Maven Marketing with Brandon Welch

100 Marketing Tips for Small Business Owners (Maven Monday Episode 100!)

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Our Website: https://frankandmaven.com/
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LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/frank-and-maven/

Host: Brandon Welch
Co-Host: Caleb Agee
Executive Producer: Carter Breaux
Audio/Video Producer: Nate the Camera Guy

Episodes Mentioned In This Podcast:

How to Avoid Costly Mistakes and Be More Memorable - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v9YvEydjKNo
How to Get Your Customers to Take Action - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Qs1oEARkn4
Is Digital or Traditional Advertising Better? And Does Geofencing Work? - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oP1s6uE1TfI
With Word-of-Mouth Referrals, Do You Even Need Advertising? - Maven Marketing Podcast - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f8WMbctIAiI
How To Close More Sales with Messaging & Math - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=srVNpvUbYqE
Should You Use Billboards? The Powers and Pitfalls to Remember - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jcv7b21R3RM
How to Rank Higher on Google: What You Need to Know About SEO - Part 1 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mre_OSDbQDs
How to Rank Higher on Google: What You Need to Know About SEO - Part 2 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A8tz9xjzv5M
How to Recruit Amazing Employees - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0EmNOri9InU
What To Do When You Get A Bad Review - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fPcZECz4I9I
How To Make Your TV & Radio Ads Stand Out - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yu8LW9ip7Co
How to Build a Tribe of Extremely Loyal Customers - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t2uwHg8Y6Hg
Is Email Marketing Your Most Powerful Sales Tool? - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6BxuRAZo8S4
12 Skills You Need to Close More Sales (Part 1) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_uN8YhoklEc
12 Skills You Need to Close More Sales (Part 2) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mU2t40uAndw
Are You Missing the Boat with AI in Your Marketing? - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X6xnlHUqpXs
Should You Move Your TV Budget to YouTube? - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=--FxA5zi_Hs
How To Get The Best Deal on TV & Radio Advertising (Part 1) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZqPBmo_9CX0
How To Get The Best Deal on TV & Radio Advertising (Part 2) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rCqsJcfwAyQ
How to Build an Incredible Business with your Spouse (ft. Randy & Dee

Do you have a marketing problem you'd like us to help solve? Send it to MavenMonday@FrankandMaven.com!

Get a copy of our Best-Selling Book, The Maven Marketer Here:
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Speaker 1:

Welcome to the Maven Marketing Podcast. Today is Maven Monday. I am Brandon Welch and I am joined by Caleb Happy freaking. 100 episodes AG.

Speaker 2:

Have we really done this 100 times now? We?

Speaker 1:

have done this 100 times Holy cow. It is our centennial episode and we are so proud, so happy, so thankful for all of you who have made the Maven Marketing Podcast a thing and made it a thing worth showing up for Caleb. Why are we here?

Speaker 2:

We are here to create a world where entrepreneurs can confidently grow their business without wasting money on advertising.

Speaker 1:

That is why we do this. We have not accepted a single advertisement, although we've been offered at this point, we have not made a single offer or something to sell anybody on here. We are here because we are unreasonably excited about entrepreneurs and just sharing all of the expensive lessons we've learned along the way, growing multiple hundreds of companies at this point across America. And if this is your first episode, you have a lot of catching up to do. Yeah, and we're going to do it for you today, actually, because we're going to do, after well, part one and part two, we're going to cover a little tiny chunk, a summary of all 100 episodes so that you can figure out what you've missed out on.

Speaker 2:

Because surely you've missed one or two. If you've been a long time listener, I mean, if this is your 100th episode, then you should just. You know what. Wherever you are, you should start clapping. I don't care if you're driving right now, just drive with your knee for a second, give yourself a cheer. I can hear jason right now.

Speaker 1:

Yeah he's shouting wherever he is yes, um raj.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, brian brian. Oh yeah, yes, thank you for listening every time.

Speaker 1:

We know there's a lot of you.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, we're. We're missing a lot of people but we are.

Speaker 1:

We are nearing the 14,000 subscriber mark, which is awesome. It's huge. Um, when you start a podcast, you think, oh, it's going to be great, I'm going to get all these listeners, and people are going to be calling in and giving you, you know, feedback all the time. It doesn't happen like that not usually not quick enough anyway and so my advice would be to not overestimate what you can do in two months and underestimate what can happen in two years.

Speaker 2:

Our friend Alex says don't look at anything. Any of the data, any of the numbers for a year. Yes, and she's helped people launch some pretty big podcasts. Yeah, she's launched some big ones.

