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JASMINE STAR: “You won't see me creating a Reel around my dog or my daughter, although that could be really cute and fun. I'm really going to be using my business time wisely to create content that positions myself and keeps me as an authority and as a leader. I do not look at it and be like, ‘Ugh, I have another piece of social media to do today.’ I say, ‘Oh, my God. Lord have mercy. I am blessed to make a commercial for my business that people want to watch. Hey!’ Like, you're actually making money by doing work. When you reprogram your brain, all of a sudden, creating that content plan changes the way that you show up on social media. It's no longer something you have to do; this is something you get to do. How can you create a commercial people want to see about your business?”
INTRO: I’m Amy Porterfield, ex-corporate girl turned CEO of a multi-million-dollar business. But it wasn't all that long ago that I lacked the confidence, money, and time to focus on growing my small–but–mighty business. Fast forward past many failed attempts and lessons learned, and you'll see the business I have today, one that changes lives and gives me more freedom than I ever thought possible, one that used to only exist as a daydream. I created the Online Marketing Made Easy podcast to give you simple, actionable, step–by–step strategies to help you do the same. If you're an ambitious entrepreneur, or one in the making, who's looking to create a business that makes an impact and helps you create a life you love, you're in the right place. Let's get started.
AMY: Well, well, well. It looks like we're finally here, at the end of 2020. And while at times it felt like it would never arrive, we finally made it. And although 2020 was questionable at best—I don't know how else to explain it—there were many lessons that each of us have learned along the way. I hope some of those lessons for you came from this podcast. I hope you walked away each week with a new strategy to implement or a new idea to explore.
Now, as we inch our way closer to counting down until the ball drops, I wanted to count down to some of the best clips from our Online Marketing Made Easy episodes in 2020. You're going to hear from guests like Jam Gamble, Jasmine Star, Andrea Olson, and Gayneté Jones, as well as tips for crafting your offer, perfecting your landing page, making money in your downtime, strategies for growing your email list using social media, hacking your content process, and so much more. Grab your bubbly beverage—I've got a little kombucha—and let's count down the top moments of Online Marketing Made Easy together.
Number ten, episode 341, “The Power of Your Voice: How to Cut Through the Online Noise, Attract Your Ideal Customers, and Make $$$, with Jam Gamble.” This first clip comes from one of my most fun episodes this year. If you haven't listened to this whole episode, you got to. It was incredible. Anyway, in this clip, we dive into how to identify what you talk about. I get this question a lot: How do I know what to say? Jam shares how to get clear on your topics, whether it's your weekly content, your course, or anything in between. She also shares the right way to share your story and how you don't have to have an insanely juicy journey of transformation to make an impact. Enjoy this clip from episode 341.
AMY: Step three, identify your talk. Okay, this one's a big one because, Jam—
JAM GAMBLE: It is.
AMY: —you said earlier, people are saying, “What do I talk about?” I get that question all the time. “What do I create a course about? What do I podcast about? What do I talk about?” And I know you've got some exercises that can help us identify our talk, but we need to get into this one. This one is a stumper for people.
JAM: Yeah. And even just hearing you relay what I said, the other thing I hear people tell me a lot is, “I want to share my story because I've been through a lot.” And it's this whole “vulnerability sells” mindset. And people are thinking that in order to share their story, they have had to have gone through something so traumatic that it's going to be so juicy that people want to hear it. “So I didn't just drive through this small town and stumbled across this small business that needed a new owner. I was on my way to this small town. My car lost control. I ended up in a ditch. Nobody found me for months. I made my way to a mountain. I was raised by a pack of bears, who taught me the ways of the land and introduced me to organic yogurt. I then traveled from the mountain into this small town where I did not know nobody. But I established my business, and I made six figures in five minutes.”
AMY: Okay. That’s the first time I’ve seen it explained that way, but I get it. I get it. Yes.
JAM: You get it, right? And I’m like, “Can you just tell your story?” So identifying your talk is, one, determining your intention. What's your intention? What’s your intention? What do you want to—like, who do you want to help? What do you want to do? Do you want to inspire them? Do you want to motivate them? Do you want to educate them? And then looking within yourself, and go, “What do I possess that I could share with others?” versus “What should I go quickly learn and try to put it together and then put it out there because that’s what people want to hear?” If you're not connected to your talk, it will not work.
