Your Dream Business

Key Takeaways Covered In The Podcast

• Find a social media platform and not matter what people say, use it. Find your niche and know where your audience are.
• The world of voice is barely beginning, and we still don’t know what’s going to happen. As things develop, voice activated devices will become smarter and will be able to suggest things to you based on your habits and conversations. Whilst it’s not for everyone, it is going to grow to become an incredible tool.
• Flash briefings are effectively mini podcasts that you can set up to play each day, depending on who you’re subscribed to. All you need to listen is the Amazon app. Effectively, it’s a quick and easy way to hear news, quick tips and advice.
• Flash briefings are designed to be daily, but you can record them in batch and schedule them to go out.
• As flash briefings become more popular, they’re going to become an incredible source of content for people that want short-form information that they can listen to daily.
• No matter what industry you’re in, you need to remember that there is a human being at the end of your sale.
• When it comes to being first to market, it’s important to remember that you can be great at any platform no matter when you join. Whilst there are benefits to being one of the first, you need to think about what works best for you.
• Does your brand have a sound? Whilst you will have already focussed on the look of your brand, focussing on the sound is also important.
• When you start doing flash briefings, let people know why they need to listen and how they can listen. Although they can’t engage with you directly, you can lead them to a place to interact in you briefing.

THE ONE THING YOU NEED TO REMEMBER ABOVE ALL ELSE…There are a lot of things that you won’t understand yet, and that’s okay. There’s beauty in learning how to do something for the first time, no matter how hard it is. Know no matter what, you can take the lessons you’ve learnt from other aspects of your life to help you grow.Highlights You Simply Can’t Miss

• Introducing Chelsea – 08:24
• Using Technology to Grow Your Business – 14:00
• How to Use Voice Marketing – 21:00
• Flash Briefings 28:05
• Tips for Adopting New Technology Early 35:30
• Analytics for Flash Briefings - 39:30

Links to Resources Mentioned in Today’s Episode

• Ted Talk
• Repurpose.io
• Chelsea Peitz Instagram
• Chelsea Peitz Book

Transcript below

 

Hello and welcome to this week’s episode of the podcast. How are you today? It’s been quite a week for me. Almost like a few things have been happening over these last few weeks where it’s really helping me focus and think and think about the direction I’m going. There was a couple of updates I want to let you know about before I head on in today’s podcast. So the first thing is, I talked to you previously about how I really enjoy talking around all aspects of digital marketing and how you can market your business and how you can grow a business and what it’s like running a business and just all that kind of side of it. And I really enjoy talking about it and I got some good feedback where people said yeah great. They liked the episodes where we check in some different things as well as obviously the episodes around social media. So I have a question for you and I’d really like your feedback so come on DM me over on Instagram or Twitter or wherever you want to find me.

 

Teresa: I’m thinking now, do I need to change the name of the podcast? I know that the name in some cases is not the be all and end all. So when I think about the podcast that I listen to I don’t even think about the title. I just know that I like them or I like listening to what they’ve got to say or they do get information so is it really that important or do you think I’m putting people off who think I’m literally just sat here talking about what to do on Facebook or Instagram when actually we talk about so much more of that and so much more about selling online. And that’s really kind of where my focus is going and where I really want to do more work in. I spoke Atomicon a few weeks back about selling on a webinar for instance. I did a talk back gosh I think a month or so ago in Dublin right talked about how to build an email list. I’m doing talks later in the year again around selling but maybe using social media as the kickoff. So I feel like there is definitely a bigger wider subject area that I’m covering and my 15 years worth of experience in marketing is hopefully helping me cover that well. But I just I don’t know do I need to change the name of the podcast? I would love to hear what you think. I’ve toyed with a couple of ideas things like digital marketing that converts I thought was fairly self-explanatory but you let me know what you think. Do I need to change it? I need to look into what effect that will have on my podcast because obviously I don’t want to lose people that I’ve already got. And also I want people to continue to find me and if they’re looking for social media marketing made simple then are they going to find me. Anyway, probably overthinking this. It’s something I do a lot.

 

So that was the first thing that was interesting this week. The second thing that I’ve done this week is I’ve decided that if you’re on my email list I’m actually going to email you. What a shock! This is ridiculous. Honestly I am such a fool to myself. So obviously I talk lots about make sure you get people off social media and onto your own email list because basically there’s no algorithm in your email inbox is there now? And also we can’t guarantee what these platforms are doing they’re changing all the time. So for me it’s a really really important thing that everyone should be doing. However I had been collecting all these lovely email addresses and then doing nothing with them and my friends and colleagues who know me and know what I do and obviously what I’m good atthought I was literally crazy like they were literally like you didn’t email anybody. And I just didn’t know why, I can give you probably a million excuses as to why I hadn’t got round to it but they will just be excuses say last Wednesday I sent an email to my entire list and said hey you know what I’m going to start emailing you now and I don’t want to be one of those emails where I’m just filling your inbox a load of rubbish.

 

Also some people that I get emails from I follow, I only ever get an email when they’re selling something and I don’t want that and I don’t want to be like that. And I want to be really genuine and honest. I also talked in this email about the fact that I considered having one of my copywriters write my emails for me and then I decided that actually if you wanted to hear someone else speak you would be listening to someone else. So really it was really important for me to be authentic and have my tone of voice. Now I’m going to promise you, it is not going to be the most beautifully written thing you’ve ever seen. And also I am a much better speaker than I am a writer. I’m not a big fan of writing. So I’ve just written the second email to date this coming Wednesday and which obviously won’t be this coming Wednesday for you because on recording this way before it comes out but anyway so yeah I’ve put together this email and I’ve really struggled straight off you know without even starting but I can only imagine it’s going to get easier and hopefully people are going to enjoy them. I’m going to give them tips and tricks and strategies and all the kind of stuff that I can help them with and hopefully for 3-4 minutes once a week it’s not going to be you know a pain in your neck and you’re gonna enjoy it. So if you are on my email list hopefully you’ve seen that if you’re not, then head over to teresaheathwareing.com and please come and join me as I will be hopefully every Wednesday dropping into your inbox and giving you some words of wisdom. And it’s not just even a repeat of the podcast sometimes I might mention the podcast but really it’s more about sort of giving you other stuff as well so I can give you links and stuff like that in emails as well so. So yeah it’s been a bit of a busy week and I’m off to L.A. again. Or it’s California again on Thursday this week which again likes it won’t be by the time you hear this because I’m going to do two more conferences and actually I’m really excited about these conferences because the one I’m going to Impact Summit which is in Irvine in California has got some of the most phenomenal speakers. I’m really really excited about that one.

 

And then I have my event that I do with James Wedmore which is his next level coaching. So I am part of his next level group. So I have a two day event back in Irvine again strangely enough at the end of this trip I’m doing so it’s gonna be again a full on learning curve for these next few weeks which I enjoy. It’s great. And seriously, like there could be totally worse places have conferences couldn’t there? Like the most amazing places. California is so beautiful. So I’m really looking forward to that one. Anyway onto today’s episode. So today I am interviewing my very lovely friend Chelsea Peit,z who I met over social media. I hates saying stuff like that, makes you sound like a little bit of a weirdo I promise you I’m not. But I used to follow her or I still follow her on Instagram. Love her stuff, we’ve interacted loads of times and we just got chatting about something and I said you must come on the podcast and have a conversation with my audience about some really smart future marketing.

 

So in this episode Chelsea talks about voice marketing and she talks about how you do Alexa briefings and why you would do an Alexa briefing and what’s really nice is she comes from it at a different angle so Chelsea has a really interesting take on the effect that marketing has on our brains and also the effect of hearing someone’s voice and how that comes across. She’s also written a book all about camera first social platforms. So what she means by this is all those platforms where the main function is using a camera. So for instance Snapchat and Instagram. So she actually wrote this book called Talking Pictures which like I said talks all about how our marketing and how we build our personal brands through these type of platforms. But this was a really really interesting chat. It was really great to hear her take on how voice can possibly take over and how and why we should be paying attention to things like Alexa briefings. So hopefully this is going to be a good one. Oh hopefully run got an Alexa in the background that is going off every time I say the word Alexa. That would be hilarious. I apologize if that’s the case. But anyway Chelsea is great fun.

 

You’re going to really enjoy this episode so I hope you like it.

So it gives me so much pleasure today to welcome the lovely Chelsea Peitz to the podcast. Welcome Chelsea!

 

Chelsea: Oh thank you so much for having me. It’s my pleasure and I’m so excited to be here. I have been looking forward to this forever so thank you so much for the honor of being with you today.

 

Teresa: Oh no thank you. I’ve said in the intro that we literally met just following each other on Instagram and I feel like I know you so very well and your husband and your son and your life and it just proves to me there’s always so much like bad negativity about social media and by how awful it is and how damaging is to our health.

 

Teresa: But then when I think how you are in.. you’re in Arizona arent you?

 

Chelsea: That’s correct.

 

Teresa: Right. So you’re in Arizona. I’m here in the UK. We’ve never physically met. And yet you can just get to know someone and feel like you can have a conversation with them. So I just think it’s amazing. And of course I do love an Instastory and you are very good at Instastory. Very entertaining. It’s brilliant. You know when you were watching Instastory and you can’t play the sound and I’m like scanning through them and I get to yours and I’m like oh swipe off because I need to listen that.. Whatever it is. I do think it has to get away until I can hear.

 

Chelsea: I agree. I agree with you on everything you said. I actually just had lunch with a wonderful Snapchat friend that I met for the first time and she’s from Australia and travelled her to Arizona. So you’re totally right. My best friends I’ve met through through social media.

 

Teresa: I think it’s amazing the world is turned into a very small place to reach each other hasn’t it? It’s just wonderful. I love that side of it.

 

So for my audience if they don’t know you I would love you to just give us an idea about who you are, how you got to where you be where you are now and also presumably you want to drop in the fact that you’ve just been asked to speak or you’ve just spoke at the event with Gary Vee which is pretty amazing.

 

Chelsea: So that was a highlight of my life. Yes there’s a bucket list and well my specialty is in the real estate industry. I am a social sales coach. I am a content creator. A keynote speaker. I have authored books and I teach social media skills on personal branding and also how to use social media to sell effectively not spammy. Not spamming people in the DMs but how to really build your brand and attract your ideal audience, identify your niche and I specialize in that real estate industry. Whether it’s real estate agents or mortgage brokers or title insurance executives. And so I’ve been in that industry, that space for about 20 years and I was in it before Facebook existed. I did not grow up with any of that. I didn’t use it in my business. So I am living proof that somebody who is of a certain age is able to you know learn and embrace these incredible free distribution platforms where I can share my story at scale, have one to one conversations with people, create relationships as somebody who didn’t grow up with it. Who didn’t have that. Who didn’t have an iPad like my 6 year old son has. Didn’t understand you know direct messaging and social media. So that’s what I do every day and yes thank you for mentioning my idol is I’m bowing down to the one and only Gary V. I was asked to speak at his conference which is called Agent 2021 and going there speaking.. You know making connections through social media. I had been talking to several of the people that I met there for years and some of them I had just connected with via Instagram Stories. And what was really amazing was like you said you knew them already going into when you got to kind of actually physically meet them and then seeing them share their view of the story that you were also sharing, you got to see all these new perspectives that you. I was there but I was watching their stories I got to see even more perspectives of what I missed.

 

So that was a really beautiful experience for me and such an honor to work with them. You know Gary’s team on that and wow do they put on an incredible event. They know how to do it.

 

Teresa: Oh I can only imagine.

 

Chelsea: I bet I won’t tell you a quick tip I mean so every year his team are listening shout out Gary V. They were so good that a girlfriend of mine who was coming we had been on a call with their team some weeks or months prior. The gentleman who was checking her in and she said something to me. He said oh you’re so-and-so I recognize you by your voice. And I was like Wow. Amazing what you talk about a customer experience that amazing is that customer experience when you are able to not only know who is attending your event but by sound because this person may have been on some call or with your team or whatever. I was like already impressed. I was like take a page out of their book and know what is going on.

 

Teresa: That is amazing. And of cause that’s kind of what Gary V is all about. It’s about the whole making that connection, making it personal, getting using this amazing technology to get closer to people to understand people better and to hear them you know so many businesses and you must see this all the time make the huge mistake of just shouting at the world.

 

They think social media is purely an advertising platform where they can go by my stuff and obviously it’s not. It’s a listening and a conversation and an engagement thing.

 

So I’m so glad that he is able to follow that through to his own event because that is amazing.

 

Chelsea: He did not disappoint at all.

 

Teresa: So one of the things that he does and you do which is one of the reasons I wanted you on the podcast is you are a true embracer of all the latest technology and it’s interesting that you said.. You know people.. over even got 20s or 30s thinking I can’t do this because this isn’t my era. It’s not natural to me I don’t understand. I can’t get to grips with it and actually you I mean I’m not cool enough to be on Snapchat. I’m telling you I use Snapchat for the filters if I want to take a nice photo and that’s there. I do wish Instagram would get better at the filters.

 

Chelsea: I really want them to get better with filters. I mean let’s be honest I’m going to actually have to send a real picture of myself songs filter to anyone that I actually meet in person. I mean you know I’m like oh it that what you look like?

 

Teresa: The skin is not as perfect as I thought it was seriously. Snapchat was so good but Instagram hasn’t quite got it. Like Kylie Jenner one is my favorite because it’s quite a nice one. But yeah, you need to get better. But anyway I’m not cool enough to be on Snapchat. I know my children and my stepchildren use it and I sound like I’ve got the Von Trapp family. No I have one child and two stepchildren and they use it and likes it. I only use it for filter but this is the whole thing you embrace new technology to try and prove to the world that they don’t have to be a 18 year old teenager to kind of get these things. I mean how do you how do you manage trying to keep up because it’s hard.

 

Chelsea: Well I will tell you I was sort of that person at one time who was like oh that’s not for me. I mean that’s for the young kids and that sort of thing. And what I did as I said you know I’m just going to figure it out. I’m just going to test it out. And once I had such an incredible life changing and career changing experience by testing out something like Snapchat which I actually built my brand and my community on Snapchat. A undiscoverable you know only millennial or younger. All of these myths that were around it that said you can’t use it for business. And I what I learned by doing that is that now I don’t have a fear of trying something new because there’s a lot of things that we just don’t understand yet and you have to look at that when I when I can share with people like an analogy that we can all sort of relate to. So I know we’re going to talk about voice today and that’s something that people really have difficulty wrapping their head around because it’s not something we’ve ever had before. It’s kind of similar that if you’re a parent which I...

Key Takeaways Covered In The Podcast

• When using Facebook for Business you need to click the Insights tab in order to reach your analytics. This will show you the actions on your page, your page views, your page previews, your page likes, your post reach, your post engagement, your page responsiveness, your video views, your page followers and your orders.
• In most cases, post reach is a vanity metric as you could be reaching thousands of people but none of them may be engaging with your post. Instead, consider what your engagement is as a percentage of your overall reach.
• Facebook Insights can also give you an idea of what posts perform the best, giving you an insight into what kind of content you should be publishing regularly.
• In the top right-hand corner of Twitter, you will see an option to view your Twitter Analytics. Whilst Twitter Analytics are often incorrect, you can view your Twitter highlights, a summary of your month, how many Tweets you’ve done, your Tweet impressions, your profile visits, the number of mentions you have had and the number of new followers you have gained.
• When it comes to Instagram there are two ways to look at your insights. The first way is to tap on one of your posts and click ‘view insights’. This shows you how many people have liked it, how many comments you’ve had and how many people have saved it. It also shows any actions that have been taken from the post, where your post was discovered and whether anyone has visited your profile.
• The second way to use insights on Instagram is to click on the hamburger menu right hand side of your profile and the click ‘Insights’. The first section shows an overview of your content including feed posts, stories and paid promotions. The activity section shows who is visiting your profile and what they’re doing whilst they’re there and the final section shows an overview of your Audience. This includes their location, age range, their gender and when they are most active.
• You can view Instagram Story insights by swiping up on your own stories. It will show if they clicked your links, if they tapped on your stickers or if they exited your stories at a certain point.
• When it comes to Google Analytics you can use the audience overview to show you most of the information you need. You need to select a date range first, but the first thing you will see if a graph that will show your overall visits to your site. Under the graph you will be able to find your total website users, the new users to your website, your website sessions, the number of sessions per user, your page views, your average page to sessions, the average session duration and your bounce rate.

THE ONE THING YOU NEED TO REMEMBER ABOVE ALL ELSE…One of the biggest fears people have when pitching new clients is that they’re worried about rejection. There are no industry standards or ideal numbers when it comes to analytics for your business. Whilst you may have personal goals, it’s much better to focus on how you can improve, rather than what numbers everyone else has. Look at where you are today, see where you can improve and then go back in a month’s time to measure your progress.Highlights You Simply Can’t Miss

• Using Facebook Insights – 06:25
• Using Twitter Analytics – 13:52
• Using Instagram Insights – 16:40
• Using Google Analytics – 23:00
• External Sites for Tracking – 30:50

Links to Resources Mentioned in Today’s Episode

• Episode 42
• Dash This
• Agorapulse

Transcript below

 

Hello and welcome to this week’s episode of the podcast. How are you? Know what? I have just had the busiest few weeks. So much travelling speaking training and don’t get me wrong I love every minute of it. But sometimes it absolutely wears me out and it gets me so super tired so I have to be really careful to take care of myself and I don’t know about you but when I travel all myself care goes out the window. I am a very social person so when I’m away I really like to go out and see places and meet people. Normally have several glasses of wine or a few gin and tonics and like I said I don’t end up looking after myself very well. I don’t get to bed very early. I then do long days. And if you do a job where you’re having to present yourself it’s quite hard work and I know that sounds daft because I feel like I’m very genuine when you see me and hopefully if you’ve met me recently because I met some amazing people at Atomic Con 19 and a few podcast listeners which was awesome. So if you have met me then hopefully you think I am the same as I am here. But sometimes when you’re trying to be just on form all the time, it can be really really tiring. So I’m a little bit tired. I have to say recording this podcast and I’m trying to batch ahead because next week I’m off to Social Media Marketing World which is gonna be fabulous and wonderful and really good fun. But again it’s going to be full on. It’s going to be long days. Lots of learning, lots of meeting people, lots of catching up with people that I’ve had on the podcast, my friends. Hopefully, I’m going to get to see Amy and Pat and Rick and Jasmine and all those lovely people. So it’s gonna be a really good week. But it’s gonna be totally full on.