Speaker 1:

She's friends with a little guy you might know by the name of Donald Miller yeah, rory Baden. Yeah, she works with some big boys. But hey, we are here, episode 100. And today we are going to give you a bite-sized version. I think this is actually going to be really valuable because these are like bullet pointed do this, not this boom, next episode, and then if you want to hear more about that topic, you're going to go back and click in the comments. Here we have episodes one through 100 that you can click on and just go back to that summary. But most of all, today is about gratitude, looking back, and then we're going to talk a little bit about what's going on.

Speaker 1:

Today is the day we launch the Maven Marketing Mastermind, where, if you have enjoyed this content, if you found anything we've done valuable and you've said you know what, I wonder if I could get a little more. I wonder if you could be in the room with the strategists here that are growing companies by 10, 20x using the Maven method and using what we've learned at Frank and Maven. But maybe you're not ready for an agency or maybe the timing just isn't right for us to work as a one-on-one together. We have a way today that you can sign up to be in the Maven Marketing Mastermind and get a group consult. We are bringing business owners together from all over America to talk about the best marketing tactics, the best messaging, the best promotions, best culture. How do we hire great people? How do we improve our sales teams? We're going to have some people in the group that are transitioning businesses from first generation to second generation.

Speaker 1:

I've built this $20, $30, $40 million business. Now what do I do with it? That is going to be a bi-monthly opportunity for you to show up in our team that is growing companies at the highest levels. We're going to talk together and you're going to be able to do that for a very, very low monthly subscription versus the substantial amount sometimes it requires to work at the level we work. So we are so excited about that. I've promised it. I've lied multiple times about it being launched. It takes a lot to get something like this together. Uh, but how can they join that?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, you can go to mavenmethodtrainingcom. And the first uh, if you sign up today, all of the first, how many members is it 20.? Yeah, the first 20 that sign up today, all of the first how many are we doing?

Speaker 1:

Is it 20?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, the first 20 that sign up will get lifetime founding member discount of $99 a month. Yes, forever.

Speaker 1:

That's getting access to a team who's grown owner-operated companies across America by literally millions and millions of dollars. Some of them have gone from like having to work every day to literally living in passive income. And it's not like a big get-rich-quick scheme, but we're going to teach you how to tune your business and the way we've done this and I've been doing this personally for over 15 years in a real way, and if you want to count some years in family business before that, it would be upwards of 20. And we have team members here that are working just with some incredible companies who have let us experiment on their dime so that you don't have to.

Speaker 1:

And we're going to be giving you our best takeaways from that every month, and you get to be part of that. So that's mavenmethodtrainingcom, and we can't wait to see you there and we're going wait to see you there? Yeah, and we're going to launch that. The first session will actually be in June.

Speaker 1:

But, if you sign up in the next two weeks or I guess, the remainder of May you'll get that $99 intro price. That's for the first 20 that do it, and there's already a handful that are in there, so you better get to it. So, hey, if you haven't figured it out, this is the place where we help you eliminate waste in advertising, grow your business and achieve the big dream and it is such a big part of our big dream to help you do those things that we're going to recap how we've done that over the last almost two years and 100 times of showing up in this room on these microphones and giving you our very best. So we're just going to go down the list in tandem. You want to start with number one, or do you want me to?

Speaker 2:

I can start it yeah. We're going to hit each episode and just one quick takeaway from each one and buckle in. Here we go. Episode one how to avoid costly mistakes and be more memorable. Uh, the takeaway is stop talking about your product, product, product. Just be human. Entertain people while demonstrating the better life you can give them. One day, when they need what you do, they will choose you over your competitors you know what?

Speaker 1:

I went back and listened to that episode. It's better than I thought.

Speaker 2:

Yeah.

Speaker 1:

But you are such a good podcaster now. I'm so proud of how you have grown I don't know if I have Well, it felt like a that wasn't a deal.

Speaker 2:

You really had a lot of room to grow. Let me be very, very clear.

Speaker 1:

Like I'm going. I'm about the same amount of goofy, but you have continued to level us up.

Speaker 2:

Oh well, thank you.

Speaker 1:

And so.

Speaker 2:

You're so much better than you were back then too. I didn't listen to it today, but I'm just kidding.

Speaker 1:

The room has definitely gotten better. We've improved since then. So we promised we were going through these fast, but episode one was way better than I thought it would have been. Having going through these fast, but episode one was way better than I thought it would have been having a hundred points of experience on it now. So, hey, number two was how to get your customers to take action. If you want today customers we've talked about today, tomorrow and yesterday customers on this at length you must use a today strategy. Don't just run an ad and, just because you're flapping your jaws about things, expect customers to come. You must write an ad that, at its foundational level, has an offer or some sort of promise that you can save them time, money or hassle.

Speaker 2:

Don't run informational ads and expect everyone to start buying just because Episode three was oh, this is a great question is digital or traditional advertising better? And does geofencing work? And does geofencing work? And does geofencing work? It's a long title, but that first chunk digital or traditional? Here's our takeaway If you want to become the leader, charge more money and have more profitable customers. Traditional broad audience will make you famous faster and cheaper, but it'll take a minute. If you need to target the buyers at the finish line right now, targeting on search and social would be your weapons of choice. Geo fencing is oversold and it doesn't do what people selling you, selling it say that it does.

