Transcripts
Hello, welcome to the Close The Loop podcast.
Kevin Dieny:I am joined by two wonderful hosts.
Kevin Dieny:And we are going to be talking about growing your business with
Kevin Dieny:brand awareness, which I have to be a totally honest, it's a little
Kevin Dieny:bit of an interesting topic.
Kevin Dieny:It's usually one, a lot of brands and small businesses stay away from.
Kevin Dieny:The idea of brand awareness seems kind of hokey.
Kevin Dieny:So we'll try to un-hokey it for you to try to properly set the stage for why
Kevin Dieny:there's importance around brand awareness.
Kevin Dieny:And I think the easiest way to define this one is that brand awareness is
Kevin Dieny:basically to just the decision set.
Kevin Dieny:It's, are you in the minds of people looking for the services that you
Kevin Dieny:offer or products that you offer?
Kevin Dieny:Are they thinking about you, or are they aware of you, or do they have
Kevin Dieny:some perception that even you exist?
Kevin Dieny:Are you find-able by people who are looking for what you offer.
Kevin Dieny:And that is essentially the basics of the brand awareness,
Kevin Dieny:that we're talking about here.
Kevin Dieny:It may seem like, oh yeah, if you Google my business name, I show up.
Kevin Dieny:That's not exactly what we're talking about because we're talking about
Kevin Dieny:people who don't know you yet exist.
Kevin Dieny:Right?
Kevin Dieny:And there's different degrees to that.
Kevin Dieny:There might even be people who don't yet know they have a problem,
Kevin Dieny:that you may want to be on the forefront of communicating to them.
Kevin Dieny:So brand awareness is a wide spectrum.
Kevin Dieny:Being on the side of a customer...
Kevin Dieny:a customer is not going to buy five water heaters.
Kevin Dieny:They're not going to go to three different dentists right away.
Kevin Dieny:They're going to have usually one business offering them
Kevin Dieny:the help of the one solution.
Kevin Dieny:So that's why it's in critically important to be in that decision set
Kevin Dieny:so that when they do decide they're going to move forward with solving
Kevin Dieny:their problem, whenever it is that you're the business they go to.
Kevin Dieny:So that's the value spot of looking at it from the customer's perspective, why it's
Kevin Dieny:important to be in their decision set.
Kevin Dieny:So we want to talk about how to be more successful in brand awareness.
Kevin Dieny:And I want to introduce our first host and that's Ronn Burner.
Kevin Dieny:He's an independent marketing strategy consultant.
Kevin Dieny:He applies his marketing MBA with his marketing automation experience to
Kevin Dieny:help organizations design, execute and measure their marketing strategies
Kevin Dieny:when he is not designing programs.
Kevin Dieny:Ronn's time is spent as an avid sports and fitness fanatic, and can be spotted
Kevin Dieny:with his 11 year old son at Disneyland on any given weekend, literally.
Kevin Dieny:Welcome Ronn!
Ronn Burner:Thanks, Kevin.
Ronn Burner:Good to be with you again Matt.
Matt Widmyer:Likewise.
Kevin Dieny:And Matt, our other host, he is the sales development
Kevin Dieny:manager here at CallSource.
Kevin Dieny:He oversees the ever-growing sales development division while working
Kevin Dieny:as liaison between the marketing and sales departments, whether it is an
Kevin Dieny:individual or team operational gap, he'll roll up his sleeves and go to work.
Kevin Dieny:He's a problem solver.
Kevin Dieny:He's a mentor and he is a coach all rolled into one.
Kevin Dieny:Matt has a wife and daughter and loves all things outdoors.
Kevin Dieny:So, welcome Matt!
Matt Widmyer:Yeah, thanks for having me back, good to see you guys again.
Kevin Dieny:All right.
Kevin Dieny:First question in the brand awareness topic, I want to ask, why is brand
Kevin Dieny:awareness so difficult, maybe so difficult to get and difficult to solve for?
Kevin Dieny:So, Ronn, what did you think about why brand awareness is so difficult?
Ronn Burner:It's difficult because of competition, I guess it would
Ronn Burner:be the first thing that comes to mind because brand awareness...
Ronn Burner:Is you laid it out pretty clearly at the beginning.
Ronn Burner:I simplify it and I just think of it in terms of name anything: a shoe,
Ronn Burner:coffee, shirt, anything that you want, what is the first thing that
Ronn Burner:comes to mind off instantaneously?
Ronn Burner:When we say coffee, some sort of coffee pops into our head.
Ronn Burner:Starbucks, there's certainly competition.
Ronn Burner:But, the idea of brand awareness in my mind is everybody talks about the buying
Ronn Burner:process, the customer journey in those things, the very first step, it really is
Ronn Burner:brand awareness because if they don't know who you are, you're already off the list.
Ronn Burner:You can't make that sale.
Ronn Burner:If they don't know how to find you, who you are, or to even look at you.
