Businesses have traditionally focused on communicating what they offer - products or services... This may lead to short-term wins, but sooner or later the lack of communication at a category level will occur which negatively impacts your sales pipeline.
In this episode, we explore the 1st stage of demand: Create & Channel Demand.
We walk you through examples of B2C and B2B businesses and how they're creating & channelling demand in the 21st century by focusing on their category.
Access monthly revenue generation insights via email: https://www.searchkingsafrica.com/new...
Access weekly insights from Grant here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/grant-gre...
Follow SearchKings™ Africa on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/3328...
Visit our website: https://www.searchkingsafrica.com/
Businesses have traditionally focused on communicating what they offer - products or services... This may lead to short-term wins, but sooner or later the lack of communication at a category level will occur which negatively impacts your sales pipeline.
In this episode, we explore the 1st stage of demand: Create & Channel Demand.
We walk you through examples of B2C and B2B businesses and how they're creating & channelling demand in the 21st century by focusing on their category.
Access monthly revenue generation insights via email: https://www.searchkingsafrica.com/new...
Access weekly insights from Grant here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/grant-gre...
Follow SearchKings™ Africa on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/3328...
Visit our website: https://www.searchkingsafrica.com/
thanks so much for joining us Breaking Down Revenue Gen. And today we're gonna talk about that first stage of demand, uh, that we refer to in the first episode. So if you haven't, or if you can't remember a lot about what we discussed in the first episode, please definitely go check it out. It is on YouTube, um, on demand for you and in today in terms of the first episode. What this really relates to, then in the first, um, stage of demand is where we create and channel demand. And just in terms of a recap, remember that the stages of demand are kind of like the, the other side of the same coin where we traditionally have been looking at marketing, sales, and customer success. But then if you look on the other side of the coin, what we a advocate for here is that you really focus on the area when it comes to stages of demand because that directly relates then to generating revenue and without demand, of course, we don't have any option, um, or possibility of generating revenue in the first place. So for today, remember that the stages of demand, there are four stages of demand. The first stage, which we're gonna go through now, which is where we create and channel demand; the second stage, capture demand. Third stage, convert the demand that you've captured, and then fourth stage finally, where you fulfill that demand. So without furthered you, let's jump in. Right? So in terms of the first, um, the first stage of demand. Around creating and channeling that demand. The definition here is that it's the moment when a known or anonymous individual consumes your content via distribution channel, right? And what we're gonna discuss and work through today, together with the, um, the, the practical framework as well as real life application is around the content. How to really look at your content strategy going forward, as well as then what distribution channels are available for you to then distribute that content of whatever kind that you've created. If we go then first into content, now a lot of the times what we have been trained to do is we need to think about our customer, right? And then we need to think how our product or how our service fits in, alright, to the customer's life and specifically to a pro problem or pain point that they're experiencing. And we are the, the solution, while product or service is the solution to their problem. And so it's a very much of what we call a product marketing angle, very heavily focused on what you are offering. And so we really focus then on exactly, um, all the content around what we offer, why it will benefit you, and we really stay within that particular framework. That's not wrong or it's not necessarily completely incorrect, but we are missing another element, which, which creates a, a tremendous amount of long term benefit versus the short term benefit. Realize when we purely focus on our offering. And so how you can think about this, and this, to my knowledge, was first, um, kind of explained and, and, and kind of really articulated by a guy called, Chris Walker from Refine Labs and he focuses here around, instead of our offering, starting our content creation around our offering, we need to focus on the category side. And so what I've split out here is that in all of our businesses, we, we have a particular category, a broad, broad overview of where we fit in, like an umbrella, and then we're in a particular industry. And then finally we have an offering within that. And so again, going back to the point where creating and, and channeling demand is both the creation of demand that didn't exist in the first place, and then channeling the demand that does exist, right? So there are particular distribution channels that really help with channeling demand, and then there are other distribution channels that, that say have a waiting toward helping you create demand that doesn't even exist in the first place. And so if we take this structure, right, practically speaking, like I said before, we tend to always focus on our offering. So we're creating content we're trying to create and then therefore, um, get, um, get eyeballs on the product or the service related offering where that's in the short. That really helps because those are people that are really, really, um, you know, kind of far in the, in the buying, um, journey. But we still have a lot of people. Where you'll be able to create demand that isn't even there if you focus on the category as well. Right. And. The focus here is again, specifically on the category, and I wanna share an example, just what we're doing here at Search Queens Africa. So what we've decided is, okay, so our core offering that we're, that, that, that we provide is Google Ads. Okay? That's kind of the tool that we use in order to focus on paid Google marketing. Now, the industry that we're in is in marketing, but the category that we're focusing on is literally, uh, revenue generat. So revenue generation then is far more encompassing around traditionally speaking, marketing, sales, and customer success. But flipping it on the other side of the coin, the four stages of demand that now we are being, um, advocates