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This week's episode of Automation Unplugged our guest today on this Marketing Experts episode is Taylor Whipple, Chief Financial Officer here at One Firefly.

Taylor has spent more than twelve years helping guide One Firefly’s growth through strategic, data-driven decision-making. In this episode, he combines financial insight with operational strategy to help integrators turn their marketing budgets into powerful tools for stability and growth.

About this episode:

This conversation is hosted by Kat Wheeler, and together they explore:

• How AV integrators can smooth out feast-or-famine sales cycles
  
  
• Why starting with revenue goals is the smartest way to set your marketing spend
• And how to measure ROI so every dollar works harder for your business

SEE ALSO: #332: Ari Supran on Harnessing AI to Transform Business and Culture

Transcript

Kat:

Hi everyone, and welcome back. It's another episode of Automation Unplugged Marketing Experts. I'm your host, Katharine Wheeler, and today we are talking about something that's both exciting and a little bit intimidating. Uh, your marketing budget. If you've ever found yourself picking a marketing spend number out of thin air or wondering what you're, if you're getting the most out of your investment, you're in the right place. My guest today is somebody who knows exactly how to bring clarity to these questions. Taylor Ripple, our Chief Financial Officer here at one Firefly Taylor. Welcome to the show.

Taylor:

Thank you so much for having me, Kat. Hi.

Kat:

Excited. Good to be here. This is gonna be fun. We're gonna have a good time today. We're gonna talk about money.

Taylor:

Yes. Can't wait.

Kat:

but before we jump in, I want you to introduce yourself to the audience a little bit. Can you share a little bit about your background and you know, where you come from

Taylor:

for sure. Yeah. So I've actually just celebrated my 12th year yesterday as a matter of fact, with one firefly. It's been a a heck of a ride. A lot of growth both personally and professionally during that time. Really, really grateful and happy to be here. Um, but in my role, so as a CFO of this organization and in some of my prior roles as well, I like to kind of consider myself an operationally and strategically focused CFO. So I try to bring those, you know, that financial and the data side of things and, and try to help utilize that and convert it to actionable strategies that can. Produce results. So I can see I've seen firsthand, for example, like, you know, how unclear budgets. I know we're talking about marketing budgets and how unclear budgets can waste money versus like, let's say taking a more disciplined approach, discipline slash data driven approach, and how that can really help you achieve the goals you're trying to achieve. So excited to have these this conversation.

Kat:

I, I am too. I, I think this is really interesting how people, when they're not focused on, you know, their finances, things can get really outta hand really quickly. And we see it a lot with, you know, small business. Okay. Well, um, you know, happy 12 years at one. Thank you. That's, that is, that is an accomplishment.

Taylor:

It is. You know, I've been very grateful, you know, to be here during this time. I'm very proud of what we've built. You know, we've grown a lot. During that time and learned a lot as well. And just excited for the future as well. Just as excited for the next 12 years, I'll say.

Kat:

I can't wait to see what happens in the next 12 years. I'm. Thrilled. Okay, so let's zoom out a little bit before we dive into specifically marketing budget. Let's look at marketing kind of holistically. Sure. Why do you think it's such a, it should be such an important piece of the puzzle for AB integrators out there.

Taylor:

Oh, for sure. I think, you know, we, we hear feedback from many of our customers that. I think it's just sort of the nature of the industry that we're in, that it's oftentimes can be a feast or famine, um, sales cycle. So we hear from sometimes that, you know, integrators are so busy, they're so busy, they can't get enough people. Then, you know, they might hit a valley. Where they're not having enough work. Right. And so I think where marketing plays in is that it can help smooth that sort of peaks and valleys and the ups and downs and helps you have more consistency through the good, through the bad. Um, so that you know when things do inevitably. Take, let's say a downturn or slow down, you've, you're in a position to capitalize and you still have lead flow and, um, can, you know, again, try to achieve your goals.

