The Strategy-First Revolution: Transform Random Marketing Acts into Predictable Growth with Amanda Berlin

0:02Who's ready to rock today, Fire Nation? JLD here and welcome to Entrepreneurs on Fire, the only daily show interviewing the world's top entrepreneurs seven days a week. Today, we'll be breaking down the strategy-first revolution, transform random marketing acts into predictable growth. To drop these value bombs, I brought Amanda Berlin into EO Fire Studios. Amanda is a fractional CMO who transforms B2B service-based businesses' marketing efforts into measurable outcomes. With 12-plus years of experience serving over 200 clients, she specializes in results-driven growth strategies. In today's show, we talk about how most service-based businesses fail and what to do about it.

0:39We talk about the real difference between strategy and tactics. And then we also talk about the hitting costs when you piece together marketing support and freelancers and agencies and so much more. And a big thank you for sponsoring today's episode goes to Amanda and our sponsors. Take control of your data and keep your private life private by signing up for Delete Me. Now at a special discount for our listeners. Today, get 20 % off your Delete Me plan when you go to joindeleteme.com slash EOFire and use promo code EOFire at checkout. Amanda, say what's up to Fire Nation and share something that you believe about becoming successful that most people disagree with.

1:23Well, hey, John, and hey, Fire Nation. What is up? I am so psyched to be here. One thing that I believe about becoming successful that most people disagree with is that it takes talent or it takes luck or it takes like a sprinkle of fairy dust to become successful. I don't believe any of that. I believe that simply continuing, like not giving up and applying hard work and discipline is the key to success. And I've been dealing with some, you know, family things and some, you know, just drama behind the scenes. And the idea that discipline can take over when motivation fails is the thing that will drive you toward your goals.

2:15that even if you can't get yourself off the couch, if you have these rules for yourself and the discipline to execute on those rules, that's what's gonna continue to move you forward. I love that. And Fire Nation, this is just so on point as we talk about the strategy first revolution, transform random marketing acts into predictable growth. And before we dive into the meat and potatoes, you have a very quick story, Amanda, you wanna share about your appearance on Entrepreneurs on Fire. back on May 2nd, 2015, almost 10 years ago. Unbelievable. 10 years. Yes. So when I first ventured into my own business, I had mercifully been ejected from the corporate world.

3:00I had worked for 12 years in corporate marketing and PR. And in most of my jobs, it had to deal, my tasks had to do with pitching the media. I was either actively pitching interviews for our clients, or I was creating the editorial narrative that was being used by our media relations experts to go out into the media and get our clients on television. And so when I first started my business, I said to myself, I'm going to use my skillset on myself. And I started pitching and I pitched you, John, um, just because I was like, this is what I know how to do. And I was absolutely like floored that you said yes.

3:49And I was, it was like a, it was a heck of a pitch. Like it was, I get so many bad pitches every single day, like to the tune of like over 500 a month. Um, that when I see a good one, it stands out. That's amazing. See, that's like a note to anyone listening, like take the chance, send the email because I also at that time, it really served as like a nod and a wink from the universe that like, yes, girl, keep going. People are going to say yes. And it, and it worked out beautifully. Oh, I'm so glad I could provide that. And that's one of the things I love about doing a daily show is that I do have opportunities like that.

4:24Cause I'm not limited to four interviews a month and just 50 a year. I literally get 365 interviews per year and I get to talk to some really cool people as a result. And Fire Nation, give it a try. I mean, we have a really strenuous application process at this stage, but who knows? I mean, eofire.com slash guest, fill the application. You'll see our team's vetting process. It's really cool. And give it a whirl. But listen, Amanda, it's a SaaS statistic, but most service-based businesses flat out fail at marketing Despite being experts in their field, how is this possible? Oh my gosh. So, well, first of all, kudos to you for over the thousands of interviews that you've done that take some major stamina and commitment and discipline.

5:10So really such an accomplishment. So businesses fail at marketing because they are engaging in what I call random acts of marketing as opposed to thoughtful, strategic action. And what a random act of marketing looks like is you're like hosting a webinar one quarter, or you're like doing social media, or you have someone that's doing your newsletter, or you have some LinkedIn presence, or you are participating in whatever. But you're not taking into account the big picture of where you want end at the, you know, at the end of your year, what are your goals? And then backing into your strategy on a quarterly basis.

5:59You're not taking a, you're not taking a look at the big picture. You're simply engaging in piecemeal tactics. And that works for a period of time. And usually the businesses that I work with are basing their marketing function on someone's free time. They're either giving it to their sales leader and hoping that they can multitask sales and marketing because, you know, they go together, apparently, or they have an assistant who they're tasking with some random marketing tactics like they're doing social media, they're sending the newsletter. or they're relying extensively on the relationships of the founder and CEO, which will not scale.

6:47We all know that referral based marketing has its limits. And if you want to scale, you need to operationalize your marketing and employ a strategy so that you're not single-mindedly focused on these one-off tactics. Fire Nation, we're going to keep firing away because this is such an important topic that Amanda is an expert in. And I want to talk about the real difference between strategy and tactics. Yes. So the real difference between strategy and tactics is that strategy applies an overarching plan that aligns your marketing with your business goals. Tactics are the individual actions that are taken to execute that plan.

