Welcome to Marketing 101 with Denice Bailey.
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“Professionals today need to define their target audience and present an enhanced presence and detailed strategy – and they need it done in a timely, cost-effective way. That’s where I come in. Whether my clients need support for their existing marketing departments or an entirely “off-site” marketing team; I’m here to bring a wide range of resources and years of expertise to the table. Ours is a customized – not an off-the-shelf – marketing strategy that never fails to exceed expectations.”
Denice Bailey, Principal and Senior Account Executive, has over 30 years of extensive marketing and public relations experience. Prior to founding dbaileygroup, she worked as manager/director in marketing for a number of different companies including Zachry Associates, the Abilene Reporter News, The Business Press of Fort Worth, and Morren+Barkin. Her previous client list has included such names as Aviall, Inc., The Associates Financial Services, Fort Worth Symphony, St. Joseph’s Hospital, Abilene Convention and Visitors Bureau and the Physicians Reliance Network. Denice is involved in many civic and community organizations and activities.
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Full Transcript Below
Roy (00:02):
Hello again, this is Roy with the business of business podcast. You can find us of course, at thebusinessofbusinesspodcast.com on iTunes, Stitcher, Google play, and Spotify. So today we’re fortunate enough to have, um, a great marketing consultant, Denice Bailey with the D Bailey group. She’s going to be talking to us, kind of taken us back to a marketing one Oh one.
I think the, um, this, this talk will cover a wide range of audience listeners. From those that are just starting out to, uh, those that may, uh, do periodic marketing. But nothing that is consistent to those that may be have, uh, curtailed their marketing efforts due to COVID. And then of course, uh, you know, this is going to work for smaller midsize and large companies, uh, as well as the solo preneurs and either even some not-for-profits. So, um, without further ado, we’ll just, we’ll welcome, Denice, and how’s it going?
Denice (01:13):
Hey Roy, thanks for including me in and asking them. And I’m honored to be joining you this afternoon.
Roy (01:20):
You bet. Well, I’m glad we could finally get you on. You know, marketing is it’s well, it’s ever changing number one. But you know, we, we were talking about this, uh, you know, kind of pre-show. Is not only is this going to be a good roadmap for people to use. To carry out their marketing plan. I think even more important is some of these questions that we’re going to ask today are. Helping us find out where we are. You know, we I’m old enough.
I can relate back to the old paper map days. And back then, before you could plan a trip out, you actually had to know where you were. And I, I kind of look at this, you know, as the marketing task. Trying to plan out the trip. We have to know where we are as an individual, our talents. We have to know where we are as a company, their budget, uh, constraints, all different things like that. So we have to know where we’re starting before we can start the journey and carry this out. So looking forward to talking
Denice (02:20):
And I agree, I agree. You know, I say, I tell clients all the time is how do you know you got where you wanted to be? If you didn’t develop a plan, a strategic map of what needs to happen. So you can, and part of it too, Roy, is that plan, that map can help also gauge the results. How do you know if it’s been successful, if you didn’t know where you were starting from?
Roy (02:46): Marketing 101
Right, right. Yeah. And that’s another important aspect is measuring results because we have today. We’re fortunate, we’re fortunate and we’re at a disadvantage. We’ve got so many channels in which we can place our money and our efforts. We have to measure to find out which one really works for us. And which one reaches that audience that we want. Because, um, you know, if we’re trying to reach a 40 year old adults. And we’re marketing like crazy. But we’re reaching, you know, 20 something, women with children, that’s not who our product is gauged for. So even though we might have a lot of response. If they’re not our customers. If they’re not going to spend money with us, then it’s really a failure.
Denice (03:33):
And to add to that, Roy. You know, I kind of preach until I’m blue in the face. You gotta make sure you’re talking to your audience. And just as critical, you gotta assure your messaging is tailored to fit that audience. A lot of times your messaging could be more geared to a completely different demographic or industry. You’re trying to replicate it to use for something else. And that could be impeding any anything you’re doing. And unfortunately it could be a waste of resource.
