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In this Saturday Strategy Session, we talk about the 4 Golden Rules to Marketing for 2024.

I love these rules because they apply to both organic and paid marketing. They apply to your email marketing and long-form content marketing and your community building. They apply to all platforms. They are truly versatile and meaningful rules that will impact your marketing going forward!

Key Takeaways:

Know your customer
Build authentic, genuine relationships
Provide Value - before, during, and after
Don't be afraid to try something different

Episode Transcript:

Hello, this is my second episode back after my little hiatus and holiday. We're gonna be talking about Golden Rules to Marketing Success in 2024. First going to tell you what the four rules are, and then we'll dive in a little bit deeper. I tried to keep these rules generic, so that whether you're choosing to do paid marketing, or organic marketing, or collaborations, they would all apply.

It also will apply platform, no matter what platform you're on. So TikTok, or Instagram, or Facebook, or whatever new platform pop up. These are more really like fundamental rules to marketing that will lead to success, specifically with how I've noticed the atmosphere, the digital marketing space, the, the feel of it and what we need as audience members and what we need as consumers.

And so I'm taking that information, what I've seen from behind the scenes of my client's businesses, what I've seen behind the scenes of my own business, and I'm bringing it to you. So the four rules are know your customers, build authentic relationships, provide value, and don't shy away from trying something new.

Now let's dive in deeper. Rule number one, know your customers. This is absolutely 100 percent undeniably your competitive edge. Knowing your customers, their fears, their dreams, their hopes, their regrets, their objectives. Everything on such a deep level is going to set you apart from your competitors and notice how I didn't say anything about the demographics of your audience.

Yes, this is probably important, but that's not what's going to really help you. It's those psychographics. the feelings and emotions that they have. And the best way to do this is market research. So let's talk about some of the different types of market research you can do. Why not? Number one is actually sitting down and having conversations with your audience members one on one or potentially in small groups.

This can be really, really great. You get tons and tons of valuable information. But it can be very, very time consuming. I know a few seven plus figure businesses that do this every single year. The CEO who almost never interacts with clients directly anymore will actually get on the phone with clients and.

Talk to them and ask them questions and really dig in. If you're going to do this, make sure that you compensate the person in some sort of way. It doesn't need to be financially, but for their time. So it could be a gift card or a thank you gift of some sort. It could be a strategy session or a free resource that isn't available.

Otherwise, just making sure that their time is fairly compensated since they're helping you so significantly, you can also send out surveys like a Google form through email to your email list or as a link in like an Instagram story. I think that this is losing popularity because fewer and fewer people are willing to answer these surveys, even with an incentive.

I notice that typically it's like a 5 or 10 Starbucks gift card that I get when I fill these out. And that isn't necessarily enough of a motivator for people to take the 10 to 20 minutes it's going to take to answer those questions, but it's still a viable option potentially. I'm going to give that a question mark.

If you have a larger email list, it obviously is going to be more successful. What I personally prefer to do is include a question in my email, something along the lines of, What are your thoughts about this? Hit reply and let me know. Or are you currently doing X? Yes or no? Hit reply and let me know. And so you can either have it really open ended.

What are your thoughts about this thing? Or it can be very closed ended. Are you currently running Facebook ads? Yes or no? And they only have to respond yes or no. Or you can say like, do you prefer Instagram or TikTok? And that's a this or that. Much easier to answer than an open ended, but just asking a question and you like say, hit reply and let me know, gives your audience permission to hit reply and answer you.

I think we know you can reply to emails, but also at the same time, we're pretty hesitant to do it. So that's a really great way you can use. Instagram story features like polls or ask me anything boxes. Those are really great ways to ask questions and get mass feedback. Often we'll have some really great numbers when we do that.

I do really, really recommend that if you are planning on putting out some. Some story pulls that you do one or two more personal stories before I don't know how to say it, but just like something that's completely unrelated to your business like this is the cake I just baked or look at my really cute children or here's my dog or look at this beautiful mountain because for whatever reason those will do really really well and when your first story of the day is Does really well the rest of them will typically do better and so more people typically when you have that personal story or couple of stories that are completely unrelated to business and people can really easily like Relate to it or like it that will get more traffic on those later stories the polls and everything.

So That's a bit of a little quick tip, but I've saved my favorite markets research strategy for last. It's pretty time consuming as well, but I wouldn't say as time consuming as jumping on calls with people. And also it has like a secondary, the, the market research is secondary in this case, and this is using your DM conversations, not as.

Market research factories, if you will, I wouldn't recommend in most cases that you're manufacturing conversations to generate market research, but you can pull from authentic conversations and genuine conversations that you're having tidbits and quotes and pieces of information and ideas and concepts from them.

