Marketing and psychology go hand in hand. You can’t have a strong marketing plan without understanding how your ideal client thinks. What makes one piece of marketing stand out – while another piece flops?
Here are a 6 hacks when it comes to using psychology in your marketing:
FOMO
The human brain is wired to avoid losses and seek equivalent gains. We are always on the lookout for a better deal, and that includes online. Modern studies show we prefer not to lose out when there’s an opportunity of gaining something else instead – just like in practice! One great example would be how Amazon has these “Deal Of The Day” offers where you can get savings by setting up timing so it happens automatically every day at specific times (and they make us buy faster too).
The Zeigarnik Effect
The Zeigarnik Effect is the tendency for tasks which have been interrupted and uncompleted to be better remembered than tasks which have been completed. We all know that feeling of looking away from your desk and realizing you’ve been sitting there for 30 minutes without doing anything. You don’t want to forget about those unfinished tasks, but it’s hard when you constantly need reminders!
E-Commerce platforms use SMS marketing as one way they remind their previous customers about left in cart items soakers get them completed–and this works because we humans treasure our time more than anything else.
Cognitive Dissonance
Cognitive dissonance is a term for the state of discomfort felt when two or more modes of thought contradict each other. The clashing cognitions may include ideas, beliefs, or the knowledge that one has behaved in a certain way.
Cognitive dissonance strategies that require a consumer to reconcile two conflicting views by buying a product can be effective in marketing, especially if the reconciliation of opposing views protects or enhances the consumer’s self-image.
For instance, you consider yourself a savvy automotive enthusiast. In the course of a visit to a high-end auto dealership, the salesperson emphasizes that “a lot of Americans aren’t sophisticated enough to understand why this car is actually a great buy.” On the one hand, if you resist the sales pitch for this very expensive car, you appear unsophisticated; on the other hand, if you agree, then you’re progressing down the marketing patch toward the purchase of a car you can’t afford.
Faced with this kind of cognitive dissonance, many consumers will go along with the sales pitch to avoid being viewed as an unsophisticated person without the real knowledge required to fully appreciate the car.
Decoy Effect
This Psychology Hack is ruined now as its not just limited to marketers. Viral videos have educated everyone about this but it still works.
In Decoy effect, you use a product with 3 Tiers and the price of 2nd and 3rd product tier has a small difference which makes customer go for the 3rd and most expensive tier.
A common example is Starbucks Pricing strategy A large coffee is $6.5, Medium is $6 and the Small is $5. This pricing makes you go for the large as the difference is small and you think you are actually saving on choosing the large coffee.
Pricing Protocol
Does the way you write a price make it seem higher or lower? Of course! We already know that including a currency symbol can have a negative effect – that’s why you see some restaurants pricing a steak at “29” instead of “$29”. But new research shows that punctuation and decimals can make a difference in how people perceive prices.
According to a new study published in the Journal of Consumer Psychology, prices that have more syllables when spoken actually seem higher to consumers. Commas (e.g., “$1,699”) and cents after the decimal (e.g., “1699.00”) add to the number of syllables and hence make the price seem to be of higher magnitude. This effect occurs even when the price is written and not spoken – our brains, they say, use the auditory representation in storing the magnitude of the price even when the price is only seen visually.
The effect is due to the way one would express the number verbally: “One thousand six hundred ninety nine,” for the comma version, vs. “sixteen ninety nine” for the unpunctuated version. Visual length may also be a factor.
Social Proof
Social proof is a psychological phenomenon, popularized by Dr. Robert Cialdini, that describes our tendency to rely on the opinions or actions of others to inform our own. Also known as informational social influence, it validates a shopper’s choice, saying that it’s worth their time, money, or interest by using other people as proof.
Whether you’re familiar with social proof or not, chances are it has influenced decisions, both big and small, throughout your life. Leveraging the appeal of following the “wisdom of the crowd,” social proof captures our attention because we’re naturally curious about what’s happening, why it’s happening, and what the correct behavior or response is.
Social proof makes people pause to pay attention to a brand because others are saying that it’s worth paying attention to.
Marketing is a very tricky business. You have to be aware of your audience’s behavior, as well as the underlying motivation that would impact their buying decisions in order for your marketing campaign or plan to work effectively- which can sometimes seem almost too difficult!
Having that foundation in psychology can greatly improve your marketing strategy. I don’t believe there isn’t a marketer out there who doesn’t appreciate the psychology behind their marketing.
Goals! We all have them, but do we get the results we are driving for?
Getting results isn’t always easy to do. If it were, we most likely would not take the time to put energy into achieving it because it would come easy to us. That’s why it’s a goal. It’s something that challenges us, takes us out of our comfort zone, and puts us on our desired path.
This week, I had the opportunity to speak to Kellan Fluckiger, author and speaker. Kellan came through decades of addiction, depression, and a near-death experience. He shares his story of overcoming each of those obstacles and becoming a catalyst for living your ultimate life, which also happens to be the name of his podcast!
Coming through decades of depression, addictions, life-threatening illness, and a near-death experience, Kellan has become the ultimate catalyst to help motivated people melt barriers, move mountains and mobilize superpowers to achieve their true desires.
As a coach and keynote speaker, Kellan’s masterful approach helps people get past old stories, change beliefs and create a life context to reach even goals that seemed impossible.
Links mentioned in Business Coffee Break with Deanna
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Transcript
Deanna: [00:00:00] Hello. And welcome back to Business Coffee break with Deanna. Deanna Hinsz, is a digital marketing strategist speaker, a proud supporter of messy hair buttons and comfy clothes. And multi-purpose entrepreneur that believes that everyone can create a life they love each week. I’m bringing you information that will inspire, educate, and challenge you in growing your business online.
Thanks for spending time with me today. So grab your coffee and let’s go.
Well, thank you so much Kaelin for joining me today. As I said, Kaelin is an author, a speaker performer, executive catalyst, he is flipping amazing and has so much energy. Just the short time that I spoke to him. You can just see the energy just oozing out of his poor. So Kellen, thank you so much for joining me today.
Kellan: Deanna, thank you for having me. And I want to honor you because a podcast, [00:01:00] video, audio, both either is a labor of love. You do a lot of work, you pour your heart and soul into it. You have a purpose and mission. And I love those people that have gotten mission-driven lives. And so I want to honor you for the effort and work you’re putting in for yourself and for your audio.
Well, thank you so much Kellan and Kellan. I’m going to have you say your last name because I will slaughter it. Yeah. You know, it’s funny because in the industry I was in, I was in the energy industry for 30 years, from 1977 to 2007. And I had, you know, really high profile, high profile executive and this, that, and the other, but either because my last name is so complex.
Or because I was such a high-profile person, which is also true. I bodyguard at one time. Anyway, I was a one-name person. Kellen is Kellen coming, you know, Kellen this, calling that, but anyway, the last name is pronounced fluky girl flew key. It’s weird. It’s Swiss and I love it. You know, I love names that are unique and [00:02:00] everybody’s slaughtered my name too.
Deanna: So my maiden name, and then they mispronounced my, my married name. And I’m okay with that because it’s different. That’s what everybody does. It’s. Yeah. That’s my first thought was because it doesn’t have the E in it, but I, I would’ve thought hints, but most people will say Hines and I cried some, so, so I get it.
That’s what you’re talking about all the time is how to create. Amazing and wonderful life. So let’s start with before we get into how to actually do this and what these five steps look like. How did you get [00:03:00] started speaking on this topic and writing on this topic?
Kellan: I had a 30-year career, as I mentioned, energy and a big hoopla and a lot of money.
Yeah. Fame and all that jazz, but behind the scenes, I was a very unhappy, miserable person. I’d struggled with depression all my life. I was raised in a very strict religious home, which included a lot of discipline that today would be felony child abuse. I would have been removed from the home, that sort of thing.
