June 10, 2025 • 47 mins
Ever wonder why some businesses thrive while others struggle despite seemingly solid marketing efforts? The answer lies in something surprisingly fundamental yet frequently overlooked: strategy.
Bryan Acosta, CEO of Advent Trinity Marketing Agency, breaks down why marketing strategy serves as the crucial foundation for business success. With sobering statistics—97% of businesses fail, website conversion rates average a mere 2.35%—Bryan illustrates why throwing money at marketing without proper planning amounts to gambling with your company's future.
This eye-opening conversation explores the discovery process that separates successful marketing campaigns from expensive failures. Bryan dismantles common myths, like the belief you can simply copy competitors' tactics and achieve similar results. Instead, he advocates for a data-driven approach that identifies your unique position in the market and creates tailored campaigns that speak directly to your ideal customers.
The discussion demystifies how to properly allocate marketing budgets across different channels and phases of the customer journey—from initial awareness through engagement, conversion, and customer delight. Bryan explains why many businesses underinvest in their marketing efforts and how this undermines their ability to compete effectively in today's saturated digital landscape.
Perhaps most valuable is his candid explanation of how Advent Trinity approaches marketing strategy, refusing to work with clients who want to skip the discovery phase. This commitment stems from hard data showing significantly higher success rates for businesses that invest in understanding their market before launching campaigns.
Whether you're just starting out or looking to revitalize your existing marketing efforts, this episode provides the framework to stop wasting resources and start building campaigns with purpose. Take the first step toward joining the 3% of businesses that succeed by learning how to transform marketing from a cost center into a strategic investment.
🎙 Market It With ATMA Podcast
Brought to you by Advent Trinity Marketing Agency
www.adventtrinity.com
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
Welcome to the Atma podcast, where we share the tips
, tools and strategies you'llneed to help your business be
successful.
I'm your host story and todaywe have on the show none other
than the CEO of Advent TrinityMarketing Agency, mr Brian
Acosta.
Welcome, brian.
Speaker 1 (00:29):
Hey, hey, hey.
Thank you guys for joining us.
Appreciate you.
We had some technicaldifficulties before trying to
figure this thing out, but we'rehere now.
We're here now.
Speaker 2 (00:38):
Hey, as long as we made it, that's all that matters
, right, as long as you show up.
Speaker 1 (00:42):
Yeah, we'll edit that rest of the stuff later.
Speaker 2 (00:48):
It's all right.
So, um, what are we talkingabout today?
We are talking about thefoundation of great marketing
and what is that?
Speaker 1 (00:52):
the strategy, yes, strategy so.
Speaker 2 (00:55):
So let's just dive into the basics, why a
structured and essentialstrategy is so important and
helps you save time, money andfrustration.
Let's start with the basics,Brian.
Why do so many businesses skipthis?
Speaker 1 (01:15):
They skip the strategy.
I think a lot of people skipstrategy when it comes to
marketing because you'reinnovative with all this
information online, right, ofcourse, that marketing is easy,
business is easy.
Look at me, I did it.
If you did it my way, you couldget the same results.
And I think the problem no, Idon't think the problem.
(01:36):
The problem is that that is sofalse, right?
And because there's so muchcompetition there's so much
competition in today's age andworld that you have to be able
to compete, right, you have tobe able to compete throughout
the competitors and andunderstand that doing things
(01:56):
differently, right, you have todo different to compete.
Because if you're doing the samething as your competitors, you,
you all, are generating thesame results, which means that
the market becomes saturated,and then you're really not
generating anything at thatpoint, right.
And then your competitors,they're not going to let you
compete like that.
Speaker 2 (02:16):
So what's the cost of not having a strategy in your
mind, in your mindset?
And since you've been withAdvent Trinity and launched a
lot of other businesses as well,what would you say the cost of
not having a strategy?
Speaker 1 (02:29):
The cost of not having a strategy is that you're
taking a massive risk with yourbusiness right, and we all know
that risk is inevitable when itcomes to business and marketing
.
Speaker 2 (02:41):
Of course.
Speaker 1 (02:42):
Like everybody, takes a risk.
In fact, the reason I have mytablet is because I wanted to
bring this data up and thisinformation up into this podcast
.
Was the statistics, realnumbers real numbers.
So I always say that 97% ofbusinesses fail, but let's take
a deeper dive into the reality.
Speaker 2 (03:02):
Okay.
Speaker 1 (03:03):
So 20.4% of businesses fail within their
first year.
49.4% fell within the firstfive years.
Okay, 65.3% fell within thefirst 10 years.
Wow, right, so and then?
Okay, so you have all right.
I see you know the failure rate, yada, yada, okay.
(03:27):
Well, now let's take a look atthe marketing.
Speaker 2 (03:30):
Right, what did they do?
Speaker 1 (03:31):
Well, no, no, no.
The marketing statistics.
Let me take a look at thismarketing statistics.
This is what's going to scareyou.
Speaker 2 (03:36):
Okay.
So the average websiteconversion rate across
industries is 2.35 percent andconversion rate, meaning people
that come to your website lookat something, click on it and
become a client inquire okayinquiry wow, 35 percent.
Speaker 1 (03:54):
And e-commerce conversion rate averages
anywhere from two to fourpercent, and that varies for
industry.
And the thing is is that theseare very low numbers, right,
they are very low, okay.
Email marketing, uh, you know,boost average roi of 36 to 40.
You know, email marketing ispretty good, right, but you look
at the three percent, you lookat the two percent, and that's
(04:15):
so.
Why would, why would I spendmoney on digital marketing?
Is is what some people are.
If that's such low, right, andit's because you don't know the
numbers.
You don't know the numbers tounderstand how to strategize
okay, so how do we find thosenumbers?
the numbers is basically alreadyhere.
You already have in yourmindset two to three percent
(04:35):
which means you, if you onlyhave two to three percent of
success, success rate, right,right of marketing.
You don't want to just throwmoney at marketing and hope for
the best exactly it seems like ahuge waste of money trying to
figure out what works right andso, and it's not just um, it's
(04:56):
not just the, the, the, it's notjust the business owners okay,
it's all marketers too, like, uh, if marketers don't actually
sit down and do the strategy?
And there's some marketers outthere, right, quote unquote
quote unquote.
And uh, if they don't sit downand actually do the strategy or
they actually sit down andfigure out exactly what kind of
(05:20):
campaign, who am I trying totarget market?
who am I trying to be in frontof what uh message?
Am I trying to uh proceed tothem?
Right then, that two percentcould easily be less than one
percent?
Wow, right, and so you're.
You're taking a gamble.
Anytime you do a business,right, you take a gamble right,
(05:41):
absolutely and in marketing it'sthe same thing.
You're gambling, you're taking arisk, and the fact that people
don't sit down and actually, youknow, think about what they're
actually going to be doing,strategizing, is just baffling
to me.
You know, we, we as a company,we do a discovery.
Speaker 2 (06:01):
That's what I was going to ask next.
So can you walk us through howAdvent Trinity approaches
planning a campaign beforeanything is built?
Speaker 1 (06:08):
Yes, so we do discovery right.
In fact, we recently stoppeddoing we stopped gauging clients
without doing discovery.
Like if you come to us and youwant marketing and you don't do
a discovery, we just won't domarketing for you, and here's
why.
So we've taken a look at thenumbers internally.
(06:31):
We've taken a look at thenumbers internally and those who
did not do a discovery have ahigher risk of failure than
those who did discovery.
Speaker 2 (06:41):
Absolutely.
Speaker 1 (06:47):
Those who did discovery have a higher success
rate than those who didn't dodiscovery.
And um, what is a discoveryright?
The discovery is, uh, where wesit down, we first get to know
the customer and the client back, you know, but we get to know
them more than they knowthemselves absolutely and bring
up those questions right thatthat really makes them think is
is this what my prospect is?
(07:07):
yes, exactly like.
Do they even know who?
Because in their heads theythey have an idea of who their
target market is, they have anidea of their prospects.
Uh, they have an idea of what'sgoing to work, but they don't
have the data.
Okay, right, and so part of thepart of the discovery is the
research.
Right Is understanding the data.
(07:28):
Who are we going to be in frontof?
What is it going to take?
How much money is it going totake?
What are those?
Click?
You know the cost per clicksfor the keywords.
All of those is data that weutilize to figure out.
Ok, how much advertisingdollars do you really need in
order for us to get a return oninvestment?
Speaker 2 (07:44):
Absolutely.
You always say that datadoesn't lie, right?
So if we're seeing results prosor cons from your competitors,
we can learn from that, right,and that's only through data and
investigation into what exactlyyou're doing and how others are
doing it.
Right, right, exactly, okay,okay.
Speaker 1 (08:01):
And so you know.
So we do research and then wedo a full marketing plan.
Ok, and that marketing plan, wesit down and after we've
reviewed the research, we gothrough the data.
We start to figure out, ok,what channels, what channels are
we doing, who's our persona,how are we going to engage?
Right, and you would think,well, shouldn't every marketing
(08:24):
company do that?
And you're absolutely right.
Speaker 2 (08:27):
You would assume that that's what happens, right.
Speaker 1 (08:29):
Right.
But here's the thing A lot ofbusiness owners when they think,
okay, they should be doing that, but they should be doing it a
part of my service fee, right,and that's not true.
Speaker 2 (08:40):
It's absolutely not.
I would say most of our clientscome to us from those types of
agencies and they're like well,it didn't work before.
Speaker 1 (08:47):
Well, because they didn't do strategy.
So what they did was a cookiecutter marketing plan.
They did a cookie cutter adcampaign that they did for
somebody else, that it worked.
And so they're doing the samething for you, right, and now
that's because, and all of asudden, it's not working.
You know, they said that wasgoing to work, but it's not
working.
And it's like, yes, because youare different from your
(09:09):
competitor.
Speaker 2 (09:10):
Right.
What are the key metrics?
Are you saying that the keymetrics and tools you use to
look at first are what theiraudience is really and what
channels?
And when you say channels, doyou mean social media or do you
mean Google?
What channels?
Speaker 1 (09:25):
channels?
Do you mean social media, or doyou mean Google?
What channels?
So let me walk you through this, because it kind of varies from
from client to client, Right.
So you know when we're doingdiscovery.
Like I said, the first phase isjust understanding the business
.
The second phase is that marketresearch.
Ok.
So if a client comes to us andsays, well, I think I need to be
on Google market research, Okay, so if a client comes to us and
(09:46):
says, well, I think I need tobe on Google, All right, Well
you know, google has manyfactors of ranking.
You've got local SEO.
You've got local service ads.
You've got Google ads.
You've got PPC.
You've got, you know, gemini.
Now, right, it's just AI, andso it's like, okay, so let's
find out what the real estate isright and what's my best
investment there.
And then you have to take well,if I'm going to do PPC, how
(10:07):
much do those keywords actuallycost?
And how competitive, is it Right?
And so, like you know, everyindustry is different, and if
you can at least understand thekeyword competitives, especially
in your geographic area, thenyou're better to invest your
marketing dollars, right.
Speaker 2 (10:23):
Which is part of your discovery analysis.
Right, finding those keyphrases and those keywords that
are going to make you give youmore exposure.
Correct, right, exactly.
Speaker 1 (10:33):
And so, and then you got the keyword research right
and then so that's just PPC.
