Latest / The SmallBizChat with Melinda Emerson / Creating a Marketing Engine with John Jantsch

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Creating a Marketing Engine with John Jantsch · The SmallBizChat with Melinda Emerson

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  Quite often they're investing in themselves.
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  You can imagine thinking about people not becoming customers, but actually joining your
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  business Now I'm not talking about membership and subscription and Costco.
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  I mean, those are all great business models.
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  It's really more about a point of view of how we see what our role is.
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  What if we looked at every one of our engagements and said, how can we make our
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  customers successful?
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  I think that would be more like a membership organization.
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  Hi.
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  This is Melinda Emerson, the small biz lady host of the small Bizchett podcast.
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  I want to serve you.
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  This pandemic has been so hard on America's small businesses and on just America in
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  general.
• 0:39
  If you're ready to start your dream business, boy, do I have a great offer for you?
• 0:43
  I am giving away 1000 copies of my best selling book, become your own boss in 12 months.
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  Over a hundred thousand people have this book is been printed in multiple languages around
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  the world, and I wanted to find a way to serve America's small businesses in this pandemic.
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  And so I am giving away a 1000 copies of my book.
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  All you have to do to get your copy is head over to beginmybiz.com/ free offer to, you
• 1:10
  know, sign up for your copy.
• 1:11
  All you have to do is pay shipping, and we will mail one out to you.
• 1:15
  I am so excited about this.
• 1:17
  I wanna serve you, grab your copy today.
• 1:20
  Lift off.
• 1:22
  Ending small business failure.
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  Welcome to the small biz chat podcast with a number 1 small business expert, Melinda
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  Emerson.
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  Melinda's goal is to end small business failure, and she'll give you the information
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  you need succeed and live the life you dream of.
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  Now here's the small biz lady herself.
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  Melinda Everson.
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  Everybody.
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  I'm Melinda Emerson, small biz lady, and I wanna welcome you to small biz chat live.
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  I'm America's number 1 small business expert And I'm so excited to be here with you tonight
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  because I have an amazing show in store.
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  The smallbiz chat podcast is a peer to peer interview show.
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  That gives small business owners a way to get invaluable insight and expert advice.
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  The mission of small business chat is to end small business failure.
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  Our goal is to give you small business advice and an opportunity to just hear from season
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  experts who are gonna give you all of their secrets to business success so that you can
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  take your small business to the next level.
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  Alright.
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  It's time for me to introduce my guest, Mister John Jance.
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  He's a marketing consultant, speaker, and author of duct tape marketing.
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  The referral engine, the self reliant entrepreneur, and his latest book is the
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  ultimate marketing engine.
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  He's also the founder of the duct tape marketing consulting network, which trains and
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  licenses independent consultants and agencies to use his duct tape methodology.
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  For more information, you can go to the ultimate marketing engine dot com.
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  John, welcome to the small business chat podcast.
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  Hey, Melinda.
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  Thanks for having me.
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  Great to be here.
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  Of course.
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  Of course.
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  Now listen, marketing has gotten really complicated.
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  Especially since the pandemic.
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  Is it just all about online selling these days?
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  Well, you know, there's no question.
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  Our online presence and all the digital channels have become extremely important, but I
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  would say no.
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  It's not just all about that.
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  There are a lot of great avenues that that we can reach broader audiences, we can go directly
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  to, consumers where they live, but that old fashioned, you know, events going to networking
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  events, going to trade shows, doing things in your community, you know, still still very
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  important.
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  We we can use a lot of these tools to the the online tools to supplement a lot of our face to
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  face interaction as well.
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  And of there are a lot of opportunities for people to start completely online businesses,
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  as well, but certainly marketing really hasn't changed that much.
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  We we we are charged with getting people who have some sort of a need to to trust us enough
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  to give us money wherever that happens to be.
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  I I completely agree with you.
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  Now you started your career as the duct tape marketer.
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  I remember when your first book came out, Now your brand has evolved, and you've got a new
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  book called The Ultimate Marketing Engine, the 5 steps to Ultimate Growth.
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  Alright, John.
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  Give me the 5 steps.
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  What are they?
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  Well, so so I'm still the duct tape marketer and really the the in a way, a lot of ways,
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  this new book is a bit of an evolution of, you know, my thinking about marketing because
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  marketing's evolved, you know, in the last decade.
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  So I wanted to capture a lot of that under the new brand of the marketing engine.
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  So those 5 steps, and I and, obviously, we could spend more time than we have, you know,
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  unpacking each step.
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  So I'll go through them pretty quickly.
