Spoiler alert: I love creating a plan (with multi coloured pens and a new notebook ideally!) but I almost never stick to it! Since running my own business it’s been a bit of an issue. Well, until I realised that initially all I needed to do was: one thing that bought new people in to my world, one thing that nurtured them and one thing that converted sales. Then I shared my simple plan with clients and I realised it’s a pretty effective way of getting sh!t done! So this episode shares my simple method and how you can use it in your business.
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Hello, and welcome to growing pains.
Speaker:The marketing podcast for parent and baby brands who want to grow and get
Speaker:more consistent sales, but without the overwhelm of feeling like you have
Speaker:to be online 24 7, I'm Sophie, your host, and a Facebook and Instagram ad
Speaker:strategist who specializes in parent and baby brands as well as a mom of two.
Speaker:Join me each week as I alongside some wonderful guests, she had practical
Speaker:tips and advice about how you can use and combine marketing strategies
Speaker:to get more impact for your effort.
Speaker:Hello, welcome to this week's episode before I get started.
Speaker:I just wanted to say a massive thank you to all of you who
Speaker:are downloading episodes.
Speaker:Messaging me.
Speaker:Saying that you are taking action or that you loved an episode
Speaker:or that it was really helpful.
Speaker:I really, really appreciate it.
Speaker:And if you know anyone who you think might also be interested or it might also help.
Speaker:Really, really appreciate it.
Speaker:If you would share the podcast with them.
Speaker:Whether it's like a Facebook group you're in, or if you've
Speaker:got business friends that you.
Speaker:Or if you're in a mastermind or a membership, anything like
Speaker:that, I'd hugely appreciate it.
Speaker:If you would share the podcast with them so that we can let more people
Speaker:know about all of the great stuff I am sharing in these episodes.
Speaker:Now today I was going to talk about creating a marketing strategy.
Speaker:I actually realized that detailed strategy is not really my thing.
Speaker:If I'm honest, I'm a high level person.
Speaker:I like to leave some freedom in my life.
Speaker:I'm not someone who schedules every minute of my day.
Speaker:I'm actually, I feel quite claustrophobic if I do that.
Speaker:I also love spending a lot of time making the plan.
Speaker:I then tend to leave the plan where I left it and then carry on with my
Speaker:day as if the plan hadn't been made.
Speaker:So over the last.
Speaker:Five years since I'd been working for myself.
Speaker:This has become a bit of a sore point for me.
Speaker:If I'm honest I've worked with coaches.
Speaker:I know what you should be doing.
Speaker:Quarterly plans, annual plans.
Speaker:Like I should be knowing what I'm launching when over the next year.
Speaker:My brain just does not work like that.
Speaker:So I've come up with my own methods for keeping myself on track and making sure
Speaker:that I'm doing what I need to be doing.
Speaker:And I've also used it with clients and it's worked really well.
Speaker:So for me, it's really about getting clear on priorities, taking action,
Speaker:reviewing the impact, moving forward, tweaking, changing, reviewing,
Speaker:tweaking, changing, reviewing.
Speaker:Essentially, it's all about taking action because I learn by doing, I'm not
Speaker:someone who will sit and watch a video in full, and then go and take the action.
Speaker:I'm someone who will have the video on, I will be trying to
Speaker:do the thing at the same time.
Speaker:So I'm all about action taking.
Speaker:So this week, I put a call out on my email and my social media to see
Speaker:if anyone would have a chat with me about their business, where they are.
Speaker:They're kind of big blockers they're having at the moment,
Speaker:you know, where they want to be.
Speaker:To see if the group program I'm launching in a few weeks is going to be a good fit.
Speaker:I'm really kind of solve those issues.
Speaker:You're having.
Speaker:Something that came up on every single one of the 10 calls I did was
Speaker:a version of the to-do list of doom.
Speaker:Now the to-do list of doom.
Speaker:Is this.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:You've got your normal to-do list.