for, to make sure, specifically with a South African lens. Businesses truly understand that we're in 2022 and beyond, versus back in 2010 when the, the entire buying experience was substantially different to what it is today. And so within the Search King's Africa side of things we're then as a consequence of focusing really on that revenue generation side, able to create demand that may not have been exist in the first phase. And practically what I mean for by that is that there may be people that never even consider. That Google was relevant to their business. And I know you may be questioning what that, that's, that's very unlikely. But there are still people today in South Africa that still don't necessarily see how Google can fit within their entire revenue generation strategy. So that's really for our hope, is that people see a broader perspective. And there are things that we, and there are topics that we share and we talk about now that we don't necessarily. But we really wanna make sure that across the board people, um, have the benefits of knowledge and insights to make better decisions. And then at a particular point in time, because we still do, um, marketing, um, around the, the, the offering side of things at that level in that particular time, if they do want to then move towards, uh, using say Google and service. We will then be top of mind relative to the fact that we've been helping them at the category level instead of purely just, um, isolated toward what we actually do offer. So that's on, on the Search Kings Africa side of things. Here's another customer of us. This customer is called Legendary Milk. Okay. So what they provide, they're offering, okay, they're offering is breastfeeding supplements. So it's for mothers. And the mothers, um, use the supplements to make sure that they have a, um, a call it a consistent or sustainable, uh, breastfeeding. Production or you know, kind of performance there. And so what has happened now is that they've been focusing then on the breastfeeding supplement side of things. But if you really think about it beyond the industry, which is retail, They're in the baby market, right? And as a consequence of, when I say babies, I also mean mothers in, in a very, um, uh, direct nature. And so we actually had a discussion with them this week, and the discussion was really around the fact that they're focusing so much on the breastfeeding supplements i e they're offering, right? Cause they're in the B2C game, Dar um, they're, they're selling straight to consumers, to mothers, um, and parents. And so literally, If they're gonna focus on this, it's great. And it's, it's great for the moms that that, that really know that this is out there already. But there's a, a ton of moms that don't necessarily have the knowledge and the awareness that these types of supplements are out there and how they can, um, can. Create that demand in the first place is going up towards their category level and focusing more around the baby. Right? And then how the connection happens between the mom and the baby. And so we're, I'll go into some examples later on, but the, the mere fact that they now moving towards thinking about creating. In this case, specifically content at a category level, it allows them to, at an umbrella stage, capture a far, far, um, bigger number of people that wouldn't have actually even known they exist in the first place. So that's in terms of say, a BTC example. Then we've got a B2B example. This is another customer of ours and they are called ERG Industrial. They specifically focus on providing blasting consumable. So they've got a proprietary technology that they use to, um, to offer mining companies This part. Consumable slash equipment whereby it helps, uh, increase the blasting effectiveness of open, open, um, open core minds as an example. But if you really think about it in an industry level, they're in mining, but fundamentally at a category level, they're in commodities. And what they've been focusing on is not just, Hey, we provide blasting, you know, consumables. They've really kind of gone beyond. Right, and I'll sh and I'll share the distribution channel later that they've been, that they've been working on, and they've. Own the category of commodities and it really has set them apart from anyone else that's purely just focusing on their product offering in this case, because a lot of the times, remember that if we purely focus on our offering, and if you're in a product related business, you, you tend or there's a risk of you commoditizing yourself and excuse the pun in terms of the example, but you, you, you ex, you literally stand the risk of. Of, of commoditizing what you're doing and there is no differentiation of your product versus, uh, your rivals product. And so when you go to a category level, all of all of a sudden you start, you have an opportunity to then create. A differentiating and advantage over time because you're not, not, not just limiting yourself to, Hey, this is what we offer and we are specialists within this. You actually go high into the category level and you now become an authoritative figure or like authority in, in, in, in a broader category. Um, and then that creates a lot of trust and therefore that filters down to towards. Of course I'm gonna go with you versus that other business that, you know, only focuses or hasn't really provided me with a lot of value beyond just, you know, this isolated, uh, topic. So that's just a B2B example, and I'm gonna go through some other examples as I, as I explain now around the distribution channel. Okay. So just to recap again, at this stage, one of demand we need to create and we need to channel demand and the creation and channeling of demand. Is when a known or anonymous individual is consuming content via distribution channel, right? And so in terms of now the distribution channel, now that we've ticked off the content side that we need to, instead of purely just focusing on our offering, we need to go higher up into the category side, right? So that we literally have more opportunity to create more demand that doesn't exist. And then channel more demand based on the fact that we are far more trusted because we're seen as. And as a far more encompassing, um, company, when it comes to that particular content, we now need to make sure we understand the distribution channel that we're going to, that we're going to focus on the varying distribution channels, but more importantly, understanding our customers and what distribution channels they're using to fulfill their lives to, you know, get on with their daily lives and solve problems that they have. So the first one is the offline. So we've got offline and we've got. So the offline distribution channel consists of a varying