Elevating Lead Generation: Innovations in Digital Marketing

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Your Partner In Success Radio is a free business podcast with host Denise Griffitts. It’s all about great stories, conversation, and context to help you move your business and life forward with actionable tips and advice from her guest experts to listen and subscribe. 

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Denise Griffitts

Good morning and welcome to your partner in Success Radio where top performers share their secrets to help you achieve your personal and your professional goals. I am your host Denise Griffiths and together with my amazing guests we bring you inspiring and actionable insights that are aimed to take your life and your business to the next level.

Denise Griffitts

Ranked in the top 2% globally this podcast really is a must listen and again it’s because of my guests. So whether you are tuning in for entrepreneurial tips, career advice or personal development strategies, get ready to turn inspiration into action, challenges into triumphs and dreams into reality.

Denise Griffitts

In other words, take notes, lots of notes. So today I welcome to the show the founder of strategic point marketing Joshua Ramsey. He has experience and expertise in areas such as search engine optimization and SEO.

Denise Griffitts

He has been a Google partner, Bing certified partner and HubSpot, sorry, certified partner since the mid 2010’s. He’s been around for a while. He joins us today to share his very deep knowledge of digital marketing practices and all I have questions.

Denise Griffitts

So welcome to your partner in success today radio. Sorry Joshua, welcome to your partner in success radio. It’s good to have you here.

Josh Ramsey

Thanks for having me. Nice to be here.

Denise Griffitts

It, and I, look, I have, I told you in the green room, I’ve got questions, you know, this is so big, we’ve got shifts all over the place with AI and how we’re marketing and how we’re building strategic ways to, you know, help other people.

Denise Griffitts

It’s kind of messy out there right now. It’s a little bit scary, isn’t it?

Josh Ramsey

Yeah, there’s a lot of moving parts. And I think, you know, they say knowledge is power, but sometimes power in the wrong hands goes in the wrong direction, right? So sometimes people think that they can use AI to solve problems or execute marketing and go down certain roads that they feel like will help them.

Josh Ramsey

But in the end, a lot of times they’re doing more damage than good, but they don’t see it yet, right? It’s just one of those things that you live through and you kind of know what’s coming when you’ve been through it.

Josh Ramsey

But yeah, you got to be careful with the new toys that are out in the world, trying to use them in marketing the wrong way.

Denise Griffitts

We’ve been talking a lot about that on this podcast. I’ve been around probably as long as you have. I started my business in 20, well, 2000, 2001. And my podcast is now 16 years old. So I’ve been around and online for quite a while and I’ll see things popping up and I’m wondering, look, this is a great tool, but where’s your common sense?

Denise Griffitts

Where’s your critical thinking? What are you doing? And the problem with just jumping in, in my opinion, just jumping into a tool that you really don’t understand or haven’t taken the time to work with, can do some long -term damage to your brand.

Josh Ramsey

Yeah, you know, the old saying is good data in, good data out, bad data in, bad data out, and really AI and the way tools and AI are used now, you’re doing the same thing, but you also have to think about the human element of this.

Josh Ramsey

AI will write a code for you, it will produce the code based on your parameters, but now someone has to go put that code into place, and when the code is not put into place properly, you might as well not even spend any time producing the code or that algorithm because it’s not going to be used.

Josh Ramsey

So I use that as a simplified explanation, but it’s the same thing when it comes to design. If the design doesn’t match what your marketing message should be, and it’s not placed in the right place, meaning the tactical placement of your strategic message, it doesn’t do you any good.

Josh Ramsey

So there’s just so many little things that I do as a fractional chief marketing officer for companies that help them create better systems around how to use the tools because they can make you more effective, but they can’t really replace the human element and the logic that needs to be in place before you start using that tool.

Denise Griffitts

Exactly. And in our green room, our virtual green room, we were talking a bit about this, so let’s kind of revisit that since we didn’t record it for this, but we were talking about no planning. Listen, I see so many, you see this a lot on Facebook, and I kind of lurk around in podcast groups and social media groups, and I’m watching some of them going, you don’t know what you’re doing, do you?

Denise Griffitts

Do you have a plan? Has your client talked with you about their strategy, what they need? They’re just kind of spitballing some of them.

Josh Ramsey

Yeah, I see this so many times a month, a day, a year, almost everyone that I speak with at conferences that come up and talk to me afterwards, we talk about what’s the plan And ultimately, here’s why a lot of people don’t like marketing, they don’t like ad agencies, and they just float from agency to agency with frustration.

Josh Ramsey

And the reason that is, primarily, is that they don’t have a plan. They have an expectation, they want leads, they want sales, they want money, right? If we think about why we’re in business and why we do what we do in the business world, it is to make money.

Josh Ramsey

So when we look at that, you have to look at the trail of how you’re going to make that money and how you implement it. But the expectation is, I’m going to spend X amount of dollars to this ad agency, whether that’s 500 or 5 ,000 or 50 ,000, then you have this expectation, unspoken, oftentimes, of I’ve spent this money, I have an expectation, go.

Josh Ramsey

And then there’s no connection in between how the steps should be executed along the way to get there. And that’s where the agility has to come in of when do you modify, because it’s easy to say, hey, I’m going to start a company, I’m going to run ads, I’m going to put it on meta, which is Facebook or Instagram, and I’m going to push go, and people are going to call me and I’m going to sell a product.