Another part of discovery islike, let's say, we get a
customer and they have a brandnew concept because we've gotten
this before.
They have a brand new conceptbecause we've gotten this before
.
They have a brand new concept.
Okay, when you have a brand newconcept is is there a market
for this product?
Okay, and you know, I alwaysask this question Do you know
(10:56):
the root word of marketing?
Speaker 2 (10:58):
What is the root word of marketing?
Market?
It's market right.
Speaker 1 (11:02):
So the market.
Is there a a market?
Do you understand?
The market is there supply, andin market, it's very simple.
It's supply and demand, right,and so is there a demand for
this product or service thatyou're offering?
Okay, uh, and how competitiveis it right?
Is it saturated?
(11:22):
Does anybody know anythingabout this?
And they were like well,there's not competition because
nobody's doing what we're doing.
That is wrong.
Speaker 2 (11:31):
There is always competition right always
competition that's why we haveindustries right well, they're
industries.
Speaker 1 (11:37):
But you know, just because um you your product
solves a solution, doesn't meanthat another product or service
doesn't solve that solution aswell.
Speaker 2 (11:47):
Absolutely.
Speaker 1 (11:47):
And it may be solving it in a different way, and
you're still competing forattention, right, absolutely.
And then how well will yourproduct or service be accepted
in the market?
is another question will yourproduct or service be accepted
(12:08):
in the market is anotherquestion, and so all of that
research dictates how you'regoing to be do the next campaign
.
And so you're thinking.
Well, you know, there's a lotof questions in the air, and if
you're, if you're listeningright now and you're like man,
that gives me a lot of questions, I'm starting to think about
all kinds of things in mybusiness.
You're right, because you don'tjust want to build a campaign,
you don't just want to build awebsite.
You want to build the rightmessage, the right campaign and
(12:31):
be in front of the right personat the right time, because if
the numbers are true which theyare and then only 2.35% of
website conversions happen onthe website, it 2.35% of website
conversions happen on thewebsite, then you only have
(12:51):
2.35% chance to get somebody'sattention.
Speaker 2 (12:52):
In the word you said time.
Are you in front of youraudience at the right timeframe
In the discovery which I thinkis a key factor in the longevity
of how long your business lasts?
Are you planning appropriatelyIf it is a new business that no
one's ever touched?
How long does the brandawareness phase take until you
have conversions?
Speaker 1 (13:12):
right, and so a lot of those questions, um, there
are.
They are answered in thestrategy, uh, because, um, you
know, time is etas, right,everything is about eta.
You know, we can get an idea ofhow long it will take, uh, but
there's no direct answer.
And and that's the thing islike, marketers always want to
(13:32):
guarantee something, right.
And you can't you can'tguarantee return on investment,
which you can't.
This is what we can guarantee.
Anybody who's listening canguarantee this is what you can
be guaranteed.
You can be guaranteed clicks toyour website.
You can be guaranteed, you know, visitors to your page,
engagement All those things canbe guaranteed.
(13:52):
What can't be guaranteed is youcan lead the horse to the water
, but you can't force the waterto drink.
I mean, you can't force thehorse to drink right, absolutely
.
And so here's the issue thoughyou know I believe in that,
that's true.
Okay, now there is a flip sideto that, because I do believe
(14:15):
that you can convince the horseto drink only if you know what
the horse is thinking and how tocommunicate it to it?
Speaker 2 (14:23):
And how do you learn and know what the horse is
thinking?
Speaker 1 (14:26):
you have to do strategy, you have to plan, you
have to, you have to strategize,you have to plan, you have to
get into the mind of the userright and so that that's part of
the strategy is like, beforeyou build anything, do you know
who your customers are and doyou know who your prospects are?
Do you know what they like?
Speaker 2 (14:47):
do you know where they?
Speaker 1 (14:48):
live.
Do you truly know?
And a lot of people are like Iknow, I, I truly know, I truly
know.
Well, if you can't write aBible on your customer, you
don't know right.
Speaker 2 (14:58):
so how do you balance creativity with data when
building marketing strategies?
Speaker 1 (15:04):
So so you take that data right, right, and then,
based on that data, you're thenable to create personas.
Okay.
So you're you're able to createmake believe customers that
resemble the customers that youcurrently have.
You're able to say you're ableto then, and if you've done your
data and you kind of figure out, you know their lingo right,
you're able to say you're ableto then, and if you've done your
(15:25):
dad and you kind of figure out,you know they're lingo right,
you're able to do like a brandvoice Okay.
Speaker 2 (15:29):
Okay.
Speaker 1 (15:30):
Let me put this in perspective.
We actually have two customers,two customers that are in two
different states.
Ok, you know, one in Texas, onein New Mexico.
Ok, I am not going to say thesame thing I say in Texas as I
do in New Mexico.
There's two different brandvoices, two different ways to
(15:50):
say it, two different ways of,you know, basically engaging
those, those customers.
You have to say thingsdifferently.
You just, you just have toright absolutely you can't
expect to go from one market,which is Texas, and do the same
thing in New Mexico right, orNew York for that matter and it
(16:11):
doesn't even matter if they'rethe same service of product.
Okay, the way you say things intexas are going to be different
than what you say in new mexicoand it matters and it does
matter, right, and so that'swhere that data, right, that
data, the the uh, interest andbehaviors, all those things,
that kind of data that's wherethat ball is in is because what
(16:32):
are we saying that they aregoing to actually engage in,
they're going to get a like,they're going to like right,
right.
And it's easier when you have alocal marketing company because
they're local, right and so theyunderstand that you know like,
we're based in Texas, so we knoweverything in and out of Texas.
Speaker 2 (16:48):
Right.
Speaker 1 (16:48):
But if we're going to market to somebody in New
Mexico, we have to understandhow they speak, what they like,
what they don't like Right.
Understand how they speak whatthey like, what they don't like
Right.
Build a brand voice behind thatso that it gets accepted in
that market.
Speaker 2 (17:02):
Of course you know you got the.
Speaker 1 (17:05):
It's like the North and the South.
You would not do the sameSouthern hospitality type
marketing in the South than youwould do in the North.
Speaker 2 (17:14):
Right and calling someone ma'am even is completely
different here than it is inNew Jersey.
Sometimes that's seennegatively.
So, being a marketing company,not only do we have to do that
deep dive analysis, but ournetworking partners really come
into play when we're doingthings outside of our state,
understanding their demographicand their verbiage and how they
(17:37):
do it, and that all comes intoplay when we create the strategy
for a client right.
Yep, okay, great.
So tell me what's a strategymyth that you see entrepreneurs
fall for all the time?
Speaker 1 (17:50):
a strategy myth that okay, that's a good question.
So a myth I guess a myth wouldbe is I can do the same strategy
as somebody else.
If I can copy that strategy,I'll get the same return on
investment, and that is a huge,huge waste of time.
Why?
Because if you're doing exactlywhat your competitors are doing
(18:11):
, they're going to adjust andall you're going to do is be
behind the ball.
You're going to be behind yourdo is be behind the ball.
You're gonna be behind yourcompetitors a hundred percent of
the time.
It doesn't matter, you know.
You know what you're doing ifall you're doing is copying your
competitors right and um, andyou think that I'm gonna get the
the same return on investment.
Well, think about these largercorporations, right?
(18:34):
This particular perspective.
Let's not take it to smallcompanies anymore.
Let's think about these largercorporations, right.
Let's take this in perspective.
Let's not talk about smallcompanies anymore.
Let's think about bigcorporations.
Big corporations, right?
You talk about these massive,and all I see we're in a tech
company, right?
In a technology world.
In the tech world, the softwareworld, once you replicate a same
solution as a software, they'realready on to the next, and all
(18:56):
you're doing is playing behindthe ball.
So you have to eventually catchup to them, and then you have
to then advance them with adifferent solution that they
don't even have, right?
That's how you.
That's how you overthink themarket, right?
And so you overcome the marketby doing something different.
(19:16):
So you know, know, if themarket is always changing and
people in business are alwayschanging, then why are people
trying to do the same marketingas other people?
Speaker 2 (19:27):
and when you're doing the same marketing as other
people, are you factoring in theprice point that that's going
to cost you?
Speaker 1 (19:33):
right, exactly, because if you're, you know
bidding right.
So let's just say I want to doexactly the same thing as my
competitor.
Well, if you're you okay.
So let's just say google, forexample okay, that's a big one
uh, so google?
Um, it's about bidding forkeywords.
You have the same keywords, youhave the same exact plan, exact
plan as your competitor.
(19:53):
Same keywords.
You've put neck to neck right.
That value of that keyword isgoing to get higher and higher
and higher and eventually it'sgoing to be out of your budget.
Speaker 2 (20:03):
What do you mean by value of keywords?
So the more someone uses it,the more Google charges?
Speaker 1 (20:09):
for you to utilize it right, Because saturation it's
important to know, yeah.
So what happens is like you knowyou're trying to do the same
thing as your competitors, butyou don't realize that you're
just actually blowing moneyinstead of trying to do
something different to gainpartials of those tractions of
the market.
Remember, the root word ofmarketing is market.
(20:32):
And how do you get parts of themarket in different ways and
then eventually compete withyour competitors or out-compete
your competitors to takeportions of that market right?
And so that's why strategy isso important.
A lot of people theymisperceive strategy.
It's like okay, I don't need tothink about it, I just really
(20:54):
need a marketing company.
Speaker 2 (20:55):
I know I need social media, and here's marketing
company, I know I need socialmedia, and here's the deal.
Speaker 1 (20:59):
Everybody knows they need social media.
Everybody knows they need awebsite.
Everybody knows they need to beon Google.
Everybody knows that they needto be somewhere right on the
internet.
They need an online presence.
But what is the actual strategythat you're going to be doing?
Speaker 2 (21:17):
And so we have a structured plan right.
Speaker 1 (21:18):
Right, we have the build, launch, grow scale
philosophy, which we're gonna gothrough this entire show.
I'm excited to do this, right.
But the reason why I wanted tostart with strategy first is
because nobody everybody wantsto build.
Oh, I want my website.
I want to look awesome, right?
I want the videos.
Speaker 2 (21:35):
I want the photos I need to have somewhere for them
to go to exactly.
Speaker 1 (21:40):
Okay, so, and but I need you to do it, okay, so you
need me to strategize, correct?
Yes, so we need to sit down,take time which we're not
talking a day, and we're nottalking a day, we're talking
about a few days, probably weeksto actually understand this
business, map this outcompletely, map this out where
we have a, a calculated riskwhich is funny because we talked
(22:03):
about risk at the verybeginning of this, right?
Yes, you know, marketing is arisk, business is a risk, and
one of my, my mentors right,he'll always say this because
he's a he, he actually investsin stocks.
Okay is, are we taking acalculated risk in this
marketing venture?
Okay?
so if we're gonna build thewebsite, the, the social media,
(22:25):
all that stuff, right, um, youknow, do we have the right data
to say the right message?
Do we have the right data, uh,to get in front of the right
people?
How much is it actually goingto cost?
Speaker 2 (22:35):
and on what platforms ?
Right and well what platformsright.
Speaker 1 (22:37):
And here's the is it actually going to cost?
And on what platforms right?
And on what platforms right.
And here's the thing A lot ofpeople, when I ask them what
their budget is, what's theiranswer?
