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4 Marketing Gaps I See My Clients Make
When I onboard a new client, there are always standard questions that I ask. One of those being what their current marketing strategy looks like. And over the years, I’ve discovered that there are some very common holes that MOST of my clients have when they come to me.
Now, I help my clients fill these gaps for themselves, but you can also fill these gaps on your own. (Chasing Simple Marketing: The Community is a great way to both DIY it and get my help for just $27 a month by the way).
So today I wanted to share the 4 most common holes that I see clients come to me with, and a little insight into how to get started.
Links and Resources Mentioned in This Episode:
- There are a LOT of different marketing strategies out there. from content to networking to speaking, to ads, and so many more. And with so many different marketing strategies, it’s easy to find yourself hopping from one to the next – without seeing results. Especially when you see other entrepreneurs getting results from their marketing strategies, when you aren’t seeing any from your own. After hearing from listener after listener wondering WHICH marketing strategy they should focus on, I decided to create a quiz to help you narrow down which will be best for you based on your current phase of business. Head to amandawarfield.com/quiz/ to take it, learn where you should focus your marketing energy, and start seeing results from your marketing! Again, that’s amandawarfield.com/quiz/
- Welcome Sequence Email Template
- Content Batching Bootcamp
- The Community (Use code LISTENER for your first month free!)
- This week’s action step: Start with your welcome sequence (grab my template!)
- This week’s book recommendation: Highly Suspicious and Unfairly Cute by Talia Hibbert
- Find me on Instagram and tell me you completed this week’s action step: @mrsamandawarfield
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Have a comment about today’s episode, or a topic you’d like to suggest for a future episode? Shoot me an email over at hello@amandawarfield.com!
Rather Read? – Here’s the Transcript!
*Just a heads up – the provided transcript is likely to not be 100% accurate
When I onboard a new client, there are always standard questions that I ask. One of those being what their current marketing strategy looks like. And over the years, I’ve discovered that there are some very common holes that most of my clients have when they come to me. Now, I help my clients fill these gaps for themselves, but you can also fill these gaps on your own.
Chasing Simple Marketing the Community is a great way to both DIY it and get my help for just $27 a month, by the way. But today I wanted to share the four most common holes that I see clients come to me with and a little insight in how to get started with each of them. You’re listening to episode 205 of the Chasing Simple Podcast, and I’m your host, Amanda Warfield.
This episode was brought to you by my book, Chasing Symbol Marketing, and you can grab your own at amandawarfield. com / book.
How do I find time to create content without overwhelming myself? Where should I even be showing up in my marketing? How do I come up with fresh content ideas? Where should I be focusing my marketing efforts? What is lead generation anyways, and how do I do it? Are launches still a thing? And most importantly How do I put it all together to market my business strategically?
Can I really grow my business without spending all of my time marketing? These are some of the questions that float around in your head when you think of marketing. Welcome friend, this is Chasing Simple, where practical marketing strategy meets simplicity. I’m your host, Amanda Warfield, simplicity focused content marketing and launch strategist, speaker, educator, and author of Chasing Simple Marketing.
I traded in my classroom lesson plans for helping creative entrepreneurs sustainably fit marketing into their business without it taking over their business. so that they have time to grow their business, take time off, and live the life they dreamed about when they first decided to go out on their own.
When I’m working, you can find me working with one on one clients, such as The Contract Shop and Rebecca Rice Photography on their marketing strategy and copywriting, or helping my students simplify their marketing and launches. And when I’m not, you can find me spending time outside with my husband, Russell.
Reading in our hammock, watching Gamecock Sports, traveling, or forcing our cats to snuggle me. If you feel overwhelmed by marketing, you aren’t alone. Many entrepreneurs find marketing frustrating, overwhelming, and simply an obligation. They know they need it, but they don’t enjoy how easily it can suck up their time when what they really want to be doing is Is the thing that they started their business to do, which is why I’m here to help make marketing simple and less time consuming so that you can spend less time on your marketing and more time growing your business and doing what you love each week.