 

Of course by the time this podcast episode comes. I’m actually will be back from Social Media Marketing World. Sometimes it all gets very confusing. But anyway enough about me. How has your week been? And also how is the first three months of the year gone? Can anybody actually believe we’re through the first three months? Because I can’t. I don’t know where this time has gone but it’s gone way too quick. And even though I achieved some things that I wanted to and I have made progress on other things. Actually there is still things that I think “Okay I’ve not progressed as I should have done.” And also sometimes things just change. So you might have a plan and you might have a direction in which you think you’re going. And then something in your world or in the business or someone you meet or something someone said then makes you just readdress things and actually over the past few weeks I’ve really had this and you’ll know quite a few weeks ago on the podcast I said to you that I might be taking a slightly different direction not massive but I was going to be focusing the podcast more on all aspects of digital marketing and selling online rather than just a really specifically social media.

 

Now don’t worry I am still going to talk lots about social media. We still have some great guests coming up but also I want to... I want to see it with everything else because you know what that’s how I’ve always seen it. Social media is just one of the many tools that as marketers and business owners that we have in our tool belt in order to market our businesses. So I don’t know about you but hopefully you’ll agree with me that actually adding in these other elements make complete sense and hopefully is going to give you a better and bigger more rounded way to approach your own marketing and more skills, more tools, more tips, more strategies and hopefully you’re going to love it even more because I love the podcast.

 

I love doing it. I love hearing when you guys send me DMs or when you put things on insta story or you tweet me and you say cool stuff about the podcast. It really does help because sometimes you sit in a room which I’m doing now on my own wittering on myself so it can feel a little bit odd and lonely at times. But when I get those messages back it just makes me feel like, yes this is working and you guys are getting some real benefit from it. So thank you. Also while I’m talking about that is it terribly awful. If I ask it’s going to give me an iTunes review I would really appreciate that. It’s just that if you are on iTunes and you’re trying to move your way up the charts, one of the things that help is reviews. So if you are happy to go give me a five star review I would love you forever. Thank you so much.

 

Anyway on with today’s episode and enough of me wittering on. Now we’re at the end of this three months, aren’t we? So we’ve done first three months the year and I know we did a review at the end of 2018. If you haven’t done that review if you didn’t see it I’m gonna hook up to that episode in the show notes so you’ll find the show notes at w w w dot TERESA HEATH WAREING all one word no hyphen dot come forward slash fifty eight as in the numbers not the word and every episode’s exactly the same. If you’re listening to any episode anyone find the show notes, it’s always forward slash and the number of the episode but I’m going to link up to the previous episode that I did back in the end of 2013 where we reviewed our entire year. And even if you didn’t get a chance to do it then there’s nothing to say that you can’t go ahead and do it now or do it whenever you’re listening to this episode.

 

But what I wanted to focus this episode on is some of the analytics and the stats that I look at in my business to see how well my business is doing and I’m gonna talk you through, especially on social media what some of these things mean. So I’m going to talk you through the Facebook analytics and I’ll talk you through Twitter and Instagram. I’m also going to do a teeny bit of Google Analytics and just let you know the sorts of things that I look out for when I look at my own stats to see how well my business is doing. And I’m gonna explain to you what it all means. So you can work out whether actually your effort is having an effect on your own social media and your own traffic and your own marketing.

 

So hopefully this is going to be a really really good one for you today. And I often get questions around this so unready excited to dive in and explain all.

 

Okay we’re going to get started with Facebook and we’re going to be looking at the insights tab. So if you have a Facebook page which if you’re running a business and you’re using Facebook for business then you absolutely should have a Facebook page. But if you have a page you will see there is an insights tab and I am just going to go through the page summary in terms of what they’re tracking and what that means. Okay. So the first thing it shows me is actions on page. This is your call to action button which is underneath your cover photo on the main page. So it shows you how many people have clicked that button and taken the action you’re asking them to take now. Okay I should probably said something in the beginning as a prerequisite then I’m not going to give you ideal numbers because basically there is no ideal number. There is no standard, there is no level in which I can say you should be achieving this. The thing that you should always be tracking with your own stats and your own social media on your own website is can you improve it so it doesn’t matter where you’re starting. It doesn’t matter if you’re getting one like a month or you know 20 likes a day. It’s all about improving from the next step. So like I said there is no base level here. Do not say here thinking I am going to say you should have this number of likes or this number of impressions or whatever. It’s all about looking at where you are today, seeing what you can do to improve and then looking at where you are in a week or a month or six months. So it’s all about going forward and improving not about comparing yourself to someone else. So don’t do that.

 

Anyway. let me go back to where I was so like that actions on page. The number of people who have done the action underneath your cover photos of the call to action than the next one I’m going to go it’s a grid and I’m going from left to right and then down the next page views. So this is the number of people who have looked at your page. Now this can actually be quite an encouraging figure in the sense of you might find that you don’t have a whole lot of engagement but you might find that actually quite a few people have looked at your page they just haven’t chosen to interact with you for whatever reason and if they’ve looked at your page the chances are they’ve seen that big cover photo. And as I’ve mentioned lots times before you should be using that cover photo at the top of Twitter and Facebook and LinkedIn in order to promote who you are and what you do so that people know instantly what you offer. So the page views is a really good one. The next one is page previews. Now what this will be is sometimes if someone comes up in your feed and you hover your mouse or your honor for works on your finger it actually but if you hover over their picture or their name it will bring up a little preview box of who they are. That’s what that is. So I’ll show you how many people have previewed this and also sorry these stats they default for the last seven days. You can turn it into the last 28 days as well.

 

Then the next one down is page likes and obviously that’s the number of people who’ve come and like to your page then post reach. That’s the number of people that have seen your posts. Now these could be multiple people or these can be some of the same people but it’s the number of people who have seen the posts that’s been put in front of them. Recommendations if anybody’s recommended you. That’s the next thing it just tells you how many people did that. The next one down is post engagement. Now reach an engagement that interesting because reach is a little bit of a vanity metric because you could reach thousands but if no one engages the wrong people. And it’s a waste of time. So in post engagements. That’s the key bit. You want to be able to see that for the number of people it’s reaching that you’re getting a good engagement. And I like to see the kind of percentage difference between them. So what kind of percentage people are engaging based on the number of reach I’ve had said that might be something that you want to track or keep an eye on because you’re going to be able to tell whether you’re targeting the right people and if they’re interested in what you’re actually putting out there.

 

The next thing is your page responsiveness. And this is based down to how responsive you are. Often comes down to things like Messenger and stuff like that. Not too much to worry about here. Obviously you want to try and be as responsive as you possibly can. But we’re all realistic and we all have lives to lead so don’t worry too much about the videos that’s the next one. I’ll tell you how many video views you’ve had in those last seven days and it’s a three second view. So even though it might seem you’ve had a few hundred video views and it doesn’t have to be of a video you’ve put up in the last seven days it could be people going back and watching old videos but it’s only telling you people who have watched past three seconds. So that’s something to bear in mind that it’s not necessarily really long views that you’re getting on those videos and then the next one down is page followers.

 

Now people ask me what the difference is between likes and follows. Now you can like a page and it shows up on your own profile and also it might recommend that page to some of your friends because you have liked it if you follow a page. It doesn’t show up in your likes. So it’s almost a little bit like you’re following it secretly which means you’re seeing their content but you’re not liking that page. And one of the things that’s really interesting about this is there’s a few different businesses and industries that actually this would probably work well for. So for instance I once did some training with a company that do a diet product and they were saying that they really struggled to get likes on their page and I kind of said I’m not surprised because who wants to be seen to be liking a page of a diet product. It’s not really the sort of thing what my friends and family to see even if I was looking at it. So I might follow it instead of liking it. So that could be the difference. Also you can like pages and not follow them. So obviously that will show up as alike but you’re not going to see any of their content and then the last one on this insights is orders. And obviously if you have a set up then you’ll see your orders but I don’t. So mine’s at zero. So also under the insights tab there’s loads of other things you can look at but I just wanted to give you an overview of those things what they are and obviously remind you again that this isn’t that you should be having a certain number. It’s purely a case of. Okay that’s interesting. That’s where we’re now today. And let’s see if I improve my content or do something different or if I start life videos then let’s see what effect that has on it. So this is a bit brief but hopefully that gives you an idea of the sort of things that I look at on Facebook also very quickly the other thing that I look at on Facebook is the types of posts that go down really well. So if you carry on scrolling down you’ll see the posts and how well people react to them. And that will give you a good insight as to what posts your audience like and therefore the idea is try and do more of those posts. Now obviously don’t flood it with just those posts but just try and do more of them because you’ll find that that helps increase your overall engagement on the page.

 

Okay. So let’s talk Twitter now. As you know I am a big Twitter fan. I love it. It’s where one of my biggest audiences are. However there’s something really wrong about their analytics. It often shows incorrect figures and it really drives me crazy. So if you’re on your Twitter profile and now I know how to do this on a desktop you’ll be able to do on a phone but I’m just on a desktop so I’ll explain that way. If you’re in a Twitter profile go to the top right where your little face is click on that and you’ll be able to click analytics and it’ll open up a new page and show you your analytics.

 

Now if you’ve never looked at them before I think if I remember rightly it was some time ago. You just have to have a click a button say yes turn them on however what should be wonderful isn’t because like I said inevitably the stats are wrong. So for instance just to give you an idea how wrong they are. My 28 day summary i.e. what I’ve done over the last 28 days it’s telling me I’ve done 10 tweets quite honestly I think I’ve done tend to it’s today. So this is absolutely wrong. But when it does work great. So for instance it gives you each month and it gives you the stats for each month. So first of all tell you your tweet highlights your top mentions and give you an example of a few of your tweets your actual tweets that you’ve done. And then on the right hand side it gives you a summary of the month. So it will tell you how many tweets you’ve done. It’ll tell you your tweets impressions so your impressions of very similar to reach in Facebook. And that’s how many times it’s been put into that feed. Again it can look lovely when you’ve got you know and I’ve had it some months where it’s like hundreds of thousands of impressions. But it’s the engagement. That’s the key thing. So like I said focus on the fact that even though impressions are grey you really really want the engagement.

 

So like I said the next thing it has to be impressions after that. This...

Key Takeaways Covered In The Podcast

One of the best ways to find new clients is to decide what kind of work you want to be known for. Once you have started to work for a couple of clients in this area, you will start to become known for ‘your thing’. Whilst taking everything that comes your way seems right to begin with, it can lead you down a path where you dislike the business you’re in.

If you are all things to all people, you can not get in a state of flow.

Finding new clients is all about consistency. Make sure you’re setting time aside each week to focus on outreach and business development, even if it is just five minutes a day.

Your number one resource for new clients is your network.

Although it may seem a little off putting, cold pitching is another great way to gain new clients. It’s all about making that personal connection from the start – you want to let them know you are familiar with their products or their values. Your first point of contact should be to get them to speak to you, so end with a strong call to action.

When it comes to pitching competitors to your clients, you need to consider the agreement you have with the people you’re already working with. If you have agreed exclusivity, you need to honour that. Alternatively, it’s important not to pigeonhole yourself into only being able to work with one client.

To help potential clients see that you’re the person they need to hire, you need to position yourself as an expert in the industry. You need to demonstrate the value you can bring.

The one thing you need to remember above all else…One of the biggest fears people have when pitching new clients is that they’re worried about rejection. Whilst rejection isn’t a nice feeling, what is the worst thing that can happen? If they say no, move on. You may find that it takes 10, 20 or 100 emails before you get a yes.Highlights you Simply Can’t Miss

• Introducing Jen – 04:36
• Finding Your Flow – 10:30
• Now You Have Yor Flow, How Do You Find Clients? – 17:24
• Looking At Your Network And Cold Pitching - 22:30
• How To Pitch Competitors Of Your Clients - 29:05
• How To Show You’re The Right Person – 39:20

Links to Resources Mentioned in Today’s Episode

• Jen Berson
• Jen Berson Instagram
• Jen Berson Twitter

Transcript below

 

Hello and welcome to this week’s episode of the podcast. How are you? You know what I’m really excited about this week’s episode. Last week, if you quarter I hope you did. If not please go back and listen to it. We talked all about selling and how you can sell better in your business with a feeling horrible and sleazy and also some of the things that got me clarity on how I could price my brain which I’m not going to lie, was quite difficult in the beginning.

 

So if you haven’t listened to that episode, I highly recommend you do it was a really good on either is really good on fingers crossed you did too but this week follows on so lovely from it and you know what? It was a complete coincidence. It was not intentional. When I looked at who was on the following week because obviously my interviews are often scheduled much further on ahead. I then saw which it was and thought perfect. So this week I have the super lovely Jen Berson. Now Jen and I met at one of James Wedmore’s next level events which was great. She’s so lovely. You know you instantly hit it off for someone. We have such fun. We laughed lots and we’re also in quite similar industries because her agency does PR with some social media. So we were able to talk quite a lot about our businesses and how they sort of fitted quite well together. The other thing that Jen does amazingly which is why she’s on the podcast is she helps agencies and freelancers and other businesses get more clients. And this week’s episode is a great one because that’s what we’re talking about.

 

We’re talking about how can you get more clients in your business. And she gives us some really great proactive ways which I openly admit during the interview, that I am not proactive enough that we are very lucky and reactively we have had lots of things drip feed in which is nice. However we’ve not gone out there proactively to get clients. So for me this is a really interesting one.

 

And also I think it’s going to be a great one for you to know we don’t just talk about getting clients. We talk about what it’s like to work in your flow in your zone of genius in the areas that you love. Now we’ve all got these clients where we think if I could have 10 of you, my world would be a dream and you know why? Because that’s are our flow. That’s our zone of genius. That’s the work or the industry that actually clicks and connects with us perfectly. That it’s easy that it’s not difficult. And Jen and I talk about this and she talks about getting clarity on those types of clients so that when you do either approach people you’re approaching the right people or when clients approach you you are fully aware of whether they’re going to fit in that or not and if they’re not that you know to say no to them because you know what it’s not going to work in the end. And we’d all like to be in a position I’m sure where we’re only dealing with the best type of clients that we want or the industry that we want.

 

The other thing that was really funny that Jen and I talked about which is odd considering the industry Jen and I work in is how difficult it is sometimes to market yourselves. Obviously our jobs are to help other businesses market themselves. And therefore when it comes to marketing ourselves you’d think it was super easy because we know so much about it. I can promise you it’s not. So actually we talked a lot about how to market ourselves and put ourselves out there and she gave lots of great tips about how she could reach out to perfect clients how she almost had cold reaching out which scared me a bit but actually she gave some great advice about how she can reach out to get those clients and hey she’s now ended up with some amazing clients in her agency. So I hope you’re gonna love this one. Like I said it’s a great one to help me think about how to get new customers. If you’re not an agency or a freelancer Don’t worry there’s still lots of great information in there for you. So without further ado here is Jen.

 

So I’m really excited today to welcome the lovely Jen Berson to the podcast. Welcome Jen.

 

Hello lovely Teresa. Thank you for having me.

 

Thank you for coming on.

 

Now I’ve said in the intro that you and I met in Laguna Beach at Jane’s event which is radical and we instantly hit it off and had sort of great fun together all right. And I wanted to stay in touch because I knew that what you do not only would help me and some really interesting parts of me are my business but also lots of my podcast listeners. But before we jump into their and telling them how they can get more clients let’s just give them a bit of background as to who you are and how you got to do what you do now.

 

Oh good. Okay. Well let’s see. “So I started actually started my career as a civil litigation attorney did a complete 180. I know it’s kind of like “What were you thinking?” But I guess I just decided one day that it did not match my personality to be a lawyer. I did not feel like it was a career. I felt like it was a job and I kind of just wanted to you know work in a service that built businesses up that helped businesses and entrepreneurs grow and rather than litigation where you’re just spending money and trying to exhaust resources. I wanted to do something that had a positive impact on a company.

 

And I started doing PR on the side it just had an instinct for a certain brand. I reached out to them and I said, “Can you help me or can I help you? I’m willing to work for free. I just need a box of products like random girl that reaching out over the Internet send me a big box of free stuff. But they did and I was able to help this fragrance company get a bunch of media mentions and connect them with celebrities and I love that work so much. I love the almost immediate impact it had on the business and the tangible results. I could physically hold in my hands. You know back in the day when magazines were printed. Yeah. And I just said I want more of this. I want to I want to do more to build up companies. And I also want to be in business for myself. And so I just decided one day I am going to do this and I can always go back to law. Then I started my business and kind of worked for a reduced rate on some clients just to get the experience because I really had no experience no contacts no training whatsoever and I was able to kind of grow a business where I had an expertise in a couple nations and was able to kind of parlay that experience into a reputation in those fields where we’re now sought after I mean now it’s been 14 years but we’re sort we’re a sought after agency for our expertise in the baby and kids space and beauty and cosmetics and we’re able to charge premium prices. And I love the work so much. And I just feel so lucky to have my own business after all this time and now I’m a mom. I have two boys ages 6 and 8 and I have just like love having a business that gives me ultimate flexibility and freedom and I want to teach other women how to have the same thing.

