Fractional CMO Show

It can be hard to figure out what to do to actually help smaller local service companies, but it doesn't have to be! Marketing agency owner and Fractional CMO, Robin Heppell, tells of the wonder and success that can be derived from working with specialized local companies, in particular, funeral homes. Learn about differentiating in a local area, managing your reputation with both long-standing customers and new prospects, and some ingenious ways to drive traffic to your website.

Takeaways:

• It is crucial for businesses to be able to adapt to ever-evolving consumer demands. One good example of this is with fewer people going to church not, they are less likely to hold the funeral reception at a church, opening the door to funeral homes.
• As people have begun to move around more, there is less brand loyalty to long-established companies in many areas because many of the people living there are not originally from there.
• When differentiating among local service companies, some of the biggest factors include the quality of service, the physical location of the business, and the price.
• It's difficult to convey the quality and value your company provides through a price list on your website. For some companies, like funeral homes, a lot of the sales come from the emotional decisions of the customers which must be handled more tactfully.
• Being a Fractional CMO provides and structure and process that you don't have as a consultant. As a Consultant, you have to work on whatever the client thinks the problem is. Whereas, as a Fractional CMO, you become the leader of their marketing efforts.
• Sometimes, it's just as, if not more, important not to tell your client about certain tools than it is to introduce them to something new. As a Fractional CMO, you should tell them about things that will help them and keep them ignorant of things that won't.
• At the outset of planning your marketing efforts, you must have a goal in mind such as increasing conversions, before you start thinking about channels and strategies. Find the strategies that best support the goal, once the goal is set.

Quote of the Show:

• "I tell my clients, I'm going to tell you the latest things that you could be doing, but I'm also not going to tell you a ton of latest things that aren't going to apply, which could be a real time-waste on your end" - Robin Heppell

Links

• Twitter: https://twitter.com/funeralfuturist
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/heppell/
• Funeral Boardroom Website: https://www.funeralboardroom.com/
• Funeral Results Marketing Website: https://www.funeralresultsmarketing.com/
• Funeral Gurus Website: https://www.funeralgurus.com/
• Call Robin: https://funeralcmo.com/call

Ways to Tune In

• Amazon Music: https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/039bc2d6-c1b5-4ced-ac2a-437e69546e7c/fractional-cmo-show
• Apple Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/fractional-cmo-show/id1592740671
• Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/1HGwnjsXA4c4gYQvj4w53E?si=bd6e0908e25749ec
• Google Podcast: https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mcmFjdGlvbmFsY21vLmxpYnN5bi5jb20vcnNz?sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjlpNDTveb0AhUXEFkFHaZcDtYQ9sEGegQIARAC
• YouTube: https://youtu.be/W2ing0HCIxY

Some companies are all too willing to take money from anyone who will give it to them, regardless of how this impacts their brand. Jeff McKay, CEO of Prudent Pedal and a Fractional CMO, joins the show to correct the narrative. Jeff discusses how to proactively manage your brand, why you have to balance your core profit engine with the solutions you provide, and the importance of having strategic marketing leadership. Don't get caught up in the antiquated 'productivity' school of thinking, learn how to jump into the 'growth' school of thought.

Takeaways:

• Most progressive professional services firms that are really driving growth have moved away from the billable hour as their metric and have adopted value-based pricing.
• When growing a company from $1 million to $10 million, the entrepreneurs need to switch their mindsets from "I am the expert at this" to "How do I scale this."
• The Performance Envelope is a phenomenon in professional services where firms that are built on scaling and profitability of a single solution begin to grow and start to spin off new solutions into new markets, thus eroding the brand and slowing their growth.
• There is an incentive in professional services firms to generate a set amount of revenue so you can become a partner in the firm. However, in the pursuit of becoming partners, people try to generate revenue by any means necessary without regard for the brand.
• Professional services firms lack strategic marketing leadership which gives way to a culture of optionality and self-directedness which kill growth. While decentralized growth can work, it's not optimal or scalable, meaning it's inefficient and causes redundancies.
• To actually grow, firms must abandon the 'productivity' mindset and adopt the 'growth' mindset, and set higher expectations for their marketing so it delivers strategic impact.
• To manage the performance envelope, first, think through who is your ideal client. Second, identify what particular issues you want to be known for solving. Finally, use those two steps as a construct for campaigns that allow you to manage the brand.