I’ll bring you transparent conversations. Actionable steps and judgment free community to encourage and equip you. So grab yourself a cup of coffee or whatever your drink of choice is and meet me here each week for love, support, practical tips, and advice on uncomplicating your marketing and business.
Let’s do this entrepreneurship thing together, shall we? There are a lot of different marketing strategies out there. From content, to networking, to speaking, to ads, and so many more. And with so many different marketing strategies, it’s easy to find yourself hopping from one to the next. without seeing results.
Especially when you see other entrepreneurs getting results from their marketing strategies when you aren’t seeing any from your own. And after hearing from listener after listener wondering which marketing strategy they should focus on, I decided to create a quiz to help you narrow down which strategies will be best for you.
Based on your current phase of business, head to amandawarfield. com slash quiz to take it. Learn where you should focus your marketing energy and start seeing results from your marketing. Again, that’s amandawarfield. com / quiz. As always, this is your reminder that before you can really start filling a lot of these holes, you have to get consistent first.
If you’re not consistently showing up with your content, some of these things won’t matter. If possible, get consistent and then start working on these, especially because people are going to be more likely to do these things. You’ll see what I mean here in a second, but they’ll be more likely to actually follow through on some of these requests that you have, these asks, if you’re consistent, because that builds the know, like, and trust.
So. If you’re still struggling to get consistent, check out my content batching bootcamp course, it is my most purchased course period. And it has just gotten just such rave reviews since I launched it in 2020. People love it. It makes such a difference in their business and it teaches you how to batch your content, but also how to set up a batching system that works for you and your business uniquely.
So. That’s there. If you want to check it out, I’ll link to it in the show notes. You can also go to amandawarfield. com slash bootcamp to check it out. But if you’re not consistent, start showing up consistently with your content. Now, the first very common marketing hole that I see with clients is that they don’t have a welcome sequence.
And if your welcome sequence is even just one email long, that’s enough. That’s a great start. But so many of my clients, they get stuck in this mindset of. Well, I don’t have time to create an entire sequence, so I haven’t created one at all. But what ends up happening if you don’t have a welcome sequence is that someone opts into your list, and especially if you’re not being consistent, right, with your content and you’re not showing up consistently in their inbox, they opt into your list, they’re not welcomed, they don’t know anything about you, right?
Because the purpose of a welcome sequence is to say, hey, this is who I am. This is what my brand is. This is who I serve. And this is how I can help you. And you want it to be something that gives them the choice to stick around or not. And of course, even if they don’t take action, they stick around.
Because until someone unsubscribes, they stick around. But you want to say, hey, I’m glad you’re here. I’m glad you downloaded my freebie or bought my Low ticket offer, but this is who I am and what I do and if you don’t align with this Please hit unsubscribe like ask them to do that. You want your welcome sequence to let them know who you are Start building that relationship with you if they haven’t already and if you don’t have that and you’re not consistently showing up in Their inbox because you’re not consistently emailing your list Then you end up as this random person that they go.
Oh, who is this emailing me? When did I sign up for their stuff? I don’t understand. Like, what is going on? Immediate unsubscribe or report spam because they don’t remember signing up for your email list. So, you want to make sure you have a welcome sequence of some sort so that you can say, Hey, this is who I am.
I’m really glad you’re here. If you’d like to stick around, please stick around. If you don’t, that’s totally fine. Take the freebie and run. So, getting started with the welcome sequence, I have a welcome sequence template. If you just want to snag a template, fill in some holes and pop it into your system, you can totally do that.
I’ve got that in my shop, but if you want to build yours from scratch and you don’t have the capacity to build a full welcome sequence, just start with one email, send an opt in delivery email, and then send an email that says, Hey, welcome. This is who I am. I’m so glad you’re here. This is who I serve, and this is how I serve them.
