In today's Q&A episode of the podcast, I'm answering a question from the fabulous Michelle about what the daily, weekly and monthly actions are that you need to tick off when you are starting a business.
This is a great conversation for us to have.
Today's question comes from the amazing Michelle Reid from Michelle Reid Feng Shui. You can find her on Facebook at Michelle Reid Feng Shui.
Michelle asked:
"Hey Tash, I understand there are actions that we need to take each day to work and grow our business. When you first start in business and don't have any experience, what are the key actions to do daily, weekly and monthly?"
What a great question, Michelle.
If you're first starting out in business and you're not particularly experienced or confident in your ability to deliver for your clients, then I would say you need to develop your skillset and experience first.
It might be that your focus when you're first starting out is getting lots and lots of experience working with clients - whether that be paying clients or non-paying clients.
If you're really confident in your ability to deliver but you don't know how to market, then you're probably going to need to learn some of those marketing activities - you're going to need to practise.
If you want to have video as a core part of your marketing strategy but you don't love doing video and you're not very good at it, then you want to practise that more often, because it's going to be part of your ongoing strategy.
It really does depend. However, I do like to have a consistent and balanced approach to both mindset and strategy during the week.
What I'm going to do is give you my example of how to have a good balance between mindset and strategy on a daily, weekly and monthly basis.
I'll also share with you how to tailor your daily, weekly and monthly actions to what is important and a priority for your business.
Show notes in full are at: tashcorbin.com/251
Follow Tash on Facebook: facebook.com/tashcorbincoaching
Join the Heart-Centred Soul-Driven Entrepreneurs: tashcorbin.com/group
Show notes can be found at tashcorbin.com/250
In today's episode, I'm going to help you to structure your content so that it does its job properly.
We know that creating content can be a really great way to grow, nurture and convert your audience into paying clients. But if your content is NOT doing its job, then you're just wasting your time.
Let's dive into this episode and get your content doing its job properly!
I've made no secret of my love of the content marketing style of business.
I love creating podcasts and being on social media.
Content marketing is such a great way to create connection, grow your audience, nurture them and convert them into paying clients.
It's a great way of delivering value and information, and helping people. It feels like a really invitation-based model of business as well, because you can lean in with great content, but let your audience come the rest of the way, and be magnetic and attract them into your business.
So how do you structure that content so that it does its job?
Show notes can be found at tashcorbin.com/249
Today I have a very practical podcast episode for you in which I'm going to tell you how to structure a webinar for great conversion.
There's no ONE size fits all, ONE way to do it, ONE specific structure that works for everyone. However, I'm going to give you some really great starting points so that you can ensure your webinar does all its jobs to maximise conversion.
If you've been following me for more than 15 minutes, you probably already know that I absolutely love and adore webinars. I think they are a brilliant lead magnet, and an amazing opportunity to create a connection with your audience, maximise conversion, really work on your list growth, and get feedback on your offers, your messaging, what people's resistance points are, and more.
I also love webinars because they're so low cost and it's really easy to do in startup. You don't need a website, you don't need a really fancy mailing list platform, and you can use low cost or free tools. When it comes to hosting a webinar, you can use the Zoom Meetings option, which in most cases is under around $20 per month.
Running a webinar is low cost and simple to do, and you don't have to get everything sorted, pre-recorded and edited up in the background beforehand.
These days, when I'm launching my programs and promoting my offers, a webinar still converts way better than any of my other lead magnets.
Generally, my webinars convert anywhere between 4% and 8% of the people who sign up into paying clients of what I'm offering
If the 94% of people who don't convert on the webinar join my mailing list, chances are, they're going to convert on the NEXT webinar or the NEXT launch.
Webinars are sexy and I love them so much.
When it comes to structuring a webinar, we want to ensure that it's doing all of its jobs.
Webinars have multiple jobs in your business and in your content strategy. We want to make sure that we do all of those.
In order for a webinar to maximise reach, it needs to be a topic that is juicy, tangible and practical for your audience.
In most cases, the topic of the webinar speaks to the symptom - what your audience thinks the problem is or thinks the solution is.
For example, if your audience thinks that what they need is more followers on Facebook, and you know that they do need more followers on Facebook but they also need to convert and make sure that they're niched so that they can attract in their ideal audience, you might do a webinar on how to grow your Facebook audience. In the webinar, you're not just delivering how to grow your Facebook audience, you're also delivering on making sure that it converts AND that the growth is the right type of person.
