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Bright Ideas for Smarter Marketing with Amy Bright · The Confident Entrepreneur With Jennifer Ann Johnson

0:37
Jennifer Johnson: Whether you're a seasoned CMO or a small business owner wearing multiple hats.
0:40
Jennifer Johnson: Today we are going to talk about something that is so important to your business or your position within the company that you're in that you really have to listen.
0:51
Jennifer Johnson: There is so much new noise out there, there's so many things happening and so many things changing in the marketing world that today I want to get back to the basics.
1:02
Jennifer Johnson: I want to talk about things in the marketing world that are tried and true and they're never going to go out of style.
1:11
Jennifer Johnson: That is so, so important.
1:13
Jennifer Johnson: Today we're thrilled to have Amy Bright from Amy Bright Studio here with us, and she's owner of Amy Bright Creative and, and she represents a diverse skill set with experience and results generating brand development, marketing, advertising, account management, creative development, copywriting, public speaking.
1:33
Jennifer Johnson: You kind of do a little bit of all of it, and I am so excited to have you on here because this is important stuff for small business owners and really anyone who has a business.
1:45
Amy Bright: It's all the things realistically at the end of the day, Right, it may not be everything new and shiny, but it really encompasses all the things.
1:54
Jennifer Johnson: Right, because it's kind of like an iPhone, right.
1:57
Jennifer Johnson: Every time you go out and buy a new phone then all of a sudden they're like, oh, a new phone is out and you're already behind and it's probably not even been six months.
2:07
Jennifer Johnson: Yes, and I thought my phone was already smart and it is.
2:11
Amy Bright: It can get smarter, wow.
2:13
Amy Bright: And yet the basic core principles of the phone really don't change.
2:18
Amy Bright: We get new bells and whistles, but the essence of the phone, which is really a tiny computer that we hold in our hand, doesn't really change.
2:26
Jennifer Johnson: And that's very true with marketing as well, because there are some really timeless aspects of marketing and I want you to share.
2:35
Jennifer Johnson: I know we have a lot of them and we'll get to whatever we can get to, but let's talk about what is your number one on that list, Like what is most important.
2:43
Amy Bright: And these are regardless of platform, regardless of channel, platform style.
2:51
Amy Bright: What have you of what you're putting out there?
2:53
Amy Bright: Number one always Audience, always First.
2:59
Amy Bright: Okay.
3:00
Jennifer Johnson: Yep, what does that?
3:01
Amy Bright: look like that, looks like doing research, that looks like getting to know the people to whom you're trying to appeal and creating messaging that's going to resonate with that audience or those multiple audiences.
3:17
Amy Bright: So in my business, when I work with people on a brand, we really dive deep and get into some nonlinear thinking about different audience.
3:26
Amy Bright: Archetypes is the terminology I use.
3:29
Amy Bright: You know there's all different types of words that people use to describe that.
3:33
Amy Bright: I call them archetypes.
3:39
Amy Bright: Make the most sense for your brand and the way you're positioning your brand to really think about how are we going to communicate with those people?
3:47
Amy Bright: And then segmenting that audience also, because you can't speak the same way to a prospect that you would to somebody who's already purchased your product or service.
3:58
Amy Bright: So you kind of you know, market segmentation is a good idea with an audience, but getting a general feel for what that audience looks like talks like what do they do for fun?
4:10
Amy Bright: What colors appeal to them, what is the kind of messaging that resonates with them, what's their pain point?
4:17
Amy Bright: You know all the classic things that you've heard you can't ever hear them enough.
4:22
Jennifer Johnson: Because you hear them, but if you don't put them into practice, what good are they?
4:27
Amy Bright: That's right, and that's where a lot of people put the cart before the horse a lot of times and they're just oh, I just got to get a message out there.
4:36
Amy Bright: Well, yes, you do, that is true, but if you really want your message to resonate and convert into sales, there is some nuance to it that you need to shape.
4:48
Jennifer Johnson: Right, because if you send it to somebody who already has your product, you're wasting resources.
4:55
Jennifer Johnson: And the reason I say that is because I've been going through I use MailChimp and I've been going through my email use MailChimp and I've been using, going through my email list and seeing the people that respond, the people that never open it, all of that thing.
5:07
Jennifer Johnson: You're wasting money on those contacts, right, or are you not?
5:13
Jennifer Johnson: Yes, and no Interesting question to ask, I guess.
5:17
Amy Bright: Email marketing in particular is one of those things that, since email was invented, has not gone away and will it go away eventually.
5:27
Amy Bright: Potentially, I think a lot of companies are turning more towards text messaging because, let's face it, we're much more in tuned with looking at our phone and answering a quick text or seeing some information on our phone.
5:41
Amy Bright: Then we are checking our myriad of emails.
5:44
Amy Bright: Now, that said, email marketing is still effective, even if you're going through.
5:49
Amy Bright: I do it too.
5:50
Amy Bright: I do this for a living, and yet I go into my email and there are plenty of email lists to which I've subscribed and I'm interested in what they have to say, but I can't read every single one.
6:04
Amy Bright: I just don't have time.
6:05
Amy Bright: So as I go through, you know on your phone and you know, tap all the circles or squares, or whatever your app uses, you're still seeing the brand name, so it's still recognition.
6:17
Jennifer Johnson: You're still yes, yeah, in your brain.
