PODCAST · business

Bad Marketing Sucks

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Bad Marketing Sucks currently has 13 episodes available on PodParley. New episodes are automatically indexed when they're published to the podcast feed.

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Bad Marketing Sucks has 13 episodes. Check the episode list to see recent publication dates and frequency.

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Q: Who hosts Bad Marketing Sucks?

Bad Marketing Sucks is created and hosted by Paul Sterett & Chad Richards.

by Paul Sterett & Chad Richards

Everybody knows bad marketing sucks. We're on a mission to eradicate it, one business at a time.

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16

Enough with the Pitch Slap

We have reached our boiling point. Just can’t take it anymore. It is time to stop the Pitch Slap. No more terrible pitching 10 seconds after a new LinkedIn connection is accepted. Enough is enough. It only make companies who use this tactic look like jerks. Just a bad marketing and sales approach. https://youtu.be/BUcer5Oo0wI Click on the Transcript to see full Transcription: Transcript CLOSE Transcript Paul (00:00): Chad, so we got a hot topic today. Chad (00:03): Oh man. I’m waiting on this one for a while. Paul (00:05): So we’ve all experienced this. No one likes it. Why people continue to do this. I just don’t know. I don’t know that I have not found an answer yet. The problem that we face is the pitch slap. Chad (00:20): Yes. It’s terrible. Paul (00:21): About two seconds after somebody connects with you on LinkedIn, Chad (00:24): Bam. Bam. My dms are full of it. Yeah. Pitch slap. Yeah. Paul (00:30): I can’t take it anymore. Chad (00:31): Yeah, I know. It’s terrible. And I relate it to, it’s similar to the dating world, back when we were all dating, and it is very similar to asking a girl on a date, right. The connection request, and then you take her out and it’s like, Hey, you want to get married? Paul (00:50): Yeah. Just right away. And she’s like, let’s Chad (00:52): Go. Can you imagine the look you would get or the response you would get on that? Paul (00:57): Yeah, and it’s not just like a little bit, I get paragraphs, I get Chad (01:04): Thesis, novel Paul (01:05): Essays, whatever you want to call it, but plenty of them explaining Chad (01:10): Everything that they do. Paul (01:12): I had one the other day that I thought, I’m going to give this a shot. I’m going to connect. Seems like a worthwhile and about, I mean, at least they waited like 12 minutes and then got five paragraphs and I actually responded and said, man, I was just really hoping for a connection and not to get pitched ride Chad (01:33): Away, just treat me like a human. My thing is how do you know what someone needs until you figure out who they are and what they’re about. I mean, you’re just spraying and praying. Warm Paul (01:46): Up conversation at least. Yeah. At least learn a little bit. My favorite of all favorites is, you know what? I can help you get 20 to 25 new ideal customers, and we did this for four or five different agencies last week. I’m like, oh my gosh, Chad (02:01): Really? Paul (02:02): You figured out my ideal customer by looking at, oh wow, Chad (02:07): My goodness. Paul (02:08): Yeah, Chad (02:08): You should be paid a lot more for doing this. Paul (02:11): Exactly. But they got a deal. They Chad (02:13): Going, it’s crazy. And it is becoming a bigger issue. And I think one of the things that we see a lot just in general is, and it’s not just people, although people are brands, but it’s also companies. They’re talking at customers and not talking to customers in a way that resonates Paul (02:38) : Without a doubt. Chad (02:39): And it becomes just like Charlie Brown’s teacher, wah. It’s a little Paul (02:46): Bit, Chad (02:47): And then they wonder why they struggle being able to grow as a business and to continue in the trending up with their business and brand. Paul (03:03): It just doesn’t make sense. It doesn’t. Is there something that we’re missing that they have enough of a success rate? I don’t know. The thing though is if it is successful, if they’re actually able to bring on business like that, how many idiots out there? A lot are responding. And Chad (03:21): I would just have to think that going into 2024, I mean, aren’t we at a place in society where maybe we did go through that phase where people were more open to that type of pitch, so to speak? Maybe. But don’t you think we’re kind of getting back a little bit trending back towards more personalization and Paul (03:45): I hope Chad (03:45): So reaching out to people and treating ’em like humans. Paul (03:49): Well, I mean, if you’re saying from a standpoint of what you and I are seeing, I think that what you and I are seeing, we’re being more selective with the people that we connect with, particularly on LinkedIn. And so by virtue of that, we’re calling out what we see from the people who are really trying to be superficial, that are trying to be more gimmicky. I mean, I hope that that’s outside of what the algorithm is feeding us and what we’re engaging with. I don’t think that is necessarily the case based on the number of spam messages I get, not just in LinkedIn, but in my email as well. Chad (04:30): It’s all the same. But wouldn’t you think that at some point that people would start to realize that this is really not effective? Paul (04:39): I would think so. Start making change. The volume by which I see ’em is Chad (04:44): The biggest part. The frustrating ones for me are the ones that you get the connection request and then I guess they’d got an automatic Paul (04:50): Deal. Yeah. Oh, there’s a lot of automation, that’s for Chad (04:51): Sure. And then it kicks into your dms and it’s like, Hey, and they go through this long spill. It’s like, well, if I’d have known this, I wouldn’t have connected the Paul (04:58): Poems really get me. Have you gotten a poem yet? Yeah, Chad (05:01): I’ve gotten a Paul (05:01): Poem, gotten poems and song lyrics. They just really touch my heart and they bring Chad (05:07): A tear to your Paul (05:08): Eye as I delete them. Yes. They really do. They bring a tear to my eye as I delete ’em and laugh as I walk away. Chad (05:15): I just wish that, and I know that it’s difficult to call people out on it in a way that without hurting their feelings, but I’m getting to the point where they’ve kind of almost not hurt my feelings, but they’ve kind of offended me. Paul (05:30) : Yeah, it’s just a waste Chad (05:31): Of time. So it’s getting to a point to where it’s a waste of time, but you want to call it out and say, Hey, look, why not treat me like a human? I was hoping that this, Paul (05:42): So there’s a question, what does it mean to be human on LinkedIn? Because I guarantee you, I guarantee that there are a section of people that reach out to both of us that think that they are and they’re coming across as not. So is it something that we are perceiving differently or are they taught just an unfortunate, bad way to go about it? Chad (06:09): What does it mean? That’s a great question. I don’t know. I think we both kind of came from an era where there was, in the world of business, it’s more Oh yeah, for sure. So we still try to carry that over into this digital world, and it’s difficult at times because you are talking through a computer, but you have to remember that the person on the other side is a human Paul (06:42): Well, hope Chad (06:42): So. They have feelings. They bleed. They live the same life we do. I mean, it’s the same world. I mean, it may be different. Their life may be a little bit different, but we’re all people. Yeah, Paul (06:53): Exactly. Chad (06:54): So I don’t know. I guess it really, it goes back to maybe your generation in a way. That’s a good question. I don’t know. I just know that we come from, I wouldn’t say old school, but kind of a little Paul (07:12): Bit. Yeah. Obviously Zoom is helpful, but man, I tell you, there’s some days where I’m just zoomed out. Yeah, I know. I mean, I’ll talk to you on the phone. It gets old, but I can get zoomed out pretty quick. Yeah, Chad (07:26): It gets old Paul (07:26): Quick. Actually become a term now. Zoomed Chad (07:29): Out. Zoomed out. Yeah. Yeah. It makes me think of a rifle zoomed out. Exactly. But yeah, it’s an issue. But I just wish that in talking to people, and especially with brands and companies, how to reach their ideal customer in a way that resonates with them. And it’s more than just, you’ve got to have the right tone. You got to use the right messaging. But what happened to birthday cards and anniversary cards? Oh, yeah. What happened to the things that, the personal touch? Paul (08:12): Well, I think it’s twofold. I think you have some people who maybe not be as familiar with that. That’s why there are some people that we follow on LinkedIn that are advocating for those types of things, and people think it’s earth shattering, but they just may not have been exposed to it. Not everybody, like my Godmother, before she passed away, I mean, she would literally at the beginning of the year, would buy birthday cards for everybody. I mean, she had ’em ready to go. Not everybody’s like that anymore. So you’ve got people that aren’t familiar with it as well, but there’s also a factor of what if a company is just not aware enough to gather that information and observant to gather that information Chad (08:56): Well, but every company should be wanting to differentiate themselves Paul (09:02): A hundred percent. I agree. But there’s some planning oftentimes to be differentiated. True. And if we are not thinking ahead to say, well, what information do we need to gather? What do we need to observe in order to do something unique like that, then if they don’t have that information, then it’s kind of hard to do something. Chad (09:24): It’s kind of hard to do it if you don’t have it. I mean, I noticed that some companies will send an email when your birthday, if they happen to know that when your birthday is maybe a Valentine’s or Easter or something. And it’s good. I mean, it’s obviously standing out a little bit more than the average, but if they would take it one step further and gather the information up front and just say, Hey, listen, just, and I know everybody’s not going to do it. Paul (09:52): No, they’re Chad (09:53): Not. But for the ones that do and just getting their birthday, getting their information, giving their anniversary date if they’re married, and I can take this a step further as well. I get so many, and I know you do too packages Paul (10:08): From Chad (10:08): All companies, and it’s just they miss such a huge opportunity. Paul (10:13): Oh my gosh. On Chad (10:14): Just the packaging in the box alone. Paul (10:16): And we were talking about this the other day because we got Jesse Rob’s book in the mail, and he has got some beautiful packaging that came with that. Yeah, Chad (10:26): Isn’t that Paul (10:27): Interesting? On Point? I was almost excited as much about the packaging as that was the book that came with it, and he signed it. He actually signed it for this show. Bad Marketing Sucks. Chad (10:38): Yeah, it was awesome. I saw it. I loved it. But is it hard? Okay, so here’s the question I’ve got. Is it hard for a large company to do that? Paul (10:47): Yes, it is. Because once you get to a certain size, and wow, there’s lots of elements to this, but you get to a certain size decision-making is slowed down significantly. There are large companies that we’ve worked with in the past that nobody wanted to make a decision because they were afraid of, what if I got this wrong? And so they would be incredibly apprehensive to do apprehensive, and then everything that happened became very bland because it was safe. So those great ideas and large corporation or larger business are great ideas that just die on the vine because nobody wants to carry them forward. Nobody wants to be the one to stand out, even though unless you have it, unless it’s part of their identity, part of their mission or their essence. Apple. Apple, Chad (11:42): Man, listen, that’s part of their thing. It’s funny because my boys back over the years, they would get Apple products for Christmas and they would save the Paul (11:51): Boxes a hundred Chad (11:52): Percent. And I would say, guys, I Paul (11:53): Guarantee you I’ve got three iPhone boxes in the office over there. Chad (11:56): And I’m like, guys, what do we, I mean, you don’t need the box. No, no, no, no, no, no. You’re not throwing it. How you go through and throw all these stuff in boxes in wrapping paper, they don’t want to do it. They don’t want to part, I’m thinking it’s a box, but to them that box means something. Paul (12:11): Oh, well, I mean, if you’re not Chad Richards and don’t have an iPhone, then the box means something to somebody. Chad (12:17): But you get my point hundred percent. It’s like, what is it about this box? Paul (12:21): We were clearing out the closet to put Christmas gifts in the closet, and I have at least two boxes, previous packaging boxes for iPads that we’ve done. But I’m the same way. It’s like I can’t don’t want to throw that out. I don’t Chad (12:35): Get it. I get it, but I don’t get it. And I guess my point is is that Paul (12:39): Just wait until you get an iPhone, you’ll get it. Chad (12:41): I think every company should strive for that a Paul (12:43): Hundred percent. Chad (12:44): So go back to what we just talked about. Okay. We say it’s hard for a larger company to make those or someone to stick their neck on the line and make that decision, but how hard is it to just get boxes or packaging that is just branded? I mean, how hard is that? Paul (13:03): So functionally it is not hard. There are plenty of services out there that’ll do it. Chad (13:08): Is it expense? Paul (13:10): It’s a little bit more of an expense, but I mean, it depends on how you view it though. I mean, if it makes a bigger impact in the long run, if it’s part of the identity that it doesn’t get thrown away, then another great example is Augusta National, the Masters. Oh yeah. So in previous years when I’ve been lucky enough to be selected in the lottery, last night I was cleaning off my dresser. I have the envelope that the badges came in, practice round badges or tickets came in. I haven’t even thrown away that, but it Chad (13:50): Resonates that well, Paul (13:51): And it’s part of their Chad (13:52): Identity. Don’t want to. I know. It’s interesting how that is. And that’s from someone who grew up right down the road is still that important to you? Paul (14:00): A hundred percent. So from a P proximity standpoint, being close is not novel or obviously there’s an accessibility overall for anybody, but to this day, it’s on the same par as the iPhone box that I have in my desk that I haven’t thought Chad (14:20): Away. I can see that. Paul (14:21): But it’s part of their identity, and they’re very committed to that. Sure. They set a standard of excellence, and Apple does that as well. So for a business to just not think about it, they’re missing that opportunity. But until they define it and put it in a line in the sand, I get Chad (14:39): It. I get it. But okay, so let’s take it a step further. I mean, why would it be so hard to just put a thank you card in the box? Paul (14:47): It wouldn’t, but someone’s got to take the initiative. I Chad (14:50): Mean, just throw it in the box, man. Hey, it’s a branded card. Thank you for your business. It’s not difficult to do. Paul (15:00): No, it’s not. Chad (15:01): And I think that a lot of businesses, they want to stand out. They want differentiate. They’re trying to, and we’ve talked to ’em about this before, quite a few, and it’s like, but it’s the little things. It really is. Start there. It really is. Once you get, I mean, that’s how you differentiate if you really want to stand out. But Paul (15:22): Well, and so let’s take this back to the pitch slap and someone connects, and immediately I’ve got five paragraphs. It is not hard to go a little bit further down my LinkedIn page and see what my interests are. So I’m on the board of our soccer club. Chad (15:40): Soccer. Paul (15:41): It’s like immediately, if you include that, I’m going to pay attention way more than the fact that you are impressed with my understanding of the marketplace that you don’t even define what Chad (15:57): Part of the marketplace am I so good Paul (15:58): At? Oh my gosh, it’s just so bad. So this is still in that whole thing. If there are genuine people that are trying to connect, yet, they read something somewhere and some guru told them, this is how you need to send X amount of dms, and this is how you send them numbers, you respond, anything like that, just a little bit of effort. Literally scrolling your finger. Scroll. That’s it. Scroll down a little bit further. Scroll Chad (16:30): Down. Just tweak it just a little. Paul (16:32): Right. And I’m going to at least spend more time Chad (16:37): Considering response, my response. Sure. Oh man. Yeah. Paul (16:39): Yeah. So being those little things you talk about. Yeah. Scroll down a little bit further. Actually read some posts. Chad (16:50): Yeah. Paul (16:51): Because there, it’s not, it’s just that and Chad (16:54): Little figure out what you’re about. Because anyone that’s writing their own posts this as well. They’ve got their own Who they are is should be be should be resonating. Yeah. It should come through in their communication. Yeah. So yeah, just go down and just get a little bit more information about who that person is. But yeah, I mean, I just wish that it’s businesses and people and companies and people would just take the time to get back to treating people as humans. It was 25 years ago. Paul (17:31): Yeah. Well, what we have now, we didn’t have 20, 25 years ago is the speed at which, if we can get those messages out, right. Chad (17:41): Well, that could be a Paul (17:43): Curse, but it does. It is. Because it’s even more important for a business to articulate their brand and who they are and who they’re not to their employees who are reaching out on their behalf. Because one of the worst things that you can do is have an employee that thinks, Hey, I’ve got this great tactic, and then now I’m going to make this company look like an absolute idiot because they think they’re crushing it and they’re just pissing people off. Chad (18:10): Yeah, I’m going rogue, but I know what I’m doing. Just let me do what I’m doing now. I’m the poster child around here, but yet you’re driving the company into the ground. Paul (18:20): A hundred percent. Yeah, it’s, it’s a dangerous thing. But we talk about who’s going to put the thank you cards out there. So you need those people with initiative. You just need to train them and make sure that they’re doing it in a way that’s going to protect your brand rather than really make you look bad. Chad (18:39): It’s really just as simple as, I mean, maybe I’m looking at it all wrong, but to me it’s just as simple as having a stack of cards with nice brand. Thank you. On the inside. And maybe even talk a little bit more about what your company’s passionate about. Maybe you’re into sustainability. Maybe you’re into the green, maybe you’re into whatever the case may be. And Paul (19:04): The green isn’t making money, right? Chad (19:05): Well, no, the green isn’t as far as, Paul (19:10): Yeah, I know what you’re talking Chad (19:11): About. And just whatever it is that you’re passionate about, that’s probably going to resonate with your customers or some of ’em in some way. Paul (19:20): Yeah, exactly. Chad (19:21): And just, Hey, thank you for your business. We appreciate it very much. Paul (19:27): Well, look, I mean, we can talk about that’s the importance of that, not just making that connection and getting to the delighting stage rather than satisfaction. But what important way for them to enter back into their buying cycle, the last memory that they’re going to have with you, just in that example that you give. That’s my point. We talked about your hat. I’m sure that they had some, maybe they didn’t have anything in the box, but they followed up with you real quick. They Chad (19:55): Did a great job. Yeah, Paul (19:57): They really did. And it’s made a big difference. Chad (19:58): Made a big difference. Yeah. We’ve Paul (20:00): Talked about it twice Chad (20:01): Now. This part. Yeah. It’s one of those deals that stands out with me because just the way the whole process went Paul (20:07): And it stands out treating like a human being and it stands out. You’ve got a big Chad (20:10): Head too. I’ve got a monster Paul (20:11): Head. So there’s Chad (20:13): Monster head. There’s Paul (20:14): Just Chad (20:15): Physical Paul (20:15): Observation Chad (20:16): There. I’m a lifelong customer at this point. Unless my head shrinks, which I doubt that’ll Paul (20:21): Happen. That would be impressive. Chad (20:24): That would be Paul (20:24): Impressive. Go the other way. But yeah, so I guess to wrap it all up is just don’t pitch slap. Chad (20:30): Don’t pitch, slap. Paul (20:31): Scroll down a little bit more. Actually read Chad (20:33): Some post. What do you think? Maybe 10 to 15, 20 seconds Paul (20:37): Of Chad (20:37): Scrolling. Maybe 30 extra time per pitch slap. Paul (20:42): Yeah, I think so. I mean, if you give me 45 seconds, it might be a little bit Chad (20:47): Easier. Less than a minute. Yeah, Paul (20:48): I think so. I think so. But man, it would just be nice if we could get rid of the pitch flat. Chad (20:53): It would be, and companies that keep talking about wanting to differentiate their brand. Yep. Do a little stuff. Paul (21:00): Do the little stuff. Chad (21:01): Yeah. Start there. And then once you start there, then you can really build off that into other areas of your business. Paul (21:07): Without a doubt. Chad (21:07): It’s like trying to build a house from the top down. We’re going to get the roof on, but wait a minute, what are we going to attach the roof to? Yeah, exactly. We have no walls here. Where’s the foundation? Same concept. Build it right? Build it from the ground up and do it the right way. Paul (21:24): Absolutely. It’ll serve you well Chad (21:27): In the long run. It will serve you tenfold. Paul (21:31): Plus, without it out. Without out. Well, I am going to go and see how many pitch laps I have. I sure you’ve got plenty. And enjoy Chad (21:39): That. Paul (21:40): We’ll have a laugh about how good there. Chad (21:42): I’m loving it. I’m loving it. Let’s get back to work, man. Paul (21:44): Let’s do it. 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Dec 7, 2023
15

