Lori A. Manns With Quality Media Consultant Group

Intro: [00:00:04] Broadcasting live from the Business RadioX Studios in Atlanta, Georgia. It’s time for Atlanta Business Radio. Brought to you by on pay. Atlanta’s New standard in payroll. Now, here’s your host.

Lee Kantor: [00:00:25] Lee Kantor here another episode of Atlanta Business Radio, and this is going to be a good one. But before we get started, it’s important to recognize our sponsor, Onpay. Without them, we couldn’t be sharing these important stories. Today on Atlanta Business Radio, we have Lori Manns with Quality Media Consultant Group. Welcome, Laurie.

Lori Manns: [00:00:44] Hi, Lee Thank you for having me.

Lee Kantor: [00:00:46] I’m so excited to get caught up and learn what you got going on. For those who don’t know, tell us a little bit about Quality Media Consulting Group. How are you serving folks?

Lori Manns: [00:00:55] Well, Quality Media Consultant Group is a business consultancy firm specializing in advertising, marketing and sales solutions for optimal business growth. And essentially what that means is we help our clients to grow and scale their businesses to the next level of success, whatever that means for them.

Lee Kantor: [00:01:15] So do you have a sweet spot in terms of the people you serve? Is there a size of the organization or an industry niche?

Lori Manns: [00:01:22] Yeah, we have two sides of our business. One is we work with corporate clients on their advertising and marketing strategies to put their brilliant messages out there to the universe and attract their target audience. And for corporations, we do marketing plans and media buying. And for small business owners and entrepreneurs, we are servicing those people who are service based business owners primarily. And we also primarily work with purpose driven women who are coaches, consultants, trainers, speakers and influencers.

Lee Kantor: [00:02:04] Now how have you seen marketing evolve with all the new technology? And now there’s AI, There’s all kinds of stuff that are tools available for businesses and entrepreneurs. How have you seen kind of the evolution of that in your work?

Lori Manns: [00:02:21] Well, digital technology is influencing business more and more as time passes, because one of the things for sure, artificial intelligence is here to stay. Chatgpt is here to stay. And it’s only going to grow and evolve. And one of the best things I tell my clients is to learn the new trends. Learn what is. Happening and get to know what you need to know and how you can use it, leverage it and optimize it for your business, but more importantly, learn the things not to do. So I have seen digital technology evolve in my 14 years of business. Digital marketing has also evolved because during the time that I’ve been in business, I have seen social media platforms come and go. I’ve also seen. Marketing strategies come and go in terms of the trends. But I do believe that artificial intelligence and primarily chatgpt is one of those things that you can absolutely leverage and use it the right way to grow your business.

Lee Kantor: [00:03:41] Now, what do you tell the business folks out there that are now experiencing this kind of economic chaos that’s occurring and has been occurring for a little bit now? And couple that with all these new technologies that are available. How do you know when it’s time to really kind of take a leap into some new technologies instead of maybe shoring up some of the foundational marketing resources that you’ve been using in the past? Because, you know, there always seems to be a new crisis and there always seems to be a new technology. And it’s just really getting harder and harder to, you know, stay on top of everything.

Lori Manns: [00:04:22] Well, the first thing I say is to analyze what you’re currently doing and how it’s working. And so if you’re using a methodology, a strategy or a game plan to grow your business and it’s working, continue to do that. If you are using something that is not working, then it’s time for you to consider some other options. And so because of the fact that we are in an economic downturn, a lot of people did not plan for this, even when it was forecast by economists and even when it was forecast by talking heads. A lot of people failed to act in business and they failed to pivot. And so it doesn’t necessarily mean that when we’re in an economic downturn that you have to stop everything that you’re doing. But it just means that you need to analyze what’s working well and what’s not working so well so that you can figure out how to fill in the gaps. And so, for example, if you are a business owner and you’re not getting the leads that you want, you’re not getting the sales that you want, then it’s time to look at how are you putting messages out there, How are you, you know, deciphering what your marketing strategies are. And perhaps you do need to take a look at some new innovative ways to reach your target audience and doing so on social media and or using something like artificial intelligence or augmented reality or chatgpt may be a strategy that you just want to look at.

Lee Kantor: [00:06:09] So now you mentioned leads. That’s a maybe a symptom of things that aren’t going as well as you’d like. Are there any other kind of metrics that matter for, you know, entrepreneurs and corporations?