Josh Ramsey

Right? Like, I mean, it sounds simple. But is that really your plan? No, it’s got to be more defined than just that simplicity. Like that’s your very high level, but there’s some fundamentals to understand.

Josh Ramsey

And I would say the first fundamental is understanding the difference between your strategic message and the tactical placement of that message.

Denise Griffitts

Let’s talk about the differences there because I think what you said is really important. And I have found in all my years of doing business that if the client and the contractor are not working together at least once a week for at least the first month or two, there is no strategy.

Denise Griffitts

There is no plan because it’s not being communicated or refined.

Josh Ramsey

A big thing also in that for larger companies is that larger companies have the hardest time making that big jump, turning from the mom and pop of even a hundred employees at times to getting to that next level of we’re now going to be corporate. 

Josh Ramsey

And I work with a lot of clients that live in that world where they’ve been mom and pop and they’re trying to become corporate and there’s a lot of growing pains within that. But I’m living in the reality right now with a fantastic company.

Josh Ramsey

They’re very well put together. They have great people in the company. And a lot of these people have been around for a long time in the company. So that says a lot about ownership and leadership of the company.

Josh Ramsey

But right now they’ve grown so much that because they’re so much in the weeds, they don’t understand how to get out of the weeds. So they have people in meetings that don’t need to be there. And the owner came in the other day and said, if this person doesn’t need to be in this meeting, get out of the meeting.

Josh Ramsey

If they need to be here for the first five minutes, cover what you need to cover in the first five minutes and get them out. But they’re trying to get there, but they’re having a difficult time. But this now goes to your strategic planning when it comes to marketing. Do you have the right people, right?

Josh Ramsey

The book Good to Great talks about the right people in the right bus in the right seats. And when you look at it that way with that company, I’ve been working with them to try to make shifts and put people in the right seats that are better suited for what they’re doing.

Josh Ramsey

That’s part of the plan because if you’ll indulge me for a minute, I want to make sure that everyone understands this part of the strategic message versus taxable marketing. Your brain typically works one of two ways.

Josh Ramsey

You’re either a picture person or you’re a numbers person. And I’m simplifying this, but you can understand the difference between each, but you are either right brain or your left brain. And one is pictures, one is data.

Josh Ramsey

It’s hard to do both very well. But when you look at building a website, what happens is you go and you say, OK, I’m going to build a website. If you look at a website right now, what do you see?

Denise Griffitts

Right. And honestly calls to action. We have limited time. So we have those pictures to tell a story like hey, come on.

Josh Ramsey

But see, Denise, I love where you’re going because you just went fast -track on what everyone does. Instead of quickly but methodically breaking it down, there’s actually three brains that have to go together.

Josh Ramsey

You just took the third brain, which is the strategic strategist that helps make the decisions of the call to action and when to change them. You went, like a lot of business owners do, from a design and then you went straight to call to action.

Josh Ramsey

But when we talk about design, the design has to feed the user, just like you said, or we’re limited on time because it’s not what you say, it’s not how you say it, it’s what’s perceived by your audience.

Josh Ramsey

What’s in it for them?

Denise Griffitts

More people understood this, what’s in it for them? It’s not about you. Get over that idea.

Josh Ramsey

Yeah, but then you go to the third brain that we haven’t mentioned yet, which is the coder. But the coder is just as important because how do the pictures move? How do the graphics happen? Is it a lazy load?

Josh Ramsey

Does it help speed? Because now the coder has to work with the strategist and the strategist needs to dictate to the coder, this is my expectation of what the design should do. So that’s where if you don’t break down those three different brains, you are never going to take your message and your possibilities, your business to the next level.

Josh Ramsey

It won’t happen because if you don’t have those three different people, you’re trying to force someone that’s only good at one of those things into all the holes. So I’ll tell you right now, I’m not the greatest coder, but I’m a really good strategist, but I’m not a great designer.

Josh Ramsey

But I can look at design and know what’s going to work and not based on the years of experience that I have. I started working in the web world in 2003. I started working in the media world, selling print advertising and such in the 90s.

Josh Ramsey

So I’ve seen what works and what doesn’t work. And I’ve understood the messaging more, but that brought me to that level of I’m a good strategist. I’m a decent coder, and I’m a decent designer, but I’m not all three. 

Josh Ramsey

And I don’t think anyone out there ever can be all three because those are very different skill sets that people sharpen only years.

Denise Griffitts

They really are. And listen, I don’t, I think in pictures. I think in word pictures. I, you know, I am a website designer. I work in WordPress. I build them in my sleep. Honestly, I have been known, this is no joke, to be standing over my stove, you know, making a gumbo and building a website right there at the stove.

Denise Griffitts

I can see it. I don’t even have to, well, I’ll go write it down eventually. But I’ve already built it in my head, the navigation, the images, the calls to action, what’s in it for the audience. And I’m just blessed to be able to do that. 

Denise Griffitts

But there are some parts of that journey, building that website and building the messaging behind it. I have a team. They are better than I am. I hire them because they’re better than I am. And I depend on them to point me in the right direction.

Josh Ramsey

And that’s it right there. So when a business owner is going to go hire an agency or hire a company or a person, I think that part of the plan is the first step, which is, okay, Denise, Josh, I’m, I’m, I’m considering hiring you.

Josh Ramsey

Tell me about your team. Who’s going to be working on this? What is their skillset? You know, I’m working, it happened this morning. I had a meeting with a client. And I love that I’ve taught them the right questions to ask.

