For decades entrepreneurs and business owners have positioned themselves at the center of their marketing efforts. By focusing solely on the company’s achievements and sharing stories about their experience and industry expertise they lose the attention of their prospective customers.

On this episode of the High-Performance Marketing podcast, I’ll guide you through a discussion on how to use the core concept idea of the Story Brand 7-part framework, to move away from the "about us" concept and instead position your customer as the center focus and hero of your marketing message so you get them to listen and do business with you.

Welcome to The High Performance Marketing Podcast, a show focused on helping entrepreneurs and small business owners connect with their ideal customers using simple marketing and quality content. I'm your Marketing Guide, Ali Garbero.

I review the websites of potential customers every week. And probably the most common theme, the central focus of each website I visit - almost always heavily focuses on this “about us” concept. The words on the page are about the business itself, its leadership, its services, the company’s expertise and knowledge of their industry. 

And that’s because for decades, brands have positioned themselves at the center of their marketing efforts focusing solely on the company’s achievements and features. 

If your website looks and sounds the same, I’m here to let you know, it’s costing you customers. 

On today’s episode of the Podcast, I’ll talk you through how to use the core concept idea of the Story Brand 7 part framework, to move away from the about us concept and instead position your customer as the center focus and hero of your marketing message so you get them to listen, take action and do business with you. 

First, let’s start with a challenge. The human brain is pretty busy. It’s trying to do two things and that's to survive and thrive. Any information that falls outside of those two things, will turn into noise and you’ll soon find yourself daydreaming.

For example, if Tony Horton’s P90x infomercials had gone on and on about how his DVD’s were made from carbon polyurethane - or some crazy material, and how they pair up really well with an infrared DVD player - well we’d all have tuned out. What Tony said was - you want ripped muscles (I E - to thrive with a sexy body) then P90x is going to get you those results.

Often, entrepreneurs and business owners want their websites to have paragraphs and paragraphs of long drawn out information because they want their customers to know everything about their company - but again that’s problematic, because all your customers really want, is for you to tell them how your real estate services will make them millionaires, or how your financial planning services will help them retire early.

So this is where story comes in. Story helps the brain make sense of things, and story writing and storytelling involves key elements that turn stories into things we remember and that impact and influence us. 

The first of which is that every great story begins with a protagonist or main character who wants something. What did Daniel want in the Karate Kid? He wanted to know how to defend himself against the Cobra Kai and gain their respect.

Another example: In a movie I recently watched “You before me” which if you haven’t watched it - after listening to this podcast - head over and watch the movie. I absolutely loved it - in this movie - the main character Lou - wants a job so she can help her family financially. 

So there’s always something the character wants, but the next part of story telling includes the obstacle that’s standing in the way of what they want.

In the karate kid, Daniel’s obstacle is getting bullied and it’s hard for him to defend himself. In you before me, Lou can’t seem to find a job she’s suited for. 

The main character of every story begins their journey in one spot and transforms throughout the story into a hero of some kind. Daniel learns karate, and beats the Cobra Kai in the tournament. In me before you, Lou not only gets a job, she wins the heart of her employer.

Now how does this apply to your business? You’ve got to make your customer the hero of the story of your business. 

You’ve got to know what problems they’re up against so you can show them how you help them overcome them.

Tony Horton wasn’t saying - hey everyone I’ve been a trainer for 20 years, look at my muscles, I can do 100 push ups a day. He said, you want great muscles, but you’re busy, you don’t have time to go to the gym and don’t have a lot of room in your house for gym equipment. I’ve got a solution - buy my DVD’s and you too can have a beach body.

Unfortunately, the majority of websites, and other business marketing makes you, the business The Hero.

Imagine flipping the script and placing the customer in the spotlight as the hero of your brand’s story. By doing so, you shift the focus to their needs, desires, and challenges. This narrative approach humanizes your brand and establishes an emotional connection that goes beyond transactional interactions. When customers see themselves as the central figure in your brand's story, they become more invested and engaged.

And that’s because in marketing we have just a few seconds to capture the attention of our ideal audience and if all we talk about is how awesome we are and fail to lean into how we can help our clients survive and thrive in their environment then nothing we’re saying really matters.

So great, now you know you need to make your customer the hero - but how do you do that? 

Well, remember in the Karate Kid, Daniel meets Mr. Miyagi. Mr. Miyagi enters the scene not as a previous karate hero, but as the guide capable of helping solve Daniels’ problem. This is where you come in. In all of your marketing, your business should show up as the guide. The company positioned and capable to solve your customer’s problems in overcoming unwanted obstacles.

Ok so how do you position yourself as the guide, by acknowledging you understand the pain points that your potential customers are up against and that you have solutions.

If you’re a real estate agent, you know that right now interest rates are savage. How can anyone feel like they’ll ever be able to own a home or upgrade to a new one with 7.25 interest rates? If you sell cybersecurity, how do your services help keep hackers from infiltrating critical data. If you’re a pharmacy owner, how does your independent small pharmacy offer a customized and personalized approach compared to a cold, unknown big retailer.

Take some time to write out the problems or obstacles that are preventing your customers from achieving what they desire most. Because when you agitate someone’s problem, it’s easier for you to position yourself as the must have solution.

This is where I want to lean into customer research a bit. I truly believe something we can never do too much of, is to sit in the shoes of our prospective customers. A great way to do that is to conduct legit effective customer research. 

Use a variety of research methods like:

Google, Quora, facebook groups, interviews, surveys, focus groups, social media listening, monitor facebook ads - see what ads your competitors are running, what problems are they professing to solve? 

Look at the analytics of your email or website marketing to learn how customers engage with you across various touch points. 

