Victoria Rayburn [00:00:00]:
I think it's important to acknowledge that so many of us decide to become small business owners or leaders because we want freedom. However, having freedom does not mean you should chase every new idea that excites you. When you do this, you and your team will spend too much of your valuable time putting out fires. Your customers likely won't be served well, and ultimately, you won't be able to scale and grow your small business. However, when you choose consistency, you can set your business, us up for long term success in the same way that some of the most well known brands in the world have.
Victoria Rayburn [00:00:33]:
Hey there.
Victoria Rayburn [00:00:34]:
You're listening to the Priority Pursuit podcast, a podcast dedicated to helping small business owners and leaders define, maintain, and pursue both their personal and business priorities so they can build lives and businesses they love. I'm your host, Victoria Rayburn, and today I want to talk to you about something that big businesses tend to do well. But small businesses often struggle with, and that is establishing consistency. You see, when you take the time to compare the most successful and well known businesses in the world, such as Apple, Amazon, McDonald's and Coca Cola, just to name a few, you quickly realize that they have a few things in common. Yes, they're innovative, sure, they've all been around for multiple decades, and yeah, they all have an international presence. However, each of these businesses has something that your small business can start emulating tomorrow. Or I mean today. They are consistent from the way they serve their customers to the way they market themselves.
Victoria Rayburn [00:01:30]:
The most successful businesses in the world have created processes and systems that have earned them customer loyalty, allowed them to build brand authority and ultimately go from small businesses to big, successful, world renowned entities. While I am not saying that your goal in life needs to be to build the next McDonald's, or even to make your small business a big business, when you look at the big businesses we're all familiar with, it becomes clear that if you want to grow and scale your business, you have to establish, commit to, and create processes that support consistency. With this in mind, I want to discuss five areas of your business where you can and should establish consistency so that you can better serve your customers, build customer loyalty, establish brand authority, and ultimately reach your business goals. First and foremost, you need to establish consistency in the way you serve your customers. Let's talk about McDonald's for a second. Whether you love a Big Mac or not, you know that whether you order this classic in good old Indiana, which know where we are or literally anywhere else in the world, you're going to get the same burger. And this is important to note because this is arguably one of the biggest reasons McDonald's has become so successful. You see, people naturally want to know what to expect.
Victoria Rayburn [00:02:49]:
They crave consistency, and as a result, McDonald's is a no brainer. Stop on a road trip or when you need a quick meal. Just like McDonald's food is consistent, you can and should, for the record, establish consistency in the way you serve your customers. And this includes establishing consistency in the quality of your products and services and the way you fulfill transactions, how you communicate with your customers and in every aspect of the client experience you offer. Because when your customers know what they can expect from you, they will, one, be thrilled with your work because it's exactly what they expected, and two, they'll be much more likely to become repeat customers and to refer your business to friends and family. Now, in order to create this kind of consistency, you have to develop systems. Just like every McDonald's uses the same Big Mac recipe, you need to develop repeatable systems that you can use for each and every sale. To do this, map out every step of a customer's journey with you and determine exactly what needs to be done and when so that you and your team have step by step instructions.
Victoria Rayburn [00:03:56]:
Then, to consistently serve your customers well, all you need to do is follow these instructions and or create automations that complete these steps for you. Again, people crave consistency, and when your customers know what to expect when they work with or purchase from you, they'll be much more likely to become repeat customers and to rave about your small business to their friends and family, which will only aid in business growth. Another area in your business where you need to develop consistency is within your brand. Let's look at Coca Cola for a second. This business is more than 100 years old, and while this company has certainly innovated and added new products over the last century, its brand has largely stayed the same. For example, Coca Cola's visual brand, which features a red and white color scheme and distinctive script font, is so consistent that it's recognized across the globe and is arguably one of, if not the most classic visual brands of all time. Then, while Coca Cola's campaigns may vary from your tier, fostering, sharing and togetherness remains at the center of their brand messaging. Now brands can change and innovate.
Victoria Rayburn [00:05:06]:
Yes, Coca Cola has certainly made updates to its brand throughout its history. But do you know what? You won't ever see this company do release anything that isn't true to its brand. As a small business, you should neither. To build a consistent brand, you need to do two, possibly three things. First, create clear, consistent messaging. If you're a regular priority pursuit listener, you know the key to effective marketing is clear messaging. But the key to effective branding is consistent messaging. While many small businesses fly by the seat of their pants, say what they want, when they want, when you have consistent messaging, your audience will hear your messaging again and again and as a result, they'll remember it.