medium, so we all know this. TV and radio, print, billboards, and signage T. Um, and, and your actual product because bearing in mind you literally have an opportunity your product can communicate, um, you know, other areas that, uh, you would never be able to do elsewhere. So, offline, I'm not gonna go into that today because I think most of us have experience, um, or at least especially as a, as as consumer. We, we've got this top of, um, experience around the offline mediums that are used to distribute content to us. Online is really where I wanna focus today and the online, uh, mediums in which I've shared here today. And again, you know, if you have other suggestions of what you think should be included in your after the session, then please feel free to add to it because, you know, I think we are, we are just kind of planting the seed. Um, and definitely with more perspectives and more systems we can get this, um, you know, kind of even more articulate, um, going forward. But in terms of the online side of things, in terms of that distribution channel, We've got social, we've got communication, a search engine results page. So that's like typically Google, right? There's also other ones, but you know, the focus here, especially in South Africa, the most dominant, um, in more than 90% of the market share, uh, is Google as your search engine, your search engine results page that you, that you actually navigating as a consumer. And then maps. And again, in this case, for the most part, we're using Google. Um, and by the way, if you use ways, Ways is owned by Google, so you're actually also using Google. And then lastly, we've got web, the website as a particular channel. And it's the one that, you know, most of us pay a lot of attention to. But I'm gonna get into some, some advice and some examples around what to consider there as well. So if we go first to social and communication, the most important thing you had to note is, The social and the communication distribution channels from our experience have created a, have, have, have really allowed you to do both the creation and the channeling of demand, Okay? Versus your, your Google search engine results page, as well as maps that, um, really focus on, on the channeling of demand. But of course, you still can create demand, uh, through those channels as well. So on the social side of things, So we all know LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram. Right? TikTok, of course, has, has, has come. But less, less known in terms of a social media platform is YouTube and Spotify. Right. I'm not even gonna go as far as to say that Apple Music is, is is as, call it social as Spotify because social, because, uh, Spotify is really created a, a platform that, that embraces the social sharing side of, of, of audio, not. Uh, music, now they're going into podcasts and they're going into, uh, video podcast as well. And now they're also going into books. So they really are trying to create a what, um, you know, what a, what their CEO said, an audio company, Bernards even going beyond their, um, and so I definitely consider them to be also part of the social environment. And if we look at them on a practical example in the social. Let's look at, um, let's look at, uh, my example that I shared earlier with the BTC company. Legendary. So legendary. They're focused, if you think about it now, where they could actually look at creating a channel on YouTube that specifically relates to. The, the, the mom that, we'll call it the stages of life of a baby and what moms can do to capture the, you know, the best moments and make sure that they're supporting their child to the best of their ability as well as taking care of themself. Okay? And if you focus on that category level, they, why the distribution channel, in this case being YouTube, they will then be in a position where moms will benefit from the content that they're watching on YouTube. It's not necessarily around breastfeeding supplements, but as a consequence of the trust that is being built as a, um, from the knowledge that they're attaining and the fact that they're now sharing it across their, their social groups. When a mom then starts to wonder, Okay, hang on, what is the, what? Like, what does this business do? And they go through a discovery process through their buying journey. And then I found out, hang on, I couldn't even know that this product exists. Um, this is really great. And I know a friend or myself that really is interested within this product because either they've just had a baby or they just bar to have a baby and. You know, their, their first born baby, you know, they also struggled with, with breastfeeding. And so that's a perfectly example in terms of them using a distribution channel like YouTube to focus on a category level content. And as a consequence of that, that allows them to create more demand and not only just focus on channeling the existing demand. Okay. And then in the B2B example, If, if you're a B2B business and you're not on LinkedIn and I'm specifically talking through a South African lens, now you really do need to get on board. And you, you may have particular, you know, um, kind of ideas or thoughts around, around what LinkedIn is doing right now, But it's really important to understand that South Africa, by my estimates is. Three years behind, uh, the US and the UK in terms of the maturity and the adoption of LinkedIn. And so to give you an example now with ERG Industrial, the company that I mentioned before, providing the, the, the blasting consumables. The, the, the, the founder, um, and his and his co-founder, Dave, should be very, very, very active on LinkedIn and as a consequence of them being active on LinkedIn and more specifically creating content not only around purely just blasting, but around the, the professional career within, say the commodities market. They have attained a tremendous following and they've attained tremendous engagement, not only in South Africa but internationally, and literally from what is happening now is they, they're another angle of, of what they're actually doing is they making mining cool. They literally are creating content and a lot of video content with drone images, uh, or drone video. And they're really trying to focus on just ex exposing mining and the commodities market as a whole, whether it be coal, whether it be, um, any metal that we can think of where each mine, you know, um, is a specialist or each particular region in South Africa as an example, specializes in or has, has those raw materials. They are now being advocate. For those particular, um, commodities across South Africa and actually even abroad. And they've, they've, because of the, the engagement and the audience, that audience that they've built