When Marketing Can Go Wrong: Taco Bell Adds Quality Meats To Its Creative Roster, How We Are Going To Test Using AI On Our Marketing Qualified Leads

In this episode #2981, Eric Siu and Neil Patel discuss when marketing goes wrong, using Taco Bell’s quality meat announcement as an example, and contrast it with effective strategies that drive positive results. They highlight the role of AI in generating marketing qualified leads, the power of consistent follow-ups, and the value of authenticity and surrounding yourself with the right people. The conversation blends marketing insights with personal development advice. TIME-STAMPED SHOW NOTES (00:00) When Marketing Goes Wrong (01:00) When Marketing Goes Right (03:05) AI in Marketing Qualified Leads (06:09) The Importance of Follow-Ups (08:58) Choosing the Right Circle (11:58) Embracing Authenticity To suggest a topic, go to https://www.marketingschool.io. For more content from Eric and Neil, check out Eric’s Leveling Up with Eric Siu YouTube channel and Neil’s Neil Patel YouTube channel. Connect with Us: Single Grain << Eric's ad agency NP Digital << Neil’s ad agency X @neilpatel, @ericosiu Instagram @neilpatel, @ericosiu Drop Us a Review If You Enjoyed the Episode!

• 0:00Speaker 00

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• 0:35Speaker 01

  You know, what I put in a spreadsheet, which I thought would be interesting about talking about is when marketing can go wrong. Because Taco Bell announced that they added quality meats to its creative roster. And I remember McDonald's did this a while ago, too, where they're like, "Our chicken nuggets are made out of real meat now." I'm like, "Well, what the heck were you giving me before if it wasn't real meat?" To me, this, some could say, "Oh, this is a great form of marketing," and maybe they'll see more sales. I actually think this is gonna hurt the business overall. Now, for example, as I mentioned to Eric, I took my son William to Taco Bell a few weeks ago, because it was close by some playdate that we had to go and we were a little early. I won't take him to Taco Bell after reading that. Yes, they added quality meats, but what was I

• 1:19Speaker 01

  giving to my kid before? And even though he didn't eat meat and he had a quesadilla, I just have a bad taste in my mouth for that fast food joint because of that.

• 1:27Speaker 00

  I mean, also, I don't go to Taco Bell for quality meats.

• 1:31Speaker 01

  Correct. How quality is it really gonna be for $5?

• 1:34Speaker 00

  Yeah. Yeah. So, okay, that's when marketing could go wrong. Let me talk about when marketing could go right. So I have this water app called Oasis. Actually, I just follow them on Twitter, because I'm too, I'm too cheap to pay for the app. I think it's like $5 a month. I'm like, I'm not gonna pay for a water app. But they scored a water. So this is a Whole Foods water that I'm holding up. It's real Italian water, right? This has an 88 out of 100 deals. This glass, so no microplastics, right? And, you know, wherever it's bottled up, bottled in La Galvania, I think in Italy, right?

• 2:06Speaker 00

  My point is, if you're in consumer and it's a massive TAM like water, because everyone drinks water, then why wouldn't you make an app and maybe just score your app the highest in there? No, no, you can get in trouble for that, right? You ideally would just want to have the best products, but I think that's smart. It's almost like it's not exactly the same way. It's because when you look at CoinMarketCap, for example, so Coinbase bought CoinMarketCap, right? Which shows you the price of different cryptocurrencies, and I think they grade the cryptocurrencies too.

• 2:33Speaker 01

  Eric's Finance bought CoinMarketCap.

• 2:35Speaker 00

  Binance did? Okay.

• 2:36Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 2:37Speaker 00

  One exchange did, yeah. But my point is, you know, when you own kind of distribution, like crypto is a wide TAM, water is a very wide TAM too. I don't think it's very expensive to build one of these apps. But to me, I listen to whatever score is high, I just go and switch over to that water. So I, yes, I still have the Arowan water, I still have my filtered water here. But because I was traveling this past week, I bought a ton of these and that's why I'm drinking this right now, so.

• 2:59Speaker 01

  I was going through my credit card statements. Did you know we spend $600 a month on AquaPana water?

• 3:05Speaker 00

  I believe you. That's why when I look at you, I'm like, you should just buy that Korean filter that I have and save a lot of money.