Speaker 1:

Yeah yeah, we made some people mad on that episode Three. Three episodes out of the gate, but go listen to that one. Yeah, packed with practical value. Number four was word-of-mouth referrals. Do you even need advertising? With word-of-mouth referrals do you even need advertising? And we said advertising is a tax for being unremarkable. If you are remarkable, you may not need advertising, says the advertising agency. Isn't that wild. You may not need it because your market will make you successful. But you will only grow as fast as word of mouth travels to people who need you now. So you will have a lid on your growth. If you are depending on that, it is possible, but you will have a lid on it If you want it to happen faster.

Speaker 2:

Advertising and a good plan will help it happen sooner. Episode five was Episode five how to close more sales with messaging and math. Sales is a numbers game. Every no is a stepping stone to someone who will say yes. If you want to take fewer steps to the yes, then improve your message. The clearer you are about how you can change your life their life the fewer the no's we'll take, the fewer no's it will take.

Speaker 2:

That was a really good one, because we actually talked about how to just deconstruct your sales game, every fall off point along the way and where you can overcome objections.

Speaker 1:

There's four ways your sale can fail.

Speaker 2:

There you go. That's a good episode. Title Four ways for your sale to fail.

Speaker 1:

That'll be on the list in the next episode, just how to address every part of that failure. So number six, big giant question that we still get often Should you use billboards the powers and the pitfalls to remember? So we talked about if you're a memorable company, billboards can make you more memorable. It's pretty hard to make you memorable just because you're billboards. You can do, you can get lucky sometimes and have some really wild, wacky creative, but you're going to have to be really good in that copywriting and some like I'm thinking of the Fudge Uranus, fudge Factory billboards.

Speaker 1:

I can remember those they're memorable because they're billboards and there's a couple other examples of that and, by all means, if you have a good concept, there could be an exception to this rule, but billboards tend to work best when they're aiding another media who has already made you famous.

Speaker 2:

Yep.

Speaker 1:

And when you have audio and visual of TV and radio and a lot more words and a lot more time like 30-second ads, it tends to be easier to make yourself famous and well-known.

Speaker 2:

And then the billboards on top of that can aid that creative Yep. All right. Numbers seven and eight was a two-part episode how to rank higher on Google. What you need to know about SEO. That was a strong episode. Big takeaway don't get sold an SEO package. Most people do. Most are a waste because they're addressing things that don't actually affect search engine ranking. Understand what SEO is, which is 200 factors that could all be affected, and get a really clear scope about what your agency or your SEO nerd is doing.

Speaker 1:

Yep, you want to understand why you're weak in SEO and then are you doing something to affect that, not just a shallow bag of tricks that you pay up?

Speaker 2:

It's not the first place I'd spend $1,000. I'll tell you that yeah.

Speaker 1:

If you're going to spend $1,000, you're probably not doing enough, so make sure you need it first. Though. Hey, number nine was how to recruit amazing employees, not to be confused with accruiting them. Don't write job descriptions. Write recruiting ads. There's a big difference.

Speaker 1:

The best ads talk about your customer or, in this case, your future employee is the customer and very little about you and your company. Most job ads do the exact opposite of that. They talk all about the company and the position, but what you want to do instead is talk about the person, person, person. Give them purpose, demonstrate the purpose that they're going to have in the job, and then ask them to show you some proof that they're the right person with a hook. If you do the things we did in this episode, you will find it remarkably easier to attract awesome people, and, frankly, you can use those same tactics to attract awesome customers, but that we value aligned instead of just a bunch of shotgun. You know clickers, that rapid fire on Indeed and then make you mad because they don't show up to the job interview Number 10, what to do when you get a bad review.

Speaker 2:

This is a great one. I send it to people all the time because they need it. Bad reviews can be a good thing. It's a great opportunity to help a customer see a better version of themselves with your product.

Speaker 1:

Yeah.

Speaker 2:

So people can smell the crazy through the bad review. Respond well and keep your reputation strong, even though that seems like a mark against your reputation. Your response is all the more Says more about you than All the more yeah.

Speaker 1:

You want like an average of a 4.8 or 4.9, with people being able to see oh, who were the crazies. They click on the one stars and then they saw your brilliant response to them. That's stronger than some fake looking five stars, squeaky clean. Episode number 11 was how to make your TV and radio ads stand out. Short but simple advice Entertain, entertain. Entertain the more you are entertaining with your ads by being different. Don't try to make your ads sound like ads. Try to make them sound like sitcoms and you will be tremendously successful.