Street Art in Marketing

David Speed’s journey has taken some interesting turns over the years. Of of them is pioneering street art in the Marketing world. While he is all in on exploring neon pink, he has some great perspective on how to use art to stand out. Follow David and his art: Linkedin Instagram https://youtu.be/sS9uJWAEcXI?si=WJXPKnTh5ytwUHb8

Nov 23, 2023
14

Two BIG Mistakes Businesses Get Wrong in Marketing

Of the many things a business can do wrong with their Marketing, Jeremy Mace shares two of the big ones he sees as problematic. Jeremy has a lot of experience with a wide variety of disciplines within the marketing and branding world. His two big mistakes he sees businesses make are not allocating enough budget and lack of attribution. Glad to have Jeremy on Bad Marketing Sucks! https://youtu.be/uWsq63HUVlg?si=h5j0RNyAMM5ag7IB Connect with Jeremy on Linkedin Click on the Transcript to see full Transcription: Transcript CLOSE Transcript So, Jeremy, welcome to the band Marketing Sucks show. How you doing today? I’m doing great and I love the name. It’s awesome. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. We we enjoyed ourselves. Glad to have you today. Tell us a little bit about yourself. You’ve got a long history of branding and marketing in the area in Georgia. Yeah. I mean, the Augusta, Georgia area in particular. Tell us a little bit about your background and who you are. Sure. I, I think by you’ve got a lot of history means you’re old. So I’ll I’ll take that. As you know. It’s all right, Chad. I think you are. You’re maybe least a little bit older than I am, possibly. No, I’m not. You’re all I’m a little bit older. And Paul is older than all of us. really? Wow. Well, there you go. So look at that. You got him. The kids. I have the. Yes, I’m older than all of you, man. So you can see that I’ve got a bunch of comic books, posters and stuff in my office and I love all that. And I wanted to be a comic book writer and a producer. And so that’s what really got me started in the whole gig. And I borrowed some money from my grandparents in the early nineties or mid-nineties and tried my hand at running a comic book company and promptly lost all the money because we had bad marketing. Right. So there’s a testimonial right there. Probably ought to have some good marketing, probably ought to have some business experience beyond being 19 years old. So that was also kind of a downside. I also realize that comic book writers and artists, like 99% of them are struggling and it’s not an easy road to go and only a few of them break out. And I found out that even the guys that were making, you know, writing Spider-Man and the X-Men back in the nineties weren’t hardly making any money because they worked for Marvel. So it was just unless you had a big screenplay take off or something, you were you were going to be stuck. But I did realize that I loved putting the books together. I liked the fonts, I liked the colors, I liked publishing, I liked being in front of people telling the story of why we had put made the comics together. My dad had been in sales, so sales and marketing was kind of in my blood. And then the graphic design and the artistic side came into play and that that meant that I could make more money on the side doing graphic design and that type of stuff than I could ever trying to do comics. So comics became a hobby and I still love it. It’s fun. I’ve worked as a graphic designer for the Apart Agusta Apartment Finders Guide. Way, Way Back is how I got my first gig. Really enjoyed doing that. Yeah. You’re dating yourself here? yeah, man. And well. And then there was this thing called the Internet. I’m not sure if, you know, Al Gore created it back in the mid-nineties and after and yeah, after Al Gore did that, we decided that we probably ought to learn how to use it. So I taught myself basic HTML, CC and at that point, you guys remember flash websites, Macromedia Flash. Yeah. So I learned how to do flash, built some websites. I had an upside business go in that I quit the apartment Finder’s guide, started my own business with my brother, makes graphics that continue to grow. And when you’re when you’re doing freelance and back in the day, I guess I’m more of a generation X kind of guy. If somebody asks you to be able to do something, the answer is yes, right? And I think nowadays there’s this whole kind of millennial and generation Y that’s saying, you know, you know, stay in your lane and only do one thing and maximize it. And I just don’t have that. I’d rather jump around. If somebody asks me to do something, I’m going to tell them, Yep. And I’m going to figure out how to make that work. And so I would I would learn how to do advertising, I’d learn how to do banner ads, I’d learn how to build websites, I’d learn how to to put together a marketing plan. I’d learn how to put together a, you know, a branding strategy. And over over the years, I did pretty good, built up a business and then was bought out by Taxslayer. So Taxslayer is a great local company in Augusta and Evans and worked there for a few years, then went back out on my own and worked as a book cover designer for Amazon.com, which was really fun and got to got a few other artists and paid them to do some of the work. So ended up outsourcing a little bit of that. That was great. And then in 2008, I there was this great Web property called MySpace. I don’t know if you guys are familiar with that. Yeah, Yeah, he was a big MySpace. I honestly I think I think my MySpace is still Yeah I think it is it might exist Jackson is here we got like 7 million I think we got like 7 million notifications stuck in it. Chad, you know you had a MySpace. Yeah, I think it’s right next to my Hotmail account. Yeah, exactly. His his his profile picture is Michael Jackson Thriller. But anyway, go ahead. Well, I was using I was using, you know, MySpace on Netscape Navigator and back in the day. But back in 2008, Facebook had just come along and Twitter was in its infancy. The social media was really getting started and there were no real digital agencies in Augusta. And so I had a guy come and say, Hey, would you like to create a I think you’d be great to run it. Will you will you want to partner together? And let’s create a digital advertising agency? And we did. And the most awesome thing was we were working for the traditional agencies at the time. We there were lots of them in Augusta and we were doing their digital work. So we would do social media strategy, we would run Google ads, we would do all of that. And over the next ten years, between 28, 2018, all of the work that we had done, we would do a good job. We would end up getting more ad spend. And all of those larger agency said, Why are we paying these guys to do it? We need to hire our own. So it was over time we became a we in the integrated traditional agency in consulting, and then they all integrated digital and now everything’s digital. And yeah, that’s one of the things I was going to talk about, like, what’s the difference in nowadays, you know, marketing now versus marketing then Like what? What are the changes I’ve experienced? Yeah, that’s probably the big one is traditional needing digital and digital needing traditional. They’re merging together. But where I see the separation happening is between marketing and advertising. Those things are pulling further apart. Whereas the, the branding in the marketing is congealing into one thing and advertising’s almost its own baby. And the people that are really good at advertising aren’t necessarily really good at branding and marketing. And you need you need both on your team. Obviously you got to have people that do both and there are agencies in town and organizations that have both. But it’s rare that you’ve got a one man show that can really kind of do it all. Yeah, so that was it then. I sold that company in 2018 to a local development company, was more focused on software development and they wanted advertising and marketing to be a part of their team, worked there for several years and then more recently have focused on a really cool ministry project where we’re building a discipleship app and we’ve got some different opportunities for it. And so my world has really changed. I’ve done everything from being a creative director to graphic designer to a sales guy to leading teams of creatives and, you know, all those things. So how’s that, that do it? Yeah, well, I love that. I love that leads me right into my next question. Based on your your your experience here, in your opinion, where do you feel like most businesses go wrong with their branding marketing? Okay, I’ve got it’s two things. First off, is budget, second is second is attribution. So budget and attribution of budget a little bit. What are your what are your thoughts on that? Nobody spends enough. Nobody spends enough. Not the they do eventually. You mean initially? Well, yeah, they have to. Yeah, initially. So that’s a that’s a great point Paul. They the the thought is is we’re going to create this great product or you know, we’ve got a restaurant, it’s going to be so good. Everybody’s just going to come and show up or we’ve built this app and people are going to use it once and it’ll just spread like wildfire or we’ve, you know, we’ve got this business and they’re going to find out about us and word of mouth is going to do it. And even with word of mouth marketing in today’s world involves marketing automation. So email marketing is falling underneath that, communicating to your clients. You’ve got to have a website, you need to have a content strategy. There’s just a ton of that and that all takes time and money and nobody wants to put that in. And so they, they undercut it and then they find themselves in a hole that they’ve got to reinvest to dig themselves out of. And if they would go into it with the right mix, you know, look at that 20% of your operators going into marketing, that’s a big number for a lot of people. I can’t imagine that it would take that. But the successful businesses time after time are the ones that are are investing in that budget. So that’s that’s my think thoughts on budget. What do you think, Chad? Do you think that’s right. And the next one with strategy, is that what you know, next one’s attribution. Everybody’s got a strategy. They may have a bad strategy, but they’ve got a strategy. Right? Right, right. But attribution is attribution is almost completely lacking right there. And what I mean by attribution is you’re running an ad campaign. You spend $1,000 a month on that ad campaign. Are do you know what that thousand dollars brought you? How can you attribute the dollars to performance? Have you thought about the value of just showing somebody your ad versus them clicking on your ad? How do you attribute Billboard ads? Right? How do you attribute podcasts like this? Like there’s extreme value in content marketing, but if you don’t have an understanding of what it’s bringing you, how your website’s converting, looking at that full marketing funnel, going all the way down to the bottom and being able to attribute at each stage, you are going to be guessing on your budget, which is already a problem. You’ve already told you you’re not going to spend enough. Now you’re only guessing on what’s working, and then you’re also not going to value your partners or your employees. So if you’re working with an agency and you don’t attribute any value to them, you’re going to be ticked off and you’re going to jump to another agency in a year, Right? And that’s what happens. We see companies burn through your agency surface happens all the time. And so because attribution is not set up. So I feel like your as a as a marketer, as somebody that’s talking to people about branding and marketing, it’s our job to talk about how important attribution is because they can’t really judge your performance unless they’ve got attribution in place. And if you’re working with somebody that doesn’t have attribution in place, you better have it in place for them so that you can prove it out. That makes sense. Yes, it does. Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. Well, and what does that go back to the saying that we’ve all heard a million times at this point, 50% of my advertising is working. I just don’t know which 50%. Exactly right. So it’s crazy. Yeah, that’s a that’s well I’ve heard that from from business owners and there it’s either resigned to it or they just like that’s just part of it. It’s what it is. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. That’s crazy. Yeah, that’s right. Let me let me let me tell you a little bit about attribution. Let me give you guys a quick story. So there’s a university nearby that may or may not have changed names 17 times. Okay. We might know. We might know who that is. Okay. Now, they had a rebrand and their advertising budget was significantly traditional at the beginning of that, like 90 traditional 10% digital. We were working on that 10% of the digital and we had attribution set up from start to finish. And so every month we would we would meet and show, Hey, look, look what we’re doing in this. Great. We’re getting all these leads. We’re sending people for applications, we’re doing all this is great. And the traditional they were they had some traditional methods of attribution, but it’s difficult to tell what’s going on. And it’s easier with digital stuff, obviously. So the budgets shifted over the next six months to instead of 10% digital, 90% traditional, but 90% digital 10% digital, it was a six month swing, it flip flopped and it was because of attribution. And the only way you can go after that additional budget is if you’re if you’re able to prove that and show it. Sure. Yeah, sure. Absolutely. Yes. That’s interesting. And have it. Well, yeah, it’s something that I’ve run into so many times and I’ve scratch my head about. It’s like attribution and knowing the right question to ask and getting and not overlooking the answer to the question that you’re asking, like somebody says, Hey, so on a basic level, it’s just a verbal attribution, you know. Jeremy, where did you hear about us? Well, I got your number off your website. That’s actually not answering the question. That was know. That’s just saying I got your number off your website. And so if you if you have to ask if people are not setting up that attribution correctly, then someone’s going to go dump $50,000 into their website and like, you know, yeah, that really wasn’t right. That needed it. Exactly. The other thing that can happen is if I’m if I’m the marketer, I can look at the client and go, So how much is getting a new client worth to you? Right. And if they don’t have an answer to that, you’ve got to help them figure it out. Because with without that answer, there’s no attribution and a lot of people don’t know. They’re just like, well, you know, where we’re growing, our revenues growing and those kind of things. I’m like, Yeah, but if I brought you a new client, would you give me $5,000 cash? yeah, that’d be great. That’s a cool. Then we’ll spend about $5,000 per new client to bring in, which means I need $100,000 monthly budget and they just go right? No exact. So. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So let me ask you, Jeremy, based on your your, your experience and maybe projects you’ve worked on or maybe just campaigns that you’ve seen, give me some examples of some of the best marketing that you’ve either been a part of or are seeing yourself. Yeah, these are what, when when I thought about this question, I, I, I thought of things that worked on me as being effective marketing. So and I didn’t put any White Hart or Jeremy Maze campaigns here so. Right there’s no we’re just talking about outside. So for video, one of the most effective is dollar Shave Club. I know you guys have seen this video. my God. It’s a lot. Yeah. it’s it’s fantastic. And that was the majority of their budget went into producing that video when they got started. But it was such a strong premise. It was great. And then it went viral and they paid to get it out. They had a good combo of both things. And man, when when everybody is showing it to you and they’re like, What do you think, man? I was like, Yeah, I’ve seen it a hundred times. So good. And, and you can watch it with a client and you can tell me, okay? And it’s and that that type of humor is not for every business, but it, it’s so effective. Right. You guys have got the the no B.S. on your website. It’s a similar thought process, right? It’s like, listen, we’re telling you like it is. There’s a little bit of humor involved here. If you don’t like it, you know, go someplace else. And we probably should be doing business. Yeah. Yeah. So I think that one’s great. Another one that I really think is truly effective is HubSpot. HubSpot is the marketing and CRM platform and their combination version of their SEO, their blog, their email campaigns, their actual customer service and follow up. They, they know what I’m doing and interacting with the site. There’s chat bot, I mean, all of it. It’s just a great mix. None of it feels overbearing. They’re giving me the attention. I need if I’m in that and that is all inbound marketing rather than being completely outbound. And so HubSpot is just the gold standard. That’s why I think you have to use they definitely the last one is a new one and is more social media based and digital ads and it’s mainly bands. Dotcom email in l y bands dot com. Now you would love this, Chad. You got to go check this out. I love it because of course I’m a nerd. They’ve got Lord of the Rings themed bands, wedding bands for For Men. Okay. So you can get you can get ones that kind of look like, you know, maybe it’s it’s a very subtle they’re very, very good. But these guys targeted me because of what I like on Facebook and what I was looking at. So I’m looking at nerd culture stuff and they knew this guy likes comics. And Lord of the Rings, I shown that I went to the website and it actually what appealed more to me were the ones that are World War Two based. They’ve actually got a wedding band with parts of a Sherman tank in it right? They’ve got bands that have like cool like Whiskey Barrels integrated into the inner ring of it. They’re just gorgeous. But all of a sudden I start seeing those bands everywhere I’m go and man, they are following me everywhere. I’ve looked at the website like three or four times. I told my wife about it and so this is an extremely effective product placement and strategy that they’ve approached. They know who I am. They targeted me. I saw it, I engaged. Now I’m stuck. I’m probably going to I mean, Kim’s got to make some more money since he might buy me one of these to say you might actually get your band here. I got a cool one, but I would change it out for this. The Sherman tank is really cool. Do they have Aragon’s ring? They do that? Well, not. Not. my gosh. I love this nerd talk, man. Now they don’t have, like, the snake. The bar here is ring. It’s actually a one that’s based on his leather cloak and like his. The Lord of the Rings. Yeah. Cool. Can we get Chad to watch this? Come on. I have. I’ve seen some of it. Yeah, I have. Yeah. My wife thinks I’m crazy because I literally. I’ll sit down and just get all the extended versions and just start. Start cranking them out. Yeah, me too, man. We love them, Kim. My wife. My wife actually likes it quite a bit. She gets something out of it every time. I just think this story’s so classic. It’s awesome. But that combo for the for the for the rings. The Lord of the Rings Rings was just drew me right in. And it was their marketing and their branding that did it. It was had nothing to do with anybody telling me to go look at it or anything like that. I just saw the image. They were only showing it to me because they knew the stuff that I liked and I thought that was genius. So. So they got the branding right from the outset. Yeah, they did end up targeting the target and the targeting was just message point, right? Yep. Perfect. Absolutely. Well, let me ask you before we go today, give us a few tips. Give our and give our listeners a few tips on on how they can avoid the pitfalls of bad marketing and branding, for that matter. Yeah, that’s kind of all in the same book. And well, let me only talk about the branding one first. So you have to be able and this concept goes with both. And I know it’s going to sound aggressive. You have to be willing to kill your babies. Yeah, yeah. Now what this means is that sounds a little bit harsh. It is a little bit harsh, but fall in love with it. Let’s let’s let’s talk about that company that that bought us years ago. Taxslayer. Great guys, huge Georgia fans. And I mean, they make you look like a fairweather God. I know that they they are they are all in. And I did a logo for one of their pro products and I used blue and black and my God, they were not okay with that. Yeah. Yeah. How that. And then, then we were working on another project and I used orange in one of the concepts. no, you’re better off with blue and black. I mean, I know I’m just in that sense. Right. So what’s interesting is I had proof in the research that this product changed, like they needed to have some differentiation in their product lines. If everything is silver, black and red, then everything silver, black and red and it all blends together. You got to find some way to differentiate. And so we we pitched that and it was like pulling teeth. And in fact, we weren’t able to do it for almost a year and a half. And then finally they decided to go for it. So I think that that I think that the colors like being able being willing to do that. Another example of that is Savannah River Brewing Company. I’ve helped them do some labels and some stuff and man, the owner, Mike is such a fan of all this superhero comic book stuff. He and I style is going to be much more illustrative and real nerd culture stuff, but that’s not who goes to Savannah River Brewing Company. It’s primarily the some of the younger military guys. It’s outdoor. So we’ve got to kill our own desires to do what we like and go for what’s actually going to work in the market. So that’s my advice, is be willing to to to kind of kill your own, your own flesh, to give it a spiritual term or kill your baby or whatever. You got to get it. Be willing to get rid of that so you can make a good decision for your business. Yeah, I’ve always, you know, described that in terms and heard that in terms of you just don’t fall in love with it. Fall in love with like the foundation, the principles, the things that that must be there, that work, like you said, that work in the marketplace, work in your industry. But don’t be so this is a place don’t let your ego get too far. I think that’s the key there, right? Yeah, right. I agree. And there there also, I’ll give you here’s a freebie card. This a freebie for you guys? Awesome. It’s a freebie. If there are too many cooks in the kitchen. You have a cafeteria? Yep. Right. And a cafeteria is going to produce one type of food and it’s not going to be as quality as if you can slim it down and have a head chef. So when you’re working with a client, find out who that decision maker is. And if you are a client, predetermine that. Yes. Yes. I’m willing to take other ideas and other other input. And maybe I’m not a decisive person, but yet I’m in charge of the company. I got to pick the logo. I don’t want to let five or six other people demand what’s going to work for our brand because chances are their ego is in the way. Yeah, so you got to have a leader that’s willing to do it and create a hierarchy and have one chef you can work with. Yeah. Now I will say that was profound. I agree. That was very, very profound. We could actually write a small book on that. you know, like a, like a toilet book that you sit and look at. Toilet book, right? Sure. I think it’s going to get off the rails at this point. But yeah, of course, we told you that. Wow. I mean, you know what I mean? How to make a craft. It’s a short read. How to make a crap sandwich, right? I mean, it’s too many chefs just giving somebody some insight. Sure. But I agree. How you get too many. This is true decision makers. And is that kind of the antithesis of a decision maker? It is. You have that many, right? Or what I like is when you’ve been working with a client for three months, you’ve got a great logo brand, everything is working, they’re happy, everybody’s happy. And then they show it to their spouse and their spouse doesn’t like it. And you’re like, Holy crap, Why was it your spouse at the first meeting? It’s like, this is not okay. So that’s that’s nice. That happened too many times. And then I’m like, Listen, I’m coming over to your house and I’m sitting down and I’m talking to this person. I have a book because this is the right thing to do. Yeah, exactly. That’s right. I love it. Good stuff. Well, Jeremy, we certainly appreciate you having you on today. This is something we’ve been trying to do for a while, and I think schedules just never really were able to align. So this is good and maybe we’ll get back together in the future to discuss more because we could talk about this for days. But yeah, I think we need to schedule some Lord of the Rings viewing. man. wow. That’s what we need. Yeah. In fact, we go. In fact, this can just change to the Lord of the Rings podcast. I’m in and I’m in, Chad’s out, Chad’s out. And we’ll just have a job, I guess. Well, okay, I guess that wraps it up there. We have learned all that we need to learn about branding and marketing and we have our next mission. God, we’re just scheduling that podcast. You’re going to have to change that background though, man. And no doubt, I mean, this is Ad Day material here. We’re all over the place. All right, man. All right, Jamie, thanks so much. Thank you. 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Nov 16, 2023
13