Roy (04:07):
Exactly, exactly. And I think, you know, the, one of the first questions that we’ve talked about is you have to kind of ask yourself why. Why am I doing this? Why am I, you know, the end answer of course. Is we want to build our business. But I think there’s, we can drill down to other points. In that, like, you know, maybe is there new competition? Do we have a new product? I know that, you know, there’s a company that you’re working with that is. You know, kind of overhaul in their name and brand image. So, you know, that’s a great time to launch a marketing campaign as well.
Denice (04:47):
Yes it is. And just like you said, as you know, what is, what’s behind this? And again, you know, sometimes I will have a client that perhaps I worked with previously. You know, and for whatever reason, they decided that they just didn’t need to be doing any marketing anymore. Or wanted to kind of pull back due to limited resources, internal resources, and they call, and they say. Marketing 101
Denice, I got a call from the local TV station or the local newspaper, and I need an ad. I got to get an accurate. And the first thing I always say is, why are you, what’s the purpose? What’s the mission behind the ad? And if they say, Oh, no, they call. Then I say, you know, that’s not, that’s not a good enough reason for you to spend money, right? Cause that ads going to cost you money and the development is going to cost you money.
Denice (05:43):
And you’ve got to have a strategic reason to be using those resources. If it’s for, to support as a nonprofit. You know, to support maybe a little league or something like. Because you have an employee son plan or a daughter and a dance group, and it’s the program. I understand that. But if it’s just because somebody got you at a weak moment. So to speak and you bought an ad. That’s really not, it’s not as wise decision between you and me roaring and your listeners too. I guess a lot of times I will tell clients, listen, what made me the bad guy? Has your, have the media sales people call me directly? I would be more than happy to talk to them.
Roy (06:26): Marketing 101
Right. Right. Yeah. And, and I think that it gets back to the whole team has to be on board. I mean, sometimes things roll downhill. And if you’re the poor marketing person and you get the phone call that, Hey, we’re jumping into action. You know, you’re kind of like, well, you know, these are good questions that marketing managers need to ask. So the whole team can be on the same page because you know. Ive seen it in the past that people just want to throw money at marketing. It’s a line item on an income statement for them. But if it’s not strategically planned out, I mean, it’s just flushing money. It’s, it’s really just not worth the spend at all.
Denice (07:07):
And I don’t have that kind of money the way. So I find that I’m probably pretty conservative when it comes to expenditures within a marketing budget.
Roy (07:16): Marketing 101
Yeah. I think people think, uh, you know, the old joke about consultants is they, uh, ask, you know, the client asks you what time it is. And we look at their watch and hell what time it is. And then we invoice them. But you know, we have to be wait, we actually have to be good stewards of our client’s money. I mean, it’s not our money. And you know, I’m like you in that respect that, uh, I am very, I’m, I’m fairly conservative in my own personal life in business, but when it’s my client’s money, I guarantee you, I am watching over it like a Hawk because I want to make sure that they get the biggest bang for their spend.
Denice (07:54):
And at the end of the day, isn’t it all about ROI, the return on investment. And I, and I bet you’re you’re with me on this. You probably have the same philosophy. Roy is an part of that assessment. And if they don’t feel like they’re getting a return on my time and on my services, in addition to what we’re doing, then we’ve got problems.
Roy (08:16):
Right, right. No, you’re right about that. And, um, you know, I was looking kind of down through the, the outline and also, you know, we need to assess our team who, who were, I guess, involving, you know, a lot of times people will go outside and, and get someone like yourself to come in, help them with campaigns.
But I guess once you get to a mid size company, if they’ve got the staff, a lot of times they try to keep this internal, but you know, you, you have to decide, uh, you know, or evaluate your team to decide, is this like, are they all fairly new? Do they, um, have some limited? Is it digital? Is it, you know, TV? Because there’s a big difference. I can muddle my way through digital and putting post out there and doing content marketing. But if somebody, uh, you know, asked me to do a radio spot TV spot, it would be totally out of my element.
