Mastering Small Business Marketing: Strategies, AI, and Insights with Sarah Block

PROMO CODE BELOW! Ever felt overwhelmed by marketing your small business? You're not alone! Join us as we chat with Sarah Block, founder of Tiny Marketing, about her unique strategies and systems designed specifically for tiny teams. Get ready to level up your marketing game as we discuss the future of AI and chatGPT use in small businesses, the importance of knowing what you don't know, and how to serve your customers better. Did you know our amazing voices can go beyond just the microphone? Yes, we have video! Subscribe to our YouTube channel here!

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Sarah’s Links:

•  LinkedIn | @tiny-marketing-sarah-noel-block

Customer Avatar Bundle - PROMO CODE: SAFARI100

•  Website | https://www.sarahnoelblock.com/safari 

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GOLD NUGGETS:

(00:00) - Tiny Marketing for Small Businesses

(04:09) - Marketing Strategy and AI Use

(09:41) - Marketing Strategies for Small Businesses

(19:36) - Customer Avatars and Partnership Marketing

(28:44) - Webinar Planning and Promotion Strategies

(40:41) - Marketing, Home Features, and DIY Nightmares

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Previous guests on The Small Business Safari include Amy Lyle, Ben Alexander, Joseph Sission, Jonathan Ellis, Brad Dell, Chris Hanks, C.T. Emerson, Chad Brown, Tracy Moore, Wayne Sherger, David Raymond, Paul Redman, Gabby Meteor, Ryan Dement, Barbara Heil Sonneck, Bryan John, Tom Defore, Rusty Clifton, Duane Johns, Beth Miller, Jason Sleeman, Andy Suggs, Chris Michel, Jon Ostenson, Tommy Breedlove, Rocky Lalvani, Amanda Griffey, Spencer Powell, Joe Perrone, David Lupberger, Duane C. Barney, Dave Moerman, Jim Ryerson, Al Mishkoff, Scott Specker, Mike Claudio and more!

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If you loved this episode try these!

• Tripling Your Business with Frank Pellegruto's Proven Strategies

• How to Launch Your Business to the Stratosphere with Chris Hanks

• Scaling a Moving and Junk Removal Business: A Candid Conversation with Roger Panitch

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Have any questions or comments? Connect with me here!

Thanks to our sponsor Smart Hire Solutions LLC!

Transcript

Tiny Marketing for Small Businesses

Chris Lalomia 0:00

Y ou know what I love.

Sarah Block 0:01

AI You know what. Really.

Alan Wyatt 0:02

Oh, it just freaks me out, it freaks my dad out too.

Sarah Block 0:06

He said stop it, They're going to learn too much from you.

Alan Wyatt 0:09

Her dad could be my son too, but Yeah, it's true. Yeah, so you're even more freaked out than her dad. Well and it's just going to get smarter and smarter, and I already hate the texts that make it seem like that person knows me and then they make me feel bad for not responding to it And it's I know. This is all AI-backed.

Speaker 4 0:26

That's so funny because I know I was interviewing someone on my podcast recently who said that someone replied to her email with a complaint. Like that, quit acting like you know me, i know this isn't really you, and it was her.

Chris Lalomia 0:41

Oh my gosh, She goes. no, I really am. It really is me, But you know how many emails I've gotten in the last two weeks that have said this is a real human trying to reach you And you're like no, you're not, Because it was like three paragraphs longer.

Speaker 4 0:51

You can't even trust the real humans being real humans If you were a real human, you wouldn't have to tell me Right.

Chris Lalomia 0:56

Wait, oh, this is so good. Welcome to the small business safari where I help guide you to avoid those traps, pitfalls and dangers that lurk when navigating the wild world of small business ownership. I'll share those gold nuggets of information and invite guests to help accelerate your ascent to that mountaintop of success. It's a jungle out there and I want to help you traverse through the levels of owning your own business that can get you bogged down and distract you from any of your own personal and professional goals. So strap in adventure team and let's take a ride through the safari and get you to the mountaintop. Oh boy, ellen, we have another episode that sky has finally parted, the rain has gone away, the sunshine is out And we're about to have a great time inside an orchestra.

Chris Lalomia 1:47

Well, i was driving to come do this. I was like man. There's one reason I love being on my job is I get to be outside. So I got to go. This morning we had training with my team love that got out there. But then I got to go check on. We started two jobs that I had estimated. So I got to go meet and greet the customers and do all that And I'm driving back here going. Man, i just love not being in an office, sitting there looking outside, going. Boy, i wonder what it feels like to be outside. I had the windows down. I was rolling through Atlanta. Do you have some 80s music going? I was playing. I was playing the outfield. Actually I was playing, no kidding, i played Hair Nation on Sirius XM. That's funny. That's my guilty pleasure. I'll admit it. I do like 80s hair rock.

Alan Wyatt 2:27

Yeah, considering we have no hair Right.

Chris Lalomia 2:29

Uh-oh, i think we better get going, because this episode is going to be a lot of fun. We have Sarah Blockon and she is with a great company name, and I love this name because when you think about marketing, you think about advertising. Everybody says I want to be big, i want to be bold, i want to be the biggest one ever, and she comes out with a company called Tiny Marketing. I love that name, sarah, welcome to the show, thank you.

Sarah Block 2:55

And.

Chris Lalomia 2:55

I want to know how much time you put into that one and how much did you go out there and test it out and beta test it and do all kinds of A-B testing and all that other crap they talk about to come up with Tiny Marketing.

Speaker 4 3:05

I did none of that. It came to me when I was driving and I said that's it. So is intuitive A-B testing. I said, Sarah, do you like this? Yes, yes, I do, And I went with it.

Alan Wyatt 3:18

I need to work. You're going to have to work on that story a little bit, Sarah, I know I mean you are in marketing.

Speaker 4 3:24

All right, i met, i A-B tested it. I made sure that everybody was going to be all in Now. It really had to do with who I serve and what my values are around my business, so it made sense for me.