Ronn Burner:And if you're not on, on the short list, if there's multiple, if you're
Ronn Burner:not on the shortlist, the chances of traffic, the chances of revenue, the
Ronn Burner:chances of conversions is just diminished severely because even if they are doing
Ronn Burner:their own homework, they're going to do their homework on their shortlist.
Ronn Burner:So you don't really ever enter the buying process for them.
Ronn Burner:So that is an obstacle, acute obstacle that you want to overcome.
Ronn Burner:And, it takes time and it takes effort, and that's why you see things like, I'm
Ronn Burner:just spit balling here, but it's something like a Red Bull when Red Bull and all
Ronn Burner:these energy drinks first came out.
Ronn Burner:Do you remember, or you may have seen advertisements everywhere you
Ronn Burner:can possibly see and even vehicles driving by and giving it away for free.
Ronn Burner:They're just handing it to anybody that will take it.
Ronn Burner:You can do it with water, Dasani waters were doing was doing that as well.
Ronn Burner:And the idea is they're giving it away and they're giving it away.
Ronn Burner:Obviously they say, I think the quality is good and they
Ronn Burner:think you're going to like it.
Ronn Burner:But the main reason they're just flat out and giving it to everybody in the
Ronn Burner:world that they can, that is willing to stick their hand out and take it
Ronn Burner:is because that's their advertising.
Ronn Burner:And that's how they're getting their name recognition and their
Ronn Burner:brand recognition out there.
Ronn Burner:When you talked to your friends and everybody's talking about
Ronn Burner:this new product, that it was that good, they're giving it away.
Ronn Burner:They're giving it away.
Ronn Burner:They're giving it away.
Ronn Burner:You can't even remember the name.
Ronn Burner:And then eventually you start to remember the name of it, and then it starts
Ronn Burner:to be etched in your thought process.
Ronn Burner:And that's really the game.
Kevin Dieny:Yeah I think about different products, and I think
Kevin Dieny:about them in a segmented way.
Kevin Dieny:I think there's the luxury or the higher end, maybe the higher priced product.
Kevin Dieny:There might also be in the same range, like the higher quality product.
Kevin Dieny:There could be a more niche product.
Kevin Dieny:Everyone makes sunglasses, there's lots of companies that make them, but they're
Kevin Dieny:in their sunglasses made specifically for using computers now, there's
Kevin Dieny:sunglasses or stuff that changes the tint.
Kevin Dieny:There's some that have the different focal lenses within them, so you can
Kevin Dieny:read with them maybe one in one frame.
Kevin Dieny:There's a diverse range within a single product set.
Kevin Dieny:And within let's call it like a niche, a lot of businesses sit.
Kevin Dieny:Even in the medical profession, there's pediatrics, right?
Kevin Dieny:And that's specifically for young kids and families and things like
Kevin Dieny:that, it could be a family doctor that handles the whole family.
Kevin Dieny:There could be geriatrics.
Kevin Dieny:That's a little bit more on the older side.
Kevin Dieny:So every single product and offering service has a niche.
Kevin Dieny:So when Ronn was saying, which I liked, "Think of coffee."
Kevin Dieny:Probably just elucidated ooh, I need coffee right now, or a
Kevin Dieny:brand or something came to mind.
Kevin Dieny:But if I said, okay, well, what's the coffee that you can get under a dollar
Kevin Dieny:that you actually like, probably a different thing may come up or what's
Kevin Dieny:the best coffee that has a caramel or something in it, or what's the
Kevin Dieny:closest to your house that may even be an, a part of the decision set.
Kevin Dieny:Right?
Kevin Dieny:It might be too far to think of these shops and stores and businesses
Kevin Dieny:that are too far away from you.
Kevin Dieny:You're not even going to bother going to so that all plays a part in it.
Kevin Dieny:The second thing that I thought was really interesting about
Kevin Dieny:what you said Ronn was Red Bull.
Kevin Dieny:They are fanatically known for creating a brand persona, a feeling
Kevin Dieny:attached to their brand and that's come from their advertisements the
Kevin Dieny:way they do a little bit of guerilla marketing like you show you showcased.
Kevin Dieny:The feeling people get when they think of the brand.
Kevin Dieny:That's another component of it, but that's a lot harder.
Kevin Dieny:I think that requires a little bit more influence to get to, but as he's
Kevin Dieny:tackling, why is brand awareness so hard?
Kevin Dieny:I think he really well laid it out.
Kevin Dieny:So, Matt, I want to bring you to the next question, what does brand awareness
Kevin Dieny:look like for a small business?
Matt Widmyer:Yeah.
Matt Widmyer:I think that, most people have a list of either things they buy
Matt Widmyer:or services they need either for themselves or their business.
Matt Widmyer:So brand awareness from that perspective is like, okay, these
Matt Widmyer:are the people who do blank.
Matt Widmyer:Most people have their preferred vendors or preferred
Matt Widmyer:businesses that they work with.