6:20
Amy Bright: Right.
6:20
Amy Bright: So I mean you know, do you open every single email?
6:23
Amy Bright: Do you respond to every single email?
6:25
Amy Bright: Do you follow the call to action in every email?
6:28
Amy Bright: Probably not, but it's a one more imprint on your mind, so Don't delete all those emails I mean you know, delete what you need to, but realistically don't yeah, don't stop sending just because somebody's not opening.
6:45
Amy Bright: I mean a better way to do that is maybe create its own space and start doing some messaging like oh, I see, are we breaking up good idea of me anymore I mean and make it really personal and compelling, because you I know your branding, it's very personal.
7:02
Jennifer Johnson: That's a great idea, rather than just going in and delete, delete, delete because you've not opened an email for a year, right Put them in a different bucket?
7:11
Amy Bright: Yeah, and if you don't, that's okay, we can break up, right?
7:14
Amy Bright: Just you know.
7:15
Amy Bright: Let me know we're going to break up by unsubscribing.
7:18
Jennifer Johnson: But that's great messaging, because I'm talking to you, I'm having a conversation with you, I'm not just that's right Treating you like an inbox.
7:26
Amy Bright: Right, I'm treating you like a human, and that's really the essence of knowing your audience is remembering I don't care what you're selling.
7:34
Amy Bright: It's a widget, it's a service, it's whatever you're selling.
7:38
Amy Bright: At the end of the day, you are a human and you are positioning your product for another human.
7:44
Amy Bright: We cannot get away from that.
7:47
Amy Bright: People buy from people.
7:48
Amy Bright: People buy from people.
7:49
Amy Bright: People want a relationship with other people.
7:51
Amy Bright: They want relationships with brands.
7:54
Amy Bright: We are relationally oriented humans.
7:56
Jennifer Johnson: It doesn't matter, no matter what.
7:58
Amy Bright: Until the robots take over.
7:59
Amy Bright: That's going to be the case.
8:01
Jennifer Johnson: Now, now robots.
8:02
Jennifer Johnson: We can't talk about those robots, Okay, so audience appeal always.
8:08
Jennifer Johnson: What's another tried and true?
8:13
Amy Bright: Positioning your brand in such a way that that particular audience, whichever archetype to whom you're speaking, is clear on the value of what you bring to the table.
8:24
Amy Bright: And typically what that boils down to is A is it worth the money for their need?
8:30
Amy Bright: And again you're really tuning into what that audience's pain points and needs are.
8:36
Amy Bright: And when you can fulfill a need for another person, that's when you know you're going to have some longevity with whatever it is you're offering, and a quote by Leo Burnett, who is one of my.
8:51
Amy Bright: he's been deceased for many years but he's still one of my mentors.
8:55
Amy Bright: He says don't tell me how good you make it, tell me how good it makes me when I use it.
9:02
Amy Bright: That's the kind of messaging that resonates with people.
9:07
Amy Bright: It's not.
9:08
Amy Bright: You know, look at this new thing that I'm doing.
9:10
Amy Bright: Look at my new service.
9:11
Amy Bright: Look at my new widget?
9:12
Amy Bright: No, it's.
9:14
Amy Bright: When you use this widget, you will feel.
9:18
Jennifer Johnson: I love that You're right.
9:20
Amy Bright: And that's what really gets people to sell.
9:22
Jennifer Johnson: Do you think that's one of the biggest mistakes that businesses make when they're doing marketing?
9:27
Jennifer Johnson: Is that particular point right there, making it all about them instead of all about their customer?
9:34
Amy Bright: I do see that a lot.
9:35
Amy Bright: Yes, and it's only natural because you're excited about what you're putting out there.
9:40
Amy Bright: But when you focus on the need or the solution that you are providing, you're going to see much, much higher conversion rates.
9:50
Amy Bright: Sure, you have to tell them how good your product is, of course, that's effectively what marketing is.
9:56
Amy Bright: But when you really take that and make the rubber meet the road for the person oh, now you're talking- and I know what you mean, because, even like with the conversation we were just having, are we breaking up?
10:10
Amy Bright: Exactly.
10:11
Amy Bright: Ooh, I'd hit a note.
10:14
Jennifer Johnson: Right, you know, wait a second.
10:16
Jennifer Johnson: Oh, I mean, it made me.
10:18
Amy Bright: pay attention, it is.
10:20
Jennifer Johnson: And it's a clear message that I'm sending to you.
10:30
Amy Bright: And it invites an answer, a yes or no.
10:32
Amy Bright: It invites a very definitive answer.
10:33
Amy Bright: So the call to action and messaging like that is you know it's okay, click to unsubscribe and that's it.
10:37
Amy Bright: You know what I mean.
10:38
Amy Bright: Just make it easy for them and you know that's another um, I'm trying to look at my list here to go, so now everybody that's on my list.
10:46
Jennifer Johnson: Just an FYI you may be getting an email from me in the few next few weeks Are we breaking up, so you better go on and check your emails before I send you that.
10:55
Amy Bright: There you go, boom.
10:58
Amy Bright: What's what's another one?
11:03
Amy Bright: Uh, I'm going to go down my list because that makes it simple.
11:05
Amy Bright: Consistency in your messaging, in your tone, similar to a personality.