4 Times Your Brand Needs Help

Lots of business owners focus on getting started with the bare minimum. When it comes to branding it shows. I this episode, Chad and Paul talk about 4 times your brand needs help. If you are just starting out, take the time and build your brand well. You’ll make a lot more money and spend less on marketing. If you did not put the work in from the beginning, there has never been a better time to create a better foundation for your brand. https://youtu.be/7NbMOIKD0AE Click on the Transcript to see full Transcription: Transcript CLOSE Transcript Paul: All right. Plenty of time. Chad: Yeah. Paul, how you doing, man? Paul: Chad, I’m doing fantastic. Chad: Good. Paul: I’m going to do something different this episode. I’m going to see if I can get through it without coughing my head off. Chad: Man, that’d be a miracle, wouldn’t it? Paul: Having an intermission. Chad: Yeah. Paul: An unplanned intermission. Chad: That was hilarious. Yeah, man, you got to do what you got to do. Paul: The real question is though, who watched the YouTube video long enough to see that happen? Chad: I don’t know. That’s a good question. I’d love to know. I think somebody did, because I saw a comment on there about whether it was COVID or the flu bug. Paul: Oh, that’s right. Chad: So somebody did. Paul: At least one. We got that down. We got that down. So you have a topic today that you want to talk about, and it is surrounding brand evolving? Can a brand evolve? Does a brand evolve? Chad: That’s an interesting question. Paul: Yeah. I’m not sure how I feel about that. I’ve seen some clients where they’re like oh, we got to change your logo every four or five years. I’m like, I’m not sure how I feel about that. I mean, Pepsi has changed their logo before, but not dramatically. Chad: Yeah. I mean, they’ve made some changes. I mean, there are times when I think it is necessary. The biggest thing, I think, is that a lot of businesses will just put everything to bed. The website’s been completed. They’ve got their manifesto, they’ve got their color fonts, they’ve got their logo and everything, and they just put it to bed, and they operate for a good eight to 10 years, sometimes longer. And they just think that hey, we’ve done it. It’s been accomplished. And they may be following that brand, and they may be expressing it very consistently across every department and all of their outreach and everything. But over time, things change. There could, technology changes. I mean, there may be times where you might need to modernize it based on new technology, which could involve your colors and your website, at some point in time, needs to be updated potentially. Paul: So you’ve got four things here that we can go through. So I think you’ve already started on the first one. Chad: Yeah, that’s the first one. Paul: Repositioning or reshifting, I think I see where you’re going with this because I think a lot of people will do certain things they feel checks the box, but it’s not really strategic and it’s not really a brand. And then they do some, they actually try to position. Is this is what, you’re going with that. Chad: Yeah. Well, sometimes you have to shift to appeal to maybe a new target audience. Maybe some things have changed within the organization. You might want to differentiate yourself from competitors in a way to stand out more. So yeah, there are those times when you need to go back and revisit that. Paul: So would you say that’s a brand evolving or is that a brand going back and doing the work they should have done to begin with? Chad: That’s a great question. It just depends. I mean, if you are trying to, so let’s say you have a competitor that comes on the scene and they’re starting to look like you. They’re trying to mimic you a little bit. Yeah. I mean, I could see where you might need to make some changes and it could simply come from just not addressing it and doing it right the first time. I mean, I’m not saying that it’s not. And then you also have, there are times when you could be expanding into new markets, especially from an international standpoint. Paul: Yeah. Okay. So that’s an interesting point there. Chad: Yeah. I mean, you’ve got different culture, you’ve got different language, and at that point you have to go back through and probably change some of your messaging to resonate with that culture. And you need to go back and revisit that at that point. Paul: So that makes me think of a recent episode we had with Sergio Terrez, and he was talking a lot about that, the way that the Hispanic community is poorly marketed to because businesses just don’t understand the culture. They think that Google Translate is enough and it’s just not. And that also reminds me of another brand that is based in Japan, and they have just a different way that, they actually have some mascots that are different than they would ever have in any other country. Chad: Yeah. Is that Daikin? Paul: Yeah, Daikin. That’s the one. That’s the one. I guess that’s the second point. So new territories. Chad: Yeah. So when you say mascots, they’ve got, so it’s something that is really… I guess when you say mascots, that’s more known in Japan than it would be in the US or any other parts of the country. Paul: I can’t remember exactly what that mascot is or that icon or whatever it is in Japan. But I know that, I believe it was last year and I think they’ve rolled this out by now, they developed a butterfly for the United States, because that fits more. Obviously in Japan, I only know this because of my teenage daughters, but anime is just different there than it is here. Chad: How it’s expressed? Paul: Yeah, exactly. So again, maybe like this brand evolution, or is it brand expression? Different places need- Chad: Different parts of the world. It just needs to be expressed differently, something that resonates more with the culture. Paul: And they could probably get that wrong pretty quickly. Going back to what Sergio was saying about just the Hispanic community. A lot of people get that wrong really quick. Chad: Yeah, yeah. Well, I mean like he was saying there’s different ways of speaking the language, and if you don’t get it right, it’s not going to resonate. You’re not going to reach them in a way that they’re going to remember you or feel your message or understand you in a way that they want to do business with you. Paul: In a way, he’d make you look like an idiot. Chad: Yeah, right. Exactly. Yeah, I enjoyed having Sergio on. That was really some good information that a lot of businesses tend to forget about. Paul: Absolutely. Chad: I think they try to do it from a way that, like he said, just pull someone in who speaks Spanish, and maybe it’s someone in the office or something. It’s not done in a way that just really resonates. Paul: Yeah, there’s a big difference between, and we said in that episode, I have a degree in Spanish, but it’s been a long time since I’ve actually spoken in Spanish on a consistent level. Chad: I was trying to get you to speak it around here a while back, and it’s like well, I don’t know. Let me kind of go back and think about this a little bit. I need to brush up here. Paul: Let’s go to Veracruz. I’ll order for all of us in Spanish. Chad: Tamales. Paul: We will eat like kings. We’ll eat like kings. Chad: Okay, Paul: So we’ve got reposition, reshift. We’ve got expansion into new territories that we’ve talked about. So the next point is a brand refresh. Tell me what and when does a brand need a refresh? Chad: Well, I mean, technology changes over time. So you’ve got to keep up with that, with the modern technology. And again, it could be that your colors don’t match up with who you are anymore. It could be that, obviously the website, I mean you’ve got to go back and you cannot just, you know this, we can’t just build it. It can be as robust as you want it to be originally. But you can’t just say, okay, well that’s done and let’s just move on, and 10 years go by and this site is just hasn’t been addressed, updated, or anything. I mean, you can’t. That’s not smart. Paul: And that really is something that I would say the vast majority of businesses right now suffer from is it’s the checkbox, we’ve got the website. And you talk about going back and making sure your colors represent you now. Those types of things are really, again, going back, they probably weren’t done well the first time around, and then you check these boxes and these days, if you’re not addressing your website and doing something proactive every single month to add some- Chad: What about just content? Paul: Just something to make it alive. You’re going to be dinged on your authority score. Now, of course, Lisa can talk a lot more than that than we can, but it is one of those things that, yeah, check a box. We’ve got a website. We built it 15 years ago. It’s pretty good. We’re fine. Chad: That’s great. Yeah. I mean, it works. Paul: Or does it? Chad: Well, I mean, it’s functional in their minds, but at the end of the day, it’s not really functioning the way it needs to be. Paul: Missing out on a lot of opportunities. Chad: Missing a lot of opportunities. And I think a lot of this is, again, business leaders, owners, get so busy doing what they do day in, day out and providing for their customers. It’s easy to forget. Paul: Of course it is. Chad: I mean, you’ve gone in your house before and hit your TV and you had to maybe update an app. I mean, those things are prompting you to do that, but your website’s not going to send you anything and say hey Paul, hey Chad, it’s time to reboot this thing. It’s just not hitting you in the face. Paul: I mean, it’s like how we tell you it’s time to get a new computer, Chad. Chad: It is time. Paul: You’ve had it for 20 years now. Chad: I’ve had it for a while. It’s time, but I’ll tell you, man, I’m one of those as long as it’s still working effectively. Paul: But I think that we probably could get something. We could put that Mac, we could send it to Apple and they could put it in their museum, and we might get so something out of it. I mean, that would be pretty cool. Chad: It’s older, but we’re exaggerating a little. Hey, listen, it cuts on. Paul: Yes, it does. Chad: It does everything that I need it to do. Now, there are some things that I probably need to, and it’s time, but in terms of it’s functional- Paul: It does come on. Chad: It does. It comes on. But again, it’s the same type of thing though, isn’t it? It’s working. So you can see where someone could say hey man, I’ve got this site. I’ve got this brand, everything. Paul: That has actually turned out to be a better analogy than I thought, but it is working, but mine works a lot faster than yours. Chad: Well, sure. Okay. Then we go back to how a brand evolves over time, how it needs to be at least revisited. Paul: Kept up with. Chad: I’m not saying every 10 years you need to do a total brand change. No, not at all. But you’ve got to be cognizant of that brand and what’s going on with it, because it needs to be revisited. And just to take a look and say hey, where are we with this? Paul: Yeah, absolutely. Chad: It’s been 10 years and we’ve grown, et cetera. And then there’s also times where, and this is the one that probably most people don’t want to talk about, but this probably could be considered really the most important one. And that is you start getting a lot of negative perceptions about a brand. Paul: Oh yeah, for sure. Chad: Or negative feedback. At some point it’s probably prudent to at least consider. Paul: And that brings us to the fourth point that you had in this is listening to feedback. Was that just external feedback, like customers, or is this internal feedback or what level is this? Chad: It could be both, but mainly external. Yeah, negative feedback in terms of from the customer’s view that they just haven’t had good experiences, whatever the case may be. And it may be time to go back and revisit it. Paul: Could that also land in the bucket of it wasn’t done well to begin with? Chad: Again, yeah, it could be for sure. Paul: That really ties back in to some degree what we spoke about last week. Chad: But it could be customer service, like we talked about last week. It could be just things that they’ve gotten a bad reputation for not living up to the promises that they’ve made. And at some point, it is probably a good time to maybe consider going back in and just doing a rebrand. Now, here’s the thing though, and you know this and we’ve talked about this so much, before you do it, before you make that decision to do a rebrand or make any major changes to your brand, you have to be very methodical about that. You’ve got to do research. You’ve got to make sure that you go through and think it through. Paul: Absolutely. Chad: Because a big decision, and you don’t want to leave behind the current customers that you have that are satisfied with your product or brand. So yeah, I think the moral to the story is there’s a lot of things that could potentially call for some rebranding or some changes of the brand. It’s very important to make sure you think all that through very well before you do it. But at the core of this, you can’t just throw it in there, be done with it, and just walk away from it. Paul: Yeah. Really, it needs to be thoughtful. You need to do the work. I mean, there’s some work that goes to getting it done right the first time. Chad: And really, I think that’s probably part of the moral of the story is that if it’s done the right way the first time, there really shouldn’t be a need to go back and do a total rebrand. Of course we know that a website has got to be updated at times, and you need to add content, and there’s some things that you need to do with that. But unless you’re going into international market or things of that nature. And the customer feedback, if you’ve got negative customer feedback, you’ve got more issues to solve. Paul: Without a doubt. Chad: Just rebranding it is not going to solve those problems. Paul: And I was thinking about that, that’s a heck of a bandaid to try to put on some serious problems. Chad: Yeah. Oh, no doubt. I don’t even know if it’ll work unless you go in from the ground up and get that thing situated in the right way. Paul: Well, you have to change names. Chad: Yeah, there’s a lot to that. Paul: That’s a heck of a lift right there. Chad: It is. Paul: I don’t know. Maybe some people get to that point. They need that much of a drastic change. Chad: It could be. Paul: But for the most part, I mean, you’ve got people that are doing well, they’re getting by, but there are gaps. And it goes back to your computer versus my computer. Yours turns on. Chad: It does. Paul: And there’s a lot of people that turn on. They turn their lights on, they go to work, they’ve got a customer base. Chad: So are you saying it’s taken for granted? Paul: Yeah, absolutely. Well, and it’s the opportunity missed or the opportunities missed. Chad: Right. Paul: I think that is, because it goes back, it’s amazing how many people still have websites in this day and age. I literally saw a website, I was going to lunch the other day, for a restaurant that I could barely read their menu. There are just too many resources available to just check a box and leave it be. And your brand is one of those things. You cannot check that box. You need to constantly revisit it. And all four of these points are important because you should be aware of what’s going on all the time, and really making sure that you’re caring for that because that is your livelihood. Chad: Yes, it is. It’s very important. And it’s one of the most overlooked things that we see. Well, let me take that back. One of the most overlooked things that we see is the initial work that needs to be done the right way. Paul: A hundred percent. Chad: And just really doing it the right way. Paul: Having a good foundation, being thorough. Chad: That’s where it’s really missed, but it can also be done the right way and things change over time. So there’s several points to be made here, but yeah, great conversation. Paul: Absolutely. Well, this time, well we haven’t shut this thing off, so I don’t know if I made it through without coughing. Chad: We’ve got just a few more minutes. I think you can make it. I have faith in you, Paul. Paul: It’s not my fault. We’re in Augusta, Georgia. Chad: It’s 80 degrees today, close to it. Paul: What was it? Two and a half weeks ago? It was cold. Chad: Oh, man. Paul: Then we had a stretch of eighties, then it got really cold again. And the deer were moving, so of course we had to get out there then now it’s in the eighties again. Chad: The bucks were on the move. Paul: And apparently I can’t handle that. Chad: Are you feeling better? Paul: Yeah, I’d say about 80%. Chad: That’s good. That’s good. Paul: About 80%. Chad: Just more whiskey, man. I’m telling you, man, the whiskey is the best medicine. I don’t care what anybody tells you. Paul: I agree. I’m no stranger to that. But yeah, so I’ve made it through without a session of coughing and remission. Chad: Hallelujah. Paul: So this is good. All right. Well this is something, like all of this conversation and the conversation we had last week, and obviously the conversations that we’ll continue to have about this ,goes back to it’s just not that hard. Chad: No. Paul: It should not be. There’s just too many resources out there for people to get quality help to make sure that they are doing things well, building a good foundation on the front end for their branding, and then applying that and building on that and going forward rather than having to make mistakes. Gosh, we’re all going to make mistakes make, but there’s a lot that you can avoid making. Chad: We all are going to make mistakes, but having it done the right way. And there a lot of people think that three quarters, if you get three quarters of it right, then man, you’ve accomplished. No, you’ve got to have a hundred percent in order to get this thing right. Yeah, you do. Paul: I’m a big advocate of don’t make great the enemy of good, but get your brain done right. Chad: This one has got to be, I don’t agree. It’s got to be done right. Paul: Yeah. Get your brand done right. Chad: Yeah, for sure. Paul: It’ll save you a lot of headache, a lot of time and money. What is it? What’s the saying that people don’t ever have the money to do it right the first time, but they always have the money to fix it. Chad: Isn’t that right? It’s interesting how that works. Paul: Yep. Get it done right the first time. Chad: All right, well let’s get back to work. Paul: Okay. Let’s do it. Thanks man. Chad: Thank you. /* Style the tab */ .tab { overflow: hidden; border: 1px solid #ccc; background-color: #f1f1f1; } /* Style the buttons inside the tab */ .tab button { background-color: inherit; float: left; border: none; outline: none; cursor: pointer; padding: 14px 16px; transition: 0.3s; font-size: 17px; } /* Change background color of buttons on hover */ .tab button:hover { background-color: #ddd; } /* Create an active/current tablink class */ .tab button.active { background-color: #ccc; } /* Style the tab content */ .tabcontent { display: none; padding: 6px 12px; border: 1px solid #ccc; border-top: none; } function openCity(evt, cityName) { var i, tabcontent, tablinks; tabcontent = document.getElementsByClassName("tabcontent"); for (i = 0; i < tabcontent.length; i++) { tabcontent[i].style.display = "none"; } tablinks = document.getElementsByClassName("tablinks"); for (i = 0; i < tablinks.length; i++) { tablinks[i].className = tablinks[i].className.replace(" active", ""); } document.getElementById(cityName).style.display = "block"; evt.currentTarget.className += " active"; } If you enjoyed this episode? Listen to 5 Ways to Market to the Hispanic Community that is mentioned in this episode.