Matt Widmyer:And if you're anything like me, you have your backup list too, in case something
Matt Widmyer:goes terribly wrong with one of them.
Matt Widmyer:We do that here too, right?
Matt Widmyer:We're always vetting technology and some of the things we do here is
Matt Widmyer:we have to know if, especially if it's a giant system or something,
Matt Widmyer:that's gonna take a lot of work.
Matt Widmyer:If it's a CRM or a marketing automation platform.
Matt Widmyer:First step is always knowing, okay, who's a player in the game and what
Matt Widmyer:is the competitive advantage that one company has over the other?
Matt Widmyer:And then it usually at the, towards the end, it usually comes down to price.
Matt Widmyer:Who is a player in the game and the selection method obviously
Matt Widmyer:depends on so many different variables, like budget and stuff like
Matt Widmyer:that ? So that's, I think that's the question I'm always thinking about.
Matt Widmyer:It's like, these are the people who do blank and then do we need blank?
Matt Widmyer:Okay, cool.
Matt Widmyer:Let's talk to these people.
Matt Widmyer:It's what we're solving for here.
Kevin Dieny:Yeah, what you're describing, I think is something in school that
Kevin Dieny:I've heard a thousand times now.
Kevin Dieny:It's called your competitive advantage.
Kevin Dieny:It's basically what is the one unique thing that you can offer that other
Kevin Dieny:businesses maybe don't offer the same way or where you stand out and
Kevin Dieny:standing out is really the point?
Kevin Dieny:You don't have to necessarily be the best.
Kevin Dieny:You just have to be the best in the eyes of whoever's deciding
Kevin Dieny:what they're going to do.
Kevin Dieny:Right?
Kevin Dieny:So how you communicate that it gets down to some really interesting
Kevin Dieny:ways of communicating, of messaging, and creating content.
Kevin Dieny:I'll let Ronn go into that a little bit.
Kevin Dieny:What areas in marketing, are areas of brand or topics of brand awareness found?
Kevin Dieny:Where are brands putting their messaging to get themselves
Kevin Dieny:out there the most effectively?
Kevin Dieny:What do you think Ronn?
Ronn Burner:Well, I say everywhere because I believe all the messaging
Ronn Burner:should be in unison across every channel that you offer.
Ronn Burner:That's your media mix.
Ronn Burner:That's your integrated marketing plan.
Ronn Burner:To your point though, I do agree.
Ronn Burner:The brand awareness is what you're known for or what you want to be known for.
Ronn Burner:And what that means is, continuously pitch that.
Ronn Burner:Include that in your mission statement.
Ronn Burner:This is what we do, great.
Ronn Burner:And there's countless examples of it.
Ronn Burner:When there's taglines that you see for larger organizations.
Ronn Burner:They started small with whatever messaging they had that tried to differentiate
Ronn Burner:themselves from the competition.
Ronn Burner:And that's key.
Ronn Burner:It's not about being better.
Ronn Burner:It's about being different because something that always comes to
Ronn Burner:mind in this conversation is bounty the quicker picker-upper.
Ronn Burner:Okay.
Ronn Burner:So if you're in the paper towel business, you don't want to be the
Ronn Burner:quicker-er picker upper, change the narrative, change the story.
Ronn Burner:We are in competition with a well-known brand.
Ronn Burner:So how do we differentiate ourselves from them?
Ronn Burner:They're the quicker picker up for?
Ronn Burner:Okay.
Ronn Burner:So we are the durable brand, and we were better at cleaning
Ronn Burner:car windows, cleaning glass.
Ronn Burner:We're better at cleaning things up that doesn't tear some, whatever
Ronn Burner:the message is, the idea is you don't want to follow suit with
Ronn Burner:something that's already out there.
Ronn Burner:You need to establish your own identity.
Ronn Burner:And that's really, really key.
Ronn Burner:And it goes back to what you're known for.
Ronn Burner:So say it in your mark.
Ronn Burner:If there's a tagline, it's usually something that on your website.
Ronn Burner:There's something under your title, under the name or just a headline.
Ronn Burner:That's one place that you see it, which that can be incorporated within emails.
Ronn Burner:It could be at the end of an email, almost like a little signature thing.
Ronn Burner:And then nowadays with a hashtag with your social media messaging when you have some
Ronn Burner:sort of initiative or promotion going on.
Ronn Burner:No matter what it is, you're talking about, you have that signature
Ronn Burner:tagline, you have that thing that identifies you and specifically you.
Ronn Burner:Kind of the way I would approach it.
Kevin Dieny:Yeah, it's hard to get your messaging everywhere.
Kevin Dieny:A lot of formats, and a lot of things are difficult, especially for someone
Kevin Dieny:who doesn't know who you are yet.
Kevin Dieny:There's definitely certain channels, I would say that someone looking, like
Kevin Dieny:so the water heater blows someone who doesn't know how to fix that may just
Kevin Dieny:type in "My water heater is leaking."
