership articles with your network. Yes, long-form content is still in. You just have to use tactics to make your prospect read your work.
Make sure you are conducting LinkedIn search engine optimization. Think of LinkedIn as one of the search engines you’re familiar with. This means that you should be using keywords that your audience may use to find you in your title or About area.
Content With Teeth and Your LinkedIn Marketing Efforts
Learn how you can benefit from and leverage your LinkedIn page to fuel your company growth and generate quality leads for your business.
From a business analyst in one of Miami’s biggest firms to opening a one-room school in South Beach with one student …
Possessing a passport stamped with countries from all around the globe…
Watching the school grow with an intensive English program with thousands and thousands of international students …
40 different nationalities passing through its corridors …
Meet the man who triumphs over the Tower of Babel. Meet Greg Degnan in the latest episode of The Come Up, Content with Teeth’s short video podcast profiling the up-and-coming entrepreneurial scene in Southwest Florida.
The Come Up Episode 5 Highlights
Here is what to look for in our latest episode where host Scrappy Jackson interviews a dynamic educator and inspiring entrepreneur.
What does Greg learn most from his students? Because of the melange of different cultures and viewpoints in one room, you learn more from the students than the students do from you.
Is teaching English a dead-end career? The English language is still the PEOPLE’S language. Learn why the industry has a lot of growth potential.
What advice would Degnan give to his 12-year-old self? Follow your dreams but find out why it’s important to be a generalist instead of a specialist.
The future of a Language Center and an English Language Institute: Online, virtual reality and lost in the Metaverse.
What does Greg value most when hiring English teachers? Experience! Watch the episode to find out exactly why – the reason might surprise you.
In this episode, meet an interesting dude who started his career hanging out with Magic and The Dream Team in Barcelona during the 1992 Olympics.
About Greg Degnan and Content with Teeth
For UnBoring Content like The Come Up, contact Content with Teeth HERE. Find Degnan’s South Beach Languages school if you want to study English or a new language HERE.
The Come Up Episode 5 Video Transcript
Scrappy Jackson: What’s up, what’s up, what’s up, I’m Scrappy. And this is the Come Up. Entrepreneurs on the rise throughout Southwest Florida. We have ’em for you. They’re fascinating. They’re genuine. They’re innovative. Content with Teeth, a real innovative marketing company. They do content marketing. They’re our sponsor, and they’re doing it really big. Just like this fat head behind me. Today’s guest is an entrepreneur. That’s doing big things as well. His name is Greg Degnan. He’s from the University of Florida. He’s a teacher. He does really interesting things in South Beach, Fort Myers and Hollywood with his schools. Greg. Welcome.
Greg Degnan: Thanks, Scrappy. Great to be here.
Scrappy Jackson: Yeah, it’s really great for you to be here as well. And, uh, my first question is, you know, you went to the University of Florida. You got a great education. What did you do from jump right at the beginning?
Greg Degnan: Great. Yeah, go Gators. I’m a graduate. I’m a proud Gator graduate in 1991. I was there. I had, Emmitt Smith actually in one of my classes, but, yeah, as when I graduated in 91, the majority of my friends, and peers were going off to get jobs, you know, in Miami, Orlando, Atlanta, whatever city they could, but I really wanted to travel. So I took off, I got a passport and I started just traveling all over. I was all, I went all over Latin America to almost every country in Latin America, all over Europe. At that time they had the Interrail pass. So we traveled to other countries and I also hit Asia and interesting. My first job real job was with a dream team in, uh, Barcelona.
Scrappy Jackson: Oh, cool. Very cool. So tell us about the dream team. That’s amazing.
Greg Degnan: Yeah, it was awesome. I got to meet all the players. I mean, my job was nothing special. I was in logistics, transportation, kind of getting the players around. I wrote a short book about it called, chasing the dream team, but I had some great moments. You know, just speaking with Magic and Clyde Drexler and some of these guys. I actually was translating for them. Cause one of the things that, because it was in Spain, I had Spanish. So when the players would go out and try to communicate, I would help them. A lot of funny stories and, I just saw Magic has a documentary now on Apple TV, it’s called, They Call Me Magic. It’s an amazing documentary and I’m, I have a little cameo in there. I’m younger. Yeah.
Scrappy Jackson: That’s awesome. So a lot of students, they go abroad. They wanna have some fun. Right out of college. They’re not sure what they wanna do. Do you do the same thing or you looking to find yourself or do you know exactly what you wanted to do with your career at that point?