I understand that this requires some work on your part but these techniques are powerful ways to help you collect direct insights about your customers, so you can uncover their preferences, pain points, and aspirations. 

Next, Showcase the Transformation:

Help your customers understand and see how your services empower them to overcome challenges and achieve their goals. Use real-life success stories, testimonials, and case studies to demonstrate the transformation your brand facilitates. Coming back to Tony Horton, he showed us clips of his videos, where people were getting fit using minimal equipment in very little space.

If you’re a loan officer, show how you helped a new homeowner afford a home even in an environment of 7.25 interest rates. Some examples I use are the emails I’ve written for clients that have generated thousands in sales or helped land them as a guest on their dream podcast. In a world where people think email marketing is dead, these kinds of stories help potential customers see that one email can make all the difference in transforming their business.

In the dynamic landscape of business, where entrepreneurs and small businesses constantly strive to stand out and create a lasting impression, the fundamental shift in perspective that the Customer is the hero will become a key to your marketing success.

Remember, Story always has a character who wants something but that character encounters a problem and that problem is keeping the character from getting what they want. At the peak of their despair, a GUIDE steps into their lives, that helps them avoid failure so they achieve their desired success. 

By casting aside the old traditional notion that your business is the protagonist of your marketing -  and embracing a new narrative: the customer as the hero you will sound like no one else, your customers will pay attention and best of all they’re hire you and do business with you.

Thanks for joining me today. If you’d like to implement The Customer Is The Hero marketing into your business, schedule a call with me at WriteBrandMarketing.com 

I’m Ali Garbero, Copywriting is what I do, Content Marketing is what I create, more customers is what you get.

If you've ever found yourself confused about the difference between branding and marketing, you're not alone. While these terms may seem similar, they actually have totally different meanings and purposes in your business and most importantly in how they help make your business money.

On this episode of the High Performance Marketing Podcast I'll identify the difference between the two so you can leverage both to their fullest potential, increase revenue and make the most out of every dollar you invest in each.

If you've ever found yourself confused about the difference between branding and marketing, you're not alone. While these terms may seem similar, they actually have totally different meanings and purposes in your business and most importantly in how they help make your business money.

On this episode of the High Performance Marketing Podcast I'll identify the difference between the two so you can leverage both to their fullest potential, increase revenue and make the most out of every dollar you invest in each.

Welcome to The High Performance Marketing Podcast, a show focused on helping entrepreneurs and small business owners connect with their ideal customers using simple marketing and quality content. I'm your Marketing Guide, Ali Garbero.

What if I told you that something that’s costing you money is the confusion between marketing and branding. 

For some reason, somewhere in the realm of insider language, branding and marketing became two terms that are often used interchangeably. But branding and marketing are two completely different things and more importantly they have very different purposes in business.

On today’s episode of the podcast I’ll dive into what Branding is, what Marketing is and how they make your business money so that you make sure to enlist your marketing dollars on what will get you the quickest return on your investment.

Let’s begin with branding.

First, I don’t blame you if  you’re confused on the difference between branding and marketing and if you’ve focused more on branding. The reason entrepreneurs and business owners start with branding - is because when we’re first getting our businesses off the ground, we know we need a digital and online presence, so we create a website so that people can find us. 

Which means we turn to the branding and design elements that include all the fun like picking pretty fonts and fun colors or designing a logo. 

Branding: The Heart and Soul of Your Business

At its core, branding represents the personality and identity of your company.  So let’s talk about that first. 

Branding encompasses the values, mission, unique character, and overall the perception that clients and potential customers associate with your business. Now, what do I mean by this? How do we put this into context with real life examples?

Well, all successful businesses have a core personality that makes up the soul of the brand. For example, at Dyson, it's efficiency. At Disney, it's magic. If I were to mention Dwayne the Rock Johnson, you would say it’s hard work and hustle, right? 

During my brand messaging workshops one of the questions I always like to ask near the end of the workshops to help with this question is “if your brand was a celebrity, who would it be?” For some reason that question seems to help spark ideas around your brand's core personality and values.

Now before you write this off as fluff like “Ali, c’mon what does this have to do with me making more money, selling, more of my services?” 

Well, what if I told you that 75% of consumers buy from brands that share the same values? And think about the brands you align with and give your money too? Most likely it’s because there’s something they’ve done within their branding to communicate and signal to you what matters most to them.

I know I love Cotopaxi, which is an outdoor gear company because of their Gear for Good campaign, which says: Our Gear for Good® promise is to make durable gear as ethically and sustainably as possible, and to use our company as a way to support communities in need. 

That’s branding - that’s how I feel not only about the company, but how I feel as their customer. 

So this is why defining your brand personality is important because you’ll need it so that you can build a brand identity that later seamlessly connects with marketing activities like your future campaigns, and more importantly so that you can connect with customers on a deeper, more personal level. 

I hope that what you’re understanding here is that branding goes beyond logos and color schemes; it really works to encapsulate the emotional connection between a company and its audience of potential customers. 

You know I like to beat concepts like a dead horse sometimes so I don’t mean to sound repetitive, just that I want to drive this branding idea home. Again, because I want to be sure you forever understand the difference between branding and marketing. So one more note on branding.

When you think about a well-established brand, again, you’ll usually feel certain things about that brand, like trust, reliability, and quality that come with it. 

Feelings of confidence, trust, and superiority is most likely why someone might buy Tide laundry soap at the store instead of Costco’s Kirkland brand. 

One, feels generic and empty, whereas Tide is an award-winning household name that has proven to be the best and most trusted remover of stains. Now Tide didn’t accomplish this feat overnight. It took them years and hundreds of thousands spent on advertising to build good word of mouth.

When branding is done well - branding works to position you as a leader as well as different from your competition.  Branding also works to create loyalty with your business so that customers become repeat buyers and brand advocates, [spreading positive word-of-mouth.]

