Latest / Be Locally Loved / 014 - How Marketing Works (Part 3 of 4) — The Real ROI of Marketing and Why Most Businesses Measure It Wrong

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014 - How Marketing Works (Part 3 of 4) — The Real ROI of Marketing and Why Most Businesses Measure It Wrong · Be Locally Loved

0:00
SPEAKER_00: Is this working?
0:01
SPEAKER_00: But what if the real issue is we're measuring the wrong things?
0:05
SPEAKER_00: If you only measure the sale, then you're gonna miss everything that made that sale possible.
0:10
SPEAKER_00: Today we're featuring a special conversation that previously aired on our sister podcast, The Unbridled Creative, because its themes align beautifully with what we explore here on Be Locally Loved.
0:22
SPEAKER_00: We hope you enjoy it.
0:24
SPEAKER_00: Moving to a new town can feel overwhelming.
0:27
SPEAKER_00: You don't know where to go, you don't know what to do, you don't know who to trust.
0:31
SPEAKER_00: That's where Be Local comes in.
0:33
SPEAKER_00: Like a best friend, BeLocal personally welcomes newcomers and connects them to the best local businesses, restaurants, community events, so they can feel at home faster.
0:44
SPEAKER_00: And for local business owners, BeLocal is like a matchmaker, introducing them to new families who are ready to form long-lasting and local relationships.
0:55
SPEAKER_00: To grow your business by reaching newcomers, visit reachnewcomers.com.
1:00
SPEAKER_00: Okay, this is our third creative spark under the umbrella of how marketing works.
1:06
SPEAKER_00: Today we're talking about what to measure in your marketing.
1:10
SPEAKER_00: Some people call that ROI.
1:11
SPEAKER_00: So let's dive in.
1:12
SPEAKER_00: Let's talk about ROI because this is where so many business owners feel stuck.
1:17
SPEAKER_00: They're spending money on marketing and they're asking one question: is this working?
1:22
SPEAKER_00: But what if the real issue is we're measuring the wrong things?
1:26
SPEAKER_00: Like let's step into our business owner's mindset for a second.
1:29
SPEAKER_00: They're saying, did this ad pay for itself?
1:33
SPEAKER_00: How many leads did I get?
1:35
SPEAKER_00: How many sales came in?
1:38
SPEAKER_00: It's kind of like walking into a gym and working out one time and saying, okay, am I strong?
1:45
SPEAKER_00: Am I fit?
1:46
SPEAKER_00: Like it's just not how it works, right?
1:49
SPEAKER_00: So the problem is business owners are only tracking transactions.
1:54
SPEAKER_00: And that, you know, their CFO is saying, show me the money, show me the return.
1:59
SPEAKER_00: And they're ignoring everything that happens before the sale, before the zero moment of truth.
2:06
SPEAKER_00: They're only trying to measure that last step.
2:09
SPEAKER_00: They're only trying to attribute the catalyst or the spark that led to the purchase in the moment.
2:16
SPEAKER_00: And they're ignoring the entire journey of how someone got there.
2:20
SPEAKER_00: This topic is this is a hot topic for me, Trent.
2:23
SPEAKER_00: You know.
2:23
SPEAKER_01: It sure is.
2:24
SPEAKER_01: Yes.
2:25
SPEAKER_01: I was thinking, you know, this is probably one of those episodes where you're going to do most of the talking.
2:30
SPEAKER_01: Um and and, you know, the the analogy of an iceberg, for example.
2:35
SPEAKER_00: Yes.
2:36
SPEAKER_01: Where I've seen this analogy used so many times where you see just the tip of it, but you don't realize that it's much bigger under the water, the parts that you can't see.
2:46
SPEAKER_01: And this is one of those conversations that you can't see, nor is attribution a thing that is attainable.
2:54
SPEAKER_00: That's right.
2:55
SPEAKER_01: Accurately.
2:56
SPEAKER_01: No one, no one, I don't care who you are, I don't care what company you're in.
3:00
SPEAKER_01: Accurate attribution is near impossible.
3:03
SPEAKER_01: It's not impossible, but it's near impossible because no one is willing to spend the money and time that it would take to really attribute because they would say, this is a waste of time.
3:14
SPEAKER_01: We need to focus on serving our clients.
3:16
SPEAKER_00: Well, also a transaction is quite complex.
