On this episode of "Profit with a Plan," Marcia Riner sits down with Ted Lau, the dynamic Owner and CEO of Ballistic Arts. Ted shares his expertise on transforming marketing skepticism into tangible success, especially for B2B businesses.
Discover actionable strategies for achieving remarkable ROI, the importance of understanding your target audience, and the critical role of foundational marketing tactics. Whether you're a seasoned entrepreneur or new to the marketing game, this episode is packed with insights to elevate your business growth.
Episode Highlights
- Host: Marcia Riner, CEO of Infinite Profit®, business growth strategist.
- Guest: Ted Lau, Owner and CEO of Ballistic Arts, an award-winning digital marketing agency.
Key Takeaways
-
Effective Marketing ROI:
- Ted emphasizes the importance of generating tangible returns from marketing investments.
- Many businesses have unrealistic expectations or become jaded by ineffective marketing strategies. Ted aims to turn that skepticism around by demonstrating clear, measurable results.
-
Difference Between B2B and B2C Marketing:
- B2B marketing requires a different approach compared to B2C.
- B2B focuses more on direct relationships, trade shows, and precise lead conversion rather than just brand awareness.
-
Foundational Marketing Strategies:
- Importance of creating a comprehensive plan before executing marketing strategies.
- Reverse engineering revenue goals to determine the number of leads needed.
-
Targeting and Personas:
- Identifying and understanding the target audience deeply, including their preferences and pain points.
- Using industry-specific jargon to attract the right audience and increase ad relevancy.
-
Holistic Marketing Approach:
- Combining creative content with data-driven strategies for lead generation.
- Continuous monitoring and adjusting based on competitive analysis and market feedback.
-
Challenges in Marketing:
- Educating clients about the importance of follow-ups and the right methods to convert leads.
- Overcoming skepticism and building trust through consistent and proven results.
Success Stories and Practical Tips
- Ted shares examples of transforming clients' skepticism into trust by delivering quantifiable lead generation and revenue.
- Importance of content marketing in establishing clients as industry leaders.
- Practical advice on budgeting for marketing as an essential part of business growth, akin to investing in employees.
Resources and Links
- Ted Lau’s YouTube Channel: "You Know Ted Lau" for quick-hit videos on business and marketing basics.
- Ballistic Arts Website: BallisticArts.com for in-depth marketing services and strategies.
Conclusion
- Marketing is crucial for business growth and should be treated as a vital investment.
- Focus on foundational strategies and targeted marketing to see significant returns.
- Engage with experts like Ted Lau to navigate the complexities of effective marketing.
Call to Action
- Subscribe to "Profit with a Plan": Don’t miss out on future episodes packed with valuable business insights.
- Engage with Us: Share your thoughts, questions, and experiences in the comments. Marcia and Ted are ready to provide feedback and insights.
Stay tuned for more actionable strategies on the next episode of "Profit with a Plan"!
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Marcia Riner is the go-to guru for all things business growth and greater profitability. With over 25 years of experience under her belt, she's the brains behind Infinite Profit®, where she's the CEO and business growth strategist. Her Profit Booster® methodology is the secret weapon for entrepreneurs hungry for more profit, growth, and a killer exit strategy that helps businesses outperform in today's challenging market. More information can be found at
(00:28):
hey, entrepreneurs? Are you trying to make bigger profits in your small business, if you're like most of us business owners, increasing, your profitability is always on your mind, and you're probably looking for ways to grow. Your revenue while growing your company. Well, you found a podcast that shares ideas to help you do just that.
I'm Marcia Reiner, known as the profit booster, and I'm a business growth strategist. I've been helping tons of small business owners to establish and implement a tangible plan
(00:56):
that guarantees increase profitability, guide your growth and plans for a future exit, because building a highly profitable and sale ready business creates a win win scenario. That's more money now, and a windfall when it's time to let go.
And I want to share strategies that I've learned with you on today's profit, with a plan. Podcast.
but before we get started, I have something special to share with you my podcast, audience?
(01:21):
If you ever thought of super charging your business and you wanted to avoid profit plateaus or operational headaches. How about growth roadblocks? Well, I've got a brand new profit booster playbook just for you. You'll uncover 3 essential strategies and the quick way to take action on them. Now, this is not just a single page report. It's filled with impactful strategies, actionable steps, and expert guidance to elevate your profits. Go download this playbook for free at boosting profit.
(01:51):
Alright. My guest today is Ted Lau. He's the owner of Ce. And CEO, of ballistic arts founded in 2,002 ballistic arts is a high touch award winning lead generation, digital marketing agency that focuses on online lead generation for established B 2 B professional service firms as well as distribution and manufacturers who are frustrated. They're not getting enough new business from their marketing efforts.