Kat:

I love that. That's a, that's a really good perspective, sort of that not putting all your eggs in one basket yield adage.

Taylor:

Absolutely.

Kat:

Okay, well that's, that's a good place to start and as we kind of dive into this conversation to get a little more into it, you know, I like the games, you know, I like the, I like games too.

Taylor:

Let's do this.

Kat:

Alright. we're gonna play a game called Cash or Stash. I like alliteration as well. And the, the goal of this Taylor is I'm gonna pose some different scenarios for you for marketing opportunities for our, our fund customers. And you're gonna say either cash or stash. So spend that cash or stash. That money

Taylor:

sounds great. Let's do it. So

Kat:

here we go. First one up. Paying for a booth at a local home show or design expo, but without a plan to follow up on those leads.

Taylor:

So I'm gonna say stash on this one. And it's specifically what you just said on the, the latter part, which is not having a plan to follow up on those leads, um, without that, without a way to kind of capture and then measure that lead quality and the lead flow. It's just brand awareness without a measurable ROI. So definitely a stat.

Kat:

Okay. I same. On that same vein. Okay. Um, here's the next one. Upgrading your website to show better photos, videos, clear CTAs, or call to action to help you convert your visitors into leads.

Taylor:

This is like, is there something higher than cash? Like this is gonna be like the highest for me, I'd say. You know, I like to say that your website is your sort of 24 7 salesperson. Yeah. So it's out there. It's representing you, your brand. You know what it is you do. And also it's by the way, helping you filter out what you don't want as well. So if you're trying to target a specific type of project or specific type of clientele, you can position your imagery, your copy, again, everything to try to sell and you know, present to those specific consumers.

Kat:

I love it. Yeah, I think self-selection is maybe something people don't think about when they think about a website. Yes. How you present yourself really does tell your visitor if they're your customer or not before they even get to you.

Taylor:

Absolutely.

Kat:

Oh, good call. Okay. Next up. Running paid social media ads with precise targeting aimed at homeowners in your service area.

Taylor:

I'm gonna say cash on this one, but again, only if it's tracked. Properly and also then paired, kinda like we talked about with the first question, paired with a follow up strategy as well. So you wanna make sure you're getting those high quality leads and that you then have a strategy in place to follow up to look at those close rates to know, you know, are they converting, are they the right type of customer or the right type of projects that are coming in.

Kat:

Okay, I'm sensing a theme here with you, Taylor. What I sense this seem to be is what I like to call finishing the drill. Yes. And it's not just doing activities to do activities, but to do activities to get to that end goal.

Taylor:

Absolutely. I, I think, you know, having that end goal in mind is super important. And, you know, a a lot of this that we're talking about in terms of marketing strategy is, is great, but only if it can be paired with, you know, the actions, the subsequent actions that need to follow. Right. So that's the, the following up of the leads. It's the measuring of the lead quality. Looking at your close rates, for example, if you're, you know, sales team are attempting to close those leads, like at what stage are they, you know, either proceeding or not proceeding? Are they pushing back on price on or is it the right type of target? I mean, you could go on and on, but yeah, that kind of gives you a glimpse of, um, how to get there and what's possible.

Kat:

Okay. All right. Here's, here's our next one sponsoring community events purely for name recognition. And I, I feel this is like our, our, like small town companies maybe. Mm-hmm. You know, sponsoring that baseball team, getting their name on the back of the logo, being in the outfield on a banner or something like that.

Taylor:

You know, look, I mean so all the, I'm gonna say. Stash, but maybe with a little asterisk here. Like if, if, if it's a nominal amount right? And you're willing to give back to the community, it's community awareness, you're not expecting much from it. Cool. Like, maybe it's a cash in, that's that standpoint. But if you're, you know, putting your name out there on the outfield wall expecting that you're gonna get a flow of leads, like, I, I would say that that's, um, risky. Um, without being, having a way to kind of measure that impact it, I wouldn't, wouldn't, wouldn't recommend it in that scenario.