3:19
SPEAKER_00: We talked about, you know, what happens before the sale.
3:22
SPEAKER_00: We have to, we've talked about this before, we have to honor the buyer's journey, the time it takes for for them to go from awareness into some level of interest, into a deeper desire, and then finally into action.
3:36
SPEAKER_00: So when a business owner says to me, I didn't get any ROI, the first thing I say is, what does ROI mean to you?
3:44
SPEAKER_00: And they they say what they've heard, you know, in mainstream media, uh ROI is return on investment.
3:52
SPEAKER_00: Okay, let's let's talk about that.
3:54
SPEAKER_00: Return on investment, first of all, was created for the construction industry.
3:58
SPEAKER_00: Business people, real estate investors wanted to know if I put a million dollars into this building and I can lease this space or rent this space or sell this space for X amount, how long will it be for me to get my money back?
4:13
SPEAKER_00: You can't do that in marketing.
4:15
SPEAKER_00: So when someone says to me, I didn't get an ROI in my marketing, the first thing that I need them to do is understand that ROI doesn't mean return on investment.
4:24
SPEAKER_00: It means return on impact.
4:26
SPEAKER_00: So let's let's unpack that.
4:28
SPEAKER_00: Return on impact is kind of a big word.
4:32
SPEAKER_00: It's a big term.
4:33
SPEAKER_00: There's a lot underneath that.
4:34
SPEAKER_00: I want you to think of this as like the new ROI of marketing.
4:39
SPEAKER_00: It's kind of got two sides to it.
4:41
SPEAKER_00: It's got the return on impressions, and we're gonna unpack that.
4:46
SPEAKER_00: Like, what does it mean to make an impression with your ideal client in the moment they're ready to buy and the moments leading up to their ability or their desire to buy?
4:58
SPEAKER_00: What does return on impression mean?
5:00
SPEAKER_00: But also what does relationships of influence mean?
5:04
SPEAKER_00: Because ROI can also mean relationships of influence.
5:08
SPEAKER_00: And relationships of influence is just honoring the fact that we're leaning into our ideal client avatar, the person that we want to do business with, the people that love us, the people that pay us well for what we do and value what we do and are grateful for what we do.
5:23
SPEAKER_00: So let's unpack this ROI first by renaming it.
5:28
SPEAKER_00: It's not return on investment, it's return on impact.
5:30
SPEAKER_00: Okay, let's unpack that.
5:32
SPEAKER_00: How do we make an impact with our marketing?
5:34
SPEAKER_00: Well, the first is by getting your brand in front of eyeballs.
5:38
SPEAKER_00: Like the most limited thing that we all have is attention.
5:43
SPEAKER_00: We have 3,000 ads a day that are vying for our attention.
5:48
SPEAKER_00: And what do we pay attention to and what don't we pay attention to?
5:52
SPEAKER_00: So, we as marketers, the very first thing we need to be thinking is like, how can we get our businesses in front of the right people at the right moment, in the right market, with the right message, so that we can get attention from those eyeballs.
6:09
SPEAKER_01: That's those four M's.
6:11
SPEAKER_01: And if you haven't heard that previous episode, listen to that episode.
6:14
SPEAKER_01: That's right.
6:15
SPEAKER_00: We talked about that on our second creative spark, the four M's.
6:19
SPEAKER_00: But if you can show that you are getting in front of the right eyeballs at the right time in the right place, then you have return on impression.
6:30
SPEAKER_00: It is hard to measure.
6:32
SPEAKER_00: Think of a billboard, think of a print ad.
6:34
SPEAKER_00: Think of a digital ad.
6:35
SPEAKER_00: Think of a handshake at the chamber, think of a logo on a truck.
6:40
SPEAKER_00: Like they're seeing you, but you don't know.
6:43
SPEAKER_00: They're not calling you up and saying, I saw your billboard, I saw your truck, I saw your print ad.
6:49
SPEAKER_00: I saw your, you know, they're not, but you are being seen.
6:53
SPEAKER_00: And sometimes we can measure, sometimes we can estimate impressions.
6:57
SPEAKER_00: Digitally, we can measure impressions.
6:59
SPEAKER_00: It's harder in the world of print.
7:01
SPEAKER_00: Even billboards, they can estimate the traffic that drives by your billboard, but did they look up at the billboard?
7:06
SPEAKER_00: We don't know.
