October 24, 2025 • 10 mins
Strategy beats shortcuts as we map a simple, repeatable system to keep your marketing fresh, measurable, and effective. We set clear goals per channel, define ROI by context, and build a 30‑day review cycle that reallocates budget toward what works.
• hair-wash analogy applied to consistency and planning
• setting specific goals per channel and asset
• defining ROI for booths, leads groups, and ads
• reading analytics and measuring what matters
• social media as SEO fuel with strong CTAs
• 30‑day review cycles and budget reallocation
• prioritizing strategy over last‑minute marketing
If you need help with any kind of social media stuff, I do have a DIY social media webinar on my website, themarketingbroker.com
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
SPEAKER_00 (00:27):
Hey y'all, what's up?
It's Shelby McFarlane here, themarketing broker.
Thank you so much for tuning inagain to the Marketing Happy
Hour podcast.
I love talking to you everysingle week about marketing your
small business or big businessor maybe your side hustle,
whatever you're working on.
I love that you come here tolearn more about marketing in
(00:49):
all facets of your business.
So today we're gonna talk aboutsomething kind of funny.
Maybe it'd be more um if youdon't have hair, you're not
gonna really understand.
And you're like, what if youdon't have hair?
Um, but it these I wanted tocompare a little bit of
marketing to a hair washschedule for a woman.
(01:13):
Okay, ladies, let me talk to youfor a second.
If you have long hair, you knowthat your hair wash schedule is
kind of important, right?
We have um our first day that isclean, then the second day, then
we're like, eh, do we push itthe third day?
We use a little bit of dryshampoo, um, make it look a
little better, maybe we put itin like a hair twisty or a bun,
(01:37):
or we're kind of trying to curlit again.
I know from personal experiencethat I've gone a few extra days
on my hair when I really shouldhave washed it.
And sorry guys, that was kind ofout of the loop from what you
probably know of, because youprobably wash your hair every
single day, and I think thatthat is very commendable, good
for you.
But ladies, we all know the realtruth over here about us women
(02:00):
in our hair washing days.
So you're like, how does hairwash schedules go with
marketing?
Yeah, I love when random ideaslike this come up because um I
like to compare it to real lifethings, and maybe uh this can
kind of help you get a betteridea of what your marketing
should be like.
So we have a hair wash schedule,so we want to make sure that we
(02:24):
also have a marketing schedule,right?
But let's think about our hairwash schedule.
We have a good um day, then wehave the next day, it's okay,
and then the third day, we'relike, ooh, that was a little bit
rough, right?
So let's not be like hairwashing days when it comes to
marketing.
(02:44):
I want you to always be on topof your marketing.
I never want you to have to usedry shampoo on your marketing
efforts.
When you are running a smallbusiness, a side hustle, maybe
you have a product that you'retrying to launch, you need to
make sure that your schedule ison point, that you have a
(03:06):
strategy.
Whenever you walk around withdry shampoo in your hair, like
yes, it looks kind of okay froma distance, but it's not gonna
look great close up.
So when you're marketing yourbusiness without a plan or a
strategy, it looks eh, it looksokay from a distance, but then
when you get to the nitty-grittyof things, like, do you have a
(03:26):
return of investment?
Like, are you selling things?
Does your content turn intoleads?
Um, does your ability to go outin public and be able to market
yourself, like, are you actuallybuilding a brand online so that
way when people then look at youonline, they can also be
validated that hey, thisperson's real.
(03:48):
So when we're doing our website,we want to make sure it looks
professional.
We want to make sure that peopleare educated about who we are
and what we do and um how weportray ourselves as a brand or
a company.
Like, are you reaching thattarget audience?
When we're posting on socialmedia, it's strategic.
We want to make sure that we'reeducating and inspiring and
(04:11):
adding value with a little bitof sales in there too.
So when we are marketing ourbusiness, I want you to focus on
what is your strategy behind it?
How do you create a strategy?
Um, what is your ultimate goalwhen it comes to marketing?
You're like, well, does Shelby,I want to make money.
I mean, yeah, we all want tomake money, but like when we're
(04:33):
marketing our business, what doyou want your numbers to look
like?
When you're posting to socialmedia, what is your goal in mind
when you're posting?
Do you want to have engagement?
Do you want to have people callyou?
Do you want to offer a freeservice or download?
Or do you just want to make surethat your your numbers, your
impressions are increasing allthe time on social media?