Greg Degnan: Uh, yeah. Great question. I, I just want, I wasn’t ready to go to an office. I studied finance at UF at University of Florida, and I just really wanted to travel after being in school for so long. And in fact, I had no idea what I wanted to do, and what I found very quickly is the easiest job to get as you’re traveling is an English teacher. Because everybody, you know, in different countries speak different languages. And at that time, especially, they all wanted to learn English. So I would just ride the train in Europe, for example. And if a city looked nice, like I would stop in Budapest, get off. And within a day or two, I would have a job as an English teacher, which was really amazing. And it taught me, you know, to start to love teaching. Cause before that I had no experience teaching English, but I learned, you know, the methodology, teaching English to international students of all ages, different group sizes. And it really helped my public speaking and presence as well.
Scrappy Jackson: So you are in South America, you have a finance degree. How do you get back to United States and get a job?
Greg Degnan: Yeah, eventually I came back, just, I had my passport stamped a lot all over the world and I came back and I went to UM, University of Miami for my MBA. I wanted to get a little more serious on the business side and that created a lot of opportunities. I had a lot of great internships at Burdines, which is now Macy’s. And if you remember Burdines, that was a big store in Florida a while ago. I did some great things there. We would work on an algorithm, for advertising to find the best advertising mix. At that time, they had this huge budget for advertising. This was pre-internet. So they had to decide how much are we gonna spend in TV? How much are we gonna spend on radio? How much are we gonna spend in direct mail?
Greg Degnan: So we, I was part of a team that created the algorithm to find that perfect mix by product category. What will our budget be? That was a great project. I worked at, BACARDÍ in the liquor industry for a couple of years, doing projects. That was also amazing cause they’re based in Miami. At that time, BACARDÍ was introducing flavors. So in the past, they would just have, you know, three BACARDÍ, file in the middle of the shelf on the shelf. Right, right. There was a hundred brands at that time. So what they did that was very smart is started introducing flavors. And that was part of the, the group that introduced BACARDÍ LIMÓN, BACARDÍ O, BACARDÍ Razz. And once they started introducing all these flavors, it took up all the shelf space.
Scrappy Jackson: Sure. Cause they had all the leverage. Right.
Greg Degnan: Exactly. So they kind of knocked out all these mom-and-pop, you know, rum companies and just kind of took over and got stronger and stronger at that time.
Scrappy Jackson: So you’re in the corporate world, but somewhere, international teaching, you know, speaking the languages. That pool must have come in somewhere.
Greg Degnan: Exactly. Yeah. I missed it. So even as great jobs that I had and experiences, and as an analyst, as a business analyst in Miami, working for these great companies, part of me still, you know, still in a cubicle, I still had a boss and I just kind of wanted to go do my own thing. So I had such a great experience teaching that I opened the one-room school in South Beach, called it South Beach languages. And at the beginning, I was the only teacher, you know, one room, one student and little. I remember my first place was on 12th McCollins Avenue paying $300 a month, you know, just for one little room. And then little by little, we grew it, we added students. And today we, you know, we have, we’ve got thousands and thousands of students,
Scrappy Jackson: You have a diversity of students. How many countries have gone through your corridors?
Greg Degnan: Um, I would say probably 30 or 40.
Scrappy Jackson: Wow.
Greg Degnan: Different countries at least, at least.
Scrappy Jackson: And just, how do you, how do you communicate to so many different ones?
Greg Degnan: Yeah, that’s a great question. Cause like, again, when I taught in Mexico I had a class of 12 Mexican students. Right. So they were all familiar with Spanish and English. Whereas in Miami Beach, we might have a class with one Brazilian, one Japanese, one person from Serbia, it’s all, all mixed. So that teachers only speak and teach in English. So they go slowly. they have methodologies to use. So it’s up to the students to learn. It’s kind of an immersion methodology.
Scrappy Jackson: Sure, sure. In your hallways, is there cultural diversity to the point where they need to assimilate?
Greg Degnan: Um, yeah. I, I’m not sure. What, what you mean exactly, but like the, for example, it’s amazing having all these different cultures in one class, right? So a lot of students come up to us at the end of their experience and be like, wow, you know, I’ve never had that kind of experience where I had conversations with a French person and a Brazilian person and a Japanese person and a somebody from Bangladesh. And what it does is this kind of a microcosm of the world. You see all these nationalities coming together, talking to each other. Of course, there’s a lot of arguments, you know, with different viewpoints and economics and politics and all these things. But the 99% of them go home, like, wow, that was, that was a great experience.
Scrappy Jackson: You have South Beach, you got Hollywood, you have tutoring in Fort Myers. If I’m somebody that wants to be a teacher at your school, what’s the first question you ask me.
