With so many trends, tools, and marketing gurus telling you what you should and shouldn't be doing, it can be hard to know what actually applies to your business.

In this episode, I'm cutting through the noise and walking through six of the most common things circulating in the marketing world right now — and giving you my honest take on what's worth your time and what you can let go of.

This one is specifically for service-based businesses and brick and mortar brands who want a clearer picture of where to focus their energy.

What You'll Learn:

• Which popular marketing trends are actually worth your attention — and which ones you can stop stressing about
• Why the type of offer you sell should determine the type of content you create
• What "niching down" actually means for your marketing (and what it doesn't mean)
• How to think about trust-building in your content without overhauling everything you're doing
• The truth about email lists — and the one thing most businesses are missing that keeps them from converting

Work With KLC The Studio:

Everything mentioned in this episode is something we support our clients with directly. Click here to head to klcthestudio.com to explore how we can work together.

Hello, guys.

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Welcome back to the podcast.

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If this is your first episode, hi, I'm

Kiara, and I'm so excited you're here.

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I don't like to do long intros.

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That's one thing you'll find about me.

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I'm someone who really just likes to

go ahead and get to the point, 'cause

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I know that we are all super busy.

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But in this episode, I want us to

spend some time talking about some

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of the myths and some of the common

misconceptions that are out there in

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marketing, especially in today's market

with AI and just everyone having access

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to so much information, and so many

new trends and new apps that are always

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being promoted and things like that.

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And I just know that sometimes it

can feel, like, overwhelming and to

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be like, "Okay, well, what is true

and what is not true, and what a-

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actually applies for my business?

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And what, what can I keep?

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What can I ditch?

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What marketing is right for me?"

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So I'm gonna spend this episode going

through six different things that are

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currently popular in the marketing

industry, that all of the gurus are

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talking about, and I'm gonna walk

you through, based on my experience

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working in corporate for seven years

doing this in marketing campaigns

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and also being in my own business.

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What I believe and what I've seen

with my clients is true, you should

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definitely keep doing this, and

then some things that I'm like,

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"Dude, you can probably ditch that.

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That's probably not relevant for you."

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So- To kick this off, I will

say that this is for people who

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have service-based businesses.

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So what I mean is, like, you're a lawyer,

you're a real estate agent, you're

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a therapist, you are a consultant,

something along those lines, or you

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are a brick and mortar business.

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So maybe you have a business

that's also online as well,

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but you also have a location.

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So you could be a restaurant, you

could be a yoga studio, a coffee

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shop, anything along those lines.

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So that's the market that

it is that I'm speaking to.

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I'm not speaking to the influencers

or the content creators who

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make money from their content.

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I'm also not speaking to people who are

e-commerce brands, although a lot of

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my experience has been in e-commerce.

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I do think product brands do operate

in a different space, and so we're

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not gonna be covering that today.

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So if that is you, so sorry.

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But, um, if you still wanna tune in and

listen because you think you might learn

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something today, I'm happy to have you

here, but I just wanted to make sure that

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when I'm giving you guys this information,

that you're aware of who it's for.

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Okay.

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So let's dive into one of the things that

I would say is absolutely false out the

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gate, which is, that short-form content

is the only thing that works right now.

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So back in 2017, 2015,

bloggers were all the rave.

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Everyone was starting a blog.

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Bloggers were being flown out to all

these different locations, and they were

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being picked up by different magazines.

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And Vogue was taking them on

these PR shoots and all of these

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different things, and it was,

like, so fancy to be a blogger.

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And then after that era, then YouTube

became the really big thing, and everyone

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wanted to be a YouTube content creator.

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And, so you had bloggers, you

had YouTube, and both of those

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things are long-form content.

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And then the pandemic happened.

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TikTok became all the rave, which

then pushed Instagram into wanting

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to do more short-form video content.

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And boom, here we are now, where

the market is really heavily

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flooded with short-form content,

so much so that YouTube Shorts

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has also picked up speed as well.

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And so between those three mediums, it

can often feel like short form is the

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only thing that's working these days.

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It's the thing that it is that

you see everyone spending a

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lot of time and resources on.

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It's the thing that you see the

most coming across your feeds on

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Instagram and TikTok and YouTube.

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And so you might be under the

impression that long-form is out and

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short-form is the thing that's in.

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And while short-form Is great for getting

that initial introduction into someone,

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for developing traffic or getting

someone's attention very quickly, it

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is not the only thing that's working.