Speaker 2 (22:44):
They don't know their budget.
You tell me.
Speaker 1 (22:46):
Yeah, I don't know my budget.
Can you tell me?
That's why you know.
Well, if you want me to tellyou what your budget is, then
you have to do a discovery.
You have to understand yourmarket and if we're gonna
research your market, we'regonna do all the strategy.
We're gonna research, we'regonna gather all that data to
tell you the answers that you'vebeen looking for on how much
you're actually supposed to bespending right to be competitive
(23:09):
.
To be competitive, you're gonnahave to pay for that.
You look at all these biggercompanies organizing.
I mean, this is this isn, thisisn't a norm, right?
People know this.
Businesses buy data Successful,successful businesses.
Thank you, appreciate that.
Speaker 2 (23:24):
You're welcome.
Speaker 1 (23:25):
Successful businesses buy data.
They go out and they buy data.
They go out and they buyresearch.
Well, brian, they got money.
No, they're taking calculatedrisk, something that 97% of the
businesses aren't doing.
They know what they're walkinginto, you know what they're
walking into, and so a lot ofbusinesses fail because they
don't know what they're walkinginto.
They don't know you know howmuch they're supposed to be
(23:49):
spending, right?
Speaker 2 (23:50):
or you know what, if they're being taken advantage of
to have a six to twelve monthplan of what you should be
submitting, based on the data.
And the analysis is huge,because if you're going to other
places they're like no, we'regoing to charge you this month
up front and it'll take a month.
You know after this discoverywhether or not that's really
factual, based on the data yeah,and most businesses they they
(24:13):
spend a lot less than thatthey're supposed to.
Speaker 1 (24:15):
Let's's just be honest right, they're supposed
to be spending.
You know, if they do the realdata, they do the real strategy
and they're like, okay, Iunderstand how competitive it is
, and they're just like, but youknow, that's not part of my
budget, then you need funding.
Right, you need funding.
You need to have funding foryour business and organizations
to take it to the next level,and I hate to say that, but it's
(24:42):
the truth, it's the truth.
If you're going to compete, youneed funding right.
Speaker 2 (24:44):
Name me one competitor that didn't have some
sort of funding to competeInteresting.
That somewhat leads me to mynext question.
For someone just starting out,what's the first step to
creating a real marketingstrategy other than funding One,
establishing whether or not youneed it right, and what's the
next step?
Speaker 1 (24:58):
I mean, the first step is knowing what you're
walking into.
That is the number one step forany business owner out there,
for any small business owner.
The first step to them is justunderstanding what they're
walking into, and the firstthing they got to do is
understand how much money theyactually need.
Right, right, um and so and soyou know it's funny because you
(25:20):
know companies come to us allthe time.
Here's my business plan.
I have a marketing plan and Ilook at their marketing plan.
I said this is not a marketingplan.
Okay, what this is is yourvision of how this marketing is
supposed to work, and not anactual marketing plan.
Speaker 2 (25:35):
And it's great to have a vision, but to be
competitive and to not wasteyour money, you really have to
have some type of strategy thatthat's pulled from people who
know what they're doing and whatbuckets to put it in Right.
Speaker 1 (25:49):
Right, so let me, let me, let me give you a
difference between a realmarketing plan and some
marketing plan that you knowpeople just put together, Right?
Speaker 2 (25:57):
OK.
Speaker 1 (25:58):
So most marketing plans are generic.
They have the same informationyou know which is the target
market.
All of that's been taught Right.
A real marketing plan has data,though, and that's that's the
secret.
That's the secret between amarketing plan, which I think
this is going to work, to amarketing plan that I know is
going to calculate.
(26:18):
At risk is the data.
Can you tell me how much thesekeywords cost?
Can you tell me how many peoplelive in the city?
Can you tell me, uh, how many P?
Based on the people that areliving in the city, how many
people are actually interested?
Can you tell me, um, you knowhow many people based on the
city, right?
How many impressions are we?
Can you tell me, um, you knowhow many people based on the
city, right?
How many impressions are we?
(26:40):
Are we thinking about gettingokay To get those engagements,
to get those conversions?
And then, based on that data,how much budget do I actually
need in order for me to get theconversion?
And so what people do is theywalk in and they're like look,
listen, I know they're in Texas,I know that they.
You know that they love candy,right?
(27:02):
I don't know, I was just sayingsomething, right?
I know they love candy, so Iknow they're going to buy.
Speaker 2 (27:07):
See, and I have we have seen a lot of clients in
that same situation that areseasoned, They've already begun
their business and they've said,yeah, I have a ton of following
, but we do the analysis as towhether or not that following
our customers and whether or notthey're converting Right.
We we've seen thousands andthousands of followers and none
(27:30):
of them buy.
Speaker 1 (27:31):
I'm telling you right now, I've seen some horror
stories.
Okay, I've taken some clientsright before us, okay, and now
I've seen some horror storiesokay, I've taken some clients
right before us, okay, and uh,yeah, they have a large
following, and a large followingit's um on facebook, right and
um, the following wasn't evenlocal, it was in third world
countries, okay, and it's like,well, where was your money going
, you know?
(27:52):
and we look into that in thestrategy phase Right it was a
demographic and we were likethis this following isn't going
to do you anything.
I'm going to build you a brandnew following, because your
followers are in a third worldcountry, right, so we need to
spend some.
You know, if it cameorganically, great.
Right, but if it came, I paidfor it.
(28:14):
Then we have a real problem,right, because now like, why?
Right?
Speaker 2 (28:19):
A lot of smoke and mirrors.
Exactly, exactly.
Speaker 1 (28:22):
And and that's another thing about our, you
know, discovery and our strategyand ensuring that you have the
right strategy is that is, thatyou, you know, have clarity,
right, transp, transparency, um,that you can understand here's,
here's the deal, like I, I getit, I get it.
Trust me, I've, uh, you know, Irun three companies.
(28:44):
I run, you know, a co-workingspace, a software company and a
marketing agency.
Every decision you make, um, islike a telescope, right, I mean
, I mean, I'm, I'm magnifyingglass it's like a telescope
right, I mean, I'm magnifyingglass.
It's like, okay, something'sbound to happen, okay, and every
decision you make, is this theright decision or is this the
wrong decision?
(29:04):
Right, and it goes back to riskand I keep on saying that, and I
keep on emphasizing that inthis podcast, because the risk
of starting a business is high97% of businesses fail.
Okay, only 3% make it, trulymake it, and you just saw the
stats of 3% and it's not toscare anybody, but it's the
(29:28):
reality.
It's the reality that you can'tjust jump into marketing, you
can't just jump into business.
You have to think, you have tostrategize, you have to know
where you're going, right, and.
And so you have to have answers, uh, before you start investing
, and.
And so, as a business owner,you're like, well, I gotta make
(29:49):
this work.
I gotta make this work, and Ifear for you.
I, I do feel for you, right,and because I I get it, because
the, the financial stress, thefinancial burden, we all have
families to feed and all thiskind of stuff, right, and.
But we're, at the end of theday, we're all in competition.
Speaker 2 (30:04):
Right Every single day.
So, brian, for a final closingquestion from me what are some
quick wins, any tips people canget just by analyzing their
current data differently?
Speaker 1 (30:17):
Yeah, quick wins.
So quick wins would be who doyou have customers?
That's number one.
Speaker 2 (30:25):
Okay.
Speaker 1 (30:26):
And who are the customers and you also have to
think about.
Are they the right customers?
Speaker 2 (30:30):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (30:30):
You know, I know this for a fact, like as your
business grows, your marketchanges, right, which is another
thing.
Right.
Your business may not be doingthe same thing as it was doing
last year as this year, which isanother thing.
Right.
Your business may not be doingthe same thing as it was doing
last year as this year, which iswhy I think you need to do
strategy every year.
Speaker 2 (30:47):
Absolutely Re-evaluate where you are.
Are your customers referralpartners?
Speaker 1 (30:53):
Yeah, yeah.
And so to do a quick win, to behonest with you, to do a quick
win is to analyze who yourcurrent customers are right now,
who is their target market, youknow how old are they, how do
they find this right?
And then you know what do theylike about just doing interviews
with your current customers,and that way you can kind of
(31:14):
understand at least your personaright.
And when you build out yourpersona, then you can kind of
expand on that and saying, okay,now that I know my persona, now
I know who they are, what theylike, what they like to do, how
old are they, that kind of stuff.
Now we can start to expand.
Speaker 2 (31:30):
Right.
Speaker 1 (31:32):
You know they live on Facebook, they live on Google.
Ok, all, right, now we canstart to expand on that
marketing plan.
Slowly but surely, gets you toa true marketing plan, the thing
where you're going to have todefine the data that you are
going to need an expert in isthe data, right.
(31:53):
And so, if you have thatinformation, now what is the
data that you're not seeingright?
The keywords, the change in youknow, even you know real estate
agents they have to know thistoo, right who's moving in and
who's moving out of cities,things of that nature, Um and so
um.
A lot of it's about that, right, strategizing for data, uh, and
then so here, here's, here'skind of what I want to go
through before we startanswering questions is I know
(32:15):
people are like, okay, well, Iunderstand, this is a lot of
information, right.
Um so here's, here's what itboils down to.
It boils down to you know a fewthings, right, and I kept on
repeating myself.
But bear with me, I'm going togo through this entire marketing
plan in my head right now,right, Cook?
(32:35):
So, first off, it's what is thebusiness?
Okay, what is your executivesummary?
Speaker 2 (32:43):
Okay.
Speaker 1 (32:43):
Who are you?
What do you do?
What are your service?
What are your products?
What do you have to offer?
Okay, and is it, um, is it a uh?
Is it?
You know, something that themarket demands?
So supply and demand right, isit going to be accepted in the
market?
So, who are you as a business?
That's an overview of youroverview of your business, right
, okay, and then we get into thetarget market.
(33:06):
Okay, so then we get into thetarget market.
Is who are your customers?
Right, uh, how old are they?
Yada, yada, yeah, right, uh,interest, behaviors you know
things of that nature,absolutely.
Genders, all of that stuff,okay.
Now we get into demo graphics.
Okay, demographics is where dothey live?
(33:26):
Okay, where do they live?
How big are these cities?
Right, um, what zip codes?
Um, you know, and what in thedemographic is that demographic
changing?
interesting because, because welive in Texas, you know how the
landscape of Texas has changed.
(33:46):
Because people from Californiaare moving to Texas, the shift
of Texas itself is changing.
Speaker 2 (33:52):
Absolutely.
I mean, it's always been alittle different depending on
where you go North, south, east,west it's like a completely
different state.
Speaker 1 (33:59):
The mentality of Texas is completely changing.
It's slowly but surely changing, yes, like a completely
different state.
The mentality of Texas iscompletely changing and you have
, it's slowly but surelychanging, you know, and it's
going to change eventually.
It's just how markets work.
Same thing with California,same thing with New York.
So, demographics, right.
So then you have thedemographics All right.
So now you know your, yourbusiness, you know your target
market, you know yourdemographic.
(34:20):
Then you get into the digitallandscapes.
Okay.
So then you go into channels,right, and you go into channels.
You go into google.
Are they on google?
Are they on facebook?
Are they instagram?
Are they on x?
Are they on tiktok?
