John Jantsch (00:01.016)

Hello and welcome to another episode of the Duct Tape Marketing Podcast. This is John Jantsch, and again, no guests. This is actually, if you’ve been playing along, you know that I’m doing a series of seven podcast episodes based on the seven steps to small business marketing success, which is a new workbook program framework that we have created. You can find it at dtm.world/slash seven steps. So

if you did not listen to episode one, you can go to Duct Tape Marketing, go to the podcast tab, and find episode number one if you’d like. it’s obviously on Apple and all the other places that you get your podcasts. This is episode number two, and today I am going to talk about one of my favorite topics, and that is random acts of marketing. So I think it’s just a hopefully lighthearted way.

To name what is a common affliction, if you will, with a lot of small business owners. We we see somebody doing something, we go to a conference, we read a book, and next thing we know, we’re telling the team we need to do this. and we do that for a while or two, and then we change our mind. So that’s what random acts of marketing really is. And a lot of times it comes not as a budget problem, not as an effort problem. it’s really a foundation problem. So

You know, a lot of times we’ll sit around and say our our our marketing is busy, but nothing adds up. Ever said that? We’re doing a lot of things, but it’s not adding up. every vendor that you hire, you know, somebody do SEO, somebody do content, somebody do ads, they all have a different plan. they’re all just executing the way they want to execute rather than around a cohesive plan that that you or the business is somehow directing.

We’re doing a lot, but the the pipeline’s not only unpredictable, but you know, we’re we’re not closing as much business. maybe we’re even getting leads, but they’re the wrong leads. You know, these are all symptoms. really, really diagnostic symptoms, I guess it would be the way to talk about it. I mean, they’re not character flaws. So please, if random actual marketing sounds harsh, it’s not you. It’s really in a lot of cases what you’ve been told, what you’ve seen, the advice you’ve gotten from.

John Jantsch (02:23.562)

from marketers. So I really want to position it that way because let’s talk about what would help fix that idea. And it really comes down to something that I have been saying for really more than 30 years now that strategy needs to come before tactics. And that’s really that’s really been the basis of my body of work, if you will. Everybody that hires our firm hires us to or is at least going to receive

an a part of the engagement that we call strategy first. And it really has very set components, it has a very set purpose that that is really can then inform any of the tactics or any of the acts of marketing now that will now be intentional acts of marketing random rather than random. So first element. I’m gonna talk about really the three core elements, and that is your ideal client.

Not who you’re trying to attract, what demographic are you trying to attract, you’re trying to attract anybody who has money, but it’s it’s really a it’s a it’s a really an exploration into what would make an ideal client. In fact, a lot of times I will tell people, okay, think of your existing clients today or clients you’ve had over the years, and and and picture one or two or three that you that that you would easily say, I would take.

I would take that kind of client every day because they had the right problem, they had the right attitude, the right beliefs. We were able to solve that problem. We were able to deliver a tremendous amount of value very profitably. those are the elements that really go into an ideal client profile. Now, it doesn’t necessarily mean that you will never take anything else as part of your business, but it’s a specific

It it might be a set of demographics. I mean, if you are in a certain geographic space and you sell to a certain type of buyer, you can demographically have some elements there. But it’s also going to be about the problem that you’re uniquely suited to solve really better than any alternatives. It’s going to be about their specific situation. And sometimes that can be a 25-year-old demographic and a 65-year-old demographic. It’s that they had the same.

John Jantsch (04:47.306)

issue or challenge. So a lot of times people get really stuck on trying to define an age or a gender or a lifestyle or a income. And and it really is much more than that. Those can be components of it, but it’s really you really have to get a handle on what the how what problems you can uniquely solve, right? So I’m going to use a home service example. it might be people that have been in their homes for 20 years. They certainly live in certain zip codes.