• 3:11Speaker 01

  So then I recently just got a Brita. You know, the Brita water?

• 3:15Speaker 00

  That's not good enough. No, no, no, that's not good enough. See, if you bought, if you got the Oasis app, just check on Twitter, that Brita does nothing. I used to have a Brita. It tastes like, it tastes like crap, dude. No, you gotta get one of these Korean ones.

• 3:27Speaker 01

  What's a Korean one called?

• 3:28Speaker 00

  Let me take a picture and then ChatGPT will tell you. I remember it told me last time, I'll send you, yeah, the one that I use. Oh, and I have a water guy. I have a water guy that helps you install the different filters in your home and then he tests the water out right after. You want to intro?

• 3:39Speaker 01

  Yeah, so in my, in my new house that we're doing construction on, we just put in a crazy water system.

• 3:45Speaker 00

  I'll, I'll, he's known as the water guy.

• 3:47Speaker 01

  For the whole house. So if you're brushing your teeth, that way the water is clean and you don't have to worry, but it's all purified. Because I'm like, dude, we spend so much on bottled waters on a monthly basis.

• 3:57Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 3:57Speaker 01

  I was like, we should probably cut this off.

• 3:59Speaker 00

  I'm ensuring you right now.

• 4:00Speaker 01

  Yeah. See? We help each other out.

• 4:03Speaker 00

  Yeah. So anyway, you picked the next one while I do this intro.

• 4:06Speaker 01

  Uh, thank you. What was it called? Dude, we're testing out a new way with AI for our marketing qualified leads. So Mike had a really good idea. Uh, Mike's my co-founder. And we were talking because we're starting to generate leads from our software solutions at scale. We've always generated leads, but like when I say at scale, I'm talking about like thousands and thousands and thousands a day. And it's just too many to call on. So I forgot the exact script that Mike came up with. And he's like, dude, we should just use a AI setter because some companies are having success with it. We're gonna be testing it.

• 4:40Speaker 00

  One of these AI SDRs?

• 4:41Speaker 01

  AI SDRs, yeah, or setter, whatever you wanna calling them.

• 4:44Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 4:45Speaker 01

  Problem is like, it's kind of cheesy and it's never gonna be as, maybe not, I shouldn't say never, but it's most likely at this point in time, not gonna be as good of a human. But we had a really unique angle and the unique angle is it's gonna call someone. I don't know how it's gonna start it off and it's like, hey, I'm.

• 5:00Speaker 00

  I'm an AI.

• 5:01Speaker 01

  I'm AI. I'm from NP Digital. We use AI in all forms of our marketing. And we, we actually help companies do XYZ because of AI. And we're calling you and as you mentioned, this is AI. If you want help with your marketing, click here or do this and we'll schedule a call and we'll help you solve A, B, and C problem.

• 5:23Speaker 00

  I like that.

• 5:24Speaker 01

  So we're gonna try that out and see how that happen or see how that works. Probably next week it rolls out where we're just manually calling all the software leads. We're gonna go through as many as we can and figure out through just soft scripts, what's working and what's not.

• 5:38Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 5:38Speaker 01

  And then from there, we're gonna start taking that data. And then within a few weeks later, we're gonna start rolling it out with AI setters or SDRs and then implementing the best working thing.

• 5:49Speaker 00

  Yeah, I think there's a huge untapped opportunity. When you look at all, especially when you generate a lot of inbound, people just start to get very reactionary and they forget about the ones that were not booked in a meeting, maybe 12 months ago or 24 months ago or something like that, or maybe deals lost, right? People aren't, most people aren't good with the, the, the follow-ups, right? And you guys probably are, but the fortune is in the follow-up. And so this is gonna plug a lot of holes ultimately. And the time to dial, you're like, you're gonna be able to connect with them very quickly and book a meeting. Because when you connect very quickly, your, your, your chances of booking a meeting are usually higher, right? So I think we're gonna see better efficiencies across the board and what this will allow too, by the way. The math before was, oh, if your, if your product costs less or service costs less than $30,000

• 6:32Speaker 00

  per year, you shouldn't have a sales team. But that's actually, you can have a sales team now if you can drive all the costs down. Cause it doesn't matter. Like you can, you can, you can sell things for like $10,000 a year or something like that. So.