Denice (09:16): Marketing 101
I bet you could do it, Roy. And I bet you do it better than a large majority of people. But you know, what was interesting is I’m met with a perspective client not too long ago. And we were having this very discussion. I said, you know, when they don’t have anybody internally that handles the marketing. And I asked, I said, would you be my point of contact with the decisions and, and to bring ideas and, you know, trying to find out who within the organization is going to be the decision-maker.
She says, I don’t have time, but there’s no one else within the organization that I trust. And I thought, I thought two things to myself. I’m none of my business, but I thought, what kind of organization are you building if you don’t trust them? And number two, is, are you willing to make the time to, to answer my questions and to make the decisions that I need you to make, because I can make them to some extent, but at the end of the day, it’s your business and it’s your name on the business.
Roy (10:21):
Right, right. Yeah. That’s, uh, you know, I run into that kind of on the operations side, looking at trying to do strategic planning and, uh, kind of smooth out some rough spots in the operational side. And whenever I hear, that’s always a key word for me when I hear, well, we really don’t have time because it’s like, well, if you don’t have time to get it right, to, you know, improve your operation, improve your margins may be increased revenue.
Then what are you really doing in business? And what do you spend your time doing? Those should be the most important things. And just like, if you want to take on a campaign, it should be one of the most important things, because it’s a lot of work even, uh, you know, doing some small digital campaigns, it takes a lot of planning and then it takes a lot of effort to carry that out
Denice (11:16): Marketing 101
And there’s resources involved. And it’s not just the financial resources, but you’re right. I mean, you have to have a proactive approach to managing a business, regardless if the marketing is part of that or not, and be proactive in your efforts, in what you’re doing and not reactive, right. There’s only so many hours in the business day. So why be reactive in those hours? The more I think a business owner or a business person can be proactive in whatever function they’re doing within an organization. I think that culture, a culture versus a reactive culture is evident on the box.
Roy (11:58):
Exactly. Yeah. And I’m a, you know, I’ll tell off myself just a little bit here about being a solo preneur is, you know, we, we, I, and a lot of people in this position, we get into this, uh, you know, I call it the bipolar fatal trap because when, when business is slow, we jump on marketing and it’s marketing marketing 24 seven, that’s all we do. We think about marketing, who can we contact? Marketing 101
How can we do it, pushing it out, out, you know, just a consistent effort till we’re just worn out. Well, then we start seeing the benefits of that with some jobs rolling in. And then all of a sudden, it’s all, you know, most of our day and time is taken up with the fulfillment of the obligation to the client. So marketing goes on the back burner.
Then we get in this terrible cycle of, you know, it’s a boom bust. We’re either, you know, revenues are low and we’re marketing like crazy or revenues are high and we’re not doing anything. And so that’s another great reason to go out, especially for solopreneurs to go outside of your organization and try to find some help is where you can keep more of a steady, steady flow of pushing information out, I think.
Denice (13:15):
And you know, when you were talking about that, I was thinking about Henry Ford quote on advertising. Are you familiar with that quote, Roy? No, I’m not. It’s great. And I’ve kind of used it in my, in my career is Henry Ford once said a man who stops advertising when we could use the word marketing, a man who stops advertising to save money is like a man who stops the clock to save time. That’s good. I liked that and that great. Yeah.
Roy (13:46):
Well, you know, I do, I have in the past done a lot of work in the senior living space and unfortunate Lee, uh, you know, when they open a community and they, you know, they’re full gear, marketing ramp up. And when they get to certain occupancy levels, I’ve actually had, uh, you know, management and board of directors say, well, we’re finally where we are. We don’t need to market anymore. Marketing 101
And it’s like, no, actually not. Oh my gosh. I know. Cause like, no, actually now’s when you need to like start stepping it up because, you know, as people, unfortunately in that business, there’s a lot of churn in the residence due to a lot of things, health, you know, um, health issues that increase where they have to go to different levels of care, whatever. But, um, you know, now the mission is to be on, uh, to, to kind of backfield behind people as they leave.
