Episode 373: Marketing Uncomplicated: Simplify, Strategize, Succeed

Intro

0:00:18 – (Bob Woods): Welcome to the Making Sales Social podcast featuring the top voices in sales, marketing, and business. Join Brynne Tillman, and me, Bob Woods, as we each bring you the best tips and strategies our guests teach their clients so you can leverage them for your own virtual and social selling. This episode of the Making Sales Social podcast is brought to you by Social Sales Link, the company that helps you start more trust-based conversations without being salesy through the power of LinkedIn and AI. Start your journey for free by joining our resource library. Welcome to the show.

00:00:48:12 – (Bob Woods): Kristi Mitchell joins me today on making sales social. Kristi is a strategic marketing consultant and founder of Marketing Uncomplicated, which I think is a great name for a business. She specializes in helping service-based business owners simplify their approach to marketing. With an MBA and over ten years of experience in corporate marketing, she spent the last five years transforming the businesses of more than 100 clients.

00:01:17:14 – (Bob Woods): She’s also the host of Unfudge Your Marketing. This woman is great when it comes to naming things. I love that too, in that she shares her unique approach to cutting through the noise and bringing clarity to marketing strategies. She also interviews people like myself. I was on her podcast really recently. It was a great time. So I know that we’re going to have a great conversation here too, with that.

00:01:42:20 – (Bob Woods): Welcome, Kristi. 

00:01:43:78 – (Kristi Mitchell): Thank you so much for having me, Bob. I’m excited to be here. 

00:01:47:85 – (Bob Woods): Yeah, I’m definitely excited to hear your answers to some of the questions that I’ve got coming up here, which the first traditional question that we always have here, is what does making sales social mean to you? And before you jump on that because I know you want to jump on that.

00:02:06:04 – (Bob Woods): I’d like to take that from the intersection of sales and marketing, like that kind of standpoint. Since you’re more on the marketing side than the sales side. 

00:02:14:78 – (Kristi Mitchell): Yeah, for sure. To me, it’s remembering that it’s all about relationships. So a lot of my clients are in the B2B space and I always like to make sure that business owners or those who are executing marketing plans remember that there is a human element.

00:02:30:19 – (Kristi Mitchell): We are all people. We are selling to people at the end of the day. And so building relationships with people rather than just thinking in terms of companies or numbers or those kinds of like distant, you know, disconnected things is really important to remember that we’re all people and really marketing and sales all come down to building relationships.

00:02:49:25 – (Bob Woods): Yeah, people, I definitely think is the key there and people with different motivations. I mean, if you try to just go with one marketing message to a company, you’re definitely ignoring all of the different people who might be involved in the decision because as we know, the old statistic and it’s even been updated since this came out several years ago but it used to be 6.8 people.

00:03:16:27 – (Bob Woods): I don’t know who the point person is, but 6.8 people are involved in a typical B2B purchasing decision. So I think that that’s where the actual relationship building comes in because you have to build relationships with those people. And that number is much higher too. I don’t remember what the more recent statistic is. LinkedIn did something, but it’s like it’s much higher than that nowadays, which isn’t surprising.

00:03:41:20 – (Kristi Mitchell): Yeah, that’s that doesn’t surprise me at all. Yeah. And so tailoring that approach and that, I’m big on content strategy and part of that work is identifying the pain points that your audience has because again, right, if we’re thinking in terms of these are people, what is it that is keeping that person up at night, whether it’s the business owner or somebody on the board or, you know, an admin who might be involved in part of that decision-making process.

00:04:06:08 – (Kristi Mitchell): So yeah, being able to put yourself in the shoes of those different decision-makers I think is really important.

00:04:13:00 – (Bob Woods): Yeah. So you started marketing uncomplicated at least five years ago. I’m not sure if it’s a little longer than that now, but it’s focused on simplicity and marketing. Can you tell us about your journey? And was there like a light bulb moment that happened where it’s like, This is why I think I should take my company?

00:04:32:19 – (Bob Woods): This is where I really think I can help people. 

00:04:35:65 – (Kristi Mitchell): So many light bulb moments. I feel like that is the case, right? And entrepreneurship. So yes, I did. I spent time in higher ed in corporate marketing. And really, you know, as a lot of us do have some of those corporate battle scars that were that push that we needed to go out and start our own thing.

00:04:53:13 – (Kristi Mitchell): And so that was me when I first started my business that was actually called you’ll appreciate this, I think, since you like my naming of things. So I’ll include all the details for your benefit. So the first iteration of my business was phase two marketing, because I believed I wanted to work with those established businesses who were ready for that next level, that next phase.

00:05:12:28 – (Kristi Mitchell): So phase two marketing was the name of my business. It felt more like an agency. But what I quickly realized was I didn’t want to build an agency. I didn’t want to hire people and have that added layer of stress and, you know, making sure that my business could provide enough for all these people that I’ve employed in that sort of thing.

00:05:29:12 – (Kristi Mitchell): So I realized pretty quick I didn’t want to hire employees onto my company. The other thing I realized, so I got one year under my belt, the pandemic hit and I lost most of my clients because marketing is the first thing to go. And what I realized was I didn’t love the work that I was doing. I loved running my own business.