AMY: Yes, okay.
JAM: That's like me going out and talking about fitness. You know, I can't run. I'm tired. I'm not going to give you my five steps to be a better runner, because I'm not connected to that. But I'm going to give you the five steps to own your voice, and you're going to see how, okay, that’s connected to my beliefs; that's connected to my values; therefore, I can share it with the world. That, my friends, is how you identify what you want to talk about,
AMY: Number nine, episode 317, “Six Steps to Craft a Money-Magnet Offer.” In it, I share why a digital course is one of the best offers you can have in your business, along with tips for deciding what to charge and the high– versus low–ticket offers and the benefit of each. Enjoy this clip from episode 317.
AMY: The reason why I think one digital course in your business is such a smart marketing move is that you could take this one asset; put all the time, energy, and effort into creating it; and then, you could sell it over and over and over again. Sure, you might want to improve it, tweak it, make it better. But still, the course is the course. You never have to start from scratch.
We are going on our third launch of Digital Course Academy, and I've made the course better each time I've launched it, but it's still the core course. I never had to start from scratch in my second launch, my third launch, and it is a huge success. So I tell you that because you can have that in your business as well. You might not be ready right this minute, but I want you to start thinking about what a digital course could look like in your business, because it's an asset that can make you money over and over and over again.
Okay, so, let's get back to step four. It's your turn. What format will be best for your first or your next offer? Write it down, first thing that comes to mind. We're just getting some motion here, getting into motion.
Let's move on to step five. And step five is to price your offer. So when it comes to pricing your offer remember that, just like everything else, this could change down the road and likely will. So start out by doing just a little—and I repeat a little—research to see what your competitors are pricing their offers at. So take note and keep that in mind as you finalize your price point.
Another approach is to reverse engineer your ideal–revenue goal. So to do this, start by setting your ideal monthly revenue goal, divide it by how many offers you'd like to sell, and figure out a ballpark number for what to charge. Now, I want you to be realistic with this strategy and make sure you're not inflating your prices. That’s where it’s helpful to know what other experts in your industry are charging, so you could see what's working, and then, you decide where you kind of want to fall on that scope of pricing.
Now, keep in mind that if you have a bigger–ticket item, one like one–on–one coaching, you'll likely have to sell less in order to hit a revenue goal. However, it may be more of a challenge to sell, especially if you're just starting out. Now, with a lower–ticket item, like a PDF, you’ll have to sell more. But your audience might be more willing to make a small investment, especially if you're just starting out, because they don't necessarily know you well yet, but the investment is not a huge risk. So the key is to get your ICA into your sales funnel, get them results, and get a customer for life.
AMY: All right. Moving along, number eight, episode 340, “Landing Page Not Converting? Here's what to do!” In this clip, I'm talking about landing pages, if you didn’t already guess that one. And more specifically, if you're struggling with your landing page, I help you figure that out. I share a few secrets to a highly converting landing page and talk about the importance of branding in order to create a seamless landing page to convert your visitors to subscribers. In this episode, I tell you the dos and the don'ts of a landing page and share one thing that will make your life a whole lot easier during quarantine. So enjoy this clip from episode 340.
AMY: After all, we all know a picture is worth 1,000 words, right?
Fun fact. The human brain processes images 60,000 times faster than text. That means that branding that speaks directly to our eyes has a massive impact on what we can consume. When it comes to branding on your landing page, aim to use visual elements that naturally and effectively convert subscribers.
If you're the face of the company and people are familiar with seeing you, then you might want to consider an image of you on your landing page. Now, I've talked about doing photoshoots, I have a full podcast all about how to do a photoshoot, and I think that photos of you that are professionally done are important. But one thing that we're seeing, especially at the time that I'm recording this in quarantine, more–casual, off–the–cuff photos are doing better than photoshoot photos. So what I mean by that is when Chloe comes over to my house, because she lives really close, and we just snap some photos of me in my house, more casual, they always convert better than my photoshoot photos. So you have that going for you. Especially if you're on a tight budget and you don't want to do a photo shoot, snap some casual photos of you on your smartphone. Maybe try using those on your landing page if you are the face of your company. Could go a long way.