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  You know, the first one is to map where your customers are today and where they want to go.
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  I've created something I call the customer success track, which is really a way I think
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  for you to look at, instead of just looking at our customers for transactions, really looking
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  at the transformations that that they really are looking for in their lives.
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  And we we can actually grow with them, mature with them, and keep them for life.
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  The second one is to uncover the real problem.
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  That our business solves.
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  Nobody wants what we sell.
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  They want their problems solved.
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  And we have to understand what that problem is so that we can then address it and let them
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  know.
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  Hey.
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  Get you.
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  I understand what your challenges are.
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  The third one, probably the hardest for some people to hear is I ask people to narrow the
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  focus to the top 20% of their customers.
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  Now there's there's a lot of great math and a lot of great philosophy around why 20%, but
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  really what I've seen over the years is that most people's pro most profitable customers are
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  somewhere in that 20% range.
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  Now the 4 step and this is if I get any 2 star reviews at all, Melinda, for this book, which,
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  you know, they're out there.
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  The it'll be because I waited till chapter or 8 to tell people how to use their website and
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  content and social media and email marketing because all of these other steps ahead of those
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  are so important so that those tactics can be can can actually be useful.
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  And then the last one is scale with your customers, by serving their entire ecosystem.
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  And this is essentially a master class in referral generation.
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  I present 7 different approaches to how you should look at your existing customer base
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  their ecosystem to actually grow with them as opposed to going out and constantly looking for
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  new people like them.
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  I love it.
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  I love it.
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  Alright.
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  So you gave us the cliff notes, but now I wanna dive in.
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  So how do you attract your ideal customer?
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  Well, at the risk of sounding facetious, you have to know who they are.
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  You have to know what an ideal customer looks like.
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  And and for me, you know, as I already mentioned the idea of your most profitable
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  customers, the ones that already refer business to you.
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  If you can understand everything there is to understand about obviously, the demographics of
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  those folks, but also their behaviors, their beliefs.
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  You know, that's probably the group you should be looking for more of.
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  And one final filter I'll give you is Look at your current customer base and ask yourself,
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  who do I provide the most value to the fastest?
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  Because there is a really good chance that that is your ideal customer because they wanna buy
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  more from you because you're providing so much value.
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  I I love that.
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  Find out who you provide value to the fastest.
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  And that's really that.
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  That's who your niche target customer is.
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  I I love that.
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  Alright.
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  Now in your book, you say instead of calling customers, customers that we should in fact
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  call them members.
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  Well, it's really more of I don't care what you call them, actually.
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  It's really more a matter of a point of view, how you view them.
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  You know, a customer buys stuff from us.
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  A customer, you know, we try to satisfy.
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  But when somebody joins something as a member, quite often they're investing in themselves.
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  Can you imagine thinking about people not becoming customers, but actually joining your
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  business Now I'm not talking about membership and subscription and Costco.
• 8:06
  I mean, those are all great business models.
• 8:08
  It's really more about a point of view of how we see what our role is.
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  I I start the book, the ultimate marketing engine.
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  I think it's paragraph 2 sentence 3 or something like that.
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  That the ultimate marketing engine is a successful customer.
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  So what if we looked at every one of our engagements and said, how can we make our
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  customers successful.
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  I think that would be more like a membership, organization.
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  I love it.
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  I love it.
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  Now I know that you somewhat infatically claim that people don't want to they don't want what
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  we sell that really isn't the point of marketing.
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  So what is the point of So
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  so so, you know, they need what we sell.
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  That's the challenge, of course.
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  So that's what everybody wants to talk about.
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  You need this.
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  But what they really want is their problem solved.
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  I mean, I I essentially sell marketing strategy.
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  Nobody ever wakes up in the morning and says, I think I need I think I'm gonna go get me some
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  marketing strategy.
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  But they but they do wake up, of course, and say, how come I can't charge what I'm worth or
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  what I think I'm worth?
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  Or how come when I look at Google My top 3 competitors are in that 3 pack or map pack, and
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  I'm not.
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  I mean, those are the problems they really are trying to solve.
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  So if we can let them know that we understand those problems, we get those problems, then we
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  could start linking what we provide.
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  Our services to solving those problems.
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  And that's really how you get, and that customer's attention, early on.
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  Instead of talking about what we do, how long we've been in business, talk about the problems
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  that we can help them solve.
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  I like that.
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  I'm I like how you're you're thinking about that.
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  Now I wanna switch gears with you just a little bit because I would be remiss if we didn't
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  acknowledge that there's still small businesses out here trying to dig out from the panic.