Based on their targetdemographic and the target
market and a demographic, thebehaviors and interests, will
(34:41):
tell you and dictate whatchannels you want to be on,
right?
Is it Google?
We talked about that earlier.
How much am I supposed to beinvesting in Google?
Is it Facebook?
Is it Instagram?
Is it TikTok?
Okay, so you got channels.
Speaker 2 (34:55):
And whether or not I would like to add on to that
whether or not your channels arereaching that demographic,
because I can have a lot ofpeople on linkedin that I know
are completely different,different demographic than the
people I'm going to find oninstagram that are buyers right,
those are, those are important.
So if you're dumping money intoone thing, that's not
benefiting you at the end of theday or reaching your
(35:16):
demographic.
This is why you need a strategyyep, exactly, and and and.
Speaker 1 (35:21):
So you know you get down to the channels, okay, and
then here we go.
It gets beyond that, right, andthat's why.
So you're now okay.
So I've already done some work,I've got the channels All right
.
What technology am I using inthe company?
Speaker 2 (35:37):
Ooh.
Speaker 1 (35:38):
So what technology am I going to use to build what
I'm about to build?
Okay, so now you're, you're,you're now that just through a
lot of businesses owners into adeep dive right here, because
there's so many CRMs, there's somany website builders, there's
so many all this other stuff.
There's so much technology.
(35:59):
There is so much technology.
You get overwhelmed.
You're like I don't know, I don.
So much technology, there is somuch technology.
Speaker 2 (36:04):
you get overwhelmed, you're like I don't know, I
don't know, I don't know what todo and how much money you
should spend on each of thoseright exactly because the
technology now affects yourmarketing campaigns, the way you
build, the way you launch, theway you grow and scale.
Speaker 1 (36:15):
Okay, and so what technology?
You know, I was just getting anexample we build websites on
shopify, wordpress, all kinds ofstuff, right?
So what?
What CMS system are we using tobuild this website specifically
for operations and marketingpurposes?
Ok, what's CRM customerrelation management system?
Ok, then am I going to be using?
Because, see, while you're onlythinking, I need to get it,
(36:38):
because a lot of this was aboutstrategy, getting in front of
people.
Speaker 2 (36:40):
Right.
Speaker 1 (36:42):
The marketing plan doesn't stop there.
The marketing plan is if that3% are going to convert, then
how do you keep them convertingand bringing in more people?
Well you have to have a CRM inplace.
What does those drip campaignslook like?
Right, if they fill out a formon the website.
So if you fill out a form andyou got viewers on here today,
and I appreciate you guys, butthere's some automation
(37:03):
happening, you're probably goingto get some hit up follow ups
after this.
I'm sorry about that, but it'sall automation, right it's.
How do we keep in engaged withpeople that are viewing online?
Speaker 2 (37:12):
And is your CRM collecting the data you need to
reengage the people that want tobe?
Speaker 1 (37:17):
Exactly, and so that's part of the marketing
plan.
Okay, that's part of themarketing strategy, right?
It's not just how much money amI spending on advertising, it's
how much money am I spending ontechnology.
All of this has to do with thengoing back to the budget.
See you now, okay.
So once you have all thisinformation, then you now have
(37:38):
to break the budget up.
Now you have to dissect thebudget.
How much am I spending onadvertising as far as google
campaigns, facebook ads, rightto get awareness?
Speaker 2 (37:50):
just the brand, just the brand awareness.
Speaker 1 (37:52):
How do I, how much money do I need to get people to
?
Hey, here I am.
Click on me, go to my websiteright how much money do I need
to spend to where?
Now they're on the website?
Did I build a beautiful websitethat actually has enough
information, enough video,enough photography to get them
to engage?
Absolutely okay, how much moneybudget do I need to?
(38:16):
Then?
If only three percent converted?
Okay, if only three percentconverts, how much money do I
need to spend to get in front ofthem again?
Speaker 2 (38:27):
or get them to buy again.
Speaker 1 (38:28):
E-commerce is going to be completely different,
right well, if they, you know,have you ever gone to a website?
You've ever gone to a website?
And then you go to social mediaand you feel like they're
following you.
Oh, absolutely.
Those are called retargetingads.
It's because we're trying toget you to convert.
So now, how much money do youhave you have allocated for
retargeting ads?
Speaker 2 (38:48):
Which gets my husband .
Every time, by the way, it getsme too, okay, and then you have
.
Speaker 1 (38:54):
So you have the conversion portion of the budget
, which is retargeting adcampaigns.
You know things that will helpwith you know conversion,
specifically getting leads.
And then you have you noticethat we're going through the
awareness, engagement,conversion, delight.
Okay, so here we go.
So you get them to convert.
(39:14):
You get them to convert.
Do you have a strategy in placeto get them to be excited?
Right, like onboarding welcomepackets, promotional goods,
things of that nature to say,hey, you're part of the team.
That also needs to be a part ofyour marketing strategy.
Speaker 2 (39:33):
To ask them to be referral partners If you had a
great experience.
Speaker 1 (39:36):
Well, you just beat me to the punch here, because
all I'm trying to do is get youexcited and delighted.
I'm happy that you're happyabout my service and product.
I'm happy that you're you'reyou're part of the team which is
in the advocation, which is howmuch budget do I have to
advocate to get more reviews,testimonial videos?
(39:57):
you know referrals, right?
Do you see how much complexitywe just went through?
And that was a lot of time,right, that takes time to figure
out and map out.
See, when you're doing strategy, you're not just sitting there
saying I got an idea, I'm goingto copy my competitors, because
that's what happens all the time.
Speaker 2 (40:16):
I got an idea.
Speaker 1 (40:17):
I'm going to copy my competitors.
If they did it, I can do it.
No, no, no, no, no.
Speaker 2 (40:23):
We utilize almost every point person on our team
to help create this strategy foreach client, do we not?
Speaker 1 (40:29):
Yep, you have to figure out each departmental
expert and then figure outexactly how to invest your money
, and so here's.
Here's what I'm going toactually do right now is because
I know we're running out oftime here, but I'm looking at
people and there's got to be aswitch.
Okay, you have to know when toflip the switch.
(40:50):
Are you a business owner or areyou an investor?
Speaker 2 (40:55):
okay, and so figure that out, right, no?
Speaker 1 (40:58):
no, hold on because you have to be both.
If you're a small business owner.
So if you're a small businessowner, you are too an investor,
ok, and you have to know how toflip the switch.
A business owner's role is tomanage, operate OK.
An investor's role is tounderstand what they're
investing in, and so if youcan't understand how to invest
(41:21):
in marketing, then you shouldn'tbe investing in marketing,
right, and so that's why we haveto choose.
We have to tell people you haveto do a discovery.
You have to do a discoverybecause that is your roadmap to
understand what you're investingin.
Right, it's not my roadmap.
I am not here.
I'm not here to take your money.
(41:42):
I'm here to help you investyour money in your business, and
so you have to understand yourblueprint.
You have to understand howyou're going to market and how
you're going to invest in yourmarketing.
Okay, and so that's what we do.
When we do a discovery, when wedo a strategy session, it's not
for us to protect, it's not forus just to take money.
(42:05):
It's actually our fiduciaryresponsibility.
I stole that from financialadvisors.
Speaker 2 (42:12):
I like that.
Speaker 1 (42:12):
Fiduciary responsibility to protect your
money as the investor.
So you understand exactly whereyour money is going and how
we're going to build, launch,grow and scale your marketing.
Speaker 2 (42:23):
Right Cause we're not setting people up for failure.
For them to be successful is areferral for us to be successful
, wouldn't you say?
Speaker 1 (42:31):
Exactly their success .
Your success is our success,right, and so we don't want, we
just don't want you to beunsuccessful, right and so, um,
I'm going to.
I got.
Speaker 2 (42:42):
I think we're in a Q&A time right, yeah, we can
start answering a couple ofquestions.
One of the questions I had ishow do I know if I'm targeting
the right audience?
Speaker 1 (42:53):
You'll know you're targeting the right audience if,
honestly, if they're engagingright, take a look at the
engagement.
You first take a look at theengagement to see if they're
even responding.
Are they even messaging you onFacebook?
Are they commenting on Facebook?
Are they inquiring?
(43:16):
Okay, right.
Another thing to know if you'reactually targeting the right
target market is, once thoseengagements coming in, is
analyzing those, those forms.
You know, I, I've seen thishappen, this happens all the
time.
Okay, so you will get spammed,and if you get spammed, you're
doing something right, uh, butyou're also, you need to do some
(43:37):
enhancements.
You're also doing somethingwrong, okay, because, um, this
happened to us.
Speaker 2 (43:42):
I mean, we got a bunch of Russian forms being
filled out yes, tons of themover a month period of time,
right, and they weren'tconverting.
I was spending more time onqualifying whether or not it was
spam or real than I was onactually having the introductory
calls with people that neededme.
Speaker 1 (44:01):
Yeah, yeah, so it's.
It's one of those things whereyou, you, you will know, uh, if
you're targeting the rightmarket, um, when inquiries are
coming, if they're real and youknow they're they're actually
inquiring and they're legitimateyou're targeting the right
markets, Okay.
Speaker 2 (44:17):
So another question I had which kind of leeways after
this one is how long should Itest a campaign before I pivot?
Speaker 1 (44:25):
Oh, that's a good one .
Um, okay, so typically at leasttwo weeks.
Um, so you, at least you haveto have something.
Okay, a lot of people want topivot, like on the same day.
Uh, they're like, oh, let mejust launch this campaign.
It's not working.
It's not working, let me, wegot to change something, we got
to change something.
It's not working.
It's not working, let me, wegotta change something.
We gotta change something.
It's not working.
I'm spending money.
It's not work.
Speaker 2 (44:46):
It's like frantic right and I get it because we're
investing money but you can'tbe frantic when you're an
investor so about two weeks tosee if a campaign's working.
It's kind of like the stockmarket it goes up and down, but
it's exactly like the stockmarket.
Speaker 1 (45:00):
Yeah know, because what's the rude word of
marketing?
Speaker 2 (45:03):
Market.
I think we've all learned thattoday, okay, and the last
question I have right now iswhen should I invest in ads,
before or after my strategy isbuilt?
I'm assuming this question wasasked before you went through
the last portion of what wementioned, but to reiterate.
So yeah, the last portion ofwhat we mentioned, but to
reiterate.
Speaker 1 (45:22):
So yeah, so ads should never be spent unless you
do a strategy and a build phasefirst.
So you first have to strategizewhat you're going to be doing,
Then you have to build theassets.
There's no point of advertisingif you don't have the right
campaign, the right video, theright image, the right.
You have to have the rightmessage to get get out there,
(45:43):
because you know everybody wantsto advertise, because they want
leads now.
But if you don't have the fundsto build the right campaign
before you start advertising,you're already dead in the water
, Right, and so don't advertisewithout the right, proper
campaign first.
Uh, strategize, first, buildthe message, right.
So strategize first.
(46:03):
Then we build the message, the,the website, the social, you
know the social media campaigns,the, the um, the uh, commercial
, whatever we're going to bedoing, uh, and then, and then we
advertise, right, Make sure youhave the proper assets, which
is going to be leading into thenext phase, which is building,
right, which is next episode,next week.
(46:24):
It's about building and you knowwe're taking this step by step.
