Tom DuFore: 0:01

Welcome to the Multiply your Success podcast, where each week, we help growth-minded entrepreneurs and franchise leaders take the next step in their expansion journey. I'm your host, tom Dufour, ceo of Big Sky Franchise Team, and as we open today, I'm wondering if you have been duped by marketing agencies, or maybe you thought you were duped or weren't even quite sure if you were. Well, our guest today is Amber Gage, and she shares with us the four C's in marketing that she uses to help avoid getting duped. Now I'm excited for Amber to be on the show for a bunch of reasons, but largely because Amber and I have a lot of mutual friends, in particular Ellen Rohr, who, if you've been a longtime listener, ellen, was a guest on episode 20. I'll link that in the show notes here.

Tom DuFore: 0:51

Ellen is just an amazing person. She's one of my favorite people and she's fantastic. She's a longtime client and someone I just think very highly of, and Amber and I connected together through Ellen. We didn't even realize it, and Amber's background is she's a third-generation entrepreneur and she's a certified story brand guide with over 15 years of experience as a marketing strategist, working with industries such as home services, construction software as a service, beauty, health, home building, manufacturing medical and family businesses. She's passionate about demystifying marketing for entrepreneurs and helping small service-based businesses build marketing and sales systems that consistently attract clients and create steady cash flow. As the creator of the four C's of effective marketing and a proven system that has helped hundreds of entrepreneurs nationwide, amber combines effective strategies with mindset work to help business owners confidently achieve their goals while simplifying their lives. She's the author of the international bestselling book the Far Beyond Marketing Guidebook and is a soft after speaker. Her book also is linked in our show notes. You're going to love this interview, so let's go ahead and jump right into it.

Amber Gaige: 2:01

Hey, tom. Thanks so much for having me today. It's a blessing to be here. My name is Amber Gage. I am the founder of Far Beyond Marketing. We are a white glove agency out of McKinney, texas, and I just refer to myself as the chief strategic advisor. I love helping companies grow with marketing, and kind of a nerd when it comes to that, so that's what I do.

Tom DuFore: 2:23

I love it. Well, and really the big topic for us to talk about today is your book, titled very similarly to your company name with the Far Beyond Marketing Guidebook. So I'd love for you just to give us a quick overview of the Far Beyond Marketing Guidebook, and then let's talk about what led you to want to write a book.

Amber Gaige: 2:44

And then let's talk about what led you to want to write a book. Yeah, so the Far Beyond Marketing Guidebook was a year and a half labor of love and pain and everything else that goes into writing a book. It was born out of necessity because I found myself sounding like a broken record. Over and over again. I was taking the same approach with my clients when it came to cleaning up, streamlining and optimizing their marketing, and I found, with over 20 years of experience in doing marketing for franchisees and doing a lot of consulting for franchisors, that there was a simple model that, when followed, we got more out of the same level of spend. And that's what the book is all about. It's about the four Cs of effective marketing how to stop being duped by bad marketing.

Tom DuFore: 3:29

Well, I think that's a great segue point here, because I think anyone who's been in business long enough, who's run their own marketing and gone through that has been duped or felt like they've been duped. Maybe they weren't but there was maybe a misunderstanding, a lack of knowledge from the other side. I know I've been there where I've been in that position. Maybe talk through how the book helps avoid being quote, duped or misled, maybe in a wrong direction, and some of the things you recommend there.

Amber Gaige: 4:00

Yeah, absolutely so.

Amber Gaige: 4:01

I think a lot of times we as marketers fall into the fatal trap of assuming that our clients are also marketers and the bottom line is that they are not and quite frankly, they should not be.

Amber Gaige: 4:16

But I do believe that every entrepreneur should know enough about marketing to be dangerous and to make well-informed decisions. So, unfortunately, when people get duped by bad marketing, they're getting duped because they don't understand or are placing blind faith and trust in a company who is making recommendations, who are not taking the time to really dig into the operational goals and nuances of their client. So the way that the book is structured, it should be a literal back pocket guidebook for any busy entrepreneur to get the 411, the down and dirty of the essentials of marketing. There's even an appendix in the back that explains what the abbreviations of SEO, roas and ROI are, so that they can feel empowered walking into any meeting that they go into. Hendix in the back that explains what the abbreviations of SEO, roas and ROI are, so that they can feel empowered walking into any meeting that they go into so that they can make well-informed decisions.

Tom DuFore: 5:12

That kind of just explaining the acronyms, right, there's so much language and content and if you're not using it every day, you might hear it as an owner here and there, but do you really understand what it means? I think that's a great little resource. And well, let's talk about the four C's. You mentioned the four C's. Talk through that if you will.

