Why Strong Brands Perform Better
In the virtual Lemonade Stand, we're peeling back the layers to reveal how a dynamic and unforgettable brand is the cornerstone for amplifying all of your marketing endeavors. No matter the size or age of your business, these insights from this series will guide you through the maze of consistent branding efforts.
0:08 - The Importance of Strong Branding
8:14 - Importance of Branding and Marketing Strategies
14:13 - Brand Building's Importance in Marketing
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We’ll see you next time, Lemon Heads!
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Speaker 2: 0:08
Well, what's up, Lemonheads? Welcome back to another episode of From the Yellow Chair. I'm Emily and I'm Crystal, and this week we're going to talk about why strong brands perform so much better, absolutely.
Speaker 1: 0:19
You know we preach this. We try to make it. Help, not make. Make is a strong word. We try to help contractors understand. We try to make them, but they just sometimes just don't. So we try to help people understand that, how important it is to not skimp on branding. And so today we're going to talk about why. Why, that is how we can really help you make all of your other ads perform better by just making sure that you have a strong brand. So let's sip some lemonade.
Speaker 2: 0:47
Let's do it All right. So one thing that we are always preaching is you need to have a memorable and a disruptive brand, and one of those reasons is because we know when you have that good, solid foundation, it will help all of your other marketing pieces perform so much better.
Speaker 1: 1:03
Yeah, so you know it's hard. So here's what's hard is it's expensive, yeah, yeah, okay, so it's expensive to just put your name out there and it's a. It's a long-term strategy, it is a marathon approach, long-term strategy. All those good words there, because it's not fun to be opening a brand new business. I mean, I don't. Emily's going through that right now. I'm going through that right now. It's really hard to write checks for things that don't have a direct ROI attached to them. So I sent out this text message and I got X amount of revenue from it. But what I like to preach is you need to always be digging your well before you're thirsty. That's right, and so mass media and a good brand are really beneficial ways to grow your brand in a very strategic approach. A lot of people are like man, I just feel like I do all kinds of stuff with my marketing, like I just throw things at the wall and I hope that they work, and then I'm really not sure if they worked, but by God's service time, and said they worked and and you're just like, yeah, but a lot of that is like you're you're fishing in a, in a puddle, not a pond. And you know you're just you're grabbing up the low hanging things but you're really not building any, any leverage or any 10, 10 year in your brand. And so what we've discovered is that when we have good, solid brands that have good look and feel, now listen, you don't have to have the most disruptive brand or colors or mascots and all of those. Those are all great when you have a differentiator, but just a solid brand that is consistently put into the market is going to perform. So your name is good, your trucks are wrapped and you're doing some type of mass media and it, you know, I will say now some type of social media. So, you've got those things rolling and that's in your recipe, your foundational pieces, then everything else is going to perform better.
Speaker 2: 2:43
Well, all of those things just make consumers just more environmentally aware. They're just aware of you because you're just there, like they just have this.
Speaker 1: 2:50
They're experiencing it.
Speaker 2: 2:51
They're experiencing it. Yeah, and so again, that's something that you can't tangibly put an ROI to. You can't tangibly see all the leads that came from that. But, like, one thing that you've mentioned that people can hopefully start to see a little uptake on is your organic search. Yes, like, as people start to notice you more, you should be able to on your digital leads and be able to track what are people? Are people naturally searching for my name, yellow Bear, air, heating and Cooling? Are they searching Heating and Cooling near me?
Speaker 1: 3:16
Yeah, I call that going free agent. Like man, they just went out to the marketplace to see who was willing to buy them. You know, and and I can't, I can't express this enough that you have to be realistic about what your expectations are on your return here. So, no, nobody's going to well, people have done it. So let me back up when I say no one. But what happens to the majority of the time is people come out gangbusters and they bust out with the Angie and the all these lead aggregators and they start like gosh, you know they're, they're putting all this content out on social media but then, like in all honesty, they run out of friends. You run out of friends that use your business. So then you're like dang, I am not seeing any return. Then what happens is because you've put all of your eggs in this digital basket, there's no leads out there, there's no search volume out there, so you're literally like a sitting duck out there, like you just don't. There's been nothing you've put in place to continue to build presence because you went all digital. So what I try to encourage people is to look at your market and say how can I just be here, how can I literally just be seen and experienced. So if you've got wrapped vans, that's a good start, and most of you hopefully most of you have a wrapped van, so I also need to clarify A magnet.
