E18: Everything You Need To Dominate The Market as a Small Business
Struggling to get your marketing to deliver real results?
In this episode, I break down the Marketing Domination Checklist that every small business needs to stand out online. I cover the fundamentals of building a powerful sales funnel, including crafting a clear one-liner statement, designing a website that converts, and utilizing lead generators.
We also dive into the importance of nurturing leads with follow-up systems and filling your funnel with organic content and SEO strategies.
Finally, we talk about optimizing your sales funnel using data, AI, and design tweaks. Download the full checklist at https://www.seangarner.co/ and start growing your business today.
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P.S. When you are ready, here are a few ways I can help…
Get Your FREE Marketing Domination Checklist: https://www.seangarner.co/
FREE Marketing Assessment | Discover what's wrong with your marketing & get a FREE customized plan to fix it: https://www.seangarner.co/marketingreport
Schedule A Call to Build, Fill and Optimize Your Sales Funnel For More Leads: https://www.seangarner.co/
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Sean Garner is a marketing consultant and Certified StoryBrand guide dedicated to helping small business owners grow and dominate their industries. He created the Marketing Domination podcast to teach people how to combine storytelling with strategic marketing to help businesses connect with customers and stand out online.
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Website: https://www.seangarner.co/
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EPISODE 18 TRANSCRIPTION
Introduction
[00:00:00] Sean Garner: So you're doing marketing for your small business, and maybe you think you've got everything in place. You know, you've got a website, you've got social media content going, maybe you're even doing paid ads, SEO, and all of that. But something still doesn't seem to be working for you. Well, in this episode, I'm going to give you the step-by-step checklist of everything that you need to make sure you have in your marketing if you want to stand out online and dominate your industry. Welcome to marketing domination.
[00:00:26] Sean Garner: In this episode, we are going to be giving you the step-by-step checklist of everything that you need to make sure you have in your marketing to ensure that you dominate and stand out online. This is all part of a free checklist that I've created. You can get it on our website, SeanGarner.co. Scroll down to the bottom, type in your name and email, and we will send you the full checklist so you can follow along. I will say this—even though we call it the marketing domination checklist, this is not everything you need if you truly want to dominate with your marketing. This is the foundation of what it takes to dominate with your marketing.
[00:00:59] Sean Garner: So as we're going through it, things like paid ads, local service ads, or even optimizing Google business profiles are granular details. These are the foundational things that, in my viewpoint, just get you in the game if you want to succeed with your small business marketing. We're going to go through these things. There are three different sections, and then there are different checklist items in each one of those sections. But I promise you, if you follow along, go to our website SeanGarner.com, get the checklist, and start implementing these things, your business will grow.
Building a Sales Funnel
[00:01:33] Sean Garner: So let's dive into the marketing domination framework and the checklist that your small business needs. Number one, you need to build a sales funnel. That is the very first thing you need to do. Now, with that, there are several checklist items if you want to build a sales funnel.
[00:01:57] Sean Garner: So, recap on my viewpoint on a sales funnel. A sales funnel is not a software tool like ClickFunnels or anything like that. It is not the structure of a landing page, like you might think of a funnel landing page where you can only click through and can't schedule, or the only thing you can do is go to the next page and can't access the other service pages.
[00:02:15] Sean Garner: That's what people think of as a funnel page. It's not a CRM automation where it's funneling people through different steps. For me, whenever I use the term sales funnel, it is a lead nurturing system that takes people or prospects from not knowing who you are to super fan customers for life. It is the overall system, not the individual tool, if that makes sense.
Branding: Visual Identity and Messaging
[00:02:40] Sean Garner: So, the very first aspect of building a sales funnel is you've got to get your branding in place. Now, for me, branding is not just logos, colors, and fonts, and all the things most people think of when it comes to a logo or visual branding. Branding is broken down into two key components. The first thing is your visual identity. So it is those logos, colors, fonts, and the brand guidelines that you'll create. But the second, and what I think is honestly overlooked by a lot of people, is the words that you are using. What is the messaging that you are putting out there with your brand?