Speaker 2:

Number 12, how to build a tribe of extremely loyal customers, Add value just because Support them with the same intensity you would a brand new customer and build a tribal bond with events, language, swag, celebrations and brand rituals that only they can be a part of.

Speaker 1:

Yeah yeah, treat your old ones better than your new ones, right? Or just as good as your new ones. Number 13 was is email marketing your most powerful sales tool? Is email marketing your most powerful sales tool? Most companies obsess over the new customer, which costs on average, eight times more to gain than a repeat or referral customer. If you're just advertising for new customers, that's generally eight times more expensive. You could get a cheaper customer if you would just focus on them, and we talked in that episode about how companies even doing $50 to $100 million come in here obsessing over our ways to get them new business and it's like you haven't even maximized your whole list. So we often start there with the yesterday customer, the yesterday customer and, contrary to what you believe or what you're afraid of, email is still the way, way, way most powerful tool by far for getting repeat business. And don't be afraid to send too many emails. As long as you're interesting or valuable, you can send as many as you want, even multiples per day, and you will not get unsubscribed.

Speaker 2:

All right. Episodes 14 and 15 were a two 12 skills. You need to close more sales, uh. So I'm going to read just the names of the 12 skills for you. Number one, the milk route to news drop. Three saw this thought of you for the inside champion. Five, the problem solver. Six, the spectacular. Seven, the birthday eight. Eight, the power question. Nine, the three yeses. Ten, the referral. Eleven, becoming the customer. And twelve, the math guys.

Speaker 1:

those are like those tactics made me capable at a at a very young age in sales, able to sell millions and millions of dollars worth of B2B services. If you can apply those with your sales team, I know you'll see fruit there. Every time we teach that, that's probably the most popular thing I teach outside of just marketing is that you know, and guest speaking gigs and stuff like that I always get feedback that, like one of those things made some huge impact on the sales team. So, um, that was my very best stuff from all the years of selling and coaching. So, um, number 16, are you missing the boat with AI in your marketing?

Speaker 2:

We wrote that like uh gosh a year, a year and a half ago.

Speaker 1:

And I was like, ooh, is that one outdated? Have we proved ourselves wrong yet? And I would still say it's accurate. We talked about what AI can do with marketing, data finding trends, modeling your avatar, doing research, very, very, very good at those things, and it is 100% better than you could do it yourself. What it cannot do better than you or a skilled writer is create original copywriting, original hooks, original ideas that are so closely related to you and your value and the way, period of time and asking you pointed questions. That's the only way you'd be able to do what you can actually do better, which is create original campaigns. So, yes, by all means, leverage it for data. Don't fire your creative guys yet.

Speaker 2:

That's right, Yet Number 17. Should you move your TV budget to YouTube? Biggest takeaway here know what you're paying to reach 1,000 people daily, or that's also called a CPM. You'll hear that in a later episode we dug straight into CPMs.

Speaker 1:

A few years ago, the answer would have been heck, no, it can't do. Youtube can't do what TV can do. Now the answer is kind of, but not really.

Speaker 1:

It's going to become. There'll be a point where it's a toss up, I believe. I think we're still five years away from that, ish. And then there'll be a time where I think YouTube overtakes the efficiency of broadcast TV, and that's. I've said it for years and years and years and years. There will be a day that happens and I was like I don't know when. It would be A lot of people.

Speaker 2:

The misconception a lot of people have is that it's already passed, that it passed five years ago and the reality is or 10 years ago, maybe. Nobody watches TV anymore. We have made so many companies millions of dollars with broadcast television.

Speaker 1:

And we still are it still is happening.

Speaker 2:

It's still viable.

Speaker 1:

Particularly if you are selling to homeowners or people that are middle age to baby boomer age. They still have more money in the American economy right now and they are still the ones that are most likely to spend it on high ticket items. If you were selling something that is exclusive to a younger demo, I'd have a lot to say about that. Probably Facebook and or sorry, probably Meta and YouTube are going to be your side door to that, but for most owner-operated companies and service companies, tv still wins. We may be singing a different tune in a couple of years when we're on episode 200. We'll see, yeah, but that's still the case.

Speaker 1:

Number 20 sorry, number 18 was how to get the best deal on TV and radio advertising. With our good friend Megan, we talked about all the ways that media is just a commodity. You can get caught up in the shiny objects. You can get caught up in the seeing yourself on programs that you watch or your friends watch. You can get caught up on a lot of the emotional side of buying that, and we just lay out the simple math for how to bring it down to a commodity because, at the end of the day, the real reason you're paying a media station is for it to deliver your message to as many people as you possibly can, and we talked about using cost per point and cost per thousand measurements to negotiate media like it's the price of gas, so the more people you can buy for your dollar, the more valuable it is. And then we also shared some really awesome tactics for how to get freebies with your TV or radio station.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, Episode 20, how to Build an Incredible Business with your Spouse, featuring Randy and Dee Milby Brandon. Our 20, how to Build an Incredible Business with your Spouse, featuring Randy and D Milby Brandon. Our good friends Interviewed them. The big takeaway from them shared vision and purpose is everything. Know your roles and stay in your lane. Always start the day asking how to fill each other's tank and you will go far.