Thank you very much. your dm conversations, because if someone reaches out to you with a question, and this happened to me yesterday, someone was really frustrated about an image that they were trying to make work properly with their Facebook ad, but it was sized wrong. And so I was able to pull Parts of this conversation out and noted that she was frustrated and overwhelmed with the lack of information and clarity that Facebook gave and that they don't give a solution and that that is very, very frustrating when there is actually a really easy solution, but you just have to have done it.

to know which isn't, I don't know, anyway that's digressing but I was able to pull that out and note the frustrations that she was feeling and the overwhelm and I had asked her like what did you do to try and solve this before and like that she had googled and nothing came up and yada yada right so I was able to have an authentic genuine conversation help solve her problem and also Pull some market research from there.

So that's actually my favorite strategy for market research is pulling it from authentic conversations that I'm having in the DMs anyway. Yeah. And that kind of brings us to golden rule for marketing success. Number two, which is build authentic relationships. It's so, this is all cliche to say, but we buy from people, not businesses.

And I think that most women would. I would argue that the relationships that they're building are authentic and genuine, that they're not like trying to be two faced or disingenuous. They're not trying to be slimy or salesy. I think most, especially women, are genuinely trying to build relationships. Now whether they're good at it or not, question mark, including myself, big question mark, social skills is not necessarily a forte of mine.

But, I think that just being genuine and authentic is really, really important and really, really powerful right now. And we have to remember that those relationships and the feelings that we leave someone with are so, so important. This is a quote that It's about teaching that has stuck with me for so long, and it lends to parenting decisions that I make as well, but someone one time asked me, like, What specific things I did in kindergarten in grade one and I was able to name off like I remember playing Telephone that game where you sit in a circle and whisper in each other's ears.

I remember playing telephone in kindergarten class I remember feeling really really embarrassed because apparently my mom bought wrapping paper for Christmas And I didn't know and it hung on my hook for like weeks and weeks and then my teacher yelled at me to take it home and I remember laughing and laughing and laughing at the water table.

In grade one, I remember these books that had a lot of red in them. I think like I was like used as an accent color or maybe it was the only color in the book. I'm not even sure, but they had a lot of red in them and we used an overhead projector and we traced it onto paper of some sort and I drew these gigantic whales and colored them in blue.

And I remember feeling so happy and warm and fuzzy in grade one as well. So what the point that was made to me was. It's really hard to remember specific things and exactly what to my teacher said to me or What other people my friends said to me, but I have specific memories with feelings associated I remember exactly how I felt when my teacher was like you have to take that wrapping paper home Right.

I don't remember if that's what she said or if it was like you idiot. Why haven't you taken the wrapping paper? Positive she didn't call me an idiot, but Orva was like, Oh, sweetie, you don't, you need to remember to take that wrapping home. Like, I don't know if she yelled at me or, or was so sweet and kind, or if she called me an idiot.

I don't, I have no idea, but I remember feeling so embarrassed that I didn't know it was my wrapping paper and that it was supposed to go home with me. And I don't remember why we were doing that gigantic blue whale or anything surrounding that. But I do remember just that warm and fuzzy and happy feeling in grade one.

And so, and same with my, like, thinking about my mom and parenting when I was growing up and how I felt in my home. And I don't remember specific things that were said by my parents or. specific situations, but I remember the, how I felt as a child growing up in that home. And it's really helpful now as a parent, I know my kids aren't going to remember the exact things that I say to them, but they will remember how I made them feel. And so creating that safe, caring, loving environment is really, really important to me. So in that, in our businesses, people probably aren't going to remember word for word what we said. Now, In today's day and age they can probably go back and read the transcript or the DM conversation or whatever.

But they probably won't remember exactly what was actually said. But they'll hold on to how you made them feel. So if you ask a question and the person responds like, ugh, you need to pay me for my time. That's not gonna make you feel good, right? Or as if the person responds with like, help and support or Even if the answer is like, Hey, you got to pay for my time.

But if it's in a polite, respectful way, that, that feeling that the, the person that you're, you're left with is what's going to stay and not the exact words that, that came up. Right. You also have to remember that this is a long game. It's not a sprint. It's a marathon. And so our aim needs to be truly to make a positive impact in somebody's business and not just like flip them into a customer as quick as possible, if you will. And that is a really important too, because a relationship or friendship typically is built slowly over time. It doesn't typically just instantaneously happen overnight and building on. Each interaction that you have with someone is really going to be what is that powerful impact in the long run.

Then the last piece why it's important to build relationships with people is only somewhere between like 3 to 6 percent of people are looking or would be willing to buy what you're offering right now. There are like upwards to 70 percent of people that aren't in a position to buy at all. They're just not interested.

They don't need what you're offering. They have no interest. Like I'm just thinking about a freezer. We have no need to buy a freezer. We have one. It's like half full. It works really, really great. Our fridge on the other hand, we've had it for a really long time. I think it's probably 12 or 13 years old.

