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Marketing Foundations: Clearing the Noise to Accelerate Growth | The GrowthPro Edge · The GrowthPro Edge

• 0:00
  Z4 GrowthPro Group: to my computer.
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  Z4 GrowthPro Group: Computer is full of too many recordings.
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  Z4 GrowthPro Group: Alright, so let's get even here. If you can…
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  Z4 GrowthPro Group: Either sit, put your chair up higher, or lower your camera so that you don't have quite…
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  Z4 GrowthPro Group: So much space in between your head, and…
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  Z1 - GrowthPro Group: Yeah, that's what I was trying to see, I could zoom it in.
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  Z1 - GrowthPro Group: Man, I got… higher. There we go.
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  Z4 GrowthPro Group: Yep, there you go. And then maybe a little bit closer to the camera.
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  Z1 - GrowthPro Group: Hold on.
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  Z1 - GrowthPro Group: Are you kidding It's on a rug, you know?
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  Z4 GrowthPro Group: Oh, yeah, no, I understand.
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  Z1 - GrowthPro Group: I need to put one of those little rolly things under the chair.
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  Z1 - GrowthPro Group: One of those maps.
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  Z4 GrowthPro Group: Oh, yes.
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  Z4 GrowthPro Group: So yeah, the idea, and a little bit higher, the idea is you want about… see how there's about 2 fingers?
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  Z4 GrowthPro Group: Mmm. Above your head?
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  Z1 - GrowthPro Group: My monitor is very, very tall, you know? Let me see if I could get this camera a little this way… nope, too much.
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  Z4 GrowthPro Group: There you go. There you go. Perfect.
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  Z4 GrowthPro Group: Yay! Alright!
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  Z4 GrowthPro Group: There we go!
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  Z4 GrowthPro Group: Oh, your hair looks fabulous!
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  Z1 - GrowthPro Group: Okay. Ready?
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  Z4 GrowthPro Group: Alright, alright, ready for this super awkward stare?
• 1:33
  Z4 GrowthPro Group: There we go.
• 1:37
  Z4 GrowthPro Group: Vivian, welcome to the Growth Pro Edge! Thrilled to have you today!
• 1:42
  Z1 - GrowthPro Group: Well, thank you for having me!
• 1:45
  Z4 GrowthPro Group: Listen, I can't wait to talk to you about marketing, because it is something that
• 1:50
  Z4 GrowthPro Group: I think a lot of companies struggle with
• 1:54
  Z4 GrowthPro Group: Depending upon if they have a marketing person or not. And so, I'm really excited to talk to you about some things that companies should be looking out for this first quarter when we talk about marketing. But before we do that, Vivian, why don't you introduce yourself to those who are listening to us today?
• 2:14
  Z1 - GrowthPro Group: Well, thank you. My name is Vivian Quinterio. I am with the Growth Pro Group.
• 2:19
  Z1 - GrowthPro Group: and train entertainment. We've been, I've been with them for over 10 years now, so I have seen a lot of growth, and I love being a part of all of these businesses that have questions and are truly just so into, growing not only their teams, but
• 2:40
  Z1 - GrowthPro Group: their marketing, their sales, everything. So, it's been quite a ride.
• 2:46
  Z4 GrowthPro Group: It, you know, it definitely has been, and I love that you are… you're one of our OGs.
• 2:52
  Z1 - GrowthPro Group: Here, with the company, right? You were with Trainer Taintment for…
• 2:56
  Z4 GrowthPro Group: half of that 20-year lifespan, and now being a part of starting the Growth Pro group, which is very, very exciting. So, I want to start off with, you are sort of our…
• 3:11
  Z4 GrowthPro Group: guru when it comes to making things look beautiful. Like, your talent in this field is extraordinary to me.
• 3:21
  Z4 GrowthPro Group: Because you can make anything look beautiful. Y'all should see some of the things that I sent to Vivian and asked her to make look pretty, and she does. She's really a genius at that, but you also have a great genius and knowledge of marketing and promotions.
