1. Strategic:
2.Tactical:
3. Optimize:
Align the 3 pillars of your content with your 3 most critical business goals:
How to gauge the success of your pillar content:
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Gift biz unwrapped episode 328.
Speaker:So the more simple that we can keep a social post,
Speaker:oftentimes the better it's going to perform Attention.
Speaker:Gifters bakers,
Speaker:crafters, and makers pursuing your dream can be fun.
Speaker:Whether you have an established business or looking to start one.
Speaker:Now you are in the right place.
Speaker:This is gift to biz on wrapped,
Speaker:helping you turn your skill into a flourishing business.
Speaker:Join us for an episode,
Speaker:packed full of invaluable guidance,
Speaker:resources, and the support you need to grow.
Speaker:Your gift biz.
Speaker:Here is your host gift biz gal Sue moon Heights.
Speaker:Hi there.
Speaker:Thank you for joining Me for the show today.
Speaker:I'm on my way back from San Diego right now,
Speaker:and we had a jam packed weekend.
Speaker:First, we had a couple's wedding shower for my son,
Speaker:David and future daughter-in-law Bree.
Speaker:Then we did some bridal dress shopping and the weekend closed
Speaker:out with a splash at David's new action park.
Speaker:I'm in awe of these kids with their skateboarding,
Speaker:snowboarding and surfing.
Speaker:If you know anyone who loves extreme sports and lives near
Speaker:Santa Ana,
Speaker:California, they have to go check this out.
Speaker:It's called divert sessions.
Speaker:Although I ski you'd never catch me skateboard or even snowboard
Speaker:at my age,
Speaker:but I've lived my life around this scene through David.
Speaker:And I'm very familiar with the pros and all the gear.
Speaker:That's why it came as such a surprise.
Speaker:When in this episode,
Speaker:we started talking about my guests history and I come to
Speaker:find out that she was head social media guru for Burton.
Speaker:This is a top brand in snowboarding.
Speaker:I can close my eyes and see Burton stickers all over
Speaker:a teenage room.
Speaker:The power of branding,
Speaker:just like that jaw dropping reaction you get from our extreme
Speaker:sports athletes,
Speaker:performing those crazy unbelievable stunts.
Speaker:You may have the same response to our chat today.
Speaker:Katie takes her learning from Burton and overlays it on top
Speaker:of small business needs.
Speaker:Honestly, I was surprised by some of her comments.
Speaker:They go against commonly accepted best practices,
Speaker:but they really make sense.
Speaker:So today we're going to challenge the norm about things like
Speaker:the know,
Speaker:like, and trust factor,
Speaker:having a call to action on every single post and even
Speaker:whether boosting social media posts is one way to go after
Speaker:all, some great stuff coming your way.
Speaker:So let's dive right in today.
Speaker:I'm looking forward to introducing you to Katie white.
Speaker:Katie is the founder of KW content,
Speaker:a content and social media marketing agency that develops and launches
Speaker:content and social media programs for purpose driven brands,
Speaker:strong brand social is the newest project that empowers small brands
Speaker:to develop their own high performing marketing programs that are guaranteed
Speaker:to drive growth.
Speaker:Katie's goal is to demystify the art of social media marketing
Speaker:to offer focus efficiency and measurable results to small business owners,
Speaker:brand directors,
Speaker:and social media marketers.
Speaker:Katie, welcome to the gift Ms.
Speaker:On wrapped podcast.
Speaker:Thank you so much,
Speaker:Sue. I'm so happy to be here,
Speaker:Excited to dive into our conversation too,
Speaker:but before we do so I would like to ask you
Speaker:my traditional question,
Speaker:which is to have you describe yourself by way of a
Speaker:motivational candle.
Speaker:So if you were to envision what that would look like
Speaker:for you,
Speaker:describe it to us by color and quote.
Speaker:I love it.
Speaker:Okay. So I think the color,
Speaker:just because it's my favorite color would be green,
Speaker:a different kind of color for a candle.
Speaker:I know,
Speaker:but, and I was thinking maybe the hue would be like
Speaker:the intersection of lime and an earthy green.
Speaker:And for me,
Speaker:it's just because where I get like the most energy and
Speaker:kind of restore and rejuvenate is always outside.
Speaker:And so that's why that's my favorite color.
Speaker:I think the quote would be,
Speaker:look it in the eye and go,
Speaker:this is a quote that I always have right near my
Speaker:desk in my office.
Speaker:It's like always in my point of view.
Speaker:And I think it's so relevant for entrepreneurs and especially anyone
Speaker:who is kind of thinking about diving in or is in
Speaker:it and thinking about how to get to the next level
Speaker:is sort of always relevant about just kind of listening to
Speaker:that voice in your head that maybe you hear,
Speaker:but sometimes try to kind of turn down and just bringing
Speaker:it to center,
Speaker:looking at it in the eye and going for it.
Speaker:I love That.
Speaker:I've never heard of that before,
Speaker:but what it brings to me is like that decisiveness just
Speaker:make the decision and go with it.
Speaker:Don't back off and then think you'll do it again.
Speaker:Kind of like your foot on the brakes type thing.
Speaker:Just go for it.
Speaker:Exactly. And no,
Speaker:you can always pivot,
Speaker:right? I love how you just pointed out,
Speaker:like just make the decision and go for it.
Speaker:Because I think so often we can talk ourselves out of
Speaker:decisions by creating problems that don't exist yet.
Speaker:It's like,
Speaker:well, what if this happens?
Speaker:What if that happens?
Speaker:And just trusting that if this or that happens,
Speaker:you'll address it and you can always pivot and to handle
Speaker:it and take it in stride though.
Speaker:I love that.
Speaker:Yeah, you're so right.
Speaker:And how much energy and worrying and time do we waste
Speaker:thinking of all those?
Speaker:What if scenarios,
Speaker:when a lot of them aren't even gonna happen,
Speaker:but Yeah,
Speaker:a lot years and years,
Speaker:For sure.
Speaker:Well, tell me a little bit of your backstory in terms
Speaker:of how you got to the point where you were really
Speaker:looking at content and social media as your focus,
Speaker:for instance.
Speaker:Sure. Yeah.
Speaker:So in college I was a French major,
Speaker:which is kind of funny,
Speaker:but it landed me a job at Burton snowboards,
Speaker:right after college as a French speaking customer service representative.
Speaker:I think I majored in French because I wanted to do
Speaker:something different than English.
Speaker:And I was at a liberal arts school.
Speaker:And communication has always been really interesting to me.
Speaker:The earliest,
Speaker:I think my dream career one day would just to be
Speaker:a PR writer.
Speaker:And that's like,
Speaker:I remember when I was a kid,
Speaker:if I had a babysitter,
Speaker:I'd be like writing poetry and our new computer or whatever.
Speaker:So I always loved writing and then I just love communicating.
Speaker:And so then I got a job at a snowboard company
Speaker:for people who aren't winter people.
Speaker:It won't mean anything,
Speaker:but anyone who skis or snowboards will know the name,
Speaker:burdens no birds.
Speaker:It's the biggest global snowboarding company in the world.
Speaker:And from there,
Speaker:I was really lucky to get a job inside of the
Speaker:late Jake Burton carpenter's office.
Speaker:He was the founder.
Speaker:And at that time he was the CEO.
Speaker:So I was in there and I got my MBA while
Speaker:I was in his office.
Speaker:And I still was really interested in marketing,
Speaker:but at this point had absolutely no writing portfolio that was
Speaker:official of any kind,
Speaker:no marketing experience.
Speaker:But I think because I was coming from his office,
Speaker:I was able to kind of claw my way into the
Speaker:marketing department,
Speaker:which was kind of a big deal cause it's a big
Speaker:company. And my first job was overseeing a women's blog@thetimeitwascalledburtongirls.com
Speaker:and we had different contributors and there was a lot of
Speaker:content going out.
Speaker:So I started doing a lot of writing and I was
Speaker:in that role when our social media was pretty new at
Speaker:the time we were one of the first brands on Instagram.
Speaker:This was back in,
Speaker:I don't know,
Speaker:2011, 2012.
Speaker:So our social media manager left.
Speaker:I was the youngest person in that department.
Speaker:And they were like,
Speaker:instead of interviewing for this job,
Speaker:Katie will do it.
Speaker:And so I slowly took on social media responsibilities.