Josh Ramsey

Cause when I started working with them about two years ago, they didn’t ask any questions. They were blindly trusting. They were blindly walking through and navigating the marketing world while that’s not what they do.

Josh Ramsey

And now this morning we had a meeting and they said, Hey, can we go ahead and see the resumes of these people that we’re considering hiring? And I looked at it and I’m like, wow. But their words were, Josh, we have you in place for a reason.

Josh Ramsey

If you like this one, go with it. But we would like to see resumes if you have the time. And we have the, the, on the Gantt chart of what we’re trying to execute. If we have the time and we can get the resumes of this person and maybe a couple others, we’d like to see the resumes.

Josh Ramsey

I looked at it and I’m like, yeah, let’s get you the resumes because that’s great that they’re going to be that interactive. Because in the beginning, two years ago, they weren’t. And they found themselves in a hole.

Josh Ramsey

They found themselves in the depths of no reads, no volume, no business, and a website that they had handed to a company that changed them. And now we’re slowly building it back up and we’re gaining more and more momentum.

Josh Ramsey

But it’s been a difficult battle to get them from where they were, where they were, where I started to where we are now. So.

Denise Griffitts

And I’m guessing this is an e-commerce website?

Josh Ramsey

Not an e-commerce website, they’re actually general contractors, but they went to a big agency and they worked with one point person that was not a senior point person. And that company within six months took them from having somewhere around, I think it was in the range, they’re a small outfit, but they were in the range of around 1000 words ranked per SEMRush tracking, and they went down to about 100.

Josh Ramsey

So they tanked.

Denise Griffitts

You might as well just shut it down and start it fresh.

Josh Ramsey

Oh my goodness. So this is now another good example as we’re talking and my brain is going through this of when do you make that decision? Well, agencies that are fired will oftentimes tell you, well, it takes three to six months to see results.

Josh Ramsey

Not really. If you watch the metrics every time you make a change, I look at it and say it’s a throttle. So if you’re level, that’s where you’re at. When you make a change, what I always want to see is it going up or it’s going down. 

Josh Ramsey

I don’t want it to stay the same because if you go build a new page, if you change keywords, if you do something and you submit it to Google, I want to see it go down or I want to see it go up. Number one, that tells the business owner that something happened.

Josh Ramsey

That’s important to know. Okay. Number two, if it went up, you know you did well. Do it again. Do it more and do it faster. If it went down, at least you can now evaluate whatever you did that didn’t give you the output that you wanted.

Josh Ramsey

It doesn’t take three months to see that you’re losing rankings. Don’t respond in one week, seven days. No, you got to give it a little bit of time, but you should be watching it. And in seven days, if your numbers and metrics are moving down, go back and start to watch it every day.

Josh Ramsey

In seven days, if it goes up, let it ride for another 14. So there’s no exact pinpoint of when you pull the plug, but there should be a pinpoint of KPI of, I’m going to go check this in three days, seven days, and then after seven days, make a decision of, let’s check it in two weeks, let’s check it in 30 days.

Josh Ramsey

Because you don’t want to set something and just let it run and see what happens, but you do have to kind of watch, depending on what you’re doing, you have to watch and decide when is it the right time to make a change and what is that change going to be?

Josh Ramsey

I’m always looking five steps down the road. I’m not looking at the next two. And most people are like, oh, you know, I’m all, you got to do these first two. Yeah. But if it doesn’t go this way, what am I going to do next? 

Josh Ramsey

Right. And that’s the agility of a good marketing strategy. And that’s just so everyone understands. That’s what a fractional CMO does. That’s what I do. You need an agency to go execute. And Denise, we’ve talked a little bit about what you do and you’re a great executor.

Josh Ramsey

You’re a great designer. And it sounds like you may have so many people. We had not had all those conversations, but what I do for companies and agencies is I help them with the vision of the strategy.

Josh Ramsey

When do we make the change? When do we become agile? And then wrapping this part of the conversation back up a little bit back to the beginning point is this client trusted that agency too much and six months went by.

Josh Ramsey

And then they finally called me and said, hey, we’ve known you. We’ve known about you for a couple of years. We’ve followed you. We’ve gone to your conferences and now we’re ready to talk to you. So I went and I looked and I’m like, guys, you should have called me a year ago.

Josh Ramsey

You wouldn’t have had all these headaches.

Denise Griffitts

I’ve had those, where I had to shut something down and just start fresh for a client. It was such a mess that there was no, these giant agencies, listen, they started somewhere and God bless them, but they’re out of control.

Denise Griffitts

When it comes to the client, you know, the client’s like, I don’t even understand what you just said to me. Why is nothing happening? Who can I talk to? And this, in this one particular one, he got a different person every single time.

Denise Griffitts

And then I stepped in and raised, holy hell, and it still didn’t work. So we just shut it down and started over.

Josh Ramsey

Yeah. And I, you know, I’m going to go to that right now as well. Cause I think this is a key point for business owners to understand. And that is you must own all of your marketing. You must own it.

Josh Ramsey

You should be the 100% owner and everyone else is 99% and down. And there’s many reasons for that. But today I have another meeting with an agency who took ownership of an ad campaign and will not turn it back over to the business owner.

Josh Ramsey

So the business owner is now held hostage by this other company because they haven’t done it. Now today, just because I’m having that meeting doesn’t mean it’s the first time I’m here to tell you this happens about twice a year at minimum, where an agency has built something, took control and it’s in the contract that the owner doesn’t own it.