Victoria Rayburn [00:05:51]:
Assuming that your messaging is clear, that is. But as a result, having a consistent brand message is going to help prospects remember you when they need your product or service. Now, our regular listeners know that you can create clear messaging by writing what we call your marketing guiding statements. But in case you aren't familiar with this idea, marketing guiding statements are written guidelines that position your brand and business as a trusted partner. And the process of developing these statements gives you the information you need to write clear, concise and effective messaging in a story based framework. Now, we could spend an entire episode discussing the importance of marketing guiding statements, and we have in the past, multiple times. But for the sake of time and because we know that small business marketing can't, like a small business's marketing cannot succeed without clear, consistent messaging, we put together a free mini course that walks you through exactly how to write your marketing guiding statements. To take the first step to effective marketing for small businesses writing your marketing guiding statements mini course, visit the link in the show notes or go to treefrogmarketing.com marketingguidingstatements, which is all one word without any spaces, hyphens or special characters.
Victoria Rayburn [00:07:04]:
Again, if you're ready to solidify your brand with clear, consistent messaging, learn how to write your marketing guiding statements by visiting the link in the show notes or by going to treefrogmarketing.com marketingguidingstatements now if you have a personal brand, which I would argue that almost every small business owner should in addition to your messaging, it's also important to define what I like to call your brand topics. Studies show that people are more likely to buy from people and brands that they feel like they know. And as a small business owner, you can use this to your advantage by helping your ideal customers get to know you. Now, you do not have to tell your audience everything about your life, and honestly, you should not. But defining and using brand topics is a strategic way to help prospects connect with you. In case you aren't familiar with this idea, brand topics are simply areas of your life and business that you share and that you want people to think about when they think of you and will be of interest to your ideal customers. Now, just to give you an idea, my brand topics are priorities, marriage, motherhood, specifically being a working mom Hatie who is my dog supporting small local businesses self worth kind of slash battling perfectionism, small business marketing education and small business SEO education. Now, you'll notice that some of these topics are directly related to my services as a marketer and SEO coach, while others are personal.
Victoria Rayburn [00:08:28]:
Your brand topics will look different than mine because you want your topics to help your ideal customers feel connected to you. With this in mind, identify five to nine brand topics and make them part of your personal brand strategy, which really can be as simple as posting about these things on social media or making mention of them on your podcast if you have one. That said, the key is to make mention of them consistently so that your audience remembers you and associates you with these topics.
Natalie Franke [00:08:57]:
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Victoria Rayburn [00:09:42]:
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, you use the Instacart app to make your shopping list. Then a personal shopper goes to your.
Victoria Rayburn [00:10:11]:
Preferred store, selects your groceries for you.
Victoria Rayburn [00:10:13]:
And delivers them to you, typically all within just a few hours. You can also schedule your delivery time personally. I will sing Instacart's praises forever because one, it has saved me countless hours. And two, Instacart employs local personal shoppers, meaning with every Instacart purchase, you are putting money directly back into your local economy. While Instacart does charge a delivery fee, when you upgrade to Instacart. Plus, for just $99 a year, you'll receive free, unlimited deliveries for all orders over $35. Considering the time and frustration you'll save, that's $99 well spent.
Victoria Rayburn [00:10:47]:
If you'd like to avoid going to.
Victoria Rayburn [00:10:48]:
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.
Victoria Rayburn [00:11:03]:
Now you might be thinking, this stuff seems like a waste of time. People don't need to know me, they need to know about my products or services. However, defining and consistently using brand topics will help your audience connect with you and make them much more likely to think of you when they need your products or services. Because again, people buy from people they know, or at least feel like they know. Then last but certainly not least, in regards to building a consistent brand, you need to establish a consistent visual brand. Now let's go back to thinking about Coca Cola and their timeless classic visual brand for a second. Whether this company posts an organic graphic on social media or pays millions of dollars to run a super bowl ad, you can just glance at any of these items or pieces of content and instantly know that you're seeing something from Coca Cola even before you see their logo. This is because the visual brand and the aesthetic that is the visual brand.
Victoria Rayburn [00:11:59]:
But yes, the aesthetic is cohesive and invokes brand recognition. Now, many small businesses, on the other hand, don't take the time to establish a visual brand. This results with them creating visuals on a whim and often using whatever template is readily available to them, regardless of colors, fonts, imagery, this might be convenient, but as a reminder, people crave consistency. As a result, when you don't have a consistent visual brand, your business comes across as cheap and haphazard and people will likely unconsciously assume that your products and services are as well. Now, you might not be running Super bowl ads, but you can and should build a consistent visual brand because the consistency will only increase your brand recognition and credibility, build trust and customer loyalty, and make your small business more likely to be remembered when someone is in need of your products or services. Plus, when you have a consistent visual brand, you can also increase efficiency as it's much easier to design marketing materials when your visual brand has already been defined. If you'd like to learn more about how to build a consistent visual brand I want to encourage you to go back and listen to episode 122. In this episode, Kelly and Treefrog art director Aaron McLeod break down what a visual brand is, as well as the seven most common graphic design mistakes small businesses make so that you can build a strong, consistent brand.