Speaker:By the time I left for in,
Speaker:I was overseeing three different brands on social,
Speaker:our kind of lifestyle brand,
Speaker:which is now the handle is Burton.
Speaker:I was overseeing Burton snowboards,
Speaker:and then a Goggle company that they own called an on
Speaker:optics. So I was overseeing those brands on Instagram,
Speaker:Facebook, Pinterest,
Speaker:Twitter, and also two different brand blogs at the time.
Speaker:So it was sort of trial by fire.
Speaker:There wasn't a lot of information at the time.
Speaker:I remember trying to do a lot of research on how
Speaker:to do things well and right.
Speaker:Especially from a content perspective.
Speaker:And there just wasn't much,
Speaker:there's just so much more that exists now today,
Speaker:which is great.
Speaker:Yeah. That's kind of the story.
Speaker:Wow. I love hearing that story.
Speaker:I am very familiar with the Burton brand.
Speaker:My son is in extreme sports.
Speaker:In fact,
Speaker:he just opened up a snowboarding skateboarding,
Speaker:surfing park.
Speaker:So Burton has been integrated into our life for years.
Speaker:So it's really interesting to hear what you were doing behind
Speaker:the scenes.
Speaker:Cause I know we've seen a ton of your work.
Speaker:It also,
Speaker:I was thinking based on the time of social media evolution,
Speaker:even though you may not have felt like you had the
Speaker:experience and trial by fire type thing,
Speaker:everyone was doing it because it was still so new back
Speaker:then. Right?
Speaker:Exactly. And it was kind of the glory days.
Speaker:I will admit it was you showed up and you just
Speaker:tried to put your best face forward with content and you
Speaker:showed up for your community and you tried to tap into
Speaker:hashtags were a thing on Instagram at the time,
Speaker:kind of just were there every single day.
Speaker:You really had a great chance of growing.
Speaker:Of course the algorithm is more finicky today than it was
Speaker:back then,
Speaker:but it was definitely a fun place to get started for
Speaker:sure. And let's just face it with social media.
Speaker:It keeps changing.
Speaker:The platforms changed.
Speaker:I mean,
Speaker:nothing is left to be the same even for a month.
Speaker:It feels like in social media.
Speaker:So it's always changing.
Speaker:All right.
Speaker:So you had experienced then with big brands,
Speaker:big audiences and where was the evolution then to help those
Speaker:of us who are smaller,
Speaker:who really,
Speaker:really now need the help because when you're starting,
Speaker:you have really no clue what was the transition there?
Speaker:Yeah, it's actually a funny story.
Speaker:So from Burton,
Speaker:I went into the beauty industry just for a year at
Speaker:this brand called Tata Harper skincare.
Speaker:And they're big now.
Speaker:They weren't quite so big back then.
Speaker:So that was a great kind of proof point that I
Speaker:kind of was able to test some of my own methodologies
Speaker:that I had developed independently there and see that they worked,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:and really from a content perspective,
Speaker:I think when we talk about social media,
Speaker:it's always about what's changing.
Speaker:And what I love about my job is focusing on what
Speaker:doesn't change and that's,
Speaker:you're putting your customer at the center of your story,
Speaker:telling the right brand stories that they really want to hear
Speaker:and that the timeless stuff that's always important,
Speaker:no matter what.
Speaker:So once I left tot to Harper to start KW content,
Speaker:I had this grand plan that I was going to help
Speaker:small businesses.
Speaker:I was so passionate.
Speaker:I was so excited and I went to do some market
Speaker:research and I live in Burlington,
Speaker:Vermont, where there's a really cute downtown with a ton of
Speaker:incredible independent retailers.
Speaker:And I must have walked into 20 to 25 different stores
Speaker:just to see,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:if I could get them to talk to me a little
Speaker:bit about if social media was important to them and what
Speaker:were the problems that they were seeing with it.
Speaker:So this was in 2017 and I don't think I had
Speaker:a single business owner that acted interested in talking to me,
Speaker:of course,
Speaker:any small business owners or especially retailers know that like marketer
Speaker:is a dirty word.
Speaker:Sometimes we did not want unsolicited advice.
Speaker:They felt like they probably were scared that I just wanted
Speaker:to sell them something when really,
Speaker:I just wanted to have a conversation and understand,
Speaker:but it was a discouraging day.
Speaker:I would say that's pointed me back in the direction of
Speaker:bigger brands where I had experienced,
Speaker:but what happened when COVID and the pandemic hit?
Speaker:We found this moment,
Speaker:first of all,
Speaker:our agency was under the gun.
Speaker:We didn't have any brands that were in a central spaces,
Speaker:so to speak.
Speaker:So my team was growing and then we had a moment
Speaker:where we thought you were going to lose 80% of our
Speaker:revenue. So we pivoted and we launched strong brand social in
Speaker:a three week timeframe,
Speaker:our first product.
Speaker:And all of the sudden there were all of those ideal
Speaker:customers that I had always wanted to work with because everybody
Speaker:was trying to figure out how to pivot to online business,
Speaker:how to connect with the customers that they had had and
Speaker:make sure that they knew that those brands were there online.
Speaker:And the rest is really history.
Speaker:We have generated almost 10,000
Speaker:customers in the last 14 months,
Speaker:but more important than that,
Speaker:our community is amazing.
Speaker:It's filled with everything from handmade family owned jewelry makers,
Speaker:to alpaca farmers,
Speaker:to beverage brands,
Speaker:food brands.
Speaker:I mean,
Speaker:it's artists,
Speaker:it's the whole gamut and it is exactly what I always
Speaker:wanted when I started my business.
Speaker:And I just feel so fortunate to be connected with them.
Speaker:And so the evolution of strong brand social,
Speaker:it's an online learning community.
Speaker:We have a suite of,
Speaker:I think probably seven different courses and a membership at this
Speaker:point. And everything we have created has really been in partnership
Speaker:with our customers,
Speaker:put one thing out and we invited them to kind of
Speaker:join us in a small community.
Speaker:We showed up every single week with extra free trainings throughout
Speaker:those early months of the pandemic,
Speaker:especially, I mean,
Speaker:we're still in there all the time,
Speaker:but we were just like,
Speaker:how can we help?
Speaker:What do you need from us?
Speaker:And they told us.
Speaker:And so everything that we've felt has really been in partnership
Speaker:with these small brands and it's just been amazing.
Speaker:And it's been cool to see how we want to tweak
Speaker:what we teach and the methodology of our fields to really
Speaker:suit small business resources and make sure that people aren't wasting
Speaker:time on shiny objects,
Speaker:which our industry is filled with and really feel empowered to
Speaker:build a program that is custom fit to your unique goals
Speaker:and your unique internal resources.
Speaker:Because our fields and experts in our fields have a tendency
Speaker:to just constantly push the latest and greatest whatever features and
Speaker:trends that the platforms are pushing.
Speaker:Now, the whole conversation shifts that way.
Speaker:And if that works for you,
Speaker:there's nothing wrong with that.
Speaker:But my big fear is that that can be really daunting
Speaker:for small businesses.
Speaker:It can feel discouraging.
Speaker:Like if I don't have video talent now,
Speaker:then what is even the point kind of thing.
Speaker:And so we're really passionate about demonstrating that there's really no
Speaker:wrong way to do this.
Speaker:As long as you have your customer in mind and you
Speaker:tie your content and your social media publishing schedule to your
Speaker:business goals and you measure results and you optimize,
Speaker:then it can look really different and anything is possible.
Speaker:Yeah. I mean,
Speaker:listening to your story.
Speaker:I remember back to that time,
Speaker:too, when all of a sudden there were no more live
Speaker:shows where a lot of handmade creators usually go to interact
Speaker:with our customers.
Speaker:And so many people were caught off guard to the point
Speaker:where they didn't have websites.
Speaker:They didn't have Facebook pages.
Speaker:They never needed it before because their life was just every
Speaker:other week,
Speaker:depending on where people lived in the country,
Speaker:they were out at all these shows and exhibiting and all
Speaker:of a sudden,
Speaker:all of that,
Speaker:it's like cut off at the knees and then with nothing.
Speaker:So from my perspective,
Speaker:what we saw last year were some people who didn't ever
Speaker:feel like they needed other types of things in place because
Speaker:they hadn't up to that point.