Quote of the Show:

• "You cannot develop a world-class marketer unless you are a world-class marketer developing them" - Jeff McKay

Shout Outs:

• Exponential Organizations: Why New Organizations are Ten Times Better, Faster, and Cheaper Than Yours (and what to Do about It) by Michael S. Malone, Salim Ismail, and Yuri van Geest

Links

• LinkedIn: https://www.​​linkedin.com/in/jeffreymckay
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/jeffmckay
• Company website: https://www.prudentpedal.com
• Meeting website: https://www.prudentpedal.com/meeting
• Podcast: https://www.rattleandpedal.com/

Ways to Tune In

• Amazon Music: https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/039bc2d6-c1b5-4ced-ac2a-437e69546e7c/fractional-cmo-show
• Apple Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/fractional-cmo-show/id1592740671
• Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/1HGwnjsXA4c4gYQvj4w53E?si=bd6e0908e25749ec
• Google Podcast: https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mcmFjdGlvbmFsY21vLmxpYnN5bi5jb20vcnNz?sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjlpNDTveb0AhUXEFkFHaZcDtYQ9sEGegQIARAC
• YouTube: ​​https://youtu.be/9KLAYCWx4ck

Don't get caught up in how you're going to message your prospects before you get them, the real priority is getting a comprehensive list of everyone that fits the description of your customer! Casey Stanton is back again to hammer home how imperative it is to obtain the list of potential clients through whatever ways get the job done, regardless of industry.

Takeaways:

• There are many ways to go about getting the list which include: purchasing databases, web scraping, joint ventures, public records, etc. Whatever the way, find how to get that list of your potential clients.
• Worry about how you will message your potential clients after you have gotten the list, this should be the priority.
• There are ways to get the list of your potential customers regardless of what industry you may be in, it just relies on your ingenuity.

Quote of the Show:

• "When you think of the clients that you're currently working with or the ones that you're thinking about closing, I want you to ask, is there a definitive list that exists online?" - Casey Stanton

Links

• Twitter: https://twitter.com/CaseyStanton
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/caseystanton/
• Website: https://cmox.co

Ways to Tune In

• Amazon Music: https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/039bc2d6-c1b5-4ced-ac2a-437e69546e7c/fractional-cmo-show
• Apple Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/fractional-cmo-show/id1592740671
• Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/1HGwnjsXA4c4gYQvj4w53E?si=bd6e0908e25749ec
• Google Podcast: https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mcmFjdGlvbmFsY21vLmxpYnN5bi5jb20vcnNz?sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjlpNDTveb0AhUXEFkFHaZcDtYQ9sEGegQIARAC
• YouTube: https://youtu.be/m2w4Q81Ou60

So often, people oversell what the outcome of their work will be or don't base goals on historical data. Casey Stanton has been there and he's trying to help anyone else from going there and losing the trust of their coworkers because they couldn't produce up to those faulty expectations. You'll understand the dangers of overselling, how to set better goals and what to do if you start to see that you won't be able to reach your goals.

Takeaways:

• Don't overset any kind of quarterly outcomes, be very realistic and pragmatic with setting your goals.
• Meet with everyone involved throughout the course of the project and make sure that everyone is on track with everything they need to do in order to hit the goal.
• If you see that you are not on track to achieve the goal let everyone know and get them all involved in resolving the problem so that you can reach that outcome.
• If you are faced with a situation and there is no historical data to base your decision on, do not make a "wild ass guess." This is a super quick way to lose all credibility and trust.
• When you are planning out your goals, you have to really think about the worst-case scenario and extrapolate out what that means for the business.
• Even if you make great improvements and progress, if you don't accomplish the goal you laid out, those around you will disregard your work because it didn't meet the expectation.

Quote of the Show:

• "Don't pick a number because it's round, pick a number because it's incrementally larger." - Casey Stanton

Links

• Twitter: @CaseyStanton
• LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/caseystanton
• Website: cmox.co

Ways to Tune In

• Amazon Music: https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/039bc2d6-c1b5-4ced-ac2a-437e69546e7c/fractional-cmo-show
• Apple Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/fractional-cmo-show/id1592740671
• Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/1HGwnjsXA4c4gYQvj4w53E?si=bd6e0908e25749ec
• Google Podcast: https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mcmFjdGlvbmFsY21vLmxpYnN5bi5jb20vcnNz?sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjlpNDTveb0AhUXEFkFHaZcDtYQ9sEGegQIARAC
• YouTube: https://youtu.be/GhfcR_RFiUs

Whether you're a full-time CMO for a company or a Fractional CMO for several companies, this truth remains the same, you can't do everything yourself. In this episode, Casey Stanton discusses the importance of shifting your mentality from "I need to do this" to "this needs to get done." Learn how having a team around you that you can delegate tasks to can help in your journey to solve bigger problems.