Josh Ramsey

So the owner basically is renting from that agency. Well, let’s say that it’s gone well, but then they get a new project manager. So let’s say that you’re with red cup marketing. I’m making this up. Sorry if red cup marketing is out there.

Josh Ramsey

I just looked at a red cup and that’s what I use. So red cup marketing and you’re working with George at red cup marketing and George does great, but George retires, George moves to another company and now they give you Phillip.

Josh Ramsey

So now you’re working with Phillip and you don’t like Phillip and Phillip’s not listening and Phillip’s not doing the things that George did and you keep complaining. Well, guess what? You’re stuck with a red cup. If they own your website, you’re stuck with them. If they own your ads because you can’t take what’s been working and move it to a new agency, you’re stuck with that company. You’re tied to them. That’s not a good way for a business owner to do business.

Josh Ramsey

So I plead with anyone hearing this. Do not make that mistake. That’s part of your planning process of making sure that you own all of your marketing from the very beginning.

Denise Griffitts

Absolutely. And as a web designer, web developer, I find, and this is prevalent, listen, I’m gonna have to go wander off a little bit here to make my point, but yesterday I put five new tires on my car.

Denise Griffitts

That’s always a shocking and expensive proposition, particularly for a woman. You know, we don’t know anything about what’s the best. And as a rule, we don’t. So I got a hold, thank goodness of a very reputable company here in my little town.

Denise Griffitts

And I spent three hours there yesterday. It was one of the best experiences that I’ve had in a very long time. I mean, they made sure that I was comfortable from start to finish. They got me the best pricing.

Denise Griffitts

They made sure there was no extra anything added on except a lug nut that they had to actually cut off in syringe Rover. So it costs another 25 bucks, but I was there for three hours. I was completely happy the whole time.

Denise Griffitts

They eat. I finally said, listen, it’s a beautiful spring day in the deep South. We have two seasons, hot and hotter in hell. This was a pretty spring day. So I said, I think I’m going to go outside and sit on the steps.

Denise Griffitts

Three of these guys will bring you a chair. No, I’m just going to three of them trying to bring me this chair, this chair. Well, how about this? No, I’m going to sit on the steps, but thank you. They were so great.

Denise Griffitts

And I asked him, I said, listen, where can I leave you a review? And I put on my marketing hard hat and said, what do you mean? You’re not on Facebook. You don’t have a business page? No. Are you on Yelp?

Denise Griffitts

No. Our company owner doesn’t really like social media. All right. Everybody gather around. You need to be here and here’s why you need to be. And I went to better business bureau and I left him a glowing recommendation, but I said, you’ve got to be out there.

Denise Griffitts

Listen, when I’m looking for a restaurant to go to, you know, meet, meet up with friends and we have restaurant suggestions. We all land on Facebook. It’s just the way it happens. So you need to have some, but my point is that as a web developer they do have a website, but how are they driving traffic to it?

Denise Griffitts

They’re not using social media. They don’t have a strategy. They don’t have a kind of goal other than you find them somehow or another. That’s not a strategy. So I’m off my soapbox.

Denise Griffitts

Now you can take over.

Josh Ramsey

No, I mean, you’re right. Now you’re going to the second part of marketing, which is tactical placement, right? You have to have the strategic message, your call to action, your design, all the creative.

Josh Ramsey

Now it’s where you put that creativity. It’s how you get the eyeball, right? This is the second step to it. So where you place it, now you’re considering things like text messaging, emails, Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, TikTok.

Josh Ramsey

That then somewhat needs to shift back to the strategic side, which is now building out your avatar or your persona of the buyer. Who are you buying? Who are you selling to? Who’s going to buy this product?

Josh Ramsey

Buying that platform. So for instance, I work with a drug trial company. They’re a drug trial science company. And with this company, one thing that we often consider is the type of study in the age range is where we advertise. 

Josh Ramsey

So we have some adolescent, uh, studies such as ADHD study. And with this adolescent study, we want to advertise to the adolescents. So we look at the range of TikTok, we look at Reddit, we advertise on those platforms where that age bracket of 13 to 18 is going to be consuming media.

Josh Ramsey

Then we have younger child studies and the child studies are kids in between the ages of five to 10. And I’m using ranges here, but the five to 10, they don’t consume media. So we then have to logically think through where are their parents?

Josh Ramsey

How do we advertise to their parents? So now we’re looking at their age and we’re looking at either Facebook or Instagram. We don’t advertise on TikTok. So it’s really easy to burn money when you haven’t built out who your persona is and then strategically place your message so that way that persona is able to pick that information up.

Josh Ramsey

You know, how frustrating it is in life when you go to Amazon and you type in bicycle and all that shows up are roller skates. Take that in for a minute. You typed in bicycle and you see roller skates.

Josh Ramsey

That doesn’t happen, right? But yet if you are trying to advertise to buy a million dollar home on TikTok, not the best strategy because the TikTok user major demographic is much younger. And then you have to logically think through our people that are going to spend a million dollars to buy a home going to be on TikTok.

Josh Ramsey

So it could be debatable and argued that will that buyer that’ll buy a million dollar home be on TikTok and some people go, yeah, they’re all over, they’re all over. Okay. I’m not going to argue that.