11:09
Amy Bright: If you meet somebody and the first time you meet them, oh, they seem really warm and friendly and you just really want to get to know them better and you can't wait until you're at the same event again in the future and you can get to know them a little bit better.
11:23
Amy Bright: Or perhaps you invite them to coffee and then the second time you meet they're odd and standoffish, or they're talking about, you know, trying to sell you something, or you've lost the relational thing that you had the beginning.
11:38
Amy Bright: It's your number.
11:38
Amy Bright: Your communication is inconsistent.
11:41
Amy Bright: The same thing happens with brands and companies.
11:48
Amy Bright: They, a lot of times we'll have this very compelling messaging in their early marketing and then the rubber doesn't meet the road consistently with all of their messaging across the board, and I'm talking everything from sales messaging to the tone of voice that you use in your emails.
12:02
Amy Bright: All of that really matters to people because, again, it's about emotion and psychology.
12:10
Jennifer Johnson: Really, at the end of the day, and I have had times where all their messaging that they give you is wonderful and then you physically go and visit their business and it's either the employees, the owner, whoever it is, is not how they positioned themselves to me, the audience, it's completely different.
12:32
Jennifer Johnson: It sounded like I wanted to be there and then, when I got there, I'm like I want to lead.
12:38
Amy Bright: Yeah, yeah.
12:39
Amy Bright: That all goes back to core values, mission, vision for the company and that's getting into sort of another realm.
12:48
Amy Bright: But it all matters is that that messaging is not only external, it has to be internal with your new organization too.
12:56
Amy Bright: Everyone needs to be trained, not just the people who are labeled as salespeople, the entire organization.
13:02
Amy Bright: Because, at the end of the day, it doesn't matter if you're the accountant in the cubicle.
13:09
Amy Bright: You're at a party, you're talking to somebody, you're in sales, You're still representing the brand.
13:14
Amy Bright: Everybody is in sales at the end of the day or marketing.
13:18
Jennifer Johnson: Now you talk about consistency of the brand message way or marketing.
13:23
Jennifer Johnson: Now you talk about consistency of the brand message.
13:24
Jennifer Johnson: What about consistency of the actual process of, let's say, it's social media or let's say it's emails, the consistency of actually carrying out whatever that message is, because it has to be delivered in some way, whether it's sending an email or it's putting it on the radio or TV commercial or it's social media, it's something right.
13:44
Jennifer Johnson: What about the consistency there as far as how many times you do something?
13:49
Amy Bright: and not do something.
13:49
Amy Bright: Frequency yes, Well, a classic adage in advertising is reach and frequency.
13:57
Amy Bright: Now you could look at reach and many, many publications and media outlets and channels.
14:05
Amy Bright: Look at reach as hit as many people as you can, everywhere you possibly.
14:10
Amy Bright: Can I approach things a little bit differently.
14:13
Amy Bright: Sure, that level of reach is good, but when you reach people, uh.
14:20
Amy Bright: David Ogilvie is another one of my sort of mentors another deceased guy who was in the marketing world yes, a legend from years ago but he said that don't count the people you reach, reach the people who count.
14:35
Amy Bright: So reach and frequency, though, are two absolutes in all marketing and advertising when you reach the right people, the right amount of times.
14:47
Amy Bright: That's frequency, which, what is the right amount of time?
14:49
Amy Bright: It really depends.
14:51
Amy Bright: It's a very nuanced answer.
14:54
Amy Bright: Generally speaking, human psychology tells us that roughly eight times of a message is when you really begin to remember it.
15:06
Amy Bright: Okay, and there are many brands out there who consistently put out branding and marketing messages that we've seen over and over again.
15:16
Amy Bright: It might be a product we already use, but they like we don't have to name any of them.
15:20
Jennifer Johnson: There's one that I can't get the commercial out of my head.
15:23
Jennifer Johnson: It's on TV all the time.
15:26
Amy Bright: And to me.
15:27
Amy Bright: You know, in terms of frequency, that can be across channels.
15:31
Amy Bright: It doesn't always have to be one channel or one social media outlet.
15:36
Amy Bright: The days of and I've never agreed with this, I've never agreed with the days of where did you hear about us?
15:44
Amy Bright: Check one box, check one box.
15:46
Amy Bright: No, I should be hearing about you everywhere I go.
15:50
Amy Bright: So you know, and that's a.
15:52
Amy Bright: It is a way to measure which channels are working the best for you to bring in clientele.
15:59
Amy Bright: However, if somebody says, well, I've only ever seen you on Facebook, really, wow, you never saw my billboard?
16:07
Jennifer Johnson: You never.
16:08
Amy Bright: You know, you never read that article that was written about me and Forbes, or you know what I mean.
16:13
Amy Bright: You, wow, really only Facebook, that's.
16:16
Amy Bright: That's hard to believe.
16:17
Jennifer Johnson: Right, so people don't ever remember.
16:19
Amy Bright: That's right, and so it's better that they don't.
16:22
Amy Bright: That they're just like I can't get away from you, right, your message is everywhere.
16:26
Amy Bright: That's ideal case scenario, right, but that takes budget.
16:30
Jennifer Johnson: Okay, right, of course it does, and I I got us off track, but I really wanted to know because I was I think of consistency, you know, in brand messaging, but then I wanted to know about the other piece of it.
16:40
Jennifer Johnson: That I think of consistency in brand messaging, but then I wanted to know about the other piece of it that, I think, is really important.