Roy (14:41):
So I don’t know that we ever get to a point that we can just set back and not do any marketing. You look at companies like, you know, I would say one of the most famous brands in the whole entire world is Coca Cola, but guess what? You still see them marketing TV, billboards, ready to go. So, you know, they have to stay after it to stay, to keep that position and they continue to build their brand.
Exactly, exactly. So that kind of leads us to the next question is, um, so I, you know, I want to start marketing, I’ve got the money. I just want to, you know, I don’t want to throw it out there. I want to, I guess what we would call target market. So I guess we need to think about basically who is our customer kind of like develop a, an avatar of who that person is.
Denice (15:36):
Yes, yes. And also, you know, I tell, I tell clients when, when we’re in this step of the process, Roy, I say, let’s look at your current, you know, identify your top 10 clients or your top 10 customers, what do they look like? What do they sound like? How, what are the demographics? What are the psychographics?
Because that’s who you want to replicate are those top 10 customers or top 20, you know, whatever percentage you want to use for that really, because you want to replicate, you want to do, you know, if you had a magic wand and you could wave it, you want, you want to go from 10 to 50 or whatever that number is of the ideal customer. So I think that has to be part of the process when you start determining who your customer is, and that definition is who your customer is.
Denice (16:29):
And part of that too, is not just, you know, the basics, the demographic and the psychographics and all that is, you know, how did, how did you find them or did they come from right? And, and as you can appreciate, cause you’ve seen it in your work. I’ve seen it in mine. Oftentimes when you say, well, where did that customer come from? How did they find you? And they say, what was the referral and how, you know, I keep quoting things, but I heard a great quote the other day that cold calling is punishment for not asking for a referral.
Roy (17:04): Marketing 101
Cool. I like that a lot. I like that. Yeah. As somebody that, you know, as when I started out, uh, you know, in another life, many, many moons ago, I was a financial advisor and you know, that, that was our penance. I mean, you came in every day and you hit the phones and you know, if you, weren’t making a hundred phone calls a day.
Exactly. And if you didn’t make a hundred calls a day, you, you weren’t even, uh, making an effort. So yeah, I can relate to that. And speaking of outreach, um, this, this is a pet peeve that I bring up all the time and I’m not going to let you get by without kind of bringing it up. Is the, uh, so emails follow up because referrals are, I mean, they’re the cheapest source of new leads. I think in any survey that I’ve ever seen, unless somebody just wanders into your company, um, you know, wanders in your front door asking to buy something, the referrals are about the cheapest.
Roy (18:03):
And so number one, we have to always ask for those, but then it’s this, um, it’s building a relationship and, um, I’m all about relationship selling. I think people buy from people that they like that they want to see be successful. And so, um, you know, we have to tailor our message because, um, I hate the message, whether it’s email or phone call back.
Hey, Roy, uh, you know, I talked to you a couple months ago, I’m just circling back with you to see if you’re ready to buy now. And to me that that is somebody that is so not interested in me or if the product fits. I mean, that’s somebody who’s got a quota or their paycheck depends on it. And so, you know, I am, uh, I’m all about the content marketing, number one, you know, pushing out good content that our clients can use, but also what, um, I use Google, I think it’s Google news alert.
Roy (19:04): Marketing 101
So you can type in key terms in there and it’ll pop up any news articles that are relevant to that, to what you put in and it’ll do a daily, weekly, whatever you set. But anyway, what I look for is articles that, um, I can send out to prospects and say, Oh, Hey Joe, I saw this article here.
And then I will outline like, here are three points that I took away from this that I thought you would find interesting or help you in your business. You send that out because you want to be a valued source, uh, you know, until they’re your customer. Even after they are your customer, you want to continue to be a value source of information about whatever business you’re in. And so, uh, you know, tailoring those to build the relationships because then it makes it so much easier to ask for that referral.