Speaker 2: 4:27
I was just about to say, and you better not just say just a cup vinyl decal, you know? Yeah, no, ma'am.
Speaker 1: 4:31
And if you can pull it off. Okay, that ain't it, sis? Right, like we've got to go back to the drawing board, or?
Speaker 2: 4:37
if you have completely covered the vehicle, like you do have a full on wrap, but you've also covered it with every single service that you could possibly do until the end of time. Yeah, I said Visa cards icons, your address, facebook X, you know, listing every like. It's almost kind of like a desperate plea, like please just call me and search for me, or like.
Speaker 1: 4:55
I just don't understand how much y'all think our minds can comprehend when we're driving past you at 60 miles an hour. Correct? I'll do the same argument with a billboard and QR code. So you know, there's a lot of things that I could say there. Now listen, if you had an intentional strategy about over wording up your vehicle wrap or putting a QR code on a billboard, do you? Because I'm just saying that that would not be the advice that I gave. So you know, vehicle wraps are a really good way to start. So if you are a one truck guy whether it doesn't matter what service you provide at least get that truck wrapped, because that alone starts building brand equity, it starts building brand presence, it starts building all of this exposure to your brand and then, naturally, people feel like they know you no for sure.
Speaker 2: 5:37
And I know contractors can get so like. I hear it all the time. Well, wraps are so expensive, wraps are so expensive and in reality I think they're one of the cheapest forms of marketing there is.
Speaker 1: 5:47
It's a rolling billboard.
Speaker 2: 5:48
Oh, well, and like when you look at the cost of a bill or of a wrap, so they're going to cost you between three and $5,000. Okay, and your life is going to be three to five years, in some climates maybe even seven years. Okay, when you start doing math, that is less than $100 a month. Yes, okay. What other marketing things are you buying that is less than $100 a month and has as much impact as a wrap pass that's in your market, just driving around, correct? I mean it's, I mean you had to drive a vehicle to go service the homeowner anyways, like you might as well have it advertising for you while you're driving.
Speaker 1: 6:17
Yes. So you know, obviously we think you only drive your vehicles, but that's a really good start. What I'm trying to give you is like little pieces of things to hang on to Like. That's a good start. You know you're guys in a uniform shirt because you know, yes, when they go on the service calls, but also it's branding when they're in the grocery store or they're in line at McDonald's or they're doing whatever they do, like it's just another presence given out hats with your logo nicely done on them. So you know, emphasis on nicely done on there. There's all of those things are ways for people to experience your brand. Then you go into level two, right? So most of you think, oh my God, but what about my website, my website, my website, my website? A website pretty is the last thing you need to worry about on a website, right? So a website is just a holding ground. I call it. I call it. It's like a real estate that you own on on the worldwide web. Okay, so it's like your house there and how you can make that perform better, and it's about having the right things on the backside of your website. So pretty. Yes, we want to make it pretty, we want to make it branded. We want to make it user friendly. The user experience is very important, sure, but I promise you, in the grand scheme of things, the prettiness of it does not really reflect well in ROI from your website. It's going to be the back, the gross stuff that none of us most of us if you're listening, eric from rival digital or anybody like that Like I know y'all do fantastic work, but we don't care nearly as much as they do about what really goes on behind the scenes of them being very smart about what they do. But it isn't pretty right. It's not a part of your brand as far as the technical side of it.
Speaker 2: 7:51
And I've heard it explained like this like your website is like a cabin in the middle of the woods and it can be the most beautiful cabin. Like you know, it's on Airbnb for $20,000 a night. Okay, but if no one knows, if there are no paths to the cabin, no one will ever land and get there, and so by doing things like SEO or back linking, like whatever those strategies are, those are just more paths leading to your cabin and you got to have more than just one path. And do they need to be?