It left me feeling not good enough. And even though I was blessed with a lot of brains that the drive that I had to accomplish something was all based on. I got approved myself to particularly my mom because she was the one. The discipline. My dad was there, but he was working most of the time. So anyway, I lived and I never talked to anyone.
It was all private hide it. So I lived a dual life, a life of ostentatious wealth, power, and position on the outside. And behind the scenes, I was a wreck. I burned through multiple relationships. I had addiction issues. I struggled. And it was like a movie where [00:04:00] you have whoa, on one side and oh crap on the other side.
So it was kind of like that. And that went on for 35 years. From the time I left home 17 until 52 and at 52, in 2007, I basically had a divine intervention. God said, look, you know, this isn’t a. And obviously, there’s never any force involved. It’s always an invitation, but the invitation was so strong and powerful that I got sober.
In one day I was addicted to cocaine at $3,000 a week and I was making so much money. That didn’t matter. It was lunch money, but I was a rack disaster wasting money, like crazy and living a company. Dual life, like, you know, life in the fast lane, kind of nonsense and it’s tragic. And the only reason it’s important now is two reasons.
One, it created in me and a tremendous sense of empathy and patience and compassion for [00:05:00] those that are struggling with any kind of barrier. And the other reason is after the invitation, which there were two parts. And the second part brought the wife, my wife, joy and her name’s joy into my life 14 years ago in a magic occurrence that can’t happen either.
Um, in a way that has allowed me to pursue my ultimate life, which is to help right now, my. Go with my, my near-term goal is to help 10 million people discover, develop, and serve with their divine gifts. And that’s through writing and podcasting. I have a coaching practice. I run seminars, that kind of stuff.
Uh, amazing. I don’t even know where to begin with all that you don’t mental health and addiction is pretty common. I think everybody who’s listening, everybody that we come in contact with knows. One person who’s dealing with either one or both of those things. How did you know? I know you said there was a divine [00:06:00] intervention and in one day you got sober.
Deanna: How did you do that? Like what spoke to you? And I know everybody is different, but
Kellan: Friday night, a Friday night in August of 2007, this was at the height of everything. I was making that so much money that kind of waste on drugs didn’t matter. But I was a total disaster. I came home on a Friday night in August of 2007.
And, uh, was getting ready to go out and party for the weekend. I have 10 children from three failed marriages. Uh, and four of them were teenagers living with me and I was a single dad for the third time. And so I, I was getting ready to go out party for the weekend and it literally would have been until Monday or Tuesday.
And, um, as I ready to go out. I had this urge to turn on the TV. Now that doesn’t sound like anything, except they didn’t watch TV. And I didn’t even know how to turn it on. I’d had the local electronics people come in and put in the biggest, coolest, you know, all that jazz you can have because of course that’s [00:07:00] what you buy.
Right. But I didn’t watch the, so I didn’t even know how to turn it on. So I had to have one of my kids come in and show me how to turn it on. My 16-year-old daughter turned it on remote, threw it at me, stomped out of the room. And so Atlanta. I didn’t know any programs, but it landed accidentally on a program titled Intervention.
Now, Intervention, if you don’t know, as a reality TV show about families who stage interventions for busted loved ones. Yay. So I watched about 10 minutes of it and the protagonist was a high-ranking executive of the cocaine problem. So I’m sitting, thinking, okay, that’s me screw this. I’m not watching it.
So I turned it off something around the house for a few more minutes and getting ready to go out. And I just felt compelled to turn it on again. So this is known quite a bit later, 15, 20 minutes after the later. And that program started over at the beginning and no, I don’t have a DVR and no, it wasn’t on the schedule and no, it can’t do that.
So I thought, okay, I’m supposed to watch this scared me to death actually. So I sat down and watched it. It went really badly. The guy yelled at [00:08:00] his family, stomped out, wouldn’t take the help. You know, it went really badly, but that scared me enough that I didn’t go out. And when. So when I went to bed, I went to help.
And what I mean by that is I was in a out of body somewhere. I had this experience of everything that had happened in my life from when I was young and had the crap beat out of me all the time to my own, it all focused around the sorrow. The pain and suffering that I had either been given or that I had inflicted on others.
So it was this long, slow drama, not in an angry, screaming way at anybody, but just the truth rolling out before my eyes. And after a long time I heard a voice and it said it is enough and it wasn’t an angry voice. It just, it is enough. So I came to. I woke up, came to whatever, and it was Saturday afternoon at five o’clock.
So 18 hours. I had been somewhere and I [00:09:00] realized I got up, but I realized. I had been invited in the most profound way, suitable for my thick-headedness, I suppose, to change my life. And I knew I have to get out of the business. I have to get out of this industry. I have to completely walk away from all this.
So I got up and I threw a thousand dollars worth of stuff away that I had laying around and quit cold turkey and never touched the. And, and that was for part one part it’s because that got me sober, but it didn’t do anything with the decades of depression that I had never talked to anyone about two weeks later, I hadn’t resigned or the contracts that I had, and I had millions of dollars worth of contracts, but I walked away from, I walked away from the entire industry.
All of it. But before I did that two weeks later, because of the position that I held, I used to get free stuff. I made decisions that were worth billions of dollars to different companies. And people were really nice to me. They gave me stuff, you know, tickets and expensive bottles of wine and you know, all that kind of stuff.
And [00:10:00] one of the things I got were two tickets to see a Yo-yo Ma. And if you’re classical, I think about classical music, you know who that is. If you don’t, you know, it’s fine, but he’s like, Right. Okay. Well, I didn’t want to waste this other ticket and I’m single for the third time. So I went to the groups that I managed and I said, who likes classical music?
And some lady in one of the groups said, well, I do. And I said, if I ever given you anything before, and she said, no, I said, okay, fine here. See you there. So I gave her the ticket and we met at a concert and we halfway through the show and it was electrifying amazing. I had this feeling that I recognized from two weeks before and I’m stone cold, sober.
Now two weeks. Straight up. And this feeling came over me and the voice said to me, you need to marry this woman. I said, you’re insane. I said, I failed spectacularly at that three times officially in some other stuff in between us. Yeah, no, not happening. And later that night we were backstage because of course they were backstage passes.
[00:11:00] So we’re back there meeting people and everything. And then I came back and said, comma, and you need to tell her tonight. Yeah, cause she can call a cop. She can have me arrested for harassment. I should come on. I don’t even know her that well, like this is nuts.
Well, she worked in my group for a long time, but I, one of the pillars that I managed, I did not very well. I mean, I knew who she was, but anyway, I argued like crazy, but you don’t win those arguments. So I did. And it went about like, you would have expected, are you crazy? She didn’t call the cops. So that was good, you know, or, you know, Sue me with harassment or something.
But anyway, within, within two weeks, After that, which was now with four weeks, from my initial experience, she had her own set of experiences and. Resigned from her very [00:12:00] beautiful career. She was a project manager, made good money and walked off into the sunset with a drug addict. And we celebrated our 40th anniversary two weeks ago.
And her name is Joy. Like you can’t make this stuff up. And the reason that was the second half of this intervention as she was the angel that was brought to help me deal with the other half of the problem, which was the depression. Everybody in the office knew I was an addict. They didn’t know, but they knew, you know, rumors and stuff.
So she was unflagging in her support, finding me somebody to talk to for the first time in my life who tell the truth to learn, to have a friend, to learn, to be a friend, to learn, to know what it was like to even. I mean, like I had never talked to anyone the truth about what I felt like ever inside. And she, that was hers.
And I’ve asked her a million times, like, what on earth possessed you to quit that job that you had and walk off into the sunset with a drug addict. I said, what were you thinking? And she said, you know, I don’t know. Except I knew [00:13:00] to the core of my soul, it was the right thing. So that’s the divine intervention.