• 3:37
  Z4 GrowthPro Group: So, I really want to kind of focus on that. As we start off, we're just at the beginning of February, things are kicking off, you've gotten through the holidays.
• 3:48
  Z4 GrowthPro Group: What should people be looking at, and where should the focus be as we're kicking this year off and moving past the holidays? We're back in gear. February, let's get going full swing. What should people be thinking about and focusing on?
• 4:06
  Z1 - GrowthPro Group: Well, I think that the last quarter of the year is always so rushed, you know, not only for business, but, you know, your families. You've got, you know, out-of-town guests and holidays, so it's really hard to really set that time up to be able to focus on what's going to be happening that following year.
• 4:27
  Z1 - GrowthPro Group: So that first quarter, really taking a look at things from.
• 4:32
  Z1 - GrowthPro Group: a foundation point of view, and not just a promotions point of view. Although I love promotions, what happens a lot of the times is that,
• 4:44
  Z1 - GrowthPro Group: You get right out of the bat, and you want to be able to, boom, boom, boom, start your year with, you know, having all of these promotions and new,
• 4:54
  Z1 - GrowthPro Group: and new ideas for your business, but I think setting up that foundation first, making sure that,
• 5:04
  Z1 - GrowthPro Group: That you're looking back at what worked last year, what didn't work, you know, where you want to see yourself.
• 5:11
  Z1 - GrowthPro Group: what you're an expert at, all of those things is setting up your growth from that point of view of, this is the foundation. If I don't get it right now.
• 5:23
  Z1 - GrowthPro Group: what's gonna happen is I'm just pushing promotions through… or marketing initiatives throughout the entire year. I'm not really looking at that growth from a bigger, you know, perspective.
• 5:35
  Z4 GrowthPro Group: So, when you talk about foundations, what kind of things should we be looking at? What does that mean, the foundations?
• 5:41
  Z1 - GrowthPro Group: The foundations, when I refer to that, it's, you know, who's your audience, first of all, right? So, like, who are we trying to sell to? Is it… if you're an FEC, then it's, you know, the moms, the dads, it could be anybody, right? So, if you're a bank, if you're, if you've got a school, if you've got a hospitality
• 6:06
  Z1 - GrowthPro Group: restaurant, you gotta look and see who your audience is. You cannot be all things to all people. It just… it doesn't work that way, and I think that a lot of the times we try to, you know, be there for everybody, and we don't focus on who we should be focusing on. And it's gonna… it's gonna be different from… from, you know, your city, or even your
• 6:31
  Z1 - GrowthPro Group: location, your community, who is in your community that you want to build a business with? All of those things have to be really analyzed and looked at before you even start making those promotions for the following year.
• 6:47
  Z4 GrowthPro Group: So, identifying who your audience is is huge, and I cannot tell you how many times
• 6:54
  Z4 GrowthPro Group: I will see something, or have a conversation with somebody, and recognize they really haven't identified who that person is, or the very worst thing you can do is try to be all things to all people.
• 7:09
  Z1 - GrowthPro Group: You just throw as much stuff, you know, at it, because you feel like if you're… if you're just throwing it, you know, all you've got, you know, something's gotta stick, right? So,
• 7:21
  Z1 - GrowthPro Group: But then you wind up spending a lot of money, that you could have used somewhere else, so really focusing on your niche, or your market, or even your channels, your social channels, you know?
• 7:35
  Z1 - GrowthPro Group: all of your business is basically coming from Facebook or LinkedIn, if you're more business-to-business, then really looking at that and taking that focus
• 7:45
  Z1 - GrowthPro Group: and putting it there. Putting your dollars there, instead of just trying to get, you know, marketing dollars all over the board. And yeah, it's good to be spread out a little bit, but really, it's even better to really hone in on the areas that you need to be focused on.
• 8:05
  Z4 GrowthPro Group: Yeah.