Ultimately, what I hope you’ll remember is that branding communicates what your business stands for, which helps attract the right target audience and build long-term relationships.

Next let’s talk about marketing. I’m going to say something radical that I know you’re going to think is biased, but I hope you know me well enough by now to know, I’d never do that to you. But my statement is: Marketing is more important than branding. Why? Because Marketing is the engine that gives branding horsepower. 

You  just learned that branding is how you make people feel with colors, designs, and mood boards - marketing is when and how you actually tell people to buy your product or services and marketing is also how you explain why they should.

So Marketing allows you to explain what you offer in a way that makes people want to buy it. Marketing also serves as a communication bridge. But it’s not throwing spaghetti at the wall, marketing is strategic. It’s a planned way of promoting your business to your target audience. It’s why I say if you don’t have a marketing strategy or plan in place, you’re kind of just throwing your money away hoping something you say or do sticks.

Marketing involves various activities and strategies like paid advertising, PR, social media marketing campaigns, email marketing, website landing pages and sales funnels. 

Marketing is how you walk alongside your customers and potential prospects during their buying journey of “I’ve never heard of you” - to actually signing on the dotted line and buying.

And the best part of it all - the part I know you want to hear, is that marketing’s primary goal is to drive sales, increase brand visibility, and generate leads. Let me say that again —--marketing’s purpose is to drive sales, increase your brand and company’s visibility in the marketplace and generate leads. 

So this is why when I hear clients tell me they need to cut back on marketing due to a recession or budgets, I cringe because I’m like “but wait, marketing is how you’re going to make more money in your business!”

How does marketing help you do this? 

Marketing increases sales and attracts new leads by communicating with customers and potential clients using marketing activities like: 

Marketing helps you deliver valuable information to your ideal customer on a consistent basis so you stay top of mind, relevant, and so they don’t forget you when they need you the most. 

Also because marketing relies heavily on data and analytics, it helps you directly understand consumer behavior and preferences. 

For example by looking at email marketing analytics, you can quickly see who’s opening your emails, who’s not, what email topics are hitting home with your emails and whether or not people are clicking on your offers. Data shows you who’s visiting your website, how long they stay on the page, what pages are the most engaging to them, and who’s opting in to your free resources.

By gathering this data, you gain insights and the information you need to make adjustments so you can tailor your marketing efforts to appeal better to your specific target audience. Let’s say you have a free resource on your website like “download your free home value report.” If no one is opting in or giving you their email for your content - then that’s a sign that maybe you aren’t driving enough traffic to the resource, or that your ideal client doesn’t find any value in it, so that you can try again.

Now that you understand the difference between branding and marketing, you should know that the reason these two are so often confused as interchangeable (which they are NOT) is because they do have to work together.

Branding and Marketing have to coexist and that’s because neither is mutually exclusive; rather, they are interdependent and complementary. 

A successful marketing campaign for example is built on a strong brand foundation, and a compelling brand identity or personality gives your marketing efforts a unique voice and sound. Otherwise you don’t know if your tone should be bold and loud like guns and roses or conservative and moderately spoken.

BTW, in case the term marketing campaign is a new term for you, a marketing campaign is a planned sequence of steps and activities that promote the product or service of your business, with a specific goal in mind. So let’s say you’re selling a digital course - then your marketing campaign for the next 60 days could be all about promoting the value of the course so individuals buy it. If you’re a real estate agent, you could create a listing campaign, focused 100 percent on generating more seller leads.

When branding and marketing work together seamlessly, they unite and work together to make magic happen and in business, that’s sales.

When you’re clear about your branding or your brand identity, you empower your marketing messages (in those emails and social media posts) to be more consistent and powerful. 

But most entrepreneurs and small business owners should really focus more on marketing than branding - and that’s because it doesn’t matter how beautiful your branding is, how wonderful and full of amazing feelings it is, if no one knows about your business or your services. And that’s where marketing comes in.

Thanks for joining me today. If you’re ready to create a robust marketing plan that makes your business money, schedule a call with me today at writebrandmarketing.com 

Until then - 

I’m Ali Garbero, Copywriting is what I do, Content Marketing is what I create, more customers is what you get.

With so many marketing tools and platforms out there, it's easy to feel overwhelmed on which ones to choose, and can quickly lead to overspending.

On this episode of the High Performance Marketing Podcast we'll review the marketing technology stack every entrepreneur and small business needs. From email marketing to social media management to analytics, the right marketing technology stack can simplify your efforts to connect with your ideal customer, help you make the best use of your time, and make sure you're not overwhelming your marketing budget.

Welcome to The High Performance Marketing Podcast, a show focused on helping entrepreneurs and small business owners connect with their ideal customers using simple marketing and quality content. I'm your Marketing Guide, Ali Garbero.

Building your business with modern technology is both overwhelming and expensive. But entrepreneurs and small to medium-sized businesses like ours depend on digital marketing technology to reach a larger and targeted audience. How else are we going to increase brand awareness in a digital age?

It’s amazing what’s available to us not previously available in any other era of business. Technology acts like that magical genie in Aladdin, that proposes to grant your business its every wish. Technology is amazing in its ability to help automate processes, reach new customers and save you much needed and highly valuable time. 

Did you know that in 2022, an annual study showed that there were 9,932 marketing technology solutions available?  With so many tools and technologies vying for your attention, how do you know which are the must haves for your business so you only invest in what you need? 

On today’s episode of the podcast let’s explore the 5 marketing technologies and tools I believe every entrepreneur and small business owner should invest in for optimizing online success.