There's cracks in one of the drawers. There's one of the shelves. It kind of like I don't want to say like flies off all the time, but it doesn't take a lot to knock it off of kilter and for things to go flying, right? Uh, our light bulb is burnt out, which I know I just need to buy a new light bulb for, but I'm not in the market, like I am 0 percent in the market for a new freezer.

0 percent in the market. But if someone came along to my door tomorrow with a fridge at a really great price, I could potentially be talked into purchasing a new fridge. Right? Because I'm at different points in my buying journey. It's not that the person selling the freezer is a bad salesperson or whatever.

It's that I, I just have zero need for it. Same with like a car. We have no need for a new car right now. But when we were in a need for a car, like it wasn't easy to sell. And we fell back on, fell back on quote unquote. We went to someone that we had a previous relationship with, had that authentic trust that had been built through a previous car purchase, right?

And we visited, like visited, we met with them twice, right? Just can continue to build those positive impact moments, right? So there are people that are not at all, like where I am with the freezer, not at all. And then there's other people who I'm not looking for a fridge, but if for whatever reason, it kind of popped up and it made sense.

I could see myself buying a new fridge. And then like our bed with an even better example, I am like actively looking for a new bed. I'm in that top 3%. I am actively looking to purchase a bed in the near future. So those are, Three different things in our house, well, four, I included the cars too, but like three different things, the freezer, the fridge and the bed, where I'm at different points in the buying cycle, if you will, the interest cycle, if you will, and so you have to think about that too, with my services, there are some people who are just starting to consider Facebook ads, they're not in a position at all to To get them there or they're just starting their business.

They're not in a position at all to be interested in Facebook ads And there's the people who are just in those beginning phases of interest in the ads and they're like, okay Let me learn more Maybe I could see myself doing this and then there's people who come to me are like I'm ready. Let's do this today Yes, I want this right and so You just have to remember like that those people are different phases and it's okay to build relationships with people who are at different phases and to just trust that one day if you've built that strong relationship and they trust you and they feel like they have a genuine authentic connection with you that when they're in that top 3 percent like I am with our bed and you're like, they're actively looking for something. Hopefully you'll be one of the first people that they turn to.

Golden rule number three is to provide value before you sell something while you're selling something after you've sold it. I'm a firm believer that before, during, and after working with someone selling something to them that it's important to provide value.

And I don't mean like one to one value every single time. This podcast is a piece of value that I Provide, right? It's really, really easy. I think for us to get caught up in the idea of providing value leading into a sale when you're in a sales mind set, but providing continuous value through long form content is very, very important and very essential and is really going to help with that second piece of building those relationships.

You also have to remember it. The, I don't, I have no statistics about this, but retaining a client is easier and cheaper than replacing clients.

So if you can retain your client instead of having to go find a new one, you're saving yourself time, you're saving yourself energy, and you're saving yourself money. It's also, you're at past clients or past customers who are most likely to refer you to someone else, especially if they were happy with working with you or purchasing your resource, and especially, especially if they feel like they're still getting something from you, they're still getting value, that they're still learning Or gaining from you past, like after that.

And again, I'm absolutely not saying that you have to be constantly making freebies to send out to people. I'm not saying that you have to be providing one on one support forever. I'm saying that through your emails, through your long form content, you're continuing to provide value so that people, no matter where they are in that purchase cycle of before, during, or after a purchase from you continue to gain valuable information from you.

I do personally include 30, I always say 30 plus days of email support and follow up after someone's done working with me, like in a Facebook ad sprint or ongoing management when we're wrapping things up. I always say 30 plus. days, and then if someone's like, what do you mean 30 plus days? Because they don't count.

And if you reach out, I probably won't realize like, oh, it's been two months or whatever. I'm typically happy. And I know that we don't have unlimited time and I can't answer every single question. And if someone were to reach out three years later, I might not even remember. The ad that we ran like the specifics of the ad that we ran, but I do think when we have the time and we have the availability and we have the capacity to help people, I personally think that it putting the value out the universe will return it to you.

Okay. And then golden rule number four is don't shy away from trying something different. And then in brackets I have, well, simultaneously sticking to your message values and offers. So like try new things within your same thing. And I realized that this is a little bit confusing, but there is absolute power in newness within the stability of sameness, if that makes sense.

There's a lot, a lot of work, time, energy, money, typically that goes into new offers. Selling yourself and your audience on that new offer is huge and typically takes so much, right? We, once we have something that's working, the best thing that you can do is keep that offer. And try new angles and new variations and new packaging kind of, I don't know if that's the right word that I'm looking for, but I'm, I did write the notes for this around the holidays and what I wrote was rewrap it in fresh paper then re gift it.

