Welcome to Business Superfans Podcast , the twice-weekly show that discusses why having customers, employees, and business allies deeply engaged with your brand is essential for sustained success.

1. But how do you create these ‘business superfans’?
2. What tools and strategies should be used?
3. How can business superfans contribute to your long-term success?

I'm your host, Frederick Dudek the author of the book called Creating Business Superfans! I'll be bringing guest speakers and we'll explore the answers to these questions and much more.

For information about how you can support the show, please visit: Support Business Superfans Podcast

This is Episode 11 How to Leverage Marketing to attract Superfans with Catherine Oaks

Let me introduce our guest for today's show. Catherine Oaks | SliiceXR

https://www.sliicexr.com/

Mentioned in this episode:

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A Foreign Language Service

Founder of SliceXR, Catherine Oaks is a highly experienced marketing

2

and branding professional with a

distinguished career spanning over 30

3

years across various regions, including

Europe, Asia Pacific, United Arab

4

Emirates, North Africa, and the USA.

5

Catherine is well known for her

innovative thought leadership campaigns

6

that boost brand recognition and

awareness for B2B and B2C companies.

7

She is fluent in English, French,

German, and Spanish, which combined

8

with her extensive global sales and

marketing background helps businesses

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expand their marketing research

and gain international exposure.

10

Her strategic thinking, creative

genius, and tactical clarity enable

11

her to uncover a business's core

values and turn brands into magnets,

12

generating viral impact on any platform.

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By bringing something extraordinary

to the world that did not exist

14

before, Catherine's visionary approach

enables her clients to establish a

15

purposeful life and achieve their goals.

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Hello, Catherine.

17

Welcome to the show.

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Catherine Oaks: Hello, Frederic.

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How are you doing today?

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Freddy D: I am doing fantastic.

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How about yourself?

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Catherine Oaks: Wonderful.

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Great.

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Wonderful.

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Thank you for having me here.

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Freddy D: Thank you.

27

Tell us, Catherine, how did

you get started in marketing?

28

Catherine Oaks: My father wanted

me to be an engineer and I said,

29

I'm not going to be an engineer.

30

So he said, what else serious can you do?

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Because I wanted to be an actress.

32

And my father said, you're

not going to be an actress.

33

I said, okay, but I'm

going to go in marketing.

34

That's how it happened.

35

Marketing was still a serious topic.

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And it was going to involve

a lot of creativity, which

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is what I always enjoyed.

38

So I'm going to go into marketing.

39

That's how it all started.

40

Okay.

41

And then what led you to

start your own agency?

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Slice?

43

Because I'm an entrepreneur at heart.

44

I've tried to work for other people

and it does not work very well for me.

45

I think I'm too opinionated.

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Express my opinions too often, which

very often creates a lot of chaos

47

or arguments and, insecure leaders.

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don't deal very well with

someone who has lots of opinions.

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I totally agree with that.

50

Because we feel threatened.

51

And so it's a combination that, that

does not very well, work very well.

52

So this is why my first agency,

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it was another advertising agency.

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And I realized I am

made to work for myself.

55

And I did.

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And since then I knew that there was no

other option for me that working for Other

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companies is not what allows me to thrive.

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It's not what allows me to create to

put in practice my inspiration and my

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ideas, and I decided, okay, that the best

platform for me to have my own agency and

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spread my creativity as much as possible.

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Freddy D: So how long have

you owned your own agency now?

62

Catherine Oaks: This agency, which is

was the second one, because the first

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one happened just before the 2008

crash, which took everything away from

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me, just like a lot of other people.

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This one I've had now since 2017.

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So it's going to be,

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So it's going to be almost six years now.

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Freddy D: Okay, excellent.

69

So what can businesses do from a marketing

perspective that You know that they're

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missing out on or they're not doing

a good job of doing marketing that's

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going to expand their brand awareness.

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Catherine Oaks: A lot of companies

make the mistake of talking

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about themselves too much.

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You see a lot of websites where they

display their products, their services.