Now, let's say you're not the face of your company. Don't use a logo on your landing page. Look for some stock photos that are aesthetically pleasing and they align with your brand and your lead magnet. So if you have a lead magnet that teaches people five tips for organizing their pantry, you probably wouldn't want to have a stock photo of someone hiking, right? However, a clean, crisp photo with lots of white space and a beautifully organized pantry would make a lot of sense.
Another fun option is to have a sneak peek of your lead magnet on the page. We do this sometimes. You can do this by taking a screen capture of your lead magnet and then using an editing program—you could use Canva—to create an image of a computer or an iPad or a phone screen with your lead magnet in it.
Also, when you're selecting an image or colors for your landing page, keep it in line with your overall company branding. When you're aiming to attract a potential audience member, you want to be careful not to confuse them. So the more seamless you can make the transition from your website or social media to a landing page, the better. And you guessed it, the less likely you'll lose them if there is true alignment. So use the branding that you use on your website and in your social media on your landing pages as well.
AMY: Number seven, episode 331, “Six Figures and Five Babies: How She Did It with Only Three Hours a Day.” All right. This next clip is from an interview with my student, Andrea Olson, and it was so freaking good. This is a popular one. Andrea shares her tips for simplifying your workweek. After all, she only works three to four hours per day, all while running a highly successful business. She offers excellent insight into setting boundaries with your team or your VA. She shares what it truly means to work smart, and I know you're going to love her productivity hacks. Whether you have a team or just a VA or maybe you are a one–woman or a one–man show, you'll still find her tips extremely helpful. Enjoy this clip from episode 331.
AMY: There's oftentimes I find myself with my family, thinking about work, and it's in my mind, or “I forget to do that. I got to do that,” or “I got to check this.” How do you not do that?
ANDREA OLSON: I hide my phone.
AMY: Oh, that is so good, because I’m always grab—sometimes I grab it and I don't even know why I just grabbed it.
ANDREA: I do the same thing all the time. It's a terrible addiction. I've read the book How to Break Up with Your Phone, and—
AMY: Oh, I need the book.
ANDREA: —I recommend it.
AMY: I need it.
ANDREA: Oh my gosh, it’s so amazing. And when I pick it up, I'm like, “Wait. What am I modeling to my kids? Oh, that you want to be attached to a phone your whole life?” That's not what I want, so I literally hide it. I can't find it for hours. I've missed very important appointments because of that habit.
AMY: That’s hilarious.
ANDREA: I also train my team. So I have eight part timers, all women. Six of them are moms. They’re all over the world. And I have all of them—we work together on my businesses, and they know my boundaries. And they know if there's a website down or there's a check out that’s not working or there's something bad on social media, they need to call me, and they have my landline number, too. So it's another thing I borrowed from Tim Ferriss. You have the autoresponder. You don't check your email all day, every day. You don't check your—I don't even go on my social media. I schedule it all in advance. I have really strong boundaries about that, but I falter.
Amy, there are days when I'm just sitting in the kitchen, and I'm talking on Slack to my team. And then my kids all need something magically at the same time, and they all start yelling, “Mama, Mama,” and I just break down. I'm like, “Why is everybody calling me? Oh, because I'm not being present with them.” And then I'm busted, and I put the phone away. It’s really hard.
AMY: It is really hard, and I appreciate you saying so. But you're doing a really good job of it. And one thing I've heard you say a few times on the podcast is that you work really smart. Can you give us some examples of what that looks like?
ANDREA: Oh, gosh. Okay, sometimes I'm really a bad business owner, and I don't work smart. I just want to say that first.
AMY: Right. I totally get that, and I appreciate that. But you’re obviously doing something right.
ANDREA: The thing is, I always bounce back to the basics. So, the time you allot to work will fill with the work that you have. We all know that, but it's true. So I definitely limit that. And I have only three or four things that I want to accomplish every day. And if I get through those things, I get to tackle my other list. So I'm very much a “let's just do the most–important things.” And it's the, you know, the important urgent thing?
AMY: Yeah.
ANDREA: I still wrap my head around that every single day. I'm like, “How do I determine which things are urgent or important?” And it's really hard to be your own boss because you can't ask anybody else. Am I really working on the right thing? But I really try to work on—I think the night before about what I'm going to work on the next day. And I put those things down, and I block everything out that's not those things. And when I'm working on a launch, I'm working on the things that nobody else can do, and then I'm also delegating the rest. So learning how to delegate, it's a moving target, and I'm still learning. I've learned so much just in the last twenty-four hours about that.