now, they really are getting insights and they're getting, um, demand that would've never, ever. Existed. Right? So they're creating them on, that would've never existed unless people actually knew first about they're, uh, engaging, insightful, and, and sometimes even entertaining content that they're sharing, specifically video content. And as a consequence of that, then people then go, Wait does actually work? And as a consequence of finding out where they worked. People then go, Oh geez, I didn't even know that this was possible. We've been throwing stones in the, in the hole for agents and, and literally we're in a position now where it actually, actually, with, that's another example to actually, um, to look at as well. So then this is on the social side. And again, think about your business. Really think about your business now around. The first of the fact is do not try to do every single distribution channel. When it comes to social, you will exhaust the limited resources that you have. So you really need to first think about where is your ideal customer, right? Your ideal customer profile. Where are they right now? Where are they going to consume content? Is it LinkedIn? If you're in Btme market, highly likely that it's LinkedIn, right? If you're in the travel industry, Instagram more likely than not, and possibly even TikTok. And then on, on a, on a more, um, kind of wider spectrum, also YouTube, especially when it comes to influences and YouTubers that are creating their travel experiences through YouTube. Okay. Uh, if you're in the, if you're in the eCommerce phase, uh, and, and you're specifically say, focus, let's use the example around mothers, um, or say just even generally on, uh, for women. Um, and your, and your product is very, uh, there's a visual element to it. Then Instagram and, and, and remember that Facebook, Facebook is really, from our experience, the Facebook pages have really been poor. Um, I think the stats are and are stand to be corrected, but I think it's like of, um, for every post that you create on Facebook, you, you receive for every thousand, um, A thousand followers you have, it only reaches one of them. And so that's really concerning. And of course cuz Facebook wants you to, to, to boost your ads and stuff like that. And that's how they get you to reach your actual followership that you, that you've done, um, or hard work to get, but. That's why I think Instagram is, is, is much better. And then Facebook is um, uh, good in terms of the, the group side, like so actual groups that are created on Facebook. And then if you think of examples like neighborhood groups, if like I live in four ways, so literally there's a four ways neighborhood group on Facebook, and then that's where you can ask a particular questions. And that's literally where a lot of people then, Finding about other businesses that they didn't even know exist in the first place. So some businesses now, if you're in a business that is a very locally focused business, what I would highly recommend here is that you focus. Also on what neighborhood are you in? Are they neighborhood groups? Right. So that's your distribution channel from a social point of view. Okay, great. You need to be there and you need to not only just be saying, Hey, this is what services we provide are. I don't recommend you just hard sell like that. I think you need to add value to that community unconditionally, and as a consequence of you doing that without any conditions of trying to, you know, Sell to people directly. People then start to get to know you. And I'm not talking about your company page and I'm saying you as an individual, as as a person at the moment, you start doing that, people start recognizing that from what we've seen. All right, so let's take a step back. We're still dealing with, uh, distribution channels and we've just gone through the social side of things. Now we need to go through the second channel, which is. Communication. Right? So communication, we all do email. So that's, that's pretty standard, which I'm gonna get into right now around email marketing, WhatsApp, and then sms. Okay, now, In the WhatsApp wrong, it's still, it's still, um, in its infancy stage relative to where it can be when it comes to WhatsApp for business, as well as then creating actually WhatsApp groups specific to say particular regions or what you're offering and creating a, a community within a WhatsApp group. There is the other, um, platform, I haven't included it here, but it's called Discord and a lot of people now using Discord as well, and I think Telegram as. Sms. SMS is still in terms of the, uh, the, you know, the reach, um, and, and the most people. I think there's a very, very high open rate and read rate when it comes to sms. Um, but again, it's very difficult by SMS to communicate in a non-transactional way where it's purely focused on giving you insights or, or, or not just kind of like, um, you know, kind of saying, Hey, we've got a sale. So where we, I really wanna focus on today here is, is the email marketing side of things. And so email in its nature, we have especially like I would say, nine out of 10 customers that we, that we meet with, even prospective customers. Nine out of 10 of them are still going with the, with the 2010 mindset of email marketing, where email marketing is for me to focus on my offering, Okay. My product, my service, and to tell you what is happening with regards to a sale that's coming on today. And that's great, right? But it, not every single email. Right needs to have that transactional element where it's purely just, Hey, here's a discount, here's a sale. You know, please buy our product. And then on the B, that's specifically on a BTC side, but then in b2b, B2B is even worse. I think we're still in the, you know, kind of like the late 1990s where literally people are still talking about themselves and their white paper that they've just released and you know, an event that they've just been to and everything is about them. And the problem with that, like I've said beforehand, is there are a lot of people that's that, that you want to, that you wanna encourage to sign. Right to your monthly emailer that may not necessarily be in buying mode yet they may be still exploring. They, they, they may be in a position where they, where they're not gonna buy yet. So you need to make sure that the content that you are distributing to them is truly going to and unconditionally help them. And so that means that you need to again think then from a content point of view, More towards a category level around that person's experience. So, practically speaking, what we are doing here at Search Means Africa is, it's not just about signing up to our newsletter, right? It's about signing up to gain