Speaker:And then they were caught unaware.
Speaker:Or the other end of this was people like you were
Speaker:just referencing going after the newest,
Speaker:shiny object all the time and jumping and jumping,
Speaker:and then feeling like I'm investing so much time and labor
Speaker:and guessing into these platforms and not really seeing how to
Speaker:analyze and judge whether it's coming back in any way.
Speaker:Cause they're not necessarily seeing it in sales.
Speaker:And so people just throwing their hands up and saying,
Speaker:I don't know,
Speaker:like I almost give up,
Speaker:I actually was in conversation with someone this morning who was
Speaker:saying, you know,
Speaker:like, I feel like I have to constantly be feeding the
Speaker:social media monster.
Speaker:I mean,
Speaker:social media has so much potential.
Speaker:It's just,
Speaker:we're struggling to get it right,
Speaker:Katie. I totally Get it.
Speaker:I think for what it's worth,
Speaker:for example,
Speaker:Instagram reels,
Speaker:that's the really hot topic right now.
Speaker:Right. And we have clients and we have students across so
Speaker:many different industries of so many different sizes.
Speaker:I think it's just so important to give people permission that
Speaker:if reels aren't working for you,
Speaker:that's okay.
Speaker:You don't have to do them.
Speaker:For example,
Speaker:we have a global footwear client and reels just,
Speaker:they don't pay off the same way as just a traditional
Speaker:social media post with maybe $10 of spend behind it does.
Speaker:And I know that it's really important for small brands.
Speaker:Some people are okay with spending a few hundred dollars a
Speaker:month. Some people really,
Speaker:really don't want to,
Speaker:but I think that what I'm really interested in is empowering
Speaker:small brands to create a content and social media strategy that
Speaker:is algorithm proof.
Speaker:And if you're willing to put aside $10 per post to
Speaker:help it get out to the ideal audience that you want
Speaker:to see,
Speaker:you can pull back on how much you're publishing.
Speaker:So let's say you post just 12 times per month and
Speaker:to assign $10 to each post,
Speaker:you kind of grant yourself permission.
Speaker:First of all,
Speaker:now your posts are going to be distributed for a longer
Speaker:period of time.
Speaker:They're going to kind of bypass the algorithm because you are
Speaker:giving it the juice,
Speaker:so to speak.
Speaker:And it kind of grants you permission to ignore what's happening
Speaker:with the algorithm and ignore what's changing and what everybody's talking
Speaker:about and say,
Speaker:this is going to be my program for the next year,
Speaker:like this works.
Speaker:And I think then that you get so much time back.
Speaker:If you're posting 12 times a month,
Speaker:instead of 30,
Speaker:you get all of that production time back.
Speaker:Right? And as small business owners,
Speaker:our resources are so precious and being able to contain the
Speaker:effort that you're putting in see measurable results so that you
Speaker:can continue to drive your business forward while that kind of
Speaker:machine is working for you is just a really great opportunity.
Speaker:So all of that to say,
Speaker:I want to caveat it's like for some people really,
Speaker:really works,
Speaker:right? And so if that's working for you by no means,
Speaker:am I recommending that you don't do it?
Speaker:I just really want to speak to the people who aren't
Speaker:seeing the tactics that the whole industry is pushing at them
Speaker:work. I want to give those folks something else to think
Speaker:about. Okay.
Speaker:So I am like stopped in my tracks here because you're
Speaker:talking about something totally different than I've heard before.
Speaker:And first,
Speaker:when you just say the words,
Speaker:algorithm proof,
Speaker:I feel like just come out of a massage or something
Speaker:like I'm so relaxed.
Speaker:That feels so good to me.
Speaker:So when you say like,
Speaker:really, could it be,
Speaker:let's dive into more of the details about this,
Speaker:but did I hear you right.
Speaker:That you're saying that you don't have to be posting all
Speaker:the time every day with every portion of a platform that
Speaker:they give you in,
Speaker:like all the different areas on Instagram,
Speaker:that there are people now,
Speaker:not everyone I get that,
Speaker:but that there is the possibility that you could post 12
Speaker:times a month.
Speaker:So that's three times a week.
Speaker:Right. And then put some money behind those,
Speaker:but make those such high quality posts that the visibility is
Speaker:there and the reach is there.
Speaker:Exactly. Yeah.
Speaker:I mean,
Speaker:truly we have some of those examples of businesses that I
Speaker:gave you earlier.
Speaker:They follow this methodology and what we were kind of all
Speaker:talking. I think either in Q1,
Speaker:they were looking back and looking at their business growth because
Speaker:I asked them to like compare their year over year numbers
Speaker:in their online businesses.
Speaker:In some cases literally grew 200%.
Speaker:And that was just by doing this.
Speaker:And I believe that of the case studies that I'm thinking
Speaker:of in my mind,
Speaker:none of them do reels.
Speaker:So I also think people say,
Speaker:you have to post on stories three times a day.
Speaker:Well, we have a flower brand,
Speaker:a high fiber flower,
Speaker:and we're noticing like no one is looking at our stories.
Speaker:And we think that's because of our demographic,
Speaker:our demographics skews at an age that is less likely to
Speaker:be looking at stories.
Speaker:So I just think,
Speaker:yeah, it's so important that we equip ourselves with the proper
Speaker:knowledge to be able to really think for ourselves,
Speaker:because that allows us to ignore the noise and get time
Speaker:back in clarity and calm.
Speaker:Right. And so I'm super happy to dive into some of
Speaker:the details of kind of how we look at this.
Speaker:We have a pretty dialed framework that people can adapt to
Speaker:their own business model.
Speaker:Well, I'd be so curious to do that.
Speaker:Let's do it.
Speaker:Let's talk about it.
Speaker:It starts at the content level,
Speaker:right? So I always say there's three phases to building your
Speaker:content strategy.
Speaker:The first is strategic where we're really squaring up.
Speaker:Who are we talking to?
Speaker:What are we saying?
Speaker:And what is it going to look like,
Speaker:feel like,
Speaker:and sound like,
Speaker:and that's kind of,
Speaker:how do we want our brand to look and how do
Speaker:we connect how we want our brand to look with what
Speaker:our customers really want from us and what they're doing on
Speaker:social media.
Speaker:So that's step one.
Speaker:And we'll talk about that.
Speaker:There's kind of three pillars that we develop in that phase.
Speaker:Step two is then the tactical part,
Speaker:like that's where we get into,
Speaker:okay. Do we want to do reels?
Speaker:How often do we want to post,
Speaker:what budget do we have to get our posts out there
Speaker:further? Therefore,
Speaker:can we pull back on the volume of posts,
Speaker:all of that good stuff.
Speaker:And I think the real problem is that that's where everybody's
Speaker:starting. They're just kind of chasing their tails in the tactical
Speaker:part without really starting at the message part.
Speaker:And then the third phase of your content strategy work is
Speaker:really just,
Speaker:you have to push it to market and let your community
Speaker:kind of give you feedback in the form of engagement and
Speaker:results. And then you're always optimizing.
Speaker:We teach a three pillar framework and what I like to
Speaker:do because I'm so with resource efficiency and I'm obsessed with
Speaker:resource efficiency because it really doesn't matter.
Speaker:I've worked with fortune 500 brands and then I've worked with
Speaker:startups from nothing.
Speaker:It really doesn't matter who you are and what you have.
Speaker:No one ever feels like they have enough resources and content
Speaker:and social social just makes us feel that way.
Speaker:And so we really want to make sure that the three
Speaker:pillars of our content program are aligned with our three most
Speaker:critical business goals.
Speaker:So for me,
Speaker:our three most critical business goals are number one,
Speaker:brand awareness,
Speaker:but more than brand awareness,
Speaker:I like to think of it as demand generation,
Speaker:right? Because in order to sell,
Speaker:we need to increase demand.
Speaker:So that's one.
Speaker:So we need a pillar that aligns with that.
Speaker:And then the second goal right,
Speaker:is sales.
Speaker:So we need a pillar that aligns with that.
Speaker:And then the third goal is loyalty.
Speaker:I would say customer loyalty and the real reason that we
Speaker:care about customer loyalty,
Speaker:other than the fact that we love our customers,
Speaker:because we love our business from the practical standpoint,
Speaker:it's profitability,
Speaker:because if we can get customers to buy from us more
Speaker:than once,
Speaker:we're only paying to acquire them on that first sale.