 

Yeah that’s amazing. I’m like I think lots of people starting off they often do the free thing and especially. And know I wouldn’t knock it because I actually only did the same. I volunteered for charity. That was a fairly high profile charity just so. But my name was attached to the marketing so that’s to help me get my foot off the ground even though I’d done it for ages. When you start your own business you’ve got to sort of really get yourself haven’t you. So I do think there is an element tools you’ve got to do a bit of free stuff. Or do a bit of cheaper stuff. What really makes me laugh and I think you get this though probably Botox you reduce so low is when people reach out me and we’ll say even now, they’ ll say you know Do you want to do this? It’ll be a great case to do for you, to read minds who could do good stuff but very slow.

 

Yeah. Yeah. We’re good now. You know I would be at you know when someone is just starting out or you’re really trying to pivot and establish a new niche. It does help to be able to offer your services in a way for the right opportunity that really aligns with what you’re trying to accomplish. What your vision is for your company. You come in for a reduced rate. You look to get that right at the beginning, you know at this point. You know we’re a little bit more established we don’t need those like case studies but it does help and it’s a great way to kind of, Create a path. I like to be proactive in creating the business that you want rather than being reactive and just choosing what comes your way. You can actually decide. This is the kind of work I want to do and reach out to this companies and offer services but only if it is perfectly aligned or very closely aligned with a company like you said a charity that’s very high profile, that’s going to make you look really good. Yeah. Something that is going to raise your profile but also don’t come at it thinking you’re gonna offer the client free or significantly reduced services and then ultimately pivot them to a paying client in the very very rarely happens. So you have to decide, you’re doing it for yourself. And that’s going to benefit you and your and your agency’s profile rather than try to convert them into a paying client because it’s nearly impossible.

 

Yeah I totally agree that once you once you give anything as something for free, they’re never going to then go, “Oh I’ll have it again I’ll pay you.” You know that’s going to be a lot about how do you know it’s going to be a real rare thing. So yeah let me like let me just touch on the fact of what you do the fact that you hope other businesses you help other freelancers and agencies get clients or you teach them and support them and coach them how they can then get clients which I think and especially for the industry that we’re in.

 

So as a marketing, PR, social media. Our job is to help our clients be seen and get their clients which is why it’s so ridiculous that sometimes we find it so hard to get to market ourselves which is really all it’s considering.. That’s what we do for a living. So one question that I get an awful lot from freelancers and agencies.. The thing is how would they getting clients and I get asked how do I get clients and I know you’re gonna be like horrified but I know that you have not been as proactive. I’ve been very lucky and I’ve had always had a trickle of clients coming in and what we need. But I’ve certainly not proactively gone and got clients. So. I’m really excited that today you’re going to share with us some ideas on how people can do that how they can bring on clients and not just any client. I really want to pick up on something you said when you said, “Who do you want to work with?” Because in the early days do not find that the business is that you coach sometimes they just take anything because they’re like, I just need to work that’s fine. I don’t technically do that but I am now going to do that. All I do really want to work with this type of business. But now I’m going to just do this as well to get some money.

 

Yes. Well first let me go back to what you said about not being super proactive. I am not either but I will say that I know how to turn up the gas when I need new clients. I had a recent month where I had three really large clients decided to move on or not renew or whatever and I lost a significant amount of revenue in one month. Like enough where you would just be like, “Oh my God what am I going to do?” And I didn’t panic and I said if I could do that once if I could land you know now I have three billion dollar brands that I support. Well if I can do that once I can do it again and so that was July and all of August, I just kind of did what I know how to do in terms of getting clients and then by September we were you know my husband calls me even steven. We were right back to where we were. So it helps to know what to do and that’s kind of the first step is really deciding the kind of clients you want to work with the kind of work that you want to be known for because you’ve got to think about this if you go down the path and start getting you know the reason you’re getting a lot of work choices because you’re known for being really good at doing what you do. So the kinds of clients that you serve are going to seek you out knowing that the services you provide are going to benefit them because you’ve done it for other clients like them. So you want to think about creating a business that you’re going to enjoy. You know 1 3 5 10 years from now I mean I’ve been doing this for 14 years and I like the industries that I have been working in for all this time. I still really love them and I’m excited to continue going to work. But I imagine you kind of create a business where you’re reactive and you take whatever comes your way and then all of a sudden three years from now, you’re you’re feeling like you don’t even really like the business that you created because you don’t love the kinds of clients you’re serving or the work you’re doing. So it helps to really think about how you want to establish your expertise the niche you want to carve out. And it could either be the niche that’s the type of client that you serve or the type of service that you want to be known for. And I would not recommend being all things to all people. You can not get in a state of flow. You cannot be really profitable and have a business with not a lot of friction. I know you know this friction when you kind of do something for a client that’s outside of the normal realm. And it takes longer than you expect and you know you have this scope creep or you didn’t expect like maybe this Web site you’re building and all of a sudden you know a six week project to six months. And it happens you know we like to get in a state of flow where we’re doing the things that we do. We’re getting every client into a similar way that we onboard them we serve them we report to them because if you have all these little one off services you can’t get in a state of flow so you want to figure out. Who you serve and how you serve them. And then you can be more proactive about looking for those types of clients and you have more clarity about how to say no and when to say no when those clients don’t match your vision. And that’s one of the most kind of powerful things as an agency owner that you can that you can do is have that confidence and the clarity to know the opportunities that are not the right fit for you. And if you take those opportunities because you’re running your business out of fear because you are afraid either a client can’t pay the rate you want or you’re afraid you’re not going to have enough clients. You’re taking up time and energy from a spot that you can serve your ideal client for your rate that you know that you’re worth but figured in.

 

Like I that I think so many people start off they’re not that clear and they want to be everything to everybody and they want to serve everybody and they can find a way of serving anybody. But then like you said you end up doing stuff and I know some of the clients I’ve taken on where I’ve regretted it because I thought I’ll do that for now. And then you know some of my clients I’ve had for years and years and I mean I started off doing them what we do today. They look to very different things. So actually understanding that to begin with and I never did that I never sat down figure out who do I want to work with what we really good at like you know what can we turn so easily. I mean it’s not difficult and it doesn’t feel invisible because again working with lots of different clients their clients are really hard work. There are industries that are really hard work. There are there are things like being run like you work in very lovely industries you know they are very marketable industries. Yes. Yeah they don’t say. I mean some of the clients that I work with don’t have the most sexiest of products or sexist of service. They’re still great and fine. And then there’s those clients that are manufacturers that you friends do social media for manufacturing you’re a but like okay I’m struggling a bit. But like you said finding that kind of who is it you want to work with. And I do think I’ve personally my own world. I’m not very good at making that and I’m not very good at going. This is where I’m going to stick because like you said you do get mad. But she think you know I’ve got to be really strong to say no matter what comes my way I’m going to turn out fine because I’m going to focus on this. Okay so let’s say we have decided who are ideal clients is how do we go find them.

 

Well that’s the multimillion dollar question right. There are several tactics and I will say and they may seem really obvious but you don’t do them. I don’t do them all the time. It’s really about consistency and kind of being proactive and making client outreach a part of your you know weekly activities...

Key Takeaways Covered In The Podcast

One of the hardest things to do as a business or entrepreneur is putting a value on yourself and believing that you are worth the value you have set.

Consider how much time and money you have spent improving your knowledge and investing in your business. You’re doing everything you can to be bigger and better for your clients, so you should be charging for your advice.

Next time you are about to sell something to someone, consider how you’re serving them. Your product or service is going to be serving the recipient, so don’t feel bad for asking for money in return. You need something back in return for your skills and knowledge.

Every customer that comes to you to buy a product or service has a problem. Think about their pain points as it will allow you create marketing materials that directly address your potential clients struggles.

Rather than talking about your product and service, consider talking about the feelings and results that your potential customer will receive if they purchase from them. Think about the features and benefits of each aspect of your product, including ‘feeling’ words in your marketing efforts.

In order to convince people that they should be purchasing from you, you may want to consider using testimonials and case studies that you have previously earned. Think about asking people who have already purchased your product and ask if they would be happy to give you a short testimonial or review. If you can get a video testimonial, even better!

To sell your product or service you need to show people why you are an expert. Whilst this doesn’t mean going into extensive details about the experience and qualifications you have, but instead talking about the results you’ve had and the projects you’ve successfully worked on – whether it’s a podcast, eBook or course.

When you’re selling a product or service you are going to come across rejections. Whilst this may be disheartening, being honest about rejections in your marketing may help people trust you, as well as giving you a chance to answer any objections they may have.

 

The one thing you need to remember above all else…It’s important to remember that you can’t always offer your time and ideas for free. Value yourself and your work. Whether it’s sharing tips with other entrepreneurs or helping a business grow, you should be charging for what you’re doing.Highlights You Simply Can’t Miss

• Having A Sales Mindset – 05:28
• Selling Is Serving – 12:00
• #1 Understand Your Customers Pain Points – 14:28
• #2 Talking About Feelings And Results, Rather Than Your Product And Service - 19:10
• #3 Make Sure You Have Good Examples, Case Studies And Testimonials - 21:25
• #4 Talk About Why You Are An Expert - 23:00
• #5 Think About Rejections 25:44

Transcript below

 

Hello there and welcome to this week’s episode of the podcast. And as always I am your host, Teresa Heath-Wareing. So when this episode comes out it’s going to be almost the end of March. And you know what, I can’t actually believe it. The first three months of this year has flown by and you know when you think to yourself gosh I’ve got so much time to do things. That’s ages away. And then suddenly before you know it, it’s on top of you. And I hate saying this stuff because I feel so old. I feel like this is stuff I used to hear my parents say or my mum says and I don’t like talking about it.

Also, another reason I don’t like talking about how fast time’s going is because I am a very true believer that’s basically what we think is what happens. So if you constantly think “I’ve got no time I’m running at a time”. Time’s going so fast then the only evidence you’re going to see is that is that time is going so fast. So I try super hard to try and think about “I’ve got loads of time to do this. This is just as I need it. I’ve got just enough time that I need.” I’m not saying it always works. However, I do try and think like that. But yeah it.. Secretly between you and I, it is going crazy crazy fast. And also I’ve been doing a lot of travelling I’ve been away a lot so so far I have been in Dublin and Leeds and Dubai and Newcastle and actually I think when this podcast episodes out, I think I’m flying to San Diego. So yeah it’s going to be a bit of a crazy month and then April, I’m in California again.

First off, if you listen to the podcast and you’re going to be at Social Media Marketing World then please come and DM me and tell me because I would love to meet up with you. It be so great to meet some of the listeners there if you’re going to be in Social Media Marketing World. Also, I’m going to be impact summer in California at the beginning of April so if anybody’s gonna be there then again please let me know. I would love to meet up and I’m actually going to be spending probably about a good week or so in L.A. So again anybody in L.A. that wants to come to say hi I would love to see. So please do reach out and let’s try and meet up because I would love that.

 

Anyway let’s talk about today’s episode of the podcast. It’s going to be a good one. I’m excited about this episode because I’m going slightly off piece a little bit. Only a tiny bit because I’m gonna be talking about selling now. It might feel like that’s a little bit off piece but actually what is marketing ultimately doing. It’s ultimately trying to sell a good product or service and therefore sometimes we find marketing, okay and we’re happy to do that. But when it comes to the actual selling we hate it. And people really do struggle with selling things especially when it’s a service and especially when that service is them. That is a real challenge to some people.

 

So what we’re gonna be looking at in today’s episode is I’m going to first off talk about the mindset around selling and a couple of things that have helped me in terms of feeling confident about the price I put out there and then the second part of the podcast is going to be aimed at giving you some tips on how you can sell your product and service better. So it’s going to be things that you can either do in person you can do on a website you can do on a webinar you can do on a sales page but hopefully some of these tips are just going to help you think slightly differently about how you actually go for that sale at the end of the marketing at the end of your process. What kind of things can you say to help you a) feel better about selling and b) to convince the person I guess on the other end of the sale that this is the thing they want to do. Because ultimately I know we love what we do and don’t get me wrong, I do love what I do and obviously the podcast doesn’t necessarily bring me direct income and I still continue to do it because I adore it and I adore hearing from you guys and knowing that you’re enjoying it and therefore I obviously do cause I love it. But ultimately somewhere along the line, I have to charge for something because you know what my mortgage is not going to pay itself and my daughter’s school fees aren’t gonna pay us off so I do need to earn some money and it’s how we get over that. So we don’t feel bad or sleazy like a horrible salesman because I think when we think sales I don’t about you but that’s the image that gets conjured up in my head that I’m going to be and I’m not going to pick an industry because I know there’s some industries that are really associated with bad selling. So I’m not going to say any of those industries but I’m sure we can all think of one where we feel like someone’s really tried to sell the US and it’s not nice it doesn’t feel great. So today we’re going to look at how we can do that and make that feel a little bit nicer and make it easier for us to do so.

 

So OK let’s start off by talking about minds that they like I said in terms of the thing that you’re actually selling. This is possibly more important when you’re selling yourself or you’re selling a service when it comes to a product. I don’t know about you but I do find it easier to sell it. I also find it easier to price that product because you obviously can have a look at the effort that goes into making it. The time it takes the parts it needs and therefore to work out a price is not so difficult. And also you know your base price you know that I cannot go lower than this because this is my break-even point. So like I said the first thing that we’re gonna think about is mindset. But when it comes down to you as your product or service or do you are selling a service. So you know what was really interesting when I first started my business one of the things I struggled with the most was actually putting a price on my head. Now honestly that’s got to be one of the hardest things ever. And also believing in that value that you’ve put on your own head and how you equate that into then selling that to a customer. It’s really really difficult. And I tell you what the turning point for me was now obviously I had had a degree in marketing. I had spent three years at university. I then worked in marketing for over 10 years at that point. And yet for some reason, I couldn’t put a value on that. I don’t know why but I find that really really difficult. So all those years of practice all those years of training and all those years of doing marketing I couldn’t then come out the other end and go This is what I’m worth. And I tell you what really made the biggest change for me is I had done loads of meetings in the early days where I’d gone and met people who had asked to have a coffee with me. We’ve all been there I’m sure. And I went and had a coffee with them and I thought I was going to pitch and they basically just took all the ideas out my brain and of course, I was the fool who gave them over.

 

I’m not sitting here saying they somehow extracted them without me realizing because I get excited about what I do. I can’t help but just give ideas and talk and say basically what would happen is I’d go and meet someone. I would then sit there for like two. And it’s been known to sit there for three hours and give them all my ideas and tell them how exciting things could be if they did this and did this and did this and then I go back to the office and I then spend another hour or so doing a proposal only to send it to them for them to go oh we can’t afford you or Oh we’re okay thanks. Well, of course, they’re okay thanks. They’ve just sat there for three hours and took every idea at my head. I stupidly gave it all away for free.

 

So anyway I went to the states for a conference. I’d always dreamed of doing it. I really wanted to do it and the first conference I went to was converted which was a lead Page’s conference. And I went to Minneapolis as an attendee of this conference and I spent a lot of money. Now if you’ve not done a conference in the UK or in the States or wherever you are then you might not know what these things cost because they’re not cheap. So they will cost anywhere between a couple of hundred pounds all the way up to a thousand pounds. So I mentioned I was going to be an impact summit and I’ve just paid a thousand I think a thousand dollars actually for that ticket. So obviously I’d spent the money on the ticket. I’d spent the money on the flight. I then spent the money on the hotel and then obviously while you’re over there you’re paying for food and drink and everything else that you’re doing. And obviously, the other thing I’d done is taken like four or five days out of my own business to go and do it. And I literally came back from that conference with a bill like an exact amount of what I’d spent to go to that conference and it comes to. I don’t know I think that one was about three three thousand pounds maybe something like that.

 

Anyway came back from the conference with this bill. Thinking gosh that was a lot of money I’ve just spent there but it was well worth it because I’ve just learned so much amazing stuff. And when I got back no joke I had about three or four people messaged me who knew me very well and said Hey Teresa how was the conference. I’d love to hear about it. Can we go for a coffee. And I thought No no we can’t go for coffee because you know what. I’ve just spent 4000 pounds or 3000 whatever it was going over there to learn these things and you want to take me for a coffee to pick my brain and find out the stuff that I’ve just spent all that money to find. And I actually suddenly got it. I suddenly realized what on earth was I doing selling myself cheap also going out there and giving ideas away. It was madness that actually even though all those years of experience and paying for university which by the way I am still paying, for now, you know as an adult I am still paying for the fees that I paid to go to university for. So I guess I should equate that into everything. But it did him but it wasn’t until I spent a big chunk of money that I could physically see that I then realized actually this is craziness. I should be charging people a decent amount for what I’m doing. The other thing that I want you to think about here. So first thing go back and think about all the things you spent money on. Think about how much time you spend for example how many hours you spent listening to my podcasts to get better to better understand what you’re doing or to market yourself better or if you’re working for clients or whatever then you know market them better. So first off think about the time in the investment you put into learning your skill and your trade. And then if you do spend money on things like conferences or courses or whatever training it might be. Then again think about that and think that you’re doing all this to get bigger and better for your clients and your customers. So actually when you have any doubt in your mind is that too much. Or should I be charging this? Just go back and just add up some of those cause I promise you it’s well worth it to them to not have to do all the work that you’ve done to get you to this point. So don’t ever feel bad.

