Good Marketing, Good Business

042: Overcoming The Marketing Challenges Of Your Industry

• Shannon Stone • Episode 42

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If you’re finding that your industry is facing challenges that impact your marketing and ultimately the leads and clients your business ends up working with, this episode is for you.

By listening [and taking notes], you’ll learn:

  • The two common challenges that impact industries when it comes to their marketing
  • How shifting to being client-centric can help create your greatest marketing innovations
  • How perspective shifts can help you to focus on the areas that will generate results rather than dwelling on the negatives


Enjoy!

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Shannon Stone:

H ey guys. Welcome to the podcast. Super excited to jump into this episode today.

Shannon Stone:

Today we are talking about overcoming the marketing challenges of your industry. Now, it doesn't matter what industry you're in. Obviously, all industries experience highs and lows, especially in the last couple of years. I feel like, do we want to keep saying that? But there's always going to be challenges at play, especially when it comes to your marketing. And if you're finding that your industry in particular whether it's a regular thing or a seasonal thing, where the industry seems to be taking a bit of a hit definitely listen to this episode, because I hear it a lot where people will say things like our industry is going through a hard time. Our industry is unique, it's complicated, it's difficult, or they might say I need to talk to someone in my industry and have them tell us what to do. So all of these are really valid points and really valid observations. But when it comes to your marketing, it's like, well, we obviously have to do something about all of this. We can't just almost throw our hands up. Because you're a business, the wheels have to keep turning. So what can we do when it comes to overcoming the marketing challenges? So that's what I want to talk about today.

Shannon Stone:

I do find there are two elements to this. One is around the demand, so the demand of clients and customers and leads and all of that kind of thing around the marketing. The other challenge they often face, which does impact the marketing, is compliance, and this is more prevalent in certain industries than others. Definitely in businesses or industries like the law industry, finance, mortgage-broken, particularly around what they're allowed to say in their marketing A lot of words, they can't use the way they describe things, any kind of promises, guarantees. There's a lot of compliance that is more heavily weighed in certain industries over others, but your industry might have certain compliance things or things that you do have to be careful about when it comes to how you discuss it through your marketing as a way to ultimately generate clients' customers' interest into your business. So we'll talk about the demand side of things first, because I feel like we've got a little bit more control over the demand when there's compliance. You've got laws and legislations and all those kind of things, so we can't really change much about that. So let's go through the demand side of things first.

Shannon Stone:

So I always think, especially when people are looking for someone within their industry to tell them what to do or what kind of marketing works for my kind of industry, I always think, if everyone in your industry markets their business in the exact same way, what do you think is going to happen? No one is going to stand out, you're just going to. It's almost like and you'll hear this from today's conversation we want to shift so much of the focus back to the client. The client, the person that you want to work with. What is it that they need to see and what is it that they are seeing from businesses in a particular industry if they're all marketing themselves exactly the same? The idea or example that comes to mind is companies that change your tires on your car. So I know locally where I am and I'm sure it's very much the same where you are. They always have deals that are pay for three tires and get the fourth three. I think you hear that. You see that you know that's a very common one, and so if you've got no relationship with a particular business over the other and everyone's making the exact same claims, doing the exact same kind of marketing, you're not really going to stand out. So you've got no edge over anyone else. So I do have a thing against people marketing their business the same way as everyone in their industry. If you're in the online space, I think coaches in particular, will be taught various strategies and write down to the same post or the same script that they're sharing, and I just for me. I think we can be a bit more creative than that. We can be a bit more unique than that and ultimately, we can get far greater results when we're not trying to be like everyone else or if we're not looking for someone within the industry to tell us what to do.

Shannon Stone:

The next thing that I bring to our attention is to really ask yourself if your industry is going through a hard time and I guess caveat to all of this I think it's not dismissing any industry when you do go through a hard time. I think it is important to acknowledge what your industry is going through, but what we do with that, I believe, is far more important. So it's not about ignoring what's happening in the world or in your industry and how that would impact your business and bringing clients to you. So I think you have to definitely acknowledge that. But ultimately it comes down to well, what are we going to do with this information?