Speaker:So on the second,
Speaker:third, fourth sale,
Speaker:it's a greater profit margin,
Speaker:Right. And referrals,
Speaker:I would imagine as well,
Speaker:A hundred percent.
Speaker:So I align loyalty with advocacy.
Speaker:I think of those and kind of the same bucket.
Speaker:It's the same stories that will get people to stick around
Speaker:with you forever are the stories that will get them to
Speaker:refer you to their friends.
Speaker:So if we think about that first pillar,
Speaker:and then I like to,
Speaker:I guess I'll pause here and just ask people to think
Speaker:a little bit about one problem I have with our industry
Speaker:is the know like,
Speaker:and trust model.
Speaker:And this might be a little bit of an unpopular opinion,
Speaker:but the problem with the know,
Speaker:like, and trust model on social media is that it's all
Speaker:about you.
Speaker:And if we take a step back and we think about
Speaker:social media,
Speaker:it's literally in the name,
Speaker:right. It's social.
Speaker:And so I ask people to think about,
Speaker:okay, remember before,
Speaker:and maybe we were getting back into it,
Speaker:a cocktail party,
Speaker:let's say that you want to meet someone that,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:like you want to establish a relationship with them.
Speaker:For whatever reason,
Speaker:maybe you want a job and they can help you,
Speaker:whatever it is.
Speaker:You don't start that conversation.
Speaker:When you get that introduction,
Speaker:you don't just start talking about yourself,
Speaker:right? You've probably done some research about that person.
Speaker:And you probably have looked for something that is mutual interest.
Speaker:So if you both have children,
Speaker:you might ask them about their children.
Speaker:That's something you have in common.
Speaker:If you both played golf,
Speaker:if you both played tennis,
Speaker:if you both like to snowboard,
Speaker:right, you're going to find that out ahead of time.
Speaker:And you're going to try to drop that into the first
Speaker:part of the conversation.
Speaker:And that is the same thing as pillar one it's mutual
Speaker:ground. It's common interest where you're not asking them to buy
Speaker:anything. It's the most social content Part of first,
Speaker:you have to really know and understand your customer a hundred
Speaker:percent, the value that you provide over and above your product.
Speaker:So whatever that would be,
Speaker:what the content would look like.
Speaker:It's not just always,
Speaker:and in our industry that it's such an easy default is
Speaker:here's my,
Speaker:here's the price.
Speaker:Here's where to go buy.
Speaker:Right? And Where is why I made this product.
Speaker:And here's why I love this product.
Speaker:And here,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:that instead Of other things,
Speaker:other areas where you have common ground to what you're saying,
Speaker:like with the cocktail party.
Speaker:So you're saying those are the types of things over and
Speaker:above our product that we should be adding to our content.
Speaker:Yeah. I love how you're saying over and above,
Speaker:because what I always say is it's like an interest in
Speaker:this content precedes an interest in your product,
Speaker:right? It qualifies them.
Speaker:A really great example is for food brands,
Speaker:recipes. So if I see a recipe and it's from a
Speaker:food brand,
Speaker:I can make that recipe with a different brands product,
Speaker:right? You are bringing value to me.
Speaker:However, if I come to your site and read that recipe,
Speaker:the brand also knows that that's an ideal customer,
Speaker:even if they haven't bought yet.
Speaker:So this mutual ground,
Speaker:it serves a lot of purposes.
Speaker:It serves the purpose of providing value in establishing contact with
Speaker:your ideal customer.
Speaker:And it also provides the mechanism that the brand needs of
Speaker:qualifying that person as a prospect.
Speaker:So that would be interested in buying your product eventually.
Speaker:Yes. I've been talking about this a little bit of a
Speaker:different way,
Speaker:and I'd love your opinion on this.
Speaker:If someone is a candle maker and all they're showing on
Speaker:social are these fabulous,
Speaker:beautiful, gorgeous,
Speaker:wonderfully scented candles.
Speaker:Every single time,
Speaker:I might still love those candles,
Speaker:but I don't need to see that all the time,
Speaker:because maybe I'm not in the market for a candle right
Speaker:now, which for me is highly improbable,
Speaker:but let's just go with it.
Speaker:And if that's all that I'm delivered from that company,
Speaker:okay, that's fine.
Speaker:I love it,
Speaker:but I don't need to see it all the time.
Speaker:So I'm going to stop interacting with it,
Speaker:which then means if it's not paid advertising,
Speaker:I'm certainly not going to continue seeing it in my feed.
Speaker:Versus if I was shown different ways to use candles,
Speaker:other products that being a candle lover,
Speaker:I like,
Speaker:I don't know all different types of like lifestyle type things
Speaker:I would be going then.
Speaker:And following it for more than just the candles,
Speaker:because it's providing me other types of value,
Speaker:which by the way,
Speaker:then when I need a candle,
Speaker:they're the first person.
Speaker:Exactly. That is pillar one.
Speaker:And the other thing that pillar one does,
Speaker:and the other thing that that type of content does is
Speaker:if you see something that's new and different and interesting,
Speaker:you are more likely to share it.
Speaker:So that is how pillar one contributes to brand growth and
Speaker:demand generation.
Speaker:Because by sharing content that your prospects and your community just
Speaker:find interesting,
Speaker:it's new and it's different.
Speaker:It's entertaining,
Speaker:it's educational.
Speaker:That's going to be the thing that they hit that little
Speaker:arrow and share it with their friends.
Speaker:Hey, have you seen this?
Speaker:Oh my gosh,
Speaker:how cool is this?
Speaker:And now that generates this like halo ripple effect around your
Speaker:brand gets it in front of more people and AKA generates
Speaker:more demand and just awareness of who you are and what
Speaker:you're selling.
Speaker:This seems so obvious,
Speaker:but because so many don't do it.
Speaker:And to your point at some part of the conversation up
Speaker:until now,
Speaker:people repeat what they're seeing other people doing,
Speaker:right. Or what people are saying to do.
Speaker:But this seems like it would be so obvious if you
Speaker:just look at your own behavior,
Speaker:but we don't do it.
Speaker:I know,
Speaker:I think it's just because we're all so strapped for time
Speaker:and we try to fit.
Speaker:It's also funny because this is the content that's really fun.
Speaker:Like if we love our business and we love our product,
Speaker:it's the stuff that we probably have the most creative energy
Speaker:around. It's probably the stuff we find the most.
Speaker:Interesting. And it's a really meaningful way to connect with your
Speaker:audience. I think the reason why we don't do it is
Speaker:we're just,
Speaker:I don't know,
Speaker:content production stresses is out.
Speaker:We're not thinking about it this way.
Speaker:So we're just trying to get it done and check off
Speaker:the box.
Speaker:But then when we approach content in that way,
Speaker:where it's like under pressure,
Speaker:it ends up kind of not being good,
Speaker:which then kind of decreases our relationship with it.
Speaker:Right. It makes it feel.
Speaker:So it's kind of this,
Speaker:a little bit of a vicious cycle.
Speaker:I think.
Speaker:Whereas if we start to think for ourselves in this way,
Speaker:we actually start to enjoy it,
Speaker:which then means that our content gets better,
Speaker:which means the entire thing becomes more fun and more impactful
Speaker:for our business.
Speaker:And you're saying we don't have to do this every day
Speaker:either. Exactly.
Speaker:Oh my gosh,
Speaker:you could do something like this.
Speaker:You could decide you're going to do one blog a month.
Speaker:That has a few different tips in it.
Speaker:And repurpose that blog promote that blog once a week for
Speaker:the full month,
Speaker:just through a different angle,
Speaker:Promote the blog in social,
Speaker:right. Directing back to the article.
Speaker:Just wanted to make sure everyone would understand that connection there.
Speaker:So can you give us some tips on other ideas?
Speaker:Like it could be something that's trending.
Speaker:We talked about that something that's brand new.
Speaker:What other types of things are your clients doing?
Speaker:Just so we can continue brainstorming what that could be for
Speaker:us. That's not just the product price content.
Speaker:Oh my gosh.
Speaker:So much good information already.
Speaker:And right after a quick break,
Speaker:we'll get back to talk about more ideas for posting content
Speaker:over and above product and price.
Speaker:Yes. It's possible.
Speaker:Increase your sales without adding a single customer.
