Your Dream Business

Key Takeaways Covered In The Podcast

GDPR is new legislation for businesses from the EU that gives specifics on the collection and storing of

customer data.

The deadline for GDPR compliance is May 25th , 2018.

Customers must agree to receive marketing communication from you. This means that customers will need to

sign-up again to be on your email list.

You shouldn’t use personal email for your email list. Instead, you can use a bulk email product such as

Mailchimp.

Use a subject line that captures their attention. Don’t be afraid to be different! It is important that they open it.

Use systems such as Drip and Leadpages to set up a seamless email campaign and process for each option.

This means the yes or no answer that your subscriber will give you through email in response to staying on

your list.

The emails you send should explain the value of being a subscriber. What makes your newsletter or

communication great for your subscribers? You will want to remind them of that.

The one thing you need to remember above all else…

You may lose a large chunk of your email subscribers. But be positive! Those customers who are going to opt-in are

the customers that value your services and will engage. They want to hear from you. The quality of your email list will improve overnight.

Highlights You Simply Can’t Miss

What is the GDPR? – 2:31

How to use email systems for your email campaigns – 6:24

Why you shouldn’t worry about losing email subscribers – 9:32

Want the full transcript?

Click to Download!

KEY TAKEAWAYS COVERED IN THE PODCAST

• All copy is sales copy. This includes your social media, website, blog content and everything else. It is all used to connect with your audience and convince them to do something.
• You should create copy that your audience wants to read. It should compel them to want to learn more and engage with you. Listen to what your audience wants to hear and the words that they use. Use those words in your copy.
• Use emotion in your copy that makes it easier for customers to connect with you on a deeper level.
• Your copy should address your customer’s fear right off the bat. Address all the reasons they won’t engage or feel afraid to. Use your copy to let them know why they don’t have to feel this way.
• Give your audience the opportunity to respond to you. Have a conversation with your audience to gain actionable insight for new copy in the future.

THE ONE THING YOU NEED TO REMEMBER ABOVE ALL ELSE…Your audience is comprised of real human beings and your copy should be written for them. Your customer shouldbe the focus. You will want to explain why you are the solution to their problem and convey that using their words and compelling emotion.HIGHLIGHTS YOU SIMPLY CAN'T MISS

• All copy is sales copy. Here’s why. – 03:29
• #1: Researching your audience – 04:54
• #2: Focusing on features vs benefits – 07:05
• #3: Using emotion works in copy – 09:02
• #4: Addressing your customer’s fears – 10:45
• #5: Hearing and responding to customer feedback – 12:00

Transcript below

 

Hello, and a very warm welcome to episode number 10 of the Social Media Marketing Made Simple Podcast. I'm your host, Teresa Heath-Wareing. I am so glad to have you here for what is my 10th episode, which is great. 10 weeks of doing the podcast. And if you listened to last week's episode, you'll know that I said it's really hard work. So I'm really pleased I've managed to bring you these 10 episodes consistent.

If you didn't get chance to listen to last week's episode, so number nine, then please go back and do so. It was a really good episode to record. I really enjoyed it. A little bit different to my standard format, where I'm normally giving you X amount of tips or certain things to do. I just talked generally around what makes successful entrepreneurs, and some of the things that I think makes a successful entrepreneur. And one of those things was talking about consistency, and maintaining something when you start doing it. So go back and take a listen, because like I said, I was really pleased with that one, and I thought we covered some really good things.

The one thing that I should still mention at this point though, is I've still not got around to batching, much to the frustration of the team, who are eagerly waiting every time I record a podcast, to type up show notes, do transcripts, get it ready on the website, upload it to iTunes. So like I said, the idea was that I would batch content. Now, I'm going to do an episode in this, but basically it's where you sit down, and instead of recording one podcast like I'm doing now, that I'll record two or three, obviously not simultaneously.

But the idea is basically you block out a whole section of time, and you do several of those things, either a podcast or a blog, creating social media content in a big block. Because there is a science behind how our brain works. Basically, if our brain is focusing on one type of task, it's easier to do that task two or three times over, than it is doing that task, coming away, and then going to do a different task. Your brain has to work at a different gear, if you like. So we definitely want to do batching, and I keep promising my team I'm going to do it, and I will soon, hopefully.

The other thing I should mention about the podcast, is that I record it really early in the morning, because it obviously won't surprise you that you need quiet. You need there to be as little background noise as possible. I live in a house with me, my husband, a dog, my eight-year-old daughter, my two stepchildren who are teenagers, and this house is anything but quiet. So I tend to get up super early. It's currently 5:30 in the morning, and I am recording a podcast, which I think may make a difference to my voice, because I probably sound a little bit sleepy, so I apologise.

I think that's enough of me wittering on. Let's get on with today's content. In today's podcast, we are going to be looking at the five things that you should be thinking about when you're trying to write compelling copy. Now, initially in this title, I had the word sales copy in there, but I decided to take the word sales out, because I think this is very misleading.

 

All copy is sales copy. Here’s why.

 

In my mind, all the copy that you write is sales copy, whether it's website copy, i.e. what's written on your website about you or your products or services, whether it's social media copy, whether it's even written down for me to speak in a podcast, or something like that. Every copy is sales copy.

The reason I think this, is because you are trying to sell yourself or your service in some way. And I don't mean sell as in money, I mean sell as in you're trying to connect with someone. You're trying to either convince them to listen to another episode of the podcast, or convince them to sign up to something so they receive your newsletter, or convince them to come back to your website every week and read another blog. You're trying to, I suppose the word is convincing copy, rather than sales copy, because you're trying to get them to do something in everything you write, or otherwise what's the point in us writing it?

And I guess the other thing you want to think about at this point, is you want to write copy that people want to read, that they're going to engage with. So these points are really helpful for that as well. I should also probably mention at this point that I am not the most natural of writers, hence why I started a podcast. I think I've said this before. I like to follow these points to help me maintain a structure or to help me write better copy. These points aren't about grammar or proofreading, these are more about writing compelling copy that people are going to want to engage with.

 

#1: Researching your audience

 

So let's jump in. Point number one, is actually not to do with writing at all, it's about listening to what your customers and prospective customers have to say. And in brackets I've put, "Do your research." Now, this is one of the most crucial points for me, that if you're going to write for a avatar, now your avatar is the person that you're trying to target. It's the profile of your prospective customer, or a customer you have already. If you're going to be writing for them, you've got to think of them in mind. One of the best and easiest ways to do this to know about them, is to go and listen to what they have to say.

For instance, when I go and talk to my target audience, and I speak to them about social media and marketing and how they can use it for their business, I will listen to all the words that they say when they're talking about it, because this is so important. What they're going to do, is they're going to tell me their problems. They're going to tell me what they find difficult about social media marketing. Some of the words that they use, are words like overwhelm. Do you know what? I think in most parts of our business, we probably feel overwhelm. But it is something that you particularly feel in social media marketing. When I talk to these people, when I write copy, I would use the word overwhelm. I also listen to the kind of language they use, the words that they say, so that I'm not using my words, I'm using theirs.

The first thing I do, is I go out and have a conversation with them. Think about two or three either prospective or current customers, and why not go and have a chat with them, and ask them, "What made you want this product in the first place? What made you come to me? What do you find difficult about doing XYZ?" and listen to what they have to say. As I mentioned before, the one thing you want people to do when they read your copy, is resonate with it, is to engage with it. If you're using words that they think about, or they can read something and think, "Gosh, that's me," or, "I feel like that," then obviously you're going to be able to engage them much easier. It shows that you care, that you've bothered to listen to what they have to say, and that you want to try and help them.

