1706 – The Most Effective Marketing Strategy for Businesses: A Relationship-First Approach with Hughes Integrated’s Rob Hughes

0:28Hey there, thoughtful listener. million in revenue. Just head to upmyinfluence.com and watch my free class on how to create endless high-ticket sales appointments. You can even chat with me live and I'll see and reply to your messages. Also, don't forget, the thoughtful entrepreneur is always looking for guests. Go to upmyinfluence.com and click on podcast. We'd love to have you.

0:58with us right now it's rob hughes rob you are the ceo of hughes integrated you're found on the web at hughesintegrated.com to a friend that's listening just click on the show notes click on the information icon keep clicking around in your podcast app you'll find we've got a direct link rob to your website so folks can follow along but it's great to have you hey thanks josh It's such an honor to be here and to be serving you listeners who are tuning in as well. Yeah. It's so funny because you and I were chatting and found out that we're both Michiganders. I've since transplanted to Florida for the past 14 years, but certainly a Michigander at heart.

1:36And so to our savviest of listeners, see if you can pick out the occasional Michigan accent. And I'll tell you what it is. It's rolling R's is a big one. And then there's, I'd say, just big manners of speech, I think, that sometimes come into play. But you're based in Byron Center, which is just outside of Grand Rapids. I know the place well because it's only about, I think, 15, 20 miles from my hometown of Plainwell. So it's great to have you. If you're looking for really good ice cream, there's a rolling R for you there. You go down to Plainwell, get some Plainwell ice cream. There's a whole lot of local spots there.

2:12But, hey, I'm sure that your listening audience is now they're good and hungry. They're interested in Byron Center and West Michigan and also business, which I know is one of the reasons why you've invited me on today, Josh. Brilliant, brilliant segue. There's a transition, my friend. Yeah, right on. Yeah. Share with me the work that you do. And it sounds like, again, it sounds like we have great alignment here. I just so much value the relationship aspect of marketing and not treating people like numbers, but truly listening and truly communicating, which I think the world needs more of, particularly in the world of marketing.

2:53But tell me where Hughes integrated, like who you work with and the impact you have today. Yeah, totally. Happy to do so, Josh. Here's the deal. Listeners, we have an enormous problem in the marketplace today. So many businesses are wasting an enormous amount of money on ineffective marketing and strategies. And from Plainwell, Michigan, there's a lot of dairy farms and cows, a lot of farm fields between Grand Rapids and Plainwell. If we were out on a cattle ranch and you grab the branding iron and you brand the back of a steer, you know who owns the cow. But if I grabbed a second branding iron on top of the first, a third on top of the second, pretty soon you got hamburger and it's confusing.

3:44Yet this is exactly how most businesses are approaching marketing to try to reach their ideal audience. They've got an idea for social media, and so they just start blasting their message on social. Then they have an idea for a website, and they have an idea for email campaigns or click ads or different things. You name it, and pretty soon it's scattershot. It's 15 different branding irons working 15 different ways, and yet they're not moving the needle. But if you take a relationship-first approach to connecting with your audience, to piquing their curiosity, to nurturing that relationship, I'm here to tell you, that's the winning recipe to win more business.

4:24So when you do that, you take clarity of one branding iron to all of those different strategies, and it becomes one cohesive message working 365 days a year, cohesively to build momentum. That's how businesses win. You've been able to work with some pretty great clients. One that I actually use is you worked with Seafoam, which Seafoam motor treatment. You would maybe share, like, it doesn't have to be Seafoam. you have a lot of other companies that you've worked with. Can you maybe share a story of like, you know, when they came in, here's the challenge that they had. Here's the work that we did and here are the results.

5:06Yeah. Well, sometimes it's hard to see the forest when you're standing so close to the tree yourself. And I think that was really the story with some of the larger nationwide and international brands that we've worked with, like Seafoam. When they're in product development, they've got many different products that all kind of serve that motor treatment space. So our engagement with them was to come alongside of them and to objectively audit and review the messaging for some of their core and essential products. Now, Seafoam's got a wonderfully gifted internal marketing house and team. So why would they need to engage an outside marketing firm?

5:42Well, for us, it was creating that branding iron that could create clarity over their message for each of these products. Then they could distribute that message in all of those different channels to drive down ad spend, increase conversions, because clarity is king in the marketplace. So clarifying their message using the StoryBrand toolkit, that is what our agency is dedicated to, and it's what we do. Now, we've got other case studies of organizations that we've done more than just messaging with. There's a local luxury outdoor living space installer. He's got a name, and for privacy reasons, I'll just call it ABC Landscaping.