Chris Lalomia 3:39

Right. So obviously you work with a lot of little people. Are they short, i mean, can you say that No?

Alan Wyatt 3:44

No, we're going to have to just delete everything.

Chris Lalomia 3:45

I'm short, so tiny marketing. So how did you get into that? What were you doing before that? Maybe we should find out what it is. Oh damn it, all right, let me back up. All right, what is tiny marketing?

Speaker 4 3:59

Tiny marketing. That's a good question, Mr Chris.

Chris Lalomia 4:01

It's always asking the right questions. Yeah, that's what it's about.

Marketing Strategy and AI Use

Speaker 4 4:05

It's the strategies and systems that work for tiny teams. So I started off my marketing world as a one person marketing department for a seven company construction group, actually.

Chris Lalomia 4:17

Yeah.

Speaker 4 4:18

Did you know that my background is in construction and facilities?

Chris Lalomia 4:22

Well, i kind of did. I was waiting for you to tell us that So I could go. I didn't know.

Alan Wyatt 4:26

He's been practicing woohoo. All I ever did was driving around. He was in the mirror doing woohoo, he's driving around listening to Hair Nation. Yes, Woohoo. Bang your head.

Chris Lalomia 4:36

And I'm listening to it. So that's you. So you're working for these companies. You're a one person marketing arm. You're like, wow, how do I figure out how to get these guys where they need to be as one person?

Speaker 4 4:47

Yeah, I was really overwhelmed. I had seven presidents breathing down my neck saying these aren't the right leads. I need you to support this, this, this. There was a lot going on And with construction it's a lot of account based marketing. We're going after specific projects, So that's really complicated when there's only one of you and there's a lot of projects happening. So I built out a system where I look at marketing like 80, 20, 20% of our customers, like the top 20% of our customers. I build our marketing around them because let's just duplicate them. So that's how I do it. And then the extra 20% of my marketing plan that's left over. I call that lab work. That's where I experiment And anything that I want to test out. That quarter that's my permission, I can do that, And I give myself some benchmarks. I'm going to test this for one quarter. If I meet those benchmarks, then it lives in the 80% And if not, I cut it. I like it.

Chris Lalomia 5:52

Cut and then All right. So, tiny marketing. It's a system. But now, if somebody wanted to use your system, they can self-implement. Or do they work with you as the marketing person?

Speaker 4 6:05

They can self-implement. Yeah, i talk about my framework all the time. It's building up this 80-20 plan and then systematizing it, automating where you can, using AI where you can, and then outsourcing anything that doesn't fit into those categories. So even if you have no marketing department, it still works.

Alan Wyatt 6:25

I do want to get into the whole AI thing. I knew it was going to come up today.

Chris Lalomia 6:29

You know what I?

Sarah Block 6:29

love AI Really, Oh it just freaks me out. It freaks my dad out too. He said stop it, They're going to learn too much from you.

Alan Wyatt 6:38

Her dad could be my son too, but yeah, it's true. Yeah, so you're even more freaked out than her dad. Well, and it's just going to get smarter and smarter, And I already hate the texts that make it seem like that person knows me and then they make me feel bad for not responding to it And it's I know. this is all AI-backed.

Speaker 4 6:55

That's so funny because I know I was interviewing someone on my podcast recently who said that someone replied to her email with a complaint. like that, quit acting like you know me, I know this isn't really you and it was her.

Chris Lalomia 7:10

Oh my gosh, She goes, but no.

Sarah Block 7:11

I really am.

Chris Lalomia 7:12

It really is me, But you know how many emails I've gotten in the last two weeks that have said this is a real human trying to reach you And you're like no, you're not, because it feels like three paragraphs longer.

Alan Wyatt 7:20

You can't even trust the real humans being real humans If you were a real human, you wouldn't have to tell me.

Chris Lalomia 7:25

Right, oh, this is so good. What's the human test? No, it's not going to be just clicking the box. I am not a robot. Now you have to like, say what do you do to outsmart AI? to prove that you're not AI.

Speaker 4 7:37

Maybe Sarah can tell us Oh, that's a lot more video, use a lot more video and audio. So something that I've been doing lately is sending personal video so people can actually see my face and see that I'm the one communicating with them And it feels a lot more personal. Breaks down that video.

Chris Lalomia 7:57

Video is a big one, that's. that's a huge point right off the bat. I've done this. I've talked about this a million times. I'm going to talk about it again, because that would be a million and one. But we started my newsletter. I put a newsletter out to now we're up to 17,000 emails that go out every month. That's awesome. We're customers, yep, but we added a video to it two years ago and our open rate went from 25 to 42%, which is 20 some percent higher than the industry average in the remodeling role.

Alan Wyatt 8:26

Just because it had a video in it?

Chris Lalomia 8:27

I don't. I think there was a combination of things we did and we did revamp it, But the video was king, and I picked that up off of Marcus Sheridan. They ask you answers. that video is king and this was going back through it for years ago And now Sarah says it again video and audio. that content is going to prove that you're a real person.

Speaker 4 8:45

Yeah, exactly.

Alan Wyatt 8:47

So how are you using AI though?

Speaker 4 8:50

I use it well a lot of strategic ways. I like to have AI grade what I've created. So one thing I did was I wrote, i wrote a cold pitch for a speaking engagement And then I put it in AI and I said grade this, how responsive will this be? And it went through it and it critiqued it And it said this it gave me suggestions on how to make it better, so it would work better. So that's one way I do it, and I also take content that is done really well that I've already created And I'll put it in chat GPT and I say give me 10 other ideas that are like this. And it comes up with a lot of gold, a lot of gold.

Chris Lalomia 9:36

There's this one, i'm so to chairman Hang on, i'm right down. No, yeah, brace is excited, yeah.

Marketing Strategies for Small Businesses

Alan Wyatt 9:39

Well, i don't know what I'm doing. My son my son's a high school English teacher and he just had to kick a kid out of journalism club because all the stories he wrote were chat GBT. Really. And I'm like okay, come on, you're in a journalism club, yeah why You? probably like to write Yeah.