Josh Ramsey

Sure. I’ll let you win that one. However, I’m going to now change the question slightly. How many buyers of that million dollar home will be on TikTok versus Instagram or Facebook?

Denise Griffitts

Or even you know, Pinterest is, you know, obviously it’s nothing but pictures and people go there. I spend a lot of time on Pinterest. A lot of us do. I get recipes over there. I wanted to look at maxi skirts of all things.

Denise Griffitts

The other day I found a whole bunch of them. You know, Pinterest, if you are heavily geared towards showing people what you do, it’s not a bad place to be.

Josh Ramsey

Yeah. So, but whatever platform you decide to use, now it becomes data testing, looking at the metrics of how many impressions, but more importantly, how much engagement did you have? It’s interesting that some people haven’t paid attention as much as I believe they should, that Google runs a program called analytics.

Josh Ramsey

Some people don’t even know this exists, but analytics tracks your website and analytics as a whole is looking at the engagement of users to whatever advertising that you put out there. That’s analytics in general.

Josh Ramsey

Google analytics is what you put on your website. For those listeners that don’t know what this is, it’s Google analytics and you put it on your website. And the interesting thing that I don’t believe has been spoken enough by marketing people out there that I teach about all the time.

Josh Ramsey

So it blows me away that they don’t use Google analytics. One of the biggest changes is they track the engagement rate of a user on people’s websites. Now think about this for a second and a little bit of a deeper level.

Josh Ramsey

If Google is tracking the engagement of how much time a user spends on a website, I believe that we have to give a lot of credit that it’s important to Google because they’re tracking it. Therefore, the decisions that you make and the strategic execution of your website and the modifications should be all centered around what Google is tracking.

Josh Ramsey

I don’t know why a company like Google would do something without the methodical execution that they put into place. And that is one of the biggest changes, one of the biggest changes from the Google universal, which lived through 10 to 12 years to what’s called GA for the fourth edition of Google Analytics GA for.

Josh Ramsey

And now that they’re tracking user engagement, I don’t see any other reason why they would track it other than they care.

Denise Griffitts

They are really trying as far as I can tell, and I’ve been watching them forever as well. They’re gathering data, no question. But they’re also, in many, many ways, putting that data to good use by helping you track your own data.

Denise Griffitts

So it makes sense. Listen, I wanted to, I’ve got a whole bunch of questions for you. Let’s talk about the growing significance, and we’re going to switch topics here a bit. So let’s talk about the growing significance of podcasts and marketing strategies.

Denise Griffitts

Listen, I’m a podcaster. I’ve been doing this a long time. So my question is, and this is for businesses, how are businesses leveraging podcasting effectively?

Josh Ramsey

You know, I think it really comes down to, again, your strategic message and then tracking the data. I’ve looked at a lot of different podcasts. I watch different podcasts. I listened to different podcasts and it’s interesting to watch the metrics that are output by the, the, the, the core podcast group and who the followers are.

Josh Ramsey

And then watching how much you can engage that into your website page and into your social media to increase that following, right? I don’t know if I’m giving you the exact answer you’re looking for, but I think that podcasts, they’re a great use of sharing and displaying information. 

Josh Ramsey

But I think oftentimes they’re not marketed well based on the information that they give. And I take this a little bit to social media because in social media, one of the things that I teach that I’ve seen become very effective in social media is you have three seconds to interrupt somebody to break them from swiping to the next photo or, you know, scrolling down their news feed on Facebook or whatever platform they’re using Pinterest, Instagram, whatever it is, you have three seconds, then you have six seconds to engage them.

Josh Ramsey

And I think that six seconds is where people really miss because it’s easy to throw out a message that maybe they’re going to stop and look at, but that next six seconds equaling your first nine has to be very engaging.

Josh Ramsey

It has to really engage, meaning pull someone in and make them stop and want to know more than your next 30 seconds, 20 to 30 seconds is your education. If you do an outstanding job, clearly communicating what makes you superior to anyone else, now you move into the offer, the fourth step, which is now your call to action.

Josh Ramsey

Here’s where you should go next. Here’s why you should do it. And I think when podcasts market themselves in that focus, those are the ones that I’ve seen move up the rankings and grow.

Denise Griffitts

Everybody wants to be a podcaster right now, and I am a firm believer in getting your voice heard. Sadly, though, I see a lot, way too many people, but we’re going to do this. And they’re so excited.

Denise Griffitts

And three weeks, three months later, they’re gone. They didn’t have a plan. They didn’t have a strategy. Sometimes they didn’t even have a website. They just got caught up in the excitement of it all because it is very exciting.

Denise Griffitts

It’s not easy, y ‘all. I’m going to tell you right now, having a podcast, not easy, but it is well worth everything you put into it. But they’re gone and they’re disappointed. In some cases, they’re just flat out, you know, they’re heartbroken, but they didn’t plan it.

Denise Griffitts

No strategy.

Josh Ramsey

Yeah. I mean, podcasts, in my opinion, are not much different than running any business.

Denise Griffitts

To me and I’ll say this over and over again a podcasting is in many ways marketing 101 You get your voice out there you get on you know You make sure that people can find you on social media you give the reasons why they should find you Your podcast will grow and it’ll grow quickly.

Josh Ramsey

Yeah. Yeah. And you’ve done it.

Denise Griffitts

But I did it by accident. I have to be honest about this. The first time that I was ever on a podcast, I didn’t know I was. You know, this was, you know, back before anybody had ever heard of one. And this one, she’s a podcast herself and we’re still in touch.