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Sometimes short-form content will perform

better when it comes to trying to get a

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new lead in the door because it's quick

and it's easy and it's the thing that

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the algorithms are all pushing out.

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But long-form content still

has a space in your marketing.

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So if you've been thinking about, "Is

creating a YouTube channel right for me?

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Is creating a podcast

channel right for me?

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Is blogging right for me?"

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All of those things are still relevant

in your marketing, and I'll tell you why.

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The reason why is because

people cannot make a full buying

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decision off of a 30-second video.

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They will want to, especially if you are

selling something that is high ticket.

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And when I say high ticket, I mean

something that is more expensive

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than your average customer.

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So let's say you own a gym.

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Your, the average gym membership is $45.

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Yours is like an Equinox membership

where it's 150 or $200 a month, okay?

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If you're asking the consumer to spend

more than what they would spend somewhere

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else, that is to them gonna be considered

an expensive item, a luxury item.

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So if you're in that market, if you're

also in a market where it's high stakes.

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So high ticket is when you're

asking someone to spend more than

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the average consumer, and then high

risk is when you're asking for the

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consumer to invest in something

that they can't easily walk back.

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So for example, if you are a real estate

agent and you are in the business of

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selling homes, obviously buying a home is

a really big investment, even if the money

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that it is that the person is spending

is average and comparable to what el-

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everyone else is spending in the industry.

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Still, buying a home is very high stakes.

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It's not something you can

easily just walk away from.

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Buying a car, same thing.

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If you are doing anything legal for

somebody, that's also very high stakes.

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So these types of things are

going to require an immense

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amount of trust from your buyer.

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And to create that trust, you're

gonna need some type of long-form

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content to connect with them.

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Short-form won't be enough.

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Even if you do talking reels, even if

you create video content of yourself

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talking to the camera, even if you are

super educational on TikTok, even if

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you have the best entertaining reels on

TikTok, those things are gonna give people

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interest in what it is that you're doing,

but the thing that's gonna help them

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convert and feel safe enough to invest in

you is going to be that long-form content.

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So I recommend always having long form

as a part of your marketing strategy.

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So if you've been thinking on the side

short form is the only thing working

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right now, it's definitely not true.

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You definitely should have long form.

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Okay, I'm gonna bring you to the next

thing, which is you need to be on video.

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True or false?

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That is absolutely true.

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And I will tell you why.

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It is not because it's popular or trending

or because the algorithm loves it or

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any of the reasons that it is that you

might think you should be on video.

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The reason why you need to be on video

is solely for building trust, especially

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in this era that we live in with AI

where anyone can write something, anyone

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can design something and e- someone

can even create fake videos with AI.

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The more you can be visible or your

clients can be visible and you can

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showcase real people doing real things,

the more trust you create with your buyer.

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The video content does not have to

be of you, and I talk about this in

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another episode, but you do need to be

showcasing that you have, like I said,

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real people who are doing real things.

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So if you are a yoga studio, I'll

keep using that as an example, we

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wanna see your people in the studio

doing the exercises and we wanna

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see you teaching and coaching them.

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And if you are a real estate

agent, we wanna know what your

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beliefs are around real estate

and why should someone choose you.

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And people wanna connect with people.

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That is going to be a core selling

point and a core differentiator is

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how human does the brand come across?

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Because like I said, anyone can

produce content these days, anyone

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can write something, anyone can

design something and all of it

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can be done with just a computer.

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So being on video and showcasing you're

a real person is definitely gonna help.

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Okay, so those are my

notes about video content.

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Now let's move on to the next one,

which is you need to niche down.

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So this is probably something that

you've seen all over your feed where

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people are talking about niching down,

owning a particular industry, making sure

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that you're s- speaking to one customer

or one set of problems, and I would

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definitely say that that is 100% true.

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Now, you can be multi-passionate.

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You can be someone that has your hands

in a lot of different things or supports

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your clients in a lot of different ways.

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When I am saying niche down, I don't

necessarily mean that the skills that you

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bring to your clients are not diverse.

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That's not what I'm talking about.

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You can do a lot of different things

behind the scenes once the customer

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is in your queue and once they have

signed on and they work with you.

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You may bring a lot of

different things to the table.

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So I'll, again, I'll keep

using the yoga studio example.