Chris Lalomia 9:58

I mean Not just get the grade or not, You're not even in grade, it's just for funsies, yeah.

Chris Lalomia 10:02

Yeah. So that boy, that's two great ways to use that, because I've seen one guy you know, of course, AI, chat, GBT, those things I mean huge buzzwords And the construction industry, which is historically known as being behind. You know, I'm in a number of groups nationally but trying to get ahead, But it's so these guys are pitching us saying I'll tell you how to do it. So one guy, just one little Facebook post, I get the most out of it. And it's almost similar to what Sarah said was here's how I use it. And you're like, Oh, okay, if he uses it like this, and then what Sarah just said grade my pitch and give you 10 ideas like this Now I know how to go, try to use AI, or tell my marketing team what to do. My marketing team, you're looking at him.

Alan Wyatt 10:44

I was just going to say you're my team.

Speaker 4 10:46

How's your?

Chris Lalomia 10:46

marketing team doing. You know I'm the tiniest marketing team.

Speaker 4 10:51

Now you get where I got my name.

Chris Lalomia 10:53

I love it. I do. I'm totally into this tiny marketing. I think the branding part of this. I mean, what's the logo look like? I mean, it's just gonna be little but big. How do you be big and little at the same time? It's awesome.

Speaker 4 11:04

I love it. It's just a little tiny with a period at the end.

Chris Lalomia 11:07

There you go.

Alan Wyatt 11:09

That's clean. I like it. That is clean. So, do you focus on clients who are under a certain size employee size or?

Speaker 4 11:18

Not necessarily a certain employee size, but I focus on specifically small marketing departments or no marketing departments, because the systems that I build out are our best for them. I've worked with some massive international companies that have numerous marketing departments and the systems that I've created they don't need, So I don't even I don't want to work with them.

Alan Wyatt 11:46

So you're going where the need is. I like it.

Speaker 4 11:48

Yeah.

Chris Lalomia 11:49

Can we take a case study just to understand how you came in and helped somebody and how you did it Again? back to this chat, GBT and AI thing. I think our listeners would get a lot of information or understand a lot more If you kind of took us through one right. These guys were doing this. They were trying to market, They couldn't. I came in and gave them my quote unquote system, the tiny marketing system, And now they're doing this.

Speaker 4 13:03

Yeah. So, just since this is top of mind, I did a. I did a webinar not too long ago where I put a mini case study of one of my clients, So I'll just go from that one. But it was a facilities company And they were doing like ad hoc blogging, trying to get some SEO traction on it, But it wasn't really going anywhere. So what I did was I created a pillar content system where we did like. We chose one type of content that we're going to create consistently, And then we we repurposed it everywhere So that would amplify the distribution, get as many eyes on it as possible, And then we did an email strategy around it and it ended up bringing in I think it was 1.65 million in marketing attributed sales from that system. So, starting from just the one thing I can commit to doing on a regular basis repurposing it and making sure it was really optimized for SEO so we can start ranking. And the majority of their leads came in through search.

Chris Lalomia 14:17

Wow, i think that's the thing I've been teaching my sales guys. We have to play in the I don't know, i don't know phase or space when you're talking to customers, when you're talking to their homes, and here This is a big thing for companies. When you start a business if you don't have a marketing background, or even today, because it's advancing so quickly, we don't know what we don't know. They were thinking, oh, i'm doing a good job, oh, i don't know, i'm at hot blogging, i'm getting SEO, and then you come in and you talked about so you're, it's the pillar system about doing other stuff and getting around it.

Speaker 4 14:48

Hmm, Yeah, make it easy. Choose one thing that you're cool with doing on a regular basis and then repurpose it to feed everything else.

Alan Wyatt 14:58

Hmm, I'm just trying to get my mind around that. but I'm also getting my mind around you're saying the construction industry is behind and they're trying to get ahead. We don't even know what it had is.

Chris Lalomia 15:08

We don't know what we don't know. Back to that.

Chris Lalomia 15:09

Yeah, but the construction is drive. You know, i just was up in a conference in Chicago, which is where Sarah's from, of course. I never left the airport, i was at the hotel for two days And we're where the construction industry is going for sure, especially in home repair and home services. This is all about consolidation and understanding more about how to service a customer, because we're going in such a big outsourcing model when it comes to home maintenance and home repairs. But we're behind.

Chris Lalomia 15:36

I mean paper, pencil, sticky notes. I'll never forget my plumber, bob, from Jefferson. When I first started, bob was an amazing plumber, but he bad that big old Southern draw and his CRM system was the yellow notes on it Steering wheel were jobs to do today. They were steering the sticky notes over on the right dash where people had to call tomorrow, and the middle dash where people he had to collect money from. I'm like, bob, what happens if you put the window down?

Chris Lalomia 16:02

He goes Chris, i'll be in trouble, i'm not sure what to do after that, and sure enough he would come to me at the end of the year. And he's like, chris, you guys haven't paid me for all them jobs. I'm like do what, bob? I haven't got any invoices. Oh yeah, i got them all right here And he pulled out his leaflet and they rolled the two carbon pop copies right And he's got six months of invoices. I'm like Bob, you can't do that to me, man, i don't have the cash. This is December. I said I can't be your Christmas piggy bank, so that's how the construction industry is behind. I'm not even talking about marketing.

Alan Wyatt 16:35

He had more business than he knew what to do with.

Chris Lalomia 16:37

Oh, he was the best.

Alan Wyatt 16:38

Yeah, he was just.

Chris Lalomia 16:39

I mean, i talk about my plumber from Jefferson. Rest in peace, bob. Yeah, he was awesome, but that's how far behind we are. And now, because he didn't have to market one Iota. And now, if he just would have stuck around just a little bit longer, bob, i wish he would have. I was going to basically buy his business and take him and fold him into the trusted toolbox.

