How Ovation Reached 2,000 Restaurant Customers on a $20K Marketing Budget (Interview with CEO Zack Oates)

Introduction and What Ovationup Does

Nathan Latka

00:00Please welcome Zach Oates from Ovationup.

Zack Oates

00:05What's up, team? Okay. So I'm gonna talk about a little bit how I built Ovation with $20,000 in marketing budget. So a little bit about me, by the way. I grew up in New Jersey, and, yeah, they do teach you how to use blow dryers there, which is how I became six four. So basically, what Ovation is is it is a feedback platform primarily for restaurants. So we have a little over 2,000 restaurants we work with

Pre-COVID Baseline: 40K MRR and Slow Growth

Zack Oates

00:34a little over 2,000 restaurants, about a 100 retailers, and one blood sucking lawyer. Other than that, we primarily work with restaurants. So I don't know. Do we oh, there we go. So we were doing 40 k in MRR. We had been around for a little while, kind of like slow, slow, slow, slow. But the problem was that we were growing fat. Right? We're growing out. And then COVID hit and just everything sucked. Then we were trying

00:59to figure out what to do for a little while, and then we've eventually hit our stride.

01:07But before we get into this, I'm going tell you a quick story. I have a four year old, a three year old, and a nine month old. And basically they run around all the time. Crazy. So this is our backyard and we have our kitchen table right here, and they would run around our kitchen table and run around and run around and run around and they would just smash into this glass door. Just every single day,

01:32just smash into it.

The Glass Door Story: Focus Beats Breadth

Zack Oates

01:35And they actually would escape. So and this is not a fenced in backyard. There's a lot of cows back there. They come up, like, right to this fence. There's a little you know? And they would, like, stick their hand through the fence and try to pet the cows. So my wife got a little, worried, and so she put in this lock. Well, as part of putting in this lock, she drilled two little holes right there. Right?

02:00When she drilled that second hole, the whole thing shattered. Now the reason I bring this up is because think about that. Hundreds of times my kids pressed against, slammed into it, but because there was so much surface area that they were hitting that glass, it was totally fine. But that one little drill bit and boom, the glass shattered. So we're talking about the reason I bring that up is because one thing that I learned in this

02:27whole process of COVID is that you can do if you're doing a lot of stuff for a lot of people, you're really doing nothing for anyone. If you do something for someone, that's what gets you to break through. So if you're looking for money, forget the TAM. Screw the TAM. Let it go. Focus on what can you do for a very specific group. I'm going talk about B2B marketing and it's really focused around being accepted by

B2B Influencer Marketing Framework Overview

Zack Oates

02:55your niche. Doing a podcast, who here does a podcast? Okay, should do a podcast and I'll tell you why. And then second one is trade shows. There's a very easy, cheap way to win at trade shows. I'm going to talk about that. So be accepted by your niche. First of all, this is this is the amount of LinkedIn connections I've added of new connections per year. And in 2014, did an MBA, so I got a lot

Building a Niche Network with PIPCATs on LinkedIn

Zack Oates

03:24of lot of connections there. And then I started actively marketing in 2018, looking for people in our niche. And so this is, if you're adding this many people to your LinkedIn per year in a very specific niche, you're to get to the right people. Now the thing I call it is I call it PIPCATs, partners, investors, press, customers, advisors, thought leaders. Look for the PIPCATs and connect with them. This

03:55is how you unlock your business. But you first have to pick your niche. Then contribute with your personality. Who are you?

04:05Like food, as you can tell.

04:09But do case studies, post personal stuff, post thought leadership, post things about your company. So these are things that the more that you post and the more that you're connecting with your PIPCATs in your niche, the more you're going to be. Then ask yourself, what does your team lack? Rory was talking about finding people who had done it before. So find out what does your team lack? What do you need? What do you need for that

Finding Advisors with the FAST Template

Zack Oates

04:36credibility? So for me, I found somebody who was

04:41five years ahead of me. John Moody founded Restaurant365. I found somebody who was extremely respected in the industry. I found somebody who had a lot of credibility in food and beverage, then I found an investor who ended up putting money in, but they only invest in hospitality tech companies. So as soon as I took money from them, all of a sudden we were all over the news about these guys invested in us. Find

05:09these advisors. Now one thing that I did is, have you guys heard of a FAST template? No? Yes? Maybe? So use FAST template, Founder Adviser Standard Template. This is what I used for my advisors to get them on board and how I gave them equity and how I knew how much to give them equity. And everything was already kind of decided before we had started working together. Right? Because it's already it's already kind of like predetermined.