Lori Manns: [00:06:21] Yeah. The number one metric that matters is revenue. If your revenue is down, if your revenue is not where you want it to be, sales are not coming in. That’s a good indication that you need to make a shift or a pivot. Then of course, you have to look at, you know, the leads and the cost per lead that you’re spending to get the leads. You have to look at those kinds of things. But more importantly, you also have to look at what are your top selling products and services and what are your worst selling products and services. These are also metrics that can help you determine if it’s time to pivot or shift.

Lee Kantor: [00:07:05] Now, do you find that some folks just aren’t aware of that kind of data, that they’re capturing all kinds of data, but maybe they’re not prioritizing what truly is important. For example, some folks, you know, maybe they’re on social media and they’re focusing on, look, we’re getting a lot new, you know, followers or or maybe they’re paying attention to some areas that seemingly is going well. But like you said, if it’s not translating to bottom line green dollar ROI, maybe that’s a distraction and not really a priority in your marketing.

Lori Manns: [00:07:44] Exactly. And I think you’re right on target, Lee, because a lot of people, when they implement a social media marketing strategy, just because social media is so big right now, they think that if they get more followers, that that translates into it’s working. Well, what really translates into whether or not your marketing is working, whether it’s on social media or whether it’s traditional media or any form of marketing is if it is converting. And so if you are converting those prospects into clients and or customers, then that is a signal that it’s working. If you’re not, then that’s a signal that it’s not working. And so, yes, followers on social media is important. Yes, engagement is important, but the most important thing is are your efforts producing a return on investment and is it moving the needle when it comes to sales and revenue for your business?

Lee Kantor: [00:08:53] Now, is that part of your challenge as a marketing consultant is to really educate your client into focusing in on the things that truly matter and that just because historically you’ve been using one measure of success. If you’re not measuring the right thing, you know, you’re kind of just kind of going through the motions of business. You’re not really optimizing your business. Is that part of what you’re one of your challenges is to really understand and explain to your clients, hey, you know what, I know it looks like because you were using a metric, like you said, of followers, our followers are down, but your, you know, your revenue was up. And isn’t revenue what you want more of, not followers Like is that do you spend some time explaining people, hey, this is the stuff you’ve got to really be focusing in on, not this other thing that that might look great to the world, but it may not be really helping your bottom line.

Lori Manns: [00:09:54] You’re absolutely right. Because here’s the thing. In business, you have to measure so many things in order to have a profitable business and a profitable business model. Now, there’s also things that you can measure that are going to influence whether or not you do get that bump in sales and revenue. And for example, one of the things that you can measure to lead to that road of revenue success is what is your brand known for? Do you have brand equity? That means is your brand. Is your company respected and revered in your industry? And if when you speak, people listen, That is a good indication that when you put out marketing messages and when you put out offers, that you’re going to get a response. So of course, before we get to trying to sell anyone who’s following us, we have to build the reputation that makes them know that we are the leader in that industry. We are the expert and the authority, and we actually have a good handle on what we speak of in order to bring about some good results for the people that we say we can help.

Lee Kantor: [00:11:14] But but also times for especially people who aren’t working with an expert like yourself, some of the easiest things that can be measured aren’t really worth measuring. Like it might be easy to see. I keep coming back to it, but followers, it might be easy to see, Oh, the followers are going up. So you know, we’re doing good, so stop thinking about it. But if you go a couple layers deeper like you described, you might be seeing a different result. That is a little trickier to measure, but really is more impactful.

Lori Manns: [00:11:48] Absolutely. And I can totally relate to what you’re saying because, yes, people will measure what I call vanity metrics and the vanity we call them.

Lee Kantor: [00:12:00] We call them cosmetics.

Lori Manns: [00:12:03] Exactly. And that simply means you’re spending too much time focusing on perceived. Opinions and engagement when it comes to social media. Because if you have a public. Company page on any social media platform, you could get followers that are only curious. They’re not necessarily interested buyers or ready to buy customers. They could just simply be curious or they saw somebody else like your page or engage with your page. And so therefore they liked it too. But they’re not really interested. They’re not really engaged. So when you measure the vanity of, Oh, I’ve got 100 likes or I’ve got 500 likes or a thousand, oh, this person went viral. Okay, well, what did that viral post do for them? And if they went pseudo viral, what did it do for them in terms of helping them to produce a bigger impact, helping them to produce a bigger income and helping them to produce more influence. If it helped them in all of those areas, then great. But if it was just something that was trendy for the moment, then it was so fleeting and it was so based on vanity that it just doesn’t matter.

Lee Kantor: [00:13:27] And sometimes when you go viral, it might be for a negative reason. It could be because you got some some attention for something controversial or isn’t going to really serve you in the long run.