When it comes to structuring your webinar, we need to bridge a gap between what people THINK is the problem and the solution, and what we KNOW is the real transformation that needs to occur for them to get the outcome that they want.
Let's face it, people might think that they need more followers on their Facebook page, but in most cases, they want that extra following for a reason. They want more followers on their Facebook page because they think that's going to solve their issues with the number of sales they're making or their income level. The real transformation that they're looking for is not simply getting more followers on their Facebook page, it's actually something that is a lot deeper.
The TURN process is a four-step process through which we take people from curious to converted.
The TURN process stands for:
Think
Understand
Real need
Next steps
Think is the start of my webinar structure - making sure that we are on the same page about what the person thinks the problem is and what they think the solution is. I deliver on solving that problem and delivering that solution.
In the example of getting Facebook followers on your page, you would use How to get followers on your Facebook page as both the title AND the topic you will be covering in the early stages of the webinar.
Give your people what they want because if you just keep yelling at them that that's not what they need, chances are, their eyes will glaze over and they'll go and work with someone else.
People come to me all the time asking how to get more followers on Facebook. I've tried to explain to them that they don't need more followers, what they do need is high conversion, high connection strategies. But most people will just immediately shut that down and claim that they do in fact need more followers on their Facebook page first.
Instead of telling people that they don't need that, I explain to them how to do it, and then explain to them how to maximise the results in achieving that outcome.
Generally, I have the topic and the early parts of my webinars speaking to what my audience THINKS the problem is and THINKS the solution is, and I deliver on that.
U stands for understand.
Understand is where I help people understand how to solve the problem that they think that they have, but also I'm planting the seed of helping them understand that it goes deeper.
It's not just about getting followers on your Facebook page, there's a thing that you want that to achieve for you - you want followers on your Facebook page because you think that that's going to get you more sales.
Not all followers are created equal. If we're going to get you more followers on your Facebook page, why don't we get you more followers who are high quality, in your niche, ready, willing and able to take action and buy from you? Let's engage with that audience in a way that maximises conversion. Wouldn't that be amazing?
The U stands for understand - understand how to solve what they think the problem is, but also understand that it goes deeper.
If we want the big outcome that we think that that's going to get us, we need to ensure that we understand all the pieces that go into creating that outcome.
The R is where you present in your webinar that if your audience wants the big outcome, it's not just a matter of getting more followers on Facebook (because let's face it, you can buy 1000 followers on your Facebook page for $20 through Fiverr).
The thing is, they don't just want Facebook followers for followers' sake. They want Facebook followers because they want to make more sales, they want an audience and for that audience to be the right audience.
What we do in the R phase of the webinar - what the real transformation is - is we actually present what the combinations of things that go together to achieve that bigger goal are.
If someone wants more Facebook followers because they want to make more sales, then actually we need a combination of strategies here.
We need to:
1. Understand what your niche is really clearly.
2. Grow your Facebook audience through content that speaks to the value proposition of your work, and a message that deeply resonates with that specific audience.
3. Ensure that if we're going to have that Facebook following turn into paying clients, we're presenting them with an offer that is compelling.
4. Find the marketing strategies and techniques that we can use to maximise growth, new audience members, reach to existing audience and their engagement on your Facebook page.
Can you see how by bringing this combination of things together over an extended period of time, we're not just going to achieve extra reach and extra followers on your Facebook page, we're going to achieve more sales, more paying clients and high-quality audience?
You can see how that is the R stage of the webinar because we're not just talking about the surface level thing that people think the problem is or the solution that they need, we're also presenting to them a depth of understanding of what that real transformation is going to take.
The next step from the webinar is for us to work together.
You present your offer on how you can go deeper with that real transformation with your audience, and how you can support them through that process.
You're not just discrediting those needs and going against what they think they need, you're delivering on that AND you're giving them tangible, practical strategies to solve the problem and address the solution that they're looking for.
In the process, you're also helping to open your audience's eyes to the lightbulb moment or that big aha of understanding that in order to get Z, they also need X and Y.
Some people will come to your webinar and only need to get more Facebook followers. They get good conversion and engagement but they just need some practical ways to get better reach.