This is what I do. I firmly believe this thing, and I would love it if you would stick around. But if this isn’t your vibe, if this isn’t the kind of help that you’re needing, there’s an unsubscribe button below. Please unsubscribe. And that’s all you have to say. So, start with that, or Snagged my welcome sequence templates.
I have inside of the templates You’ll find a flowchart for what the welcome sequence should look like and then also opt in delivery emails There’s three different opt in sequence emails and then a welcome sequence emails as well which I’ll link to in the show notes if you want to check out that template now the Second very common hole that I see in my clients marketing strategies is that they don’t have a strategic lead magnet and what I mean by that is that they have an opt in and And it is something they probably created just to like slap an opt in out there to have a freebie that they could send people to.
But the problem is, is that it doesn’t actually connect with their offers. It doesn’t do anything to send people to their offers. So what you want to make sure that you do when you’re creating a lead magnet is you want to actually start with your offer. And you want to go, okay. What does someone need to have done, or have understood, or have completed before they’re ready for this offer?
What’s the step before it? And then you want to take that topic and create your lead magnet around that topic. And then, Within your lead magnet, you want to make sure that you’re mentioning your offer. Maybe you give a discount. Maybe you give a free trial. Maybe, I don’t know what that would be, but you want to make sure you say, Hey, you’ve done this thing.
You’ve completed this step. What’s the next step? Well, it’s this thing. And Hey, I can help you with that too, with this offer. You want to make sure that you are strategically leading people into your offer because a free opt in is, yes, about growing your email list but it’s also about growing your list with people who need help solving the problem that you solve.
It’s about building a list of people that are good for your offer. An email list that has a ton of people in it but aren’t interested in your actual offers, it’s not worth your time. It’s not a good list because you’re going to be Sending emails to a lot of people, but you’re not going to be seeing a return on that time investment.
You’re not going to be seeing sales. So you want to make sure that your lead magnet is really really strategic and if you don’t have strategic lead magnets for each of your main offers, now’s a great time to create them. And if you are a member of the community and you missed out on Q4 of last year of 2023.
Go back to the Q4 section because that entire quarter we focused on building a strategic lead magnet. So I’m giving you everything you need to do that. All of the content you need to walk you through it. There’s a checklist. So go back and check that out if you are inside of the community and you joined after or you were in there but you just didn’t have time.
Remember that that is there and you can Get guidance through building that strategic lead magnet and then, you know, message me in the Slack channel for the community, ask questions, show up to office hours. All of that is there to help you create that strategic lead magnet and I would love to help guide you through it.
And if you’re not a member of the community yet, you can find the link in the show notes or go to amandawarfield. com slash community and use code listener for your first month free and you can start building your strategic lead magnet in there. Now, the third hole that I see with clients so commonly is that they don’t put out an annual survey.
An annual survey is so important for your marketing. This is how you know what the people on your list The people in your audience the people that you know, listen or watch or read your long form content What they need from you what they want what their struggles are So often I have people come to me and go well, I just don’t know what my audience needs Well, this is the best way to find out put out an annual survey I do this once a year for my entire audience and I also do it once a year for my membership for the community So that I know very specifically, okay This is what my audience as a whole is struggling with.
And then also, okay, here’s how I can improve this membership, how I can continue to serve the people inside of it. Here’s what they want to learn from me in the coming year. So an annual survey is so simple to put together. You create a Google form. That’s all you need. Mine are always less than 10 questions.
It’s So, so simple. And honestly, the shorter, the better, because the more likely someone will actually go through and answer if you have less questions. And that’s also less work for you on the front end, but also coming through all of that information. And this literally will tell you, Hey, This is what they’re struggling with.
And then you can take that information, those struggles they’ve given you, and create offers around them. Or maybe it’s a great, oh, I could create a lead magnet for this. This is so helpful, right? It tells you exactly what they need. So you can create offers, create lead magnets that they want and they will purchase, that they will download.
But, it’s also a great way to get copy for your content and for your sales pages. Because the way they talk about these struggles is likely different than how you would talk about them when you’re teaching about them. And so, they’re selling, they’re telling you exactly how to share with them, to pull them in.
