The Future of Small Business Marketing: Geofencing with Calleri and Wardell

Narrator: [: 00:00:00

Peter: Welcome, welcome, welcome. You listen to the Ask Brian radio show on KHS 1220 FM. Well, every week we have a show. We've been actually our pilot was December of 2016. And our first show every single Thursday started in the first week of January 2017. So we've been, we've been around quite a bit and we continue to be quite around asking business owners or people that can teach something about businesses to be on the show so people can learn something about business.[00:01:00]

But our show is called Ask Brian, B R I E N, because that's the only way to spell Brian. Nobody ever spells their name Brian, B R I A N or B R Y A N. That's never heard of. Everyone spells their name B R I E N. Isn't that right, Trace? That is right. You got it. That was excellent. Another E. Excellent.

Traci: Always trying to find a new E for the day.

Peter: Exactly. Well, Tracy's our resident expert. Another E. A resident expert on E's. And we're just going to try to help us out and the audience out. Understand why Brian is spelled with an E.

Traci: Well, you know, we may have brought in a new E with excellent, but one of our most favorite, most stable, most solid, and most important E's is always our engineer.

So thank you.

ways appreciate you. We get, [: 00:02:00

So you have to have a minimum, minimum of 10, 000 hours in your business category or business niche. And we know the math on that is like 40 hours a week, 50 ish hours a week, a year, five years, blah, blah, blah. But our experts are going to be the first ones to tell you that, first of all, if you're running a startup, you're working a minimum of 40 hours a week.

And I'm not even a startup and I'm still doing much more than that. So what's the difference between

Peter: yada yada?

Traci: There's not a really, [: 00:03:00

And that is where the eardrums come into play. That's another. Okay, then. Yeah, and we had multiple sets of eardrums in our studio today. So thank you for just busting out all of them.

Peter: That was very easy to do.

Traci: It was very easy to do, but now how are we going to educate all of our entrepreneurs when they can't hear us?

I don't know. I guess we'll figure that out. Okay. So you know what, we have so many great things to talk about today, other than us. So why don't we bring on our experts?

Peter: Well, I think you were trying to empathize, but I guess not.

Traci: Well, I know how to empathize and you don't, so that's why I chose to leave it out.

Peter: But that is one of the formalities of Ask Brianne.

Traci: [: 00:04:00

Peter: Well, I guess you don't want your grease lightning. So I guess we'll skip that one, right?

Traci: Oh, no, I can do it. It's electrifying.

I just worked it in under the wire.

Peter: And by the way, one of our E's is going to be for our guests today, because his name begins with an E Ernesto. Are you there?

Ernesto Cullari: I'm here, Brian and Tracy. Thanks for having us. I'm Ernesto Caleri, co founder of Caleri and Wardell, and I have two E's in my first name.

Peter: All right.

And question is, is the person that you're working with, is she a co founder or is she just a partner shareholder?

Ernesto Cullari: She is my co founder extraordinaire. That's Barbara Wardell and Barbara has three A's.

Peter: But she's extraordinaire, which is neat.

Ernesto Cullari: Yeah.

Traci: And an E in the last name.

Peter: Well, you have to have an E around here.

So [: 00:05:00

So Ernesto. So. Can you give us a quick background before you started the business, and then we'll go on to Barbara.

Ernesto Cullari: Sure. So I was a commercial photographer and did a lot of work in both politics and on, in the world of Instagram and the beauty industry and the food industry. And, uh, at the start of COVID, our agency that I was, I had lost a lot of business because a lot of companies were very reluctant to advertise at the start of the pandemic.

vices and then send them ads [: 00:06:00

So, it's really at the start of COVID that I made the transition from more of content based advertising to satellite based, GPS based advertising.