Victoria Rayburn [00:13:21]:
We'll be sure to link to this episode in the show notes. It is a good one in my opinion, so don't miss out. The third thing that big businesses do consistently, but many small businesses don't, is market and advertise their business. As a marketing agency for small businesses, we regularly hear small business owners and leaders say, we know marketing is important, but we're just busy. We market and advertise the business when we have time or when we need more business. But during busy seasons or when we need to make budget cuts, marketing is the first thing to go. And to be blunt, this is a big mistake that successful businesses don't make. Take Apple, for instance.
Victoria Rayburn [00:13:58]:
In the United States, the iPhone is the most popular cell phone. In fact, in 2023, more than half of Us consumers owned an iPhone, while the iPhone has become the most popular cell phone on the market. And while Apple arguably has enough business, not the air quotes, this doesn't mean that Apple stops marketing this product. And the company's success doesn't result in Apple deciding to make marketing less of a priority. Instead, Apple continues to market itself and its products, which only results in further growth. Now, to be fair, Apple and other big businesses have massive marketing teams, and as a small business owner or leader, you and your team likely have a lot on your plates. However, if you want to scale and for your business to be successful long term, you have to have the capacity to consistently market your small business. To do that, I want to encourage you to do one of two things.
Victoria Rayburn [00:14:50]:
First, if you and your team want to handle your own marketing, implement the flywheel marketing method, which is an effective, time saving marketing strategy. Now, we've talked about the flywheel marketing strategy and the results we've seen it deliver in past episodes. But for those of you who aren't familiar with the flywheel marketing strategy, or in case you've forgotten, the Flywheel marketing method is a marketing strategy where your website and online marketing efforts are in sync and function as a flywheel to continually produce results. And in case you aren't mechanically inclined, a flywheel is a mechanical device used to store rotational energy. A flywheel includes a heavy wheel or disc that is mounted on an axle that can rotate. To understand this marketing analogy, it is important to note that flywheels are different from regular wheels and that flywheels store energy, allowing them to rotate and function from their built up energy reserve even when new energy isn't being applied. For example, think about a hand crank flashlight. When you rotate the crank, you give the flywheel energy which it stores.
Victoria Rayburn [00:15:48]:
As a result, when you need to use a flashlight, you don't have to crank the wheel to keep the light on. Instead, the flashlight uses its stored energy from its flywheel to power the flashlight's bulb with a hand crank flashlight. If you apply energy up front, you'll have light for a long time. And in the same way, when you use the flywheel marketing method, you or your marketing team will need to put in quite a bit of work up front. Then your marketing will more or less continue to work on its own, just requiring minimal maintenance. You see, setting up the flywheel marketing strategy does take quite a bit of work up front, but once your flywheel is built, your marketing will essentially continue to work on its own. As a result, the strategy is ideal for small businesses that are notoriously busy. Again, in past episodes, we've talked a lot about the results of flywheel marketing, and setting up the flywheel marketing strategy does take quite a bit of work in the beginning, but the investment of time and money are worth it because once every piece is in place, your marketing, like a flywheel, will continue to run on its own, will just require minimal maintenance, and will continue to generate new leads and sales while you focus on other aspects of your small business or life outside the office.
Victoria Rayburn [00:17:00]:
Imagine that. Now this is the exact strategy we use to serve our agency clients. We've witnessed small businesses grow by up to 800% as a result of this method. And as a result, we firmly believe that this is the best marketing strategy for small businesses. And because there's nothing we want more than for your small business to succeed, we've put together a guide that walks you through every step of developing this strategy so you can make it your own. This guide is called the most effective marketing strategy for small businesses, the flywheel marketing method. And you can find it at the link in the show notes or by going to treefrogmarketing.com flywheel. Now if you don't have time to build and implement a marketing strategy, it is time to consider outsourcing your marketing and the development of your marketing flywheel, whether that be in full or just pieces of it.