• 8:06
  Z4 GrowthPro Group: No, absolutely. Knowing your metrics, which we're going to get to in just a moment, because I think that's a big part of this conversation as well.
• 8:14
  Z4 GrowthPro Group: So identifying who your target market is, who is your audience, who are you talking to? And another thing when we talk about foundations is that, what is your unique selling point?
• 8:26
  Z4 GrowthPro Group: Right? Of identifying what makes you special. I mean, do you have
• 8:32
  Z4 GrowthPro Group: Do you have any sort of go-tos when you're working to help somebody find that unique selling point? What are the things that you're asking or looking for to help people identify their uniqueness?
• 8:48
  Z1 - GrowthPro Group: Yeah, so you really need to focus on, like I said, your community, right? Like, who is it that is
• 8:56
  Z1 - GrowthPro Group: been consistently coming into your place, or, where would you like to expand to, and why they would need you? Like, you have to know those reasons why. Why you are different, why would somebody choose you? And, you know, those things could be from, and I've seen it, I've had… I've had interactions, like we all have, you know, personally with, plumbers, electricians.
• 9:21
  Z1 - GrowthPro Group: I recently had a really big interaction with an electrician who doesn't really get the customer aspect of things, and I get that in a lot of those types of businesses, people aren't… they're good electricians, but they're not trained in the business aspect of things. So when you don't have somebody else that's running your marketing or your customer
• 9:46
  Z1 - GrowthPro Group: service, you could be leaving a lot of money on the table. I mean, just going through an ordeal that I had just recently, it has really made me focus on what can we do to help those types of businesses
• 10:05
  Z1 - GrowthPro Group: really promote themselves in a way that the customer is going to feel valued, right? So, yeah, an electrician will come in and fix things, but if you are a customer, and you're asking questions, and your questions are being met with very big hostility.
• 10:25
  Z1 - GrowthPro Group: you're not going to want to do business with that. Same thing as in any business, right? So if somebody is, you know, trying to book a party, or somebody's trying to book an event, or a table at your restaurant, and the hostility is there from the beginning, so it's that training.
• 10:41
  Z1 - GrowthPro Group: Not only, marketing, is it important to market yourself.
• 10:47
  Z1 - GrowthPro Group: But the training with everybody in your staff, even the owners, I see it worse with owners than I do with the staff, but training yourself, if that is not your forte, please do not answer the phone.
• 11:00
  Z1 - GrowthPro Group: It just… it makes it really difficult to deal with somebody whose personality and who does not have those foundational customer service foundations that you would want for any business. So, making sure that we have
• 11:18
  Z1 - GrowthPro Group: that foundation covered with marketing and training. Training your staff, training the owner, whoever it is that is, dealing with your customers. You want to be able to… to…
• 11:31
  Z1 - GrowthPro Group: Make sure that it all works together.
• 11:36
  Z4 GrowthPro Group: Okay?
• 11:37
  Z4 GrowthPro Group: So, Viv, when we talk about that, those messages, you know.
• 11:44
  Z4 GrowthPro Group: I often, when we talk about big mistakes that people will make, or even little mistakes that people make that will cost them, on the marketing front.
• 11:54
  Z4 GrowthPro Group: They have messages that are far too complex.
• 11:59
  Z1 - GrowthPro Group: Correct.
• 12:00
  Z4 GrowthPro Group: What… what can you tell us about…
• 12:04
  Z4 GrowthPro Group: How to make sure that the message is as simple as possible, that simple is better.
• 12:11
  Z1 - GrowthPro Group: Can your 5-year-old understand it?
• 12:15
  Z1 - GrowthPro Group: Okay? Like, really, like, who can understand what you're trying to say? Yes, some of the topics obviously are not meant for a 5-year-old, but it has to be clear, very short, very concise, nothing overly complicated. If you've done writing or whatever, you know that when you put things into even a grammar check or whatever, it'll tell you what grade.
• 12:40
  Z1 - GrowthPro Group: your, the, you know, the grade that you're writing at, and most people understand things, like I said, on a third grade level.