16:44
Amy Bright: Yeah, and I mean you don't want to oversaturate.
16:47
Amy Bright: There are plenty of brands who oversaturate and then some people would say, well, can you really oversaturate?
16:54
Amy Bright: Because if it's indelibly printed in your brain, because you've seen, the messaging or heard the messaging so many times that you're like you want to change the channel or go to a different media source because you're just tired of the advertising.
17:11
Amy Bright: So what, At least you remembered you can't get it off your mind.
17:17
Jennifer Johnson: And before we move on to the next topic, something just popped into my head about, you know, marketing too much to somebody.
17:26
Jennifer Johnson: And I go immediately to emails, because I remember back in the day being scared to oh my gosh, if I send them more than one email a week, oh my gosh, they're going to unsubscribe.
17:36
Jennifer Johnson: And uh, you know all this and that and now I'm like I really don't care.
17:40
Jennifer Johnson: I'm, you know, I mean not that I don't care, but if they don't want our messages they'll unsubscribe.
17:46
Jennifer Johnson: What's your take on that?
17:57
Amy Bright: That is the law and that is how it works.
17:58
Amy Bright: We have to.
17:58
Amy Bright: Any unscrupulous marketer who doesn't put an unsubscribe option is breaking the law.
18:01
Jennifer Johnson: Right, you have to.
18:01
Jennifer Johnson: You really do Just like text messaging.
18:04
Amy Bright: That's right, right, there has to be a way to get out easily.
18:07
Amy Bright: Now some companies make it harder than others.
18:10
Jennifer Johnson: You can't even see it, or it's on another page.
18:12
Jennifer Johnson: You're like where is that?
18:13
Jennifer Johnson: You hit something and it goes to somewhere else, right, or it?
18:15
Amy Bright: clicks into like which email list do you want?
18:19
Amy Bright: I just want it's slightly more complicated, but it's still easy to do for the user.
18:29
Amy Bright: So I'm sorry.
18:30
Amy Bright: What was your original question?
18:32
Jennifer Johnson: The question was how many times is too many times to send emails to customers, or does it not matter?
18:38
Amy Bright: Again, there is no hard and fast rule.
18:41
Amy Bright: When you see, you have to watch your numbers and that's something that in digital marketing, especially any type of digital marketing, it is never intended to be set it and forget it.
21:18
Amy Bright: You've got to watch your numbers, you've got to keep an eye on the data, and when you see the data shifting, people aren't opening as much, they're not responding to the call to action.
21:29
Amy Bright: Oh, maybe I've oversaturated, so you can pull back a little bit and then you can speed up again, and then you can segment and there's like all sorts.
21:39
Amy Bright: Yes, it's never intended to be just.
21:41
Amy Bright: Oh, that's my email list.
21:43
Amy Bright: Blast, blast, blast blast.
21:47
Jennifer Johnson: What about your next point?
21:48
Jennifer Johnson: We just kind of keep going down the list because it keeps unearthing other questions and then I have more questions on top of that.
21:56
Amy Bright: Well, we kind of talked about the psychology, the emotion of marketing and, at the end of the day, that's really what it's all about is, unless you're trying to sell something that people just literally don't need, they're probably not going to buy it if they don't need it.
22:13
Amy Bright: But if you hit the chord of wow, this is an issue that I've been having oh my gosh, this looks like a solution.
22:20
Amy Bright: Wow, I'm really interested in this, then you've begun.
22:24
Amy Bright: What I call the five points of light for a bright and shiny brand is.
22:31
Amy Bright: Number one is awareness, and if you think of a star, a five point star at the top of the star is awareness.
22:40
Amy Bright: In my opinion, that's where branding comes in and messaging.
22:45
Amy Bright: If you want someone to buy whatever it is you're selling, they have to know you exist, and so people say, oh, that's just seems like a waste of money, you know?
22:55
Amy Bright: I well no, because you've got to let people know that you are there.
22:59
Jennifer Johnson: Right that you're available.
23:01
Jennifer Johnson: You can hang a shingle outside your house all days of the week and if you're not telling someone, that's right.
23:07
Amy Bright: It's kind of like dating, I mean if you're in the market to meet a life partner and you never go anywhere and you never let people know you're available, you're probably going to remain single the rest of your life.
23:21
Jennifer Johnson: Finding that man right Well exactly so.
23:26
Amy Bright: It's the same principle is creating awareness, and that's how you start building the emotional connection with your audience or audiences, and once you get to know them, you know you have your are people that are indicating interest in what I have to offer, and so that's curiosity.
23:59
Amy Bright: Now is the second point of the star.
24:02
Amy Bright: So if you go around the star, let's finish the star.
24:03
Amy Bright: So top of the star is awareness, and then, if you go clockwise, the second point on the star is curiosity.
24:11
Amy Bright: The third point on the star is interest.
24:16
Jennifer Johnson: So you're basically walking them through a customer.
24:18
Jennifer Johnson: Is this like a customer?
24:19
Amy Bright: journey, a funnel, a channel, yes, like a sales funnel basically, and this is any relationship really.
24:26
Jennifer Johnson: Absolutely.
24:28
Amy Bright: This could be like human dating it could be marketing.
24:31
Jennifer Johnson: You're getting dating advice today already as well.
24:36
Amy Bright: And then the fourth point on the star is conversion, that's sales.
