(ROAS = Return on Ad Spend)

Revenue growth is the ultimate goal. Micromanaging metrics like conversions, impressions, or even ROAS can distract you from the bigger picture. Think of these metrics as tools, not the destination.

Invest in strategies that build trust and long-term relationships. Don’t just aim for short-term wins. Because while ROAS might dazzle in the short term, sustainable growth comes from bonding with your customers.

Growing a business requires two types of marketing strategies: Overall Marketing Strategy and Message Strategy.

1. Overall Marketing Strategy

This is the big picture—a plan that considers the nuances of your business, industry, customer behavior, and buying style. It’s about reducing friction for customers and identifying your customers fears and how to alleviate them.

2. Message Strategy

Once the overarching marketing strategy is in place, the message strategy focuses on crafting the best words to build an emotional connection with your audience; often, through story.

Don't stop pushing the car. Don't just cut your marketing budget willy nilly. As I shared with you, I want you to spend as little on marketing as humanly possible. But if you cut it all out, you will lose all momentum and it will be incredibly difficult for you to rebuild the progress, the progress that you have made.

Too often, business owners make the honest mistake of hiring someone to “do marketing” without realizing these two vital things

You care about one thing above all, growth.

Kyle and I discuss how to effectively use different marketing channels, utilize AI, and build relationships (branding) with your prospects and customers on his podcast, Through the Woods.

On my own, I have limits. With my partners, I don’t… and therefore, neither do you as my customer.

For most businesses, at any given time, only around 5% of their potential customers are “in market” for what they offer.

This means that 95% of your potential customers are not currently looking for what you offer, but someday they might be.

Many of my clients work with other digital marketing firms and when they ask us to asses their SEO, our first request is for a list of SEO changes made over the past 3 and 6 months. 9 times out of 10, no changes have been made.

Google has long been juggling two different customer bases with competing priorities: Advertisers vs Consumers.

Advertisers use Google as a marketing company. But most everyone else uses Google as a search engine to find answers to their questions.

In other words, Google makes money by helping advertisers reach consumers, but it simultaneously needs to meet the needs of its search engine users and not overwhelm them with unwanted solicitations, or it risks losing the very users that advertisers are paying to reach.

If you’ve debated whether to make your pricing publicly available on your website, you’re not alone. This is a particularly daunting question for businesses with complex pricing structures. But here’s the truth, both B2B and B2C buyers aim to be at least 70% confident in their buying decision before they’ll pick up the phone or inquire on a website. This means when we require them to “Call for an estimate”, it’s likely to lead to frustration and they’ll likely look for their answers elsewhere.

Marketing a funeral home has several inherent challenges. How do you sell something people resist thinking about? Plus, there’s a real fear of offending potential customers by reminding them of grief and mortality. This concern is well-founded as we live in a society that believes profiting off others’ misfortune is immoral, making marketing funeral services feel, at best, delicate.

Yet if you’re looking to grow faster than 4% CAGR, marketing is essential. But, how can you promote your services while respecting these sensitivities?

If you’ve ever wondered whether there is a difference between marketing and advertising, you are not alone. Over 10,000 people asked Google this question last month alone.

And the answer is?

Not quite.

Most marketers offer one-size-fits-all advertising advice that simply won’t work for ugly duckling businesses. They’re not inherently sexy or interesting to talk about.

So now what?

Some connection always beats no connection when it comes to services.

How do you effectively market to those who do not currently want or need what your company has to offer?

In the absence of an emotional connection, people always choose the cheapest price.