00:05:48:09 – (Kristi Mitchell): I loved the freedom, the flexibility, the ability to adapt and change and work with clients I really wanted to work with and that sort of thing. But I was doing the execution work and I realized, Gosh, I really don’t like this. I don’t enjoy creating social media posts writing emails making website edits and all of these things, and I would really just love to stay on the strategic planning side.

00:06:07:07 – (Kristi Mitchell): And so I pivoted my business. I rebranded and renamed myself. I said, I also just want to be me. I just want to build my own personal brand. So I rebranded Kristi Mitchell Consulting and filed my LLC at the time, and so that is what I moved forward with for the next few years. I stayed on the strategic planning side.

00:06:25:24 – (Kristi Mitchell): Instead of getting into the weeds of all the execution, there are tons of great execution people out there that I can refer my clients to. But I stayed in what I think is my zone of genius strategic planning for marketing. Then I kind of came, I’m not sure, right? These things kind of come together somehow, but I realized that the way that I approached marketing and the simplicity that I brought to it and the clarity that I brought to it with my frameworks, what I realized is I was making marketing simpler.

00:06:58:29 – (Kristi Mitchell): I don’t want to say easier because it still is a lot of work. I was making it simpler for my clients and so I wanted a business name that really reflected what I was hearing from my clients, like the true value of what I brought to them with their struggles with marketing. And so that’s where marketing uncomplicated came in. I decided to file the trademark.

00:07:18:18 – (Kristi Mitchell): It took off for over a full year. I finally got the trademark this year, and so that is the new name of my business and what I’ve been really promoting. And it gets such great feedback because it’s like, gosh, everyone wants marketing to feel more, less complicated. 

00:07:35:89 – (Bob Woods): Right, yeah. I mean, because let’s face it, as you said, marketing ain’t easy.

00:07:40:28 – (Bob Woods): It can be made simple. But ain’t easy. So I’m sure you’ve seen a lot of businesses struggle with marketing complexity. It’s why you call your company, what it is, and why you think marketing becomes so complicated for business owners. And more importantly, what is your approach to simplifying it for these people? 

00:08:02:18 – (Kristi Mitchell): Yes, I think there’s a number of reasons that it becomes complicated.

00:08:06:11 – (Kristi Mitchell): One of which is there are so many things, right? There are so many moving pieces to marketing you. I like to explain. It’s like you think of marketing as like a huge umbrella. And underneath that umbrella you have websites, you have social media, you have email marketing, you have copywriting, you have podcasting, you have branding, you have logo design, you have print, you have radio, you have advertising, you have all of these things fall underneath it.

00:08:32:16 – (Kristi Mitchell): So I think just the sheer volume of ways that you could market your business can easily be overwhelming and feel complicated. And how do you know which things to pick as a business owner that you’re going to invest in? Because I haven’t met a business yet that has an unlimited marketing budget to just do all of the things right.

00:08:52:27 – (Bob Woods): If you follow and let me know, 

00:08:53:17 – (Kristi Mitchell): I will. I will for sure. Okay. So we have to be selective, right? There’s always we have to be selective. And so when you have all these options, it’s really difficult to know because chances are, as a business owner, you’re not an expert in marketing. So you’re like, okay, I know there’s a bunch out there, but how do I pick what’s right for me and what do I do?

00:09:12:14 – (Kristi Mitchell): Then I think you add on the additional layer of we are all inundated with marketing all the time, every day. So you see other businesses doing other things for their marketing. And then there’s like this FOMO, right? That’s like, well, they’re doing this, so I need to do that. Or you get the unsolicited advice from your business friend who’s like, You really need to start a podcast or you really need to write a book that’s like then it just adds on that layer of like, But if I don’t do all of the things, I’m not going to be successful.

00:09:42:28 – (Kristi Mitchell): So I think that those are kind of the two biggest things that I see is like complicating the overall world of marketing. And I guess the third thing I would add is when you lack a strategy for your marketing, you do not get the results that you are capable of. And so as a result,

00:10:01:17 – (Kristi Mitchell): you could have a business owner doing what they think is a ton of marketing.

00:10:06:14 – (Kristi Mitchell): But if it is not in the realm of a strategic, if there’s not a strategic plan behind it, they’re not going to get the results that they want to. And so then the business owner blames the marketing and says, well, it wasn’t working and I wasted all this money. Really, usually what I see is that it’s because you lack the strategy first.

00:10:24:22 – (Bob Woods): Yeah. So strategy, I mean, strategy in anything sounds big and intimidating, but I definitely think it comes in with marketing, especially because you have all these pieces that come together. So with the understanding that this is going to be this is likely I could be wrong, this is likely going to be different for each company putting together a strategy.

00:10:47:12 – (Bob Woods): How do you define just what a solid marketing strategy is in general? And more importantly, and you’ve kind of touched on this already, but what are some of the common areas where business owners get it wrong?

00:10:59:05 – (Kristi Mitchell): Yes. So this is where my marketing funnel framework comes in and it is nothing earth-shattering. It is adapted from plenty of other models that already exist.