24:38
Amy Bright: That's where the rubber meets the road and they make a decision and then from there you want to stay consistent in loyalty messaging and thank yous, and we really appreciate your business.
24:50
Amy Bright: Look at this cool new thing we just unleashed.
24:52
Amy Bright: Or it's time to refill, or gee, are you getting bored?
25:02
Jennifer Johnson: We've got a new design, or whatever the message might be to maintain your customer base and keep them buying consistently.
25:06
Jennifer Johnson: I think a lot of businesses I don't know.
25:08
Jennifer Johnson: I mean hiring a professional to help you with this is always a good thing, because you have all this stuff happening in your business and then you have to figure out how you're going to keep your customers aware and curious and you could lose.
25:24
Jennifer Johnson: There's so many points that you could lose them if you don't keep at this constantly right and that goes with your consistency.
25:31
Amy Bright: Yes, yes, and so for somebody who's an entrepreneur or a solopreneur, especially and they're trying to do everything pretty much themselves or they have a small staff, but marketing is not their primary business.
25:46
Amy Bright: You know, there are plenty of marketing professionals in the world.
25:50
Amy Bright: You can, you know, walk outside right now and throw a pebble and you're probably going to bump into one, right Right.
25:58
Amy Bright: There are locally, locally owned businesses who can help.
26:02
Amy Bright: There are individuals who do freelance work who can help, and there are people all over the world who can help.
26:09
Amy Bright: And so and the price is really based on many factors that you know what can you afford.
26:16
Amy Bright: You know what kind of quality work are you going to get that type of thing.
26:19
Amy Bright: So, yes, getting help matters so that you can run your business.
26:24
Amy Bright: What I tell people is like you do what you're good at and let me do what I'm good at, and the two will always communicate.
26:32
Amy Bright: But you focus on being a health and wellness expert.
26:38
Amy Bright: That's what you do best.
26:40
Amy Bright: Let me handle the rest and we communicate about how to communicate with your audience the best.
26:45
Jennifer Johnson: Staying in your lane doing what you're good at, hiring for what you're not going to try to give you a chiropractic adjustment.
26:52
Jennifer Johnson: Can I have some Botox please, or?
26:56
Amy Bright: put any needles in your skin.
26:58
Amy Bright: That's on you, right.
27:00
Jennifer Johnson: But I just, I just thought of that, because there's so many spots that you have to make sure that you keep that star turning.
27:10
Jennifer Johnson: Yeah, right, you got to keep it in the galaxy moving, yeah, going, moving.
27:14
Amy Bright: Yeah, because as you're trying to maintain loyalty with your existing base, you're also trying to pull in new clientele Right, and the two work hand in hand and it's just an ongoing cycle that should never end.
27:32
Jennifer Johnson: And that leads me to another point the call to action.
27:34
Jennifer Johnson: Is that one area where you really see people sometimes forget.
27:39
Amy Bright: Yes and no.
27:40
Amy Bright: I think it's a principle that everybody understands on a very rudimentary level, but you can get creative with your call to action and it's not necessarily just learn more If you really try to get them to purchase or sign up for something, to give you something instead of making it a one-way conversation.
28:06
Amy Bright: When you've invited them in.
28:08
Amy Bright: Seth Godin has a book from years and years ago called Permission Marketing.
28:13
Amy Bright: It's one of the classics, and I'm saying that I'm like, oh my gosh, was that Seth Godin?
28:18
Amy Bright: Yes, it was Um.
28:20
Amy Bright: Just talking about when people give you permission to communicate with them by a way of giving their email address or providing their their smartphone number for text messaging.
28:33
Amy Bright: That's a privilege.
28:34
Amy Bright: It is, and you need to handle it properly.
28:37
Amy Bright: So once you have permission these people have already indicated interest Don't be afraid to say here's how you can get yours.
28:48
Amy Bright: There's nothing wrong with that, and so I do think some people misconstrue that that it always has to be learn more go to our website to read stuff.
29:00
Amy Bright: If they've already demonstrated that there's something there for them, then really tune into what that is and see if they want to buy it.
29:08
Jennifer Johnson: Sure, there's nothing wrong with that, and sometimes people need to be told what they need to do next.
29:13
Amy Bright: Oh, very much so.
29:14
Jennifer Johnson: They're like well delete.
29:16
Jennifer Johnson: But, if you say shop now or whatever, you're telling them.
29:22
Amy Bright: Yes, clear, concise.
29:23
Amy Bright: This is how you get the thing that you've shown you're interested in Boom, you know that'd make it easy.
29:29
Amy Bright: And there are many systems.
29:30
Amy Bright: That's a whole other conversation for another day.
29:32
Amy Bright: But there are so many point of sale systems online that are just overcomplicated, too many things to click.
29:40
Amy Bright: I know of several local businesses that I've seen where I'm like ooh, I don't know, and I do this.
29:48
Amy Bright: So I know where to look.
29:49
Amy Bright: I'm like I don't know what to do.
29:51
Amy Bright: I wish they'd made it easier.
29:53
Amy Bright: I wish they had really thought of me.
29:56
Jennifer Johnson: Of course, but there, that goes back to clear call to action Exactly.
30:01
Jennifer Johnson: Exactly so.
30:02
Jennifer Johnson: Credibility and trust, that's a huge one, because nobody's going to buy from you if they don't trust you.