Speaker:How you ask by offering personalization with your products,
Speaker:wrap a cake box with a ribbon saying happy 30th birthday,
Speaker:Annie, or at a special message and date to wedding or
Speaker:party favors for an extra meaningful touch.
Speaker:Where else can you get customization with a creatively spelled name
Speaker:or find packaging?
Speaker:That includes a saying whose meaning is known to a select
Speaker:to not only our customers willing to pay for these special
Speaker:touches. They'll tell their friends and word will spread about your
Speaker:company and products.
Speaker:You can create personalized ribbons and labels in seconds,
Speaker:make just one or thousands without waiting weeks or having to
Speaker:spend money to order yards and yards print words in any
Speaker:language or font,
Speaker:add logos,
Speaker:images, even photos,
Speaker:perfect for branding or adding ingredient and flavor labels to for
Speaker:more information,
Speaker:go to the ribbon print company.com.
Speaker:Absolutely. So another example,
Speaker:I'll use myself as an example.
Speaker:I sell social media marketing services and products,
Speaker:but I know that my target audience is a business owner
Speaker:and they're also,
Speaker:what else are they?
Speaker:They're probably a really high achiever.
Speaker:They're probably someone who is highly motivated,
Speaker:but they have taken a lot on.
Speaker:And so one category of content we put in our pillar.
Speaker:One is what we call words of encouragement.
Speaker:And the whole point of the content is to just meet
Speaker:them where they are in a moment we love doing it
Speaker:on a Friday because everybody's just tired on Friday and can't
Speaker:wait to get to the weekend.
Speaker:And we just hit them with like an inspirational quote,
Speaker:super conversational it's fun.
Speaker:And the whole idea is that we think of it as
Speaker:trying to be your hype woman.
Speaker:Like we tell you what you need exactly when you need
Speaker:to hear it.
Speaker:And that content is the content that people save the most,
Speaker:share the most engage with the most.
Speaker:They just love it.
Speaker:And that is content,
Speaker:right? That takes very little time to produce.
Speaker:It's just inspirational quotes,
Speaker:but really like centered around our target market's mindset.
Speaker:I've seen a lot of people in our community sharing memes,
Speaker:or even self-initiated quotes I'll go with,
Speaker:or other quotes from others,
Speaker:but on posts that they're creating.
Speaker:But I don't know that we're always thinking about hitting at
Speaker:the right time that you were talking about.
Speaker:So I want to underline that concept.
Speaker:I think it's something that I'm going to think forward when
Speaker:I'm doing my quotes and some of the inspirational things what's
Speaker:the balance or what do you suggest then with copy,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:the actual post part versus the visual.
Speaker:How important is that and what do you do with that?
Speaker:So it's a great question.
Speaker:I think both are really important,
Speaker:but I think that there's a little bit of a myth
Speaker:about how sophisticated your design really needs to be the graphic
Speaker:part, the craft exactly we actually have.
Speaker:And I see it all over the internet,
Speaker:oftentimes a white background with black copy on it.
Speaker:If we're talking about a quote here will outperform something that
Speaker:someone tried to pretty up.
Speaker:And I think the reason for that is there's three words
Speaker:that I like to keep in mind about my content,
Speaker:especially with this pillar,
Speaker:one content that we're talking about,
Speaker:and those are timely,
Speaker:relatable, and relevant.
Speaker:And we want to keep it simple because our community is
Speaker:being kind of,
Speaker:for lack of a better term,
Speaker:smacked in the face with so much information all day,
Speaker:every day,
Speaker:right? We're just all bombarded.
Speaker:It's infobesity.
Speaker:Like we're all just getting hit with too much information.
Speaker:So the more simple that we can keep a social post,
Speaker:oftentimes the better it's going to perform,
Speaker:this can really be up to the brand.
Speaker:Some brands want to have really nice designs or graphics and
Speaker:that's totally okay too.
Speaker:I think I just want to put a plugin for a
Speaker:simple also works really well.
Speaker:Does that mean It makes so much sense and I'm feeling
Speaker:so good cause I do the white background on my quotes
Speaker:or whatever with type and then just a little yellow flower,
Speaker:which is my brand logo.
Speaker:And that's it.
Speaker:So I'm feeling good about that,
Speaker:but then what about the word part of the post,
Speaker:the content part?
Speaker:So I think that this is another area where especially pillar
Speaker:one, I think that less is more,
Speaker:unless what you're saying is just so meaningful that it deserves
Speaker:more words.
Speaker:So there is a tendency I think for people to give
Speaker:really lengthy,
Speaker:almost journal style entries on their captions.
Speaker:And again,
Speaker:if you see that your community is responding to that,
Speaker:don't stop.
Speaker:Certainly don't stop.
Speaker:But if you see that your community is not responding to
Speaker:that, try simplifying.
Speaker:I think that it's a lot to ask people to read
Speaker:a whole two or three paragraphs in the middle of their
Speaker:busy day,
Speaker:unless it's something that is so value packed,
Speaker:it's going to immediately move the needle for them.
Speaker:So anytime I'm in the editing phase,
Speaker:I am asking myself if this paragraph does not add value
Speaker:to my customer or center,
Speaker:my customer's point of view in some way,
Speaker:if it's a little self-indulgent and it's just a story about
Speaker:me, I will often cut it because I think again,
Speaker:just putting yourself in the mindset of it's really easy for
Speaker:us to put ourselves in the mindset of our customers on
Speaker:social media,
Speaker:because we are all customers of some kind,
Speaker:we are humans that are really strapped for time and just
Speaker:there's so much content to produce.
Speaker:So keeping it simple is 100%.
Speaker:Okay. So sometimes with our words of encouragement posts,
Speaker:we have a one-liner maybe one to two sentences that goes
Speaker:with it.
Speaker:This is Such a breath of fresh air.
Speaker:I cannot even tell you.
Speaker:Oh my gosh.
Speaker:And I'm also thinking that if you put this whole personal
Speaker:story about what's behind the quote,
Speaker:it might detract from how that landed with the person who
Speaker:was initially Reading it.
Speaker:That's exactly it.
Speaker:We really want this content to be about them.
Speaker:So the less you say,
Speaker:the more people can relate to it because they can make
Speaker:it whatever it needs to be for them in that moment.
Speaker:I like this.
Speaker:And so add some hashtags.
Speaker:What's your position on the hashtags hashtags?
Speaker:Yes. This is a really interesting one.
Speaker:I do think that it's important to invest some time in
Speaker:hashtags. We talk about this a lot in my agency because
Speaker:sometimes I'm not sure if the juice is worth the squeeze
Speaker:in terms of how much time it takes.
Speaker:So in terms of hashtags,
Speaker:you really want to stay away from,
Speaker:I might have these specific numbers wrong,
Speaker:but you kind of want hashtags that are in between like
Speaker:the 10,000
Speaker:and 50,000
Speaker:volume mark.
Speaker:Otherwise they're going to get completely lost.
Speaker:Do you need to make sure the hashtags you're using are
Speaker:not shadow banned,
Speaker:right? So before you publish with a hashtag,
Speaker:you need to check all of those hashtags and make sure
Speaker:that they're healthy,
Speaker:so to speak.
Speaker:So one thing,
Speaker:and we haven't really gotten into the other two pillars and
Speaker:then how to use a little bit of paid advertising spend.
Speaker:But if you're spending $10 a post and do you find
Speaker:hashtags kind of soul sucking and time-consuming,
Speaker:you do have the option to ignore them because paying to
Speaker:get a kind of out past the algorithm in front of
Speaker:more people is one way to kind of buy it.
Speaker:It's doing the same thing that your hashtags do.
Speaker:So we see varying levels of success with our hashtags across
Speaker:our brands in different industries and all of that.
Speaker:I just want to empathize that it can be a really
Speaker:time consuming process.
Speaker:So if it works for you,
Speaker:that's awesome.
Speaker:Don't stop.
Speaker:If it is your least favorite part and deters you from
Speaker:posting, let's maybe consider putting $10 behind your post instead.
Speaker:Okay. That makes total sense to me.
Speaker:Completely agree with that.
Speaker:Okay. So yes.
Speaker:I know we've been taking a bunch of time on content,
Speaker:but if we don't have the content,
Speaker:nothing else is going to happen.
Speaker:Yeah. It's so important.