Deanna: Yes, it is multiple times about goosebumps listening to that and kudos to you. I mean, honestly, for listening to that voice, because how many times do we hear that voice? Try to guide us or push us and we ignore it. We do, we do mostly. So. Not only did you, you listened multiple times. Uh, you changed your entire life based off of that.
And obviously it was definitely for the better, because now you are inspiring other people to do the same and to live these amazing lives. How long after that happened, did you say. You know, I think I’m going to write a book or I think I’m going to start speaking and teach others how to do it.
Kellan: It took three or four years for me to even learn, to tell the truth, to talk to enough counselors, to not psychoanalyze myself and pretend like I had [00:14:00] control of everything.
And after three or four years, so 2008, 9, 10, 11. Uh, I wrote my first book series on meditation in 2000. Nine 10, I think. And then started writing books. I wrote my own story, tight rope of depression after that. And then the CQL called down from the gallows. And then I started writing business books, the results equation and others.
And then I wrote one called the story arc, which is about how to write books because I realized I’d created a really good system to do that because I wasn’t an author. I hadn’t ever imagined myself as an author. Now I love it. And I’ve written 16 books and I have seven underway. So it’s, and I’ve run classes for like three or four times a year, but small ones, five or six people at a time in 90 days for, in 90 days to finish a book.
And I helped him do that. It’s just become, because so many people have stories to tell so many people have truth to share. So many people have experiences that they know in their heart would do somebody, some good, but they’re afraid to do it. And they said, wow, I [00:15:00] don’t know. Nobody would listen. I don’t really know.
I don’t know how to do it. It’s so hard. I don’t have time. Maybe later when fill in the blank. You know, and so I don’t do anything. I do one thing. I, I, I, I don’t do anything except I do one thing from the first breath to last I’m committed to helping 10 million people discover, develop, and serve with their divine gifts.
Whether I’m doing music, kind of recording studio. I did an album of music with each of the two depression books, tight rope, and down from the gallows. Uh, I write books. I do a podcast. Get to meet beautiful people like you and your audience. And my only purpose is that. So you said you wanted to talk about the results of Malaysian.
Deanna: I, yes, I do. And what are the five steps? I mean, you mentioned finding your divine gifts. How do you find your divine gifts? First of all?
Kellan: First of all, you have to look, you have to look and you don’t look with a pick and shovel in the backyard. It’s not something you go dig up, [00:16:00] right? Yeah. People often say to me, well, I do more, but I’m not clear.
And I need some clarity. Well, clarity is overrated. It’s not found it is created. And yes, that rhymes, but yes, clarity is overrated. It is not found. It is created. And so you have to go act and you have to do things and you’ll discover them. Your heart is pulled in certain directions. And every single person listening to this right now knows exactly what I’m talking about.
And we mostly ignore that. And we mostly say this, that, and the other and learning to trust. The divine and intuition is one of the greatest gifts you can give yourself, let alone the people that you’re going to serve and will serve. The best gift you can give to the world is to be fully, authentically and completely yourself.
All in. No-holds-barred no excuses, open, loving, and in service. We’ll make more money. You’ll be happier and you’ll have an [00:17:00] exciting life every day. In fact, you’ll live the ultimate life. Yay. Yeah.
Deanna: So let’s talk about that. The five states, I love that. So this is a bus business book I realized in my career.
Kellan: I was called on to do the mission, impossible stuff, no guns and bombs, but really difficult things. When there was a lot of money at stake, billions, often tens of billions sometimes, and a lot of angry people. And I got called in to fix things and I did it over and over again in the United States and Canada, I testified before Congress in the U S had a contract with the queen of England, all kinds of high-profile stuff.
And what I realized. Afterwards, when I start thinking about it was there’s a process. Every goal, no matter whether it’s creating a new product, making a million dollars, losing weight, finding your relationship has two parts. You’re here and you want to be here. Okay. I don’t care. You’re a, and you want to be beat that’s what you want.
[00:18:00] Okay. And what I noticed is that there is a very duplicable process to move from a to B no matter what a is, and no matter what B is. And so I created what I called the Results Equation. It’s five parts. I think I called it an equation because once upon a time I was a math major in college. And so maybe I like equations or something, but there’s no math in it.
It starts with being truthful and understanding where you are. So the first piece first step is up and they’re all acronyms up, stands for understanding. You have to be truthful and tell the truth about where you really are in the goal. You’re talking about. If it’s money, how much money do you really have right now?
How much are you making? Like, what is the truth here? No excuses, no drama. It’s sometime to beat up just.
The second step. And there are several questions and steps in each of these, but that’s step one, step two is meet and that stands for mental earthquake. And the reason [00:19:00] I use the word mental earthquake is because the thinking attitudes, behaviors, beliefs, and everything that you have right now got you where you are.
So we have to have an earthquake. We have to change those. You have to become a new person. Okay. The doesn’t believe some of those things, it doesn’t accept that is easier said than done. But I wrote another book about that called the book of context about how to change beliefs. But anyway, so the mental earthquake part in there steps and processes in there.
It’s not just, okay. Go be somebody else, but you have to first recognize, look, the person I am got me where I am, and I don’t have to yell at. And I don’t have to be mad at him and I don’t have to hate them and I don’t have to make them bad, but I do have to recognize that my habits and beliefs and practices and actions got me here and now I want to be somewhere else.
So what habits and practices need to change? So I can be the person that creates this outcome [00:20:00] appear. No again, no drama. This isn’t flog yourself. It’s okay. It’s just truth. I have to do different things, be somebody else. All right. And then there’s a whole process and I use earthquake because you learn not only how to create power, because you need power to travel from here to here.
You don’t fall up the mountain, so right. You’ve got to create power to do that. So you have to create power and then you have to learn how to make that power rumble on command. And I use rumble on command, and that’s why I called the mental earthquake. Right.
Deanna: Because it creates a visual. I can see that.
Kellan: And that’s the whole point. And step three is CF. Create the future here. Here’s the thing. Most of us have half-assed dreams and their wishes and they think, oh, it’d be so nice if I had a nice house and a big thing and auto in. Relatives this and my partner did better. And my partner supported me. I had a client right now that says man, but it would really be nice to have a, my wife doesn’t share my vision.
Look, [00:21:00] you can’t control anybody else. What you’re going to do is you’re either going to allow them to control you by the fact that they don’t support you right now. Are you going to go do what you want? And I don’t mean in a negative crummy way, but stop making excuses, stubborn, letting them be your excuse for failure.
So creating.
Deanna: Oh good. That’s good. Because we do that. We do that a lot. It’s easier to deflect and say, well, it’s because of this.
Kellan: Right. We played the victim. So I like that. We talk about the three DS, deflection, distraction and discouragement. So, you know, I’m trying to tell you the whole contents of a book and two minutes, but anyway, creating the future, the goal like you do, you do, you do, and I run 90.
I run 90 day workshops to help people with a specific goal. They come in small ones like five or six people. Here’s, here’s what you are now. Here’s what you’re going to do in 90 days. And then we use the results equation and we help you get there anyway, create the future. [00:22:00] The purpose of that is create a vision of the future.
That is so. And so powerful for you that it perpetually fires the drive to make it real. And that’s about visioning and how to create the truth, like details and feelings and reasons like why do you want it and how, how will it feel? And it’s all the pieces that people associate with the law of attraction kind of stuff.
That kind of powerful vision is really important. And you might do it with vision boards. You might do it in all kinds of other ways, but none of that is the key. The key is, does it fire your dry. Does the vision you have articulated this every time you read that vision out loud, you weep, you tremble, you get goosebumps, you pump your fist like this, that do that.
Then if it doesn’t get a new vision, fix it. Yes. Okay. All right.
Step four is courageous plan. Courageous planning is the step that is contained in all kinds of books, about [00:23:00] goals and time-bound and all of the pieces that have to do with how to set and achieve goals. Uh, and so it’s very detailed. The key piece of that’s called a step map, which not only breaks the goal down into all the appropriate steps, but there’s a process where you assign times who’s going to do them.
