Solving the Marketing Leadership Gap for Small Business

Summary

The Duct Tape Marketing Podcast: Solving the Marketing Leadership Gap for Small Business Hosted by John Jantsch | Release Date: December 18, 2024

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Introduction

In the December 18, 2024 episode of The Duct Tape Marketing Podcast, host Jon Chance delves into a critical issue facing small businesses today: the marketing leadership gap. With over two decades of experience in marketing strategy, Jon provides insightful analysis on why many small businesses struggle with effective marketing and offers actionable solutions to bridge this gap.

Identifying the Marketing Leadership Gap

Jon begins by addressing a common pain point among small business owners and marketing professionals:

Jon Chance [01:19]: "Have you ever felt your marketing stuck? Have you ever told your agency more marketing stuck? Like it's disconnected, it's scattered, it's not driving growth. Look, you're not alone. I hear that every single day."

He emphasizes that the core of the problem isn't the lack of marketing tactics but the absence of strategic leadership to guide and orchestrate these efforts cohesively.

Traditional Solutions and Their Limitations

The podcast explores the conventional approaches businesses take to solve their marketing woes and why these often fall short:

Jon Chance [04:12]: "The traditional solutions... Hire an agency... Hire a full-time marketing leader, maybe a CMO or a fractional CMO maybe. Pretty expensive, right? And then the DIY, which hopefully you've realized that's a tough road, right?"

Jon points out that hiring agencies or full-time leaders can be costly and may not provide the integrated strategy needed. On the other hand, the DIY approach often diverts business owners from their core activities without yielding substantial results.

The Importance of Marketing Leadership

Central to the episode is the argument that effective marketing leadership is essential for sustained business growth. Jon elaborates on what this leadership entails:

Jon Chance [05:45]: "Most businesses fail at marketing because they lack, not because they lack tactics, but they fail because they lack leadership."

He advocates for a leadership role that not only develops a comprehensive marketing strategy but also ensures its seamless execution across all channels. This involves aligning marketing efforts with business growth goals and maintaining consistency in messaging and tactics.

Strategy and System Building

Jon outlines a systematic approach to building an effective marketing framework:

1. Developing a Marketing Strategy:

   • Creating a clear, actionable plan that aligns with business objectives.
   • Focusing on long-term growth rather than short-term tactics.

2. Fixing Foundational Issues:

   • Refining messaging to turn marketing materials into effective sales assets.
   • Implementing educational and trust-building content.

3. Building a Repeatable Marketing System:

   • Establishing processes that ensure consistent and efficient marketing efforts.
   • Avoiding the trap of constantly chasing the latest marketing trends without a cohesive plan.

Jon Chance [06:30]: "It's not about doing more, it's about doing the right things in the right order."

The Role of Agencies and AI in Marketing Leadership

Jon discusses the evolving role of marketing agencies in light of technological advancements, particularly AI:

Jon Chance [07:45]: "I think that the agency model today is just what I'm starting to call marketing leadership as a service."

He argues that agencies should transition from being mere executors of tasks to strategic leaders who design and manage comprehensive marketing systems. While AI can handle specialized tasks, the human element of strategy and leadership remains irreplaceable.

Jon Chance [08:10]: "AI cannot provide Strategy. AI cannot provide leadership."

This insight underscores the necessity for businesses to partner with agencies that offer strategic guidance rather than just tactical execution.

Conclusion and Future Directions

Wrapping up the episode, Jon emphasizes the importance of viewing marketing as an asset rather than a cost. He encourages listeners to invest in marketing leadership to enhance business value and ensure long-term success.

Jon Chance [12:30]: "Marketing as an asset in your business... it actually can be something that will make your business more valuable, not just because you'll grow revenue and get more customers, but you'll be able to show somebody... Here's how our marketing system works."

Jon hints at upcoming strategies planned for 2025, promising a structured approach to positioning marketing as a core business asset for small to mid-sized enterprises.

Key Takeaways

• Marketing Leadership Is Crucial: Effective marketing requires strategic leadership to align efforts with business goals.
• Traditional Solutions Are Limited: Hiring agencies or full-time leaders can be expensive and may not offer the integrated approach needed.
• Build a Comprehensive System: Develop a clear strategy, fix foundational issues, and establish repeatable processes.
• Agencies Should Evolve: Transition from task-based services to providing strategic marketing leadership.
• Marketing as an Asset: Invest in marketing leadership to enhance business value and prepare for future growth opportunities.

Notable Quotes

• “Most businesses fail at marketing because they lack, not because they lack tactics, but they fail because they lack leadership.”
  — Jon Chance [05:45]

• “It's not about doing more, it's about doing the right things in the right order.”
  — Jon Chance [06:30]

• “AI cannot provide Strategy. AI cannot provide leadership.”
  — Jon Chance [08:10]

• “Marketing as an asset in your business... it actually can be something that will make your business more valuable.”
  — Jon Chance [12:30]

Final Thoughts

Jon Chance's exploration of the marketing leadership gap serves as a valuable resource for small business owners, marketing professionals, and agency owners seeking to enhance their marketing effectiveness. By emphasizing strategic leadership and system-building over scattered tactics, this episode provides a roadmap for achieving sustained business growth and marketing success.