 

#2: Focusing on features vs benefits

 

Point number two, features versus benefit. Now, this is really funny, because it seems like a really old technique. Years ago, you may not know this, but I used to work in a bank. This was something that was in the training then, that we used to talk about features versus benefits. It's still prevalent now. It's still really important that we think this way when we're writing copy, because if someone wants to use our service or buy from us, they're not actually buying the features of the product or the service, they're buying the benefits. Let me explain. Basically, if you want to get better at social media, it's not the driver that you want to be a brilliant social media person, it's because you want your social media to bring you more sales. The actual being good at social media is just the byproduct of that. You could not care that whether you're going to at social media or not, you just want to get the sales, or you just want to connect with people through social media.

So when people come to me, they don't say, "Teresa, I want to be a brilliant social media person," they say, "I want to use social media for my business, and I want it to work." The same way as our very basic form. If you think about a door, you're not selling a door, you're selling the solution to the gap in the wall, and that solution just happens to be a door. Again, it's not so much necessarily about the product or the thing itself, it's the solution that it fixes.

Another way to think about this, is from a perspective point of view. When you talk about the features of the product, you're talking from your perspective. You're talking about you and the product that you have. Whereas when you think benefits, you're thinking of your customer, and the need that they have. That is a much nicer way to write copy, because we don't want to feel like we're talking about ourselves all the time, we want our customer to be the focus. They should be the thing that we're concentrating on.

 

#3: Using emotion works in copy

 

On to point number three. Use emotion. Now, sometimes you can look at this and think, "How am I going to use emotion?" or, "What do you mean by use emotion?" The first thing you need to know, is that people connect so much easier when there's an emotion involved. If you can connect with someone on emotional level, then you're going to find it much easier to get them to engage with you. What do I mean by emotions? Well, when you write your copy, I want you to try and include emotion words, or words that conjure up emotions. Let's think back to someone who wants to be better at social media for their business. I would talk about things like being frustrated, or having the fear that their business might not succeed, and they will be a failure. I know some of these words may seem a bit dramatic, but you'll be amazed where people will take themselves when they link things. If my social media isn't very good, customers won't know about me. If I don't have customers, my business won't succeed, i.e. I'll be a failure.

Or you can use emotion on the other flip side, so talk about how they will feel when their problem is solved, or when they have achieved the thing that your service helps them achieve. If you needed proof about how powerful emotions can be in marketing, just think back to the last thing you either shared on social media, or the last thing you saw your friend share. I bet it conjured up an emotion, either an emotion of upset, an emotion of anger, an emotion of love or happiness, or something that really made them laugh. The stuff that people share on social media is the stuff that really builds on that emotion side.

 

#4: Addressing your customer’s fears

 

On to tip number four. Address their fears. Now, this isn't necessarily like the emotional talking where we address their fears and say, "What if this doesn't happen?" Addressing their fears means think about all the reasons they might not want to engage, or they might not be able to use your product or service. If you were selling an online course, for instance, someone might be thinking, "I can't afford to spend the money," or, "I can't afford the time," or, "I don't think the content will be good enough." In your copy, when you're writing things, make sure you address those things. Make sure, instead of trying to hide from the reasons they might not want your product or service, full on address them, and tell them why that isn't the case.

For instance, if it was about an online course, then they might think they don't have the time to do it. However, they would be carrying on making the same mistakes over and over, so the time invested now will save them a lot of time in the long run. For this exercise, you could either think about the reasons why people haven't bought, or go back and speak to them and say, "Can I ask why you didn't buy?" Make a note of all those reasons they say they couldn't buy, or they didn't use your service. Those are the things you want to readdress in the future.

 

#5: Hearing and responding to customer feedback

 

This brings me on to my last tip. This one again isn't really about writing, but it's super important. Let them have the ability to respond. Anything that you're writing, you really want to be asking them to respond. You want to be asking a question. You want to be asking them to comment or give you feedback. Because people want to be heard. And also, marketing and social media now is all about a conversation. The more that you have these conversations, the more I'm going to trust you, because I'm going to realise you're a real human being at the end of that social media profile. I'm going to feel like I'm heard. And you're going to get better information, because you're going to get that valuable insight, those valuable words that people use. You're going to be able to address questions straight off.

That brings me to the end of my five tips. Let's just recap on what we covered. Tip number one, listen to what they have to say, and do some research. Tip number two, use the features versus benefits. Think about the benefits that it's giving them, and talk about that, rather than the features of your product or service. Tip number three, use emotion where possible. Try and bring those emotional words into it. The idea of feelings and how they might feel now, compared to how they might feel in the future. Tip number four, address their fears straight away. Make sure you understand the reasons why they might not buy or use your service, and then address these concerns in the copy. Then last but not least, tip number five, let them have the opportunity to respond. Make sure you are giving them every opportunity to get in touch, ask questions, comment, and give feedback.

I really hope that you found today's podcast useful. I think I've managed to squeeze it in before the children got up and made too much noise. I can't wait to see you again next week. Until then, have a fab week.

Key Takeaways Covered In The Podcast

All copy is sales copy. This includes your social media, website, blog content and everything else. It is all used to connect with your audience and convince them to do something.

You should create copy that your audience wants to read. It should compel them to want to learn more and engage with you. Listen to what your audience wants to hear and the words that they use. Use those words in

your copy.

Use emotion in your copy that makes it easier for customers to connect with you on a deeper level.

Your copy should address your customer’s fear right off the bat. Address all the reasons they won’t engage or feel afraid to. Use your copy to let them know why they don’t have to feel this way.

Give your audience the opportunity to respond to you. Have a conversation with your audience to gain

actionable insight for new copy in the future.

The one thing you need to remember above all else…

Your audience is comprised of real human beings and your copy should be written for them. Your customer should

be the focus. You will want to explain why you are the solution to their problem and convey that using their words and compelling emotion.

Highlights You Simply Can’t Miss

All copy is sales copy. Here’s why. – 3:29

#1: Researching your audience – 4:51

#2: Focusing on features vs benefits – 7:05

#3: Using emotion works in copy – 9:03

#4: Addressing your customer’s fears – 10:45

#5: Hearing and responding to customer feedback – 12:00

Want the full transcript?

Click to Download!

KEY TAKEAWAYS COVERED IN THE PODCAST

 

• All new business owners face the same three challenges involving self-motivation, time management and work-life balance.
• New business owners make their own lives harder by playing the comparison game with other entrepreneurs in our space. We must stop doing this!
• New tools, techniques, platforms and systems are releasing all the time. It can be difficult to not get wrapped up in all the “new” that you need to do.
• Drive, consistency and relentlessness are key to success in

 

THE ONE THING YOU NEED TO REMEMBER ABOVE ALL ELSE…

 

“If you build it, they will come,” doesn’t apply in the entrepreneurial world. It’s more like this: If you build it and you market your backside off and you give it consistent attention, THEN they might come. Success takes time and effort! Please keep going and keep up the hard work!“I've missed more than 9000 shots in my career. I've lost almost 300 games. 26 times, I've been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I've failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.” Michael JordanHIGHLIGHTS YOU SIMPLY CAN'T MISS

• Teresa’s challenges when starting her own business – 02:21
• The main challenges new business owners face – 03:15
• The syndrome all entrepreneurs suffer from, especially in social media – 05:25
• Entrepreneurial Myth #1: Everyone else is an overnight success – 07:21
• Characteristics of successful entrepreneurs – 09:12
• Entrepreneurial Myth #2: That success is easy and will come quickly – 10:23
• Teresa’s plea to YOU – 15:13

LINKS TO RESOURCES MENTIONED IN TODAY'S EPISODE

 

• Amy Porterfield’s podcast, episode 203

Transcript below

 

Hello and welcome. And thank you so much for joining me for episode number nine of the social media marketing made simple podcast. I am so thrilled to have you here with me today. Today's episode is going to be a little bit different from the episodes that I've done so far. The episodes I have done to date have tended to be around tools or tips or tricks. And five ways to help you with X, or whatever it is. And today's going to be a little bit different. However, I think this subject that we're going to talk about today is super important for business owners and entrepreneurs and social media people alike. Today we are going to be talking about becoming successful.