Speaker 1: 8:13
does it need to be branded, of course? Like I was looking at a client the other day and I landed, she tells me the name of her company. I go to her website and I'm like well, who are these people? And she's like, oh well, that was the company. I bought another company. And I'm like so you bought a company called XYZ but your name is, you know, red, white and blue. And so I just landed on your website at red, white and bluecom, and it's still one, two, three company. Like this is wild.
Speaker 2: 8:37
So you're confused.
Speaker 1: 8:38
Yes, I'm confused about what happened. The world is in the wrong place.
Speaker 2: 8:42
Correct. And then I'm like it always putting a piece in the mouth. I was like are these people going to have it together when they come to service my? Was I just scammed, sure, or like I've been hacked, yeah.
Speaker 1: 8:52
And it's not very trustworthy. No, no. So that's why I tell you, website is super, super important. I'm not trying to invalidate that. But for the mass media, for the marketing side, the branding side, I should say you know things matter more on that side. So let's talk a little bit about mass media for a little bit. So you know, branding is very important. So protect your brand, god, protect your editorial guide as well. So how you speak about your brand, how you say things, is very important. So if you were to say we're open 24 hours, that's one thing other than 24 hour service versus 24 hour emergency repair. You really need to be consistent in the way that you speak. You need to be Editorially how you write your messaging. All of those things needs to have a style to it that is reflective of your brand. Now, that gets corny and really only people like me and Emily care that much. But at the end of the day, like I will watch people say tune up, check out, comfortization, yes, all these things, rejuvenation, you know all those things which I love them. But you got to say it the same every single time and put it every place that people are going to be, because that's gonna build brand Consistency. If you're gonna hook yourself to a phrase, you need to hook yourself all over the place.
Speaker 2: 10:06
So that right, like the Chick-fil-A. You know you're welcome. They say my pleasure. Well, if only one person was saying my pleasure that wouldn't, stick correct. It wouldn't really be a thing that everyone knows and associates that with Chick-fil-A.
Speaker 1: 10:17
Yes, yeah, that's a good. That's a good point. And like even writing the names on the cups at Starbucks. You know, I think about that sometimes, like people have made so much fun of it, but every time somebody goes on Tick-tock and makes fun of the way that their name was spelled. Sure, there's one more freakin Starbucks, but in our face no you know?
Speaker 2: 10:35
and then people was like how would they spell my name? Yeah, I'm gonna go and see what they do to mine or just like one more time I, at environmentally, I was exposed to that Starbucks brand.
Speaker 1: 10:43
So there's ways that you can do this. And so Again, mass media, whether you're, you've got a jingle, you've got a good color, you know a good creative commercial yard signs. Billboards, digital TV, I mean all if you just need to go at it. And another thing I was talking I was talking to Ryan shoot from Wizard of ads and he was like man, I get a lot of people sometimes and they've just diversified too much and I thought that was a good point. Like you come in and so this is gonna be I'm gonna use some real examples here and that this is. You just understand. There's nothing wrong with this being your marketing budget. You just can't diversify as much as others. And so if you have a hundred thousand dollars as a marketing budget, to be fair with you, that's not a ton of money. Most people in your market are probably outspending you in the grand scheme of things, but you have to start somewhere, so you might as well start intentionally, right? So if you take that hundred thousand dollars and I Pittle away at like 20 things, I'm like well, I'm gonna have this ad in this magazine, I'm gonna run radio for $300 a month and then I'm gonna do a little bit of SEO, but I'm gonna turn SEO on and off and I'm gonna do my own social media and you just pittle it away. You would be much more beneficial saying 50% of my budget is going to digital, 50% is going to the radio. I can't do those other things yet. And then as your money and your cashflow increases and the amount you can put towards marketing increases, the amount that you can start looking at Diversification. But I'll tell you, you got to be at a large spend before diversification really makes a ton of sense. No for sure, and that's, that's my philosophy, that's how I approach things. From what I've seen, you just get deluded.
Speaker 2: 12:18
Deluded efforts and deluded results. If you are too spread, then you know when you can't have a concentrated, just a few areas of focus and really owning a piece of a marketplace. Like hey, I own radio, like you were saying, like you know, a good chunk of your leads are gonna come from right because everyone here's you on the radio. They can't turn on the car and not hear you.