7:07
SPEAKER_00: Like there, it's just an elusive, complex thing.
7:11
SPEAKER_00: And you have to say, is this my audience?
7:14
SPEAKER_00: Is this the right market?
7:16
SPEAKER_00: Is this the right medium?
7:17
SPEAKER_00: Is this the right message?
7:18
SPEAKER_00: And is this the right moment?
7:20
SPEAKER_00: And if you can say yes to those things, then you're doing everything that you can as a media buyer to mitigate risk.
7:26
SPEAKER_00: Um, and and then I would say, yes, you're doing the right thing.
7:29
SPEAKER_00: If you're saying this is my market, my medium, my message, and my moment, like you are doing everything you can as a media buyer to get the maximum return on your impact and the return on those eyeballs.
7:42
SPEAKER_00: So the attention you're trying to get from those eyeballs.
7:44
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
7:45
SPEAKER_01: And keep doing it and don't give up.
7:46
SPEAKER_00: That's right.
7:47
SPEAKER_00: We talked about people give up too early.
7:49
SPEAKER_00: So keep doing it, stay consistent, don't give up.
7:52
SPEAKER_00: All right, let's keep unpacking this.
7:54
SPEAKER_00: The next one is the perception.
7:56
SPEAKER_00: We've talked about how important it is to be known, liked, and trusted and how we're in a trust recession and how we really have to turn that on its ear.
8:04
SPEAKER_00: People need to trust you before they'll get to know you and then make a decision about whether or not they like you.
8:11
SPEAKER_00: So I want to ask you.
8:12
SPEAKER_01: Completely reversed.
8:14
SPEAKER_00: When you're out there and you're building your brand, do you want to be seen as the solicitor or do you want to be seen as a trusted local resource?
8:21
SPEAKER_00: So I would say when I'm evaluating the return on your impact, I'm going to look at the market, the medium, the message in the moment, and I'm going to say, are you being seen as a solicitor or are you being seen as a trusted local resource?
8:33
SPEAKER_00: And if you're being seen as a trusted local resource, then you are absolutely doing the right thing in that media buy.
8:39
SPEAKER_00: Does that make sense?
8:40
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, one thing that you said on a previous episode, which I really liked the analogy, and it's an actual term, it's in someone else's stage.
8:47
SPEAKER_01: What's the acronym for it?
8:49
SPEAKER_01: Someone else's being on someone else's stage.
8:51
SPEAKER_01: OPS.
8:51
SPEAKER_01: OPS.
8:52
SPEAKER_01: Other person's stages.
8:54
SPEAKER_01: Yes.
8:54
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
8:54
SPEAKER_01: Now think about this.
8:56
SPEAKER_01: I'm giving a picture.
8:58
SPEAKER_01: This is the way my mind works in simple means.
9:00
SPEAKER_01: What impression or perception would you have of a person that was standing on a stage talking about themselves versus someone else standing next to them talking about that person?
9:13
SPEAKER_01: And what impression would you have of that person that's being talked about by the other person that's on that other person's stage?
9:20
SPEAKER_01: That gives you a picture.
9:21
SPEAKER_01: I didn't give that picture on the last episode, but that was the picture that I had in my in my head.
9:26
SPEAKER_01: I've seen that happen before.
9:28
SPEAKER_01: A friend of mine did an actual presentation in that manner, and he had he actually brought up me in the corner, and and then he brought up three people on the other side.
9:38
SPEAKER_01: And he said, Trent, tell me about yourself, you know, and I told about myself, which I was very uncomfortable of doing.
9:44
SPEAKER_01: And then he said, Okay, now let me go over here.
9:48
SPEAKER_01: How did you feel about that?
9:49
SPEAKER_01: And they're like, Yeah, that's great.
9:50
SPEAKER_01: And and then they he went to the other three people and he instructed them to say something really good about me, even though some of them didn't know me.
9:58
SPEAKER_01: And so he gave the microphone to each person and he said to the audience, now how do you feel about Trent?
10:05
SPEAKER_00: And they're like, Yay!
10:07
SPEAKER_01: It was such a great example.
10:09
SPEAKER_00: It's far more powerful when someone else is talking about your brand.
10:13
SPEAKER_00: That's all why that's why we want referrals.
10:15
SPEAKER_00: That's why we want recommendations.
10:17
SPEAKER_00: That's why we want testimonials.
