Rand Fishkin: Google Isn’t a Search Engine Anymore, but Your Competitor (GMT065)

Rand Fishkin is the CEO and Co-Founder of SparkToro, a new software company that makes it easier for you to connect with your audience in a less expensive and more effective way. He’s dedicated his professional life to helping people do better marketing through the Whiteboard Friday video series, his blog, and his book, Lost and Founder: A Painfully Honest Field Guide to the Startup World.

In episode 65, you’ll learn:

  1. Why Google isn’t just a search engine anymore — it’s one of your competitors
  2. What marketers should do with recent Google algorithm updates
  3. The mistakes Rand made in growing Moz and how he’s avoiding those in building SparkToro
  4. Why marketing flywheels > growth hacks

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Tweet Some Quotes from This Episode
Why Google isn’t just a search engine anymore — it’s one of your competitors – @randfish from @GrowthToday podcast. Get the full podcast episode 👇 Click To Tweet Growth hacks are tricks that work for a little while and then die off. That's why marketing flywheels are almost always better than growth hacks. – @randfish from @GrowthToday podcast. Get the full episode 👇 Click To Tweet It's hard to do marketing for a minimum viable product (MVP).  – @randfish from the @GrowthToday podcast. Get the full episode 👇 Click To Tweet
My Takeaways from This Episode
  1. The traditional VC and angel investment funding model is broken. Rand points out in this podcast and his book that for most investor’s it’s a numbers game. Their definition of success is a zero-sum game – you either become a billion-dollar company or your company is worthless to them. There’s gotta be a better way. That’s why he raised funds for SparkToro in a different way.
  2. First impressions of your product matter; so don’t make your MVP too crappy. I’ve heard the saying, “If you’re not embarrassed by the first version of your product, then you built too much.” Rand disagrees. If you do have a following, that first impression is critically in whether users will stick around for the long-term.
  3. Marketing flywheels are almost always better than growth hacks. With growth hacks, it works for a little while, then it sputters off. On the other hand, a marketing flywheel is something that you build that generates inertia and energy, such that each effort and piece of energy that you put into it helps it spin faster and faster, and it carries through. That’s much better than a one-off trick.
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About Rand Fiskin
Rand Fishkin is the CEO and Co-Founder of SparkToro, a new software company that makes it easier for you to connect with your audience in a less expensive and more effective way. Previously, he was a co-founder at Moz where he built an iconic brand around their “White Board Fridays” video series. In addition to loving Dungeons and Dragons, SEO and beer, Fishkin is simply one of the world’s foremost SEO experts.
Show Notes
  • 2:40 – Rapid fire questions for Rand: coffee vs. tea, beer vs. wine, Settler’s of Catan vs. Dungeons and Dragons
  • 4:20 – What’s the thing that gets Rand excited to wake up Monday morning?
  • 14:08 – What is the big vision Rand has for the world with SparkToro?
  • 15:52 – In the book, Rand talks about how at one point in Moz, he hated being a CEO. Does he love being a CEO the second time around?
  • 17:25 – How is Rand making sure that he doesn’t make the same mistake with SparkToro that he did with scaling Moz?
  • 21:40 – What is SparkToro?
  • 27:15 – How did Rand and Chase build SparkToro’s MVP?
  • 30:02 – Who are SparkToro’s best customers
  • 40:05 – Why are marketing flywheels more important than growth hacks?
  • 40:16 – Why is transparency so important to Rand?
  • 41:46 – What’s the balance with being transparent and being too transparent that it becomes a burden for the organization?
  • 43:18 – Why should people care about the sketchy things that Google is doing?
  • 48:10 – Where can people find out more about SparkToro and Rand Fiskin
Links
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