They leave that webinar really happy - they don't need to buy the next step from you because they're already sorted with the rest of that transformation.
But there is a percentage of people who come along to that webinar and realise what the bigger issue is for them and, if it's the right fit for them, they'll see that working with you further will help them to get where they need to go - not just with growing their Facebook page but also with making sales from it.
It's a really beautiful process that is very value-laden, and you don't have to hold back on the information that you're giving away (due to fear of taking away the value of the paid offer) because the webinar presents information and the next steps is actually embedding the transformation.
It's a beautiful bridging process that not only achieves reach through a great topic that's speaking at the symptom level, it also increases connection and that engagement with your audience.
You're taking them through a really beautiful process, you're meeting them where they are, helping them with what they think they need helo with, and you're also getting it to do its job in terms of conversion and lead generation for working with you further because for the right people, the next steps are exactly the steps that they're looking for.
When I present this as a structure for a webinar, I want to say to you that there is no one perfect webinar structure. There is no one perfect number of testimonials (I don't actually use testimonials in webinars). There is no one perfect webinar title structure, one perfect sequence of things that you say and you have to ask people, and in most cases where people are teaching that one perfect structure, it's just that they've found a structure that works for them and their audience so they think it's going to apply to every person and every audience and every provider. In most cases, that's just not true.
We need to make sure that we craft webinars that really meet our audience where they are, help them achieve that short term goal with the information that they need, and then present what the real transformation is - that deeper piece of the puzzle - and the next logical steps to working with you.
There are dozens, if not hundreds of ways to be able to do that.
I know that it's very tempting to fall into the idea that you have to get people to say 'yes' six times, so you're constantly asking people to give you a 'yes' in the comments.
This is old school neuro-linguistic programming - it's a very masculine-oriented sales strategy.
I get eye-rolly whenever I go to a webinar and I have to continuously type 'yes' in the chatbox before they even get to the content.
Just get to the content as quickly as possible.
What I generally do when I'm asking questions on a webinar, is I ask my audience not to just give me a 'yes', but to tell me where they're at, what they want to get out of the webinar, what their biggest struggle is with the topic and how it shows up for them.
As you continue to deliver webinars, you'll get more practise at asking quality questions and engaging your audience, but don't feel like you need to do the checkbox kind of structure where you're really buying into that masculine structure of setting people up and then swooping in as the hero and saviour with your paid product.
This is a very feminine, connection and value-laden way of structuring a webinar.
Sometimes people are trying to push square pegs of masculine webinar strategies and checkboxes into the round hole of a feminine, value-laden process that we're taking people through, and it just doesn't fit together.
When it comes to growing a webinar and getting your webinars working well, the best advice I have for you is to practise.
Run your webinar... then run it again... then run it again...
You are going to get better at delivering that webinar, understanding where people get stuck, answering people's questions, juggling the chatbox and the slides and remembering what you've got to say, learning how to speak without a script so it doesn't sound so stilted, as well as really mastering, nailing and scaling the webinar promotion piece, because you need to learn how to start getting that webinar appealing to colder and colder audiences as you continue to promote over and over again.
Generally, when I'm working with people in startup, we run the same webinar three months in a row.
The first time is just getting all of those firsts ticked off and running it, giving it a go and seeing how it goes.
The second time is process improvement - how to get more organic leads coming to that webinar, and how to deliver that webinar in a much more structured way where you're feeling confident with it.
Then if it works well the first two times, we start scaling it with some Facebook ads for the third time around.
What you need to do is nail your webinar and scale your webinar to colder and colder audiences.
That is how you get a webinar to do its job effectively.
Remember, when it comes to making money and conversion and sales in your business, the money's in the follow-up.
Don't forget to follow-up your webinar audiences. Too many times I see people create a webinar, do all of the promo, run the webinar, get one or two leads live on the webinar, send out the recording and then people never hear from them again.
Usually I write three emails after I've sent out the recording (sometimes only two) but I do create a really nice follow-up process that ensures that people have the information that they need, maximise the number of people who watch the recording, and maximise the conversion that I get from that webinar.
One thing that I do want to say about webinars, and it's my extra special juicy freebie for you today, is that the best webinars are hyper-specific to your niche. They aren't broad-brush webinars that could be helpful to anyone.