10:18
SPEAKER_00: That's why we work so hard to build our reputation.
10:21
SPEAKER_00: That's why some of us join BNI.
10:24
SPEAKER_00: We all know that word of mouth is of paramount importance, but I also want people to remember that that word of mouth is not a marketing strategy.
10:32
SPEAKER_00: You can't build your business like I'm gonna have more word of mouth next year.
10:38
SPEAKER_00: Word of mouth is a byproduct of running a great business and it's not a marketing strategy to go your to grow your brand presence, right?
10:45
SPEAKER_00: So I love that you shared that.
10:47
SPEAKER_00: It reiterates the importance of having other people talking about you.
10:51
SPEAKER_00: So when you are getting brand awareness and you are getting impressions, if they're coming from another person's stage, another person's voice, another person's platform, they're even more powerful, right?
11:02
SPEAKER_00: So thank you for that.
11:04
SPEAKER_00: Let's now dive into the return on the opportunity.
11:06
SPEAKER_00: This is where I want you to think about the lifetime value of your customer.
11:10
SPEAKER_00: Let's use a hair salon.
11:11
SPEAKER_00: I spend a lot of money on my hair.
11:13
SPEAKER_00: It's ridiculous.
11:14
SPEAKER_00: I can't believe how much it costs to go to a salon.
11:18
SPEAKER_00: So it's a great example of how when you're loyal to a business and you have to go back at certain intervals, whether it's a dentist every six months, a hair salon, I have to go like every four to five weeks, um, you know, to keep up with the grays that are growing in, right?
11:34
SPEAKER_00: Um, you know, I didn't say that.
11:35
SPEAKER_01: You did.
11:36
SPEAKER_00: Uh yeah, exactly.
11:37
SPEAKER_00: Whether it's a nail salon, you want to go in every 10 days, every two weeks, whatever it is, if your business relies on word of mouth and repeat customers, you must be thinking about the lifetime value of a new customer, right?
11:49
SPEAKER_00: Because if you miss the opportunity to get a new customer, it's not one$200 hair cut and color.
11:57
SPEAKER_00: It's potentially tens of thousands of dollars over a lifetime because people tend to be loyal.
12:04
SPEAKER_00: So, you know, and it's really honestly hard to get a new customer if someone is loyal already to a business.
12:13
SPEAKER_00: Think about your doctor, think about your dentist, think about your nail tech, think about your hairstylist.
12:19
SPEAKER_00: If you love them, you have a personal relationship with you with them, they know you, they know your family, you're not going to be swayed by any kind of advertising or any kind of price-off promotion that you see because you're in a loyal, established relationship.
12:37
SPEAKER_00: But if you're just moving into a new town, in from another state, you need doctors and dentists and hairstylists and nail techs and dog walkers and all of these other things.
12:48
SPEAKER_00: And you're actively looking for these people.
12:50
SPEAKER_00: So that's a great time to be advertising to them.
12:53
SPEAKER_00: And again, I want you to be thinking about what's the lifetime value of that opportunity.
12:58
SPEAKER_00: We're talking about the return on the opportunity, that moment in time with that new customer.
13:04
SPEAKER_00: If you miss out on the opportunity of being in front of them and doing business with them, what is it gonna cost you over their lifetime if they, if you're a hairstylist and they choose a different hairstylist?
13:18
SPEAKER_00: Let that land for a second.
13:20
SPEAKER_00: All of us, Mrs.
13:21
SPEAKER_00: Owners, if you don't know the lifetime value of your customer, you need to stop this podcast and get out your calculator and figure that out right now because that's what's at stake right now.
13:31
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, that is so important.
13:33
SPEAKER_01: And I've I've read many statistics uh in different industries.
13:38
SPEAKER_01: And I'm glad you mentioned the hairstylist industry because that's for especially for women, it's a very emotional change that they have to make, especially if they're new, a new resident moves into town and they don't know what to do.
13:51
SPEAKER_01: And if you become the stylist that is out there helping people transition to a new hairstylist and helping them know what it is that they need to do, the steps they need to take, you're not selling yourself.
14:05
SPEAKER_01: You're just guiding them help with helpful tips.
14:08
SPEAKER_01: Guess who they're going to come to?
14:10
SPEAKER_00: That's right.
14:11
SPEAKER_00: Well, and it is really difficult, you know, being a woman and you care about your hair.
