Episode 173 Transcript
Heather Porter (00:02.904)
Hello, welcome back to episode 173. Now today I want to share a quick story about two businesses, both my clients, both with the same goal. Basically they want leads in their business and to grow faster. Now what actually happened next is where things get really interesting because things could not have gone more differently. Same goal, very different sort of.
outcome I suppose. And it's a really powerful reminder of what real marketing actually looks like. Okay, so let's dive in. Now let's talk about business number one to start with. That business had a really good offer, know, something that the market wanted. It was very competitive, the market, their marketplace, but they had a really solid service. Now they launched some paid ads over on Google and about
30 days passed and then they're like, okay, it's not working. Why? They said it's way too competitive. You know, we're paying $20 a click. I mean, let's be honest guys, that's a lot of money, but very competitive market. We're paying $20 a click. I don't want to pay more than $50 a day. That only gets me about two clicks a day. Now, if you've ever run ads before in your business, you know that this is not unusual for the first round.
Like if you've never run ads, it takes a little bit of time to work out what's actually going to work for you. It's data gathering time, but they didn't want to test anything. That was the thing. They literally were like, why isn't it working already? They didn't want to try another platform. They didn't want to rework the funnel. They just literally saw those numbers less than 30 days actually. And they just stopped. They stopped.
The problem wasn't necessarily the cost or the competition. The problem was actually the mindset of the business owner. They were looking for like plug and play. wanted that, you know, that big red button. We always talk about the easy button. You know, you push the easy button. God, I wish I had a button that worked like that. But they wanted that, you know, easy button that they could put.
Heather Porter (02:26.125)
They wanted marketing to be literally like a vending machine, right? You insert coin, get client. It just doesn't work that way. And I know for those of you guys that are running ads or have run ads in the past, especially this year in 2025, where attention is a premium right now and trust is essentially the currency, right? It's hard and it can take time.
So I want to introduce you to business number two, completely different approach. They also hit bumps early on in the first month. They launched with a super broad funnel and a lot of leads came in. We're talking hundreds of leads came in. However, most were not qualified and there were tons of no shows for calls and in-person services.
And then the ones who did show up were not necessarily ready to even be a long-term client. It's frustrating. That's also frustrating. But instead of quitting, they looked at the data and they pivoted. They basically locked the lead flow down into just two paths. Either you buy online or you fill in an application form. If you're not quite ready to actually buy online.
But that has had its own problems as well. The process was clunky and again, some crickets, you know, there wasn't a lot going on. They went from having hundreds of leads that wasted their time to like next to no leads at all. So that was also hard on the mindset. So they shifted again. This time the form was simplified to sign up or buy online because they were using a bookie, like a booking system that was really actually very frustrating and hard to use.
So for those of you that have like this online automated booking system, especially if you're sort of in the health and wellness industry or beauty industry, test that again for the first time as a new client and see if it's hard. Cause this, in this case, it was really difficult. The whole flow was all about logging in and there's a little tiny link at the bottom. It's like sign up to be a new customer. And then you had to sign up and then you had to like confirm your email address and then you had to actually go and book the thing you want. So
Heather Porter (04:51.649)
frustrating, right? So we walked through the whole process from that perspective and we're like, yeah, that's not working. That's not going to work. So then basically we removed that friction. We added a simplified web form that bypassed that whole system. And then we rebuilt the whole journey with the customer in mind. And now that's where things are getting exciting. So it's the same business, same offer, just slightly different on how they're actually putting the offer out there.
So they now have more qualified leads, higher conversion and no more spinning their wheels. All because they kept testing and they didn't just give up on round one saying, this isn't, this is not going to work for us. Keep testing. So here's what these two businesses taught me. And I want to pass that on to you guys as well. Marketing is not magic. It's math and mindset. You test.
tweak and test again. That is what it is. You will fail, unfortunately, on the first few rounds in most cases. And that's actually the point because the early results are like the wrong keys that help you find the right one. And it's not about click cost always. This is a massive variation on your, wherever your business is, your location, the size of your market.
your competitors that are also running ads. is, there's so many other factors, right? So even a $20 click is fine if the person converts and especially if the person converts into say a $10,000 product, right? But if the funnel is broken or the channel is not the right one for the people you're going after, then even $5 is too expensive. Your biggest wins often, you know, come after a pivot.
That's when they happen. You guys know this right? In business, you're always testing and trying new things, new offers, services, products, team members. And even when it hurts and you think, God, I'm gonna give up or, you know, this particular moment in time, everything's not worth it. Often on the back end of that and the other side of that is when things change for the better, hopefully for most of us. look, change.
Heather Porter (07:15.007)
often comes after the pivot, the big wins and the most profitable campaigns that I've ever built in my business come after version two or three, not normally version one. Very rarely. I'm even trying to think if I had a version one that's ever been like, wow, this is the winner. no, it's not like that in marketing. So if you're that early stage of testing, or if something's just not clicking in your marketing right now, literally ask yourself, ask yourself, have I really
tested this or did I launch it once and expect absolute perfection? So which business are you acting like right now? Business one who gave up when it got too hard or business two who tested, tweaked and stayed in the game long enough to win. I remember one of my old mentors Keith Cunningham who I met through my days working with Tony Robbins
He said the secret to business and life and success in general is to get in line and stay in line. Hmm. So marketing is testing. always has been, always will be even with AI and the speed of what we're able to test. It's still testing.
In this, if this episode resonated by the way with you guys and you're thinking, you know, yeah, there might be another business owner out there that needs to hear this. Or one of my friends just gave up because they only tried round one. Maybe just flick this over to them. It could benefit them. And it would help me as well, you know, to get the word out about the hustle rebellion and the movement that we're building. So if you're ready to build a funnel that actually is designed to evolve, you guys can totally reach out to me.
just hustlerebellion.com and then there's contact buttons on there. If you want some help, some training, some up-skilling on your team, that's yeah, reach out to me. And if not, know, let this episode be a reminder to you to not give up and keep testing, whether that's marketing or anything in your business. That's how you grow smart. Let the data tell you what's working and keep pivoting and keep evolving. Thank you so much as always for being here and I'll talk to you.
Heather Porter (09:28.929)
very soon. Bye guys.