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So we speak about them.

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That in itself does not attract

a lot of people because you are

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not putting customers first.

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Everything in your communication

needs to be customer centric.

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Someone is going to come to you

because they have faith that

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you will be solving the problem.

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So you have to speak benefits.

82

It's benefits.

83

That's important.

84

What's also very important is to

determine what is your main product?

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What is your core product?

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What is it and how is it different

from anywhere else on anyone else

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on the market to be put on your top

banner on your website or the top

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areas of your marketing materials?

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Because you have to remember one thing.

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People have no time nowadays.

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In average, it takes people about

three seconds to make an opinion

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of your company on your website.

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So if in three seconds you don't

grab their attention, they're gone.

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We just don't have time to read.

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They don't read.

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It's simple.

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People do not read anymore.

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And then they have the attention.

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Yeah, we always laugh

at that, but it's true.

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They have the attention sparrow of

a goldfish, even less than that.

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The goldfish had about eight seconds.

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It's proven that humans attention in 2023.

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It's about four you go.

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If you don't grab four seconds,

you lose po it hurts your company.

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It that's very damaging.

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So when I said, you have to define

your unique selling proposition, i.

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e.

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USP, and what problems you're

going to solve for your audience.

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And then once that is determined, you

have to develop the confidence, self

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confidence, that you can deliver.

111

Your clients are going

to want to see results.

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So you have to provide statistical data

showing progress in the right direction.

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And then you have to leverage technology.

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Nowadays, we are incredibly lucky to

live in the world of the metaverse.

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Although there is a lot of questioning

about new technologies, just

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like we had a lot of questioning

with the internet 25 years ago.

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It's really critical now that

businesses stay aware of the

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options that they are going to have.

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Very soon they have them now, but very

soon they're going to be forced to

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change the way they market themselves

because their competitors will

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have embraced new technologies like

virtual reality, augmented reality,

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artificial intelligence, everybody's

talking about this, and they will have

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leveraged those technologies while at

the same time grabbing market shares.

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So if you react too late, it's

going to take you too long

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to get to that same level.

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Freddy D: You'll miss the window

of opportunity, it'll have gone by.

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Catherine Oaks: Not

going to miss the boat,

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Freddy D: Yes.

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Yeah, and as you mentioned, I think a lot

of companies get caught up and says I just

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got the stuff and it's all good and stuff,

but it really needs to evolve marketing

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needs to be continually changing, adapting

with the times and the approaches and

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the messaging needs to be refreshed on

a regular basis where people build it.

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And, I've heard in the past where,

people says I used to show up on the

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front page of, Google now I'm on page

27 and that's when's the last time you

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up posted anything to your website?

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About three years ago.

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There you go.

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So it's a consistent and constant effort.

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It's being very light on your feet

because you need to adapt very quickly.

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You don't have months or years to

adapt anymore because the speed train

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is going at a higher speed nowadays.

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So first you have to educate yourself

to really understand your options.

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Then you have to bring with you the

right partners that can help you along

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the way, establish the new strategies

that will take you where you need to be.

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And then you have to implement properly.

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So you have to have the right

team with you to be able to

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implement a team you can trust.

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Because there is no way you

can do everything on your own.

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You have to have the right team to put

in place your strategy and your tactics

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and ensure it's done with professionalism

and it is constantly measured.

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So Catherine, how can, we're talking

about market hustle, how can a small

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entrepreneur, small business, medium

sized business take marketing to

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engage with their customers and create

and convert those customers, those

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business partners into superfans that

in turn are out expanding that brand

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awareness for that particular business.

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Catherine Oaks: First of all, you

have to have a very clear message that

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resonates with your core audience's needs.

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Once you have that message, you have to

spread the message on all social media

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channels and communicate every day.

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And that's, it's not just once a day

when you launch communicate two or three

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times a day, use videos, use audios,

use mediums that most people don't want

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to use because we just don't want to

be on video for some reason, or they

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just don't want to make the effort of.

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Developing an audio message,

so you have to do what others

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don't and leverage social media.