Amber Gaige: 5:30

Yeah the four C's of effective marketing. So the first C is copy, clear copy. We spend or we see rather so many businesses who are passionate about investing money, thousands of dollars a month in paid ads per se, but they've never sat down with their team and really clarified what their company message is. What is their unique selling position? What is their brand story? We piecemeal together businesses. I'm a third generation entrepreneur myself. I know what it's like to just start a business, wear all the hats and then just grow, grow, grow, grow, grow by the Frankenstein effect right. But when you do that and you don't take time to clarify your message and understand who you are as a company, the problems and services you solve for your clients, then your marketing is in fact confusing and it misses the mark when you're trying to talk to these essential clients, right. So the first C of effective marketing is clear copy. Know how to talk about your business in a way that people will shut up and listen.

Tom DuFore: 6:40

When you think about creating that clear copy. What does that look like?

Amber Gaige: 6:44

So I take my clients through the StoryBrand seven-part framework created by Donald Miller. There's only a few hundred of us in the world that are certified to do this. It's a great framework. It's a wonderful book that Don wrote, and I find that if you spend just 90 minutes with a client in the room, or even virtually, that you're able to get everyone on the same page with their calls to action, their unique selling position, their brand story, their elevator pitch. And if we take the time to do that, then that messaging informs all the creative collateral that we might create afterwards.

Tom DuFore: 7:19

Love it. Well, we talked about clarity. What's the next C on the list, or getting clear?

Amber Gaige: 7:23

for clear copy, I should say yeah, the next C on the list is consistent branding. Isn't it so tempting, tom, to just put something on the side of a truck or slap another font together or test another ad that has nothing to do with what you've done previously? Consistent branding is key. If you confuse your clients, you're going to lose them. So making sure that, whether you are at the ballpark with your kids sponsoring the little league team, or whether you're networking at a chamber event, or whether you're at a workshop or a trade show, your branding is crisp and clean and consistent and that you are putting it out there consistently wherever you are. Marketing has no silver bullet. It's a frequency overreach and it's a numbers game. So making sure that your branding is cohesive, making sure that you are consistently putting it out there so that people can find you and then know who you are, what you do, what problems you solve. Man, you would be surprised at how quickly that solves a lot of problems for people.

Tom DuFore: 8:25

Definitely one of the things I've seen, and even working with our own clients and even as an owner and an entrepreneur myself the consistency. It's one thing to get it set up, get clear, but then to be consistent with that branding and the messaging in all facets. Even I think of something simple like just a business card. You mentioned the decals on a truck and then your business card and other little things that are easy to say oh well, we've had this business card and I don't wanna change. Vehicles have been lettered and logoed and decaled and well, it's fine the way it is, but what you're saying is that's wrong, it's not.

Amber Gaige: 9:02

No, no. You need to make sure that it's consistent all the way through. The human brain loves consistency, patterns and clarity, and if you confuse, you lose.

Tom DuFore: 9:13

Well, let's talk about the third C on your list here.

Amber Gaige: 9:16

The third C is customer demographic. How tempting is it to make everybody your client In the beginning, especially for small businesses? They are grasping at straws. They just want to sell something. Whatever it is right. If you need it, we'll do it, but the bottom line is that as a company scales, the more niche down a company is, the more perceived they are as the experts in their industry and the more that they can charge. So again, don't commit the cardinal sin of throwing your marketing out there without knowing who your target customer is. And this goes beyond male, female, household income, household value, brand awareness, although these are great things that I find many clients don't even know. You need to think about the psychographics of your target customer. Why are they buying from you? What are their motivating factors for doing business for you or with you? Honestly, tom, it's so easy to get a snap study of a customer demographic. All we need is a database with a minimum of 50 records. We can show you exactly who they are, whether they're eating at Olive Garden or Chick-fil-A.

Tom DuFore: 10:26

Fantastic. And what have you found when you go through this exercise with some of your clients where I would imagine I'm just curious I'm thinking off the top of my head here but you meet with a client and they think they understand or know who their customer is. They describe this customer or potential buyer or know who their customer is. They describe this customer or potential buyer and then you run your analysis on this and you come back and it's different from what the leadership or owners think. So I just like, maybe just for an anecdotal example here, just to hear a story or two about something like that.

Amber Gaige: 10:57

Yeah, it happens so frequently, Tom.

Amber Gaige: 10:59

So what we find is there is a perceived assumption about who the target audience is, and then we request that our client will run a database analysis, cross-referenced with their top revenue generating line items, right?

