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226: Crafting Websites That Convert: Audience-First Strategies with Guest Sami Bedell-Mulhern · Imperfect Marketing

• 0:28
  Speaker 1: Hello and welcome back to another episode of Imperfect Marketing.
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: I'm your host, kendra Korman, and today I'm super excited to be joined by Sammy.
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: She is a digital marketing strategist focused on helping small to midsize nonprofits and businesses grow through marketing.
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: She's also the podcast and I've podcast host and I've been honored to be on her show, digital marketing therapy, and they support nonprofits and raising more money online so you can learn how to use your website, social media content and email marketing to support online fundraising and retention efforts.
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: Welcome, thank you so much for joining me today, so excited to be here.
• 1:06
  Speaker 2: Thanks, Kendra.
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: So one of the things that we're going to be talking about today is conversions, and especially converting people through your website.
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: As most of you all know, I love AI.
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: I love AI.
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: It simplifies my day.
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: It saves me so much time, but I feel like people are using it as a replacement for themselves, and that's not good, because that's not going to drive conversions, and the words that AI uses a lot of times are sort of blah, not driving that conversion.
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: What are you seeing, sammy?
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: What should people be looking for in their website?
• 1:43
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 1:44
  Speaker 2: So I think in general, when we think about our websites, they're this big beast.
• 1:47
  Speaker 2: It's probably a ton of work to put it together, really expensive.
• 1:50
  Speaker 2: You probably got it done and you were like, oh, thank goodness, like we're done with that project, we don't have to think about it anymore, it looks pretty, it's going to convert well, and really what we find with most people is that we aren't thinking about our website builds from our audience first.
• 2:05
  Speaker 2: So you solve a problem, whatever your business is, even if you sell tennis shoes, if you're a coach, you solve a problem for someone and it needs to be driven from how are we talking to the pain points that our customers, consumers, donors, whatever are facing, versus us talking about ourselves and how great and important we are.
• 2:27
  Speaker 2: So it's the audience piece that I think we don't think about when it comes to our website, because we think it needs to be a big billboard about who we are.
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: Oh my gosh, I love that.
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: And the reason I love that is because I just redid my website and I redid my entire about page, so that, yes, it's a little bit about me, but it's really more about what I can do for you.
• 2:46
  Speaker 1: Reading my site.
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: And I think that, and I actually got feedback from someone that said, oh my gosh, I love her about Paige she sounds so cool.
• 2:54
  Speaker 2: I was like yay.
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: But, yeah, it's about thinking about what's in it for me as the reader, as the visitor.
• 3:03
  Speaker 1: How am I supposed to go through your content?
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: Where am I supposed to go?
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: What information do I need to know about you, right?
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: Am I supposed to go?
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: What information do I need to know about you, right?
• 3:16
  Speaker 1: I was scrolling through Facebook and in one of the groups that I'm in, somebody was saying that they have something that's not converting and they're targeting high achieving women who want to live more of their purpose, and I'm like, I'm your target, but none of those words that you're writing about me would resonate with me.
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: So I think that's your biggest problem is literally the words that you're using.
• 3:42
  Speaker 2: Yeah Well, and what does that mean?
• 3:44
  Speaker 2: High achieving means something different to every single person, right?
• 3:47
  Speaker 2: What was the other kind of tagline word that they used?
• 3:50
  Speaker 1: Living your purpose.
• 3:52
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah.
• 3:52
  Speaker 2: What is my life with?
• 3:53
  Speaker 2: a purpose right, because my purpose might be I want to have a job where I can travel the world and work for my computer and be kind of like a road warrior.
• 4:00
  Speaker 2: My purpose might be I want to have the freedom to be there for my family.
• 4:03
  Speaker 2: My purpose might be um, you know, I want to build this business huge that I can sell it and then not have to work like that purpose, you know.
• 4:13
  Speaker 2: So we have to stay away from these words that are kind of broad and open for interpretation.
• 4:19
  Speaker 2: So, like when I started my biz, my consulting business, I called it H&E marketing solutions.
• 4:25
  Speaker 2: Well, soon after I was like, you know, solutions is also a terrible word for a name for your business, because everybody has a different interpretation of what that solution is.
• 4:34
  Speaker 2: You know, not the end of the world, but could have been better.
• 4:39
  Speaker 2: And so I think it's the fear of I don't want to talk to too small of a group.
• 4:46
  Speaker 2: I think we need to think of our website as it's.
• 4:48
  Speaker 2: It's super important for people to choose to work with us, just as much as it is for people to choose not to work with us, just as much as it is for people to choose not to work with us.