Speaker:You've got your day-to-day staff that has to get done.
Speaker:So you start working, you know, you've got to check your emails,
Speaker:maybe put something on Instagram, you've got to send out orders.
Speaker:You've got to contact clients.
Speaker:That sort of stuff.
Speaker:You're normal to do this.
Speaker:And this is other less.
Speaker:No, it doesn't have to be written down.
Speaker:It doesn't have to be a physical list.
Speaker:It could be in your head.
Speaker:Essentially it's made up of things that you should be doing.
Speaker:Like probably email marketing, as we all know that we should be
Speaker:sending an email out every week.
Speaker:But you're possibly not doing it.
Speaker:As well as you things you've seen other people doing.
Speaker:So like maybe I should abandoned Instagram for Tik TOK.
Speaker:For example, maybe I should be in LinkedIn.
Speaker:Maybe I should be doing something that everyone else is doing
Speaker:and I don't seem to be doing.
Speaker:Or it's a quick wind strategy that you've seen on a downloadable or a
Speaker:masterclass or a challenge, anything.
Speaker:Oh, well, maybe I should switch everything to doing that.
Speaker:Like maybe Pinterest is what I should be doing.
Speaker:Cause that might be a quick win for my business.
Speaker:It's essentially a long list of stuff.
Speaker:That you think maybe you should be doing, and maybe it's the answer to
Speaker:your business's prayers and it's going to be a golden Bella, and you're going
Speaker:to do that one strategy and everything is going to suddenly click into place.
Speaker:Well, actually it is, is an overwhelming list of things.
Speaker:That you don't know where to start with.
Speaker:You don't know which one is going to have the best impact on your business.
Speaker:And you end up just wasting so much time.
Speaker:Looking at it, thinking about it, wondering which one to do, testing
Speaker:out our platform, changing our mind.
Speaker:Trying out a few different email platforms you're getting consistent with email for
Speaker:two weeks and then thinking, well, no, one's actually born, I think from me.
Speaker:I've been doing it for like two or three weeks now.
Speaker:So I'm going to switch to something else.
Speaker:Maybe I shouldn't be doing email.
Speaker:Maybe I should do something else.
Speaker:It's essentially this feeling when you sit down to actually like, be
Speaker:like, right, I've got time to work on my business, not in my business.
Speaker:And you just don't know what the bloody hell to do.
Speaker:So does that sound familiar?
Speaker:Today.
Speaker:I want to talk you through how you can get back in control park,
Speaker:the, to do list of doom and start moving forward in your business.
Speaker:We all purpose.
Speaker:And so you're actually taking action and you know why you're taking it.
Speaker:So the indecision, the sherds, the procrastination com.
Speaker:When you either don't know literally what you're doing.
Speaker:So I, you need some support with the tech.
Speaker:You need to know how to get started.
Speaker:You need someone's experience and training and advice.
Speaker:Or it's when you just aren't really sure what the best thing is to do.
Speaker:So you might know how to do email.
Speaker:You might know how to do Instagram.
Speaker:You might know how to do other things.
Speaker:But you really don't know if that's the best use of your time.
Speaker:And you kind of need to explore that and work out how you can test
Speaker:that without wasting loads of time.
Speaker:So today I'm going to share my very simple marketing plan.
Speaker:Which even I, as a master procrastinator and overall plan avoider.
Speaker:Can keep on track with, and it's essentially three core things.
Speaker:And if you get really, really good at them, You will be
Speaker:bringing in that consistent sales, you will feel in control.
Speaker:And if something's not working, you'll know what to do to improve
Speaker:it or get it on back on track.
Speaker:And I think that is just such a big thing for so many people.
Speaker:So the three things are you need one way to bring new people into your business.
Speaker:One way to nurture them.
Speaker:And one way to convert sales.
Speaker:And over time you might add to those things.
Speaker:But you need to make sure you have at least one of each of those three things so
Speaker:that you're always bringing in new people.