Amber Gaige: 11:14

What is it? And when we see exactly what line items are being used to support the growth of the business, there's usually an aha moment, because the bottom line is, your target customer is the one that's buying from you and buying the most from you, and it's not always who you think it is. Just because you want to be perceived in your marketplace with a great call to action or product or service that you, as the owner, are passionate about, it doesn't mean it's actually made a dent in the market, right? So, understanding who your buyer is, what they're buying, why they're buying, and then what we find, tom, is that the call to actions that are being used in the marketing currently really need to be adjusted to become much more appealing to the people who are actually making the buying decisions, because they may not care about donuts if they're buying donut holes, right? So we got to adjust these calls to action to appeal to the people that are actually creating the revenue.

Tom DuFore: 12:18

That makes so much sense and I'm thinking about. Sometimes I've seen this happen with either a marketing agency that is not going through a program like yours or owners that get kind of this shiny object syndrome where they start chasing this new idea or this new thing that they want to go after, when the new thing is just a new, fun and interesting thing for the owner but it's not actually what's producing or driving results into the organization. So how do you work with an owner that comes in or maybe the owner had worked with an agency previously that was kind of chasing after some of these dreams or visions how do you kind of help rein it in and bring them back?

Amber Gaige: 13:01

Yeah, I think you know I'm famous among my team for saying swim lanes, swim lanes. People like let's keep it between the lanes. So I try to encourage my beloved clients that a great new idea is wonderful, it's a great new idea, but let's put parameters around it. Let's assign our own budget, let's create a test campaign, let's segment it out so that we can thoroughly A-B test it and see what the hard data says about this wonderful idea. An owner is by nature an expert in their field and we should never diminish that. They have become successful in and of themselves by their own blood, sweat and tears. That should be acknowledged and it should be buoyed. But let's not let the passion and the drive cloud the judgment at the behest of the successful business that they already have. Great ideas are great, but we don't throw the baby out with the bathwater, as we say in the South.

Tom DuFore: 14:02

Thank you for sharing that. That was really good. This final C let's have a conversation about that.

Amber Gaige: 14:08

The final C is channel management, and I do use this term loosely because channel management is in itself its own due process and looks very different based on the industry that a business may be in.

Amber Gaige: 14:19

But what I mean by channel management is the rinse and repeat cycle of upselling to an existing client. We know that it is so much more expensive to sell and obtain a new client versus upselling and continuously serving an existing client. If you are sinking marketing dollars into your business and you got a turn them and burn them attitude, you're going to have a turn them and burn them kind of culture, and what we know is that brands that sustain are brands that upsell. So what is the internal operational process that can get married with marketing so that your marketing works in the background and all you have to do is rinse and repeat? Maybe it's a membership program, maybe it's an A-B test, maybe it's switching out the call to action on an existing campaign while your branding is staying consistent. Maybe it's a seasonal offer, but we need to put thought, energy and effort into meticulously and passionately and continuously serving those existing clients.

Tom DuFore: 15:22

How do you work with your clients in helping them serve their customers or maybe identifying different ways? I'm thinking of, for example, maybe a restaurant that comes in and says, well, I don't really know what I can do. Or maybe there's a home services provider that's an emergency type business. How do you work with folks in helping see a bigger picture?

Amber Gaige: 15:42

Yeah well, we really strive to take a consultative approach, tom. How do you work with folks in helping see a bigger picture? Yeah Well, we really strive to take a consultative approach, tom. So, whether we are having a conversation with them in person or virtually, whether we're planning out a social media campaign for the next 12 months, whether we're planning a paid campaign or an OTT campaign, we're going to work with them to think outside of the box. We're going to work with them to think outside of the box. We're going to sit down with them and really learn about the seasonality of their business, about the different calls to action and products and services that they offer, and then, underneath their guidance and their expertise of their business, we can help them come up with some upselling opportunities and some marketing platforms that will support those goals.

Tom DuFore: 16:21

Excellent. Well, and while we're on this topic of the four Cs in your book, I forgot to ask how can someone get a copy if they're interested. Where can they go to get a copy of this?

Amber Gaige: 16:29

Absolutely, tom. So the book is available on Amazon. It was an international bestseller in four countries, so you can get the digital version or the hardback and paperback version on Amazon. You can also get a copy of it on our website, farbeyondmarketingcom, and, you know, if you're ready to take it a step further and you're like me, you're a lifelong learner, you can even sign up for our course that expands upon the content of the book and empowers you to put the practices in place in your business by going to our course and taking it.

Tom DuFore: 16:59

For someone, amber, who maybe says well, I like this, amber, but I'm not one who's maybe going to read books or attend a course. I'd rather just hire someone or work directly with you or your company. How can they do that?

Amber Gaige: 17:12

Absolutely, we have that covered too. We're a full-service white-glove agency. Even our company phone number is text-enabled, so when someone texts us, our entire team sees it. So you can go to farbeyondmarketingcom and request a free consultation. We'll always meet for you for the first time and gift you 30 minutes of my time or one of my project manager's time. Be glad to help you make well-informed decisions about your marketing.