Speaker:And I think pillar one also this like lifestyle content that's
Speaker:interest based.
Speaker:This is the stuff that people have the most,
Speaker:it's a little challenging.
Speaker:So I think it's great to spend time here.
Speaker:Perfect. Okay.
Speaker:But let's go ahead and carry on.
Speaker:So we have a complete package for everybody.
Speaker:Okay. So then pillar two is all about your product.
Speaker:It's like,
Speaker:this is where you talk about your product.
Speaker:You want to get really clear about talking about your product
Speaker:in a way that is benefit driven,
Speaker:not feature driven.
Speaker:So it's not a book with 200 pages,
Speaker:it's a book that's going to change your life in these
Speaker:ways. And so that's where that time to talk about your
Speaker:product. At any time you're talking about your product,
Speaker:you really want to include a call to action.
Speaker:Another piece of advice that I see across the industry is
Speaker:like include a call to action on every single post.
Speaker:And my students feel really awkward about that because you include
Speaker:a call to action on every post.
Speaker:And a lot of times people don't answer.
Speaker:And so I say,
Speaker:if you feel awkward about calls to action on every single
Speaker:post, you can contain your calls to action to pillar two.
Speaker:It's like,
Speaker:here's the product.
Speaker:Here's how it's going to change your life.
Speaker:And here's how you can learn more about it on my
Speaker:website. Here's how you can buy it now.
Speaker:So that's really where you want your calls to action.
Speaker:And then pillar three,
Speaker:this is where all the know like,
Speaker:and trust stuff comes in.
Speaker:So pillar three is about you.
Speaker:It's kind of,
Speaker:I like to think about it as this is the stuff
Speaker:that people hear and when they've tried your product already,
Speaker:and then they read the story,
Speaker:that's what hooks them.
Speaker:And they become lifelong friends there.
Speaker:And this is what makes them refer friends.
Speaker:So it could be that you're a woman owned company.
Speaker:It could be that you use sustainable materials in the way
Speaker:that you produce your product.
Speaker:It could be that you use your grandmother's recipes and family
Speaker:secret recipes in the things that you bake,
Speaker:whatever it is that really makes you,
Speaker:you that's where pillar three content.
Speaker:Perfect. And the importance of that,
Speaker:of course also is you then are separating yourself from anyone
Speaker:else who makes a similar type of a product.
Speaker:And you're giving content to someone to talk with you about
Speaker:they can share,
Speaker:oh, I love this jewelry.
Speaker:And here's why,
Speaker:because you fed them that information that is authentic.
Speaker:That's exactly.
Speaker:I love it.
Speaker:And then what percentage should the sales portion Be?
Speaker:So I like to say in a kind of standard,
Speaker:because it's going to change,
Speaker:it's going to change my brand and it's going to change
Speaker:by like the season of business that you're in.
Speaker:But if we were just going to start at a baseline,
Speaker:I would say,
Speaker:you do 50% pillar,
Speaker:one 30% pillar,
Speaker:two and 20% pillar three.
Speaker:And you can kind of visualize the way that that matches
Speaker:and mirrors a marketing funnel,
Speaker:right? The top demand generation needs the most.
Speaker:Then we convert that in demand.
Speaker:And then we really have those conversations with our customers.
Speaker:Now you can take those percentages and dial them up or
Speaker:down, right?
Speaker:If it is a big promotional month for you and you
Speaker:have a lot of product to sell,
Speaker:right. When we're in Q4 for we're taking pillar two and
Speaker:we're dialing it way up and that's totally fine,
Speaker:but I like the 50,
Speaker:30, 20 as a baseline.
Speaker:Perfect. And I think the thing we always have to remember
Speaker:too, is just because maybe you're doing more of loyalty or
Speaker:advocacy posts doesn't mean that someone's not going to say,
Speaker:oh my gosh,
Speaker:I just totally forgot.
Speaker:I wanted to order something from her.
Speaker:Oh, a hundred percent.
Speaker:So it doesn't mean that you're not going to get sales
Speaker:just because you're not quote unquote selling in your post it's
Speaker:that you're making contact with your followers,
Speaker:staying top of mind,
Speaker:deepening the relationship,
Speaker:which then brings all the goodness in terms of sales and
Speaker:support and referrals and all of that down the road.
Speaker:Exactly. And when someone sees a meaningful post on pillar one
Speaker:or three,
Speaker:they are,
Speaker:they're more likely to kind of get their attention with that.
Speaker:And they're like,
Speaker:oh wow.
Speaker:And that's what kind of drives them to your profile.
Speaker:Right. They're going to click on you and kind of see
Speaker:what you've been up to.
Speaker:And then they'll see that last post you did on your
Speaker:new, awesome product.
Speaker:So there's a little bit of a rabbit hole effect for
Speaker:sure. Sure.
Speaker:You know,
Speaker:what else I feel is when I'm just seeing like sales
Speaker:posts all the time,
Speaker:I feel like that brand just is in panic mode for
Speaker:sales. Yeah.
Speaker:So if I see it leveling out,
Speaker:just like some behind the scenes or some sharing,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:we all know,
Speaker:yes, they're trying to get visibility,
Speaker:but it doesn't feel so needy.
Speaker:If you Will,
Speaker:a hundred percent,
Speaker:it's a way better experience for everyone.
Speaker:It really is how social originally was created in the beginning
Speaker:when brands first started using social media.
Speaker:I remember when in my first job we would be like,
Speaker:you're not supposed to sell on social.
Speaker:Like we would hate it when the brand team would breathe
Speaker:in a sales campaign for us.
Speaker:And looking back on it now either only asking us to
Speaker:do a couple of posts,
Speaker:because originally it was very much a top of funnel,
Speaker:community audience building tool.
Speaker:And that,
Speaker:because of the way that users use social,
Speaker:they're getting on social for a breath of fresh air for
Speaker:an escape of where they are right now for really quick
Speaker:distraction for something to do while they wait for an appointment.
Speaker:It's like,
Speaker:it's social.
Speaker:All of that does not mean that we shouldn't sell now
Speaker:that it certainly has shifted,
Speaker:but I completely agree with you that it's just a better
Speaker:experience for everyone when we're not just sell,
Speaker:sell, sell,
Speaker:sell, sell.
Speaker:Right. For Sure.
Speaker:It's so funny that the change and evolution of social,
Speaker:we're really only talking what a little over a decade.
Speaker:Maybe I know.
Speaker:It's So crazy.
Speaker:All right.
Speaker:Let's continue on.
Speaker:And just quickly talk about the tactical and then the market
Speaker:feedback. Okay,
Speaker:great. So I think the tactical can be anything from,
Speaker:okay, should we be partnering with other brands?
Speaker:That's one tactic that a lot of people don't necessarily talk
Speaker:about. We see it all the time.
Speaker:It's a really good tactic for small brands.
Speaker:So that means finding other,
Speaker:some people call it influencers.
Speaker:I don't love that word for small brands.
Speaker:It's finding individuals that have your audience and partnering with them
Speaker:to bring value to their audience and introduce you to their
Speaker:audience. It could be partnering with other brands and organizations.
Speaker:I really love that for small businesses.
Speaker:It's a super powerful way to get in front of new
Speaker:audiences. That's one tactic.
Speaker:I like hashtags is an example of a tactic,
Speaker:right? You're layering that on the message to get your message
Speaker:out further.
Speaker:I developed something that we call the three by three model
Speaker:and it is how we align kind of boosting posts,
Speaker:so to speak with the pillar that it lines up with.
Speaker:So we used to allocate,
Speaker:I don't know if anybody remembers,
Speaker:I think now the button on the Instagram post says promote,
Speaker:but it used to say boost this post.
Speaker:And we used to allocate just a little bit of budget
Speaker:every month for our clients to just boost posts that were
Speaker:performing well.
Speaker:And one of the benefits of having a ton of clients
Speaker:in a ton of different industries that you're managing is when
Speaker:something changes,
Speaker:do you see it immediately?
Speaker:Because it changes across all the accounts.
Speaker:And we used to get these amazing results for boosted posts.
Speaker:And then about a year ago that like in the same
Speaker:month, all of the reports I was looking at,
Speaker:we had a fraction,
Speaker:like we had a quarter of the amount of the results
Speaker:on the dollar that we had received the month before.
Speaker:And so that's when we developed the three by three models.