• 4:55
  Speaker 2: So I love what you said about your about page, Because somebody might read that and be like oh you know, Kendra sounds great, Like she seems like she knows what she's talking about, but I it's just not my vibe.
• 5:06
  Speaker 2: She might not be the right fit for me and we might think, oh well, that's the opposite of what we want.
• 5:10
  Speaker 2: But at the same token, we've all had those people.
• 5:13
  Speaker 2: We've worked with customers, we've worked with that.
• 5:15
  Speaker 2: We just pulled them in because we want the business and they're the hardest ones to work with overall, like they're not the right fit.
• 5:22
  Speaker 2: So I think the audience piece is really critical and we can't be afraid of really helping people.
• 5:29
  Speaker 1: Self select like that is part, that is part of the conversion process helping people self-select, like that is part, that is part of the conversion process.
• 5:37
  Speaker 1: Well, and I find I love the fact that we're talking about people self-selecting, because I don't want to work with everybody, I don't have the capacity to work with everybody, I'm not the right fit for everybody.
• 5:45
  Speaker 1: And if I'm not the right fit for you, odds are it's going to take me two to three times as long to work with you.
• 5:54
  Speaker 2: And you're both going to end up frustrated.
• 5:56
  Speaker 2: Nobody's going to enjoy the process.
• 5:58
  Speaker 1: Nobody's going to enjoy the process at all.
• 6:00
  Speaker 1: So when you're looking at somebody's website and they want to increase conversions, where do you start?
• 6:08
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 6:08
  Speaker 2: So I mean I'll dive a little bit into the analytics.
• 6:12
  Speaker 2: We're not going to go too deep, but I do like to look at a few things.
• 6:15
  Speaker 2: Number one is basic demographics.
• 6:17
  Speaker 2: Like, if we look at our analytics, are we hitting like a location?
• 6:21
  Speaker 2: So if you're location specific, that's a really big trigger.
• 6:24
  Speaker 2: If you're, these are super easy things to look at at Google Analytics on your dashboard.
• 6:28
  Speaker 2: I'm not going to dive into like heavy stuff, but if your audience is coming to you from like a different country, that's not a country you serve, or a different state if you're whatever.
• 6:38
  Speaker 2: Like pay attention to making sure the audience is coming in from the right place.
• 6:42
  Speaker 2: Pay attention to you know the age range and some of those other things that you've identified with your audience.
• 6:48
  Speaker 2: So I like to just start and make sure we're actually okay.
• 6:50
  Speaker 2: First, are we getting the right people to our website?
• 6:59
  Speaker 2: I think that's really important, and then from there it's are we creating content?
• 7:01
  Speaker 2: Is the language on the website talking to those pain points that that audience feels so?
• 7:05
  Speaker 2: Do we need to create more blog posts?
• 7:07
  Speaker 2: Do we need to update the language on the homepage or about us page?
• 7:11
  Speaker 2: Like just kind of reassessing our website from the lens of okay, we're hyper focused on this particular audience and let's reread our language and see kind of what we need to adjust.
• 7:22
  Speaker 1: No, I think that that's great.
• 7:23
  Speaker 1: Yeah, start with a little bit of data.
• 7:25
  Speaker 1: You don't have to go in super deep.
• 7:27
  Speaker 1: It's nice to know where people are coming from, where they're going, a little bit of the volume but you don't have to be a tech wizard to be setting up your GA4 analytics and you know diving into like 700 different event conversions and things like that.
• 7:42
  Speaker 1: So keep it simple, right?
• 7:45
  Speaker 1: Take a look and see what's working.
• 7:47
  Speaker 1: Test out something else and then see if that works.
• 7:49
  Speaker 1: Yeah, absolutely.
• 7:52
  Speaker 1: Because the website's not permanent.
• 7:53
  Speaker 1: It can change all the time.
• 7:56
  Speaker 2: It does change all the time.
• 7:57
  Speaker 2: It should change all the time.
• 7:59
  Speaker 2: Well, not all of it, but anyway.
• 8:03
  Speaker 1: Enough of it to yes, enough of it that you should be looking at it on a regular basis.
• 8:07
  Speaker 1: Speaking of, how often do you recommend people look at their website content?
• 8:20
  Speaker 2: Yeah, so I think that varies.
• 8:21
  Speaker 2: So a couple things like if you're, I would highly recommend that you have some sort of long form content that is being uploaded to your website on a regular basis whether that's monthly, weekly is fantastic.
• 8:28
  Speaker 2: That could be the YouTube video that you're creating with, like a summary that you turn into a blog post.
• 8:33
  Speaker 2: You know we have podcast show notes on our websites.
• 8:35
  Speaker 2: Those are content that's being updated regularly.
• 8:37
  Speaker 2: So what?