Speaker 1:

Amen to that. Number 21 was how to write more effective ads in 2024. It still works for 2025. I double checked. Number one was stop being a narcissist and talking about yourself. Talk about the customer, customer, customer. It's not about your product, it's about the outcome that they have. It's how you change their life and if you want a fail proof way to do that, fill your customers' needs, explain how you'll eliminate their pain, overcome their fears and fulfill a hope or dream that they have. Pick one of those things to do in your ad and leave all the other crap about you out and you will go far.

Speaker 2:

Number 22, how to steal market share in 2024. Still true today. Become the one they know like and trust before the sale and you will steal. You'll steal little pieces of the pie from every competitor in town.

Speaker 1:

Yep, because every competitor in town is waiting at the finish line for them, they're catching them all, but you're going to win them over months and years and decades before.

Speaker 2:

Yep, that is the. It's also the cheapest way, long-term, in the cheapest way, to earn customers. Do this for a long time. You'll be the 900-pound gorilla that nobody can take down, not even Google or the big box stores.

Speaker 1:

You're probably 900 pounds because you've been eating all that pie. That's right Stealing that pie.

Speaker 2:

Stealing that pie.

Speaker 1:

Number 23 was why strong values are the secret to huge results, featuring my good friend, dr Steve Rice, who is leading a multi-generation company that continues to grow and be a spectacle in their industry in the eye care industry and he demonstrated why strong values are the secret to attracting the right customers and the right team members. Even when you're dealing with hundreds of employees and people a day, like he is Um. Even when you're dealing with hundreds of employees and people a day like he is um, you will make so much more money by being true to your values and just communicating those well than you will trying to hack it with some other you know thing on the PNL, like even marketing or cost cutting. If you just focus on culture and values, all the other stuff falls behind that.

Speaker 2:

Episode 24 was five questions to guide your strategic plan. I can do it Strategic plan in 2024. I'm going to read those questions for you. You can guide your strategic plan right here in the middle of 25. Question number one how did your team win in work and in life? Question two what challenged you? Question three what's the big dream? Brandon's favorite question we have a flag in the office. Question four your life and your business are exactly as they'd hoped they'd be at the end of this year. What had to happen to make that true? Question five are you committed, consistent and coachable?

Speaker 1:

I remember that episode. We had breakouts for how to achieve each one of those things. Most people that listened to that texted me and said, oh, this, you know, one specific thing in there was like really the thing that helped them clarify, and it could be any one of those five questions but there were actually Caleb put those together, but they were really, really powerful.

Speaker 1:

That's a great episode to go back and listen to if you find yourself stuck or just kind of out of steam. Number 25 was how to turn your revenue goals into a marketing plan Probably the most clarifying episode I think we've done, because we talk a lot about big principles and strategies and it's like no, here's exactly how to turn that into a budget. We talked about how to acquire your cost per customer acquisition. So what does it cost for you to acquire a new customer? That math alone is pretty freeing to understand. Okay, well, if it costs me this much to acquire a customer, then how many can I afford to buy this year? And there's some nuances to how to do that, but they're all in that episode.

Speaker 1:

We also talked about how to assess the headwinds in the competition, because there are multiple variables that speak to how you should create your marketing plan and your budget, but that all led to how to create the marketing budget that you can afford to be the most repetitive with the largest group of people over and over again. So that's a really fun and cool episode If you're meddling in really big ideas but you want to put rubber to the road. Episode 25 would be great for you.

Speaker 2:

Episode 26,. Should you buy a Superbowl ad? So we talked about. This really applies to all what we call maybe special programming or like little extra packages could be. You know, the Derby was a few weeks ago. It could be the parade at Thanksgiving, right? Any any special thing are our mentality around? That is, you should only buy those after you've built a core foundational schedule. If you're buying in broadcast specifically, you should have that foundation laid and it is firm and it is strong. These things are bonuses when you want to reach into a different audience or a different set of times. And then the other takeaway is when you do something special, bring a message that is also special. Yes, Don't just do it because you do it. Yep, Make it special.