A really hyper niche webinar that speaks to the tangible practical issues that your audience is facing is going to maximise not only the signup rate but also the conversions.
It makes it so much easier for you to structure your webinars as well because you're speaking to a much more refined and narrowed audience.
It is available for you anytime, all you need to do is grab it at tashcorbin.com/niche.
If you have any lightbulb moments or questions following this podcast episode, make sure you come on over to the Heart-Centred Soul-Driven Entrepreneurs Facebook group, use #podcastaha, let me know that you've been listening along to episode number 249 and let's continue the conversation over in the community.
Until next time, I cannot WAIT to see you SHINE.
Show notes can be found at tashcorbin.com/248
In today's episode, I'm going to help you address the big, horrible issue of what to do when everything just feels too hard and business is overwhelming.
When business is overwhelming, how do you address it?
This is a really helpful episode for preventative means as well as addressing it after it's come up.
Regardless of whether you're in 'its too hard' mode right now, or whether you want to prevent it from coming up in the future, this is going to be a very helpful episode for you.
I don't know if I've ever met an entrepreneur who hasn't experienced burnout, patterns of overworking or a feeling of business being overwhelming.
It can be very easy to decide that having a business is:
Even though it can sometimes feel like business is overwhelming and hard, it doesn't necessarily mean that that's just part and parcel of having your own business. In fact, when we get to spot the signs of burnout, overwhelm, overworking or any of the other signs that things just aren't working appropriately for us, and we address them quickly and effectively, we make our business easier and easier. It becomes more and more of a joy.
One of the big things that I've noticed is that the burnout effect or feeling like your business is overwhelming or too hard is multiplied when you're also not making money.
If you're on social media for two hours a day and it's not working, you're not getting any feedback from people, not getting any connections or messages back from people, then that feels really overwhelming, and that feels like the path to burnout. But if I said to you that in two hours a day on social media, you can make $50,000 a month in sales, would you still feel the same way? Probably not.
When you're not making money from particular activities - especially the marketing and sales parts of your business - that's when that overwhelm is multiplied. That's when that sense of overworking and the feeling of needing to work more and needing to work harder can actually snowball into something bigger than it ever needed to be.
All of that being said, even if it is working, did you start a business to be feeling like you need to spread yourself thin? To feel like you are in a state of overwhelm all the time? Did you start a business to do hard things all of the time? Probably not.
In this episode, I want to share with you my five strategies for dealing with that feeling that business is overwhelming and it's too hard or the signs and symptoms of moving towards burnout or overwhelm.
What I'm going to give you is my five-step strategy for addressing that overworking, preventing the overwhelm and burnout, or bouncing back from it.
Hopefully you'll find this helpful. Let's dive into those five strategies.
If I find myself feeling like I don't have time to do all the things in my business, or I'm feeling like business is overwhelming because of all the things I want to do, my number one priority is ensuring that I deliver to existing clients. Whether that's the clients inside my Take Off group program, my Accelerator or my VIP one-to-one clients, I make sure that delivery comes first.
The reason why I do this is not just because I want to deliver on my promise (which is a values alignment thing for me) but I also know that the fastest way for me to dry up leads and new sales coming in is feeling like I'm under delivering for the people that I've already got in my world. This was particularly prominent for me when I was working mostly with people one-to-one.
If I was feeling like I needed to make more money, my business was getting hard or my cash flow was drying up, the number one thing I made sure I was doing was feeling very confident about what I was delivering to my existing clients.
Whenever I embarked on a fast money target or setting myself a goal to bring in a lot of new clients, step zero - before I even begin that process - is to check in with how I'm feeling about delivery for existing clients.
How are you supposed to show up energetically and from a great emotional platform in going out and telling people that you're really good at what you do and that they should buy from you when you know that you're not putting your current clients first?
They're so intrinsically linked.
If I don't feel like I have the time and energy to do that, then I have no business going out and getting more clients.
I need to make sure I'm really setting myself up with effective client management systems and a great schedule so that I can deliver on the things I've already been paid for or I've already received commitments to be paid for.
That is always step number one for me.
I find it really worrying that more mentors don't speak about that piece first.
I know that there's a big belief out there that once you sell something to someone it's completely their responsibility to get the result. That's just not right.
I share the responsibility.