• 8:38
  Speaker 2: Or a blog, whatever that looks like for you.
• 8:39
  Speaker 2: You know, I think taking a look at your analytics around your content on quarterly or at least at least once a year to twice a year, just to see what's performing and what's working well, and then paying attention to the calls to action that are on those pages to see what's performing well and what's not performing well, so that you can kind of adjust and make changes, that I think you don't need to mess with your blogs a whole lot.
• 9:07
  Speaker 2: In my opinion.
• 9:09
  Speaker 2: Your homepage, however, I love to touch because there's always things that are changing and I think, similar to like a Facebook banner, like, literally, this weekend was like oh crap, I need to change a client's Facebook banner because, like, the event that's up on there is not, is outdated, right, so that we do that with our website banners.
• 9:29
  Speaker 2: Also, you know, is it reflecting the most current and relevant thing that we need?
• 9:34
  Speaker 2: Because if you're not updating that regularly, you're missing out on those conversions, right?
• 9:38
  Speaker 2: People that are coming back to your website.
• 9:40
  Speaker 2: Having a banner that changes regularly is going to keep people engaged more, or wanting to come back more because they want to see what you have going on.
• 9:47
  Speaker 2: Same with like a hero bar that's above your navigation, like if you have an announcement bar that's there, like changing that on a monthly basis.
• 9:55
  Speaker 2: And then the final thing that I like to do on our homepage is really just review the order with which things are presented, because it might not be that you need to change anything.
• 10:04
  Speaker 2: But let's just say you're in a different season and now you're trying to get people into your lead magnet because that's more important versus like an event.
• 10:12
  Speaker 2: You're trying to get people into your lead magnet because that's more important versus like an event you're trying to launch versus a program that you're trying to sell, versus your blog or your podcast, right, we all have seasons where different things are more important, and so even just rearranging the order with how people see things can make an impact on your conversion.
• 10:26
  Speaker 1: I like that.
• 10:26
  Speaker 1: I like revisiting once a month because I do revisit my social media headers once a month a month because I do revisit my social media headers once a month and I just wrote down on my piece of paper right now that there's a client that I think that their header expired last week.
• 10:42
  Speaker 1: Shoot, so I need to all of us.
• 10:43
  Speaker 2: It's a lot of things to pay attention to.
• 10:45
  Speaker 2: There's a lot of things.
• 10:47
  Speaker 2: I just love a good calendar invite.
• 10:49
  Speaker 2: Okay, so here's, here's kind of a pro tip.
• 10:51
  Speaker 2: I love a good calendar invite that you maybe just put on once a month and you attach that everybody on your team who has anything to do with the website and in the you like in the notes, just do a checklist, check header, check order on the homepage, do a broken link checker, like whatever.
• 11:10
  Speaker 2: Put all those things just in that calendar invite and then have it go every single month and so everybody's going to get that reminder and kind of know okay, these are the things that I should be checking or I need to get input.
• 11:20
  Speaker 2: Hey, this month for the header, we should talk about this.
• 11:23
  Speaker 2: Just that reminder is super helpful to just pop back in.
• 11:28
  Speaker 1: I love that because I think it's so important.
• 11:29
  Speaker 1: So I hired a new VA earlier this year.
• 11:32
  Speaker 1: She was awesome.
• 11:33
  Speaker 1: I said, okay, can you do me a favor and go through my website?
• 11:35
  Speaker 1: I've like hired, you know, I've had interns, I've had copy contractors.
• 11:42
  Speaker 1: I've given like eight people this assignment previous VAs she's the first one to do it all the way through and she found all of these broken links, gave me a whole list, page by page, and I was like I have had people looking at this every other month for like two years now and nobody found all of these Like what on earth were you people doing?
• 12:04
  Speaker 1: So yeah, I love the idea of a checklist because it really gives them direction for what you're looking for them to do.
• 12:10
  Speaker 1: It gives them direction of what you're expecting, because they just sit there and they're like I don't understand and I'm like I need you to make sure everything works.
• 12:19
  Speaker 1: And then there was a link right underneath my hero image on my website that didn't work.
• 12:27
  Speaker 1: First thing you come to after the first call to action.
• 12:30
  Speaker 1: I'm like how did you not find this?
• 12:33
  Speaker 2: Catch that.
• 12:33
  Speaker 2: Well, and here I'll do one better Reason why also?
• 12:39
  Speaker 2: To just check broken links, but also check your integrations on a monthly basis?
• 12:42
  Speaker 2: Because we get people converting.
• 12:45
  Speaker 2: And then what are we doing with it?
• 12:47
  Speaker 2: So Google changed their permissions and their privacy and so something happened with my form.