Speaker 1:

Also still relevant for 2025. We talked about what you need to know about Google ads in 2024. We brought on our good friend, ryan Baker, uh, who deals with some mega, mega uh brands and uh and online advertising spend, and I don't want to get too nerdy on the overview, but the biggest thing is you want to avoid all the shiny buttons that Google is trying to get you to click to let them automate your campaigns. Do that with extreme caution and especially don't click them if you don't know what Google is going to do with that money. Because they're trying to create I'll just say it fake inventory or less valuable inventory. That they spread your money out around with things like PMACs and smart campaigns, which are really dumb campaigns, and just focus on the good, old-fashioned search you show up for, trying to meet somebody's need that they've searched for, and then make your landing page and your ad text. Do everything possible to assure them that you can offer them a better life. If you stick to that, you'll be good.

Speaker 2:

Had to talk about that this morning. Still agencies out there pushing performance max campaigns.

Speaker 1:

They should not be. Yeah, it looks good on a dashboard.

Speaker 2:

It's the laziest and easiest one to manage.

Speaker 1:

I'll tell you that you can charge a lot of money and not do anything. If we didn't care about entrepreneurs, that's what we'd be doing.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, all right, number 29. No wait, am I on the right one? I lied 28,. 10 tactics for growth in 2024. Growth in 2024, and anywhere, will come from doubling down on fundamentals, clear messaging, consistent follow-up and choosing a few tactics that you will execute with excellence.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, fill one glass at a time. Number 29,. Episode 29 was six marketing trends you need to be aware of this year. You need to be aware of this year we talked about really the biggest push in a world of shiny objects and targeting, and this is a time where meta and Google were both changing a lot of things. Just be human. Every platform, ultimately, is rewarding humanness, and every human, especially, is rewarding humanness, and so be cautious of automation and complexity in your marketing and just take it back down to the basics.

Speaker 2:

Stay in the New Year momentum or if you have any rally cry at any time of the year, it requires rallying your team around a clear focus, celebrating small wins and reinforcing shared goals consistently.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, number 31 is how to draw a huge crowd at your trade show booth. We gave you some out-of-the-box tactics for getting a line out the door In a room full of booths that kind of look the same. These wacky things will help you be the one that people came by not just because of your product, but came by because you were doing something that added value to them. And there's just a ton of we've done for all the advertising we've done. We've done a ton of trade show-related things over the years and we just decided, hey, let's give that stuff away. Hey, I'm going to have you do this next one. Okay, yeah, 10 years was an overview of our agency and with my wife my other partner in life.

Speaker 1:

Yes, besides Caleb, we did a part one and part two just looking back at all the things we learned starting this business when we were like 24 or 25 and what we'd learned. And here are a couple of the top takeaways. It's a blur. It's going to be a blur If you're starting a business. Just get over that. That's what you signed up for. You are going to have to sacrifice your personal life to some degree, at least for a season. That was a many-year season for Valerie and I.

Speaker 1:

With that, don't forget to drive around the block. That is something that I learned. There is this group of people at your home that you left this morning, that didn't see you, probably before you left, and then you're going to go get beat up by the world. It's going to be exhilarating, it's going to be an adventure, but you're going to come home just bamboozled and do not let them get that version of you when you walk in the door. Drive around the block, turn off the radio, turn off the phone, collect yourself so that when you walk in, they see the best version of you that they've been dreaming of all day, not the one that's worn out.

Speaker 1:

Um, all of our advice could probably be worn or sorry. Um boiled down to um, your body and your spirit and just your like, your mental health. Those are your tools. And even when you're operating at 150% of yourself and you're full of energy because you're a new business, the more you take care of those things, uh, the more leverage and the more room you're going to have in your tank. And then, if you guard your time, it's 100 times more valuable than money. You will get farther faster. That was value-packed.

Speaker 1:

I have to say that because it's like my everything on that episode. But those two episodes were, I think, special and you get to hear some pretty raw stuff.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, all right. Episode 34, how to build a social media presence for your business. Be friends first. Hey friend, entertain, have fun and give them the kind of thing they would be looking for when they're scrolling. Yep, not the kind of thing they would be looking for when they're scrolling.

Speaker 1:

Yep, not the kind of thing you want them to be looking for. Exactly Number 35 was from a one-man show to a multimillion-dollar business with my friend and one of the original it's client number three at FrankenMaven, mr Tyler Smith and Ashley Smith, and we just talked about. It was kind of more one of those entrepreneurial episodes Like what does it take to go from being he was a guy with a tool belt and now he has a multi, multi, multi-million dollar um?

Speaker 2:

empire. Really he's taking over, yeah.

Speaker 1:

He's taken over Georgia and he's one of the spectacles in his industry and he's living the dream and he just shared some really raw and real stuff about what you go through to get there.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, uh, episode get there. Yeah. Episode 36, how to increase your website leads without spending a penny. Every entrepreneur loves this one. Answer the questions your customer is asking.

Speaker 1:

Go to the person who's answering your phone. So your job for the next three weeks is to write down every question you hear and then let's make sure we answer it on the website before they ever have a chance to scroll.