This one’s a no-brainer. For nearly two decades, having a website has been a fundamental part of owning and operating a business. People are information consumers and are far more likely to do business with a business that has a well written and beautifully designed website. If your website isn’t making you money, it’s most likely that it isn’t optimized for conversion. Schedule time to talk to me about that, if that’s what’s happening on your end.

If you have the ability to hire a website designer who designs and hosts the site for you, great. Most of us will use a website builder like Wordpress, Squarespace or Wix. I personally use Kajabi. The reason I love Kajabi is, first not only do they have nice modern template designs, their templates are also really simple to use and edit, adding my own personal brand style and logo to it. There are limitations to editing their templates, but nothing that makes it enough of a con for me not to use them. 

Kajabi has an amazing customer support team, so as you build your site out, if you get stuck, their chat feature is the best I’ve experienced in regards to quick response times, knowledgeability, and simple answers. Making updates to your site in Kajabi is simple.

Why I chose to use Kajabi as my website builder is because of how robust their technology is. For a monthly subscription of about $199, I can sell my products and services, they provide a check out page so I can capture online payment, you can build and sell digital courses, I can host my podcast on the site, create unlimited landing pages, their blog feature allows video options as well, and they have email marketing with simple to use templates and automations. This means I don’t have to pay for an additional email marketing provider like Mailchimp, Active Campaign, or Constant Contact.

...every business needs and that’s an email marketing platform. If you don’t use Kajabi, most likely your website builder won’t have email functionalities, so you’ll need a separate tool for delivering emails to your database or audience base. 

I mentioned a few just a minute ago. Some of the more common names you’ve heard may be Mailchimp, Mailer Lite, or Convert Kit. I tried Convert kit and didn’t love it. It felt a bit too complicated and required zapier integrations that quickly just made things feel harder than they needed to be. 

My two favorite email marketing platforms are Mailchimp and Flodesk. What you want and need most from an email marketing platform is the ability to track the analytics. Open, click rates, unsubscribe rates, numbers like those are important so you know what content is resonating with your audience, who’s opening your emails and clicking on your offer links.

When it comes to pricing, mailchimp and flo desk will run you around $20 a month.

I can’t over emphasize the impact of email marketing.

For every dollar you invest in email you can expect a $44 return on your investment. So if you aren’t growing your email list, stop every other marketing activity and start there.  Why? Because 66% of consumers make a purchase because of an email. If you want to learn more about email marketing listen to my episode called 50% more sales ready leads. I’ll include the link in the show notes.

You know how it feels to not have enough hours in the day to remember and manage everything on your plate. A  project management tool is an amazing way to optimize your time, delegate tasks to an assistant or team members, and track the progress of your projects. 

Even if it’s just you as a solopreneur, a project management tool is the best way to keep everything organized in a simple way for you to see what’s on your plate and set deadlines for getting things done. 

Project management or PM tools like Asana, Monday dot com and Click up are some of the best available and I personally use Asana because the user experience is simple. If you don’t have priorities around the things you need to get done, then everything becomes a priority and those projects you wish you had time to work on never get done. 

Asana also allows me to communicate with others and assign them tasks and check in on their progress without the need to send another slack message or email. 

PM tools like Asana or Monday will run you on average about $30 a month. 

Your Customer relationship management tool is a technology for keeping track of current and potential customers, as well as a history of your interactions with them. 

You can also set follow up tasks and reminders to help with the sales process so you know when the right time is to follow up with a lead or potential customer - or a past client for renewal or ongoing services.

The goal of a CRM is simple: Improve business relationships to grow your business. Some well known CRM tools are found in Monday dot com, Pipedrive, and of course the granddaddy of them all Hubspot. 

Why I say that, is because I don’t believe there’s a small business feature Hubspot doesn’t offer. From a website, to email marketing to your CRM. The one challenge however, is it’s expensive.  The professional plan starts at $800 a month. 

So depending on the revenue and size of your business Hubspot may not be the right fit. If you can afford it without breaking the bank, go for it. I truly believe Hubspot is the leader in small business marketing and sales technology. 

...on the must have of small business marketing technology are social media marketing tools. Which include a good phone with a camera, a lapel mic that inserts into your smartphone if you plan to do talking head style videos, where you’re doing the majority of the speaking, next some kind of captions app like the app called Captions. 

Although many social tools offer captions now, the app Captions makes your captions more fun and they look different and help your videos stand out. I would also recommend a video editor such as Capcut or InShot. Both apps are about $10 a month.

These two video editors make it simple for you to edit your videos, slice them up and remove clips if needed, add music and effects as well. These are cost effective tools that don’t cost much and make your social media marketing look great!

And if you get ahead of the game and can organize your social media content, then a social publishing tool like Buffer or Hootsuite are helpful. These tools run you anywhere from $40-$99 a month, but you can connect to all of your social channels in one platform. Which is highly valuable for saving you time. 

I would fail to do this show justice if I didn’t mention Canva. Canva has a free version but for as low as about $15 a month their Pro plan is all you will ever need to access any marketing material your business will ever need. They have thousands of templates, graphics, and images to make  your marketing look top notch. I’ve used for over 10 years and I literally don’t know how any of us ever did business marketing without it.

Well there you have it, the marketing tech stack every business owner needs.

I know how overwhelming the world of online marketing can be, but with these tools on your side, you'll be able to streamline your efforts and achieve sustainable growth. I’m cheering you on.

Thanks for joining me today. I’m Ali Garbero, Copywriting is what I do, Content Marketing is what I create, more customers is what you get.

You’re probably well aware that your business needs a niche. You've likely come across this term before and you may feel really confident about who or what your niche is. Or perhaps you’re at a crossroads wondering if now is a good time to pivot into a new niche in order to revitalize your business.