6:20He'd get a lot of different phone calls, as you can imagine. He installs patios, by the way, outdoor living spaces, fireplaces, those types of outdoor living scapes. But with a name like ABC Landscaping, what type of leads do you think he was getting from the phone? i i i to me that just it's going to be an incredibly transactional like abc means nothing to me yeah you're just one of a sea of other landscapers i have no connection yeah so they're not lawn fertilizing company they're not a lawn trimming company they're an outdoor living space installer yet they're living with their name that may be the their biggest you know nemesis in that So what we did is we didn't change their name, but we changed their message.

7:08We pivoted their entirety of their message and content campaign centered around the ideal audience. And you know what? In the first year, we were able to win them 40 qualified leads for luxury outdoor living spaces, where the previous year he had five he navigated, five. And in the second year, we brought in over 100 qualified ideal target leads. And the last count in this current year is over 200 already. We still have months to go. So when you create clarity, it's like the magnetic force that draws a unique audience forward. That is the process our business installs. And ultimately, whether that's as a consultant or as a fractional CMO, we come alongside brands to help them do just that.

7:53Yeah. You know, just because I'm doing some sleuthing here along while you're chatting here. Listen to this outdoor living spaces that bring people together. Like that's, that's it. It's a story. So immediately, instead of thinking about how much is this going to cost? You know, the transactional decisions, we're thinking about this image of like, I want my family to get together and, you know, enjoy the space. My brain goes a completely different place. That's the power of story. And, you know, can you share this? Because I know that this, Rob, is a challenge for us sometimes to do this on our own.

8:31And listen, I've been through this process a number of times with great consultants. Through the story brand process, through a guide who can walk you through this, it's probably up in there. Listen, I'm talking to you, founder. That story is probably up in there. But I think by default, I think most founders do a pretty poor job in communicating that story. I think you're spot on with that, Josh. Intuitively, I think it's true and objectively. It's back to seeing the forest and the trees. It's hard to see the full narrative when you're the founder yourself. You built this thing. Some of you listening, perhaps even bootstrapped this business from the ground up or inherited a good-sized team.

9:16And now you've got to learn the context. And maybe you're just trying to figure out which way is up. Here's the thing. I'm classically trained. I've got an MBA in business school. I'm classically trained to know feature and benefit marketing. And we're trained that that is the story we need to tell. These are the features. These are the benefits. Here's what our product or service provides. But the reality is that's irrelevant to our audience unless it matters to their story going well. So the whole pivot in this is to begin with who is the audience that you're trying to reach? Who's your target client?

9:50And once you've identified that persona, begin to tell their story and position your brand as the secret sauce to helping that story go well. That's the essence to position yourself as the guide. As you mentioned the word guide, you are the guide to your audience winning the day. Yeah. Rob, how did you get into this? And can you share maybe just a little bit about what Hughes, like talk about the company Hughes Integrated. Who is it? And how do you run it? How have you grown it? That sort of thing. Yeah. So kind of interesting. First 10 years of my career was in a family business. Josh and I were just chatting about that a minute ago.

10:33In manufacturing, I oversaw vice, I was the vice president sales and marketing for a manufacturing company in Plainville, Michigan. And I would get folks calling on me, marketing agencies calling on me saying, I'd like to sell you a brand new website for$50 ,000 or$100 ,000. And I would always ask them, can you prove to me that this will actually win me new business? And they would choke up and say, I can't. And then we'd end the call. Fast forward to 2011, I spun out and sold my shares of equity in the business at that point and launched my own independent business, actually an executive coaching business with a business partner.

11:13And we grew that business into 33 states across the US and Ontario, Canada. We had customized and built a curriculum that we were teaching business owners and kind of going around the country. Our business model was to go around the country speaking at different events, curating those relationships and drawing them forward into memberships into our coaching program, which met in person in Grand Rapids, Michigan, four times per year. So these clients from 33 states across the US would fly to West Michigan, which I'm, you know, calling attention to that because Josh knows exactly where I'm talking.

11:47And we would meet with them for a full business day of executive and leadership masterminding, and then send them home to be coming back 90 days later. Well, we were in 2017, at an event in Orlando, Florida, speaking to a group of financial professionals, and a gentleman by the name of Donald Miller gets on stage. And Donald Miller, for those of you listening, is the author of the book, Building a Story Brand. And so to this point, I had successfully grown the marketing and sales of our executive coaching business, but I listened to Don Miller in 30 minutes, share a story-based framework that solved every marketing riddle I had carried with me through my career to that point.