7:33So without a strategy, a business is wasting time on disjointed tactics that don't support sustainable growth. So strategy is the overarching plan that aligns with your goals, whether they're quarterly goals or your long-term year-long goals and tactics are the things that you're doing to support that strategy. So usually small businesses are not able to access enterprise level marketing leadership without breaking the bank, because that can be really expensive for a lot of reasons. You actually have a way that people like us, like small time entrepreneurs can do this. So tell us more. Yeah, absolutely.

8:15Well, that was my whole reason for being when I first started my business. As I mentioned, I started out in the New York City corporate agency world, and I was helping the loudest guys in the room be louder than their competition. And when I left corporate, I realized that there was blue water in this small business marketing world because those large agencies were just completely inaccessible from a price point. And even from a service standpoint, they weren't set up to serve small businesses. And the fact of the matter is that, like I said before, small businesses often resort to these random acts of marketing and you really do need a strategy.

8:58And so what I have evolved into providing is that executive level strategic leadership for small businesses so that you can access that high level strategy as well as support in executing and implementing the strategy and even upskilling the employees that you already have inside of your team under my leadership. And so I'm your part-time marketing executive, essentially. Fire Nation, this is what you need to do, especially when you're starting, because I'll tell you, entrepreneurs do not run out of great ideas. They don't run out of enthusiasm. Oftentimes, a lot of times they just run out of money.

9:39And like, you have to figure out what can I do best to stretch the almighty dollar when I'm starting until I get to traction, until I get to real profitability so that I can maybe peel off a few more dollars to invest in myself, to invest in my business. And we have a lot more to talk about around this topic when we get back from thanking our sponsors. Online safety and security is more important than ever. And as business owners who market and promote online, we need to be hyper aware. Unfortunately, our personal information is being compiled by data brokers and sold online every single day. That's why I personally recommend Delete Me a subscription service that removes your personal information from hundreds of data brokers.

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11:31Once you sign up, you'll get everything from formation paperwork to custom domains and trademark registration all in one easy to use account ready to form your business backed by real business experts with decades of experience. Don't wait. Protect your privacy, build your brand, and set up your business in just 10 clicks in 10 minutes. Visit www.northwestregisteredagent.com slash fire and start building something amazing. Get more with Northwest Registered Agent at www.northwestregisteredagent.com slash fire. Amanda, we're back and let's be honest, there are a ton of hidden costs when piecing together marketing support with freelancers, with agencies and all that jazz.

12:15Break this reality down for us. Yeah, absolutely. So a lot of the clients I work with have thrown marketing dollars at the wall to see what sticks. They've hired an agency to do cold outreach for them or to do social ads, or they have a freelancer who's writing content. They have someone who is tasked with publishing their newsletter. They have created these silos inside of their marketing function. And that ends up costing them money because no one is talking to each other. And there's so many variables in their marketing function that it becomes unclear what is actually working. And so they may be seeing some some traction or some new movement in their pipeline.

13:03But it becomes impossible to see where that movement has come from when all of your marketing functions are siloed in the way I described. Nothing is being tracked and your quote unquote marketing divisions are not talking to each other. And so that's where the leaks come in. And the way that the way that this ends up becoming resolved is by bringing in someone like me, like a fractional chief marketing officer who can kind of look at the big picture. This is what you're doing over here. This is who's doing this over there. And we can actually start to collate some of the metrics that you should be tracking and looking at the numbers and using data to figure out exactly what's working.

13:49What can we ramp up exactly what is not working? What can we let go of? So we may even end up saving you money by letting you let go of that agency that is absolutely not performing for you. and we get to set a strategy and find the right subject matter experts to help you execute it. Fire Nation, disjointed efforts, they rarely work well. Like when you have multiple individuals or multiple companies doing different things for your business and they're not speaking to each other because they're not on the same team, it rarely ends well for a lot of reasons. And there's a quote that I live by, which is what gets measured gets improved.

14:27And that's why it's so important to have somebody like Amanda, who is going to be able to put together a plan and total oversight to actually measure what matters and improve what actually matters. What are your KPIs, your key performance indicators? What are you really trying to do with your business? What numbers really drive the revenue, drive the leads, drive your success? You need to know those things and you need somebody with a finger on the pulse. And oftentimes it's not the founder, it's not the CEO because that founder, that CEO, you like, you might be doing other things. Like I'm doing interviews all the time.

15:02I can't be doing all the other things as well. So you need to have that person with a finger on the pulse because results are what really matters at the end of the day. So Amanda, how can we know if our marketing efforts are actually aligned with our business goals? Absolutely. I'm like feverishly nodding my head over here in agreement with everything that you're saying. So yeah, and you mentioned KPIs in your last statements, and that's exactly where you need to begin. So the way that I start with my clients is looking at the big picture. What do we want to accomplish in this business in the next year?