[00:03:16] Sean Garner: Oftentimes, small business owners make the critical mistake of being overly concerned about their logo and visuals and don't put enough emphasis on the words they use. The example I always give: we design logos with our agency all the time and brand guidelines kits, as well as story brand messaging guidelines, which I think is the most important part of branding.
[00:03:41] Sean Garner: And oftentimes we have the most revisions on their visual identity, their logos, colors, and fonts. But people hardly ever ask for revisions on the copy we write for them. I always try to educate our clients on this.
[00:04:00] Sean Garner: And I'll ask them this—because when it's your baby, you're always really close to it—but think about this for yourself as a business owner: Have you ever looked at another business and thought, "Oh my gosh, that logo is awesome. I want them to take my money"? No. What makes you want to buy is when you read or hear something that a brand says, and it sounds like they’re talking directly to you. It's the words they're using in their branding, not the logo, that get you to buy.
Crafting a Clear One-Liner Statement
[00:04:28] Sean Garner: So words are very, very important when it comes to your overall brand, which is the key foundational element of building your marketing funnel. Next, as part of that branding messaging, what you need on your marketing domination checklist is a one-liner statement.
[00:04:48] Sean Garner: A one-liner statement clearly answers the question, "What do you do?" without sounding boring. In your one-liner statement, it should do three things. It follows this formula: one, talk about the problem you solve; two, explain how you do it; and three, show how their life will be better once you solve that problem for them.
[00:05:02] Sean Garner: Most of the time, when people are asked, "What do you do?" they answer with their job title, job description, or the service they provide. A lot of people have preconceived ideas based on past experiences of what that service is. I came from the fitness industry for a long time, so if you tell someone you're a personal trainer, they'll instantly lump you in with every other personal trainer they know—from their neighbor who took a weekend certification to someone with a PhD in exercise science. They'll call them both personal trainers.
[00:05:31] Sean Garner: So a one-liner statement is really important for businesses if they want to stand out with what they do and how they serve their customers. The third aspect of building your sales funnel, and part of this marketing domination checklist, is that you need a website. Websites are very important. They are often your digital storefront.
[00:05:50] Sean Garner: And most often, the first impression that a potential customer has is through an interaction with your website. Your brand, your website, should be structured out—especially your homepage—into 10 key areas that help guide your prospects through the lead generation process. We don't want to make our website all about us.
[00:06:11] Sean Garner: We want to build off of our branding and brand messaging, which is all about our customer. This way, it guides the customer or potential customer through those relationship stages, so they want to become our customer, not just a prospect. The next thing we need as part of our marketing domination checklist is a lead generator.
Turning Visitors into Leads
[00:06:29] Sean Garner: Not every potential customer who comes to our website is going to be ready to buy. So for those customers, we need a lead generator on our website that collects their information, so we can follow up with them. Like I said, not everyone who visits your website is ready to buy. So we need something to offer in exchange for value. In this case, the value is not monetary but their name and contact information so we can follow up.
[00:07:00] Sean Garner: These are people who have identified that they're interested in getting their problem solved by us, but they just want more information or to get to know us better. For these lead generators, three key components are important: one, it should have a clear, catchy title. Two, it should actually solve a problem for them, typically the first step of their journey or process, or give them a quick win.
[00:07:29] Sean Garner: If it doesn't do that, don't waste time putting it on your website. Mistake number three, we don't want to be clickbaity with it. So, clear catchy title, solve a problem or give them a quick win, and don’t be clickbaity because once someone gets it, the point of this lead generator is to initiate the next step on our checklist—follow-up.
[00:07:52] Sean Garner: We want to be able to follow up with these potential leads using our marketing sales funnel. Whether it’s through text message marketing, your sales team, or an automated email sequence, the goal is to follow up with these prospects and get them to buy your product or service.