access to revenue generation insights. That completely changes the, the mindset around why I should sign up. Because if I'm going to give you my currency, which is literally my, my contact details for even if you never knew me, and then I arrived to your website and it said, You know, join our newsletter. First of all, never say that going forward. If you, if you've got that on your website, don't say, you know, sign up to our newsletter, say access, you know, join our community and receive special discounts, as an example. Um, or from what we do, we say access monthly insights around revenue generation. Right. So that's, that more indicates to you that what you're gonna benefit from then just, hey, you know, sign up to our thing because it's, it's great. And so what we've done then has, um, we've, we've started sharing monthly insights, and I'm talking off as a B2B example cause we're in the B2B space. We're sharing insights around tools that we're using that we highly recommend that you test out. We're sharing insights around, um, you know, the difference between marketing, sales, customer success. But on the other side now terms and stages of demand, we're sharing insights around how to, um, optimize the design of your website so that it increases the probability of capturing demand that is then channeled there. We're sharing. We're sharing insights, of course, around this podcast, giving people the option to actually join this podcast live via Zoom. And that you, you can't get access to that unless you join our monthly emailer. Right? So I think that's the type of, um, you know, content that we're trying to create that we, we, I don't think date we've, we've ever spoken on our emailer about Google. So literally what that means is that people then are truly getting content that, that, that relates to what they can implement within their business. Immediately after receiving that email, without having me phone them or you know, our team, phone them and try harass them around, Hey, you need to, you know, bar from us or, So you click something on the email and, and you know, do you wanna chat? People will come, especially in the BTB space, people will come to you when they are ready to. And a lot of the times in 2022 and beyond, we're in a, we are in an environment now where the buyer is, is the majority of their way through their buying journey before they even check with you or reach out to you in a direct way. So that's just an example, what we're, what we are doing in terms of a B2B email marketing side. What, what, um, I mentioned earlier what we've also advised legendary milk around is the fact. Their email, they've got thousands of people on their email, um, email list. And their email right now is f has been focused on product, product, product, product. But at the end of the day, they need to think about the mother, right? And of course, the mother's priority is their, their child or their children. And I think what is great here is that we are in a position now where if you focus them on a mother, And that mother has a lifestyle and you know, their child is a key priority, but they still love and enjoy going to restaurants. They still love and enjoy most likely, uh, treating themself because it's extremely, um, you know, strenuous being a mother in terms of everything you know, that, that you're doing. And so the recommendation there to them was, Like you need to segment your, your, your mail list by where people have ordered. So I e if I'm, if I've ordered and you've sent a to Hart or Johannesburg, uh, versus Cape Time, and then with that segmentation, you need to think about actually sending them in a, um, a restaurant recommendation in Cape Town or a new restaurant that opened up in Santon. And if you do that , it's got nothing to do with your breastfeeding. Um, supple. But it's got everything to do with your customer or your prospective customer. And it's something that really helps, um, them buy into the fact that you are truly helping them and not just purely trying to sell to them. And so if you, if you're in the BTC space and specifically focused on the product side of things, what I'd recommend you start thinking about is, well, what exactly should I. Be sharing with my, uh, my email list, which is a combination of people that are potentially my customer, had been my customer as well as I or currently my customers, what should I be sharing with them that doesn't necessarily just relate to my offering, that relates to the, like, the category of what I'm involved in so that I can help them, even if it doesn't even relate to them. My product or my, my, my service. So really think, um, a lot more about email marketing. It's not dead. Uh, you know, we, we started, uh, we started with this new strategy in September, 2020. Uh, one and, uh, today to, we've gone from an open rate of 24%, uh, to, and I think the engagement was like 1% and we've gone out to over 40. I think we are on 45% right now with an engagement rate. I think it's around 6%. And so really what that allows us to do, um, is first of all, genuinely distribute. Through email marketing value to people. And, and at the same time, we've received so many heartwarming messages around what they've actually done as a consequence of, of, of, of testing some of the tools or testing some, um, you know, some of the, the tactics. And again, it just builds trust. And if you think about it practically now, when someone is at a BRI as an example, and someone talks about, say Google ads. There's a higher probability of them now recommending us, right? And why? Because the feeling that comes from benefiting from an email is far better than actually, and you're wanting to distribute that then to, to your, to your social, uh, circle. And so that's what we call also around this entire distribution channel environment is this is helping you scale word of mouth. And I think that's a critical part around the communication channels now is we are as, as buyers, uh, if we put ourselves in our consumers positions, a lot of the times we are making decisions where we are chatting to people on our group, We're chatting to people, whether it be in the social or the communication channels, and we need to, as businesses, We need to make sure that we're in, we're included in there. And unfortunately, most of it isn't traceable, right? So the guy that I alluded to earlier, Chris Walker, he caused this a dark social. The dark social environment where people literally are in a position where they're sharing your content, they're sharing a lot of bark you and recommending you in these other areas like WhatsApp, Facebook groups, and so on. But you can't measure that. No attribution software is gonna measure that. And so you really need to think longer term. When it comes to