Ep. 94 How to Make Your Small Business Marketing More Effective

How to Make Your Small Business Marketing More Effective

You can have the greatest product or service but if you fail to connect with your audience, fail to get them to act, or worse fail to get them to care about it your marketing will fall flat.

In this episode, Torie Mathis and her cohost Sean talk about how to make your digital marketing more effective with 3 simple strategies you can do right now. If you want to know how to market your business and sell more this episode is for you.

Listen or watch the full episode below:

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EPISODE TRANSCRIPTION –

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SAF 94

Torie: [00:00:00] Great content, shitty delivery.

Hey guys. Welcome to the show. I’m your host, Torie Mathis. And I am here with the one and only Sean Mathis founder of Miles Through Time Automotive Museum. 

Sean: [00:00:23] That’s true. What’s going on? 

Torie: [00:00:24] Always here by my side, 

Sean: [00:00:26] Except for when I’m not, 

Torie: [00:00:27] Except for when he’s fine. We see. A lot of marketing every single day, that is great content, shitty delivery.

So I hate seeing people spend all this time trying to promote something, whether it’s an event or a product or whatever it is. And there were just these things that are missing these little changes that could make such a big difference to make it more effective. One thing is so many times people put things out with no call to action at all.

What is it? Call to action. You may ask. It is actually telling people what it is that you want them to do, you have to actually tell them. I know people think oh I assume they’re going to contact me, but how do you want them to call? Do you want him to email? Do you want them to walk in like literally the best thing you can do to make everything that you do more effective is be incredibly specific and clear on your call to action.

Sean: [00:01:32] Yeah. One thing I’ve learned even running Miles Through Time is you have to tell people exactly what to do. It is not 100% foolproof for sure. 

Torie: [00:01:42] And you don’t want to give people too many options. Don’t be like, you can call, you can email, you can stop bad. Like just give them one. They’ll figure out other ways if they want to pick whichever one is going to be the very best, whether it’s, you want them to call, you want them to email, you want them to click this button to download this report, whatever it is for whatever you’re putting out. Tell them what to do 

Sean: [00:02:02] With that. If you don’t want them to do something, do not offer that as an. If you do not want to use Facebook messenger, get rid of it. If you only want emails and you don’t want anybody to call you don’t provide a phone number. Like you don’t have to do that kind of stuff, 

Torie: [00:02:18] But you do have to have some type of call to action.

And it has to be very clear. For example, we have had we’ve seen some people on Facebook. Posting about leaving their business a review, which is cool. I can get that, like they said, if you haven’t before, please leave us a review. And that was it. There was no link. There was no button.

There was no leave us a review on Google. Like it was just leave us a review. 

Sean: [00:02:49] So you gotta think like it’s quite a bit. To get somebody to do something for you, like leaving a review in general. So you could imagine, even if you left the exact link and made it as simple as possible for them to leave that review, not everyone’s going to do it.

So now let’s remove all the stuff that makes it easy for them to even leave a review and ask them to leave a review. Plus go look up to figure out where to leave the review and do all these other extra steps. 

Torie: [00:03:24] So you’re asking me to leave a review and now you’re asking me to go research where to leave you or yeah,

Sean: [00:03:30] Like everywhere. You want me to Google it and click all the links myself. Like they’re not going to do that. 

Torie: [00:03:38] So clear instructions on exactly what you want them to do. Another thing that would make your marketing much more effective is that you have to let people know why they should care because I can tell you, and I’ve said this a thousand times, nobody cares about your logo.

Nobody cares about your business name, and nobody cares about how many years you been in business. Yet I can go through all the ads that we get in the mail almost all of them like that is the big thing is like their logo, 20 years in business, Jack’s business. And that’s like the big part, nobody cares about those things.

And so though, if somebody was looking for something specific like that, or they knew Jack’s business already, then maybe they would respond. But if you want your marketing to be more effective, you have to tell people and make it the most important, the biggest thing is why they should care. About whatever it is that you’re doing, what problem are you solving for them?

What are you making quicker or easier? What is the benefit of what you’re doing for them? 

Sean: [00:04:49] So let’s talk a roofer, right? There’s tons of roofers out there. And so you get this ad in the mail, it comes with all the coupons and you get this one guy that’s like 25 years experience best in the business.

Big logo, contact us for a roof inspection to me there’s nothing for that. Other than they’ve been doing it for a while. Maybe we’ll do things for a long time and still do shit. Like it doesn’t guarantee success. Maybe they’re expensive. That, that kind of timelines, maybe they’re gonna, they’re gonna ask, charge me more for that kind of stuff.

