Raw Chicken Marketing

Through a hilarious kitchen disaster, with a chicken on the loose, Victoria reveals the lessons every small B2B expert-led business owner needs to grab hold of their marketing and stop leaving their success to chance. 

In this episode, Victoria spills the tea on why avoiding the hands-on work in marketing can leave your business in chaos, and what to do instead. 

Key Takeaways:

• Outsourcing traps: Why handing off your marketing without strategy or direction never works.
• STAR Customer Framework: How to define your target audience.
• Marketing Goal Setting: How to set goals and measure (and what happens if you don’t).
• Buyer Psychology: Emotional buying, and how to tap into the transformation your product or service delivers, instead of features and benefits.
• Immediate action steps: Get your immediate next steps to get your marketing in shape, and in control.

Grab free templates, checklists and guides at allstarmarketingclub.com/resources - everything you need to market smarter, not harder.

About Victoria: Marketing Coach & Trainer Victoria Vickery serves up marketing advice with fewer buzzwords, more belly laughs, and stories you’ll never un-hear... because memorable marketing starts with memorable lessons.

For More Tales, Tips & Tangents: @victoriav1ckery

Transcript

0:00

I tried to get the chicken in the oven without actually touching it using just the plastic film. I thought I was being clever, but I wasn't. There was chicken Ming everywhere. I was chasing this raw bird all around the kitchen. And quite honestly, that's exactly what happens when you refuse to get your hands on your marketing and take control. It ends up really messy. Welcome to what's that Got to Do With Marketing? Where we start with a story you did not see coming. It might be fun, could be funny, or even a little bit frantic, but in the end, it will all make sense, leaving you with a takeaway a to do or a transformational way forward. And I'm your host, Victoria, and you, my friend, are here for unlikely lessons and unforgettable marketing advice. Just for small B2B expert led business owners. Let's get into it. Today's episode is called Raw Chicken Marketing. Now, let me tell you, I absolutely hate touching raw chicken. In fact, I insist that if we're having chicken at home, it comes in a bag that can be popped straight into the oven. Because why would you want to deal with the raw chicken? I call it chicken ming. You know, all of that, like, gloopy stuff that sits on the top of the chicken. Absolutely hate it. So one day I wanted to cook this chicken, but went into the fridge and it's not a chuck in the bag. One it is in. Its film needs to be taken out to be put into a roaster in order for me to get it in the oven. I was not happy, let me tell you, and I'll be honest. I don't live in a normal house. Mr. V does the shopping. It's not me. So of course he's going to be in trouble later for that. But anyway, I persevere. I get the chicken, I put it on the kitchen side, I get my scissors out and I start chopping round the film that's sitting around it. And I'm thinking, if I can just cut all the way around the chicken, I'll be able to hold the chicken and pick it up inside the clear film that's on top of it, pop it into the roaster, no chicken Ming on the hands. Absolutely perfect. So that's what I do. Only guess what happens. I cannot get purchase on this bloody chicken. And before I know it, the chicken has been lifted up, I've dropped it onto the kitchen work surface. The film never stayed on. And now I'm chasing this bloody chicken around the kitchen and there is just raw chicken absolutely everywhere. It's Gone over the cooker top, it's gone across the work surfaces. Now, all I can say is I was obviously in a very bad way at this point. I'm swearing, I'm cursing at this thing. To be quite honest, I've gone right off of eating it. So what do I do? I obviously have to get my hands dirty. Pick up the bloody raw chicken, get it inside the roasting tin and put it in the oven. And now I've got operation cleanup to handle. Not fun. Not fun at all. And you know what? This is typically what you do in business. So what's that got to do with marketing? To be honest, if you want to do a really good job of your marketing and get results from it, you've got to get your hands dirty. There is no way that you can try and get results from marketing and grow your business if you are not willing to get stuck in and make it work. Now, there's probably quite a lot of reasons why you haven't got your hands dirty. If that's you, there's quite a lot of reasons why perhaps you have put it off you. You haven't got stuck into it and you've avoided doing it. And to be honest, it might be that marketing feels like a little bit of a dark art to you, a bit like a foreign language. That's quite normal. After all, you set up your business to do what you love or to do what you're great at. Not to be able to do everything else around it, like the accounts, the marketing, the sales and everything else you have to do as a business owner. And that can make you really concerned about getting your hands on the marketing and doing what it takes. I totally get that. And for others, it might just be that it doesn't feel urgent. Right now. You've got some clients, you're doing all right, but that's where the danger is. Because at the end of the day, if you're not prepared to put the effort into thinking about the clients of the future, you end up in this frenzy, in this cycle of just needing to sell urgently. And what do