Alan Wyatt 16:57

Do you work with people who aren't in business yet but they're planning on going into business Because that's part of our listenership Like Chris, strategically worked on his business plan and everything before he left his corporate job and then started the trusted toolbox? We've talked to a lot of people who sometimes are just spit out by corporate and they start their business. But you know, do you have, do you work with those kinds of people and do you have some advice for those people who are about to start their business on setting up a marketing plan?

Speaker 4 17:30

Yeah, I actually. I just ran a program for people that were starting a business on how to package their services, a product, and how to sell using content. So I do in like the training space. The first thing I would do if I were them is to narrow in on that customer who it is that you want to serve. That makes it easiest.

Alan Wyatt 17:59

Easier word avatar, like Chris does. I do Yes because, I just wrote it down.

Chris Lalomia 18:05

I said oh good, I saw a little bead of sweat on your forehead, I was like, oh boy, because I did? I just wrote down. Oh good, She uses avatar. I just wrote down avatar.

Speaker 4 18:13

Yes, because it's so much easier when you have that one person in mind that you're talking to and then create your marketing for that person, and if you're just starting out, you might not know who your person is and you have to figure that out, which is something that I know I did. So before I ever left corporate marketing, i started testing out messaging ideas for different customer segments that it would make sense for me to serve, and I saw what resonated with people, what people were reacting to.

Alan Wyatt 18:47

Did you have your own focus group or something, or how did you test it?

Speaker 4 18:51

It was on LinkedIn. I would do LinkedIn posts on specific topics that I was considering me she down into And I went with what resonated the most with people. And you could also use LinkedIn for the analytics see who's visiting your profile, who your audience already is and how you can serve them.

Alan Wyatt 19:15

So you weren't asking people, hey, what do you think of this pitch? You were actually just using LinkedIn as your psychological profile workshop.

Customer Avatars and Partnership Marketing

Speaker 4 19:23

Yeah, pretty much. I was creating content and seeing if people had questions about it, or it's like oh my God, tell me more about this. And the thing that resonated with people was I have a small marketing department and I don't know what the hell to do, because I don't have any resources, I don't have any money, I don't have any team. How do I make this work? And that's what resonated with people, and I have like 10 years of experience doing that.

Alan Wyatt 19:52

So That's awesome. It is kind of intimidating if you're a sole proprietor and you're thinking, okay, i need to create all this content And some people may not even be comfortable with social media. What do you say to folks like that? How do you create content if that's just something one you don't have? well, i guess you could use AI, chris.

Chris Lalomia 20:13

I've already done that. I was about to say you know, alan, i have this great idea.

Sarah Block 20:17

It's called AI. Yeah, chris, you know what it is I have no clue.

Chris Lalomia 20:21

In fact, it took me how long to figure out. I think right now I'm at here, we're doing this. What? in May? I think the first time I heard chat GBT was March, end of March, and I was simultaneously going, wow, beautiful, what a great idea. And like, how freaking far behind am I Because everybody's using it, but look how fast it's gone. I think it's the fastest growing website in the history of the internet.

Speaker 4 20:48

Yes, I've heard that too. People are going, and it brought down Google's own traffic. People are going to. Google lefts and going to chat GBT instead, which is Yeah, this is gonna be the battle of the behemoths.

Chris Lalomia 21:02

That's true, but I know. So you were immediately excited about it, i was. I was not immediately scared, it's the exact opposite deal.

Alan Wyatt 21:09

No, i was like this is the end of society as we know it. Our kids are getting dumber by the minute and this just accelerated it, just shoved him over the cliff.

Chris Lalomia 21:17

So let's keep going down this wormhole. Okay, so I've got one in college and one post college trying to go back and get their medical degree. And the one who's post college said, oh, i'm gonna use this to write every paper. And my son, who's younger, who's in college, wants to be a lawyer, says I will never use that. Well, he just finished up his junior year in college. Comes back, he goes. I have to admit this chat GBT thing, this might not be so bad. I'm like aha, he's a big writer, he's very good at it, but I know I don't. I see the pitfalls. I get it Back to this are you a real person, not a real person? That's freaky. I don't know about this, but I did. I mean, just when I've heard these little things, i'm gonna go out there and say I'm gonna say grade my pitch. I'm gonna say I've got some good ideas, top 10,. I'm gonna do a small bathroom remodeling ideas. Give me 10 ideas. I mean, just try stuff like that, just see what it pumps out.

Sarah Block 22:10

Yeah, that is a.

Chris Lalomia 22:12

Go ahead.

Speaker 4 22:13

Going along that same vein, you could take your customer avatar, the phrase you like. You can put that information into chat, gbt and ask them what problems does this person typically have? What is it?

Alan Wyatt 22:29

Ooh, I like that.

Speaker 4 22:30

Yes, you can learn more about your customer avatar through it.

Chris Lalomia 22:36

So let's talk about the avatar for a minute, because I'm a big fan of that. That's one of the things that saved me a lot of money in the beginning, because I did niche it down to four different avatars and I've stayed with that. I've actually, i would say. Now I'm at a fifth, because millennials are not one of our avatars. That's right. We're working with them. They're not bad people. They're not bad. In fact, i have a feeling We're old now.

Speaker 4 22:59

I have two kids playing video games right in there.

Chris Lalomia 23:02

Yeah, see, we're talking to one See.

Alan Wyatt 23:04

So what happens when millennials raise kids? Oh, that's gonna be interesting to see. Yeah, well, i'm doing it. Do you remember?

Chris Lalomia 23:11

Do you always remember?

Alan Wyatt 23:12

that you have them Yeah.

Chris Lalomia 23:15

Now I swear to God, we sound just like our parents did, right? Because I remember my grandfather or my grandmother saying stuff to my dad like what are you doing? You're spoiling the kid. You know they look at now. My dad just asked me the other day. He said if your grandfather is still alive, do you think he'd even know how you live now?

Alan Wyatt 23:31

I'm like, not even close.

Chris Lalomia 23:32

No, yeah, but yeah, it's wild when you talk about it. So let's go back to this avatar. Who is the best customer for you right now?