Peter: Wow. Well, that's a big thing. So, but how long have you been in the business? You know, you said you're a commercial photographer. Did you just start out at that as that, or did you have a prior history before that?

edRat right out of college in: 2001

So I started to shoot for makeup companies and then 2015, I decided to stop being a med rep and just focus exclusively on advertising. [00:07:00] And then, uh, fast forward to COVID, you know, really ripped the rug out from under us, but by that time I was already shooting for the soup Nazi from Seinfeld. Which is the original Suitman.

Hint Beauty, One Over One, Well Within Beauty, Juniper and Pine, a ton of different, Pocky, Tequila, you know, a bunch of different brands in the beauty, alcohol, beverage, and food space.

Peter: Well, before I get to Barbara, I just want to say there aren't too many people that we have that run for Congress and end up in the advertising business, but when you think about it, it's kind of a good fit because you have to advertise a lot if you're running for Congress.

So that's an interesting thing here, but we can't say anything about it because there is an election coming up. So, Barbara, let's go a little bit about your background before you met Ernesto and got into this part of the business.

ded up the marketing for the [: 00:08:00

And then when I, during COVID, I met Ernesto and we were talking and. We ended up collaborating on, uh, this geofencing adventure because it's been an adventure. When I looked at all the data, I was like, Oh my gosh, there's a lot of data here that you wouldn't even imagine, you know, they know about you. So yes, we've been together for two years now and growing the business.

I kind of came in and revamped the business and, uh, took it to another level and we've been, uh, kicking butt ever since and making our customers a lot of money.

Peter: So you started the business together. Is that correct?

Barbara Wardell: Uh, yes, Ernesto did start part of it almost a year, was in business before we collaborated, but it was on a smaller scale.

He was learning and then, uh, we just, uh, ended up collaborating and blowing up the business together.

g to transition from being a [: 00:09:00

What happened?

Barbara Wardell: Well, you know, originally, because I was home during that time and not seeing my doctor's offices and doing all the specialty medicines and on the road for 2, 000 miles a month, I wanted another opportunity and I started looking into businesses and I was talking with Ernesto about it. And then he said, well, I'm doing this geofencing, but you know, I can't do everything.

nology during COVID to bring [: 00:10:00

So it was a motivation to bring that technology and figuring out how we could do it on a budget that small businesses actually could afford.

Peter: Ernesto, so how did you get your first customer?

Ernesto Cullari: My first customer was actually, um, one of my best buddies who was a very successful operator in the laundry industry.

And then I did well with him, sent him 50 new customers in his first month, and then he turned me on to one of the largest private operators of laundromats in the country. And that's really where we perfected the science of geofencing and really understanding customer profiles, no matter what business you're in.

o based on the region of the [: 00:11:00

Is going to be a little bit different than a real estate profile customer in the downtown Austin and then the same thing it's going to be a different profile for someone in Santa Clarita, California. So we take a lot of input from the client, but we really learned from the laundry industry and we really honed our skills there and now.

We've opened that black box and made it available to as many small businesses as possible.

Peter: So without giving secrets away, and then we're going to go back to Barbara, but you said in your first month, you got 50 customers for a laundromat. I think that's pretty, pretty incredible. My question is, how did you do that?

Digital marketing on Google or stuff like that?

mobile device, we're able to [: 00:12:00

But we can draw certain inferences because we know they walked into a laundromat, for example, then we bid for presence on their phone as they're shopping or reading the news or streaming video, and then we send it out to that device. But when they come into one of our laundromats, in this case, the satellite pings us, alerting us a new visit has taken place.

But the reason why geofencing is so effective, in particular the way we do geofencing, is we're targeting exact lookalike customers to yours, and then we're simply delivering them a map to your store, so they know how easy it is to get to your store, or to your law office, or to your website, or to your emergency care clinic.

To your salon. We let them know where you are, how to reach you, and then we're able to record interactions either via web traffic or satellite.

ction wise, you and Ernesto? [: 00:13:00

Barbara Wardell: Well, we collaborate on some stuff, but Ernesto is very creative, and I am more of the CFO.