we do when we feel like we need to sell urgently? It. We're overwhelmed, we're stressed. And it comes across in our marketing, it comes across in the pricing that we offer. So we knee jerk and, you know, give stuff away for free or charge way less than we're actually worth because we're desperate for the sale. It is not a good place to be in that sales frenzy. So we do really need to be thinking about how to make marketing a part of life every single day and not just when we feel it's urgent. So instead of the feast or famine, making it much more natural, part of our day as business owners. And of course there's other people out there that essentially they've just outsourced it, they've offloaded it, they've put it elsewhere. That might be to a marketing agency, it might be to a virtual assistant, and it might have even be that you have given it away to perhaps an admin person that works for you. The problem with that is it's only ever going to be as good as the brief. So if you have instructed someone to do the marketing for your business, no matter who it is, if there's not really good briefing, strategy, direction, expected results, it's not going to work. It's not going to get you what you need for your business. So even if you are outsourcing it elsewhere, you've got to make sure that you understand where it's going to. You've got to understand that if you don't know all about it, what people are doing on behalf of you, on your behalf, if you don't know what people are doing to get the results, if you don't know how well they're actually performing right now in terms of all of the metrics, it's never going to be as good as it can be. And also marketing, let's be honest, it can feel quite like a time suck. And when you're trying to do everything else in your business, when you're trying to do the customer support you're trying to do, as I said earlier, the finances, the sales and everything else that comes with running a business, it really is quite tough to then think, well, how am I going to fit this marketing in as well? But we don't have a choice. You've got to make the time for it. And I'm going to give you some ideas in a little while as to some of the things that you could be doing. But let me tell you this, above all else, the best people to do marketing in a business are the ones that work within it. That is you. And the simple reason for that is because you know your customer, you know what makes them tick, you know exactly what you want to say to them that will resonate with them. So let's just talk a little bit about that. Let's talk about your customer. So I call customers star customers, and that stands for, first of all, that they're very specific to you. So let's think about you taking hold of your marketing, you know your customer inside out and you're going to be thinking about that exact type of customer that you really want to connect with that's best for your business. Secondly, my T of Star customer is they're targeted. So you can describe them exactly like they're standing in the room with you. Their wants, their needs, their pain points, what keeps them awake at night, what do they want to really achieve in their lives, in their day, in their week, in their month, in their year. You know, all of that. So they're very, very targeted and that makes them my A of star is acquirable. You'll know exactly where to go to get hold of them. So you'll know exactly what marketing channels to go and show up in and you'll know what to say. More importantly, because you've connected with them, you understand them on, on a level that no one else can. No agency, no va, no admin assistant. So you've got to get control of this and really give that direction in terms of who you're. So as I said, acquirable, you can go and say what they need to hear in the places that they will be hanging out and that makes them lastly, results focused. Now, we want to be working with people that appreciate our worth, don't we? And for that reason, if you are choosing the right people, showing up in the right places and saying the right thing, that really does make them results focused because they won't quibble over the price that you're charging them. They understand the value of you in their life and for that reason they're willing to pay the price price to work with you for your expertise, for your greatness, for the amount of time and effort that you've put into your craft, into your knowledge. So that's what a Star customer is all about. I want you to have a little think about that and think about whether or not you actually understand your customers inside out. And if you don't, no one else will. So step back and think about your goals. I'm a massive believer that where the focus goes, the energy flows. So if you are focused on understanding what your goals are, you're keeping an eye on them every single week, if not every day. You're sharing them with your team. You will naturally be interested and you will be focused on reaching those goals and you will be doing the activity that is required to meet them. And that's what you really need to do. Okay, get your hands dirty. Understand what the goals are first and foremost. Secondly, I Want you just to have a little bit of a think about whether or not you're on track. Keep that measurement up, okay? Every single week, make sure you're looking at, where am I against my pathway forward? Because imagine getting to the end of the year and you have not yet taken the time to spend looking at those numbers and you find out that at the end of the