And what it means and the importance of consistency. Now one of the reasons why I've decided to do this episode this week is because it seems that I've been having these kinds of conversations recently with friends and clients. Also I listened to a recent episode of the podcast by Amy Porterfield. It's episode number 203, How To Get Noticed Online When You Are Just Starting Out. And a lot of the things that Amy said in that podcast was resonating with the conversations that I had had with like I said, friends and clients.

And also it's something that I have been thinking about for my own current projects and also the level of success that I am at, at the moment. And the level of success I want to get to. So it felt like I was being led down this path or someone out there, the universe was telling me, Teresa you need to talk about this because like I said, so many things have presented themselves to me, where I thought, this is going to make a great podcast episode. And I think this is something you're going to be able to resonate with. It's going to be something that you have thought about, or you struggle with. And every so often I think we need to remind ourselves of some of the points that we're going to cover today.

 

Teresa’s challenges when starting her own business

 

So let's jump in. I'm going to start by saying, the most obvious thing in the world, running a business is hard. Oh man, is it hard. I remember when I first started out, I probably didn't have the faintest idea what it was like to run a business. I had worked as an employee, I had never had my own business before. And I used to look at business owners thinking, why aren't you more organised? Why are you so scatty? You're running around and doing a million things at once. And I didn't have the faintest idea until I started running my own business, and I realised that your brain is going in a million directions all the time trying to do a million things.

So let's just say, the most obvious thing, it is super hard work. And it's hard work for lots of reasons.

 

The main challenges new business owners face

 

Firstly, self motivation, managing to get yourself out of bed every morning and get yourself motivated when there's no one to be responsible to that are going to hold you accountable for not getting out of bed or not starting work on time. Or not finishing that project by that time. Self motivation is super difficult. The next thing, managing your own time. Now trying to juggle this with your home life, especially if you're a mom or you're a dad. I have an eight year old daughter and two step children. And it's super hard trying to build a successful business while you are also trying to be this great mom. You're being a great wife or a great husband.

And it's really difficult. It's super, super difficult to try and find that balance. Then we make our life so much harder because the next thing we do is we compare. Oh boy, we area a nightmare. We basically watch what other people do, and now that social media is the way it is, it's so easy to do. We look at all the other entrepreneurs and business owners out there and we see them succeed. And we wonder why we still feel like we're on the starting block. And have been there for a long time. We look at their social media. We look at the tens of thousands of followers they have. We look at all the interaction they have and how everybody comments on stuff when they post something.

Or they'll do a Facebook live and loads of people turn up. And we wonder why we don't have that. And how did they get it? How did they become that successful? And the other interesting thing that we think is that we think they did it overnight. We would discover someone today or tomorrow, and we just think, they've appeared out of nowhere. They've obviously just started the day before and become an overnight success, which makes it feel even more difficult for us. That to date ourselves, we start to think, what is it that I'm doing wrong? Why is everybody else doing okay? And it becomes a real source of frustration.

 

The syndrome all entrepreneurs suffer from, especially in social media

 

The other interesting, I don't want to say the word problem that I think entrepreneurs have, but is that we suffer from shiny object syndrome. Gosh, that's hard to say. Anyway, we suffer from basically seeing all these other people doing all these other things and thinking, I should be doing that. That's obviously why I'm not successful. That's obviously why I'm not where I want to be. I should be doing these things or using that latest technology, using that latest tool. Especially in social media world. Wow. When I was in social media marketing world, I think it was actually 2016 or '17, Mike [Stelsner 00:06:02] said that we were in the fastest moving industry in the world. And I couldn't agree more.

New tools, techniques, platforms, systems are coming out all the time. And it's so hard not to get completely overwhelmed by it all and be thinking, oh my God, I need to be doing that, but I definitely need a but, no, I need to do some email [inaudible 00:06:24]. I need some new landing pages. I need a new website. Definitely going to have to do a podcast. Need to do more Facebook lives. And then what makes it worse, is we hear all these amazing success stories of all these people who did amazing launches of this membership and got this. Produced a course, and made this amount of money. Starting working hard on Instagram and suddenly have all these followers and are able to monetize it.

We constantly feel like we're doing something wrong. And are left wondering, why is this not working for us? It's absolutely nonstop. And is so overwhelming. If you are listening to this and thinking, wow, that is me, then you are not alone. These are conversations that I have day in, day out with people. And it is a constant struggle. That's why I wanted to cover this subject on today's podcast because I want to cover a few myths.

 

Entrepreneurial Myth #1: Everyone else is an overnight success

 

Myth number one, that people are an overnight success or there is a secret money-making scheme that everybody else knows about and you don't.

I can promise you that even though it might seem like they appeared overnight and their success was achieved overnight, in most cases probably 99.9% of the cases, it really wasn't. There are so many examples of successful people who have worked so hard to get to where they are and have had so many knock backs. Stephen King was rejected 30 times. Before his 31st attempt he threw it into the bin and his wife rescued it an asked him to try one more time. Michael Jordan has an amazing quote that he puts out there, which I wanted to read to you. "I have missed more than 9000 shots in my career. I have lost almost 300 games. On 26 occasions, I have been entrusted to take the game's winning shot, and I missed. I have failed over and over and over again in my life. And that's why I succeed."

I love this quote and you know why? Because no one would've ever talked about that. You would never have seen on the sports news that he had failed all those times. No one ever talks about their failures that often. They always talk about their successes. So someone from the outside looking in, is going to be thinking, wow, they have just been successful over and over and over again. And it hasn't been the case. They like the rest of us, would've had so many knock backs and so many failures, they just don't talk about them. Or we just don't see them. Or maybe we choose not to see them.

 

Characteristics of successful entrepreneurs

 

When I was just searching for this podcast, I was looking at all these people who had been successful. And I was wondering what was it that enabled them to have this success? And for me it comes down to a number of characteristics that they have.

One, they all had the most unwavering determination. They had a goal in their mind that they knew they wanted to reach, and they didn't stop until they got there. They were consistent and had perseverance. Someone like Michael Phelps didn't just get brilliant at swimming overnight. He consistently trained. They consistently work at it. Not knowing whether they were going to reach their goal at all, but they carried on regardless. And the one characteristic that I feel like I saw in all my examples that I looked at, they were relentless. I love that word.

They did not want to stop until they got there. In Amy's podcast that I listened to, one of the key points I got from it was that the people who ended up being the most successful, they acted like they had nailed it already. They went out to the world and acted like they were as successful as they wanted to be from day one.

 

Entrepreneurial Myth #2: That success is easy and will come quickly

 

Myth number two, that it's easy and takes no time whatsoever. Like I said earlier, I think sometimes we look at these people and because we've only just discovered them, or they've just come into our world, we think that they have literally just started.