[00:08:10] Sean Garner: If we are clickbaity with our lead generator, as soon as we start this sales cycle process, we're instantly going to be at a lower status because they don't trust us. We promised something amazing with the lead generator, and if it doesn’t deliver, it's going to hurt our trust. And that's the whole point of the lead generator—to identify prospects, develop trust, and position ourselves as an authority to help them solve their problem.
[00:08:41] Sean Garner: So, if we're already lying to them about the lead generator, it's not going to work. We want to make sure we're honest with how we do it and that we're delivering what we promised. Don’t tell them they’re going to download an ebook that will turn their business into a million-dollar enterprise if that's not what it's going to do. We need to deliver on our promises.
[00:08:54] Sean Garner: For example, this is a lead generator right here. You can go to the website, SeanGarner.co, and if you want the complete checklist, you can get it there. The checklist will show you exactly what you need if you want your small business marketing to dominate. If you put these things in place, your business will grow. That's a promise I can guarantee—if you have all this stuff in place, your business will grow.
Follow-up and Email Sequences
[00:09:13] Sean Garner: The very last thing—actually, second to last—part of building your sales funnel is having a nurture email sequence. After they've gone through the sales email sequence, the next thing we want to do is maintain constant communication. They might not be ready to buy when they visit your website—that’s why we have the lead generator. They might not be ready to buy after going through your sales email sequence, and that’s why we have the nurture email sequence. The whole point is to keep you top of mind so that when they are ready to solve their problem, you come up first.
[00:09:47] Sean Garner: With these emails, they should not be sales emails. We do not want to spam our list every week saying, "Buy my thing, buy my thing, buy my thing." Instead, we want to create value-driven emails that position you as an expert and give them quick wins.
[00:10:04] Sean Garner: It's kind of like smaller versions of the lead generator. The philosophy behind it is we want to give people quick wins and helpful tips that position you as an expert, while also benefiting them. We want to create emails that people are excited to open each week, not just something they instantly dismiss as spam. We don’t want that.
[00:10:21] Sean Garner: The last aspect of building a sales funnel is your Google business listing. For local service businesses, this is huge. It's one of the most powerful things you can do if you want to start generating leads and getting more customers. Make sure your listing is up to date. All contact information should be correct, and your profile should be completely filled out. Update it with new photos and information regularly. This is one of the most powerful things you can do for a local service business.
[00:11:00] Sean Garner: So step one for marketing domination is that you need a sales funnel. For that sales funnel, you need to have your branding in place, which includes both your visual identity and the words you use. We use the StoryBrand messaging framework, which includes seven key talking points that guide your customers through the hero’s journey in your copy.
[00:11:05] Sean Garner: Number two, you need a one-liner statement that clearly articulates what you do without making you sound boring. Three, you need a website. Your website should be set up to convert, and it should do two things: get leads and make sales. It should follow the 10 different sections we’ve talked about in the past to fit the conversion framework.
[00:11:35] Sean Garner: The fourth thing is you need a lead generator on your website. Without it, you're missing out on customers because they’re bouncing and going to someone else who will follow up with them. You need that lead generator so you can do the fifth thing, which is to follow up with them through a sales email sequence. This can be written emails, texts, or phone calls with your sales team, but you need a follow-up system for people who downloaded that lead generator.
Organic Content and SEO
[00:12:00] Sean Garner: Sixth, you want to write those nurture emails. These are the ongoing, keep-in-touch emails that add value to your customers and keep you top of mind.
[00:12:08] Sean Garner: Seven… We want to have our Google business listing optimized so that way we are maximizing our local search traffic. So that's step one: we want to build a sales funnel. The second step to marketing domination is we want to fill the sales funnel. Just because you've built this amazing sales funnel doesn't mean that people are going to start instantly filling it up. We have to be intentional with what we do to fill it up.
[00:12:30] Sean Garner: There are three main things that we focus on initially. Like I said, this is not the detailed granular list where we're talking about paid ads and everything, but three main things that we like to focus on. One is organic content. I am a big fan of organic marketing because it lasts forever. What I don't like about paid ads and when businesses rely on them is as soon as pay-per-click ad prices change, or Facebook, Meta, Instagram ad prices change, or the algorithm changes, instantly your business can take a hit overnight.
