GE 205: Peep Laja On How CXL Captures 150-200 Emails/Day & Generates 100 Agency Leads/Month (podcast)

Hey everyone, in today’s episode I share the mic with Peep Laja, founder of CXL, the knowledge leader in the optimization space.

Listen as Peep discusses how CXL began as a blog and turned into an agency, how they increased the readership of their blog to 300K per month, the secret to getting an 80% qualified leads rate, why building your email list should be top priority, and how switching from pre-recorded videos to live courses jacked up participation rates by 600%.

Download podcast transcript [PDF] here: Peep Laja On How CXL Captures 150-200 Emails/Day & Generates 100 Agency Leads/Month TRANSCRIPT

Time-Stamped Show Notes:

• 00:39 – Leave a review and rating and subscribe to the Growth Everywhere Podcast
• 01:07 – Eric welcomes Peep Laja
• 01:38 – CXL is an optimization company that started as a blog and grew to become an agency; it is not a training institution
  • 02:07 – CXL has a total of 16 personnel divided into two teams – service and education
• 02:39 – Before starting his blog, Peep researched what made blogs successful and decided that he would create data-backed, long-form blog posts
  • 03:21 – They now have 300,000 readers a month
• 03:36 – In the beginning, Peep wrote 1 to 2 blog posts a week but now they have 2 full-time writers and occasional guest writers
• 04:36 – Peep does not prefer guest posts because they usually do it for the back links—this can lower the quality of posts and their content editors spend more time editing theses posts rather than writing content
• 05:06 – When content is pitched, Peep does not pay the writer; if they approach an expert, they pay $350 per post
• 05:41 – They get 150 to 250 emails a day and generate over a hundred agency leads a month
• 06:13 – The email list is the main sales platform for CXL Institute
• 07:29 – Peep has added pricing on their website to eliminate low quality leads and they now get 80% quality leads
• 08:30 – The company that hires their agency and those who enroll in the Institute are the same
  • 09:08 – In order to invest in employee training and growth, you have to be a big business
  • 09:18 – Peep and his company had a big a-ha moment when they realized that their services could only be afforded by big companies that already had millions in revenue as opposed to their first target which was small companies
• 09:48 – CXL Institute does training in digital analytics and optimization through video programs and live online courses
  • 10:20 – There is a problem with online courses as completion rates are low
  • 10:53 – The live course is CXL Institute’s way to address the problem
  • 11:04 – The dates are scheduled and it’s a live Q&A with an instructor who does live screen sharing
  • 11:28 – The course participation and completion rate of CXL Institute is at 600%
  • 11:50 – They have an all-access pass for companies
  • 12:10 – Old sessions are recorded and can be accessed from within the site and new ones are done every two weeks
• 12:41 – The price for recorded and live are the same
  • 13:03 – A typical course is priced at $499 and shorter courses are at $299
  • 13:16 – All-access pass is $299 per month
• 13:48 – The course offers fundamentals as well as discussions on new products
• 14:05 – On average, they have 100 to 150 people signed up in a course
• 14:25 – The biggest thing in CRL right now are the better and smarter tools, AI and machine learning
  • 15:03 – Segment is a SaaS tool that is combining all the cool stuff that is possible with personalization
  • 16:10 – Segment is able to personalize their website based on your business
• 17:04 – Peep learns about new trends by going to conferences and hanging out with people
• 17:52 – To tailor your website, you can use Intellimize or Google Optimize
• 18:27 – Customer acquisition is done through driving traffic to the website, capturing emails and the email list
• 19:02 – Time-based autoresponders work less and less
• 19:25 – Trigger-based email is more effective
• 19:41 – Peep’s company also look at every single email for compatibility with their services and sends them a manual email to set a phone call for sales
• 20:39 – In statistics, the average means very little
• 21:36 – Peep’s company does all-inclusive CRL work for companies
  • 22:05 – The price starts from $10,000 per month and goes up depending on how big the business is
  • 23:32 – If you are an agency business working in CRL, it is better to work with big businesses
• 23:44 – CXL Live is a growth and optimization conference
  • 24:24 – The event is done on a remote hotel
  • 24:29 – The conference is an extension of the brand
  • 25:09 – The goal is to foster real relationships by building the online community together in real life
• 26:04 – An ideal person to work with in organizing a conference is someone who can bring in a lot of good speakers
• 26:39 – What’s one book that you’d recommend to everyone? – Purple Cow by Seth Godin
• 27:00 – How does Peep learn? – Doing it and surrounding myself with people who have already done what I am trying to do
• 27:39 – Connect with Peep on his website
• 27:41 – End of today’s episode

3 Key Points:

1. The quality of your content is of the utmost importance in building a blog.
2. The effort is the same when doing business with small vs. big companies; the difference is the income.
3. Live courses are better than modular online courses.

Resources From This Interview:

• CXL
• CXL Institute
• Segment
• Intellimize
• Google Optimize
• CXL Live
• Must-read book: Purple Cow by Seth Godin

Leave Some Feedback:

• What should I talk about next? Who should I interview? Please let me know on Twitter or in the comments below.
• Did you enjoy this episode? If so, leave a short review here.
• Subscribe to Growth Everywhere on iTunes.
• Get the non-iTunes RSS feed

 Connect With Eric Siu:

• Growth Everywhere
• Single Grain
• Twitter @ericosiu