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For more insights and actionable marketing strategies, tune in to future episodes of The Duct Tape Marketing Podcast.

Transcript

[A]

Let me ask you a few things.

[B]

Do you feel like you know what differentiates your business from every other business out there? Can you confidently charge a premium for what you offer? Are you working from a plan, a marketing roadmap that allows you to know precisely what to do next? Look, don't worry if you can't answer yes to any or all of these questions. You're not alone. See, marketers today get so focused on the tactic of the week staring them right in the face that they forget to look at the big picture, the overarching strategy needed to consistently grow their business. Over the years, I've worked with thousands of businesses helping them do just that. Create the perfect marketing strategy and plan that gives total clarity about what to do next, confidence to charge ahead and charge more, and complete control of the marketing tactics they choose. I would love to help you and your team do the same. Look to find out if our Strategy first program is right for you. Visit DTM World Grow and request a free consultation. That's DTM World Grow.

[A]

Hello and welcome to another episode of the Duct Tape Marketing Podcast. This is Jon Chance and no Guest. Today I am doing a solo show. Let's call this Solving the Marketing Leadership Gap for Small Business. How's that sound like for a lofty title? Now I could also we're ending. Depending upon when you're listening, we're coming to the end of 2024. I could also title this what I think the future of marketing is whether you're an agency or whether you're a small business owner trying to market your business. Let me ask you this. Have you ever felt your marketing stuck? Have you ever told your agency more marketing stuck? Like it's disconnected, it's scattered, it's not driving growth. Look, you're not alone. I hear that every single day. So that's what we're going to talk about. Why I think that happens and what your business can do to fix it. We're going to explore an issue. I'm not selling anything today. We're going to explore an issue that I probably will be selling solutions more directly for. But I want to get. I want to dive into what I think is at the crux of where we're going. There's a lot. I've said this earlier in my I did do a 2025 trends post and I've said this a lot. I think 2025 is going to make the change of 2024 pale in comparison. I think we're going to see so much change that happens with Businesses and we're already seeing it. I'm hearing from agencies and business owners saying, hey, something's going on out there. I'm not getting the leads, I'm not getting the traffic to my website. So I think we're going to see a big shift in, in the, the winners and the losers, if I can say it's that way. So hopefully you've got some big goals for your business. But here's the missing thing. You're lacking internal marketing leadership to guide those goals. Now let me focus on that word again. Leadership. You might have internal marketing, you might have internal marketing hires, you might have hired an agency that is doing amazing job with your marketing or some aspect of your marketing, but you're lacking leadership. You've got a website, maybe you're running some ads, posting on social media, but nothing feels very connected and you're not really seeing the results, right? So the traditional solutions, I already talked about them. Hire an agency that's probably going to be very focused on execution. Hire a full time marketing leader, maybe a CMO or a fractional CMO maybe. Pretty expensive, right? And then the diy, which hopefully you've realized that's a tough road, right? You don't have the time, you don't have the expertise. It's probably taking you away from the things that, that really do matter in your business if you're going to move your business forward. I'm not saying marketing doesn't matter. There just might be higher payoff things that you're more suited to do. Most businesses fail at marketing because they lack, not because they lack tactics, but they fail because they lack leadership. Really to tie it all together, that has been really a theme now I've, you know, for 30 years, certainly the 20 plus years I've been doing this podcast, I've been talking about strategy before tactics and that is a big piece of it. But there's also a leadership component. I think you need somebody to take ownership of that strategy, ensure that really every marketing effort aligns with your growth goals. It's not about doing more, it's about doing the right things in the right order. Number one, developing a marketing strategy, but then having somebody that is there to help you fix the foundational issues, really to tie it all together, to orchestrate it. A lot of times, you know, when we start working with somebody before we can really do much for them in terms of, of growth or even in brand is we have to get their messaging right. We have to actually most cases redo their brochure, website and turn it actually into a sales asset. We have to talk about content that is educational and, and trust building. And once we get through that foundation, you know, then we need to actually build, build a repeatable marketing system. One that ensures you're not just throwing money at the next new thing. You're building a machine that works long term. So that's the component that I think marketing leadership brings. It's not just somebody that says, oh, this is what we ought to do, this is how we ought to price it, this is how we ought to talk about our products and services. That's great to have that strategy, that component, but you also need somebody who is really then orchestrating on that, so breaking it down. You need the strategy first, right? Clear path, align goals, customer needs, identify what's missing, what needs fixing. Then you need to have those foundational issues fixed. Then you need to build a system and then you actually need to start thinking about marketing as an asset in your business. And by that I mean you need to start hiring and training a team to take over and keep that system running. And that's, you know, if you think about, if you went out there and hired, you were at a point where you're like, ash, we need to take marketing seriously. We need to hire some marketing leadership, we need to hire a marketing manager, we need to hire a marketing fractional cmo. Well, that person would come in and hopefully you develop a strategy. And nine times out of 10 they're, they'd say, okay, who are we going to get to do the work? I'm not writing the emails, that's not my job. And so whether it's going to be a third party or you're going to actually bring somebody in and hire and train those Oryx or have your marketing leader hire and train those folks. So that's really what I think. I think that the agency model today is just what I'm starting to call marketing leadership as a service. So that includes strategy development, foundation fixes and then installing that system and then training and handing off into your business somebody who can actually run that system, even if you think it's a bit overhyped. AI is suddenly everywhere from self driving cars to molecular medicine to business efficiency. If it's not in your industry yet, it's coming fast. But AI needs a lot of speed and computing power. So how do you compete? With costs spiraling out of control, it's time to upgrade to the next generation of the cloud. Oracle Cloud Infrastructure, or oci. OCI is a blazing, fast and secure platform for your infrastructure, data database, application development, plus all your AI and machine learning workloads. OCI costs 50% less for compute and 80% less for networking, so you're saving a pile of money. 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[B]