Or I got another one that comes in the mail and the in, and it’s more We’ll do a free inspection. If you got any roof leaks, anything like that, due to insurance thing, something like that. Peace of mind type thing. 

Torie: [00:05:38] What about like a roof in two days or 

Sean: [00:05:40] Exactly. So that the tie, like they’re going to get it done right away. Free estimate. 

Torie: [00:05:45] Because if I had something wrong with my roof or we lived in this neighborhood, our last neighborhood, I don’t know what was going on there, but whatever the age of the houses were like every single house had to get a new roof. There was something going on. And so it was like a roofer, like all the time in the neighborhood.

The whole time we lived. Some of them like, man, they moved fast and there were a couple of jobs that were in the middle of, and where in the Atlanta area, there’s some really serious storms here that can pop up out of nowhere. And one worry for me would be you’re in the middle of my roof and a big old rainstorm going to come.

So for a roofer, what if I had to hire. Sure the price would be very important, but also how fast you got it done would be super important. Now I don’t care if you’ve been in business for five years or 25 years, you tell me that there’s going to be a guarantee that it’s going to be done, or you’re going to fix it.

Maybe that you’re going to come out and do some type of free inspection and let me know exactly how much it’s going to cost and not nickel and dime me. And you’re going to get that shit done so fast that it’s going to blow your mind. So whatever it is that your business is, you have to think. The benefit of why they are going to care about buying from you.

And it’s easy for you to forget or to think that they know everything, or they know that the roof is going to be done quickly, but they don’t know that but if you tell them that, and this guy doesn’t tell you that even if this guy is a better roofer, and you’re the only one that says that you’ll get it done in one day or two days, or, whatever, you’re super fascinating.

If everybody does it in two days, but you’re the only one that in the ad says does it in two days, regular people don’t know that 

Sean: [00:07:23] Well for the ones in our neighborhood. And we saw firsthand how quickly they were. I would assume it would take a week. To me, it’s a shit ton of work. 

Torie: [00:07:33] Sure people put it off because of what an inconvenience it is. So you have to pull out whatever those things are that are going to be the biggest benefit. Of whatever it is you’re selling. And you can’t just assume that people are going to know what it is. I know that there’s things like vacuum cleaners, and they’ll talk about there’s some brands I’ll talk about what kind of filter they use and that it cleans the air and like all these different things.

And maybe every single vacuum has that same type of filter. But because this one brand said that and that’s, what’s important for people that, they’re vacuuming their floor. They want all that different stuff cleaned up because you’re really finding what the consumer wants. Even if all of them do it, if you’re the only one that says it, then it makes you stand out.

Only the freshest ingredients. What if every, probably every restaurant is fresh. I hope you’ll. But if you are saying that and that’s important for your people the people that come to buy from you, then you’re going to stand out from the ones that don’t say fresh ingredients.

You know what? They don’t care if you’ve been in business for 25 years, it doesn’t really matter. One thing I think about is like with Miles Through Time marketing, we could always just say car museum or automotive museum. And though people that are interested in cars, like that’s great, but there’s lots of car museums.

However, we had to figure out like what made Miles Through Times special? What is it that is different than, other museums? There’s a couple of things that really makes it stand out. One is that there’s a hundred plus years of automotive. Not all car museums have that much history that they’re showing and it’s not just cars, it’s stuff, that’s era specific and things like that.

Another thing that really makes Miles Through Time stand out is that it’s not one man’s collection or a, like a corporate collection that just has all this money to buy these things. It actually isn’t. The displays are owned by different people. And those people actually come in and tell their stories and talk with people and they’re from the community.

And so there’s this different feel to it than if you just went to a corporate style museum. That’s very Shiny. I don’t know there’s not a lot of story to it or feeling to it, like when you can come into Miles Through Time and actually talk to the owner of some of these incredibly old vehicles are very special vehicles.

There’s a train that’s in there. That’s up for a Guinness world record. It is the general, which is from the great locomotive chase, which was actually filmed in Habersham county. And this man made this train by hand it is a half scale train. It is amazing. And the fact that yes, you could go and see these types of things in museums, but the fact that you could not only come in there and see it, but you could talk to him that made it.

And so there’s a lot more interest there. There’s a lot more things that make it special. And so trying to figure out what those things are, it was something that we really worked at 

Sean: [00:10:19] Because you can’t compare it to. To a whole nother museum, because, and that’s the thing is some people though, they just want to know how many cars are in there.