(02:21):
Ballistic arts has a full division in lead generation, digital marketing, graphic design, video production and web development.
Their client roster includes century 21 Tim Hortons, Yay, Tim Kpmg, C-span. Raymond, James B. To gold. And that's just a few by marrying the compelling creative content with precise lead conversion data, ballistic arts has successfully increased clients leads by up to 650
(02:54):
while beating the industry standard, add buys by 30 to 80%. Tim. That's a pretty or Ted sorry. That's a pretty I think it's Tim Horton, right?
Ted Lau, Ballistic Arts, (he/him) (03:04):
Yeah, was, right?
Marcia Riner | Profit Booster™️ (03:05):
Pretty crazy claim 650, but I'm dying to find out how welcome to show.
Ted Lau, Ballistic Arts, (he/him) (03:11):
Thanks, Marcia. Well, I'm happy to be here, and yes would love to dive into how we're gonna be able to share with your audience, how we get those numbers for our clients.
Marcia Riner | Profit Booster™️ (03:20):
Wow! Well, you know what? In in the little brief introduction I know that you have probably one of the hardest jobs out there as a marketing agency because
the consumer who hires you have these like
grandiose dreams of. I'm gonna have more business than I know what to do with and leads are gonna come rushing through the door, and then they get with
(03:45):
other marketing agencies
and the false flat like miserably flat 6 months and a lot of money down the drain. And they're like, Well, where are my leads? Right? And so I think that having a really a real, true marketing agency that can produce leads is gold.
So I'm happy to have you on today.
Ted Lau, Ballistic Arts, (he/him) (04:08):
Yeah, absolutely. I'm well, I'm really happy to chat more about it and dive into how we can help. And you know what I think the first thing I I jump in here is that, yeah, you know, a lot of companies do have this idea, this thought, that, hey? If I hire marketing company
that I'm gonna make a make a ton of business. However, a lot of the clients that we work with are mostly in the B 2 B space, mostly distributors, manufacturers who are, you know, third generation business that are kind of jaded quite frankly with digital marketing. So by the time they come to us.
(04:39):
I get more. I'll not. I don't get the oh, you're gonna make us a ton of money. It's kinda like, Oh, you're gonna waste us a ton of money. Cause you people, you you digital, you dirty digital marketers have caused all this
commotion of of marketing. But we're not making any money. So they're typically very jaded by. They come to it by the time they come to us, and we have
(05:02):
had a lot of fun turning that front upside down. And yeah, we can chat more about that today.
Marcia Riner | Profit Booster™️ (05:07):
Oh, I love it, I love it. Well, let's get into it. So so you mentioned B to B. Businesses. Is there a difference between business businesses that go after consumers versus businesses that go after businesses.
Ted Lau, Ballistic Arts, (he/him) (05:19):
Yeah 100%. I think there's
I guess in from a marketing standpoint, the there is in that, you know, we're not marketing Lulu Lemon, or the La Rams, or I guess you're in Vegas. So the raid, the the the Vegas raiders right.
Marcia Riner | Profit Booster™️ (05:34):
And raiders.
Ted Lau, Ballistic Arts, (he/him) (05:34):
They're not Oakland anymore. They're in Vegas. And
and and so that's a very different animal like that's that's a lot of brand awareness, making sure that folks know about the brand, and the logo looks good, and it says, and that's not to say that you don't have that for B 2 B, but a lot of B 2 B companies are folks that are used to going to trade shows. They're part of the supply chain. They're shaking hands, kissing babies, as it were, and brand is nice, but it's really a
(06:01):
how do I say? The the a means to an end for them to generate revenue, and it's kind of.
Marcia Riner | Profit Booster™️ (06:06):
First thought.
Ted Lau, Ballistic Arts, (he/him) (06:06):
Yeah, it's an afterthought. There's it's seen as a necessary evil.
And because they're like, Well, I'm speaking, I'm a business speaking to another business. I don't have to do all the bells and whistles and whatnot to bring in the business. However, that's actually really good for marketers that are in the B 2 B space that actually want to.
(06:28):
you know, provide change, affect, change, because the bar is kind of low on the B 2 B side, because a lot of folks just think, Oh, I need a website. Or I need, maybe I need a product video. And then that's kind of as far as they go, not realizing that if you actually make a full fledged plan to drive revenue, you can actually do it. And it's actually
(06:49):
relatively easy.
Marcia Riner | Profit Booster™️ (06:51):
And and and you're unusual in that space because everybody else just kind of has the basic stuff. And you're going all out right.