I want you to go back and look at the people that you follow, or you aspire to be like, and just have a look at how long they've been doing what they do. And also how consistently. Now I have some great examples for you. Some of the people that I follow, for instance, Amy Porterfield, I am an avid listener to her podcast. She is on episode 206. Amy puts a podcast out weekly. So do the math. Amy has been doing that podcast consistently for almost four years. Another example, Pat [Flin 00:11:17]. He also has a podcast, very successful guy, great podcast. He's on episode 313, which means if he does a podcast a week, he's been doing it for six years. Let's head over to Instagram. I love Instagram as you probably know by now.

Two of my favourite accounts on Instagram are Jasmine Star and Jenna Kutcher. Jasmine Star posts roughly once a day. She has 2422 posts, which means if she's posted daily, she's been doing it for six years. Jenna Kutcher has 4372 posts. So if she posted twice a day, she's also been doing it for six years. So I wanted to give you these examples to prove to you that it might feel like to us that it's just appeared overnight. That they have got all these hundreds of thousands of followers. But they haven't. This has been built up over time. And as I said before, the key in this is consistency. So I wanted to give you a real practical example of this.

And the podcast is the example. I decided that I wanted to start a podcast as I've said to you, I much prefer speaking over writing. I decided that I was going to set up the podcast and I was going to give it a go. Now obviously I have no idea at this point how successful this podcast is going to be. And I have committed to doing the podcast consistently every single week and when the team came to me and said, "Okay, how long are we going to do it for until you decide whether it's successful or not? Until we decide whether to carry on with the podcast." And they were shocked when I said to them, "12 months." I am going to do the podcast consistently every single week for 12 months because I feel like that is a reasonable amount of time to get something out there, to prove to people that you are showing up week on, week off. Now don't get me wrong, I'm not going to get to 12 months and ditch you.

I'm obviously going to see and check it's successful. And if it's working for me and I am loving it at the moment, then I will carry on. But what I'm trying to say to you is that I wasn't going to do it for a month or for six episodes or for three months. I'm going to do it for 12 months before I make a decision as to how successful it's been or not. And often when I talk to people about starting social media or Facebook advertising, or a new campaign, or a new level of content, in their head they're thinking, if I do it for a few weeks, if it's not been successful, that's it. I'm not doing it anymore.

I'm not going to waste my time. And I get it. I get that we have so much to do, and I don't want you to waste your time. However, I also want you to realise that you can't expect to just do something today and it be a roaring success tomorrow. This isn't like the quote of Wayne's World two I think it was. "If you build it, they will come." No way. If you build it, and you market your backside off, and you give people good, consistent value, then they might pay attention. That's probably how that quote should sound.

So like I said, I don't want you to look at something and think, do you know what, I've done three Instagram posts and no one liked it. Uh uh, this is going to take a lot longer. I'm so sorry that I haven't been able to give you some magic formula or some secret thing that is suddenly going to make us all dreadfully successful and rich tomorrow. I really do wish that there was something out there like that. However, I really don't think there is. And I think the main difference between lots of entrepreneurs and the really successful ones is down to those key qualities. That drive, the goal, the consistency and the relentlessness to want to achieve and be brilliant at what you do.

 

Teresa’s plea to YOU

 

And you know what? You are brilliant. And I know there might be some people out there, who are doing what you do and might seem way ahead of the race than you, but please keep going. Please keep that consistent, hard work up because I promise it will pay off in the end. And if you start to lose faith, just think of some of these following examples. Steve Jobs got fired from Apple. Walt Disney was told that he lacked imagination. And Elvis was told he couldn't sing. Imagine if they had given up when they reached those hurdles. I really hope that you've enjoyed listening to today's podcast as much as I have enjoyed recording it. And if you have got some entrepreneur friends or some business owner friends, that you think would benefit from listening to this episode, maybe they need a boost, or they need to remember to keep going. Then please share it with them. As always, I really do appreciate you listening. And I can't wait to see you next time.

Key Takeaways Covered In The Podcast

All new business owners face the same three challenges involving self-motivation, time management and work-life balance.

New business owners make their own lives harder by playing the comparison game with other entrepreneurs in our space. We must stop doing this!

New tools, techniques, platforms and systems are releasing all the time. It can be difficult to not get wrapped up in all the “new” that you need to do.

Drive, consistency and relentlessness are key to success in

The one thing you need to remember above all else…

“If you build it, they will come,” doesn’t apply in the entrepreneurial world. It’s more like this: If you build it and you market your backside off and you give it consistent attention, THEN they might come. Success takes time and effort! Please keep going and keep up the hard work!

“I've missed more than 9000 shots in my career. I've lost almost 300 games. 26 times, I've been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I've failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.”Michael Jordan

Highlights You Simply Can’t Miss

Teresa’s challenges when starting her own business – 2:21

The main challenges new business owners face – 3:15

The syndrome all entrepreneurs suffer from, especially in social media – 5:25

Entrepreneurial Myth #1: Everyone else is an overnight success – 7:21

Characteristics of successful entrepreneurs – 9:12

Entrepreneurial Myth #2: That success is easy and will come quickly – 10:23

Teresa’s plea to YOU – 15:13

Links to Resources Mentioned in Today’s Episode

Amy Porterfield’s podcast, episode 203

Want the full transcript?

Click to Download!

KEY TAKEAWAYS COVERED IN THE PODCAST

• Instagram is the second largest social media platform, coming in just behind Facebook.
• InstaStories only last for 24 hours.
• Instagram Stories allow you to bring authenticity and vulnerability to your digital footprint.
• Business is all about the human to human (H2H) relationship.
• Use InstaStories to broaden the topics you share with your audience.

THE ONE THING YOU NEED TO REMEMBER ABOVE ALL ELSE…Doing business is really all about the human-to- human (H2H) relationship. People are seeking real connections with those they may choose to do business with. Through using Stories in Instagram, you can get people to know, like and trust you.HIGHLIGHTS YOU SIMPLY CAN'T MISS

• A newbie’s insight into Instagram’s basic features – 01:49
• How to create an InstaStory – 02:40
• Why Instagram Stories are so good for business – 04:08
• The importance behind showing people who you really are – 06:30
• InstaStories allow you to bring greater variety into your online presence – 10:22
• What to post about on Instagram – 11:50
• Take Teresa’s InstaStory challenge! – 13:07

LINKS TO RESOURCES MENTIONED IN TODAY'S EPISODE

• Follow Teresa on Instagram
• Jasmine Star

Transcript below

 

Hello and a really warm welcome to this week's episode of the Social Media Marketing Made Simple podcast, thank you so much for joining me, I really do appreciate it. I really hope that you are enjoying the content that we're putting together. My main aim is to work with entrepreneurs, business owners and marketers like yourself in order to help you improve your marketing using social media for your business.

So this week is a topic that I am super excited about. I love Instagram. Now, if you're not following me on Instagram please head over and find me. Just type Teresa Heath Wareing and I'll be there. I love it and I also think the potential for Instagram is huge. If you don't know, Instagram is the second largest platform that's out there. Facebook being the first. It's also owned by Facebook so all of the cool, amazing features that you have on Facebook in terms of advertising, you also have in Instagram as well.

But the bit that I want to talk about today is InstaStories. Instagram Stories. I think that this a great way for you to be able to reach out to a tuck audience and use it for your business. And I want to talk you through I think you can be doing that. But, before I jump in to telling you how I think Instagram Stories is so good for your business, I want to tell you a little bit about what is, in case it's something that you've not seen before, or you don't know about.

Let me explain the features.

 

A newbie’s insight into Instagram’s basic features

 

First off, when you go Instagram app you will notice, that if you're looking at your feed that there will be pictures and profiles of people with kind of multicoloured circles around them at the top of your feed. This is where you're going to find other people's Instagram Stories. If you tap that you'll be taken to a full screen image on your phone, and it will be a story that's playing. Now it can be an image or a video or something called a boomerang, but basically it's kind of snippets of little bits of information that that person has decided to put out there.

