1747 – Online Marketing with Lauren Petrullo of Mongoose Media

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.

0:59with us right now lauren patrullo lauren you are the founder and cmo of mongoose media you're found on the web at mongoose media.us thank you so much for joining us lauren oh my gosh thank you so much for having me hello also a fellow orlandian orlandoan orlandi i don't know what we call are supposed to call ourselves? Yeah, a fellow individual residing under the mongoose. You're Orlando. Yes. Yes, right. There we go. Well, give us an overview of what you do with Mongoose Media. Sure. So it's a digital marketing agency that services individuals, brands, and companies that are looking for an avalanche of traffic.

1:38We work with a lot of e-commerce clients, a lot of hospitality clients, obviously, because we're in the space of Orlando where most hospitality brands have some large entity and exist in this place. And yeah, we do a lot of stuff with SEO and Facebook ads is what most people know us for, at least me for, because I've been doing it for years and have some pretty fun case studies for it. Yeah. Tell me why you do what you do, in terms of who you work with and what brought you to this? Yeah. So I actually worked at the Walt Disney Company. I did marketing for the Walt Disney company. Oh, no kidding.

2:11Yeah, that's how I ended up in Orlando. And then I stayed because taxes and housing were much better than in LA, where I was living before coming to Orlando. And what we do is like we work with a lot of brands that are looking to scale to multiple seven figures or grow from like high six figures to eight figures within a five-year period. And we have a whole host of activation channels from SEO, marketing automation, a team that's over 30 large. And in Mongoose Media, we have a pack. And so we work with clients that are aggressively ready to diversify their traffic sources and not be so reliant on one funnel of leads or customers.

2:52Yeah, yeah. What's the risk in that? When you have all your eggs in one basket and then something like an iOS update comes out and eliminates all your Facebook ads traffic, well, that's really fun to work with. But it's really de-risking yourself because we're at the wills of all these big tech platforms and algorithms. And, you know, our consumers are on these devices. And every time a device changes or a device updates or what have you, you are putting yourself at the mercy of someone who's going to be better and faster at it than you are. Yeah. Of all of the services that you provide, are there any in particular that you're rather bullish on in 2023 and looking ahead to 2024?

3:31Sure. I would say the bullish would be on Pinterest, honestly, in terms of it's just such an underutilized channel. And it's like the most shock value. And you're like, what? Pinterest still exists? but it's a competitive platform for users. It has a user base that's three times larger than that of LinkedIn, like active users. Pinterest attracts a lot of individuals who aren't present on the main traditional social channels like Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok. It attracts those individuals that are, I don't want to be on those socials that track and engage these conversations. But also for our clients that are using Pinterest, it's the most unsocial social platform.

4:07So it requires the least amount of work and follow-up. There's no DMs to monitor. There are no comments to engage with. It's repurposing. And the life decay of a post is 1 ,600 times longer than that on other social media channels. It's a search engine social media hybrid. So it's just a resource where we've been able to get a million monthly recurring viewers to profiles that leads to traffic to the website in under a year for brands that had nothing, no present whatsoever beforehand. And what that means is like you're putting all these posts on other social channels, which we do. We do other social media marketing, but a post on LinkedIn or a post on Twitter or a post on Instagram dies off after a few hours or a few days.

4:47And there's no way to really track how much traffic that generated without using UTMs and all these pieces because those social media channels want you to stay on platform. versus with Pinterest, we're driving thousands and thousands of visitors to the website, to the offer, to the services directly because Pinterest rewards the platform when you get someone to be inspired to take action and leave Pinterest. So it's like the total opposite of all this conditioning we've become accustomed to. So we've been super bullish because it's way cheaper CPMs. There's so little traffic or in terms of competition and you get so much traffic in terms of value that you get ahead of your customers before most are even in consideration stage.