Nov 9, 2023
12

Lurking Brand Killers

There are some lurking brand killers out there all business owners need to be aware of. Overlooking simple actions to take in your branding and marketing can hurt you and your business in a major way. Aligning the promises you make in your advertising and marketing with your team is critical to actually deliver on your promises. https://youtu.be/h2NbgeXqHFE

Nov 2, 2023
11

5 Ways to Market to the Hispanic Community more effectively.

Lots of businesses want to market to the Hispanic community. Lots of businesses are doing it wrong. Sergio Terreros joined Chad and Paul on this episode of Bad Marketing Sucks to share 5 ways businesses can be more effective in their marketing. Sergio on Linkedin https://youtu.be/SlCUplaNivU?si=03ER-GUybrP-LSMm

Oct 26, 2023
10

Brand Branding and Marketing … not the same thing.

Lots of people and businesses like to think that a brand, branding, and marketing are all the same thing. They are not. In this episode Chad and Paul talk about the differences in the three and the relationships they have with one another. It doesn’t take a ton of effort to put things in the right order. Not getting them in order results in some pretty bad marketing. https://youtu.be/OslTQIz2Qrc?si=Y9ruBFDJ7qqzNsQc Click on the Transcript to see full Transcription: Transcript CLOSE Transcript Chad (00:00): Hey, Paul. How you doing, man? Paul (00:02): Doing fantastic. How are you doing? Chad (00:04): I’m great. I’m great. What have we got going on today? What is our thinking? Paul (00:07): Well, I think that we’re going to talk more about branding, brands, marketing. Is it all the same? Is there any difference? Where does it all start? Chad (00:17): Yeah. Paul (00:17): How does it all fit in? All of that fun stuff. I Chad (00:19): Love it. Paul (00:20): Love it. All the things that keep businesses up at night, right? Chad (00:22): Sure, absolutely. Paul (00:23): Which is total crap. Chad (00:24): It is, yeah. Tell me about your thoughts on what a brand is. Paul (00:29): What a brand is. So everybody has a brand, a personal brand. Every business has a brand, which largely comes from the founders, the individuals. But the moment you have a spark of inspiration to start a business, whether you have a problem and you’re going to solve it for yourself, and then you do it for others, or you just see a pattern of problems and you’re going to be the solution to those for other people, everybody’s got that brand that starts from the spark, that first inspiration, it’s you. It’s who you are. Now, taking that and making that bigger than one person Chad (01:12): And Paul (01:12): Taking it out of maybe the garage Chad (01:15): Or Paul (01:16): The kitchen table, they all start there. But then once you’ve made that commitment to bring it out, then you start moving into the branding. Branding is that public domain. Chad (01:31): Okay, you’ve got your brand, Paul (01:33): Right? Chad (01:34): Let’s take someone who is passionate about coffee beans and they want to open up a coffee shop. So the day that they decide to do that, well, I’m going to open up a coffee shop. This is my dream. I’ve got a connection. And somewhere in South America, Paul (01:48): Hypothetically, Chad (01:50): That day, that dream is formed and it is implemented, and they have decided to do that, and they are starting to implement these new coffee beans. So that brand, Paul (02:03): At Chad (02:03): That point, essentially what you’re saying is formed. Paul (02:07): They don’t even have to have context and Chad (02:10): Coffee. All right? But I’m just, okay. But at that point, that brand Paul (02:13): Is Chad (02:14): Essentially formed. Paul (02:15): And so again, things like origin stories and things of that that have become cliche, that’s what that really is at the core, is Chad (02:24): Their story. Paul (02:25): I have an idea. I want to bring this idea out. That is when the brand starts and who you are and what you believe, that’s where the brand starts Chad (02:37): And what you stand for difference. Okay. So at what point does that brand that we’ve already established, when does that become branding? Because there are two obviously different things. Paul (02:50): So I see it as that your brand is your first. That origin with an individual or a small group of individuals is where the brand starts. Chad (03:00): And Paul (03:00): Then you bring that to a team as you go to form a business and bring it to the public. Once you make that transition from internal to the public, that’s when branding begins to become branding Chad (03:16): At that moment. Paul (03:16): At that Chad (03:17): Moment Paul (03:17): When you come to the public, because it’s a mixture of what you believe about yourself and what is perceived and experienced in the marketplace, that becomes shaping the branding of who you are. Now, there’s some technical sides of branding. Things like logos, fonts, colors, and all of that. That’s part of the technical side of branding. Bringing that idea to life and bringing it from an internal to a public state. Chad (03:50): Does Paul (03:50): That make sense? Chad (03:51): It does. Paul (03:51): Okay. So you’ve got that technical side of things, but a lot of it is once you bring that out and you start to actually perform services for your target audience, sell goods, or perform the service that you provide, then their perception and your execution becomes part of that branding as well. Chad (04:10): Okay. So let’s go back. We’ve already kind of define what the brand is. We talked kind of define what the branding, the moment that it becomes branding is taking it to the public, Paul (04:22): Right? Chad (04:22): Okay. So those two things are defined. So at what point in time is do you move into what is considered marketing? Marketing? So you’ve got branding, marketing, so you’ve got the branding, which we’ve already established is once you take it to the public, when does that move over into the realm of marketing? Paul (04:45): So marketing is another transition from internal to public as well. So you’re, you are creating assets to make promises to the public about what you’re offering, the goods or services that you’re offering. Chad (05:00): Okay. So let me ask you this. So at what point in that endeavor do you have to get definitive on who your target audience is Paul (05:11): As quickly as possible? As quickly as possible? So the way I see that is, and you and I have talked about this a lot over the years, is so there is a target profile for every good or service that you offer if you’re offering a good or service, and there are optimal ones and less optimal ones. So target profile is really who is going to be the highest profitable groups of people that need your product. And that could be, and it’s not. So take real estate, for instance, it’s like one real estate firm may focus on people downsizing. Chad (05:52): Yes. Paul (05:53): Versus one real estate firm might focus on new families, new Chad (05:57): Buyers, Paul (05:58): Or that starter home, and then, well, we outgrew this. Chad (06:02): Right? Then you’ve got another target audience that could be people that are investors. Paul (06:06): Exactly. Chad (06:06): That are just buying something to invest in. Paul (06:09): So as you’re making that transition to marketing, finding that target profile is critical, because if you cannot speak to them properly and at the proper times, then you’re going to waste a ton of money. And the efforts that you put into bringing your brand to life and branding and bringing it into the realm of marketing is going to be very frustrating. It’s going to be less effective. Most don’t experience it as being less effective. They just experience the outcome of being, wow, that didn’t work. It Chad (06:41): Didn’t work well. Paul (06:44): But in answer to your question about that, identifying that target profile as critical, as early as possible. Chad (06:51): As early as possible. Yeah. I think one of the biggest confusions that people that have is that a logo color font is branding, and we’ve got to get that done. We get a website done, just get something out there. Right? And once you’ve done that, then you’ve really, you’ve done everything you need to do pretty much in the branding world of the product or service that you, but let’s talk about that a little bit more, because it’s such a, you have people that believe that Paul (07:26): In Chad (07:27): Their mind, Paul (07:27): A lot of people, Chad (07:28): But it’s much more robust. Am I correct? Paul (07:32): Yeah. If you’re just doing that checklist that you just laid out for us, I got a logo, I’ve got some fonts, I’ve got some colors, I’ve got a website, Chad (07:39): And Paul (07:40): You’re checking those boxes, then you’re looking at it from a very thin tactical perspective of this as branding rather than, it’s just remarkable to me how many people still have websites that they’ve checked the box and they’ve never gone back to look at, and it doesn’t articulate anything about who they are, why anybody should care. It’s literally just a box that they checked. We have a website Chad (08:06): Just to say that. Yeah, right. We’ve got it. Paul (08:08): Which in this day and age, I mean, that’s one of the most valuable assets that you actually own. Chad (08:14): Well, that’s the engine. Paul (08:15): Yeah. Chad (08:15): Right. Essentially big time. Yeah, Paul (08:17): Hundred percent. Because all of these other things, social media, we don’t own anything on those. We don’t own our profiles. Chad (08:25): Right. Paul (08:26): LinkedIn can shut you down in a heartbeat. Chad (08:28): So can Facebook, Paul (08:29): Every single one of ’em, they can change their terms Chad (08:31): Of Paul (08:31): Services, Chad (08:32): Algorithms, everything and everything. Yeah. If you had, okay, so lemme ask you this. If you were to, I got a question for you. So where do you think the biggest discrepancy is, or where do you think the biggest shortfall is from a business owner, an idea guy who’s got this brand, who’s bringing this brand to market? Where do you think the biggest pitfall lies from the moment that he or she decides that this is my idea, this is what I want to take to the public, and actually all the way through the end of that, through the actual marketing campaign itself. Where do you think the biggest pain points are for these individuals? Paul (09:15): So the biggest pain points or pitfalls, those can be very Chad (09:19): Different things. Well, I mean, it’s a pain point when it doesn’t work effectively, Paul (09:23): And that’s typically how it’s done. And most people, at least in my experience, and I could have a very odd experience, but in my experience with this is that most people are, their pain points are that didn’t work, but they never really took the time to have a strategy for their brand, have a strategy for their marketing, and tie it all together to be measurable and within the cycle of business and the cycle of a customer’s buying cycle. Chad (09:54): Sure. So what you’re saying is essentially you’re saying that they put something together, they craft this message, and they just kind of throw some stuff on the wall? Paul (10:03): Yeah, absolutely. Well, I mean, I could see the started of a business saying, okay, well what do I need to do? Well, I need to form an LLC, I get an attorney, I get an accountant. I’m going to get a logo, I’m going to get a website, and now I’m just going to go off and do it. Chad (10:20): Yes. Paul (10:24): In my opinion, that’s one of the reasons that so many startups, so many small businesses fail. They Chad (10:28): Fail. Yeah. So when I say pain point, I mean obviously it becomes a pain point when it doesn’t work. Paul (10:34): Exactly Chad (10:34): Right. So if you were to give someone some advice and say, okay, well these are the pitfalls that you need to avoid. These are the things in that process, Paul (10:45): A Chad (10:45): Brand branding and marketing. If you could, I don’t know, maybe there’s five, maybe there’s 10, maybe there’s three. I don’t know. Paul (10:52): What Chad (10:52): Would they be? Paul (10:53): So the first thing I would say is to actually develop some written language about who you are and what you’re doing means it’s going to help force you to try to articulate a differentiation between your competitor. Because most, in any industry and market, you can go in and take 10 websites Chad (11:16): And Paul (11:17): Change a logo, change a few words, and they’re all the same. So there’s no differentiation. Chad (11:22): So when you say that, you’re talking about getting to the grassroots of the real reason you open this business or service, the reason why you do what you do, and you’re passionate, the reason why you’re passionate about this, right? Is that what you’re saying, essentially? Paul (11:42): Yeah, exactly. And what separates you and why anybody should care about you versus somebody else. Chad (11:47): Right. Okay. Paul (11:47): And so few people go through that process. It’s not easy. And when you’re based on conventional wisdom and you’re just going by a checklist and you say, well, I’ve already got my website and I’ve already got these tactical things done, but they’re not really saying anything. They’re chasing SEO, they’re chasing keywords and trying to game the system, which you just cannot do anymore. But that’s the first thing in answer to your question, that’s the first thing that needs to be done, is you have to be able to articulate. And the written word is so important in that because it becomes that, as I would call it, a brand manifesto, once you transition from yourself or a small group of founders into a team. Chad (12:31): And Paul (12:32): As that team grows, if you don’t have something to guide your employees and your team to say, this is the essence, this is what we are. Chad (12:41): So what you’re saying is, is that that manifesto somewhat becomes the Paul (12:45): Culture Chad (12:46): Of that workplace environment, the foundation of the culture, of that workplace Paul (12:51): Environment. Exactly. Because in the absence of that, then it’s just going to be, it’s Chad (12:57): Flying by the seat of your pants. Paul (12:58): Yeah. It’s personal preference. Chad (12:59): Sure. Paul (13:00): That’s the difference between somebody that’s put together that has policy and discipline Chad (13:04): Versus Paul (13:05): Everything that comes up. We’re just going to interpret it how we feel at that moment, what our personal preference is. Chad (13:10): And Paul (13:10): That’s just a dangerous, irresponsible Chad (13:12): Way approach. Okay. That’s a pitfall. Okay. What’s the second pitfall? Let’s say that someone has that, they’ve done the manifesto, they’ve laid all that out, they’ve talked about who they