30:10
Amy Bright: Yes, One of the clearest paths to developing trust with an audience that doesn't really know you yet is by using testimonials and actual feedback from real customers.
30:24
Amy Bright: I mean, think about how many times you go to a brand and you I don't know about you.
30:30
Amy Bright: But I look at the reviews and I want to see a couple that are super positive, because I question when it's like 100% positive and you want to see how they responded to them.
30:41
Jennifer Johnson: I would imagine right, you got it.
30:44
Amy Bright: I was going to go down that rabbit hole a little bit, because I have experienced clients who get very defensive when there is a comment or feedback that wasn't very positive and they take the opportunity to kind of, oh, I'll show you.
31:03
Jennifer Johnson: Oh, no, no, no, exactly.
31:05
Amy Bright: So what I try to share with people is you're not so much responding to the concern, we won't call it a negative comment, we'll just call it the concern.
31:14
Amy Bright: We won't call it a negative comment, we'll just call it a concern.
31:15
Amy Bright: You're not necessarily responding to the concern only for the person who voiced the concern, you're doing it for all the other people who are going to read it.
31:25
Amy Bright: It's in public, so that's what you need to think about is be solution oriented, especially for the person who demonstrated the concern.
31:35
Amy Bright: But then all the other people who are watching oh, I wonder how they're going to handle that.
31:39
Amy Bright: That shows a lot about your character.
31:41
Jennifer Johnson: It sure does, and then you can take it the next step.
31:45
Jennifer Johnson: Take that back to your team and, if it was truly something that was a pain point and something that was broken in your system, train on it.
31:56
Amy Bright: Yes, and have everybody understand.
32:00
Amy Bright: Here's where the concern came from.
32:03
Amy Bright: We understand, we've we've addressed the, the root issue, and here's how we're going to handle it.
32:10
Amy Bright: If you run into this again, here's how we would like you to handle it.
32:14
Amy Bright: Yes, run into this again, here's how we would like you to handle it.
32:15
Amy Bright: Yes, so that there again you've gone back to the core values of the company, the mission of the company, the brand messaging of the company.
32:22
Amy Bright: So it's all consistent.
32:24
Jennifer Johnson: Sure, you know.
32:24
Jennifer Johnson: Interestingly enough, I've had clients who have, on the coaching side of this, they have gone on to competitors' websites or not their websites, but competitors' Google reviews and saw the areas where they were lacking.
32:39
Amy Bright: Interesting Sure.
32:40
Amy Bright: That's great research.
32:41
Jennifer Johnson: And then played to that oh well, they're really bad at XYZ.
32:46
Jennifer Johnson: We're going to strive to be really good at XYZ.
32:49
Jennifer Johnson: Yes, why not?
32:50
Jennifer Johnson: So it could be research as well.
32:52
Amy Bright: Totally, and knowing your competition is hugely critical to understand who else is playing in the field that you're playing in, how they're going about it, the type of customers they're reaching, the keywords they're using all that stuff.
33:10
Jennifer Johnson: So next up is quality content, and this is interesting.
33:14
Jennifer Johnson: I'm going to see if you bring something into the conversation, and if you don't, I'm going to because I have a burning question.
33:21
Jennifer Johnson: So what is it about quality content?
33:24
Jennifer Johnson: That's a tried and true.
33:26
Amy Bright: Well, in terms of quality.
33:28
Amy Bright: Quality is in the eyes of the beholder a lot of times, and this is where a professional can really come in and assist, Because if you're, for instance, a boutique brand and I don't necessarily mean a boutique in which you shop- for dresses and shoes.
33:44
Amy Bright: I mean a boutique brand, meaning it's a very niche audience and a smaller business, and you're really, you know, have a very personal relationship with your clientele.
33:55
Amy Bright: That could be any type of business.
33:57
Amy Bright: When you have that type of business, everything you put out there has to bespeak that message.
34:07
Amy Bright: And so if you have fuzzy graphics or photos that aren't well taken or what have you, and you're trying to appeal to a boutique oriented crowd who's used to seeing and experiencing very high quality clothing fixtures, you know their whole life is high quality and what you're putting out as sort of less than you're never going to get those people to follow your brand.
34:37
Amy Bright: So to me and it's not always and quality content could mean, if you're a brand that's not super fussy or bougie, then there's messaging for that too.
34:48
Amy Bright: It's just being consistent.
34:51
Jennifer Johnson: So where I'm going to go with this is.
34:53
Jennifer Johnson: What's your burning question my burning question is is it okay and I know we're talking about tried and true, but we have to discuss this because this is something that's part of our lives now and it's going to be part of our lives for probably forever.
35:07
Jennifer Johnson: Oh, I think I know where you're going.
35:08
Jennifer Johnson: I'm sure you do Using AI.
35:11
Jennifer Johnson: You knew I was going there using AI to create that quality content.
35:15
Jennifer Johnson: What's your feelings on that?
35:19
Amy Bright: Only my feelings.
35:20
Amy Bright: Tons of opinions out there.
35:22
Amy Bright: My opinion and the analogy that I use with AI is, it is the lowest cost employee that you have as a content assistant.
35:34
Amy Bright: That doesn't mean it doesn't need to be managed or corrected or edited or reviewed.
35:43
Amy Bright: We don't just dump information into AI and then regurgitate it.