So those things especially, but then, just eating the frog. Have you heard that term?
AMY: I've never heard that term, but I saw it in my notes here. What does that mean?
ANDREA: Okay. It's a Mark Twain quote. And I will botch it, so I'm not going to try to say the exact quote, and some business time–management person wrote about it. Eating the frog means you do the hardest thing first, so the thing that you really don't want to do and you really want to procrastinate against. You sit down, and you do that thing first.
AMY: Okay. This is good, because when I do that, it just clears my head, and I stop thinking about it.
ANDREA: It totally does. It's the best thing. It’s like, hey, this is a grown-up skill. Let’s do this.
AMY: Number six, episode 311, “Four Steps to Identify Your Million-Dollar Niche.” This episode was a hit. Listen, my friend. If you're confused or nervous about niching down, this episode is for you. Getting niche specific is so important. And in this episode, I give you examples of how other entrepreneurs have niched down, to help spark your creativity and your confidence. Enjoy this clip from episode 311.
AMY: Step two. This is where we're going to zoom in a bit and get more specific, or what is also known as niching down. Before you even say it, I just know what you're thinking. “But Amy, if I get too specific, I'll lose out on so many people wanting to buy from me.” I'm going to debunk that belief.
I want you to think about someone you admire. Have you ever read a social–media post they shared or listened to a video or a podcast of theirs and thought, “She is speaking directly to me”? Well, that's because that person niched down, and they discovered exactly who they're serving and speaking to. If that person was more vague and generalized everything they said because they didn't want to “miss out on a sale,” then I think you and I both know you wouldn't have felt that intimate connection. The truth behind, if you're speaking to everyone, you're speaking to no one, still stands true. Keep that in mind as we move through this step.
Also, remember that by niching down, you are identifying and positioning yourself as an expert about one specific thing. Think of it this way. If you needed an eye procedure, would you go to a general medicine doctor just because they are in the medical field? No, of course you wouldn’t. You'd go to an eye surgeon because they are the expert. Do you see where I'm going with this? The clearer you are about your expertise, your offer, your niche, the less your audience will have to think, and the easier it will be for them to make a decision to work with or buy from you. You can't become the go–to person in a niche if you don't niche down.
For example, my friend Kris Carr is known as the go–to wellness advocate, especially for plant–based living and preventing cancer. If she thought, “I don't want to lose out on sales if I get too specific, so I'll just say I'm a health advocate,” that wouldn’t have set her up as an expert, because it's too broad.
For me, I give business owners, educators, and entrepreneurs profitable action steps to create and sell digital courses. What if I would have said, “I'm just a business expert,” you'd have a hard time understanding exactly what I could help you with, right? Plus, what if I added, “I also do social media and building your website and do video marketing,” now you feel overwhelmed and probably would already be looking for a mentor who is more specific and caters to your needs.
AMY: Number five, episode 337, “Instagram Reels: The What, How, and Why for Entrepreneurs, with Jasmine Star.” Of course, I couldn’t do a roundup of my favorite episodes without having my girl Jasmine Star in them, right? Spoiler: my last clip is another content strategy from her, so be sure you stick around until the end. But in this clip, she's diving into how to simplify your social media and content–creation process. While this episode was all about Instagram Reels, Jasmine takes us on a journey with her to better understand how to repurpose content across all social platforms. And more importantly, she has a mindset hack that you must implement if you're serious about getting ahead in your content. You're going to love it. Enjoy this clip from episode 337.
AMY: As an entrepreneur or as entrepreneurs like we all are, we have so many places we feel we need to be at once. And it can feel like a lot to create content for multiple platforms. So how can you use this feature easily and work it into your social media and content plan more seamlessly? You know, you did give us one idea. You could use a Reel and actually put it on TikTok, boom. You actually might have already answered this question. You can put it as a Story, boom. You've got another place to do it.
But you are the queen of content planning. In Social Curator, if you guys ever thought about joining Social Curator, I'm going to make Jasmine talk about it at the end. Literally, sometimes it's like pulling nails with you to tell me more, tell me more about Social Curator. We're going to talk about it. But I feel like one of the benefits is you really spend some time on helping people plan their content. Would you agree with that?