Speaker 1: 12:36
Yes, and you're just or you're gonna buy billboard, so it's hard to buy one. So if you have to buy one billboard, that's fine. But I mean y'all, I'm telling y'all right now this is my east Texas coming out. It will be in front of the Walmart. The Walmart, okay, because where do most people in your market? Normally they may not want to, but where do most of them go? Walmart, right, because they're doing grocery pick up. Some of y'all don't even want to step a toe into the Walmart, but that's fine.
Speaker 2: 13:03
If you're really, sex is like that's one of the only options we have. Okay, we have all the.
Speaker 1: 13:07
I know it panics people for y'all to know that our target does not have groceries. Yeah, I'm sorry, it's not a super no, it's very unfortunate.
Speaker 2: 13:14
It did get a Starbucks, like a year ago, and they did a remount and that was a big to do. It was real.
Speaker 1: 13:19
So Lufkin has 35,000 people in, three Starbucks, like you're, and only two Chick-fil-A's. So we're living our best life over here. Has that been misspelling people's names on the cops? That's right, I ain't blaming on them. But you know, the good news is you find that place that you want to own the billboard space and that's where you put it. But honestly, if you have two or three billboards, people feel like you are everywhere. If you wrap two trucks instead of just one truck, all of a sudden you are everywhere. And we've told that story about Jason Brady and above and beyond numerous times, about how you wrapped one truck and all of a sudden he was everywhere. Same thing my sister and I just launched and my brother, a pest control company, emily and her, her husband's company. Their company Helped us rebrand it and wrap the vehicles and everybody's like dang, how many trucks do y'all have? And you're like one, I don't know, um, because I don't want to say too, but because, but I'm like, it's really like a bit of. And then we have, we bought a billboard package. Y'all complimented that with the billboards. I mean we just and listen, money wasn't exactly rolling in in the first month. But I know I have to practice what I preach. And so we went for it, um, but we were fiscally prepared for that. And so my pastor, right now at church yes, you know I talk about Jesus on here for you all sometimes but my pastor has really been talking about tithing and how people have over complicated that. Some, like people, think too hard about it, and so it's like you know you have to give um what you are convicted to give Um, but sometimes you have to prepare yourself to give. So it made a good point Like not everybody can just today start tithing to a church with whatever they're convicted to give $5, $5 million but sometimes you have to be in a state of preparation to give. And so sometimes it's the same thing with your marketing. Like you may not, can launch marketing right this minute, even though you know you should and you're ready to do it Financially. You might be spending a few months preparing to go live with a marketing campaign and we've had some clients call us and say I am opening my business in May of 2024. What could I do now? How do I ease myself into it? And I'm like that's pretty smart. So just preparing to give, I mean, you're right.
Speaker 2: 15:21
I mean, I've seen it numerous, numerous times new business owners, and they haven't built up or had a true plan. Like it's just how can I barely scrape by and just get the doors open, yes, but then there's nothing else left over. There's no well, like you said, you got to dig your well for marketing, for operations, for slow times or anything, and so so I think people might hastily jump into something before they have a true plan, whether it's marketing a new business, whatever.
Speaker 1: 15:44
Well, and some of y'all I look up and y'all are spending $10,000 a month in digital and I'm like we don't even have a CRM, like you can't even dispatch anybody. But I'm like, so come back over here for a minute Like, and again, what it is is we're so hungry, I say we, we all are so hungry for the lead that we take our eye off the ball right and we're tricked by that trick pitch that that change up slipped right in there and one you know so. So what happens when you have a really good mass media campaign going, what it does is starts establishing that I have experienced your brand, whether I need it or not, and so that's why you see fast food chains keep these big illuminated signs, because they just want you seeing them every time you drive by. So it's the same concept for us. So you just want to be remembered when you're needed. So that's why mass media works. So then, if you take that to the next level, when people have experienced your brand, your name, your colors, your look, your feel, your verbiage, then they start, if they can't remember your name, and they go out to free agent, as I say, and then they see your name, as one of the options are like oh, I know them, correct it reminds them of how they've experienced, and again, they've never used you before, but they all of a sudden feel like they know you, and so that's the way that it can help your other marketing tactics perform better, because you've done your due diligence beforehand. So same thing with direct mail, right? So this is why direct mail, in my opinion again, these are all my opinions, someone else might have a different opinion this is my opinion. I think that you can't really utilize direct mail very well with a high expectation of return to new markets that you've never been in, because people don't know who you are yet. So, yes, you might grab a few people that are like huh, this sounds good, but for the most part, it's going to exponentially perform better when people already know who you are.