Speaker 2:

Yes, there were like five or six really good ways, but that was one of the takeaways.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, yep, conversion rates everything. Number 37 was timing and tenacity inside the mind of a three-time, eight-figure CEO with my good friend, nick Gordon. This guy is a machine. He has built three businesses. The last one went over 100 million. He has bought, he has sold, he has trained, he has hired and he's fired hundreds of times more than most people. Uh, that I know and uh he. He said very simply there's only two reasons people stop doing business with you. One is you stop talking to them. Or two, you did a bad job and it's like really drop that mic, drop that mic.

Speaker 1:

And uh, yeah, you need to go listen to that one.

Speaker 2:

He's a machine. Yeah, it's a good one. Episode 38, how to calculate the ROI of sponsorships. To calculate the ROI on sponsorships, tie every dollar spent to really a clear goal when you go to a sponsorship. There are vast different types of sponsorships, but what do you expect? It's really strategy comes first, what do you expect from it, and then measure that. And then we also talked at the end of that, which I think is really important. There's a different, you know philanthropic, type of sponsorship. Expect nothing from that. Yeah, that's the roi is you are being generous and there the return is for somebody else and that's okay such a great thing.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, you should do sponsorships for the for. Yes, it's just learning how to wrap your mind around what they're for. Yep, we talked about you don't need more leads in episode 39. You don't need more leads, caleb. That was a edgy title. Got us lots of clicks Inside. After the click, you learned you don't need more leads, you just need to convert the ones you already have better by improving your customer journey and follow-up. And we had literally a world-renowned expert. He's worked for the biggest brands Apple, nike, all that stuff. Jason Friedman took us through a roadmap. There's a pretty cool freebie. I think it's still live in the notes there. I hope you walk through that process.

Speaker 2:

Awesome, episode 40, five ways to make your Facebook ads more profitable. With Leslie Clark joining in, she's so brilliant. She reminds us that the customer is the star, not your product?

Speaker 1:

Yep, do that. Just ask yourself that question before you launch any Facebook ad and you'll probably be successful. 41 was how to double your business without advertising, featuring Alec Palin, third generation leader of a regional really a national company in the music space In probably the most changing industry I can think of. He is obsessed about the customer experience and he asked the question how many teeth will your people see when you walk in the door? And if you can just make them feel good, you can weather any of the changes. And they are certainly doing that and thriving.

Speaker 2:

That's not a slight to your dental plan, no, that's more. You know. Smiles Training yes, okay, episode 42, three facets of unstoppable country culture, company culture they would work for a country too. I think. A strong company culture starts with process clarity, daily celebration of wins and a leadership team that sets the emotional tone. Love it, I love it.

Speaker 1:

43 was the three types of customers. We talk all about them. They're pretty much woven into every episode. It's woven in everything we do here and all the results that we get, but we just broke them down. Every marketing plan your marketing plan, in fact should have an answer for the three types of customers. That, of course, is the today customer, the tomorrow customer and the yesterday customer. That's been called. The most valuable thing about our agency is that we teach that. We incorporate it into our methods and it's just. It's.

Speaker 2:

It's embarrassingly simple, but it is tremendously grounding for any marketing decision it is um episode 44 how to write ads that everyone will listen to. To write ads that people actually listen to, focus on speaking directly to their problems and make your message sound like a real human conversation. Oh, there's a novel idea, yeah, uh, read it out loud. And if it doesn't sound like a real human conversation, oh, there's a novel idea, yeah, read it out loud. And if it doesn't sound like something you would say, then, unless it doesn't sound like that because it's fun, if it doesn't sound like right, I mean you could have a Unless you are fun.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, unless it sounds like something a character in a TV show would say but if it sounds like a robot or sounds like an ad, that's called ad speak and you want to kill it.

Speaker 1:

You don't like it. Yeah, a number 45 was three digital marketing trends you need to be aware of. Really, this has only gotten more rampant and you just need to be shorter, faster and more creative, like just more creatives in the mix, not letting one ad just get stale over time. Uh, that was a big takeaway from episode 45.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, Episode 46, how to know if you need a new website. This is a question we get a lot Um. One takeaway from it If your web is, if your website isn't clearly guiding visitors to take action or reflecting your brand's value, it's probably time for an upgrade. So if I can change the logo on the website and the name and everything else works, you need a new website.

Speaker 1:

It's real. Yep, that's real, that's good. Number 47 was why your leads aren't converting into sales and how to fix it. Leads don't convert when your messaging doesn't match the stage in their buying journey. This is happening right now in your business, I promise somewhere, and it's because we forget to take off our hats and just get in the customer's shoes and just see where they are and what they would most likely be concerned about now. And it's not hard, it's very much common sense, and so that's more about breaking down the sales process and diagnosing where it's going wrong and how to fix your messaging, ie, your sales scripts or your sales next steps or something about your customer experience to fix it.