12:31I said, there is something to this. So that fall, I flew down to Nashville, got trained by Don Miller, JJ Peterson, and the StoryBrand team, and since then have been on a pathway to help install that, creating a parallel track from the executive coaching to marketing consultancy. Then a little thing called COVID-19 occurred. I don't know if you've heard of it, Josh. I wish I didn't. Right around 2020-ish, an in-person coaching rose across the world for just two weeks, and then two more weeks, and then two more weeks. And before you know it, two years later, the world finally began to reemerge into in-person events.

13:14But in that void, digital marketing and messaging went through the roof. I like to say the world moved from brick and mortar right into click and order overnight. And by God's grace, in that moment, we happened to be at the right place at the right time. And Hughes integrated our digital marketing agency stood ready and positioned to help businesses around the globe create clarity and a brand messaging system that drew their ideal audience forward online. And so today, that's where I stand as leading and managing that growing team. We have six staff members here internally, W2 staff member inside of the company.

13:57And we've got a team of contractors around the country as well. Depending on the needs that we have that emerge, we can send them out as well. Rob, who would make just a perfect introduction for you? And mostly, I'm thinking about, number one, maybe the size of the company or what they do. But primarily, where do their values need to lie in terms of that, Josh, is someone I can work with and create some great stuff together? Yeah. Back to the Stephen Covey Seven Habits book. For those of you who've read that or reread that book, Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, core values-wise, we're looking for the organization who truly is seeking the win-win-win.

14:41They want to win for their clients with any marketing partner. They want to be able to win more business. Of course, they want to win for their business to be able to sustain that investment with an outside agency. And they're not looking to take advantage of any vendor or partner. They're seeking the win-win-win, true relationship partner. That would be one thing. There's probably some metrics in there too of 500 ,000 or more of net profit for the business. So it's not a startup. It's probably somebody who's shown the ability to be able to produce profitable company, profitable business. In some cases, that means a top line revenue is scaling between one to 10 million, but not always.

15:17You could have a$10 million top line revenue company that's not making any money and kind of having some real challenges there too. So top line is not necessarily the only metric to look at. But the biggest thing of a good partner client for us is that they are growth minded. They're not looking to just maintain status quo. They're not looking for somebody to just be an entity of their overall game plan. And what they want is a quarterback that can join them in the locker room, understand their growth goals as an organization, and build strategies to effectively execute on that to win. That is the mindset that we bring in as Hughes Integrated to partnerships that we serve.

15:58Yeah. Rob, your website is HughesIntegrated.com. To a friend that's been listening to our conversation, and they're like, I really love how this conversation is going. I'm so grateful I found this episode. Where do they go from here if they want to have a conversation with you? Or I don't know if you have any resources you'd recommend. Yeah, so we do have some downloadable resources on our website. Again, HughesIntegrated.com. That's spelled H-U-G-H-E-S, integrated.com. In addition to that, we offer complimentary consult to anybody. So for 30 minutes, we'll sit down on a Zoom call and we'll see if we can't solve some of the marketing riddles that you're facing.

16:36Whether that means that we work together or not, it's a complimentary consult that we add value to everybody first. So that is absolutely a free offer. You can also find me over at LinkedIn. So feel free to search. I'm sure Josh will put some information in the show notes on that as well. And I'm also a speaker at industry events. So if you're looking to bring a main stage keynote or breakout session together, you can inbox me through LinkedIn and or on our website to connect in that way. Yeah. Yeah, HughesIntegrated.com. Rob Hughes, you're the CEO. It's been great, great conversation. Thank you for the work you're doing.

17:12I love it. Thank you so much for joining us. Thank you, Josh. Great to be with you. And blessings to all of you who tuned in.

17:23Thanks for listening to the Thoughtful Entrepreneur Show. If you are a thoughtful business owner or professional who would like to be on this daily program, Please visit upmyinfluence.com slash guest. If you're a listener, I'd love to shout out your business to our whole audience for free. You can do that by leaving a review on Apple Podcasts or join our listener Facebook group. Just search for The Thoughtful Entrepreneur in Facebook. I'd love, even if you just stop by to say hi, I'd love to meet you. We believe that every person has a message that can positively impact the world. We love our community who listens and shares our program every day.

18:08Together, we are empowering one another as thoughtful entrepreneurs. Hit subscribe so that tomorrow morning, that's right, seven days a week, you are going to be inspired and motivated to succeed. I promise to bring positivity and inspiration to you for around 15 minutes each day. Thanks for listening and thank you for being a part of the Thoughtful Entrepreneur Movement.