Regardless of where you’re at in your journey, finding your niche is a must do in your business because it brings focus to your marketing and connects you with clients that are already looking for what you have to offer. But finding a niche isn’t always easy to do. 

On today’s episode of the podcast I’ve got Todd Howard on the show.

Todd is a Business Made Simple Coach and the founder of Grow a Niche Business. He’s created a framework that helps business owners find their ideal niche so they can form a unique identity and stand out from the competition.

Episode Links:

Get your FREE Membership Success Roadmap

Register for the FREE LIVE Mid-Year Power Hour Workshop.

Welcome To the High-Performance Marketing podcast, a show focused on helping small business owners connect with their ideal customers using simple marketing and quality content. I'm your Marketing Guide, Ali Garbero.

Remember in jr high or high school? When you joined the chess or photography club. As cheesy as it sounds, I joined the nature study club in the 8th grade when I lived in the bay area of San Francisco. Saturday’s we’d head over the golden gate bridge to Marin county and hike some of the best trails. I ended up making some really great friends in that group, and hanging out with those kids on weekdays after school. 

Clubs were a great way to spend more time doing things you liked with people who liked the same things as you. In the business world clubs look like BNI groups, masterminds and membership groups. 

For entrepreneurs and business owners who often find themselves wearing the hat of teacher and coach, membership businesses provide recurring revenue opportunities and a chance to create a place where you can lead the conversation and help bring like minded people together. Preferably those who are also your ideal or target client.

A membership business is a subscription service that charges a recurring fee for access to exclusive services, original and curated content, and a great community.

It's where your members form relationships, receive and give support, and much like my 8th grade nature study club, a place where they'll build connections and make friends. 

But starting a community from scratch can feel confusing - and can quickly become overwhelming if you don’t do it correctly.

On today’s episode of the podcast I’ve got guest, Tabitha Crocker, on the show. She’s a Membership Coach and founder of Present Profitable Mom. Tabitha is passionate about empowering entrepreneurs to design, build, and scale thriving memberships for sustainable, scalable recurring revenue doing work you love. 

Listen in to my conversation with Tabitha Crocker.

<<< INTERVIEW NOT TRANSCRIBED>>

Alright well my three key takeaways from my conversation with Tabitha today were:

First the benefits of allowing you to coach one to many. A membership helps you overcome limitations of time and distance and reach more people simultaneously..

Next, the need for having a solid onboarding process so people feel welcomed and excited to join your community. And finally the importance of having a framework for the transformation you’re going to help people with. 

People buy solutions to their problems because they have things they want or dream of. If your program can show them how to overcome what’s getting in their way, if you continue to deliver high quality content and create a community of great people your members will keep coming back.

Ultimately a membership can help you leverage your time, reach more people and make a big impact for your business by way of consistent and recurring revenue.

Tabitha is hosting a free mid-year power hour workshop next wednesday July 19th from 9-10am Eastern where she'll help you reflect on what’s worked in your business so far this year, what hasn’t, and how a membership can help you achieve your personal, family, and business goals for 2023.

I’ll include the link to where you can register for that. 

If you’d like some help putting together a digital course together or need someone to help you write and create content for your membership community schedule a call with me today at writebrandmarketing.com

Thanks for joining me today. I’m Ali Garbero, copywriting is what I do, content marketing is what I create, more customers is what you get.

Building thriving membership community takes time and effort, but the rewards include helping you generate revenue as well as creating a sense of belonging and fulfillment for both you and your members. But starting a community from scratch can feel confusing - and can quickly become overwhelming if you don’t do it correctly.

On this episode of the High Performance Marketing Podcast, I've got guest Tabitha Crocker on the show. She’s a Membership Coach and founder of Present Profitable Mom. Tabitha is passionate about empowering entrepreneurs to design, build, and scale thriving memberships for sustainable, scalable recurring revenue doing work you love. 

Download her free resource: Membership Success Roadmap. Get the plan to design, build, and scale your membership.

Tabitha is hosting a free mid-year power hour workshop next wednesday July 19, 2023 from 9-10am Eastern where she'll help you reflect on what’s worked in your business so far this year, what hasn’t, and how a membership can help you achieve your personal, family, and business goals for 2023. Register here.

Welcome To the High-Performance Marketing podcast, a show focused on helping small business owners connect with their ideal customers using simple marketing and quality content. I'm your Marketing Guide, Ali Garbero.

If you’ve been watching the news lately you’ve noticed that some big name, well known brands have either forgotten who their target audience is, struggled to connect with new ones or tried to reinvent themselves to appeal to completely different market segments. Bud Light, Target, and Disney are just a few that may come to mind.

I think what we learn or take away from these brands, is that, hey, even companies with massively talented marketing minds can get it wrong when it comes to communicating their marketing message to the right people. And the right people are usually referred to as your ideal client, target audience or customer.

I think much of this is because these companies have forgotten who keeps them in business - or  they’re trying to hard to appeal to as many people as possible with mass marketing, instead of tailored and customized communication.

On today’s episode of the Podcast let’s tackle the topic of mastering the art of marketing to our ideal client. —So that you attract more customers, avoid alienating the right ones, and do your best to steer clear of getting too ambitious and trying to cast too wide a net.

First, let’s start with the obvious and what you’ve probably heard a thousand times. Business marketing begins with knowing who your ideal client is. 

But before you think I’m going to lead you down the path of asking you to think of your ideal customer by way of their age, income, where they live, what social platforms they hang out on, and other statistical types of demographics. Instead, you know I’m going to recommend we use the Story Brand 7-part framework, which teaches us to see our customers by way of transformation. And what I mean by that is taking some time to understand how your product or service helps your customers change, improve or become the hero of their story. 

For example, let's think of a financial planner - a financial planner helps their customers undergo a transformation by taking people from financially unstable futures to confident wealth builders, men and women who invest their money wisely.