[00:13:00] Sean Garner: With organic content, if you've done the right work and laid the groundwork of building up a solid organic brand, you don’t have to worry about algorithm shifts and everything as much because you've actually put in the work to build a brand. If you’ve understood and put in the time, effort, and energy that it takes to actually grow a brand, yes, there will be algorithm changes that will still affect organic content creation, but if you know the skills and you put in the time to create that content and build that brand, the shifts won't be as big compared to people who rely on paid ads or Google updates.
[00:13:47] Sean Garner: Building organic content is key for long-term success. I like to fill my sales funnels with organic content—things like a podcast, social media content, YouTube videos, all that good stuff. The second part of that, which is also organic content, is SEO and blog articles. I think it's a very wise thing to focus on SEO because that's a long-term strategy. If you've built up authority on a topic, it's a lot harder to be taken out by competitors who might just run ads and outspend you.
[00:14:26] Sean Garner: I want to help set up my business, my client's business for long-term success, not just trying to grab a quick win here and there. I want to set up for long-term sustainability, making sure you have a solid SEO plan in place. Using things like blogs is a great way to help do that, along with tons of other SEO strategies to fill that sales funnel.
[00:14:46] Sean Garner: The third thing, especially for local service businesses, which is primarily what we work with, is getting Google reviews and testimonials. I can't tell you how many times I've seen a business that's been in Google business for five, 10, 15, 20-plus years, and they hardly have any reviews on Google. It's typically because they're not asking their customers or they don't have a repeatable framework, or they never even thought about it or knew it was a thing.
[00:15:05] Sean Garner: The only time they get reviews is when a customer goes on there and figures it out themselves. Typically, if that's the case, you're getting more bad reviews than good ones because unless they're asked or it's made easy for them, customers typically leave reviews for two reasons: they had an awesome experience, or it was a horrible one. Unfortunately, for most businesses, it's the latter. So if you don’t have this set up, it's easy for a competitor to pop up overnight, put some effort into this, and take you out in local Google search because you don't have a review system in place.
[00:15:33] Sean Garner: So, first, we talked about building a sales funnel. Second, we have to fill that sales funnel. For local service businesses, I personally believe you should be filling your sales funnel with organic content, SEO, blog articles, and Google reviews and testimonials as the foundation. And that leads us to the last part of marketing domination, which is optimizing your sales funnel.
Optimizing the Funnel
[00:15:51] Sean Garner: If we want to stay ahead of our competition, we have to constantly be optimizing our sales funnel. When we do that, there are three main things I like to look at for our funnel.
[00:16:23] Sean Garner: So the first thing is data and analytics. I tell our clients all the time, we don't make decisions based on personal preference or emotion. We base it on data. There are so many data tools and analytical tools available to us that if we're not leveraging them, we're being foolish. We want to be wise with our business and steward it properly.
[00:16:43] Sean Garner: As we move forward, it shouldn't be about what feels right. We need to gather all the data and use it to find out what's actually working so we can double down on that. If we're spending time, effort, and resources on something that's not working, let's cut it and move on to something that is. So, when optimizing our sales funnel, we need to look at the data.
[00:16:59] Sean Garner: Some data points I look at include overall traffic, like how many people are coming to my website or landing pages, and impressions through Google Search Console. How many impressions are we getting? How many clicks? What type of social content is getting the most engagement? The engagement I care about is what’s driving clicks, because I personally don't care about having a large social media following just for the sake of it.
[00:17:28] Sean Garner: I'm building a true community of small business owners, so it’s not about going viral. It's about serving, adding value, and positioning myself as a thought leader, which is what most local service business owners should focus on—positioning themselves as experts, not chasing viral content. We want to look at the data to see what's turning into customers, not just what's getting views on posts.