35:48
Amy Bright: In my opinion Now some people are doing that.
35:51
Amy Bright: They are Very much so.
35:52
Amy Bright: I mean you see it everywhere.
35:53
Jennifer Johnson: And there's no shame in it.
35:55
Amy Bright: There really isn't, and you're seeing a lot of the chatbots that have been around for years for help with various brands those have been using AI for years, it's just we're more aware of it now.
36:08
Amy Bright: So, in terms of creating content that's going to resonate with your audience, what did we say early on?
36:14
Amy Bright: We are humans communicating with humans.
36:18
Amy Bright: If you give a language model permission to connect with a human, it's a language model, it's not a human.
36:30
Amy Bright: So you've got to have human intervention with AI.
36:33
Amy Bright: In my opinion, sure, and there's an excellent.
36:37
Amy Bright: Please don't ask me her name, forgive me, professor.
36:41
Amy Bright: I can see your face, christine.
36:43
Amy Bright: I want to say I could find the information if you want to put it in your show notes I don't know.
36:48
Amy Bright: She's from Florida Gulf Coast University.
36:50
Amy Bright: She teaches about AI, and something that she said in a panel discussion that I heard her speak with or speak on was that AI plus human interaction is a must.
37:05
Amy Bright: I 100% agree.
37:07
Amy Bright: So to answer, I'm not sure what the question is exactly how do you use AI?
37:13
Jennifer Johnson: I'm not sure what the question is exactly how do you use AI, is it you know?
37:15
Jennifer Johnson: In your opinion, can you use AI to create quality content?
37:20
Jennifer Johnson: And it sounds like yes, but human interaction yes.
37:24
Amy Bright: I don't think it's a.
37:25
Amy Bright: I mean, is it a good starter?
37:26
Amy Bright: It's an option for a starter.
37:28
Amy Bright: Now, plenty of people like myself were just constantly thinking of creative ways to communicate and I'm a word constantly thinking of creative ways to communicate, and I'm a word nerd, so I love to write.
37:38
Amy Bright: So it was very hard for me to embrace an AI language model.
37:43
Amy Bright: To be really honest with you, I was insulted.
37:44
Amy Bright: How dare you?
37:45
Amy Bright: Of course, I'm a writer.
37:46
Amy Bright: Who do you think?
37:48
Amy Bright: You are robot?
37:48
Amy Bright: But sometimes you know, if I'm working with one client who's very much in this realm and I'm like, oh gosh, I need to do that project for this client Right, so I've got to shift gears pretty quickly and efficiently.
38:06
Amy Bright: Sometimes a language model can be really useful to to help me shift gears.
38:10
Amy Bright: Now does that mean that I'm just going to, you know, use whatever AI system I'm using tells me to use Heck?
38:19
Amy Bright: No, that's not what I do.
38:21
Amy Bright: That's not why people are paying me.
38:23
Amy Bright: They're paying me for what's between my ears, so, but it is sometimes a good beginner, a recipe starter, sure, maybe think of it that way, like an outline.
38:34
Jennifer Johnson: I think so.
38:35
Amy Bright: You can use it for an outline.
38:37
Jennifer Johnson: Adaptability.
38:40
Amy Bright: So things are always going to be changing and, as I mentioned before, like the AI.
38:45
Amy Bright: Yes, exactly.
38:47
Jennifer Johnson: And.
38:48
Amy Bright: AI is only going to become more and more intuitive, which is sort of terrifying, right, and yet also could be very helpful for a lot of people to save time.
38:57
Amy Bright: I just had a conversation, and yet also could be very helpful for a lot of people to save time.
39:01
Amy Bright: I just had a conversation sidebar yesterday with a friend of mine who is in the teaching realm.
39:04
Amy Bright: She's a teacher and they're using AI.
39:07
Amy Bright: You know she'll take information from the textbook, for instance, or the material that they're studying in class and she's teaching middle school, so these are older kids and she'll take the information that they're studying and take it into an AI system, a language model, and then ask it to create a quiz and say give me five questions geared towards this age group.
39:34
Amy Bright: That helps inculcate this material into their little brains and boom it does it Like that.
39:39
Amy Bright: So you know, that's a great starting point.
39:42
Amy Bright: But what she said to me is but you know, sometimes I really don't like the questions it comes up with.
39:48
Amy Bright: So I'm like is this really saving me time, because now I have to go back and go?
39:55
Amy Bright: Oh, I got to readjust that question or rewrite that one.
39:58
Amy Bright: I was like, yeah, but at least it got your brain going Right.
40:02
Jennifer Johnson: A starter.
40:02
Amy Bright: Yeah, so again, nothing digital is intended to be.
40:08
Amy Bright: Set it and forget it, whether it's AI generated or human generated.
40:14
Amy Bright: Watching the numbers, watching the results and being adaptable to yes, new trends that are going on and trying this and trying that.
40:23
Amy Bright: There's nothing wrong with that.
40:24
Amy Bright: That's the whole principle behind can't talk today, behind A-B testing which I'm sure you've seen in, especially with email marketing.
40:34
Amy Bright: Okay, which subject line resonated with my audience?
40:39
Jennifer Johnson: This is kind of leading into our next point.
40:41
Jennifer Johnson: So that's adaptability.
40:43
Amy Bright: I guess Just realizing that all marketing is nuanced and we have to pivot and adjust accordingly, Right?