Kat:

I, yeah, agreed. Okay. All right. This one I think you're gonna like working backwards from your annual revenue goals to determine your marketing spend and what tactics to fund.

Taylor:

Now you're speaking my language. Absolutely. I, I love starting, and I recommend this to, we do in practice this here at One Firefly. I recommend it to our customers. Well start with that end goal in mind. Like, what are you trying to achieve? Are you trying to grow? Are you trying to stay the same, like, and then work backwards from there? And that can obviously. You know, influence everything from cash to, you know, how much you want to equip the, the, the sales team and your marketing spend and, um, everything you're gonna need to try to, to hit those goals in place. So this is definitely a cash for me.

Kat:

You said something really interesting there and you know, working back from our goal as we talk to customers a lot, and I just, I think this bear's mentioning is that there's no wrong answer, right? Yes. Like you don't have to wanna grow all the time. A

Taylor:

hundred percent. That's right. Yeah. We, there's zero ju we have customers but who are like, they're happy, they've got a business, they're at a size that works for them. You know, growing just for the sake of growing is I would say not recommended. It's not for everybody. There's a lot of stress that comes with growth. Again, we were now an inc a six time Inc. 5,000 company. We've had our fair share of growing pains and challenges, right? And so it's, it's not for everybody. And, like you said, there's no judgements, but knowing what that target is, it certainly helps you put a, a, a strategy together to try to achieve that and know are you on track or off track based on what you're trying to achieve.

Kat:

Yeah, and I think, I mean, again, we could go down this rabbit hole for four hours, but even knowing that your goal maybe this year is to stay the same while you build up a stronger foundation so that when you do go to grow some of those growing pains don't hit you as hard and you've budgeted for the right things at the right time and have that foundation in place.

Taylor:

Absolutely. I think, you know, as long as you have a strategy in place, you know that strategy, you can allow for some flexibility. You know, if things don't go, you know Right the whole time, by the way, they, they won't normally don't. Right. We saw that, for example, in the first quarter of this year when everybody was hit with tariffs. Well, guess what happened to our strategy that we had, you know, all put together in Q4 of last year, like it went out the window. Right. So you, but at least still gives you a framework in which to kind of, you know, position yourself from a strategy standpoint. Um, and, you know, you can again, remain nimble, agile to try to pivot where, where, where and when needed.

Kat:

Okay. All right. Again, we won't, we won't belabor it. We could, we could rabbit hole this one all day, but our final game question today is social media. So boosting social media posts just because they got more likes than usual.

Taylor:

I would say that's a stash in my mind. That's something I would not recommend. You know, vanity metrics, don't pay the bills. It might look great. Oh, I've got a million likes. Awesome. How many leads did you get? How many are you, you know, how are, how are you doing in terms of sales and your ability to, you know achieve those goals. So I would say Stash on this one.

Kat:

Circle back on that. 'cause I don't know if vanity metrics is a term that everybody knows. Can you kind of let our, let our audience understand what a vanity metric is?

Taylor:

Yeah. So a vanity metric is essentially something that sounds really good, um, on paper. So that might be that example I gave of, you know, Hey, I have a million likes. I, I, you know, I'm number one for this very specific search term. Well, and that's great by the way, but only if it also is accompanied. That lead flow that you need and the sales that you need to try to achieve those goals. If it's just great for the sake of being great, well then it's potentially money that could be, you know, reallocated somewhere to again, help you having more or a better outcome. I'll say from sales standpoint.

Kat:

Okay. Yeah. Makes sense. Okay. I lied to you Taylor. That wasn't our last question. I did wanna hit on one more That's good. Specifically around specifiers. 'cause that is, you know, obviously a good resource for all of our customers out there. Yeah. And working with specifiers. So is partnering with interior designers, co-branded brochures or video showing, you know, technology with design as they like to see it? Is that a cache or stash?

