Dennis YU Shares His Expert Opinion on Digital Marketing

We are super happy to have Dennis Yu on board with us, a digital marketing expert from before it was a mainstream profession like it is now.

He is well versed in all things related to digital marketing, including the best practices, trends, and much more. Dennis Yu is also a CEO at Blitz Metrics, a digital marketing agency that provides multiple marketing services for individuals and brands.

Here is all that we asked him and his responses!

Hello Dennis, thanks for being a part of our Champ Series. Please shed some light on your career with our readers.

Muneeb: When did you discover the world of Digital Marketing? What made you choose it as a career?

Dennis: I knew it as “webmastering” 30 years ago. Then it was called “internet marketing,” “web marketing,” “digital marketing,” and now all sorts of various names that involve social and influencer.

But whatever the case, it’s been an odd mix of the “latest tools” plus relationship building. And I’ve noticed that the fascination with tools seems to come first and peter out, while relationships are the stable thing.

30 years ago, I wouldn’t have thought this would be a career. Like most of us, it was something I found fascinating and was fortunate to become good at. I’ve made some great friends over the years, which keeps me in the game, no matter the latest trend.

Muneeb: What led you to start BlitzMetrics, and what’s the company’s core objective?

Dennis: My mission is to create a million jobs.

And I’ll do anything in my power to make this happen, except what’s unethical. I’ve lost millions of dollars in this pursuit, and I expect to lose millions more since this is so important to me.

I was lucky to have mentors when I started in business — who opened doors for me that I would never have been able to open on my own. And I’d like for everyone to have this sort of opportunity for themselves, since trying to win solo in business is hard, even if you’re really smart and work really hard.

I believe that training programs and mentorship are replacing traditional education. And that this hands-on experience has to come from industry participants like Social Champ who are in the thick of it– not from just academia.

We need to bridge the education system and private sector. And that means we set industry-wide standards in digital marketing that tie to certification programs for our young and not-so-young adults.

Thus, everyone should be either in training or training others.

Muneeb: Since you are an expert on Facebook Ads, what do you think is the best approach to run a high ROI campaign?

Dennis: Easy– start with one channel that is already producing 50+ conversions per week.

Create a 1% lookalike audience against the highest quality custom audiences of 200+.

Adapt the content to be on Facebook– essentially square video and images, plus killer copy.

And run to the conversion objective, manually bid to the highest CPA you’re willing to accept at the margin.

If you don’t have the strong signal of custom audiences, then rely upon tight interest targets of competitors and related products. You could even mimic what competitors are doing with the ever-improving Facebook Ads Library, which lets you spy on anyone’s ads.

But the key is already having conversions in another channel, so the algorithm can learn quickly and optimize for you.

Muneeb:  What would be your advice for someone who wants to follow the same career path as you?

Dennis: The paths from 30 years ago don’t exist today and vice versa. But generally, there are MORE opportunities today than ever because there are more people on the internet, more tools available, and it’s easier to reach mentors, customers, and team members.

Today, you’re just one tweet away from someone who could change your life.

Muneeb: How necessary are marketing automation tools for any business? What would you say about Social Champ?

Dennis: Marketing automation has gone from nice to have to critical. The more channels there are, the more places we need to be.
So repurposing content, especially video, is key to building connections with our customers.

Social Champ is a great tool to help us repurpose content across many channels– to equip our community and content managers to reach more audiences.

Muneeb: Who is your inspiration, both personally and professionally?

Dennis: I admire Ray Dalio, who wrote Principles (an incredible book, app, and set of videos)– not because he started the world’s largest hedge fund or is one of the top 10 richest people on the planet.

But because he has taught me how to see past my blind spots, whether it be my pride or ignorance, especially when I think I know a lot more about something than I do. Being able to see things objectively, as if you’re observing the situation ten feet above yourself, yields decisions different from what I’d make personally in the heat of the moment.

I believe what we don’t know we don’t know is vastly bigger than what we know we don’t know.

I admire Joe Kelly, who was my high school track coach. He believed in me when I was a 13-year-old loser who didn’t have any friends and was one of the slowest people on the team. I was able to run under 5 minutes in the mile my freshman year because of his belief. And then run at the D1 college level because he believes in me, not because of my ability.

Muneeb:  Aside from work, how do you spend your days? Any activity that our audience might be interested in?

Dennis: Believe it or not, I get to spend time with people who also want to create a million jobs.

Rehan Allahwala is from Pakistan and has been a successful businessman for 31 years. We teach digital marketing to Pakistanis for free to get jobs making $500 a month serving American clients.

Today, I got to hang out with Brendan King, CEO of Vendasta, who has 60,000 partners using his white-label agency software, which runs digital marketing for 2 million local businesses worldwide.

Dr. Kim Grimes lost her husband at age 24, yet could come back, start a foundation serving young adults, and now help others of all walks of life shine through.

These people constantly inspire me.

Muneeb: Time for our rapid-fire round.

Rapid Fire Round

Muneeb: Lastly, who do you think we should interview next on Social Champ? 

Dennis: Alex Berman.

Social Champ is grateful to Dennis Yu for taking the time and sharing his valued responses with the Champ community. We, for sure, loved hearing from you!