exactly how you're going to facilitate that in future, and that spurs on the creation and the channeling of demand. All right, so that's on the communication side. Then if we go to Google now, please, there's SEO that we, that we get that that customers chat to us about, or even prospective customers. And then there's Google Ads and I'm just gonna talk about these. The first thing with seo, right? And again, we're not in 2010 anymore. And the reason why I say that is because there are two prongs to seo. SEO stands for search engine optimization. And most people, when they say, Hey, I need to invest in my seo, what they're trying to say to you is, Hey, I wanna be at the top of Google organically. Right? The concern that we have when we see, when, um, when we chat to, uh, customers and business owners and, and marketing decision makers about this, is if you're in the local services space, for example, and you only serve a particular neighborhood, You are more likely than not, even if you did rank organically, number one, you are probably eighth place because you've got three to four Google ads first. Then you've got, um, three, uh, around three to four listings on Google Maps. And then sometimes it even goes. People also ask for, so then you've got that segment and then it goes to the number one organic ranking, which is then eighth place or something like that. So just be mindful of the fact and, and, and what you're trying to do. And especially in the local services space, what we are finding is, Um, at the end of the day, you may think that people don't click on Google ads, but people do. And a lot of the, a lot of the times that people, most people, um, that haven't ever experienced working, say with Google ads, they, you know, they, they don't know like the how Google works and everything. They just care about. Finding results for their on, uh, you know, uh, finding answers for, for what they're searching for. So just, that's something to note around seo. But then just to quickly go into seo, where there are, there are two, there are two prongs to seo. The first prong in SEO is what we call it, technical seo. And examples of that is, is your site, is your website loading, you know, with within a certain. Is your website mobile responsive? Um, have you got the right meta titles and descriptions and um, site map and your readable by Google? All right. Your website is actually readable by Google. That's on the one side. That's super important. You need to focus on that. That needs to be, you know, straightforward there. Then on the other prong of SEO is content, and that's where someone says to you, Hey, you need to create a. And I would strongly recommend that you consider whether you need a blog, because if you think about where we have moved in the 21st century with the result of the mobile phone, but specifically a smartphone that has access to the internet, what this means is that your potential and your customers, they are consuming content natively on social and communication channel. And so what you need to think about is should we be investing in a blog or should we actually be creating like micro content and distributing it where people actually are consuming that content? And the critical element here as well is that in 2010, A lot more people were going to, to websites for knowledge. Now people are going to social media channels as well as communication channels for knowledge, right? For content around what they, you know, what they're looking for. And so you really need to make sure if you are, um, if, if you are considering a blog, If that is high on the priority list or if you need to do other things such as creating micro content on specific social channels for your customers, as well as if you're in local services on the fact that, you know, Google and specifically Google Ads now is highly, highly competitive and therefore there's always going to be people competing for, for your lunch ultimately. So that's on, that's on the ACO side is really have a think about that and understand that there's a difference between the technical ACO side as well as content aco. And then in terms of Google Ads, right? Google Ads used to be called Google AdWord and ad words, meaning search. In 2018, Google changed it from Google, AdWord to Google Ads. And the reason being is because now it's not just search, right? It is display, which, if you've ever been to a website and then you see banners, banners and stuff like that, you'll see that that is a display banner. And then you've got, um, then you've got the. The video side, which is YouTube, and of course Google owns YouTube. All right. YouTube's the second biggest search engine actually as well. Then there's shopping, right? And then there's apps, but we're not gonna talk about apps. But make sure that you are using, if you're in the Google ad space right now, make sure that you are not just using search right for the most body, and you're actually also using display and. So that you're using the, the channel across the board and if you're in the eCommerce side, shopping, um, uh, to, to the degree that it serves your strategy correctly. Right? So that's on the, on the, on the search engine results page as a channel, and then the map side. Just quickly. There's this, there's this integration, this link between our maps whereby you sit, you sit where you've got your map, so that's where people are searching for, you know, directions to go to your restaurant, to tour your, to your company. But as Google, what they have done now is they've realized the social signals that are required to help you with your buying decisions, and that's where Google reviews are coming in, as well as additional information about whether you're family friendly, whether you, you have disabled, um, you know, ACC access, um, you know, to to, to the venue. And so this is becoming extremely relevant. Especially for local services businesses, local goods businesses, whereby you're a restaurant or you're a retail store and you're serving a particular neighborhood, make sure that you do not, uh, make sure that you prioritize this and you do not overlook it, because it's very, very important. And if you do not have any reviews, And you're in this type of business, then you need to make sure that you invest in actually getting reviews. And if you ever want to chat about that, feel free to reach out to me even on LinkedIn. Very happy to give you some tips on, on how you can do that. So don't ignore maps because it is critical in terms of the entire buying journey. Lastly, in the distribution channel side of things is your website, right? Again, I'll repeat this, where your website. Has a specific role in the 21st century, and it is not to sell to your customer, It is not to complete the