00:11:09:21 – (Kristi Mitchell): But this was kind of the turning point for me in my own business when I realized that if I could show business owners how simple a marketing strategy and plan could be for their business, there’s like these lightbulb moments. They’re like, my God, Wow, that’s so much simpler than I’ve been making it out to be. And so the framework that I use for that is the marketing funnel, but different than most people think about it.

00:11:32:15 – (Kristi Mitchell): It’s not like a sales funnel, it’s not like trip wires and all these extensive email automation. Like, that’s not what I’m talking about. I’m talking about like, think of an inverted triangle, right? For those of us who are listening and not seeing my visual with my hands, the widest part is on top. And then you have the narrowest part on the bottom.

00:11:49:14 – (Kristi Mitchell): So at the top of the funnel that’s attract that, how are you getting out in front of new people for your business? So those could be things like search engine optimization, right? Optimizing your website so people can find you when they go to Google. Social media could be paid advertising could be not working. Right. All of those ways that people could learn about you first, right?

00:12:09:16 – (Kristi Mitchell): As you’re new to them. They’re entering your world. Okay. So now they’ve come into your funnel. They’re at the very top. That’s right. Okay, side. Now, when we talk about marketing, a lot of times we hear building the no like and trust factors, right? So if we think about that kind of layering that over top of our funnel attract is no right now people know that you exist, that’s great.

00:12:30:28 – (Kristi Mitchell): But that’s not enough because especially for service-based businesses, which is who I mainly work with, you’re not usually ready to buy the first time you hear about somebody. So as a business, you need ways to bring people into your world, which I call convert. That’s the next stage of the funnel, which is getting someone to give you their name, and an email address in exchange for something of value.

00:12:52:07 – (Kristi Mitchell): This could be a free masterclass or a webinar. It could be a downloadable offer, it could be a quiz, a lead magnet, all these things that we hear those marketing buzzwords. But is a helpful piece of content or experience that someone gets access to in exchange for giving you their name and email address. And that’s great because now you as the business owner, have a better chance of staying in touch with them, which moves us to the next stage of the funnel, which is usually the longest, and that’s nurture.

00:13:19:16 – (Kristi Mitchell): So that is staying in touch with people over time so that they can build that trust factor. Right? They need to see some social proof and some testimonials. They need to hear stories of how you’ve helped other clients, and what success you know, your other clients have achieved out of working with you. So that nurture section is really critical

00:13:38:23 – (Kristi Mitchell): It’s usually achieved by email, marketing, and social media. I like to say for all the bad that there is about social media, the good part is I say you can double dip with it. It does help you attract and nurture people. You can get out in front of new people and you can stay in touch with them if you’re consistently posting and engaging so that’s the nurture stage. And then the bottom of the final is close, right? That’s making the sale when the timing is right. I always say I’m not a sales coach. That’s why lovely people like you exist to help with the sales process. But I like to teach clients what they can do in their marketing. All along the way that makes closing that deal easier.

00:14:12:00 – (Kristi Mitchell): So it’s things like testimonials and case studies and social proof and those kinds of things. So to answer your other question, what thing do business owners typically miss the mark on? Yeah, what are they missing? Typically it’s that convert and nurture to a degree. Usually, business owners do a ton of the half. They just keep focusing and getting their name out there pushing out the message and trying to reach more people.

00:14:36:23 – (Kristi Mitchell): But again, if you don’t have a way to bring people into your world and nurture them over time, you’re going to lose a lot of people out of that funnel. You’re not nurturing them down to the bottom. They’re just dropping out so you can fill the top of that funnel all you want. But if you don’t have that strategic plan to get people on an email list and nurture them over time with really great content, you’re only going to be able to make so many sales at the end of it.

00:15:00:22 – (Bob Woods): Yeah. Yes. That’s all fascinating.

00:15:04:13 – (Bob Woods): and I agree with you just you know where you know where businesses can go wrong with marketing. What I’m wondering is, especially for the salespeople who are listening to all of this and they’re thinking, this all sounds great, where do I come in? Where do I feel? so understanding that you’re not a sales coach specifically, just where in your mind do you see sales coming into this?

00:15:28:09 – (Kristi Mitchell): Yes. So sales, I think, need to have input into some of those other parts of the funnel. Right. They attract and convert and nurture. I think having input and having a collaborative relationship is really important. Those are the most successful marketing and sales teams that I see is when they’re integrated together for sure. So I think a collaborative approach, I think that in my experience is a common challenge I see is that some sales teams are conditioned like, okay, a lead came in through the website, somebody filled out a form, I’m going to pick up the phone and call them.

00:16:03:14 – (Kristi Mitchell): Yep. Okay, let’s take a step back. And as the marketer, I am going to challenge the salesperson to say, Okay, did that person fill out a form for a piece of content or, you know, for some sort of more information that wasn’t like, Yes, let me get honest on a demo call with you and see what this thing is all about.

00:16:23:16 – (Kristi Mitchell): We have to put ourselves in that prospect’s shoes and meet them where they’re at. So usually the very first step that somebody takes is to learn more about a company. And I think today in the culture that we’re in, it’s not that they want someone to reach out and call them. I would say 99% of the time, someone is not ready for that step.