Lori Manns: [00:13:39] Absolutely.

Lee Kantor: [00:13:41] So now what does it look like when a company works with you? What does that first few conversations look like and how do you kind of onboard them and get them going?

Lori Manns: [00:13:52] Well, the first couple of conversations are what I like to call a business needs analysis. That’s when we just take a look at the business or the person themselves and we look at what are your top needs and what is it that you are facing in terms of your challenges that you need help with the most? And when we identify what your biggest needs are, your biggest challenges, we come up with a strategy to help you to overcome those challenges and meet those needs in a way that’s going to produce in the area of more income, more brand visibility, more clients and conversions and greater impact in your industry. So it starts off with just an analysis. Where are you now and where do you ultimately want to be?

Lee Kantor: [00:14:45] So now I know when you go to market, you do through a variety of ways. Can you talk about some of the ways that you serve your clients? Number one, like I know you do consulting, but there’s also other aspects to your business.

Lori Manns: [00:15:02] Yes. So we decide based on the needs and the goals. Do you need to have a. Brand overview and a brand strategy session, or do you already have that and you now need to market your company or yourself, and if you already have the marketing in place, then we decide, okay, is it time for you to do media and advertising to really get that? Momentum built in your business. And then, of course, we look at what’s the sales plan, how are we going to convert those prospects once they start to come after we have. Put out those messages. Once we get them into our funnel and once we get them into our system, how are we then going to convert them into paying clients? And so that is all about creating a process for welcoming prospects into your business, taking them through the sales cycle, making sure that whatever you offer, be it a product or a service, is something that they actually need, something that solves a problem or meets a need so that when they have engaged and they have bought that thing, they are happy and satisfied and they become your biggest brand ambassador. And that simply means that they are your unpaid sales force because when happy customers become. Referral partners is simply that they tell everyone they know that I bought X, Y, Z from this company or I hired X, Y, Z person and they did a great job. And, you know, happy people tell other happy people and unhappy people also tell unhappy people. So that’s that’s basically the basis of the work that we do.

Lee Kantor: [00:17:06] Now, is there a success story you can share? You don’t have to name the name of the company, but explain maybe the problem they came to you with and how you helped them get past that and get to a new level.

Lori Manns: [00:17:16] Yes. I had a VIP client that was a financial. Consultant and had created an app and was struggling to really connect with people who were interested in paying for the financial consulting and services they were offering. And after working with myself and my company, we were able to not only look at some of the holes in the marketing and advertising strategy, but also to look at the programs that were being offered and analyze them in a way that made them more valuable to the end user. We raised the price and changed the entire marketing strategy, and they were able to secure a handful of clients at three times the rate that they were charging before and therefore made a significant amount of money in a very short amount of time. And we’re talking, you know, when it comes to financial consulting and coaches, you can run into all types of levels of experience, but this person really had a high level of experience. And so they were able to reach five figures, high five figures in just a couple of months where they had not previously done that before with just a handful of clients.

Lee Kantor: [00:18:44] So if somebody wants to learn more and connect with you or somebody on your team, is there a website or are there any events you got upcoming?

Lori Manns: [00:18:52] Yes, there’s both an upcoming event and a website. So I am actually celebrating 14 years in business this month, which is April and. At that event where I’m going to be celebrating my business anniversary. It’s called the Trailblazer Business Summit, taking place Saturday, April the 22nd. And you can go to quality media consultants.com on the events page and check it out. There’s going to be ten speakers talking in TED talk style, but with more strategy and meat on the bones than you would get on a TED talk. But it’s going to be amazing. They’re going to be talking about all kinds of business topics, and one of them is something that we covered today, and that is how to use artificial intelligence and chatgpt as well as social media to grow your business when the times are changing. And you need to be abreast of what’s going on in the digital world. So we’re going to have three professionals talking about that, as well as finance scaling your company automation, video technology and branding and so much more. It’ll be an amazing event. It’s virtual. You can join from anywhere. Saturday, April the 22nd, the Trailblazer Business Summit. And once again you can go to WW dot quality media consultants.com.

Lee Kantor: [00:20:28] Well Laurie thank you so much for sharing your story today you’re doing such important work and we appreciate you.

Lori Manns: [00:20:33] Thank you so much Lee it’s always a pleasure to talk to you and it’s a great opportunity. I appreciate.

Lee Kantor: [00:20:39] It. All right. This is Lee Kantor. We’ll see you all next time on Atlanta Business Radio.