• 6:45Speaker 01

  Yeah. Didn't Jason Lemkin, the founder of, was it Saster, said you need a product that's like, was it like around 10,000 plus?

• 6:50Speaker 00

  I think his was 3,000 a month. So 36 grand a year.

• 6:53Speaker 01

  For a sales team to work, right?

• 6:55Speaker 00

  Yeah. Yeah. But it's like, okay, well, if you think about first principles, like what, what actually needs to work? Well, it just means that the time to getting it done is not efficient, but now it can be more efficient. So whatever programs you might've had in the past or certificates, you might be able to just sell those like down sell. Cause you have a bought down sell for you. So that, that's where like, yes, Neil and I kind of poo-pooed on courses and stuff a couple of weeks ago. But in this situation, if it's actually good and it makes sense and, cause there's a lot of people that hit chat on my website. And a lot of them are students and they just want to learn stuff, right? So you can just send them to that. But yeah.

• 7:27Speaker 01

  Dude, and, and courses, even though I hate on them a lot and Eric hates on them every once in a while, probably not as hard as I do. They do make money and there are ways to do it and that can keep people satisfied. Like if you look at Grant Cardone, he sells courses or some sort of training or something. I know, you know, when I was at lunch with a buddy a while ago, his name's Albert, who also sells courses or informational coaching programs or something like that. Grant Cardone, suppose he has 150 salespeople, like 150 salespeople just dialing leads. He's probably running ads too. But even Albert, Albert has 60 salespeople dialing and closing deals on coaching.

• 8:09Speaker 01

  And the guy's making seven figures a month just from that. Now he has other lines of businesses that make quite a bit of money. But seven figures a month just from coaching and you have your sales reps and setters on commission. It's a very profitable business model.

• 8:24Speaker 00

  It's a good, it's a good business. It's profitable. I think in my mind, though, I think it's just, it's difficult to scale that. I think it's a, it's a great life. Um, but I think if you're going for something, which is what you're trying to do, if you're going for something generational and you want something that compounds, then you're probably, it's probably not going to come from courses. And again, this is like, like to your point, it's just, it's just a business model decision and it's a lifestyle decision and that's okay.

• 8:50Speaker 01

  Yeah. He actually asked me about you and when I was hanging out with him last and he's like, dude, your co-host, does he do well? And I was like,

• 8:58Speaker 00

  No, I do okay.

• 9:00Speaker 01

  No, I said, he does well like you. He just doesn't have a Ferrari. And he's like, do you mean he can't, he doesn't do well? I'm like, no, no, he does well. He just doesn't have a Ferrari. He uses the money for other stuff like buying more businesses instead of a Ferrari. And I'm not, I told him like, I'm not trying to talk trash on your Ferrari. It's a nice 600,000 Ferrari. He just chooses to spend his money differently. But I'm like, well, you just can't tell because he doesn't have pictures of fancy homes or Ferraris.

• 9:24Speaker 00

  Nope. It's, you know, it, it depends on, it's interesting because, uh, you know, I saw family this week and it's interesting after seeing a lot of my family this week because nobody actually cares about nice brands and things like that. So I think it's just like a cultural thing too. And so I think most people like they care about building their, like their way of showing off might be building their businesses or something like that, or working on a project. It's just different for different people. Frictionless Growth Marketing hosted by Sonya Thompson is brought to you by the HubSpot Podcast Network, the audio destination for business professionals. Frictionless Growth Marketing hosted by Sonya Thompson shows how modern brands grow by removing the friction in their marketing and customer experience that pushes customers away every single day, often without leaders even realizing it. Each episode delivers practical insights, real brand examples,

• 10:08Speaker 00

  and conversations with marketing leaders, showing brands how to win with the new rules of growth, identity-driven marketing, cultural relevance, and frictionless customer experiences. Listen to Frictionless Growth Marketing wherever you get your podcasts.

• 10:22Speaker 01

  I think it comes down to who you hang out with. And I think this is why it's very important to pick your five closest friends. You know, they say that's going to be your average net worth.

• 10:32Speaker 00

  That's from Jim Rohn. I did a course for Jim Rohn before. Did I tell you that?