Takeaways:

• Both CMO's and Fractional CMO's must make the shift from "I need to do this" to "this needs to get done." It is imperative to shift from task focus to outcome focus!
• The CMO can't do everything by themselves, it's impossible! The CMO has to hire a team of hardworking, intelligent, and committed people that they like working with.
• Once the CMO has created their team, they can delegate tasks to the team members. Avoid thinking that delegating is inefficient and is a waste of time because both the CMO and the team learn from each other through it.
• Don't micromanage your team, people like to be assigned a task and then given the authority to accomplish that task. Each team member learns and develops from the tasks they are assigned and allowed to take some ownership of.
• Make sure to give your team enough to work with for a task, but don't do the work for them.
• By delegating tasks to the team, the CMO can become free to solve bigger problems!
• If you are a marketing department of one, you can either accept the work and move on, hire a team to delegate to, and or find a different client who can afford to hire a team for you.

Quote of the Show:

• "The CMO should never let the day pass where the work isn't getting done." - Casey Stanton

Links

• Twitter: @CaseyStanton
• LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/caseystanton
• Website: cmox.co
• Facebook Group: cmox.co/community

Ways to Tune In

• Amazon Music: https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/039bc2d6-c1b5-4ced-ac2a-437e69546e7c/fractional-cmo-show
• Apple Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/fractional-cmo-show/id1592740671
• Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/1HGwnjsXA4c4gYQvj4w53E?si=bd6e0908e25749ec
• Google Podcast: https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mcmFjdGlvbmFsY21vLmxpYnN5bi5jb20vcnNz?sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjlpNDTveb0AhUXEFkFHaZcDtYQ9sEGegQIARAC
• YouTube: https://youtu.be/ehlt4IyllBQ

Many business owners and upper-level managers would say the most valuable asset to their business is something like their contacts, software, etc., but they're way off. Casey Stanton is setting the record straight and explaining the best ways to protect, support, and nurture your business' most valuable asset.

Takeaways:

• The most valuable asset in your business is YOU! You have to think about what you can do to protect yourself and make yourself more successful both at work and at home.
• Consider hiring people to help support you. For some this may mean an executive assistant, some may need more than just one person.
• It's important to have times when you are "on and off" when it comes to your business. For example, only check your inbox during your work hours and stick to this.
• Think about what you are uniquely good at and interested in and set yourself up to work on those things that you find easy and interesting.
• Be very aware of your personal health and diet. Make sure you are hitting your health goals and eating well. What you eat is your fuel and try to only put the best fuel in, this will help you perform better in every aspect of life.
• Ask yourself, what is the one thing stopping your business from growing. What is one SMART decision that you can make to change that one thing and get your business growing?
• What are tasks that waste your time that you could just pay someone to do? For some this is laundry, for others, this is cleaning their car; what is it for you?

Quote of the Show:

• "What's one decision I can make today or this week, that's going to free me up; that's going to show me that I think I'm the most valuable asset in my business; that pulls you out of the day-to-day; that allows you to stay elevated so that you can go solve bigger problems so that you can go identify the clients that you want to work with and then go win them and work with them and serve them and deliver high impact marketing strategy and campaigns for them that other people execute through your leadership." - Casey Stanton

Links

• Twitter: @CaseyStanton
• LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/caseystanton
• Website: cmox.co

Ways to Tune In

• Amazon Music
• Apple Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/fractional-cmo-show/id1592740671
• Spotify: https://fractionalcmo.libsyn.com/spotify
• Google Podcast: https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZnJhY3Rpb25hbGNtb3Nob3cuY29tL2ZlZWQueG1s
• Stitcher
• YouTube: https://youtu.be/SRfa5Ziwyh4

Many people try again and again to reinvent themselves or their careers whenever there may seem to be some clouds on the horizon or when they are faced with a little bit of failure. Casey Stanton is here to help you stop the endless cycle of wasted time and energy every time you reinvent yourself. Casey is offering you the roadmap to reinventing yourself for the very last time.

