EPISODE 7 OF THE MARKETING SOLUTIONS PODCAST: BUILDING A BRAND VS GENERATING LEADS

There are only three ways to grow a business, there's a lot of quick fixes and get busy in business quick schemes, but how do you do it sustainably? Someone said to me once that there are only three ways to grow a business, one, increase the number of clients, get new prospects into paying customers. Two, you can increase the average transaction, get each client to buy more at each purchase. Or three, increase the frequency that the average client buys from you, get each customer to buy from you more often. So of course, being the Type A person I am, I naturally had to go and find out where this person got this information from. It turns out, it's a guy called Jay Abraham.

I personally had never heard of him, as he's this old guy who works with massive corporations, I'm clearly not his target market, but I do love this saying from him. So as I dove further and further into his website, my mind was blown. This guy has been around for a long time. Essentially, it looks like he was the Tony Robbins of big business consulting, before Tony Robbins was even walking. In fact, Tony Robbins actually endorses him, and if you want this guy to come and spend a half day, I hear you, up to four hours consulting in your business, it's going to set you back a cool 70,000.00 US dollars. But it's okay guys, because if you buy in bulk and go for the up to eight hours option, it'll just be an extra 50K. Can you imagine?

Anyway, what I really want to touch on today is point number one, increasing the number of clients, and turning more new prospects into paying customers. So our industry, that is the digital marketing industry, is rife with agencies making big claims about ads being switched on, and boom, open the flood gates. Reality is, it doesn't necessarily work like that. There's a lot of testing and optimizing that has to happen. Also, advertising through one channel, such as Google Ads, cannot be your only marketing activity. I'm a firm believer that you also need to be building a brand on having multiple channels and marketing methods happening. Here's an example of why.

So in the past, my agency has worked with a Trade E client, who was starting their business from scratch in the most competitive trade in Melbourne. They'd had a website built by someone else, and it was incredibly slow, and a bit crap, quite frankly. It was certainly more of a general information site, rather than a lead generating site. So we built a landing page, and ran some cool only Google Ads. In the space of seven weeks, we spent around $2,500.00 on ads, and generated over $13,000.00 worth of work for them. For a new business starting from scratch in the most competitive trade in Melbourne, I was pretty darn pleased with this. The client unfortunately, was not. Yes, despite what you see on Instagram, it's not all rainbows and roses. For them this was the only source of income they had, so they had expenses and salaries to pay, so understandably this was not the volume of work that they needed.

On the flip side, though, this would've been a very different situation if we'd been working with someone who was generating work through other marketing channels as well, or were looking to build upon an already sustainable business. Imagine having an extra $13,000.00 worth of work, you wouldn't say no, right? This also brings me to the difference between repeat business versus loyalty business. So repeat business is when people do business with you multiple times, whereas loyalty business, is when people are willing to turn down a better product or price to continue doing business with you. The thing is, loyalty isn't easily won, whereas repeat business is. All it takes are manipulations, but they cost money.

So this manipulations include things like Google Ads. When the money isn't available to find those tactics though, not having a following and a brand that you've build, really, really hurts. Loyalty isn't easily won, but repeat business is. In my opinion, when you are just starting out in business, you need both. You need to have a great offer to get people in the door the first few times, you need to have that capital behind you to be able to do that advertising and take a loss while you invest back into the business and build those relationships. Once you have them in the door, how do you wow them and get that loyalty business and those referrals?

Word of mouth is still the most powerful form of marketing there is. We trust our friends and family far more than we trust anyone else. All of this comes back to building a brand, and a positive customer experience. Yes, we can switch on ads and get people through the door if you've got a great deal, but a lot of the time a large percentage of those people won't come because they'll be priced shoppers. If you wow them, then yes, you will have a chance to get them back again, and they'll become brand advocates who aren't so sensitive to price. Let's flip this for a second though, what if you had the time and resources to build up a brand and business that was in demand? You didn't have to advertise, and use price slashing techniques to get people through the door, instead they'd already heard of you, and were begging to work with you regardless of price. "Heck, yes, Sonya," I can hear you saying, "but how?"