00:16:44:02 – (Kristi Mitchell): And so for a sales team who. Right, you probably have quotas to meet,

00:16:48:02 – (Kristi Mitchell): you have your numbers you got to make. But let’s build a smarter process so that you’re set up for success because it makes more sense for you to spend your effort reaching out to those people who have been engaging with all this email marketing and social content that’s been going out there because they’re more they’re going to be more receptive to having that conversation if they’ve been nurtured.

00:17:08:28 – (Kristi Mitchell): If you just try and go from attracted to the top to close at the bottom, it’s not going to produce great results for you.

00:17:15:15 – (Bob Woods): Yeah, and I think that that’s important because especially with small businesses, you know, they’re probably living and dying per quarter. So, I mean, yeah, you definitely need to have that more of a lead time there.

00:17:28:20 – (Bob Woods): So I do think that that’s very important and that kind of feeds into something that we say here at social sales, like, you know, slow down your outreach to speed up your outcome. I think that that’s a perfect

00:17:39:09 – (Bob Woods): example, and I like that. Yeah, yeah,

00:17:43:13 – (Bob Woods): yeah. Absolutely. So

00:17:45:11 – (Bob Woods): now let’s move on to something else that you and I have really, really vibed on, especially based on the podcast episode of yours that we recently recorded on fudger marketing.

00:17:58:03 – (Bob Woods): In case you’re interested with that, we will have a link to that in show notes as well. But authenticity is one of the core values.

00:18:06:08 – (Bob Woods): Why do you believe authenticity is so critical in marketing, especially for service based businesses?

00:18:13:25 – (Kristi Mitchell): It’s just so core to my being. It is hard to understand businesses who don’t value it to be totally transparent with you.

00:18:23:05 – (Kristi Mitchell): But I think it kind of goes back to how we started this conversation, Bob, is that if we’re focused on relationships, aren’t the best relationships founded on a level of authenticity, like being who you truly are saying what you mean, meaning what you say, following through on what you’re going to do. Like those are things that I think are really important.

00:18:46:15 – (Kristi Mitchell): And when a business can be clear on who they are and who they’re a great fit for and what values are important to them when they have that level of clarity and their marketing reflects that. Not only are you going to enjoy marketing more because it’s not going to feel like this dreaded task of like putting out the content that they’re not excited about.

00:19:09:11 – (Kristi Mitchell): It doesn’t feel right. They don’t really care about it, right? If you’re just going through the motions, you’re not going to get great results.

00:19:15:16 – (Kristi Mitchell): You’re not going to feel good about it and you’re not going to get great results. It’s I see it as being like a vicious cycle or a really great cycle. So I think that those are important things to consider.

00:19:27:20 – (Bob Woods): So what happens when you get a company and and I’m guessing this is probably happened to you, but you get a company that

00:19:35:17 – (Bob Woods): doesn’t

00:19:36:06 – (Bob Woods): have that. Yeah, they’re just out there selling a product or selling a service and they’re like, I really don’t know what this is. I really don’t know how to capture that.

00:19:46:17 – (Bob Woods): And how can you help them?

00:19:48:28 – (Bob Woods): I don’t know if finding their voice is a good way to put it or. Yeah, but how do you help them do that? 

00:19:56:15 – (Kristi Mitchell): Yeah, I have a proprietary content strategy process I’ve gotten. It’s taken from a bunch of other stuff that exists out there. It’s not totally earth shattering, but it’s my process that I have like picked and choose little pieces of all the things I’ve been exposed to in my time in marketing.

00:20:10:28 – (Kristi Mitchell): And it starts with a buyer persona process or some people hear about client avatars, right? It’s it’s getting super clear on who those target people are that you really want to work with, not just who you are currently working with, because a lot of times they’re not ideal if they’re a huge pain to you and you don’t enjoy it and you really want to love the clients you serve, like, All right, well, let’s make sure we adjust

00:20:30:13 – (Kristi Mitchell): those client avatars or buyer personas to be really clear on what makes for a really great client.

00:20:35:22 –  (Kristi Mitchell): So it’s that it’s getting super clear on their pain points, their challenges, what keeps them up at night, like I said before, so that we can create content that’s really going to resonate with them, that’s going to show them we understand where you’re at. Here are some resources or some things to consider that might help you with that problem that doesn’t necessarily mean hiring.

00:20:55:05 – (Kristi Mitchell): All right. Ideally, yes, you want them to hire you, but that’s not the first step of that journey. And so really coming up with those content ideas that are going to solve problems for that audience, that are going to be helpful and relevant, that is what I think makes a huge difference in successful marketing.

00:21:14:22 – (Bob Woods): Yeah, because and I believe this is something that we discussed on your podcast and that’s something that we bring up here at SSL is to, you know, don’t talk about what you want to talk about, talk about what your what your audience or prospects, as we call them.

00:21:30:01 – (Bob Woods): Yes. As I call them, having a radio and TV background using the word audience a lot. But yeah, you know, talk about the types of things that they need to know or they should know or maybe they don’t know about the problems that they have when they are in business doing whatever it is

00:21:49:11 – (Bob Woods): that they do and how you could potentially help them, but frame it in a way to where and and this is where another one of my phrases come up, stop talking about how you help people and just help people.