Greg Degnan: Um, I value experience the most. So I would say how much, how many years of English teaching experience do you have? Obviously, if you’re a kindergarten teacher or first-grade teacher, that actually is pretty helpful because you, you know, you’re teaching people with at the beginning stages, which is what we’re doing. They don’t know any English, a lot of them. So we do take, English teachers all the time. New English teachers. Experience. And most of our teachers have to have a certificate depending on the course of teaching. An English, ESL certificate, TEFL, they call it.
Scrappy Jackson: So you’re a teacher. You become this incredible entrepreneur. What advice do you give teachers today as far as getting into this game?
Greg Degnan: Well again, I most teachers from what I’ve seen, aren’t going into it for money at all. Because teaching, you know, in general, and especially teaching English, not something you’re gonna get rich, you have to really want to, you know, be a teacher to connect with people and see that light, you know, go on in the student’s head when they learn something. In terms of business, I think it’s still a big opportunity. If people are business people are looking for opportunities, I think this industry still has a long way to go in terms of growth. The world is becoming a little more isolated now, so it’s becoming a little bit harder to get students from everywhere like we used to. But there’s still a lot of opportunity for growth and it’s still, English is still the world language.
Scrappy Jackson: I have visited your schools and there’s an incredible culture. It, it really is, you know, the students are immersed, the teachers are immersed, and throughout the hallways, you get a special feeling it’s really, really cool. The way you put it together. It’s almost a spiritual experience for real. So given that, what is it that you’ve learned the most from your students?
Greg Degnan: I think, yeah, it’s a cliche, but when you teach English, you learn more than you teach. It’s really fascinating. All of the different cultures, again in the world coming to USA to learn English. And they have they’re in awe and big respect for this country, cuz they’re here. They’ve chosen to come here. But just learning from them, their experiences. So we might go around and say, Hey, tell us the culture, uh, of your country. Like, you know, in USA we celebrate independence day in 4th of July, what’s going on in your country? And they’ll tell us the whole story.
Scrappy Jackson: You mentioned earlier, there’s a lot of opportunities in education. What’s your personal vision and where are you going with your career and your company?
Greg Degnan: Yeah, I used to think the answer was building more schools. For a while, we were kind of expanding in that way. But we stopped that and we’re basically focusing more on content. So we are a big school in South Beach and we’re trying to create more content because as the world is becoming more online, obviously, as education, what’s happening with COVID the last couple of years, there’s kind of a, more of a, a realization that the future of our industry and education, in general, is gonna be online. It’s gonna be virtual reality. It’s gonna be Metaverse, all these, all these things you’re hearing about. Right? Right. You put on a headset and be in a class you don’t really need to physically go somewhere as much. Right. You could still have that experience with a teacher with, or the classmates, but online. So at the moment, we’re working on more content, developing our technology as opposed to just trying to make a bunch of franchises. We’re trying to have more content. So, more students around the world can connect with us wherever they are.
Scrappy Jackson: That’s cool. That’s very cool. And as far as Southwest Florida goes, how do we connect with you as far as tutoring is concerned or online classes?
Greg Degnan: Sure. Yeah. In Southwest Florida. At the moment, we offer online, group classes, in-private classes, in English, and Spanish. So if you’d like, if you’re interested in learning Spanish, for example, or English, at the moment, you could still inquire about French, Portuguese, other languages. We may have a teacher available, but because it’s online, we can give you a, for example, if you wanna learn Spanish, we might have a great teacher in Miami that can just get online with you twice a week. It’s about, it’s reasonable. It’s about $40 an hour. The teachers will be flexible with your schedule, you know, best time for you. So yeah, let us know. Our website is SBL.edu like South Beach Languages, SBL.edu. And you can come on our website and make an inquiry.
Scrappy Jackson: Okay. Finally, Greg, if you have to give advice to your 12-year-old self, what would it be?
Greg Degnan: That’s great. Yeah, one of my favorite authors is a guy named Scott Adams. He does the Dilbert cartoon and he speaks about being a generalist as opposed to being a specialist. And I really agree with that. And I found in my life by it’s more of like the baseball analogy of like being a utility player, as opposed to like the saver in baseball. Right. I think of myself more as a utility player, I can go in across different industries. That would be the advice I would give. Follow your dreams, but don’t be too specialized. Be open and try to, instead of saying, this is the only thing I’m gonna put all my eggs in this basket, I would say have a little bit of, have three or four strengths and develop all of them as opposed to just one thing.
Scrappy Jackson: So you gave great advice to your 12-year-old self.
Greg Degnan: Hopefully I did, right? Follow me.
Scrappy Jackson: Greg Degnan, South Beach Languages, South Beach, Southwest Florida, Hollywood, and incredible entrepreneur. We’re brought to you by Content with Teeth. Content with Teeth, a content marketing company, doing really big things, just like this logo behind me, Greg. Thank you so much for your time, man. We really appreciate it.
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