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If you're a yoga studio and let's say

you do a lot of different things in your

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studio besides yoga and you have all of

these other things that you support your

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clients with, you can absolutely include

that in the actual service that you're

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delivering, But just because you have

that in the actual offer does not mean

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that that's how you're gonna sell it.

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The content needs to sound refined.

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The marketing needs to

push one core concept.

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So if you were trying to talk about

800 different things in your marketing

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because technically your studio does a

lot of different things and your clients

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get a lot of different works, and it's

not just technically yoga, it's also

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meditation, and it's also a little bit of

Pilates, and it's also X, Y, and Z, all

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you're gonna do is confuse the customer.

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So when I say you need to niche

down I don't necessarily mean you

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need to only focus on one thing.

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I mean that you need to sell and

market around a core concept that your

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customer can understand, that they can

repeat, that they can identify with.

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And trying to add too many different

elements into your marketing can

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actually be confusing for the customer

and can cause them not to convert.

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So that is definitely something that

it is that we support our clients

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with, is saying, "What do you do?

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What do you wanna be known for?"

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And then what is the core theme

throughout everything that you offer

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and how you support your clients,

and then how can we bring that to

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the forefront of the marketing?

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Okay.

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So that's number three.

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Number four is you need a personal brand.

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Okay?

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So I'm sure you've heard everything

on the internet talking about

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founder-led brands are back,

people don't like company brands.

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For those of you who might be new to

what that verbiage is, a company brand is

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someone who, if you were to go on their

Instagram, it's only just gonna be a logo.

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There's not gonna be a real person there.

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You're not really gonna know who works

there, who the company's owned by.

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Usually the content is gonna sound

like, a company is speaking rather

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than an individual person is speaking.

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And so there has been a trend in

the industry where people have been

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saying that founder-led brands are in.

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People wanna know who it is

that they're investing in.

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People don't want you hiding

behind your logos anymore.

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People don't want you saying "we"

and acting as though you're this

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big fancy brand and we don't know

what your values are, and we don't

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know how you support your clients.

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People wanna see more people, right?

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And that goes back to my earlier note

about being on video and the era of AI.

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But the reason why I put this in the

false category and something that it is

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that I think you can ditch is because

oftentimes the way that people represent

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personal branding makes people feel

like they then have to share their

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lifestyle and talk about their kids and

talk about their husbands and connect

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with their clients on a personal level

in order to get the consumer to buy.

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And that is not necessarily the case.

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One of the things that we do with our

clients is we take what your personal

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values are, and we infuse them into

the overarching brand, so that we are

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marketing the things that you value

as a founder, but we're not out here

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selling this personal brand where

everyone's expecting that you're gonna

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be the person that they're gonna be

working with, and everyone is looking

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out to see, what your wife and kids

are like, and what your family is like.

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Those are not gonna be core selling

points for a company like yours.

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So trying to create a personal brand

just because it's popular, if it's not

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something that comes natural to you, I

wouldn't recommend doing it, especially

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if you're trying to do it because you

think it's gonna help the business.

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, I'll be the first to tell you there's

plenty of other ways to connect with

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your buyer without being a personal

brand, all right, that was number four.

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The last two is, one, you

need to build in public.

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So there's been a big marketing push

where everyone has been talking about

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when you are creating something, you need

to take people along the journey, right?

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People wanna know, "Hey, if there's a

new album coming out, we wanna see the

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behind the scenes of that album, and

we wanna know why you chose the title."

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And the customer wants to

follow along the entire journey

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of the album being produced.

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And so that is when you will see brands

start producing a lot of BTS content.

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So if you are a pool builder, you will see

a lot of pool builders basically take you

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behind the scenes and showcase the process

of building the pool and showcasing the

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before and after and things like that.

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And so a lot of pool designers on TikTok.

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Are always showcasing the before

and after, but they're also

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showcasing the behind the scenes of

what went into building that pool.

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And so I get a chance to actually

watch the stuff happen in motion, and

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I can see the entire process start to

finish, so content like this has become

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really popular, and there has been this

trend in marketing where we've seen

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this uptick where sales have actually

increased when you are, quote-unquote,

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"building in public," and you are taking

people behind the scenes, and you are

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giving people exclusive access into

the entire creation of the Super Bowl

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concert or the entire creation of this

new launch that you have coming out.

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And a lot of people are wondering,

"Should I be doing that?

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Should I not be doing that?"