Ted Lau, Ballistic Arts, (he/him) (06:59):
That's right, that's right. And a lot of the times when we have clients come to us. Yeah, they they don't normally know or realize that, hey? I can actually make money from my marketing. It's usually the sales director needs a trade show plan flip, because we're gonna trade show design that. And so when they first come to us, it's usually for a request for a particular item. It's it's it's a good that they need delivered, and when we go. Well.
(07:21):
the first question we always ask is, Well, how much money do you think you're going to make with that thing
that you're requesting? And they go.
I I don't. I don't know. And then they kind of get you stop them in the tracks because they just don't understand that. That's actually a possibility. It's not like they don't want to. They just are so inundated by the fact that marketing doesn't work. It's necessary evil that when we ask that question.
(07:45):
It's very refreshing. And then when you start having that conversation about what's your business goal? Where's your vision? How? How far into the future do you wanna hit this? And if we're able to create that sense of
oh, I can actually do this.
Then we can start creating a plan and make it go into action. And we actually, you know, think like a salesperson or a business person, and think like, how much revenue do you need to make reverse engineer that to figure out what the close rate is, and then we figure out what the the qualified lead number is, and then everything that we do in the plan is to work towards hitting that number.
Marcia Riner | Profit Booster™️ (08:21):
Singing my song here. I love somebody that can reverse engineer things, because, you know.
I've always kind of thought that a lot of business owners particularly lead the B 2 B folks. They just throw spaghetti on the wall and hope it sticks right. You know, they're just. They're just thinking. Oh, well, if I have this really fancy website that doesn't do anything but act as a glorified business card. Or they have this, you know, like you said this big trade show, but they don't make any money off of it. It's terrible.
Ted Lau, Ballistic Arts, (he/him) (08:52):
Well, it's it's very disappointing and deflating. You're a business owner you're wanting to.
and put your best foot out there. But then you're not really sure what you're doing, how you're gonna do it. A big frustration that a lot of our clients get is the fact that they don't get guidance on how to generate new leads, how to get that roi. And so yeah, great that we're here talking about profit, because that's really the name of the game when it comes to our kind of marketing.
(09:15):
Yes, we reverse engineer, and a lot of the time that spaghetti on the wall that you talk about that. That shotgun approach is what a lot of marketers will do. It's kinda like, this is what I know. We need a new. And then we need. Well, they go. Well, we need logo, maybe a website, maybe brochure, maybe. And and they just kind of spit out what they know.
But with to your point. When you just said data, the data will actually tell us what we need to do, how we need to do it. We do a big competitive analysis of Who's who out there that's competing. And then we kind of find where the low hanging fruit is, because I don't care. I have lots of clients that have
(09:51):
very large large fortune, 500 type competitors.
But I don't care if how big a competitor is, because I know that marketing budgets are always finite, so that means there's always going to be some kind of gap in their marketing a weakness per se. They're not spending their money in a particular sector, and then we go and look, okay. Well, that's that's your low hanging fruit, and we're gonna go double down on that.
(10:14):
Then it's it makes it a lot easier. And everything that we're doing is is not fluff driven, it is, it is actually like, how can we actually drive revenue, and so long as we can drive revenue and prove the case, the I mean if it was you like, hey? If I put in a dollar, and I got 5 bucks back. You're probably gonna keep putting in that dollar right? That's the idea.
Marcia Riner | Profit Booster™️ (10:33):
I will.
I love it. So let's let's if you don't mind. Let's talk about some of those ideas that have been working in the ever changing marketing space today? If we're if we're coming in. And we're saying, Okay, I want to put a dollar in. And that phrase means that you're buying ads right?
Ted Lau, Ballistic Arts, (he/him) (10:53):
Well, you're you're actually not just buying it. There's a whole bunch of other things that you can. You can do. But I guess your question is, what is something, and how do we share
something here that your audience can can take.
Marcia Riner | Profit Booster™️ (11:05):
Before we go forward, though, cause I asked a double ended question that I'm horribly with, you know, as an interviewer, you know? I asked. I double in the questions too often. But you know, when we talk about a dollar in and $5 back, that's usually an advertising spend correct. It's not in the production and and
it's in the production.
Ted Lau, Ballistic Arts, (he/him) (11:22):
Thank you.
Marcia Riner | Profit Booster™️ (11:23):
Else.
Ted Lau, Ballistic Arts, (he/him) (11:23):
For us for us. When I'm saying, for every dollar you put in, it's, you know, production, add, spend strategy, the whole thing. And because at the end of the day it's part of your cost of good sold right? It is part of it. It's part, thank you. And and you know what a lot of markers actually don't talk about that.
Marcia Riner | Profit Booster™️ (11:42):
The ad spend is the dollar right so? And.