Takeaways:

• If you keep reinventing yourself or your career, you're going to find that it's tough to get any traction.
• The traditional CMO role is the shortest-lived of any role in the C-Suite, but as a Fractional CMO, you won't be entirely dependent on just one company.
• Consider what you want to be the last reinvention of yourself and try to get there so you can then have as much time as possible to become great at that one thing.
• There are three steps to long-term success as a Fractional CMO: 1. Elevating to the top role in marketing (the CMO); 2. Serve multiple clients; 3. Focus on solving bigger problems.
• Solving bigger problems is how you make the biggest impact!
• Regardless of where the future of business goes, whether it be Mars or Uranus, there will always be a need for CMO's and the best way to maintain your job security as a CMO is by becoming the Fractional CMO of several companies.
• As a Fractional CMO, you have so much room and freedom to move and explore different industries, non-profits, etc., even if your interests or priorities change.

Quote of the Show:

• "Solving bigger problems is how you make the biggest impact" - Casey Stanton

Links

• Twitter: @CaseyStanton
• LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/caseystanton
• Website: cmox.co/invite
• Personal Website: CaseyStanton.com

Ways to Tune In

• Amazon Music
• Apple Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/fractional-cmo-show/id1592740671
• Spotify: https://fractionalcmo.libsyn.com/spotify
• Google Podcast: https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZnJhY3Rpb25hbGNtb3Nob3cuY29tL2ZlZWQueG1s
• Stitcher
• YouTube: https://youtu.be/J3x1gURS7kQ

Nothing you do will be easy at first, but that's not a bad thing! Entrepreneur and Fractional CMO, Armen Mardirousi, joins host Casey Stanton to discuss the importance of setting clearly defined goals. Listen to learn about why and how to break them up into smaller pieces. Armen also shares his experience on how to face many of the problems that Fractional CMOs confront every day.

Takeaways:

• The importance of being resilient cannot be understated, especially when it comes to business. The first year of just about anything is difficult. Embrace the grind and grow from it!
• Make sure you know exactly what you want to do before you start doing it. If you don't know the destination, how will you know when you get there? Determine what you want to do and then reverse engineer a way to do that and break it into doable pieces.
• It is a fact of life that there are some things that you just can't prepare for. When things like this happen, it's imperative to push past them. Recognize any mistakes made and learn from them, but don't waste time and energy on things in the past.
• Everyone will try to give you advice about pretty much everything. It's important to listen to everyone and be respectful, but ask yourself, "Are they where I want to be in relation to the topic they are talking about?"
• Unfortunately, a lot of people have had bad experiences with marketing agencies, consultants, etc. As a Fractional CMO, it's on you to overcome a prospect's opinion of marketers by understanding what they've dealt with and communicating your plan.
• A "blueprint" that you can adapt to each client you work with is a great way to clearly explain what you're going to do and how you're going to do it. You should say to the client, "I'm here to help, and here's how I'm going to help."
• An amazing benefit of being a Fractional CMO is that you can choose to work with clients that help people in ways that you can see. You can select clients who are helping others which can make the work very fulfilling!

Quote of the Show:

• "I don't want to be a headache for you and I will not allow you to be a headache for me" - Armen Mardirousi

Links

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mardirousi/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mardirousi
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/mardirousi
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mardirousi/?hl=en
• Neolynx Website: https://neolynx.com/
• Noah's Children Website: https://noahschildrencharity.org/
• Raven's Rock Real Estate Website: https://www.r3es.com/
• 3HO Foundation Website: https://www.3ho.org/

Ways to Tune In

• Amazon Music
• Apple Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/fractional-cmo-show/id1592740671
• Spotify: https://fractionalcmo.libsyn.com/spotify
• Google Podcast: https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZnJhY3Rpb25hbGNtb3Nob3cuY29tL2ZlZWQueG1s
• Stitcher
• YouTube: https://youtu.be/MG_kgGmoyqQ

You know content is important, but it seems so costly and complicated to create. Guess what, creating content can actually be easy and affordable and by putting it off, you're missing out on all the benefits you already know of, but also the huge impact it has on your SEO. Thankfully, the sensei of SEO and content marketing, Ken Tucker, is here to show you the way! Learn how to create great content, how to get the most out of your content creation efforts, and how to differentiate your content and your company amongst the sea of competitors.