JASMINE STAR: I do.
AMY: Give us some tips around that, especially maybe as it relates to Reels, but content planning, social content planning, is a stressor for my audience.
JASMINE: And so we first need to acknowledge that it is a stressor for a lot of people.
AMY: Yeah.
JASMINE: So if you know that you're not alone, it helps you not feel so isolated in the journey.
Now, does doing Reels take more time than doing a Story? The answer is yes. But it's also, as of right now, has so much opportunity to grow and stay with you. So you could spend fifteen seconds making a Story that will be gone in twenty-four hours, or you could spend thirty minutes making a Reel, but what you are essentially doing is creating a commercial for your business. There is a really good chance you won't see me creating a Reel around my dog or my daughter, although that could be really cute and fun. I'm really going to be using my business time wisely to create content that positions myself and keeps me as an authority and as a leader. I do not look at it and be like, “Ugh, I have another piece of social media to do today.” I say, “Oh, my God. Lord have mercy. I am blessed to make a commercial for my business that people want to watch. Hey!” Like, you're actually making money by doing work. When you reprogram your brain, all of a sudden, creating that content plan changes the way that you show up on social media. It's no longer something you have to do; this is something you get to do. How can you create a commercial people want to see about your business? Ah, now we’re having fun.
AMY: I agree. And I think the biggest thing I'm going to take away from this chat is that it is a commercial. Like, when you put it in that context, my ears perk up because I literally said to Chloe when we were creating one today, I'm like, “This feels like a waste. I feel ridiculous. And this feels like a waste of time.” But it's not when it is a commercial, when you are spotlighting your business and how you can serve.
AMY: Number four, episode 297, “Grow Your Business and Revenue: Six MUST-DO Action Items to Make Magic Between Launches.” Ooh, this one is good. And in this clip, I'm sharing my strategies for how to make money while you're not launching. These are some of the most effective ways I've made revenue during my downtime, and I couldn't recommend it enough. Enjoy this clip from episode 297.
AMY: Number five, make some extra money. So this one's kind of fun. I bet your ears just perked up. So what to do when you're not launching? Well, one of the questions I get asked a lot is, “Amy, if you want me to live launch two to three times a year, what am I doing when I'm not live launching to make some money?” And I love using my downtime to make a little extra income in easier ways than actually doing live launches. My favorite way is to promote a workshop.
So, a workshop would be like a two-hour paid training that you create and you sell to your audience. You don't sell it with webinars. You can sell it with email marketing, social media, live video, whatever you want. But it's an excellent way to attract new people to your email list and inspire those currently on your list to actually take action, a.k.a. spend some money with you to learn something and get results. So a workshop course, the best way to do it is address an obstacle that your audience is struggling with. So the best way to do it is if you think, “Okay, I know what I want to sell, and I know that before I sell this, one of the biggest challenges my audience is going to face is x, y, z. So if I can get them over the hump of x, y, z, they're more inclined to want to buy when I'm ready to launch.”
And so remember earlier I told you Whitney, one of my students, did a challenge? She is the medium, and she did a challenge around mindset? Well, she could have done a workshop, where she put together a two-hour training to tackle those mindset challenges and blocks, and give tools and strategies to help her students overcome them. And she could charge ninety-seven dollars for this two-hour training, maybe put together a really cool workbook, and then send out some emails to sell it, put it on social media, run a few ads to it if you want, and that could be a workshop.
Another one of my students, Tavia Martin Redburn, she is in my Digital Course Academy program, and she's a birth photographer who trains other photographers in this niche how to run a successful business. So she offers a workshop on how to make a full-time income in this industry, and it's called Birth Photographers Marketing Workshop. And it’s a pre-recorded forty-minute workshop, and Tavia teaches her audience how to make a full-time income with her seven-step marketing system. Now, she offers this workshop year round, which means she's always attracting a new ICA with her workshop. And I love this because then once they get into this workshop, she has other offers that she can give them beyond a workshop. But it's a really great way to get people to dip their toe in the water, and it generates some revenue for you as well.