Denise Griffitts

And she got in touch with me. She said, Denise, I’d like to do an interview with you. And I said, sure. She said, well, listen, just call this number. And I thought she was going to record it and then, you know, transcribe it and put it out on a blog.

Denise Griffitts

Couple of days later, I get this: Hey, here you are. And I went, what? I had no idea what it was. And then I heard my voice for the first time. And then I just went, Oh geez. Yeah. Cause to me, I sound like I’m about to sing happy birthday, Mr. President. I think I sound ridiculous, but I was caught up in the whole podcasting thing. And here it was an accident, pure and simple.

Josh Ramsey

But you know, I mean, it’s been said that, you know, the person that sits on their couch is never going to make a fortune. Yeah, the person who gets up and just starts walking around the city has an opportunity.

Josh Ramsey

So when you look at it that way, now all of a sudden you have to realize sometimes it is the right place, right time. Sometimes it is you just did one or two steps in the right direction, or you waited an extra five minutes, you know, in that office, and something good happened.

Josh Ramsey

And that’s just being fortunate. That’s just being lucky. And I think in sports, and in business, and in life, sometimes you just have to have a little bit of luck. And sometimes you can make that luck.

Josh Ramsey

And sometimes you just have to get it. And, you know, that’s what it is, you know.

Denise Griffitts

Exactly. Okay. I’m going to switch. I’ve got so many questions. I wrote them down. It’s like, okay, how many more can I get in there before our hour’s up? But could you walk us through the process of nurturing leads and guiding people through a marketing funnel?

Denise Griffitts

Because a marketing funnel is different than a website. And a lot of people don’t, they’ll say, oh, what’s the landing page and what’s this one? Let’s try to break things down a bit for people so they can go, oh, I need this component in my marketing, or I need to start asking questions about this component.

Josh Ramsey

Yeah, so you’re one of the few podcasts that I have been on that have asked me such a fantastic question. I have to tell you, it just came out of my head.

Denise Griffitts

Thank you. Thank you.

Josh Ramsey

Listen, it’s a very solid question and and I think you’re right and I’m I’m going to try to stay on track but the first thing I’m going to say here is You have to identify your product and your line that you’re selling So for instance, let’s say you’re a jewelry store Well as a jewelry store what you need to know and pay attention to is which products are is the prospect interested in And not i’m going to use nike for for a second I subscribe to nike.

Josh Ramsey

I like looking at their shoes. I don’t care anything about their clothes Yet nike still pushes their clothes to me Now I assume that nike being nike and I don’t know personally their cmo But I have to assume that they’re still trying There are people out there that look at the shoes buy the shoes and every now and then go buy the clothes but the majority of what nike gives me on my Consumption of their messaging is shoe related So when i’m looking at the shoes what I don’t want to be advertised are hats and clothes and pants so When you as a whoever you are out there that hears this and is paying attention to this The first step is identifying what your prospect is interested in and more importantly what they are absolutely not interested in A quick tangent here is something that I like to talk about in conferences, which is out of a hundred percent of the market That’s going to buy from me 20 is always going to love you.

Josh Ramsey

They’re going to be loyal to you. They’re never going anywhere. Don’t market to them. The bottom 20 percent is never going to buy from you. They either don’t like you. They don’t they don’t care for you They don’t like your product Whatever it is the bottom 20 Your job in business is to focus on that middle 60 percent and persuade as many of that middle 60 To buy from you to move up the scale down the pipeline and make a purchase with you and engage Your communication to that middle 60 percent starts with what are they actually interested in?

Josh Ramsey

So I went down to the jewelry store. I went down the shoe. Now, let me use contracting Contractors typically specialize in whole home remodeling, kitchen remodeling, bathroom remodeling Well, it can be a long buying cycle For that so now we have to look at another piece of the puzzle Which is what is the average buying time?

Josh Ramsey

For X product whatever x product is a diamond ring because you want to get married. Okay There’s a timetable that you want You don’t think on a larger purchase that you’re going to spend 10 20 30 000 on You don’t just automatically go out and buy it without looking around So you have to then nurture that Prospect you have to nurture who it is that you’re talking to with the right message at the right time Now when we talk about the funnel and how you nurture consider this If I send you whoever’s hearing this if I send you an email every day, you’re going to be annoyed and you’re going to block Oh, yeah.

Denise Griffitts

I would dump you after the third one.

Josh Ramsey

Send you once a week, you’re gonna block me. But now you have to start to consider whether I should send it every two weeks, every three weeks, every four weeks, every six weeks. That decision has to be made based on one of the core foundational pieces that I spoke about in the beginning, which is what is the buying cycle and how can you identify it.

Josh Ramsey

Now you’re messaging. I’m giving a lot of information here. So I hope you’re following me. Some people may want to go back and re -listen to that. But now suddenly you have to try to identify where your buyer is on the buying cycle.

Josh Ramsey

There’s different ways to do that. You could send out a text if they have subscribed to your text and say, are you looking to buy in the next three months, six, twelve, or twenty -four. Sometimes on your initial intake, that can help.

Josh Ramsey

One of the things that I’ve done recently is I’ve worked with some contractors and we’ve built online funnels. The online funnel allows a user to come to our website and build the blueprint and get a price quote without even talking to us.