Speaker:You're always nurturing them and you're always getting sales.
Speaker:So let's go into this in a bit more detail.
Speaker:So one way to bring new people into your business.
Speaker:So interestingly, this is the one that most people don't tend to have is the
Speaker:one that takes more time, more effort and takes a bit more for I'm planning.
Speaker:But once you get it right, it's this organic way to bring people
Speaker:into your business consistently over time, and it's the one that
Speaker:people try and use ads to replace.
Speaker:So you don't have this long form content.
Speaker:So you want to bring new people into your business.
Speaker:And so you kind of turned to Facebook ads.
Speaker:Well, they definitely can be used in that way, but it's going to be more expensive.
Speaker:Then, if you have a really solid foundation of long form content that
Speaker:you can then build your ads on top of.
Speaker:So what do I mean by long form content?
Speaker:Now, it really depends on your preferences, your style, your
Speaker:brand, what you have time for.
Speaker:Essentially, it's a piece of content that is more in depth and gives
Speaker:people time to get to know you.
Speaker:It gives you the space to explain your position, your expertise, your area of
Speaker:specialism, your passion, your values.
Speaker:It gives people time to build a rapport with you.
Speaker:You can think it through more, it's more strategic.
Speaker:And it's really, really good for collaborations and to get in
Speaker:front of other people's audiences.
Speaker:So examples might be a blog.
Speaker:If you really like writing.
Speaker:It could be YouTube videos.
Speaker:If you are comfortable in front of the camera, it could be a podcast like this.
Speaker:So this is my form of long form content.
Speaker:And before I did the podcast, I actually tested out whether I could be consistent
Speaker:with a long form piece of content every single week by doing Instagram lives.
Speaker:And I did 20 of those.
Speaker:I did 20 weeks of Instagram lives, some solo episodes, some
Speaker:interviews and collaborations.
Speaker:If you go over to my Instagram at the underscore social underscore pod.
Speaker:go to my videos tab on the grid.
Speaker:You'll see all of the videos there.
Speaker:You can watch them back.
Speaker:And I did it for a really long time until I committed to the podcast because
Speaker:the podcast is next level commitment.
Speaker:And I wanted to make sure that I was kind of ready for that.
Speaker:So those are some examples of the kind of long form content you can do.
Speaker:A blog is probably the one that most people start with.
Speaker:If you're not comfortable in front of the camera, because it's really good for SEO
Speaker:because you can choose topics that people might be searching about your business.
Speaker:Instagram lives are really good, but the reach on them is much
Speaker:more limited than it used to be.
Speaker:So it's good.
Speaker:If you want to test out collaborating with other people or cause you're
Speaker:reaching kind of their audience.
Speaker:But if you just going to do Sailo episodes, the reach is quite limited.
Speaker:As I found out.
Speaker:So I would really encourage you to look at other ways as well.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:Next is one way to nurture your leads, that you're bringing new people in.
Speaker:Through your long form content and what I should say as well, the long
Speaker:form content, isn't a quick win.
Speaker:This is something that is your slow and steady wins the race.
Speaker:Now you could be doing that monthly.
Speaker:So if you're going to write really well thought out, researched, considered
Speaker:blog, you might want to do it monthly.
Speaker:YouTube and podcast or ID live.
Speaker:I'd really encourage you to do that more like weekly.
Speaker:And it is a commitment and it does definitely take time.
Speaker:You could start doing it like every other week and build yourself up.
Speaker:But you really want to make sure that you are reaching new people
Speaker:all of the time and that's going to be the best way to do it.
Speaker:So you've got your long form content, you've planned that in.
Speaker:The next thing, one thing you need to do is nurture those
Speaker:people that you're bringing in.
Speaker:Now generally for most people, the easiest way to do this is social media.
Speaker:And the it's really tempting to be on everything, especially if one platform is
Speaker:being a bit a temperamental, shall we say Instagram, for example, is having a little
Speaker:bit of an identity crisis at the moment.