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Social media is very inexpensive.

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You don't have to buy paid ads.

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You can make organic social media by

posting with the right hashtags by

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commenting on people's feeds that are

your target audience by engaging others.

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We've posts that are not just

sales oriented, but posts that

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are going to provide inspiration

that are going to entertain them

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because people need that nowadays.

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They need to be entertained

too, so that they feel better.

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Once you allow your clients

to feel better, guess what?

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Everybody's emotional.

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They're going to talk about you.

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And this is how you're going

to generate those super fans

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that you're talking about.

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And, but key is consistency.

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You have to do it.

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Day in day out.

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That's beyond the network.

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Freddy D: So for example, on the social

media, you start getting a super fan

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is someone that would start reposting

because they resonate with your message.

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So now they're reposting it to

their audience and their people.

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And so now some you're growing.

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Brand awareness is growing exponentially

because you've got, let's say, 55 super

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fans that really like the messaging

and the service and the business

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and the products that, you know,

whether it's a service or product

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that your business is providing.

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And now they're starting to promote

the messaging to their audience.

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And let's just say that.

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You have a following of, let's

say, a thousand people, I'll

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just keep it conservative, and

they have a thousand people.

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So you've got five superfans that

reposted that, now you've got

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an audience of 6, 000 people.

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Catherine Oaks: That's exactly what

it is, and that's very important.

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There's one thing I think is

even more important, is that

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you have to have a personality.

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You cannot blend and be

just like everybody else.

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You have to have a personality, which

means you have to have self confidence,

202

you have to know yourself, and you cannot

be afraid of being a little bit eccentric.

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Because people like that,

they want to be entertained.

204

Remember if you're flat boring,

nobody's going to follow you.

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If you're a little eccentric and fun

and you go over the edges a little

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bit while still being very correct.

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I'm not telling people to not be correct

and being very ethical and respectful.

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But if you find a way to, to establish

a personality that's unique and that

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will be attractive, then your super

friends are going to grow a lot faster.

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Freddy D: Absolutely.

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That's why, my business name is

Frederick and for this podcast

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and stuff is the Freddie D dude.

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He's much more fun, much more relaxed,

business is, the tie and everything else.

214

And here we're having a show.

215

We're having fun and we're educating

people on how to grow their businesses

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and build their own superfans.

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So it's

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Catherine Oaks: Very

important to be approachable.

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Yes.

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Freddy D: So what do you think about

rewards programs and retention programs

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that from a marketing perspective that

businesses could be doing or should

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be doing to retain clients and get

repeat business out of those customers?

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Catherine Oaks: It

depends on the business.

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If it's a B2B, maybe you have

to have a rewards program

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that's different, obviously.

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But I'm always favorable

of using rewards program.

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People love rewards, or

even referral programs.

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People love to get something in exchange

of sharing somebody else's information.

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So these are additional benefits.

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That maybe others don't offer and

another way of differentiating yourself

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and bringing value and rewarding

saying thank you with a little gift.

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People love that.

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Just, we're still big kids.

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We will always be big kids, whether

we are five or 95 years old.

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So you have to play those cards.

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Freddy D: Because yeah, loyalty program

is a great way to say thank you to

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a unique way to say thank you to the

customer, especially if you're the

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B2C type of a business, you keep them

there, but you got to make it work

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so the loyalty program is worthwhile

and the goal and the achievement of.

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The prize, whatever it is achievable.

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It's not something that, is designed

as a gimmick to where, the chances of

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really getting the reward is slim and

none versus, oh, wow, I come here five

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times and I get something out of it.

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I'll be back here five times,

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Catherine Oaks: it has to

be simple and achievable.

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Yes.

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Freddy D: That's important.

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What about when you look at email

marketing and engagement of that,

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how important is that today?

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And do you think cold email

marketing is coming back?

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Catherine Oaks: I think it has to be

part of your marketing mix because

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it's an additional touch point.

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And the good thing about

emails is that people passively

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get messages in their inbox.

