Your Marketing Plan Starts With Your Customer

Most marketing advice falls apart the moment you ask one question: who are you trying to reach, and where do they actually make decisions? Shelby McFarland and Mattie Loomis pull questions straight from a recent local marketing panel and give honest, small business friendly answers you can use immediately, especially if your budget feels tight and your to-do list is already overflowing.

We start with the money question: where to spend first when you have a limited marketing budget. From there, we get real about a mistake that quietly costs businesses customers every day, inconsistency. If you go silent when you’re busy, you don’t get to be shocked when your slow season hits harder. We also break down social media marketing in a way that’s based on fit, not hype, including when TikTok makes sense, why Facebook and Instagram are often the minimum, and when LinkedIn matters for B2B.

Then we zoom out to the foundation that makes all your marketing work better: a professional website that’s optimized on the back end for SEO, plus a Google Business Profile and steady online reviews that build trust and authority. Finally, we talk marketing trends and AI, not as something to fear, but as a shift to adapt to, so your customer journey improves while your competitors fall behind.

If you found this helpful, subscribe, share it with a business owner who needs a reset, and leave a quick review so more people can find the show.

Transcript

Welcome And Panel Question Setup

SPEAKER_01 0:26

Hey y'all, what's up? Welcome back to your favorite podcast. I'm your host, Shelby McFarland, the marketing broker. And today with me I have Miss Maddie Loomis. Hey guys. She is gonna be asking me a couple of questions that we had on a panel last week. And I did a local panel here in Mall Mill, Arkansas, and um there were six of us professionals in the marketing world, and I really enjoyed the questions that they asked. And so I wanted to share those with you guys so that way you can hear my answers specifically. So here we go.

SPEAKER_00 0:57

Okay. The first question is if a business has a very limited marketing budget, where should they spend their money first?

SPEAKER_01 1:03

Honestly, I really think that depends on what their industry is. Don't you think so? I agree. Um, that was really something that a lot of people ask all the time. Well, how much do you charge? Well, how much do you have to spend? Right. So in the book, Market Like a Boss, heard there was a cool author with that one, Sean McFarland. There's a whole chapter that speaks about marketing

Where To Spend A Small Budget

SPEAKER_01 1:23

budgets, and um, you should want to budget at least 25% of your like what you want your annual sales to be for marketing. Isn't that crazy? I feel like that's a big number. Yeah, that it is a big number. Yeah. I don't even think I mark I like I budget that for myself. Yeah. So as a small business owner, I think that when we're talking about budget and how much money we should put towards it, let's first talk about who's your clientele, where your customers at online, is it more referral marketing? Because that's where we really need to focus your budget on, and that's how much money we can think about it or talk about, you know, we need to spend. Because if we're doing ads, I mean that could be a thousand dollars. Right. But what do you sell? I hope you don't sell like one little product that's 99 cents. Like that would be a lot of money. Yeah, you know.

SPEAKER_00 2:09

So that's my answer to that. All right. The next one is what are some marketing mistakes that cost businesses their customers? Not staying consistent.

SPEAKER_01 2:19

Yeah. Um, just did a podcast episode, not sure when it's gonna air, y'all, but you'll find it on the on the podcast. But I talked about how if we're not consistent during our busy seasons, our slow seasons are gonna hit even harder. And I've personally done that before I had Maddie here to do all my marketing um for social media stuff. I really was lazy

The Consistency Mistake That Hurts

SPEAKER_01 2:39

and I didn't do it. Yeah. I mean, you already know how much I hate doing that, anyways, for myself. But um, it was something that I was like, I'll do it next week. Okay, I'll do it the week after. Okay, one more. And then I'm like five weeks and I'm like, oh, I haven't posted anything. Right. And so even during my busy season, I wasn't posting on social media and staying consistent. So during my slow season, I'm like, well, why is this one post not making me a million dollars? Yeah, like I need to get one sell every post. Right. And we both know that's not yeah, I know because you have to stay consistent with it. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_00 3:06

You can't stay consistent with it, that's why you hire a marketing agency that can.

SPEAKER_01 3:10

Like the marketing broker.

SPEAKER_00 3:13

Okay. Is social media still one of the best marketing tools? If so, which platforms should different types of businesses focus on? What's my answer gonna be to this? I feel like you know. Depends on it depends on the business, depends on the target audience, it depends on the age group.

SPEAKER_01 3:33

That's exactly right. Um, and because I mean we have we have clients from all over all the industries here, and I really think that it

Picking The Right Social Platforms

SPEAKER_01 3:40

depends on who's their target audience. All of our clients, like, well, the ones we have now would not be good on TikTok. No. I mean, we're not trying to get a plumber with his ass crack on TikTok, you know what I'm saying?

SPEAKER_00 3:50

Right. I think like the businesses we market for to are not doing like the trendy TikTok videos. That's not gonna help them.

SPEAKER_01 3:57

So then let's answer the question because I feel like uh TikTok's a huge thing. Like people always ask about that. What about who do we think would be good on TikTok?

SPEAKER_00 4:06

I feel like younger audiences are definitely on TikTok. So if you have a brand that's targeted towards a younger audience, yeah, definitely use TikTok. Or if you're recording a lot in general, like if you have somebody that is taking a lot of videos, then definitely upload them to TikTok. Yeah. But if that's like taking so much time out of your day or out of your schedule to film those, then it's just not worth it.