00:22:00:01 – (Kristi Mitchell): Yeah, I actually have I’m having this visual come to mind. I created this for a client a couple of years ago. It’s like you picture like two people are on a cliff, right? Like on opposite sides. And there’s, like, this big whole gaping hole in the middle, and you have the business owner on one side, like, shouting, like, Here’s what we offer, here’s why you should work with us.

00:22:20:24 – (Kristi Mitchell): Here’s this thing or that. And then you have the target audience over here and they’re like, my God, I have all these problems. Like, I don’t have time to listen to you. And that is the whole goal. I think with content, strategic content marketing is it bridges that gap. It builds a bridge between that target client who has these problems and this business owner who has solutions.

00:22:41:12 – (Kristi Mitchell): It builds a bridge between them so that you can talk on the same level. 

00:22:46:27 – (Bob Woods): Yeah, and that gets a little bit more into what we’ve already talked a little bit about and that’s relationship building. So obviously you’re, you’re a big believer in that and you love it. I love it too. Yet, you know, generally when we generally think about marketing, it’s usually seen as a one to many mindset, you know, so I think about audience actually comes in here where relationship building is usually 1 to 1 or maybe one to a few, depending on the situation.

00:23:15:22 – (Bob Woods): How do you guide your clients to prioritize relationship building in their marketing efforts? What do they need to do to really not only prioritize that, but to have people know that, you know, hey, we really want to build a relationship with you while they are marketing, essentially.

00:23:33:26 – (Kristi Mitchell): Yeah, I really like this question because it makes me kind of take a step back and think because I haven’t thought of marketing like the differences, right?

00:23:41:25 – (Kristi Mitchell): And one to money versus 1 to 1 to me at all. You know, it all kind of goes together. But

00:23:46:24 – (Kristi Mitchell): if we’re going back to that marketing funnel, right. And we’re doing attracts, you know, marketing tactics to attract basically out in front of people, that’s one too many, right? You’re trying usually you’re not doing one thing to reach one people, right?

00:23:58:17 – (Kristi Mitchell): One person you want to like do something and reach a whole bunch of people to get them in your funnel and then convert. You know, you’re trying to give someone something interesting enough that they’re going to give you your name and email address and then nurture. If you built out these nurture workflows in your email, like that is also one to many.

00:24:13:13 – (Kristi Mitchell): So I think the 1 to 1 ends up really being extremely critical in that close section of the funnel, which is more that sales process and there’s marketing that can help with that, right? So if we have customized

00:24:26:15 – (Kristi Mitchell): case studies for different verticals that we serve, let’s just say for an example, then that salesperson needs to, you know, really work to build that relationship and think, okay, what sort of content can I pull that’s really even more specialized to what this person is going through or what their experiences with this problem.

00:24:43:20 – (Kristi Mitchell): And so I think that that’s an area where you can really shift from that one to many in that 1 to 1,

00:24:50:11 – (Bob Woods): right? Yeah, because another phrase and as you’re discovering, we have all kinds of phrases and things like that here. I’m sure you do. But one of the things that we really encourage is that, you know, to bridge from know like and trust to more of a relationship you need to attract, which you’ve already said attract, teach and engage.

00:25:12:12 – (Bob Woods): I like that comes from the content and hopefully the engagement, the true engagement, which is, you know, starting that sales conversation and actually getting into the sales process comes from everything that you’ve done before, which is, you know,

00:25:27:11 – (Bob Woods): which is the attract and teach part and you’re teaching about what they need to hear. You’re not teaching about what you want to tell them.

00:25:36:28 – (Bob Woods): So I think that that’s really important. And yes, Do you have any stories of clients who saw a major transformation by focusing on relationship building?

00:25:45:28 – (Kristi Mitchell): So one particular client comes to mind in it, a client who came to me after having worked with an agency first, and unfortunately that agency relationship didn’t go well And back to earlier. When you’re talk, thank you so much for helping to promote my podcast on Fudger marketing that came about because of all these conversations I had with amazing business owners who unfortunately have horrible experiences with different aspects of marketing, whether it was a provider they tried to work with or a tactic that they put all their investment in

00:26:21:29 – (Kristi Mitchell): and it didn’t come, you know, come through for them. Whatever it is, there’s so many stories to be told which I hate. I hate it when business owners waste money and time and energy

00:26:31:13 – (Kristi Mitchell): marketing. That doesn’t work for them. But I think that there’s so much value in having those conversations to talk about it so that other business owners can learn from it.

00:26:38:25 – (Kristi Mitchell): So with that being said, this was one of those very first conversations that kind of got my wheels turning, knowing that I needed to start that podcast. And so this particular client is a leadership development training company. They’re international. They hired this agency because they’re at that point where, like, we’ve really built ourselves on relationships and mostly the founders relationships.

00:27:01:03 – (Kristi Mitchell): And the founder is like, okay, I don’t want to keep I would start retiring from this business. Like, I don’t want to be the one going out and finding all the new clients, like we need to build our marketing. So like, this is kind of a well oiled machine and we know what we need to do to attract and convert these awesome clients.