How long they’ll take does it require money? And then you. Put that on your own personal calendar, this is especially important for solo preneurs, because you have so many things you’re doing and you think, well, I’m going to get this done in a month and you actually don’t count the hours it’s going to take and put them on your calendar.
And so you have no idea whether or not you’re going to get it done in a month. You just said that so you could feel good. So this is a process about turning the actions to get from a, to B into reality. By breaking them down, assigning times, putting them in the calendar, seeing if they fit, if they don’t fit in the time you want extend the goal, shrink the project or get some help.
I mean, this is not magic. [00:24:00]
Deanna: Right, right. Yeah. And I’ve been guilty of doing that too, right? I’m like I’m setting a goal with every intention that I hope to meet it at that time. And sometimes I do sometimes I don’t, but unless I break up those little pieces, Yeah, I usually get overwhelmed and I push it on the back burner, push it out, push it out.
So I, I love that.
Kellan: And step five is called relentless execution, the relentless execution isn’t whips and chains, and beat yourself to death and go, go. It’s not that even though relentless execution might sound like that. It is a very special process for doing one. When you have a great day, you get a lot done.
You feel good and like a wind at your back. And it’s like, yeah. And then you have mediocre days that are kind of like, oh, you know, some things go, well, a lot of things don’t and you tough it out and hope tomorrow’s better. And then you have rotten days where things just fall apart. When I do a [00:25:00] very imperfect survey of people, they tell me usually, well, I might have 10 or 15%.
Rotten days, and I might have 50 or 60 or 70% mediocre days where stuff is. Okay. You know, a few things happened, few things don’t and I just hope two hours better now only have five or 10%. Great. And I asked simply the question, what would it, what would it do to your productivity and your spirits? If 75% of your days were great days where you felt like the wind was at your back, you were in flow and you had all the power and vision you want it.
And people say, well, I get five times a night. Ah, you know, that kind of talk. Right? And so relentless execution is about how to have 75% great day.
Deanna: Oh, my gosh, this is definitely a book that every entrepreneur should have on their bookshelf. And it’s not just a one-time raid. [00:26:00] This is a go back and read it again and read it again until you master all five of these steps.
This, this is amazing. I can’t wait to get my hands on this and read it.
Kellan: Um, I I’ve already written, but it’s not published yet. A guide, an application guide does nothing, but over and over again, places to write and to draw and to do your goals and to do the things. So it’s going to be a little bit bigger than the six by nine, probably seven by ten.
With lots of places to do it. Even though in the book itself, I did put some spaces to write down your goals, but that’s only once. So it’s very much meant to be a go do this. It’s not read it and say, oh wow, that was cool because that’s going to be useless.
Deanna: Right. Absolutely. It’s almost like, you know how most people will say, well, these are the books I want to read.
I want to read like a book a month. Right? And then beginning of the year, this is almost like, just put this on your calendar for every January or every December to reread it [00:27:00] and to set those initiatives and those goals in motion with whatever it is that you want to achieve in creating your ultimate life.
So how can we buy this book? How can we.
Kellan: You know, one of the benefits of having a weird name, like Kellen Flueckiger is that I’m really easy to find. So if you put my name in Google, there’s thousands of hits from not only my coaching work in the last 10 years, but the executive career before that, all that stuff I told you about not the bad stuff.
That’s not in, that’s not in there, it’s in the books, but it’s not on Wikipedia. It’s not on a Google yet forever. I hope. But anyway, So there’s thousands of hits from all that other stuff. If you put my name in an Amazon, all the books and all the music, I’ve done a dozen albums, I’ve been in performing groups, et cetera, et cetera.
So on, on all social media, I mean, like there’s only two Kellen, fluky years in the world and the other one’s my son. So you, if you w if you want to [00:28:00] find me or the books or get in touch with me, my emails, you know, Coach Kellen, Fluckinger gmail.com. I have no trouble getting the website of my name. Right.
Because there aren’t any, so who else would want www.kellenflueckiger.com. Okay. So I’m not hard to find on LinkedIn or Facebook or whatever. And so if you want it. Uh, if I can help you in some way, or if you want to talk and see what, whatever, that’s fine, I’m easy to find. So that’s how awesome.
Deanna: And I’m going to have all of those links that Kelling just mentioned.
They’re all in the show notes. So just head down, scroll down and check out the show notes and you are going to see all the links so that if you want to purchase a book, if you want to reach out to Kellen and say, Hey, or hire him as a coach, you can do that. So. Kellan. Thank you so much for joining me today.
I appreciate you being here so much. I love everything you shared. I’m super [00:29:00] motivated now to, to go and do all of these steps. Get that book and dive deeper into these steps so I can continue creating the ultimate life. So thank you so much for being here today.
Kellan: You’re welcome. And again, I want to end by honoring the work that you do and the effort that you’re making to add good to the world.
I just want to leave everybody with one thought. If you’re here and you want to get. There’s no question that there is a road from here to here. The only question is, are you or me, but are you willing to do the work that it takes to walk that path? That’s it? There’s a road. Are you willing to walk?
Deanna: That’s a beautiful word to end this on.
So thank you for sharing that. All right, everybody. I will catch you next week. We’ll see ya. Yeah. Thanks for listening. If you enjoyed this episode and you’d like to support the [00:30:00] podcast, please share it with others or post about it on social. Yeah, I would love if you can even leave a rating or a review, the more ratings that I have, the more people that this podcast will reach to catch the latest for me, you can follow me on instagram@carbonsilk.digital, or my personal Instagram account.
Deanna, Hinsz. Thanks again. And I’ll see you next time.
If you’re looking to grow your Instagram following and take your branding to the next level, you need to listen to today’s podcast. Natalie Suppes, an Instagram expert with nearly 32,000 followers, is here to share her tips with us. She’ll teach us how to be more consistent on Instagram, let the algorithm work for us, niche down, and more! So whether you’re just starting out on Instagram or you’ve been using it for a while but haven’t seen the results you want, this podcast is for you. Don’t overcomplicate Instagram – it’s really not that difficult to use once you know what you’re doing. So tune in and start elevating your brand today!
Natalie Suppes started using Instagram as a way to document her health journey after learning she had Crohn’s disease. After seeing success with her own account, she began working with businesses that wanted to grow their Instagram following. And she’s here today to share her tips with us!
Here are a few of the things you’ll learn in today’s podcast about how to elevate your brand on Instagram:
– How to be more consistent on Instagram
– Letting the algorithm work for you
– Niche down
– Knowing your five pillars
About Natalie Suppes
First and foremost Natalie is a Mother, a Daughter and a Wife. She is passionate about helping other women in any way she can. In 2007 she was diagnosed with Inflammatory Bowel Disease (Crohn’s) and struggled for many years. She was in and out of the hospital while pushing to fulfil her dreams of finishing university and starting her own business. Over the last few years, Natalie has grown a respected brand online with over 30,000 followers through showing the authentic real-life behind the scenes of her life. She is trusted online as someone who tells it how it is. Natalie is real, honest and heartfelt. Natale has worked in a corporate setting since 2011 for multiple multi-million dollar organizations. She is a highly motivated individual with a strong work ethic and over 15 years of sales and customer service expertise. Holding a Bachelor of Commerce (Honours) Degree, with a major in Marketing and International Business. With her love for business and her passion for social media, Natalie was being approached by various companies to help with their business and manage their social media. She quickly realized that this was a way she could help other business owners have their voices heard. When Natalie is passionate about something she pours her whole heart into it and S & S Creative Media was born. My IG: www.instagram.com/for.the.success
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Transcript
Deanna Hinsz Natalie, welcome. I’m so excited to have you on.
Natalie Suppes, thank you so much. I’m so excited. It’s going to be such a fun episode.