Victoria Rayburn [00:17:51]:
Because again, if you want to grow and scale your business, you have to have the capacity to consistently market your business. Like Apple, they don't stop marketing their business, that would result in them not growing as much. In all honesty, implementing the flywheel method is a lot for a single person or even a small team to handle. That said, you can outsource some of or even all of the strategy. For example, you can hire a web designer to build your website or work with a story branded certified guide to write your lead generation items. Or you can use our Flywheel marketing service at Treefrog to have your marketing Flywheel created and implemented in full. To learn more about this service and to schedule discovery, call visit treefrogmarketing.com. We build and maintain our clients'flywheels so that they can focus on other important aspects of their businesses and life outside the office.
Victoria Rayburn [00:18:40]:
Whether you handle your own marketing or you outsource it, please remember that consistency matters and that the flywheel marketing method will allow you to consistently market your small business. Okay, believe it or not, we are actually done talking about marketing for the rest of this episode. I know it's crazy. That's pretty much all we talk about. But there are two more areas of your business where I want to encourage you to establish consistency, including creating systems and standard operating procedures for your small business. Now, we talk about systems and sops on the show regularly, but just so we're clear, when we say systems, we're talking about set protocols and tools that are used in repeatable, consistent ways to achieve a goal. Systems can and should be built for each and every element of your business that you have to do on a regular basis, including for the ways that you serve your customers, how you market your business, and any and all tasks that must be completed to run your business. So let's look at Amazon this time.
Victoria Rayburn [00:19:38]:
Do you think that today or even same day shipping would be possible if Amazon hadn't taken the time to build sops for its team? Absolutely not. And on that note, it's important to develop consistent systems because when you have them, you can increase efficiency. When there are set protocols for completing tasks, you and your team can make the most of your time and resources, and you can even take things off your plate. Because when you have instructions for completing a task, you can assign that task to someone else. You don't have to be the person to do it every time. If you want to learn more about building systems, please go back and listen to episode 118. Four systems every small business must have to increase efficiency and growth. In this episode, true director of operations Mary Adkins breaks down all things systems and how you can build consistent protocols that give your team clear direction, allow you to better serve your customers, and ultimately help you scale your small business.
Victoria Rayburn [00:20:32]:
We'll be sure to link to this episode in the show notes now for the record, establishing consistency within your small business doesn't mean things should always stay exactly the same. In fact, innovation is another area of your business where consistency matters. From your products and services to the tools you use behind the scenes, there is always going to be room for improvement. And like big businesses, if you want your small businesses to stay competitive, you have to prioritize innovation. To be clear, I am not saying that you need to design something that is going to revolutionize the world. I'm simply saying that you need to make time to focus on innovation, to focus on improving. For example, at Treefrog, once a month, our entire team dedicates 2 hours to research. This isn't the only time we do research, for the record, but from ten to twelve on the second Wednesday of the month, our entire team stops doing client work and uses those blocked 2 hours to further research something in our industry or a tool or a tactic that would allow us to better serve small businesses.
Victoria Rayburn [00:21:32]:
Then the following Wednesday, we report on our findings and determine if we need to make any changes to our services or systems. Again, you don't have to create or build something that changes life as we know it. But if you want your small business to be successful long term, you need to consistently seek better ways to serve your customers and do what you do, even if that simply means blocking out a few hours every month to research, attending a conference or two a year, or investing in some kind of education. Now, as we wrap up this episode, I think it's important to acknowledge that so many of us decide to become small business owners or leaders because we want freedom. We want to be able to call the shots and make decisions as we see fit. However, friends, having freedom does not mean you should fly by the seat of your pants or chase every new idea that excites you. When you do this, you and your team will spend too much of your valuable time putting out fires. Your customers likely won't be served well, and ultimately, you won't be able to scale and grow your small business.
Victoria Rayburn [00:22:32]:
However, when you choose consistency, you can set your business up for long term success in the same way that some of the most well known brands in the world have. For example, two brothers started McDonald's as a single location restaurant in a small LA suburb in 1940. McDonald's didn't become a global giant overnight. In fact, it was 13 years before they even opened a second location. However, McDonald's prioritized consistency in their customer experience, operations, marketing and branding strategies and this ultimately led to success. Again, I'm not saying your goal needs to build an internationally known business or brand. However, when you prioritize consistency in the way you serve your customers and the way you market your business and in your systems, you can build a sustainable, scalable business that reaches and even exceeds your goals. Whether you've been in business for five minutes or opened your doors decades ago, remember that consistency is a cornerstone of building a successful business of any size.
Victoria Rayburn [00:23:30]:
And on that note, thank you for tuning into another episode of the Priority Pursuit podcast. If you enjoyed this episode, we hope you'll take a moment to share it with your small business friends to leave us a review on Apple Podcasts and that you'll join us next week for even more marketing boundary and priority driven tech ticks you can use to build a life and small business that you love.