Also, this is a really great way to get content ideas. Because listen, we all get to the point with our content where we go, I just don’t know what to say anymore. I literally messaged my podcast producer this week and said, man, I have One more episode I need to create and fill for this next batch week, and I just am burned out.
I don’t know what to say. And this happens to all of us. And our annual surveys are a great place to get content ideas. So, I cannot recommend an annual survey enough. If you have one marketing project on your plate each year, I would say this should be the one, quite frankly. All right, and then the fourth and final, well, not really final, but the fourth most common.
Marketing hole that I see with my clients is that they don’t have at least one sales funnel. Now, a sales funnel is an email funnel that sells on Evergreen. One of your offers, and these are so important for a number of reasons, first and foremost, because.
So if nothing else, a sales funnel for a specific offer is that first touch point and maybe multiple touch points if they read all the emails, right? But it’s that first set of touch points for an offer that you have. Secondly, it’s so important because frankly, It really cements in people’s minds what it is that you do.
And third, it’s going to convert if it’s done well. And honestly, even if it’s not done well, it’ll probably still convert some. And so you are, from the start of people coming into your email list. They are then being sold something. So as soon as they get on your list, you have the chance to make money. So what this tends to look like when I set it up for myself and for my clients is we start with the freebie.
They have their opt in sequence, then they have their welcome sequence, and then from the welcome sequence, they get put into this initial sales sequence. There are also other types of sales sequences you can set up. I’m not going to go into those today. That’s a great way to have that initial sales sequence is just by right after the welcome sequence, check to see if they’ve gone through this sales sequence before.
And then send them through it if they haven’t. And that way they’re getting those touch points, they may purchase, or they may just be primed for the next time you share about it. The next time you launch, they may just go, Hmm, I really like that. Now’s not the time, but next time you share about it, they may be ready.
So have at least one sales funnel set up. And again, if you’re like, that sounds great. I don’t have the capacity for this. Well, I can help you let’s do a VIP day and I will write a sales funnel for you. Or just start with one email, just start with one, one sales email that shares about an offer. Don’t worry about a full funnel.
If you don’t have the money to hire it out and you don’t have the time to do it yourself, write one sales email for your main offer and stick it into a welcome sequence. Okay? Your action step out of all of these. Because that was a lot, I know, and there’s a reason that they’re common holes, right?
Because they are marketing projects. Your goal, your action step is to start with your welcome sequence. And again, I have a welcome sequence template if you want to snag that. It’s in my shop. I’ll link to it in the show notes. But start with that welcome sequence or that welcome email. That way you are letting people know from the beginning who you are and people are staying on your list because they want to be there Versus I signed up for a freebie and never heard from you again and didn’t realize I was still on your list Now, your book recommendation for this week is Highly Suspicious and Unfairly Cute by Talia Hibbert.
Let me tell you, I could read her books all day long. She is such a great author, and typically the other books of hers I’ve read have been a little more mature. This one was about a couple in high school actually, and they’re on like a school trip I believe, in the woods. I don’t know. It’s It’s so cute and it’s just so well written and I cannot recommend it enough.
I’m gonna link to it in the show notes. But if you like meet cute type books, um, I think this one was like enemies to lovers, but like high school enemies to lovers, not really lovers. And not really full out enemies either, but so such a good book. So I’ll link to that in the show notes. And until next time, my friend, I hope you’ll go out and uncomplicate your marketing and business.
Thank you so much for joining me here today, friend. You can find this episode show notes as well as all the resources you need to survive marketing over at amandaworthfield. com. If you liked what you heard here today, be sure to subscribe to the podcast so that you never miss an episode. And if you could take a moment to leave a rating and review, it would truly mean the world to me.
Ratings and reviews are the number one way that you can support a podcast and ensure that it sticks around for many more episodes to come. I’ll see you next time. Now go out and uncomplicate your marketing and business.
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