 

So like I said that was the first thing from a mindset point of view that really helped me think about how to value my brain or how to not feel bad about the fact that I was putting a price on my own brain and the other thing I want you to think about that really helped my own mindset was thinking about selling a serving. Now, this might sound a little bit. I dunno does it sound a bit cliche but actually so so true. First off to do this you’ve got to know that Hughes got a good product or service and I don’t doubt in my mind that you haven’t got a good product and service because you know what if you’re spending time listening to this and trying to train and learn and get better then there’s no way you are trying to cheat people out of their money by giving them something terrible. So I’m absolutely adamant that you are offering a quality product and service so next time you’re thinking about this and next time you’re about to sell something to someone. Think about your serving them you’re helping them. They’ve got a problem and your product or service is going to fix that problem for them and therefore that is obviously worth an exchange of money. Now what that amount of money is that depends on you and them. However, don’t feel bad that you are asking for money for giving some benefit to them and some help them you are serving them but understandably you want some recompense for that you need something back and that is in the form of money so don’t feel bad about that. And that’s the way I like to think about it. And as long as I know the thing I’m offering as a service is good and is going to help them. I don’t feel bad. Okay so as I said there are just a few little mindset things that I think about that really helped me get over having to put a price on my head or having the confidence to go out there and say I would like money for this thing. And now what I’m gonna do is I’m going to go through five points Five things that I use when I’m in a more sales mode. So this might be when I’m talking to someone it might be in an email. It might be on my Web site. It might be on a sales page. In fact, if you are doing a sales page these points are a must. Again if I’m selling on a webinar these points are really helpful as well. And like I said it might be that you’re not necessarily putting together a sales page where you’re going to have all these things on it. However I definitely think it’s worth answering all these points for your product or service because it will definitely help you get a better clearer minds that as to why and how people should buy your product and service but also you’ll definitely be able to use some of these tools in various places in your marketing. Okay, so tip number one understand your customers pain points. Now, what do I mean by pain points? Now every customer that comes to you to buy your product or service has a problem obviously because your product or service fixes that problem. So you want to start thinking about what other pain points your customers have. Now let me explain this. For instance, let’s say I’m putting on a cause I’m not by the way but let’s say I’m putting on a course an in-person course on how to do Facebook ads. The chances of people comings that course because they want to become a genius in Facebook ads. It’s been their dream. They want to know how to create an ad and it’s just something they want to do for their own benefit is fairly slim Okay that’s not their pain point their pain point is not the desire to be amazing at Facebook ads okay.

 

Might be for some people but generally not what their pain point is either they want that skill because they want to offer something better to their clients or they want to offer a new thing to their clients so that’s their pain point. They’ve identified that there’s a gap in their skill set and they want to offer something or they know they can charge more if they have that or their pain point might be that they are a business owner and they know that they need more sales and they’ve heard that Facebook ads can help to get them more sales so their pain point is the fact that they want more sales or more inquiries or more prospects their pain point isn’t that they want to be a genius on Facebook ads because ultimately if I turn drains them and said You know what you could get more sales more prospects more people in your funnel if you go and stand on your head in the middle of the street then you know who hope they might be more inclined to do that than necessarily come into the Facebook ads. It’s not necessarily the physical thing that you’re teaching them. It’s that outcome that they’re looking for. It’s the problem that they’re trying to solve. So for instance, if you were a coach it’s not that anybody sits there thinking I desperately want to coach I really want a coach I’ve always dreamt of having a coach they normally have a need and they might not even know that a coach is the answer to fixing that pain point. So by looking at the pain point first by understanding what that problem is. So for instance, if you’re a coach and you do a business coach it might be are you tired of not having clarity about your business. Are you struggling to see the path forward? Are you not prioritizing things or is the business not growing as you need it to be or wants it to be. So those might be the pain points. Now the solution is obviously going to be you as a coach. However like I said they might not even sit there and saw I need a coach. They might just know their pain point. So if all your marketing was aimed at

Key Takeaways Covered In The Podcast

Try not to worry too much about what you’re pinning. Pinterest is about pinning what you like and if you want to Pin a cupcake recipe, Pin it! Whilst a niche is important, you want to give your audience what they need. That’s why they’re following you!

Pinterest is a visual search engine. You don’t go to engage with people, but rather to discover and dream.

Males is currently fastest growing demographic on Pinterest, so don’t rule it out if your business is geared towards men. Ultimately, a user’s feed will be geared towards them.

Although it may seem as though you need to create a pretty picture for Pinterest, often this isn’t the case. Yes, as a visual search engine it is important, it’s not the be all and end all.

If you have a product that you think is hard to market on Twitter, reconsider the content that you’re writing. There is an opportunity for everyone, just some may have to work harder.

If you’re using Pinterest for business reasons, you need to upgrade your account to a business account in order to comply with the terms of service. A business account will give you more features, lots of stats and use of promoted pins.

When designing your Pins remember that a high percentage of viewers will be viewing your Pins on mobile. If you can’t read the text or see the image clearly, the likelihood is they can’t either.

Although you can use large amounts of hashtags, it’s best to stick to 4-7 per post so you don’t take up your description space.

To draw more people to click through to your website, consider the different ways in which you can design your pins. Different images, text and quotes will attract different people so it’s important you’re creating 3-4 pins per piece of content.

Use other networks to push people towards your Pinterest account using ‘Pin it for later’ buttons.

The one thing you need to remember above all else…

Although people believe Pinterest is a lot of hard work and something they don’t have time to do, often it’s just adding in one more step to your process.

Highlights You Simply Can’t Miss

• Introducing Jeff – 06:59
• Pinterest As A Discovery Engine - 14:20
• Pinterest For Men – 16:00
• Using Rich Pins – 21:20
• Using A Business Account – 24:20
• How To Ensure Your Pins Are Noticed – 28:12
• Using Group Boards 32:57
• Finding The Time Use Pinterest 39:40

Links to Resources Mentioned in Today’s Episode

• Episode 49
• Tailwind
• Manly Pinterest Tips
• Jeff Sieh Instagram
• Jeff Sieh Pinterest
• Social Warfare Plugin

Transcript below

 

Hello and welcome to this week’s episode of the podcast. So lovely to have you here. Now before we dive into this week’s episode, I want to just talk a little bit about the podcast and how so excited I have been over the last few weeks seeing all the new downloads that I’ve been getting on it. I can’t tell you literally okay a wake up a morning, one of the very first things I do is I go on to Libsyn which is who I host my podcast with and I look at the downloads. Every morning without fail. My husband travels and I screenshot them and send them to him. Honestly we get so excited at the downloads and I am loving seeing everyone that’s downloading. I’m loving receiving messages and dm’s and emails. It’s so amazing to think that I sit here in my office on my own, wittering away to myself and then you guys are out there listening. I couldn’t be more thankful. I honestly I am over the moon. I love doing this. I love helping and teaching and it’s one of my most favorite things in that I was talking about it just this morning because I was talking about a talk I’ve got coming up and how I really like to do practical talks because I like people to go away with something that they can physically then do in their business. So for me the podcast is just the best platform because every single week I get to come in here, tell you something that could change the way you do something in your business.

 

And of course even better it might help you sell more or promote more or get more customers or more people on your email list. Which for me is just awesome. So it’s so so good to hear from so many of you. Now, if you are listening to the podcast and your new please come and say hello to me or if you’re not new and you haven’t said hello then please come as they hello to me, please come and find me now you will most often find me on Instagram and Twitter but I am everywhere. Please come over and say hi. Tell me what you think. And also if you haven’t done a review on iTunes then I would be so very grateful if you did.

 

It was just really lovely to hear the amazing reviews I get on there. And again it helps get the podcast out there even more so and the bigger the podcast gets the better guests I can bring. So it really is such a wonderful thing to see it growing and honestly it makes my heart sing. I get so genuinely excited and so very very grateful.

 

So thank you anyway enough of me going on about how grateful I am but I am by the way in case you hadn’t realized. I have got a really good episode for you today and it’s why I interviewed a little while back actually. So I have to go back and re listen to the episodes so I remembered the things we discussed because sometimes they when I do it long time in advance it can blur into other things.

 

Anyway if you remember back in episode 49 about sort of six episodes ago I interviewed Alisa and she talked about Pinterest and it blew my mind. I honestly promise you if you listen to that one you would have heard I mean I thought I knew about Pinterest until I listened to that. Also I suddenly realized what have I been doing. I should totally be on it and be making it work hard for my business. Now I am still that’s still on the list of things to do sometimes you just get super busy but I promise it is on my list and as soon as I’ve started doing it, I’ll let you know. However I also interviewed the very lovely Jeff Sieh.

 

Jeff is a visual marketing consultant specializing in Pinterest, Instagram and video. He is also the owner and creative director at his Design Inc. Where he has worked to help clients market themselves in the best way possible using a variety of mediums over 16 years. He is also a head beard at Manly Pinterest tips where he is the creator and host of the Manly Pinterest Tips Show. Gosh that’s hard to say. Jeff is also on the social team at Social Media Examiner and manages that Pinterest and Instagram as well as appearing in and producing much of their live video content. What was so good to have Jeff on talking about Pinterest was often it’s seen as a very female led platform with only really women that go on there and you can only really market things to women and for women. And it was great to get him on to talk about his take on it and what he thought about it. And also after the episode that we did with Lisa on episode 49 I’ll link up to that in the show notes. It was great that she gave us a really good foundation of what Pinterest was. And Jeff takes us a little bit more deep diving into a few other aspects of it.

 

So for instance we talk about the types of things that you want to post. We also discuss rich pins and he kind of blew my mind with the technology that’s available now that basically you can create a pin and that pin is connected with the product on your shop and therefore when people click on the pin they can check right there and then really seamlessly which I just think is an amazing tool. Also if you change the price on your website it changes the price on the pin which again if you’ve got a product that are selling online. I just think that’s a really amazing thing to be able to do. We go into lots of other details about how to use Pinterest as well and why it’s good for your business. So this is definitely another must listen. If you enjoyed the other Pinterest episode you’re definitely going to love this one. And also if you’re sat there thinking you know what Teresa, Pinterest isn’t for me and my business please give it a go because I promise you just listening to this will I hope open you up to another possibility.

 

Now you know I am a massive advocate of not trying to do too much and I only do things if I can do them really well. So therefore I know Pinterest is super important and I am going to do it. We’re just trying to work out a way in which me mean the team can do it within our current sort of set up and with ease. But actually for some of you out there Pinterest could work way better for you than maybe even Facebook or Twitter or you know lo and behold Instagram and you know I’m a massive fan of Instagram so just take a listen because you could be missing out on a platform that actually could work super well for your business anyway enough of me. Here’s the interview with Jeff.

 

So I’m so excited today to welcome Jeff Sieh to the podcast. Welcome Jeff.

 

Well thanks for having me. I’m excited to be here.

Great, so thank you. I had a small intro to Pinterest and on the podcast already we’ve had a small introduction to Pinterest and I know that I just have a million other questions. I’m very excited to find out more because it’s like I thought I knew about Pinterest and then I realized I know nothing. And I feel really embarrassed about the fact that I don’t know anything to do with Pinterest so I am really excited about finding out more and how we can use it. But before we get onto that it would be great if you could share with my audience who you are, what you do and how you got what you do now.

 

Yeah. When he was Jeff Sieh and I’m I live in a place called Longview Texas so I’ll try. I don’t think you’ll hear any like Southern stuff because I grew up in Kansas. We’re kind of.. Like okay with the accent but yeah. So I started I’ve had for almost 16 years, I started in web development for a company and then got into started my own company and was doing that and then I say I said well I better do this. I keep telling my customers to get in to social media. So I better start doing it. So I wrote a.. I started a blog. I started writing a blog in one of them the blogs it was called Manly Pinterest Tips number one because I was I was listening driving back from a road trip and I was listening to Social Media Examiner Mike Stelzner’s podcast we had this lady on named Cynthia Sanchez and she had this website called Oh So Pinteresting. And she talked about how Pinterest drove so much traffic to her blog and I’m like “Man I just started a new blog I should do this.” Yeah. So I started using pinterest and it really started to work for me. And so I wrote this blog post called Manly Pinterest Tips Number One and it was about creating a secret board on Pinterest with my daughter and we were able to share you know stuff she wanted to craft you want to do and recipes or whatever. And it was a great way for us to do that kind of online together. And I wrote this blog post and it really took off and about that time Google Hangouts was really taking off so the live video shows and for other guys somebody said “Hey you guys you need to do a a show on Pinterest. And so we decided this Manly Pinterest podcasts. I had four other guys and they all had huge followings compared to what I was at but they think for some reason went to the show with me and we started doing this and we were able to interview people like Geico Saki. We got to interview like the producer of Pretty Woman. So it just kind of blew up. And so I continue to write content content and do the shows and then eventually I decided to launch my own podcast called Manly Pinterest Tips Podcast and then took off on my own and I started doing live shows that led to me being asked to speak for Social Media Examiner on their digital conference when they used to have what was called The Summit and then they had they asked that I guess I did OK and they asked me to come speak at their their conference and about that same time they asked me “Hey will you run our Pinterest account for us?” And I went, “Sure”. And so that led to my my gig at Social Media Examiner and doing Manly Pinterest Tips the website and it just kind of blew up from there so I can trace everything back to using Pinterest. Everything has occurred, this happened in these last four or five years.

 

Can all be traced back to..

 

It’s all thanks to Pinterest. Thank you, Pinterest Yeah. So what was it. I guess when you first look because from what you were saying you decided you had to use social media or do more in social media but what was it then that kind of pulled Pinterest out for you? Was it just the traffic source or or did you like it?

 

One it was easy. And also I knew when I first started I couldn’t compete with a J Bear... Already all those had there was niche stuff in there and at that time it was still Pinterest still and it still does a little bit that it’s only a network for women. And I thought oh this would be funny. Mainly Pinterest tips do some humor with it and and so I said I said I could I could kind of this could be my niche. I could go in here and do this and imposes. For me it was really easy to do. The traffic was huge specially for a new blog. Seeing that that comes in and people don’t understand. I just I can’t. It’s hard for me to fathom if you have a blog or especially if you have a product, Why not use Pinterest? Because it drives so much traffic and for example Social Media Examiner. This the the largest driver of social traffic is from pinterest. That’s in front of Twitter, Linked In, Facebo even though the biggest driver of traffic back to our articles on our site is Pinterest.

 

That is amazing if you think men because one thing one of the reasons I’m so excited to have you on and talk about Pinterest is because I know that that’s where my social media knowledge falls down at that point, Pinterest. Now I am on Pinterest and I was actually very excited because I’ve got to 2,000 followers which I’m quite excited.. But the thing was as I’ve discovered now going on this journey starting to find out about it is the people that followed me they followed me because I share or I was sharing at the time dinner party because I like it in the party and I like tables nice. That’s a really proper girly franchise. So of course I’ve got all these followers that follow me for that not necessarily what I want to do

 

That’s the cool thing about Pinterest. So you have people following your entire account. They just say I love whatever she does I’m going to follow her. Then you have people who follow specific boards. So if you look at what I’m pinning, I pin stuff because my brand can be pretty broad so I paint a pin Manly foods you know wood carving stuff that I really like and people follow me for that but I also paint a lot of social media content and a lot of my content falls underneath there. So you have all sorts and I really... when I first started another one of my mentors and she really kind of took me under her wing to help me with this was Peg Fitzpatrick and you watch her account as well. She’ll pin cupcake recipes she has one that comes out every year because the holiday times where she just gets tons of traffic on it because has to do with a recipe and that kind of thing. But it you know people follow or just because they they like her her her style and I I tend to kind of move away from some of the hardcore you know pinners is I don’t think you really need a niche down and like if your business is a flower shop I don’t think all you have to do is pin flower arrangements. Yeah because you want to give your content. It’s just like any other social media platform. If you want to give your audience what they need you want to be helpful. That’s why they’re following you. And so take that flower shop example you don’t just have to pin your own bouquets you could pin other people who’ve written articles about how to do you know a table arrangement, how to you know how do you give flowers for a funeral whatever. And so all that content serves your audience. And I think that’s what people kind of get confused about on Pinterest is that it’s not just your own content all the time, it’s what you’re doing to serve your audience.

 

Yeah. So tell me them or let me know what you think. Why do you think when I speak to lots of clients and lots of people around in their businesses that need social media.

 

Pinterest Isn’t even on the radar. And in fact I can happily tell you that there’s only one client ever we’ve done pins for. It’s not even on the radar. I don’t hear many people talking about it in terms of specialism is on social media. Why do you think that is? Do you think they just don’t know it? Or do you think...

 

I think so and also Pinterest and they’ve even said this the founders even said this that they don’t consider it a social platform yeah they consider it a search engine and it really is. It’s a discovery engine you go there to plan for stuff you really don’t. I mean you can talk to people inside of pins and say you know make comments and things but it’s mostly where people go to discover and dream. And so it’s a search engine. It’s a visual search engine. And the other thing I think that people struggle with especially like bloggers and content creators is it is if you’re writing a blog it’s hard enough to get that you know horizontal blog image and Pinterest is really those tall vertical pins and it’s one more step and I think people struggle with visual creating visual content and so that’s just one more thing that I don’t want I take the time to use. Make one for Pinterest because I just don’t. And so they forget about it which is really to their detriment because it really does drive so much traffic.

 

Yeah and so the other thing I want to pick from from what you’ve said already is the fact that obviously you’re a man just in case no one’s like that. And obviously that is the one thing that’s interesting because. Am I or am I..I’m Not sure whether I’m right or wrong saying this but the concept the perception is that it’s female that it’s like that. And I remember some time ago when I did that it was a lot of females that use it.

 

So is that still the case? Do you see there’s an opportunity for a more male side of it?