• 12:49
  Z1 - GrowthPro Group: So you need to be super clear, not overcomplicate things. If you are a business that,
• 12:58
  Z1 - GrowthPro Group: has very detailed and very complex things. Maybe, okay, you're a scientific company, and even those, you narrow down that message
• 13:10
  Z1 - GrowthPro Group: for the audience, for the people that are going to understand it. Oversimplification? I can't even tell you how important that is. Making sure that everybody could understand it.
• 13:21
  Z4 GrowthPro Group: You know, one of the things that I like to look at and ask the question is, if you have a conjunction, it's too complicated. So, if you're explaining your marketing message to me, and there's a conjunction, like, you've got an AND,
• 13:37
  Z4 GrowthPro Group: It's already too complex, right? One thought, one idea, one message.
• 13:44
  Z1 - GrowthPro Group: We are bombarded with messaging all day long, whether you are on your phone looking at social media, whether you're on your computer, emails, I mean, even, you know, our internal emails, our internal communications.
• 14:03
  Z1 - GrowthPro Group: They have to be very simplified. People are busy. They do not have time. And you know what they say, when you have something to say, say it. Don't text them, but don't email it to them, because the tone can be totally different. So.
• 14:20
  Z1 - GrowthPro Group: Think about tone when you're writing for social media. Think about tone when you're writing for your advertising. How are people going to view it? How are people going to think about that?
• 14:33
  Z1 - GrowthPro Group: You could be saying something as simple as, you know, the cat is brown, you know? And somebody will take it out of context if it's not
• 14:43
  Z1 - GrowthPro Group: not worded very clearly, very concise, and the images have to match that. Because if not, people get totally confused. It's what messaging you're trying to put out there, so…
• 14:56
  Z4 GrowthPro Group: Yeah, just the simple, simple messaging. See it, say it. I'm a big fan of that expression, right? If you're talking about it.
• 15:04
  Z4 GrowthPro Group: I should be looking at it, too, if it's a visual medium. Sure. But, the… the understanding that
• 15:14
  Z4 GrowthPro Group: And it goes back to what we discussed earlier, you can't be all things to all people.
• 15:18
  Z4 GrowthPro Group: One marketing message cannot have all things. Even if you know that what makes your business unique are these 10 different points, which is amazing, I'm gonna encourage you to have 10 different
• 15:31
  Z4 GrowthPro Group: posts, 10 different ads, 10 different, right, promotions around those 10 things, because they should each have just the one point, the one message.
• 15:44
  Z4 GrowthPro Group: Which… which I think that that's… that's something that people really get lost in, because you're so excited about your business. You're so excited about what you do, and you know that you're the best at what you do, and you can do all of these things, and you want everybody to know all about it.
• 16:03
  Z4 GrowthPro Group: Absolutely. But you can't… you can't say it all in one message, because it will just become meaningless, and the consumer is not going to understand it.
• 16:15
  Z1 - GrowthPro Group: Absolutely, and… and what will happen as well, is that… so… so we… anything that we see in those first, you know, the first 2 or 3 seconds of a message is what… either we're gonna retain it, or we're gonna pass by it, right? Even… even when I'm reading things, when I'm on social media and I'm looking at things, if it's very long.
• 16:38
  Z1 - GrowthPro Group: immediately go, I don't have time for this. It could be, like, even just 15 seconds. 15 seconds is…
• 16:44
  Z1 - GrowthPro Group: It was longer than I had. I only had those 2 seconds, so you lost my 50… my other, you know, 13 seconds that I had. So, making sure that, one message, one clear, concise message that a 5-year-old could understand, and you're good. You're good with that. It's okay, don't overcomplicate it.
• 17:04
  Z1 - GrowthPro Group: People want to make it, you know, super wordy and super complicated, and sometimes you're just… even on graphics and media, when you're looking at something and it looks very complex, you don't have the time to read that. I don't have time to read that, so I'm going to pass by… right by… skip it.