Speaker 2:

Number 48, why your organic website traffic is down in 2024. It's down big time and it's going to keep going down. I'm just going to say that as a blanket statement. Our last week's episode was about AI. It is replacing a lot of organic search. Um, AI search is not necessarily a category in Google analytics.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, also, google has put like nine more positions that are paid positions and they're favoring national sites. They really don't want your silly little local website to rank, if they can help it.

Speaker 2:

The big thing in 2024 that everybody started noticing anybody who had been creating content at mass and mass form for the sake of ranking and not for the sake of a customer got penalized.

Speaker 2:

Big time starting in March and they have had that was their big update ranking and not for the sake of a customer, got penalized big time, starting in march and they have had that was their big update and they've had micro updates, uh, every two months, including last month so if you've been writing empty words and just filling your website with junk if it hasn't already, you know hurt you.

Speaker 1:

It's going to yep certainly isn't helping. At least rewrite that content and make it as so helpful your grandma would find it helpful right. Mm-hmm Number 49 was how to hold your digital ad agency accountable. Hmm, rocks thrown yeah, shots fired Bring it on.

Speaker 1:

Guys, we're in a space that is tremendously complex no-transcript and the engagement part, because that should just be a byproduct of doing really good strategy. And we just talked about how to avoid those, because there's a lot of them right now. I know somebody's listening and you've been writing the check and you're like man, I don't see this going. But they, you show up to the meetings and they're throwing pizza parties and telling you, hey, it's awesome, it's great on our end, but you're not seeing it or feeling it and your profitability or your you know, um, your customer counts, and we just hate that. And so we gave you the tools to hold them accountable, and hopefully it makes them better. We want them to learn.

Speaker 1:

When crucial conversations happen, everybody comes out better. That's right, and so number 49 is a great, great episode. If you've ever been miffed or burnt out by an ad agency or other marketing person and it's not that they're bad people, they're probably lacking a little bit of business savvy. And it's not that they're bad people, they're probably lacking a little bit of business savvy. And you, too, need to learn how to share goals instead of being on different sheets of music.

Speaker 2:

That's right Number 50,. Five ads that are killing it, and why so? We looked at five ads.

Speaker 1:

Gave it away in the title.

Speaker 2:

And we really just took away the best performing. Ads are simple, emotionally resonant, they speak to your heart and they're built around a single clear idea that speaks directly to your pain point.

Speaker 1:

That was the first 50 episodes. That's a lot. That was a lot to say. Hopefully you're still listening and you're going oh, I'm going to go back and listen to that episode. Yeah, this is probably one you could have put on 1.5 or 2. We have the entire list of these with the links to the episodes in the description of this podcast. So if you saw one and you're like, oh, I want to go to that, go down to the number, click on it and you can go pull up that episode and there's obviously more information we were able to summarize here.

Speaker 1:

But what are we doing? We are helping make you and all the people you serve more clear, more confident, more profitable, more prosperous. That is our goal. That is our dream. That's why we've been back here every Monday. That's why we're going to continue to be here and that's why we're giving you a chance to take it a step further. Lean in, Join our mastermind, giving you a chance to take it a step further. Lean in, join our mastermind. Get Caleb and I and Leslie and Audrey and Kyle and all the people that are just making these wonderful results we're talking about. You get to ask them point blank and you're going to get to see a lot of stuff. We leave out this podcast because it's kind of sensitive or we don't want it to cost our customers any sort of exclusivity, but not that we'd be giving away their trade secrets. But we're going to show you a few more of ours in a more hands-on manner when you're in those groups.

Speaker 2:

We can go a little bit deeper on a call like that and be a little more practical. We have to be generic enough for everybody to make sense. If you're listening in your car, you can't stare at a dashboard while we're talking, right, and so we want to be able to go deeper with you and for you to bring the questions that would be specific to your business, that apply only to you maybe.

Speaker 1:

What about this, Caleb yeah? They'll help you you can bring your media buys. You can bring your ads. You can bring your social media dashboards. You can bring your problems with team members. I promise we've helped solve them or we've solved them ourselves. You can bring we've been doing this a lot. We're getting gray.

Speaker 2:

Caleb.

Speaker 1:

I'll speak for myself.

Speaker 2:

Easy there. Yeah, no, it's creeping in, it is. It starts in the sideburns and works its way to the top.

Speaker 1:

That's crazy to say, but if you haven't gotten the idea we are just so tremendously like in this for you, and the people you serve in your market. And that is the end of episode 100. We'll be back here next week with the other 50 summary. We'll do it maybe even a little faster and we'll be back here every Monday after that helping you answer your real-life marketing questions, because marketers who cannot teach you why?

Speaker 2:

are just a fancy lie.

Speaker 1:

Thank you very much for 100 episodes Thanks guys. We'll see you soon.