5:29So it's a really powerful tool that we've been super bullish this year on. That's fascinating. I was not expecting you to say Pinterest, but hey, that's why I love having so many great diverse conversations so I can hear what's, you know, so we can all kind of, you know, why we listen to podcasts, right? We can have our ears to the track and listen to really, really smart people that are doing good things. So I would think Pinterest, for example, would be fabulous for fashion and makeup and girl things or lady things, right? Sure. Are there some areas that you have seen have success that might be a little surprising?

6:09So, yes, don't worry. what you think is what most people think, which again is why I defer to it being such a like blue ocean of opportunity because everyone's like, oh, it's all female and it's beauty, wedding and interior design. Cool. The statistics say otherwise. It's 60 % women, which means it's 40 % not. Wow. Yes. And to go even further, it's like you have your obvious brands that are on Pinterest. And if you're not on Pinterest and you're in the obvious category of DIY and beauty and food related stuff, like you're missing out because your audience expects you there. But if you're in the non-expecting category on Pinterest, I'm talking mechanics.

6:49I'm talking water filtration, coaches and programs for education. That space is just, it's a supply and demand drought. Like there's so much demand for learning and growing and people are not providing the supply. So those that come in and the non-obvious are just sweeping up all this traffic that it almost seems unfair with how easy it is to grow a presence so quickly. But we'll just pretend we're amazing at what we do. So obviously, we know all the tricks. Yeah. And Lauren, what types of clients do you typically work with? And who might make a really good introduction for you at Mongoose Media?

7:29Sure. The best clients that we work with are brands that are already spending at least$15 ,000 a month on their marketing campaigns. because the clients that we can really help is like you have a car with an offer that's driving revenue to your business. And then what we can do is add more fuel and like special enhancements to your vehicle to drive faster revenue assets and like give you like a secret toll road kind of access. So brands that are already spending$15 ,000 a month on their various marketing campaigns and are feeling stuck or stunted on specific channels, like, oh, those are easy slam dunk wins for us because we don't have a one person that does social media, one person that does all ads.

8:10We have department specialists and heads with teams underneath them for TikTok, for Pinterest, for Facebook ads, for Google ads, for Bing ads. They're all such different aficionados of those respective algorithms that they've been trained to only hone in on success on that one. While as an agency at large, we get to amplify quickly and leverage pieces together when our team is cooperating. So we can take a Facebook ad campaign interwoven with a marketing automation strategy so that you're getting even more bang for your buck, lower CPMs and synchronized audiences. So you're not going after an undesirable target market.

8:49Yeah. And are there any trends in marketing that maybe you see advised out there and make you go, oh, people, people, people. No, no, no, no. Gosh, there's so many. I cringe. I think the obvious one is like, oh, AI is everything. AI is going to replace your marketing team. I'm just like, oh, you're so immature and amateur for thinking that. We use AI and AI has like 10x our game. We are able to do higher quality at a faster pace, but we don't use AI as a substitute. It's a tool that we've interwoven into our various SOPs. And the way that we tech stack our various AI tools together is something that like, I'm not going to say it gives us a total competitive advantage and competitive edge.

9:35It's just not something we're seeing a lot of people doing because AI, when people are like, oh, jump on the AI bandwagon, look at all this stuff it's going to do, you are still reliant on an output from an input you provide. And if your input is trash, you're going to get more trash amplified. So if you can leverage in different tools so that what you're providing is layered in with data, which is layered in with human intervention, you can get a product that is likely going to be more IP protected, that's going to be more consistent with the actual messaging you want, and isn't going to be this obnoxious noise that everyone else is doing because they're just one click, oh, look at all this AI stuff.

10:17And you're like, wow, it looks the same as everything else. Yeah. It reads like AI. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So yeah, you know, kind of this idea of having a brand voice and being able to communicate, you know, human to human is absolutely what performs. And Lauren, I see that you're pretty active in our local community here in Orlando. So just because I don't get to talk about this very often, what do you like about living and doing business in Central Florida? Good question. I would say easiest that like the airport's 20 minutes away from where all the business happens. Our convention center attracts a lot of brands and potential customers.