Speaker:I think everyone is really feeling the pain of lower reach.
Speaker:More demands.
Speaker:I mean, gosh, you know, a few years ago it literally was just putting a post up.
Speaker:And then the layer upon layer upon layer of stories and IGT, TV, and reels.
Speaker:And, and then in the reels, I've got more complicated and you've got transitions.
Speaker:I mean, it's just next level.
Speaker:And it's really tempting to just say, do you know what?
Speaker:This is too much, I'm going to move to another platform.
Speaker:And the only thing I would say about that is if you're going to try and
Speaker:run multiple platforms at one time, think about that split of your time.
Speaker:Like how long is it going to take you to get up to speed with another platform?
Speaker:Start building up relationships over that creating content.
Speaker:Really think about that time, because if you could use that time.
Speaker:Improving your messaging on Instagram, making more connections, like are you
Speaker:really being proactive and reaching out to ideal clients, commenting
Speaker:on other things, being engaging?
Speaker:Making content that's really engaging and spot on for your ideal clients.
Speaker:Actually, if you just put more time onto Instagram, would it be more successful?
Speaker:I think that's something you've really got to ask yourself.
Speaker:And the other thing really is to get consistent and I know.
Speaker:The hat when the platform is being frustrating and you're not getting
Speaker:the results you want to get, it's really hard to stay consistent because
Speaker:you just think, what is the point?
Speaker:When I was doing the Instagram videos, I did the 20 videos.
Speaker:Some weeks I would go live and honestly, no one would join me.
Speaker:Like it's really hard, you know, everyone has.
Speaker:Busy working days and you know, you're never going at one
Speaker:time that works for everyone.
Speaker:So some days I'd have no one live with me.
Speaker:And I'm not going to lie.
Speaker:There were times when I was like, oh my God, this is just so pointless.
Speaker:Like, why am I even doing this?
Speaker:It takes quite a lot of my time to plan these and deliver them.
Speaker:But I cannot tell you the amount of people even now.
Speaker:And I haven't done one since January.
Speaker:I think.
Speaker:I can't tell you the about people, that message me and
Speaker:say, I've just followed you.
Speaker:And I've binge watched all of your videos or had a call with a client yesterday.
Speaker:And she was like, there was this one video you did about email automations.
Speaker:I need to do.
Speaker:And I wrote all of these notes.
Speaker:I did that video last August.
Speaker:Like it is there for people to see whenever you join.
Speaker:And you've just got to think that you are creating a bank
Speaker:of content that will nurture.
Speaker:Your potential clients and customers whenever they join you.
Speaker:So you've just got to think it might not be, you know, a viral
Speaker:real right now, but it's there.
Speaker:And in the future that could change someone's mind about
Speaker:whether to buy from me or not.
Speaker:So get consistent and also use the long form content to help you do that.
Speaker:So part of the reason I did my IgE lives was because I had to commit to.
Speaker:Doing a post telling people what I was going to do the live
Speaker:about and then posting the live.
Speaker:That was two pieces of content that would go on Instagram every single week.
Speaker:And I knew then that the minimum I would post every week was two pieces of content.
Speaker:And for me, I'm okay with that.
Speaker:Like I'd normally do at least one other post.
Speaker:So three posts a week was good for me.
Speaker:At that point.
Speaker:And at the moment I know now that I do put two podcast episodes a week, I
Speaker:will post about both of those episodes.
Speaker:So I've got, again, at least two pieces of content.
Speaker:I normally do.
Speaker:I'm at the moment I'm doing four or five pieces of content a week.
Speaker:So it really can help you get consistent as well.
Speaker:The long form content.
Speaker:Finally, we've got one way to convert sales now.
Speaker:I'm just going to say that for most people, this is going to be email.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:You might get sales on, on social media and yes, you can nurture
Speaker:your warm audience via email.
Speaker:So the two can work for both.
Speaker:But.
Speaker:Email consistently across all of the stats for really quite a long time.