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They don't have to take

any initiatives themselves.

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It's a passive way of communicating.

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Now, a lot of people don't like it.

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That's okay.

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They can delete it.

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Even if you delete the email

that you're sending, they're

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not going to see your name.

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It is brand awareness.

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It can be positive, right?

264

Like I said, they want to

delete it, they delete it.

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So I always recommend including

email in your marketing mix because

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it's an additional touch point.

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And the more touch points you

have in marketing, the better.

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However, it has to be consistent.

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All those messages that you're sending

out, whether it's on social media,

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via YouTube, with with PowerPoint

presentations or emails, you have to

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have that consistent core message.

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Consistent branding because this is

how people will recognize you and this

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is how you will build credibility.

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That's very important.

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This is why I always tell my clients

before you start a program or

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strategy or communication strategy,

you need to have a brand book.

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You need to know exactly

what to say, when to say it.

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You have to have your own style.

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You have to use the same colors.

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You have to make sure everything

is presented in the right way,

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because this is part of your brand

and the more you follow your brand.

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The more successful you will be.

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Freddy D: Yeah, no, absolutely.

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That's absolutely 100 percent correct.

285

And I think another part, component in the

engagement of various marketing channels

286

is people forget to use, we've got all

the social media stuff and all these

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other tools, but there's an old platform

that works very well, and that is Mail.

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And, mail still works because it gets to

the person, there's a couple countries,

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I think it's Canada and Germany, that you

can't do cold email suits against the law.

290

And, but you can do anybody and

that will get into their email,

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their mailbox, and most likely

people don't get real mail anymore.

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Catherine Oaks: And so it gets open.

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And so you have a solid

chance of being seen.

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Freddy D: Absolutely.

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That's something that most

companies don't use anymore.

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So if you have, I do a couple of

oversized mirrors that are very

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beautiful, very attractive, that

communicate the message clearly.

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And they are so beautiful, so big that

people don't throw them away in the trash.

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Very often they keep them on their desk.

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And guess what?

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That's something that your

competitors probably don't do.

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And when you're top of mind

all the time, you have a better

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chance of getting some business.

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Catherine Oaks: Yeah, absolutely.

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It's I think direct mail is

overlooked in a lot of cases.

306

And postcards is another good platform,

I think, not the smaller ones, but a

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bigger size postcard, because at least

it gets you a chance to get, someone's

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going to look at it and okay, they

may toss it aside, but it's still

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registered and got the message across.

310

And they may say second time they see

you at night, you hit them with an email

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marketing or they see on social media.

312

I was like, Oh yeah, I remember that.

313

I saw that company someplace.

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No, that's true.

315

This is why I mentioned each time.

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The average person reacts

after touch point number nine.

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It takes an average nine touch points

for someone to start remembering you.

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So people remember that because

a lot of people give up after

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touch point number three.

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And they say marketing is not working.

321

That's the reaction we have.

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So this is unreasonable type of reaction.

323

It's it's not grounded on

the right type of strategy.

324

And it's something that needs

to be rethought when they have

325

this type of Belief, right?

326

Nine touch points.

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I'm going to remember nine touch points.

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Freddy D: No, that's very good.

329

So how important is it?

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If a company is looking to create

superfans, basically brand advocates

331

are going to be going out there,

promoting their business, which would

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be, customers, business partners,

employees, and stuff like that.

333

How important is tracking your

efforts in your marketing initiative?

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Catherine Oaks: Tracking is always

important, no matter what, because

335

whether you're looking for investors

or you're looking for partners or

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you're looking for influencers that can

become the source of your super fans,

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they're going to ask you for statistics.

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They are they're going to want

to see the amount of people who

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come to your website every day

and where those people come from.

340

They want to know how old

those people are, if they are

341

part of your target audience.

342

So they are going to ask for

data that needs to be organized.

343

If you don't have it,

they won't talk with you.

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It's as simple as that.

345

So that's something that you need

to do regularly and keep track

346

of in reports and in a way that's

ready to be shared professionally.