10:59So I don't have to go very far. That's right. They all come to me. I'm like, yeah, let's go get lunch. So I will say the location is strategically set up that I don't have to travel as much as I would if I were living in a different non-large convention attraction. Also, because Disney is here, a lot of our clients have kids and they end up visiting Orlando for Disney. And because I worked the Walt Disney Company, I was innovation producer. I also worked with Disney Institute, which is the in-house business consulting division for Disney. there's a really cool tours and tidbits and fun facts that I get to share from my time there.

11:36And from like insider stories that their whole vacations end up being like work write-offs for them. And we're constantly inspired. Like we have such competition here for imagination that you can just go to a park, you can go to Epcot, you can go to Harry Potter land and have a fresh perspective. What were some of the, you know, and again, since you have your background with Disney as well, what were some of the maybe things that you still bring up today in regards to here's what Disney does well. So here's something that you could learn from the mouse that might be practical for your own business goals.

12:12Absolutely. One is just that the last impression is the lasting one. And so where that was done really well at Disney is the parking experience at Magic Kingdom, for example. You've just spent, let's say,$2 ,000 for your family to go into the park. here in Florida. Orlando is hot. There are mosquitoes everywhere. It's 100 degrees outside. You're surrounded by a lot of humans that are not a lot of walking space. And you just wait two hours for a line and your kids are overstimulated and crying and demanding every toy. And you're ready to go back to your hotel or home and you get to the parking lot and you're like, where's my car?

12:47And now you spend two hours looking for the car, even though you had this magical time, your daughter met Tinkerbell for the first time, that last impression of I don't know where my car is, I'm exhausted and I have to look for it, can now be the lasting impression of entire vacation that could have cost your family$10 ,000 to$20 ,000. So if you are remiss to pay attention to that last impression being that lasting one, you're wasting all that effort and energy of capturing that lead. So where that translates really well for marketing is once you've caught a lead, and this is undeniable stuff of trends that people should be doing, This is just foundational smartness that people neglected when ads got really easy and cheap traffic sources were easier to come by.

13:31When someone gets into your ecosystem as a lead and then you wait for them to call you or you don't have this speed to lead initiative where you're getting in contact with them, at minimum with a text message, the last impression they have of you is that you're just another fill in the blank because there was no touch point. It was like, yeah, I think I filled out that form. Maybe. I don't know. It sounds like 10 other businesses that solves the same problem I'm looking for. Yeah. All right. Your website, mongoosemedia.us. Someone's been listening to our conversation, Lauren, and they're like, okay, I like Lauren.

14:05I think she solves big problems for people like me. But what would you recommend if they're just hearing you for the first time? What would that next step in the conversation or their experience be? Sure. If you're looking at your marketing systems and you're like, wow, Lauren, she's a pretty sharp person. I've heard her about being this destruction queen or what have you. And you're looking at and seeing like, are your campaigns, are your offers set up for success in 2024? Because, you know, there's this assumption that pixels will go away, that you really have to rely on first party data. Like send us a message on AugustMedia.us.

14:39And what we can do is just do a quick audit of what your funnel looks like to see if there's really quick wins of gold that's falling off your pipeline or like small. I'm talking like$500 to$5 ,000 per month, minimum small tweaks that you can make that can make a maximum difference. Again, I'm talking about like going from five figures to six figures in a month because of small last impressions that are not lasting for potential clients. Those are quick things and takes us 20 minutes to dive deep into. So if you feel that you're leaving money on the table and that you're in a space where you're doing all this marketing and you just can't expand, oh, hit me up.

15:17I've got you all day. Lauren Petrullo, again, CMO and founder of Mongoose Media, found on the web at mongoosemedia.us. Lauren, it's been great having you here. Thank you so much for joining us. Thanks, Ash. Thank you, everybody.

15:35Thanks 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 stopped 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.

16:19Together, 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.