Takeaways

• Google creates a "Canonical URL" which it attributes to the first website that publishes a piece of content. If two sites have duplicate content, Google will ignore the site without the Canonical URL when ranking for SEO. This is why it is imperative to create unique content for your company and your clients.
• Differentiation comes from how you describe the problems people have and provide content to guide people to the solution. When crafting your messaging, consider how people approach the problem both internally and externally.
• A great source for unique content is any emails with customers where you solve a problem they have. You can write problem-based content that speaks to FAQs and common problems. This kind of content is great for SEO.
• Video is very powerful from a content repurposing perspective, it creates a "Little Content Machine." You can post the full video, put the transcript on your website, create a blog post based on video, post clips of video on social media, pull quotes from the transcript and blog for social media, and publish a press release for inbound links.
• Creating video content doesn't have to be a very elaborate and expensive process, it can be very easy and low-budget while still being good quality and impactful. Even just using a cellphone camera can be enough to produce content your company can use.
• Google uses "Review Velocity" when ranking for local search results. Review Velocity refers to the frequency of new reviews your business gets on Google. Old reviews "degrade" after ~6-months and Google marks them as less important.
• At present, customers have a huge amount of control over the Buyer's Journey, so it is very important to be making the kind of content that your customers really respond to.

Quote of the Show:

• "Most people are natural content creators. They just don't realize that they're creating content that they could easily put onto their website." -Ken Tucker

Shout Outs:

• StoryBrand

Links

• LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/kentuckerweb
• Company Facebook: facebook.com/changescape
• Company Twitter: Changescape
• Website: changescapeweb.com
• Blog Link: changescapeweb.com/blog
• Book: https://www.amazon.com/Content-Marketing-Local-Search-Prospects/dp/1076144713

Ways to Tune In

• Amazon Music
• Apple Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/fractional-cmo-show/id1592740671
• Spotify: https://fractionalcmo.libsyn.com/spotify
• Google Podcast: https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZnJhY3Rpb25hbGNtb3Nob3cuY29tL2ZlZWQueG1s
• Stitcher
• YouTube https://youtu.be/rTM9P3BiVqw

Nowadays, everyone thinks that to be successful their business has to have the best SERP and highest SEO score, but that's only part of the equation. Fractional CMO and owner of CS Design Studios, Wyatt Chambers, joins Casey to compare the benefits and drawbacks of being a Fractional CMO versus owning a marketing agency. Wyatt gives some great advice about running a business, developing talent from within, and how to pitch companies on becoming their Fractional CMO.

Takeaways:

• For many business owners, their SEO rank is not as important to them as whether or not their phone is ringing.
• By becoming a Fractional CMO, you can help a business much more than if you were just their outside marketing agency. Allows closer connection to that business' problems and their successes.
• In approaching a company to hire you as a Fractional CMO, emphasize how you want to help the company and be a part of it. One example of this would be explaining the role you want to play in the company and ease the workload of the owner, CEO, etc.
• When pitching a company on hiring you as Fractional CMO, ask, "If I took all of the marketing stuff off of your plate, how much easier would your life be?" This is a great way to frame the proposition in their mind.
• The CMOx Asset Audit questionnaire is a great tool to use when considering working with a company as their Fractional CMO. It allows you to get a fuller picture of the business and by being interested in the whole company, it shows you actually care about the business.
• Many corporations are "asleep" when it comes to understanding their brand and reputation. An easy way to get a snapshot of a company's reputation is by checking reviews on Google, LinkedIn, Glass Door, etc.
• Some companies are moving towards using AI for repetitive marketing tasks, such as copywriting. In the future, marketing prices will likely be driven down by the emergence of AI and offshore labor both becoming cheaper and more viable options.
• It doesn't take rocket science to revolutionize a business, you just have to really execute on the basics

Quote of the Show:

• "At the end of the day, I don't think business owners care about rank as much as they do about their phone ringing" - Wyatt Chambers

Links:

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/wyattchambers/
• Company website: https://www.csdesignstudios.com
• Twitter: @tucsonwebdesign

Ways to Tune In:

• Amazon Music
• Apple Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/fractional-cmo-show/id1592740671
• Spotify: https://fractionalcmo.libsyn.com/spotify
• Google Podcast: https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZnJhY3Rpb25hbGNtb3Nob3cuY29tL2ZlZWQueG1s
• Stitcher
• YouTube: https://youtu.be/QMc9nfyTA4Y