We are working as a team, we are co-creating that transformation, and if I'm not bringing my best to that relationship, then how on earth can I stand on social media with any sense of values alignment and tell people to work with me because I'm the right fit for them and I can help them. It has to be a shared responsibility.
You shouldn't just be throwing spaghetti at the wall all the time when it comes to marketing and sales in your business. You want to eventually land on a client attraction process.
My five-stage client attraction process is:
For each of those steps of the process, I have one or two strategies maximum that are my core strategies.
If you can't simplify your client attraction process down to a step by step process that you know works and that you know is simplified, how on earth are you supposed to systemise and scale to get that going to larger audiences?
Step two is always to review my client attraction process - simplify it down to the things that I know work and then scale it from there.
In most cases, whenever I'm getting into that sense of overwork or overwhelm, it's because I've been lured into some kind of shiny object that's promising to get me more cold reach. I know that my sales are not directly impacted by cold reach, especially not in the short term.
Cold reach is one of my last priorities when it comes to growing and scaling my business, and getting those clients in the door.
Remember that 20% of your actions and your strategies will get you 80% of your results anyway, so simplify that right down to the highest connection, highest conversion strategies, and just focus on nailing that first.
You are going to feel overworked and burnt out if you think that you need to:
That's not a simplified client attraction process, that is throwing spaghetti at the internet and hoping that some of it sticks.
You want to take responsibility for mapping out what your client attraction process is, and how you can simplify it down to the things that work so that you can scale it.
I get very real with myself about what I'm spending my time on.
Something I will do from time to time is have a week where I note down at 20-minute intervals what I've been doing for the last 20 minutes. It's a time and motion study.
In most cases, I want to be working in my business 15 to 20 hours a week maximum.
If I'm feeling like that's creeping up a little, or I'm avoiding my business and it's actually going down, I will do a little time and motion study for the week just to pay attention. I pay attention to what I'm actually working on, how I feel about what I'm working on, how I feel about my business, and I get real with myself about what I'm actually spending time on.
Most of the time when I'm feeling like my hours are creeping up, it's because I'm distracted by shiny objects and random projects that actually aren't moving my business forward, they just feel like they're fun, fluffy things to keep me busy.
Sometimes I notice that the reason why I've fallen into that trap of doing all of these things that are keeping me busy but not actually getting me results is because of my default mindset - in order to deserve my results, I need to be working really hard.
Every time I get to a new income level, that same thought and feeling pattern rears its head again. It rears its head sometimes in unhelpful thought patterns - pop up thoughts that get in my way - but more often than not, it rears its head through me defaulting into busyness.
By getting real on what you're actually spending your time on, and maybe tracking it and paying attention to it with a little more detail, you'll be able to see whether your business actually requires 60 hours of work from you a week, or whether it's just a need for you to feel busy so that you can earn your results.
Get real with yourself about the time that you're investing in your business.
You need to have someone that you can talk to, ie. a business bestie, mastermind, some form of support network, a mentor or a coach. Preferably someone other than your partner or family member because in many cases, they're going to just try and fix the problem or tell you what to do.
That is not what you want in this instance.
Having someone that you can talk it out with and get some external perspective with can really change that behaviour and can be such a pattern interrupt.
Sometimes you're doing all these things to grow your business because you've worked with 12 different mentors over the last three years and you've accumulated all these must-do's for your business, but are those must-do's still actually relevant to your growth strategy?
I had a new VIP client I was working with just a few weeks ago, and when we did this and reviewed what her client attraction process was, she was still doing four blog posts a week on her website for SEO and keyword optimisation and wanting to try and build a static YouTube channel. But when we actually looked at the time and energy that went into that approach, and what it was actually resulting in in terms of results for her business, it was counterproductive.
What was happening was her audience was struggling to keep up with the quantity of content that she was creating, so not only was it not good for her and was burning her out and overworking her, it also wasn't good for her audience, because they were having to run around the internet trying to find all the new content that she was releasing so consistently.
Even with reducing that down to one video per week, she would still be able to ensure that she's hitting some good keywords, she's SEOing her website and she's still getting more followers on her YouTube channel, but she's not doing it in a way that's completely burning her out.
Putting four videos a week onto Youtube is really for people who want to monetise and grow specifically just with a YouTube audience. It's not the right balance of work in terms of monetising through other channels, like selling VIP services or group programs.