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  Right?
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  I mean, we lost a 100,000 small business owners, you know, and and 20% of those were
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  women, 50% of those were people's color Right?
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  So there are people who are still trying to, like, make their digital pivot or or figure out
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  their new business model And so I I know that you talk about in your book how sometimes
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  growth can come from good ties, but then different kinds of growth comes from tough
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  times.
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  And I and I kinda wanted to to talk to you about that because I there are some people that
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  definitely won last year.
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  There are a whole lot of people who didn't.
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  And so I think, you know, for my fans, I just wanna make sure that that that we dig into some
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  of that stuff too.
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  Well, one of the things that that I certainly witnessed, with my customers was that, you
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  know, the the some people were just in the wrong place at the wrong time.
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  You know, let's face it.
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  They were in a tough industry, but I also saw a lot of my customers that not only survived, but
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  they really thrived.
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  And kind of a common thread was that they had spent years becoming meaningful in the lives of
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  their I mean, their customers did not want them to go out of business.
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  We we added a remodeling contractor that, you know, pretty much quit all their projects one
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  time.
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  I've told all their employees, you know, don't come in on Monday.
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  And the emails that flooded in from both customers and employees were like, hey.
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  You're doing the right thing.
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  We're with you.
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  We'll be here.
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  One gentleman wanted to pay in advance for his his project, you know, whenever you could get
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  to it.
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  And and and I think it just shown such a bright light on that that idea that, you know, I mean,
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  it's always been true.
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  But maybe we've gotten away from that a little bit of of being important in the lives of our
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  customers.
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  Now I do think that one of the positives, I suppose, that has really come out of the last
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  year or so is that, you know, one of the one of the real challenges to growth is being
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  comfortable.
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  And and a lot of what happened we saw over the last, you know, year, 18 months where a lot of
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  people were shaken out of their mediocrity were shaken out of their comfort zone, and really
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  had had their back against the wall.
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  And I think that in many cases, when that happens, that's when you see some of the
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  greatest innovation That's when you see that entrepreneurial spirit of your gosh darn it.
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  Let's figure it out.
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  Let let's keep moving.
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  So I I do think that, you know, I don't have any any magical answer for what people that are
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  hurting, you know, need to do today.
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  But I think that that there is a real opportunity right now because people have never
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  been more open to change.
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  People have been dislodged.
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  They've been run run out of their routines.
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  They've maybe lost their favorite suppliers or vendors in some cases.
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  So, you know, there's some real opportunity to go grab business today if you're willing to
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  hustle.
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  I love it.
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  I love it.
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  Well, listen.
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  I've been talking with marketing expert, John Jant.
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  Stay with us.
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  We will be right back.
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  People always ask me, how can I become my own boss?
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  With multiple features in the New York Times Forbes on ABC News, as America's number one
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  small business expert, I know a thing or 2 about how to do it.
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  Hi.
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  I'm Melinda Emerson's small biz lady.
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  And I've been coaching small business owners since 2008.
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  That's right.
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  I've been helping small business owners plan for success since the last recession.
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  And I'm still here reaching over 3,000,000 small business owners a week online.
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  I've spent the last 12 years compiling exactly what I did to become my own boss.
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  I even broke it down into a 6 step system, and my best selling book become your own boss in 12
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  months.
• 13:29
  Over a hundred thousand people in multiple languages around the world have this book.
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  And due to the pandemic, I know people need help.
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  If you're ready to transition successfully from being an employee into your own business, I'm
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  here to help.
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  I'm giving away one 1000 copies of becoming your own boss in 12 months for free.
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  All you need to do is pay for shipping.
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  That's right.
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  I'm giving away a 1000 copies for free.
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  success.
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  This offer will only be available while supplies last.
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  Click on the button to grab your copy today.
• 14:13
  Welcome back to the small biz chat podcast live.
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  I'm Melinda Emerson Small Bus lady.
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  America's number 1 small business expert.
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  And I'm back here with my guest, John Jantz, and we're talking about all things marketing.
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  Alright, John.
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  So I know that we were just talking about tough times.
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  There's a good times, but here's my question for you.
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  Can any business build a marketing engine?
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  Yeah.
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  I mean, I I believe absolutely.
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  Mean, I think any business that really is going to grow and scale and thrive, that's probably
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  going to be one of the significant aspects of it.
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  However, how you do it, one of the things that I think is probably really challenging for many
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  businesses today is that there's all these channels.
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  There's all these places people talk about we need to be.
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  There's all these formats of our content in every social media platform.
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  And I think that what happens is, people get very, very scattered, and they try to be all
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  places.