Speaker 4 23:41

For me. The best customer for me right now are solo entrepreneurs. They are. I was actually not in preparation for this, but I was looking through my email list yesterday and just doing a little digging because I was curious who is it that is today I'm resonating with? And it's been almost all solo entrepreneurs, because they're wearing so many hats and they're overwhelmed with marketing and they want to figure out a better way. That's a great one.

Chris Lalomia 24:15

So if you're a solopreneur, like I did, that.

Alan Wyatt 24:18

Yeah, i picked that phrase up, you're so word Smithy.

Chris Lalomia 24:21

Well, actually I just used it on my phone. I went to AI, i said chat GPT, give me a better name for solo entrepreneur. No, I'm kidding, i've heard it before. So there you go. If you're a solopreneur, you're right. You're trying to gain more people, do more things. We talk a lot about scaling on this business and scaling yourself as a solopreneur is hard because you got to get those leads and get that going. And then if you can create the work, or the work that you're doing or the service, the product you're offering, that's one thing, but to get out there and get in front of it to build that funnel up right.

Speaker 4 24:51

Yeah, that actually makes me want to go like backwards in time to your question about those people that haven't yet started their business and they're figuring it out, because another thing that I would do besides that, besides the customer avatar, is finding content partners immediately.

Chris Lalomia 25:15

What does that mean? Yeah, talk to us. What's that mean? Content partners Everybody start listening in, yes, partnership marketing.

Speaker 4 25:21

So teaming up with product companies or service companies that share the same customer avatar as you. So you're working together on webinars or live streams or you're interviewing them on a podcast or you're doing a lead magnet swap with their list. So partnerships are the easiest way to amplify your audience, especially early on, and I think a lot of people that are just starting their business or thinking about starting their business are afraid to pitch these and get people to do these partnership marketing because they're like my audience isn't there yet, but you're sharing your expertise and something that they care about.

Alan Wyatt 26:07

They're going to say yes, Chris was just having a moment. I'm going down. I'm like, well, he's really thinking, well, maybe he's having a stroke.

Chris Lalomia 26:17

I am stroking out here.

Chris Lalomia 26:18

That is genius right there, because we've talked about this before. When you started your own business and when I started my own business, i didn't think I could talk to people who were in the business because I didn't figure they would share. Now that I'm in it for 15 years, i realize we all share, because what we do is really hard, especially in home services, and what she's saying is go to those people who are serving the same customer and see if you can't do some content and co-content creation and maybe some co-marketing stuff with them. And that's what franchises do with their franchise systems. But if you were to do that with other people who maybe aren't competing with you but could co-op with you, just think about how much more powerful that would be. because one thing I think is huge for me right now and I want to ask you this question is when you are pitched something, would you rather have me inform you about options in your home or would you rather have me tell you how to do it, the one way I know?

Speaker 4 27:09

how to do it. Options, yeah, options.

Chris Lalomia 27:13

See, I think that's where everybody's going now is to give me the information and then I'll make an informed decision.

Speaker 4 27:18

Yeah.

Chris Lalomia 27:19

Yeah.

Speaker 4 27:20

That's just how consumers want to purchase, because they want to make that decision on their own and self-educate before, and I think that's why content marketing is so important is because people want to self-educate and they get 90% through the sales process before they want to talk to you.

Chris Lalomia 27:39

Yeah, oh boy. No, that's, true.

Alan Wyatt 27:40

Yeah, I've seen that I mean. Well, I always tell the story. And this is a long time ago when I bought a boat. I originally was going to buy a canoe and then, next thing, you know, I did all my own research and homework and ended up going to the boat show and I ended up buying a 28-foot boat and had it on linear instead of a canoe.

Alan Wyatt 27:58

But that was all without talking to one salesperson, And you know I'm old enough to where I should have actually gone down there and talked to them or at least picked up the phone and called. but yeah, you're doing all your own homework ahead of time.

Chris Lalomia 28:11

Yeah, and if you have your content out there and you're top of mind when they're researching and getting content and information, when they go to make that decision and you're able to provide a service or a product to them, then where are you? You're in position A right, yeah To sell them up, yeah.

Alan Wyatt 28:26

So, sarah, you've used the word webinar twice and I know what a webinar is, but I've never thought about a webinar from a marketing standpoint. Usually webinars are kind of internal in my experience.

Sarah Block 28:37

Oh, Yeah, let's chat.

Alan Wyatt 28:40

Yeah, let's chat. Talk to us about webinars for marketing.

Speaker 4 28:44

I love webinars for marketing, so the cornerstone of content is no like trust factor. You want people to be aware that you exist, you want them to trust you and you want them to like you and get to know your personality, especially for a service business, and webinars are the fastest way to do it. One, they're a great lead magnet because you're teaching someone on a specific topic, so you're getting tons of emails when you're creating one of those webinars. Two, you can bring a partner into it, so you're doubling those leads because it's going out to them too. And three, you can sell with it. So you're teaching on a topic, but you're teaching it 90% of the way, and then in the last 10%, you could say and this is how I can serve you further.

Alan Wyatt 29:36

So let's say, for example, Chris partners with a window company Yep, and then they want to host a webinar and then they put it out to his 17,000 email people. He puts it out on LinkedIn, and what kind of a response can he expect to something like that?

Speaker 4 29:56

Well, you would want to first figure out what problem it is that you both solve. So you might want to talk about energy efficiency and how the wrong windows are costing people money. So the webinar might be on something like how to reduce your energy bills by XX%. So that would be the webinar topic, and you could expect probably about maybe 10% of your subscribers to join the webinar. But you could I mean you could if you're advertising it and it's going out to their emails, their email list as well, then you're getting so many more.

Alan Wyatt 30:42

That's a boy, chris. You just broke Chris.

Chris Lalomia 30:49

You thought everybody I froze, and actually I froze. I mean, literally I'm frozen. I'm like, oh my God, that's so great. That's what I'm going to do on my next newsletter is I'm going to promote a webinar. I'll just say you ask Chris answers, and the first question we're going to answer is you know, I'll just pick what I think the major topic of the day is.