05:37What are you going to be in there, how much equity based on your stage. So when I talked to the advisors, send them a LinkedIn message, would love to connect, we chatted, and then I would say usually sometime on that first call, I'd say, Hey, we are looking for advisors. Would love to talk to you about that. And then I'd kind of gauge their interest. Now, we had a couple people say no, and that's okay. We

06:04had a couple of advisors that came to us that really wanted to be a part of it. And then conversation two and three, I realized that it wasn't going be a good fit for us. And so we kind of said no. And that's okay. But when you find those good advisors, they are gold because not only does it really solidify you as a key player in that niche, but then they have all the connections, they have

Starting a Podcast on a Minimal Budget

Zack Oates

06:30all the people to go and introduce you to. So second thing, do a podcast. Now, first of all, you don't need a ton of equipment to do a podcast. Go online and get one of these mics. It's $100. If you can't invest $100 into this, then see me afterwards. I'll give you a loan, very low interest. It's not that much money. The key is just start. Do it. You don't need a lot of things. I'll tell

07:04you what, even if you don't have this microphone, I do about 30% of my podcasts with my MacBook. I use the mic that's on them. Why? Because how many audiophiles are there out there like these people that are just obsessed with really good audio quality? Let me tell you, in your niche, probably not that many. Unless you're in a podcast niche, then get a really good mic and setup and disregard everything I'm saying.

07:30So now you're connected to your PIPCATs. You're connected to the press, investors, partners, customers, advisors, thought leaders. So if you're connected with them, invite them on the podcast. And I have a template for you to use to invite them on the podcast. But what are you giving them? You're giving them content to make them look good. Right? Even if you are a nobody. I'm a nobody. Why did they come to my podcast? Because I created a

07:56couple of podcasts initially with really good quality and it's fun and it takes fifteen minutes and there's no prep call, don't make them work for it. Tell them it's going to be fifteen to twenty minutes. So you have a few minutes at the beginning of like, Oh, hey, great to have you on the podcast. You've done some really cool stuff. Okay, you ready to go? Then at the end of the podcast, what do you say? Hey.

08:21Thank you. Oh, by the way, the last question asked on the podcast is who else should we have on the podcast? Right? And then you reach out. And and who do all these PIPCATs know? Other PIPCATs. So then you reach out to the other PIPCAT to be like, hey. You were just mentioned on the podcast by this guy, so would love to have you on. And she's like, oh, cool. I'll come on. Right?

08:38So now all of a sudden, you're getting really cool people on the podcast. And

08:45then at the end of the call, last five minutes, you say, By the way, do you know what we do at Ovation? And they're like, Oh, I kind of checked you guys out. Yeah, we give guest feedback for restaurants. We're working with these customers. Do you know what? It would mean so much to me if I could just chat with you later on next week and would love to get your opinion on what we do. And

09:04you know how many Domino's is now our customer because of this. This is how we're able to build these relationships. Now, this is going to come in handy. Do it cheaply. You can find people to edit these podcasts. It's very, very easy, very simple to do that. So I have this whole template that I use where I take the name, the company, title. Anyway, I have this in notes for you guys. This is a template that

09:29we use to edit. By the way, what do I use to record? Wait. You said you ever you had a podcast, mister Blue? What's his name? He's in there. Yeah. What's your Brian, what's your podcast? Scale Up Show. Scale Up Show. Okay. Yeah. So you're like a big deal. See, I'm like I do I do, like, pizza Right? Yeah. Right?

Nathan Latka

09:50There we go. And so what what do you use to do your recording? So I use

Zack Oates

09:57I I think I need to Oh, what, like, program do you use? Riverside. Okay. Okay. So, again, like, $29. I can't afford that. I pay zero. I use Zoom. So you use Zoom. Right? Like, if if you can't afford, if you're doing, like, high quality stuff, then, yeah, obviously, there's there's better programs out there. I'm almost 200 podcasts in. I've done every single podcast on Zoom besides the two I've done in person. That was very awkward.

10:23Right? I prefer Zoom. And so then I have this whole template of how to get people how to invite people, what to send them, what to send them in the email. And this is actually really good. So what I do is I have this is my template for every single podcast that I do to, again, make it really simple. It takes me six minutes to prepare for a podcast because I have the template down. I know

Why Downloads Do Not Matter: LinkedIn Content Strategy

Zack Oates

10:49what I'm going to ask them. I know how I'm going to do it. So just make it scalable for yourself because these meetings just about the podcast, it's not about the listeners. Look at this, my first 100 episodes, I had 6,700 downloads. You probably get that in the first five minutes when you release a podcast.

11:08But the thing is, I don't care. Because I don't care how many downloads I get. I get to put this content on LinkedIn.

11:17People that are coming on the show are putting that content on LinkedIn because they look good. And so now there's two of us, I'm saying, Oh, they think I'm legit enough to come on my podcast. And they're like, Oh, these guys are legit enough that I came on their podcast. And now their sphere's coming into my sphere, and that's how I'm growing in my niche. This is not a get rich quick thing. This is a slow

11:37grow, it's a slow burn, but it works. And then you could reuse

11:44this content. Social, blog, weekly email, testimonials. I've got 2,000 people with a 60% open rate email and all I do it takes me literally two minutes to write this email because I already had my podcast person create the blog post for it. So it's super super quick to send out these emails Now every week, 2,000 people times 0.6 are opening my email and looking at what I'm doing and thinking about me. Lastly, win at trade shows.