Taylor:

That's a cache for me for sure. I mean, we know that this, this industry, our industry. Um, you know, we, we live on referrals. Customers live on referrals and having a referral pipeline and having partners who can help feed you with those referrals, that's gonna be invaluable. So I, I'm, I'm all for that.

Kat:

I love it. Thank you. Well, this was fantastic. I appreciate you playing along and playing a little game with me. Um, and I think we kind of touched on a lot of scenarios and real life things that happen to our dealers out there, or things they think about. So it's a good place, good place for us to start our conversation today.

Taylor:

Love it.

Kat:

All right, so start with a, we'll go back into the big picture and, you know, we talked about why marketing matters. So why is a marketing budget a crucial part of, of a strategy for AV integrators, especially those, you know, focused on residential customers?

Taylor:

Yeah, so, you know, I think we talked about it towards the earlier part of the conversation. You know, we know that, you know, many integrators have. Um, revenues that can often be lumpy. It, it's, a lot of it, what they're dealing with is project based. There's some seasonality to that as well, right? And so you are often, not always, but often in these sort of feast or famine cycles where, you know, you might be too busy all of a sudden. And then, you know, some months later you're trying to find those projects to keep, you know, everyone, that you have on staff. billable, as billable as possible. So what, what that marketing budget essentially does is gives you a framework to help, um, with consistency. Mm-hmm. Consistency of leads, consistency of project flow. So that, that's the sort of the name of the game. Again, going back to helping you achieve your goals and what that, those growth goals are or goals. Maybe it's just staying the same, whatever. It's your goal is your goal. The marketing budget, it's, it's can help you get there.

Kat:

I love that. Yeah. I appreciate that. 'cause I think. You're right. Um, you know, we have weird sales cycles and weird project cycles depending upon the specific project. So trying to make sure your business is stable, you know, over time we're not retail. Right. It's all customer.

Taylor:

Right. Exactly.

Kat:

Okay. So do you, and I, I know people hear the word budget, like I hear budget as a, as a just a person, not as a business owner. And I hear you can't spend any money, Kat. Um, but do you see budgets as like restrictions, like guardrails out there, or more like a roadmap that gives you freedom to actually spend more and spend smarter?

Taylor:

I think it's the latter. Honestly. I think it, you know, there's a framework in place that allows you to allocate funds. Where and as needed. And you may find, for example, that some things that you did last year, for example, that worked really well for marketing and you want to spend that this year. Well, it may not necessarily produce that same results as it did last year, right? So ideally speaking within that budget, you want to have some degree of flexibility to reallocate funds if something is not working or is not being as effective as you'd like, or it was last year, for example. We could reallocate those funds to try something different. It would be amazing if we could all just like know exactly like, we're gonna spend this money, we're gonna get this return. It's gonna happen every single time. But that's just not the reality of the world we live in. It's a, you know, ever changing it's technology, ai, you name it. So you, you know, you constantly have to kind of test and measure and you do wanna see and find out like what works. And what doesn't work. Um, but at least having a budget in place, knowing how much to spend and when, I mean the very basics that's gonna help you again, go back to achieving your goals and being successful

Kat:

and be able to make more, make decisions, right, like make decisions. Exactly. Because you know what you're working with. It's not, well, if I do this, is it too much? Is it too little? Is it,

Taylor:

it goes back to kind of, you know, pairing the. Y you know, we all have sort of the premonitions and the feelings of it. I feel like the, the phone's not ringing as, as much. I feel like this isn't working as well. That's great. But like, let's, let's just pair that with some data and some, you know, actionable more objective based metrics. And when you pair those two together, you're gonna have a, a more, a strategy that's gonna be more help you be more successful.