So today was strategy, you knownext week is build.
Then we got launch growth scale, right, Absolutely.
But if we're going to betalking about building the right
assets before you launch.
So by the end of this podcastyou'll know the entire structure
of Advert Trinity and how we'vebeen successful in helping
(46:46):
businesses.
Speaker 2 (46:47):
And that's what I was going to mention.
If any of our viewers out theregot value from today, it's
because strategy works.
It's backed by data anddelivered with purpose, and who
better to tell us how it worksthan the person that's helping
do it for himself?
The CEO of this digitalmarketing agency.
So please subscribe on whateveryou're viewing this on and come
(47:08):
see us next week for the nextphase of this, because
throughout the next few weeks,you could really change the
whole way your business issuccessful.
We'll see you next time onMarketing with Atma.
Speaker 1 (47:20):
Appreciate you guys take care.
Welcome to the Atma podcast, where we share the tips
, tools and strategies you'llneed to help your business be
successful.
I'm your host story and todaywe have on the show none other
than the CEO of Advent TrinityMarketing Agency, mr Brian
Acosta.
Welcome, brian.
Speaker 1 (00:29):
Hey, hey, hey.
Thank you guys for joining us.
Appreciate you.
We had some technicaldifficulties before trying to
figure this thing out, but we'rehere now.
We're here now.
Speaker 2 (00:38):
Hey, as long as we made it, that's all that matters
, right, as long as you show up.
Speaker 1 (00:42):
Yeah, we'll edit that rest of the stuff later.
Speaker 2 (00:48):
It's all right.
So, um, what are we talkingabout today?
We are talking about thefoundation of great marketing
and what is that?
Speaker 1 (00:52):
the strategy, yes, strategy so.
Speaker 2 (00:55):
So let's just dive into the basics, why a
structured and essentialstrategy is so important and
helps you save time, money andfrustration.
Let's start with the basics,Brian.
Why do so many businesses skipthis?
Speaker 1 (01:15):
They skip the strategy.
I think a lot of people skipstrategy when it comes to
marketing because you'reinnovative with all this
information online, right, ofcourse, that marketing is easy,
business is easy.
Look at me, I did it.
If you did it my way, you couldget the same results.
And I think the problem no, Idon't think the problem.
(01:36):
The problem is that that is sofalse, right?
And because there's so muchcompetition there's so much
competition in today's age andworld that you have to be able
to compete, right, you have tobe able to compete throughout
the competitors and andunderstand that doing things
(01:56):
differently, right, you have todo different to compete.
Because if you're doing the samething as your competitors, you,
you all, are generating thesame results, which means that
the market becomes saturated,and then you're really not
generating anything at thatpoint, right.
And then your competitors,they're not going to let you
compete like that.
Speaker 2 (02:16):
So what's the cost of not having a strategy in your
mind, in your mindset?
And since you've been withAdvent Trinity and launched a
lot of other businesses as well,what would you say the cost of
not having a strategy?
Speaker 1 (02:29):
The cost of not having a strategy is that you're
taking a massive risk with yourbusiness right, and we all know
that risk is inevitable when itcomes to business and marketing
.
Speaker 2 (02:41):
Of course.
Speaker 1 (02:42):
Like everybody, takes a risk.
In fact, the reason I have mytablet is because I wanted to
bring this data up and thisinformation up into this podcast
.
Was the statistics, realnumbers real numbers.
So I always say that 97% ofbusinesses fail, but let's take
a deeper dive into the reality.
Speaker 2 (03:02):
Okay.
Speaker 1 (03:03):
So 20.4% of businesses fail within their
first year.
49.4% fell within the firstfive years.
Okay, 65.3% fell within thefirst 10 years.
Wow, right, so and then?
Okay, so you have all right.
I see you know the failure rate, yada, yada, okay.
(03:27):
Well, now let's take a look atthe marketing.
Speaker 2 (03:30):
Right, what did they do?
Speaker 1 (03:31):
Well, no, no, no.
The marketing statistics.
Let me take a look at thismarketing statistics.
This is what's going to scareyou.
Speaker 2 (03:36):
Okay.
So the average websiteconversion rate across
industries is 2.35 percent andconversion rate, meaning people
that come to your website lookat something, click on it and
become a client inquire okayinquiry wow, 35 percent.
Speaker 1 (03:54):
And e-commerce conversion rate averages
anywhere from two to fourpercent, and that varies for
industry.
And the thing is is that theseare very low numbers, right,
they are very low, okay.
Email marketing, uh, you know,boost average roi of 36 to 40.
You know, email marketing ispretty good, right, but you look
at the three percent, you lookat the two percent, and that's
(04:15):
so.
Why would, why would I spendmoney on digital marketing?
Is is what some people are.
If that's such low, right, andit's because you don't know the
numbers.
You don't know the numbers tounderstand how to strategize
okay, so how do we find thosenumbers?
the numbers is basically alreadyhere.
You already have in yourmindset two to three percent
(04:35):
which means you, if you onlyhave two to three percent of
success, success rate, right,right of marketing.
You don't want to just throwmoney at marketing and hope for
the best exactly it seems like ahuge waste of money trying to
figure out what works right andso, and it's not just um, it's
(04:56):
not just the, the, the, it's notjust the business owners okay,
it's all marketers too, like, uh, if marketers don't actually
sit down and do the strategy?
And there's some marketers outthere, right, quote unquote
quote unquote.
And uh, if they don't sit downand actually do the strategy or
they actually sit down andfigure out exactly what kind of
(05:20):
campaign, who am I trying totarget market?
who am I trying to be in frontof what uh message?
Am I trying to uh proceed tothem?
Right then, that two percentcould easily be less than one
percent?
Wow, right, and so you're.
You're taking a gamble.
Anytime you do a business,right, you take a gamble right,
(05:41):
absolutely and in marketing it'sthe same thing.
You're gambling, you're taking arisk, and the fact that people
don't sit down and actually, youknow, think about what they're
actually going to be doing,strategizing, is just baffling
to me.
You know, we, we as a company,we do a discovery.
Speaker 2 (06:01):
That's what I was going to ask next.
So can you walk us through howAdvent Trinity approaches
planning a campaign beforeanything is built?
Speaker 1 (06:08):
Yes, so we do discovery right.
In fact, we recently stoppeddoing we stopped gauging clients
without doing discovery.
Like if you come to us and youwant marketing and you don't do
a discovery, we just won't domarketing for you, and here's
why.
So we've taken a look at thenumbers internally.
(06:31):
We've taken a look at thenumbers internally and those who
did not do a discovery have ahigher risk of failure than
those who did discovery.
Speaker 2 (06:41):
Absolutely.
Speaker 1 (06:47):
Those who did discovery have a higher success
rate than those who didn't dodiscovery.
And um, what is a discoveryright?
The discovery is, uh, where wesit down, we first get to know
the customer and the client back, you know, but we get to know
them more than they knowthemselves absolutely and bring
up those questions right thatthat really makes them think is
is this what my prospect is?
(07:07):
yes, exactly like.
Do they even know who?
Because in their heads theythey have an idea of who their
target market is, they have anidea of their prospects.
Uh, they have an idea of what'sgoing to work, but they don't
have the data.
Okay, right, and so part of thepart of the discovery is the
research.
Right Is understanding the data.
(07:28):
Who are we going to be in frontof?
What is it going to take?
How much money is it going totake?
What are those?
Click?
You know the cost per clicksfor the keywords.
All of those is data that weutilize to figure out.
Ok, how much advertisingdollars do you really need in
order for us to get a return oninvestment?
Speaker 2 (07:44):
Absolutely.
You always say that datadoesn't lie, right?
So if we're seeing results prosor cons from your competitors,
we can learn from that, right,and that's only through data and
investigation into what exactlyyou're doing and how others are
doing it.
Right, right, exactly, okay,okay.
Speaker 1 (08:01):
And so you know.
So we do research and then wedo a full marketing plan.
Ok, and that marketing plan, wesit down and after we've
reviewed the research, we gothrough the data.
We start to figure out, ok,what channels, what channels are
we doing, who's our persona,how are we going to engage?
Right, and you would think,well, shouldn't every marketing
(08:24):
company do that?
And you're absolutely right.
Speaker 2 (08:27):
You would assume that that's what happens, right.
Speaker 1 (08:29):
Right.
But here's the thing A lot ofbusiness owners when they think,
okay, they should be doing that, but they should be doing it a
part of my service fee, right,and that's not true.
Speaker 2 (08:40):
It's absolutely not.
I would say most of our clientscome to us from those types of
agencies and they're like well,it didn't work before.
Speaker 1 (08:47):
Well, because they didn't do strategy.
So what they did was a cookiecutter marketing plan.
They did a cookie cutter adcampaign that they did for
somebody else, that it worked.
And so they're doing the samething for you, right, and now
that's because, and all of asudden, it's not working.
You know, they said that wasgoing to work, but it's not
working.
And it's like, yes, because youare different from your
(09:09):
competitor.
Speaker 2 (09:10):
Right.
What are the key metrics?
Are you saying that the keymetrics and tools you use to
look at first are what theiraudience is really and what
channels?
And when you say channels, doyou mean social media or do you
mean Google?
What channels?
Speaker 1 (09:25):
channels?
Do you mean social media, or doyou mean Google?
What channels?
So let me walk you through this, because it kind of varies from
from client to client, Right.
So you know when we're doingdiscovery.
Like I said, the first phase isjust understanding the business
.
The second phase is that marketresearch.
Ok.
So if a client comes to us andsays, well, I think I need to be
on Google market research, Okay, so if a client comes to us and
(09:46):
says, well, I think I need tobe on Google, All right, Well
you know, google has manyfactors of ranking.
You've got local SEO.
You've got local service ads.
You've got Google ads.
You've got PPC.
You've got, you know, gemini.
Now, right, it's just AI, andso it's like, okay, so let's
find out what the real estate isright and what's my best
investment there.
And then you have to take well,if I'm going to do PPC, how
(10:07):
much do those keywords actuallycost?
And how competitive, is it Right?
And so, like you know, everyindustry is different, and if
you can at least understand thekeyword competitives, especially
in your geographic area, thenyou're better to invest your
marketing dollars, right.
Speaker 2 (10:23):
Which is part of your discovery analysis.
Right, finding those keyphrases and those keywords that
are going to make you give youmore exposure.
Correct, right, exactly.
Speaker 1 (10:33):
And so, and then you got the keyword research right
and then so that's just PPC.
Another part of discovery islike, let's say, we get a
customer and they have a brandnew concept because we've gotten
this before.
They have a brand new conceptbecause we've gotten this before
.
They have a brand new concept.
Okay, when you have a brand newconcept is is there a market
for this product?
Okay, and you know, I alwaysask this question Do you know
(10:56):
the root word of marketing?
Speaker 2 (10:58):
What is the root word of marketing?
Market?
It's market right.
Speaker 1 (11:02):
So the market.
Is there a a market?
Do you understand?
The market is there supply, andin market, it's very simple.
It's supply and demand, right,and so is there a demand for
this product or service thatyou're offering?
Okay, uh, and how competitiveis it right?
Is it saturated?
(11:22):
Does anybody know anythingabout this?
And they were like well,there's not competition because
nobody's doing what we're doing.
That is wrong.