00:27:18:05 – (Kristi Mitchell): And so they hired this agency with all the best intentions in the world and unfortunately, the content that was being created just didn’t back to our word authenticity. It didn’t feel authentic to the company. They were like, this just is it’s not hitting the mark. It feels very generic and kind of blah. And they’re like, It’s just who we are.

00:27:40:26 – (Kristi Mitchell): Like, our business is established, we know who we are and our marketing should reflect that. And so they tried the best they could to really coach those content creators and and guide that and try and get it right the ship and get it the way that they wanted it. And it just wasn’t working. They weren’t receptive to it.

00:27:57:22 – (Kristi Mitchell): They kind of said, yeah, but then it didn’t come through. And so eventually they just decided we can’t keep doing this right. They parted ways with the agency. The founder went out and did a bunch of research and found me and loved everything on my website about, you know, simple and authentic marketing plans.

00:28:14:12 – (Kristi Mitchell): And so we worked together on my process.

00:28:16:27 – (Kristi Mitchell): You know, I did a deep dive into all of their stuff. And what’s the website look like, social look like? How about email marketing? How is this all where they have a podcast too? So I was like, okay, let’s look at all the pieces. Where are the areas of opportunity? I’m a big data and content standpoint. I like the creative side and the number side.

00:28:32:28 – (Kristi Mitchell): So I’m like, Okay, what’s the data telling us? What can we learn from this? And by the way, let’s go through this content strategy process that we talked about earlier so that we can get super clear on who these people are that you want to target with your messaging and what are the problems that they’re facing. So there was a lot of like that strategic work to get super clear on the audience they wanted to connect with to build those authentic relationships with.

00:28:58:13 – (Kristi Mitchell): And so then it was then was a matter of execute how those plans and I pulled together a bunch of those execution specialists for them to, to really carry out those plans that we started together and within the first month or two months, I think they were like, we’re finally getting leads on our website. Like, This is great.

00:29:17:29 – (Kristi Mitchell): We’ve never had anyone fill out that form, or if it was, you know, it’s the same kind of thing. And so

00:29:23:29 – (Kristi Mitchell): they’re really excited to have a marketing plan and content that they feel good about that they know represents them as a company, and that is going to allow them to build those authentic relationships with the ideal clients that they want to serve.

00:29:38:02 – (Bob Woods): Yes, I mean, to me

00:29:39:16 – (Bob Woods): kind of sound and this is probably over. I know it’s oversimplifying it, but, you know, it sounds like finding your own voice, talking in your own voice

00:29:47:17 – (Bob Woods): to your audience of prospects or clients or whatever, but knowing what they need and speaking to that, but speaking to it in your own voice, genuinely and authentically.

00:29:58:27 – (Kristi Mitchell): Yes. Yep. Lots of moving pieces in there. But yeah., it’s possible. Yes. It sounds simple. 

00:30:06:27 – (Bob Woods): Yeah, it sounds simple. It sounds well, yeah, it sounds simple and. And easy. It’s it can be simple ish, but it’s not easy. Yes, it’s a process. Yeah, it’s a process Without a doubt. So now we kind of talked about things in the present and everything.

00:30:23:29 – (Bob Woods): I’m going to have you look into your marketing crystal ball for just a second here. What do you see? The biggest trends are shifts in marketing

00:30:32:19 – (Bob Woods): that businesses should pay attention to and how can businesses start to prepare for that today without feeling overwhelmed by the next shiny thing that’s out there and things? 

00:30:41:69 – (Kristi Mitchell): Yes, I love the timing of our conversation because I just did a solo episode on my podcast on this topic.

00:30:49:17 – (Kristi Mitchell): wow. Great, perfect timing, trends and also predictions. So two things that I honed in on that podcast episode are one being the model in which businesses work with marketing providers. And I kind of just illustrated in that example that I gave. I think there are traditional ways that business owners think about doing marketing for their companies, right?

00:31:16:03 – (Kristi Mitchell): It could be, okay, I need to hire people internally to come in and do the things and build our marketing plan and execute it. And there’s also the model of, okay, I’m going to hire an agency and they’re going to do everything I need for my business to market effectively. I think that that is being disrupted. I think that more and more business owners are sometimes getting burned by bad relationships that didn’t work out or they’re hiring people and expecting them to be able to do everything under the marketing sun, which if we go back to our earlier part of this conversation, when I named up a bunch of things in that marketing umbrella, you

00:31:51:16 – (Kristi Mitchell): cannot expect one person to be an expert in all of those things. And so I think it leaves this opportunity for business owners to consider working with contractors and working with fractional CMO’s and people who they don’t need to hire in but they can contract with and get those very specific skills that they need in order to execute a marketing plan, usually at a much more cost effective way than if you were to hire an agency to do all of the things for you.

00:32:22:02 – (Kristi Mitchell): Yeah, So far,

00:32:23:14 – (Bob Woods): Do you see yourself as a fractional CMO?

00:32:26:14 – (Kristi Mitchell): It’s funny, I didn’t until I would explain to people what I do for small to midsize service based businesses and they’re like, you’re like a fractional CMO. And I’m like, I guess I am sure we can call me that. 

