Marketing School - Digital Marketing and Online Marketing Tips

Growth Newsletter: https://levelingup.beehiiv.com/subscribe

Need marketing help? Visit: https://www.singlegrain.com/ and https://npdigital.com/Want to recruit great marketers? Find them here: https://marketingschool.io/hire

Eight Sleep's co-founder says the company does close to $100 million in email marketing with a team of zero after his co-founder built the bots in three days. Neil calls spades spades: email is harvesting demand that other channels paid for, and one person plus AI would beat both. Eric's version is the agent manager, the job he now interviews for. They scroll Harry Stebbings' Instagram, built on tech's most controversial stories, and debate whether that brings a VC the right deal flow. Eric demos Instinct, the $10 billion iMessage agent that planned his travel and got him onto a waitlist that morning, and the pair take apart Roy Lee's Cluely content and the cold TikTok bio a fan made of Neil. The close: Elon, Buffett and Rockefeller became brands by doing the work. A candid episode on headlines, hype and what content is actually for.

Key takeaways◾'No employees' is a headline; the channel mix and the humans behind it are the real story◾Sensational content grows an account fast and rarely brings the right customer◾If the product were crushing it, the founder wouldn't have time for viral content

Chapters00:00 $100M in email with no employees00:54 Neil: email isn't doing that alone02:29 The agent manager: everyone's next job03:51 Harry Stebbings' Instagram04:46 500 views to 40K: scrolling Harry's reels06:38 Will controversial content bring the right deal flow?07:09 The $10B iMessage startup08:11 Instinct: booking travel and skipping a waitlist10:03 Deal flow vs views: Neil's take10:50 Put your hand on the stove11:14 Accenture doesn't do sensational11:43 Roy Lee (Cluely): 'global rank #1 entrepreneur'14:02 Juiced numbers, and content as a tell15:22 The rich people Neil knows don't make content15:49 A fan's TikTok bio of Neil17:22 Elon, Buffett, Rockefeller: brands from the work

Growth Newsletter: https://levelingup.beehiiv.com/subscribe

Need marketing help? Visit: https://www.singlegrain.com/ and https://npdigital.com/Want to recruit great marketers? Find them here: https://marketingschool.io/hire

Eric opens with Bryan Johnson's team telling creators to forget the content calendar and iterate, and how he now rewrites and reposts flopped posts by voice on the walk to the gym. Neil's newest test asks viewers to comment for a free audit, and the pairing metric he wants on every social hire is leads, not views. Then enterprise specifics: a three-year contract that grew out of work in one region, why only two to three percent of NP Digital's enterprise revenue traces back to Neil's personal brand, and how ten-person search agencies quietly decide the biggest marketing contracts. Eric opens his Leveling Up channel to show the wide-TAM experiment, 8.9 million views on one short and interviews that got praise from entrepreneurs' spouses but no leads, before Neil explains the acquisition lesson that grows a bought agency's EBITDA 40 to 60 percent in a year and why he follows up with everyone. A grounded episode on measuring what actually pays.

Key takeaways◾Pair views with leads for every social hire, or the team optimises for likes◾Wide-TAM content brings views and comments, not enterprise leads◾Buy the specialist that big brands already call; the follow-up is where the deals are

Chapters00:00 F your content calendar01:36 Comment-to-lead: the 37-places reel03:34 Every metric needs a pairing metric04:17 NP Digital vs NP Accel: where SMB leads go04:53 A format library your agent keeps fresh06:09 A 3-year contract from one region's work07:56 Stop creating content for 90 days?08:22 6% of enterprise leads come from Neil's brand08:58 70% of SMB leads, 50% of SMB revenue10:17 Procurement, RFPs and the search agencies11:56 Dan Martell's formats and wider TAM12:52 Seminars and ascension funnels13:34 Eric's wide-TAM experiment on Leveling Up15:17 The shorts: 3.9M, 2.7M, 2.1M views17:02 Why Eric stopped: no leads17:37 Distribution beats content when you have leverage18:44 The acquisition lesson: 40-60% EBITDA growth21:21 The fortune is in the follow-up22:07 'How are things going?' scheduled for March 2027

Growth Newsletter: https://levelingup.beehiiv.com/subscribe

Need marketing help? Visit: https://www.singlegrain.com/ and https://npdigital.com/Want to recruit great marketers? Find them here: https://marketingschool.io/hire

Eric and Neil open on Meta Muse, Meta's new autonomous agent, and Neil explains why he trusts Meta with it more than OpenAI or Anthropic: Meta has held everyone's data for years and people already live inside its products. Eric shows what his own Muse did in minutes, pulling Ryan Deiss's best Instagram formats and rewriting them for his channel, and argues that formats are now the job. Then the real debate: Neil says almost all of their content is still too broad, that specific content for a specific buyer drives revenue even at a fifth of the views, and that a room of enterprise marketers in Ecuador proved it when two or three percent knew he ran an agency. They land on a secondary hook, one line that says who you are and what your company does, placed wherever it sounds natural. A practical episode on trust, formats and making your content pay.