Another way, moving on from workshops, another way to make extra money between launches is to become an affiliate for somebody else’s program or somebody else’s tool. I make well over six figures in affiliate marketing every single year, and not that—I didn't start out there. And maybe you say, “I want to make an extra thousand dollars every month when I'm not launching.” So think about the other programs that you love. Like, I'm an affiliate of B-School because I've used B-School. I love B-School. Maybe you’re a Digital Course Academy student. You're like, “I love DCA. I want to promote it.” We have an affiliate program, and there's other programs out there as well.
Also, tools. You all know that I am a huge fan and a user of Kajabi. And so I promote Kajabi to my students because I use it and I teach it. So I'm like, “Get this tool. You need it because you're going to absolutely love it when you create your digital course.” So I am constantly talking about different tools and resources and programs. I never promote something as an affiliate that I have not used or that I don’t currently use in my business. I’ve got to believe in it, got to love it, I’ve got to talk about it naturally, whether I was getting paid for it or not, and that’s how I decide where I want to be an affiliate.
And one little secret: I encourage all my students to choose one program that is not their own each year, and launch that program as though you're launching your own. So do a pre-launch runway, and do webinars, and just go full out. Write your emails as though it's your own program, but you're launching it for somebody else. The people that tend to be the best affiliates in Digital Course Academy, they literally launch it as though it were their own program.
AMY: Number three, episode 333. How appropriate. “$70K in Seven Days: How She Did It.” Okay, you probably remember this one because it was so good, and it was one of our hottest episodes. It was an interview for my student, Gayneté Jones. And in this clip, Gayneté shares her step–by–step strategies for getting more people on your webinar. In fact, she takes you behind the scenes and brings you through the steps that she took to get a few hundred sign ups the day of her webinar. On top of that, you'll hear her share that 20 percent of her course sign ups came from this one strategy. It’s pretty powerful stuff. I know you're going to love it, so dive into episode 333.
AMY: And these are strategies to get more people on your webinar, right?
GAYNETÉ JONES: Yes.
AMY: Okay.
GAYNETÉ: Yeah, for attracting more people on the webinar. So there was something I did the morning of the webinar that happened. So the morning it happened, the morning of the webinar, if the webinar is at eight p.m., you have to do it the same day. And I got a few hundred sign ups just from this one thing, and it could be free and super easy to do.
So, first, I created an Instagram Story post, using Canva, so super simple. They have the templates there where you can just select Instagram Story. And I was simply able to put a picture of myself with the words “Looking to build your business so you can quit your job? @gayneté is having a free webinar today. Link in bio to register.” So “link in her bio to register” is what it said.
So next, I went to Instagram. So I saved that, created that post, saved it. Next, I went to Instagram, faced the camera, and I said, “Okay, guys, as you know, I'm having a free webinar tonight. And to give this one last push, I really need your help. I've decided to do a bit of a giveaway. If you share my next post to your Stories and tag me in it, you'll get entered to win a Satori Notes bracelet.” And, I mean, it was a cute thirty–dollar bangle, like a little bracelet, with a quote that said “Focused Future Millionaire.” And this is one from one of my past Cubicle Ditch Academy members that she created, so I was just excited to be able to include her in this cycle.
AMY: That’s cool.
GAYNETÉ: Yeah. So I had her in that. So I told them the next Story is going to show you how it's done, and the following Story will be the one that you need a screengrab so that you can repost it.
So the next Story, like I mentioned, it was the image mentioned from the first time, but this time where it said “gayneté, @gayneté is having her free webinar,” I simply tag my page, @gayneté, and I put it over my name on the writing. And I had an arrow that points to it and said “Step one, screenshot the next image and tag me right here.” Then right underneath that, it just said “Step two, share to your Story.” That's it. In fact, I think I had a gif that said, “Easy peasy, lemon squeezy,” something like that. So the next Story was just the image, and that was it. And I had so many people resharing it on the Story.
And I say it could be free because I gave away a physical prize at the time. But, I mean, the last go round, I did another bracelet, and I also did an Amazon gift card. But next time, I may do an exclusive freebie I create or something.
And here's the thing, Amy, that I thought was really, really interesting. About 20 percent of buyers for Cubicle Ditch Academy bought because of the shared posts, because it was so—
AMY: Wow.