Tom DuFore: 17:35

Wonderful. Well, this is a great time in the show, amber, and we make a transition and we ask every guest the same four questions before they go. And the first question we ask is have you had a miss or two on your journey and something you learned from it?

Amber Gaige: 17:49

Oh man, just one or two. I feel like I define my grandmother's definition of a blind squirrel that found a nut. I mean, you just sometimes keep going until you find some success. But yes, the miss on my journey was certainly imposter syndrome early on. I think when we make the transition, we have to really believe that we add value, and it took a few years for me to find my unique voice, even though I had over 20 years of experience in marketing. So know that as an entrepreneur, there is room in the market for your uniqueness and lean into it and try and say no to imposter syndrome. The other thing that was a massive miss for me was not delegating. Early on I thought I could wear all the hats, be a mom and run my business, and boy was I wrong. The best thing I ever did for myself was to hire a team and hire people that are so much smarter than me.

Tom DuFore: 18:42

Excellent. Well, let's look on the other side. We talked about a miss. Let's talk about a make or two, a highlight.

Amber Gaige: 18:48

I would say a make has been developing great relationships with affiliate partners. No company can do everything well. We should always have a subset of expertise, and I actually have a page on my website where I feature my affiliate partners and I say look, if you're a business owner and you're looking for these services, I'm not your girl, but I've been in business long enough to know who's worth their salt and who I feel confident recommending. So having a great network of affiliate partners that you know will serve your clients well is a great opportunity to also add value and bring peace of mind.

Tom DuFore: 19:25

Wonderful. Well, the name of the show is called Multiply your Success, and we always like to ask if you've used a multiplier to grow yourself, personally or professionally, or other businesses you've run.

Amber Gaige: 19:37

Yes, absolutely so. A CRM is a great multiplier. I love a great system. I'm a big proponent for saying systems over people. People come and go, but systems run a multiplier. I love a great system. I'm a big proponent for saying systems over people. People come and go, but systems run a business. I learned that from my daddy. I love Go High Level. I love Asana. I love Slack Any kind of platform that allows my team and I to work copacetically and is going to help my business run while I sleep. Huge multiplier in my business.

Tom DuFore: 20:05

Well, the final question we ask every guest is what does success mean to you?

Amber Gaige: 20:09

Well, I'm from Texas and from Texas we value freedom over pretty much anything else. If you've been to Texas you know that's kind of our MO. So success for me looks like freedom, it looks like flexibility and it looks like, I mean, money's a driver right. So having the freedom to work when you want, how you want and play when you want, I would say, is a big factor in success for me.

Tom DuFore: 20:32

Wonderful and, as we bring this to a close, amber, is there anything you are hoping to share or get across that you haven't had a chance to yet?

Amber Gaige: 20:40

You know, the only thing I would share with your listeners, tom, is to not be discouraged that they shouldn't be a marketing genius, but there are people out there who want to help them achieve their goals and that marketing can absolutely work for them and be fun. The only other thing I'll say is that I actually do offer an entrepreneurial toolkit to anyone that needs a leg up in marketing. You can go to my website. You can get an annual social media marketing plan, a quiz about your marketing and a free chapter in my book.

Tom DuFore: 21:09

Amber, thank you so much for a fantastic interview and let's go ahead and jump into today's three key takeaways. So takeaway number one is when she talked about the four C's of marketing that she talks about. Number one was copy and having clear copy. Number two is consistent branding. Number three is customer demographic and really being specific on who that customer focus is. And number four is channel management, and she talked about how upselling is so important.

Tom DuFore: 21:41

Takeaway number two is, she said, marketers oftentimes fall into the trap that their clients are marketers as well, meaning that marketers think that you, dear listener, happen to be a marketer also, and that, in turn, sets up a dynamic which she, I think, is saying because the marketers assume that their customer or their clients know more than they probably do, therefore creating a communication and knowledge gap. Takeaway number three is talking about upselling to existing clients. Again, and she made a really great comment that stuck with me, and she said brands that sustain or endure upsell, meaning that they find other products and services to sell to their existing customers. And I think what she's saying there is you don't have to quote, sell unquote. Provide solutions, provide it as a solution to your customer. And now it's time for today's win-win.

Tom DuFore: 22:50

So today's win-win came at the end when she said really to me, to you, to anyone out there that's maybe had a not so great experience with a marketer, she said do not be discouraged, there are good marketers out there, like Amber and others, that can help you. And so that's the episode. Today, folks, please make sure you subscribe to the podcast and give us a review and remember if you or anyone you know might be ready to franchise our business or take their franchise company to the next level, please connect with us at BigSkyFranchiseTeamcom. Thanks for tuning in and we look forward to having you back next week.