Ted Lau, Ballistic Arts, (he/him) (11:44):
No, no, no.
Marcia Riner | Profit Booster™️ (11:45):
$10 before you could spend that $1.
Ted Lau, Ballistic Arts, (he/him) (11:47):
Exactly exactly so. No, it's it's when I'm saying that dollar, that dollar includes everything all in right. Because so how? How I got into this part. I've had this company 22 years. I started in the room above my parents' garage and kinda grew it from there. And we were a creative agency. We did video production branding websites. You know, the same traditional creative agency stuff where I didn't quite frankly ask.
(12:11):
how much money do you wanna make from this? I never didn't dare, because I knew how costly our our fees were. Our services were. And then, when I started real, I had actually was, you know, over beer with a couple of clients I was asking, hey? I'm trying to grow a new division. What do you think I should do. And they're like, I want you to do social media marketing. And I'm like.
I hate social media. Why, why would you want me to do that? And they're like.
Marcia Riner | Profit Booster™️ (12:34):
Yeah.
Ted Lau, Ballistic Arts, (he/him) (12:34):
It's it's a it's kind of a black hole for us. We don't know, like we keep putting thousands of dollars a month into this, and we get a bunch of likes and stuff, and and I'm like
I'm thinking of my head. Well, I can't eat likes, you know. Like if I was a small business, and I'm putting in thousands of dollars a month. I darn well, better see a return. And so over beer. I blurted out.
(12:54):
not thinking how I was going to do this. Well, I'm not. That's kind of silly like. What if I got you leads? What do you mean, you know, like people picking up the phone and wanting to pay you money to hire you.
And I had this one client who's still with me today, said Ted. If you do that, I'll never leave you.
And that's kind of how it spurred on, because I know how much my cost inputs are, and as any business person, you know I need these expenses, and then I gotta then make a margin. And so long as I can factor all of our
(13:25):
marketing services and ad spend in
and know what the revenue return our clients need. Then it just becomes an input cost.
It just becomes like, Hey, a piece of machinery that I need to do to to bring in. That's gonna you know, print money, as it were, and that's the idea.
Marcia Riner | Profit Booster™️ (13:43):
Commerce.
Ted Lau, Ballistic Arts, (he/him) (13:44):
Print customers. And that's basically what's happened. And it's turning the thought onto its head.
It is a little bit scarier as marketers, because
you gotta put your feet to the fire marketers most
mostly when you're welcome, mostly just want to make things look pretty. And I look, we can make things look pretty, but the pretty things have to also
(14:05):
provide a return. They have to do something or else. Then you're just spending money for spending money's sake and I, and that it just doesn't, doesn't work, especially in today's challenging economy. If you don't have
a plan to actually make your marketing help, you make money, and what are you doing it for?
Marcia Riner | Profit Booster™️ (14:23):
Yeah.
cause you have to. You have to. If you're not marketing. I believe the marketing budget is just as important as the employee budget right that you have in there, because you've got to bring customers in, so you can have your employees, you know. Take care of the customers. So it it should be something that is just as highly important. But I think that we get into this like I said. In the beginning, we get into this whole with other marketers. We'll call them that just
(14:54):
promise something, but there's no, there's no, there's nothing at the end that really, truly comes out right 6 months a year down the way you're like, Oh, we're finally starting to get something, and then, if I'm not making money off it, then it's my problem, because I didn't know how to close a deal.
Ted Lau, Ballistic Arts, (he/him) (15:10):
Yeah. And so that's that's another thing is that we do pro sometimes have a conversation with our clients, because it's true. A lot of our clients. If you ever read the book, the email, the classic business book, right? A lot of business folks start their business because they were a technician. They they really wanted to do that thing. The baker. I think Susan was in the book, and she was the baker, and she's good at baking. But she wasn't really a manager, didn't have the entrepreneurial mind yet. And so
(15:34):
we as marketers also need to have communication with them going. Okay? Well, I've gotten you. We've actually had like, actually, that one client that, said Ted, will never leave you. I remember we actually got them a bunch of leads, and I was looking at our our reports. And yeah, cause I don't do the day to day. I have a team. So I'm just looking at the reports. I'm like, this is great. So I called the client like, Hey, how are you feeling? Because I I thought like, oh, things good like he's gonna be super happy because we're getting all this business for them, and and he's like, I haven't got any business out of it. Wh, what?
(16:04):
What? I I'm looking at a dozen qualified leads here, what what are you talking about? And he and he said, Well, they they haven't answered my emails. I'm like.
Did you pick up the phone.