40:53
Jennifer Johnson: And it goes into the next point, which is measuring it.
40:56
Jennifer Johnson: Because if you're doing it and you just keep doing it, whether you don't know if it works or not, you're wasting money.
41:03
Jennifer Johnson: All of that right.
41:06
Amy Bright: Or to your point when you see that XYZ methodology is not quite getting the numbers that you want, getting the numbers that you want, then you adapt, you change, you reconfigure and then you see what happens.
41:24
Amy Bright: And it takes time and this is something that a lot of people don't want to realize is that it takes time.
41:36
Amy Bright: Everything Things take time.
41:40
Jennifer Johnson: TTT and, like you said, it's not fix it and forget it.
41:43
Jennifer Johnson: It's not a crock pot, for goodness sakes.
41:45
Amy Bright: Right, and so you know.
41:47
Amy Bright: I had a client one time ask me well, if you create my website, how many hits per month can you guarantee?
41:54
Amy Bright: And I said you know what?
41:56
Amy Bright: I'm probably not your vendor because I'm not going to play that game.
42:00
Amy Bright: I don't really.
42:01
Amy Bright: That has a lot to do with your operational functioning, which I have nothing to do with.
42:07
Amy Bright: That has a lot to do with your messaging.
42:09
Amy Bright: It has a lot to do with your competition.
42:11
Amy Bright: There are no guarantees in marketing.
42:14
Amy Bright: It's really.
42:15
Amy Bright: There are core principles but you have to be willing to adjust and adapt based on the results.
42:22
Jennifer Johnson: That you're getting.
42:23
Amy Bright: Exactly.
42:25
Jennifer Johnson: And then, finally, word of mouth and referrals, so important.
42:29
Amy Bright: Yes, all of the things I mentioned on the points of the star all.
42:35
Amy Bright: The overarching theme to all of that is creating advocates for your brand.
42:43
Amy Bright: Okay, so when you create the right level of awareness, oh that that company is going to solve my problem.
42:51
Amy Bright: Great, now I'm curious.
42:53
Amy Bright: I want to learn more.
42:54
Amy Bright: I'm going to really start paying more attention to your advertising, to your messaging.
42:58
Amy Bright: I might read a few blogs.
42:59
Amy Bright: I might go on your website.
43:00
Amy Bright: I'm curious, right.
43:02
Amy Bright: I kind of like this.
43:03
Amy Bright: Then I get really interested to where I'm like.
43:07
Amy Bright: okay, I think I might buy a starter kit or whatever the offer is.
43:13
Amy Bright: I'll give that a try, I'll dip my toe in that.
43:15
Amy Bright: And then you get the product and you say, oh my gosh, I love this.
43:18
Amy Bright: Then you're buying and you become loyal.
43:22
Amy Bright: Guess what else you're doing at the same time.
43:24
Amy Bright: Oh my gosh, have you heard about this product?
43:28
Amy Bright: You meet somebody who maybe visibly presents the same issue you have, whether it's a hair product or a skin product, or you know, that's just the way they dress, or you know, or sometimes it's less obvious, like wow, what are you doing?
43:43
Amy Bright: You know you're.
43:43
Amy Bright: You seem so much more, you know, whatever happy lately, what's going on?
43:48
Amy Bright: Oh, I found this great online therapy resource or whatever.
43:52
Amy Bright: You're gonna tell people about it, you're going to build community for that brand, and so all of those activities encourage word of mouth advertising.
44:04
Jennifer Johnson: Raving fans, raving fans.
44:06
Amy Bright: Yeah, or just have you heard about, exactly?
44:09
Amy Bright: They don't even have to be a raving fan, they could be at the curiosity level.
44:12
Amy Bright: Oh my gosh, I'm having the same issue, or I have the same interest.
44:16
Amy Bright: Have you heard?
44:17
Amy Bright: I just saw this ad.
44:18
Amy Bright: You're right, exactly.
44:20
Amy Bright: Have you seen that ad?
44:21
Amy Bright: Oh, no, well, let's look it up.
44:23
Jennifer Johnson: I mean, it could be to that point too.
44:25
Jennifer Johnson: It doesn't have to be all the way to the end Right, yeah, you have really left us some with some really tried and true.
44:32
Jennifer Johnson: Just basic, but very, very powerful and important tips with regard to marketing.
44:40
Amy Bright: I hope so.
44:41
Jennifer Johnson: I believe that our audience is going to get great value from this, because it's they're really tried and true practices, certainly, and that's the goal.
44:50
Amy Bright: Absolutely To give value to your audience.
44:51
Jennifer Johnson: Absolutely, Amy.
44:53
Jennifer Johnson: If our listeners would like to get in touch with you, how can they do so?
44:57
Amy Bright: Very easy.
44:57
Amy Bright: Amybrightcreativecom is my website.
45:02
Amy Bright: You can book a call.
45:03
Amy Bright: You can just contact me.
45:05
Amy Bright: It's very simple.
45:06
Amy Bright: So bright is B-R-I-G-H-T.
45:08
Jennifer Johnson: Fabulous and I build bright brands.
45:10
Jennifer Johnson: You build bright brands B-B-B, b-b-b.
45:13
Jennifer Johnson: Build bright brands.
45:14
Jennifer Johnson: Thank you again so much for being.