Kevin Dieny:How was they gonna go from that to finding, "Bob's Plumbing
Kevin Dieny:Service" or something like that.
Kevin Dieny:How does that make that jump?
Kevin Dieny:That leap that connection.
Kevin Dieny:When I talk about searching online, we're talking about SEO a little bit.
Kevin Dieny:We're talking about, finding you organically, a local search is also
Kevin Dieny:going to be scoped a little differently than, a national or global search.
Kevin Dieny:So all of these layers have different...
Kevin Dieny:let's call them like channels, mediums, places, positions, things
Kevin Dieny:like that, that your brand needs to be able to be found there.
Kevin Dieny:And so that you can position your brand, your messaging.
Kevin Dieny:We offer something here called vanity phone numbers, which have your phone
Kevin Dieny:numbers brand, literally in the number, it spells out your brand.
Kevin Dieny:So things like that can be found if all that's listed, there is a phone number.
Kevin Dieny:So Matt, what do you think are good places for a business to think about
Kevin Dieny:positioning themselves so people can find them who've never heard of them?
Matt Widmyer:Yeah, I think you have to look at who would the
Matt Widmyer:audience you're trying to grab.
Matt Widmyer:Right?
Matt Widmyer:If you're trying to get a younger generation into something it's
Matt Widmyer:going to be electronically.
Matt Widmyer:They aren't going to be picking up the newspaper, looking at your ad.
Matt Widmyer:So it's going to be a little bit different.
Matt Widmyer:So it would depend highly on the audience you're trying to attract but
Matt Widmyer:like you just mentioned vanity numbers.
Matt Widmyer:Great example, if you live in an area where radio's really big you almost
Matt Widmyer:need a vanity number to have, on the radio program or on a TV program.
Matt Widmyer:Preferably in tandem with a little jingle where if you're wanting a new car
Matt Widmyer:insurance or something like that, you know what number you're dialing without even
Matt Widmyer:having to think about it or write it down.
Matt Widmyer:Some of these commercials I go to sleep thinking about some of these songs.
Matt Widmyer:There's no way I'm not going to remember that when it comes time for
Matt Widmyer:me to, actually pick up the phone and dial one of these companies.
Matt Widmyer:But I think a lot of it is very dependent, especially social media
Matt Widmyer:now with the younger generation.
Matt Widmyer:It went from being an optional thing to almost like a must have.
Matt Widmyer:If you're trying to attract a younger crowd but with the older generation
Matt Widmyer:they do pick up the newspapers.
Matt Widmyer:Really rural areas, newspapers are still a very large thing.
Matt Widmyer:In terms of what eggs to put in, what baskets is knowing your audience first
Matt Widmyer:and then addressing, the advertising through the audience and then
Matt Widmyer:tailoring it to that specific group.
Kevin Dieny:Okay.
Kevin Dieny:So we just talked about how customers or potential customers who know they
Kevin Dieny:have this problem start searching and then finding you and start remembering,
Kevin Dieny:oh yeah, I heard this jingle on the radio or, oh, I saw this TV commercial.
Kevin Dieny:That's someone who's got a problem, they know what they need to solve
Kevin Dieny:it, and they connect the dots.
Kevin Dieny:Right?
Kevin Dieny:So that's where brand awareness is at its strongest.
Kevin Dieny:They are maybe one step away from just picking you right off the bat.
Kevin Dieny:So let's go two steps away for a second here.
Kevin Dieny:Let's go to someone who, is trying to understand that they have a problem.
Kevin Dieny:They may have a goal, like, oh, I want to upgrade my yard, but I don't
Kevin Dieny:know that there's a machine that will help me do that, or there's a
Kevin Dieny:service that will help me do that.
Kevin Dieny:So that's a little bit further away.
Kevin Dieny:At that distance of someone not even knowing the problem they have.
Kevin Dieny:So Ronn how does a brand do preemptive brand awareness before someone
Kevin Dieny:realizes they've got a problem?
Ronn Burner:Um, Google ads, you have to get in front of them any way that you can.
Ronn Burner:So previously I had mentioned the channels that she would use.
Ronn Burner:Just speaking in terms of marketing channels, you would utilize that
Ronn Burner:messaging within all of your marketing channels externally.
Ronn Burner:Now it's the, we're speaking to the media mix.
Ronn Burner:Where can you be found?
Ronn Burner:So like Matt said radio is, especially living in Southern California,
Ronn Burner:we are in our cars way too often.
Ronn Burner:So even if you're close, it's still a commute.
Ronn Burner:And the commute of finding and hearing things comes across the radio constantly.
Ronn Burner:And that is a great media location.
Ronn Burner:The ads that are specific to like local areas and smaller areas work
Ronn Burner:with things of like penny saver.
Ronn Burner:Where they're coming to your inbox, to your mailbox.
Ronn Burner:Both hard copies and email copies.
Ronn Burner:So you're receiving it and you're hearing about it.