You feel like you know what differentiates your business from every other business out there? Can you confidently charge a premium for what you offer? Are you working from a plan, a marketing roadmap that allows you to know precisely what to do next? Look, don't worry if you can't answer yes to any or all of these questions. You're not alone. See, marketers today get so focused on the tactic of the week staring them right in the face that they forget to look at the big picture, the overarching strategy needed to consistently grow their business. Over the years I've worked with thousands of businesses helping them do just that. Create the perfect marketing strategy and plan that gives total clarity about what to do next, confidence to charge ahead and charge more, and complete control of the marketing tactics they choose. I would love to help you and your team do the same. Look to find out if our Strategy first program is right for you. Visit DTM World Grow and request a free consultation. That's DTM World slash Grow.

[A]

That's the piece that's really been missing. People have either hired somebody one off, didn't really know what to tell them to do, they got a little result. It seemed like they weren't getting anything or they've hired an agency, same thing, nobody was directing them. Or maybe they've hired somebody to come in and build a strategy, but then nobody to really execute that right? So so marketing leadership I believe is the missing link for most small businesses. And I believe that agencies today, if you are an agency, a consultant, a marketing strategist out there listening, this idea of selling marketing leadership as a service I hope actually sets some bells off and in some cases alarm bells because this is what the market needs. And I think that you're going to find not only are people going to want it, are going to want to pay a premium or expect to pay a premium for that person who can bring leadership. AI cannot pro provide Strategy. AI cannot provide leadership. Agencies need to start thinking like architects as a, as opposed to contractors don't do the work. AI is actually going to do a lot of the specialized work. But that leadership component that is executing on a strategy, that is building a marketing system is. That's what's missing. And I've been saying marketing is a system, as I said for 25 years. However, we're really getting to the point where that's a very tangible idea for a lot of folks, even though they agreed with me. Marketing's a system. It felt like a vague idea because really what you were doing was plugging people in to do things and it felt very much like traditional marketing. But I believe that we are on the crux of, or the. What's a better way to say that? Precipice. Ooh, that's a good word. Precipice of this idea that we can in fact finally install a marketing system in a business because of AI and because we are taking this idea as marketing leadership, as a service, as the missing ingredient. So next time you feel like you're marketing isn't working, ask yourself, do I have any leadership? Do I have a system in place to, to make it work? If not, that's the first thing you need to fix. Look, if this conversation resonated with you, stay tuned. I'm gonna, we, we are going to, in 2025 have a very set step one, step two, step three, step four that really focuses on positioning what we do as bringing this to small mid sized businesses. So stay tuned. If you like this idea. If you're an agency consultant, you're a business owner and you like this idea, just reach out to john@ducktape marketing.com and tell me you like the idea. You want to hear more? I will tell you how we can actually build marketing as an asset in your business, not as a cost, not as an expense in your business. It actually can be something that will make your business more valuable, not just because you'll grow revenue and get more customers, because you'll be able to show somebody. Let's say you want to exit your business, you'll be able to show somebody. Here's how our marketing system works. And that can be one of the most valuable things you can do in your business. So take care. If you're listening to this post, 2025, have a happy new year, Happy end of the year and let's make 2025 rock. Hopefully we'll see you one of these days out there on the road. Let me ask you a few things.

[B]

You feel like you know what differentiates your business from every other business out there? Can you confidently charge a premium for what you offer? Are you working from a plan, a marketing roadmap that allows you to know precisely what to do next? Look, don't worry if you can't answer yes to any or all of these questions. You're not alone. See, marketers today get so focused on the tactic of the week staring them right in the face that they forget to look at the big picture, the overarching strategy needed to consistently grow their business. Over the years, I've worked with thousands of businesses helping them do just that. Create the perfect marketing strategy and plan that gives total clarity about what to do next, confidence to charge ahead and charge more, and complete control of the marketing tactics they choose. I would love to help you and your team do the same. Look to find out if our Strategy first program is right for you. Visit DTM World Grow and request a free consultation. That's DTM World Grow.