That's so funny. Oh man. So, but basically. Don't change the core of your offer, but just tweak and change it and make adjustments based on that market research, but also based on the time of year. What people are looking for right now in January at the beginning of the year, we're resetting, we're refreshing, we're resolutioning, we're word of the yearing, we're doing all of these things is not going to be the same as people are looking for in June.

When they're getting ready or already on summer vacation and they're beaching and pooling and relaxing and vacationing, whatever they, your variation thereof is. So taking that offer, but just taking, putting those different spins on it is a really great way to not have to redo all of it, but still keeping it fresh, keeping exciting and keeping it relevant.

Consistency and sameness are going to help your audience to better understand exactly what you do and how you do it so that they can self identify when it's the right time for them to jump in your offer. So if you're constantly like, Oh, I offer Facebook ads and then. But you know what, no more Facebook ads.

Now I do Google ads. Okay. We're done with the Google ads and now I'm going to help you with, with organic Pinterest and oh, we're done with that. And now I'm going to do some social media marketing. People will not have a clue who you are and what you do. Whereas if like what I've done, I've stuck with Facebook ads for three years now, and I've had the Facebook ad sprint for.

I've had this package for, I think, like two and a half years, and it's been called a Facebook ad sprint for just over a year and a half. Right? So there's consistency in, I had the package for like a year before I branded it as the Facebook ad sprint. And before that, I had different names, and I flipped and flopped, and I never knew what to call it.

And so it was really nice, and that was a piece of that freshness and that newness at the time of bringing in a a name and like branding it. So as a teacher, if you have a business that serves other teachers, or if you're a business that teaching teacher business that serves other teacher business owners like mine, you can definitely go with like themes, seasons.

The curriculum will ebb and flow, you know, that teachers are going to do back to school and fall and Halloween and Thanksgiving and holidays and the new year with winter themes and penguins, right? Like you can, I'm, I'm showing my primary is showing right now, the fact that I'm a grade one, two teacher typically, oh my gosh, it's showing so hard right now, but you can pull out those themes or you could do like what.

I have a client who, uh, focuses on middle school math and so she creates activities based on where in the curriculum typically you would be at different times of the year. And so like right now we're doing like an algebra thing and then we're going to do what I don't, I, I don't know enough about the math program to really say what we're doing, but, based on the trends and what she's noticed over the past four or five years of running her business of what teachers are looking for at specific times of the year and pulling those out. So that's another way that you can do it and it's really great. Now it doesn't just apply to teachers either. Moms, you can do it as well.

Like if moms are your target audience. You know that they're going to be looking for things like March break, spring class, spring crafts meal plans for the summer or meal plans for Mother's Day or meal plans for Easter or whatever it might be. Right? So pulling out on those themes and the seasonal aspects of it, but not actually changing what your core offer is.

Now, caveat here. I was in a Facebook group. And. Their way they were being a little bit harsh. They weren't being harsh. What they were saying was not harsh They were being unkind in how they were saying the harsh things, but they were talking about specific TPT sellers that keyword stuff and so they have like a bundle of Resources like let's just say Mac math worksheets.

I have no idea what this person that they were specifically hating on had, but let's just say math resources. And it's a bundle of math resources, a whole full year math resource bundle. And right now, if you were to look at the title of it, it would be like New Year's, Winter, January, Penguins, Math Activities.

But then if you go back like In a month from now, it'll be like Valentine's Day, still winter family day and that's in the title, right? So there are keyword stuffing in the title. So yeah, because it's a full year math bundle, there might be like one or two Valentine's Day worksheets in there, but the majority of it is I'm just filling out the whole year.

Now that's going to the extreme of seasonalizing it and I don't agree with that. I think that going back to being authentic and building authentic relationships, you need to be truthful and you need to be genuine in your marketing and so when you're repackaging it needs to be a genuine, authentic, truthful repackaging and not a kind of like slimy salesy keyword stuffing kind of packaging.

So just want to leave that caveat there. So this is a bit of a longer episode than I expected it to be. I didn't actually have a ton of notes so I think I rambled a little bit but that's okay. I love chatting. After you've listened to this, I'm sure one of them is kind of sticking out of like, Oh, this, this is something that I need to focus on or that really resonated with me or whatever, what have you.

I want you to think about which one of these four know your customers, build authentic relationships, provide value, and don't shy away from trying something different. Which one of those is really speaking to you or really resonated with you moving forward as kind of maybe your focus for the first quarter of the year or just like right now if one of them is like, yes, I definitely need to incorporate more of that into my business I think that that's a really great way to take something away because there is tons of information and tons of different things that you could do with what I've said today and I don't want you to feel like overwhelmed or this is just too much.

So if one of them's really speaking to you, pull that one, focus on that one. And when you come back to this episode and listen to it again in three or six months or whatever, then maybe a different one will be speaking to you then. Okay. Have a wonderful, wonderful week. Happy Saturday. If you're listening to this, when it went live and I will be back next week with another Saturday strategy session.