Ronn Burner:When it comes to specifics, like preemptive, getting ahead
Ronn Burner:of things, that's much more challenging, but you at least have
Ronn Burner:to hit the 30,000 foot view of it.
Ronn Burner:So if you're speaking specifically to leaks, then all the leaks are different.
Ronn Burner:There could be plumbing leak, there could be neighbor leaks, anything can
Ronn Burner:leak, I suppose, if they're fluid.
Ronn Burner:Outside of that, key words in Google analytics for the word "Leak" things
Ronn Burner:that are not Google analytics, but Google ad words, which is Google ads nowadays.
Ronn Burner:That is a key word indicator that certainly you're going to have
Ronn Burner:these in your blog, on your website.
Ronn Burner:So those are how you're going to be found organically.
Ronn Burner:Outside of that, if you want to have the pay-per-click or the different
Ronn Burner:kinds of ad strategies, you just want us to incorporate as many very
Ronn Burner:preemptive possibilities that you could think of that would tie ultimately
Ronn Burner:back to you being the solution.
Kevin Dieny:Yeah, that's really good.
Kevin Dieny:You've also got me thinking about word of mouth.
Kevin Dieny:One thing that some businesses struggle with and it's really
Kevin Dieny:common is understanding exactly what channels or what the flow of
Kevin Dieny:visitors, customers to my business?
Kevin Dieny:I would almost say misconception, to say, oh, all my business
Kevin Dieny:comes from word of mouth.
Kevin Dieny:That could definitely justifiably be the case, but it's oftentimes
Kevin Dieny:a lot more intricate than that.
Kevin Dieny:Very few people take one person's word and just move on that, it does
Kevin Dieny:happen, but sometimes there's a lot more research being done, like, okay,
Kevin Dieny:is their a situation the same as mine?
Kevin Dieny:Is this person, or is this business local enough to me?
Kevin Dieny:Or is, was this problem that they had similar to mine?
Kevin Dieny:How much the person trusts another person is going to be a part of that too.
Kevin Dieny:So when it comes to the word of mouth component, how does that
Kevin Dieny:factor into brand awareness?
Kevin Dieny:Matt, what do you think?
Matt Widmyer:Yeah, factors into it quite a bit.
Matt Widmyer:And we see word of mouth basically in the form of online reviews.
Matt Widmyer:Right.
Matt Widmyer:Let's something else we help smaller businesses out with here is your online
Matt Widmyer:reputation, in terms of numbers, reviews, and the reviews that do come in are
Matt Widmyer:hopefully the ones from happy customers.
Matt Widmyer:So if you're not going to believe one person, if you have 500 people leaving
Matt Widmyer:positive reviews or the consensus is generally a very high score, it's
Matt Widmyer:probably a pretty safe bet to utilize whatever service or product that is.
Matt Widmyer:The more people that have something positive to say about a business
Matt Widmyer:the more likely that business is going to get selected when it comes
Matt Widmyer:to the decision-making process.
Matt Widmyer:Word of mouth is huge whether it's a leak or someone who's dealt with
Matt Widmyer:a similar situation in the past.
Matt Widmyer:You can have a buddy over at your house and your pipe blows up.
Matt Widmyer:Hey, I called this company last time.
Matt Widmyer:So that's huge right?
Matt Widmyer:Especially if it's someone that's used a similar service.
Matt Widmyer:If you're going to the preemptive side of things, everybody eats food, right?
Matt Widmyer:So if your buddy comes up and tells you, Hey, this Mexican
Matt Widmyer:place by my house is really good.
Matt Widmyer:You might decide to eat there for one of your meals, that would
Matt Widmyer:be the preemptive side of things in the decision-making process.
Matt Widmyer:It's huge because it's coming from a credible person.
Matt Widmyer:In order for somebody to raise their hand and say, Hey, you should think
Matt Widmyer:about selecting this business, they obviously have to do a really good job,
Matt Widmyer:in whatever it is they do, because if they don't, it could be the opposite.
Matt Widmyer:It could be say, Hey, stay away from this business because they suck or they're not
Matt Widmyer:very good or either Mexican food tastes like taco bell or something like that.
Matt Widmyer:There's both sides of it too, right?
Kevin Dieny:I like that idea.
Kevin Dieny:And it's something that I wanted to actually bring from that to Ronn was.
Kevin Dieny:When a business, is in let's call it the unfortunate position of being
Kevin Dieny:surrounded by a lot of competitors, maybe even big, like spending lots
Kevin Dieny:of money, something like that.
Kevin Dieny:A small business may feel like, man, what can I do about brand awareness.
Kevin Dieny:There's huge competitors for this.
Kevin Dieny:Let's say there's a company launching a soda and they're
Kevin Dieny:like, Pepsi and Coke are huge.
Kevin Dieny:What chance do I stand against these behemoths?