Sorry to say this, but there is no one size fits all solution for this. But let me break it down in some actionable steps for you to start. Number one, start by defining your brand. So review the product or service your business offers, pinpoint the space in the market it occupies, and research the emotitive and rational needs and concerns of your customers. Your brand character should promote your business, connect with your customer base, and differentiate you within the market.

Number two, when you're building your brand, think of it as a person. Everyone of us is an individual whose character is made up of beliefs, values, and purposes that define who we are, and who we are connected with. Our personality determines how we behave in different situations, how we dress, and what we say. Of course for people it's intuitive, and it's rare that you even consider what your own character is, but when you're building a brand, it's vital to have that understanding.

Number three, consider what is driving your business. What does it believe in, what is its purpose, and who are its brand heroes? These things can help establish your emotive brand positioning, and inform the identity and character for brand communications. Number four, and I think this is the most important, aim to build longterm relationships with your customers. Don't dress up your offering and raise expectations that result in broken promises, create trust with honest branding, be clear who your company is, and be true to the values that drive it every single day.

Number five, speak to your customers with a consistent tone of voice, it will help reinforce the businesses' character and clarify it's offering, so customers are aware exactly what to expect from the product or service. So this goes across all channels guys, so social media, your website, how your customers talk and treat your... sorry, how your team members talk to and treat your customers, how you talk to each other as well. Number six, don't repeat the same message in the same way over and over again, instead aim to make your key messages work together to build a coherent identity.

Seven, don't try and mimic the look of chains or big brands, try and carve out your own distinctive identity. There is a big consumer trend towards independent establishments, and several chains are in fact, trying to mimic an independent feel to capture some of that market. Truly independent operators can leverage their status to track customers who are looking for something more original or authentic, that aligns with how they feel about themselves. And I think this is a big advantage we have as small businesses, we can actually show personality, we can move quickly, there's not that red tape that corporations have. Corporations and large businesses are often really faceless, and lack personality. So bring yours to the forefront of your business.

Number eight, be innovative, bold and daring. Stand for something you believe in. Big brands are encumbered by large layers of bureaucracy, preventing them from being flexible and reacting to ever changing needs of their customers. Those layers of decision makers can make it harder for them to be daring with their branding. So I think this goes back to what I was saying before. I mean, you guys have the opportunity to try out new messages and marketing tactics quickly, and pivot as needed. You don't have to wait six months for it to go through that red tape.

Number nine, always consider your branding when communicating with customers. So don't lose your pride, or dilute your brand positioning with indiscriminate discounting. Try offering more, rather than slashing prices. How can add value? Promotions are an option you need to reinforce your brand mission.

Number ten, the old way of stamping your logo everywhere, won't cut it. The future of branding is fluid and engaging, respect your customer's intelligence by not giving them everything away up front. Generate some intrigue, and allow them to unearth more about your brand for themselves. This is the way to foster ambassadors who revel in telling other people what they have discovered. We all like to be that person that has discovered this really cool brand, with a great mission, and cannot stop telling our friends about it. I know that a brand or a business has come to mind for you when I've said that.

So notice at no point did I actually reference Facebook or Google Ads in there, yeah, this is a slower burn and you can't just switch it on, but by building a brand while you are doing the advertising and other marketing activities, will ensure that once your ads are off, business and leads don't just grind to a halt. A brand I think that does this amazingly well, and I have a massive, massive professional crush on them, is Whitefox Real Estate. Go and check them out on Insta, they're absolutely killing it, and nailing it with all the SaaS right now.

What I really love, is that Marty Fox has cracked this exclusive market of luxury real estate in Melbourne. This is an area traditionally reserved for boring, refined, old school brands, they've totally flipped that on it's head. They're funny, witty, a bit tongue-in-cheek, and they're sleek. For them, they aren't spending their entire budget on discounts and talking about price or features, in fact, I have no idea what their commission structure is like. No clue at all, it's never mentioned. Instead, they're spending their time and energy building a brand with beautiful photography, sassy copy, videography, and a whole brand experience and feel. Total, total opposite to what their competition is doing at the moment, and it's working. They have not been scared to walk in, disrupt the market, and turn the whole industry on it's head. So love their work. Again, go and have a stalk, that's Whitefox Real Estate.

All right, thanks for listening guys, until next time, see ya.