Stop Branding Ep 8

Alex Mozzie, host of the Gym Secrets podcast, debunks common misconceptions about branding in the fitness industry, advocating for direct response marketing instead. He shares his personal misstep of spending $5,000 on ineffective branding, emphasizing the importance of offers, deadlines, and clear instructions in marketing materials. Drawing from Dan Kennedy's principles, Mozzie outlines seven key strategies: always present an offer, impose a deadline, provide clear instructions, avoid spending on branding, ensure measurability, follow up on offers, and use strong copywriting. He concludes by offering listeners a free download of case studies on filling gyms and invites them to a non-committal phone consultation, exemplifying his marketing advice in practice.

• Alex Mozzie introduces the topic of marketing and branding, emphasizing a shift in perspective to save money.
• He shares personal experience with ineffective spending on branding.
• Alex advises using cost-effective tools like clickfunnels for creating websites.

Welcome, everyone, to the gym Secrets podcast. My name is Alex Mozzie and I am going to be your guide through this strange and magical world. Anyways, what I wanted to talk to you about today is the concept of marketing and branding.

This quote introduces the podcast and sets the stage for the discussion on marketing and branding, indicating that Alex will provide guidance on these topics.

• Alex warns against spending large sums on branding such as logos and websites that do not yield returns.
• He advocates for direct response marketing over general brand awareness.
• Alex shares his own experience of spending $5,000 without any return on investment to illustrate the point.

So I paid someone $5,000 to make me a website and a logo, right? And got $0 back for it.

The quote highlights the potential wastefulness of traditional branding expenses, as Alex shares his personal loss to caution listeners.

• Direct response marketing is favored by Alex, who insists on marketing materials with offers and deadlines.
• He references Dan Kennedy's principles from his book on direct response marketing.
• The focus is on trackable, monetizable marketing strategies.

You have to have direct response marketing. And what I mean by that is that every single piece of marketing material that goes out should have an offer and it should have a deadline.

This quote defines direct response marketing and emphasizes the necessity for offers and deadlines in marketing materials for effective results.

• Alex cites Dan Kennedy's "no holds barred direct response marketing book" as a source of wisdom.
• He stresses that branding elements like company colors are insignificant compared to monetization strategies.
• The example of Xerox is used to illustrate that the success of a business name is about monetization, not the name itself.

This is from Dan Kennedy's no holds barred direct response marketing book, whatever that is. But this is so true.

Alex acknowledges the influence of Dan Kennedy's work on his marketing philosophy, suggesting it holds valuable insights for successful marketing.

• Alex argues that monetization is key, regardless of the traffic platform used.
• He dismisses branding as a non-viable way to monetize.
• The importance is placed on how businesses use platforms to generate revenue, not on the platforms themselves.

Everything has to do with how you're monetizing the traffic platforms that you're using.

The quote emphasizes the importance of monetization strategies over the specific traffic platforms or branding efforts when it comes to marketing success.

• Alex outlines that businesses should always have an ongoing offer for customers.
• He states that this principle applies to all businesses, not just gym businesses.
• The offer should be clear, giving customers a straightforward choice to respond.

So here are the guidelines for how you're supposed to be doing this. And this goes for really any business, not just gym businesses, but one. You always have to have an offer.

This quote provides a guideline for businesses to always have an offer in place, highlighting the universal applicability of this marketing strategy.

• Alex concludes by preparing to provide listeners with a call to action at the end of the podcast.
• He implies that he will offer a free download related to case studies, demonstrating the direct response marketing technique he advocates.

For me, at the end of this podcast, I'm going to say, hey, if you want, you can have a free download of our four case studies of how we fill...

This quote sets up an example of a direct response marketing tactic that Alex is about to use, illustrating the practical application of the principles discussed.

• Alex Mozzie discusses the importance of having an offer for potential customers.
• He provides free case studies as an example of an offer.
• Offers are used to attract customers by providing them with something of value.

"I got four case studies. You can download them for free. We walk through the whole thing. That's my offer."