I handle all the finances, all the invoices, billing, making sure that we have allocations for Anything that we need to grow our business. Like right now I'm investing in all the technology for the platforms of our company, as well as we just, uh, launched, um, a platform where they can go in and look at their actual, uh, analytics and yeah, to see where their ads, what ads are performing.

So they can do it at, at any time. We used to actually email them every week to show them, but now we have a platform that actually they can go in at any time to see those analytics. And then we're also working on a self-serve platform as well.

Peter: This platform, is that a, this is a third party platform or is it, uh, something that you've created independently?

reated ourselves. Everything [: 00:14:00

Peter: I would imagine in a business like this, that it's that type of platform is available irrelevant of whether or not you use Microsoft or Apple or any of that.

Or does the. It's a priority.

Ernesto Cullari: Well, our technology is proprietary, but our targeting is agnostic to device. So you can have a. It doesn't matter what kind of smart device you have, if you walk into a geofence, if it's a smart device speaking to a satellite, then we can communicate with you with an ad.

Peter: So Ernesto, who's your biggest competitor?

erkinds that did really well [: 00:15:00

Peter: So, those are who your competitors are, but what are the advantages that you have over your competitors? Obviously you mentioned this proprietary software, that seems to be likely. One advantage. What are the other advantages that you feel you have over competitors?

Ernesto Cullari: For us, we do a lot of consultations and a lot of handholding.

And I think, and you know, I could tell you from experience where friends of mine have kind of gone out like secret shoppers to talk to other agencies and you're really dealing with sales people at other agencies and they're really not experts in the technology, I would say what separates us is that we can have a conversation with.

ith our clients. And I think [: 00:16:00

With the agency that you work with because one you want to make sure they really understand your your problems And what needs they're fulfilling of yours and also if something is not working out, right? You really want to have a good relationship so that you can feel free to communicate with that And I think our strongest standpoint is not it is On the one hand, our technology, but really it's that we really care about small business owners and we, we develop a healthy relationship with them.

We're not trying to sell you something so much as we're trying to solve your problems and we have the technology to do it and the know how.

Peter: Wow. That's great. Tracy, you had some questions you want

Traci: to. Okay, I love what you were saying before the break about really helping and supporting small businesses with the way that you're helping them.

t say we have a listener who [: 00:17:00

So I think the first

Barbara Wardell: part that we do is when we get a call. Or through our website is that we ask for their address first. And that's the first thing that we do, because we want to do research because with our company is when we work with you, we will not work with your competition. We give exclusivity to that business, which we felt was very important because it is a dog, dog world out there.

d once we see that if we can [: 00:18:00

And then when you do get on a call with us, we already have a sort of foot traffic study to kind of see where the traffic is and whether or not That establishment is up in sales or down in sales because we want to see the full picture and then we also engage in asking questions about what they're looking for, what demographics are in their area so that what we see actually is what's on the ground because as we know, it's sometimes not always the same because there are senses that do not actually have the full senses of the demographics in that area.

Yeah. And then from there, Ernesto, you want to talk about the foot traffic study a little bit?

Acura, you have the Ivy Day [: 00:19:00

So if you want to, if you want to open up a coffee shop, you know, that's next to the Ivy Day spa, or if you want to be near Frontier. Toyota or Valencia BMW, we could tell you less. Hey, maybe the business you want to open. It actually might be a perfect match for the demographics of where you are. We trying to the customer journey is we really want to holistically look at what's going on with the foot traffic in their area.

location is or your desired [: 00:20:00

To the foot traffic that's occurring in the area and that it really matches the service that you offer really meant meets the demographic criteria and if it doesn't Then we need to look at zip codes or neighborhoods or businesses that we could target for you so that we can drive Some business off the beaten path if you're not really where you belong Then we need geofencing is useful to drive traffic off the beaten path So people can find you even if you're not where you belong.

Traci: And this traffic study is a big differentiator for you against your competitors, correct?