(04:56):
So when you break down yourmarketing for your business,
what are your goals for eachindividual thing?
And then that's where you cancome in and create a strategy to
then reach those goals, right?
We want to create that marketingstrategy to reach the goal of
your marketing.
And when we're marketing andhaving that strategy and
(05:18):
following along, so you're like,okay, Shelby, I've already done
the strategy.
Like I've had it, I'm trying todo it, but it's not really
working.
Okay.
Well, review it every 30 days.
Review your strategy.
Is it working for you?
What's the ROI?
What do the numbers look like?
You have to boil it down to whatyour analytics are.
(05:39):
Every single thing that you doin marketing needs to have some
kind of return of investment.
When I go and set up at placeslike a booth, if I'm going to a
vendor booth or vendor fair andI'm setting up a booth, my ROI
is gonna be the collection ofinformation from the people at
that location.
So the people that come by mybooth, when I'm getting their
(06:01):
email addresses, their phonenumbers, their names, whatever
you want because you're givingaway something.
That is the ROI of that event.
When I go to a leads groupmeeting, I want to make sure
that my ROI, it's a little bitdifferent.
I want to make sure I'm gettingmoney from that, right?
I want to make sure I'm gettingleads from that.
What's my goal when I go to theleads group?
(06:22):
What's my strategy?
What am I talking about?
What kind of leads am I askingfor?
And then what's my return ofinvestment on that?
I really want to dig deep intoreturn of investment of your
social media.
Your social media, uh, we're notseeing engagement.
And people are just scrolling,scrolling, they're not liking,
(06:43):
they're not sharing, but they'reseeing it.
So when you look at youranalytics for social media and
you're like, what exactly is myROI?
Your ROI for social media isgonna be when people are seeing
your posts, so the impressions,we're building that brand, and
then everything feeds into theSEO.
So everything feeds into searchengine optimization for your
(07:04):
business.
We want to make sure that whenwe have our social media stuff,
that it is being focused onkeywords, and we want to make
sure that there's a call toaction to your website that's
gonna be professional looking.
Um, that everything that you'reposting on there is gonna be
feeding into Google andanswering a question that maybe
somebody that is a futurecustomer of yours is gonna have.
(07:27):
We want to make sure we'reeducating because when Google is
picking that up, they will seelike these people are the
professionals in their industry.
This is exactly who I'm gonnasend everybody to.
I'm gonna add this to the AIsummary at the top of it because
they know what they're talkingabout.
We can't control what that does,but what we can control is the
strategy behind our social mediacontent, behind posting.
(07:50):
How often are we gonna post?
When are we gonna post?
What are we gonna post about?
And then the ROI from that isgonna be the impressions, the
visits to your website, the umamount of people that are seeing
your post, the amount of timesthat it's feeding into Google
and that's increasing your SEO.
So let's not use dry shampoo onour marketing, guys, okay?
(08:11):
I don't want you to just try todress up a pig, is what they
say.
I really want you to boil down,sit down, and talk to you or
your partner or whatever aboutwhat is your marketing strategy
and what are your goals.
And I can understand marketingstrategies kind of seem
overwhelming and you're like, Idon't really know what I'm doing
or where I'm supposed to startor anything like that.
(08:35):
But I know for a fact that whenyou have a strategy and you
follow that strategy and youreally go back and look at what
your return of investment is oneach little thing that you're
spending marketing on marketingdollars on, then you will go
back and be like, okay, I needto redo this.
Okay, we need to put more moneyin this way, okay, we need to do
(08:56):
this.
It's just like when I'm runningads for a client, and after 30
days, I look at like, okay,these two ads, I have two
different ads, and this is howmuch money I spent, which one
got better results?
And then the second 30 days, I'mgonna put a little bit more
money into the one that hadbetter results because that's
the one that's actually givingthem an ROI, right?
(09:17):
That's the one that's gettingcalls, that's the one that's
getting leads, and then we'll goback another 30 days, okay.
Well, the other one's still notdoing great.
We're just gonna put all themoney into this one ad to see if
that's what people are actuallyresponding to, and they're gonna
actually have a better ROI.
So this week I want you to focuson strategy of your marketing.
(09:38):
Stop wasting time on marketing,stop wasting money on marketing.
Um, a lot of people do marketinglast, and marketing should be
first, and that's why I like tocompare it to washing your hair
on the days that you need towash it because we don't want to
put dry shampoo on yourmarketing.