Alex Mozzie highlights the availability of free downloadable case studies as his offer to the audience, emphasizing the value provided in the form of detailed walkthroughs.

• A deadline is a critical component of a marketing strategy.
• Deadlines create urgency and encourage prompt action from potential customers.
• Alex Mozzie mentions that his company increases prices periodically, using this as a deadline to incentivize quicker engagement.

"But we do have a deadline because our prices increase every, like eight weeks. So if you'd rather pay us less for the services that we do, then do it sooner rather than later."

Alex Mozzie explains that the deadline is tied to the company's pricing structure, which increases every eight weeks, thereby encouraging customers to act quickly to pay less.

• Providing clear instructions is necessary to guide potential customers on what to do next.
• Instructions should be simple and straightforward to prevent confusion.
• Alex Mozzie uses the example of directing customers to a specific website to download case studies.

"Hopefully that is clear instructions. Now, when you have an offer that's like a direct mail piece, it would say, like, step one, text this to the short code or call this number or whatever, right?"

Alex Mozzie emphasizes the need for clarity in instructions by providing an example of how direct mail pieces guide customer actions step by step.

• The customer experience should match what has been advertised.
• Consistency builds trust as the customer's expectations are met.
• A predictable and reliable process enhances the credibility of the business.

"And what's nice about this is that the more the experience that they go through is in sync with exactly what you said, the more they're going to inherently and subconsciously trust you already because what you said was going to happen, happened."

Alex Mozzie points out that when the actual customer experience aligns with the advertised promises, it leads to increased trust in the business.

• Alex Mozzie is against spending money on branding without a direct return on investment.
• He believes that the only branding should come from direct marketing efforts.
• Marketing materials should have the primary goal of making money.

"The only branding that you're going to have is going to be from people seeing your direct marketing materials. And the point of marketing materials is to make you money."

Alex Mozzie argues that branding should be a byproduct of direct marketing materials, which are designed to generate revenue.

• Marketing efforts must be measurable to assess effectiveness.
• Without trackability, it's impossible to know if the marketing is successful.
• Alex Mozzie advises against working with marketing companies that do not offer ways to measure success.

"Must be trackable, then you don't know what you're doing. You're literally just shooting money into the dark."

Alex Mozzie stresses the necessity of tracking marketing efforts to ensure that they are not wasteful expenditures without measurable outcomes.

• Alex Mozzie extends an invitation to business owners looking to grow their businesses significantly.
• He directs interested parties to visit acquisition.com to potentially work with his team.

"If you are a business owner that has a big old business and wants to get to a much bigger business, going to 5100 million dollars plus, we would love to talk to you."

Alex Mozzie invites large business owners interested in substantial growth to consider working with his team, suggesting they can assist in achieving ambitious financial goals.

• Alex Mozzie highlights the necessity of measuring the growth in business as a result of participating in services like masterminds.
• Emphasizes that growth should be quantifiable and clients should be aware of their financial progress.
• Clients should be able to report specific financial improvements since engaging with a service.

"And I was like, awesome. How much is your business grown? And they were like, what do you mean? And I was like, well, you start like, they sold you on the fact that you were going to make more money in your business."

This quote illustrates the expectation of measurable results from investments in business growth services, and the surprise when clients haven't considered their progress in concrete terms.

• Alex Mozzie explains that having an offer is not enough; follow-up is crucial to capitalize on it.
• Follow-up is where the value of a free offer is realized through client ascension and increased product and problem awareness.
• The process of follow-up is key to making an offer successful and profitable.

"And I'm going to explain another podcast what perfect follow up looks like. Okay? But you have to follow up with people."

This quote indicates the importance of follow-up and that there is a strategy behind effective follow-up, which will be discussed in a future podcast.

• Alex Mozzie criticizes weak advertising copy, particularly in the fitness industry, and stresses the importance of strong, persuasive copy.
• Strong copy is essential to attract the right clients, especially when positioning oneself as the most expensive option in the market.
• Good copy drives emotions, hooks people, and addresses or creates awareness of the problems that a product or service can solve.