are, why they are and what they do. What’s the second biggest pitfall in your opinion? Paul (13:25): So it’s not connecting that with the visual parts of a brand. So we talked about these. What most people do is a tactical checklist. I’ve got a logo, I’ve got fonts and all that stuff. Taking that brand manifesto and using that to create the visual brand and the brand books and the brand guidelines, Chad (13:44): Make Paul (13:44): Sure that you provide one of the most important things that you can have in any aspect of life. And its consistency. So those are your anchors. Those are your Chad (13:54): Foundation. So when you say consistency, you’re saying consistent in everything that you do within that organization with your teams. Paul (14:00): Correct. How you express Chad (14:02): Who Paul (14:02): You are visually, verbally, in the written word, all of those things. Because that’s the buildup to marketing. It’s taking this to the public and saying, Hey, this is who we are. These are the promises that we’re making about our good or service. Because it is remarkable to me how still businesses skip so many steps, just go straight to making the promises. And then when people say, I’m going to take you up on that, when the consumer, Chad (14:37): The end consumer, Paul (14:38): They’re going to come Chad (14:39): In, Paul (14:40): They’re going to say, Hey, I’d love to know about this. I’d like you to fulfill, make good Chad (14:45): On this promise you made, I promise you made. Paul (14:46): And you’ve got employees that say, I have no idea what’re strong about. Chad (14:50): Right? That’s not good. Paul (14:52): Or they go in and the employee takes their personal preference and it’s completely different than what Chad (15:00): Was promised Paul (15:01): This marketing. I mean, that right there just blows me away that we have so many businesses that continue to do that, Chad (15:13): And they wonder why they fail, Paul (15:15): Yeah’s it, and they say, well, my branding and marketing failed or didn’t work. Chad (15:21): It’s like, Paul (15:21): No, it actually worked really, really well. But what they found Chad (15:26): When Paul (15:26): They came to take you up on that promise Chad (15:29): Was Paul (15:30): So drastically different Chad (15:31): Than what you promised. Paul (15:32): Yeah. Then that’s what your planning failed. Your lack of planning, your lack of strategy. Chad (15:38): So that’s a pitfall. So that’s pitfall two, Paul (15:41): Massive. Chad (15:41): So we get to pitfall two, all that is what we just discussed. Okay. What would be pitfall three as we move through this entire, through the marketing phase? Because obviously it goes past the marketing phase. You’ve got a good or service that someone purchases from you. At that point, in my mind, once they purchase that item from you, you’re kind of almost married in a way. You’ve asked them to metaphorically, Paul (16:12): You’ve Chad (16:12): Asked them to marry you at that point. A lot of businesses fail, I think after the sale as well. Paul (16:21): A hundred Chad (16:21): Percent. It’s like you’ve purchased it great, but they don’t court well. And in marriage, as we all know, the real courting begins after the IDOs. If you want to stay married Paul (16:34): Without a doubt, Chad (16:35): Relationships Paul (16:37): To maintain a relationship, it takes work. Chad (16:40): Oh, yeah. Oh, we could go on and on about, and we’re not marriage counselors, but certainly we all understand, Paul (16:45): But even in a customer relationship, Chad (16:47): It’s similar. Paul (16:49): So you’ve got this cycle that the customer’s going through, they’re just living their life. Something happens. So a situation kicks them into a need, and then they look at their options, then they make contact, or they make a decision, they make contact, and then they purchase, and then they kick right back into that cycle. So businesses that fail to nurture that relationship and recognize that we cannot change this buying cycle, Chad (17:22): It is what it is. Paul (17:23): Yeah. Chad (17:24): There’s Paul (17:24): Nothing we can do to change that. But knowing what that cycle looks like is where businesses that are really successful at it nurture that relationship and reaffirm the buying decision that they’ve made. Chad (17:37): So Paul (17:39): You’re absolutely Chad (17:40): Right. So it’s courting essentially in the end. Yeah. Okay. So we’ve got the second one. So what would be the third pitfall in your, because we’ve also got to get to a point where we take that message through marketing to the target audience that’s been defined. So is there a pitfall in there where somebody could go wrong in that marketing? Oh my gosh. Paul (18:04): Is there a pitfall in there? Chad (18:05): Well, I mean, I’m trying to point out how much Paul (18:08): Time do you have? Oh my goodness. Chad (18:09): We’ve got about another 15 minutes. I’m going to, well, 12 minutes. I’m going to allow you to, I’ll tell you what, I’m going to give you maybe five minutes to talk about that. I know that could go on forever. Paul (18:20): I mean, we’ll have, there’s so many pitfalls in that, Chad (18:24): But let’s just say this. Okay. There’s some pitfalls, the tremendous pitfalls in that and the marketing end of it, of taking that message to your target audience Paul (18:33): Through Chad (18:33): Various media. Paul (18:35): Absolutely. Chad (18:35): Alright. Then you have another one, which is after that person has purchased your good or service and not developing the, or courting them in a way that is effective and they end up either forgetting you or being turned off by you, Paul (18:51): Or both of which are bad, very Chad (18:53): Bad. Both are bad. And all of this encompasses that marketing. Paul (18:59): Okay. So I’ll talk about one thing from that standpoint of in marketing, here’s a major pitfall that I see is the right message at the wrong time. And so what I mean by that is, so until somebody has a need, they are just not going to pay attention to facts and figures because it’s not necessary at that time. But we will latch on to things like emotional messages that are conveyed to us Chad (19:34): Connections. Paul (19:34): So if I’m watching television and the air conditioning has gone out, well, lemme back up. So if the air conditioning goes out, I don’t go sit down at the TV to wait for a commercial to come on so I can write a number down. So anything, when you’re talking about television in this instance, or even digital delivery of videos Chad (20:02): In Paul (20:02): Some capacity, Chad (20:02): Sure. Paul (20:05): That type of information is the right message at the wrong time. Those details will matter later when I need them. Chad (20:16): But Paul (20:16): At that time, when I’m watching golf or I’m watching football, anything that’s in that message, in that video is a waste of real estate. That is a huge, Chad (20:27): You’re not in a buying mode. Paul (20:29): Exactly. Chad (20:29): Okay. Paul (20:30): But I am in a relationship. Chad (20:32): So what you’re saying is, is that creating the top of mind awareness through a connection type of a message to you at that moment as a potential customer on your couch watching sports or whatever, what you’re referring to here? Paul (20:48): Exactly. So what is top of mind? So if you need to move something, you need to move your house or move a piece of furniture, who are you going to call? Chad (20:59): I’m going to call a moving company, Paul (21:03): But most people are going to call their friends. Chad (21:06): Oh Paul (21:06): Yeah, that’s what I was looking Chad (21:07): For. I thought you were meaning, yeah, you’re going to call a friend. Paul (21:10): Yeah. Chad (21:10): Right. Sure. Paul (21:11): So in which of those friends you’re going to call first, you have the best relationship with. Chad (21:17): Sure. That’s probably going to be you in that moment. Paul (21:19): Exactly. And I ignore your call unless you’ve got a case of beer and pizza, then I might come over. Chad (21:25): Oh, I see now. Paul (21:26): Okay. Yeah, I might come over just planted some seeds, just so you know. But last time I moved you, I don’t think there was any of that involved. Chad (21:34): I think there was pizza, but that’s been probably 10, Paul (21:37): 15 years Chad (21:38): Ago. Man. That’s true. Paul (21:38): From that townhouse to the one you’re in now Chad (21:40): In my home. Yeah. Paul (21:41): So equate that with a business, that’s what top of mind is. It is a relationship. Chad (21:47): So Paul (21:48): If we want to be top of mind where we’re delivering messages, we need to know what state that buyer is in their cycle so that we know how to craft that message and how to take our brand, express that at the right time with the right message. Chad (22:05): Yes. I’ve noticed in the HVAC industry over the years, that there’s pain points every year because these companies get much busier. It’s summer when it first starts to get hot, and it’s in the cold in the winter. When it starts to get really cold, that’s when the unit start to struggle. So I see where you’re going with this. And then the rest of the year is almost like top of mind awareness. Yeah, Paul (22:29): Exactly. Chad (22:30): Or a service type deal that they’ve got a contract where they come out and service it and things of that nature. Okay. So we’ve talked about the difference between brand branding and marketing, essentially. I Paul (22:41): Mean, Chad (22:41): We can, obviously, there’s a lot more that we can discuss in the realm of Paul (22:46): Marketing. Chad (22:46): I mean, that could go on. We could be here for another couple hours. We don’t have time today. And we talked about some of the pitfalls and what do you see? Do you see a lot of these lot of businesses trying to gold it alone a lot of times and trying to do this themselves? And would that be one of the reasons why they struggle so much and they may experience more of the pitfalls than someone who is actually using an expert? Paul (23:15): Yeah, I think so. I think there’s a lot of status quo, old conventional wisdom out there that people follow. It’s not hard to see. Legitimately, I cannot believe this blew my, I still cannot get over this. I was riding down the road the other day. I saw a billboard with a QR code on it. Chad (23:36): Wait, what? Paul (23:37): A billboard with a QR code on it. Chad (23:39): Well, how can I get Paul (23:40): Exactly. Chad (23:41): I mean, that’s a long way to get my phone. Paul (23:44): That’s like, Chad (23:44): What would be the reason that’s wasted Paul (23:46): Space? The only thing I can think of is that somebody thought that, Hey, again, Chad (23:52): Was it a spoof? Was it supposed to be funny or no? Paul (23:55): I just can’t see how it could be. But so that is somebody, the world, I only guess, I can only imagine that they win it alone. And they thought, Hey, this would be good. Versus having somebody say they saw something on QR codes, which QR codes can do some brilliant things. Chad (24:14): Sure. Paul (24:14): But not on a billboard. Chad (24:16): I mean, how far does your phone zoom? I mean, you made fun of my phone a lot. Oh, I did. I Paul (24:21): Get it. Oh my gosh. Chad, please, for the love of God, do what we say about your phone. Chad (24:27): Okay. Well, give me a second. My phone, unless yours does yours, can you zoom that far into a QR code on a billboard? Paul (24:36): Probably. But my question before that, Chad (24:39): You going to die trying to do it riding down the road. You’ve got to turn around and come. Yeah, it’s pointless. Paul (24:43): Yeah. I’m going to just hold on. Hey, Chad, I’ll call you back. I got to turn around real quick. A QR code. I’ve got to see what that QR code goes to. Chad (24:52): Oh, man. Paul (24:52): Yeah, that’s really bad. Chad (24:54): That’s a great example. Paul (24:55): Yeah. But it’s stuff like that that Chad (24:57): It just makes no Paul (24:58): Sense. There was something that inspired or sounded good at a time, but Chad (25:04): Needed some perspective. It’s also, I could take it that a little further. I mean, we’ve seen the different commercials and stuff too, and on different types of things, but some of them, recently we went on tv, the one we talked about it recently, a while back, and there was another one here locally where I don’t don’t want to poke fun at anybody. Paul (25:21): Exactly. Chad (25:22): But he was in a service industry that was in construction. Paul (25:25): And Chad (25:25): You’ve seen it. You can’t handle, handle this. It’s rough, man. And don’t, at some point, people have to be more aware of the image that they’re presenting to the public. Exactly. You can have a great, good or service, and you can have a great idea, and you could do a lot of things. And you could have the manifesto. You can know who your target audience is completely. And just the message is so bad that it’s just, they run from you. Paul (25:51): It Chad (25:51): Is a big turn off. So there’s so many points to this that we could go on about, but I think we’ve, we’re so passionate about this. I love these types of discussions because it helps Paul (26:03): Absolutely. Chad (26:03): Kind of hash it out and just talk through it. Paul (26:09): Yeah, because I, we’ve seen all things, so many different things that are not great. Chad (26:14): Yeah. Oh man. Paul (26:14): And it doesn’t have to be that way. Chad (26:17): And Paul (26:17): So I think I’ve mentioned this to you before, but years and years and years ago, my dad diagnosed me with the case of the ought bes. I know how things ought to be, Chad (26:27): Ought to bes. Okay. And Paul (26:28): It drives me nuts. I Chad (26:29): Thought you said, thought you were saying oddities, but okay. Paul (26:32): That probably as well. But no, the case of the oddities Got it. I know how things ought to be, and it drives me crazy when it’s not. And this kind of basic understanding of a brand branding and marketing is part of that. It’s like it doesn’t need to be that hard. But businesses after, businesses after businesses just make it harder than it Chad (26:56): Used to be. But I think that’s because they’re good at what they do. We’ve talked about Paul (27:00): This, Chad (27:00): Their brand, I mean their service or their product, then they’re not experts in this. And a lot of times we’ve talked about before, you can have a great product or service and fail, unfortunately, because you don’t go about it the right way. Paul (27:14): Without a doubt. A hundred percent. Chad (27:16): So yeah, great info. This is great info. Looking forward to talking about this more. Paul (27:22): All right, man. Well, I enjoyed it. We’ll do it again Chad (27:24): Soon. I enjoyed it. 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Oct 19, 2023
9