14:16
SPEAKER_00: Um, it is scary to go try a new stylist because you I've had, we I think we've all had bad cut, bad color, and walked out and thought, oh my gosh, I will never go back to this person.
14:26
SPEAKER_01: Me too, even with a flat top.
14:28
SPEAKER_01: Even with your flat top.
14:29
SPEAKER_01: I don't want a high and tight, I want a high a flat top.
14:31
SPEAKER_01: My gosh.
14:33
SPEAKER_00: So yeah, I mean, a hairstylist that's taking her time and her expertise and her talents to go out there and educate and train and inspire and equip with things you should be thinking about when you're trying to find a new stylist.
14:48
SPEAKER_00: Like that would be extremely valuable, right?
14:51
SPEAKER_00: So let me dive now into another layer of this ROI conversation into return on engagement.
14:57
SPEAKER_00: What does that mean?
14:58
SPEAKER_00: Well, we talked about the importance of word of mouth.
15:01
SPEAKER_00: It's critically important that when you're out there advertising, branding, educating, sharing yourself on social media, that you're not just out there selling and promoting.
15:12
SPEAKER_00: We already talked about self-promotion, skeptical, grain of salt, right?
15:16
SPEAKER_00: You have to be out there, like Trent said, serving, educating, inspiring, helping, guiding.
15:23
SPEAKER_00: And when you do that, you can increase engagement.
15:26
SPEAKER_00: This is like positive comments on your social post, positive comments about your brand.
15:33
SPEAKER_00: I ran into someone yesterday at a networking event and she said, I really love how your team is everywhere in this town.
15:40
SPEAKER_00: They're out there serving, they're showing up, they're taking pictures, they're sharing on social media.
15:45
SPEAKER_00: You know, we're getting noticed because we're out in the community wearing our name tags and we're shaking hands and we're serving and we're asking how we can serve.
15:54
SPEAKER_00: And we're always giving social love.
15:56
SPEAKER_00: Like one simple thing you can do is just give social love to the person that you're with.
16:01
SPEAKER_00: Take a picture with them and put it on your page and tag or collab with them and say, I had this amazing conversation with this amazing business owner and they're running this great business.
16:11
SPEAKER_00: Like there are things that you can do to be giving, to be generous, to help other people and to help people engage with you.
16:20
SPEAKER_00: So return on engagement is another important thing because a lot of people just like again, they spray and pray.
16:27
SPEAKER_00: They don't worry about whether or not it's resonating.
16:30
SPEAKER_00: They're just looking at the cash register and they're hoping for the 0.0001% return on investment for that ad spend or that marketing spend, whatever it is.
16:42
SPEAKER_00: But engagement, people talking about you, engaging with you, sharing you, tagging you, like all of those things really matter.
16:49
SPEAKER_00: They're soft metrics, but they really matter, right, Trent?
16:52
SPEAKER_01: They do.
16:53
SPEAKER_01: Engagement is so important, like we said earlier, about what other people say about you and how are people engaging?
16:59
SPEAKER_01: And ironically, social media platforms, what do they favor?
17:03
SPEAKER_01: The what they favor the most, and I'll give you a hint.
17:06
SPEAKER_01: Here's an actual practical hint.
17:08
SPEAKER_01: If someone shares, if someone posts something, let's say a local influencer posts something on their social page and they have a different audience than you do, as at you as a business.
17:19
SPEAKER_01: So when they post about you, you share it and have several of your employees share it.
17:24
SPEAKER_01: You know what happens is the algorithms kick in on that post and it it will be delivered to three, four, five times the amount of people just because the social media algorithms say this is favored by people and they're sharing it.
17:40
SPEAKER_01: They're saving it, they're sharing it, they're commenting on it.
17:42
SPEAKER_00: That's right.
17:43
SPEAKER_00: Well, and we we could go really deep into that and we'll do it in another episode.
17:46
SPEAKER_00: But the timing of that is important.
17:48
SPEAKER_00: Like if you post or share in the middle of the night and no one shares it and likes it and comments and engages with it, then the algorithm's gonna think nobody likes this content.
17:56
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
17:56
SPEAKER_00: So timing is really important.
17:58
SPEAKER_00: But we'll dive into social media in another episode.
18:00
SPEAKER_00: The last piece of this that I want to unpack before we start to pivot and talk about what tools we can use to measure is I want to talk about the return on objectives.