15:38And I keep referencing year, but I do not do yearly planning. And I'll talk more about that later, I think. I do quarterly planning, but we need to start with the big picture, begin with the end in mind, and look at where we want to end up. Then we back into the metrics that are going to be important to track in service of our goals. And so the first thing we need to do to define whether our marketing efforts are aligned with our business goals is define what success looks like. What are our metrics that are going to be directly tied to revenue and business growth that are going to allow us to know in black and white whether what we're doing is working?

16:20Are we moving toward those to the metrics that are actually going to make a difference in our business? And we need to also make sure that we're we we are engaging in marketing tactics that are actually serving a strategic function. And so, you know, content is so easy to create right now, especially with AI. But we want to make sure that we're not just creating content for content's sake. People will zone out. We need to make sure, for example, that we are creating content that is serving our prospective client, that is enriching our relationship with them, that is serving a strategic function.

16:59And then we really need to stay on top of the data. We need to look at our numbers and make sure that what we're doing is moving toward those goals and we need to adjust if necessary. So we need to pivot, we need to iterate. And that's why I plan in quarterly increments so that we can look at what worked, look at what didn't and pivot or iterate where we need to. So if we're ready to transform our random marketing acts, we just have like all these darts we're throwing at these different boards. We're not really sure what's happening and we're ready for a systematic growth engine. What is that first step?

17:38Absolutely. So we need to take a hard look at what's working and what is not working. So when I work with clients, the first thing that I do with every client is a marketing audit and a planning session that lines us up to create a repeatable strategy that generates marketing momentum. And so what that assessment looks like is we look at what is working. We look at what is not working. We look at what you've done in totality for marketing up until now. We look at who's on your team, who's doing what. And, you know, we want to love on your team, but we also want to make sure that the people that are doing the marketing or like are tasked with the marketing tasks are the right people to be doing that work.

18:26We want our team to be enthusiastic about what they're putting out there on behalf of the business, especially in the marketing realm. this work needs to be infused with enthusiasm or it's just not going to land. If someone's begrudgingly doing marketing because you as the CEO put it on their plate and it's not their zone of genius and they don't want to be doing it, we want to free them up to be doing something that they love to do and find the right subject matter expert to execute that marketing work. So that's all part of our assessment. We're looking at who's doing what, what they're good at, what they love doing, what worked, what hasn't worked.

19:01And then we also look at what are you tracking? And usually for a lot of my clients, you don't have if you're listening to this and you're like, I'm not tracking anything. That is totally normal. A lot of my clients have not been tracking anything up until now. But we look at then what should you be tracking or what systems are you using where we can get in there and look at the numbers and see what's working. And then you want to create a structured roadmap that aligns with your goals. So we're kind of like picking apart the foundation. We're looking at the roots, the weeds, like, you know, all the stuff.

19:36And then we're kind of rebuilding with a systemic approach to marketing or systematic approach to marketing that aligns with your goals. And then that enables us to create a repeatable process of this assessment, this planning and execution that we continue to move on over time. Wow, Fire Nation, if you're not excited about actually having this type of process, this type of order and functionality in your business, check your pulse because man, this is exciting stuff. So Amanda, if Fire Nation really is like, hey, this is exciting. How do I connect with Amanda? How do I learn more? What is your call to action for our listeners today?

20:17Yeah, absolutely. So I want to connect with you. You can find me on LinkedIn, Amanda Berlin, and actually my LinkedIn URL has my name Berlin Amanda, but you'll find me. But also go to my website, Amanda Berlin.com. And if you go to Amanda Berlin.com slash consult, you can easily get on my calendar and we can talk about whether this work is right for you. We'll talk about what's working in your marketing, what your goals are, what your perceived blocks are and, and where you want to go, what your vision is, and we'll figure out how you're going to get there. I'm more than happy to brainstorm. Fire Nation, you're the average of the five people you spend the most time with.

20:56You've been hanging out with AB and JLD today, so keep up that heat. For links to everything we talked about, visit eofire.com. Type Amanda in the search bar, and the show notes page will pop right out and pop right up. And by the way, check out that episode we did back in 2015. Could be a very fun listen for sure. And Amanda, thank you for sharing your truth, your knowledge, your value with Fire Nation. For that, we salute you and we'll catch you on the flip side. Thanks, John. Hey, Fire Nation, a huge thank you to our sponsors and Amanda for sponsoring today's episode. And Fire Nation, over the last decade, I've interviewed more than 4 ,000 of the world's most successful entrepreneurs, and I've created a revolutionary 17-step roadmap to your financial freedom and your fulfillment.

21:40And I put it all into my first traditionally published book, The Common Path to Uncommon Success, personally endorsed by Seth Godin and Gary Vaynerchuk. The Common Path to Uncommon Success is the step-by-step guidance that you need to achieve the lifestyle of your dreams. Visit UncommonSuccessBook.com. I'll catch you there or on the flip side. Take control of your data it and keep your private life private by signing up for Delete Me. Now at a special discount for our listeners. Today, get 20 % off your Delete Me plan when you go to joindeleteme.com slash EOfire and use promo code EOfire at checkout.