"Huge opportunity. We're looking for 15 people. If that's it, that's not copy. That's just someone who's super promotion aware and not problem aware."

This quote criticizes simplistic advertising that fails to engage with the customer's problems and instead focuses only on the promotional aspect.

"There's a sequence that you take someone through, through persuasive copy. It's too deep in depth to go through on this podcast because I try and keep these short."

This quote acknowledges the complexity of creating persuasive copy and implies that there is a specific process or sequence that effective copywriting follows, which is too detailed to cover in the current podcast.

• Emphasize the importance of always having an offer for potential clients.
• Stress the need for a deadline on offers to create urgency.
• Highlight the necessity of providing clear instructions for prospects to follow.
• Discuss the importance of setting expectations for what happens after an offer is claimed.
• Mention the significance of avoiding surprises, as people dislike the unknown.
• Outline the need to avoid branding in direct response marketing.
• Insist on the importance of measurable marketing to track return on investment.
• Describe the necessity of a follow-up process to maintain client engagement.
• Explain the concept of a value ladder and client ascension in business models.
• Emphasize the power of strong copywriting to emotionally engage and convert prospects.

So one, if you don't always have an offer, make one.

This quote underscores the first key strategy in marketing: consistently presenting an offer to attract clients.

Two, there should be a deadline on that offer. Always

Alex Mozzie advises that offers should have a deadline to encourage prompt action from prospects.

There should be clear instructions for what a prospect needs to do in order to attain that offer.

Clear instructions are crucial for guiding prospects through the process of claiming an offer.

And then after they have that offer, what you want them to do next.

Setting expectations for subsequent actions after an offer is claimed is important in guiding the customer journey.

People hate being surprised, actually. They hate bad surprises. People like good surprises, but people hate the unknown.

This highlights the human tendency to dislike uncertainty, which can be mitigated by clearly outlining the next steps in a process.

Okay, forget branding. Never do branding again.

Alex Mozzie suggests that direct response marketing should focus on immediate action rather than long-term brand building.

Five, it has to be measurable. You have to have a way of measuring your return on every single piece of marketing that you do.

Measurability is emphasized as a key component of effective marketing, ensuring that efforts lead to tangible results.

Six, there has to be follow up, okay?

Follow-up processes are essential for maintaining engagement and guiding prospects through a predetermined experience.

You have to have a thing that there always has to be a next thing, a next step, otherwise they just stop and then they forget about you.

The necessity of having a next step in the customer journey is highlighted to prevent loss of engagement.

Seven, there will always be strong copy. You have to have words on pages that get people emotionally engaged, say yes and raise their hand and say, I want that.

Strong copywriting is underscored as a powerful tool to emotionally engage prospects and drive them to action.

• Direct listeners to gymlaunchsecrets.com quiz to download free case studies.
• Provide clear instructions for further engagement, including an application process and the promise of a non-sales call.
• Use the podcast platform as a means to extend an offer and guide listeners through the marketing funnel.
• Convey a sense of community by mentioning talking to listeners "on the inside."

If you are a gym and you like to get from zero to full capacity in 30 days, you can go to gymlaunchsecrets.com quiz and download our four free case studies where we walk you through how we do this process.

This quote serves as a direct call to action, inviting gym owners to learn about filling their capacity through downloadable case studies.

And if you want to, here are my clear instructions. You can go on the next page and you can apply and we'll hop on the phone.

Clear instructions are provided for the next steps, emphasizing the importance of guiding prospects through the engagement process.

Promise we won't sell anything or at least won't take your money. If you want to talk to us again after that, then we'll take your money.

A humorous approach to ensuring prospects that the initial call is not a sales pitch, with a lighthearted mention of future financial transactions for further engagement.

Anyways, have an amazing, amazing day and I will talk to you guys on the inside.

This closing remark fosters a sense of community and continuity, hinting at further interaction within a more exclusive context.