Priority Pursuit Is Now a Treefrog Marketing Podcast & the First Step of Strategic Marketing—Marketing Guiding Statements (Part 1)

We've been away for a bit, but we're back with a bang and some exciting news: we're now a Treefrog Marketing podcast!  It's an exciting new chapter for us, and we're ready to take things to the next level.

To kick off our new partnership, we have an absolute powerhouse joining us as co-host—the one and only Kelly Rice, owner of Treefrog Marketing. We're thrilled to have her on board and can't wait for you to soak up all her marketing knowledge.

In this episode, we're starting with the crucial first step of strategic marketing—crafting marketing guiding statements. Kelly will be sharing her expert insights on why messaging is so important and how to create a brand story that'll have your audience hooked. This is just the first part of our series on marketing guiding statements, so get ready to learn a ton.

Trust us, folks, this is the foundation for any marketing plan, and we’ll make it easy to understand and implement. So, join us for an informative and engaging conversation. We can't wait to dive in!

Specifically, this episode highlights the following themes:

• What marketing guiding statements are and why they matter
• How to write your own marketing guiding statements
• How to understand your customers better

Other Mentioned Links & Resources

Learn how to write your Marketing Guiding Statements:
https://www.treefrogmarketing.com/marketingguidingstatements

Learn more about Treefrog services:
https://www.treefrogmarketing.com

Save $20 on your first order from InstaCart
https://www.treefrogmarketing.com/instacart-coupon-code

Join the Priority Pursuit Podcast Facebook Community: https://www.facebook.com/groups/179106264013426

Follow Treefrog on Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/treefroggers

Follow or DM Victoria on Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/victorialrayburn

Transcript

Kelly Rice  0:00  
You have to determine your messaging because without clear messaging, you won't be able to connect with your ideal customers or hold their attention. In fact, in my opinion, all marketing tools and tactics are useless if you don't know what to say to your prospective customers.

Victoria Rayburn  0:20  
Hey, there, you're listening to the Priority Pursuit podcast, a podcast dedicated to helping small business owners to find, maintain and pursue both their personal and business priorities so they can build lives and businesses they love. Guys, we have taken a short hiatus from the podcast because so many things have been in the works, including the addition of my new co host. And, guys, I'm so excited to tell you so many things right now. But you may remember way back from Episode 34, my good friend Kelly Rice of Treefrog marketing came on the show to share a complete marketing strategy for small businesses. And if you've not listened to the episode, definitely, definitely go back and listen to that one. But anyway, you may recall me mentioning a handful of times that before I was a full time wedding photographer, I used to work in the marketing industry. And I specifically worked at Treefrogmarketing, which is a marketing agency for small businesses. I was the content director there and loved loved my time there. It's hard to believe, but I left Treefrog, about five years ago. And since then, Kelly, who owns Treefrog she's just been an amazing mentor to me and amazing friend, and we have kept in constant touch, Constant Contact, and have just been sharing our business struggles and wins. And she is just Yes, such a good friend, such a wonderful mentor. I'm so thankful to have her in my life. Well, long story short, at the end of 2022, Kelly and I met for coffee like we do on a semi regular basis, didn't really think anything of it. And we got to talking. And in this conversation, we very quickly realized that if we joined forces, we would be able to better serve small business owners. As you guys know, I specifically offer coaching for photographers, lots of SEO coaching. This podcast has really existed for creative entrepreneurs and small business owners. And through this conversation, Kelly and I just realized between her team and the podcasts that already exist, and just for so so many other reasons that if we partnered together, we would be able to better help small business owners with their marketing. So guys, with all of that in mind, I want to welcome that Kelly rice to the show, to her very first episode as our co host Kelly, I'm so so glad that you're

Kelly Rice  2:42  
here. Oh, me too, Victoria. I love how our randomness turns usually turns into strategy and a plan of action.

Unknown Speaker  2:51  
Yes, yeah, we don't really have boring coffee dates ever or in there.

Victoria Rayburn  2:56  
And eventually they become very strategy oriented, right. But Kelly, since you are, you know, a new co host of the show. And I'm sure a lot of people have listened to Episode 34. If not, they again they need to go back and do that. But since this is your first show, I want to make sure that everybody is given a chance to get to know you. So tell us your story, why you're passionate about small businesses, what Treefrog does just all the things.