Speaker:Now has the highest sales conversion rates.
Speaker:It is such a great way to build up a really strong rapport with people.
Speaker:And using it then to sell can be incredibly powerful.
Speaker:Now I fully admit, I did not realize the power of email
Speaker:until it was a little too late.
Speaker:And I am growing my email list.
Speaker:If you're not on it, there is a link in the show notes.
Speaker:Make sure you join it.
Speaker:I send out two emails a week.
Speaker:I do one on a Monday where I tell you about the podcast episode.
Speaker:That's the one where I share like tips and strategies and how tos.
Speaker:And then one on the Thursday, which is more about.
Speaker:What's working for me, the kind of things I'm talking to my clients about
Speaker:a bit more about running the overall business rather than the actual, how tos.
Speaker:So, yeah.
Speaker:Make sure you join the email list.
Speaker:If you're not already.
Speaker:And it does feel weird.
Speaker:I'm not going to lie.
Speaker:So I'm, I'm very much of the social media background.
Speaker:I've built my businesses over the last few years using social media.
Speaker:And the thing with email I find is you don't get the immediate response
Speaker:that you get on social media.
Speaker:So it's, you know, you get that dopamine hit and you.
Speaker:Get that instinct of like, oh, has this gone down?
Speaker:Well, not now with an email often.
Speaker:You don't get a huge amount of feedback.
Speaker:It goes out there.
Speaker:You might get some clicks on there.
Speaker:You might get some people buying.
Speaker:You might get some you know, people book a call or whatever it is.
Speaker:But you don't want to get the comments like you do on social media.
Speaker:So you need to get like, oh great posts.
Speaker:I totally resonate or, yeah, I think this is great.
Speaker:You don't really get that with emails so much.
Speaker:And it does feel hard sometimes you think, well, really?
Speaker:Should I carry on?
Speaker:I'm not really sure.
Speaker:One of the big pushbacks I get is I don't know what to write.
Speaker:People won't want to hear from me every single week.
Speaker:And we've got a couple of really great episodes from email experts.
Speaker:One with Kelly, which is already out, and then I've got another one coming
Speaker:up in a few weeks as well, which I'm really excited to share with you.
Speaker:And they should hopefully help you with this.
Speaker:What should I write?
Speaker:And nobody reads emails anymore.
Speaker:Just from my perspective, I think having a bit structure helps me.
Speaker:So having two emails that do two different things.
Speaker:And then really to be honest, like I mostly use similar consumer
Speaker:email that went out today.
Speaker:So this is a Thursday that I'm recording.
Speaker:This is
Speaker:Is on exactly this topic.
Speaker:Because this is my long form content and it will, I will also probably do
Speaker:a social media posts on it as well.
Speaker:So it's really great for taking these themes and then using them to
Speaker:inform my content strategy on other platforms because it saves me time.
Speaker:I think the final thing to say is email is definitely, don't be
Speaker:afraid to ask for the sale, but just don't make it all about the sale.
Speaker:I think this is especially true for econ brands.
Speaker:It can be really easy to just share your products over and over and over
Speaker:again, and hope that people buy them.
Speaker:But really thinking about.
Speaker:Segmenting your audience looking at what different groups of your customers
Speaker:need, and really trying to focus in on how you can add value so that they want
Speaker:to get your email and want to open it.
Speaker:Now I was working with a client this week and we were
Speaker:brainstorming ideas for emails.
Speaker:Some of the ones we came up with were so let's look at a segment
Speaker:of customers who have bought your product more than three times.
Speaker:Let's send them a thank you email.
Speaker:So thank you so much for being such a wonderful loyal customer.
Speaker:We really appreciate it.
Speaker:Have you seen that, that we've launched a few new products.
Speaker:We want to give you a 15% discount.
Speaker:So rewarding loyalty.
Speaker:Get your people back who, have already bought from you.
Speaker:Another option is to look at people who've bought.
Speaker:In this case it was an age appropriate thing.