Deanna Hinsz You know what? I totally agree. And I can’t wait to learn from you. Because your Instagram account has almost 32,000 followers. So we’re going to get to that and find out how you did that. Because that’s a dream for many people in business, and we’re trying so hard to grow their Instagram. So we’re not talked up
Natalie Suppes to be so
Deanna Hinsz I can’t wait to learn how you did that. But I want to learn a little about you first because you didn’t always do this. This was something that just you kind of fell into the same way I kind of fell into it. Can you share how you ended up here?
Natalie Suppes Yeah, absolutely. It’s, it’s, we could talk about that for 15 hours. But I try to get a quick story. Short, Long story short, I went to university for marketing and international business while doing hair styling while doing all these other things. And then went straight from university into a sales career in the corporate world and climbed the corporate ladder. I always say I made billion-dollar companies millions of dollars; I was great at sales. I love person-to-person connections. And the reason I did hairstyling and did all of these other things in my past was that I love helping people. So I was great at what I did. I was great at sales because I would help my clients get what they needed. And but I always had this dream to be a business owner. And I can remember I remember sitting in my living room like six years ago, just like if someone just told me what to do. I could be successful at it. But I don’t know what to do. Like how do I start? I was thinking about starting a T-Shirt Company, and like all these things like I’m not passionate about that, I don’t know what to do. And so I actually started a health and fitness company, it was called for the health, and I have a chronic illness Crohn’s disease, so it kind of morphed into helping women with the same diseases me to get their fitness on track. But then I got pregnant right before the world shut down in 2019. December 2019. Yeah, and my first trimester was not the greatest, so I was sick and I just stopped all of my side business stuff. And I actually in the time I was in sales, I was selling a lot of health and safety so chemicals masks that kind of stuff, right when the pandemic hit. So I went from, you know, working a pretty cushy sales job to working 12 hour days and not leaving my desk and being pregnant. So my side business stopped. And I worked the corporate job until I had my baby girl in July of 2021, 2020.
Deanna Hinsz
If you got pregnant in 2019 and had her in 2021. That’s Really long.
Natalie Suppes Wait, when did I have her? Yeah. As soon as I had her, obviously, I was on maternity leave. I’m in Canada. So I have 12 to 18 months of maternity leave. And wow. Yeah, no, I know. That is it is we’re very lucky. So about six months in after quite a bout of postpartum anxiety, and it’s quite a blur. I started wanting to do things again. So the whole time I was posting on the Instagram I had already grown my Instagram which we can talk about later. But I was using it as a side hustle doing the mommy blogger-type sponsored posts and just sharing my life. And then I had businesses approach me to run their social media, and it felt like a light bulb moment like oh my gosh, my artistic side, my hairstyling my painting all of that kind of you know my designing the love for online and then my business my marketing my sales can just like be all one business like are you kidding me? And so I started running a few of my friend’s business accounts, and one of my girlfriends has a lash. Well, now it’s an aesthetics bar, but she was doing lashes and things like that. She made an extra four grand in the first week of me taking over her Instagram. Oh yeah. So she got some students in Some other things and it was like her DMs were blowing up her books were full. And I was like, okay, so yeah, I am very good at this. I took a course. And that was in June ish of 2021. And we are now you know, February of 2022. So it hasn’t been that long, but we’ve grown to an agency. We have five people, you know, many, many clients. And it’s, we we do things a little differently than other social media management agencies, because that my experience with the corporate world and stuff like that, so it has been a wild ride to get here. But yeah, I feel like it was you know, the right timing the universe kind of put it at my feet when I was ready to go all in. So yeah, that that’s sorry, short.
Deanna Hinsz Yeah. But it’s funny how, how that happens that, you know, that when the timing is right, just everything falls into place. You’re not fighting anything. It’s not a battle. It’s just almost like, what like, you just put your hand out and it appears, that’s when you know that you’re on the right path.
Natalie Suppes Yeah, it feels amazing. Yeah,
Deanna Hinsz yes, it does. And I can I totally understand what you’re saying, because I’m like, I don’t know how I got here. But it wasn’t my plan. It was somebody else’s, but I’m totally cool with it.
Natalie Suppes Exactly. Nothing. I did work. I tried it all. I did all the MLM I did all of that. I tried to like, hop on the backs of my friends who are starting business, I’m like, let me be your like, you know, whatever. I was the VP of a multimillion dollar company in marketing, but it just never worked. Because it wasn’t my own. Yes, yeah.
Deanna Hinsz It is something different. And even taking on those first clients. Like when you were doing your own and you were posting on your own Instagram. And then you had somebody reach out to you a friend who said, Can you help me with my business? It’s still different, or was it different for you? Because it’s felt different to me. Now you have to step into into their space and their brand. And you
Natalie Suppes know, like, I feel my husband calls me like a Chandler like the chameleon, or was the Chandler Homer Simpson? No, he calls me Homer Simpson. I have so many I’ve had like, I’ve been a party bus host, I’ve been a hairstylist, I’ve been the skincare specialist sales, marketing, like anything you can probably think of I’ve done. I’ve done MLM all of those things. So I feel like I’ve been in so many crazy different roles in my life, that I can chameleon into being that that person that brand. So when I took over her page, it felt so natural, it felt like oh, this is my business. Let me make sure it hits their goals, you know? So it was yeah, it was it was different in the sense that, like, I was home watching my baby. And now I was really having to manage DMS and all the engagement and stuff like that, but it was really exciting. It gave me purpose.
Deanna Hinsz I love that. No, I can’t, I couldn’t help but notice that you are really only on Instagram, you have a Facebook group, right? But you are not actively anywhere else. I didn’t see you on LinkedIn or I
Natalie Suppes didn’t. But you might have looked because I’m officially no longer at my corporate job. So I’ve just been switching everything over recently. I am on LinkedIn. not actively, though. I don’t post anything there. I don’t post anywhere pretty much other than Instagram and my podcast.
Deanna Hinsz So why just out of curiosity, like what led you to that? And my second question is, do you ever feel pool like you shouldn’t be somewhere else? Or? Okay.
Natalie Suppes Yes. So the answer to the why is honestly just time. And I feel like the more that we brought on clients, and that I brought on employees, and that I’m no longer like a creator anymore. I’m now a CEO of a company. And so I’m managing my employees, I’m managing our clients I have I do the overall strategy for all of our clients. So I’m really in there still. And then I make time to record a podcast. And after that, I’m trying to figure out how my team can take over the rest to be honest. And so Instagram has never felt like a job to me or a chore or anything. Even then I don’t post regularly even like I should be you know like I tell my clients to I don’t follow my own advice on my own Instagram page anymore. And when we talk about that, I’ll tell you why a little bit on my personal Instagram, but it always has been a journal to me like a diary. And that’s how I grew to the numbers that I grew to. But I do my goal was to start a YouTube channel in February or March of this year, so that we can take the audio and make it into a podcast and then make it into posts and then hopefully maybe on LinkedIn or something but Instagram just feels like my whole
Deanna Hinsz home. Just like well So let’s talk about how you grew your following. And I know you started as a mommy blogger, actually,
Natalie Suppes I printed my health and fitness journey on Instagram in 2011.