Kelly Rice  3:21  
Okay, so I actually grew up on a farm in Indiana, where my dad showed me how to work hard, and he taught me the value of both time and money. And because I grew up on a farm, or if anybody else grew up on a farm, you know not to talk to your dad during planting or harvest season, unless you are spoken to right, like he works for as a kid, it seems like 24 hours a day, you know, he ate all of his meals in the field or in the tractor, or he didn't eat it all. And he didn't have any time to do anything but work for months on it. So this type of hard work was just normal for me. Like in fact, when I was 12, I asked my dad one time when we're in the field picking up rocks, why he paid other like other community boys to come out and help. But I didn't get paid to do it. I just remember him looking like turning at me and looking and just calmly saying that you get food on the table, a roof over your head and clothes on your back. Now my 12 year old brain didn't exactly agree with him because I didn't think it was fair. But soon after I understood what he meant. And now I know that all small business families sacrifice and have to work hard, and in fact they probably work harder than anybody else. Amen. Yeah, right, like just a little bit longer if I work just a little bit longer, right. We'll get it done. So then as a an adult, I actually found out that I loved the creative side of marketing and I began learning everything that I could I learned to code in high school and you have to remember back then it was like basic and COBOL that wasn't like, and then HTML and all the fun stuff that we need to learn now, but it did make it easier for me to teach myself how to design websites, in Dreamweaver. And then I started putting my design skills to work with CorelDRAW. So with namedropping, those software's, I now feel really, really old, because nobody uses those at all anymore. But I also soon realized that great design was only great, because a great strategy. And great strategy can be defined as knowing who your best audience is, and figuring out how to reach them through words and design. So because of growing up on a farm and having family, friends who were in school, or small business owners, I knew how hard they worked. And it was hard for me to watch good people through their hard earned money away by doing a little bit of everything when it came to marketing. However, the worst part was, is they literally had no idea what was working, and what was it. So in 2000, after helping a number of small business owners find success, I found a Treefrog. I wanted to be the marketing strategic voice for small businesses, because they didn't have an advocate who one they could afford. And two, who understood that putting the customer first was key. So I firmly believe that marketing should not be something that small business owners should have to stress over. Because we know a true work life balance really doesn't exist for many of the small business owners, which is why I help this is really the reason that I want to help small business owners eliminate wasted time and overspending so they can increase profits. They need to be able to spend more time doing what they love, especially those things that are outside of the office. Yeah, so I know that on so many levels, right? It's strange to look back now as a child to in seeing all the lessons that you learned without really even knowing that you learned those lessons and the things that you picked up as a small business owner now of how hard people work and how no time they they don't have any time and in all of these things. So I've so that's kind of why Treefrog was founded and why we love doing what we do.