Kat:

I think that's super smart. I know we talked to, I talked to dealers a lot, turns out and I, you know, was talking to somebody about close rate the other day and their different business channels and they thought, you know, one was more successful than the other. And then we went and actually really looked Yes. At what was closing at what wasn't, and they were completely raw. Yes. And so, you know, I think, I think you're right. Having a feeling is much different than having actionable data that you can test, measure and, you know, act upon.

Taylor:

Absolutely.

Kat:

Okay, well let's, let's do something to help our guys out there. Let's walk these integrators through the process. So if somebody has never built a formal marketing budget, bless your heart, how and where should they start?

Taylor:

So for me,I think it starts with going to what is your goal? And I would start with revenue, right? So like, let's look at next year's revenue, for example. Um, where do you want to be again, are you trying to grow? Are you trying to stay the same? And then we can kind of work backwards from there? Oftentimes, we can look at something as simple as a percentage of revenue. Hey, I'm gonna allocate, if, if I'm trying to hit 3 million, I'm gonna allocate, let's say five to 8%. And that's gonna be my marketing budget, and that's gonna help support the sales that I need in order to realize the, those revenue goals. Mm-hmm. Um, from there though, you also have to look at like, what's your average project size, right? What's your close rate? We talked about it again, accompanying. The strategy and the actions that follow the marketing specifically on the sales side, that's gonna be necessary to kind of help close the loop and, you know, help you achieve these goals. Um, so knowing that, so knowing your cost per lead also is super helpful. You know, if someone's calling in, for example, um, and is interested, ask 'em how did they hear about you guys? You know, like, it, it sounds very simple and basic, but it's in, in reality. It's not something that we do or our customers do, um, consistently. And if they did it, they'd be, you know, certainly in a position to be more successful. And then again, kind of going back to focusing on what works again with the, the, the knowledge that what you did last year from a marketing standpoint may not necessarily be what's gonna work this year. Or, you know what, Ron always says at our CEO, he says, what, you know, ha has gotten you here, will not necessarily get you there. Right? And so the same principle applies as it relates to marketing and, and budgeting as well.

Kat:

I think you said some stuff that's really interesting in that, that I think a lot of our dealers maybe either don't pay attention to or don't pay enough attention to, which is, you know, thinking about the types of projects they're doing, you know, what their resources allow them to do. If, if you only have so many guys, you can only do so many jobs a year, and if those jobs are X size, are we marketing for more of those jobs? Are we trying to get little jobs to fill them in? Like what, what are we doing and how does that affect that revenue?

Taylor:

A hundred percent. Yeah. I mean, and I think it all goes back to, you know, we, so we talked about like defining, you know, the revenue targets that you, you want, but certainly you could go beyond that and say, well, of that four, three or 4 million or whatever I'm trying to achieve, how do I want that to be comprised? Do I want a million, you know, little jobs and I'm doing, you know, mounting TVs and TVs, things of that nature? Or do I want to do the, the more higher end stuff and do fewer of that? Just knowing what you want to achieve, you can work backwards to get there. So if your goal is to, Hey, I only want high-end projects, great, we can start looking at how can we market to those type of consumers who are looking for those type of projects and not the people who are, you know, need help hanging the TV or mounting the tv, et cetera.

Kat:

Yeah. And again, no judgment, whatever we Right. There's zero

Taylor:

right and wrong. There's something for everybody out there for

Kat:

sure. And there's a tactic for everything out there, right? Indeed. And there's a, there's ways to get those people. Okay, well that's, I mean, that's really great advice. 'cause I don't think that's something people think about enough. Maybe. Um, and I'm guessing this all ties back into, you know, knowing your numbers as we've kind of talked about, but average customer value, maybe something interesting that our customers don't think about either.

Taylor:

Absolutely. You know, it's something we've tried to practice more and more here on Firefly, right? And looking at, you know, especially if you're offering any sort of service plan or you have any recurring revenue coming in, knowing how long your customers are staying with you, um, you know, what are they paying you over the lifetime, right? Whether that's project by the way or recurring, it's, it doesn't really matter. Knowing what to expect, that can help you work backwards to see like. From an ROI perspective and the cost per lead, um, to try to help you again, make those decisions that you're gonna need to achieve those goals.