Stand Out Or Fail

Businesses that fail to differentiate become white noise. A terrible place to be in. Businesses that stand out and earn their way into the loyalty of their customers thrive and become the brands people put in books as examples. Don’t be white noise. If you don’t know how to differentiate, get help. You’ll be glad you did. Transcript Click on the Transcript to see full Transcription: Transcript CLOSE Transcript 00:00:00:00 – 00:00:18:03 Well, Paul, we’re back again. Let’s do it. Welcome to man Up to you, man. Same thing. Um, just trying to stay cool. It is absolutely as hot as fire outside. Well, this is where we’re at. And it’s not just hot as fire is. It’s the humidity where you can’t breathe. It’s like. It’s like you breathe in fire, you know? 00:00:18:05 – 00:00:41:04 That’s for sure. Yeah, that’s for sure. Well, so I have a question for you today. Sure. How do you stand out? Should you stand out? You have to. You do. You have to. You have to. You have to stand out in a crowded space or else you become white noise. Yeah. Mm hmm. You do. And it’s, um. And part of that sometimes is, you know, it’s. 00:00:41:04 – 00:00:58:19 It’s difficult. You know, we see a lot of advertisers that tell us that, you know, obviously, we want to stand down, we want something. We want to go to that edge. And, you know, in fact, we want to go over we want to really create something memorable so people know who’s actually who we are and we want to stand out and they’ll get there to that engine. 00:00:58:19 – 00:01:24:10 It’s like they want to retract. It’s like they want to come back a little bit. It’s like, wait a minute, now. You know that that might be a little bit too far, you know, And, you know, it’s like I don’t know whether it’s from, you know, not wanting to offend people. I don’t know whether it’s from there. You know, they’re kind of scared that, you know, they they won’t attract enough people. 00:01:24:10 – 00:01:43:15 Yeah. And, you know, but it’s yes, you definitely have to stand out, especially today in the you know, in the climate that we’re in. So how how do you go about that? I mean, is it something that you just have to reach more people or. No, I don’t think so. I think that that’s one of the things that we and I’ve seen a lot. 00:01:43:15 – 00:01:59:23 And, you know, of course, we both do, is that, you know, the first thing you have to do is you have to get very definitive and finite on who your audience is. Yeah, for sure. I mean, down to the finite. And and in doing that, you got to figure out who they are and, you know, what are they looking for? 00:01:59:23 – 00:02:22:20 What kind of people, how do they shop, how do they live? You know, where do they live? What’s their income? And the whole nine yards. And once you figure that out and figure out, you know, who they are and all those answers, you can figure out the best way to target those that audience. Yeah, correct. Um, and I think that, you know, a lot of people, they want to try to be all things to all people. 00:02:22:21 – 00:02:45:20 Sure. Yeah. And you can’t. No, I mean, it’s just not possible, you know? Yeah. Um, so I don’t, you know, and, and it’s more of a thing where and I kind of go back to, you know, the reason why they don’t want to go over that age. I think it could be because they they don’t want to offend anybody. 00:02:46:01 – 00:03:03:07 Yeah, maybe. I think I see that that happen more often than not for sure. Yeah. Yeah. I don’t know if, um. And I don’t. I’m not trying to, you know, look, I mean, let’s just all be honest here. I mean, you know, with, you know, in today’s world, you know, you’ve got there’s a lot of toes to step on. 00:03:03:07 – 00:03:27:21 Yeah. That you could accidentally step on. But, you know, let’s take and I know we’ve got we talk about this. Let’s take, um, the liquid death short. Okay. That’s that’s a great example of of a brand that was a product really, that became secondary, in my opinion, to the brand that, you know, it was basic water. Yeah. I’m not saying that it’s not good water. 00:03:27:21 – 00:03:45:23 I’m not saying it doesn’t taste good spring water or whatever it is. But, you know, they took a they took that and they branded that in a literal tallboy can. Yeah, right. That is edgy. Yeah. I mean, let’s face it. I mean, you know, you go to the store and you go to the Kroger, Publix, wherever you shop and you in it’s standard. 00:03:45:23 – 00:04:03:13 It’s like, you know what the heck you start. I think first time you’ve seen it, it’s on the wrong aisle. Sure. Yeah. Yeah. This is this is water, right? But I mean, it’s true, you know, And then all of a sudden you start looking into it and you realize, man, this is this is something totally different. I mean, what do you you know, this is water. 00:04:03:15 – 00:04:28:18 Yeah, so is it’s not so much being afraid to offend people from a standpoint of, oh, you hurt my feelings, but being afraid. There are too many businesses. Correct me if I’m wrong, there are too many businesses that are so generic and so general. Yeah. That they’re forgettable and they don’t ever speak to a market. They don’t ever speak to a niche. 00:04:28:20 – 00:04:51:08 No, they don’t. They don’t at all. So who would have thought that you could take water? Yeah, it’s what it is. And put it in the tub. We can. Yeah, right. And create this brand that is just unreal right now. Do you think that they knew who their audience was before they went to market? Oh, they had to have. 00:04:51:10 – 00:05:08:14 Yeah. And I, you know, I didn’t even know about I guess I’m not the target market. I didn’t know about liquid death until just recently. Right. Yeah. I mean, it’s, you know, it’s but I think they’re, you know, I don’t know, to me, I mean, maybe, you know, that’s different, but I feel like they’re probably more of the maybe rocker. 00:05:08:16 – 00:05:31:11 Yeah, I think so, you know? Yeah. Jesse Wroblewski told me about it. Yeah. Yeah. We just started looking into it a little bit, and I don’t know who did the campaign, but the guy did a great job. Whoever it was was phenomenal what they did. So, yeah, I mean, when I say, you know, not want to offend people, I’m not necessarily talking about just from a you hurt my feelings type deal. 00:05:31:11 – 00:05:49:21 I’m talking about, you know, kind of stepping over that edge and just being real edgy and, you know, in order to be to stand out in today’s market, you have to be edgy. You know, you have to be able to be willing to kind of go over the cliff, so to speak, and, you know, and really make a statement. 00:05:49:23 – 00:06:14:06 Well, is it edgy or just getting outside of the conventional wisdom comfort zone? It is. I mean, because I think you can make an impact without necessarily being I like, edgy in my mind. It’s like really trying to be different, um, trying to be a little bit abrasive, which, you know, liquid def certainly fits that. Yeah. I mean, you know, 2023 I don’t really know what edgy is anymore. 00:06:14:07 – 00:06:36:02 Yeah. You know, to be honest with you. I mean, if you look, you know, I mean, that’s kind of a I mean, I see edgy everywhere. And it, you know, where does it stop? You know, But I guess edgy maybe not be the best word, but it it is a decent word for it. Or maybe just, you know, just something memorable, you know, where you absolutely stand out. 00:06:36:02 – 00:07:03:16 Right. Nailed it. And if doing so, if that is a little bit edgy, then so be it. Yeah, right. I think I think you should push the envelope for sure. But I guess this is where my question comes from. Or maybe confusion is there are so many people that are so bad at doing anything of substance that is memorable, that edgy, just I don’t I can’t I can’t tell you the last time I saw something that was edgy. 00:07:03:17 – 00:07:18:03 I agree. I mean, so the thing is, is that, you know, we see a lot of people with great ideas and great products. Yeah, right. And they wanted to bring them to market in this vanilla way. And they want it just like everybody else. And it’s like, well, what do you want? Okay, first of all, let’s go back. 00:07:18:05 – 00:07:37:22 Start from the beginning. Okay? Who are you? Right. And what is your what are your beliefs? Well, you know, let’s talk about your authenticity and what you’re bringing to the table, why you bring to the table and what you stand for. Okay. When you can start there with somebody and figure out exactly you know what, let’s get back to the grass roots. 00:07:37:22 – 00:08:03:00 Yeah. At that point, then you can take that product and build a marketing campaign around that without a doubt. Okay. Yeah. And something that’s going to work. Okay. But if you don’t have, you know, I would say a mission, but it’s more or less of, you know, just an identity of who you are. Oh, you know, I agree with that, because let’s face it, I mean, I’m sure the guy could have easily brought water to the market. 00:08:03:02 – 00:08:25:10 Yeah, right. And, you know, we all need water, right? There’s a time important to. It’s important. I mean that in here. Yeah. Yeah, I think it’s got a little. This is Terrapin, by the way, and you introduce me to this. It’s passionfruit orange guava IPA. And dude, I, you know, I’m. I need to go and call from Athens, Georgia. 00:08:25:12 – 00:08:45:11 Good. Okay. You know, go. But go hear it all. But, you know, I don’t know. Can you get can you reserve a spot anyway, I it’s back to the subject at hand, you know, but it’s, um. But you know, he could have just said, okay, hey, I’m bringing water and we’re going to call it liquid death. And you know what the name is was and then just put it in a bland package and said, you know, let’s go, right? 00:08:45:12 – 00:09:10:08 Yeah, but, but have you looked on the water aisle of your supermarket and and there’s so many different brands of water. Oh, yeah. I mean, it’s like, well, man, I mean, you know, this is all you got, you know, you got some it comes out of a stream you get comes purified everything else. But I’m telling you, you know and when I saw it on the shelf, I thought it’s in the wrong place. 00:09:10:08 – 00:09:27:02 Sure. Yeah. You know, they need to move it out. And I you know, I thought about going and telling, you know, this is not working. But I looked closer and it’s like, wait a minute, there’s water on top and and there’s red, green, black. You know, there’s all kinds of stuff. But again, I mean, you know, it’s just you have to be willing to stand out. 00:09:27:02 – 00:09:38:07 You have to be willing to do your research. You have to, you know, to define your audience in a in a way that, you know, you know a lot about them. Sure. 00:09:38:07 – 00:09:50:21 And who they are. And and you got to have that to craft that message that resonates with them because there’s so many places to put, you know, the different elements of your campaign and placement, advertising and things of that nature. 00:09:50:21 – 00:10:07:04 Right. But in the absence of actually doing that work, of knowing who you are, who your target profile, your customers are and how to speak to them, then it just it really gets bland, really. That noise just absolutely destroys it for somebody else as well. 00:10:07:04 – 00:10:12:05 Yeah, it does. And I think a lot of people, they don’t think of it in that way. 00:10:12:05 – 00:10:36:14 And and sometimes you can have a great product taken in a market. Wrong branding, wrong marketing and it fails. Yeah. You know, and you hate to see that because the product itself was an actually good product. Oh, for sure. Yeah. And you know, on that same note, you can do a whole do a lot, right and put the right things at the wrong time and also that’s very true. 00:10:36:16 – 00:11:00:15 It’s a very good point. I want you to elaborate a little bit on that. So best example, I’ll give you a couple examples, taking a a billboard message. For instance, driving down the road, you see Billboard, If anybody puts a phone number on that billboard, you are taking potentially the right information and putting it the wrong time. I agree with that because nobody is going to pull over. 00:11:00:17 – 00:11:17:20 Well, and right your mobile, you’re a number two because they literally will have to back up. Yeah. In order to do it. So what am I going to go back? And then if you write it while you’re driving, you risk hitting a home or a house. Right. Or a car, unless you’re on the way to Myrtle Beach and there is a billboard every. 00:11:17:20 – 00:11:44:07 Yeah. That’s a little bit different. Yeah. That’s how you put it right there on each sun. Yeah. 500. Monroe Yeah, for sure. But yeah, I mean that’s an example of the right message. That is the right message, Yeah, for the right time. But at the wrong time. The wrong place. TV’s the same way. Yes, by and large video but there is just certain so we scrub. 00:11:44:09 – 00:12:07:12 I’m sure you’re just wanting to hear this. We scrub 92% of everything we take in within 72 hours. Okay, slow down a little bit. I’m okay. I’m going to get more beer. So we scrub 90% of everything we take in in the first 72 hours. Correct. So in and the reason we do is that subconsciously, yeah, yes, sleep is a great tracer. 00:12:07:14 – 00:12:30:00 So when we do that, we are getting rid of everything we don’t need anymore. Like you can’t tell me what what the weather was like three days ago because you don’t need that information anymore. But on the state championship game, you can tell me everything about that. Oh, absolutely. It’s meaningful. Oh, I can. And when the national championship game, I can tell you a lot about it. 00:12:30:00 – 00:13:00:16 Yeah, yeah, sure. So when we when we were putting the wrong type of information in certain marketing assets and placing them in advertising and things of that nature, we have to be very aware of who our target customer is. We have to be bold and create a message that’s going to resonate with them at that time, right? If we don’t, then they’re going to they’re going to forget us because they’re going to within 72 hours, they’re going to get rid of anything they don’t need or have not made a connection with. 00:13:00:18 – 00:13:20:09 Mm hmm. And if you don’t make that emotional connection, that relationship I know I talk a lot about that, but that’s how you’ve got to make it in that 8% or else you’re going to be part of that just noise of, Yeah, bad marketing. Yeah, I wasn’t aware of that. I didn’t, you know, I didn’t. I didn’t know those numbers. 00:13:20:13 – 00:13:40:12 Yeah, that’s interesting. I mean, it may not be exactly 90% when they say, well, 80% statistics are made up. Right. Well, I mean it makes sense. I mean, you know, and it just furthers the the argument of of, you know, standing out. You know, there’s a lot of there’s a lot of studies behind that that that support that. 00:13:40:14 – 00:13:57:20 But, I mean, you can again, you can just do those simple things like how many phone numbers can you remember? I can’t. Well, these well, I can’t remember anything. I can give you an entire minute and I don’t think I don’t know that I could I don’t know that I could. That’s bad. Yeah. So let me ask you this. 00:13:57:20 – 00:14:24:10 So how long do you think you have to make an impression on a potential customer or an audience? Well, there’s a little bit of variance in that. For instance, I mean, I I’ve I’ve actually been watching TV, watching golf before, and they’re traveler’s insurance. They do such a great job that I’ve seen my kids stop playing and watch their commercials. 00:14:24:12 – 00:14:44:14 Now. And it was the first time that they saw them. So how long it takes in order to make an impression depends on how well you have done your homework. Well, let me let me start over. How long do you think it takes to grab someone’s? So, in other words, okay, so let’s say that somebody is reading something, watching something that first initial 8 seconds. 00:14:44:14 – 00:15:02:12 Yeah, I think it’s it’s probably in that moment and I think there’s a lot of yeah, there’s there’s also a lot of studies that have shown that out as well. Right. But if you catch them I’ve also heard this it’s like well how long does something need to be like a video, for instance, man, I’ve watched five minute pre-roll videos. 00:15:02:15 – 00:15:23:21 Hmm. Or longer on YouTube. And the the pre-roll videos were almost better than the one. The video I want to watch. Yeah. Yeah. So it’s not. I mean, so it’s not the duration necessarily. It’s a content quality. It’s the quality of what you’re what have you done your homework and to some degree like yes, the production value, the production quality. 00:15:23:22 – 00:15:44:15 Yeah. But also it is, it’s the structure of the message is irrelevant to who you’re speaking to. Sure. And if you’re trying to speak to everybody going back to this conversation, I mean, look, yeah, I mean, there’s only a few things in this world that I think that everybody uses, right? Needs one’s water. You have that food, you know, you’ve got to buy food. 00:15:44:17 – 00:16:06:05 Um, now with that, you know, I’m talking from a supermarket. Sure. Okay. Now, you know, restaurants are totally different. Um, you know, light bulbs. Yeah, right. I mean, unless you’re don’t have a place for a light bulb. Sure. You’re homeless. Yeah, unfortunately, You know, you need those things, so, you know, those are more of a marketing to the masses type deal. 00:16:06:08 – 00:16:30:15 Sure. Where everybody needs. But. But you’re typical, you know. You know, you it typical. What do you call it? What’s the name of good or service. Good or service. And I’m going blank. I’m going to slow down. Um, you know, those things are you’ve got they’ve got to have an audience. Yeah. And you’ve got to have a, you know, a definite demographic that you’re marketing to. 00:16:30:15 – 00:16:54:09 Yeah, Yeah. So I mean, there’s a lot that really is well, and you can see it in certain things. I mean you can have a very across the board category that is just boring. Um, but then you can have somebody in that category that actually takes the time to be creative. Mm hmm. To be bold enough to stand out. 00:16:54:11 – 00:17:17:02 Yeah. Be a little bit edgy, and then that edginess doesn’t have to carry a negative connotation. Oh, I’m not. Not at all. But, you know, it’s more of a. Yeah, just not being afraid to be different. How about maybe that’s the way to put it. And I’m enjoying my. Our buddy Jesse earlier, he does that exceptionally well is he actually makes boring stuff interesting. 00:17:17:04 – 00:17:46:02 Yeah I think it’s mostly that comic books or something along those lines. Doesn’t he mean that, um, the supervillain. Super villains. Okay, there we go. Okay. Okay. But, I mean, that’s. It doesn’t matter what market you’re in, what category you’re in. If you do your homework, if you take the time to be a little bit creative and this is where this is really where outside help can be very helpful. 00:17:46:04 – 00:18:21:00 I mean, absolutely. Yeah. Get somebody to help you do some brainstorming, right. And get some get some really good ideas and then you can execute those ideas with with their help or with someone else’s help. But you got to start you’ve got to stand out. And, you know, advertising marketing has changed so much. If you actually go and look at the years years ago, when you look at the old car ads and anything really from the seven eighties, even nineties for that matter, it’s just, you know, back then you could kind of you could be more bland. 00:18:21:05 – 00:18:50:04 Sure. Maybe is the word and still be effective because it wasn’t there weren’t the choices were much more limited. Okay I mean yeah I mean yeah plenty of choices now. Now you get so many choices and you know, and it’s and it’s I mean any of the on any given product for the most part. Well and we talk about the choices that’s really from the the business side but you have so much more exposure from the consumer side you do they’re exposed to so many more platforms. 00:18:50:06 – 00:19:15:18 It’s even more important to stand out and to be be bold and not be bombarded with bombarded every single day, you know, and most of it I don’t remember. But we see brands like Liquid Def that do stand out, that do it well. Yeah, absolutely. So it’s not impossible anymore. Know what? Listen, if you’ve you know, and I don’t mean to toot this horn and I’m not we’re not getting paid to to talk about liquid debt. 00:19:15:18 – 00:19:35:06 Let’s make sure we’re clear on that. But if you’ve turned water in a tallboy can to 10 million. I think that’s the last I heard. Oh, is more than that. Oh, my case. Maybe it’s more than that then. I mean, one. So, you know, that just reinforces my point even more. You’ve done something, right? Yeah. I mean, you know, so you just I mean, literally, you know, it’s not like, what is it? 00:19:35:06 – 00:19:55:22 Dasani is owned by Coca-Cola. Yeah. Is that right? I mean, you know, that’s obviously, you know, it’s kind of a not as hard. Yeah, right. So, yeah, I mean, you know, and I think that if advertisers could get in more of that mindset and, you know, and really lay it out right from the beginning and really get the help that they need from the beginning, from people that are really good at what they do. 00:19:55:23 – 00:20:22:10 You know, then I think that they, you know, have a have a very good chance of being now based on all the pieces of the puzzle. Sure. Yeah, we know that. But it’s certainly a portion of it. You know, it’s it’s it’s it’s something that is that you’ve got to have if you don’t have a good foundation that’s hard to grasp, you’ll never make it. /* Style the tab */ .tab { overflow: hidden; border: 1px solid #ccc; background-color: #f1f1f1; } /* Style the buttons inside the tab */ .tab button { background-color: inherit; float: left; border: none; outline: none; cursor: pointer; padding: 14px 16px; transition: 0.3s; font-size: 17px; } /* Change background color of buttons on hover */ .tab button:hover { background-color: #ddd; } /* Create an active/current tablink class */ .tab button.active { background-color: #ccc; } /* Style the tab content */ .tabcontent { display: none; padding: 6px 12px; border: 1px solid #ccc; border-top: none; } function openCity(evt, cityName) { var i, tabcontent, tablinks; tabcontent = document.getElementsByClassName("tabcontent"); for (i = 0; i < tabcontent.length; i++) { tabcontent[i].style.display = "none"; } tablinks = document.getElementsByClassName("tablinks"); for (i = 0; i < tablinks.length; i++) { tablinks[i].className = tablinks[i].className.replace(" active", ""); } document.getElementById(cityName).style.display = "block"; evt.currentTarget.className += " active"; }