Victoria Rayburn  7:28  
Yes, and I mean, I know, I have no friends who have Treefrogclients, I've always been on the Treefrog team, it's just such a cool thing to watch. But hard working small business owners have one big thing come off their plates, just because most people don't have the time to market their own businesses. But then at the same time, you know, Treefrog does exist to serve, like truly small businesses as well. So I love the fact that you know, you are committed to offering resources that help people strategically like DIY, their own marketing. And that is actually exactly what we are going to be talking about today. So guys, Kelly is just an incredibly incredibly, incredibly humble person. So I'm going to take a second to brag about her here. But Kelly said, you know, since 2000, she has been working full time with small business owners, helping them market their businesses. And in that period of time, she has developed so many processes that allow small business owners to actually see results. Now, if you have been in business for any time at all, you have received all kinds of messaging like, you know, to market your business, you just need to create reels and everything will be good to go or like you just need to have an email list. And you don't have to worry about any of your marketing. And essentially, we get taxed at different kinds of marketing tactics thrown at us all of the time. But at Treefrog, Kelly and the team have developed actual systems and actual processes that give small businesses a firm foundation and then help them grow. So basically, if you were to become a full time Treefrog client, the first thing they're going to do is make sure that you start with a website that is optimized for SEO, and then everything grows from there because you need to have a solid foundation before you do anything else. But kind of with that in mind, before you can start implementing a marketing strategy of any kind. You have to have your messaging identified. And in order to make sure that messaging is strategic, Kelly has developed a process in which all you need to do is identify five things, five marketing guiding statements. And once you have those guiding statements identified, you literally have all of the information you need for any thing that you need to put copy on your website, social media posts, Google ads, when the local Girl Scout troop asks you to sponsor something and you have no idea what you want their flyer to say. You have the messaging for all of it. So because Kelly is officially a co host on the show, and because this is just such an integral part of what Treefrog does, how Treefrog serves, and because it is so important for you to take the time to define, as a small business owner, we are kicking off this like, quote unquote, new season of the Priority Pursuit podcast, by helping you identify your marketing guiding statements, so that you have all of the information you need to write, copy, and reach your best customers. So strapping guys, this is gonna be really good. And there is honestly so much information that we're gonna be talking about this for the next several weeks, we do have an opportunity for you to access everything today, which we'll talk about at the end. But yes, stay tuned, it's gonna be good. If you can't tell by my babbling, I am just so so stinking excited. But Kelly, before we dive in to like the house, and what to do with them, and all the other things, can you briefly break down what marketing guiding statements are and why they matter? And why small business owners should care about these things?

Kelly Rice  11:07  
Yes, so we've always been told, and you've heard, you need a marketing strategy, you need a marketing strategy, you need a marketing strategy. But as an agency, we hear that differently. Because we know before you can start designing or implementing any type of successful marketing strategy, you have to understand who your best customers are. And you have to create messaging guidelines. So we can do exactly what you had just opened up with all of the different things in marketing. Because without clear messaging, you won't be able to connect with your ideal customers or hold their attention. So you're just wasting time and money, basically, if you're not creating these things. So at Treefrog, we call these messaging guidelines, marketing, guiding statements. And essentially, your marketing, guiding statements are the GPS of your marketing efforts. So once you write them, and as long as you follow them, you'll get to where you want to go. So in other words, your marketing will actually work. If you create and follow these marketing, guiding statements.

Victoria Rayburn  12:10  
This is going to be so so good. And guys, you're going to seriously like listen to this series, and you will feel like you have such clarity on your marketing because you literally literally will. So Kelly, we did touch on this a little bit already. But just to make it entirely clear. Why is messaging like important, and why does it have to be developed before strategy.

Kelly Rice  12:35  
This is something that I wish more small business owners and leaders would understand because it would make their lives so much easier. And it would save them so much time and money. Because you can build a stunning website or poster reel or implement sales funnels or do all of the marketing things that you're supposed to do, right, because everybody's coming up and saying you need to do these things. However, if all of these efforts and tactics are a literal waste of time, and money, and your resources if your messaging isn't clear. So in other words, clear messaging, which we define as communication that your ideal customers can understand quickly and easily is the key to successful marketing. And this is important, because research shows that consumers don't always buy the best products and services, they buy the ones they can understand the easiest. So in other words, if you, you can have like the most amazing widget in the world. But if you confuse your potential customers by using industry language or talking over their heads, if you don't tell them how your widget will make their lives better, and then you jump right in with a sales pitch. They're much less likely to not buy your bit your widget and just kind of move on, though, look for something that is similar but easier for them to understand how it fits into their life. So before you can design and implement a successful marketing strategy, you have to determine your messaging, because without clear messaging, you won't be able to connect with your ideal customers or hold their attention. In fact, in my opinion, all marketing tools and tactics are useless. If you don't know what to say to your prospective customers. The one of the things that I want people to take away is that before they decide things like what social media platform they're going to use or how much money they're going to invest in Google ads where they make any other marketing decisions. They need to create their marketing guiding statements. This way, they'll be able to serve their potential customers well. They'll convert them into paying clients and they'll be able to use their resources and their valuable time wisely, so that their marketing strategy will actually work.