year, you've got to achieve the whole year's worth of targets in just a couple of months. That is not a good place to be. So that is something else I really do recommend that you do. So we know who we're targeting, we know what we're saying, we know exactly where to show up, we know what our goals are. We need to now make sure that we're really connecting with that customer. So there's two things that I want to tell you about connecting with your customer. And the first one is. And think about this for yourselves, because this is just so true. We all buy on emotion. So there's nothing that we don't buy that's not a motive. And that comes right the way down to the tea bag that you use for your cup of tea. For me, it's always a Yorkshire because they're nice and strong and I like mine to be nice and strong. And the reason that I talk about emotion there with tea is because I'm not just drinking a cup of tea. I'm taking the time to sit down and have a bit of relaxation. So I like to get up before everyone else in the family. I'll go downstairs, I'll sit on the sofa. I've got a nice blue comfy sofa and I like to sit there and sip my tea and just have a moment to myself before everyone wakes up. I am buying those tea bags for the relaxation. And when I get home from work, I do the same again. And woe beside anyone that comes anywhere near me when I'm having my cup of tea after work. That is my sacred time. So that's what I'm buying. I'm buying that time for myself. I'm buying that, that relaxation. So I challenge you to think about anything that you've bought recently. And did you actually buy it for any other thing but emotion? The answer will be no, trust me. And the reason? Because the emotional side of our brain is responsible for decision making. So you can't possibly not feel an emotional connection to something. It's not possible because that is the side of the brain that makes the purchasing decision. So that's the number one thing that I want you to think about when you're connecting with your customers, when you're getting your hands on it, and you're thinking about how to really resonate with them and get them to buy. And the second thing I want you to also remember is that people do not buy your products and services. They buy transformation. I'm going to say that again. They buy transformation. So if you are heavily features and benefits led when it comes to your marketing, that's something that you've got to change up. Talk to them about the transformation that you help them to make. What is it? That if they were standing on one side of a rickety bridge and they're looking at you on the other side of that bridge and they're thinking, I'm not sure whether to walk across that bridge. It doesn't look safe. I've no idea what's beneath that bridge. It's full of danger. What is it that's going to make them walk across? They've got to know that whatever it is that's on the other side of that bridge, it is worth the risk. And that's exactly how they feel when they're trying to make a decision about coming to work with you. They're thinking, is it the right move? What danger is involved in this? Because they're probably parting with a fair bit of cash, a fair bit of time. So whatever that sacrifice is that they're making, you've got to make sure that it's worth it for them. And the only way to do that is to explain to them what's on the other side of the bridge. And that's the transformation. So, for example, if you are a. A coach, a business coach, you're not selling them business coaching, you're selling them the growth of their business. Perhaps you are selling them an exit planning strategy so they can get out and make a whole bunch of money. Like whatever it is that your thing is, that's what you're selling to them, you're selling the transformation. So really connect with that. And I advise that you go and have a little look around all of your marketing assets and whether or not you're really telling that story, both the emotion side and the transformation side. Okay, so there's a couple of little jobs for you there to go away and set your goals. Really connect with your ideal customer. Think then about the transformation that you bring. Think about the emotional side that they bring, that you bring. And that is the start of you getting a handle on your marketing. Just a few tasks there for you to Grab your marketing with both hands and just not let it run away and do its own thing and cause absolute chaos, just like my raw chicken did. So pick one action. Start there. Because small little actions, they add up to massive results. And remember that no one cares about your business like you do. So you've got to take it by the hand, you've got to move it forward, take that control. Because really you are the best person to do that. If you'd like to get your hands on my marketing Kickstart toolkit so you can start getting some of this stuff in shape, then all you need to do is go to all star marketing club.com forward/resources and you can get your hands on that little gem. It'll really help you to put some of those foundations in place because quite honestly, if they're not there, everything else you do in marketing, it will just fall over. And it doesn't really matter where you are on your journey with marketing. You could be right at the start or further down the line, but it's really important to just sense check these foundations to make sure they're nice and strong. So grab that guide and I look forward to speaking to you next time here on what's that Got to Do with Marketing?