 

Yes. Males are the fastest growing demographic on Pinterest in fact a couple years ago they even said that there’s more people on Pinterest than all of GQ and Sports Illustrated subscribers combined. So they’re on there. They may just be lurking. Now in the United States it does trim a trend higher for women but in other countries where it’s opened up or pictures opened up in other countries it’s more of an even I think the UK is actually a little bit more even than the states is. So there’s no reason for if you even I’ve seen some in fact I’ve discovered some great brands on Pinterest like there is a carnivore club which does a meat of the Month Club which is huge and they...

KEY TAKEAWAYS COVERED IN THE PODCAST

• Publishing content online shows people that you are an expert and you know exactly what you’re talking about. It also allows you to help people, helping nurture your relationship with potential clients.
• If you want to focus on Search Engine Optimisation to grow your business, creating regular content is a great way to increase your chances of being found by Google.
• Planning your content in advance is a great way to ensure you always have something to put out. Two to three months in advance is ideal, so make sure you schedule in the time to batch content where you can.
• A great way to come up with content ideas is to go to your customers and ask them exactly what it is they want. Change the way in which you interact with your customers and listen to what they’re asking, looking for questions that come up on a regular basis.
• Another great way to create content is to take inspiration from people who are in a similar field from you. Obviously, you shouldn’t copy what people are doing, but looking at the topics they’re covering could give you an idea of how you could provide new insight into the matter.
• Use answerthepublic.com to search for keywords and it will tell you exactly what people are searching for in relation to those words.

THE ONE THING YOU NEED TO REMEMBER ABOVE ALL ELSE…Although batching content is a great way to get ahead, you need to make sure you’re not batching so far ahead that the content you’re create becomes irrelevant. Stick to two-three months to be safe.HIGHLIGHTS YOU SIMPLY CAN'T MISS

• Launching A Product Online (My Key Findings) - 01:46
• Why Should You Be Putting Content Out - 07:21
• Coming Up with Amazing Content Ideas - 09:50
• Batching Content - 17:15

LINKS TO RESOURCES MENTIONED IN TODAY'S EPISODE

• My Course
• Episode 47
• Episode 52
• Episode 22
• www.answerthepublic.com

Transcript below

 

Hello and a super warm welcome to this week’s episode of the podcast. How are you? Did you have a nice weekend? If it’s Monday or are you having a nice week?

Well I made a recording this on a Monday which is unusual but I have to get organized before I go away and I’m going away today. So yeah I had a lovely weekend. It was really really nice. Manage to take some time off which is super important and sometimes very hard to do as an entrepreneur. And also I’ve had a really really busy few weeks. I knew the first few months of the year were going to be super busy but to be honest I think I wore myself out a little bit quickly.

So I want to just talk about that just briefly about back in Episode 52. I did an episode that was focused around my seven steps to launching or selling something online. And the reason I did this at this point was because I was right in the middle of launching something online and I am now very pleased to say because I was nervous at the time to commit but it is launched and I launched a course. And you know what I just wanted to touch on it because I know when I did the episode, I was right in the middle of it. And I think I said I was tired and it was hard work but I just want to kind of tell you my findings if you like of me going through that experiment and I guess the first thing was that it was fascinating doing it all myself which sounds daft. This is what I do for a living. I help people with their social media but I also help them funnels. I love doing funnel stuff. I love doing sales pages, landing pages, email marketing... All that sort of stuff. So I’d done it for lots of clients and I’d launch lots of things online. However I hadn’t actually launched something myself and I wanted to be able to get a feeling of what it was like to be sat there waiting for the webinar to go live and wondering whether anybody’s gonna be on it. And I knew I would only be able to do that myself if I launched something online.

 

Also I do have ambitions to have more products online, more ways that you can learn with me and work with me that is open to everybody no matter where you are or no matter really the size of your budget. Such because my aim is that they’re not going to be over expensive. So anyway I put together my launch process. I launched my course online and it was awesome and I don’t mean like it was awesome, I made loads of money I’m going to retire now. I mean just the clarity in action was unbelievable. The fact that actually doing it and going through it it just gave me so much good stuff to learn and think about and I’ve been doing a lot of work recently as you know with James Wedmore and we’ve talked about taking action and even if you fail or how you deem you fail, you’re still learning and therefore you haven’t failed at all. And I think that was the thing holding me back all this time.

 

Now the course has been ready for ages. I have had this idea for an entire year and I sat on it and the reason I sat on it was because I was scared. I thought what if I launch and no one wants it. What if I launch and no one buys it? What if I put a webinar on and no one attends? And do you know what I could have gone through that process and that could have been the truth and it could have been that I didn’t sell any or no one attended. No that wasn’t the truth, I was very lucky. And please don’t get me wrong. I don’t take it for granted at all that people give me their valuable time not only like you guys to listen to the podcast which is amazing but also to come and attend a class and learn about content creation.

 

So I was so very grateful the people did turn up but like I said, it was the fact of what I learned along the way, the tech problems that I had, the problems in what currency to sell it in. I had all intentions to sell it in dollars and then right before we went live with it, there was an issue about they couldn’t put dollars into a Sterling Bank account and all these various things that you think because I do this I should know but obviously some bets like that I wouldn’t have got involved with the client would have done that. So yeah I just wanted it like that touched on the facts of how it went, how I felt about it and I have to say I was buzzing when it finished. I was so excited. Now the course is still open if you wanted to go and buy the cause then please do so. It’s over at teresaheathwareing.com/cause. I’m also going to link to that in the show notes and it’s a course on how you create content for social media. It goes to the four steps that I use in my business. So anyway I’m not turning this into a sales pitch, I just wanted to mention it. But the thing that was the best thing about the whole process was like I said the clarity I got by actually launching and then secondly the fear that I have that held me back all that time literally just disappear did and nothing felt like it was wrong or nothing felt like it failed.

 

Everything felt amazing. If I’m honest then like I said don’t get me wrong. I’ve not sat here thinking right I can put my feet up, retire now. But I’m just saying even you know with the small amount of money that the course made, it still was so good to understand the process to go through it. To know what it feels like to hear people’s responses, to see how people get involved and also to realize that that fear is absolute rubbish but actually, it was me holding myself back and those fears were not genuine. They weren’t real. And I should have just gone and done it a long time ago. So you know what I’m hope that your sat here listening thinking. Teresa, I needed to hear this right now. Because if you’re holding back. If there is some fear that you’re thinking I can’t do this because... Because what will people think of me? Because who you know someone might say something. Because People might think it’s not good enough. People might think I’m a fraud. Any of those reasons just ignore them and go ahead and do you know what. If you do it and it fails as far as you see as a failure then so what you’ve done it great. Brilliant. Learn from it okay. People didn’t learn that thing or that thing didn’t go how expected. Let’s do it again or do it differently. So also I want to remind you that back at episode 47 again are linked in the show notes.

 

I interviewed James Wedmore and we talked a whole load about this and about how fear holds business owners back. So please go and listen to that was a great episode. And like I said, I’ve sat on this course for a year and not done anything and I shouldn’t have done it. I should have done it ages ago. Okay. Anyway let’s get on with today’s content.

 

Now, inspired by the fact that I have this new online course and one of the things that I talked about in the Facebook group because with the course, you get a free Facebook group where I’m in and one of the things I talked to them about was, repurpose and content. Now I have done an episode here on the podcast the back. It was back at episode 25 but it occurred to me as we were talking about repurposing content that they actually had to have some content in the first place. And obviously, I have regular content that I put out. The podcast is the main thing. But I wanted to talk about how you can come up with content ideas if you’re going to be putting some content out but really quickly first. Why do you even need any content? Why do you need to go to the effort of writing a blog or doing a blog or creating a podcast? Well There’s a couple of really key reasons why you definitely need to think about it. First of, it shows that you’re an expert to the rest of the world. Obviously I can’t sit here and witter on in your ear if I don’t know what I’m talking about or certainly don’t have a good idea of what I’m talking about. So for me, it shows the world that you know what you’re talking about because you can either talk about it or write about it or film yourself about it.

 

So for me, putting something out there regularly that says “Look I know my subject is really important.” The other thing is obviously you want to help people. So people who come and buy your product and service it’s because you’re helping them with a need. It’s because they have a problem and your product or service fixes it. So if there is more support you can give around that then great. And through a blog or a blog or a podcast is a great way of doing that. It’s a great way of saying look you might buy my products here but I’ve got all this additional information here so if you’re an estate agent for instance you might provide information on how to dress a house ready for a viewing or things to consider if you’re moving to a new area. You’re trying to find ways and information that basically you can support the product or service that you’re actually selling. So like a regular content is great for that reason.

 

It also is a great thing to put out on social media because again when we’re struggling for social media ideas that’s one of the ideas that we put out there. Obviously my podcast goes out on all my platforms every single week. So definitely think about that. And also if you’re hosting these things on your site if you’re putting a blog on your Web site or I put a transcript to my podcast then those keywords all that text is really gonna help improve your site from a search engine optimization point of view i.e. when people put it into Google they’re going to hopefully find you a little bit easier. So how can you come up with ideas of what to actually write? Now if you’re struggling to think: what am I going to use as my media i.e. is it going to be a blog or vlog or a video or whatever and head back to Episode 22. When we talk about how.. the imports are coming up with consistent content and in that episode I actually talk out the different types of media you can use so why you should do a blog or why you should do a podcast. So definitely go and check that one out. But today, we’re going to be looking at how we come up with content ideas for those bits of content that you’re putting out.

 

So one of the first things I do is I try and plan ahead. Now try is the big word here. I don’t always succeed. I don’t always manage it. Sometimes I can do really well and other times I can be recording it the week for it has to go out like this episode so it doesn’t always work brilliantly. However I aim to plan ahead and I aim to plan and think about what content I’m doing. So I’d like you to try and thing two three months in advance and I want you to sit down and book some time out where you can sit down and actually put these ideas down because I find doing something in one chunk is so much easier because your brain is sat in that position.

 

Your brain is like yeah okay that’s cool. I know what we’re talking about this week or I know what I’m focusing on right now rather than often our worlds would go from one thing to another to another to another to another. And our brain can’t keep up or it takes a minute or two for us to come up with a new idea. So if you’re just literally sat down thinking right what content ideas can I come up with then doing that in one easy go will be much much more helpful. And like I said thinking about I’m going to try and do two or three months worth of content. Now the other thing you’re going to need to know at this point is how frequently are you going to be putting content out there because obviously that makes a big difference to how much content you need to create or come up with. So for me obviously mine are weekly so I would have one a week for two months which is why I probably don’t go that far in advance. Two months is probably the maximum I’ll go in advance in terms of the podcast. But if you’re doing say every other week then obviously you might you could get three months worth of content done.

 

So definitely have a think about those two things. And then I’ve got three kind of main things that I do in order to come up with content ideas.

 

So the first thing I do is I go to my customers and I ask them. So I speak obviously and I train and I speak to people in the course and the new Facebook page and I am constantly talking to clients and different businesses. So one of the things I try and do is: I try and listen to what they’re asking me. I try and listen to the questions that they have and it’s normally the questions that as the business owner or as the person providing the service you think oh man i’m so tired of that question how many times have I been asked that those are the questions that you want to be thinking about. Those are the questions that you want to be answering in something like a blog or a podcast. So like I said first thing changed the way you interact with your customers and be using them like a you know a sponge suck up all the information from them what they need what questions that they got. If you haven’t gotten the examples that you can think of straight away go and speak to some get on the phone drop them an email have a conversation with them and say What are you struggling with right now. What could you do with some help with or what part about what I offer.? Do you not understand and ask them to actually give you feedback something like Facebook groups is a great way. If you have a group then it’s a great way to survey your audience. Obviously sending surveys out... Last week’s episode talked a lot about surveys so you could just be setting out questions try and find that information as well. And then the other thing that you can do with your Facebook group is you can have questions that people have to answer to actually get into the group. So why did you change those questions or look at those questions and decide. Can I answer that? Can I ask a question that really helps me get the key information about what they need? Another really good area to get inspiration about what to post and the kind of content ideas that are working well is go and have a look at people in your industry.

 

The next place I would think about looking for content ideas and subject matter that you can come up with for your vlog or blog or podcast I’m going to say that a million times sounds like anyway.

 

Another place you can go look at is competitors and industry bodies and people who do what you do now maybe not direct competitors. And I’m not saying go and copy their content. I’m just saying go and have a look at the types of things they’re talking about.

 

Now obviously in some industries... Well in lots of industries there’s gonna be huge overlaps in terms of subject matter you know even though social media is a massive area and a massive subject. You know if you type in Twitter chats there’s probably hundreds and hundreds of blogs and podcast episodes about what a Twitter chat is so don’t think you can’t come up with an idea that someone else has already done. The important thing is obviously don’t go and copy what they’ve written. Just use the subjects as a bit of an idea in terms of something you can come up with. Or if you’ve seen that someone’s done a post on something and you think oh yeah I’ve got a great example of what I can say about that then great.

 

Have a think about that as well. And then the last one. The one that I really liked and I think is such a cool resource. And whenever I tell people they get a bit blown away by it is a website called answerthepublic.com. Now what it does is you can look at keywords so you type in some keywords into this Website and then it tells you what people have been searching for to do those keywords on the Internet.

 

So as an example I just typed in the word landing pages and it came up with loads of different questions like how to create a landing page on Facebook? How to write a landing page?? How to avoid landing page redirects? How to create landing pages? How to have landing pages in WordPress? What else has it got in here? What are landing pages good for?

 

So if I wanted to write content around landing pages then obviously this is a great place for me to look and it gives me some really good ideas and it’s what people are actually typing into the Internet. So if your title is exactly the question that appears on this site then obviously it’s going to help you and your site be found and you’re going to help and support your potential customers in giving them lots of information. So like I said I love this site. It’s in the show notes I’ll link up to it there it’s answer the public dot com.

 

Okay so we’ve sat down and we’ve come up with some content ideas and the idea is that you’ve given yourself enough different ideas to plan what you’re going to be talking about on each episode of the podcast. Each video each blog so you’ve written down these ideas and you’ve planned what’s going to happen. Now like I said, frequency is important because you need to know how often you’re going to posting.

 

And one of the things that I find interesting when I’m bashing...

KEY TAKEAWAYS COVERED IN THE PODCAST

• You should never log into your marketing platform, type an email up and hit send to your entire list. The more research you on your audience do the better.
• You need to speak to your customers in completely different ways, based on the data points you can collect on them. This means you’re only sending them information they’re interested in.
• Using surveys to find out exactly what your audience want is a great way to be sure you’re offering them exactly what they need. Based on the responses they give you, you can send them links that they have already told you they want.
• If someone has a bad experience you can automatically set up an email that offers them a discount or voucher, potentially helping retain a customer that would have otherwise left. Alternatively, if anyone says they loved your product, you can automatically take them to a page where they can review you on TripAdvisor, Google or whichever platform you use.
• Surveys make it look like you care about every single customer – which you do!
• Usually, three or four questions is enough to ensure you get the responses you need. Consider the key questions you need answered in order to offer them what they need.
• Finding out what topics your audience are interested in, or what their biggest problem is right now is a great way to reduce your unsubscribe rate.

THE ONE THING YOU NEED TO REMEMBER ABOVE ALL ELSE…To get people to fill out your survey you can offer your subscribers a free gift in return. Alternatively, you can use an emotional motivator which will mean you’ll be gathering responses from people that are already emotionally invested in your survey, rather than people that are just there for the free gift.HIGHLIGHTS YOU SIMPLY CAN'T MISS

• Introducing Rob and Kennedy – 05:04
• Setting Up A Risky Business – 17:05
• Avoiding Marketing Faux Pas - 20:00
• About Response Suite – 25:20
• Surveys As A Marketing Tool – 32:30
• Getting Your Subscribers To Fill In A Survey - 38:00
• Finding Out What Your Audience Want Using Surveys 51:40

LINKS TO RESOURCES MENTIONED IN TODAY'S EPISODE

• Episode #46: My Ten Digital Marketing Predictions For 2019
• Response Suite
• Response Suite Instagram

Transcript below

 

Hello and welcome to this week’s episode of the podcast. As always I am your host, Teresa Heath-Wareing and it’s an absolute pleasure to have you with me. Now I’m going to jump straight in.

 

I’m going to ask you a question and I want you to think about it. So how well do you know the people that are on your database might be a bit of a strange question to ask. You might think “What do I need to know about the people on my database?” Or you might think while I’ve created this customer profile my customer Avatar and I target those sorts of people so I’m assuming the people on my database match up to those people. Now the reason I’m asking this is because I did a prediction episode which I’ll link up to in the show notes at the beginning of the year and one of the things I predicted was that we’re going to become a lot more personal within our marketing. We’re no longer just going to send a big mass marketing big huge campaigns to everyone on our list we need to start getting much more specific, much more considerate of the people who are on our list and what they actually want from us.

Now I think one of the mistakes that most businesses make when they are looking at their data is they are making big assumptions about the people on their list because if you’re anything like me when you ask someone to come onto your list, you are asking the most minimum details from them because I would tell you to. I would say to you if you were doing a lead magnet or you were doing something where you were asking people to sign up, you don’t want to be asking them 20 questions or otherwise they’re not going to want to sign up because it’s too much effort. So I would recommend and I do myself that when someone signs up the only bits of information I get is their name and their email address. Now you might think “well of course I know about them because I know what they’ve signed up to. And surely if you weren’t interested in a social media check list or a webinar on content then you wouldn’t sign up to them.” But of course it might be that someone signed up someone else or in that job they were interested, but in that job they’re not. Or another thing that’s quite interesting is sometimes I will sign up to webinars just to watch the webinar process. I know it sounds a little bit weird but I would just want to see what webinar processor use, what emails they’re using, what technology they’re using. So it might not be that I want the actual thing; it might just be I want to see what the process is.