We want people to see theprofessionalism, we want people
to understand that you are theexpert in your industry, and the
(10:02):
only way to do that is to beeffective with your marketing
strategy.
And if you need help with it,always reach out to me.
I can give you some freedownloads, free resources.
If you need help with any kindof social media stuff, I do have
a DIY social media webinar on mywebsite, themarketingbroker.com.
And I'll catch you next week,guys.
Bye.
Hey y'all, what's up?
It's Shelby McFarlane here, themarketing broker.
Thank you so much for tuning inagain to the Marketing Happy
Hour podcast.
I love talking to you everysingle week about marketing your
small business or big businessor maybe your side hustle,
whatever you're working on.
I love that you come here tolearn more about marketing in
(00:49):
all facets of your business.
So today we're gonna talk aboutsomething kind of funny.
Maybe it'd be more um if youdon't have hair, you're not
gonna really understand.
And you're like, what if youdon't have hair?
Um, but it these I wanted tocompare a little bit of
marketing to a hair washschedule for a woman.
(01:13):
Okay, ladies, let me talk to youfor a second.
If you have long hair, you knowthat your hair wash schedule is
kind of important, right?
We have um our first day that isclean, then the second day, then
we're like, eh, do we push itthe third day?
We use a little bit of dryshampoo, um, make it look a
little better, maybe we put itin like a hair twisty or a bun,
(01:37):
or we're kind of trying to curlit again.
I know from personal experiencethat I've gone a few extra days
on my hair when I really shouldhave washed it.
And sorry guys, that was kind ofout of the loop from what you
probably know of, because youprobably wash your hair every
single day, and I think thatthat is very commendable, good
for you.
But ladies, we all know the realtruth over here about us women
(02:00):
in our hair washing days.
So you're like, how does hairwash schedules go with
marketing?
Yeah, I love when random ideaslike this come up because um I
like to compare it to real lifethings, and maybe uh this can
kind of help you get a betteridea of what your marketing
should be like.
So we have a hair wash schedule,so we want to make sure that we
(02:24):
also have a marketing schedule,right?
But let's think about our hairwash schedule.
We have a good um day, then wehave the next day, it's okay,
and then the third day, we'relike, ooh, that was a little bit
rough, right?
So let's not be like hairwashing days when it comes to
marketing.
(02:44):
I want you to always be on topof your marketing.
I never want you to have to usedry shampoo on your marketing
efforts.
When you are running a smallbusiness, a side hustle, maybe
you have a product that you'retrying to launch, you need to
make sure that your schedule ison point, that you have a
(03:06):
strategy.
Whenever you walk around withdry shampoo in your hair, like
yes, it looks kind of okay froma distance, but it's not gonna
look great close up.
So when you're marketing yourbusiness without a plan or a
strategy, it looks eh, it looksokay from a distance, but then
when you get to the nitty-grittyof things, like, do you have a
(03:26):
return of investment?
Like, are you selling things?
Does your content turn intoleads?
Um, does your ability to go outin public and be able to market
yourself, like, are you actuallybuilding a brand online so that
way when people then look at youonline, they can also be
validated that hey, thisperson's real.
(03:48):
So when we're doing our website,we want to make sure it looks
professional.
We want to make sure that peopleare educated about who we are
and what we do and um how weportray ourselves as a brand or
a company.
Like, are you reaching thattarget audience?
When we're posting on socialmedia, it's strategic.
We want to make sure that we'reeducating and inspiring and
(04:11):
adding value with a little bitof sales in there too.
So when we are marketing ourbusiness, I want you to focus on
what is your strategy behind it?
How do you create a strategy?
Um, what is your ultimate goalwhen it comes to marketing?
You're like, well, does Shelby,I want to make money.
I mean, yeah, we all want tomake money, but like when we're
(04:33):
marketing our business, what doyou want your numbers to look
like?
When you're posting to socialmedia, what is your goal in mind
when you're posting?
Do you want to have engagement?
Do you want to have people callyou?
Do you want to offer a freeservice or download?
Or do you just want to make surethat your your numbers, your
impressions are increasing allthe time on social media?
(04:56):
So when you break down yourmarketing for your business,
what are your goals for eachindividual thing?
And then that's where you cancome in and create a strategy to
then reach those goals, right?
We want to create that marketingstrategy to reach the goal of
your marketing.
And when we're marketing andhaving that strategy and
(05:18):
following along, so you're like,okay, Shelby, I've already done
the strategy.
Like I've had it, I'm trying todo it, but it's not really
working.