It's important to know that the information their putting in their Instastories will only last for 24 hours and then it disappears. It also won't appear in the grid where your normal Instagram posts are seen.

 

How to create an InstaStory

 

So if you want to an Instastory, you go to your main feed, and you swipe to the right where you will be taken to camera mode, and you're going to be able to record and take photos for Instagram Stories then. Because I don't want to take too much time on this podcast explaining how to do Instastories and also I find visual things so much easier. It's quite hard to explain what I mean on a podcast rather than just showing you in a video. If you go to theresaheathwareing.com/8, look at the show notes, and you will find a link to a video that shows you how to do an Instagram Story. And, don't worry if you're completely brand new to this, no problem, I've got you.

So in the Instagram story video I have included things like how to record a video, take photos, how to upload your own photos. Then once you've got a photo, how to add text. The different types of text you can add, the different colours you can choose. How to colour pic a colour that's in the photo, that's super cool. The how to tag other people, put in a gif and also things like how to add locations. So no problem if you're brand new to it, like I said, head over to teresaheathwareing.com/8 and download.

Okay, so we have the basics of how to get started, and you're going to head over and get the video, so you know what to do on the actual app.

 

Why Instagram Stories are so good for business

 

But why do I think it's so good for business? Let me start by talking to you about the two buzzwords I have heard over and over and over again for the past probably 12 - 18 months. They are authenticity and vulnerability, Authenticity has been talked about a huge amount when it comes to business. Basically what this is alluding to is the more the world get digital the more that we apparently get further away from each other because we're in this digital world rather than walking into a shop and speaking to someone. The more we want to know about people the more I want to be confident that if I'm going to come and buy from you, or if I'm going to employ your services or engage in your social media that you are a real person.

Now one of the other ways that I have suggested in which you can show your authenticity is through live video. And I know that when I talk about live video people just clam up, and they don't want to do it and it scares them, and I totally get that. I feel the same way. So if I were to turn around to you tomorrow and said, "Can you get on Facebook and do a live video for 20 minutes?" Or, if I were to say, "Can you do a 15 second little snippet of you or your day or something that you're doing?" Which one do you think you'd feel more comfortable in doing. Absolutely, the 15 second snippet, and that's what Instastories is doing.

It's allowing you to go on and do very short videos or pictures or boomerangs about your day and what it is that you do and who you are. It allows the viewer to see the real person behind the business or behind the personality and it gives them something that they can engage with. It makes you feel like you're in that person's world or that you are almost becoming friends with them. And this probably sounds a little bit weird right now, I apologise, but actually, I don't know about you, but kind of imagine celebrity status where you feel like you know them because you've seen so much of them, and that's what an Instastory is allowing you to do, It's allowing you to show a bit of your world to people so that they can engage with you.

 

The importance behind showing people who you really are

 

The reason we want to do this, the reason we want to show them what we're doing in our day or who we are is because of the fact that people buy of people. I've been to so many conferences where they use the line "It's not B to B, it's not B to C, it's H to H, human to human." Alright it's a little bit cheesy but, it's true. We buy off people, we are human buying off other humans. And if I can get to know you, then I am more likely to build a bond with you. So yesterday, I'm going to give you an example. I was watching a live webinar from Jasmine Star, if you haven't seen her, then go check her out because she's awesome. She's all about Instagram, she's a photographer, she is really killing it over there. But I watched this webinar and I knew at the end of the webinar Jasmine was going to be selling something, it was going to be a course or a group or something that would help my business.

Now I have watched Jasmine over a long time. I watch her Instastories, I've met her when I was in San Diego and I have really become to like her and trust her and feel like I know her. Before the webinar was even up, I went and got my purse and I sat there with my card in hand, I am not kidding you. I didn't know, A. What she was selling, or B. How much it was going to cost. And I had my card in my hand and I was ready to buy from her and the minute she said, this is what I'm going to sell, this is how much it is going to cost, I put my details in and I bought it.

Now you might be sitting there thinking, you've got more money than sense. I can assure you that isn't the case, but what I'm trying to prove to you is because I had seen her so much, because she had shown much of her, what's she's like, who she is, I've become to really like her and thought that she was a really nice person, she did really good content and I could really resinate with here, and therefore when she had something that she was telling me was going to help my business I trusted her implicitly.

Now I have bought it, I took a quick look last night and it does look awesome and we'll soon see because it's all about Instagram. So if you go check me out over on Instagram then you'll see whether I'm making improvements or not. But I am just trying to prove the point that even though it might seem completely stupid and sometimes it feels like that to me as well, that you're Instagramming or you're putting on Instastories, oh look, I've just woken up, oh look, I'm having a coffee, oh look, I'm setting up for my podcast. Although sometimes it can feel like what on earth am I doing and who cares. Actually, do you know what? Stick with it because there is going to be someone out there thinking, oh that's cool, I've always wanted to do a podcast and I didn't realise it was as easy as putting a mic in front of your screen and putting two massive cushions either side of you to help suck up the same.

Like I said it might feel like this is all a bit ridiculous but I promise you it really is a great tool in terms of getting people to engage with you and getting them to know, like and trust you. And we don't buy from someone until we know, like and trust them.

The next reason I think it's so good for your business is because it's a very low investment thing, not only for you but also the person watching. I don't have to sit there and take in a webinar or a huge blog post or watch a really long Facebook live to get to know you. I can literally go onto my phone and be flicking through Instagram Stories and get snippets of you every single day that are lasting less than a few minutes tops. So for me I think it's a great way of demonstrating who you are. Getting people to engage with you without having to invest huge amounts of time for yourself and other people.

 

InstaStories allow you to bring greater variety into your online presence

 

The other thing I like about it is that you can be a bit fun, a bit different. You can mess around with the type of things you are doing on there to make it that bit more engaging for people to watch.

So, you don't have to be as professional. Now obviously remember there's always a tone of voice in which you or your business has to adhere to, but because it is an Instastory because it goes after 24 hours, because it is little snippets into your world you can be a little bit more quirky, a little bit more fun, and like I said show a bit more of your personal side on it. So for instance, if I was going away for the weekend or if I'm going to have drinks with friends or if I'm doing something with my daughter then I would probably show that on Instastory, that wouldn't bother me, whereas I wouldn't necessarily go and post that as a Facebook post or write a blog post about it. I wouldn't do a live about me going out for the day with my daughter. On Instagram Stories, like I said it's really short, it's really un-intrusive and you just show a little bit about your day and actually people engage with that sort of stuff.

People will DM you, they will send you a message, oh yeah, I went there, or I did that, oh yeah, that's such a good idea. I never though of that. Again it's really, really useful as an engagement tool. I really hope that you can see why I think this is a cool tool for engagement and showing your authenticity and I really hope I've inspired you to get going.

 

What to post about on Instagram

 

But I know what you're going to ask me "What do I post about?" this is always the biggest challenge, or one of the biggest challenges on social media, content.

Now with Instagram Stories go for your life, whatever you want to post about. To give you a few ideas I will do things like, I follow my day through, so in the morning I might show my cup of coffee and say good morning or post that I'm getting started. Today for instance I put a picture up of the street where I live, or the road where I live, because it's the greatest horribleness day ever and I'm so sick of it, so I put a post up this morning that was like, wow, then is the sun coming? I also then posted to say that I was recording this podcast. I might post later on in the day something about the podcast that's out this week. I might talk about a latest blog post. So you can do a real mix of business things and also personal things. My daughter is due back with me later on today so I might put a post up about her.

