elle, Author at Elle Drouin | wonderfelle MEDIA

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The Crucial Element Your Marketing Might Be Missing

You know what's really annoying? When you spend hours researching, writing, photographing, formatting, and proofreading your work to create something you're actually proud of… and then nothing.

You know people are reading your blog or opening your email or following you on social media – but you're not seeing the sales or engagement that you want. Bummer.

The crucial element your marketing might be missing

It kills me to see people spend so much time creating and promoting their products and services and not seeing results. But the good news is, there may be an easy fix! I recently did a content audit for a client who was was struggling with getting clients from Instagram (despite having over 1,000 followers), but after making 1 little change – she booked 3 new clients within 1 week.

She added a clear call to action.

From my experience, it's much easier to market and sell your products and services if you remember 1) most people are egocentric and 2) most people like to be told what to do. That sounds a little harsh (and I even tried to soften it with “most”), but I'm just putting that out there…

In the example I mentioned above, my client was using Instagram to promote her photography business. She had gorgeous images, was using relevant hashtags, and even had over a thousand followers… but she wasn't getting clients. Despite the fact that her feed was gorgeous – no one had any idea she was actively looking for clients! She mentioned in her bio that she was a photographer, but had no link to her website or no specific call to action to get in touch. It's such a simple thing, but the shift from “hey, I provide a service” to – “hey, I provide a service and this is how you can hire me” is crucial.

Make it easy for people to know what to do by giving them a clear call to action.

Going back to the egocentric part, I think it's also important to acknowledge that people want to know what's in it for them. Most email sign up requests say something like, “sign up for my newsletter where you'll occasionally get tips on stuff” – sorry no one really wants to sign up for that. Setting expectations by telling (or showing!) people what they are actually getting (and when they are getting it) can make a huge difference in opt-in rates. #trust

[click_to_tweet tweet=”Setting expectations by telling (or showing!) people what they are actually getting (and when they are getting it) can make a huge difference in opt-in rates. #trust” quote=”Setting expectations by telling (or showing!) people what they are actually getting (and when they are getting it) can make a huge difference in opt-in rates. #trust”]

Using benefit-oriented CTAs makes it easy to tell someone what to do + what's in it for them when they do it.

Click the link in my bio to read the post + learn how to plan your blog content (so you always know exactly what to write about)!
Join my free course for 5 days of actionable tips to help you get noticed online and get more sales.
Schedule a session now and I'll help you create an irresistible feed that attracts your ideal audience (and actually generates revenue).

These are all CTAs that I've used on my blog or on social media to encourage my audience to take action. Notice none of them just say “link in bio” or “submit” or “contact me” – because that would be kind of lame. Positioning your CTAs as something that results in actual VALUE makes them so much stronger.

If it sounds like I'm a little too excited about CTAs its because I kinda am – strategically using CTAs was a game-changer for my own business and it could be for yours as well!

The Most Important Sale You Will Ever Make

I typically tell people I have a decade of sales and marketing experience because that essentially dates back to my first “grown up” job at Merrill Lynch in 2005. But to be honest, I had “sales” jobs even before that. In high school I applied for this program that involved working for Macy's as basically a teen brand ambassador. At the time, I thought I wanted to work in fashion – and Macy's is basically the only department store in Memphis, Tennessee – so it was kind of exciting. Little did I know, some of my “ambassador” duties included being that annoying girl shoving perfume samples in your face and begging you to just tryyyyy it.

It was – in my typical over-dramatic teenager life – the worst.

Trying to sell stuff to people who aren't interested is bad enough, but being an awkward, introverted 16 year old girl trying to sell (overwhelmingly smelly) perfume to people who aren't interested is a special kind of awful.

I am NOT naturally good at sales.

I am naturally good at shopping when things are on sale, but that's an unrelated skill.

If you are a blogger / small business owner the most important sale you'll ever make is yourself.

Whether you are selling a product or service, you need an audience to sell it to.

That audience is made up of real people, and if people don't know, like, and trust YOU, they won't buy what you're selling. You have to be able to sell YOURSELF before you can sell any of your products or services.

I'd love to tell you that if your product or service is really amazing, people will buy it anyway… but that would be a lie.

I'd also love to tell you that selling yourself is really easy… but for many people, that's not the case.

I mentioned earlier, I'm not naturally good at sales, but I can sell anything I believe in – to pretty much anyone – because I can sell MYSELF and I'm good at figuring out what people want.

