Welcome to the Virtual Antics podcast , where we help entrepreneurs streamline their business to six figures and beyond . These short , sweet and info packed episodes will inspire , educate and leave you feeling motivated to take one more step forward in your business . So put down your never-ending to-do list , because in this podcast we are interviewing the best of the best in the entrepreneurial world as they spill their secrets to success . This podcast is sponsored by Nandora , the all-in-one software for entrepreneurs to grow their business , with unlimited landing pages , automations , emails and text campaigns , and so much more . I'm your host , natalie Guzman . Now let's get into it . Welcome back to the Virtual Antics podcast .
Speaker 2As always , I'm your host , natalie Guzman , and today we have Marco Torres , who is the founder of MarketingBoostcom . He has helped thousands of business owners worldwide boost sales and scale their businesses by as much as five-fold through the use of incentive-based marketing . He teaches entrepreneurs how to store sales and marketing through the use of value-added incentives instead of discounts . His Facebook groups combined are home to more than 80,000 active business owners who are raking in sales with his advice and amazingly affordable travel incentive subscription programs . So , welcome Marco . How are you doing today ?
Speaker 3Thank you . Thank you , natalie , for having me on the show .
Speaker 2I'm so excited you're here . So tell us a little bit about what you do and how you got started .
Speaker 3We got started with this back in 2017 and it came about as an accident , so I'll tell you a little bit about how we got started and first tell you what we do , as you asked . So MarketingBoostcom is one of the businesses that I founded and operate , and the most excited about is what I really what gets me up out of bed every day , fired up and because we help other businesses . We kind of reach down the ladder and help other businesses grow and scale , and I get a lot of pleasure out of that and have fun with that . Marketingboost provides what I call the wow surprise and the light factor . We provide three different categories of incentives that business owners around the world that are using us can use to acquire more clients , more leads , provide loyalty programs , create trade show giveaways , engagement , grow Facebook groups . I mean , there's a million ways to use our incentives , and so , again , just to summarize , we provide three categories , one being complimentary hotel stays and 130 destinations around the world , from three to seven nights stays , with no time share hoops to jump through or anything like that . We provide restaurant savings vouchers that are good throughout the USA and Canada and hotel savings cards that come in multiple increments , from one , two , three or five hundred dollars , and so these incentives can be used to get , as I mentioned , to acquire more clients , etc .
Speaker 3How I got started was an accident . We were . We've been in the travel space , my partners and I can . I keep on rambling away , go ahead .
Speaker 2I want to hear it . I love a happy accident . It's my favorite .
Speaker 3Yeah , I'll get in the microphone here , but we started this in 2017 . We were previously launched a travel business in about 2012 and it was growing , you know , very fast . We were one of the fastest growing travel companies in North America with that website , and we wanted video testimonials . We kept thinking , man , if we only had people giving us video reviews , that would give us the social proof we needed to sell more of these destinations , hotels and resorts we were offering . But we couldn't get hardly anybody to ever give us a video , go that extra mile of not only writing a review , maybe , but better filming a selfie video testimonial . So we came up with an idea to offer a bonus vacation and do a survey . Now , mind you , this is a quick idea everybody can use , because everybody needs more social proof . We all need testimonials and reviews . So we came up with a survey process to when we felt our clients were at the peak of their happiness was day after check , and so we sent them an email and say , hey , how's the hotel living up to your expectation ? And if they said , that's great , you know , give us a four or five star rating . We would follow up with an email and a text message , automated , of course , and we would send them a message saying hey , if you know we're thrilled that you're enjoying this hotel and resort , would you go , would you do us a huge favor and film us a selfie , testimonial , and brag about the hotel brand and about our brand , and if you do that , we'll reward you with a bonus three night getaway on us in Orlando or Las Vegas .
Speaker 3Suddenly , we had dozens of these reviews coming in that we couldn't get before then , hundreds , and of course , now we had to turn the campaign off because it was expensive to give people three night hotel stays . But those reviews were powerful . We had exactly what we wanted . We were generating more sales , publishing them on our Facebook and our YouTube channels , on our TV ads , et cetera . And but now we had to turn off the campaign and we didn't want to , but we , so we went back to our hotel partners and this is how marketing boost was born .
Speaker 3We went back to our hotel partners and said , hey , we come up with an idea and let's be . You've got a problem that we think we can help you solve . Let's be honest , your hotel is not full year round , is it ? I mean , sure you sell out for certain weekends , special events , holidays , easter , 4th of July , christmas week , but the majority of the year 70% of the year , let's be honest 30 , 40 , 50% of your rooms are going empty . And yet you still have the same fixed cost the mortgage , the staff , the maintenance fees , the crew , all that stuff .
