Welcome to our first Friday edition of Leveling Up!

Now every Friday, Eric Siu and Neil Patel will reach into their $100m+ marketing vaults and send you their best curated content.

You’ll receive the following:

• 🎓 Summaries of their latest Marketing School episodes

• 🧠 Mindset shifts that will unlock your full potential

• 👾 Plus more!

We hope you enjoy it. If not, you can unsubscribe anytime.

🎓 AI is Taking Over SEO: Here are 3 Ways to Stay Ahead of the Curve

The future of SEO involves — you guessed it — Artificial Intelligence.

You simply can’t escape AI’s massive implications on search. It’s even giving Google a run for its money… and they know it.

That’s why Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin have approved plans to add their chatbot, Google Bard, to the search engine.

How can you take advantage of this update?

Here are three ideas:

1. Focus on user intent

With AI, search engines can better understand the intent behind a user's search query.

Your website should only display the right information so people can understand it as fast as possible.

2. Make clever-er content

AI will be able to understand the context and meaning of content rather than just the keywords.

SEO will become more sophisticated, requiring a more in-depth understanding of the topic and how to present it in a way the reader quickly understands.

3. Start testing AI-generated content

This will become a sink-or-swim moment for many website owners. Either you use AI tools to improve your content or other SEOs will use them to outrank you.

We recommend starting with Google Bard.

For Eric & Neil’s full thoughts, watch their Marketing School episode here.

🎓 Should You Hire a Business Coach?

Neil says no.

Why? Because you should be skeptical of their motivations and experience.

If you’re so successful, why would you go and start coaching?

Successful people at that level should be able to teach for free.

However, Eric finds coaching to be beneficial.

Of course, he’s had coaches in the past where he’s felt like, “What am I doing here? I already know all the stuff they’re telling me.”

But he’s also had coaches benefit him in ways he didn’t expect.

For example, having a coach that can solve problems in his personal life has directly impacted his business. It’s kind of like a form of therapy.

So if you’re thinking about hiring a coach, consider this:

After years of hiring coaches, Eric believes you should receive a monthly recurring value for their monthly recurring fees.

That’s the litmus test you should put against any potential coach.

If you’re not getting value, then stop the relationship immediately.

He also recommends looking for patient coaches that, rather than give direct advice, ask you questions that get your mind organized.

But ultimately, you have to try coaching yourself to see what you think.

It works for some, but it doesn’t work for others.

To hear their full thoughts, listen to the Marketing School episode here.

🎓 5 Big Marketing Predictions for 2023

Neil and Eric make these predictions at the start of every year.

Their “hot takes” don’t always come true, but they’re usually pretty close.

But this year? It’s looking like they were spot on. Get ready for more major changes.

By 2024, they predict…

1. Google hits “peak saturation”

Google continues improving its new algorithm designed to promote websites written for humans rather than search engines.

Quality > Quantity.

Make your site helpful, and it will be future-proof.

2. Full-time job offers disappear

Full-time employees might stay for 2-3 years if you're lucky, but they’ve had contractors that have worked with them for 8-10 years.

They expect more companies to hire full-time contractors from now on.

If you’re an employee, start exploring your options as a freelancer.

3. Everyone will use an Ai assistant

It took ChatGPT just 2 months to reach 100M users.

And it’s so good that by the end of this year, some companies may no longer need a team of marketers.

Instead, one “Ai wrangler” may be all that’s needed.

4. The rise of “micro” M&A deals

It won’t just be the big companies getting acquired for millions of dollars, smaller entrepreneurs will start to buy and sell businesses.

These “micro” M&A deals can save you time and money.

You might be surprised at the offers that get accepted.

5. Podcasting gets a second wind

There’s a reason Eric has podcasted solo for over 10 years and 5 years together with Neil.

The number of podcast listeners worldwide will grow to over 465 million in 2023. And revenue is projected to surpass $2 billion as well.

Not bad.

To hear their full predictions, listen to the Marketing School episode here.

🧠 Mindset Shift: If You Have Trolls on Social Media, That’s a Good Thing

Look, haters are going to hate. So ignore them.

It doesn’t matter if you have a thousand followers or a million followers; eventually, someone will talk some trash to you.

Ignore them.

There’s not much you can do to convince these haters, and you shouldn’t do anything to try to convince them.

It’s a waste of your energy to spend time on them.

Spending time with the people who are more likely to become your customers would be best.

Help them out. Put the energy there.

Don’t worry about the haters because everyone has them.

Here’s the kicker: the haters are going to help you grow.

They’re going to leave many comments in ways you don’t like, but then your loyal followers will back you up.

This creates more engagement, and the algorithms support that.

In other words, the haters help you become more popular.

Until next week,

The Leveling Up Team

P.S.

Here are more ways we can help your business grow:

• Listen to our Marketing School podcast for daily marketing tips

• Subscribe to the Leveling Up YouTube channel

• Read the Single Grain blog for actionable marketing playbooks