Roy (19:58):
If I have a relationship with you, if, if you walk into my business, unsolicited by something, walk out, then I call you, you know, a week later and say, Hey Denice, this is Roy. I really wish you could give me some referrals. You know, we just don’t have that kind of relationship that you trust. Well, I will say it from my point of view, I would not have a relationship where I would trust that salesman enough to want to refer my friends. But if it’s somebody who has sent me some thoughtful emails or called and said, Hey, um, you know, I saw this, that may interest you. If you build that relationship. Now I have a high level of trust that I feel like that you’re looking out for my best interest. And so making that referral becomes much, much more easy. And I agree,
Denice (20:48): Marketing 101
And I see it as a vested interest in my business. You know, I like to do the same thing. I like to use Google alerts. Also I’ll look at their industry news, you know, and sometimes find something that maybe the competition is doing, you know, because I’ve had enough, you know, discussions with them.
Tell me a little bit about your competition, who is your competition, you know, by name. And if I find something, perhaps that the competition is there and then, you know, shoot it to them via email or however, and say, are you aware of this? Did you see this going on? And I’ve done that and I’ve gotten returned emails. No, I did not. Thank you. This is, you know, this is unsettling or whatever the case may be. So I think I can’t agree with you enough on that, Roy, that that relationship is key. You know, it’s so much for me, it is so much that I, I find myself and maybe this is a female thing, but I find myself emotionally caught up in that relationship.
Roy (21:50):
Yeah. I think you have to be, if you’re a good relationship builder, there has to be some common emotional connection because if you don’t, then it’s just faking it. And I think people can see through that very easily,
Denice (22:03):
You know, and I I’ve had, you know, not that I’ve cried, but I can, you know, I get upset. I mean, upset for what’s happening to them, you know, unrelated to me. And I’ve had clients to say, well, it’s not worth you getting upset about, and that’s say, if it’s happening to you, it is happening to me. Right.
Roy (22:21):
Exactly. Yeah. And you have to have that level of commitment to your customers. They, I mean, it shines through that. They know that you are very committed and very loyal to them and you know, I don’t, yeah. Marketing 101
Denice (22:35):
I think the referrals are, are not only is it an inexpensive lead, but I have also found more often than not. It is a very qualified lead because there’s typically a need already there that’s been identified either from my current clients or, or some other fashion. So those are great leads and they’re easy to follow up on. And they’re fun. I mean, there’s not a better, it’s so much fun. And when I get a referral from a client, I always say, thanks for, Hey, Roy, I appreciate the name and this and the information. May I please use your name when I follow up with them? And they love it, love it.
Roy (23:17): Marketing 101
Yeah. And they’re much more stickier. Well, I would call sticky because they don’t take, um, I don’t think they take near the effort to close because they already feel that there are some relationship with you already through their friend.
And you know, that, um, and kind of goes along with the latest. It’s been a while since I’ve seen the numbers, but the latest one I saw is that it takes about eight touches to, uh, you know, take somebody from, uh, a cold position to actually be a buyer. And, um, you know, if you reach out to me eight times and say, Hey, are you I’m circling back, are you ready yet? I’m going to be, so I’m, uh, about after the third time I’m going to be so tired. I’m not going to take your phone call anymore.
But then that’s why I think that, you know, we can take that time to be thoughtful with that follow up to, you know, take, you’re going to have to, you might as well just count on doing it. I’m going to have to reach out to these people. Eight times let’s make it thoughtful. Let’s give them something that’s that they can use. That is a value to them. And, um, you know, build that deeper relationship than just, Hey, are you ready to buy yet?
Denice (24:31):
But you’re right. It’s, you know, anywhere, depending on the product and the service, it’s anywhere from eight to 12 cold call attempts, that’s a buck. Right, right. And like you said, it’s not just, you know, Hey, this is Denice calling to follow up, but that’s not, you know, you’re, you’re bringing no value, no value to them. And you’ve got to illustrate the value, which you’re bringing to the table for them, because if they don’t see value and you are your product, I mean, it’s a waste of your time in their time.