Kat:

And I mean, in a similar vein, you're those existing customers. You wanna boost that lifetime value, they're your easiest people to sell more stuff to.

Taylor:

Absolutely. It's, it's far more expensive to go out and acquire a new customer than it is to sell to an existing customer. So again, if you track it and you're measuring it, you can change it. Right. So maybe we, maybe we should,

Kat:

the quote Taylor, I was like,

Taylor:

I see the quote right now under the little caption. Yeah. Um, and, and that's something we've, that's a principle by the way, that we've practiced here as a, as a leadership team that went firefly. If we start seeing something that we want to improve, then we track and measure that over, you know, whatever period, weekly, monthly, quarterly, and we can then take the actions and the tactics necessary. To try to make those better. So in that case, if it's improving our average spend per customer or customer lifetime value, we can track it over time and see, Hey, how are we doing? Is what we're doing working to try to move those numbers up?

Kat:

Well, and I love that 'cause I think it leans into the message that marketing isn't only for new customers, it's also for your existing customers. And it's something people forget and we're a referral based industry.

Taylor:

Absolutely. Yeah. Yeah. Especially with the rate, I think that that technology is changing as well and mm-hmm. You might not think about the customer that you sold, you know, three or four years ago, but they may be in a position where they're ready to upgrade and that could be pretty sizable and, um, that could be potentially very lucrative.

Kat:

Well, and they're also people that move a lot. These are, yes. These are second home people and people will upgrade their homes and build new ones. So yeah, those relationships are just as valuable as new ones or if not more so.

Taylor:

Definitely.

Kat:

Okay. So we know why, we know how, we know what we need to measure. We've got some steps. Now, do you recommend when you're putting together a budget, a certain percentage of your revenue, we talked about, you know, building it backwards. Um, does that revenue, does that percentage shift? You know, if you wanna grow, if you wanna just maintain. What, what's the benchmark there?

Taylor:

Yeah, for sure. So I, I think if you're wanting to grow, you know, anywhere from eight to 12%, again, we could say, to what degree do you want to grow? I want to grow 1%. Okay, well, you know, that might differ then I want to double my business. Right, so it's a sliding scale. Yeah. But let's just say growth in general. Let's say anywhere between 8% and 12%. Your total revenue should be spent on marketing related activities, not all on one thing, right? That could be many different things that encompass that many different strategies, um, and tactics that would encompass that marketing spend. But if you're just wanting to, let's say, stay steady state. Um, anywhere from five to 8%. I mean, we have, you know, some customers or folks that we've spoken with have been actively spending less than 1%. So I think a good next step is like, how much are you spending? Just like, what is that current number right now? And then we can kind of work backwards from your goal of what you're trying to achieve. See what might be effective.

Kat:

Well, I think you mentioned something interesting in there too, is that there are things that are in your marketing budget as a business that you might not consider. Like your branded shirts, your vehicle wraps. Yes. Your business, like all of that is in part of that marketing spend. So we're not just talking about websites and digital markets, not just

Taylor:

ad spends, not just social media, anything like that. Right. And you know, another differentiating factor is too, like are you trying to. You know, we, we talk about growth in, in terms of revenue growth, but if you're trying to break into, let's say, a new type of market or a new category, like if you've been doing smaller jobs, you really want to just get that sort of upper echelon, that higher tier, you might have to spend more, regardless of whether, you know, your revenue's gonna grow it, it may take more In order to try to reach that different type of consumer.

Kat:

No, that's, that's, that's actually really interesting. I haven't thought about it that way. I've learned something today, although we've also gotten a very nice close, so I'm, I'm pleased. Um, okay. So, okay. So we're, we've gotten all the places, we've built the budget, we've got our steps, we've, we're working backwards. We've got our goals. Now, how do we make sure it's actually working? I know we've said test and measure a lot, but should these integrators look for when they're tracking to know that they're getting a return on their investment?