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Freddy D: So what are some things

that a small business, you've got

348

the solopreneur, you've got the small

business that's, 10 people in your

349

organization, how can they manage

their marketing efforts themselves?

350

Catherine Oaks: Can tell you,

I've launched my company on my

351

own, no seed capital, nothing.

352

I did everything by myself.

353

You, if you really want

something, you find a way.

354

Freddy D: What tools what

tools could they be using?

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Catherine Oaks: You can nowadays with

artificial intelligence, you have

356

incredible platforms out there available.

357

That's going to save you so much time.

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Chad GPT is one of them.

359

You have content creation tools,

design tools that do the work for you.

360

All the AI tools are there.

361

You have thousands of them nowadays.

362

It's like having 25 assistants

that are working with you,

363

saving you huge amounts of time.

364

I did not have that when

I launched my company.

365

I did everything on my own.

366

I learned.

367

You learn Photoshop, you learn

Illustrator, you now Canva.

368

Canva is an incredible tool

to create your own graphics.

369

You can even create videos using Canva.

370

You can create audio using Canva.

371

These are tools out there

that are really easy.

372

They are very user friendly.

373

They don't require a lot of training

in order for you to use them.

374

And YouTube.

375

Everybody knows YouTube, you

can train yourself on YouTube.

376

There's a tropic on everything on YouTube.

377

So when there's a way when there's a

will, there's a way and too many people

378

give up because it's so difficult.

379

Yes, for sure.

380

Most businesses don't

make it because it's hard.

381

So if you want to, you can learn

and you can make anything happen.

382

Then what's really critical is to work on

your mentor, because I just said it's very

383

difficult and because it's very difficult.

384

People give up.

385

You have to have the mentor of a warrior.

386

Where you have to push every barrier in

front of you, every wall in front of you,

387

you have to make a conscious decision

that you will not give up because you will

388

be tempted to give up 10 million times.

389

So surround yourself with positive

people, have the right mindset, develop

390

self confidence, work on yourself.

391

Have a healthy lifestyle because this

is going to take everything you have

392

is going to take your strength, your

mental strength, your physical strength.

393

So you have to establish a

healthy environment at all levels.

394

If you want to succeed and determine

that you will reach your goals at the

395

same time, be flexible because you're.

396

Vision or your tactics may have to change.

397

So don't establish tactics

that are not going to change.

398

You cannot have something

that's set in stone.

399

You have to be flexible.

400

You have to make some

adjustments along the way.

401

So I think that's really

the recipe for success.

402

But the most important thing

is to have the right mindset.

403

Freddy D: MIndset.

404

And then it's, that's everything.

405

Mindset is everything.

406

But at the same time, I think

that you have to track what you're

407

doing to see if it's working.

408

And if it's not working, you also have

to be, be able to have the wherewithal to

409

make the decision, say, okay, the strategy

that I'm using, I've tracked it and I've,

410

I've done my Google analytics, I've done

my, I looked at my Facebook marketing

411

activities and stuff like that, and I'm

not getting the traction, I'm not getting

412

the conversions and therefore that effort.

413

Needs to be scrapped and I need to start

all over again and go a different approach

414

because , that didn't work where I think

a lot of people get stuck and say I put

415

all this effort, I put all this money.

416

It's got to work.

417

It's got to work and let

it run a little longer.

418

And now they're just wasting

money and are hurting their

419

brand versus helping their brand.

420

Catherine Oaks: That's so true.

421

That's so true.

422

I've seen many cases where people

have invested a lot of money and they

423

are not willing to adjust anything.

424

And then we think it's inevitable.

425

They're going to sink because

especially nowadays, things

426

change at the speed of light.

427

So like I mentioned before, you

have to be flexible on your feet.

428

You have to be adaptable,

429

Freddy D: Right, and that's the thing

that I think that's what a lot of

430

businesses make mistake is that they

don't, they're too afraid to Say, okay,

431

that didn't work, and admit that it didn't

work, and make an adjustment, regroup.