Okay.
Well, review it every 30 days.
Review your strategy.
Is it working for you?
What's the ROI?
What do the numbers look like?
You have to boil it down to whatyour analytics are.
(05:39):
Every single thing that you doin marketing needs to have some
kind of return of investment.
When I go and set up at placeslike a booth, if I'm going to a
vendor booth or vendor fair andI'm setting up a booth, my ROI
is gonna be the collection ofinformation from the people at
that location.
So the people that come by mybooth, when I'm getting their
(06:01):
email addresses, their phonenumbers, their names, whatever
you want because you're givingaway something.
That is the ROI of that event.
When I go to a leads groupmeeting, I want to make sure
that my ROI, it's a little bitdifferent.
I want to make sure I'm gettingmoney from that, right?
I want to make sure I'm gettingleads from that.
What's my goal when I go to theleads group?
(06:22):
What's my strategy?
What am I talking about?
What kind of leads am I askingfor?
And then what's my return ofinvestment on that?
I really want to dig deep intoreturn of investment of your
social media.
Your social media, uh, we're notseeing engagement.
And people are just scrolling,scrolling, they're not liking,
(06:43):
they're not sharing, but they'reseeing it.
So when you look at youranalytics for social media and
you're like, what exactly is myROI?
Your ROI for social media isgonna be when people are seeing
your posts, so the impressions,we're building that brand, and
then everything feeds into theSEO.
So everything feeds into searchengine optimization for your
(07:04):
business.
We want to make sure that whenwe have our social media stuff,
that it is being focused onkeywords, and we want to make
sure that there's a call toaction to your website that's
gonna be professional looking.
Um, that everything that you'reposting on there is gonna be
feeding into Google andanswering a question that maybe
somebody that is a futurecustomer of yours is gonna have.
(07:27):
We want to make sure we'reeducating because when Google is
picking that up, they will seelike these people are the
professionals in their industry.
This is exactly who I'm gonnasend everybody to.
I'm gonna add this to the AIsummary at the top of it because
they know what they're talkingabout.
We can't control what that does,but what we can control is the
strategy behind our social mediacontent, behind posting.
(07:50):
How often are we gonna post?
When are we gonna post?
What are we gonna post about?
And then the ROI from that isgonna be the impressions, the
visits to your website, the umamount of people that are seeing
your post, the amount of timesthat it's feeding into Google
and that's increasing your SEO.
So let's not use dry shampoo onour marketing, guys, okay?
(08:11):
I don't want you to just try todress up a pig, is what they
say.
I really want you to boil down,sit down, and talk to you or
your partner or whatever aboutwhat is your marketing strategy
and what are your goals.
And I can understand marketingstrategies kind of seem
overwhelming and you're like, Idon't really know what I'm doing
or where I'm supposed to startor anything like that.
(08:35):
But I know for a fact that whenyou have a strategy and you
follow that strategy and youreally go back and look at what
your return of investment is oneach little thing that you're
spending marketing on marketingdollars on, then you will go
back and be like, okay, I needto redo this.
Okay, we need to put more moneyin this way, okay, we need to do
(08:56):
this.
It's just like when I'm runningads for a client, and after 30
days, I look at like, okay,these two ads, I have two
different ads, and this is howmuch money I spent, which one
got better results?
And then the second 30 days, I'mgonna put a little bit more
money into the one that hadbetter results because that's
the one that's actually givingthem an ROI, right?
(09:17):
That's the one that's gettingcalls, that's the one that's
getting leads, and then we'll goback another 30 days, okay.
Well, the other one's still notdoing great.
We're just gonna put all themoney into this one ad to see if
that's what people are actuallyresponding to, and they're gonna
actually have a better ROI.
So this week I want you to focuson strategy of your marketing.
(09:38):
Stop wasting time on marketing,stop wasting money on marketing.
Um, a lot of people do marketinglast, and marketing should be
first, and that's why I like tocompare it to washing your hair
on the days that you need towash it because we don't want to
put dry shampoo on yourmarketing.
We want people to see theprofessionalism, we want people
to understand that you are theexpert in your industry, and the
(10:02):
only way to do that is to beeffective with your marketing
strategy.
And if you need help with it,always reach out to me.
I can give you some freedownloads, free resources.
If you need help with any kindof social media stuff, I do have
a DIY social media webinar on mywebsite, themarketingbroker.com.
And I'll catch you next week,guys.
Bye.
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