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And I would absolutely say that this

definitely falls into the true category.

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You definitely should be doing this as

often as you can without exposing too

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much of your intellectual property.

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But it is definitely very valuable to

your audience because what it does for

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the consumer is it makes them feel like

they were a part of the creation process.

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And so they are more invested and willing

to purchase once it's complete because

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they felt like they built it with you.

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So if you were building a second branch

in your business or you were getting

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ready to expand your restaurant or your

new yoga studio, create content that

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showcases the behinds the scenes of that,

because then by the time you get to six

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months or seven months and you finally

launch it, people will feel like, "Oh my

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gosh, I watched this from start to finish.

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I remember when you first just

knocked down the first wall," or,

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"I remember when you were just

starting out with X, Y, and Z."

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And they are more emotionally invested

in something that they've been spending

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a lot of time with and something that

they've watched grow from the ground up.

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So when the consumer can see you

building in public and they can see

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the behind-the-scenes stuff, that

will make them more invested, and that

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will make them more inclined to buy.

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So that is definitely something that

you could incorporate in your marketing.

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Okay, and then the last one is

the money is in the email list.

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So this has been a saying that I've

seen happening all over social, which is

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like everyone should have an email list.

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I'm sure you guys have been

hearing it for years now.

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So you know, you, you

don't own social media.

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Social media is rented property.

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And so if anything were to ever happen

to your Instagram or your TikTok,

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you should absolutely have an email

list, and email subscribers convert

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faster than, than social subscribers.

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And so you might be

wondering, is this true?

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Is this false?

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It is true-ish, okay?

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And I'm gonna tell you why it's true-ish.

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It is very, very, very valuable to have

an email list because, again, it is yours.

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Once you have that person's email list, y-

they can't take it away from you unless,

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of course, the person unsubscribes.

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But outside of that, there is no

such thing as losing an email list.

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But you can get kicked off of

Instagram, and you can accidentally

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have your Facebook account hacked

into, and you can have different things

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happen on social media platforms.

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And there have been plenty of people,

plenty of brands who have built a

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really successful audience on those

social platforms, and then something

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happens, and then they have to start

all over again, and it's devastating.

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So I would absolutely say that the sense

of ownership that comes from having

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an email list is incredibly powerful.

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You get direct access to your customer.

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You don't have to worry

about an algorithm.

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You don't have to play any

of those social media games.

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Soon as you send an email,

it goes into someone's inbox,

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and you're good to go, okay?

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So in that regard, definitely true.

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The reason why I say ish, it's true-ish,

in terms of how it is that you make

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money from your email list is you

actually have to sell on your email list.

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And I cannot tell you how many times

I support clients where they have a

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massive email list, and they are not

doing any selling on that email list.

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Their version of selling is literally

just making an announcement.

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"Hey, guys, we got twenty-five percent off

of this new wine that we launched," or,

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"Hey, guys, we have new tickets that it is

that we're selling for our upcoming event.

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You know, go ahead and click

the link here and join now."

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And it's just these random updates of

random promotions and random deals,

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and there's really no conversation with

the client or no nurturing with the

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audience prior to that actual launch.

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Or the only time you do talk to your

audience is when you're launching

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something, and so it's very clear

that you're trying to get their money.

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And those types of things are

what makes converting on your

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email list very difficult.

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If you don't have a strategy in place

to convert those people, it's gonna be

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hard to make sales from your email list.

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So should you absolutely have one?

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Yes.

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If you were one of our clients, we

would be able to help you with setting

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up an email list and how to generate

getting subscribers onto that email

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list and all of the good things.

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But it is definitely valuable for you

to have one, but you also need to have

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a plan in place for how to nurture and

convert those leads on an email list.

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There's a lotta money that can be made

from your emails, but you have to do the

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work necessary to know how to convert

those people onto your email list.

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It's not just a matter of getting

them on there and getting them

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to give you the email address.

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You also have to know how to have a

conversation with them on there and know

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how to generate results and know how

to get them to make a buying decision.

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So , everything that I mentioned

in this episode are all things

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we support our clients with.

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I will give you all of the information

on how to work with us in the show notes,

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or you can just head to our website.

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But I hope this was helpful for you today.

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I hope that this helped you trim the

fat on what it is that you needed to

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do, what you don't need to do, things

that are relevant for , your type of

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business, all that good stuff, and then

I'll see you guys on the next episode