 

So the reason I’m bringing all this up for you today is because today I have on the podcast Rob and Kennedy from ResponseSuite and we have a great conversation about serving your audience and how we can get to know and understand them better and find out more about them. And it’s something that after the interview I’ve been doing some work on and I’m gonna do a future episode on the process in which I went through and how well it went but I’d been working on creating my own survey for my own audience because like I said, I’ve made big assumptions about my audience. I’ve assumed they are a certain type of people because they wanted a certain thing. And as I’ve said all along, the more you understand about them, the more you can talk to them in a tone of voice in a way that they want to be spoken to and give them content they want to receive. So for me this is such a crucial episode with some amazing crucial stuff that we need to all be thinking about. The technology is a bad to start to understand our customers better. And like I said, since I recorded this episode I’ve been working with the guys they’ve been showing me how to put together my survey and how it connects with things like Infusionsoft and quite honestly, I’ve been propagating over it. I love it. So the technologies out there, these things are not uber expensive. You know we’re not talking thousands of pounds, you know we’re talking you know under 100 pound for some systems. So I definitely think this is a really really good one for you to listen to and I want you to be really open minded and think about how can you make this work for your business. Because I really do genuinely feel the more you know about someone, the more you can target to them. The more specific you can be, the higher the conversion you’re going to get if and when you actually go to sell them something. So I think you’re going to love this episode also. I need to mention that these guys have got quite a funny background and story. They are very entertaining so I’m sure you’re going to love it. So now I planted that seed.

 

Let me hand you over to the very lovely Rob and Kennedy.

 

So I am super excited today to welcome the very lovely Rob and Kennedy. Welcome to the podcast. Yeah. Wild applause. Crowd goes lot. It’s always nice so there’s a few of us because it’s like it seems like it’s a real party going on when there’s like two of you. I feel like I need to have the second person..

 

Like radio breakfast shows.. “They all go.. woooooh in the background. Yeah. Oh you’re have an official woooh-er.

 

I think I should. I’m going to bring em. The other day I recorded a podcast and I had an official dog barking in the background that wasn’t quite what I was looking for. But you know we could make it work. We Could try to make it work.

 

That too if you’d like. Colin could you make a dog noise *laughs*.

 

Welcome to the podcast. I’m so glad to have you on. I was very lucky to come on your podcast a little while back and I said that I would want you guys to speak to my audience because I know what you’re going to talk about is gonna be of real interest to them. I’m personally a part of marketing that I really love to talk about. So this is gonna be a great one. But you guys have got a very interesting backstory and where you’ve come from and how you’ve got to do what you do so I’d love if you’d share with my audience who you guys are and how you got to do what you do now.

 

To do the short version.. *laughs* We were abducted by aliens and struck by lightning. Magic powers no. Perfect.

 

That’s the story I like to tell. So we’re both entertainers by background. We both got... We both weird children and we decided that we learned to be entertainers. So we both came through an obscure route. So I’m actually a hypnotist and I’m a mind reader.

 

So very bizarre looking at me like he knows what I’m saying.

 

This is terrible. It is not barking like a dog. By the end of this podcast you know what. You will ask him for dog barking noises and we’re going to arrange it.

 

We’ve been entertaining people at events and things for a really long time. And over the course of that it sort of turned into this business trip where we wanted to create something where we could effectively build something it was bigger than us because obviously when we’re on stage that’s great. But when we come offstage or if we can’t perform for whatever reason that everything ends there like that’s all there is to it. So we wanted to create something it was a bit bigger than us. So we both started online businesses sort of separately in our own way and didn’t really talk very much about it.

 

And then eventually we started to kind of share ideas and secret online entrepreneurs were closeted and then so a few years went by.

 

And then eventually I run into a problem with something I was trying to do in my business. We were both selling infill products online and myself with marketing and hypnosis and personal development. You have a business where you teach effectively entertainers how to improve their entertainment businesses. And whilst we’re doing this I run into a problem with something that I was trying to do. I wanted to run a survey to my audience and I ran into a couple of issues with it and we ended up talking back and forth about the problem. We both experienced the problem for different reasons and eventually that led us to where we are now which is this lovely journey of starting a software company.

 

Yeah it’s amazing. I like the fact that this wasn’t just like one day all right how we’re gonna get rich then well idea number one: let’s start a dog impersonation but I’ll do what you while do a beagle.

 

It was more about we really wanted to...

 

It was like it was literally solving a problem that we really had. And then I didn’t know that Rob had this problem. And similarly he he didn’t know that I was sort of looking for a solution like to do this as well which was basically all we wanted to do was take us put a survey into our businesses which allowed us to then use the results of that survey in a meaningful way, automatically rather than having to log into my survey account download the results, figure out what Excel does. I don’t remember because it’s a long time since I was at school and my IT teacher was pointing at graphs ago you’re doing it wrong.

 

 

And then and then actually just be able to do things automatically with those results like segment people based on their answers or whatever it might be. So we couldn’t believe that at the time we just couldn’t find a way of doing it and really need to do it.

 

There was a similar problem as well which was I wanted to send an email to my email audience and tell them about this survey. Get them to go in for that. And so I did. And as soon as I did it and I thought “oh I’m gonna have to email them again tomorrow to catch the people who were online at this time of year 80 percent. Yeah exactly. Yes. I have to email them again tomorrow” and I thought “Hang on a minute I can’t exclude the people who fill out the survey.” Like when you sell somebody a product or service you would exclude them from any culture so you don’t bother them.

 

Yeah. And I thought Oh my God I can’t do it.

 

You would just end up punishing the people who took action and you’re you’re most active people you end up beating over the head and they’ve already to end up doing the two things I hate the most which is either you send the email which has that really ambiguous in case you didn’t take the survey it was like even though you don’t think notice consciously subconsciously it’s really irritating but yeah just not that much or again you have to do blanket marketing thing just well I just e-mail everybody and hope for the best. Yeah you know unsubscribe some of the people who’ve probably taken the survey.

 

Yeah. I mean getting people to complete surveys is challenging enough for some people and people talk about the response rates to those so they do need follow up. So the idea that you couldn’t follow up on a survey is just absolutely bonkers. So that was the fundamental thing that started it all off. I suppose that’s where we are now and that’s why we have you know a UK based software business right here in the northeast of England our staff are all right here in this room and yet we work together really collaboratively to build the solution. That’s right. It’s all come out of that frustration isn’t it just really nice when you know your businesses and outgrew growth out of yourself.

 

Yes that is the case. Like if you read like the E Myth by Gerber we know that we start off as the technician and we go to do this thing because it serves my purpose or whatever it might be or it helps me fix my problem.

 

So it’s the same for us. For years there was a lot of people said to me Oh Robbie you really need to start selling software you need to make and sell software apps because that’s where there’s loads of money and that you need to start you’re not having any good ideas like free software. If I have a good idea for one and then and then this idea came along I realized this has to be a thing. So let me ask you Did you two know each other before? When did you two get together and then decide to do this together?

 

We met about 14 years ago at a convention of entertainers. Yeah at a Magic convention.

 

I could only imagine what fun that might be like.

 

You can’t imagine how lovely it is to spend the weekend with 3000 people with with ties with bunny rabbits and playing cards on. A dream you’ll never experience. A nightmare you never want too...

 

We met. We sit at the bar both realized we were that we lived on on either side of the same city of Newcastle. We live just north of Newcastle I live south of it. And yes we became we became pals.

 

So that was really lucky. Obviously you both worked together, you both as well. You knew each other using a similar ish industries and then both with a similar progression path that led you to this point where you went. Now we’ve got this problem and actually I think the software companies that I have engaged with the most in terms of their marketing are the people who when I needed this. No one did it. I did it. You know, I am in awe of you guys because the set up the software company and your background isn’t software. I mean you might be tech geniuses for all I know but you know your background wasn’t software to set it up. You were brave man like that is is ideal. I don’t know me some cool I’m from a forward slash but we neither have another of us have and that’s what is really interesting.

 

I mean you know what. I think one of the things when you try to build a team around you whether they’re just outsourced workers or they are in-house staff are you going to employ. You always have to employ people who are better than you. Then you have to get to go out of the way because it’s not that difficult for us no matter. What’s the point. So we had to first hire was Colin. Our developer and the big thing for us was we didn’t know what we were looking for we didn’t even know which languages you could program software like knowing a language we didn’t even know us. So I think we’ll C sharp was it C sharp?

 

PHP did not see shops that thing were gone. So I think what was the other one that we were we weren’t dot net dot net. That was a useless thing in my life. We’re not we’re not we’re not on an act.

 

It’s a sound clueless like this is what we get on and we literally had a guy who was trying to tell us “Oh no actually we should build dot net because of that because and then we go somewhere else comes in says no we need to build PHP because of this and this and that.

 

So we decided basically what we could do is put a recruitment company in the middle of all this and say well this isn’t a problem is what we want to fix. There are a specialist in tech businesses.

 

They found the person. Yes we paid a lot more. A few thousand pound more for that to happen but we ended it with a person who was all he was an all round person who actually and most importantly fits all values and actually can put up with the fact that we go well yeah yeah.

 

No that’s really get an actually again this is something that I’ve been looking at and talking about building those people around you and I have exactly the same strategy. If I’m bringing in someone to do Facebook ads although I can do Facebook ads, I want some better than me you know if I’m being a copywriter I can muddle my way to a better copy. I’m not a copywriter. I want some better than me. So to bring these people in and especially if you have the background but also for you guys, you could have had the world pulled over your eyes so easily. So bringing in lots people don’t want these recruitment agencies because they are expensive but I think in your in your case it was a really smart move to do that.

 

Isn’t it more expensive to make the mistake and hire the person pay them you know whatever and then you realize they’re actually trying to carve a software but a software out of a moldy piece of fish. I mean you wouldn’t know the difference between that and an actual business offer that’s going to stand up and do it.

 

I just think it was one of the many reasons why we didn’t want to sort of outsource the software overseas because whilst lots of people do that and it worked out and we know what was going on we wouldn’t know whether could have been nicked from somewhere else because we’ve got no eyes on anything you know.

 

Yeah just gives us a lot of control over it here and just creates... Because we’re dealing with data in these really secure. So we actually take it really seriously. So we want to make sure that it’s all hosted in a really secure way which is why we use things like Amazon and make really big trusted not in the cheap versions of stuff. We don’t just like banner on a reseller server we’ve sort of got from some place/ where we’re using the big boys to do all of that and that’s all really important for us and...

KEY TAKEAWAYS COVERED IN THE PODCAST

• Before you get started you need to work out who your ideal audience is.
• Consider everything they like, where they’re from, how old they are and what they’re doing for a living. The more detailed, the better.
• Your potential audience may have never heard of you before, so the first thing you need to send them a video ad. This could be as long as you like, as long as it’s over a minute. What you’re looking for is people that stay and watch the video. Once you have done this, you can start remarketing your lead magnet back to the people who have watched the video.
• Your landing page needs to be consistent with your advertising and not something that should be on your website. This is because they shouldn’t be able to click on any other link other than saying ‘yes I want the thing’.
• Once your potential clients have clicked through and filled out a form, you need your landing page to link to an email system that will automatically send them the thing that they have asked for. Whether it’s an eBook, a checklist or an easy to use a guide, you need to deliver on your promise.
• Using video when taking potential sign-ups through to your masterclass is a great way to connect with them before you begin. It gives them a reminder to carve out the time and place your webinar or masterclass in their diary, helping increase your overall live turnouts. This can also be encouraged using emails.
• Following on from your live training or masterclass - where you will have mentioned your product - you’re going to want to send emails out to your email list based on whether or not they attended live. Having a fast access bonus is a great way to encourage sales and a sense of urgency.
• Your sales page should follow a structure, including showing what you’re selling as a physical product, even if it’s digital.

THE ONE THING YOU NEED TO REMEMBER ABOVE ALL ELSE…The important thing to remember is that this step by step process is similar to baking a cake. If you’re baking and you use salt instead of sugar your cake is basically ruined, so when applying that logic to this process it means if you get one step wrong, your whole strategy could fail.HIGHLIGHTS YOU SIMPLY CAN'T MISS

• Warming Up Your Clients 07:30
• Creating Your Landing Page 11:00
• Connecting an Email System 14:00
• Taking Your Potential Customers Through to Your Masterclass or
• Webinar 16:00
• Following Up with Emails 22:03
• Going from Training to Buying 23:32
• Perfecting Your Sales Page 30:25

LINKS TO RESOURCES MENTIONED IN TODAY'S EPISODE

• Episode 27
• Leadpages
• Infusionsoft
• Drip

Transcript below

 

Hello and welcome to Episode 52 of the Social Media Marketing Made Simple Podcast. I am your host Teresa Heath-Wareing. And today I feel like I should have a fanfare because Episode 52 means that I have been going for an entire year, 52 episodes of the podcast.

 

Wow. I can’t believe a year has gone by already. I am so so pleased to have started the podcast and I am loving the fact that I am 12 months in and it’s been the success that it’s been, that I get all you lovely listeners listening to me. I get great feedback. I’ve had some amazing guests and I have loved every minute. Don’t get me wrong you know because I’m very honest, it’s hard work sometimes creating the content coming out with ideas getting the actual thing out there you should see the spreadsheet. My team and I have to make sure that we’ve got ourselves organized. But I do love it. And compared to other bits of content I much prefer talking over writing. So for me this is just the best way in order to help you guys, to give you ideas and to share my information.

So today is going to be a fairly full on episode. I’m really excited about today’s episode and I’m gonna share a couple of reasons why that is. So today’s episode I’m gonna be taking you through a formula to launch something online or off the formula that I used to sell online and I’ve likened this formula to baking a cake. This might seem a little bit odd to you right now but I promise you as this episode goes on you’re going to see why I say that.

 

So the other reason I’m really excited about doing this episode and some I just want to pay there to you. And I would love a bit of feedback from you is that obviously I started the podcast and I started my business with social media in mind. Social media was always a thing. I was well known for. It’s the one thing that obviously I do an awful lot of. I talk. I train and I love social media. It’s brilliant. However one of the things that I really love and you know when ever you heard the term your zone of excellence I think that’s what the term is. Then one of the many books I’ve read that basically when you find that sweet spot of the thing that you are really good at and you just love it doesn’t seem difficult at all.

 

And for me I always thought that was social media because I do love it. And I do find it interesting and easy. However this thing that we’re going to talk about today the online selling element. Oh man, I just love it. I geek out over funnels and ads and the landing pages and sales pages and processes and emails and amazing technology that can do the most phenomenal stuff. So I’m a bit of a crossroads at the moment because I’m obviously really well known for the social media side and this podcast has seen a few tweaks and changes.

 

We’ve done episodes that aren’t necessarily social media related and I want to get your feedback. Do you want this podcast to be absolutely dedicated only to social media and not have any of the episodes around digital marketing, e-mails other aspects of marketing aspects of running a business which also I love doing too and the other area that I love is the whole mindset thing as well. So again I’ve had some great guests on about that such as James Wedmore and I’ll link up to that in the show notes but I’m just interested. Do you want all of that? Are you happy that I’m doing all of that? Because for me I love the variety. Like I said social media sits very firmly in what I do. Everything tends to span from it or to it. But I just also love filling in the other bits and sharing those those other parts of what it’s like to run a business what it’s like to run a business online and what it’s like to try and sell and get known using online tools so you know what come and find me.

 

I’m always in my DMs. Normally Instagram’s the one you’re gonna get me quickest in and come and tell me what you think has I’m really interested. I’ve built up a really lovely following on a podcast. I want to keep growing it further and I want to know what you want. So the other reason today’s episode is a really cool one and I’m excited to do it right now is because I am currently right in the middle of this process I’m about to talk you through. I am currently when I’m recording this and as you know a batch. So I am a little bit early recording this I’m probably about four weeks. Yeah four weeks from when this is actually going live.

 

And so by now the thing I’m halfway through will all be out there and you’ll see it and it’ll be tentative to say isn’t that silly because I’m thinking, oh no what if something goes wrong and it’s not gone like by them they’re going to think positive and I’m going to tell you that by the time you listen to this I will be selling a course online. So go and have a look for that. I’ll hook up to that in the show notes as well. Anyway so as I’ve said I’m right in the middle of this process. And the funny thing is I’m actually a bit tired and I’m a little bit worn out because it’s a full on process but I wanted to do this episode now so I’m going to try and be super positive about it even though I might be feeling a little bit tired right now so I’m going to talk you through. Straight from the beginning all the way through to selling how you take someone from having no idea who you are.

 

Right the way through to getting them on your list to warming them up using something like a webinar master class which is what I’ve just done and then taking them to the sales page that basically I’m going to talk you through what I am doing currently in my business because I want you to understand a couple of things actually.

 

 

So first off, I want you to hear the process because boy it’s a fair sized process. And then I want you to understand the analogy of. It’s like baking a cake because I want you to understand that there are so many steps to each of these things and each of these things I’m going to mention. There are so many other aspects of each individual part that if you get them wrong it can affect your entire funnel so it can literally... If you put salt in instead of sugar your cake is absolutely ruined. It’s funny that I should choose cake because if you know me you know I don’t have a sweet tooth and cake isn’t something I eat, in fact I can’t remember the last time I ate cake. I’m trying to think no, can’t remember anyway but it just is such a good analogy because it’s like a science baking a cake, isn’t it? You’ve got to get it right. So for me, a funnel or a sales funnel is exactly the same. If you don’t get all those aspects right you’re ruining your cake you’re ruining your outcome at the end. So let me start by walking you through how we take someone from not knowing who I am up into getting them onto my email list.