Taylor:

Well, I think one of the, the major piece is just to have a, an infrastructure in place to be able to track and measure that data, right? So you wanna, again, whether you're doing it yourself or you're working with an agency. Um, you know, try to see what's, what's working from a, a lead standpoint. What's your cost per lead? Um, again, looking at your, your close rates, things of that nature. By the way, if you don't have a CRM, you know, and I know, I realize that not all customers do. You can track it in other ways. I mean, there was a, a day and time where Firefly in early days did not have a CRM. We were using, you know, Excel and Google Sheets and things of that. Hey,

Kat:

and that

Taylor:

can get the job done right to a certain degree. The the point is, is that you want to have something in place to help you track that because it kinda like going back to our earlier part of our conversation, if you, if you measure it, um, and track it, you can change it. So just, just make sure that you have that infrastructure in place to be able to change it so that when we do allocate those funds, we can start looking at the aforementioned, you know, metrics to see if it's working. Hmm. You know, that's, that's the challenge. Marketing is always changing. The world is changing. Technology's changing. So again, what worked last year is not necessarily gonna work this year. So we want to be able to track it so that we can put more funds with what is working and is effective and less where it's not,

Kat:

what I'm hearing, Taylor, is data not vibes.

Taylor:

Oh, that's, I think you talk about quotes. There we go,

Kat:

quote forever.

Taylor:

Yes.

Kat:

Because I think you hit on something really, really powerful. Earlier when you said people, I feel like the phone's not ringing. Mm-hmm. Or I feel like we're too busy or. If we're too busy, does that mean we're not making money or are we making money? I don't know. And if we are making money, are we reinvesting that? Are we, what are we doing as a business to, to level up or, you know, rein reinvest or not? Or like, how do you know? I,

Taylor:

I totally agree. And look, I, I can also recognize that it may, you know, there may be some people listening out there who might be sort of like, oh, that sounds great, but man, that sounds like such a lift. To be able to put everything in place to track this. And the reality is, in some cases it can be a little bit harder at first before it gets easier. But I can promise you once even some of the basics are set up, life is gonna get so much easier in terms of being able to make those decisions. That, again, are gonna have a better impact for you and your business.

Kat:

Okay. And we've, we've talked a little bit today about, you know, testing, measuring, tracking things don't work sometimes like they did before and the world changes, et cetera. So if something is underperforming, how do you decide whether to tweak it or just scrap it?

Taylor:

Yeah, I mean, I think it probably depends on the degree of, of, of which it's underperforming, right? Um, you, you know, certainly I would recommend not going back to the data, you not making rash decisions. Like if I'm getting less leads than I was through a specific channel last year, for example, I'm not gonna just be like, oh, cancel it, you know, it's done. I'm gonna say, well, what could we change about it? Is it, is it the copy? Is it creative, is it the imagery? What, what was, you know, something that was, was working, it's not working. What could be changed or tweaked? That would be great. 'cause if we can tweak those things and get those results to, you know, be more sustainable, then that's great. Um, but if not, if it's, if it's purely not working, we're trying something, it's just not happening, then Absolutely. And the data's also validating that then cut it and reallocate those funds. I guess that'd be one of my major takeaways. Don't just try something and say, and you don't get results and say, all right, well then I'm not gonna just do marketing or I'm gonna cut my marketing budget. Right. No, it just means that that component or that aspect of marketing that you were trying, you know, wasn't as effective. So there's a million other different strategies in ways and tactics that could be deployed that might lead to much better outcomes. And so a lot of this, you mentioned KA, is about testing and measuring. If we all knew like the, the one strategy that was gonna work for everybody, I think we'd all be, you know, we'd all be rich being on beaches and, and yeah, having yachts right now, but

Kat:

if only there was that magic, magic pill I, yeah. If we found that somebody let me know. Okay. Well you, you said something interesting in there, and I think as we come towards the end of our conversation, you mentioned one takeaway, but if you could gimme some like rapid fire takeaways for our listeners out there, practical things that these integrators can do right now, this quarter to make their marketing budgets more effective.