Deanna Hinsz I saw that post and I’m like, when did I start an Instagram, I couldn’t figure it out, I couldn’t find it
Natalie Suppes But you can scroll all the way back to my first like weight loss posts, because I remember finding Instagram back in 2011, looking for memes and like inspiration to lose weight. And that is how it started. And it grew. Over time, I kind of went on and off, but I always was on, you know, looking at other people. And in 2018 is when I got really serious about my health and my chronic illness. And so I started sharing that very authentically in 2018. And this was a different world on Instagram in 2018 You could just grow and grow and grow and grow and I was gaining 1000s a day by sharing my authentic journey and you know, did said tried some different strategies like the follow unfollow thing and some things like that, that did help grow to grow to the numbers I am. But back then it was easy. And you know, the follow unfollow technique worked back then because it was like putting your, your billboard in front of other people. And if I, the way that I did, it was I would follow people who had Crohn’s and then I would share my journey and my you know, real authentic, like, I had an accident today going to work or like this sucks. And I have IV PTSD and things no one else was talking about on Instagram, like I was journaling there, because I don’t like journaling. I don’t like writing my hand hurts on Instagram, and just using, you know, some techniques to gain the proper audience and really niching down and not trying to talk to everybody. And so that’s that is how I grew. And then I continued just sharing my journey. So after that, you know, I kind of moved away from fitness a little bit. And then I got pregnant and shared about that. And then started sharing about my daughter and the mommy bloggers stuff. And because of my following was able to do sponsored posts. And you know, that’s really fun. And now I’m slowly again, transitioning and morphing into posting about my family still and myself and my journal, but still, but incorporating the business side of things, too.
Deanna Hinsz So what has changed since 2018 For those listening that like, well, what’s so different? Why did it change? What well,
Natalie Suppes there was like a algorithm apocalypse, I don’t know what it was 2019, I believe, or 2020, where you just couldn’t grow. Like no matter what you did, no matter what you tried. And hashtags weren’t working, nothing was working. Instagram changed a lot of things. So follow unfollow was absolutely the opposite of working anymore. You could get banned for doing it. Yeah. You know, hashtags could work, but you’d have to go very viral to grow quickly, then now we do have some a technique that works, which is reels. But that means how much time do you have that really fast right now? No problem. But do you have time to batch reels? And my answer right now is no. So yeah,
Deanna Hinsz well, so you do reels? I do. Do you do reels for your clients as well. Or mainly?
Natalie Suppes We’re morphing into it because it’s it is the best way to grow right now. So we’re finding ways because it is very it’s it’s a newer, it’s a newer service, I think that social media managers are providing, we’re finding ways that we can help clients because I always say to them, we don’t have your face. I wish we could, you know, digitally. We don’t. So we’re offering where we give them you know, a list of 10 ideas that go in coincide with their social media content. And then they just need to record it. We’ll put the audio we’ll put the you know, fun little taglines all that because sadly, reels is very glitchy and it takes like I just recorded a reel this week last week about reels and then being glitchy and it glitched like three times I had to re record it. And I was just like, this is like it took me over an hour for one reel who has the time you know, right? It is necessary and it’s fun also. So that’s how I incorporate it into my business myself. I record them when I have inspiration.
Deanna Hinsz Yeah, that’s a great point to do it when you have inspiration. And for me, I like doing them after I have my hair appointment. So tomorrow I have a hair appointment. So I will be taking video clips afterwards. I love that. So let’s talk about if there is somebody listening, which I’m sure there are many people wondering how do I grow my Instagram? How do I get that following? And is that following as It’s important like that big following. Is it the number? Is it the quality? Like, what is it? So how do we elevate our brands on Insta?
Natalie Suppes Yeah, so first of all, having 31,000 followers is a detriment to me versus a positive, I had to start my own a new Instagram page for my business, because at 31,000 followers, they only show your content to a certain small percentage. And if that percentage doesn’t interact, then they’re not going to show it to anyone else. So my engagement just plummeted. Because I am switching and you know, a lot of the followers have like Crohn’s disease, things like that. So, you know, sometimes having a big number is the opposite of, you know, good thing on my brand page, we get way more interaction of our target audience, even though we have 1500 followers. So I always tell my clients like the follower number, unless you’re planning on making an influencer, being an influencer, your full time job, the follower number is not what you should be even looking at. Obviously, you want it to be growing instead of going down, because I’m telling you something. But you should be looking at are you having conversations with the DM with your target audience? Are people answering your stories? Are you creating quality content and giving out information that your audience wants to hear?
Deanna Hinsz That’s That sounds so easy. Right? So how do you? And I agree with you? And I’m sitting here thinking, yeah, conversations in the DM, right? We’re doing that. But how do you get them to do that? Right? How do you how do you make that happen?
Natalie Suppes Yeah, so I think the first part is to have a strategy is to take a little bit of a step back, and a lot of people just post the day of they need to post so they post and they’re like, I have to post five days a week, well, having a strategy kind of takes that pressure off. And if you post three days a week, but you’re consistent, and you post three days a week, all the time, you’re going to get better engagement over time than if you post 505 to one, you know, like, people don’t know what they’re going to get. So then the algorithm doesn’t know what it’s going to get. So it’s not going to show your things to anyone. And the algorithm is smart in the sense that it reads your bio, it reads your type of content, your hashtags, and then it shows it to the people that need to see it, especially when it comes to reels. So once it gets to know your, your pattern, you’re going to get more engagement, but where to start is take a step back and think What are five pillars of information that I like to give. So maybe one is personal stories about yourself, because everyone’s nosy on Instagram. So you need to if you want to start a business, and you don’t think you need photos of yourself, then you probably good luck. I mean, everyone can do things outside of the box. But people want to know about what you’re doing and why. So maybe personal stories, maybe something that’s motivational and gets people to do some kind of action. Maybe it’s educational, that makes you an expert, then you you pick these five pillars, and you’re going to always create content about these five. So when you sit down at the computer, you’re like, Okay, I’m going to create an inspirational one. Now I’m going to do a story one, and then you have those. So you have the strategy behind what types of content and then you have, you could put together a hashtag strategy, which is a whole nother thing and of itself, but essentially, put together five groups of hashtags that work well. And then make sure that your content is at least especially for a brand. So this is different. If you want to be an influencer, if you’re just you know you have you’re posting for fun. But if you’re a brand, if you have a company, aesthetically pleasing is important, in my opinion, you know, make sure you know your hex codes have three or four colors that you pop in everywhere. That looks nice when someone comes to your page. So you have your hex codes, you have your strategy, your pillars, you have your hashtags, and then you just show up on Instagram. So let’s say you’re posting Monday, Wednesday, Friday, when you post your first post, you want to post a time that you can actually be on Instagram for let’s say 15 minutes, 30 minutes. And when you post, go to your competitors pages, and interact with people who have liked their stories, or who have not their stories, sorry, who have liked their posts, because those people like their content, and they’re active on Instagram. So go comment on their last posts, go comment on their story. You know, spend 15 minutes going into hashtags where your audience might live, not the hashtags you use, but the hashtags you think your target audience would use, and go interact with the newest posts and tell them you know, make sure it never sounds like you copy pasted it. So someone has a photo with them in their husband on Valentine’s Day, you know, say, Wow, I love that mushroom soup that you’re eating like, my favorite or whatever, and have real conversations for 15 minutes. And then anyone who said who started following you as long as you’ve so this is a whole nother thing but make sure your bio is optimized as well. So they know right when they come to your page what you do, and then anyone who’s followed you send them an authentic message like a one A message, not something that you are you, you can absolutely copy paste it, but don’t set up an automatic bot. Because the people will know the second they click the Follow button if they get something they’re not going to reply. But if you go and do this three times a week, where you send everyone who’s followed you a little message that says, hey, thank you. I mean, feel free to follow my Instagram page, you’ll get one. But it’s something like, Hey, thank you so much for following it really does mean so much to me. You know, I would love to know, what’s your favorite color of lipstick? Whatever, whatever matches your brand. That’s gonna give them a yes or no answer. So, I mean, even yes or no or something quick, something they don’t have to think about. Don’t ask them like, Have you ever had childhood trauma? Like no one’s gonna reply? Like, you know, we asked like, Have you ever hired a social media manager? Or do you have a business something along those lines, your only goal in doing this welcome message is to get them to reply. Once they reply, Instagram sees that now you’ve had a person a person conversation, and they’re actually going to show your content to them in the top of the stories, your content, your stories will come to the top, and your posts will come to the top. So now that you’ve done that, you want to make sure you have a story every day.