Kevin Dieny:So you talked a little bit about this with differentiation earlier, but I
Kevin Dieny:thought it would be a good way for you to talk about a business, finding its niche
Kevin Dieny:and being able to differentiate itself.
Kevin Dieny:So if you could talk a little bit more on, on how a business may smaller
Kevin Dieny:business may come into a very competitive field and stand out enough to do well?
Ronn Burner:Well, you need to identify who you are and what
Ronn Burner:message you're trying to get out.
Ronn Burner:I said is know who you are, know what you do, and really
Ronn Burner:hammer that home and do that.
Ronn Burner:Drive it home.
Ronn Burner:The beauty of a small organization is the intimacy that's involved.
Ronn Burner:Larger corporation is just no matter how hard they try, there's
Ronn Burner:typically just a lack of that.
Ronn Burner:And that is exactly where the small business benefits.
Ronn Burner:Brand awareness on the word of mouth mama and Papa shops is.
Ronn Burner:It's interesting because brand awareness is usually intricated with something much
Ronn Burner:larger because it has to be top of mind.
Ronn Burner:So when it's a mom and pop shop, small business, it's usually such a local thing.
Ronn Burner:Something that comes to mind when I think of that is so in California,
Ronn Burner:the competition is immense.
Ronn Burner:Like you were just saying, and well, good reviews and or bad reviews, a bad review.
Ronn Burner:I went to college in the Midwest and I'm from the Midwest.
Ronn Burner:A bad review in a small town, in a small place, like I went to college in North
Ronn Burner:Dakota it actually has a tremendous negative impact on the organization
Ronn Burner:because they've the quality of work is down and that small community,
Ronn Burner:when you get a bad reputation, you're just not getting into business.
Ronn Burner:So a good, a positive review, there goes a long way.
Ronn Burner:And in a big city like California, like LA, nobody trusts anything
Ronn Burner:because they don't know the quality because the competition is so immense.
Ronn Burner:So when you get a good review in a place like LA, you're like.
Ronn Burner:If this is coming from them, I'm going to go there.
Ronn Burner:I don't need to worry about going to do all the research and all of this because
Ronn Burner:I'm just happy to, and I had no somebody that was happy with their service.
Ronn Burner:The beauty of the small business is just absolutely
Ronn Burner:hands-on care for your customer.
Ronn Burner:Build that relationship, have that rapport.
Ronn Burner:That's why you often see small businesses giving free cookies or
Ronn Burner:free soda or offering free coffees in the lobby or at the reception.
Ronn Burner:They're very good about making you feel welcome and making you
Ronn Burner:feel that you can trust them.
Ronn Burner:And then of course, when they turn around and provide the service or product or
Ronn Burner:give you happiness to solve your problem or give you what you're looking for.
Ronn Burner:Now that's where loyalty comes in.
Ronn Burner:Now, next time that presents itself, you know exactly where you're going
Ronn Burner:and exactly who you're going to call.
Ronn Burner:And of course that loyalty is where word of mouth comes in because now you're
Ronn Burner:telling everybody how good that was.
Ronn Burner:It's on a much smaller scale of brand awareness in my mind, but it's still
Ronn Burner:absolutely part of the same pie.
Kevin Dieny:I really liked that.
Kevin Dieny:I think the next question I have right off the bat of that, Ronn
Kevin Dieny:is how does a business quickly establish brand awareness then?
Kevin Dieny:So, lets throw it right back to you.
Ronn Burner:First and foremost, you have a high quality work and you do whatever it
Ronn Burner:is that you do, you do at a high quality.
Ronn Burner:And you do it immediately with, that rapport, that building like you're,
Ronn Burner:it's almost over the top, I guess.
Ronn Burner:You're so...
Ronn Burner:kind and so nice and so personable, and it's an intimate,
Ronn Burner:it fits an intimacy business.
Ronn Burner:Meaning there's a lot of conversation that's taking place between two people,
Ronn Burner:rather than going online and pushing a button and ordering something.
Ronn Burner:So the brand awareness, it's a messaging and the consistency with that.
Ronn Burner:So I do think it's, I do think small businesses need to know who
Ronn Burner:they are and who they want to be.
Ronn Burner:And I really do think taglines...
Ronn Burner:may sound hokey and may sound cheesy.
Ronn Burner:But the thing of that starts with a mission statement when
Ronn Burner:you're writing your plan.
Ronn Burner:And then it goes into a tagline, which is continuing that, which is
Ronn Burner:encompassing your core beliefs, your values, your pillars of success.
Ronn Burner:So that's what you're going to come up with when you're just coming up with
Ronn Burner:your marketing plan and your strategy and your business proposition, then
Ronn Burner:you're going to have that somehow all incorporated into a tagline.
Ronn Burner:And then you're backing that up with your performance and with how you
Ronn Burner:behave, and how you consistently are acting towards that pillar.
Kevin Dieny:The essential thing that you're outlining is that businesses need
Kevin Dieny:to know that they can, and do have an impact on changing their awareness, their
Kevin Dieny:brand, how their brand is perceived.