Generally I do recommend getting that perspective from someone who is a mentor or who is experienced in helping people to actually work out what to take off their plate from a marketing perspective.
Someone who's up to date with what's actually going to achieve the results you want to achieve and what's not.
Another example of this is when I had someone that I was working with several months ago now, and she was still using scheduling tools outside of Facebook. She was using a platform where she was doing this huge content plan and pushing things off to six different social media channels, and she had this really complicated content strategy. When we looked at all of those social media channels, all of the work that was going into it and the results that it was getting for her, there just wasn't enough audience growth that was actually resulting in sales quickly.
We switched up some of the work she was doing on that with a high touch, high connection, high conversion Facebook group strategy, and she made more money in the following two weeks from being in Facebook groups and using that high connection, high conversion strategy than she had made in the previous two years with all of this extra work.
Sometimes you can switch out a strategy and still achieve the same results, but often with up to date, more streamlined approaches, you can achieve even better results and avoid having an overwhelming business.
I've got a couple of acronyms here for you with this one.
My approach to any type of marketing strategy, sales strategy and implementing anything in my business that helps me to prevent overthinking, overload and the feeling that business is overwhelming is the DARL principle. We want to DARL it.
You want to:
Decide
Act
Refine
Learn
You may have heard me say before that no great business was built on theory. No great messaging was built on theory, no great course was built on theory, no great webinar was built on theory; no great element of your business and marketing strategy was ever built on theory.
Instead of consistently overthinking it, perfecting it behind the scenes and getting caught in that space, I want you to just DARL it.
We're going to be DARLing all day long.
Decide, act, refine, and learn.
The opposite of DARL is OOPS, which is:
Overthink
Overload
Procrastinate
Shame
The OOPS one is where you get caught up in that cycle of overthinking things and worrying about whether it's perfect or right or good enough. You're looking for someone to tell you and give you the tick that it's okay, instead of just taking that action.
Instead of choosing two great strategies per stage of your client attraction process, you think that the more strategies the better.
You tell yourself that you'll accelerate your results by being on many channels or doing several strategies instead.
All you're doing is overloading yourself and under-delivering in every single one of those things that you've just added to your plate.
You're overthinking, overloading, then you procrastinate because you're so overwhelmed, you get so tired and there's so much to do. Then you get in the shame spiral because you're not being as productive as you should be, you're not doing all the things that you know that you should do and you're not even hitting your basics anymore.
That's when business becomes so overwhelming.
Instead of OOPS - overthink, overload, procrastinate and shame - I want you to DARL - decide, act, refine, and learn.
That's my five-step strategy on what to do when it's too hard and your business is overwhelming. I hope that you found that very helpful.
As always, continue the conversation over in the Heart-Centred Soul-Driven Entrepreneurs community using #podcastaha, let me know you've been listening along to episode number 248 and we'll continue the conversation there. I'd love to hear if you ever feel as if business is overwhelming and it's all just too hard.
If you would like to get your business on the fast track to results, and you are done with OOPSing all over yourself, I also have a great training for you.
In this training, I help you work out what the things are that you can let go of so that you can get to the money-making part of business faster.
You can get this free training here: tashcorbin.com/fasttrack
Until next time, I cannot WAIT to see you SHINE.
Show notes can be found at tashcorbin.com/247
I have a Q&A episode of the podcast for you today, and it's all about where to put your focus when it comes to marketing your business, especially as you're starting out.
It's a brilliant question from a brilliant woman named Kim and I'm super excited to dive into it.
The Q&A question for today's episode comes from the wonderful Kim Hancher. You can find Kim on Instagram at @kimhancher, and also at kimhancher.com.
Kim's question is:
"I just launched in June. Small list, small social following, but growing. Weekly content is a blog. Where should I put my marketing focus? Social media, guest blogging or press coverage in a digital publication? If social media, which format? My ICA is on many of them. I’m a style coach looking for 1:1 clients with a longer-term goal of selling digital courses. Thank you!"
Kim, this is such a juicy question that you have asked because it may actually be that you're focusing your energy and attention in the wrong space.
Fun fact: The highest conversion audience that you could possibly ever focus on is your hottest audience - those people who know you, like you, trust you and feel connected to you.