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  And one of the real keys to understanding, you know, how to build a marketing engine or really
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  how to scale it all or create any growth is to figure out what you're really good at, figure
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  out your value that you bring to some select, element of the market and then go very deep.
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  Pick a channel where they hang out and go very deep there commit to that stay focused.
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  You know, don't don't try to, you know, flip here, flip there, you know, really having a a a
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  a real good idea of who your ideal customer is and what it is that you do that that nobody
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  else does, what your value, what your differentiation is, really allows you to decide
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  what not to do as much as what to do.
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  And I think that that's, you know, it may not be the magic answer, but but that's really
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  where you have to start.
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  Start simple, master one channel, and then add another one.
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  Don't try to do it all.
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  I couldn't agree more.
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  People are out here trying to do 5 and 6 social media channels, and it just doesn't sense.
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  You, 1st of all, you need to look at your Google Analytics and see what actually is
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  driving traffic to your website.
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  And then you gotta figure out where your target customers hanging out online, and you need to
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  be there too.
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  People are wasting time doing TikTok.
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  If your fans are not if your potential clients are not on TikTok, you do not need to be
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  on if you can't dance.
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  I mean
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  Exactly.
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  Exactly.
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  So so now you mentioned earlier that you wanna be in a position to scale with your customers.
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  Talk to us about how do you how do you position yourself to scale with your customers?
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  Well, so so that's actually the 5th step in the book.
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  And if you follow the first step in the book, which is really to understand where your
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  customers are today and where they wanna go.
• 16:46
  You know, I talked about the idea that the ultimate market engine engine is a successful
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  customer, but you can't make every customer success So you figure out that top 20%, and you
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  probably are do, you know, they're profitable.
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  They love you.
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  They refer you.
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  They're probably dying for you to say, here's what else I can do for you.
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  So the first step is to really just focus on and discover how can you do add more value to
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  their How can you help them get to the next stage?
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  That group is certainly going to be a group that is going to send people like them to you,
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  more ideal customers, you can certainly take that group.
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  And, you know, we've quite often, worked with other professionals who work with our clients.
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  And, ultimately, together, kind of synchronized to bring even more value to our clients, and we
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  all then become a little referral network around our client And then, you know, don't
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  forget strategic partners.
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  People who are noncompeting businesses of yours that serve your ideal customer as well.
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  A good customer might have 3 or 4 referrals.
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  But the right strategic partner that you might meet through your customers could have a
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  hundred people that they could introduce you to.
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  So there are many, many tactics, that under that umbrella, but it really starts with a
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  point of view of let's grow with our best customers as opposed to going out and getting
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  somebody else to, to trust us.
• 18:04
  What is the best business advice you've ever received?
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  You know, I probably repeat it all the time, and that is to figure out what not to do.
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  I have a do not do list as a as much as a to do list.
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  Because and and some fashion of that is, you know, what I start my day every day with, I I
• 18:23
  still do a to do list.
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  I've just done it for years.
• 18:25
  But the top of my to do list, I I call highlights.
• 18:28
  And there's 1 or 2 things on there that I don't do anything else till I get that done, and that
• 18:32
  really kinda came from that don't do list.
• 18:36
  What is your favorite business app?
• 18:39
  Currently, it's slack.
• 18:40
  We use it instead of email internally.
• 18:43
  Alright, John.
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  Favorite old school marketing tip.
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  My favorite old school marketing tip is is to network, but don't network for clients.
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  Network for people who can send you clients.
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  And so go out and meet people, find a way to add value to them, and they're gonna wanna talk
• 18:57
  about you.
• 18:58
  Love it.
• 18:58
  Love it.
• 18:59
  Favorite business book you ever read.
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  Favorite business book.
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  The practice of management, which was written by Peter Drucker in 1956, is a very dry, the
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  pronouns are way out of date, but it really informed my entire, body of work in my point of
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  view, you know, going forward with duct tape marketing.
• 19:17
  Listen, thank you guys so much for coming on the small biz chat podcast.
• 19:22
  Thank you so much again to my guests.
• 19:24
  I'm Melinda Emerson, the small biz lady.
• 19:26
  Listen.
• 19:27
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  With that, I always tell you that you never lose in business, either you win or you learn.
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  Goodbye, everybody, and god bless.
• 19:59
  Thank you for listening to the Small Biz chat podcast with Melinda Emerson.
• 20:04
  For more resources and small business success strategies, visit succeed as your own boss.com.
• 20:11
  Subscribe to this podcast wherever you listen to podcasts and join us next Wednesday.