Roy (25:06): Marketing 101
Right. And the other thing too is if you really have to work on the front end with your first one or two contacts, I think to, um, to ask thoughtful questions, you know, just depending on what you’re trying to sell or the business that you’re in, but you know, you learn about their hobbies, what they’re doing in their spare time. If they’re going on vacation, you know, you can always send a, an email, a, uh, I know that y’all been gone all week, just check and see, you know, how everything went.
Y’all have fun, little things like that, but also don’t be scared to ask, um, what is the best way to reach out to you? What do you prefer texts, email, phone call. And then that way you can try to match that because really today, and I’m one that does this as I look at my call and if I don’t recognize the number, it goes to voicemail, and then if you leave a voicemail at somebody I know or want to talk to, I’ll call them back.
Roy (26:05):
But very seldom nowadays, do I take a call that just, you know, a number pops up? So there are a lot, there’s a lot more of that. So it’s very important to ask those questions of what is the best way to reach out to them, you know, during that followup. And don’t be scared. I mean, people know that the sales process is about following up. So you can’t, you can’t be coy. Like they don’t think that you’re going to call them back or you don’t, you know, be scared to ask them, what is that best way? Just get it out there on the table. If they tell you, Hey, I never want to hear from you again, then you won’t waste your time trying to follow up with them. Marketing 101
Denice (26:44):
But you know, what’s interesting, Roy is I buy, you know, I’m, I’m, I’m somebody’s customer too, you know, and I, I have different business needs just like a business owner needs, marketing, advertising PR. And I’m shocked for lack of a better word and disappointed too, I guess, is the number of people that I I’m a warm lead. You know, please get back with me on this. Or, you know, let’s set up time for demo or whatever the case may be. And I counted up the other day, there were sick over the last two months that I I’m in crickets, not a single word, but nothing from them.
Roy (27:23): Marketing 101
Right. It’s more and more, and I’m going to, uh, uh, I’m not going to get, Oh, all the way up on the soap box, but I’m going to just kick it around a little bit, say, you know, that has, that has to do with us, not training our salespeople. Good. But I think it also has to do with turnover because, you know, there’s some times I go through that too, is like, I’ve called this company five times trying to give them money and I can’t get a return phone call, but guess what?
It’s just about somebody different every time that I call, right. And for a sales organization, you know, that’s something I’ll look at because it’s like, well, what is wrong with this organization where we can’t have a long term, a salesman in this position that’s going to be there, you know, from month to month, because another big thing of mine is, is the followup after the sale. I think, you know, while salesman closed the deal, that there still needs to be some contact after the sale to make sure that they’re happy, did everything go? Like I told you, it would, is the product good? Is the service good? Uh, you know, that salesman needs to be in on that as well.
Denice (28:33): Marketing 101
Well, you know, Harvard business review has said that more than 50%, Roy 50% of customer loyalty is based on the experience of the sale from calling the closing. So, I mean, you’re, you’re hitting the nail on the head, at least according to the Harvard because of the three and mine.
Roy (28:53):
Well, I kind of went down the rabbit hole and kind of moved over to the sales side a little bit. So we can get back to marketing is, uh, you know, and,
Denice (29:02):
You know, sales is a function of marketing. Right,
Roy (29:05): Marketing 101
Right. Yeah. And a lot of us, uh, you know, the smaller accompany, a lot of us, we do the, you know, we do wear all those hats, this marketing and the sales and, and the followup. So that’s why, I guess I feel very strongly about that. And like you said, I’m a, I’m a customer too. So I always want to treat people the way I want to be treated. Uh, there’s a, you know, kind of a new thing going around.