SPEAKER_01 4:29

Yeah, and we want to stay consistent, at least on Facebook, Instagram, because they feed into Google search engines. I'm not really sure how much TikTok. I should probably know this, but I really don't know how much it actually feeds into the AI or Google. Right. We should probably make a podcast about that. Yeah, that's to look into. Um, for me, I like to use TikTok. Well, we have our business TikTok, but it's a lot of just B-roll. Like we found success with like just words on the top of B-roll right now. Um, and then I have one that's for my speaking stuff. So that way when I'm doing panels or if I'm out speaking or doing a workshop, we do the videos and it's like me educating people. So it's like little snippets of me um doing my thing when it comes to speaking. Yeah. So that way when I'm trying to get hired, you know, by a conference or something, they're like, oh, well, we already know these people. And it kind of gives me a little bit of credibility.

SPEAKER_00 5:16

Right.

SPEAKER_01 5:16

So really, who's your audience? Where are they at? And we always say stay consistent on Facebook, Instagram at minimal, and then throw in LinkedIn if you're a business business. Yes, I agree.

SPEAKER_00 5:26

Facebook and Instagram are definitely the most important. Yep. Okay. So going off of that, how important are professional website, Google business profile, and online reviews in today's marketplace?

SPEAKER_01 5:37

Well, we use social media as a car to drive people to your website. That's what I say here. You have to have a website nowadays because Google bots are all over it. AI is searching every website out there. So you have to have the website professionally built. I loved what a guy said on the panel. He was an old man

Websites Google Profiles And Reviews

SPEAKER_01 5:56

called in Yellow Pages. He was fantastic. He was in marketing, he's been in marketing since like 2002. And the way that he he was like, let's talk about what a professional website is versus just a regular website. Yeah. And I was like, oh my gosh, this is genius. He's like, you can have a great looking website, but if the back end of it's not optimized, you don't really have a great website. Yeah. And I was like, well, yeah, that totally makes sense. So having a professional website is very important and having the whole back end of it optimized for search engines plus the new AI stuff coming out. We want to make sure that that's good. And then secondly, Google and AI are looking at your Google business profile. It's free. You should have one. If you don't have one, the marketing broker will set you one up for free. Because it's literally so easy to do and very important to collect those reviews. And it really makes you the authority in that industry.

SPEAKER_00 6:45

Yeah, I agree. All right, last question. What trends in marketing do you think entrepreneurs should be preparing for over the next three to five years? I really wish I had the answer to this question. I know. Right?

SPEAKER_01 6:57

We would be millionaires. Because I'd be like, yo, yo, yo, I'm like a fortune teller over here. Um, like The Simpsons. That's kind of crazy. So I think that every industry should be focusing on what are the shifts coming? How many times have we shifted? And you've only been working for me like seven months. Yeah. I'm like, we're literally always every

Marketing Trends And AI Adaptation

SPEAKER_01 7:14

single week going, okay, well, what's coming out? Like what's new? Like, how can we market this a little bit different? How can we help businesses use AI rather than being replaced by AI? Yeah. Um, so we're over here always shifting. And over the last 14 years, marketing in general has shifted, you know. We have Facebook and then we have Google Business, and then now, I mean, AI, just everything in the last five years has really shifted a lot for marketing. So I think depending on what your industry is, of course, I want you to stay on the cusp of being able to shift with your industry and staying on top of it. You may feel a little bit behind, but that's okay. Do not let it get so far ahead of you that you're like, well, shit, now I'm really behind. Yeah. And don't be afraid of it. I mean, we can't be afraid of it. I don't think I'm ever gonna be replaced by AI. I don't think a lot of people are. It's just gonna be those repetitive things that you can do or automate that's being replaced by AI. And so I really think that whatever, I mean, think about like roofing companies, they no longer use a hammer and a mL. Yeah. They use a freaking nail gun. Right. You know? Yeah. So it's like, what's the technology that you can use in your business and invest in your business to make it a better customer journey and make even more money?

SPEAKER_00 8:23

Yeah, it's gotta be flexible because everything changes all of the time and it's so unpredictable.

SPEAKER_01 8:28

And we have no control over it. And I like to have control.

SPEAKER_00 8:31

No, I think the people that stay behind are the people that are not willing to shift and be flexible.

SPEAKER_01 8:36

So yeah, and they're the ones that are like, well, I don't understand why I'm slow. Well, I mean, okay, let's talk about what your processes look like. What does that customer journey look like? I mean, you're just now on social media, you've been in business for 30 years. Yeah, you know, social media at least should have been during COVID. You should have said, Oh, shit, I gotta get on. Right. Like that's a whole thing. Right. You know, I agree. And we don't hate you. If that's you, reach out. We would love to help you.

SPEAKER_00 8:58

It's hard. It's hard to start, especially for longer businesses because they're not used to it. So absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 9:04

Is that it? I think so. Okay, guys. Well, thank you so much for tuning in. We hope these questions helped you out a little bit. And if you have any more, definitely just follow up with us, the MKTGbroker.com, and you can just fill out a form. And we would love to answer those questions on this podcast too. We'll catch you on the next one.