Speaker 3They agreed and so we got access in a few hotels in Orlando and Vegas to their , their unsold inventory at either ridiculously low price or free . And now we were able to continue , go back to fulfilling those trips for Orlando and Vegas and doing those , giving away our own incentives to get people to give us video reviews . And then we thought to ourselves wow , can you imagine if we solicited more hotels all over the world for this , we would have another standalone business , which is what became marketingmovescom today , where we provide business owners with a low cost subscription access to these very high perceived value incentives that they can use with whatever their call to action is , to enhance their call to action .
Speaker 2That is super , super cool . So basically kind of stumbled onto this need and solved the problem , and not only did you were able to offer your clients like these amazing things but also you were able to help the hotel industry out too , which I always love . Is is so cool . When we're able to like kind of give back to businesses , that's amazing . So now you have a huge Facebook group .
Speaker 2So , what goes into that Facebook group Tell me , like what happens in there , because every Facebook group , I find , is a little bit different . You can get different value from different groups . So what kind of value do you bring to your members ?
Speaker 3Well , a few things . One , the community and our group . The purpose of it is obviously is to teach business owners how they can use these marketing boost incentives to grow , whatever business they're in , and use them , because a lot of business owners , when they envision an incentive based marketing , which is what we teach , they don't really get it . And so what do you ? You know , well , I'm not in the travel space , so how would I use travel incentives to enhance my real estate business ? Or how would I use travel incentives ? I'm an insurance agent ? Or I am , you know , I'm a plumber . How would I use an incentive you know , travel incentives . So they don't get
it .
Speaker 3So , in the community we are , you know , we provide , we always examples and we have huge libraries of videos that we've created for our , for all kinds of industry niches , and graphics that are editable in Canva , and we encourage and run contests with our group members to show for them , to show the community , how they're using these incentives and what their Black Friday offer was and what their Christmas promotions are looking like and what their , you know , valentine's Day promos are gonna be about with the you know , couples getaways and incentives that marketing boost offers .
Speaker 3And so we encourage our members to share what they're doing that's working and to help others along the path of learning how to use the incentives . And then we have our guides section with a whole library of training videos and content . We go live with training and we have our own podcast that we have guests on , where we're showing business owners , you know , and encouraging them with success stories and what have you , over and above incentives , but helping people grow their business and go down that entrepreneur journey , which is sometimes very lonely , and in the community we help each other along .
Speaker 2Yeah , and what I love about those types of groups too is that you're giving them kind of reminders like , hey , start planning for like how many people you know ? Be honest with yourself , totally miss Black Friday . That was me .
Speaker 2Me and my team totally missed it . We had so much going on . It was a great month for us , but we totally missed it . And we didn't miss it for our clients , though , which is always a good thing . But those types of Facebook groups give you reminders , right and so , and you also feel like you're not alone . So if you did miss it , I'm sure someone pops up in that group . We , like I totally missed it , but I love that , and we need that accountability and support as entrepreneurs because , like you said , super , super lonely . I became a mom and entrepreneur at the same time and I feel like I was put into the most loneliest positions in the world , where all you have is this tiny little human and then you have a brand new business and it's like they're both babbling and not making sense . So that is amazing , that you've created this support network of people that are there to support you , and you know also , they pretty much have kind of the same goals , especially when it comes to marketing . Is that right ?
Speaker 3Exactly , yeah , everybody . You know we used to be called advertising boost before we changed our name to marketing boost a few years ago and when we realized , you know , most of our members don't consider ourselves , nobody really considers themselves an advertiser anymore . We're marketers . You know , we're marketing gurus before we're advertising gurus , and so we decided to change the name to marketing boost a few years ago and that's been a big boost as well . But back where I forgot the question .
Speaker 3But at the end of the day , the community and the goals that we're all searching for here is to is to , you know , help , because so many business owners today , I mean is never in my mind has never been a better time to be an entrepreneur than right now .
Speaker 3The technology that's available that , for example , that you provide , bringing software and solutions to , together with you know , virtual assistance and software together I think it's powerful .
Speaker 3We do some similar things with our marketing boost solutions , product line , and the idea being is that there's never been , in my opinion , a better time to be an entrepreneur , has never been easier , in the sense that technology is so affordable and able to build everything from sales funnels to marketing campaigns , to email texting , voicemail , broadcasting . It's all available and affordable , but now you got to stand out from the crowd Because you OK , it's easy . You know , when I started as an entrepreneur online entrepreneur in 1996 , it wasn't an easy task . So there's a , but today it's a lot easier . On the other hand , there's a lot more competition and one of the things we do with marketing boost is give you some of those those tools , incentives that might help you stand out from the crowd , might make your offer be completely different than your competitor , and then give people a reason to select , you know , to get off the fence and do take action with your business , versus not at all .
Speaker 2Yeah , I'm always telling my clients one of the most important things in your business is your tech stack . That's the technology used to run and promote and grow your business right . So having something like marketing boost is really really great because it's giving the incentive . It's because you said you could use it for referrals . What other things can you use a marketing boost for ? Yeah , yeah .