Ernesto Cullari: Yeah, no one is offering this. You know, we speak to technology vendors and, you know, we're frequent guests on different podcasts because the technology providers really would like to, you know, to meet more. You know, advertising agencies, but they just don't.

the kind of information that [: 00:21:00

Barbara Wardell: And we have a lot of technology that we use. We combine them in ways that nobody else does. Would you want to share a couple more of this? Give us a little sneak peek.

Ernesto Cullari: Well, we have, um, I'll give you an example. You know, we have NutraShop in Santa Clarita and they were running a campaign for body composition scale and we, we sent them over 70 people in their first month and that's to get a free body assessment, free meal planning.

Where they set you up one on one with one of their professionals at the Santa Clarita store and it helps keep their clients accountable Because people want to see results. So we like to brag about NutriShop and Santa Clarita because they did so well and it's a great community You know, there's other businesses there that we consulted and The laundry industry, and also they do real estate as well.

it's a great community, this [: 00:22:00

Barbara Wardell: We target your competition as well.

Traci: And I think just to give you a shout out to in terms of really honoring that whole client relationship and doing the competitive exclusivity, I think it's a, it's like it's a critical relationship building tool for you because you are, you have so much access to information on their competitors.

del to have that competitive [: 00:23:00

Barbara Wardell: Yes, absolutely. That was one of the first things on our list.

Traci: And that's been something that do you use that in your marketing language in terms of when you speak to clients and things?

Are you, are you leading with that as one of your relationship building benefits?

Ernesto Cullari: We do because the world, Barbara was saying earlier about the walled gardens, you know, Facebook is a walled garden, Google is a walled garden. And what that means is if you're in that garden as well, You're really advertising head to head with people in the same community.

And as an agency, since what we offer is so novel, it's really not fair, you know, if we represent, you know, um, down by Newhall Ranch Road, you know, there's a In N Out Burger by the Starbucks, right? That would be wrong if we also represented Jack in the Box down the street. So we honor small business owners.

at exclusivity is definitely [: 00:24:00

We need to have exclusivity and we think it's, it's only fair.

Peter: Tracy, you had some more questions. You said,

Traci: yes. So, you know, from now looking in, you would think that there was probably a pretty big transition from where you got started to where you are now with your business. Can you talk us through some of the challenges outside of the, just COVID alone, obviously, presented its own set of challenges, but in just terms of like launching this business, pivoting from your previous businesses, what were some of the challenges that you faced and how did you overcome them?

raffic was dropping off. And [: 00:25:00

We needed to do a lot of things that that technology provider had, had been doing for us. So, what about you, Barbara, what would you say?

Barbara Wardell: Well, the first, the first year we became partners, I was actually still working. So Ernesto was a hundred percent in the business. I took calls when we could in between what I was doing on the road, but when they were not being honest with us and our numbers were going down because they didn't, they weren't capturing Apple phones.

That was huge. And we couldn't figure out, we kept asking them what's going on, something's different. We were, Ernesto was working so many hours to read, creating ads, figuring something was wrong. And then when we found out the truth, that's when we, we decided, no, we're, this is not right. I can't stick with somebody.

Cause for us, what I, what [: 00:26:00

Traci: And so what I'm hearing you say is that a lot of the challenges that you experienced in launching and even sustaining this business is that some of it or the majority of it is built on a third party platform. Is that a big challenge for digital marketing agencies in general because you're always having to navigate?

The Metas and the Facebooks and the Googles. What is the primary way to build a business when you're so reliant upon third party services?

Ernesto Cullari: Well, I'll tell everyone out there this, this will be helpful for every small business owner out there. What we're speaking about in particular is called the demand side platform.

se Creatopi, you can contact [: 00:27:00

So, we are outside the Google, Facebook universe. We are not relying on them. They're very heavy on censorship. We do not have issues with censorship. They're also more expensive because you are going head to head with people who are local to you in the same business. very much. We're each universe that we build, so if for your audience, a universe is if I own a hamburger restaurant or a Chinese restaurant and I, I want to attract more customers, I would obviously target other Chinese restaurants or, or hamburger restaurants for every person that walks into that hamburger, a competing hamburger restaurant, that's my targeting universe, just trying to symbolize, You know, make a, yeah, condensate down.