sale, right? So it's not too there to convert demand, per se, if you're in the, the, the services space or non eCommerce space, right? So if you're in non eCommerce or you're not selling stuff online, you, your role of your website is to capture demand. Not to convert demand, right? You capture the demand and then you start the conversion cycle where you then are trying to help the buyer finish buying right? In the eCommerce space, of course, what's happening is referring back now to the stage two and stage three of demand where you capture demand and you're convert demand. Most of the time in e-commerce, you are capturing and converting demand simultaneously, if you're an e-commerce site, uh, e-commerce business because, uh, what's happening. Is your, the person is most likely if it's their first time signing up for an account while they actually are, um, exiting their basket and paying. However, on that note, if you are an e-commerce and someone signs up to your monthly emailer, you've captured demand. You haven't converted, they've just signed up for your emailer. So make certain that you understand the role of your website going forward, and more likely than not, um, it isn't just about. Making your website like this wow factor with crazy animations and like as you move through it, it's kind of, I don't know, jumping around like. A lot of the times that is, that is a waste because that's what people were doing in 2010. You know, where websites were, were relatively not novel, and most people were accessing websites through desktops, through laptops, and now most people are accessing websites, especially for the first time from our analysis, more than 65% of people for the first time. They're accessing your website through their mobile phone and therefore you having jumping animations and random stuff. It really does defeat the purpose then, of the role of the website, which is basically answer three questions for someone. Um, how is this gonna, what are you offering? How is it gonna benefit me, and what action do I need to do to take it as a visitor on your side, what action do I need to do to take, uh, to, to gain those benefits? And the critical area there is that you need to make it very. The more aspirational, vague, philosophical that you get. And especially B2B businesses, they're super vague about like what they actually do and they say, We help you change your life. And like, that doesn't help me get to a point where I know exactly what you do and how it benefits me. People then drop off. Right? So we will be dealing with websites actually in the next, in the next episode, so please make. And that you join that one because that one's gonna be a real, a real good one. Audio optimize the conversion side of your website. And so in terms of the, the summary for today, the critical area is that we need to create and channel demand for your category and your offering. Right now, up until this day, you most likely have been focusing on your offering, but you need to go a step higher and look at the category that you want to own. And if you're an evangelist for the category and you're be an advocate for your category, more likely than that, that helps you create the demand that doesn't exist, and then have a stronger pull in channeling them on to your offering as and when buyers are ready to buy. And if you have any other questions, feel free to. But that's the core side of when it comes to stage one, which is creating and channeling demand. Does anyone have any questions? no questions at the moment, but Jean-Luc made a very good comment. Saying that what you're saying really resonates with him and his approach to digital marketing. Personally, clients he's worked with have seen some great reach and engagement using informative YouTube videos, focusing on helpful guides rather than just product showcases. Now, um, John, look, I wanna put you on the spot, but like, um, will you talk about client and their, like, informative YouTube videos? What exactly do you mean? Howsit guys, uh, Grant, firstly, thank you for a fantastic podcast so far. Uh, but when I talk about that, I'm talking about, uh, looking at a product range as a whole and just like the industry. So whether it be you talking about cars or you're talking about a product, that's it. Um, product specifically, we talk about, okay, what role does the suv, SUV. And choosing what you look for when buying suv. What are some of the pitfalls that you can, uh, can find instead of just focusing on, Oh, this is my suv, this is my car buy. So look at everything. What is the industry doing? So there's, there's two elements that we find that really, that really are powerful when it comes to you establishing yourself not as the hero and the story. But as the guide in the story of, of your customer's success, uh, story. So, so what we find is that to establish yourself as the, the guide, the the one that is gonna be trusted by, you know, your, your customer. You need to establish two elements. The one is gonna be authority. Okay, so this is, no one shy of this. So every, you know, kind of like we've been around for 20 years, or we have a hundred employees, or we, you know, we are the number one at X. And so what you're doing is you're trying to, in a very primal state, you're trying to say, We are the authority within this area. Okay? But then what you're be, what you mentioned now, And this is where a lot of businesses, uh, forget or, or kind of don't place any, any emphasis on, especially BTB businesses cuz they're, they're busy kind of propping up their own, you know, their own like stories and their success and stuff is empathy. And, and, and, and the best way that I describe empathy is, Where you're trying to find, you're trying to, you're trying to relate to someone based on a scar that you have to, a scar that they have, but doesn't have to be the exact same scar from the exact same accident. It can be similar. And so why that's important? Because it's one of those phrases that goes, We've been there before, right? We've, we've been screwed over before and so therefore we really want you to watch out for this. Okay. Or, um, another way, or another phrase is, We've also experienced uncertainty when it comes to, you know, budgeting for these types of, you know, projects. This is what we're doing about it. And so the moment, the moment that you're starting to try, empathize with your customer and say, Hey, I'm next to you and I've also gone through this, or, I really wanna make sure that you're supported. And then both together with the authority and, and the. It really solidifies the trust in you as the trusted guide going forward to help them in their success story instead of you imposing yourself and saying, Well, I'm the hero. You know, look at us. And that's