Taylor:

Yeah, for sure. So I'd say, you know, start with your goal in mind. I think it's never, it's not too early to start thinking about next year. I mean, it's crazy to think it's already mid August. It's what, like mm-hmm. It's nuts. Um, so next year is going be here before we know it. And so it's, it's not too early to start planning next year and, and putting those targets on the board and then working backwards from that. All right. If, if I want to do the X number next year, what are, what should I be spending? And, um, you know, looking at those different strategies, start to look at your framework. Do you have a, are you in a position to, to be able to measure, um, whether these things are effective or not? These strategies are effective. You know, what's your cost per lead? What's your, your close rate for sales? You know, some of these metrics are gonna help you make better decisions. And then, you know, make sure your CRM is optimized. If you don't have a CRM, have something in place that can at least track things in a way that can help you make these decisions. And then, you know, finally, I mean, I kind of mentioned it I think on our, um, cash or stash question, but. You know, I, I mentioned the website. I, I love the idea of having something that's representing you and your brand out there in a very polished way. Maybe that's your website. Hopefully it is. But, you know, there are other opportunities to do that through other, you know, that could be a, a case study, let's say with a design partner or, you know, a brochure, something that is conveying the type of experience, um, that you're bringing and the value that you're bringing, um, to, to your clients.

Kat:

I love that. 'cause I think we all know as human beings, short attention spans, perception is reality. What people see is what they believe and what they remember. So yeah, having, having an a high value asset out there that represents you really well is, is important.

Taylor:

Well said.

Kat:

Well, um, this has been incredibly valuable, especially for me. You know, I'm not a business owner, but I talk to dealers a lot and I know they struggle with how, how their, what their business structure is and if they're doing it right, if they're doing it wrong, how do we know? Just, I think hearing a little bit from you and, and your experience is gonna be really, really good for them. So thank you so much for sharing your expertise today.

Taylor:

My pleasure. Thanks for having me.

Kat:

I loved it. So, okay, before we go though, I do want you to do one more thing before I, before I let you get back to your life. What is the single best piece of advice that you would give an integrator? I

Taylor:

can only pick one. Oh man.

Kat:

One,

Taylor:

um, I, I, I would probably say that I would not treat marketing as an expense to minimize. But rather looking at it as an investment, right? So if you're looking at your p and l, you don't want to say like, well, if I could cut marketing in half, I'd have even more profit, right? Like, that's, um, not a recommended strategy. I would say this is something that is going to help fuel you and fuel and sustain. And ideally, if you're trying to achieve that, grow your business over time. Help you avoid those peaks and valleys that we talked about, and, um, just have you be more successful in all. So. Yeah, treat it as an investment, not an expense.

Kat:

I, yeah. Couldn't agree more. Um, okay. Well thank you Taylor. I will let you get on back to your day. and thank you audience for listening to us again here at Automation Unplugged. If you enjoy today's episode, don't forget to like, subscribe, and join us for our next conversation.

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Ron Callis is the CEO of One Firefly, LLC, a digital marketing agency based out of South Florida and creator of Automation Unplugged. Founded in 2007, One Firefly has quickly became the leading marketing firm specializing in the integrated technology and security space. The One Firefly team work hard to create innovative solutions to help Integrators boost their online presence, such as the elite website solution, Mercury Pro.

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Resources and links from the interview:

• • Katharine Wheeler LinkedIn Profile Page

• • Taylor Whipple LinkedIn Profile Page
    
    
• • Marketing Experts Episode 239 - Measuring What Matters: How CRM Integration Improves Marketing ROI