Another example is a real estate agent - who takes renters from renters to owning a part of the American dream, or helping current homeowners who no longer love their home, live in their dream one and living like the Joneses.

Taking  some time and write down who or what your product or service is helping them become is important. Because it digs deep into their aspirational identity. I talk about Tony Horton and P90x a lot. He was helping me become a fitter version of myself. Because what I wanted was ripped muscles, not necessarily a bunch of exercise videos.

Some of you might have really niche clients. You might say my ideal client is age 65, has 3 adult children, lives in Connecticut, earns $350,000 a year. Those are good stats to know, but more important is knowing why your client hires you. Is it because you are the person they trust to confidently help them grow their net worth so they become millionaires or billionaires. Those wants are aspirational and when you talk about them, customers pay attention. You can market to your ideal client by always talking about what they want, agitate their desires so your marketing message hits right to the core of what they want most.

Once you have an idea about what your clients really want from your product or service, it’s important to revisit these ideas at least once a year. 

I recommend that you go back and look at your sales and marketing numbers. As you wrap up each year, take some time to look back and reflect where did most of your business come from and what did those customers have in common? What marketing helped you attract their attention most? If you’re even more on top of your game, do this once a quarter. This way you can shift your marketing message quickly if you feel like it’s not hitting home.

For example, coming back to the financial planner. A client may have started investing early when they had young children and all they really needed was life insurance. But as their children grow, they’re thinking about college and other death and living benefits. They’re also probably earning more and may have more to invest. For the real estate agent, your first time home buyer, initially may have wanted to stop renting. They wanted to become a part of the American dream, but now over time, having owned a home for a few years, they know more and want more out of their home. They want their forever home. Which means your marketing has to adapt to those core needs and wants. Failing to keep up with the pace of change can create a disconnect between your business, your marketing and your ideal client.

Next, let’s talk about your brand values. You should hopefully be working to continuously build an emotional connection with your company and brand.  I understand we need to sell things, and that can cause us to focus more on selling products or services instead of building meaningful relationships. But more than ever, modern consumers want to invest in products or services that align with their societal and sometimes even moral values.

They want to feel like the products they buy represent what they believe and stand for.

Take time to identify and share your core values. These values should align with the aspirations, beliefs, and desires of your target audience. So for example, I sell marketing services, right? I spend time helping my clients understand and implement effective websites, email marketing, social media and more. Some of my core values include a deep respect for the sacrifice every small business owner makes to run their own business. It’s scary and sometimes risky to invest in yourself. And I have a big heart for small business owners and I value helping them grow, because I know that as they grow, the fuel the American economy. As the daughter of an immigrant I value a country that gives its people the opportunity to build and create things. When I share this with my clients, we meet on common ground in our desire to grow their small business.

Now be advised, sharing your values may mean you attract more people with those kinds of values —-which I believe is a good thing - but for some of you, you may feel that’s too narrowing. 

One way it’s helped me is to weed out clients who want things done cheaply. I value quality and time. So my prices aren’t the most expensive, but they aren’t the cheapest either. Many people believe they can just hire someone on Fiver, or their cousin can help them write their website. I don’t judge anyone for that, but I value quality work and I stand by my values to deliver it, as well as the value of time for both myself and my clients. I’m clear about those things, I  communicate them so that I actively attract clients who want those same things.

Now, let me share something that personally annoys the life out of me. And that’s generic messaging, and a lack of personalization. It’s one way we can fall short of connecting with our ideal customer. Generic marketing feels so impersonal to me and let me explain what I mean by talking about ways you can avoid doing it.

The content you create, and your marketing message - from your social media graphics, to your website or emails should speak the way you would to a friend you know well. 

Let’s say you have a friend named Jane. You would know things about Jane’s marital status most likely, or who she’s dating, or things about her kids, or her employment, about the car she drives, and the hobbies she enjoys. So when you speak to Jane, you’d ask her something like “Hey Jane, how’s that book you were reading?” You wouldn’t say Hey friend, Hey Mrs Smith. You’d use the one word in marketing that will always capture attention and that’s your client’s name!!

When you create marketing content, make it sound conversational as though you’re speaking to Jane, and not to a sea of prospects or leads. With phrases like “hey everyone.”

One example is the Hey Friend greeting. I know that Amy Porterfield, loves to send out emails addressed as Hey Friend. I can’t even tell you how much I hate that. I’m not bashing on Amy - that’s her style and she clearly knows what she’s doing. But you would never call your friend Jane up and say “Hey friend.” You’d just be like “Hey or Hi Jane.” When your communication feels genuine and real, it cuts to your customers heart.

Also be authentic in your story telling. Share things about your brand, your company, your product that most people wouldn’t share. Where were you the moment this product or service burned in your heart? What experience did you live through that made you want to do what you’re doing today.  For example, I attended a Christy Wright event, (she was a Dave Ramsey personality) here in the Salt Lake City area, when the last speaker at her event was Donald Miller. He spoke about the framework of story and it changed my career and my life. It took me back to my days of being a talented writer. Of those moments I’d spend hours in my high school computer lab writing, where hours turned into minutes. In that moment, I knew I wanted to use my close to 15 years in corporate business to help the little guy. The small business owner who risks everything to make their dreams come true. To help grow the American economy. Share those stories because they humanize your brand and they build connection with your target audience.

I also recommend that you engage and listen to what your ideal clients are saying on social media, facebook groups, forums, and events. This allows you to actively listen to their feedback, concerns and suggestions. And then help create solutions to address them. 

For example, let's say you’re a real estate agent, and you’re hearing that renters are frustrated with high rents or costly home prices, you can show empathy and make them aware of mortgage buy downs and seller credits that help alleviate these issues. This helps show that you’re paying attention. It also helps position you as a trusted brand, as well as create brand loyalty.

