I grew up on the Cap’n. Along with Fruit Loops, Cinnamons Toast Crunch, Coco Krispies, Corn Pops, Trix…

Don’t judge me.

They were “part of a complete and balanced diet.” Said so right in the TV ads.

Nutritional guidance from Cap’n Crunch. What could go wrong!?

Fast forward a few decades.

Millions of businesses are trying to survive on a diet of pay-per-click.

The rising cost of leads and declining conversion rates are leaving once-growing companies scrambling with Type 2 Diabetes.

Google’s solution: spend more! Increase your Adwords budget, add more keywords, add more category listings…

Marketing guidance from the company pretending to have an auction with itself. What could possibly go wrong?

Sounds Cap’n Crunchy to me.

Digital diabetes

This pay-per-click diet is gonna kill you, you know.

As more and more businesses are learning, a marketing diet heavy on pay-per-click is not sustainable. It lacks all the essential minerals and nutrients that make buyers love you. What were once high-converting keywords at $0.40 a click are now $67 and convert at less than 10%.

Empty calories.

And worse, there’s no residual benefit. Once you stop the flow of lead gen, your lead flow collapses like a toddler coming down off a Toaster Strudel high.

Sunk costs with no ROI. Sugar!

With all this Honey Smack talk, you’d think we HATE digital marketing.

Adwords, LSA, and GBP… they’re all essential lead sources. But, like all tools, they have their limitations. Knowing how to use them with your other tools is the key.

We have a team of digital wizards who manage and massage SEO to maximize page ranking and visibility. They craft lead gen campaigns, actively utilizing branded, near ZMOT, and negative keywords to maximize conversions and lower ROAS. They adjust spending on underperforming keywords and raise spending on the ‘good leads.’

A Complete and Balanced Diet

To grow a business big and strong, you need the muscle of a healthy brand story.

A brand story is the only thing that delivers the emotional connection people make with your company. It’s these experiences your customers share with their friends and the glue that makes it stick in the brain.

Like going to the gym, branding has a compounding effect. It builds in the hearts and minds of people who will one day need what you provide, customers and candidates alike. Your “Brand Strength” is the sum of all the people who think of your business first and like you the best.

Grrrrrreat! brand messaging creates a shortcut in the mind between their problem and your company. The question of “who” can make the problem go away is best answered before the problem arises.

People go to Google when they are undecided on who to work with.

Without a better reason, consumers will always default to the cheapest.

Your brand is far more than your logo, colors, and name. These elements help reinforce your story, but your story is the thing that Snaps, Crackles, and Pops the most.

You can build a name with lead gen and money.

You build a brand when your audience has something to care about.

Building a strong brand

Strong brands are resilient —not dependent on a single form of advertising. Their strength lies in the universe of people who have an emotional connection with them.

“Want to win the sale?
Speak to the heart, and the mind will surely follow.”

—Roy H. Williams

Getting your brand message embedded into the minds of prospective customers isn’t just Lucky Charms, though.

Brains are designed to keep irrelevant and boring crumbs out. We have a built-in gatekeeper that determines what’s allowed in and what will be tossed out.

Make an impact with your brand story to get and hold attention. When your message is more entertaining than everything else going on, you gain access to the imagination. There you can tantalize the heart.

When the heart is diggin’ your brand with 2 scoops of raisins, the mind will surely follow.

The special prize in every box that gets your brands remembered? Repetition.

When your purchase cycle is longer than 7 days, you need to live in the chemical part of the brain. Here you take up residence to be around in the morning when they need your thing.

Repeated exposure to the same brand narrative over a long period of time not only deepens your bond with your prospective buyers but will continue to grow and grow in the real estate of the mind.

The more you consistently deliver your brand message until they need your thing, the more you become the double pack of Jumbo Honey Nut Cheerios from Costco in their brain.

We love telling stories. If you need help getting your prospects coo-coo for your Cocoa Puffs, send me a message.

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