050: Strategy Wins Every Time with Casey Gromer

Today’s guest is Casey Gromer. She is a VMO and I knew that I had to bring her onto the podcast to talk about the complementary nature of marketing and tech and how strategy in both arenas can have exponential results in your business. Casey focuses on marketing strategy rather than going to implementation first – which means we’re not talking about Facebook ads, email funnels or whatnot here! You cannot start your business with tech in isolation or with marketing in isolation. A much better and faster approach is to have clear goals and work with strategists or experts to build a roadmap towards that goal. When clients come to us, they are so ready to do things. But before you can do things, you need to be clear on your mission and vision. Then create some long term goals. And, before you start doing, it’s crucial to understand your ideal buyer – not just the high level picture but going deeper into the actual persona. Once you understand this person, it’ll be far easier to figure out how to reach that type of person What information are they seeking? What help are they looking for? Where are they getting this information? And what does their journey look like? From the time they are first exposed to you and your business through the purchase. And beyond the purchase, how do they stay engaged with you post purchase. "Nowadays you can’t market without the technology. And the technology does nothing for your business without a marketing plan" -- Jaime Slutzky Casey sited a marketing publication that reports the number of different marketing technologies at over 6500! And they fall into 50 different categories… no wonder tech and marketing make heads spin 😊 A scenario Casey sees business owners fall into is that they determine they need a specific type of tool, so they research it. If you don’t know why you are implementing the tool, what you need this tool to do for your business, where implementing this segment might take your business, it becomes really hard to choose the right tool and implement it to meet your needs. This results in letting your technology drive your strategy and your plan! The tools have so much power and so much built in, when someone goes all in without a clear plan it becomes super easy to dig the wrong hole. Your tools are only going to benefit your business if they solve the problem, fill the need or extend the potential within your business. “One of the reasons people choose to use marketing technologies in their businesses is to save them time.” Time is one of our most limited resources, so when you’re looking at implementing a marketing strategy or system, it’s important to make sure that you have the resources to support and fully utilize it. Now, when time isn’t the resource that you can spend, you will be bringing someone on to run that tool. The tool then becomes a vehicle to grow your business rather than something else that takes time away from your core business. Fill in the blank… I’m going to implement this piece of technology ______. I want to make it so that the prospective client does the following with me ____________. For example: I am going to implement ActiveCampaign into my business. I want to make it so that the person who subscribes to my email list gets emails, learns about me, understands my low priced offer and gets into a live conversation with me in the next 60 days. This gives you a very succinct strategy for that tool or software. “If your marketing team and your technology team are not talking to each other, you are missing out on incredible value there. The marketing team needs to understand the capabilities of the technology and the technology team needs to understand the objective.” – Casey Gromer The key here is to make sure that the separate teams are not stepping on one another. Anytime you have systems and processes and automation that are handled by more than one person or team, there ought to be an overarching document or standard operating procedures. This will allow disparate team members to work cohesively within a tool or platform. Your tech team needs to know the tags and nitty gritty of operations inside the tool. The marketing team needs to know that when they are sending people to a landing page, that the Facebook pixel fires and if they sign up, they get the right series of emails or access or pixeled in a certain way. Switching back to the strategy and how that feeds into tech… The strategy is largely based on budget and resources. Implementation of whatever strategy is developed costs time or money or both. If you are on a lower budget, the strategy will involve less tech and the tools will be more user friendly (so that you can DIY it!) If you have a higher budget, building a strategy that can be implemented by a freelancer, consultant or agency is the direction that Casey suggests. This may include more tech components strung together or more tailored/customized solutions. It all comes back to how are you going to serve your audience and client best – and this is why marketing and tech overlap so deeply in the online business space. Casey’s Book “A fresh wave of Marketing” is available on Amazon. She suggests using the book to outline your marketing strategy. It takes you through her framework in about 14 chapters. Super tangible and effective. If you’re thinking about writing a book, be sure to head back to episode – with Laura Petersen! Boiling this conversation down to key takeaways: Don’t put your tech before everything else There are lots of different ways to accomplish the same goal in marketing. Understanding the strategy before making your tech selection will guide the best choice Stay focused on the one tool or strategy that you can implement that is going to bring you the most value Be sure to look at the marketing avenue and effort required – strategies that involve constantly changing landscapes can be harder or a longer road to results than others. “If you start your business thinking strategically, you are going to grow faster and more efficiently than if you start with action!” – Casey Gromer Connect with Jaime Instagram: @techofbusiness Twitter: @techofbusiness Facebook: @yourbiztech LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jaimeslutzky/ Email: [email protected] Connect with Casey: Website: WaveMarketing.net Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/caseygromervmo/ A Fresh Wave of Marketing: https://www.amazon.com/Fresh-Wave-Marketing-Intentional-Visionary/dp/1729123023/