What? What? What I have to what you you have to? You have to. You have to pick up the phone and call them. Oh, and and then we've had to kind of educate our clients along as well. And I know that sounds basic. But a lot of a lot of clients. Just think, hey? If I'm responding and they don't respond, then that's it. No, no, like you, you actually have to your services. This is cl particular client is service business. And with B to B companies, typically, it's less transactional. It's more relationship based.
(16:40):
So we have to educate them on the relationship. And this is why it's actually been very good on the B 2 B side, because a lot of our marketing is content driven, it is content. Marketing where we are positioning our clients, products or our clients services as industry leaders and experts, and why their product or their service is going to benefit their end customer, and by educating them and providing that value value kinda like the Gary Vaynerchuk book jab, jab, jab, right, hook that
(17:06):
that it's an ancient book at this point, but that showing value is extremely important.
and having that ability to continue on that allows our clients to be seen as trusted advisors, and then, therefore, they just again it it the the recipe works, and we've been very happy about that.
Marcia Riner | Profit Booster™️ (17:26):
I love it, and it it's you know you hit on something that
I think business owners forget. They go off
chasing shiny objects, squirrels fall down rabbit holes all the terminology of people business owners getting lost.
It's because they're forgetting about those foundational things and chasing those sexy, sparkly stuff like we'll call it AI. Now, right? All the AI stuff is very exciting and fun to play with, but they're forgetting the foundational pieces like, pick up the phone
(18:00):
and Ma and make a relationship with this person and provide them value.
And they'll go. Oh, I see now why I need this, because it's gonna do that. So that.
And and and I think that's where that's where I build my business on is the foundations. And I'm so glad to hear that you're going to the
(18:20):
back to the foundations to set up a successful opportunity for your customers
to be able to bring in the leads that they're looking for and even help in getting them. The phone.
Ted Lau, Ballistic Arts, (he/him) (18:31):
Well, well, yeah, I mean, we had another client out of la. I'm not gonna say who, but they they were another services company, and they are a high end service, and they would say internally to their team, Oh, we only want this type of client, but because of that culture that they've imbued into their team. When they again they were complaining they weren't getting business. And we're like, No, you're getting all these phone calls. And
(18:55):
but with advertising sometimes you can. Actually, I don't know if you know this with Google local services ads, the phone calls can be recorded. They're recorded. It's part of the Google privacy policy. Anyway. You can. You can hear them.
So we're hearing
some of the phone calls and hearing the the receptionist going.
Yeah, I know you. You can't afford us.
(19:16):
Whoa! What like? Oh, my goodness.
Marcia Riner | Profit Booster™️ (19:18):
Oh, my gosh! At the front door.
Ted Lau, Ballistic Arts, (he/him) (19:20):
Oh, it's a it's it's a phone call, because you can hear it. And we're like W. How? So? Then we have to pass on to the client. The client goes. Oh, my goodness, da! Da! So there's a bit of education on that aspect as well, but it's because we dig a little bit deeper, right? As you mentioned before, there's a lot of marketers that just hey, I'm gonna do this, or I'm gonna do that. And blah! Blah, it's whatever they have a specialty. It's kind of like if I'm an SEO expert, if any kind of business problem SEO
(19:48):
inside of message. Oh, well, I, I build videos, I make videos. Okay. So so Tiktok video. So any business problem, Tiktok video will solve it because that's what they do. But at ballistic. We're holistic. We we look at everything. And again, it's we meet our clients where they're at. And then we try to figure out how we're gonna get them to their goal, but not giving them a template boilerplate of like the things that with service that we do, it's how are we gonna get there. And I think that is a refreshing approach that
(20:16):
I would invite a lot of marketers do, because if they can do that and focus on how do we actually drive revenue? Then, once those activities start happening, you build this trust with the client we're able to go. We're gonna do this. And we actually have targets that we have to hit.
and if we hit it, then the clients gonna go. Okay. I'm gonna listen to ballistic now, because at first they don't know us from Adam. There's a ton of marketing agencies out there. But now that we've built that trust, now we can say, Okay, let me listen on some of those calls. Oh, by the way, they said that you know your clients don't deserve to work from the like, you know the now they're gonna hear you. But at first they're not gonna hear you. You gotta build that trust. And by the best way of doing that is by providing results.
Marcia Riner | Profit Booster™️ (20:58):
Yes, love it. Okay, thank you for that explanation. That was fantastic. It really separates the
the success of what marketing really, truly can provide a company when done correctly. Versus what's out there in many spaces? in in the marketing space. So let's kinda let's let's talk a little bit about some of those success ideas that come out
(21:25):
when when you work with a company. So if you, if you took that company from la! Or you took that company. You know one of the bigger companies. What were some of the things that that worked.
Ted Lau, Ballistic Arts, (he/him) (21:36):
Well, I think it's all about initially the plan right? Plan, your work work. Your plan is the same.