24 hours, you should always have a story. So someone can watch it. Your bio is really great. You have a photo of yourself smiling for your your cover photo, and you have some highlights that people can kind of binge watch who you are and what you do. And then you keep doing that consistently. You will grow your business online. It sounds like a lot. But once you get into the groove of the things, it can be, you know, a little easier.
Deanna Hinsz You drop so many like, I’m like, yes, yes, yes. And in the show notes, I’m gonna give you step by step so that you can look at everything that you’ve just shared, because you shared so many good pieces of information that I agree completely. You were talking and you were talking about the algorithm, and how smart the algorithm is. And in my mind, I’m thinking think of the algorithm is your target client, your ideal your friend, and right think of it that way instead of like, the algorithm, right? Because sometimes we’re like, we want to fight it, we want to have it. Right? Because, but if you think of it as your ideal client and speak to that algorithm, it will learn that and like you said, and do those other pieces as well. And it will work for you. Exactly. And
Natalie Suppes that’s why I really go viral even with you if you don’t use any hashtags, because the algorithm knows who you are. If you I mean, we’re joking ourselves, if we don’t think that our phone knows everything about us, like, you know, you ever thought about something and you got an ad like this happens to me all the time where I’ve never said the words out loud, and I like go to Google to search something and it comes up and I’m like, Do you have a chip in my brain? Like, why do you know that I was gonna search that like, I don’t like that. But they they know exactly, you know, your your habits. So if you can make it clear to them who they need to be showing your content to, then it makes it easier for everyone.
Deanna Hinsz Yeah, yeah, definitely. So if you make it sound really easy, have all these things that you need to do. And we both know that. It’s not that easy, but it can be it can be easier than what a lot of people make it and I think when when even listening to you, and I’m like Yeah, girl, yes. Like you’re dead on your on your like, you’re giving them everything right now, which is so cool. I know, there’s somebody listening, going, Oh, my gosh, I’m so overwhelmed. Like all I heard was Charlie Brown’s teacher, I don’t even know where to begin like, like, right, because it’s, it’s, it can be so overwhelming. So how are some ways that you can make it easier when it comes to getting creating that content? Yeah, there any ways to simplify that.
Natalie Suppes And I think to be honest, that’s why you and I exist, is because when business owners start, they have to do that. Because if you want to grow a business, you don’t have the extra income to hire a social media manager. And you should be focusing on growing your business. And so you can use all that time to create content. But when you get to a level, typically I find around 100k a year, you have you’re really hustling and you’re you’re managing your clients, and whatever it is your business, you don’t have the time to sit down and create for three, four or five posts a week, and do your hashtags strategy and all of that kind of stuff. So what happens is what happens to me even like we’re getting my team to start working on my social but my socials went down to like one post a week or three weeks, you know, because it becomes the backburner. But Instagram has become the Google so when people want to hire you, they’re going to your Instagram. And if your business doesn’t look professional, if you’re not posting content that can lose you that you’re literally like leaving money on the table. So I think there comes it’s like an impasse or You know, a teeter totter where you get to a certain point in business and you need to help you need help. And hiring experts like us that are doing this day in and day out, can really help you grow your business and grow your brand. Money makes money. But if you’re just starting out, and you don’t have that extra funds to find someone that can help you and do it all for you, that’s a cool thing. Right? Like even having my team do it for me, it’s cool to get them to know my brand voice. No, my and just see the stories popping up. I’m like, oh, yeah, I love that great job team. But if you’re not at that point, I would say consistency is the number one thing. So if you think you can only post once a week, start with once a week. And if you hate reels, and you hate, let’s say you hate the News Feed posts, or you hate static posts, then just try to hop on stories and see how consistent you can be on stories. You know, like find a part in Instagram, there’s many parts, live stories, reels, you know, feed posts, whatever it is, find something that you can be consistent at. It’s like, I don’t know if you’ve ever read the book atomic habits. But if you can make one habit,
Deanna Hinsz no, I have it good. I’m like really good. No, I’ve got so many habit books.
Natalie Suppes I know. It’s a great book. But if you couple a habit onto a habit. So like, in the morning, if you have coffee every morning and you add taking your vitamins, then it’s going to be easy, because now you have these two, they go coincide together, you’re already doing one, add the other. So I say start that way, if you feel comfortable posting a story a day or a story once a week, do that every Monday morning when you have coffee. And then once you get used to that maybe every Monday morning, you have coffee, you make a story and you make a post, and then maybe you can sit down and write that strategy. And that can help you. And so just finding even on that list, that all those things that I said look at it, which one sounds easiest to you. And do that first, you don’t have to do everything at once, and then go from there and take small steps at a time. And whatever it is your business is that can kind of dictate which way to go as well. If you’re a brick and mortar, you might be posting a little bit different than you know, if you’re selling online services, whatever it is, and interacting with your clientele, even if it’s just starting the engagement. Maybe you don’t want to be creating content. And maybe you do need help with someone to do that. But you can’t afford it yet. Well then start engaging go start to going other people’s pages and having conversations.
Deanna Hinsz Great advice with all of that? Absolutely. And you know, even if you are creating content, it’s so important to engage it and I say it all the time on social media is social. And so many times I see people just post something and then like they ghost it and maybe they haven’t scheduled I don’t really know. But you pointed that that out earlier saying when it does post make sure that you’ve got that 1530 minute, whatever that is that blocking time available. So then you can start engaging. And I truly believe so many people miss that, that they just assume it’s like a billboard, like here it is, here’s my sign you’re going to drive by and you’re going to see it and that doesn’t quite happen that.
Natalie Suppes Well, I always tell people think about your habits when you’re on Instagram, right? Because it’s funny how business owners different like they can compartmentalize, compartmentalize their their habits on Instagram and their business. So like, during the day, I’m a business owner, I post business posts, but then at night, I’m scrolling and whatever, we’ll take a moment to think like, what are you tagging? What are you tapping? What are you What stops you in your feet to read on Instagram, and then start creating more of that, you know, save those posts. And then when you’re ready to create for your business, use that same tagline or that hook or type of hook? Obviously, don’t copy anyone’s contact, you know, see if those things work for you. And and keep in key always keep in mind what you’re doing on Instagram.
Deanna Hinsz Right. And you know, we talked about this a little bit offline. And we really didn’t talk about it now. But one thing that you can do is also just repurpose the content that you already have. Don’t always try to recreate the wheel. Yeah, because we have a ton of content at our fingertips and we overlook it because it’s common sense to us exactly what we think that, you know, it’s common sense to everybody else, or they’ve seen it or, you know, while I’ve just talked about that, nobody wants to hear about it again. They don’t see.
Natalie Suppes Yeah, I noticed with this with my clients, like sometimes if they’ve been with us for over a year, we start repurposing some of their old content. And a lot of the times they’re like, Oh, I already posted about that. And I’m like you did 12 months ago, and it performed really, really well. So let’s post about it again. And a lot of people are like, well, but everyone’s seen it. Well. I mean, if someone saw a post have yours 12 months ago, I can guarantee you they don’t remember, even if they remember while they’re reading it, they’re not going to comment like, Hey, you posted this 12 months ago. You know what I mean? Like it? Can you Can anyone who’s listening remember a post they read 12 months ago, I know no one can. So even if you posted six months ago, three months ago, take a look at your analytic reports and see what’s performing well and use that content. If you don’t want to copy paste, exact caption, then take some pieces of it and talk about something similar, maybe put a different photo. But like you said, even repurposing it for other platforms. So if you really despise Instagram, but you like podcasting, or you’re good at YouTube, or you’re good at Facebook, have someone or even yourself, just take it and put it over there in a different way. Maybe change it up a little. But you can do that. And I feel like that’s a lot of people feel like, I need to be showing up as a different person on every platform. And it’s just not possible. No,
Chances are that your business is already using or considering email marketing automation to help you grow your funnels and win more business.