Kevin Dieny:Creating a business doesn't necessarily mean everyone's going
Kevin Dieny:to know about you and who you are and come flocking to your business.
Kevin Dieny:And so it's a little bit of a misconception to think that, you
Kevin Dieny:don't need any form of marketing or sales when you start out.
Kevin Dieny:And I think every business owner, entrepreneur usually finds
Kevin Dieny:themselves putting on pretty big sales shoes at first, doing a lot
Kevin Dieny:of that leg work, and then moving into a little bit more marketing
Kevin Dieny:and getting themselves out there.
Kevin Dieny:Just like you described Ronn, they're going above and beyond to make sure
Kevin Dieny:that their business has a good chance of succeeding is what helps them succeed.
Kevin Dieny:A lot of businesses fail in the first couple of years, but if they
Kevin Dieny:get out of that, that cycle the first couple of years, then they
Kevin Dieny:really need to be thinking, okay, my business is surviving now.
Kevin Dieny:Now I need it to survive longer.
Kevin Dieny:I can't be doing crazy hours at work.
Kevin Dieny:I need to be able to have somebody else do this or put
Kevin Dieny:this off my plate a little bit.
Kevin Dieny:So Matt, knowing that a business can change its brand awareness and that
Kevin Dieny:maybe that's something new to somebody.
Kevin Dieny:How hard or how easy do you think it is to influence brand awareness?
Matt Widmyer:I don't think it's ever an easy thing to do in general,
Matt Widmyer:it's not going to be an easy thing...
Matt Widmyer:it's not a small task.
Matt Widmyer:It's going to be a larger thing.
Matt Widmyer:We talked about word of mouth.
Matt Widmyer:I think that the weekly mailers a great idea.
Matt Widmyer:While we're talking about this, I'm almost thinking like I should stop throwing those
Matt Widmyer:money mailers or whatever away, because it could be my emergency kit in case a
Matt Widmyer:pipe ever burst or something in my house.
Matt Widmyer:So I think that, there's usually coupons in there, but it's not
Matt Widmyer:even really about the coupons.
Matt Widmyer:It's more of like a, "Hey, this is what we do."
Matt Widmyer:The thing to take away is if your services are consistent and related to each other,
Matt Widmyer:in other words, you don't want to miss the opportunity to work with somebody because
Matt Widmyer:they think you only do roofing surfaces.
Matt Widmyer:So you get somebody else to do the siding and landscaping everything else.
Matt Widmyer:When this company A actually took care of all of it, and they would
Matt Widmyer:have given you like a package discount or something like that, too.
Matt Widmyer:So I think by doing, too many things that are vastly different, you can almost
Matt Widmyer:confuse the message that you're trying to give your perspective customers.
Matt Widmyer:So I think being on the same page, a lot of this stuff can be explained on your
Matt Widmyer:website or whatever marketing you're doing, but I think consistency within the
Matt Widmyer:brand and conformity of related products or services helps make that message a
Matt Widmyer:little bit easier for prospective buyers.
Kevin Dieny:Yeah, I think we've touched on two really important things
Kevin Dieny:here in talking about this topic.
Kevin Dieny:The first one is that your brand can only be successful, can only make a
Kevin Dieny:sale, can only gain a customer, if the customer knows that you exist.
Kevin Dieny:If your service, your offering is in their decision set, meaning when
Kevin Dieny:they're making that decision to call or to buy, or even to look up something.
Kevin Dieny:If you're able to be found by them when they may first be planning out a goal.
Kevin Dieny:Like, I want to create a backyard when they actually go to, okay, I need my yard
Kevin Dieny:plumbed or leveled or to the point where they're like, okay, I have something
Kevin Dieny:I've been trying to do it myself.
Kevin Dieny:I need help doing this at any point along that journey.
Kevin Dieny:Are you able to be found by your prospects, by your leads,
Kevin Dieny:by their future customers?
Kevin Dieny:And that is important to consider, like Ronn said, the locale, the environment,
Kevin Dieny:the audience, who you're dealing with are they the type that are going to get
Kevin Dieny:five quotes before they make a decision?
Kevin Dieny:Or is this a neighborhood and an environment where they take someone's
Kevin Dieny:word and word of mouth to heart?
Kevin Dieny:Are they going to be looking up, searching for reviews online before
Kevin Dieny:they try out a restaurant, is this, that kind of neighborhood is that
Kevin Dieny:what's driving a lot of your business.
Kevin Dieny:And by having feelers out there, by being able to see what channels
Kevin Dieny:people are coming in, by asking the question by tracking your sources by
Kevin Dieny:having vanity numbers out there that people could call, will give you an
Kevin Dieny:idea of, what is driving traffic.
Kevin Dieny:What is driving my customers today and how are they finding me?
Kevin Dieny:And it could be that something's working.
Kevin Dieny:It could also be a hint that you need to put a little more money somewhere else to
Kevin Dieny:increase your awareness in other areas.