18:08
SPEAKER_00: So again, under this umbrella of ROI, what's the return on the impact of my marketing?
18:14
SPEAKER_00: I want to look at is this marketing delivering on my objective?
18:18
SPEAKER_00: We all have goals.
18:20
SPEAKER_00: Some we can measure with hard data, some we have to rely on soft metrics, but we have goals.
18:25
SPEAKER_00: As an example, do I want to do more business with someone living in this particular neighborhood?
18:31
SPEAKER_00: Do I want to do more business with someone that has a million-dollar house?
18:36
SPEAKER_00: Do I want to do more business with someone who has just moved in and is looking to make their home their own?
18:44
SPEAKER_00: Again, we're going back to those four M's, the market, the medium, the message in the moment.
18:48
SPEAKER_00: I have objectives to grow my business and I have an ideal client that I want to do business with.
18:54
SPEAKER_00: If my marketing is helping me to get in front of my ideal client in a trusted, credible way, then I am meeting my objectives.
19:02
SPEAKER_00: And again, as a media buyer, I am making a smart decision for my business and I'm doing everything that I can to mitigate risk.
19:09
SPEAKER_01: And now that you've determined as a business owner what your attribu what the what the benefit is of a client long term.
19:18
SPEAKER_01: What is the return on the opportunity?
19:19
SPEAKER_01: How many years, like a dentist, for example, when they get a client, on average, that client stays for eight years, the whole family.
19:27
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
19:27
SPEAKER_01: You think about that.
19:28
SPEAKER_01: How much did I make because I advertised in this area?
19:33
SPEAKER_01: Let's say someone was advertising in the neighborhood magazine, in the fluent neighborhood, and they're supporting the neighbors.
19:39
SPEAKER_01: They're supporting the residents there.
19:41
SPEAKER_01: They're not doing it because they want a return on investment.
19:44
SPEAKER_01: At least that's the impression it should give.
19:46
SPEAKER_01: But I'm serving these people.
19:48
SPEAKER_01: I'm serving this local area where people are moving in and they're new.
19:52
SPEAKER_01: So what is the cost of attribution for them?
19:55
SPEAKER_01: And not just that first month or that year, but in that period of time that's the average, like a dentist, eight years.
20:02
SPEAKER_01: So what's the overall benefit?
20:04
SPEAKER_01: Then take that number and say, okay, what am I willing to invest that first in the first few months?
20:11
SPEAKER_01: Will it be at a loss?
20:12
SPEAKER_01: It could be at a loss at first, but the gain overall is through time.
20:17
SPEAKER_00: Well, I think that's important to it, might not be at a loss.
20:20
SPEAKER_00: It might be uh, you know, maybe, maybe to your CFO, but not to you as a business owner.
20:26
SPEAKER_00: Here's why is I want to talk about what you should measure.
20:28
SPEAKER_00: There are two types of metrics.
20:30
SPEAKER_00: There are leading indicators and there are lagging indicators.
20:33
SPEAKER_00: So again, going back to the timing of your marketing and how most people quit too early.
20:38
SPEAKER_00: So the leading indicators, these are early signals of I'm doing what I need to do to build my brand and build and grow my business.
20:44
SPEAKER_00: We're asking, are people seeing you?
20:47
SPEAKER_00: If the answer is yes, then you're building brand awareness.
20:50
SPEAKER_00: Are people engaging with you?
20:52
SPEAKER_00: Are they liking?
20:53
SPEAKER_00: Are they commenting?
20:54
SPEAKER_00: Are they clicking?
20:55
SPEAKER_00: Are they sharing?
20:56
SPEAKER_00: Then you, if they you say yes to that, then you are building your brand.
21:00
SPEAKER_00: Are they recognizing your name?
21:02
SPEAKER_00: Are people starting, oh, I've heard that, I've seen that, oh, you're out there, you guys are everywhere.
21:07
SPEAKER_00: Then yes, you're building your brand.
21:08
SPEAKER_00: Your marketing is working.
21:09
SPEAKER_00: And are people visiting your website?
21:11
SPEAKER_00: Because guess what?
21:12
SPEAKER_00: They're gonna buy when they're ready, not when you're ready.
21:15
SPEAKER_00: So your website is one of those intermediate, you know, in the messy middle we kind of talked about.