Speaker 2 (11:31):
There is always competition right always
competition that's why we haveindustries right well, they're
industries.
Speaker 1 (11:37):
But you know, just because um you your product
solves a solution, doesn't meanthat another product or service
doesn't solve that solution aswell.
Speaker 2 (11:47):
Absolutely.
Speaker 1 (11:47):
And it may be solving it in a different way, and
you're still competing forattention, right, absolutely.
And then how well will yourproduct or service be accepted
in the market?
is another question will yourproduct or service be accepted
(12:08):
in the market is anotherquestion, and so all of that
research dictates how you'regoing to be do the next campaign
.
And so you're thinking.
Well, you know, there's a lotof questions in the air, and if
you're, if you're listeningright now and you're like man,
that gives me a lot of questions, I'm starting to think about
all kinds of things in mybusiness.
You're right, because you don'tjust want to build a campaign,
you don't just want to build awebsite.
You want to build the rightmessage, the right campaign and
(12:31):
be in front of the right personat the right time, because if
the numbers are true which theyare and then only 2.35% of
website conversions happen onthe website, it 2.35% of website
conversions happen on thewebsite, then you only have
(12:51):
2.35% chance to get somebody'sattention.
Speaker 2 (12:52):
In the word you said time.
Are you in front of youraudience at the right timeframe
In the discovery which I thinkis a key factor in the longevity
of how long your business lasts?
Are you planning appropriatelyIf it is a new business that no
one's ever touched?
How long does the brandawareness phase take until you
have conversions?
Speaker 1 (13:12):
right, and so a lot of those questions, um, there
are.
They are answered in thestrategy, uh, because, um, you
know, time is etas, right,everything is about eta.
You know, we can get an idea ofhow long it will take, uh, but
there's no direct answer.
And and that's the thing islike, marketers always want to
(13:32):
guarantee something, right.
And you can't you can'tguarantee return on investment,
which you can't.
This is what we can guarantee.
Anybody who's listening canguarantee this is what you can
be guaranteed.
You can be guaranteed clicks toyour website.
You can be guaranteed, you know, visitors to your page,
engagement All those things canbe guaranteed.
(13:52):
What can't be guaranteed is youcan lead the horse to the water
, but you can't force the waterto drink.
I mean, you can't force thehorse to drink right, absolutely
.
And so here's the issue thoughyou know I believe in that,
that's true.
Okay, now there is a flip sideto that, because I do believe
(14:15):
that you can convince the horseto drink only if you know what
the horse is thinking and how tocommunicate it to it?
Speaker 2 (14:23):
And how do you learn and know what the horse is
thinking?
Speaker 1 (14:26):
you have to do strategy, you have to plan, you
have to, you have to strategize,you have to plan, you have to
get into the mind of the userright and so that that's part of
the strategy is like, beforeyou build anything, do you know
who your customers are and doyou know who your prospects are?
Do you know what they like?
Speaker 2 (14:47):
do you know where they?
Speaker 1 (14:48):
live.
Do you truly know?
And a lot of people are like Iknow, I, I truly know, I truly
know.
Well, if you can't write aBible on your customer, you
don't know right.
Speaker 2 (14:58):
so how do you balance creativity with data when
building marketing strategies?
Speaker 1 (15:04):
So so you take that data right, right, and then,
based on that data, you're thenable to create personas.
Okay.
So you're you're able to createmake believe customers that
resemble the customers that youcurrently have.
You're able to say you're ableto then, and if you've done your
data and you kind of figure out, you know their lingo right,
you're able to say you're ableto then, and if you've done your
(15:25):
dad and you kind of figure out,you know they're lingo right,
you're able to do like a brandvoice Okay.
Speaker 2 (15:29):
Okay.
Speaker 1 (15:30):
Let me put this in perspective.
We actually have two customers,two customers that are in two
different states.
Ok, you know, one in Texas, onein New Mexico.
Ok, I am not going to say thesame thing I say in Texas as I
do in New Mexico.
There's two different brandvoices, two different ways to
(15:50):
say it, two different ways of,you know, basically engaging
those, those customers.
You have to say thingsdifferently.
You just, you just have toright absolutely you can't
expect to go from one market,which is Texas, and do the same
thing in New Mexico right, orNew York for that matter and it
(16:11):
doesn't even matter if they'rethe same service of product.
Okay, the way you say things intexas are going to be different
than what you say in new mexicoand it matters and it does
matter, right, and so that'swhere that data, right, that
data, the the uh, interest andbehaviors, all those things,
that kind of data that's wherethat ball is in is because what
(16:32):
are we saying that they aregoing to actually engage in,
they're going to get a like,they're going to like right,
right.
And it's easier when you have alocal marketing company because
they're local, right and so theyunderstand that you know like,
we're based in Texas, so we knoweverything in and out of Texas.
Speaker 2 (16:48):
Right.
Speaker 1 (16:48):
But if we're going to market to somebody in New
Mexico, we have to understandhow they speak, what they like,
what they don't like Right.
Understand how they speak whatthey like, what they don't like
Right.
Build a brand voice behind thatso that it gets accepted in
that market.
Speaker 2 (17:02):
Of course you know you got the.
Speaker 1 (17:05):
It's like the North and the South.
You would not do the sameSouthern hospitality type
marketing in the South than youwould do in the North.
Speaker 2 (17:14):
Right and calling someone ma'am even is completely
different here than it is inNew Jersey.
Sometimes that's seennegatively.
So, being a marketing company,not only do we have to do that
deep dive analysis, but ournetworking partners really come
into play when we're doingthings outside of our state,
understanding their demographicand their verbiage and how they
(17:37):
do it, and that all comes intoplay when we create the strategy
for a client right.
Yep, okay, great.
So tell me what's a strategymyth that you see entrepreneurs
fall for all the time?
Speaker 1 (17:50):
a strategy myth that okay, that's a good question.
So a myth I guess a myth wouldbe is I can do the same strategy
as somebody else.
If I can copy that strategy,I'll get the same return on
investment, and that is a huge,huge waste of time.
Why?
Because if you're doing exactlywhat your competitors are doing
(18:11):
, they're going to adjust andall you're going to do is be
behind the ball.
You're going to be behind yourdo is be behind the ball.
You're gonna be behind yourcompetitors a hundred percent of
the time.
It doesn't matter, you know.
You know what you're doing ifall you're doing is copying your
competitors right and um, andyou think that I'm gonna get the
the same return on investment.
Well, think about these largercorporations, right?
(18:34):
This particular perspective.
Let's not take it to smallcompanies anymore.
Let's think about these largercorporations, right.
Let's take this in perspective.
Let's not talk about smallcompanies anymore.
Let's think about bigcorporations.
Big corporations, right?
You talk about these massive,and all I see we're in a tech
company, right?
In a technology world.
In the tech world, the softwareworld, once you replicate a same
solution as a software, they'realready on to the next, and all
(18:56):
you're doing is playing behindthe ball.
So you have to eventually catchup to them, and then you have
to then advance them with adifferent solution that they
don't even have, right?
That's how you.
That's how you overthink themarket, right?
And so you overcome the marketby doing something different.
(19:16):
So you know, know, if themarket is always changing and
people in business are alwayschanging, then why are people
trying to do the same marketingas other people?
Speaker 2 (19:27):
and when you're doing the same marketing as other
people, are you factoring in theprice point that that's going
to cost you?
Speaker 1 (19:33):
right, exactly, because if you're, you know
bidding right.
So let's just say I want to doexactly the same thing as my
competitor.
Well, if you're you okay.
So let's just say google, forexample okay, that's a big one
uh, so google?
Um, it's about bidding forkeywords.
You have the same keywords, youhave the same exact plan, exact
plan as your competitor.
(19:53):
Same keywords.
You've put neck to neck right.
That value of that keyword isgoing to get higher and higher
and higher and eventually it'sgoing to be out of your budget.
Speaker 2 (20:03):
What do you mean by value of keywords?
So the more someone uses it,the more Google charges?
Speaker 1 (20:09):
for you to utilize it right, Because saturation it's
important to know, yeah.
So what happens is like you knowyou're trying to do the same
thing as your competitors, butyou don't realize that you're
just actually blowing moneyinstead of trying to do
something different to gainpartials of those tractions of
the market.
Remember, the root word ofmarketing is market.
(20:32):
And how do you get parts of themarket in different ways and
then eventually compete withyour competitors or out-compete
your competitors to takeportions of that market right?
And so that's why strategy isso important.
A lot of people theymisperceive strategy.
It's like okay, I don't need tothink about it, I just really
(20:54):
need a marketing company.
Speaker 2 (20:55):
I know I need social media, and here's marketing
company, I know I need socialmedia, and here's the deal.
Speaker 1 (20:59):
Everybody knows they need social media.
Everybody knows they need awebsite.
Everybody knows they need to beon Google.
Everybody knows that they needto be somewhere right on the
internet.
They need an online presence.
But what is the actual strategythat you're going to be doing?
Speaker 2 (21:17):
And so we have a structured plan right.
Speaker 1 (21:18):
Right, we have the build, launch, grow scale
philosophy, which we're gonna gothrough this entire show.
I'm excited to do this, right.
But the reason why I wanted tostart with strategy first is
because nobody everybody wantsto build.
Oh, I want my website.
I want to look awesome, right?
I want the videos.
Speaker 2 (21:35):
I want the photos I need to have somewhere for them
to go to exactly.
Speaker 1 (21:40):
Okay, so, and but I need you to do it, okay, so you
need me to strategize, correct?
Yes, so we need to sit down,take time which we're not
talking a day, and we're nottalking a day, we're talking
about a few days, probably weeksto actually understand this
business, map this outcompletely, map this out where
we have a, a calculated riskwhich is funny because we talked
(22:03):
about risk at the verybeginning of this, right?
Yes, you know, marketing is arisk, business is a risk, and
one of my, my mentors right,he'll always say this because
he's a he, he actually investsin stocks.
Okay is, are we taking acalculated risk in this
marketing venture?
Okay?
so if we're gonna build thewebsite, the, the social media,
(22:25):
all that stuff, right, um, youknow, do we have the right data
to say the right message?
Do we have the right data, uh,to get in front of the right
people?
How much is it actually goingto cost?
Speaker 2 (22:35):
and on what platforms ?
Right and well what platformsright.
Speaker 1 (22:37):
And here's the is it actually going to cost?
And on what platforms right?
And on what platforms right.
And here's the thing A lot ofpeople, when I ask them what
their budget is, what's theiranswer?
Speaker 2 (22:44):
They don't know their budget.
You tell me.
Speaker 1 (22:46):
Yeah, I don't know my budget.
Can you tell me?
That's why you know.
Well, if you want me to tellyou what your budget is, then
you have to do a discovery.
You have to understand yourmarket and if we're gonna
research your market, we'regonna do all the strategy.
We're gonna research, we'regonna gather all that data to
tell you the answers that you'vebeen looking for on how much
you're actually supposed to bespending right to be competitive
(23:09):
.
To be competitive, you're gonnahave to pay for that.
You look at all these biggercompanies organizing.
I mean, this is this isn, thisisn't a norm, right?
People know this.
Businesses buy data Successful,successful businesses.
Thank you, appreciate that.
Speaker 2 (23:24):
You're welcome.
Speaker 1 (23:25):
Successful businesses buy data.