• 10:35Speaker 01

  No.

• 10:36Speaker 00

  Yeah. So, okay, Jim Rohn said that you are the average of the five people that you hang out with most, right? So Jim Rohn mentored Tony Robbins and all these people. So when I did work for RememberSuccess.com.

• 10:45Speaker 01

  Yes.

• 10:46Speaker 00

  Yeah. And so the first course that we launched was a Jim Rohn course. And then you had Tony Robbins like talking about how he changed his life. And like all these like John Maxwell, like all these speakers, right? And then that got like the drum up for the hype and everything. And then you had to launch the course. And then, you know, there's all this hype. And then right after you launch it, you can't even celebrate because you have to go to the next course. And then the next course and the next course. It never stops. It never stops.

• 11:07Speaker 01

  Never stops.

• 11:08Speaker 00

  Yeah. Anyway, I digress.

• 11:10Speaker 01

  But yeah, no, it's just like you look at the people around you. You end up learning more if you're around the right people. Forget money. Money's great, but money's a byproduct of solving problems. If you aren't around the right people, you just won't learn as much. Eric and I, we learn marketing by implementing, testing and experimenting. But we also were going to a lot of conferences over the years, networking with individuals at the bar, even though we don't really drink. And we would talk shop with people and learn the latest tactics and strategies that they're using. We would share the ones that we're using and everyone improves and gets better from that.

• 11:44Speaker 00

  I will say probably one of the best marketing hacks for you and me has probably been creating content for a while. Cause people do naturally just come up to you and they notice you, right? And then so, but then we filter. So Patrick Campbell said this about me, I have a very, very strong filter. And so he was making this comment about how there's two types of friends. You have transactional friends and then you have friend friends, right? And then he looked at me and he's like, you're kind of a mix between the two. I was like, what do you mean by that? He's like, it's really difficult for you to let someone in. But so it might appear transactional first, but once you let them in like you're in, like you'll do everything for them, right? And that's completely true with me. Maybe it's true with you too. But I don't let people in really, really easily. And so my, my point of saying that is there's, there's also, he cited somebody else who's a very popular creator right now.

• 12:29Speaker 00

  And I'm like, so how do you, how do you peg him? So very. Popular YouTuber, right? And he's like, oh, he's fully transactional. All he ever does is compare his net worth to mine. And all he ever does is talk about business, or he wants something from me, right? He's like, I don't want to hang out with people like that. So I think my point of saying all this is you want to hang out with people who are humble, hungry, smart. And maybe if you're in your early twenties right now, or even in your teens, you might not know what that filter is, but you can keep optimizing that filter over time. And Neil and I, we've hung out with these people that have, they were the nicest things in the world and they really, there's nothing wrong with loving a lot of money, but they love partying all the time and things like that. That's okay. It's just not for us.

• 13:07Speaker 01

  Dude, when I went to Web Summit to speak in Vancouver a few days ago, I ended up taking your advice. Remember we were talking on the last podcast? And I was just like, yeah, I don't know if I want to wear my gray slacks anymore, right?

• 13:23Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 13:23Speaker 01

  I'm just wearing yoga pants with a sweater.

• 13:28Speaker 00

  Nobody can tell.

• 13:29Speaker 01

  Yeah. And then I went, they're not as nice as my little piano pants. But I just didn't give a shit. And then I went to that publicly traded company in the Bay Area and same thing. I just wore yoga pants with a gray sweater.

• 13:42Speaker 00

  Yeah. And by the way, like, look at Gary Vee, he wears a T-shirt and a hat all the time. And it's cool because that's just him, right? And so when a lot of, but by the way, like, it's interesting. This week I got a lot of advice from people, right? Giving me advice on how to handle like, you know, family situation, right? But it's like, not to give unsolicited advice, not to get, it's like, no, just let people do their thing their way. And so a lot of people don't learn that even till the end of their life, that you just got to let people do it their way.

• 14:08Speaker 01

  Yes. And Eric didn't get family advice because he did anything wrong or wasn't a predicament. He just had natural situation that just happened in his family. So people gathered together. It wasn't anything that he did wrong.

• 14:21Speaker 00

  That is it for today, guys. Please don't forget to rate, review, subscribe. And that being said, we will see you tomorrow.