432

Go back out, change the messaging, improve

the messaging, make the messaging more

433

as we talked earlier, customer centric.

434

Not about them because

nobody cares about them.

435

And, but everybody cares about,

what are you going to do for me?

436

How are you going to help me?

437

How are you going to solve my problem?

438

That's what everybody's at.

439

And so the messaging has to

come across that way , to.

440

Get somebody to make the phone call,

and then more importantly, okay, so they

441

found your website, they made the phone

call, they filled out the form, the

442

next, that's all the marketing, but then.

443

The response has to be the same messaging

within the people that the the team at

444

the company has to have the right attitude

and the right mindset to continue that

445

messaging of being customer centric.

446

Catherine Oaks: That's important.

447

And on top of that, you have to

have the right management style.

448

You have to be themselves.

449

You have to allow people to be creative

and not watch every single move

450

they make and criticize everything,

single thing they do, right?

451

That's the difference.

452

I always compare, there's a difference

between Apple and Microsoft almost,

453

I'm exaggerating, but you get the idea.

454

It's, it, when you have a management

style that allow people to be

455

creative and to feel secure in their

environment, it's a game changer.

456

Freddy D: Oh, absolutely.

457

Because, yYou can have the person that

handles that inquiry, and they feel

458

unappreciated they haven't been recognized

for any of their efforts and stuff like

459

that, so they're gonna they're told for

that prospect that's actually looking

460

to potentially do business with you, and

that could turn that person off, and it's

461

just all that marketing effort that was

just done, the money that was spent, the

462

effort goes out the window, thank you.

463

Because you have a begruntled

employee because, you didn't

464

recognize them, didn't appreciate

them, and they feel underappreciated.

465

And there's a disconnect.

466

And so you can have all the best marketing

and the best approach, but you have to

467

have the team mentally on the same page.

468

So

469

Catherine Oaks: true on the

same page and motivated.

470

It's part of the the

success picture, right?

471

Freddy D: Yes.

472

It's important.

473

Yes.

474

It's very motivated.

475

Yeah.

476

Yeah.

477

So the company has to have their own

super fans with, of the employees.

478

So it comes across to the new

prospective customer that,

479

this is an exciting company.

480

As people were excited to work

there, there was an example that

481

somebody brought up to me is you

go into a circle K gas station.

482

They have them here.

483

I don't know if they have enough

in Nevada, but you go there and the

484

person they don't even say hi to you.

485

They don't say nothing.

486

It just you go in.

487

There's a cutie, which is

a different a gas station.

488

You walk in and the tenant might be

working with somebody look up and say,

489

Hello, welcome to cutie, and it's just

a whole different Ambiance and just that

490

little thing is a huge marketing aspect.

491

That's why you look at, a QT

gas station here in Arizona.

492

And I think there's there in a few

other states, they're always packed.

493

And you look at some of the other stations

that are not, and this is just simple

494

gas station level stuff, but, they

don't have the same level of customers.

495

Everything

496

Catherine Oaks: trickles

down from the top.

497

Yep.

498

So you don't have the right management.

499

Yep.

500

Yep.

501

It's all important.

502

Catherine, how can people find you?

503

They can go to slicexr.

504

com.

505

It's sliicexr.

506

com.

507

Slice with two I's.

508

And we'll have them grab

a slice of their market.

509

Everything is in there to connect with me.

510

Freddy D: Okay.

511

And do you have anything that that you're

offering any of our viewers and listeners?

512

Catherine Oaks: Yeah, so people can

send me an email at info at slicexr.

513

com and I can provide them with a

deck that gives them the guidelines to

514

establish a presence in the metaverse.

515

Freddy D: Okay.

516

All right.

517

Great.

518

Catherine, thank you very

much for being on this show.

519

Appreciate it.

520

It was great conversation.

521

Great talking to you.

522

And I'm sure we'll be seeing each

other again on the show down the road.

523

And thank you again.

524

Catherine Oaks: Thank you

so much for having me.

525

Appreciate it.