 

So I’ve talked about this lots of times before. This is the use of lead magnets but I’m gonna take a step before if I’m known to want to introduce myself to a cold audience. So obviously this might be an audience on Facebook. I’m going to want to warm them up a little bit first so I wouldn’t suggest that you go straight into a cold audience and go hey I’ve got this amazing download or I’ve put together this check sheet for you or I’ve put together this PDF for you, download it if they’ve never even seen you before. If they don’t even know who you are.

 

So one of the first things I do is I create a video advert and I might advertise this obviously I’ve already profiled my client or my ideal client. I find them on Facebook. I’ve picked out the audience I need in particular. See this is what I mean right. The very first step if you haven’t sat down and worked out in detail who that person is you’re trying to speak to you might fall of the very first hurdle. So okay I’ve worked out who I’m going to speak to and I’m going to send them a video ad and all I’m going to ask them to do is watch the video. Now time wise it might be over a minute. It might be up to two or three minutes. It might be 10 minutes. All of these things are variable things and can have an effect on your overwrite come. But you do definitely want to over a minute because what I’m trying to look for here are people who stay and watch the video now they don’t have to watch all of it. They can watch a certain percentage of it again that can vary. But what I want to see is people that have actually come in and clicked and watched that video or have seen a certain length that video because you know what if I’m advertising a video to you about let’s say how to create content or how to use Instagram for business then you’re not going to hang around and watch that for any length of time. If that is not something that is of interest to you the same as in your niche or your business you’ve got to thing.

 

Let’s say you are someone who offers something to people who are pregnant women that are pregnant. So you might put a video on how to deal with a certain element of being pregnant. Now if I’m not pregnant or that is not obviously appropriate to me I wouldn’t watch it.

So we’re trying to think of give them something that only your target audience will want to see. And like I said send the video out now you can put a call to action in there of find out more or go look at my website. But the idea is when not trying to get them to convert or give them that email address at this point now you can always ask them but don’t expect that to be necessarily the thing that they’re going to do. And the reason I do this and likes it this is my formula these are my steps you know they work for me and my clients. You might find that something else different works. The reason I put the video out is because then I remarket to video views.

Now you’ve got to have a fair bit of budget to do this just because you need to get that audience fairly big. And the more niche you are that might be difficult. But once I’ve got some people who have watched the video then I can start remarketing back to those people. And obviously it’s a warm audience, so people who already know me or people who are have already interacted my page. And then I send out a different advert and that advert is the one with the lead magnet.

 

So you literally go from having an ad which obviously you have an image and some text a headline A Call to Action button. They’re all separate ingredients. If some of those are wrong you’re not going to get them past that advert. I’ve done split testing, I pretty much split test every everyone we do. So we’ll have different images and different tacks and different call to action buttons if you can get them to click past the ad or on the ad the next place you’re going to want to send them is your landing page. And again the science that goes into a landing page where you put your call to action buttons what color they are. In fact one of the very early episodes which I almost don’t want to send you back to cause I don’t know how sound. I talk about the sort of make up of a landing page. So I will up to that and the show notes if you go to teresaheathwareing.com/52, you’ll find the show notes there and you’ll be able to go these links but obviously your landing page is where you’re going to be offering the thing that they’ve clicked to get. So you should make sure it’s consistent. You should make sure the images you used on your ads are similar to the images on your landing page. Then from your landing page, you’re going to ask them to give you their details and I do this in a lead box. So once they click the button say yes I really want this. The lead box pops up on the landing page and I should just mention the landing page isn’t on your website or I don’t have mine on my website because landing pages are very specific. They shouldn’t be able to click on any other link bar the button that basically gets them to say yes I want the thing. Now what’s going to happen is if they don’t want it for whatever reason if they get to that page and go Oh no I made a mistake then they just closed the browser window day and they just shut down which is fine in this instance because the thing you’re really trying to get them to do is give you their details if you have it on your website. The risk scares they might see Europe by a section and want to read that or look at something else and then forget completely how they got there and not fill in those details so landing page really specific they click on that button the button then opens a lead box that’s where they’re putting in their name and their email address. I asked for the most minimum amount of information because for me if you’re ask them to fill in too much stuff they’re not going to do it. And also things like I often have a progress bar at the top of that lead box and it says like 50 percent done already. So they can see that they’re not going to go from that lead box to them 20 more questions and then from the leave box once they click the button to say yes. Great. They then go to a thank you page and obviously the thank you page isn’t as crucial if you like as the landing page because you’re trying to get them to convert on the landing page. But you really want to try and make the most that thank you page you then might want to get them to connect with you on social media. You might want a video. I know on my lead magnet, one of the ones I’ve done I have a video that introduces me to them because at this point they may not have seen me, they might have just seen the thing that they’ve asked for and the thank you page can then send them off to your Web site or like you said get them to link up with you on social media.

 

Also you can do things like share buttons so you can encourage them to share the fact that they’ve just downloaded their whatever airs and share it with their friends on social media and then what’s going to happen is you’re going to have this connected up with a email system. So the systems I use are lead pages and that’s to help me build my landing page and my lead box, my thank you page and then, I use Infusionsoft but I’m also going to put in the show notes I linked to those but I’m also going to link to drip which I did used to use which is excellent. I just moved to Infusionsoft because I wanted a few more of their functionality but Infusionsoft is more expensive so you might want to have a look at Drip as well and are linked to all of them in the show notes but that email system that you connect up you, need it to be able to do some automation because what’s going to happen is the minute they submit their name and email then it’s going to connect up to your email provider who’s then going to start your campaign normally call campaigns within the system that sends them the thing they’ve asked for.

 

Now normally at this stage I would do two or three emails to do with the thing they’ve asked for. Also you want to be thinking about GDPR and how you’re getting them to agree to basically stay on your list as well. Obviously GDPR applies to businesses in the EU and anybody marketing to the EU anyway. So then you’re following up where the number of e-mails and in these emails you’re going to deliver the thing they’ve asked for in e-mail number one and then in e-mail number one you might have another call to action but a soft one so you don’t put your next big thing in e-mail number one because the likelihood is they’ll miss it. So you might per click here to come and find me on social media or come and have a look at the websites email to you might be more deliberate with a call to action. So e-mail two might be how are you getting on? Here’s another bit of information. How can I help you? That’s when I would tend to get them to come and listen to the podcast or I would encourage them to consume some more of my free content. And then an e-mail number three that could be where you try and lead them into the next part of your funnel. If it’s all set up like this now as we speak mine isn’t. It depends how quick you want to take him through the process. For me that might seem a little bit too fast but for some people they absolute do take through the process that quick. Oh I should have mentioned your e-mails your 1, 2 and 3 emails. You would have a delay between them and all of this goes automatically. So literally you press the button on the advert to go live. Once you’ve set up that lead magnet it will all do itself. You didn’t have to do anything in the email provider you also wanted to things like tag...

 

KEY TAKEAWAYS COVERED IN THE PODCAST

Even though things are portrayed as very happy go lucky on Instagram, it’s important to know that often that’s not always the case.

Remember that everyone started with zero followers, the important thing is that even when they thought no one was listening, they showed up and invested their time into the platform.'

Do you only post when you remember? Do you only post when you have something to sell? Do you only post when you’re on vacation? This means you’re ON Instagram, not USING it. Using Instagram means you have a strategy, you categorise your photos, your respond to every single comment or DM and you start conversations yourself.

When it comes to IGTV, it’s better to get started when nobody is doing it, rather than when the market is saturated.

If you’re going to be creating IGTV videos, people do not want to turn their phone. This may mean you need to change the way you shoot or edit your video content.

If your content isn’t been seen, it’s not the algorithm, it’s you.

THE ONE THING YOU NEED TO REMEMBER ABOVE ALL ELSE…

It’s important to remember that Instagram isn’t an overnight success, it takes a lot of time and dedication to build a successful account. Social media isn’t something that will bring you quick results and if you’re not in it for the long run, find out what is better suited to your business.

HIGHLIGHTS YOU SIMPLY CAN'T MISS

Introducing Jasmine Star – 03:37

Using Instagram As A Tool to Grow Your Business - 11:55

Are You Using Instagram, or Are You on Instagram? - 15:20

IGTV – Is It Worth It? - 24:41

Jasmine’s Top Tip for Instagram Success - 34:20

What’s to Come for Jasmine Star -39:30

LINKS TO RESOURCES MENTIONED IN TODAY'S EPISODE

Jasmine Star Instagram

Jasmine Star Website

Social Curator

Transcript below

 

Hello and a really warm welcome to this week's episode of the podcast. How have you been? I hope that your week has started well, if it's Monday. Obviously, I know people listen on various different days, but obviously this does come out on a Monday. So if you are listening on a Monday, I hope that you're having a great start to your week.

So this week, I'm gonna dive straight in and talk about the interview we've got for this week's episode, because it's so good. And I know I say that every week, but honestly, I wouldn't bring them to you if they weren't good and this one is one of my favourites. Because this is just someone I've been trying to get on the podcast for a little while. She's been really busy. So I am so glad, I can finally tell you that I have Jasmine Star on today's podcast.

And Jasmine is such an amazing person to listen to, to take advice from, to hear her story. I joke during the podcast that Jasmine is an amazing storyteller and she sort of laughs and says, "Okay. No pressure then." But she is and I've watched loads of her things. She does a lot on Instagram TV, she does a lot video-wise and Insta-stories and going live and she is a great storyteller.

So I knew this episode would be good, but also, some of the advice that I have had from Jasmine over the years. I've bought her course, I've watched her live a few times at different events, and the advice I've had from her has been absolutely invaluable, in terms of how I now manage my Instagram account and also how I've grown my Instagram account.

So you'll hear all that in this episode, but it's a really, really good one. And then, talking about Jasmine going forward, she's now doing lots of business strategy stuff. But anyway, I'm jumping ahead. Let me tell you a little bit about Jasmine.

Jasmine Star is a photographer and business strategist from Newport Beach, California. I mean, there are worse places in the world to be, aren't there? She dropped out of law school to pursue her dreams of becoming a photographer and in less than three years, she built an internationally recognised and award-winning business. Later, founding Social Curator, which I'm a member of and I talk about that in the interview and Social Media Marketing Membership for business owners.

She harnesses her hustle power and Jasmine empowers entrepreneurs to build brands, market them on social media and to create a life they love. Jasmine has been featured in Forbes, Entrepreneur, and INC magazine. But most days, you'll find her in her sweat pants scrolling through Instagram and her favourite days are spent with her dog in her high school sweater eating Takis. Jasmine is charming and charismatic and entertaining. So I know you are gonna love today's episode. As well of course, as getting lots of great information about using Instragram for your business.

If you love this episode, then Jasmine and I would love to hear about it. Obviously, we are both full-time on Instagram. So please come and find us over there and tag us in a story and let us know what you thought. But I'm not gonna take up anymore of your time. Here is Jasmine. So I'm so excited this week to welcome to the podcast, Jasmine Star.

 

Introducing Jasmine Star

 

Well thank you for having me. I couldn't be more excited. It's been a while. This has been a while in the making but here we are.

Yeah. Oh we have, we've been talking about it for a little while. So it's finally lovely to get you on. And I am so excited to kind of introduce you to my audience because I'm fairly sure, a lot of my audience will know who you are, but I have been following you for ages. I was lucky enough to meet you last year in Santiago.

In fact, you hooked me up a great photographer, Tim King. He's done photos for me a few times. So we'd had a conversation about that. But it's so nice to get you on and hear about how things are going because I know that you've been doing some really exciting things haven't you?

I have been excited and when I'm excited I do exciting things. So yes. Yes, it's been a good year so far.

Awesome. So just as a kick-off, if you don't mind, in case my audience don't know who you are. It would be great to give them a bit of background of who you are, where you come from. And also, I want you to do this because I've also said in the intro that you are an amazing storyteller. So I know whenever you tell any story, it's just, I can't help to just sit and wanna listen. So if you could do that, that would be awesome.

Oh yeah, there's no pressure in this story at all. I was feeling none and all of a sudden I feel this abundance like I better stand on this stage and deliver and academy-award worth of story right about now. You know, I think that the more we converse throughout this conversation, the story will naturally unfold. But I think it's going to expedite where people or why people see my passion for creating a business and creating freedom, but also using social media as a vehicle for growth in a business.

Yeah.

So in 2005, I earned a full ride law school scholarship and it was the thing I was supposed to do with my life. I thought as a first generation immigrant daughter, first generation college student, first generation post graduate student. That this was thing that would define me and really help expedite my family into a different stratosphere of being American culture and at being American.

When I was there, I just realised how unhappy I really was. It just wasn't the best fit for me, but I thought, well this is what I'm gonna do. This is what I've worked for. And my first year of law school, my mom unfortunately had a relapse of brain cancer and it just really rocked everybody's world. Because it had been an eight year battle at this time and the doctors had said that, "Her time had come and we had to start making funeral arrangements."

I think that, that reprioritized everything in my life. Like it forced you to have hard conversations and really say, "What do I want in life?" So I planned a wedding in three months to my long standing boyfriend. We'd met in high school. And I'm very independent. I was like, "I have to finish law school, this is gonna be the thing. I'm very driven." And he was just waiting. He was like, "Great. I wanna marry you and we're going to get married." I said, "Yes, just give me some time." I had an Excel spreadsheet, colour coded. I was so annoying. It's like who was I back then?

And then all of sudden, I got that Excel spreadsheet and I literally was like, "Bye. This doesn't matter anymore." All your plans don't matter if you're not surrounded by the people who love you and who you love. And so we planned a wedding in three months and against all odds, my mom and my dad walked me down that isle and it was the best day of my life.

I came back from the honeymoon and I had to make the declaration to go back to law school and I did not want to. So my brand new husband asks me the most beautiful question. He said, "If you could do one thing for the rest of your life and be happy, what would it be?" And I said, "Well I think I wanted to be a photographer." To which he replied, "Well you need a camera first right?" And I was like, "Yeah. I probably do. I probably need a camera, that would help."

Details. Details.

So then on January 1, 2006, I opened my very first camera as a gift from him and by 2009 my business was voted one of the top photographers in the world. And the business just unfolded and grew naturally, organically and then also, when social media came around in that 2010, 2011 timeframe. I really learned how to harness that power, create storytelling, conversations. That grew the business and it empowered me to teach and coach and walk other entrepreneurs how they could to the same for their business. That was a little bit of a long story, but we're now up-to-date.

No. No, not at all. And that's perfect and actually, I love your story. Because the fact, that you've had your life planned out and if I can make assumptions about you based on what I've seen, you are very driven. So I should imagine at that time, you were totally like, "This is what's gonna happen." And then I guess it takes something as big and dramatic as obviously your mom being unwell for you to go, "Actually is that what I really what?" That's a hard thing to think about, isn't it?

It's a very difficult to think about, but I think it's a choice. I think we are all given a choice at the way we're going to look at a situation. And back then, I looked at it as a very difficult situation, but I was equally as empowered to look at that situation and think, my god, I've been given a gift.

Yeah.

And it's only years later, over a decade later, that I can look back and think that that moment was like the impetus. That moment was the catalyst that forced me to say, "Who am I and what do I really want?" And so it is a gift. And far greater than anything else, my mom at the time, was my North Star and I'm so happy to say that still to this day, she is my North Star.

Against all odds, she beat cancer and the doctors were amazed and she's a walking miracle and yes, I needed a jolt in the universe to wake me up and say, "What are you gonna do with your one wild and beautiful, precious life?" And I decided, it's not gonna be a lawyer.

Yeah. Yeah. No, that's amazing. I heard you ... I can't remember what I was watching with you on, but you talked about the fact of you thought to yourself, You've got what, maybe 20 years left at that point. If the same thing was gonna go down the same road and then you said something like," We shouldn't ever assume it's even 20 years. We might not even have 20 minutes left."

Oh absolutely. So at the time, my mom was 50 years old when the doctors had said, "She has a couple months to live." And at the time, I was 25 and I thought to myself, If I have 25 years left of my life, I don't wanna die a lawyer. And then the stark realisation struck me as like I'm not guaranteed 25 years, I'm not even guaranteed 25 minutes. None of us are.

So if we were to live under that as if today was like my last day, what kind of legacy do I want to leave? What kind of decisions do I wanna make? What kind of wild and crazy, beautiful, scary, amazing, brilliant life do I wanna live that's not under the shadow of expectations? That was a game changer for me.

And do you know what? From sort of looking in and don't get me wrong. You know we can talk about this, how we project certain things on Instagram and we don't necessarily put the awful times, but it does look like you are having the most phenomenal time, that you are doing the most amazing things.

First off, you live in one of the most amazing parts of the world. Obviously, you live in California and it's stunning and it's warm and it's sunny. But it does genuinely look as if ... You know, I bet you must look back there and think, if I carried on where would I be compared to what I'm doing, what I wake up to every single day now?

Oh my god. There isn't a day that goes by that I don't think that I could be living in alternate universe. Where I would be in the top floor of a downtown Los Angeles high rise building being a successful lawyer, because I do believe that success is a forgone conclusion. Not just for myself, but for anybody who puts their mind and effort and soul into whatever they do. And I would be that person and I would be at a place financially, where I could afford paying other people to live my life.

Instead of me making the active decision to live my life. And even if it was as simple as picking up my dry cleaning or spending a two hour lunch in the middle of the day with a friend. It's like I would be in exchange for time and money and somehow taking the risk to build the business that I want to live. I don't have to have those negotiations anymore, because I can still make money and be a wise steward of my time.

