Nerd
A place to nerd out, have a laugh and pick up a few tips. Written by Brad.
Every idea here is mine
Every post on Nerd is my thinking, sorted with Claude's help. Nothing is scraped, nothing is auto-generated, and I'll always be upfront about how I work.
I'm a straight shooter, so I share a lot here for free. With enough experience, the real advantage isn't any single tip. It's knowing how to piece all the little problems together, across every part of the funnel: from awareness, to lead, to the post-purchase survey.
Latest, and on the way
Coming soon You choose what I write next. Upvote the topics you want answered, and the one with the most votes gets written first.
Got a topic that isn't here? Suggest it.
- New
Will websites even exist in the future?
Maybe not as we know them. When people's own AI plugs straight into your business data, what is a website for?
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Not another acronym!
Baffled by the BS? SEO, URL, PPC and the new ones. I didn't know what an EDM was, but I knew what an enewsletter was.
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Are you still looking at the same metrics?
Do you know your top- and bottom-of-funnel signals? Intent: the golden word.
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Hire or upgrade?
Doubling staff output, or freeing your current team to focus on other things.
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The evils of double handling
Every extra touch is wasting your staff's time. That's on you.
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Reputation management
How I moved a bad review off the home page, in the age of SEO and LLMs.
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From roadshow to webinar
How we saved $50k a year by swapping city-to-city presentations for webinars that reach everyone, even the people who don't tune in.
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Every post is a waste of time...
...unless it targets a funnel.
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Multi-purposing 101
Using content again, and again, and maybe again if you know they haven't read it.
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No one is really reading your emails
So why didn't you get the subject line right?
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Why are you sending emails?
What's your plan to segment, so you send the right message to the right person at the right time? Build your own magic microphone.
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Feed the machine
Lead magnets, and what is your machine anyway? Do you know your conversion rate?
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Google My Business is back from the dead
Is your business even on the map? No website? No problem.
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Are your experts' reports telling you what you want to know?
Do you know your click-to-open rate? Do they ever tell you what they did wrong, or what they could do better? If not, they aren't really looking at your data.
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Online vs offline marketing?
The main difference is the channels, not the strategies.
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Be your own distributor
Don't waste a word, a touchpoint or a nurture opportunity. Three times in 21 days.
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Attribution: tough, but achievable
On stage at an AI conference, the moderator said attribution was hard, and was dumbfounded when I said I'd just done it.
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"Gee, we should have done that years ago"
How many times have you said it? Don't say it with AI. One year could be ten in your industry, and the difference between surviving and growing.
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If you're reading this...
It came from content marketing, maybe a Facebook post, or word of mouth. My social media budget is $1,000 a year, and every spend is calculated for maximum return in leads.
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Remarketing basics
If you see an ad or get an email after interacting with me, you'll know my work works.
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Google products explained
Google's products, explained in plain English.
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Pretty isn't a strategy
If you're building it just to look pretty and be fun, it's already not working. Everything needs a reason, and every piece is a tactic for your strategy.
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How to tackle a problem
You can't do it all at once. Don't scope creep.
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Deliverability and database hygiene
Why your emails aren't arriving, how a list ends up on Google's naughty list, and the birth rate your database needs to keep growing.
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Agentic AI: when your customer's AI does the shopping
AI that doesn't just answer, it acts. What happens to your business when an agent, not a person, decides who gets the booking?
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How to think like the CEO of Google
You probably already do: you both want the best for your customer. The more you help Google organise the world's information, the more it rewards you. When did you last post on your Google Business Profile, update your closing hours, or respond to a review?
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5 things to do with your reviews
Collecting them is just the start.
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Client sentiment: the holy grail
What your customers really feel about you is worth more than any other number. But don't ask them what you should be smart enough to figure out from their behaviour on your website. Segment through authentic engagement, not a long list of questions.
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Structuring your database
Get the structure right first, and segmentation, nurture and reporting all get easier.
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The competitor-logo test
Could a competitor paste their logo above your copy without changing a word? If yes, it isn't finished.
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Hate AI? Good.
You're probably right about the AI you've seen. Same ingredients, two cooks: it was never the oven.
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Four kinds of knowledge
Facts, house rules, expertise and live data. Mix them together and AI breaks.
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Cited but not named
When AI uses your website to answer a question, and leaves your name out.
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Does your site use schema?
Terry Techy's favourite question. Optimise all you want: if your technical optimisation isn't right, you're swimming against a tide you created.
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Do you know which channels are most effective?
Or are you spreading yourself too thin trying to be everywhere? TikTok, or the RSL of social media: Facebook.
Rather talk than read?
Book a free chat and nerd out with me in person.