Shannon Stone:

So I always think when anyone is going through leads are drying up or their marketing is just not hitting the way that it used to, I always ask well, are people still buying from other businesses like yours? And the answer is always yes. Has there been an industry that's ever come to a stand still? You know, probably our only real example in our lifetimes has been tourism during COVID, but there's no real industry that comes to a complete stand still. And if you're a typical service-based provider, you sell a service of some kind, or even if you sell products, people are still buying that every single day of the week, every single minute, every single second. People are buying those services, so why can't they buy yours? And that's what people need to focus on. So, yes, people are still buying, and how do we make sure they start to buy from us?

Shannon Stone:

The other thing I want to say on this is the more that you link your business to your industry, the further away you get from your clients and potential clients. So this can be trickier in certain industries over others. Real estate definitely comes to mind, where they're so ingrained in their industry and, like I'm all for it, like I love the upskilling, I love the professional development, I love to learn more about the industry and the skills that I have and continue to develop those and hear all the latest and greatest things or what's happening and get amongst it. I love all of that, but what you have to love more than that is the people that you want to be helping and get more amongst those people, especially if your goal is lead generation, it is client acquisition, it is to grow your business. You need to be focusing on your clients and potential clients and what is it that they're caring about? What is it that they're looking for? And at the end of the day and this is really where this comes up. It's we're always like, well, what's in it for me, and so it can be really easy to look at your industry. But your clients and your potential clients are asking the exact same question what's in it for me? So they're not looking at your industry, they're looking at what is for them.

Shannon Stone:

On this as well, I will say the person who really does stand out is the person who focuses on their clients. And a great example of this and you probably you may or may not have heard about this but Domino's Pizza and their delivery promise. So their delivery promise for a really long time was you'd get your pizza in 30 minutes or less, otherwise it's free. And if you just think about that, someone wouldn't come up with that promise unless they were focusing on their customer instead of their competitors, instead of their industry. So this is an excellent example because it's looking at what is the pain. Point out, customers and clients are going through that, stopping them from reaching out to us.

Shannon Stone:

So in the Domino's Pizza example, you know a family who want to get takeout for the night. They want to order anything, they're happy to order almost anything, but why would they choose a pizza? Or why wouldn't they choose a pizza? Because it takes too long. It's like, by the time it gets here, like we've, you know, found something in the kitchen and we're not as hungry anymore. You know all the different things so you'd only come up with the solutions and the marketing solutions. It's like there's the solutions and the customer service and all this is why I think it's very holistic growing your business, but you work on focusing on that client, that customer, and when you can solve those problems you can bring it to your marketing. You can communicate that to people.

Shannon Stone:

So in Domino's Pizza, in their situation, it was looking at that pain point that they're experiencing and with authenticity they're able to put that claim there that we can deliver it in 30 minutes or less. And this is when I don't know what their business looked like before then. But they possibly had to look at their processes, their systems you know their drivers, how they're cooking the pizzas, all the things to make sure they could stand by that claim. So just think about that for yourself in your business. What is that pain point that stops people from reaching out to me or to my business, or even to the industry, if you did want to look at it from that angle and this, would, you know, be really dependent on what it is that you do. But if you look at the client, see how you can help to improve things, and then you can bring that to your marketing Such an easy way and, I think, authentic way and just really solving excellent problems for people in a really honest way and you can bring all of that to your marketing.

Shannon Stone:

Alright, so, before we get to the compliance side of things, what I'm, I guess, suggesting here, or sharing these ideas with you, is that you can use opportunities when time seemed tougher to create greater innovations. And, yes, that includes your marketing, but it also includes the customer service, like you know, delivering a pizza and far less time. Amazing customer service, your marketing, your systems, your processes, all of it. So when things get tough, that's the best time to make the best possible improvement. So you can use all of this as opportunities and use it as a way to create your greatest innovations or create your greatest marketing. Or look at, well, what haven't we tried before? But focusing on that client more than anything.

