We know all about the know, like and trust factor, but what is always missing from this equation is the buying piece. You want people to know, like, trust and BUY from you, am I right?!
By listening [and taking notes], you’ll learn:
Enjoy!
Resources:
If you’d like to work together with me as your 1:1 business and marketing consultant, book a call here.
We know all about the know, like and trust factor, but what is always missing from this equation is the buying piece. You want people to know, like, trust and BUY from you, am I right?!
By listening [and taking notes], you’ll learn:
Enjoy!
Resources:
If you’d like to work together with me as your 1:1 business and marketing consultant, book a call here.
H ey guys, welcome to the podcast, super excited to jump into this episode today.
Shannon Stone:Today we are talking about brand-building strategies versus direct marketing strategies and the difference between the two and why you need both of them. So for so many businesses, particularly small and medium businesses in this sector and service-based, everyone's got marketing going out there, right, but what people don't often realize is the difference between what they're doing and what they need to be doing and the difference between just getting known and liked and trusted, building that side of things versus the types of marketing that actually directly produces a response or directly produces leads or people booking in to chat with you to see how you can help them, and the type of marketing that you do will dictate the type of actions people are taking or not taking. So, on the brand-building side of things and apologies if you are a brand strategist or a brand expert of any kind, but I'm going to share it in the most simplest of terms today but on the brand-building side of things, it is about getting you known. It's about building you trust, building trust within your marketplace and building your visibility amongst the people that will ultimately work with you or you would like for them to ultimately work with you. So it's building, just getting you known, getting you trusted, getting you seen by the right people. That is what I would consider more brand-building, whereas direct marketing would. And this is like another layer. It's not either or it's both. It's just another layer. Direct marketing will prompt a response. It's a different type of strategy. It's a different type of way of communicating and having your messaging within your marketplace. It could be something as hey, I'm doing this thing and I'm going to give you a call, or here you can book in for this call, or you've got an invitation for people. So people need to know the difference between the two because quite often people will think the marketing they're doing is meant to bring people to them, as in it's going to book people in to work with you, when in actual fact and the evidence is probably right in front of you as to how that is working for you. So if you are posting on social media, you've got a website. Maybe you're doing masterclasses, maybe you're going to events, you're doing all kinds of different things, but people aren't actually, or the quantity of people aren't coming to you. Maybe the balance between the brand-building and the direct marketing is a little bit off.
Shannon Stone:Now I want to paint this picture with the most tastiest example that I have for you. So a few months ago I had some family from overseas come stay at my place and my parents also came down and stayed at my place as well. So we had a very full house and I was woken up to the most amazing smell coming from the kitchen downstairs. And when I came downstairs and I looked at what was out there served, which was this beautiful array of Indian food my mum's side is Indian, I said to Natasha, who was our guest from overseas. I said I don't know how you created this out of what was in my cupboard. I had potatoes, I had spices, I had vegetables, I had like all sorts of different things, and what she was able to produce was An extreme other end of the spectrum of what I would have been able to produce from that. And it was like how did you turn those ingredients that were on the shelf into this most beautiful Array of delicious food I have ever seen?
Shannon Stone:And I find this to be an example for people in business, because we can have things on the shelf for people to see and for people to absorb. We can have lead magnets out there, you can have your website out there, you can have your social media content out there. What actually prompts people to go from seeing those ingredients, maybe downloading some of those things, reading some of those things, to actually taking action, to actually booking a call with you, to actually saying, hey, how can you help me, or I'm ready for you to help me. So you can be doing so many of the things correctly. You can have all the right things on the shelf, all the right socials. You get your clients amazing results. You do all the things, but the piece that is often missing is the direct marketing strategies that transform people from Knowing you, liking you, trusting you to actually working with you, and that is the thing that is always missing. When people say you've got to build your know, like and trust factor, what about the next step when they actually work with you? That is what today's episode is about.
Shannon Stone:So, overall, we have to check in and check in with our marketing and say are we just Focusing on building a brand, which is needed, or are we and it could be? Maybe you've gone the other way, maybe you are just focusing on the direct marketing type of strategies and I'll share some examples as we go on as well but maybe you're doing one of the other or way too much of one and not enough of the other. So, for example, maybe you've created a lead magnet, a lead magnet and ebook, a PDF downloadable any of those I would consider, just on its own, a brand builder. Now how do you turn it from building that know, like and trust factor into something that actually prompts people to want to work with you? Here is how I would do it, just in the case of a lead magnet. You have your lead magnet. Say it's an ebook, where are they downloading that? And obviously we can talk about the things that you fuse into the ebook and you know soft selling and all that kind of thing within the ebook. But say, you've got your ebook, people put in their details to download it, their name and their email.
Shannon Stone:How we turn this into a direct marketing strategy is that on the thank you page. So they put in their name and email, click yep, get access. Now the second page is called the thank you page. On that page should be something where they can book a call, a link to your calendar and a reason for them to book that call as well. So this is where we are combining the two together the brand building and the direct marketing. Now we can take this a step further. So you've got your ebook where they can download it and on the thank you page now we have an invitation for them to book a call with you.