Despite the proven results of email, many business owners are still not using email marketing automation to support their own business development strategies. Automation is hands down the best tool for achieving the three “gets” that any business needs in order to grow:
Get Found
Get the Meeting
Get the Business
Here are some of the ways in which automation can drive each.
Get Found
Email automation generates brand awareness with a broad and deep target audience of prospective clients by presenting your content and point of view (POV) to those who join your list. By doing this, you can also “test and review” the responses of various industries, sectors, stakeholder groups, and so forth—which in turn helps you refine and focus your business development strategy.
Get the Meeting
As prospective clients move through the buying cycle and engage with your content, you can monitor the behavior and serve up more relevant content to those who express interest. They already know a bit about you and with the help of an automated email lead nurture flow, you can draw them in closer and open the door to a deeper dialogue.
Get the Business
While automation is pretty commonly used for the first two “gets,” it’s used less often for the last and most important one. After the first meeting(s) with a prospective client, they can be moved into a separate email nurture flow with content that is specific to their needs and challenges. You can also push different content pending on what they click on. This type of responsive marketing helps you keep the prospect engaged in a less direct, yet supportive and impactful, manner. Smart use of marketing automation ensures that your agency stays top of mind with your prospective clients’ decision-makers while they’re waiting for budget approval or the right inflection point to hire you.
We all know that “getting the business” is a complex sales process that takes time (the bigger the project, the longer the cycle) and requires nurturing. Marketing automation gives you the tools to develop a robust content marketing plan so you can effectively target your prospects—from the beginning of the buyer’s journey all the way to the end.
Companies that excel at lead nurturing generate 50% more sales at 33% lower cost, according to Forrester Research.
Why are the “gets” so hard to get?
The buyer’s journey has changed dramatically over the past 10 years, and many agencies are still catching up. It’s no longer enough to have a Rolodex of contacts. It’s not enough to make calls (cold or otherwise). And it’s not enough to send emails without a comprehensive content marketing plan. B2B sales research shows that 80% or more of the new buyer’s journey is passive.
This means that in order to catch the attention of prospective clients, your content must be both prolific (lots of it, consistently distributed) and targeted (relevant to audience segments).
Automation is the solution to getting prospective clients to go on the journey you want them to take.
Get Found
Create CRM of prospective client contacts; create a library of digital content; create an editorial calendar for content distribution; ensure that tracking is in place on all digital assets (website, blog, white papers, case studies); push content on a consistent schedule
Get the Meeting
Monitor prospect behavior; create direct mail or other lead magnet content to engage interested prospects; follow up with a phone call; create workflows to provide highly relevant (gated) content to prospects.
Get the Business
Move engaged prospects to unique buckets and serve up specific content that mirrors/surrounds any relevant topics in an ongoing negotiation; Never stop nurturing prospects, and provide content to new influencers you have met during the process
What you need to get started
The prospect list
Accelerate prospect engagement by creating a list of prospects to fill your Top of Funnel
Segment your lists by industry and stakeholder (owners/CMOs get different content then managers)
Create a broader list for the Top of Funnel “pull” strategy (inbound marketing with a longer cycle to conversion)
Create another narrower/bullseye list for a “push” strategy (Middle of Funnel prospects, targeted with outbound direct sales)
Content Library (digital & analog)
Leverage 3rd party content (POV pieces)
Thought leadership blog posts & videos hosted on your website
White papers, case studies, & webinars educating your audience about relevant topics
Direct mail/package sent to the “push” list
Lead magnets to get attention and interest in meeting with the agency, such as research reports, minianalyses or reviews, demo of new technology, offered as “gated content” through landing pages
The distribution calendars
Editorial calendar for content development and distribution (topics, placement, schedule)
Social media calendar to support content distribution as well as to pull new prospects into Top of Funnel
Workflows
Content plans around industry/ segment and stakeholder (build the story as prospects show you what they are interested in)
Content plans around engaged prospects during the negotiation
A few closing thoughts…
Marketing automation and content development take time to plan and execute on, but are the two key components of achieving the three “gets”. Many of you are probably thinking to yourself “We don’t have anyone dedicated specifically to content marketing—just lots of people doing bits of it in their spare time,” or, “Our client work takes first priority.”
We hear you, but if you want to grow, you can’t afford to not make new business a priority! Make the commitment today to create a program. Develop your prospect list with care, mix up the content so prospects don’t get bored, and don’t forget to support your content with social media publishing to pull new contacts into the top of the funnel and along your buyer’s journey
Deanna Hinsz is a Certified Partner with Constant Contact. Being a Certified Partner means that Deanna is required to attend training specializing in email marketing in order to keep her certification up.
Creating a successful marketing strategy is vital for your business and brand. Business owners often believe that simply having an online presence is enough. Although having a website, email list, and social media is imperative, it’s only scratching the surface when it comes to what a marketing strategy looks like.
There are three reasons why a marketing strategy will fail:
Lack of planning.
Before you even begin creating a marketing strategy, you need to determine your goals. Just hopping on social media and starting marketing your business is not the right solution. Every post you create and every comment you make on a post reflects your brand and business. How you engage online really matters. People viewing your content will immediately decide about you and your brand. So be strategic. Sometimes you have to slow down to speed up.
Determine what your core objectives are?
Do you want to build brand awareness?
Do you want to build trust?
Do you want to nurture relationships?
Do you want to grow your business?
Do you want to grow your community?
Do you want to optimize your sales funnel?
Are you hiring?
Do you want to build authority?
Do you want to build your email list?
These objectives are unique in their own way, and your marketing strategy should reflect what you ultimately want to achieve.
If you’re not sure what your core objectives are, you need to find out. We do this at CarbonSilk for our clients and have done it for over ten years.
Lack of patience
Sometimes a marketing strategy fails because they quit. More times than not, this is because there was no planning in place. So after running in circles for weeks or months without a strategy in place, it feels like nothing will work, so they quit.
If you take the time to plan for success, then you’ll find success
Random acts of marketing will eat up your ROI, create frustration and lead to quitting.
Not being aligned with your audiences needs
This right here is the step that we most often see being skipped. Not truly understanding who you are marketing to. Sure, we get it, you sell coffee, and everyone is a potential customer. However, you shouldn’t be talking to everyone with your marketing strategy. You should be talking to that one person who is your brand’s biggest cheerleader and the one that hops in every morning to grab that latte and pastry. The one who still stops in on the weekends with friends and gets excited about every seasonal cup of joe that your team creates. That’s the person you’re talking to!
It goes beyond geographic (which is a physical area that you are targeting) and demographics (which is sex, age, income). It also goes into psychographics (behaviors, lifestyle, attitude).
Aligning with your audience means that you know them and put them first. This isn’t about your personal objectives. It’s answering the question, “What’s in it for THEM?”
What are you trying to achieve when you create your content?
Do you want to educate them?
Do you want to solve their problem?
Do you want them to know you, your employees and your brand better?
By understanding your target audience, you’ll also know where to give your attention when it comes to social media. People use LinkedIn differently than they use Twitter, and they use Twitter differently than they use Facebook. Even Facebook and Instagram are used differently! People listen to podcasts for different reasons than they watch YouTube. There’s no one-size-fits-all here. But when you know your target audience, you know where you can find them and why they are there.
It comes down to this when creating a successful marketing strategy…
Are you ready?
Know your audience
Know what they need from you
Provide it to them
It’s that simple—no need to overthink it because that right there is the secret sauce.
When you focus on your buyer’s needs, you will connect with them emotionally. Every decision we make in life is attached to our emotions, and we feel emotionally drawn to people who get us and our problems. When you connect with your buyer emotionally, they will not only become a customer but share your business with others.
I should warn you that this doesn’t happen overnight, and it’s a process of being consistent. Allow your audience time to get to know, like, and trust you. Speak to them directly, and they will come.