Shannon Stone:

Now, when it comes to the compliance side of things, definitely a marketing challenge for a few industries in particular, but there might be some things that aren't as much compliance. But you do know you have to be careful around it. Maybe guarantees and things like that are something that you find you do have to be careful around discussing, particularly in your marketing. And what I always say here is that you do have to be very aware of you know what the boundaries are, particularly if there is a legal compliance in place. You know can't say certain words, can't say certain things. You know things around that, particularly in the law space, financial space. I know they're really heavy there and there's big consequences that do come if you do breach those compliance situations. So you do have to be very aware of what the boundaries are and how you're able to work within those scopes. But ultimately you have to know okay, well, these things are in place, but it's not impossible for me to market my business.

Shannon Stone:

And again, like I said at the start, you can't just throw your hands up and think, well, we've got all this red tape around us so we can't do anything Like. It's not a very empowering way to be about your business, around your marketing. You have to think about it differently. It's like here's what we're working with Now, again, let's be innovative, let's think about how we can do this in a different kind of way that doesn't breach any of the compliance issues or it doesn't push on anything that we shouldn't be discussing, and it causes you to become savvy with your marketing. It forces you to come up with more creative ways. It forces you to come up with better ways of doing things. So, I think, when it comes to compliance, it's acknowledging what it is and you know you can't change it. It's like we can't generally, we can't change the law. We have to do the speed, and we should do the speed when we're driving the cars, but how can you make it work for you, particularly in a business, particularly when it comes to marketing?

Shannon Stone:

Okay, so the last thing I'm gonna touch on before we get to the action steps is, I guess, a few things coming out of this conversation that I want to highlight is, I guess, one being aware of what is going on, to bring your focus back to the client, the client, the customer solving their particular problems. And then what are we going to do about all of this? And I think a common thread that is coming through is to use these as opportunities to be innovative, to be more creative, to be More client focus, but to bring all of this to your marketing and what can happen for people, and like it actually doesn't happen, it's just a thought that stops people from doing anything at all. It's like, well, if we do this and we become so great at our marketing and we're say, where dominoes, and we're pitching Our thirty minutes promise delivering a pizza and thirty minutes or less, everyone's going to copy us. So now we shouldn't do it at all, and it's like it's not even a cash or it's a risk, but it hasn't even happened yet and so people often stop before they even start and it's you know, it's a little thought like that which can be a very real risk, but don't let that stop you. So, yes, I would expect that your marketing is going to get better. Yes, your business is going to be more Innovative and creative and come up with better solutions, but there is no other option and you know you're. Also, if you're Thinking you know everyone's gonna copy us, you're focusing on the wrong thing again, you're focusing on competitors and you're focusing on the industry, when you actually need to be focusing on your client, and the more that you focus on how you can help them, the process to get them inquiring about your services, how they can find you, how you can communicate to them better, the more you're going to win, and that's what you need to put your attention on.

Shannon Stone:

Okay, so the action steps? Three really simple ones. Number one is to get a proper gauge and find out how it is out there in your industry. I don't think we should be completely blind to what's going on. If you're in a season of a fun court, certain things are going on or Whatever might be happening in your industry, I think. Get a proper gauge as to what is going on out there. And then, number two, you want to bring your focus and attention to your client, how you can best reach them now, how you can come up with your best ideas. You know, use all this information not just to your advantage, but to your client's advantage as well.

Shannon Stone:

And then number three is to test and refine. So when you come up with some ideas to better reach your clients or better communicate to them, we need to test this with them. There's no point hypothesizing about it and not doing anything about it and backing out before we even begin. So we have to test it, see what happens and then we refine it. So Say, you come up with marketing strategy or you know a promise of some kind dominoes, 30 minutes or less. You want to test that, you want to put that out there and then, based on how it performs, then you can refine it and try it again and again and again. That is what marketing is. It's not a one and done thing. If it was, I probably wouldn't be here and I don't know what there would be in place like a marketing chat, gpt kind of thing. Maybe it's coming, I'm not sure. But marketing is not a one and done thing. We have to test it, we have to refine it and we have to go at it again.

Shannon Stone:

So I hope you found this useful to give you some ideas or perspective around how you can overcome the marketing challenges of your industry. If you have any questions, obviously I'd love for you to reach out, but I hope you have an amazing week and we'll chat very, very soon.

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