Oct 5, 2023
8

The Man Behind AdWeak

The brilliant satire mind behind AdWeak, Mickey Taylor, joined us for a fun conversation. Everyone in the creative space is thinking it, Mickey just says it. https://youtu.be/pfLTWtOWbDQ

Sep 28, 2023
7

What’s coming in 2024?

Chad and Paul chat about what businesses can expect in 2024 and what they should do to prepare. – Have the right conversations with you customers. – Make sure your brand assets are in place. Get insights into essential marketing strategies in 2024 to gain open market share now. Join the Conversation Chad’s Linkedin Paul’s Linkedin

Sep 21, 2023
6

Video Content that Wins – Alex B. Sheridan

Video Content that Wins – Alex B. Sheridan Click on the Transcript to see full Transcription: Transcript CLOSE Transcript 00:00:00:00 – 00:00:36:05 Paul Well, Alex, welcome to Bad Marketing Sucks. It’s great to have you here. How’ve you been? Alex Really good, guys. Really good. How are you doing? Paul Pretty well. Well, doing well. So what? What have you been up to lately? And what do you do in this world of marketing? Alex Well, what we help the companies do, and primarily B2B companies do, is build trust through video content and help them attract their dream clients. 00:00:36:05 – 00:00:54:02 Alex So we’re trying to help companies become the number one brand and their space. So we develop the strategies, how we’re going to create the content, what channels, what type of content, build out the entire workflows for them. And then we sometimes in many cases help them execute with some of the editing and the actual work itself. Very cool. 00:00:54:04 – 00:01:09:20 Paul So how long you even been at this gig? Alex I’ve been at it now for three and a half years, so it’s I was just thinking about that earlier today. It’s like, man, it’s flown by. But at the same time it feels like I’ve been doing this forever. So, you know, the marketing world is the shit. Change is fast, man. 00:01:09:20 – 00:01:37:06 Alex So it’s like one year, like it feels like ten years now with it now, no doubt. Paul So what do you find in your experience and what you’ve encountered so far of the biggest pitfalls? I mean, if you think of me and bad marketing sucks, what does that mean to you? Alex Well, to me, bad marketing is and if you look at 99% of companies, or let’s just call it 90, 95% of companies, they don’t even have a content strategy. 00:01:37:08 – 00:02:08:07 Alex So if I talk to a company and I’m like, lay out your content strategy for me, one, two, three, four or five, and how that’s how you’re executing and how that’s bringing in the business results, building the brand. Most companies don’t have an answer. They’ll tell you things like, you know, while we’re doing some LinkedIn posting, you know, we’ve got a couple of videos up on the website, but there’s no like, hey, every single week we’ve got a plan and we are executing it and we know exactly what we need to do next and we know exactly what to look for in terms of KPIs, results, you know, how we’re going to measure it, that 00:02:08:07 – 00:02:25:12 Alex kind of stuff. Most companies don’t even have that. But I’ll tell you, the biggest problem with marketing, especially with the B2B companies, is that they don’t understand their customer all that well, right? So when I sit down on a call, discovery call and I ask the company like, Hey, walk me through your customer buyer journey, how do your customers buy? 00:02:25:14 – 00:02:43:23 Alex What decision criteria do they use? Do they filter that through? What are some of the common questions that they have? How do they get to you to a meeting in the first place? What are some of the different channels they would come from? What do they look for on your website? You know, what type of content are they researching on places like YouTube and Google and TikTok and, you know, LinkedIn? 00:02:44:00 – 00:03:05:23 Alex And a lot of people don’t understand that. So it’s like, how can you put together a content marketing strategy when you don’t understand what your what your customers want in terms of the content or where they’re going to even consumer in the first place? So that’s probably the biggest miss, right? There is a lack of a real content strategy and then a lack of really understanding your core customer. 00:03:05:23 – 00:03:22:16 Alex So it’s like you’re listening to us right now. A good exercise would be to go to your talk to three groups of people, number one, talk to on discovery calls and your prospects. Get some information around, Hey, how’d you get here today? You know, maybe they’re filling out a form when they book a call. How did you first discover us? 00:03:22:18 – 00:03:35:01 Alex What made you, you know, book a call with us versus some of the other options? Or did you go the other options? Then you were the second groups you want to talk to or a recent customers, right? They just signed up. Go back and go back and ask them, Hey, what made you sign up with us versus the other options? 00:03:35:03 – 00:03:55:17 Alex What type of information or research did you do before signing up with us? What was the driving or aha moment? You know, The Factor, whatever it might be that made you say, I got to work with this company? And then the last group would be go talk to current customers that have been with you for a while. Maybe some are good, maybe some are not so good, and pull that information as to, hey, why are you guys still what this what what do you really like about working with us? 00:03:55:17 – 00:04:14:09 Alex Why is our service unique? What are some things you don’t really like or you wish we did differently? You just going to get a ton of great content ideas from if you go straight to the source. Yeah. Right. Right. And do you find this to be true? Staying true with even with the largest companies and bigger companies. I and they still don’t have a good, you know, system in place. 00:04:14:11 – 00:04:31:21 Chad The problem with large companies when it comes to marketing is they’re too slow to adapt new things that are happening in the marketplace. As you probably know, they’re scared to take a chance or they’re fearful to take a risk or get outside of their comfort zone of what from what they’ve been doing the past ten years, right out of the box. 00:04:31:21 – 00:04:51:20 Alex They’re not thinking out of the box. They’re not unleashing their creativity because it’s got to go through 20 different approvals. And then they’re worried about, well, if we say this or someone says something wrong, is that going to create a lawsuit opportunity or is that going to put us at a risk? So what happens is, yeah, right. Yeah, they just they just keep doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results and it doesn’t work. 00:04:51:20 – 00:05:19:11 Alex The content game has changed. Yeah. No doubt. Yeah. Do you think that when you have these conversations, because that’s not easy to go talk to your customers, How what kind of reception do you have on that? I mean, because, you know, when we think about like marketing, it’s always the final output that most people gravity gravitate to, but there’s a lot to it prior to getting sent, you know, deploying that, that the assets. 00:05:19:13 – 00:05:36:03 Paul So when you when you’re talking to people and you say go talk to your customers, what what’s their response like? Yeah, I mean most people are scared to talk to their customers and get good insights for marketing because they’re worried that the customer’s going to point out something they’re doing wrong or they’re worried that they don’t want the truth. 00:05:36:03 – 00:05:53:13 Alex They’re scared of the truth. You can’t handle the truth. You know, it’s it’s it’s that kind of thing, right? It hey, look, let’s let’s, let’s, let’s be honest here, right? I feel that way sometimes, too. You guys probably do too, right? So it’s. Yeah, it’s humans, right? It’s. It’s almost like, hey, things are going well with the customers. 00:05:53:13 – 00:06:14:18 Alex They’re repeating every month. They’re, you know, payments are on time. Let’s not ruffle feathers too much. Let’s just keep doing the work. But the reality is, is that the more you communicate, you’ll identify things that, Wow, I didn’t realize Like I was talking to a customer the other day. We actually are. We’ve become friends and I was out there, I was at a barbecue with them and I mentioned I was talking about the LinkedIn content and what we’re helping them with and stuff and the videos and whatnot. 00:06:14:18 – 00:06:32:08 Alex And he said, you know, we, we just want a customer because of the content. Someone reached out to me in my audience and said, Hey, I’ve been seeing your content, I’d love to talk with you. And they just booked a decent sized deal from it. And I’m thinking, I’m so glad I asked that. I’m so glad I dove deep on this at the barbecue, even like once we got past all the personal stuff, because I never would have known that. 00:06:32:08 – 00:06:48:06 Alex So you got you can’t expect your customers to tell you all this information. And on the flip side, what would you rather have happen? Would you rather go to your customer and learn about the opportunities that you have or maybe the misses that you have right now, the mistakes maybe that you’re making, or would you rather not know about it? 00:06:48:06 – 00:07:07:23 Alex And they’ll have the conversations without you and then they’ll just quit and then they’ll just cancel services and they’ll be talking to some other company. So it’s like you either happened, you either addressed it on the front end and you get great insights, which creates better content for you. And you keep customers longer, you keep them happy or you don’t and you don’t have content and then you end up losing customers on the back end. 00:07:08:00 – 00:07:38:22 Paul Yeah, and I’ll tell you a quick story of asking just asking that type of question what what challenges facing I we had a client that we did ask the question you know we grew up pair and ask question. We learned that one of the biggest obstacles of their business was permitting as a as a commercial contractor. And because of permitting, they were not going in as much as they wanted to in their marketing efforts because it’s such a huge thing. 00:07:38:22 – 00:08:01:11 Paul But we knew somebody on the city council, so we’re getting that resolved. But just by asking that question, we were asking it from a, Hey, we’re helping you with your marketing perspective. But they told us what their big obstacle was and we just happened to know somebody. And it’s amazing what just asking that question can uncover and it’s going to unlock tons of opportunity for us, but tons more opportunity for them as well. 00:08:01:14 – 00:08:20:18 Chad That’s right. Yeah, that’s right. Nobody wants to talk about the pink elephant in the room for some. That’s right. It’s weird, you know? Well, it’s just it’s the best thing you can do. It is it’s just easier. It’s easier to just keep moving forward and to not look at something that maybe is a little bit broken or off is easier just to say, hey, let’s just keep going. 00:08:20:18 – 00:08:42:23 Alex Let’s just not look at it as not addressing. Yeah, keep your head down. Now, your content. I’ve got really been enjoying your content. So you’ve been at this three and a half years. How did you get here? Well, actually, I started creating videos on YouTube back in 20 1516, and it was a short stint. I created maybe 12 videos. 00:08:42:23 – 00:09:04:16 Alex I had no strategy. I didn’t have a lot of confidence. I was scared to be myself on camera. I made a few YouTube videos. I was in corporate at the time. My work kind of colleagues found out about it and made mention of it. At this big meeting. I was like trying to cover my face and like I there was like this announcement there, like Alex is creating YouTube videos and I’m thinking, Oh God, you know, it’s so weird about that, though. 00:09:04:16 – 00:09:21:23 Alex My confidence level has risen so much since then, where now if someone said, Hey, Alex is creating YouTube videos, I’d be like, You’re damn right I am, and you better subscribe to the channel because they’re valuable. Yet like, you’re going to get good, you’re going to get a ton of value from it. So yeah, you, you, you, you, you subscribe right now. 00:09:22:05 – 00:09:40:10 Alex So that’s the difference. And I’ll tell you, the thing that changed is that I realized, like when I first started creating those videos on YouTube, I ended up quitting a couple of months later because like I would send them out to potential customers and they were value based videos. I’m sure they weren’t very good, but they were value based company trying to help my customers at the time solve their problems and create solutions for them. 00:09:40:12 – 00:09:54:15 Alex And I remember getting a couple of I’d send them out via email to prospects. I was trying to land the current customers, whatever, and I remember getting a couple of emails back from people being like, Hey, please take me off your email list. I’m like, There is no email list, but I will never send these to you again. 00:09:54:15 – 00:10:10:14 Alex Okay, so you’re good. But I got, I got I was like, I don’t even know what an email is. Is this. I was a B2B sales rep. I’m like, I’m going to send you a link and an email. But I got discouraged. I got razzed a little bit for at work because of it. And I just my purpose at that time wasn’t big enough. 00:10:10:15 – 00:10:29:10 Alex My mission wasn’t big enough to where I said, I don’t give a shit what anyone thinks about this. I’m doing this, I’m staying focus and I’m stay the path. And I think later on 2019, back to your question is how I kind of ended up here today. 2019. I decided finally I’m going to get serious with this and I want to build this life. 00:10:29:10 – 00:10:44:00 Alex I want to be an entrepreneur. I want to start my own company. I’m not going to do this by being a chickenshit. Am I going to do this by, you know, hiding behind the curtains and being scared to put myself out there? And my purpose just became so big and the mission was so strong that I thought, you know, I don’t care what everyone else thinks, I don’t care. 00:10:44:03 – 00:11:00:20 Alex I’m doing my thing and I’m putting in a couple of years worth of work and I’m going to see where it takes me. And I started on LinkedIn creating video content, and it wasn’t easier. They weren’t good in the beginning. It took me a while to get things going, but eventually I got things going and then I was able to quit my corporate job, do this full time in July 2020. 00:11:00:22 – 00:11:19:03 Alex And we’ve been growing ever since. Yeah, And you feel like a new man, right? I feel like I’m more myself. I understand who I am at my core more than I ever had before. And my confidence is high because of that. Because I. I know who I am and why I am that way and my values and I know where I’m going in life. 00:11:19:03 – 00:11:41:11 Alex I don’t have all the answers, don’t get me wrong. Sure. But I think confidence and self esteem comes from knowing who you are and going out there and living it actually, and being comfortable with who you are, being exactly who you are. And I’ll tell you what, it’s almost it’s less about you being comfortable with who you are, and it’s more you you not caring so much about what other people think of your rights. 00:11:41:11 – 00:11:56:12 Alex Like in our own space, by ourselves, in our house, we’re cool with being ourselves, but then we get out in public and we start making a video, and all of a sudden now I’m in the park and people are walking by and I’m thinking, I’m like, nervous to make this video. I don’t want to be myself. I’m going to be shy. 00:11:56:12 – 00:12:14:13 Alex I’m a fix the tripod, you know? Like, why is that right? Like, why are we letting outside influences dictate, you know, how we show up every single day? And I think once you can kind of get past that mental hurdle, you really become unstoppable. Right? And they’re not thinking about us really. Those people passing in the park, they’re thinking, I got to go get milk. 00:12:14:13 – 00:12:32:07 Paul My wife told me, Yes, yeah, that’s the thing. Then they have nothing to do with your life. And in fact, I would even I would even argue that if they are thinking about you, they’re probably thinking something along the lines of that person’s courageous. I wish I could film in public like that. Like they’re going for it. They’re putting themselves out there, right? 00:12:32:08 – 00:12:47:03 Alex It’s a lot of waiting. It’s motivating. Right. But what do we think? We we just have this story, this narrative that we tell ourselves that, oh, they’re probably judging us. They’re probably wondering what the hell we’re doing, who we are. Like, they probably can hear me stutter through my, you know, my video. And it’s just not the case. 00:12:47:03 – 00:13:11:12 Alex People are living their lives, are doing their thing. And so you got to yours. Yeah, absolutely. Brene Brown talks about that. And if you’ve ever read any of her stuff. But the stories we tell ourselves and it’s the stories we tell ourselves are almost never right, ever. No doubt that goes around in your head and it’s bullshit. But I think that it’s the same thing when it comes to businesses that need to. 00:13:11:13 – 00:13:38:15 Paul It’s not even be bold. It’s just don’t suck. Don’t shy away from just taking a stand. And a lot of, in my opinion, good content is just claiming a point of view and being bold enough to me to commit to that. Well, what’s interesting is, is a great point is if you look at the top 50 people that are crushing it with their personal brand right now, none of them are vanilla, none of them are bland. 