It’s like, um, the old saying used to be well, um, treat people the way that you want to be treated, but now they’re saying, no, don’t do that. Treat people the way they want to be treated. So it’s even more important to listen to them, to how do they want to be treated and not just assume that everybody wants the same thing we do, but you know, when it comes to customer service,
Denice (29:54):
It’d be a generational thing too, where we think about the psychographics of the individual generations. Marketing 101
Roy (30:02):
So, um, another thing too, I think when we’re laying out, our plan is, uh, typically there’s not just a single step involved. Like we say, we need to plan execute. You know, sometimes we do AB testing where we try to three, four different things to see if we get a bigger bump, uh, whether, you know, depending on what we want to measure, if we’re measuring response or dollars in whatever, so there’s going to be it’s multifaceted multi-step. So I think the other thing is laying out a timeline that we can live with that is not overly aggressive. It gives us time to, um, put everything into motion too, and then also get that response, but not something that drags out for so far that it’s like, when we get to the end of it, we don’t know what we’ve got
Denice (31:00):
And, and the environment has changed too. You know, that’s a great point, Roy. I had a client that brought me in, they had it, well, to be honest, it was an election. They brought me in to help with a bond election. And I, you know, there was so much that needed to be done. And I kind of teased, I said, it’s like, y’all are bringing in a new quarterback in the fourth quarter, the last five minutes. You’re down to 21 points, right. I mean, that’s a tough job. So that timeline is impeccable
Roy (31:32): Marketing 101
Rat rat. Yeah. And the sooner, you know, especially things like that, the sooner you get on it, the better, but even in regular business, if, if somebody is building a building down the street, we don’t want to wait until, uh, you know, they’ve got sign up and flags in front yard before we think about them as being competition. I mean, the minute we see any activity and we know that it’s gonna be somebody that’s going to be, uh, you know, in our same space, that’s really the time to get on that. And be, again, it gets back to what you were saying earlier about being very proactive and don’t just wait and be reactive. Right. Don’t wait till you’ve lost your business.
Denice (32:14):
Yeah. Because a lot of times, if you wait too late, you’ve waited so late that you’re working against you have enough challenges as it is. Right. So why complicate it and why, and why develop additional challenges and specific scent. Those are almost self-imposed challenges by waiting,
Roy (32:37): Marketing 101
Right? Yeah. Yeah. We’ve waited until somebody has got a head start on us. We may have even lost some revenues. So now it’s challenging to, you know, pay for the extra level of marketing that we feel like we need. There’s so much that goes along with that. And, you know, you kind of have to always have your eye on the horizon, you know, looking for things that, to me, those are the businesses that are successful is they’re always looking for those, uh, either an opportunity or a roadblock that’s coming up and trying to figure out how to either capitalize on the opportunity or how to get around the roadblock before it actually affects their business.
Denice (33:19):
It’s pulling them that crystal ball out. Isn’t it?
Roy (33:22):
It is. It is well, nice. I could go on and talk about this for the next couple hours, but, uh, no, you have got things to do and clients that need your attention. So we’ll go ahead and kind of wrap this up. Uh, one last question I’d like to ask is, um, what is a tool that you use either for your clients or for yourself in marketing that you feel that you just could not get by with, um, you know, on a daily basis? Marketing 101
Denice (33:56):
Well, that’s a great question. You know, obviously, for me, you know, the computer, my laptop, you know, I worked on a desk desktop for forever and had, you know, was pretty loyal to desktop. And then I thought, you know what, it’s awfully nice to take a laptop into a client and take notes. And then sometimes in, in my field, you know, especially if I have a new art to show them concepts, to show them, you know, a lot of times I like to say here, let’s look at it right here together and kind of, you know, walk through why this and why that, so a laptop and then another thing is, believe it or not social media.
Again, I think part of it is clients appreciate and respect and understand the value of social media, you know, and it’s not something that’s going to go away right now. We’re not going to look up one day and it’s going to be gone. It’s just in that talk about the landscape that’s changing and it’s somewhat volatile to, you know, depending on how you’re using it. But I think those two tools right now, social media, and then again, you know, the laptop, um,
Roy (35:12):
It’s funny you say that because I, I, I had a laptop for a long time, but I would only use it when I was traveling. And so at home I always had a desktop and I had a, uh, there was a cloud program that would actually sync them.