 

Using Instagram As A Tool to Grow Your Business

 

Yeah. No, that's amazing. It's awesome. So let's get back to Instagram about ... Do you think that your business changed when you really took on Instagram or do you think it was inevitable that it was going to get there? It was just a tool that you happened to be using?

Well, I believe that the caveat was, there isn't a single platform that's going to make or break a single business or a single entrepreneur. I think that my journey on Instagram started around 2011, 2012 and I floundered. Even as a photographer and even as a storyteller, I didn't know how to harness the power. I was just using Instagram as like a box to check. Like, Oh I posted today. This is what I'm doing. And I floundered for far too long.

I mean, I have like examples. I often share examples of my Instagram in 2011 and then I [inaudible 00:12:41] that with my Instagram in 2014 and there looks like there had been no progress. I mean it still looks like a hot mess. Like, you look like you're a junior high ... It looks like you are 12-years-old, trying to be cool on Instagram. Nobody's engaging with you.

And by 2014, I was an internationally recognised photographer with a worldwide brand and nobody looking at that Instagram account would ever think that. They would think I like wine, I like my dog, I like the beach. It looked ridiculous. And then in 2016, I looked around and I got so tired with my lack of hedspa dedication, strategy. Because I saw other people, photographers and non-photographers, using this amazing platform to build their business and I had all the tools to make it happen and yet I wasn't.

Mm-hmm (affirmative)

And so then in 2016, I put a stake in the ground and I said, "I am going to learn how to use this for my business." So today, I often talk about my plans and my strategies and I could say that in retrospect. That yes, in 2016 was when I started my plan and strategy.

But in 2016 when I started doing it, it did not feel like a plan and strategy. It felt like a hot mess. I was just making the stakes every day. I was trying to figure out what worked. I was looking at other people. I literally ... Oh my god, here I go again with my Excel spreadsheet. I kept an Excel spreadsheet. I love me some Excel. You know?

And me. And me.

Okay. I mean who does not love organisation and analytics?

I know. I know.

It just kills me, it makes me excited. Somebody sends me a color-coded spreadsheet and I'm like, "We're getting married next week. This is what's happening." So I made an Excel spreadsheet, I listed the followers on Instagram who I enjoy as just like a personal friend and then I listed Instagramer's who I felt like were doing a really great job at harnessing the powers, specifically for their business.

And I wondered to myself, could I blend the two things? And again and again, I tested and I tried and when I started doing that, I had such a profound change in my business. And it was around that time, 2016, where I really stepped out on the scene as an authority in the field and ironically I didn't feel like an authority. Ironically, I just felt like, hey, I'm just trying to figure this out.

And then I got picked up by major news outlets and interviews and it has grown since there. And I'm still a firm believer that I'm actively refining my plan and strategy as the algorithm changes. But it has been a really great thing to learn from my mistakes and then share what I know with others and then see them be met with equally as amazing results.

Yeah, and I think you're exactly right. With the way these platforms are, they move and change so much that I don't think anybody honestly can sit there and say, "Oh, I've got it. It's all set. It's all done now."

Oh no.

Because obviously tomorrow, they're gonna do an update and everything's going to change again. Obviously, I guess where you've succeeded is you've invested your time and your thought and you considered exactly what you were doing.

 

Are You Using Instagram, or Are You on Instagram?

 

You were deliberate, that's what I was trying to think of. Deliberate in doing it. You weren't just, like you said, chucking up a picture thinking, oh that will do. You were really thinking about, okay how can I use this?

So I saw you speak in Social Media Marketing World last year and you gave me the best advice. So prior to coming out I was on ... You have a phrase. "Are you using Instagram or are you on Instagram?" Is that right?

That is.

Oh okay.

Look at you! I love it. Yes, apply that! Yes.

I make all the notes. I listen. I'm very good at doing what I'm told. I tell you. So you had said this and I sat there thinking, oh my god. That is me. I am literally just like posting an odd picture and I used to use the excuse ... I honestly, you would have slapped me. I used to go into like businesses and go, "Well unless you've got a peaceful product, it's not really for you."

And then I came to your session, I sat down and I was like, "What have I...

KEY TAKEAWAYS COVERED IN THE PODCAST

• Carrying out surveys and polls are a great way to find out more about your customers. Using Instagram Stories, Facebook, Twitter or even programmes like Response Suite will allow you to easily find out exactly what your customers need.
• If you start building a relationship with a potential customer and client, consider following them on another platform as well. This is ideal if it’s someone you want to build a longer-lasting and valuable relationship with.
• Creating a video welcome or response for those people you want to make a strong connection with is a great way to personalise your response. Whether it’s welcoming people to your new membership, replying to webinar signups or replying to people on Twitter – they’ll absolute love the personalisation.
• The most important thing you need to do when building your online community is reply to absolutely everyone that starts a conversation with you. Whether it’s replying to an Instagram comment, responding to a tweet or answering a DM. Make it personal and take the time to show you’re thankful they’re connecting with you.
• When it comes to social media you should be engaging more than you’re posting.
• People love to receive gifts in the post as it feels personal and shows how much you value your relationship with them. Whether it’s brownies, a personalised card or a box of goodies - it will encourage people to share it when they receive it.

THE ONE THING YOU NEED TO REMEMBER ABOVE ALL ELSE…The key to creating a community is making sure you’re engaging with as many people as you can. Don’t used canned responses and take the time to personally respond to each and every person that connects with you. Pick up on something personal and tailor every message you send.HIGHLIGHTS YOU SIMPLY CAN'T MISS

• #1 Understand Your Customers More – 04:00
• #2 Connect with Customers in All Areas – 07:25
• #3 Make A Person Video for People You Really Want to Connect With – 09:45
• #4 Make Sure You Respond to Everyone That Starts A Conversation with You - 13:15
• #5 Send Them Something in The Post - 15:30

LINKS TO RESOURCES MENTIONED IN TODAY'S EPISODE

• Bonjoro App
• Episode 41
• Episode 39
• Personalised Card Company UK
• Personalised Card Company US

Transcript below

 

Hello and welcome to this week’s episode of the podcast. How on earth are you? Can you believe in February already? I’ve got to stop saying this for two reasons. One I feel so old when I talk about how time flies and things going really quick but to me it’s one of those things where if you tell yourself something enough it will start to happen or believe or whatever. So if I constantly tell myself oh the time’s going so fast I haven’t got enough time then that’s exactly what’s going to happen. So I’m going to try not to say that anymore because I don’t think it’s good for me to think about how fast things are going and who wants to wish their life away Hey.

 

So if you remember back about four ish weeks ago I did an episode episode 46 where I talked all about my team predictions for marketing for this year and things that I think you should think about doing or start doing or just be aware of because I think they’re going to be getting bigger this year as we go on and one of the things which obviously was not a surprise is the fact that marketing is becoming more and more personal. We are having the ability now to connect with people on lots of different levels.

 

For starters there were lots of platforms out there where we can connect with people but also that we are getting to understand them more and the technology to track what they do and what they like is greater than ever before and therefore we can send them really direct marketing messages which has got to be a good thing for everybody. Personally for me as a consumer I don’t want my time wasted with stuff I’m not interested with. So I’m more than happy for you to promote your products or service to me if I think or if it’s going to be of use to me. So I don’t mind that at all. And obviously from a marketing point of view I love the ability that we now have to understand more about our audience and to really kind of take hold of that part where we can directly target them with things that they want to get from us and things that they want to hear about. So personally I am more than happy with that side of my prediction that I think that that’s going to get bigger and better. So today what I wanted to talk about was how you can make those connections more personal more meaningful on a more sort of granular level if you like so more feeling almost not one to one but you know what I mean in a world that is so very heavily digital so obviously pretty much everything I do unless I do in-person consulting and training which obviously there’s only so much of my time that I could do that. And obviously it comes at a higher cost but pretty much everything else I do then is online. So you know you can listen to my podcast or go and download things or take part in a course or whatever. So how in a digital world do we try and make those connections feel as personal and meaningful as possible. So today I have come up with five great ideas in how you can do that in your business to ensure that you are building that amazing community who are loving you and want to work with you and are basically ready and waiting the next time you say hey I’ve got this amazing thing for you. And also how can you make them feel valued and wanted which they totally should be. And I know my community is totally valued because without you listening without people wanting me to help them I wouldn’t have a business I wouldn’t have the life I have. So I am so very grateful. So this podcast episode is showing you how we can really appreciate this people more. So my five tips. The first thing I’m going to talk about is understanding the more I know sometimes people get a bit sick of this bit like how much do we need to know our customers well you know what. A lot because there is always something we can find out about them there’s always a little detail that actually suddenly think Oh well that’s what you’re struggling with. That’s what I can help you with. That’s how I can amend my product or service so one of the things I’m going to mention here is doing things like surveys questionnaires polls and I’m not meaning like spend hours putting together some long arduous questionnaire that about three people are gonna fill in. I mean asking them two three questions that will just give you an insight to their world or give you a little bit more information so you can then target them a little bit better and not waste their time. Now I’ve been working with the lovely guys at response suite and I’ve been putting together my own survey and I’m gonna do a whole episode about this where I explain to you what I’ve done and how I’ve done it and what results I’ve got. And obviously I’m waiting to see the results and get them all together for you. So this is something that I am working super hard on because if I know more about you than I can make sure I’m giving you what you need. So things like that are really useful and even things like putting a poll in Twitter or Facebook when I was the last time he did that I have to say I don’t do as many as I should do. It’s like it with everything. There’s always something where you think I haven’t done that for ages but definitely think about asking them those questions getting to know them some more. Not only will it help you but also people want to be listened to and as a consumer I feel valued when someone says I want to know something or can you help me. And in most cases I happily fill in a questionnaire provide feedback give them a review because I want them to get better and I do it whether it’s a positive or negative experience. So actually I’m always really keen to give positive reviews because I think sometimes we’re really quick to go. This is where you can improve but we’re not so great to go. Actually this was brilliant. Thank you very much. So anyway I’ve sidetracked a little bit but definitely kind of one from a it gives you more information but two it makes them her makes them feel heard and valued. So therefore your connection with them is going to be getting deeper and then with amazing technology like using response suite those answers can be immediately integrated in something like infusion soft which is what I use and therefore imagine you get any email from me and me putting in there something that you’ve answered or me being able to say hey as a social media manager because you’ve told me you’re a social media manager and one of my surveys. It’s just a bit more of a personal connection you’re not just a hi first name or whatever it is they put in their email. You’re actually putting in some real information about that person. So that person is starting to get a real feel that you understand them and that’s what you want. You don’t as a consumer you don’t want to feel that you’re part of this massive marketing machine that is literally just churning and chucking data right there at you whether you want it or not. So use some of this amazing technology use things like response we use infusions off or you know click funnels or whatever it might be to get these different platforms to talk to each other so that you can better understand your customer but then prove to your customer you understand them. Tip number two connect to them in all areas. So one of the things I used to do especially in the earlier days I guess is if I would go and meet someone I would then come back to the office and I would go and find them on Instagram and Facebook and Twitter and LinkedIn and I would start to connect in other places because again imagine if you send me aD.M. in Instagram and then suddenly you see that I followed you on LinkedIn or something. It just makes you feel more like Oh you care You’ve actually gone to the effort to go and find me on another platform to understand me more to connect with me to get to know me. And you’ve actually gone and made that connection and that request. So I would definitely think about when you have a connection with someone on one platform that you potentially go and look if there are some rules especially if this is a contact that you really want to make a big strong connection with. So for instance if you are a big online business and you’ve got lots of followers that might not be possible. So you might just want to pick the people who are part of your membership or bought your product or are in your Facebook group or whatever it might be. So definitely think about going to connect with them in other places. You be the proactive one it’s not that hard. Granted it might take a bit of time but if you’ve only got you know if you’re starting off and you’ve got sort of 10 15 people in a Facebook group or a handful of coaching people or whatever then absolutely go and make sure that you’re reaching out to them in the various places and you’ll be amazed because that there are different platforms are used for different things. So for instance I am much more honest and visual if you like. It’s not that I’m not honest by the way on my other platforms but I’m much more kind of visual there I am on Instagram most days and I might go on really quickly and go oh this is just happened or this is just whatever that kind of rawness whereas I might not do that on Twitter and I definitely don’t do it on Facebook just because I don’t use the platforms like that. So actually going and seeing them in a different platform you can suddenly start to see a different side of them or a different thing that they do. So absolutely going on at one really simple one slightly time consuming but definitely worth it for those people that you really want to make a connection with. Okay. Number three and I love this one make a personal video to them. Now again I’m not necessarily saying everybody you’re connected with you’re going to send them a video. However if you are trying to really connect to some people if someone has purchased from you if someone signed up for your event if someone’s into your membership then absolutely go to the effort of doing some kind of personal to camera something there’s an app that you can get that will definitely do this for you. So an app that I recommend is called bond Zorro. I will link to all these things in the show notes but you can use bonds euro to send a personal video to someone if they’ve just joined your membership for instance and you can also get it. I’m fairly sure now I’m could be making this up. So I hope I’ve got this right. But I’m fairly sure that you can also get it to automate in the sense.

 

In fact I’m positive this is the case that when someone physically does something you can get it’s a ping and it pings to one juror. On jury sends you a message to say is it’s an app to say you need to do this video for this person. So obviously it doesn’t need a video because the whole point is you record it personally for each person but obviously it gives you that notification that you need to do it. So that’s a really good one as well. Because imagine if you’ve just signed up for a cause to someone or you’ve to join someone’s membership and then suddenly within 24 hours they’ve sent you a video saying Hey Theresa thank you so much for joining. I’m so excited if you need anything just let me know or whatever it is you might wanna do the same with an event the same with if you’re doing a webinar maybe you know what’s really interesting is people get really hung up on the facts of numbers they get really hung up on how many people have got signed up for a webinar how many people have gotten a membership and people genuinely feel that if it’s not hundreds and hundreds that you failed well you know what. If you’ve say got I don’t know you’re doing a webinar and you get 30 people signed up hey more likely those 30 people to come to the webinar alive if you have sent them a personal video that says Hi Please come and join me on my webinar I can’t wait to see that I’ve got great information or whatever it might be. Honestly I’d be kind of blown away and I’d feel really like I’m going off to service. However I know. So I think the las Abi I want the millions. Don’t get me wrong would not be amazing and I’m not sat here saying I wouldn’t want millions but love the people that you are with right now love the people that you’re looking after and then they will grow and they will tell other people. Also when you do get to the larger numbers then you might need to sporadically pick people or you might need to put some more automation in place. So definitely think about ways in which you can connect with those people and make those people feel valued and video. Personal video you on screen Zain Hi Teresa. Obviously or whatever the name is. That is a great way of doing it. Now Bangura is a great app but you can also just send them a DRM in Instagram and record yourself. You could also do a Twitter video. I know Madeline Sklar and I talked about this on her episode which was Episode 41 I linked to that as well. And we talked about having a video sent to you via Twitter and how effective that is. So definitely think about doing some of that more personal interaction. Okay. Number four really simple again it’s like I’m giving you some fairly simple bits but actually we forget these things sometimes and they’re so important. Number four is make sure you respond and have a conversation to everybody that interacts with you. Now for me that’s like number one on my list really should have been first. That’s the most basic things the most important. If someone interacts with me now I’m going to sit there I always reply and someone is gonna give you never applied to me that time but I promise you unless somehow I’ve missed it which we’re all human and sometimes we do there’s my like caveat just in case but I can pretty much guarantee you that’s the first thing I do. If someone has gone to the effort of sending me a direct message where they’re talking to me about something I will always go to the efforts message and back the same if you send me a tweet if you comment on one of my posts I will always respond. Now sometimes it might take me a day or two but I definitely always respond because I am so very grateful for the fact that people are interacting with me and wanting to talk to me. So make sure if anybody is doing that you really do go to the effort in order to respond back and do don’t just respond back with a thumbs up or a thanks. I always try and use a number of words when I respond back. I try and pick up on something someone said because I want to show them I genuinely care and I’m genuinely thankful for them making the effort to come and connect with me. So make sure you respond and then also make sure you do the proactive work where you’re going and looking at what they’re posting and your talking to them. So it’s not just okay I’ll wait for you to speak to me and then I’ll respond but also look at what they’re doing and go and be proactive towards them again in Episode 39 it was Tyler J McCool talked about how you should be engaging more on Instagram than you’re posting and talking about going and having those conversations of people. So for me that’s a really crucial one. And really really easy simple want to do. Set yourself ten minutes a day where you’re going to search on a particular hashtag. Look at particular accounts and you’re going to comment and say something to them really good. Okay. Last but by no means least. Number five. Now this is old school but I love it. Send them something in the post. All will. The like physically post felt big. You would say Teresa. No I’m not. I love receiving stuff in the post. I can’t tell you how excited I get. I mean I am the amazon prime Queen. I do love an Amazon prime delivery but when I get something unexpected or someone sends me something. Honestly it’s such an amazing marketing tool. So for instance let me give you some examples. I’ve had some great ones so I signed up to James Webb Moores business by design and he sent me some stuff in the post. Brain is in fact it was no bearing in mind it’s coming from the. But this is a company that specifically does this sort of thing. So again automated. They obviously must send them a list or something that’s pinged to this company that says this person’s joined. Please send them and they get a letter and they get some brownies and that’s awesome. Brilliant. Thank you. Then I signed up to go to his event and I received a box with a what was in it again. So it was a gold ticket for the events. That was cool. It was some cards that are like motivational cards. There was a USB stick but a very fancy looking one with some presentations on that of other events and a letter again that kind of just said can’t wait to welcome you. But you know what it does it does two things One it properly stands. Like if they sent me an email with those things which they could have done potentially they could have allowed me to download the cards or watch the videos online if they sent me an email it wouldn’t have...