So like I said, whatever you think really, you can check quotes, you can write just things, you can take photos, you can do videos. You can do quirky boomerangs. I encourage you to use your imagination and see what you can come up with.

 

Take Teresa’s InstaStory challenge!

 

And to get you started I'm going to set you a challenge. What I would like you to do is if you are listening to this podcast, I would like you to take a screenshot of the podcast on your screen if it's on your phone or a photo of it if you're listening on a computer and I want you to put that up as an Instastory and I want you to tag me in it. So if you're tagging someone you put the @ symbol and then you start typing their Instagram name.

Mine is @teresa_heathwareing, teresa, underscore heathwareing, which is all one word no hyphen so heathwaring, please tag me in it and then I will share your story on my timeline and to my followers. I'd love to see what you can come up with and I really hope that you've enjoyed today's podcast. I have loved talking about it. Like I said, my focus is going to be really on Instagram and Instagram Stories. So I really do hope that I've inspired you to get started and that I have encouraged you to come and follow me and see what I do.

As always, thank you so very much for listening. Until next time, take care.

Key Takeaways Covered In The Podcast

Instagram is the second largest social media platform, coming in just behind Facebook.

InstaStories only last for 24 hours.

Instagram Stories allow you to bring authenticity and vulnerability to your digital footprint.

Business is all about the human to human (H2H) relationship.

Use InstaStories to broaden the topics you share with your audience.

The one thing you need to remember above all else…

Doing business is really all about the human-to- human (H2H) relationship. People are seeking real connections with those they may choose to do business with. Through using Stories in Instagram, you can get people to know, like and trust you.

Highlights You Simply Can’t Miss

A newbie’s insight into Instagram’s basic features – 1:49

How to create an InstaStory – 2:40

Why Instagram Stories are so good for business – 4:08

The importance behind showing people who you really are – 6:30

InstaStories allow you to bring greater variety into your online presence – 10:21

What to post about on Instagram – 11:50

Take Teresa’s InstaStory challenge! – 13:15

Links to Resources Mentioned in Today’s Episode

Follow Teresa on Instagram

Jasmine Star

Want the full transcript?

Click to Download!

KEY TAKEAWAYS COVERED IN THE PODCAST

• Negative feedback occurs when people who have used your product or service and commented about their unhappiness on your social profiles or accounts.
• Spamming and trolling occur when someone decides to target you and your profile with abusive, inappropriate comments.
• How you respond to negative feedback is not the same way you respond to trolls or spammers. These require different approaches.
• Negative feedback requires a response. Reply as quickly as possible and attempt to move the conversation offline.
• There are limited situations in which you should ever hide or delete negative comments or posts. Learn what they are and learn how to handle the rest.

THE ONE THING YOU NEED TO REMEMBER ABOVE ALL ELSE…Everyone will encounter negativity online. Remember to never let one person’s awful comments stop you from being the successful person you can be.HIGHLIGHTS YOU SIMPLY CAN'T MISS

• The many ways you may encounter negativity online – 01:52
• The good thing about negative feedback – 02:39
• Teresa’s own experiences with negativity online – 04:38
• Tactics for responding to negative feedback – 07:11
• Tackling trolls and spammers – 10:06

Transcript below

 

Hello there, everyone, and thank you so much for joining me on episode number seven of the Social Media Marketing Made Simple Podcast, and I am your host,, Teresa Heath-Wareing. I am so glad you decided to come along today and I hope you are having a brilliant week.

I'm really excited about today's episode as I think this is something that most of people are going to be able to relate with that either they have experienced it themselves or they have a fear of it, so, today, I am talking about how to handle negative feedback, and trolls, and spamming online.

Like I said, I'm really excited about this. Maybe excited isn't the right word, but I am excited to share this because I think lots of people are going to experience this. Whether they have directly experienced it themselves, whether it's been some online comments about the business that they work in or manage their social media for, or whether you are lucky enough to never have experienced any negative comments on social media or online, but it worries you, and it worries you about putting yourself out there just in case someone does say or do something.

This is something that I have dealt with myself and, later on in the episode, I'm going to explain what happened and how it feels from a personal point of view because, actually, it's all well and good me telling you what to do in these scenarios, but when it happens to you, I can tell you, it feels a little bit different, and I'm going to talk you through how you can handle this and manage it going forward.

 

The many ways you may encounter negativity online

 

Before I dive in on how to handle these situations, I think it's important that we talk about the different types of situations there are, because the big difference between receiving negative feedback and someone, say, spamming or trolling you, so let's start with negative feedback.

If you are a business or a service and you put yourself online and you're on social media, and someone goes onto any of those social media platforms or forums or onto your website through the comments and decides that they're going to put a comment about your business where they have expressed that they're not very happy with the service that they received. They said something about the product wasn't very good or they didn't like the way a member of the staff treated them or whatever it was. This is negative feedback. This isn't spamming and this isn't trolling.

 

The good thing about negative feedback

 

Negative feedback should actually be seen as a good thing. I know you're going to think, "Teresa, you've lost your mind," but, I promise you, I haven't. If your service or product isn't where it needs to be, then, obviously, you need to know about that. You need people to tell you what is wrong with your product or service so that you can improve it.

However, like with most things, there is an exception to the rule. Some people do just like to moan because that's their thing. In most cases, you're going to have constructive feedback from people rather than just people being mean for the sake of being mean, but this is what we mean by negative feedback, someone who's actually used your product or service and wasn't happy with the outcome.

Also, in most cases of negative feedback, once they have gone on and said what was wrong and had a response from you, then they tend to then just leave it. They won't be coming back every week to keep repeating the same thing, and this is where it differs from spamming and trolling.

Now, what spamming and trolling is is when someone has decided for whatever reason, and the key thing here is not to take it personally, although it's really hard to do, for whatever reason, they've decided that they're going to be targeting you and your profile. These are people who have not used your service normally or you don't even know. They might know you. They can be local, but they are deciding to target you with normally abusive or personal comments.

They might comment on the photos and say not nice things or constantly reply to your tweets by sending some abuse or just saying things that aren't appropriate, and, in these cases, they can be relentless. They can do it over and over and over again. Hopefully, you can see that these are two very different things and, therefore, when we deal with them, we will do it in two very different ways.

 

Teresa’s own experiences with negativity online

 

But before I dive in, I mentioned earlier on in the podcast that I had had some experience of this myself and I wanted to share it with you.

Now, in terms of what actually happened, it wasn't massive. I had someone send me some tweets, kind of a barrage of tweets about me and what I did and they didn't like it, and I also had someone comment on some videos that I advertised, but the reason I wanted to share it with you is because it's a very different thing dealing with it yourself personally than it is if I was doing it for a business or I was helping a client with some negative feedback because of the fact, if I was working for a client, I'm not personally involved. That isn't hurting me because it's not about me, but when you do a job like mine or you are a personal brand, then, obviously, anything that anybody says is directly about you, and it hurts. It's not nice because most humans want to be liked by other humans and, when someone suddenly says something, it can really knock your confidence.

I remember that one of the days that these tweets came through, the following day, I was actually going to do a fairly large talk and I was terrified, and I sat there and doubted everything. I thought, "What if they're right? What if I'm not very good? What if I don't speak well on stage?" They really knocked my confidence and, instead of thinking about all those amazing comments that I've had, all the lovely people that come up to me and say they enjoyed my talk or thanked me for some training or they listened to the podcast, instead of thinking about all those, you focus on this one person and, like I said, it can be really hard, so I wanted to mention it because, if this happens to you, I want you to try your hardest to block that out, to basically step away and decide that, "You know what? You're not going to be liked by everybody," but think about all those lovely people who have said stuff and, "Actually, are you going to let this one person stop you?