Josh Ramsey

Now a lot of people go, wait, wait, wait. They’re on my website. I want to talk to them. I want them to call me and ask for that, not get it for free. And I don’t disagree, but if I can increase the engagement rate, first the engagement rate, that’s going to help us with Google and ranking.

Josh Ramsey

On top of that, if we can get consumers to go through the funnel, we can see what type of traffic we’re driving in. And now we have a more qualified buyer if they get to the end of that funnel and they submit their information to us.

Josh Ramsey

On top of that, we can now know exactly what they’re looking for and we can communicate in the timetable that is needed for them. And that’s just in the contracting world that can cross over to others.

Denise Griffitts

Well, listen, I understand when people say, oh, yeah, but I want to talk to them. And that I was writing as you were talking. And that kind of leads me to what you said, which is very important is persuasion.

Denise Griffitts

Marketing in my mind is persuasion. You want to persuade people to pay attention to you, to call you, to purchase from you, to refer you ; all marketing is persuasion. A lot of people say, oh, marketing to sales, not necessarily.

Denise Griffitts

Those are, you know, they may share some table with some space at the table, but they’re not the same, but what you’re talking about, and I’m the same way. Listen, I want you to go through my funnel.

Denise Griffitts

I want you to go to my website, but what I really want to do is speak with you. Because that’s where two things happen. I can figure out if I can actually be of assistance to you. And if I like you, because if I don’t like you, I won’t work with you.

Denise Griffitts

That’s just written in stone.

Josh Ramsey

But you know, that goes back to the perception of a website, because it’s, you know, Zig Ziegler said, for years, not what you say, that’s how you say it. Right. But that’s not true anymore. What’s true is the first step of engagement. 

Josh Ramsey

And the first step is perception. It’s not what you say, and it’s not how you say it. It’s what’s perceived by your audience. Because sometimes you can have the best intentions, but you say the wrong words, and all of a sudden, your intentions are out the window because the perception of the other person is totally thrown up.

Josh Ramsey

So how you communicate that information is massive. It’s so important how you communicate it, what’s said and how it is said, and you’re still not going to win 100% of the time. Last night I had a conversation with somebody and they took what I said to an extreme that was not even close to what I said.

Josh Ramsey

And what I was intending to say, but their perception was so skewed that that person and I will probably never talk again. And I think all of us have experienced that. Which is just one little thing, right?

Denise Griffitts

And let me, we are going to run out of time shortly. This has been a very fast hour. So Josh, what are some practical tips for boosting engagement on social media platforms? Because you’re talking about connecting, persuasion, marketing, sales.

Denise Griffitts

Give us a few practical tips if you can.

Josh Ramsey

Well, the first thing is figure out what’s your unique selling position. So it’s referred to as the USP unique selling position. I worked with a realtor thought that long ago and the core focus of working with that realtor, I asked her, what makes you unique?

Josh Ramsey

And she said my story and I tell my story really well. So I went and I looked at all of her social media. There was nothing about her story on any of her social media. We all have something that’s called the inside reality and outside perception.

Josh Ramsey

The inside, I use a story. If you’ll indulge me for a second, I’ll try to make it short and sweet, but when I met my wife, she looked at my social media. I met her a long time ago on Myspace and she looked at my social media and I never really thought about my social media in the way that she and I talked about it over the years to come.

Josh Ramsey

And here’s what hit me later in life is that I would go out with my friends to a birthday party, have a beer, hold it up, take a picture, put it on Myspace. The next weekend I’d go to the lake, have a beer with my buddies, play volleyball, soccer, whatever on the beach, hold a beer, take a picture, put it up.

Josh Ramsey

Next time I go to a family event with my brother, we have a glass of wine at dinner, so there’s wine. I hold it up. Cheers. Picture on social media. Next thing you know, what do I look like?

Denise Griffitts

Yeah. I’m surprised she talked. Oh, I got you.

Josh Ramsey

Market and drink. But here’s what I wasn’t showing. I was teaching in the church kids groups. I was volunteering time. I was volunteering my energy to other businesses that were trying to grow. And I was working as part of the security team to keep people safe in our church. 

Josh Ramsey

I didn’t walk around taking selfies because selfies when myspace was around weren’t real. But I didn’t get those pictures. I didn’t ask someone to take a picture of this and let me go think to put this on my Myspace.

Josh Ramsey

So my inside reality was that I’m a good guy. I try to do good things. I have good ethics, morals and values. But the outside perception was the furthest thing from my inside reality. So what’s my unique selling position?

Josh Ramsey

I needed to shift what that was. I need to better explain my inside reality. So back to the realtor. She looks like everyone else. So on her social media, why would I buy from her when she looks like everyone else?

Josh Ramsey

Why am I going to call her and give her an opportunity to pitch me? We don’t have time to call 50 different realtors. We’re going to just go with whoever we feel like. I just bought a new car and I have a lot of people that wanted to sell me a new car.

Josh Ramsey

I ended up going with a guy because a good buddy of mine introduced me to him. I met him. I liked him immediately and I bought from him. But now if you go back and you look at the buying cycle of everything I just said, when you look at your social media, you’re trying to advertise on social media, websites, and billboards.

Josh Ramsey

What’s your unique selling position and how well are you communicating that to now go back to what is the middle 60% perception of your unique selling position?

Denise Griffitts

Understood. And referrals. I’m telling you, that’s how I found these tire guys. I, you know, caught up with my next door neighbor and said, where do you get your tires? And he sent me straight to them.