Speaker:So what this means is,
Speaker:and this I'm going to speak in super layman's terms and
Speaker:just know that you can learn more about this if you're
Speaker:not inside of business manager yet.
Speaker:But the idea and business managers,
Speaker:Facebook's advertising tool.
Speaker:The idea is that if you're publishing pillar one,
Speaker:pillar two pillar three,
Speaker:because now your content is organized according to the customer journey,
Speaker:right? It's organized according to demand,
Speaker:generation sales and loyalty and advocacy,
Speaker:that makes it really easy for you to decide who to
Speaker:target a message to.
Speaker:So if I'm publishing pillar one and I want to put
Speaker:$10 behind it,
Speaker:I am going to promote it to audiences that look like
Speaker:my customers,
Speaker:right? And then when I publish pillar two,
Speaker:I'm going to promote it to warm audiences.
Speaker:People who have seen,
Speaker:maybe they have engaged with my posts recently,
Speaker:maybe they are my customers.
Speaker:Maybe they are recent website visitors,
Speaker:right? They're really warm.
Speaker:They're ready to buy.
Speaker:And then with pillar three,
Speaker:I like to promote it to both warm and cold.
Speaker:I think both our customers and people who don't know about
Speaker:us yet will sometimes enjoy that content.
Speaker:So the three by three model,
Speaker:just that is the guide to follow.
Speaker:If you decide,
Speaker:you're like,
Speaker:yeah, I want to get some time back.
Speaker:I'm willing to pay 150 bucks a month to post way
Speaker:less when put just 10 bucks behind my posts.
Speaker:The three by three model is the number one way to
Speaker:go. We see an insane results from a consumer engagement standpoint.
Speaker:When we deployed it for a cosmetic,
Speaker:a national cosmetic brand within the first 90 days of taking
Speaker:over their social media,
Speaker:they saw an immediate 30% lift in their average order value
Speaker:because you're just getting in front of the right people at
Speaker:the right time.
Speaker:So it's a really great way to just align your content
Speaker:to the customer journey and really focus on targeted distribution.
Speaker:Love it.
Speaker:Okay. And honestly,
Speaker:$150 a month to post less think of how much time
Speaker:you spend doing social media and what your time is worth
Speaker:and equate that to the $150.
Speaker:And you're actually making out,
Speaker:I actually did,
Speaker:I think,
Speaker:as some sort of math equation in an email I sent
Speaker:recently, exactly,
Speaker:you're coming out on top.
Speaker:If you treat $150 for like 12 to 15 posts of
Speaker:your posting every day,
Speaker:right? Seriously.
Speaker:I mean,
Speaker:the key is then you take that newfound time that you
Speaker:have and use it in activities that will help bring in
Speaker:more business.
Speaker:Exactly. So you're not just going off and you're free and
Speaker:that kind of thing,
Speaker:even Getting a little bit of time back to think freely,
Speaker:right? We all know that that's where going for a walk
Speaker:and thinking strategically is an incredibly high value use of your
Speaker:time compared to creating an Instagram post.
Speaker:That's not going to move the needle.
Speaker:I agree A hundred percent.
Speaker:So what is going to happen with your three by three,
Speaker:given the new Facebook policy issues with ads?
Speaker:So the only really way that it is,
Speaker:it really hasn't changed much.
Speaker:But what we will think about is really keeping that customer
Speaker:journey on the platform.
Speaker:So the way that the privacy updates have impacted the pixel
Speaker:and our tracking the most is that when we send people
Speaker:off of Instagram or Facebook,
Speaker:the pixel will drop if they're not allowing us to track.
Speaker:So for example,
Speaker:we used to use a tactic where we would take a
Speaker:pillar, one blog post and drive people to the website.
Speaker:And then we would retarget them with pillar two products.
Speaker:Now we need to find a way to just keep that
Speaker:on Instagram and Facebook,
Speaker:because if they engage with a post,
Speaker:we will be able to track that and get back in
Speaker:front of them.
Speaker:So it just means that for example,
Speaker:instead of a blog post,
Speaker:maybe we have a video top of funnel where it's like
Speaker:a video of us making a thing or setting up a
Speaker:scene, right?
Speaker:Or like when you were talking about kind of styling at
Speaker:home like candles,
Speaker:maybe it's a video or it's just a pillar one post,
Speaker:like it can be a static image that we keep people
Speaker:on the site on Facebook or Instagram.
Speaker:But if they engage with that,
Speaker:then we know that they're warmed up to us.
Speaker:And when we re target people who have recently engaged with
Speaker:our content for pillar two,
Speaker:the number one thing to think about is just kind of
Speaker:constructing that customer journey and helping them get to know you
Speaker:as much as possible while still on these platforms is the
Speaker:number one thing.
Speaker:And then you can overcome that sort of issue by making
Speaker:sure your profiles are really optimized.
Speaker:Like making sure there's a really clear path to your website,
Speaker:if they're interested and curious enough that they want to get
Speaker:there now,
Speaker:otherwise we just focus on warming them up while they're still
Speaker:on these platforms.
Speaker:There's a lot of fear-mongering happening,
Speaker:which is unfortunate to see,
Speaker:but we can definitely still use these platforms in a powerful
Speaker:way. Okay.
Speaker:So let me ask you this all been with your word
Speaker:strategic, so no longer can I make a post on Facebook
Speaker:when this is all in fact,
Speaker:okay. Make a post on Facebook,
Speaker:directing people over to my blog article on my website where
Speaker:they'll see my products and all of that.
Speaker:But instead,
Speaker:what you could do is a post I'm saying this slowly,
Speaker:because I'm thinking this through at the same time is a
Speaker:post that then could,
Speaker:that direct them to a different post,
Speaker:which is maybe a video that you did that you uploaded
Speaker:directly to Facebook.
Speaker:So it's tracking the activity and the link from one to
Speaker:another, where then they would get more information.
Speaker:Yeah, that is exactly right.
Speaker:One clarification I do want to make that I think is
Speaker:really relevant to the people who listened to your podcast is
Speaker:you absolutely still can create a post driving them to your
Speaker:site, especially if your product price point is under $50,
Speaker:because if your product price point is low enough that it's
Speaker:not a super high consideration buy and they are relatively likely
Speaker:to buy on that first interaction,
Speaker:then that you can absolutely still do.
Speaker:And just see if it works.
Speaker:If they're buying the one thing that's removed is our ability
Speaker:to retarget them.
Speaker:If they bounce off your site and don't buy that first
Speaker:time. So you want to try both things,
Speaker:you want to try sending them to the site to buy
Speaker:the first time.
Speaker:And then the alternate is trying what you just articulated,
Speaker:where we keep them on warm them up with like a
Speaker:video post or just a really fun social posts and then
Speaker:re target them with a product post right after that.
Speaker:Right. Because then you're what you're doing is you're searching for
Speaker:their activity,
Speaker:staying on site because it's telling the algorithm and you're able
Speaker:to track that they were interested in it,
Speaker:that they took action.
Speaker:Right. But you still,
Speaker:I mean,
Speaker:there's so much value.
Speaker:It's look,
Speaker:someone's not going to read a long post probably on social.
Speaker:So there's a place for each you're just going to use
Speaker:them differently A hundred percent.
Speaker:Yes. Okay.
Speaker:And make sure if you send them to a blog post,
Speaker:give them an opportunity to get on your email list and
Speaker:that blog post.
Speaker:Oh yes.
Speaker:And I'm sure you're talking about that all the time.
Speaker:So that's super valuable still as well.
Speaker:Okay. Wonderful.
Speaker:And let's finish off here with a little bit of market
Speaker:feedback, share a little bit more about what's under there.
Speaker:I think that something that I hear a lot is my
Speaker:pillar to post don't perform anywhere near as well as my
Speaker:other stuff.
Speaker:Anytime I show my product,
Speaker:it doesn't perform as well.
Speaker:And my first question is how are you measuring success?
Speaker:Because if you're measuring success just by engagement,
Speaker:then you might be reading the data wrong,
Speaker:right? With pillar two,
Speaker:we want to see people either saving your post so they
Speaker:can come back later and buy,
Speaker:or we want to see them clicking to your website.
Speaker:And so what I mean by pillar,
Speaker:just to back up a little bit by market feedback,
Speaker:is, are people engaging overall engagements,
Speaker:right? With your posts more so than before you implemented the
Speaker:three pillar model is engagement moving in the right direction.
