Your Numbers Will Tell You What's Wrong: How to Fix Your Marketing Before You Hire Anyone

If anyone promises to 10X your business in three months, Morgan Phelps says run for the hills. This one is for every business owner who suspects the marketing is not working and is tempted to hire someone before they know their own numbers.

Morgan Phelps is the founder of Sage Creatives and the most creative numbers girl you will meet: a data-driven growth strategist and marketing expert who loves analytics and strategy, and who might cry if you ask her for a graphic. After six years running a full-stack agency, she now audits the marketing and operations of founder-led businesses to find the leaks, bottlenecks, and gaps that keep them from growing. She joins Amanda Kaufman to break down how the numbers tell you what is wrong, what answer engine optimization means for the next eighteen months, and the baseline metrics to learn before hiring anyone.

In this episode, you will learn:

🔧 The reason marketing and operations have to be fixed together, and how Morgan audits the whole funnel from first touch to post-purchase

🔁 How many touches it really takes to sell on social, and the 7-11-4 research behind omnipresence

🤖 Where AI earns its place in an entrepreneur's day, and the one thing Morgan will not hand it

🔍 What answer engine optimization (AEO) is, and the two numbers that make it urgent right now

❓ The FAQ recipe that gets your content recommended by AI: four to seven real questions, three sentences each

📊 The baseline metrics to learn before you hire: cost per lead, cost of acquisition, lifetime value, and close rate

🚩 The guarantees that are red flags, and the "100 leads or you don't pay" pitch Morgan puts in the yellow flag category

💪 Amanda's reminder that you can handle seeing the numbers, fixing them, and learning whatever it takes

CHAPTERS