So what happens [: 00:28:00

You can go to, I forget. There's a bunch of other. where we not audition them, but we interviewed them to see if, you know, what they offered would be of any value to us, but you could do it on your own. But geofencing obviously highly specialized and unless you're a data scientist, I wouldn't attempt it.

It's almost like Teaching yourself how to be a dentist on, um, YouTube.

.: We

Ernesto Cullari: don't,

.: we don't

Ernesto Cullari: recommend it.

.: So, I

Ernesto Cullari: don't think your friends will appreciate if you're a, if you're a YouTube dentist.

Barbara Wardell: Well, lots

.: of

Barbara Wardell: practice. They lose some teeth over it, but. That's right. So,

Ernesto Cullari: luckily, we have, uh, you know, we're not YouTube dentists here.

hours at [: 00:29:00

Traci: So, I love all the information that you shared with us today and I know we could even just get in deeper into this if we had more time. So, what would be the best way for our audience to connect with you if they want to learn more about your services or work with you?

What are the best next steps for them? To visit us at clarymedia. com c u l

Barbara Wardell: l a r i m e d i a dot com for a free consultation and check us out.

Traci: Well, and you heard it here first, but if you want to hear it again, you can absolutely listen to this episode and our back catalog on the ask Brian podcast. And of course, as you're searching, remember that's a S K B R I E N the podcast, wherever you listen to any and all of your favorite podcasts, you will find us there.

Peter.

So the question we have for [: 00:30:00

Where do you go from here?

Ernesto Cullari: Sure. Well, we're open, uh, a do it yourself, self serve platform first for the laundry industry, and we want to make this so that if you, not everyone can afford managed services with agency, but everybody who owns a brick and mortar store certainly needs for traffic. So I think that's our next evolution, opening this up, so if you're a business owner out there, or say you're a franchise owner or a company owner, and you want this to be tailored just to your franchises, we can certainly hone this so that it's meant specifically to you.

For your business, Barbara,

Barbara Wardell: I think for [: 00:31:00

That's it. I think if we help people. We help ourselves. So I like that. And I think us making our money that we do, it's our thank you notes for helping all the small businesses.

Peter: So Barbara, you mentioned that you think the key to success is just helping others. What do you think is the key to your success?

Quite honestly, pretty quick success.

take on a lot sometimes, but [: 00:32:00

And I think that's why we balance each other so much is we looked at the situation and we wanted to figure out how we could help the other businesses. grow and get out of the situation that they were in. And I think we've been doing a really good job of doing that. And I think we're being blessed in the same time frame because we're doing that.

Peter: We just have time for one more question. So either one of you can answer this is How do you think AI is going to affect this industry?

Ernesto Cullari: I like AI. And I think in terms of advertising, when you're being a good steward of other people's money, you don't want to waste ad dollars on targeting that is not yielding a result.

only help. Also, just doing [: 00:33:00

Like, I need a bald eagle standing on top of a lamp post outside of a laundromat. Well, good luck. I can tell you as a commercial photographer, you'll be waiting forever to summon that eagle .

.: Right.

Ernesto Cullari: For that lamppost. But if you do it with, if you requested an ai, you know you could do it with a few iterations.

So

Barbara Wardell: AI is, if you're responsible with it, I think it's a good idea. It's the irresponsible part that you don't want.

Over and out. Ask Brian Cages: 1220

Narrator: for tuning in to the Ask Brian radio show. You can listen to us every Thursday on KTHS AM 1220 and FM 98. 1 or via Facebook live or anytime, wherever you listen to your podcast. Visit askbrian. [00:34:00] com to join the conversation and ask us your business questions and we'll answer them on our next episode.

That's askbrien. com.