So if I was working on a word document on my desktop, if I packed up and got on the road, I could see that same one, you know, on my laptop. And now, you know, for the last four or five years, I think I’ve been pretty much just a laptop only with no desktop. And I just, I look back and think, why was it so hard for me to make that transition? I don’t know why that was, but it’s funny. You mentioned that because I was the exact same way. I just would not give up my desktop for anything. Marketing 101
Roy (35:57):
And now, um, you know, the other thing I’ve been working on is not only did I have a desktop, but I had a humongous lateral file drawer and then a couple of big four drawer, um, you know, regular size files that were just full of stuff. You know, that’s one thing I’ve worked really hard on the last couple of years is just cut down all the paper flow by using some, uh, you know, online storage and clipping where I can do keep everything, but it’s all digital. And it’s always at my disposal, you know, through my laptop, of course,
Denice (36:33): Marketing 101
You know what? I just sold two 44 drawer filing cabinets just the other day, because everything, everything is digital, you know, I scan it, you know, if there is an actual paper document, I scan it and I use it. You know, I said, I mean, even, even when I’m proofing things for clients like coffee, you know, either for a website or an article or whatever, I may print it out to make notes, you know, when I’m in front of a client or on the phone and while reviewing it, I may print it out so I can make notes in the margins and things like that. And then I scan it and I put it in their respective file on my computer. Yeah. I guess the other thing probably equal to the laptop is my external hard drive because, because of that, I can keep everything.
Roy (37:23): Marketing 101
No. Right. Exactly. And I’m not even going to imply that you’re close to my age, but you know, we’ve come such a long way because I remember when I first started out, you know, it was a big chief tablet and a number two pencil. And if you’re lucky you had a calculator and, uh, you know, we have just advanced so far, so far with all the tools that are at our disposal now. But anyway, well,
Denice (37:50):
I tell students all the time, all the time, it has changed. It changes daily. And the best thing you can do is keep up with the changes because I, you know, I feel like I’m pretty, pretty, um, flexible and fluid with some of this stuff, but you know, it changes so rapidly. It’s almost impossible, especially when you talk about, you know, marketing community, you know, um, marketing and the realm of AI and everything that goes with it. But again, that’s another discussion.
Roy (38:24):
Yeah, no, I think that’s, I was just sitting here thinking, man, I need to do an episode of, you know, the top 10 tools that people use or need to be aware of things like that. But like you said, that’s a whole nother another discussion, but well, Denice, thank you so much for taking time out of your day to be with us. I certainly appreciate it. And if you don’t mind just kind of tell us, um, you know, who your clients are, uh, what you do for them. Uh, and then of course, how, uh, the prospects can reach out to you.
Denice (38:54): Marketing 101
Well, again, I appreciate, and I’m honored to have been, to have joined you the day and thank you again for inviting me, you know, what, um, the Bailey group, and again, that’s Denice Bailey, but Dee Bailey group, we work with professionals and a lot of those professionals, like what was talked about, they can be a small business owner, or I’m not armed or an extension of their marketing department.
You know, I don’t mind taking the projects that they don’t want to do or that they don’t have time to do. But again, I work with business owners or professionals to assure that what they’re doing is strategic and it has a plan and it is proactive. And I bring a unique blend of strategy and creativity with that, for those solutions. And I like to be able to say to clients, okay, here’s your problem, mr. Customer, here’s the solution I can bring to the table. And then here’s the outcome we want to see with that.
And we’ve had tremendous success with it, and I’m very proud of that. I would welcome the opportunity to visit with anybody if they want to talk to me or, or learn more about Denice and D Bailey group. And they can reach me at DB that’s Delta bravo@dbaileygroup.com. That’s B Delta Bailey Bravo, a I L E Y group G R O U p.com. Marketing 101
Roy (40:33):
Okay, great. And I’ll be sure and put those, um, put your email address and your website in the show notes as well as on the web page. All right. I appreciate it. You bet. You bet. Well, thanks a lot. Again, this is the business of business podcast. You can find us on our website@wwwdotthebusinessofbusinesspodcast.com. Uh, we’re on LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. So reach out. We’d be glad to try to help you with any of your business needs as well. Thank you. And until next time be safe.
check out our sister podcast www.seniorlivingsalesandmarketing.com