Speaker:And today shares and saves are really important,
Speaker:but it doesn't mean if you've got a lot of likes
Speaker:and comments.
Speaker:That's also really great.
Speaker:That's striking a chord,
Speaker:but I think it's really important to make sure that we
Speaker:don't measure the success of every post,
Speaker:according to the same metrics.
Speaker:So on pillar one,
Speaker:I want to see likes comments and shares on pillar two.
Speaker:I want to see saves and clicks or buys.
Speaker:And on three,
Speaker:I kind of look at total interactions and observe what's happening.
Speaker:And because of pillar three can really run the gamut of
Speaker:the types of stories that you're telling.
Speaker:So as long as you have community engagement on those of
Speaker:any kind,
Speaker:it's a step in the right direction.
Speaker:So how do you do that?
Speaker:When you go in and you look at your results for
Speaker:each of your different posts,
Speaker:then you also need to categorize which pillar each of those
Speaker:posts is In.
Speaker:I will.
Speaker:I typically like to,
Speaker:I mean,
Speaker:once you do this,
Speaker:you'll automatically know,
Speaker:and I think differentiating most of your posts from the post
Speaker:with product in them is a really good shortcut.
Speaker:But yeah.
Speaker:And the other thing that we do is if you use
Speaker:a content calendar of any kind,
Speaker:when we're planning,
Speaker:we write pillar one,
Speaker:two or three,
Speaker:so that's kind of there.
Speaker:And then when we go back and look at performance,
Speaker:we can reference the content calendar and say,
Speaker:oh, okay,
Speaker:well, this was the goal of that post.
Speaker:So how do we look at what success looks Completely makes
Speaker:sense? Oh my gosh,
Speaker:this is so incredible.
Speaker:You know,
Speaker:we talk about social media all the time,
Speaker:but you were bringing up some things I haven't heard before.
Speaker:They're making me think about this a little bit differently.
Speaker:Like I've already said a couple of times,
Speaker:just the idea of being able to slow down,
Speaker:do it smarter,
Speaker:not more,
Speaker:but smarter is incredible.
Speaker:So I'm anxious to just listen to all of this again,
Speaker:myself. I really,
Speaker:Really appreciate it.
Speaker:And I'm so glad you feel that way.
Speaker:I hope your listeners do too.
Speaker:I love it.
Speaker:Okay. So I know you talked in the beginning about strong
Speaker:brand social already,
Speaker:but now everyone's heard what we just talked about.
Speaker:So let's go back and share a little bit more about
Speaker:strong brand social.
Speaker:And then I also believe you have something called strong band
Speaker:social express that you could tell Us about.
Speaker:I do so strong brand social is kind of our suite
Speaker:of online courses,
Speaker:right? And strong run.
Speaker:Social express is the first one in the suite.
Speaker:It's a really great kind of crash course in our philosophy.
Speaker:We have,
Speaker:it used to be 90 minutes of content,
Speaker:which was great,
Speaker:but now we have all these other bonuses that we just
Speaker:keep sliding in there that aren't on the sales page,
Speaker:but it kind of looks at,
Speaker:Hey, what are the three types of content that every brand
Speaker:needs to have?
Speaker:What are nine elements of growth,
Speaker:right? And really the whole goal of this product is to
Speaker:help people see what's possible a lot like this conversation and
Speaker:help people think for themselves that that'd be also have a
Speaker:hundred content prompts in there that are aligned with business goals.
Speaker:Like we've been talking about.
Speaker:And we have our point of view on a paid social
Speaker:roadmap. We have a tutorial video showing you exactly how to
Speaker:do this new boost method.
Speaker:That for the three by three model that I was talking
Speaker:about, you know,
Speaker:you're looking over my teammate's shoulder as she's executing that.
Speaker:And so that strong brand social express,
Speaker:it's usually $37.
Speaker:We're going to gift it to your listeners.
Speaker:I don't have the coupon codes.
Speaker:I'm hoping we can.
Speaker:I do it is S B S free in all caps.
Speaker:Awesome. Perfect.
Speaker:I love it.
Speaker:All right.
Speaker:So for your listeners only,
Speaker:and that sounds strong brand social.com.
Speaker:That'll take you there.
Speaker:And the rest of strong brand social,
Speaker:we have a course on building your content strategy.
Speaker:You work closely with me and my team to do that.
Speaker:So we kind of look at your three content pillars.
Speaker:And if you feel like,
Speaker:man, I think I get this,
Speaker:but I want more support on figuring out exactly what this
Speaker:looks out for me so that I can really stand out
Speaker:from my competition.
Speaker:That's a great place to do that.
Speaker:We have a membership community where then we work to help
Speaker:you implement your content strategy and all of that good stuff.
Speaker:And then we're always just all ears for what people need
Speaker:from us.
Speaker:Oh my gosh.
Speaker:This is amazing.
Speaker:So everybody go to strong brand social.com
Speaker:forward slash express one.
Speaker:This will be in the show notes.
Speaker:Of course you'll enter the coupon code,
Speaker:get into Katie's ecosphere because once you do first off,
Speaker:you're going to get a deeper dive on everything that we've
Speaker:talked about already with all the other value ads that were
Speaker:just discussed,
Speaker:but then you'll also see what else is available.
Speaker:Oh my gosh,
Speaker:this sounds so freeing.
Speaker:So exciting,
Speaker:unbelievably amazing Katie,
Speaker:just to think that this is even possible.
Speaker:Thank you so much for having me Sue.
Speaker:This was such a fun conversation.
Speaker:I love that you ask.
Speaker:Well, you've been very generous also in forthcoming with like all
Speaker:the information.
Speaker:It, I don't even feel like you held anything back and
Speaker:for that,
Speaker:I really,
Speaker:really appreciate it.
Speaker:Thanks again for being on the show.
Speaker:Of course.
Speaker:Thank you so much.
Speaker:I have to admit,
Speaker:I hear a lot of the same direction from our guests
Speaker:in terms of the standard way to do things.
Speaker:And that's significant because people don't keep doing and teaching it
Speaker:if it doesn't work.
Speaker:But it's also important for us to remember that there may
Speaker:be different ways that work as well,
Speaker:or even better as Katie shared with us today.
Speaker:I don't know about you,
Speaker:but I'm going to relisten to this,
Speaker:analyze it against current systems that I have in place and
Speaker:see if there's something new that I want to test.
Speaker:Perhaps I've gotten your wheels turning here.
Speaker:This podcast provides you with resources that you can refer back
Speaker:to at your convenience.
Speaker:And to do that,
Speaker:I have a great way for you to find what you're
Speaker:looking for.
Speaker:Have you ever listened to a podcast here knew you wanted
Speaker:to write something down re-listen at another time or come back
Speaker:and grab a resource that was mentioned,
Speaker:but for the life of you,
Speaker:you can't remember what episode it was in.
Speaker:Well, now you can find it instantly.
Speaker:If you go to gift biz,
Speaker:unwrapped.com forward slash search,
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Speaker:And not only will it tell you in what episodes the
Speaker:topic was discussed,
Speaker:but it will bring you to that exact spot grab and
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Speaker:easy, and you can be on your way to taking that
Speaker:newfound information and implementing it into your business.
Speaker:Whether it's a topic like SEO,
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Speaker:Yay. I'm so excited it and quite honestly,
Speaker:I've been using it for myself as well.
Speaker:That link again is gift biz,
Speaker:unwrapped.com forward slash search as always,
Speaker:thanks for spending time with me today.
Speaker:If you found this show valuable,
Speaker:you know how much I love those ratings and reviews,
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Speaker:And I'll see you again next week on the gift biz
Speaker:on wrapped.
Speaker:I want to make sure you're familiar with my free Facebook
Speaker:group called gift is breeze.
Speaker:It's a place where we all gather and are a community
Speaker:to support each other.
Speaker:Got a really fun post in there.
Speaker:That's my favorite of the week.
Speaker:I have to say where I invite all of you to
Speaker:share what you're doing to show pictures of your product,
Speaker:to show what you're working on for the week to get
Speaker:reaction from other people and just for fun,
Speaker:because we all get to see the wonderful products that everybody
Speaker:in the community is making my favorite posts every single week,
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Speaker:Wait, what,
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