Alan Wyatt 31:06

It needs to be a webinar. The topic basically needs to be a common problem that people have that you can service right.

Speaker 4 31:14

Yes, what you're describing is an AMA, and those are also great because you're building trust with your audience.

Alan Wyatt 31:22

AMA.

Speaker 4 31:23

And ask me anything session Hello.

Alan Wyatt 31:26

Oh, AMA.

Speaker 4 31:30

So you can certainly do an AMA.

Alan Wyatt 31:33

Thanks. Thanks a lot, sarah. Now I'm going to be hearing Chris. Use AMA like you, and Ben AMA and customer avatars. That's right, the best AMA, in fact.

Chris Lalomia 31:43

I'm going to text them after we're done. I'm like, hey man, do you got time for a little AMA? There you go.

Sarah Block 31:47

What.

Chris Lalomia 31:51

Boy, this is great stuff. I mean again when you're a smaller business, and we know a number of small business guys who you know. I got more work to do with, especially in the home services space right now because everybody has moved to the house. But there's going to come a time where you got to put yourself above everybody else. You got to put yourself in position and start bringing in more leads and content. We were hearing it right now Pillars content, video, audio.

Alan Wyatt 32:16

How often would you have somebody do a webinar if they were good at it?

Speaker 4 32:20

I do them once a month. Some people do them weekly, which I feel like is a lot. Yeah, it seems like a lot, you get a lot of leads, but that takes a lot of energy to do that.

Alan Wyatt 32:34

So it's almost like a podcast, then, but with audience participation.

Chris Lalomia 32:38

Is it audience participation in the webinars? you do, yeah, okay.

Speaker 4 32:43

Yeah, i think that's a big part of the trust factor in it, because you're interacting with them and you're building a rapport and answering their questions live. But let's go back to our pillar content top back All right. Going back in time again She has her own sound effect.

Chris Lalomia 32:58

She does.

Alan Wyatt 32:59

You can tell she does the podcast.

Chris Lalomia 33:00

I wish people could see it, because she's got hand motions that go with that noise And you can see it on our YouTube channel, because that's where I get really excited and hand motions need to be there.

Speaker 4 33:08

Let's.

Chris Lalomia 33:09

AMA, let's go back. Let's go back. Do the sound force again, please. Yes, michael, isolate that sucker.

Speaker 4 33:19

Okay, so pillar content. Let's say your webinar is your pillar content and we need to repurpose that so it's feeding all of your channels. You can break down the video from your webinar into clips and shorts for YouTube So you're just showing little portions like three to five minute portions of that webinar on there, and then each one of those videos shoots to the on demand version of your webinar so you can get more leads through that And you can take the audio portion of the webinar, the WAV file, and turn that into a podcast.

Alan Wyatt 33:54

Dig it, i got it. Is there any innovation in the good old fashioned call to action?

Speaker 4 34:03

Innovation in it, yeah.

Alan Wyatt 34:05

Cause it's just so clunky and you know you click here for more information, or click, you know. I mean it's just you want people to. After you've created all this content and put so much effort into it, you want them to reach out to you have. Things change with the consumer so much that they they recoil from the overt. Call me now today for free quote.

Speaker 4 34:31

I think a lot of times they care more about transactional CTA, where you're getting something. So I like to create, like micro content upgrades for content that's doing really well. Let's say, i have a blog that's got really high search rankings. This actually happened. I have a blog that has really high search rankings and I didn't have a good transactional CTA on it. It was nothing. I was having all this traffic and then they just leave.

Speaker 4 35:01

So I created a template of my 80 20 marketing plan and I made that the micro upgrade for it and that became the CTA. And now I'm getting hundreds of people that are subscribing to get that template every week. So that's one thing is try a micro content upgrade having to do with that specific topic that you're doing. And then, if you wanted a more direct CTA and you want them to actually call you, the innovative thing I can think of is using something like deadline funnel, where if you're offering a coupon code, for example, there's a deadline on it and it will change according to when they clicked into that link. So it it starts then and every time they go it will be the same, so it will count down on theirs. So that's something that you could do where if your coupon expires. So it gives a little bit of FOMO.

Alan Wyatt 36:03

Chris, what's fear of missing out? Oh, I need that I don't know what CTA is, though Called action baby Called action, good Lord. Got that one. I really have to abbreviate call to action Yeah.

Chris Lalomia 36:15

Why am I not? That's four syllables.

Alan Wyatt 36:16

Amen.

Chris Lalomia 36:17

Amen.

Sarah Block 36:18

All right.

Chris Lalomia 36:21

Yeah, she's throwing so much at me. That was, she said, deadline funnel. My head went right to oh my God, dead lead, dead lead, oh deadline, oh deadline. Yeah, i gotta get it though.

Alan Wyatt 36:31

But do people actually feel pressure on, like, if there's a countdown? Because I just sort of feel like marketing has just gotten so intense. It's like you know you only have this weekend only and you're like, yeah, not really, because next weekend they'll have the same sale, or No, it really works, it does Yeah.

Chris Lalomia 36:49

I've proven that too, because we put a 30 day expiry on our estimates and I've had people go I know it's coming up and I just want to know, can I get one more week? I'm like, yeah, I'll give you one more week. I said, you know, with materials right now and what's going on with the fluctuation in the market, I don't know how much longer I can hold it.

Alan Wyatt 37:07

I understand that, but just the general, you know.

Chris Lalomia 37:11

Yeah, But then again you 25% off But you do, but you have you know again, i use the disc profile a lot. You got the high D asshole who's going to come back and go. Yeah, i know you do. You told me I could do a today offer only, but you know it's two years later. I'd like to get that same on two years later.

Sarah Block 37:26

Too bad.

Chris Lalomia 37:27

That's right. Oh, too bad. Look at you keeping the clean. I didn't say that, i said GFY. as long as they're going to acronyms.

Alan Wyatt 37:34

Hey, all right, Hey.

