2082 – The Critical Role of Storytelling in Marketing Strategies with The Idea Farm’s Jose Escalera

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1:05With us right now, Jose Escalera. Jose, you are the CEO of The Idea Farm. Your website is theideafarm.net. Jose, thanks for joining us. Thank you for having me. Yeah. Tell us about The Idea Farm. Yeah. Essentially, The Idea Farm is a digital marketing firm, but we do a little bit more consulting. And of course, we have an execution arm, so we can execute as well as consult. Yeah. What does consulting look like? It could be anything from building a marketing strategy for a year, six months. It can be talking about different campaign structures, ad spend structures, funneling systems. The goal is to get the client the return that they're looking for and best communicate to the audience that they try to communicate to.

1:45Yeah. Well, so obviously I'm looking on your website and this is about storytelling. So what I'd like to do is give you a few minutes. And if you'd be open to this, give us a little mini Ted talk on storytelling, if you would. Yeah, no, storytelling is the core of what we do here at the deal farm um if you think about it like in history stories were the word the way that people share history over a period of time we like to communicate in story format to our audiences um you look at videos and tiktok you look at movies commercials music they're all telling a story a narrative what we do here at the deal farm is we figure out the story of our clients and we find a way to best communicate that story to the audience that I want to hear it.

2:27ICPs, I do client profiles, right? So essentially that's what it is. We see the high points of the messaging that they want to share, crack that into a story, and then share that to the audience. So why are stories so critical? So think about a couple of companies out there. One just kind of leans into a little bit more just value prop, which is very common. And then the other company or brand, they really lean into story. Can you game that out? Let's imagine the two companies start on the same day. One goes real heavy on their story and their, you know, the story within the brand and the other one's just a little bit more transactional.

3:08Yeah. I mean, you're getting the buy-in from the client at the end of the day. It's like the story helps that buy-in process, that belief process. Thinking about it, like you're a fan of a sports team, right? The sports team is going to have some ups and downs. They're going to be, they're going to win some games. They're going to lose some games, but you're more invested in the trajectory of that journey. That is the story element, right? That's the buy-in that we're looking for. So by sharing that company, sharing that story, that journey that they're in, you're getting more of a buy-in from the audience and to support you.

3:38Does that make sense? Yeah. Well, so what happens? Like, let's look again, if you were to, and this may be unfair of me, but let's say you got a crystal ball and you're like, okay, I've been doing this long enough. Listen, I'm going to tell you what's going to happen. In month one, let's say they go live at the beginning of month one. And what would you anticipate in terms of what they will experience today in the marketplace because of how they've positioned themselves? So if we're going to get this out, month one is going to be a very crucial month to see how people are reacting to the story and the narrative you're pushing out there.

4:13For example, let's say this company is a brand new startup. And they're two founders. they have personal buy-in for example like their father started the company or their their father inspired them to create this product or they have an inspirational element to their stories and the product they're pushing or selling we can take that story we can kind of game it out create a couple different narratives based off that initial story test it out and see exactly how the audience is reacting to that after number month number one we're going to really know what people are reacting to, what they're buying into.

4:46And then we can kind of like continue writing that narrative, continue writing that story in the next couple of months and then track that journey in every single part of the way. Yeah. Well, okay. So why might we or someone, a business leader who's listening to us right now, why, you know, they're listening to your voice right now. why might they want to uh invest in a relationship with someone like you and your team versus just kind of trying to get it figured out themselves i mean it's too far i think we're in all trend in all honesty it's like us as entrepreneurs sometimes we wear too many hats and having a dedicated team just to think about the elements that um that you might not think about for example like the tonality of the messaging right or like the way that the cadence is being spoken in the message or even like the medium it's being delivered to right for example if it's a text versus a video and how that's going to kind of like uh imprint somebody right kind of like impact somebody so having a team of dedicated professionals um that is refining that messaging testing out that messaging make sure that the audience is receiving it in the way you want it to be received that's what you get top on top of that is a cost element too right you for the price of one employee, you get about four or five of us and more.

6:07So what is this process typically like? Do you mind sharing like what engagement looks like? Do you have like one standard package in terms of like how you work with your clients or for someone that's never hired a branding consultant previously? What does that typically look like? Yeah, it's pretty simple. Like we started off with a business plan via company objectives and goals of any industry like for example their goal is to grow their company by 20 % year over year or their goal is to get as many impression and like on the product because they just want to be more brand awareness we figure out their their goal system once we figure that out in their business plan we kind of start catering like hey what is the messaging we're trying to achieve and what's the conversion point for that message our conversion point could be like hey what's the crossroads where the client and the product kind of meet and then the client selects to purchase or book a call, book a consultation.