And there’s so much more to it than just the number of cars that are on display. And a lot of times it is it’s that one guy’s collection of cars that he’s been collecting for years and he’s got a ton of money and it’s an awesome, impressive collection. But that’s not what Miles Through Time is.

So we can’t compare it to that. Then you’ve got museums that are those big corporate ones, like Torie was saying, and those are essentially like big, fancy art museum. You go in there and you just, you look and you stand back a little bit and it’s damn, it’s impressive. But nobody’s house looks like that.

Nobody has any of these types of things. And you can’t really relate to it. Like you’re looking around going, holy shit, this is a ton of money that’s in here. And it’s almost overwhelming a little bit and unrelatable, but worth going and visiting and going, Hey, this is awesome. 

Torie: [00:11:13] But if somebody, if you just said car museum, and then they’re expecting Peterson and they walk in and see what Miles Through Time is they’re gonna be like, this doesn’t seem right.

But if you pull out those things that make the museum special and what gives it that character and why people should care then you have a little bit more to pull people in rather than, just layering on that generic here’s our big old logo. 

Sean: [00:11:38] That’s where that personal brand that we’ve talked about as well as coming into play as the museum progresses along, is that my personal story on it is actually part of the museum that makes it special, and the only person that can really share that in a, in the way that I can share it is me, then the museum could talk about how it was founded by me and my grandpa’s car and all that kind of stuff. But it’s not going to be the same as if I do it.

And if people can connect with me personally, then  they almost want to go to the museum specifically because of that. And then it ties it all together to make it, like there, isn’t another one like that, that they’d know exactly what they’re going to go see, 

Torie: [00:12:22] And because your business and whatever you’re offering, it obviously is going to be the same thing that somebody else is offering by figuring out what these things are that makes you a little bit different and giving people a reason to care a little bit more about what you’re saying is going to make you stand out and he’s going to make all of your marks.

So much more effective. Another thing with things that people put out and we hit this a little bit on the first one, but is that people try to be clever or try to be cute or try to I know they make it so that things are not clear, that things are not simple and sometimes you don’t need to go way over the top.

Sometimes you need to reel it in just a little bit so that people understand what’s going on. Talking about being clear. We talk all the time about, we see posts that people post all of the details of the information of the post on top of a picture, which makes it very hard to read. Now, the event might be really great, but if you’re making it difficult for people to even get the peoples attention span are so small, like it used to be like five seconds.

Now we’re more like fish it’s three seconds, two and a half seconds. People are just scrolling by things online when people are driving, when people get things in the mail, like everything just goes instantly to the trash. So you really only have a very short time to catch people’s information or to catch people’s attention, to hook them in.

And so you really have to be very clear from the very beginning on exactly what you’re doing on exactly what you want them to do. On the most important detail. So that they’re going to see it and not just scroll by again, it could be the greatest material ever. It could be the greatest event. It could be the greatest product, but if you don’t get people to stop, if the delivery doesn’t improve a little bit, then you’re not going to sell anything. People are going to come to your event. So there’s ways that you can make things a lot. 

Sean: [00:14:10] And don’t force feed them. Don’t give them everything that you’ve got right at the beginning. Like just enough to taste what it is that you’re trying to sell or let them know about. And if they want to know more, there’s ways to tell them, or, whether it’s just researching more information on your website or an email sequence that gives them more information, you don’t have to give them everything right off the bat, because it’s going to be overwhelming. It’s going to be too much and it’s not going to be clear and they’re going to pass over it. 

Torie: [00:14:39] Yeah. I know. Whenever I design anything, I’ll design it. And generally the first time there’s always too many words and I try to say like, how can I get the, how can I say it the most concise, the simplest way with the least amount of words because people don’t have a lot of time to read through all of your stuff. You’re either it’s going to be some people that might, but most people are just going to scan some things and either move on, or then they’ll going to read more. So if you can make things as simple, as possible, as easy to digest as possible, breaking up texts, things like that it’s definitely gonna make things more effective for sure.

So if you want your marketing to be a little bit more effective so that your delivery is as good as the services and products and events that you’re trying to promote these are some great places to start, make sure that you have a very clear call to. Make things more simple, make things, the least amount of words, and very concise so that you grab those people that are scrolling by and give them a reason to care.

And it’s going to make all of the difference in the world to the effectiveness of your marketing. So we have new shows every Tuesday and Thursday, and we would love to see you back here again. So we’ll catch you on the next one. Yeah.