Marcia Riner | Profit Booster™️ (21:42):
And that's the name of the program.
Ted Lau, Ballistic Arts, (he/him) (21:43):
Profit with the plan. That's exactly that is literally what you have to do is that we always tell our clients. Now we don't ask
how much profit you want to make, because that's a little bit, maybe too confidential for our clients. But we'll actually ask them revenue wise, you know. I'll say, client, you know how much money you need to make for this endeavor to be profitable. How much is that?
(22:04):
And then we find out, okay, well, it's X number of dollars, and just for math sake, for this conversation, I'll say, let's say the client wants to make another 1.2 million dollars next year, and so if I divide it over 12, then that's a hundred $1,000 a month that they need to make.
and if their average order sizes, and most of our clients, the average order size, are at least in the 5 figure, you know. But for this conversation, let's let's say it's I don't know $20,000. So that's 5 new deals. You need 5 new deals to get a hundred grand a month and get a 1.2 million. Okay, so that's 5 new deals. What's your close rate? So the close rate is obviously like, if for every person that walks through the door. What's the percentage of them actually closing and turning into a business? I don't know. Let's say it's 30%. But now, okay, well, it's 30% regular. I'm gonna make it more conservative.
(22:45):
I wanna make it 20%. So if it's if it's 22 calls. So you need 10 phone calls, you need. You know you need. If you know, say, you need 5 new deals. If you need 5 new deals, times 20 is 25%. Right? Cause you gotta do the 20. Okay? So it's 25. Come phone calls. I need to get you qualified. 25 phone calls. And if you can do that, are we good? And that's basically it. Cause they know their business so well cause they usually are established folks. And they they just need the phone calls, and if we can do that, that's the first thing. The very first thing is knowing what the
(23:14):
the goal post is.
Marcia Riner | Profit Booster™️ (23:16):
Outcome has to be right.
Ted Lau, Ballistic Arts, (he/him) (23:17):
Outcome has to be exactly so. Once we know that.
then we'll go into various different things. So, understanding again, competition, where are they at. How are they talking to the market? Who of you know? What's their social presence, their SEO, all that kind of stuff? And then going through.
Marcia Riner | Profit Booster™️ (23:32):
Listeners. There is competition out there.
Ted Lau, Ballistic Arts, (he/him) (23:34):
And the only.
Marcia Riner | Profit Booster™️ (23:35):
You're not doing your own thing.
Ted Lau, Ballistic Arts, (he/him) (23:36):
You are never the only one doing your own thing ever. And but that's okay, right? And and I am not
concern about any. If you're a larger, you know, client, and you have all these like more small. Ca, competitors that are kind of biting out your heels. I'm not concerned about that, and I'm certainly not concerned if you're a smaller player in a big, you know, with with a big player in the mix, because, like, I said earlier in the call, that
(24:01):
all budget is is finite. All marketing budget is fine, so there's always going to be weakness. And so the competitor. Analysis is finding the weakness. Then we go into creating a persona. Who are you talking to? Here's another tip is talking to different
personas great. But you really have 1, 2, 3 top type personas that you talk to on a daily basis, figuring out who those folks are and finding out what they like what they love to do, what their hobbies are, and people go. Well, I'm A. B 2 B company. How how does like them liking?
(24:33):
I don't know the the yeah, right? Like, or or yeah, or maybe they they like the the mets or something like that. Why? Why? Like, how is that gonna help is because when people
are.
you know, not working, they're still thinking about their work. So like, I I remember.
So I became a Vegan like 3 years. Vegan diet. Okay, I had a Vegan diet. So 3 years ago, I started doing that. And I'm online checking. I do all the cooking at home. I'm checking like how to make Vegan grab and go breakfast for the next morning. Right? I'm going through. And then all of a sudden, an ad for a new Crm system comes up, and we were actually looking for a Crm that that month.
(25:12):
And because the target was so good, it spoke to me, and we actually shortlisted them to to start working with us as a Crm company. And that's that's the whole thing is like understanding who you're targeting. Then finding out what key messages you
do you want to say and try to actually put in? I know in sales you're not supposed to say industry, jargon words in marketing, it actually works. And the reason why is because if I am
(25:38):
putting you putting an ad to you, okay, I'm gonna target a whole subset of people that may or may not actually be this buyer that I want right? There may be I'm targeting. There's gonna be 10,000 people that target. But if I say these industry terms and you have never heard of those industry terms, you're gonna flip right through the advertising and by flipping through the advertising and not actually engaging with it. Then
(26:00):
the impression rates. Sure it goes down. But the add relevancy score goes up because only people that understand the industry jargon will click on that ad, and so therefore your ad relevancy score is higher, and there your cost. That means your cost per click is, gonna be lower. And that is going to be a really good secret on how to target these people.