• 17:22
  Z4 GrowthPro Group: Yep, absolutely, absolutely.
• 17:24
  Z4 GrowthPro Group: So, simplicity is important, making sure that you understand who your audience is, finding and identifying your unique selling point.
• 17:34
  Z4 GrowthPro Group: We mentioned metrics earlier. I want to circle back to this before we end our time here and talk about the importance of paying attention to your metrics. Listen, what…
• 17:48
  Z4 GrowthPro Group: I think that marketing is one of the most challenging.
• 17:53
  Z4 GrowthPro Group: Challenging, departments in order to be able to sort of prove your worth, or your return of your investment.
• 18:01
  Z4 GrowthPro Group: A sales department, it's very clear to understand this is how much you sold, here are the tickets, here are the thingamabobs that you sold, here's that number, that's… that's your value to the company, that's easy, right? Operations is an easier… you… you have to have
• 18:20
  Z4 GrowthPro Group: It's clear to see the return of that investment.
• 18:23
  Z4 GrowthPro Group: You see customer service will have intakes of more people coming, fewer people coming, whatever that circumstance and metric may be, but it's easier to measure. Marketing, I think, is a really hard…
• 18:37
  Z4 GrowthPro Group: measurement for its success, because there is a little bit of mystery in the marketing, but you're never gonna know if you don't pay attention to your metrics. So, what metrics should you be looking at? Should you identify as what you're gonna pay attention to?
• 18:57
  Z1 - GrowthPro Group: Yeah, so, so, you know, when we looked at what the unique things and what you should be doing, the biggest thing is that consistency, and that applies to metrics as well. So, being consistent with your messaging, being simple, clear, and all of those things,
• 19:17
  Z1 - GrowthPro Group: how do you measure anything? So, it's going to depend on what kind of business, but I think that all businesses need to be looking at metrics
• 19:27
  Z1 - GrowthPro Group: as applied with marketing and sales, so the sales department, like you said, has a very clear… we either sold it, we didn't, it's $5,000 or zero, right? But
• 19:39
  Z1 - GrowthPro Group: How did they get that?
• 19:41
  Z1 - GrowthPro Group: how did they get that sale? So, marketing, if you have a marketing team or you have a marketing department, somebody had to have pushed something
• 19:50
  Z1 - GrowthPro Group: For the… was it eyeballs, right? So it could be your advertising, it could be your social media presence, it could be your networking, it could be all… any of those things, but I think consistently measuring what you are doing to be able to get to that sales number.
• 20:10
  Z1 - GrowthPro Group: So, in a restaurant, it could be, you know, Google reviews, it could be, I'm tracking, you know, it's not just about the sale. And sometimes when I talk to customers, I ask them.
• 20:22
  Z1 - GrowthPro Group: You know, do you ask your customers where they heard about you? How did they find you? How did they get to your message? And a lot of people do not track that. That is, like, the most simple, simple way of tracking your data, asking people how they heard about you.
• 20:41
  Z1 - GrowthPro Group: And sometimes they have no answer. I saw it somewhere, like, how many times have you, like, looked at something so often, because that company does put out that many ads, that it's stuck in your brain? And until you need them.
• 20:55
  Z1 - GrowthPro Group: oh, yeah, I think I saw it on social media, or, you know, oh no, Denise was talking about it last week. So, all of those things, making sure that those metrics, that you are paying attention to your emails, if you have… if you're doing an email campaign, that you're… but make it really simple. If… if it's one metric, then it's one metric. Don't…
• 21:17
  Z1 - GrowthPro Group: You know, overanalyze everything if you're not gonna do anything about it.
• 21:22
  Z1 - GrowthPro Group: You know, I've seen people with great dashboards, you know, and I'm like, okay, well, how about these numbers? How about these numbers?
• 21:28
  Z1 - GrowthPro Group: We don't do anything with those.
• 21:31
  Z1 - GrowthPro Group: So… Simplified.