Speaker 2: 17:27
They've already experienced you.
Speaker 1: 17:28
They already know who you are. You seem legit to them, you seem trustworthy to them. They see your billboards, they hear your commercials, they see your trucks. This seems like a very viable company. And now I need their services. So you might have mailed someone for months, years sometimes, before they actually need your services. So remember, guys, the majority of the people that you are talking to every single day in any of your marketing does not need your services. At this time when your home service industry your time of need, what you've got to do is work really well to build relationships with those people so that when they need you and that literally could be a year long journey, years long journey but the more mass media presence you have, the more brand presence you have, the more likely it is that you are going to get the money when they have it. And so direct mail is a good example. Digital is a good example, even Facebook ads. So if you don't have anything happening on your own Facebook page and people are out and they experience your brand and someone actually Mentioned you in a comment they can't even click in them when they click over to your. So let's say, someone in a what's happening bear County Message. Someone says, oh my gosh, you've got to call Limitseed marketing right. And they click on Limitseed marketing, they land on our social media and it is it's poo, poo, like there's nothing good on it. I haven't posted in two and a half years. Yes, they're like they're out of business.
Speaker 2: 18:51
Right all right, or they're gonna answer the phone if I do call. Yeah, or they're old.
Speaker 1: 18:55
Yeah, or they think you're antiquated. So like, why would you? So you can be the most innovative company with the coolest things, the best technicians, but people click over and land on your, on your digital, on your I'm sorry on your Facebook platform or Instagram, whatever they land on, and it be terrible. They're gonna assume that you're terrible. No, for sure, and it's just the way it is. Even the older demographic is starting to feel that. See that, do that. So you've got to be diligent about those things. So, again, you want them to experience all levels of that and that is how your marketing will perform better.
Speaker 2: 19:26
And I think when you, when you do get to doing all of these levels like you're you're doing radio, you're doing TV or CTV OTT, some of those things you're doing billboards when those three or multiple things can be like playing off of each other, like there's the same type of campaign messaging, there's the same Thematic element to that that's a little bit disruptive and that changes out seasonally. That also helps them like build upon each other. That helps them. You know it's a much better presence.
Speaker 1: 19:55
Yes, oh, 100%. So again, you know, if you think about the full customer journey, you know A lot of times those of us that don't need a car, we can be enticed by a good-looking car. Like you know, I've been looking at maybe getting a car. Let me keep looking at that one. Do that with a furnace or a toilet, you know like that's not sexy. And so I was meeting with a friend today who was talking about her new business that she's opening up, and and I was like man, I wish I could sell olive oil flavors versus it'd be so much fun.
Speaker 2: 20:24
Backflow preventers, you know.
Speaker 1: 20:26
So, but our whole point of today's episode was just to really encourage you not to forgo building your brand. So, again, your wrap trucks, social wrap trucks and social media should be the very first things that you have going on. Then, from there, as your cash flow grows, you know, I like to recommend that 50% of your budget Is going, you know, 40 to 50%, depending on the budget y'all. There's so many caveats to that statement because, but I know y'all like those things, depending on the size of your market, depending on on how you know competitive your market is that spend money to be a little different. But a chunk of your marketing should go to Branding, just like it should go to digital, just like it should go to call to action and just like you should have some for foster ability. So you see why a 2% budget. So, and also, you want to budget off where you're going, not where you've been. Okay, so like, oh, I did 3.2 million dollars this year, so 10% of that's $320,000. Well, so you want to do, you want to try to do that again. You know, ideally I would like to see you spend a little bit more, because what got you here won't get you there, sure, so we've got to start bridging out a little bit on those things. And again, just a difference of opinion if anyone thinks differently.