Full disclosure, since my days pushing fragrances at the mall, I've actually had years of formal sales training. And over the past decade, I've sold everything from multi-million dollar investments in long-short hedge funds to $10 costume jewelry. I've sold products, services, and myself more times than I can count, so I promise you, it's not that hard – IF YOU BELIEVE IN YOURSELF AND YOU BELIEVE THAT WHATEVER YOU ARE SELLING CAN HELP PEOPLE.

I tried to re-write that last sentence for maybe 20 minutes because it sounds so touchy feely – and I hate touchy feely – but there's no way to get around it in this case. Believe in yourself. If you are going to let your self-doubt issues prevent you from putting yourself out there, you will absolutely have a hard time selling anything. Get over it. Seriously.

So here's the thing. I know the idea of “sales” makes people feel icky. No one likes telemarketers. No one likes product pushers. No one likes the cheesy car salesman. (I've never even bought a car and I'm not a fan). But if you are reading this blog post, chances are, whatever you're selling isn't lame. Whether you provide a service like coaching / consulting / photography / design or you create digital or physical products, YOU have a serious advantage when it comes to sales:

You are in control of what you are selling and who you are selling it to.

That's HUGE.

[click_to_tweet tweet=”That audience is made up of real people, and if people don't know, like, and trust YOU, they won't buy what you're selling. You have to be able to sell YOURSELF before you can sell any of your products or services.” quote=”That audience is made up of real people, and if people don't know, like, and trust YOU, they won't buy what you're selling. You have to be able to sell YOURSELF before you can sell any of your products or services.”]

Most people who are out there selling stuff are selling someone else's products and services – and they are selling it to whoever their employer tells them to sell it to. That kind of sales is not so fun unless you really like selling.

But if you are creating YOUR OWN products or services to sell – even if you hate the idea of “sales” – YOU GOT THIS.

You're not selling products, you're solving problems.
You're not selling services, you're serving your clients.
You're not selling, you're helping.

Remember that.

How To Boost Your Business By Creating Paths For Your Audience

I'm excited to have web developer (and all around awesome lady) Krista Rae here today to break down a VERY valuable (but often overlooked) part of blog strategy!

Creating a defined blog strategy is something that benefits both you and your readers. You’ll find more focus for yourself, introduce your readers to your best content, and increase your conversion rates.

If I had to choose, I’d say the most important part of your blog strategy is defining high-value goals. However, after that I’d say it’s important to create defined paths for your audience to follow. This again is something that benefits both you and your readers. While your readers are discovering more and more content that’s relevant to them, you’ll find that sales of the products and services included in your paths increase also. Everybody’s happy!

Why Paths Are So Important

Think back to the last product or service you purchased from a creative entrepreneur. Did you buy from them the first time you discovered their blog? Did you buy from them without reading through any of their free material? Did you buy from a simple advertisement on their sidebar? My guess is “no”.

If you’re anything like me you start out by reading blog posts. Since this person ends up being someone you buy from I’d guess you read a lot of blog posts. After that, you may find yourself enrolling in their free email course where you’re given loads of valuable information. In that email course, you learn a little bit about their paid product that expands upon what you just learned. You don’t think it’s quite time for that, but you then receive their value-packed newsletters each week. After you run into that paid product a few times you finally break down. You know this product will further your business and it’s time to buy!

I know, that’s not how it always works, but it’s a common pattern.

That example illustrates exactly why defined paths to your paid content are so important. For someone to buy they need to be exposed to your content over and over again. This way they’ll gain comfort with you, learn that you know your stuff, and gain valuable information that shows them that your paid products and services are worthwhile.

In defining paths to a particular product, you’ll have some control over where your readers go. You can make sure that they’re exposed to your very best free content that will be relevant to them.

Before getting started with your path creation grab this free 7-page workbook to follow along and get your paths in place right away!

How To Create Your Perfect Paths

For the remainder of this post, we’re going to focus on creating a path for one of your products or services. Be sure to go back through the process for each paid product you offer so you don’t have any paid content without a defined path.

1. Choose your top-tier content

Your top-level content is the paid product or service that you’ll be leading your audience to. These are products and services such as paid courses, workbooks, eBooks, coaching, web design, and subscriptions.

If you’re just getting started, choose the product or service that your brand is most centered around. Creating paths isn’t always quick and easy, so it’s best to focus on one at a time.

2. Define the product’s audience

The first step in creating a path to your paid content is thinking about the traits of the ideal person who would be interested.