Victoria Rayburn  14:46  
Ha Yes. Oh, man. I'm just gonna babble through this whole episode because I am also so excited about this like and guys like, doesn't that sound great? You actually know what to say. And you know your marketing is going to work. You know, it's going to convert. So yes, get excited. We're really diving in now. Okay, so Kelly from here, I think you everybody is nice and pumped up. But can we break down a little bit more about what marketing guiding statements are? What they include? Because we know that we have five of them. And I think people will be curious to hear what each of those are.

Kelly Rice  15:24  
Absolutely. So I'm going to start this off by saying, if you ask any small business owner who their ideal clients are, they're usually going to, like enthusiastically say, anyone or everyone Yes, right. And although they believe this to be true, because they just want people to buy their products or services, and it's not really the case, because if they would stop and think about it, every business wishes they had 100 More Clients like Mrs. Smith, or like Company ABC, and those are the customers that they should want to find more of. So to do this, they have to figure out what makes their ideal customers tick, and why they need to follow a systematic process to create their their marketing guidance statements. So marketing guidance statements, again, are written guidelines that position your business as a trusted partner. In the process of writing these statements allows you to get all the information you need in order to write clear and concise and effective messaging in a story based framework. And the reason you should use a story based framework is because your ideal customers will be 22 times more likely to remember your brand, because story is the most effective form of communicating and marketing. Then, as you like work on your website or your blog post or your social media post or whatever thing that you need to develop, you can always refer back to your marketing statements to one ensure your marketing is customer focused rather than braggy or salesy because nobody wants to feel like they're being sold to. And your messaging has the power to engage and convert your prospects into customers. So at Treefrog, we utilize a specific story based framework to create marketing guiding statements for our own clients. While you do need to determine your messaging. Before we create any type of strategy, basically, identify your audience. So we'll discuss how to write an audience overview and one of the upcoming episodes, I believe, in identifying your audience is the foundation of what you'll need in order to begin working on your guiding statements. Yeah, so jumping into kind of just discussing what gutting segments are, I can just quickly review those if you want to. There are five sections that make up what we call the marketing guidance statements. And they include talking points. So these areas help flesh out the main idea, they identify a problem, they set the company up as a guide, and so much more. And then the one liner is basically 32nd elevator speech. It's a single statement you can use to help people realize why they need your product or service. And then the story pitch, which is the third element, it creates a storyline that engages potential customers, and tells them what they need to do in order to solve their problem and then be successful. And then the sales script. This is where this is probably one of the most beneficial ones. It's exactly what it sounds like. It helps you sell better than anyone else without sounding like you're even selling to anyone at all. Because how many people they don't know what to say when they're in a sales environment. Or they you know, they're asked, Oh, what do you do and they're like, we make candles. So the sales scripter should help flesh out that conversation. And then finally, the y in the y explains the reasons why your small business does. What it does, it's what you do and what you do, right, because we know that people get invested in people and brands because of their why first and not necessarily because of just the widget they want to be part of something bigger than themselves. So again, with these marketing guiding statements utilize them as the GPS of your marketing efforts.

Victoria Rayburn  19:19  
The Priority Pursuit  podcast is brought to you by Treefrog marketing, a marketing agency for small businesses that takes the guesswork out of marketing. To learn more about our services, which include messaging and strategy development, website development, SEO management, content marketing, Google and social media advertising, social media management, sales, funnel development, consulting and more, visit treefrogmarketing.com. Again, visit treefrogmarketing.com To learn more about our services and to schedule a free consultation. As a small business owner, you probably have a seemingly endless to do list. But I can almost promise that there are things on your list that can be outsourced like grocery shopping. I mean, as a wedding photographer, the last thing I wanted to do after shooting a wedding on a Saturday was to spend my Sunday in a grocery store. So I am forever thankful that a friend told me about Instacart Instacart is a grocery delivery service. basically use the Instacart app to make your shopping list, then a personal shopper goes to your preferred store for Alexa groceries for you and delivers them to you. Typically all within just a few hours, you can also schedule your delivery time, which is wonderful. Personally, I will sing Instacart praises forever, because one has saved me from countless hours, and two Instacart employees, local personal shoppers, meaning with every Instacart purchase, you're putting money back directly into your local economy. Well, Instacart does charge delivery fee when you upgrade to Instacart. Plus for just $99 a year, you will receive free unlimited deliveries for all orders over $35. Considering the time and frustration you'll save, that's $99 well invested. If you'd like to avoid going to the grocery store and save $20 On your first order from Instacart of $35 or more, visit treefrogmarketing.com/instacart. Again, if you'd like $20 off your first Instacart order of $35 or more visit treefrogmarketing.com/instacart. And then Kelly, I'm sure a lot of people are listening. And they're like, oh, that sounds great. You know, I would love if all that stuff existed on paper. But they're probably also wondering like, okay, like, if I take the time to like write these things, what the heck am I going to do with them after so how can marketing guiding statements be used.