• 21:35
  Z4 GrowthPro Group: Finding the… finding the key metrics that…
• 21:38
  Z4 GrowthPro Group: show some sort of action, and that's something that I think businesses often get lost in.
• 21:44
  Z4 GrowthPro Group: We have so much access to so much information right now that
• 21:50
  Z4 GrowthPro Group: there is such a thing as too many metrics, right? And that…
• 21:55
  Z4 GrowthPro Group: Find me… find the metrics that are inspirational.
• 21:59
  Z1 - GrowthPro Group: Huh?
• 22:00
  Z4 GrowthPro Group: Not just…
• 22:01
  Z1 - GrowthPro Group: and…
• 22:02
  Z4 GrowthPro Group: informative, right?
• 22:03
  Z1 - GrowthPro Group: Absolutely. Is that gonna drive me to go, I'm going to leave LinkedIn behind because we're not getting anything, but look at how many people we're getting on Facebook, you know? Or, my network
• 22:17
  Z1 - GrowthPro Group: is much better in person. There are businesses that, you know, obviously being in person, going to chamber meetings, going to all those business things, that's where you're going to get your leads. For us, trade shows, talking to our customers, right? So all of those things, find out where
• 22:34
  Z1 - GrowthPro Group: they're coming from, and really, really focus on that. And if that's what's important, that's what you're going to measure.
• 22:42
  Z4 GrowthPro Group: Yeah. Alright, fantastic. Well, Vivian, we are coming up to the end of our time here, but before we go, because, you know, we are all about growth at the Growth Pro Edge and the Growth Pro Group, so tell us, what do you do to grow yourself, Vivian?
• 23:00
  Z1 - GrowthPro Group: Oh my goodness, I am all about, not only podcasts, but YouTube, reading, everything. I think…
• 23:08
  Z1 - GrowthPro Group: I think just learning from so many different sources now, there are so many ways to learn. Before, it was like the… I'm gonna date myself, but the encyclopedia, right? Like, we just had the Britannica, and we would pull something out and read it.
• 23:23
  Z1 - GrowthPro Group: But now you can… you can get those little micro-learnings with everything. So, I love watching how-to videos. I'm a very big, avid, you know, home projects and crafts and all of that stuff, so I think looking at it from… from that point of view, it's like learning everywhere. I… I love, I love just being watching and learning.
• 23:47
  Z1 - GrowthPro Group: And for us, the other thing, too, that I really want to bring up, Denise, is that
• 23:53
  Z1 - GrowthPro Group: When we're growing and making sure, that… that we are
• 23:59
  Z1 - GrowthPro Group: placing ourselves as whatever the expert is in that field, right? So…
• 24:03
  Z1 - GrowthPro Group: We want to make sure that anybody who has anything leadership or sales-oriented, please, I'm asking you, come onto the podcast. Denise would love to chat with you guys, so this is going to be a really fun year, full of just a lot of different types of businesses and ideas.
• 24:23
  Z4 GrowthPro Group: Yeah, no, I'm looking forward to…
• 24:25
  Z4 GrowthPro Group: To seeing how the year plays out, and getting the opportunity to learn from other people.
• 24:31
  Z4 GrowthPro Group: And that's what I love most about what we get to do, is when we get to have these conversations with folks, is that I always learn something, so… and I know I always learn something from you, Ms. Viv. So, thank you so much for your time today, appreciate you, and your time, and your thoughts here, and…
• 24:49
  Z4 GrowthPro Group: Some really great foundations and starting points for companies to reset this year and reset their marketing message.
• 24:59
  Z1 - GrowthPro Group: clarified, consistent. That's, I think, what they need to be doing right now.
• 25:04
  Z4 GrowthPro Group: There it is. Perfect. Alright, thank you so much, Viv, appreciate your time.
• 25:08
  Z1 - GrowthPro Group: Bye-bye.
• 25:13
  Z4 GrowthPro Group: Yay, there we go.