When it comes to getting clients from online spaces, you are more likely to convert and get those clients - especially when you're first starting out - from spaces where you already have a connection to people, NOT from your cold audiences.
90% of online business owners spend their energy and attention in their marketing on growing their cold audiences, but that activity and focus is less likely to get you clients than simply by focusing on very high connection, high conversion strategies.
Whilst I love that you've committed to doing a weekly blog, and that's a really great foundation of your business, I actually don't think any of the marketing focuses that you talked about would be the right fit for you.
Here's what you need to do:
You may have that information for your business, Kim, but for everyone else listening along as well, when it comes to choosing what your high connection, high conversion marketing strategy will be, you need to know your niche really, really specifically.
The five specific things about your niche that you need to know in order to be able to make those marketing decisions are:
If you cannot answer those five questions about your ICA, or there are slashes, or's or commas involved in your answer to that question, then chances are your niche is not narrow enough. This means that you're going to struggle to make those important marketing decisions, and you will struggle to focus your attention on high connection, high conversion strategies that actually work.
Remember: Your niche is the set of people that you focus on with your marketing activities.
Your niche is not your work, it's not your modality and it's not the service that you offer.
Your niche is a group of people - not the group of people that you COULD help, but the group of people that you focus on when you are marketing.
There's a very big difference.
If you are looking for more help with getting that niche decision really clear, I have a free niche training for you. It's called Nail Your Niche and I would highly recommend that you check it out at tashcorbin.com/niche.
That's part one - you need to make sure you've made very clear decisions in those five points around your niching first.
You need to choose your high connection, high conversion strategy that's going to work most effectively for your audience.
You want to focus on a marketing strategy that allows you to quickly and easily engage members of your audience in a one-to-one conversation.
1. Social media
You can definitely do some high connection, high conversion activities in there (and I'm going to go into more detail in a moment because that's going to be your best option).
2. Guest blogging
Guest blogging is a great way to get people interested in you by association, but it's a very cold audience that you're generating.
If you do a guest blog on someone else's website, what are the chances that someone who finds that guest blog will strike up a one-to-one conversation with you? Pretty slim to nil. Guest blogging is a reach growth strategy, it's a cold audience growth strategy, and it is not suitable if you are in the startup stages of business.
3. Press coverage
Press coverage is even colder.
Take it from me as someone who has been in a bunch of different spaces in the press. The likelihood of me being in the press translating into me getting clients is very, very low. Over the years, of the thousands of people that I've worked with, barely any of them have initially discovered me from a random press coverage.
When it comes to social media, it's not just about building a cold audience on that platform, it's about building high connection, high conversion strategies.
You need to make a decision on one of two platforms: Instagram or Facebook.
I know that there are others, but none of them work for high connection, high conversion strategies the way that Facebook and Instagram do.
You'll need to answer a few questions to make a decision about whether Facebook or Instagram is the right fit for you.
I would suggest with design and style coaching (anything where it's a very visual business) you'll probably find that Instagram is going to be a better fit for you. It's probably more naturally aligned to your strengths, but there's definitely a big market for style coaching on Facebook as well.
Depending on whether your ideal client is in a job or working for themselves, that will also dictate which platform I would recommend.
If it's for people in a job, I'd probably recommend Instagram, whereas if it's people who work for themselves, I'd probably recommend Facebook.
Regardless of whether you choose Facebook or Instagram, your goal is NOT to grow your audience, your goal is to have one-to-one conversations in your DM's.
Make sure that whichever platform you use, you are focusing on high connection, high conversion strategies.
If you decide that Facebook is the channel that you would like to go down the path of exploring, I do also have a free $0 Facebook Marketing Strategy training that you can access at any point at tashcorbin.com/zero.
Hopefully, beautiful Kim, this has answered your question and given you some clarity on where you need to focus your energy and attention moving forward as you grow that amazing style coaching business.
If you would like to continue the conversation, please come on over to the Heart-Centred, Soul-Driven Entrepreneurs Facebook group, use #podcastaha, let me know you've been listening to episode number 247 and share your lightbulb moments and questions in the community.
Would you like me to answer one of your questions on the podcast? Simply go to tashcorbin.com/question, pop your question in there, and I will answer your question and give you a shoutout on the podcast.
Thank you once again, Kim, for your epic question.
Until next time, I cannot WAIT to see you SHINE.