They go out and they buy data.
They go out and they buyresearch.
Well, brian, they got money.
No, they're taking calculatedrisk, something that 97% of the
businesses aren't doing.
They know what they're walkinginto, you know what they're
walking into, and so a lot ofbusinesses fail because they
don't know what they're walkinginto.
They don't know you know howmuch they're supposed to be
(23:49):
spending, right?
Speaker 2 (23:50):
or you know what, if they're being taken advantage of
to have a six to twelve monthplan of what you should be
submitting, based on the data.
And the analysis is huge,because if you're going to other
places they're like no, we'regoing to charge you this month
up front and it'll take a month.
You know after this discoverywhether or not that's really
factual, based on the data yeah,and most businesses they they
(24:13):
spend a lot less than thatthey're supposed to.
Speaker 1 (24:15):
Let's's just be honest right, they're supposed
to be spending.
You know, if they do the realdata, they do the real strategy
and they're like, okay, Iunderstand how competitive it is
, and they're just like, but youknow, that's not part of my
budget, then you need funding.
Right, you need funding.
You need to have funding foryour business and organizations
to take it to the next level,and I hate to say that, but it's
(24:42):
the truth, it's the truth.
If you're going to compete, youneed funding right.
Speaker 2 (24:44):
Name me one competitor that didn't have some
sort of funding to competeInteresting.
That somewhat leads me to mynext question.
For someone just starting out,what's the first step to
creating a real marketingstrategy other than funding One,
establishing whether or not youneed it right, and what's the
next step?
Speaker 1 (24:58):
I mean, the first step is knowing what you're
walking into.
That is the number one step forany business owner out there,
for any small business owner.
The first step to them is justunderstanding what they're
walking into, and the firstthing they got to do is
understand how much money theyactually need.
Right, right, um and so and soyou know it's funny because you
(25:20):
know companies come to us allthe time.
Here's my business plan.
I have a marketing plan and Ilook at their marketing plan.
I said this is not a marketingplan.
Okay, what this is is yourvision of how this marketing is
supposed to work, and not anactual marketing plan.
Speaker 2 (25:35):
And it's great to have a vision, but to be
competitive and to not wasteyour money, you really have to
have some type of strategy thatthat's pulled from people who
know what they're doing and whatbuckets to put it in Right.
Speaker 1 (25:49):
Right, so let me, let me, let me give you a
difference between a realmarketing plan and some
marketing plan that you knowpeople just put together, Right?
Speaker 2 (25:57):
OK.
Speaker 1 (25:58):
So most marketing plans are generic.
They have the same informationyou know which is the target
market.
All of that's been taught Right.
A real marketing plan has data,though, and that's that's the
secret.
That's the secret between amarketing plan, which I think
this is going to work, to amarketing plan that I know is
going to calculate.
(26:18):
At risk is the data.
Can you tell me how much thesekeywords cost?
Can you tell me how many peoplelive in the city?
Can you tell me, uh, how many P?
Based on the people that areliving in the city, how many
people are actually interested?
Can you tell me, um, you knowhow many people based on the
city, right?
How many impressions are we?
Can you tell me, um, you knowhow many people based on the
city, right?
How many impressions are we?
(26:40):
Are we thinking about gettingokay To get those engagements,
to get those conversions?
And then, based on that data,how much budget do I actually
need in order for me to get theconversion?
And so what people do is theywalk in and they're like look,
listen, I know they're in Texas,I know that they.
You know that they love candy,right?
(27:02):
I don't know, I was just sayingsomething, right?
I know they love candy, so Iknow they're going to buy.
Speaker 2 (27:07):
See, and I have we have seen a lot of clients in
that same situation that areseasoned, They've already begun
their business and they've said,yeah, I have a ton of following
, but we do the analysis as towhether or not that following
our customers and whether or notthey're converting Right.
We we've seen thousands andthousands of followers and none
(27:30):
of them buy.
Speaker 1 (27:31):
I'm telling you right now, I've seen some horror
stories.
Okay, I've taken some clientsright before us, okay, and now
I've seen some horror storiesokay, I've taken some clients
right before us, okay, and uh,yeah, they have a large
following, and a large followingit's um on facebook, right and
um, the following wasn't evenlocal, it was in third world
countries, okay, and it's like,well, where was your money going
, you know?
(27:52):
and we look into that in thestrategy phase Right it was a
demographic and we were likethis this following isn't going
to do you anything.
I'm going to build you a brandnew following, because your
followers are in a third worldcountry, right, so we need to
spend some.
You know, if it cameorganically, great.
Right, but if it came, I paidfor it.
(28:14):
Then we have a real problem,right, because now like, why?
Right?
Speaker 2 (28:19):
A lot of smoke and mirrors.
Exactly, exactly.
Speaker 1 (28:22):
And and that's another thing about our, you
know, discovery and our strategyand ensuring that you have the
right strategy is that is, thatyou, you know, have clarity,
right, transp, transparency, um,that you can understand here's,
here's the deal, like I, I getit, I get it.
Trust me, I've, uh, you know, Irun three companies.
(28:44):
I run, you know, a co-workingspace, a software company and a
marketing agency.
Every decision you make, um, islike a telescope, right, I mean
, I mean, I'm, I'm magnifyingglass it's like a telescope
right, I mean, I'm magnifyingglass.
It's like, okay, something'sbound to happen, okay, and every
decision you make, is this theright decision or is this the
wrong decision?
(29:04):
Right, and it goes back to riskand I keep on saying that, and I
keep on emphasizing that inthis podcast, because the risk
of starting a business is high97% of businesses fail.
Okay, only 3% make it, trulymake it, and you just saw the
stats of 3% and it's not toscare anybody, but it's the
(29:28):
reality.
It's the reality that you can'tjust jump into marketing, you
can't just jump into business.
You have to think, you have tostrategize, you have to know
where you're going, right, and.
And so you have to have answers, uh, before you start investing
, and.
And so, as a business owner,you're like, well, I gotta make
(29:49):
this work.
I gotta make this work, and Ifear for you.
I, I do feel for you, right,and because I I get it, because
the, the financial stress, thefinancial burden, we all have
families to feed and all thiskind of stuff, right, and.
But we're, at the end of theday, we're all in competition.
Speaker 2 (30:04):
Right Every single day.
So, brian, for a final closingquestion from me what are some
quick wins, any tips people canget just by analyzing their
current data differently?
Speaker 1 (30:17):
Yeah, quick wins.
So quick wins would be who doyou have customers?
That's number one.
Speaker 2 (30:25):
Okay.
Speaker 1 (30:26):
And who are the customers and you also have to
think about.
Are they the right customers?
Speaker 2 (30:30):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (30:30):
You know, I know this for a fact, like as your
business grows, your marketchanges, right, which is another
thing.
Right.
Your business may not be doingthe same thing as it was doing
last year as this year, which isanother thing.
Right.
Your business may not be doingthe same thing as it was doing
last year as this year, which iswhy I think you need to do
strategy every year.
Speaker 2 (30:47):
Absolutely Re-evaluate where you are.
Are your customers referralpartners?
Speaker 1 (30:53):
Yeah, yeah.
And so to do a quick win, to behonest with you, to do a quick
win is to analyze who yourcurrent customers are right now,
who is their target market, youknow how old are they, how do
they find this right?
And then you know what do theylike about just doing interviews
with your current customers,and that way you can kind of
(31:14):
understand at least your personaright.
And when you build out yourpersona, then you can kind of
expand on that and saying, okay,now that I know my persona, now
I know who they are, what theylike, what they like to do, how
old are they, that kind of stuff.
Now we can start to expand.
Speaker 2 (31:30):
Right.
Speaker 1 (31:32):
You know they live on Facebook, they live on Google.
Ok, all, right, now we canstart to expand on that
marketing plan.
Slowly but surely, gets you toa true marketing plan, the thing
where you're going to have todefine the data that you are
going to need an expert in isthe data, right.
(31:53):
And so, if you have thatinformation, now what is the
data that you're not seeingright?
The keywords, the change in youknow, even you know real estate
agents they have to know thistoo, right who's moving in and
who's moving out of cities,things of that nature, Um and so
um.
A lot of it's about that, right, strategizing for data, uh, and
then so here, here's, here'skind of what I want to go
through before we startanswering questions is I know
(32:15):
people are like, okay, well, Iunderstand, this is a lot of
information, right.
Um so here's, here's what itboils down to.
It boils down to you know a fewthings, right, and I kept on
repeating myself.
But bear with me, I'm going togo through this entire marketing
plan in my head right now,right, Cook?
(32:35):
So, first off, it's what is thebusiness?
Okay, what is your executivesummary?
Speaker 2 (32:43):
Okay.
Speaker 1 (32:43):
Who are you?
What do you do?
What are your service?
What are your products?
What do you have to offer?
Okay, and is it, um, is it a uh?
Is it?
You know, something that themarket demands?
So supply and demand right, isit going to be accepted in the
market?
So, who are you as a business?
That's an overview of youroverview of your business, right
, okay, and then we get into thetarget market.
(33:06):
Okay, so then we get into thetarget market.
Is who are your customers?
Right, uh, how old are they?
Yada, yada, yeah, right, uh,interest, behaviors you know
things of that nature,absolutely.
Genders, all of that stuff,okay.
Now we get into demo graphics.
Okay, demographics is where dothey live?
(33:26):
Okay, where do they live?
How big are these cities?
Right, um, what zip codes?
Um, you know, and what in thedemographic is that demographic
changing?
interesting because, because welive in Texas, you know how the
landscape of Texas has changed.
(33:46):
Because people from Californiaare moving to Texas, the shift
of Texas itself is changing.
Speaker 2 (33:52):
Absolutely.
I mean, it's always been alittle different depending on
where you go North, south, east,west it's like a completely
different state.
Speaker 1 (33:59):
The mentality of Texas is completely changing.
It's slowly but surely changing, yes, like a completely
different state.
The mentality of Texas iscompletely changing and you have
, it's slowly but surelychanging, you know, and it's
going to change eventually.
It's just how markets work.
Same thing with California,same thing with New York.
So, demographics, right.
So then you have thedemographics All right.
So now you know your, yourbusiness, you know your target
market, you know yourdemographic.
(34:20):
Then you get into the digitallandscapes.
Okay.
So then you go into channels,right, and you go into channels.
You go into google.
Are they on google?
Are they on facebook?
Are they instagram?
Are they on x?
Are they on tiktok?
Based on their targetdemographic and the target
market and a demographic, thebehaviors and interests, will
(34:41):
tell you and dictate whatchannels you want to be on,
right?
Is it Google?
We talked about that earlier.
How much am I supposed to beinvesting in Google?
Is it Facebook?
Is it Instagram?
Is it TikTok?
Okay, so you got channels.
Speaker 2 (34:55):
And whether or not I would like to add on to that
whether or not your channels arereaching that demographic,
because I can have a lot ofpeople on linkedin that I know
are completely different,different demographic than the
people I'm going to find oninstagram that are buyers right,
those are, those are important.
So if you're dumping money intoone thing, that's not
benefiting you at the end of theday or reaching your
(35:16):
demographic.
This is why you need a strategyyep, exactly, and and and.
Speaker 1 (35:21):
So you know you get down to the channels, okay, and
then here we go.