6:59And then we started developing out different strategies on the messaging that wants to share with the product that's being promoted or the service. And then giving you the exposure necessary to get as many lines of, or chances for the consumer to make a choice to purchase or try out that product or service. Yeah. Jose, do you mind talking about just one more thing on, you know, when we're thinking about, you know, and I'm just kind of advocating for the business owner that is just trying to be very smart with their investments, right? And what they know is they have growth goals. And so they might be tempted to just put, dump more money into advertising versus, wait a minute, let's tap the brakes a little bit and let's take a month or two or three or whatever of our advertising budget just kind of hit the reset button a little bit and then go out.

7:55Have you seen this in your work with clients play out? Listen, legitimately, it can be a very scary decision to make that investment. But maybe give us a case study or two of like where you've seen that end up working out okay. So I guess the best way to explain that for us is more of like, we believe that marketing is a revenue on revenue growth aspects. That means that comes out of the gross revenue. So anything that we do has to fall within that budget approach, right? So let's say the annual budget is three or four, 5 % of the gross sales. So the advertising spend, the media creation, the copywriters, all every element that we want, billboards, TVs, X, Y, and Z has to fall within that budget.

8:38Our job as professor knows is to kind of map that out over the period of time and then track that with different KPIs to make sure that the client is getting the return on investment they want. For example, if they're spending$100 ,000 a month and they're not making a 4 or 5x multiple because that's what the plan calls for, then they're getting the KPIs. That means it hits. So we need to change up the strategy. Our job is to create the plan over the next 12 months with the budget allowed, right? So let's say you take your, for example, 2025 is coming up. Everybody's making their annual budgets.

9:08Your annual budget says, hey, I'm going to spend 7 % on marketing this year. That 7 % includes ad spend, content creation, and strategy, right? And then our job is to take that 7%, spread it out over 12 months, create different KPIs, and make sure that the messaging is being created, the content is being made based off the messaging, the ad placements and the ad spend placements are met with the audience in mind for that particular product or that particular service, and then make sure that the conversion points are set up. There is a website, phone calls, direct-to-consumer sales, X, Y, and Z, to make sure that the revenue is coming back into the overall pocket of the business.

9:45That's our jobs. Yeah. All right. So the year is ahead, right? We're recording this. I can explain when we're recording this. But we are now at the end of the year and a lot has transpired that we're kind of curious about right now in the United States. But let's say, again, to all business owners and leaders right now, you know, they're listening to this. It's at the end of 2024. They have this wonderful year ahead of them. You know, what trends or what do you think is just really critical that you would advise to all leaders out there? Again, maybe just kind of building upon what you've shared a little bit more or maybe something that might be a little bit more kind of, hey, let me just share what's on my heart leader to leader here.

10:30Here's what we're seeing a lot of or hearing a lot of with our clients. And obviously, you have a long background in business leadership as well. What are you thinking for the new year? For the new year, I'm going to talk about my own personal experience in business. I think the biggest trend that I've been seeing is as the economy is kind of going ups and downs right now, we need to really kind of refocus back on our initial brand, our initial product, our initial marketing strategies, and how to attract the right consumers to our product or our services. I think a lot of money has been spent in the last couple of years and just ads and ad spends and just dumping a lot of money into that and into those buckets and not seeing the result that they're expecting for.

11:08I think we need to go back more into traditional marketing and really think about the purpose behind that ad, the purpose behind that messaging and how that at the end of the day is going to bring me a return on investment. How that's going to give me my next meeting? How is that going to help sell my next product? and really be more strategic. At the end of the day, I think the way that the economy is kind of going, we don't know if it's going to be good or bad. Hopefully it's good, but we need to protect our bottom line. So we need to make sure that our company is healthy. We're keeping a good savings aspect to it.

11:37And we need to be more strategic at the end of the day. So for me, the biggest advice I can give anybody is for 2025, think about your brand, think about your marketing and make sure that whatever you're doing and whatever dollar you're spending is thoughtful and you have a strategy behind it. And if it has multiple purposes, it could be like, hey, I'm just doing brand awareness. But at the same time, there's a funnel to capture leads and then kind of neutral leads into potential customers. All right. So your website, theideafarm.net, when somebody goes to your website, what would you recommend they do?

12:10I think go through the case studies. We have worked a lot of different industries from the dental field to school districts to manufacturing, honestly. So check out the case studies, check out some of the services that we provide, and just book a call. And just let's talk about your business. Let's talk about how we can help you and whatever your goals are. Yeah. All right. Theideafarm.net. Jose, it's been great. Thank you so much for the conversation. Jose Escalera, again, CEO of The Idea Farm, found on the web at theideafarm.net. Thanks, Jose. Thank you.

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