Speaker 3Yeah , that's a great point . I mean , we are launching a rewards platform here pretty soon as well , so that you can give people digital rewards cards that might include you know , when you do 10 , you know , visit my restaurant 10 times will reward you with one of the following incentives . Or when you refer three clients our way , we're going to reward you with one of these . You know , $500 hotel savings , cars or five nights in Cancun on us , and so you know , these , these incentives , with a little bit of creativity , can be used for , I mean give . I'll give you some case study ideas here . For example , I had a company that generated over a million dollars in the first year using marketing boosts in additional cash flow in their bank account . And they were a windshield and replacement repair company which doesn't make any . There's no tie in to travel right ? Well , in their marketplaces they have to give cash rebates to consumers when they select , if they choose them to install their new windshield versus somebody else , because typically the insurance companies pay for the windshield . So they're one of their ways to attract the customers . A choose us and we'll give you cash back , since they don't even have to pay for the windshield . But that cashback was expensive , right , giving everybody $150 $200 cashback checks . When they found marketing boost , they trained all their installers to go when they finished installing the new windshield , that go and say , hey , you have $200 cashback coming to you , or we can trade that for five nights in Cancun or Cabo San Lucas , mexico , on us instead , or you could get three nights in Las Vegas , and so you know we'll keep the $200 cash and give you three nights in Las Vegas on us instead of cash . And so they got you know bunches of people to accept the bonus offers and sent instead of cash , and they kept over $1 million in additional cash in their pocket . That's obviously an ongoing program for them .
Speaker 3Another idea was we had a business owner who had a subscription model . He had hundreds of people paying him $97 a month for his advice and what have you on stocks and cryptocurrencies and everything else he came up with . Even when he found marketing moves , he came up with a campaign to say , hey , if you pay for 12 months in advance , you get into our VIP club , whatever you call it , or six months in advance , you get there . You know he created different levels if you pay for six or 12 months in advance , and he did stuff like his own incentive , like if you pay for 12 months , you get the 13th month free and you get five nights in Hawaii or five nights in whatever .
Speaker 3Well , he had over 300 people step up and pay for an annual plan and advance at $1,200 apiece . He had another six 350 or so pay for six months in advance and in four days he generated almost half a million dollars . That has obviously become an ongoing process for him as well , to get people to go from monthly to annual . So that's just two examples of many on how these incentives can be used to do , you know , get people to do whatever your call to action is or whatever you would like them to do next .
Speaker 2That's awesome . So it's not just referrals , but also for lead generation , which I know . Everyone these days is always looking for tools and ways to grow their lead gen . I don't think we're ever stopped looking for ways to improve our lead generation . So that is amazing , do you ? So I was wondering so with the travel incentives . So we've used it for lead gen , we've used it for referrals . Is there any other ways or any other creative ways that people have used a marketing boost ?
Speaker 3Yeah , hundreds of them . But here's some quick and easy ideas that any most of us today are using . For example , zoom calls , like you and I are on today . So you you're you or your sales team you need more appointments . So that's one goal that many of us have right , we need to get more appointments on our calendar for ourselves or for our sales team . And then two , what's another big problem we have ? I know we do with our company even and that's no jokes People book appointments and they don't show up on time or don't show up at all , and then your staff is waiting around like son of a gun . I had this our book for this person and they didn't show .
Speaker 3So we have found many of our business owners are using very successfully our smaller incentives , such as $100 restaurant savings card or a $100 or $200 hotel savings card , and in their sales funnel flow they might be saying hey , book a no obligation appointment to talk to one of our team members to see if it's a good fit for us to work together , and we're going to reward you with a $200 hotel savings card when you book that appointment and show up on time .
Speaker 3So now your automated reminders that you should have . If you don't have that , you need to get that , but your automated reminders of texting and emailing and getting them to show up for the appointment can be reminding them . Don't forget show up on time for our two o'clock appointment tomorrow and I'm going to reward you with a $200 hotel savings card , good at a million hotels worldwide , for your next you know getaway . And so now you're using these incentives to kill two birds with one stone book more appointments and eliminate no-shows . So if that helped you boost just a little bit more appointments and helped reduce your no-shows by X amount , that's going to do what at the end of the day ? Probably put a lot more money in your bottom line , because your sales team is going to be talking to more people and you're going to have more appointments to start with . So that's just you know . Another example there of using the incentives .
Speaker 2Awesome . Well , I have learned so much and I think this is an amazing tool to add to your text . So thank you so much , Marco . Where can we find more about marketing boost and about you ?
Speaker 3I'd love to ask your team , your clients or prospect I mean your listeners to go to marketingboostsolutionscom . Marketingboostsolutionscom , and on that site there's a couple of links , one to see our other software solutions , but , more importantly , marketing boost , and from that site you can get a free account with no credit card required to check us out . So you can get a limited version of marketing boost but you can join with no obligation , no risk , no credit card required . Get in and get a free account .
Speaker 2Awesome . Make sure I put that in the show notes as well . But thank you so much for coming , Marco . It's been a blast and we'll talk to you all next time .