All about Marketing
There is no better way to learn, other than conversing with Passionate Marketers. đź’Ż
I really wanted to understand the “why and how” behind the Relationship Flywheel concept which I learned during one of the sessions which Pablo had conducted for Peak Community. Thank you to him for sharing his insights with us.
Pablo Gonzalez is the inventor of the Relationship Flywheel™️, host of the B2B Community Builder and Not Your Average Investor Shows, and Co-Founder of BeTheStage.live- a marketing agency that turns clients into community and community into your greatest business development asset. He’s obsessed with human connection, and he’s used his expertise to grow non-profits, sell $60M+ construction projects, rescue fledgling start-ups, set record breaking quarters for $100M+ companies, and be named a Latino Leader of the Future and a Top 20 Under 40 various publications. More than anything, he’s dying to be your friend.
Let’s ace up our marketing knowledge.
• What is that one marketing blunder which organizations keep on repeating and takes the shape of “best practice”
The biggest mistake I see marketers make is prioritizing lead capture over the chance to build relationships. Your brand is roughly equal to the number of times someone sees you, multiplied by the impression you make on them. When marketers keep their content behind lead capture walls, they cannot show up in front of their prospects as often as they should, and are making an initial first impression of selfishness over generosity.
• Relationship Flywheel, can you share an example of who is driving success by adopting this concept
JWB Real Estate Capital’s cofounder and CMO Gregg Cohen, had spent 2019 trying to create a content mix that was educational, inspirational, and entertaining while driving inbound sales opportunities for his team. He had tried developing multiple webinars throughout the year, shooting content while golfing with partners, getting the team to contribute whenever there was an AHA moment in the office, and a myriad of other plays for YouTube and Facebook, but their inbound digital leads still made up less than 10% of their overall sales, despite 1,200 website visitors per month.
In January 2020, they implemented the Relationship Flywheel- creating an online talk show that delivered weekly interactions between them, a singular strategic relationship, and a live online audience that was then repurposed into YouTube, podcast, social media, and written collateral. By the end of Q1, the online shows gave them enough feedback to realize their website positioning did not match client’s perceptions, so a redesign was implemented. By the end of Q2, the online channel had grown by 45%. By the end of 2020, this play completely flipped their funnel. The channel grew to be 65% of their sales at 1/6th the previous channel’s acquisition costs.
Throughout 2021, the versatility and momentum of the Flywheel has increased. The online community has grown to over 3,000 active members. Individual members began to host meetups in their local areas that brought new clients in with zero extra effort by JWB. They have added the content created from the shows to a paid ad strategy that, combined with FB live, drives 150-200 leads in a week to a minimal friction nurture mechanism. JWB could host a live event that, with zero ads and under $1,000, brought 30 investors from around the country to Jacksonville for a day of community that created even more valuable content and social validation.
Going into 2022, the live event strategy will now be expanded into key cities where they have nodes of superconsumers. The talk show itself continues to sit at the center of their marketing program, where they will start driving attendance to paid ads to increase the average attendance of 70-100 weekly clients and prospects interacting with each other. The content they’re creating will also expand the tent to compare rental property investing to other alternative asset classes that continue to draw attention. Gregg, the CMO/cofounder, is now also being offered stages to speak on- podcast, media, in person- that will expand the message of the show and recruit members to the community.
• We are venturing in 2022, what do you think will drive marketing world next year
The world now can truly build relationships at scale. The lines between what the best salespeople do and entire marketing teams can do are completely blurred. As a result, marketing will continue to move into more Human 2 Human interactions. This means:
• Deliberately creating online or in person moments where prospects, clients, and company teammates can interact in a non-transactional way, i.e. online talk shows, AMA sessions, office hours, networking events, etc
• Enabling the production of content from internal team members that have value to offer prospects and clients, increasing their exposure and building their personal brand
• The sharing of internal processes and other findings usually kept hidden as tactical advantages will be understood to be valuable sources of content that can drive trust i.e. recording and showing parts of internal meetings, sharing SOP’s and how they were created, highlighting tools and technologies that are being employed, making internal training programs public, etc
• Basically, content creation and community will get more and more embedded into everything
• Any fun story while dealing with different clients which has left a lasting impact on you
The ability to serve clients as a trusted partner is an underrated experience. I used to think my job was simply to make them happy. Now, I realize that my role in their life is simply to create as much value as possible for them AND for me. The latter part has been the real game changer. As I learn about my clients’ businesses, I am learning about business. Their best qualities are now the strategies I look at when creating the roadmap for my organization. I’ve learned the importance of core values, how to embed them into the culture of my team, how to drive ownership thinking, how to build consensus-based decision making into my leadership style, and many other things from being in the room with my clients as they operate. In a similar fashion, I share what is working for us (including what we’re learning and implementing from our other clients). This is continuous process of learning, implementing, and sharing best practices is a flywheel unto itself.
• What will be your top three advice for marketers who are aiming to be CMOs
- Learn about everything you can learn about that isn’t marketing inside your company. Understanding the other facets of the business, how other industries/companies work, and how different people think and operate will be both an endless fountain of ideas and a tactical advantage when trying to convince a team to execute on your ideas.
- The person you report to has the biggest influence in your career. If you’re not working for someone who is actively giving you opportunities to fail forward and grown, you will be stuck there until it changes.
- MAKE CONTENT AND GROW YOUR NETWORK. The world is headed there. The more familiar you are with the creation and distribution of content and build your own personal brand. The more options you will have. You should have an active LinkedIn, YouTube channel, podcast, blog, and email list. If you don’t, start working on it.
With this, wrapping up 2021! Wish you and your family a very Happy New Year!