GAYNETÉ: Yeah. —because it was someone that shared it that they knew, someone that they trusted. So even cold leads, who’ve never heard of me and didn’t know who I was, because they knew that person, they felt more comfortable to buy from me.
AMY: Number two, episode 338, “Content Made Easy: How to Organize Your Launch Content, Make $$$, and Never Run Out,” never run out of content, that is. Content’s a hot topic on my podcast because many of you asked for content strategies, how to create content, how to share content, how to repurpose content. Like, we get into all of it on the podcast. But in this specific episode, I'm going to share one of my favorite tips for when I'm on a webinar and I am moving the fence sitters off the fence and into my digital program, meaning getting them off the fence and getting them to enroll into my digital course. So this is one of my hottest tips. Listen in to episode 338.
AMY: This is a hot tip, so pay close attention—but you could probably use this tip even on social media even before you get people on your webinar. But for me, when people are on my webinar and we're in Q&A and I've been going for a while and there's tons of people still listening—my webinar’s over. I'm just doing Q&A. There's hundreds of people on—I'll say, “Okay, so if you're still on the fence, what is keeping you from signing up? What's keeping you from taking the leap and joining me in Digital Course Academy? Let me know, and let's talk about it.” So I actually have them type in the comments on a webinar, “I'm on the fence because…” I'll say that. So type in, “I'm on the fence because… and fill in the blank.” So you could use this kind of approach even on social media. Like, okay, “If you've ever thought about meal prepping and planning,” taking Allie‘s example, “what's keeping you from actually doing it? Tell me. Fill in the blank here. I don't food prep because…” And this is something you could do on a Facebook Live or an IG Story to start to get to hear those objections.
So from there, you want to just start asking questions, engaging with your audience, and choose just three to four objections total that seem to be the most popular, and double down on addressing those in your prelaunch content so they aren't an issue when you start inviting people to your webinar, and then, of course, on your webinar, you're inviting them to buy your course.
Now, you may feel like you're repeating yourself a lot in your prelaunch content. And that's the point. That's exactly what you need to do. Just because you mention it once on a Facebook Live does not mean your whole audience just heard you, nor are they all paying attention, even if they are on the Facebook Live. I repeat myself a lot in the prelaunch phase.
All right. So that's your prelaunch content. Get clear on three to four objections that are holding your audience back, and plan your content around those. Remember, think about where they are right now. You want to help them walk across that invisible bridge to the other side where they're ready to get on your webinar and they're eventually ready to buy your course. What are the things that are circling around in their head that you need to help them kind of straighten out so that they're open minded to get on your webinar and then they're very willing to buy your course?
AMY: And finally, we made it. Number one, episode 316, “How to Grow Your Email List Using Social Media.” All right. This little nugget is one of my favorite clips from the Online Marketing Made Easy show in 2020. And as promised, it's from Jasmine Star. In this clip, she walks you through a super simple and fun strategy to start growing your email list with Instagram today. It allows your audience to easily engage with you. And I know you're going to find this one valuable. You do not want to miss this tip. So tune in. Take a listen to this clip from episode 316.
JASMINE STAR: So, let's talk about two strategies that you can use that are relatively easy and quick that you can actually deploy today on Instagram to start growing your newsletter list. So let's go back to that quiz that we just went through. Remember (a), like, I can't get engagement, and (b) sometimes people ask these long, detailed questions that make you feel like you’re a personal coach? Let's dive into A.
If you're not getting engagement on your Instagram, the first thing you want to do is give people easy ways to start engaging with you. In fact, you're not alone. Instagram has created tools for Instagram Stories that you could put into your Stories to drive engagement. Now, these are called engagement–driving tools. Well, actually, I'm not sure if they're actually called engagement–driving tools, but I just named it for Mark Zuckerberg. You're welcome, Marky Mark.
If you open up Stories and you record a photo or a video, you can then click on an icon that's a square with a little happy face. When you click on that, it‘ll give you options. You can put a geotag, you can put a hashtag, but you can also have engagement drivers, like a poll, like a quiz, like a slider. What I want you to do in order to start driving engagement is I want you to think about two things you are uniquely qualified to talk about that gives value to your followers.