Now let me come back to not just how to understand your ideal client but why it’s important you do. When you intimately know the people you serve, the people who love your product or service, you are empowered with the ability to create targeted marketing instead of marketing to everyone and marketing to no one.

Custom tailor your marketing efforts to reach your people. Knowing your ideal client helps you allocate your resources more efficiently. Whether that’s your marketing budget or the workforce you hire to help you, or even the technology stack that you invest in.

Instead of trying to spread yourself thin with mass marketing where you’re attempting to appeal to as many people as possible, you can dominate your market with a narrow focus.

The benefits of a narrow focus or selecting a niche, whether that’s a client niche or a product or service niche, makes it a million times easier for you to market to your ideal client. Niching down can feel scary. You worry if you’ll miss out on more potential clients if you do. But niching down has also been proven to help you increase your authority, so that you are seen as the expert in your field as well as allowing you to develop products or services that cater to that specific market need, which gives you a competitive advantage too.

Something that is an often overlooked need that can help you master the art of marketing to your ideal client is market research. Market research doesn’t have to be tremendously pricy.

A simple way to do this is to use affordable survey tools like Survey Monkey or Typeform. Now you’re probably thinking, well great Ali, what questions should I ask? Well, I’d say start with thinking about the questions you really want answers to, and then asking about how you can offer better service. Other ideas include asking things like:

I’d also say don’t overlook doing some research on your competitors. Look at their websites, social profiles, if they’ve got facebook groups, join them - maybe even download some of their free resources or paid ones - and enter their email funnels to see how they communicate with new leads. I’m not saying plagiarize or rip anything off, just identify gaps or opportunities that can set you apart. 

Hopefully what you’ve taken away today is that understanding your ideal client and marketing to them isn’t just about knowing their key demographics. Knowing your ideal client means walking in their shoes often, seeing your product or service from their eyes and that means crafting a marketing message that helps you gain their trust and loyalty. 

If you’re just starting out and have no idea who your perfect client is yet, or what marketing approach to take, I recommend reading the Book Building a Story Brand, taking the online course, or scheduling a call with me at writebrandmarketing.com for a Brand Messaging Workshop.  Thanks for joining me today. I’m Ali Garbero, copywriting is what I do, content marketing is what I create, more customers is what you get.

The more you understand your ideal client - who they are, what they like, and why they are drawn to your business, the simpler it will be for you to create marketing that speaks directly to them.

It also helps you avoid mass, generic, marketing messages. 

On this episode of the High Performance Marketing Podcast I'll tackle the topic of mastering the art of marketing to your ideal client —so that you attract more customers, avoid alienating the right ones, and do your best to steer clear of getting too ambitious and trying to cast too wide a net.

Welcome To the High-Performance Marketing podcast, a show focused on helping small business owners connect with their ideal customers using simple marketing and quality content. I'm your Marketing Guide, Ali Garbero.

In 2013 Owen Wilson and Vince Vaughn starred in a movie called The Internship. If you don’t remember it - it was a movie about two salesmen who learn that their careers have been ruined by the digital age. Their company shuts down and so they magically find their way into an incredible and of course highly coveted internship at Google.  They’re forced to compete with a group of young tech-savvy geniuses at a shot for a job.

As the movie progresses there’s this scene where the interns are tasked with coming up with a new app and Vince’s character starts explaining what he believes to be the winner. He says something like:

“So I have an idea, nowadays people are taking pictures and they have their phones now and they’re out, something catches their eye and they take the photo but now it’s just sitting there. What if they take that photo and instantaneously put it out there on the line and they share it with their friends.” 

Of course one of the younger interns breaks the news to him and says: “That’s Instagram, it already exists, it’s one of the most popular apps in the world. Facebook bought them for like a billion dollars. That’s billion with a B.” Vince’s hysterics continue and he says yeah but mine will be different - we’ll call it exchangeagram so people can share their photos “on the line.”

On today’s episode of the podcast let’s talk about Instagram because I know you’re using it for your business, maybe even making some fun reels, going live. Collaborating with other businesses. It’s a friendly and fun popular platform and not just for friends but for connecting with people “one the line” as Vince hysterically said. Since Instagram has evolved over time, today’s episode I’ll focus primarily on sharing how to use the explorer search page. It’s a feature of Instagram you may not have given much thought to but it’s a powerful way to level up your marketing and increase client reach.

So back in 2010 when Instagram first launched - you’ll remember that the platform was mainly used as a single stream of photos that appeared in chronological order. Of course as more and more of us got hooked and joined it became impossible to see everything, and worse to see the posts we really cared most about. 

By 2016 Instagram realized we were missing out on about  70% of all their posts in our Feed, so this is when they started working on algorithms to help combat this. They started to rank posts based on what users cared about most. And over the years they learned that Feed and Stories are places where we want to see content from our friends, family, and those they are closest to. 

After that, they take all of the information that’s been posted, the people who made those posts, and your preferences to help rank how you see things.

They call these “signals”, and there are thousands of them. They include everything from what time a post was shared to whether you’re using a phone or a web browser, to how often you like videos. 

I’m going to share what IG considers the four most important signals across Feed and Stories, roughly in order of importance, so that you can see how it ties into your marketing.

Ok, now I imagine much of this might feel like review but it’s important to come back to so that you can leverage social media as a tool for growing your business, building better relationships online and not just for posting content. If you want  your content to be seen, those behind the scenes efforts are a bit of a pain but will help your organic growth. Because we all want as much of that as possible because ad spend isn’t cheap.