Shannon Stone:But it doesn't end there, my friend. What happens to the people who don't book a call? That is okay as well, and this is where your email sequence comes in. So, kind of pausing here for a second Do you have an ebook or do you have a lead magnet of some kind that you invite people to, whether it was an ebook, whether it was an audit like whatever your lead magnet is, do you have something in place that just kind of stops there. You give it to people and then you just kind of wait for the people to come back to you. This is where you are missing the direct marketing strategies coming in.
Shannon Stone:So we talked about on the thank you page, giving them an invitation to book a call, but the next step that also should happen is your email sequence. So what are you emailing people? As soon as they download that lead magnet and this can be creative strategy that you work at Are you emailing them every single day for seven days? Are you emailing them twice a week for four weeks? And like what's in those emails as well? So you've got your initial email sequence that people get that I would suggest you prompt them to book a call, and the content within those emails would give them the reasons to book a call as well. It would entice them to educate them why they should book the call, why you can help them, how you can help them, how you've helped other people just like them as well. So you're doing all of that. So you've got your email sequence there, but then you also will need your consistent email marketing strategy that just happens on a continual basis, long after they've downloaded that ebook or that lead magnet, whatever it might be.
Shannon Stone:So that is one example of really combining the two together the brand building side, where you build your know, like and trust, as well as the direct marketing side that actually takes people from the know, like and trust to actually wanting to work with you, or that bridge, to making that step to see how you can help them. Another example that I have for you, because I think it's super obvious people know or the type of marketing people do. So much of it is just about building brand, but less of it is about that direct marketing which prompts a response much more immediately. So I want to give you a few more examples on that side. Rather than just posting a blog, doing a lead magnet, posting on social, a lot of those can just be brand building and then missing the direct marketing side of things. I'll share two other examples.
Shannon Stone:The second one is say, for example, you have your ideal client segment. You know who the people are. They have the problem that you can solve. Now what if you contacted every single one of them? Say, you got ten of them together. You bring ten of them together, maybe around table, maybe a virtual thing, and it could be sent around a specific topic. The idea is not to completely sell, but it's to talk about the problem they're all experiencing, maybe give them some value and, based on that, everyone gets booked into a call with you as well. So it could be some kind of round table that you do with them. So if you've got, say, a dozen or half a dozen ideal clients in your circle at the moment, what would be something you could put together? That brings them all together when you can add value, you can solve some of their problem, you can give them some more insights, whatever it might be, but you bring them all together and also All those people that doesn't have a dozen people also get a complimentary call with you as well. That is taking something from. They know you. They're, like I said, the people you already know ideal clients that have the problem that you solve. You getting them all together and you're also doing that direct marketing side as well. Everyone gets A complimentary call with you as well. So that is bridging the gap between the two. I would even call that whole strategy just direct marketing, because they already know you. You've already done that brand building side. Now it's just about bringing them all together so that doesn't half a dozen, and offering the call To direct marketing strategies that you've done there.
Shannon Stone:Last example that I'll share with you today and I've seen this done twice Recently and like there must be a wave of master classes that are coming back. Master classes as a strategy doesn't mean you have to do it, but I've definitely seen some amazing ones happening, and one I was an attendee. The other was I wasn't attendee, but I knew. I knew a lot, of, lot of bits and pieces around the master class. As I do as a strategist, I get to see a lot of behind the scenes of things, and so the example is Running a master class and you know your master class, your webinar, whatever you want to call it, you invite people to it.
Shannon Stone:With this as well, it is also about getting people's Phone numbers in. Like today's day and age to people forget that you can actually call people. So when people register for a master class or a webinar, make sure you collect Phone number as well. If you are in b2b services, it probably wouldn't be hard to find someone's phone number. You'll find out why you need their phone number in a second, but you collect their phone number in the beginning when they opt in for it. Go ahead, you do the master class, you do the webinar, add the value, all the different things.
Shannon Stone:Maybe you do have a call to action in there, or as in booking a call, or maybe it's a soft sell in there. You know, if like this is a bit of a speed as to what we do and how we can help, if you'd like to know more, I will send you out the details to book a call. Maybe it's a soft sell like that. But here's the direct marketing side of things that comes into it. In the coming days, after this webinar or after this master class, you or someone on your team Phones every single person who came along to that master class. Same thing could happen for an event. Maybe you run an event, whatever kind of event that you might run, and you could do a soft sell there, say, hey, this is what we do, all the different things. If you'd like to know more, we will send out some details. But that is not direct marketing, that's not the full suite of what you need to be doing Picking up the phone and actually calling people is that next step. And sometimes it's just like that little bit more that if you took of that it would actually make so much of a difference.
Shannon Stone:I remember this example like years and years ago it would have been like five years ago at least I know of someone who ran. It was either a masterclass or a challenge of some kind. One of the two it's irrelevant, but she ran one of those and did her spiel as far as like here's how I can help you and here's my thing to buy and all those kind of things. Obviously not in those words, but she gave the value. Then she had her call to action, hoping for everyone to buy, and it was pure crickets. No one was buying anything. And I just love this story so much because this would be something that I would have done, or suggested that someone would have done, and it is. So. She did her thing, her challenge or her masterclass, and no one bought. And just freaking out because she's like, well, oh my God, this is like a waste of time. I've just done all of this and no one's buying, what am I going to do? And so she sent a voice note to every single person who signed up and attended and, lo and behold, people started buying.
