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 Hi Marketing Bestie, I shop on Amazon every day, but know it's prime day sale and I have no idea what to buy. What’s in your cart? Was this email forwarded to you? Sponsored by Markup AI A lot of us joined the waitlist for the new Markup AI content agents. Me included. SPARKNOTES FROM THE POD 5 WAYS TO SCALE ACROSS MARKETS AND BUILD LASTING CUSTOMER LOYALTYMilo Frank started as a college kid hosting friends at Shore Bar in Santa Monica. No hospitality background. No master plan. He just showed up. Learned. Stayed curious. Now he's Senior Director of Marketing at the H Group. Running 1 of the most successful restaurant and hospitality brands in the world. Delilah. The Nice Guy. And expanding aggressively across new markets. What he's learned applies to any brand scaling to new markets or trying to build customer loyalty. The lessons are simple but require discipline to execute. Listen to the full episode here where Milo breaks down how to enter new markets without losing your identity, why location context matters, and why customer experience beats marketing spend. 1️⃣. Know Your Customer In Every Market.Milo's Take: "We have to know our crowd wherever we go, right? We have to know our clientele. That's the most important thing is who are you speaking to? What do they want? It's easy for us to say we love this menu, this dish, this band, but what is it that people truly want in a city like Dallas, for instance, right? Which is much different than LA." When Milo expanded from LA to Dallas, he didn't just copy the playbook. Dallas customers aren't LA customers. They dress differently. They go out differently. They value different things. So he asked. He talked to locals. He talked to PR teams. He talked to restaurateurs who'd been there for years. He let the market tell him what they wanted instead of imposing his vision. Takeaway: Before launching in a new market, talk to 15-20 people who actually live there. Ask: What're you looking for? What's missing? What do competitors get wrong? What'd excite you? Don't assume your positioning translates. Listen first. Then adapt. 2️⃣. Context Matters.Milo's Take: "What we look for is really a venue that makes sense for us, but also makes sense for, okay, is it commutable, is it easy to get there, is it easy to get dropped off there? What else is happening around the venue? Where is our crowd that we're aiming for? Where are they typically going?" When they see growth opportunity, they move fast. They force it. They open in a suboptimal location or at the wrong time because they don't want to miss the window. Milo does the opposite. He'll pause. He'll wait years if the timing or location isn't right. Because opening in the wrong spot at the wrong time does more damage than waiting. He's willing to lose short-term growth for long-term brand health. Takeaway: Before entering a new market or launching a new product, ask: Is this the right time? Is this the right location or positioning? If the answer is no, wait. Don't force it. A mediocre entry damages your brand more than patience does. Know when to pause. The right moment will come. 3️⃣. Build Momentum Before Launch. Get The Right People Talking First.Milo's Take: "When we opened we wanted to make sure that we had the right people and the right operators and the right buzz ahead of time, you know, and a big part of that is sort of our marketing plan, our rollout strategy to a city like Dallas." Milo doesn't launch and hope people care. He builds momentum first. The right people. The right operators. The story. The anticipation. THEN he opens the doors. By that point, word of mouth is already happening. People are already talking. There's energy before day one. Takeaway: Spend 30-60 days building anticipation before your next launch. Get key customers or opinion leaders talking about it. Line up press. Build a waitlist. Get your team excited and vocal. By launch day, you're not starting from zero. You're starting with momentum already in motion. 4️⃣. Understand How People Actually Move.Milo's Take: "With our new venue in New York coming, for instance, it's the most walking traffic possible, right? We have a great place that's right next to competitors. And what we look for is really a venue that makes sense for us. Is it commutable, is it easy to get there, is it easy to get dropped off there?" When Milo' team scouts locations, he's not just looking at square footage or rent. They're asking: Can people easily get here? Is it walkable? Is parking accessible? Does it fit into how people move through the city? For a new restaurant in New York, he picked a location with maximum foot traffic. Easy to commute to. Easy to get dropped off. Takeaway: Map how your customers actually move and decide. Is your solution easy to discover? Easy to access? Easy to use? Don't just optimize the product. Optimize the path to the product. Make it accessible in however way your customers operate. 5️⃣. How People Feel Matters More Than Your Marketing Spend.Milo's Take: "What we take pride in is how we take care of people and our white glove service. The intangibles, the things that you don't see. How people feel supersedes all marketing aspects that we handle. These are really important things and how people feel matters more than an Instagram post, more than an email blast." Milo has a team that goes to venues just to check on people. Not to sell. Not to ask for anything. Just to make them feel cared for. To say hi on behalf of someone else on the team. That's not a marketing tactic. That's a philosophy. And it works because people remember how they're treated. They tell stories about the handwritten note. The birthday recognition. The way they were made to feel valued. Takeaway: Invest in customer experience. Ask yourself: What's our version of exceptional service? I t could be: remembering preferences, sending handwritten notes, following up just to check in, going above and beyond without being asked. Build systems around it. People tell stories about how they're treated. Make sure those stories are worth telling. Sponsored by Cvent You know the #s you have to hit. But do you know how to use EVENTS to hit them? IN A MEME  Ok I admit I bought 1 thing. It was Vitamin D, but that's not exciting. Your friend, Daniel | ||||||||||||
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