Now let’s talk about the Explorer page of Instagram. As of the recording of this podcast in June of 2023, it’s that little magnifying glass on the bottom left next to the house image when you’re in the app. 

The explorer page is designed to serve kind of like a mini search engine to help you discover new things.  The explorer page is 100 percent customized for you, based on all of the things I mentioned earlier about how you use the platform. If you’ve ever watched the Social Dilemma on Netflix, then you’re very familiar with just how much time developers spend understanding our search and engagement habits - because of course their goal is to keep us on the platform for as long as possible. So anytime you click on something and engage with the explore page the more targeted your search will become.

Now let’s talk about why ending up on the explorer page should be a goal for you as an entrepreneur or small business owner. 

I want you to think of this explorer page kind of like ranking on google. Imagine someone typing in real estate agent, financial planner, flower shop, or dentist into google and your website pulling up first. That would be gold for your business wouldn’t it. Now it’s possible to have this very thing happen when you have a great SEO strategy. Literally the whole purpose of SEO is to create content that google can search through and pull up as the most relevant for a search about a specific topic. 

So you want to take this same approach to your Instagram strategy. Because it’s a no brainer that creating great content on IG can help you reach potential prospects and customers. 

So what can you do to increase the chances of your business pulling up in your ideal clients explorer page? Or even as they scroll through reels.

First, remember IG creates a customized user experience. So I want you to take some time and think about what things interest your ideal client. What kind of music do they listen to, what books do they read, what TV shows make them laugh, or do they binge watch when they stream? You want to take the same approach IG developers take in knowing their audience so well that the content you create really hits home and gets featured in their feeds. 

In real life, think about it. If you know your ideal client loves THE OFFICE and you make a reel parody, or create a meme that mimics something they know, like and follow, of course the chances of them seeing your content will increase.

Every marketing person on the planet will always tell you that everything you do with marketing starts by knowing your ideal client first. Figure out who they are and tailor your content, visuals, and copy (the words you use, the way you write, the tone of voice you use) to them. 

Here’s a second exercise for you. Take a look at your own explore page first. Try to understand how it’s working, why you are being fed the content you are? What hashtags, captions, visuals, etc. are being used? And then ask yourself how can you tailor your content to reach your ideal customer audience or community the same way? 

The way IG is currently working leads me to share that you should create content that is easy for users to engage with, and right now that means your focus should 100 percent be on reels first and second carousels. Instagram loves pushing out reels to people. Their platform is literally dependent on us as creators to make stuff they can share. If our marketing is entertaining, funny, relatable, solves problems, and is custom tailored to the kinds of things that our customers want and are already engaging with - then Instagram will happily promote our content on their explorer page.

I could do a whole episode on Reels best practices by the way, but some key things to consider are things like: making vertical videos, so the reels algorithm rewards you, adding captions, music, and splicing help too. Most important is that you make your content entertaining or educational. People get on to these platforms to relax, give them something fun and addicting to come back to - or even educational to help them learn things they didn’t learn before. Now the trick of course will be to do this in 60-90 seconds - which is about all our attention spans can handle. 

Second focus on Carousels. Instagram carousel posts are one of the most engaging formats brands can use on the platform. I use Hootsuite to schedule some of my content their social media team finds that, on average, their carousel posts get 1.5x more reach and 3x more engagement than regular posts on Instagram. Why?

The temptation to swipe left, it seems, is hard to resist — especially when there’s a persuasive cover slide. One word of advice though - please avoid using small hard to read, long form text on these carousel posts. No one will read it. They’re on their phones so err on the side of usin large fonts and if you have a lot to communicate - like a client testimonial for example - take the key concept of what was said. People simply won’t read long tiny text paragraphs. Give your followers the chance to stop doomscrolling and start swoonscrolling as Hootsuite calls it - with thumb-stopping carousel posts.

Next, think about the best times to post. When you know your ideal customer - then you know if they’re up and at it by 5am or late night owls scrolling into the wee hours of the morning. Get them to see your stuff while they’re on.

Now, I know I mentioned hashtags earlier. You might think they’re irrelevant and kind of old school Instagram, but  you would be misled. Hashtags and keywords still make traction even in 2023. But be warned, gone are the days of spamming your posts with as many popular hashtags as possible. Instead, now it's all about quality over quantity. Instagram prioritizes posts that are deemed relevant and valuable to its users, so it's critical to use hashtags and keywords that are most relevant to your content and target audience. For example I know my reels are going to go further when I include a hashtag like #smallbusinessowner or #smallbizowner (which is a short variation) than when I don’t. So use keywords to help you show up in searches, so it's easier for new people to find you.

Finally, you have got to get into the habit of tracking your IG analytics. Depending on the kind of account you have (which if you’re running a business of any kind) is not a personal account. So for me I can see my professional dashboard easily when I’m in my profile. It shows me insights about my account, for example how many accounts I reached in the last 30-90 days, how many of those accounts were non-followers and the best part is it will show me which of my stories, reels and posts have the greatest engagement - so that I know how to create more of the same kind of content. I could choose to go into each individual post as well to view similar  insights. 

This is powerful stuff Instagram is sharing with you. They are literally trying to help you reach more of their platform users by telling you what users want to see more of.  I’d also recommend subscribing to or visiting Instagram’s Blog content. I’ll include the link in the show notes. 

They are always sharing insights to help their creator community.

Ultimately I hope today’s episode has helped you see the value of the IG explorer page in your marketing arsenal and how it serves as a bridge to connecting with like-minded people. It’s a golden opportunity for you to reach more of your highly desired target audience.

Thanks for joining me today. To create an Instagram marketing strategy that matches your business objectives and sales goals - schedule a discovery call with me at writebrandmarketing.com. I’m Ali Garbero, copywriting is what I do, content marketing is what I create, more customers is what you get.