It gets beyond that, right, andthat's why.
So you're now okay.
So I've already done some work,I've got the channels All right
.
What technology am I using inthe company?
Speaker 2 (35:37):
Ooh.
Speaker 1 (35:38):
So what technology am I going to use to build what
I'm about to build?
Okay, so now you're, you're,you're now that just through a
lot of businesses owners into adeep dive right here, because
there's so many CRMs, there's somany website builders, there's
so many all this other stuff.
There's so much technology.
(35:59):
There is so much technology.
You get overwhelmed.
You're like I don't know, I don.
So much technology, there is somuch technology.
Speaker 2 (36:04):
you get overwhelmed, you're like I don't know, I
don't know, I don't know what todo and how much money you
should spend on each of thoseright exactly because the
technology now affects yourmarketing campaigns, the way you
build, the way you launch, theway you grow and scale.
Speaker 1 (36:15):
Okay, and so what technology?
You know, I was just getting anexample we build websites on
shopify, wordpress, all kinds ofstuff, right?
So what?
What CMS system are we using tobuild this website specifically
for operations and marketingpurposes?
Ok, what's CRM customerrelation management system?
Ok, then am I going to be using?
Because, see, while you're onlythinking, I need to get it,
(36:38):
because a lot of this was aboutstrategy, getting in front of
people.
Speaker 2 (36:40):
Right.
Speaker 1 (36:42):
The marketing plan doesn't stop there.
The marketing plan is if that3% are going to convert, then
how do you keep them convertingand bringing in more people?
Well you have to have a CRM inplace.
What does those drip campaignslook like?
Right, if they fill out a formon the website.
So if you fill out a form andyou got viewers on here today,
and I appreciate you guys, butthere's some automation
(37:03):
happening, you're probably goingto get some hit up follow ups
after this.
I'm sorry about that, but it'sall automation, right it's.
How do we keep in engaged withpeople that are viewing online?
Speaker 2 (37:12):
And is your CRM collecting the data you need to
reengage the people that want tobe?
Speaker 1 (37:17):
Exactly, and so that's part of the marketing
plan.
Okay, that's part of themarketing strategy, right?
It's not just how much money amI spending on advertising, it's
how much money am I spending ontechnology.
All of this has to do with thengoing back to the budget.
See you now, okay.
So once you have all thisinformation, then you now have
(37:38):
to break the budget up.
Now you have to dissect thebudget.
How much am I spending onadvertising as far as google
campaigns, facebook ads, rightto get awareness?
Speaker 2 (37:50):
just the brand, just the brand awareness.
Speaker 1 (37:52):
How do I, how much money do I need to get people to
?
Hey, here I am.
Click on me, go to my websiteright how much money do I need
to spend to where?
Now they're on the website?
Did I build a beautiful websitethat actually has enough
information, enough video,enough photography to get them
to engage?
Absolutely okay, how much moneybudget do I need to?
(38:16):
Then?
If only three percent converted?
Okay, if only three percentconverts, how much money do I
need to spend to get in front ofthem again?
Speaker 2 (38:27):
or get them to buy again.
Speaker 1 (38:28):
E-commerce is going to be completely different,
right well, if they, you know,have you ever gone to a website?
You've ever gone to a website?
And then you go to social mediaand you feel like they're
following you.
Oh, absolutely.
Those are called retargetingads.
It's because we're trying toget you to convert.
So now, how much money do youhave you have allocated for
retargeting ads?
Speaker 2 (38:48):
Which gets my husband .
Every time, by the way, it getsme too, okay, and then you have
.
Speaker 1 (38:54):
So you have the conversion portion of the budget
, which is retargeting adcampaigns.
You know things that will helpwith you know conversion,
specifically getting leads.
And then you have you noticethat we're going through the
awareness, engagement,conversion, delight.
Okay, so here we go.
So you get them to convert.
(39:14):
You get them to convert.
Do you have a strategy in placeto get them to be excited?
Right, like onboarding welcomepackets, promotional goods,
things of that nature to say,hey, you're part of the team.
That also needs to be a part ofyour marketing strategy.
Speaker 2 (39:33):
To ask them to be referral partners If you had a
great experience.
Speaker 1 (39:36):
Well, you just beat me to the punch here, because
all I'm trying to do is get youexcited and delighted.
I'm happy that you're happyabout my service and product.
I'm happy that you're you'reyou're part of the team which is
in the advocation, which is howmuch budget do I have to
advocate to get more reviews,testimonial videos?
(39:57):
you know referrals, right?
Do you see how much complexitywe just went through?
And that was a lot of time,right, that takes time to figure
out and map out.
See, when you're doing strategy, you're not just sitting there
saying I got an idea, I'm goingto copy my competitors, because
that's what happens all the time.
Speaker 2 (40:16):
I got an idea.
Speaker 1 (40:17):
I'm going to copy my competitors.
If they did it, I can do it.
No, no, no, no, no.
Speaker 2 (40:23):
We utilize almost every point person on our team
to help create this strategy foreach client, do we not?
Speaker 1 (40:29):
Yep, you have to figure out each departmental
expert and then figure outexactly how to invest your money
, and so here's.
Here's what I'm going toactually do right now is because
I know we're running out oftime here, but I'm looking at
people and there's got to be aswitch.
Okay, you have to know when toflip the switch.
(40:50):
Are you a business owner or areyou an investor?
Speaker 2 (40:55):
okay, and so figure that out, right, no?
Speaker 1 (40:58):
no, hold on because you have to be both.
If you're a small business owner.
So if you're a small businessowner, you are too an investor,
ok, and you have to know how toflip the switch.
A business owner's role is tomanage, operate OK.
An investor's role is tounderstand what they're
investing in, and so if youcan't understand how to invest
(41:21):
in marketing, then you shouldn'tbe investing in marketing,
right, and so that's why we haveto choose.
We have to tell people you haveto do a discovery.
You have to do a discoverybecause that is your roadmap to
understand what you're investingin.
Right, it's not my roadmap.
I am not here.
I'm not here to take your money.
(41:42):
I'm here to help you investyour money in your business, and
so you have to understand yourblueprint.
You have to understand howyou're going to market and how
you're going to invest in yourmarketing.
Okay, and so that's what we do.
When we do a discovery, when wedo a strategy session, it's not
for us to protect, it's not forus just to take money.
(42:05):
It's actually our fiduciaryresponsibility.
I stole that from financialadvisors.
Speaker 2 (42:12):
I like that.
Speaker 1 (42:12):
Fiduciary responsibility to protect your
money as the investor.
So you understand exactly whereyour money is going and how
we're going to build, launch,grow and scale your marketing.
Speaker 2 (42:23):
Right Cause we're not setting people up for failure.
For them to be successful is areferral for us to be successful
, wouldn't you say?
Speaker 1 (42:31):
Exactly their success .
Your success is our success,right, and so we don't want, we
just don't want you to beunsuccessful, right and so, um,
I'm going to.
I got.
Speaker 2 (42:42):
I think we're in a Q&A time right, yeah, we can
start answering a couple ofquestions.
One of the questions I had ishow do I know if I'm targeting
the right audience?
Speaker 1 (42:53):
You'll know you're targeting the right audience if,
honestly, if they're engagingright, take a look at the
engagement.
You first take a look at theengagement to see if they're
even responding.
Are they even messaging you onFacebook?
Are they commenting on Facebook?
Are they inquiring?
(43:16):
Okay, right.
Another thing to know if you'reactually targeting the right
target market is, once thoseengagements coming in, is
analyzing those, those forms.
You know, I, I've seen thishappen, this happens all the
time.
Okay, so you will get spammed,and if you get spammed, you're
doing something right, uh, butyou're also, you need to do some
(43:37):
enhancements.
You're also doing somethingwrong, okay, because, um, this
happened to us.
Speaker 2 (43:42):
I mean, we got a bunch of Russian forms being
filled out yes, tons of themover a month period of time,
right, and they weren'tconverting.
I was spending more time onqualifying whether or not it was
spam or real than I was onactually having the introductory
calls with people that neededme.
Speaker 1 (44:01):
Yeah, yeah, so it's.
It's one of those things whereyou, you, you will know, uh, if
you're targeting the rightmarket, um, when inquiries are
coming, if they're real and youknow they're they're actually
inquiring and they're legitimateyou're targeting the right
markets, Okay.
Speaker 2 (44:17):
So another question I had which kind of leeways after
this one is how long should Itest a campaign before I pivot?
Speaker 1 (44:25):
Oh, that's a good one .
Um, okay, so typically at leasttwo weeks.
Um, so you, at least you haveto have something.
Okay, a lot of people want topivot, like on the same day.
Uh, they're like, oh, let mejust launch this campaign.
It's not working.
It's not working, let me, wegot to change something, we got
to change something.
It's not working.
It's not working, let me, wegotta change something.
We gotta change something.
It's not working.
I'm spending money.
It's not work.
Speaker 2 (44:46):
It's like frantic right and I get it because we're
investing money but you can'tbe frantic when you're an
investor so about two weeks tosee if a campaign's working.
It's kind of like the stockmarket it goes up and down, but
it's exactly like the stockmarket.
Speaker 1 (45:00):
Yeah know, because what's the rude word of
marketing?
Speaker 2 (45:03):
Market.
I think we've all learned thattoday, okay, and the last
question I have right now iswhen should I invest in ads,
before or after my strategy isbuilt?
I'm assuming this question wasasked before you went through
the last portion of what wementioned, but to reiterate.
So yeah, the last portion ofwhat we mentioned, but to
reiterate.
Speaker 1 (45:22):
So yeah, so ads should never be spent unless you
do a strategy and a build phasefirst.
So you first have to strategizewhat you're going to be doing,
Then you have to build theassets.
There's no point of advertisingif you don't have the right
campaign, the right video, theright image, the right.
You have to have the rightmessage to get get out there,
(45:43):
because you know everybody wantsto advertise, because they want
leads now.
But if you don't have the fundsto build the right campaign
before you start advertising,you're already dead in the water
, Right, and so don't advertisewithout the right, proper
campaign first.
Uh, strategize, first, buildthe message, right.
So strategize first.
(46:03):
Then we build the message, the,the website, the social, you
know the social media campaigns,the, the um, the uh, commercial
, whatever we're going to bedoing, uh, and then, and then we
advertise, right, Make sure youhave the proper assets, which
is going to be leading into thenext phase, which is building,
right, which is next episode,next week.
(46:24):
It's about building and you knowwe're taking this step by step.
So today was strategy, you knownext week is build.
Then we got launch growth scale, right, Absolutely.
But if we're going to betalking about building the right
assets before you launch.
So by the end of this podcastyou'll know the entire structure
of Advert Trinity and how we'vebeen successful in helping
(46:46):
businesses.
Speaker 2 (46:47):
And that's what I was going to mention.
If any of our viewers out theregot value from today, it's
because strategy works.
It's backed by data anddelivered with purpose, and who
better to tell us how it worksthan the person that's helping
do it for himself?
The CEO of this digitalmarketing agency.
So please subscribe on whateveryou're viewing this on and come
(47:08):
see us next week for the nextphase of this, because
throughout the next few weeks,you could really change the
whole way your business issuccessful.
We'll see you next time onMarketing with Atma.
Speaker 1 (47:20):
Appreciate you guys take care.
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!