Key takeaways◾Trust decides which AI agents win, and Meta starts with more of it than the labs◾Let an agent keep your format library fresh so you can just record◾Specific content converts; add a one-line credibility hook so buyers know who you are

Chapters00:00 Meta Muse: Meta's autonomous agent00:34 Why Neil trusts Meta more than OpenAI02:35 Eric, the GrokBot team and Ryan Deiss03:49 Ryan's Instagram: niche or broad?05:46 Tier lists and reactions: the formats that work06:49 Eric's Muse rewrites Ryan's formats08:01 Neil: all three of us are still too broad09:50 Danger gets views: Nick Shirley10:47 A 100K-view video can be a great video11:44 Ecuador: 3% of the room knew Neil had an agency13:25 Accenture, TAM and who you're really selling to15:22 The secondary hook: say who you are16:50 Where the mention goes: wherever it's natural17:27 Test it: from 3% to 10% in a year

Growth Newsletter: https://levelingup.beehiiv.com/subscribe

Need marketing help? Visit: https://www.singlegrain.com/ and https://npdigital.com/Want to recruit great marketers? Find them here: https://marketingschool.io/hire

It took 64 clicks to buy a Tesla online, 30 of them signing loan documents. Eric explains the five-step algorithm from the book of the same name (question, delete, simplify, speed up, automate) and how it 20x'd Tesla's website sales. Then the data: AI-generated ads are beating human creative on completion rate (92% vs 90% on connected TV), Shopify's Q2 shows $116 billion in GMV and a platform built for AI agents, and Neil's case that SEO and GEO are merging into one thing, brand. Eric on the new agents he is testing, Instinct and Meta Muse, and the week's grand finale: Rohan Nayak's post on how Pocket FM went from zero to $500 million in ARR with an AI ad machine that makes 17,500 ads a month.

Key takeaways◾Question, delete, simplify, speed up, then automate; most people automate first and fail◾SEO or GEO, the long game is brand; you have to show up everywhere◾A 2% to 2.25% CTR lift cut Pocket FM's CAC by 30%; build the ad machine around that insight

Chapters00:00 Tesla 20x'd website sales: 64 clicks to 301:35 Buying a car on a website02:55 AI ads beat human creative on completion04:19 Shopify Q2: $116B GMV and AI commerce05:38 SEO and GEO are merging into brand08:04 Search everywhere optimization, again10:49 A SaaS company diversifying off SEO11:46 Instinct and Meta Muse agents14:15 Pocket FM: $0 to $500M ARR with 17,500 ads a month17:11 Build your own ad machine

Growth Newsletter: https://levelingup.beehiiv.com/subscribe

Need marketing help? Visit: https://www.singlegrain.com/ and https://npdigital.com/Want to recruit great marketers? Find them here: https://marketingschool.io/hire

Eric and Neil open up their own marketing week. Eric's $250 test assignment that turned into a $2,000 quote, the GrokBots he built in his free time (a call bot that phoned a spa and confirmed a booking, a haggle bot renegotiating every software bill, and a speed-to-lead bot that calls every form fill within 60 seconds), and the 2x2 he uses to decide which agency work becomes a reusable workflow and which gets killed. Neil on speed to learning, why wins on one channel take too long to reach the rest of the company, and how he finds agencies that stopped growing and buys the ones losing deals only because they are too small. Then the social tests: Neil's new screen-share format and LinkedIn engagement scraping, Eric's comment-to-DM flow with Lead Shark and Goji Berry, and the YouTube video that was edited entirely by AI.

Key takeaways◾Every lead gets a call within 60 seconds; a bot can do it and sound good◾Speed to learning is the bottleneck: move a win from one channel to every channel fast◾Reusable workflows beat custom premium work; build them, then hand them to the team

Chapters00:00 Our marketing week: the $250 test that failed02:42 The GrokBot that booked Eric's massage04:17 Haggle bot and speed-to-lead in 60 seconds05:18 Neil: speed to learning07:46 Buying agencies that stopped growing10:24 Eric's 2x2: reusable workflows13:14 Neil's new screen-share format15:40 Scraping your LinkedIn engagers16:38 Comment-to-DM with Lead Shark and Goji Berry18:21 YouTube: relevant views beat viral views19:54 A fully AI-edited video22:16 AI thumbnails that actually look like you