Speaker 2: 21:35
And I love it when they say, yeah, our goal is five million dollars, but I'm still gonna have the same marketing spend. That only got me to 3.2 million.
Speaker 1: 21:40
Yes, so then I have to say things like hey, you know, the only way, their marketing is not the only way to grow your business. True, right, acquisition I'm taking a price increase Procurement, buying equipment better, adding a new service, adding a new service, adding efficiency, like best, like operational Deficiencies, so all of those. So you know, my first thing is, if you're not gonna do it through marketing, then what are these things are you gonna do? And if you still don't have an answer, then you probably are not going to hit that goal. Or those of you that really like to hover below 4% on your marketing spend, again, do you? Because I have talked to some client, like 20 million dollar companies, and they'll say, oh, what we did on 4% marketing? Well, let me tell you, y'all need to be asking questions, because 4% of 20 million Is a lot more than 4% of 2 million, correct, right? So some of y'all get that 4%. Well so, and so did it with 4%?
Speaker 2: 22:29
Well, they're freaking 20 million dollars, well, and they probably had a great brand. Yes, that they can. It's expounded upon them.
Speaker 1: 22:36
It's that exponential curve when I was talking to one of our clients who had like a 60% growth last year and I was like for, really, because that's a strong growth for 2023. It was a week year and I was like, well, what do you think you were doing different? He goes. Well, you know, I really. You know, y'all talk about limits, y'all stop me from turning off that mass media all the time, because you know he would be like I'm gonna leave my radio on them, we'll turn it off, I won't turn it back on, we'll turn it off. And I was like man, that's kidding, no longevity, that's getting no brand consistency. And well, what if people get tired of my jingle? Good, yeah, I want somebody to be like I hate your jingle. You know what me?
Speaker 2: 23:10
stuck in my head.
Speaker 1: 23:11
Yeah, yes, you know, mission accomplished. Be mad if you want to, but that's what I was trying to do with it. So this is just some encouragement for you guys to not forgo the marketing, the branding side of your marketing plan. Be strategic about it. Try not to diversify it too much, but find a lane that you like, that you feel like is right in your target market because for each of you it's gonna be different and then invest in that as much as you can possibly invest. Get a website that's really good, that's got, you've got a good vendor. Stay out of contracts, but get a good vendor on the digital side. That'll help you have a well done website with SEO. Also, around strategies, around your keywords, your branded keywords. Get Google local service ads going. Those are the recipe for success. Don't be distracted by shiny objects that just float up for a minute or shiny gurus that float up for a minute like. Start Really vetting what you decide to do and listen. You're gonna make bad decisions. You're gonna try things in marketing that don't work. Just give yourself some grace, because all marketing works with a plan, and so I just encourage you like to really Focus on your brand right now and see what you can do.
Speaker 2: 24:23
So that's the course that you can follow when we say stay the course, stay focused on your brand. All the other things can kind of push and pull a little bit, but that's the main solid foundation that you can't overlook.
Speaker 1: 24:35
Absolutely so. Thank you guys for listening to us talk about what we talk about every single day and we love to talk about with you. We always hope that you understand how lemon seed functions and that we can help you basically Organize all of your marketing spins, help you get creative. We really our design team has really come on strong with some rebrands and things that we've been doing and we have a lot to offer here at Lemon seed and we love an opportunity to speak with you guys if we can ever help. But if anything, we love listeners to our podcast, our next events coming up, so this podcast is gonna come out in time for us to tell you that we're gonna be at E3, which is gonna be in Huntington Beach, california. Go check out our social media for that. We also are gonna be with service nation alliance in Charlotte. So if you listen to our podcast and you were gonna be there, we love to know that you listen. Leave us a review where you're listening. Go to Facebook on all of our social media channels. We absolutely adore hearing that you listen to it. Yes, takes a lot of work, so we love to hear that you guys are enjoying it as well.
Speaker 2: 25:33
For sure. Well, thank you for listening to another episode. We will see you next time. Bye
