Connecting Budgets to the Purchase Funnel | Eric McGehearty

David McBee: Hello and welcome to Simpli.fi TV. Our guest today is Eric McGehearty. Eric founded Globe Runner in 2009, and under his leadership, the company has made two strategic acquisitions and was recognized by Inc. 5,000 as one of America's fastest growing companies. Today, Eric is focused on integrating advances in artificial intelligence into Globe Runner's daily business operations to deliver out-sized returns for clients. Eric also hosted the show, The Curious Entrepreneur with season one available on Amazon Prime Video, and he is the co-founder of the nonprofit StandUpLD and a proud father of four with his wife, Heather. Eric, thank you so much for being a guest on Simpli.fi TV. Eric McGehearty: David, thanks for having me. It's a real pleasure to be here. David McBee: If it's okay with you, I'd like to jump right into the artificial intelligence topic because everyone is postulating what it means for their business. So I'm eager to hear how you are integrating it into what you're doing at Globe Runner. Eric McGehearty: Yeah, absolutely. I mean, I just think it's such an exciting topic and I've been at this now for 14 years, and over the course of the time there's been a lot of innovation and a lot of changes, and this is, for me, really a seed change. So we're really shifting in a way that I think is going to be pretty dramatic. It's going to be dramatic for users in search. So there's lots of ways to think about program or artificial intelligence. So when we think about it, we are thinking right now I'm really focused on how do I use this for my business? So how do I create productivity tools? How do I create automations that I could not have possibly created before? And we've got new predictive analytics that we're doing for clients that they're loving, and we're able to use AI to do better predictions on what the future's going to look like for them or their industry. But there's also the aspect of search. I mean, just in the last few days, Bing came out with a preview of how they think AI's going to work. Google did their preview and their stock dropped 8% because they FUBAR-ed it. So I mean, things are happening and I'm pretty stoked about it. And I think that for me, it's an exciting opportunity to really get ahead of the curb and go beyond just like, oh, let's use AI to generate some meta descriptions. Right? Well, that's fine and we're going to do that because it's kind of low hanging fruit, but I think there's a lot more opportunity, and that's what we're exploring right now, and I'm still in the R and D phase on that, but we've got a few things that we're doing for clients now, and I alluded to that a second ago as far as doing demand predictions so we can understand what keywords are going to be the keywords for next year, and using AI to do those types of predictions. And so we can do predictive algorithms in a way that wasn't really possible before, and clients are really excited to see like, "Oh, okay, I can see that this product line is not only on the rise, but we predict it, we'll continue on the rise." Or actually we might predict that it's not going to stay on the rise based on some other factors that the AI's going to look at with us. David McBee: So you're using AI as a little bit of a crystal ball, aren't you? Eric McGehearty: Little bit. So we're having fun with it, and it gives us, I mean obviously no system is perfect. And let's be clear, the AI right now is a incredibly convincing simulacrum, right? It's not there yet. It's not a truly artificially thinking device, but what it is has a huge data set that it's pulling from, and it's been able to recognize patterns in that data set and then reproduce those patterns in convincing ways to a human. And it's gotten to the point where is is truly convincing to a human. The thing that it can do for us that I think is really amazing for use internal is we can have it actually wright programming for us. So even a non-programmer can suddenly tell the AI, I need a Python script to do X, Y, Z. I can have that Python script written within a matter of moments, and if I've got just enough programming knowledge to be able to execute the script, maybe grab a few API keys from different platforms that I already use, I can execute that Python script and do an automation that normally I'd have to get a developer and wait a week for them to come back to me with that script. So that's the type of productivity that is just a game changer for a technically savvy marketer. David McBee: Thank you. That might be some of the best, how to actually use this AI thing, advice that I've heard, so appreciate that. Eric McGehearty: Thanks. Well, I mean, I think about it way too much or maybe not enough, depends on how you want to look at it. David McBee: All right. So a lot of the folks I talk to are kind of laser focused on something that they're really good at the SEO or the social media or programmatic, but I know you're a big fan of the full funnel strategy. Can you tell us about that? Eric McGehearty: Yeah, yeah. Love the full funnel strategy. I mean, I think as an agency, I'll be clear, SEO is really our talent. We are extremely talented at SEO, but for that to be effective, you need to have a full funnel strategy. So we need to be thinking about how we're moving people from awareness to an interest and then maybe to an intent to actually take an action and then to that evaluation phase, finally, conversion and loyalty. And if you're not thinking about that full funnel, you're really missing out. And I was thinking about this actually earlier today where we look at business' budgets and how it connects to the funnel. Have you, I don't know if you've thought about that before. Think about this for a second. So a small business, where do they put their budget in the funnel? David McBee: Usually at the bottom. Eric McGehearty: At the bottom, exactly. Right? So that's exactly right. So a small business can only put their dollars at the bottom towards that last conversion event. And as the businesses get larger, more of their budget pushes up into the top of the funnel. And eventually the big companies, if we're thinking Fortune 500, McDonald's type companies, they are only focused on awareness. Awareness and interest is where all of their money goes. And I think about that a lot. I don't know why, but I think about that a lot because it really kind of gives you this sense of what is it going to take to scale? And then for a small business to get off the ground is one set of activities for a mid-size business to scale is a different set of activities. And for a large company to thrive and win over their competition is a completely different set of activities. Right? And I think if you are really thinking about it and you understand where your client's lifecycle is and where they need to focus on the funnel, then you're going to be more successful than just trying to fit everybody into that same cookie cutter approach. David McBee: I really like that. And that's a hard thing to get through to some businesses, isn't it? They think I just want the lead at the very end, but that's giving the last runner in a relay race, the credit for winning the race. Eric McGehearty: Right. Well, and hey, for a small company, that's where I'm going to start. And that makes sense because that's all they can afford and they're like, "I need the easiest low-hanging fruit." But there's a limit to what that's going to be able to buy you. And so what's the challenge is when a lot of my customers are mid-market customers and they've been in that mindset, I want to only focus on leads and they're ready to move on from that they're ready to graduate and move into that more of a funnel mix spend where they need to be doing some, they need to be doing some programmatic maybe, or they need to be doing more social ads. That's when we look at, particularly in the ad mix, how are we going to re-diversify your spend to make sense for how you want to scale based on your current goals. David McBee: All right. Before we close, thank you by the way so much for being here. I like to ask everyone, do you have a book that has been instrumental in your success that you'd like to recommend to everyone? Eric McGehearty: Oh, that's a tough one. So I have a lot of books that I've read over the years. Today we're talking, we just talked about a little bit about the funnel. I mean, I really like the book Brandwashed. I don't know if you read that one. And that's more on the awareness interest, how to build and maintain a brand and how to sell with emotion rather than logic. And so I think that's a really, really good one for marketers to read. As an owner of an agency. I think the book Drive was one of my favorites for helping me think through how to properly motivate my team of employees to do their best possible work for the right reasons. And so that's another one that I like. And there's a hundred other books that I've read in the, business books specifically that have influenced my thinking. David McBee: Wow, I'm a big reader. And I think that's a big key to success. So thank you for that advice. And thank you so much for taking some time out to be a guest on Simpli.fi TV today. I appreciate you. Eric McGehearty: David, it's been a pleasure. Thanks so much for having me. David McBee: And thanks all for joining us on Simpli.fi TV. I'm David McBee, be awesome and we'll see you next time.