00:13:38:15 – 00:13:59:09 Alex None of them have you know, I’m just operating in a sea of sameness and I’m just like everyone else. Right. Why? They all they all have a strong opinion, a strong a unique perspective. They have something that where they’re leveraging their personality and maybe their it’s their energy, maybe it’s their quirkiness, their humor, whatever it is they’re bringing that to the forefront in their content. 00:13:59:13 – 00:14:15:07 Alex Yet when people go and they’ll share those people’s videos, I’m like, Oh, did you see the video about Gary or Grant Cardone or this or that? And then when you’re talking to them about building their own content strategy, all the people that they follow do that. And then when people are companies are building out their own content strategy, they just for some reason don’t think it applies. 00:14:15:12 – 00:14:32:15 Alex It’s like, let’s share this corporate article or the Forbes article, or let’s post about how our company, you know, hired a new person and we’re going to be at this conference next week. Who the hell care? Nobody gets like no one cares. That’s it. Nobody cares. Right now. It’s eight weeks on the site. There is bad marketing, is it? 00:14:32:17 – 00:14:50:14 Alex That’s bad marketing. And take something. It just takes pull something on that. Pull something that’s going on in your in your industry right now and think about how you think about it maybe a little differently. Share your unique thoughts and perspective on it. Provide some value for the audience where they can go. Wow, that was interesting. I’ve never heard that before. 00:14:50:14 – 00:15:06:16 Alex That’s that’s making me think a little bit differently about that. Or, you know, let’s go try that tomorrow. Like, that was a good actionable takeaway, right? That’s the kind of stuff that your customers are craving yet everyone wants to put out like, ooh, let’s not ruffle feathers. Let’s just be very, very safe here. And safe doesn’t sell it doesn’t work. 00:15:06:18 – 00:15:30:19 Paul And no, not at all. And it just becomes that drowning. See, and I’ve mentioned this before, but Roy Williams is an author. This great author, Fooling Broke His Heart is in one of his chapters of his book. And you know, when he just blend, he looked like everything else. Their brains, you’re saying? Yep, I’ve seen it. Been there, done that. 00:15:30:21 – 00:15:59:12 Paul Don’t you pay attention to you. It’s just you’re going right, you know? Right. No distinction whatsoever. And it’s really not that hard. We all started there. Well, you know, because companies are not these abstract things are made up of humans. Somebody started that company and somebody had some impetus where they said this needs to be done differently. But the moment that most people get on that path and they say, oh, I don’t want it, I don’t want it, you know, put that out there. 00:15:59:12 – 00:16:14:20 Paul That might be too strong. Yeah, got to do it, right? Yeah. And the kids, you got to think about if you’re wondering like if what if the content you’re putting out is going to ruffle feathers and you’re worried about it disrupting too much, like you’re worried it’s too heavy, you got to go back to your values. And while you’re creating content in the first place. 00:16:14:22 – 00:16:32:18 Alex And so if I’m putting something out there, I’m like, Man, this is like really bold and disruptive and this could piss some people off or or repel some people might be a great thing because I want to repel certain people and I want to attract people with my marketing. And they weren’t your customer anyway. Exactly. But if I’m wondering, did not in my crossing a line, I go back to my values and who I am as a person. 00:16:32:18 – 00:16:47:23 Alex And my foundation, I think, is this is this content going to help people? Is going to impact people in a positive way? Maybe a ruffle some feathers, but will it change people’s perspectives? Will it help them move forward? And if the answer is yes, then I’m going to go ahead and do it. Yeah. Yeah. I love the you put out. 00:16:48:04 – 00:17:11:23 Alex Was it two weeks ago, Three weeks ago, your CEO. Yeah. Well done. I got to go with that one. Well, even on that post I got a comment where people are like, Hey man, your target customer is a CEO, and then you’re putting out videos about how a CEO is kind of like clueless about marketing and how they’re making all this, all these mistakes and their egos getting the best of them, and it’s dragging the company down. 00:17:11:23 – 00:17:30:18 Alex And I’m thinking he’s like, Aren’t you worried about, you know, turning off the CEOs? I’m thinking, no, because the people I’m trying to attract, they see that CEO and they go, I don’t want to be that person right, Right. Yeah. Pointing out the pink elephant. Right. Exactly. And it’s just the truth. It’s the truth, right? Oh, man. Yeah. 00:17:30:18 – 00:17:48:20 Paul So how many of those types of messages you get when you put out, you know, with you being bold and and share your point of view? I think the number one reason I’ve been able to grow my brand on LinkedIn was because I put out edutainment content and I was not scared to fail or make a, you know, stupid video or fall flat on my face. 00:17:48:20 – 00:18:07:10 Alex And I did many times. But I learned and I adjusted and I became a better creator because of it. But in the beginning, I of course, I got a lot of comments like people I’d put out, you know, a humorous video or something that had a good message behind it that I would consider edutainment and I’d have people comment like, This is blasphemy. 00:18:07:10 – 00:18:25:14 Alex This doesn’t belong on LinkedIn and this is a fictional platform and you know, I think it’s changed over the last few years. But in 2019, early 2020 and 2020, it was kind of a different platform to a certain degree. But I think that me being bold that was me being bold, that was maybe in me. It wasn’t me trying to be someone else. 00:18:25:14 – 00:18:38:10 Alex I if you hang around with me, I like to have fun. I like to I’m quirky. I like to I have a sense of humor. I get passionate and fired up about stuff. So I was like, done hiding that from the world. I was like, I’m not going to hide this anymore. Like, I’m going to bring this to my content. 00:18:38:10 – 00:18:59:21 Alex And as soon as I started doing that, my content started to take off. And so that’s why I encourage other people like you got to be trying to bring that out. Don’t try to put something in that wasn’t already in there. That’s a mistake because that’s being disingenuous and that’s not being authentic. But take the things that already are you and bring them out in your content because people will feel that and connect with that a lot more. 00:18:59:23 – 00:19:18:16 Paul Absolutely. 100%. Yes. And you’ve got to be willing to fail. You have to be willing to fall right on your face like many, many times and be able to say, I will keep getting back up and learning and getting better no matter what. Right. And I think that really is one thing that causes people to pull back and like, Oh, it’s not going to be great. 00:19:18:18 – 00:19:40:12 Paul You got to ship it. Is there anybody who has ever shipped something perfect the first time they’ve done it? No, not not, not even in an aside from marketing, just in anything sports acting like what do you you know, if I was teaching you how to play golf, which I’m not a good golfer, but if I was trying to teach somebody how to play golf for the very first time, what am I going to expect them to be out there and be like Tiger Woods? 00:19:40:12 – 00:19:55:16 Alex It’s like, no way. It’s going to take you. There’s a curves. Yeah, yeah. There’s a curve here and there, and there’s always, of course, natural ability where there may be certain things that somebody is better at naturally than you are and vice versa. But everyone has that curve where they got to put in the work and the time. 00:19:55:16 – 00:20:14:14 Alex And if you look at the elite athletes like think about the MJ’s, the Kobe Bryant’s, the LeBron’s, the Michael Phelps, all these people, what you’ll notice a very common trend with all of them and they’re all obsessively have really strong work ethics and they’re obsessed with their craft like they spend more time in the gym, though the first ones, they’re they’re the last ones to leave. 00:20:14:16 – 00:20:29:06 Alex So, yeah, maybe they had some talent to begin with, but it was what they did to develop that talent over the course of years. And it’s the same thing in marketing. Like, yeah, everyone has their strong suits and their weak points, their strengths, but what are you doing to develop and develop the skills over a period of time? 00:20:29:06 – 00:20:47:08 Alex In most companies, they’re not training their people how to create content. They’re not developing people around that stuff. Right? So there’s there’s resources everywhere, but you got to start training or, you know, start developing yourself. Yeah. And it’s so important because if you don’t just get started, if you don’t put things out there and take a risk, you know, people aren’t thinking about you. 00:20:47:08 – 00:21:14:18 Paul I saw something the other day. It’s like in my twenties. I was worried about what people were thinking in my forties. I didn’t care what they were thinking. In my sixties, I realized they weren’t thinking about me at all, but just getting started. Because really effective marketing, you have to build that relationship. So if you’re only talking to people transactional and saying, Hey, I want you to buy something from me, you’re you’re really in a sea of blandness. 00:21:14:18 – 00:21:35:02 Paul But if you take the time to put things out there so they can see your personality, your character, I mean, that’s what we, you know, largely call the race, right? But you have to consistently do that so that there’s a relationship there. All things considered, we want to do business with people we know well. The only the only way they’re going to know you is if you put stuff out there right? 00:21:35:02 – 00:21:50:18 Alex Right. And the reality is nobody logs on to social media to consume ads and to be sold. No, no. And just think about how you how you consume Gonzo, Right. You’re not logging on to Instagram or LinkedIn to be like, I can’t wait to see the ads that are here today. I know they’re going to be good ones, you know, like, nobody’s doing that. 00:21:50:20 – 00:22:10:02 Alex They’re there. Why are they logging on? Like they’re trying to see how their own content’s doing. They’re trying to be entertained and they’re trying to be educated. Maybe they’re researching something, they want something out of it. And so that’s at the core of every content marketing strategy is what are you giving to the audience, to the customer? Give, give, give, give, give, and you shall receive that. 00:22:10:02 – 00:22:24:15 Alex That’s the basis of it. Too many people just want to. All right, here’s give but don’t want to receive receive, receive, say or from day one. They just want to receive. Everything is like, here’s our product or service. It’s like, do no one cares. You got to earn this business, right? You got to earn the trust. And then the relationship that you have to build. 00:22:24:15 – 00:22:43:19 Alex So yeah, yeah, that’s the value has got to be a the cornerstone of it all. Absolutely. Well, that’s good, man. Well, we really appreciate you chatting with us. And so tell us how people can get in touch with you, because I dig the hell out of what you’re doing. Yeah. I appreciate you guys having me on the best way and get in touch with me. 00:22:43:19 – 00:23:03:13 Alex I mean, there’s a couple of things. One, you can go to LinkedIn. I’m on there pretty much every single day post and content. So it’s Alex B Sheridan And then a couple of other things. One, if you go to our website impaxs dot com I am as a mary and Paul, a X S’s and Sam and you go to the top, right there’s what I call a content library. 00:23:03:15 – 00:23:20:12 Alex In that content library we’re adding new videos and blogs every single week. So if you’re curious about what video equipment to use, how to build a content strategy, you know how to dominate LinkedIn and how to master a short form video, whatever you’re looking for, it’s all in that content library and it’s almost like a paid course, but it’s free. 00:23:20:14 – 00:23:37:05 Alex So if you’re listening right now and I’m encouraging, we’re helping our clients build out this same thing too, because I really think all companies should be building out a content library for a ton of different reasons. You can repurpose content, it’s SEO, all that stuff, but that’s a that’s a good place to go to the YouTube channels. There’s a lot of the same videos and up there as well. 00:23:37:06 – 00:23:58:16 Chad Ask one more question before we let you go. Yeah, if you had to give someone one piece of advice from your corner of marketing on how to be successful, just one. Would it be authenticity? What would it be? Obsessively focused on your core customer, Obsessively focus on your audience. Get get ultra curious into more than anyone else does in the entire market. 00:23:58:19 – 00:24:17:11 Alex Know your customer better than anyone else does. And then think about how can I blow their mind with the type of content and value that I put out? Some of the best messages that I get all the time. And you’ve only got one the other day where someone was like your YouTube videos and your LinkedIn content and all over the place, but they’ll say, You put out so much value for free. 00:24:17:11 – 00:24:32:02 Alex It’s ridiculous. Like you should be charging for this. And I’m like, That’s it. That’s the exact strategy. When you’re putting out the type of content where people go, do this is so good, you should be charging money for it. You know, you’re being you know, you’re on the right track and guess who they’re going to win. Think about this. 00:24:32:02 – 00:24:49:12 Alex Who are they going to come to when they’re ready to purchase, when they’re ready to partner with a company? When you’ve provided so much value, they actually feel like they owe you something at this point. Right? That’s like that’s the that’s the level of high level of trust and credibility that you that you have the opportunity to build on with your content that most companies won’t do because they’re playing the surface game. 00:24:49:17 – 00:25:05:03 Alex How do we show a little bit of value and then get them to sign up for this so we can, you know, funnel them and then we get some emails and phone calls and it’s like, I’m not crazy and I’m not playing that game. I’m just trying to give a ton of value to people and really impact people knowing that it’s going to come back to me because that’s just how it works. 00:25:05:06 – 00:25:26:18 Chad God, I love it. I love it. That’s perfect, man. Well, guys, let’s do this again soon. Thank you. Sure, man. Yeah, I appreciate you guys take. /* Style the tab */ .tab { overflow: hidden; border: 1px solid #ccc; background-color: #f1f1f1; } /* Style the buttons inside the tab */ .tab button { background-color: inherit; float: left; border: none; outline: none; cursor: pointer; padding: 14px 16px; transition: 0.3s; font-size: 17px; } /* Change background color of buttons on hover */ .tab button:hover { background-color: #ddd; } /* Create an active/current tablink class */ .tab button.active { background-color: #ccc; } /* Style the tab content */ .tabcontent { display: none; padding: 6px 12px; border: 1px solid #ccc; border-top: none; } function openCity(evt, cityName) { var i, tabcontent, tablinks; tabcontent = document.getElementsByClassName("tabcontent"); for (i = 0; i < tabcontent.length; i++) { tabcontent[i].style.display = "none"; } tablinks = document.getElementsByClassName("tablinks"); for (i = 0; i < tablinks.length; i++) { tablinks[i].className = tablinks[i].className.replace(" active", ""); } document.getElementById(cityName).style.display = "block"; evt.currentTarget.className += " active"; }

Sep 13, 2023
5

Marketing Supervillain – Jesse Wroblewski

Take a look inside the world of Jesse Wroblewski, a marketing supervillain who uses his expertise to fight against bad marketing.

Sep 6, 2023
4

Who the Hell Are You? BMS

In a world of noise and distraction, it's important to have your message cut through the clutter. Find out who Bad Marketing Sucks is and what we can do for you!

Aug 22, 2023

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ABOUT THIS SHOW

Everybody knows bad marketing sucks. We're on a mission to eradicate it, one business at a time.

HOSTED BY

Paul Sterett & Chad Richards

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Everybody knows bad marketing sucks. We're on a mission to eradicate it, one business at a time.

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Frequently Asked Questions

How many episodes does Bad Marketing Sucks have?

What is Bad Marketing Sucks about?

How often does Bad Marketing Sucks release new episodes?

Where can I listen to Bad Marketing Sucks?

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