Denise Griffitts

I’d never heard of them, but they did a great job. One last question. I know we’re bouncing around a bit here, but it’s a big top topic we’re talking about. Josh, what are some of the core values or principles that guide you in your work and your life and how do you stay true to them?

Josh Ramsey

For myself.

Denise Griffitts

Schlis, I didn’t mean to do that, sorry.

Josh Ramsey

It’s a good question again, a great question. I don’t get asked very often in the way that you asked it But I do say this to people and For me i’m just going to speak for myself on this because I believe that’s how you pose the question The way I do business is I just treat people the way I want to be treated and I Do what I say i’m going to do and I have found in my life and in my experience of Life both in family and in friends and in business that that’s actually a rarity Nowadays that people say one thing and then they don’t do it.

Josh Ramsey

They don’t follow through they can’t do it They’re not able to do it Whatever that is, but I just focus on on Drawing a circle around myself and only working on making the people In that circle better every single day by doing the best I can do And what that means is when I tell someone i’m going to do it I do it and if I can’t I quickly come back and say I can’t do it and here’s my roadblock Here’s what I believe my solutions could be if we want to explore these let’s explore them But that’s the communication and ultimately it just comes back to what I said in the beginning It comes down for me is my ethics morals and values Hold true and that is i’m going to do what I believe is right ethical and moral What am I doing that’s best for whoever is involved in interacting with me?

Josh Ramsey

And if I do that, I feel like i’m going to come out on top 90 plus percent of the time And i’ve grown my business that way the majority Most people working with an ad agency stick around for 18 months The majority of my clients have been with me for more than three or four years on the fractional cmo side Most of my clients it’s still a relatively new company.

Josh Ramsey

I only started it in 2018 But I still my average lifespan of a client in the fractional cmo side is over a year And most cmos are three months So there’s there’s a reason that I have found that it keeps working is because I come in with a logical plan I treat people the way that they want to be treated and how I would want to be treated and I’ll ultimately i’ll wrap with this Is I follow what’s spoken in the bible, which is Treat people the way you want to be treated and good to people be kind and love them And and that’s where my ethics and morals come from.

Denise Griffitts

The golden rule. It’s a great response and thank you so much. And Josh, I really appreciate your company today and spending time with you has been a definite pleasure. So would you mind sharing your online presence and your preferred means of contact for those who wish to learn more, wish to, I can’t talk today, those who wish to learn more about you.

Josh Ramsey

Yeah, absolutely. So my name is Josh Ramsey and my company is a chief marketing officer. So if you look up Josh Ramsey fractional CMO or go to jrcmo .com, you’ll find me one of the things that I’m pretty proud of.

Josh Ramsey

I’ll share two of them that’ll help people find me. But one of them is that I’ve been doing online digital media since 2003. There’s not one bad review online about me at all. The number one reason is if I don’t do what I say I’m going to do, I will refund the money.

Josh Ramsey

Meaning we make a plan, we execute that plan and if that plan is not executed, I make it right. The other thing I’ll say is it’s easy to find me if you type in fractional CMO and in the city name, the major city of most cities in the US, you’ll find me on page one.

Josh Ramsey

In Dallas, I’m number one. In Austin, I’m number one. In Houston, I’m number one. In Miami, I’m in the top five. Tampa, I’m top five. Los Angeles, top 10. Boise, Denver, Salt Lake City, I’m in the top five again.

Josh Ramsey

So we are really good at executing on SEO, but a lot of that comes from a lot of little pieces that I teach companies how to do. I teach companies how to use systems and then anyone can run the system, but you have to have the right system.

Josh Ramsey

So I appreciate you having me on today. Anyone that wants to reach out, I do free consultations up to two hours of free consultations. They fill out a business evaluation form and then they set a meeting with me and I jump on and walk them through trying to help them navigate the crazy world that we all live in today.

Denise Griffitts

Tell people how to find that form.

Josh Ramsey

Just go to jrcmo .com and look for the free two hour consultation on the homepage. There’s also a live chat that actually comes to my cell phone so you can actually chat with me there as well.

Denise Griffitts

I saw that I was on your website this morning. I went well, that’s interesting I don’t and it’s interesting because I don’t give my cell phone number out ever There are maybe 10 people in the world. Well nine my brother passed away. Nine people in the world who have that number.

Denise Griffitts

I don’t work on my cell phone. I need some Privacy. I’ll say nope. I’m easy to reach. I have a toll-free number. You know, you can find me here here, here, here, but you don’t get my cell number. That’s just a rule.

Josh Ramsey

Messages come through to me, but my cell phone’s not listed there.

Denise Griffitts

Well, in that case, I might take another look at that. Well, listen, everybody, to our audience, as we conclude today’s episode, your feedback means an awful lot to me. If you found the show helpful, please support us with a quick review on iTunes.

Denise Griffitts

Your input is vital in my mission to inspire and empower more individuals. So don’t forget to hit subscribe, leave a review, and share your partner and success radio with friends and colleagues. And be sure to go find Joshua or Josh Ramsey on the web and connect with him.

Denise Griffitts

And thank you, everybody, for tuning in. I will see you next week. Joshua, thank you again so much.

Josh Ramsey

Thank you.

Speaker 1

Get your voice heard. If you would like to launch your own far-reaching podcast, contact Denise Griffiths at yourofficeontheweb.com and go to the podcast tab.