Chris Lalomia 37:35

I know that I've hung around you too long, chris, that was good, all right, so that's there's so many good things here. Yeah.

Alan Wyatt 37:47

It's picking up steam and we're running out of time.

Chris Lalomia 37:48

I know I know we're running out of time. We're almost done here. Okay, where do we want to go? I want to go with All right, how's everybody here about you?

Speaker 4 37:59

You can go to sarahnawellblockcom slash safari and you have your very own page, that, where you can find all my links and I'm also giving away a customer avatar bundle. that's usually paid, but you have a safari 100 promo code.

Alan Wyatt 38:17

This is the first person that's giving us something to give away. Yeah, man, you're the best, you're a favorite now.

Chris Lalomia 38:22

You know what? She is our favorite guest ever.

Alan Wyatt 38:24

Yes, Next time I come to Chicago, yes. We're drinking, are you?

Chris Lalomia 38:27

actually going to leave the airport.

Speaker 4 38:32

You know what? I only live 20 minutes from O'Hare.

Chris Lalomia 38:34

Okay, all right. Well, i was close. I was close, awesome, thank you. That is awesome. Given our listeners something to dig on. It's been great. You know we've been doing this for what a year and a half And we can't get a damn beer sponsor. We can't get anybody to give us a beer ourselves. We can't give away beer. I actually broke some of your beer last time And last time you broke some of my beers. But here's the first offer you actually got. You listened to this podcast and we've got some really good loyal listeners. I just got pinged again last week saying, man, i really like your content. Thanks again, man. You keep me pumped up. I love it. And I was like that's awesome. So shout out Justin. Thank you, buddy, cool, yeah, so now you go, justin. Justin's our favorite listener.

Alan Wyatt 39:13

Sarah's our favorite podcast.

Sarah Block 39:14

Hi Justin.

Alan Wyatt 39:15

Look at that.

Chris Lalomia 39:15

Ooh got a special greeting from Sarah Yeah, it was cool, all right. So that's how they find you And we'll put that in the show notes.

Alan Wyatt 39:23

I do have one quick question as far as a good referral to you. So you work with, you know solopreneurs. Do they completely outsource to you or are you more of a consultant advisor type of a person?

Speaker 4 39:39

Yeah, i work with them in two ways. I it's usually bigger small businesses that outsource completely to me, so they can do that, or they can do more of a done with you approach, where we work together on your marketing.

Chris Lalomia 39:53

Perfect. Yeah, that's solid. So, as you've scaled your own business and started in this, how many years have you been doing this?

Speaker 4 40:00

Full time three years.

Chris Lalomia 40:01

Wow, And what you know, I'm going to go all the way back to the beginning. So did you go to school for this stuff? Is this something you always wanted to do?

Speaker 4 40:09

Yeah, you know, when you take those high school exams on what you should do, mine was marketing and I was all in on it. I've been in marketing for 15 years now.

Chris Lalomia 40:19

Wow, how about that? Did you take one of those?

Alan Wyatt 40:22

Yeah, but back when I was in school it said I should be a longshoreman Really.

Chris Lalomia 40:27

You got your belt.

Alan Wyatt 40:28

Yeah, it was all like that's why you weren't going to do hardcore trades.

Chris Lalomia 40:32

What Is it really? Yeah, You know, I never took one.

Marketing, Home Features, and DIY Nightmares

Alan Wyatt 40:35

I mean I went to a small high school in a small town that had like two paper mills, and so those were the good jobs.

Speaker 4 40:43

And then longshoremen, Yeah longshoremen.

Chris Lalomia 40:45

Oh my God, is there ever a shortshoreman, you know, maybe a tiny shoreman? Here we go. Tiny marketing, all right, we bring it back, yes, Tiny marketing.

Chris Lalomia 40:55

This has been amazing, sarah. You dropped some amazing gold nuggets for everybody here. If you didn't get your mind blown and figure some stuff out here, go rewind this. I'm actually going to listen to this one again because even my notes are all over the board, because I got to figure out how to implement this stuff. I can't let you leave without asking our famous four questions. Yeah, all right, give us a book that you're listening to reading now or something you would refer to our listeners.

Speaker 4 41:21

Okay, i'll go with a marketing book Storybrand. Nice Donald Miller Yeah your industry specifically works really well in.

Chris Lalomia 41:31

Well done. You're right, Storybrand is a big one. Donald Miller, if you don't follow him, just pick up some nuggets. We've had Stephanie DeVisca-san, who is a Storybrand consultant and great stuff, and Sarah's brought that up. That is definitely one that.

Alan Wyatt 41:44

He seems to be a hot topic in marketing these days.

Chris Lalomia 41:47

You know he definitely is picking up a lot of steam. He has become. You know, marcus Sheridan was really big, i think in a while. It still is. But Donald Miller in Biola Count is just a good guy, you know.

Speaker 4 42:00

I mean just don't know the guy. He just launched a new book, so he's probably getting an extra press right now.

Chris Lalomia 42:05

Yeah, wow, and you just did it again. So here we go.

Alan Wyatt 42:08

It's just such a strange pivot from his roots, but we can talk about that later.

Speaker 4 42:12

He was a writer right Like a fiction writer.

Alan Wyatt 42:14

Yeah, he was kind of a hippie out of Texas who went to Oregon to look for God and you know some very Christian spiritual journey kind of books. So to now suddenly be, you know, one of the hot topics in marketing is kind of an interesting pivot.

Chris Lalomia 42:32

Yeah, no, it's good, but it's solid. I mean, the stuff we've learned and seen has been great. Okay, but we digress, we have to go to this stuff. All right, what is the favorite feature of your house?

Speaker 4 42:43

Oh my gosh, Our HVAC. We just got all new HVAC. You know, don't laugh.

Chris Lalomia 42:49

Alan, you know, the reason the South has been settled like it is is because of the Oh yeah, advent of HVAC.

Alan Wyatt 42:56

There was no reason to live here before that.

Chris Lalomia 42:58

No, you never would live here in the miserable South because of the. I grew up in Michigan. There's no way I was going to move because I live without AC.