Kelly Rice  21:38  
The key is to actually use them. So every time that you need to write, copy, or create anything that is brand or marketing related for your company, you can refer to these guiding statements. This way, you can ensure that everything you create is strategic, it's on message. And that helps convert prospects into paying customers, which is the thing that we want to do. So after writing your marketing, guiding statements, it will be so much more easier to create a website, social media posts and ads, blog posts, videos, that type of content, your Google ads, your email marketing, your networking in sales, introductions and presentations. So basically anything that requires words, and it helps you just not to sit there and stare at a blank screen going, I have no idea how to say this what I need to write. So it takes much less time to be extremely clear and specific than trying to come up with it every single time. So you use these marketing guiding statements as a roadmap to create effective marketing messaging that will save you time and money and position your business for exceptional growth. So key is right them, and you have to use them and every single thing that you ever do, period.

Victoria Rayburn  22:55  
Yes. And as you I mean, you know, you and I actually genuinely do like to write things. But I know a lot of small business owners don't. But for those of you who are like, holy cow, I never ever want to type anything ever again, please just know that once you have these identified everything you have to write well, you'll be able to do so much more efficiently and you won't hate it so much, because you'll know that it's actually going to work. So guys, you can't tell if it's not obvious. We are very, very passionate about this process, because we know how well it works for small business owners, and fax guys, I would say that once you have your marketing guiding statements written, when it comes to writing copy for your new website, like you literally have 80% of what you need, like you do, you need to throw in a couple other details here and there, you know, to make sure people really know you. But that's a conversation for a future episode. But anyway, we are super pumped about this. And we are actually going to be kicking off this new era of Priority Pursuit. By diving deeper into each of these marketing guiding statements. Kelly and I are going to walk you through how to form each and every one of them so that way you can do this on your own. That being said, we will we know that you guys are really busy people. And while you are more than welcome to listen and what these episodes aired over the next couple of months. If you're like nope, I want to do this right now. I'm ready for my marketing to work today. If you go to treefrog marketing.com/marketing guiding statements, no hyphens, nothing else, treefrog marketing.com/marketing guiding statements, you can access all of these episodes immediately, as well as a guide that is going to walk you through exactly how to write your marketing guiding statements with examples from clients that Kelly and the team have actually done this work. And you know, you can look at treefrogs marketing guiding statements to you know, full disclosure, we went ahead and put those in there. But we're hoping that both those examples and with those instructions, you will be able to write your own marketing guiding statements so that you can be confident in your marketing. So one more time in case you're Driving, we will put this link in the show notes but go to treefrogmarketing.com/marketing guiding statements to access all of these episodes and a download guide, whatever you want to call it, that walks you through every step of this. Kelly, thank you so, so much for coming on the show today, uh, for being my co host. And for being willing to partner on this. I'm so excited to have further conversations with you, with your team, and for small business owners to strategically grow their businesses. Thanks to all your wisdom. Yeah.

Kelly Rice  25:35  
I'm really really excited to get this out there and get people set on the right path as well.

Victoria Rayburn  25:42  
And guys, if you do want to learn more about Kelly, Treefrog marketing, be sure to check out treefrogmarketing.com. And you can find us all over social media, but we are hanging out on Instagram a lot these days. So if you want to hang out with the Treefrog team via social media, be sure to follow Treefroggers on Instagram. But thank you for tuning in to another episode of Priority Pursuit . We will chat with you again next week. And as always, we are rooting for you and for your priorities. Thanks guys.