00:32:40:87 – (Bob Woods): That’s funny. So I think that’s something else that, you know, that,

00:32:44:27 – (Bob Woods): that we’re heavily into now that

00:32:47:06 – (Bob Woods): is definitely going to be a part of the future of, you know, marketing and sales and business and everything else is AI exactly.

00:32:56:08 – (Kristi Mitchell): That was the other thing. That was my second one. 

00:33:00:48 – (Bob Woods): Yeah. I’m sorry. I didn’t even click that off. 

00:33: 02:86 – (Kristi Mitchell): No, I knew it was going to, like, flow into the next one. So I’m like, we’ll address it. 

00:33:08:45 – (Bob Woods): so first of all, like it or hate it.

00:33:10:04 – (Kristi Mitchell): Yeah.

00:33:10:18 – (Kristi Mitchell): okay, so I will tell you my anyone who knows me because I talk about this in my LinkedIn videos and content, I’m not an early adopter.

00:33:18:08 – (Kristi Mitchell): I am a okay, something that came out. Let’s keep a pulse on it. Let’s kind of see what people are saying about it. But I’m not going to go and invest a bunch of my time energy budget into something brand new until I know that it’s really worth it. So that’s kind of how I’ve been with AI this year.

00:33:36:22 – (Kristi Mitchell): I was introduced to a specific AI tool that allows you to take video and audio content of your own layer on your own written samples of marketing content, and then produce new content in written form. So this totally changed the game for me. Like, I absolutely love this tool. I signed up to be an affiliate of it like I am, just like, This is so genius because part of my hesitancy with AI. was if people use AI to create content for them.

00:34:13:17 – (Kristi Mitchell): I don’t like the idea it scraping the entire internet to produce that content that. Oh no, Bob Woods, you are the author of this new blog post. It just didn’t sit right with me, especially as we’re talking about authenticity and all of those things. And so that’s why I love this tool specifically, because I think it’s a really great way, especially for small business owners who have limited budgets, to leverage something that will help them.

00:34:40:27 – (Kristi Mitchell): Like you start with a video and then you end up getting all of this great written content from that social post blog, email, YouTube, title, description, timestamps, all of these things. So that’s my own personal experience with AI and kind of some of my reservations and observations with it.

00:34:59:05 – (Bob Woods): Yes. So, so it’s interesting that you bring up the point about AI potentially going out and researching other thing and then branding, you know, branding and indefinite air quotes under a person for like a blog post for  example.

00:35:14:27 – (Bob Woods): Because one of the things that we talk about and I’m sure you have give me the site too, is

00:35:20:17 – (Bob Woods): authenticity and AI. And some people are like, well, you know, I can tell when something’s I written, which most people anymore can tell when something is a I versus when it comes from someone. Specifically. How do you deal with that, I guess is probably a real basic way to do that.

00:35:39:23 – (Bob Woods): I mean, because AI can be important in developing content, but yet you can’t have people looking at something and going, God, that’s just AI.. Who cares? 

00:35:47:47 – (Kristi Mitchell): Yes. Yeah. I think it goes back to, you know, what are your core values as a business? And if authenticity is really important to you, then I think you do need to be discerning about what tools you’re going to use and how you’re using them.

00:36:00:01 – (Kristi Mitchell): So if you’re using an AI tool to help your marketing content team brainstorm ideas or that’s honestly the very first thing I use AI. for was like, help me come up with title ideas for this webinar I want to give or something like that. Or actually is LinkedIn lives I was doing. I just don’t. I don’t. I love that you think I’m so good at creating names for things, but sometimes really struggle with that.

00:36:22:21 – (Kristi Mitchell): So I’m like, okay, AI like here’s what I’m going to be talking about. Give me some creative ideas. And inevitably I would still change them, but at least to give me a starting point instead of that whole like blank screen kind of thing. Yeah. So I think that using it in that way is fine, right? Some people call it like it’s my brainstorm thing, buddy, especially if you’re a small business owners or business owner or social content creator, right?

00:36:45:20 – (Kristi Mitchell): It’s a great way to have

00:36:46:27 – (Kristi Mitchell): new tool, a new resource if you are creating something that you’re going to publish as your own.

00:36:54:06 – (Kristi Mitchell): How are you talking about that? You know, I think disclosure is really important. If you are using AI to do something and then saying that you wrote it. I think having a line in there that says, you know, this post was written with the help of you know, this AI tool,

00:37:11:20 – (Kristi Mitchell): if that’s important, you know, if you feel like you want to be totally transparent, I think that’s something to consider doing.

00:37:17:24 – (Kristi Mitchell):  Unfortunately, it’s this like slippery slope in this huge Pandora’s box that’s been opened. And it’s up to all of us to figure out how do we feel about it and how do we want to handle it.

00:37:27:65 – (Bob Woods): How do you feel about it?

00:37:29:20 – (Kristi Mitchell): I think it can be used for good. Like I said, you know, with

00:37:33:26 – (Kristi Mitchell): like good or evil.