Shannon Stone:So you can do all the right things. You can have all the right ingredients on the shelf, ready to go. People loving it. They're loving your content, they're loving your ebooks, they're loving reading your stuff, watching your videos, all the different things. But is there that little extra step that is missing that takes people from saying now I want what you have. How can you help me? And that is why we need to fuse together the brand building strategies as well as the direct marketing strategies. If you want to geek out on this with me, because we can come up with so many different ways you can do this. My door is always open to reach out to me. Let's get into some action steps.
Shannon Stone:So action step number one is to review your marketing methods. So review the type of marketing that you have been doing. Have you been doing brand building side of things? Have you been doing direct marketing side of things? What have you been doing? Get a gauge on that. Action step number two is to create or revise one brand building strategy that you've got in place and now to recognize it for what it is. Maybe it's your content that you're doing. Maybe it's you're doing videos, maybe it's networking that you're doing. So what's one brand building strategy that you're doing? Either create one if you're not doing one already, or revise one that you've already got and understand. It is a brand builder. It's to build that know, like and trust factor. And then action. Step number three is to create or revise one direct marketing strategy. So if you are, for example, doing a masterclass or a webinar, are you calling every single person from it? Or if you've got a bunch of people that you know you can help, could you put together something that brings them all together? Or it could be just one on one. It doesn't have to be as a group. Can you bring them together in some kind of way and have some kind of something that prompts more of a response, rather than sitting there on the shelf just for them to look at, loving it, absorbing it, but not taking the action? So step number one revise your marketing methods. Number two create or revise one brand building strategy. And number three is to create or revise one direct marketing strategy.
Shannon Stone:Now, the last thing I just want to touch on for all of this, you as a small business owner or as a small business. This definitely takes a lot of work to put so much effort, intention and execution behind all these different parts. I will say, as I was putting this episode together, I was like this is such a I feel like, even just talking about it, such a responsibility to put on a person, on a business, but it was important to share. So what I suggest that you do is to get a couple of kinds of help. Number one and this is so important, we've already started on it here actually is the strategy. So you're going to need what is the strategy for your business and what is the right combination and the right ways of doing both the brand building side of things as well as the direct marketing side of things. So you need the strategy for your business and you need it personalized to you. So if that's something that I can help with, that is what I'd love to help you with. But we've already started on the strategy here.
Shannon Stone:But you definitely need to personalize it to your situation, your business, what you've got going, what's already worked in your business, all those other kind of things. So you need to have the strategy first and foremost, and you need it before the next thing, which is the execution. We can't just execute blindly, although that can work sometimes, or there's a lot of reasons why execution works, but if we want to work smarter and not harder, you want to have the strategy first and foremost. So the second is the execution of it. So this might be something that you do, this might be something where you hire a VA or a marketing assistant to support you with, or maybe it's someone who just knows what they're doing. As far as applying all of this in your business, as long as it's coupled with the right strategy that's personalized to you, because that can make and does make all the difference.
Shannon Stone:And the last, so it's a strategy, the execution, and then it's your expectation, and these three really do compound. So having an expectation, or adjusting or checking your expectation of what you expect to work. So there's a lot of different ways that we could take this, but understanding, okay, here's how my brand building side of things, I expect them to perform, here's how I expect the direct marketing to perform. And also, you might go into this testing phase when do you expect it to all start working together seamlessly, cohesively? So I couldn't leave this conversation without sharing this final take here with you that, yes, this probably would take quite a bit of work to roll out into your business and that's why I had to kind of share don't underestimate, like, if you want to take this and start applying it and if it's kind of just becoming like way too much, maybe it's because of these last few things that I shared it definitely needs a strategy personalized to you. It's going to take a hefty amount of execution and we also have to recognize and adjust our expectations as well. So that's what I have for you today.
Shannon Stone:If you have any questions, always reach out. If you need any help from me, always give me a shout. In the episode description there's my details to reach out. Otherwise, I'm Shannon Stone on all platforms. But I hope you found this useful. I hope you found it really insightful and if you had any light bulbs or you're like you know what that really did make sense. I really agree with that. Or even if you disagree, feel free to reach out.
Shannon Stone:I'd love to have a chat and really extend on the conversation that we start here on the podcast and have conversations about it, which I've been loving a lot lately. So hopefully you found it useful. I hope you have an amazing day and I'll chat to you very, very soon. Hey, thanks for listening. If you found this episode useful, I'd love for you to send it to a friend. The best podcast I have found have all been recommended to me. If you can spread the word by sharing this episode, I can spend more time helping you by creating episodes just like this one. Send it, text it, tell somebody about it, whatever you need to do. The more you spread the word, the more I can focus on creating needle-moving episodes to help you and your friends.