unfortunately, especially in the BTB space, a lot of businesses, they, they position themselves as the, um, they think they the hero in the customer story. Um, and so then they keep on trumping up their, the authority signals instead of actually going, Hey, we actually just wanna support you in this, in this world. Thanks for sharing that, John. I really appreciate it. Um, what you're saying some, Yeah. Something I've been an advocate for in the last year is making marketing more human, creating a relationship that puts customers interest first above your own. And I fully agree with that statement as well. And it, it's weird how we have to actually be intentional about being human with our customers. And I think it's, it goes to show. We, we often tend to talk about our customers and, and ideal customer profiles and so on as like alien as as like completely different people that are completely different buying patterns and behaviors and so on. And a lot of the times, I think the easiest way to, to really kind of humanize them. Is to put yourself in their position or think about the last time that you bought something or decided to go to a restaurant and why did you decide to go there, that restaurant, or why did your partner, you know, decide to go to, um, you know, that particular retail store or eCommerce site? And a lot of the times we. Yeah, we, we kind of overlook the, the, the practical experiences that we have, um, because we are creating this, like we are creating this war between us and, and the customers if they're just this other being, So, my, my definite recommendation there around if people are struggling to, to say, humanize or try relate to their customer, Go chat to your customers, like stop assuming what they are thinking or doing. Go chat to your customer and not just chat to them about you and say, Hey, what about our product do you like? And like, That's great, but like go chat to your customer and understand who they are. How do they buy, right? What currently, right now, what are they reading, right? Where are they reading most of their content? What is their favorite social media channel, right? When they think of going to a X restaurant as an example. What, what do they consider before they actually make the decision? And the more qualitative data we collect around how people are currently buying, because this is changing literally month on a monthly basis now, uh, with, with the advent of the mobile phone and the access that's happening, uh, I think, I think we will be able to make better decisions as well as then, you know, actually relate. As you said. Um, so well humanize them in a way where it makes so much more common sense now that when we create content, it actually resonates with people. And it's not just this, you know, this kind of airy fairy or, um, or, or smoke and mirrors type of, um, type of approach. I got one more question for you.. Right. If the business person listening in today, whether that be live right now or just wherever they listen to their podcasts. If they've been primarily focusing on promoting the offering, being gungho and like, We have this, we offer you this and that, and they now want to entertain going more of a category level and how you can provide value, right? What is the essential mix of both having that human-centric approach, but also making sure. You have marketing narrative that also sell, What is the perfect mix between that? Especially within business, I don't think there is anything such as perfect. But I do think that there is the approach around when you are establishing yourself as as a business, and so you're focusing on the category. You still need to be clear around what your intentions are. And I think a lot of the times in now talking through a South African lens, South Africans are re like relatively conservative. Alright? And so therefore we kind of like talk around the topic of what we actually are wanting and that really has a negative, negative influence in my opinion when it comes to the business relationship side of things. So, for example, On, on, on a website, like I mentioned earlier, we will say something aspirational. We will say how we are changing lives and everything, but we don't include a call to action that says like, you know, reach out to us today or like, phone us today, or book of free consultation. We don't include it. We presume that someone, if they really are interested, they're gonna go find the number or they're gonna go like, kind of really navigate it. And so I think for, for, for what you need to do is there is a balance. Alright. So, to give you an example, um, if you're doing email marketing, you can share one email that relates to, you can even within one email, you can share really valuable insight as well as saying, Hey, by the way, it's spring. You know, here's a cool special that I thought you may also like. Right? And so I think we, for the most part, there isn't a perfect balance. But the, the intention of why you are doing something needs to be clear, right? So what we do, even on our side of things is we are very clear when it comes to the fact of like what we do, but. We, we, we are very explicit then around why we are wanting to help. We're wanting to help because we truly believe in the potential of South African businesses, and we also are seeing that a lot of the times South Africa, we are importing the content from the uk, from America, and it's not necessarily. Relevant in, in, in the exact way to South Africa. And so what we're trying to, and what we are advocating for and making very explicit even, you know, in this podcast is going, Hey, there is a South African lens that we need to look through going forward. And, and we are gonna, we are gonna put our hat in the ring when it comes to, you know, our, our contribution and, and what we think South African businesses, uh, more specifically need to start watching art for. So yeah, hope that answers it. Cool. Everyone, thank you so much again for joining us for episode two of Breaking Down Revenue, Jen, and, uh, really looking forward to the next episode where we, we will be discussing the second stage of demand, which is where you capture demand, right? And really what that focuses on, and specifically looking at the online environment is that's really the role of your website. And if you're in b2b, you capture demand, um, slightly differently. The eCommerce or the, or the type of B2C type of business. And so we're really excited to give you some practical examples. Even design, uh, um, best practices when it comes to conversion design of the, of your website. So make sure that you tune in and if you really did enjoy this, please chat to a friend and share this because we really wanna help as much people as possible. Cheers. Gonna,