Speaker:So it was something with age three to five and send them an email
Speaker:saying, did you know that we also do similar products for age six to nine?
Speaker:So when your child is ready, make sure you come back to us.
Speaker:This is how it can help.
Speaker:Another one is people who are warm.
Speaker:So kind of have opened an email or clicked on an email in the last three months or
Speaker:so, going back to them and sharing your best sellers and giving them a free gift.
Speaker:If they purchase within the next 40 hours or something like that.
Speaker:So there's loads of different ways that you can start talking to
Speaker:audience about different things.
Speaker:You don't have to send the same email to the same people all the time.
Speaker:You can segment up and initially you might have a really small list and
Speaker:there's you are sending literally an email to like four or five people.
Speaker:But if those four or five people all buy from you.
Speaker:I mean, how incredible is that?
Speaker:And then social media, you've got absolutely no way of tailoring your
Speaker:message depending on how interested someone is from buying from you.
Speaker:So it's really powerful to be able to do that.
Speaker:So, let me just recap for you.
Speaker:If you resonate with the concept of a, to do list of doom, where you've got a
Speaker:list of 20 things that you really feel like you possibly should be doing for
Speaker:your business, but you have absolutely no idea where to start, how to do them,
Speaker:whether they'll even be worth doing.
Speaker:Put the list down.
Speaker:Just put it to the side.
Speaker:And focus every week on the three core activities.
Speaker:One way to bring new people into your business using long form content.
Speaker:One way to nurture them.
Speaker:And once they're in your business using social media, And one way to then
Speaker:convert them using email marketing.
Speaker:So those are the three things you can just be doing every single week
Speaker:to move your business forward and to start taking action to make changes.
Speaker:The group program that I'm starting in June.
Speaker:Since I have had these conversations with people this week, I've
Speaker:actually changed it quite a lot.
Speaker:And do you know what that's okay.
Speaker:So I started with an outline based on stuff that I've talked to clients
Speaker:about over the last few months.
Speaker:Then when I really spoke to people on these research calls,
Speaker:what I wanted to cover was all really relevant and really useful.
Speaker:But the big piece of feedback was I don't want to consume any more content.
Speaker:I don't have time to consume content.
Speaker:I don't have time to do a program or a course.
Speaker:I really just want someone to help me take action.
Speaker:Help me clear the clutter.
Speaker:Move forward.
Speaker:Teach me what I need to be taught.
Speaker:Keep me accountable, but also just help me take action and make the
Speaker:changes that need to be taken.
Speaker:So that is going to be much more about what the program is about,
Speaker:and I'm really excited to start sharing more details about that soon.
Speaker:I'll put the link to the wait list in the show notes.
Speaker:And make sure you sign up there because those people on the wait
Speaker:list will get access to the program.
Speaker:First, it's going to be really limited spaces.
Speaker:So if you want to make sure you hear all about it then make sure
Speaker:you get your name on that list.
Speaker:Thank you so much for listening as always.
Speaker:I hope it was really helpful.
Speaker:If you've got any questions or you want to chat more about the to-do list of
Speaker:doom, come and find me on Instagram.
Speaker:I'm at the underscore social underscore pod.
Speaker:Or you can join my email list which as you know, you'll get two emails
Speaker:a week about the podcast and about all the things that you can be
Speaker:doing in your business to help you move forward without the overwhelm.
Speaker:Have a fantastic week and I will see you next time.
Speaker:Thank you so much for joining me this week before you go, make sure you subscribe
Speaker:to the podcast so you can receive new episodes, right when they're released.
Speaker:And if you ever enjoyed these podcast episodes, I'd really love to ask you
Speaker:to leave a review in apple podcasts reviews are one of the major ways that
Speaker:apple ranks their podcasts, and it only takes a few seconds, but really does
Speaker:make a massive difference to new people.
Speaker:Finding me.
Speaker:Thank you again for joining me, Sophie, in this episode of