Email List of 2,000 with 60 Percent Open Rate

Zack Oates

12:14Who here goes to trade shows? Every single hand should be open because I don't care how niche your industry is, there is some weird trade show for you. I literally just spoke at the National Pizza Expo in Chicago.

Winning at Trade Shows Without Spending Much

Zack Oates

12:32It's there are there are so many little teeny trade shows. When you go to a trade show, do not spend a lot of money. Do not have swag. I know there's companies out here with a lot of swag. Let me tell you, that's a waste of money. Why? I just took two of those like Divvy rockets, and I use Divvy. But guess what? That's going to my daughter tomorrow because it's her birthday. Right? And now daddy

12:53brought her a rocket home for her birthday. Do a really simple booth. This pop up banner, this and this all pack into one checked bag. K? The floor right here, I stole it from someone who left it at a trade show in Vegas, and I drove it back to Utah. I had my wife make a backpack for me, and I bring this as a second checked bag. I fly only Delta, means I get first bag free,

13:17second bag $40. So I pay $40 to bring my booth. These other suckers are paying $70 to have their booth made. And guess what? I get 800 leads per trade show. They're getting 300 because it's not about the show, it's about the hustle. So I have no chairs. Nobody sits. Everyone just like lays in bed and groans at the end of the night. Cocktail tables, by the way, you can get those shipped on Amazon. $70. Ship

13:41it to your hotel. Don't pay $300 to rent it for three days. That's crazy. Do a quick demo, have half page flyers, systematize your follow-up, trade shows work. Get a corner booth. These inline booths are terrible. No elbow room there. You see, nobody's even like so we just block the hallway and then more people come because it looks like we're doing stuff. The other thing to do is now, you've had all these PIPCATs on your

Paying Speakers $250 to Mention Ovationup on Stage

Zack Oates

14:06podcast. You're connected with these PIPCATs on LinkedIn. So what do you do? Get them to speak about you on stage. Who's speaking at these things? The PIPCATs. Right? So what you do is, I was friends with them now. I would literally text them, I see you're speaking too at this event. Sweet. Trying to get some people to check out Ovation. If it comes up, we'd love you to mention us. I'll send you $250 if you

14:29do. I would pay people to mention me on stage. So literally, I'm in the audience on Venmo and just like hitting them up, hitting them up. This is worth it. Why? Because who's in the audience? The buyers. And who's talking about you? Thought leaders, people, press, customers, investors, advisors, these are the people that they listen to. And so is $250 worth a mention on stage? Absolutely. What does $250 can get you on Google? Nothing. Nothing. Gets

Speaking at Events to Build Credibility

Zack Oates

15:06you customers at trade shows. And then lastly, speak.

15:11When you do a podcast, people think that you know stuff. I don't know anything, but I bring on people who do, and then I look smart by association.

15:21Learn to speak, make a speaker page. If you don't have a speaker page, make one. It doesn't matter, just literally go into a hotel in your area, set up a camera, and make it look like you're speaking. You don't need to actually have anybody in the audience. I'm the only one looking at you. Go and make it look like you speak. Go to speak at events, submit to it even if you don't know what it is.

15:47The National Pizza Expo. I spoke on Tuesday, I found out I was speaking there on Friday because it was just something I had applied to, I had my marketing person applied to, and they never got back to me. But they put me main stage, speaker two of the entire show, and I didn't even know I was speaking until Friday because it just happens. So the way that it worked is 2019 I spoke at zero things. 2020

Speaking Growth: Zero Events in 2019 to 20 Plus in 2022

Zack Oates

16:09I spoke at two virtual. 2021 I spoke at five things. This year I'm speaking at over 20. So speaking gets so much credibility from stage. Then who am I especially if you're on a panel, she just came on my podcast, she became a customer advisor, and I don't know who she is, but she was really cool. Then I he flew out. This is my customer from New York City. Flew out from New York to Chicago just

Key Takeaways: Niche, Podcast, Trade Shows

Zack Oates

16:39to be on this panel with me, and it was just him and me. And because of this, we closed Friendly's. And see, I have more than donuts more than pizza shirts. That's my donut shirt. So the the shirts? Oh, 3AM Instagram. It'll if you're up at three, they will show you weird shirts, and then I buy them.

16:59Key takeaways: be accepted by your niche. Pick a niche and go into it. Find the PIPCATs, connect with them. Second, do a podcast. Bring these PIPCATs on to the podcast and actually build a relationship with them. And lastly, win at trade shows. You don't have to spend a lot of money, only the suckers do. If you do this, it doesn't cost a lot of money, you grow your business. Thank you very much.