Think about the person who would purchase this product and answer the following questions:

What is it that they need help with?
What do they want to learn about?
What would they have to know before buying this product?
How are they most likely to run across your content in the first place?
If they’re interested in the format of your product (email course, course platform, audio, workbook), what other formats are they likely to be interested in?

3. Choose and create your mid-tier content

After completing Step 2, you should have a lot of new information about the people who are likely to spend money on your product or service. You know what they’re looking for, what they need before deciding to buy, and what types of content they most like to consume. These facts should be taken into consideration when choosing and creating your mid-level content.

Mid-level content includes things like webinars, workshops, free courses, free coaching or discovery calls, and your weekly newsletter. These items feel more valuable than simple blog posts or social media updates and they can lead right into your paid content. Something else to note is that it’s possible that everything you need is already created and just needs some tweaks, but it’s also possible that you’ll have to create all-new content to serve as this middle-ground.

Your paid content or service can be supported by multiple pieces of mid-level content. For example, if you know that the person likely to purchase your course enjoys video lessons as well as text, you could decide to mention that course in a related workshop and also link to it in your newsletter.

However, be sure that you’re not mentioning your paid content just for the sake of doing so. Give your audience some of the information they’re looking for up front so they learn to trust you. Look back on what they need to know before purchasing and make sure your mid-level content gives them that information. And always be sure that your mid-level content is closely related to the paid content you’re leading into.

4. Choose and create your bottom-tier content

This next step is the one that we’re probably most comfortable with. Your bottom-tier content includes blog posts, social media updates, Periscope broadcasts, podcasts, and any other free content that people are likely to discover you through.

Just like you used your mid-tier content to lead to your top-tier content, you want to use your bottom-tier content to lead to your mid-tier content. So for each piece of mid-tier content you defined for your product, choose or create several pieces of bottom-tier content.

If you’re using a free course as your middle tier, you could write several blog posts that lead into that free course, have a weekly Periscope broadcast where your call to action encourages people to take part in your free course, or even mention it in a podcast that you host or make a guest appearance in.

The easiest way to get started here is to go through your previously written blog posts and identify the ones that relate to any of your mid-tier content. If those posts don’t mention or link to that content, update them with a link and a little information that will encourage your readers to take a closer look.

5. Promote your bottom-tier and mid-tier content

Now that you have your path in place it’s time to help your audience find it. Be sure that you’re promoting your related blog posts on social media for your audience to find. It’s also a great idea to mention your free courses, workshops, and other content occasionally so everyone knows it’s there.

Getting your audience started out on a bottom or mid-tier piece of content will help you ensure that they see your paid content. It’s quite possible that they still won’t be ready to buy, but you can be confident that they know your product exists and that they’ll know where to go when they’re ready.

[click_to_tweet tweet=”Make the length and complexity of your path based on the needs of your product or service.” quote=”Make the length and complexity of your path based on the needs of your product or service.”]

Quick Tips

We’ll finish off with a few tips to make sure your paths are as effective as possible.

1. Don’t forget to promote

Don’t skip step 5 of promoting your free content. Make sure you’re sharing that content on social media, allowing more people to find it. Remember, everyone loves free stuff!

2. Take advantage of your blog’s layout

I’ve written posts on making the most of your footer, sidebar, and above-the-fold space. Here is where those tips are the most useful. Put your mid-tier content in those high-traffic, high-conversion areas of your blog. This will make it more likely for people to find and join in on that high-value free content.

3. Make the transitions seamless

Make sure that transitioning from blog post to free course and from free course to paid course is apparent and easy to do. Put your links out in the open, preferably with an eye-catching graphic. Don’t let your readers miss out and stop on the bottom-tier when there is more valuable information available for them.

4. Don’t limit your paths

Don’t limit your paths to just the three tiers we’ve gone over. Sometimes it’s appropriate to create longer paths to your content. Don’t feel like you have to do something like a blog post, workshop, paid course when your paid course actually requires more familiarity and initial learning than a simple path would give. Make the length and complexity of your path based on the needs of your product or service.

What Paths Will You Create?

After reading this post, what paths are you going to create? Do you already have your bottom and mid-tier content created or do you have some work to do? Let us know in the comments!

Don’t forget to download your free 7-page workbook to assist you in crafting your perfect paths!

Krista is a blog strategist and WordPress developer who helps female creatives elevate their business, increase conversions, and boost engagement through crafting strategic blogs. She uses personalized, goal-driven strategies to set her clients apart from the competition and highlight their unique offerings. Learn more over on her blog!

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