Speaker 4 43:04

Ooh, one of my clients installed the AC in the Congress Hotel. It was like the first hotel to have AC.

Chris Lalomia 43:14

The Congress Hotel. Yeah, where is that?

Speaker 4 43:17

Chicago.

Chris Lalomia 43:18

Oh sorry, We have the Congress. I thought you were talking about the one that's next to me in my shit hole in the office.

Alan Wyatt 43:24

There's a place that's bombed out. That's a different kind of Congress. No, this is like I said.

Chris Lalomia 43:30

that guy was kicking his life in his head. They actually had to close the thing down because too many people were getting shot there. This is not that one.

Sarah Block 43:35

It's literally right next to my office. Okay, the Congress Hotel.

Chris Lalomia 43:38

It's the famous hotel in Chicago, that's right, okay, nice, all right, so you work with them. Now you have your HVAC, so you guys are going to be all nice and cool this summer.

Speaker 4 43:46

Yes, and warm Finally.

Alan Wyatt 43:47

So you, have your own feature of your house, Whatever's behind you. that artwork is pretty cool.

Chris Lalomia 43:51

That's real artwork. That's not a background right.

Speaker 4 43:54

You're right, me and my husband painted it.

Chris Lalomia 43:57

That's neat Really, i like that. Yeah, hey, you colored it out of the lines there.

Sarah Block 44:01

I did a lot.

Chris Lalomia 44:02

Yeah, i love that. That's awesome. I thought for sure she was going to say the Soundproof Kids Room where they played few games. How old are your kids though?

Speaker 4 44:11

They are seven and nine.

Chris Lalomia 44:12

Oh yeah, You just wait.

Alan Wyatt 44:16

The fun's only about to begin.

Chris Lalomia 44:17

Yeah, it's fun, boys or girls.

Speaker 4 44:19

Two boys.

Chris Lalomia 44:21

Oh, here we go, And summer is about to happen. Oh boy.

Speaker 4 44:25

Yeah, it's going to be a chaotic one, okay.

Chris Lalomia 44:29

So here's the next one. So you're out there and we're talking about service in the field, because we are customer service Freaks, thank you, and we love seeing great customer service happen, but when it doesn't go right, it feels wrong. What's something that's really a pet peeve of yours in customer service?

Alan Wyatt 44:45

When you're the customer.

Speaker 4 44:48

When you say you're going to do something and you don't do it.

Chris Lalomia 44:52

It's so true, right, it's fundamental blocking and tackling. And it's just mind boggling because to be successful, number one, you have to show up. Number one, you've got to be there, be present. Number two, you just got to do what you said you're going to do.

Alan Wyatt 45:08

I know It's all the basic stuff you should have learned in Sunday school or watching Barney. Yeah, i'm going to get kindergarten stuff.

Chris Lalomia 45:17

All right. So just for the record, my kids. I was able to skip over the Barney phase, but we had to go through the Wiggles.

Alan Wyatt 45:23

No.

Chris Lalomia 45:24

I'll take Barney over the Wiggles any day. And we grew up on Saturday morning. Saturday morning, oh my God, what was it? Saturday morning, the schoolhouse, schoolhouse, rock.

Speaker 4 45:33

Schoolhouse rock.

Chris Lalomia 45:34

Yeah, i love those clips. That's how I learned Okay, but however, we have to keep going, all right, so I think I've got it all the way there.

Sarah Block 45:43

I think I'm at the next one And here we go.

Chris Lalomia 45:47

Sarah has painted, but we want to hear about a DIY nightmare story. We love fire, floods, dismemberment, death.

Sarah Block 45:55

We've DIYed a lot.

Speaker 4 45:58

Let's see. Oh, my God, you should see my floors. So we installed new floors and then they flooded. The next day, their basement flooded right after the next day, oh no. I can't believe I had an opportunity to talk about that.

Chris Lalomia 46:18

Oh, that is rock solid. I mean how? I mean just absolutely full of despair at that point, right, i mean you're just like oh my God, I just put these stupid floors in And now they're all.

Speaker 4 46:28

It was devastating And my husband installed them, So you should have should have seen his face when we saw that it was flooded.

Chris Lalomia 46:36

Yeah, oh, that's a good one. Oh boy, i actually feel the pain. My my shoulders are clenching up right now. I'm just thinking about that. I'm like, oh God, because flooring is. I mean, that is backbreaking stuff, man, the guys who are my flooring.

Alan Wyatt 46:48

And he's all proud of it and everything. Look how good I did. Look at me. Look at me, honey, i did everything on the floor.

Chris Lalomia 46:55

I don't have myself. We didn't have to pay some clown to do it. I did it. Why is there three inches of water? It's a oh my God. We have a swimming pool in my basement. It was rough.

Alan Wyatt 47:05

Maybe Sarah didn't like the flooring and she just accidentally left the water on.

Chris Lalomia 47:09

I hope her husband doesn't listen to this. No, maybe not.

Alan Wyatt 47:11

Yeah.

Chris Lalomia 47:13

That's not good. All right, on that note, sarah, thank you so much for coming on. If you guys again I'm going to come back to it Pick your avatar. That's number one. Number two figure out how you're going to advertise to them. Content marketing is the way of the future video. You got to get video. You got to get audio Back. When I started, man, everybody told me I had to be in the yellow pages. I didn't do it. I didn't go in the yellow pages. This is years ago. I'm so proud of myself. I just get the one line. Didn't pay $5,000 a month to do a trusted tool box because A's go first.

Chris Lalomia 47:47

I mean that's where it was, but today it's video, it's content. but you got to be pumping that stuff out and you can't do it alone. Tiny marketing is here to help you and that's Sarah Block. You got to go check her out and we love having you on. Thanks again, sarah.

Speaker 4 47:59

Thanks for having me. Thanks.

Chris Lalomia 48:00

Sarah Cheers. All right, we're out of here. I got to go make some content. I'm AI in it. Ama, ama.