Kevin Dieny:And so that's a really good lesson for businesses to help them be
Kevin Dieny:found at all points along that journey that Ronn mentioned before.
Kevin Dieny:The second thing that I think we need to touch on is that you can
Kevin Dieny:influence your brand awareness.
Kevin Dieny:That's maybe the hokey part that people think like, oh, you
Kevin Dieny:can't do anything about that.
Kevin Dieny:But Ronn said it may be an odd sounding tagline and maybe something
Kevin Dieny:funny, it communicates the kind of experience of business and
Kevin Dieny:a customer may expect to have.
Kevin Dieny:Having a website allows people to know that you're serious,
Kevin Dieny:you're intend to be around it.
Kevin Dieny:Here's information about what we do.
Kevin Dieny:Like Matt said, maybe we do more things than just roofing.
Kevin Dieny:That we do solar, and siding, and all kinds of other things.
Kevin Dieny:So I think all of that comes into play and it's all part of one, you can influence
Kevin Dieny:your brand awareness and two of your brand awareness is pretty important.
Kevin Dieny:You can have an impact on it in a quick amount of time.
Kevin Dieny:You can focus on reviews, you can send mailers, you can generate some buzz.
Kevin Dieny:You can drive around and give everyone some free stuff or whatever.
Kevin Dieny:If it makes sense for your business to do that, then you can have an
Kevin Dieny:impact on your brand awareness.
Kevin Dieny:Anything else that we didn't talk about, you guys wanted to jump in on?
Kevin Dieny:So Ronn, was there anything else you wanted to add?
Ronn Burner:I just wanted to reiterate something that I said
Ronn Burner:and I didn't really drill home.
Ronn Burner:And then Matt, interestingly enough, also followed up on his next question.
Ronn Burner:And he said consistency.
Ronn Burner:And I think when we're talking about brand awareness, it's what you're
Ronn Burner:known for, it is differentiate yourself and make it what you're known for.
Ronn Burner:And it doesn't matter what size of organization you are.
Ronn Burner:It's just simply a rule that you should be adhering to.
Ronn Burner:So what you're known for, and then consistently deliver on that constantly
Ronn Burner:in your marketing channels, as well as in the media mix, as well as in how
Ronn Burner:your team is engaging with the customer.
Ronn Burner:It takes time, brand awareness it takes time.
Ronn Burner:So consistency is key.
Ronn Burner:Just imagine changing your website every three months.
Ronn Burner:It becomes erratic and that is absolutely what you want to avoid.
Ronn Burner:Stay the course, be consistent and deliver on your promise,
Ronn Burner:which is what you're known for.
Ronn Burner:And it takes care of itself.
Kevin Dieny:That's great Ronn.
Kevin Dieny:Matt, was there anything else you wanted to add?
Matt Widmyer:Yeah, circling back to some of the points that we made.
Matt Widmyer:I think the main thing here is to let prospective customers know
Matt Widmyer:that you are a player in the game.
Matt Widmyer:You're not trying to, have a suite of products that like pull over your
Matt Widmyer:car, trunk full of, different things.
Matt Widmyer:We have one main thing that we do.
Matt Widmyer:We could have different products, but they should ultimately
Matt Widmyer:be lined up to the same goal.
Matt Widmyer:And the goal we have here is just helping businesses grow.
Matt Widmyer:Right?
Matt Widmyer:So, a lot of different ways you can do that.
Matt Widmyer:But we aren't going to start selling like printing paper or something like
Matt Widmyer:that because it's not, it doesn't fall in line with the rest of the stuff we do.
Matt Widmyer:That consistency is huge and making sure that you've get ahead of
Matt Widmyer:the game and get people talking about you and all that fun stuff.
Kevin Dieny:I think any business that makes a point of trying to have a
Kevin Dieny:greater awareness, a greater influence on their customers, will be able to grow.
Kevin Dieny:It's getting a foundation set up.
Kevin Dieny:Brand awareness does have a component of checking in and maintaining
Kevin Dieny:it and consistency along the way.
Kevin Dieny:But a lot of it you can set up initially you can figure out who am I?
Kevin Dieny:What do, who do I serve?
Kevin Dieny:What am I trying to offer them?
Kevin Dieny:How do I differentiate myself?
Kevin Dieny:Things you may find in a marketing plan or a business plan.
Kevin Dieny:Go into your influence that you have in brand awareness everywhere.
Kevin Dieny:Will keep a business growing.
Kevin Dieny:Will keep new people coming in and will help your word of mouth extrapolate.
Kevin Dieny:Especially if you're a local business and rely a lot on that.
Kevin Dieny:Thank you, gentlemen.
Kevin Dieny:This was really great information on this topic.
Kevin Dieny:I appreciate it.
Kevin Dieny:And thanks everybody for listening.
Matt Widmyer:Appreciate it.
Matt Widmyer:Good to be back.