When you're sucked there in it, you're thinking to yourself, "Oh, I'm just going to give up, you know. I don't want to receive this negative feedback. I don't want people to say mean things." Why would you let them stop you being the success that you can be? If it is about you personally, then, as hard as it is, and I'm going to tell you now, it is fairly hard, unless you've got an incredibly thick skin, and I thought I did, but I obviously haven't, so, my advice, just put it to the back of your mind and crack on.

Okay, so now we know the difference. How do you deal with them?

 

Tactics for responding to negative feedback

 

Let's look at negative feedback first. This is the one that I said was someone that had used your service or product and they weren't happy, and they've gone on to social media and they filled in something or they've replied to something or they've done a review and, basically, they've said some things that aren't very positive about the product or service that you have. Now, the very first thing you need to do is reply. Respond to them as quickly as possible. The next thing you need to do is try and take them offline as quickly as possible.

Now, in previous episodes, I've talked about the algorithm, this big, scary word that we use for a set of rules. One of the things about the algorithm is, the more that someone comments and connects with the post, the more that people see it, so, if you start getting into a discussion with someone out in the social media world, then more and more people are going to start seeing that post, so the very first thing you need to do is get them off social media.

One of the ways that I word negative feedback replies is, "Thank you so much for your comments. I am so sorry that you feel this way," or I would say, "I am so sorry that you'd have to reach out," or, "I'm so sorry that you've had this experience."

Now, in any of those responses, I am not saying, "We've done something wrong." I'm apologising for the fact that they've had to go to the effort to contact us, so, like I said, you thank them for their comments or you apologise for the fact that they'd have to do something and then, "I would really love to speak to you about this. Please contact me on," or, "Please contact us through the direct messages," or, "I have sent you a direct message."

You are acknowledging that they've sent you a message. You're thanking them because, as I said earlier, we want this feedback, ideally, on the positive stuff, but that's fine. We have to have the negative some time. You are apologising for the fact that they've had to go to the effort to say something, and then you're saying to them you are really interested to discuss it with them, but you're giving them an alternative way in which to discuss it.

Hopefully, that makes sense. The key thing is responding and getting them off social media as quickly as possible. Often, when people moan on social media, they just want to be heard, so just respond to them and, obviously, be genuinely interested as to what the problem was, but, in most cases, if it's a genuine problem, they will either send you a direct message or they will contact you and you'll be able to resolve it that way.

With negative feedback, I wouldn't suggest deleting or hiding the post. The only time I would do this on negative feedback is if they have used abusive language or they have said something that really isn't appropriate, they've used bad language, but, otherwise, I leave the post up there, and, like I said, it's more about your response to it than necessarily the negative post in the beginning.

 

Tackling trolls and spammers

 

This point brings us nicely onto spamming and trolling and how we deal with them. As I said earlier, spamming and trolling are people that haven't used your service or your product. They have just decided to go to your account and, normally, send you inappropriate or offensive comments or posts. The only way that I see to deal with people like this is to hide and block and delete.

You could try and respond to them with a positive comment. However, I suspect that that would just encourage them more, and it hasn't seemed to have helped in the past. Like I said, I kind of wouldn't waste my time. I would just delete them and hide them and block them from doing it again.

I really hope that this has been helpful and you have enjoyed this week's episode, and I really look forward to seeing you again this time next week.

Key Takeaways Covered In The Podcast

Negative feedback occurs when people who have used your product or service and commented about their unhappiness on your social profiles or accounts.

Spamming and trolling occur when someone decides to target you and your profile with abusive, inappropriate comments.

How you respond to negative feedback is not the same way you respond to trolls or spammers. These require different approaches.

Negative feedback requires a response. Reply as quickly as possible and attempt to move the conversation offline.

There are limited situations in which you should ever hide or delete negative comments or posts. Learn what they are and learn how to handle the rest.

The one thing you need to remember above all else…

Everyone will encounter negativity online. Remember to never let one person’s awful comments stop you from being the successful person you can be.

Highlights You Simply Can’t Miss

The many ways you may encounter negativity online – 1:52

The good thing about negative feedback – 2:39

Teresa’s own experiences with negativity online – 4:38

Tactics for responding to negative feedback – 7:11

Tackling trolls and spammers – 10:06

Want the full transcript?

Click to Download!

KEY TAKEAWAYS COVERED IN THE PODCAST

• When people are on your email list, you can market to them directly.
• Social media channels are not owned media. These social channels could disappear any day. If that happened, how would you stay in touch with your followers?
• As important as it is to build an audience on social media, it is vital that you get your followers onto your list.
• A great lead magnet helps you address your audience’s biggest problems.
• Content upgrades allow you to pull your podcast listeners and blog post readers in further by providing them with.
• There are considerations and rules you need to keep in mind when running competitions on Facebook or another social channel.
• Review your website on an ongoing basis to ensure you are providing clear opportunities for your visitors.

THE ONE THING YOU NEED TO REMEMBER ABOVE ALL ELSE…Social media is simply a part of your overarching marketing efforts. It should be integrated into all aspects of your marketing, such as list-building.HIGHLIGHTS YOU SIMPLY CAN'T MISS

• Why list-building is so important for your business – 01:59
• How list-building fits within social media marketing – 02:32
• Strategy #1 for building your email list: Creating a lead magnet – 03:48
• Strategy #2: Incorporate content upgrades into your podcast or blog posts - 05:19
• Strategy #3: Optimizing your Facebook page call to action - 07:02
• Strategy #4: Run a competition on social media for businesses with products – 07:59
• Strategy #5: Provide ample opportunities for visitors to engage with you on your website – 11:14

LINKS TO RESOURCES MENTIONED IN TODAY'S EPISODE

• WooBox
• Episode 2 - How Lead Magnets Help You Build Your List & Stay Connected With Your Followers

Transcript below

 

Hello and welcome. Teresa Heath-Wareing here and thank you for downloading episode number six of the Social Media Marketing Made Simple Podcast, I really do appreciate it. At the moment, I am recording each podcast pretty much week on week, which although I want to get to batching and don't worry I will do a session on that. Although I want to get to batching so that I can do a number of podcasts at the same time.

One of the great things about doing it week to week, is that I get to hear your feedback and I get to receive such lovely messages from people who have downloaded the podcast and listened to it. When I say thank you, I honestly truly, truly mean it. I really do appreciate you listening, and if you want to share it with people that you think it might help as well then I would really appreciate that too.

Onto episode number six. Today, I wanted to talk to you about list building, and I know you might be sat there thinking, but what has this got to do with social media. Well it's got everything to do with social media, and also the reason I wanted to come in fairly early on episode number six, with something that was a little bit outside social media is because I wanted you to understand that social media is really a part of your marketing and should be seen integrated with all the other aspects of marketing your business.

Something like, list building sits really hand-in-hand with social media, and so does so many other things. Although, the podcast is Social Media Marketing Made Simple, I am going to be also talking about marketing your business in general and how that fits in the social media.

 

Why list-building is so important for your business

 

So let's dive in. Why is building an email list important to your business? Well, it always has been from as long as I've worked in marketing which is near in 14 years now. Getting people onto email list has always been really, really important because when people are on your email list you're able to market to them directly. Now we have amazing things like custom audiences with Facebook, you were able to create an audience. I took your e-mail list.