21:19
SPEAKER_00: Your website's in that messy middle between brand awareness and a transaction where people are gonna go to nose around, learn more, climb their own trust curve on their own time by reading about who you are and how you do what you do and what other customers say about you.
21:38
SPEAKER_00: They'll look at your social media, they'll read your reviews.
21:41
SPEAKER_00: Those are leading indicators that you're doing the right thing.
21:44
SPEAKER_00: So that's what you should be measuring.
21:46
SPEAKER_00: That's return on your impact.
21:48
SPEAKER_00: The lagging indicators, it's too late.
21:51
SPEAKER_00: If you haven't done those beginning things, you can't expect these lagging indicators to happen.
21:55
SPEAKER_00: These are leads, calls, sales, and revenue.
21:58
SPEAKER_00: So if you're not honoring the leading indicators have to happen first and you're just expecting those lagging indicators, then you're not understanding how marketing works.
22:07
SPEAKER_00: So, this is where I want to remind you that you can't rush the process of building trust and you can't measure brand awareness instantly.
22:18
SPEAKER_00: But when you're looking at those leading indicators, you know that you are building your brand and you're taking advantage of the cumulative.
22:27
SPEAKER_00: We talked about this, the cumulative layered effect of growing your business because marketing is building demand for your products and services before it's ever able to capture it.
22:38
SPEAKER_00: And honestly, that's the difference between marketing and sales.
22:41
SPEAKER_00: Marketing is building awareness, building demand for your product, and sales is actually what captures it at the bottom of the funnel.
22:49
SPEAKER_01: Yes, no doubt.
22:50
SPEAKER_01: Really to close this, we even wrote this down just to make sure that we covered this.
22:54
SPEAKER_01: But um, this is where marketing becomes less stressful when you have identified yourself.
23:01
SPEAKER_01: This is the unbridled creative, right?
23:03
SPEAKER_01: You've identified who you are, who your customer is, what's the value that that long-term customer has to you, and what can you do to serve that customer?
23:14
SPEAKER_01: Because you then stop, you then stop trying to force outcomes and you start focusing on building something that works and becoming remarkable just because you're serving them well.
23:24
SPEAKER_01: And then when you understand what to measure, you stop second guessing everything.
23:29
SPEAKER_00: That's right.
23:29
SPEAKER_00: So if we can leave our listeners today with one takeaway, is I want you to step back and say, what am I really measuring?
23:36
SPEAKER_00: What does ROI really mean?
23:40
SPEAKER_00: Now that I know that it means return on impact of I'm spending this money and I'm doing all of these things that are cumulative.
23:48
SPEAKER_00: What is the full story of my marketing?
23:50
SPEAKER_00: Can I say yes to those leading indicators?
23:53
SPEAKER_00: So I know when my customer is ready, they're ready to buy, they trust me, those lagging indicators will follow.
24:00
SPEAKER_00: Because if you only measure the sale, then you're gonna miss everything that made that sale possible.
24:06
SPEAKER_00: And that would really hurt my heart for you because just by having this conversation today, I have a feeling that a lot more people are gonna be feeling a lot better about the marketing that they're doing now that they understand the way that it works and what they're really doing when they're investing that marketing dollar.
24:23
SPEAKER_00: And don't forget, marketing is an investment in your business.
24:26
SPEAKER_00: You can write it off on your taxes, right?
24:29
SPEAKER_00: This is this is something that if it costs you a dollar, maybe you write 20% of that is gonna write off on your taxes, and you're only spending 80 cents on that dollar.
24:38
SPEAKER_00: So marketing when it's done well, it's done wisely, is a very, very good investment in your future growth and success.
24:47
SPEAKER_01: And be patient with yourself.
24:48
SPEAKER_01: Just be patient with yourself and be who you are, who God created you to be, and take it one step at a time.
24:55
SPEAKER_01: And in the meantime, as you take one step at a time, be bold and break free from what holds you back.
25:02
SPEAKER_00: That's right.
25:02
SPEAKER_00: And live unbridled.
25:03
SPEAKER_01: That's right.
25:04
SPEAKER_00: Thanks, everybody.
25:05
SPEAKER_00: Thank you for joining us for Be Locally Loved.
25:08
SPEAKER_00: If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe, leave us a review, and share it with someone who cares about building thriving communities as much as we do.
25:16
SPEAKER_00: Until next time, love where you live.