Marcia Riner | Profit Booster™️ (26:19):
I love that. But so many business customers or or businesses don't want to niche they want to be. They're afraid that if they use that. Then what about those people that they got the ad that click through? They're gone. I wanted to capture them, too.
Ted Lau, Ballistic Arts, (he/him) (26:34):
Well,
How do I say this?
They weren't your client. To begin with, you know what I mean again. It's at the end of the day.
Your, if you're everything to everybody, you're nobody to anybody. You have to be able to
really hone down on what your niche is. You might have peripheral business elsewhere. But if you can specialize and know, and that's actually the the key to our success. Any of our clients come to us. They're usually established. They know what they're doing in terms of their business and profit, and they're they're already a going concern. They've been around for decades all good. They just kinda hit a ceiling.
(27:09):
But if they have a niche specifically a niche that is going to speak to those people.
they'll win like I guarantee like any of anyone coming to me. That's like been established as a company that actually has a niche and knows what they're doing is already profitable. We will make them win for sure, like that has happened time and time again. It's because of the niche piece, though, because that way then I can target that specific message to them. See how my clients be seen as a thought leader in that space.
(27:39):
They went all day long. I have a client who is a data research company can't say where.
but they compete with like large large like Ipsus read type type companies. They were. They're specifically targeting data research companies. Sorry? Yeah, no. Sorry. They're targeting directors of research in large conglomerates like Amazon and Nintendo and stuff like that. Yet we were able to target because of the fact that they're so niche. We can say this is the message that only works with these people.
(28:07):
I mean, we keep hitting above their lead targets every month.
Marcia Riner | Profit Booster™️ (28:10):
I think that is the golden nugget of the entire show is that
you have to be able to talk to your ideal audience. You said if you had one or 2, or possibly 3 ideal people that you're talking to, but marketing is to stop people in their tracks and redirect them to look at your stuff
(28:34):
right? It's not to close the deal. That's what the telephone call is for, but it's to get them to stop in their tracks enough times. Forget for them to recognize you and consume your information. And if you're talking to everybody out there about everything, and it's raining today. And yesterday was sunny, and tomorrow's going to be windy. They're gonna go. Oh, okay, that's the weather.
Ted Lau, Ballistic Arts, (he/him) (28:59):
Yeah, yeah, absolutely. And the the whole thing about the the content that you talked about right getting them to consume your content. That's what you said. That is the number one thing you want them to do, because it's gonna take
8 to 10 touches before most of these folks know you exist right? There are.
I think we could bombard. I was. I was doing a talk at at the other day.
(29:24):
and I had to, you know, do some research, and we get bombarded by 4,000 at 10,000 ads a day now, since, like the tid days of Tiktok and reels and stuff like that that is happening all day long. So 4 to 10,000 messages a day. How are you gonna get through
with a limited budget? So you gotta target, really? Well, make sure that. Yeah, the 8 to 10 touch is just for them to be aware of you. And then when they come to you. They're not gonna instantly buy from you. That's those days are gone. People are shopping and thinking. Maybe their buying cycle is a little bit later. They're not ready. They don't have to budget until 6 months from now, and the cycle resets, whatever that is. But if we have good content that they come back to. And they're like, Oh, this company actually knows their stuff.
(30:06):
not just showing how many awards we won, or what our product is. But like, how did this apply to a particular niche? Personalities?
Pain points. If I can do that, what are? Where are they losing sleep? And this is how we solve the losing sleep thing that you have. So if I can do that over and over and over over again eventually, they're gonna pick up the phone and give you a call. And it's less sophisticated. Typically with B twob, it's literally just pick up the phone. And then you start the relationship. It is not this big sophisticated cycle that you know, certain companies have most manufacturing distributing companies. It's it's picking a phone figuring out the specs are and.
Marcia Riner | Profit Booster™️ (30:42):
And doing it firing away. No, I love that, and that's so important. And and that brings you back down to the old foundational marketing pieces.
What problem does your ideal customer have now? And can you prove that you can solve it?
And and if you do that, it can be very simple approach. But you can't solve everybody's problem right? You know. It's always that dentist that says, Yeah, if you have teeth I can. You're my ideal client wrong? You know you, yeah.
Ted Lau, Ballistic Arts, (he/him) (31:16):
You have to be able to target right? That targeting makes you
the professor, as it were, of that particular space. Then you create a sandbox where you are the king and queen, the monarch of that.
Marcia Riner | Profit Booster™️ (31:30):
That sandbox.
Ted Lau, Ballistic Arts, (he/him) (31:31):
That sound but.