00:37:35:04 – (Kristi Mitchell): I mean, I think there’s applications for my poor father-in-law got scammed by someone who used AI to take his my sister-in-law’s voice and like, it’s bad, like there’s bad there is bad out there, unfortunately, like, so I don’t want to gloss over and say like, yeah, it’s great. It helps a lot. There is bad. There really is evil with it.

00:37:54:17 – (Kristi Mitchell): Unfortunately,

00:37:55:22 – (Kristi Mitchell): I think as business how I feel about it, I feel like I personally, for my own business, need to be very discerning and I have chosen to use tools like the ones that I do for repurposing my own content because then I know it’s rooted in me. It sounds like me, it’s my information, it’s my thought leadership, it’s my expertise.

00:38:16:13 – (Kristi Mitchell): So I think that there are ways I would love for any business owner who’s listening to this and may be on that more conservative end of like how I want to use AI doesn’t I don’t know enough about it. I’m, I’m hesitant. Yeah, I would like them to know that there are tools that help you preserve your authenticity and your thought leadership in that way, and they can still allow you to save a lot of time and energy.

00:38:37:20 – (Bob Woods): Yeah. And. And money as well. And money. Yes. Yeah. All that’s very important. So

00:38:45:07 – (Bob Woods): yes, I mean AI is just it’s, it’s amazing and what it can do and you know, you know with great power comes great responsibility I think is what it comes down to. Yep. So okay so let’s throttle back from that deeply philosophical thing that we did here because my brain starts to get a little fried at this point, but you have a website it’s Kristi Mitchell dot com K R I S T I Mitchell dot com we’ll include that in the show notes as well has a ton of resources know like quiz masterclass resource library how can

00:39:24:08 – (Bob Woods): anyone who

00:39:24:29 – (Bob Woods): is who is interested after after listening to this great conversation tap into what you have and use them to, you know, kickstart their own marketing journey or maybe they’re in that position that that one company you were talking about, it’s just not getting anything out of their current marketing and they’re like, what she’s talking about. So it sounds interesting. What do you have in there? 

00:39:46:29 – (Kristi Mitchell): Yeah, definitely. My resource library is a great place to start. There’s a ton of stuff there. I’ve just added to it over the years. So the Marketing Masterclass is a really great place to start. It’s OnDemand, it’s recorded, it’s 20 minutes. I really dive deeper into that marketing funnel framework. So if you’re like, gosh, I would really like to see that as a visual and kind of dive into that deeper for my own business.

00:40:07:17 – (Kristi Mitchell): Definitely go check out the Masterclass It’s a great place. I’ve got to get started. My podcast, like you said on your marketing, it’s honestly easier because there’s like an asterix in the way I named it. It’s so hard to search for. That was my bad. Go to my website and then get to the podcast from there. It’s a lot easier.

00:40:25:01 – (Kristi Mitchell): Trust me, that’s a really great place. If you’re a business owner who’s kind of thinking like, Gosh, I think I need to do something differently with my marketing, go check out some of those episodes. They really are such value packed conversations. They’re 30 minutes or less. So it’s not a huge requirement of time and it just might help you get your wheels turning and help you get a little clarity on what you need to be exploring for your own marketing.

00:40:46:20 – (Kristi Mitchell): And then you can always, you know, reach out to me through my website or LinkedIn. I live on LinkedIn. You can find me there. Feel free to send me the app and tell me you’ve heard about me here.

00:40:55:26 – (Bob Woods): Excellent. Very good. I love all that. So I’m going to wrap things up with how I wrap up all these shows.

00:41:04:11 – (Bob Woods): You know, I love those. One thing you can do right now, type the tape, take away strategies. So,

00:41:09:23 – (Bob Woods): boy, we’ve covered so much. I had an original one here and I’m like, I’m not sure I want to ask that now. So I’m actually going to just kind of toss that open to you for

00:41:19:13 – (Bob Woods): business owners. Just wondering about marketing, what is one thing they can do right now to really just improve their marketing in general, do you think?

00:41:26:10 – (Kristi Mitchell): I would say to be very honest and reflect and ask yourself if you have a strategy driving what you’re doing, Because going back to that earlier part of our conversation, I think that that’s where a lot of business owners struggle and don’t see results as when they’re lacking that strategy. So I like to talk about it in terms of like if you think of puzzle pieces, right, all those tactics that I talked about are like the puzzle pieces.

00:41:50:05 – (Kristi Mitchell): And then the strategic plan is like, okay, which puzzle pieces are coming into our plan here? And so if you are a business owner who doesn’t have that clarity on the things you really need to be doing for your marketing and how they fit together, like a nice puzzle, then I think getting some help to get the strategic plan in places is really critical.

00:42:09:21 – (Bob Woods): That sounds like a great way to wrap things up. So podcaster, strategic marketing consultant and founder of marketing uncomplicated, still loving that name, Kristi Mitchell. Thank you so much for joining us and the social sales link virtual studios today. 

00:42:25:95 – (Kristi Mitchell): Thanks for having me Bob. 

00:42:27:65 – (Bob Woods): Anytime. Any time. And thank you for streaming this episode of Making Sales Social. So remember when you’re out and about this week or any week, be sure to make your sales social.

Outro:

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