They are thinking about doing something like aging in place, for example. so those are those are ways that we start kind of refining and narrowing this ideal client. and what happens then is then you could start making decisions, ads, even photos, pricing, content, everything that you are offering, you know, aligns to that person and to the problem that you solve for that person. So

You know, there’s there’s a saying about, you know, niches. and I I think a lot of people lose, you know, the the what what’s the saying? The reach riches are in the niches. I guess it should be reaches are in the niches. I don’t know. Riches are in the niches. the the idea that people had with that was that they had to narrowly define an industry or a certain type of person. And again, what I’m suggesting is that

You focus more on the messaging of the problem that you solve and not necessarily industry. I mean, in some cases an industry makes sense, but even inside of that industry, you focus on the client that has or or the client that at least the problem you solve resonates. and talk about that. So the second component then, even if you’ve narrowly defined who you serve and you’re starting to communicate that, the second component is, Well, why you? I mean, how are you different or or you know?

Well, what can you do that is different than what everyone else claims, right? So quality, service, experience, I mean, those aren’t differentiators because even if it’s not true, it’s pretty darn easy for somebody to claim. So

John Jantsch (06:58.114)

The real challenge is to then understand in the voice of the customer, what are they saying? How you’re different? How are they communicating the problem that you solve for them? That’s going to be one of the real challenges. And this is a this is a really great place to start. and the beauty of this is that it in many cases, you can find this information. You we we’ve we’ve for many years done interviews with our clients, clients. That’s a great place to start.

But in this day and age, you know, people go and they they make reviews and they make comments and they participate in places like Reddit. and so they’re actually sharing, even without you asking in a lot of cases, most cases, frankly, they’re sharing what they believe is the problem that you’re solving for them. So we would need to really focus on that differentiation and start communicating that. And then the last piece is

what what I have just called for for years your core message. And this is going to be one sentence customer language. is it clear? Is it different? Is it credible? And and it’s not about here’s what we do. It’s not a clever tagline. a core message is very clear that says you know this is who we serve. This is the problem we solve for them and this is how we solve it.

so it the the challenge with it in in many, many years of doing this with folks is there’s a real temptation to want to say everything that you do or why you’re great. and this is really about, you know, we like for us. I mean, in in duct tape marketing, what I tell people is that that we install small business marketing systems. and that is a huge differentiator, believe it or not. it certainly identifies who we serve, but it also communicates.

the difference. Now, if I were taking a longer version of that, I would say, you know, so that that businesses can, you know, stop guessing, performing random acts of marketing and and start really focusing on what actually moves the needle. So the last component then of a strategy first is something we call the marketing hourglass. So any longtime duct tape marketing listeners know that that you know that is our version of the customer journey.

John Jantsch (09:21.656)

There are seven behaviors. You know, a lot of people call them stages. I like to refer them to them as behaviors that businesses or or buyers want to participate in, and they are no like trust, try by, repeat, and refer. and we have to really think in terms of it’s not enough to say, okay, we’re going to run an ad so somebody can come to know us. we have to actually then intentionally plan out the steps where we can activate the behavior of like and trust and and that they might be able to try what it

You’d like to work with this. And obviously, we want to keep the buying decision or the buying experience just as high as everything that led them to that. And then after they become a customer, what are we going to do to surprise and delight them and turn them into advocates? Those are all intentional marketing activities that can come directly out of developing this marketing strategy. So you can get this full framework. This is session number two.

I’m going to do five more sessions on this. Hopefully you’ll get a chance to listen to the entire series. But if you want to also get the companion workbook that goes with this, it is at DTM.world slash seven steps. So DTM like duct tape marketing.world slash seven steps. So here’s what I would give you as your challenge today. Think about your ideal customer. Again, you may not have defined it yet, but think about

Let’s hope you have one or two of those, right? So think about who that ideal customer is, if you could go out and find more of them. and thinking about the problem that you really solve for them, not the service or product that you provide, the problem that they are trying to solve when they engage you. and think about, you know, what would be a core message that that you could actually write for them. So that’s your your your homework today.

and hopefully we will see you in out there on the road someday, but also in episode number three or step number three of the seven steps to marketing success.