Marcia Riner | Profit Booster™️ (31:31):
You can have 2 sandboxes. Once you nail the first sandbox and you can build the second sandbox, or you can build a town and account county and a State right.
Ted Lau, Ballistic Arts, (he/him) (31:41):
Right.
Marcia Riner | Profit Booster™️ (31:41):
Your own country. You can build all of that, but it starts with the first sandbox.
Ted Lau, Ballistic Arts, (he/him) (31:46):
And you gotta prove the case. That's another thing with the data.
Why, actually, we're okay with targeting 2 or 3 personas at first is because certain personas will be will gravitate quicker to particular content.
And we're gonna double down on that. Once we start like you said mastering, it's kinda like the the circus act where they're spinning plates or whatever once you spin one, and you got that handled, then you can spin a second one. But until you got the one, do not try to be a plate spinner of 10 things right? You gotta do the one first and then start from there and then start slow. How do you eat an elephant? Or I guess because I'm plant based. How do you eat
(32:23):
fruit? One bite at a time? Right. That's the same thing.
Marcia Riner | Profit Booster™️ (32:27):
No, this is. This is fantastic, Ted. You've given us so many ideas to really chew on. To say.
first of all, marketing is as essential as your employees. Right? So you've got to have marketing.
but you want it to produce right? I asked my Co. My clients to make sure that their employees are producing an roi right? They're earning their pay.
(32:51):
Why are we asking our marketing to to produce an roi and earn its keep.
instead of just throwing that spaghetti on the wall. So that I think this is the most this is this is a fantastic way to really do it by taking that step back and looking at the the basis, and and niching and and and doing the doing, the great marketing ideas and directions. This has been. This has really been good. So, Ted.
(33:18):
we can talk forever. I know.
Ted Lau, Ballistic Arts, (he/him) (33:20):
Yes, yes.
Marcia Riner | Profit Booster™️ (33:21):
Maybe maybe 5 or 6 more of these conversations very easily. And and listeners, I know you're gonna have questions. So, Ted, where can people find you.
Ted Lau, Ballistic Arts, (he/him) (33:30):
Well, there's lots of different ways. If for those of you kinda new to marketing and business, I have a content channel just for you you. It's on Youtube called, you know Ted, if you can find it at, you know Ted Laos or Youtube, and just type in, you know, Ted Lau and I got a bunch of really quick hit videos about starting a business marketing personas, all that kind of stuff. And if you're actually ready and wanting to ask us a bit more about in depth things about your marketing plans and whatnot
(33:57):
come to my website. Ballistic arts. Com. You can find me at Ted, at ballistic arts, Com, or indeed.
and you can check us out. We have a lot of blog content as well. And so yeah, would love to have any of your folks when you're they're more than welcome to pick with the phone and or send me an email or whatnot.
Marcia Riner | Profit Booster™️ (34:13):
Love it. Love the idea of you know, Ted, loud on on Youtube, that's you know. Keep it as easy and simple as you can. Right? I I think it's very creative. So.
Ted Lau, Ballistic Arts, (he/him) (34:25):
So. Thank you, John. Thank you.
Marcia Riner | Profit Booster™️ (34:26):
Yeah. And my goodness, you know, none of us do it alone. We need help.
We need help from the experts that can help us bring in more leads, so that we can serve more people and take care of our family, take care of our communities and our employees, and just do so much more, and it marketing drives business.
Ted Lau, Ballistic Arts, (he/him) (34:49):
100%, 100%.
Marcia Riner | Profit Booster™️ (34:51):
So jump on the bandwagon. Alright. Well, thanks for listening today. I hope you found a couple of ideas to put into your business that will help you be more profitable. And I know that taking Ted's ideas on on doing the foundational work and really coming in and and going after the right audience the right way will help you really double, or triple, or quadruple, or 10 times your your money the investment that you put in. So go check out Ted stuff
(35:21):
as I mentioned before. If you want to supercharge your business, go download my new profit booster playbook packed with 3 profit strategies and the actionable steps that you can make to make this your most profitable year ever go grab it for free at boosting Profitcom
and Ted and I would love to hear your questions. Feedback, throw an idea that worked and throw an idea that didn't work out in the in the comments. And Ted and I will respond to it and give you some feedback on it and while you're at it subscribe.
(35:54):
You don't want to miss any future shows. So you can catch profit with a plan on any of your favorite podcast players. So we're looking forward to more great profitable information on next week's show. So until then make your plans and profit with them. Thanks so much, Ted. This is great.
Ted Lau, Ballistic Arts, (he/him) (36:11):
Thanks, Marcia, thanks everybody for having me, and I will talk to you soon. Bye.