So let's just say that you are a fitness professional, and you know that your zone of genius is meal planning and creating workout plans. So then what I want you to do—remember, we’re just trying to drive engagement right now—I want you to go to Instagram Stories, and I want you to scroll on over to a new feature called Layout. In Layout, you can select anywhere from two to eight photos. So what I want you to do is choose the layout that empowers you to upload two photos, okay? Then what I want you to do is I want you to go and I want you to select the engagement–driving tool, Poll. Now, if we're using this example as a fitness professional, one of your photos could be a photo of a meal–planning prep day in your kitchen. And then another photo could be a photo of you working out or maybe you training somebody or maybe a client who's been training. And then in your Story, when you have a photo of your meal prep and a photo of somebody exercising or you exercising, I want you to put the poll and ask a question. You could say, which one are you more interested in? And then one poll would be meal planning, and the other one would be a fitness routine.
Now what I want you to do is in the back of your mind, whoever answers that poll, you're going to give an answer to, to which you say, “How Jasmine?” Well, if I saw your Story, I would probably select, I'll say fitness routine. I want to work out. So I would click on that. And then what you would do is you would go to the results of the people who voted on your poll, and you would see Jasmine Star likes fitness routine. Then what I want you to do is give the engagement that you want to get. You would select my account, and you would send me a direct message and say, “Hey, Jasmine. I noticed that you voted on the poll, and it said you wanted a fitness routine. I'd love to send you one of my most powerful workouts for free. You could sign up for it here.” Boom. What you just did is drove engagement, made it easy for them to respond, and then you reached out to them and say, “I'd like to give you something,” and then you can give them a link to opt in. That has been the most powerful way to move somebody from a passive viewer to somebody who engages to getting somebody on your list.
Now, I want you to do this for everybody who voted in the poll. Now, let's just say that I voted on meal prep. Well, good. You're going to have an opt in for every poll option that you have. Now, you say, “Jasmine, I don't have very many.” It's okay, booboo. I just needed to have two, have two opt ins that you could split test against each other and still get people on their list regardless of how they are voting.
Now, let's move on to quiz option B. These are people who have some engagement, right? They're getting excited, but then sometimes people are asking them for basically the Gettysburg Address of an answer, and you're like, I don't have—my business is not to be responding in Instagram DMs all day. I got you, boo.
What I want you to do is I want you to sit down and write the top five questions that you are asked the most. You can literally do this in less than a minute. When you know the questions that you are asked the most, the next thing I need you to do would be for you to create a very simple video, guide, checklist, e-book, PDF. So your top five questions, you are going to have a resource for them.
So now that when you have people engaging and now when you have people asking questions, you can then answer their questions so robustly, so deeply, so genuinely that they can't help but feel so honored and excited that you took the time to respond so thoughtfully to them.
So I'm going to be real. Oftentimes, people will send me a DM, and they're like, “Jasmine, I'm really trying to get my business off the ground. Jasmine, people aren't responding to me. How do I find my dream customer?” And I can't spend fifteen minutes per DM responding thoughtfully. So what I've decided to do is I got my top five questions and the top one being, “Jasmine, how do I build a brand and market it on social media?” And then I created an opt in. Jasminestar.com/branding. But I did the same thing for other really popular questions. How do I find my niche, Instagram Story checklist? How do I use Facebook Live? I went through, and now when somebody asks me a question like, “Hey, I can't respond thoughtfully on DM, but let me send you a free guide to building a brand. Let me send you a free guide on how to use Instagram Stories to get discovered. Let me send you a free guide on how to discover your niche.” So I have properly set up my back end for lead acquisition by way of Instagram, with a strategy, not just crossing my fingers.
AMY: There you have it, my friend, some of the best clips from the Online Marketing Made Easy podcast in 2020. If any of these sparked your attention and you haven't yet checked out the full episode, be sure to go back and take a listen. I'll have all of these linked up in my show notes. So go to amy.online/354. Easy as that. Amy.online/354.
All right. Thanks so much for counting down with me. And I can't wait for you to see what we have in store for you in 2021, so be sure to subscribe so you can always get the latest episode. And, of course, share it with your entrepreneurial friends so that we can all work together to create successful businesses in the coming year.
Thank you so much for joining me, not only today but week after week. I am so grateful that I get to show up for you and share these episodes every single week. And I'm so excited to go on this journey with you. So I will see you next week, same time, same place. Bye for now.