 

How list-building fits within social media marketing

 

It always has been and still is super useful to build your list, but where does this fit in with social media? Well, first off you know I am a huge fan of social media. I love it and I think it can be really effective for many different businesses. However, there is always a word of warning with social media. This platform does not belong to you and your business. Therefore, all your followers that you might have on Twitter or Facebook. If tomorrow something went wrong i.e. you broke a term and condition or they decided that they didn't want to trade on that platform anymore, that actually Twitter said, "Do you know [inaudible 00:03:08] shutting." I don't think they're going to but what if they did?

Then suddenly my 13,000 followers on Twitter would disappear overnight and I would have no idea how to get access to those people. As much as it's important to build a following on social media and engage with your audience using social media, it is also just as important and vital that you try and get them off the social media and into your own email list.

Today, I have got five tried and tested strategies that you can use to enable to grow your email list.

 

Strategy #1 for building your email list: Creating a lead magnet

 

Let's get started with strategy number one, create a lead magnet. Well, back in episode two, I did a more detailed overview of what a lead magnet was and how it can help your business. If you want to find out more information please go back and re-listen to that episode.

However, it was so important that I included it in these top strategies because it can be such a strong one in terms of building your list. Effectively what a lead magnet is, is a bit of information or something that you aren't giving away for free in order for them to give you their email address. A couple of good examples would be if you have written a book you might want to give them two free chapters of your book, and in order for them to get them they would have to give you their email address.

Or let's say you're nutritionist, you might want to put together a PDF of the list of foods someone might eat if they want more energy. Effectively, you're trying to identify a problem that your potential customers have and that you can help with and give them some free information that can help them with that problem. If you are going to do a lead magnet then make sure you put it everywhere and you tell everybody putting it on your website, having it on your e-mail signature. Then of course you can put it on social media.

If you wanted to take a step further, you could even advertise it through something like Facebook ads manager.

 

Strategy #2: Incorporate content upgrades into your podcast or blog posts

 

Strategy number two leads on really nicely from the lead magnet because it's very, very similar. However, this is going a step further and can be super effective. This is what we call a content upgrade. Let me explain. If you are writing a blog or doing a podcast or providing any kind of regular content to people that they are using, then one of the ways in which you can maximise those people coming to listen to the podcast or reading your blog is on maybe every other episode, or every other blog, by offering them something that they can download in addition to what they've just read or heard.

One of the examples that I would use is, I wrote a blog post about lead magnets and about what they were. Then as the content upgrade I said to people that I would give them a list of I think it was like 25 lead magnets that they could use in their business. The idea is, if they've just sat and read that blog post or listened to that podcast that obviously interested in what it is you're saying and therefore they might be interested in some additional information to take them that step further. And the content upgrade can just be something that's helpful.

If you go to Theresaheathwearing.com/six, in the show notes you will find a download available to you that lists these five strategies that I'm talking through and also gives you a couple of ideas on how you can use those strategies. So please go ahead and download it there.

 

Strategy #3: Optimizing your Facebook page call to action

 

Strategy number three, is a simple but effective one. If you have a Facebook page you will see that under your cover photo which is the big image at the top of your page, there is a call to action button and you are able to edit that call to action button to say so many different things. One of the things that you can get it to say is 'sign up'.

When you choose this option, Facebook will ask you to put in a web address. Either you send them over to your page on your website your contact us or your sign up page, or you can create a specific landing page just for Facebook sign ups. This is a really simple but effective one that you can implement with no problem whatsoever. If you're not sure where I'm on about no problem, just head over and get that PDF I mentioned and I have put an image in there to show you where it is that you can change this.

 

Strategy #4: Run a competition on social media for businesses with products

 

Strategy number four is for those of you who have a physical product or maybe have a physical location, and this is competitions or discounts. Now again it's very similar to the lead magnet that I talked about. However, it is specifically for people who have a product of some sort. Now, one of the things that you can't do if you have a product is just give away loads of free products, that obviously would not make financial sense.

However, what you can do that works amazingly wow, you can offer either a discount off your product or multiples of your products or a competition. Now, social media and competitions go so well, they are just awesome, and you will be able to reach a really large audience and the shareability factor of that competition is great.

Another word of warning now I'm afraid, it is actually against Facebook's terms and conditions to do a like and share competition. It's the share element that's the issue. They have no problem with you saying, you must like this page to enter into the competition. They do however have a problem with you saying, you must share this page to enter the competition. Just a little word of warning there. Just to make sure you stay away from that share word, but don't limit yourself to just like and share competitions. There are loads of possibilities. You could do things like tag a friend, take a photo, answer a question.

However, the main thing in all of this is that in order to enter the competition you want them to handover their email address. To do this, it's going to take a little bit of work because you're going to have to set up the ability for them to do that obviously. One of the ways in which I do this is either I would set up a landing page using something like lead pages.

I'll put a link to it in the show notes, or you could possibly use another system called Woodbox, which is set up just for competitions on something like Facebook where they will enable you to take people's e-mail addresses straight through the platform of Facebook. Have a look at both of those, like set up, I'll put the links in my show notes so that you can check them out.

One of the considerations you need to make when deciding what competition you're going to do is that you have to give them a prize that is worth them going to the effort of giving you the email address. For instance, if you would giving away a really low end prize that didn't cost a great deal then you would probably do something like a like competition i.e., they just like your page, but of course you wouldn't get the email address.

However, if you did something that was a bigger value competition because you are asking them to do more then they are more likely to give you that email address. Again, make sure you put this competition everywhere on your websites, on social media. You could even change that cover photo that I talked about earlier and turn that into the competition cover photo.

Also, don't forget that email signature. This is such a simple one that so many people forget because you're using it all the time. Make sure you include the competition on that as well.

 

Strategy #5: Provide ample opportunities for visitors to engage with you on your website

 

Onto strategy number five. I'm going to finish on what is a fairly simple one but one that gets missed all the time.

When was the last time you went and looked at your websites as if you were a new person as if you would never been on that site before? How many opportunities are you giving me to sign up to your newsletter, or to engage with you in some way or another? You know what so many people miss this, they think they don't want to bombard their website with calls to actions, with sign up here, do this now but the point is, we don't use your website like you use it.

You will go onto it and you see almost every single page, you are constantly manoeuvring through it and therefore if you see three or four calls to action you're going to look at it and think, "Oh man, I'm really sick of that. I don't want to see anymore." However, when a user goes to your website they might just be going to one page, they might just be coming to maybe your home page and then reading your by 'about us' page.

How many people have calls to action on their 'about us' page? Not many. Or they might be going straight to a blog post and once they've read that blog post they might come away from your site again.

Even though when you go to your site you feel like it's screaming at them sign up, sign up, sign up, everywhere they go. All you are doing is trying to maximise every opportunity of anybody coming to any page on that website that they have got an ability to engage with you in some way.

On the last strategy, I want you to go and do a bit of work. I'm sorry about that, but I want to go to your website and look at it as if you are brand new, and on every page ask yourself and this is something actually I probably need to do myself but ask yourself where can I sign up, or what is this page asking me to do.

Like I said, that's definitely one I probably need to do myself sometime soon. There we have it, my five strategies to building your e-mail list. I really hope it's been helpful and that you've enjoyed today's podcast. If you have and you would like to give me a review then I would love that. Head on over to iTunes where you can leave that review. Also as I've said before I would love to hear what you would like me to talk about on the podcast.

Please don't be shy. Drop me an e-mail. Head over to my Facebook page Teresa Heath-Wareing and tell me what you want me to talk about. I can't wait to see you here again next week and until then have a brilliant week and I will see you soon.