[00:18:00] Sean Garner: The other thing we want to do to optimize our sales funnel is rely on automations and AI. I’ve often seen small business owners rush into automating everything, and now AI is the big buzzword. You just say AI, and people think it’s amazing. But you need to learn how to leverage it properly because not every aspect of your business needs automation or AI input.
[00:18:18] Sean Garner: Especially if you're starting out with digital marketing, one of the mistakes I see small business owners make is trying to automate things too quickly without having a proven process. For example, I don't think you should automate certain sales processes until you have a proven method that works.
[00:18:38] Sean Garner: There are things I do like to automate right away, like appointment reminders. I don't want to waste my time or staff's time calling people to remind them of their appointments. I want that automated to save time. Another example is when someone enters their email address; I want to automate sending the lead generator. That shouldn't be a manual task, as it could be missed. There are a lot of backend CRM tasks I like to automate too, so I’m reminded of things I need to do.
[00:19:19] Sean Garner: However, people tend to over-automate, and when things aren't working, they don't know where to start diagnosing the problem because everything's automated. Like we talked about with data and analytics, if everything's automated without a proven process, how do you know where to start fixing things? I like to start small with automation and add more as we develop proven processes. Automating repetitive tasks like sending invoices, payment follow-ups, or expired credit card reminders is where automation can be really effective and save a lot of time.
[00:19:55] Sean Garner: I also want to leverage AI. There are a lot of cool things you can do with AI, but I don’t want to throw something into my marketing or business just because it has the term AI. There are some really useful AI tools, especially for local service businesses, like using AI to help book appointments. Customers can go to the website and request service times using AI, which is incredibly helpful.
[00:20:33] Sean Garner: The AI can look at the schedule, find the best appointment for them, and walk them through getting the call booked or rebooked if they need to. Another way I like to use AI is by educating it on some general FAQs about your business and creating an AI chatbot. If you find yourself answering the same repetitive questions, train an AI chatbot to handle those, freeing up your time for higher-value tasks in your business.
[00:21:00] Sean Garner: The last thing for optimizing the sales funnel that we like to look at is copy and design tweaks. As we go through our marketing sales funnel and aim to optimize it, we typically focus on key or transitional words. We evaluate the calls to action we’re using—can we make them clearer and more direct? For me, better copy means being more clear and direct, not trying to be cute or clever. I want to be extremely direct about what we want the customers to do and what we offer.
[00:21:31] Sean Garner: Another thing we can look at is design tweaks. Should we move the button location, change the button shape, or adjust the button color? All of those small changes can make a difference, but I don’t want people to obsess over them too early. We don’t know what works until we’ve been tracking the data. So instead of making decisions based on personal preference, like, “Oh, I like the button this way,” let’s split test some things, use screen tracking software, and figure out what actually leads to the most conversions.
[00:22:02] Sean Garner: To recap, the foundation of marketing domination for local service-based business owners consists of three main things. First, you need a sales funnel. A sales funnel guides customers through different relationship stages, taking them from prospects who don’t know you to super fans for life. Once that’s built, you have to fill the sales funnel. The best return on your time and investment is organic content, using social content, SEO, blog articles, Google reviews, and testimonials.
[00:22:50] Sean Garner: After setting those things up, the final step is constantly tweaking and optimizing your sales funnel. Just because you’ve built it doesn’t mean it's done or that people will automatically come. This is a constant, repetitive process. We’re always building, filling, and optimizing the sales funnels.
Ready To Dominate The Market?
[00:23:10] Sean Garner: If you want to dive deeper into this, go to SeanGarner.co and download the marketing domination checklist. This is exactly what we do for local service-based business owners every day—helping them build, fill, and optimize their sales funnels so they stand out online and dominate their industry. If that sounds like something you'd like us to do for you, we’d love the opportunity to learn more about your business and see if we're a good fit. Just go to SeanGarner.co, schedule a call, and let’s see how we can help your business grow. Hope you guys are doing awesome. Talk to you soon.