• 12:52
  Speaker 2: So I have an intake form through Google that you know asks a bunch of questions so that I can follow up with somebody that might want a website build or whatnot.
• 12:59
  Speaker 2: Well, I had a colleague of mine was like hey, I'd love to shout you out on my newsletter and drive people to you and this, that and the other.
• 13:08
  Speaker 2: And she did, and her audience is fantastic and like eight people filled out an inquiry form for us to.
• 13:14
  Speaker 2: Well, google had changed their something, so I wasn't getting the notifications that there was a new submission on my form and I lost the opportunity because by the time I noticed it was like three or four months later.
• 13:28
  Speaker 2: So I lost the opportunity for six conversations you know she had.
• 13:32
  Speaker 2: She had driven people to my website.
• 13:34
  Speaker 2: My website connected with them.
• 13:35
  Speaker 2: I did great there.
• 13:36
  Speaker 2: They converted, they filled out the form.
• 13:38
  Speaker 2: I mean, that's a lot of steps for people to take that don't know me and then cricket, so add to your checklist every month to check your integrations.
• 13:48
  Speaker 2: Are they working?
• 13:49
  Speaker 2: If somebody is signing up for your email lead magnet, are they actually getting the welcome sequence?
• 13:53
  Speaker 2: Are they actually going through the funnel as you have intended, because that's a big part to conversions as well.
• 14:00
  Speaker 1: I think that that's really important to note.
• 14:02
  Speaker 1: So I do marketing and marketing strategy for a living.
• 14:05
  Speaker 1: You do digital marketing strategy for a living.
• 14:08
  Speaker 1: Things happen.
• 14:10
  Speaker 1: We know this.
• 14:12
  Speaker 1: There's only so much we can do to try and stay on top of it.
• 14:15
  Speaker 1: So don't beat yourself up too hard if you have these problems, because we all do right.
• 14:21
  Speaker 1: We all have them.
• 14:22
  Speaker 2: It's crazy.
• 14:23
  Speaker 1: All right.
• 14:24
  Speaker 1: So, speaking of these integrations and that next step, so they go to the website, they fill out the form, they sign up for the lead magnet, whatever that happens to be.
• 14:33
  Speaker 1: A lot of times it's the.
• 14:36
  Speaker 1: Then what?
• 14:37
  Speaker 1: Oh, I delivered them, my lead magnet.
• 14:39
  Speaker 2: Great Mm hmm.
• 14:39
  Speaker 1: Yeah, oh, I delivered them.
• 14:40
  Speaker 1: My lead magnet, great.
• 14:42
  Speaker 1: Now what?
• 14:51
  Speaker 2: Now what?
• 14:51
  Speaker 2: And I think it's really important that we understand, kind of, there's not a one size fits all, right.
• 14:53
  Speaker 2: So I think that when and when it comes to these now what questions?
• 14:56
  Speaker 2: I think we tend to get overwhelmed because we're like, ok, well, now I have to do this email sequence and that one and I have to create all these different parts of the funnel.
• 15:03
  Speaker 2: And I think it's really important, when we think about conversions and where we're going, that we start with, like what's the lowest hanging fruit?
• 15:11
  Speaker 2: Like, where are we going?
• 15:12
  Speaker 2: Where can we maximize on our ROI?
• 15:13
  Speaker 2: Like what's going to be the biggest income producing activity that we do?
• 15:16
  Speaker 2: Start there and then, once you have one under your belt, you just kind of replicate, replicate, replicate, right.
• 15:22
  Speaker 2: So let's say we have a course or an online product that we're selling.
• 15:28
  Speaker 2: Like, if that's where we know we're making money and we know that product is converting, converting, well then start there and make sure, okay, well, what's our follow up email sequence look like, what is our customer experience that we want them to be look like, and how do we kind of build all of that out?
• 15:41
  Speaker 2: And then kind of go from there.
• 15:42
  Speaker 2: Or if your lead magnet is a thing that's converting the most, but then you're not converting people to sales from there.
• 15:48
  Speaker 2: Okay, well, let's revisit what that welcome sequence looks like and what that customer experience is.
• 15:52
  Speaker 2: So I think it's important to start with what's the biggest priority for your business versus.
• 15:58
  Speaker 2: Hey, here's like the order with which you want to make sure these follow up sequences are that mixed with a regular communication.
• 16:11
  Speaker 2: I'm a huge fan of email marketing, but whatever that communication looks like for you it could be text messaging, it could be phone calls, it could be mailers, I don't know but making sure that people in your base are hearing from you on a regular basis, that is value add, that is nurture, that is zero sales, because I think that that is critically important and a mistake that people make when it comes to I got you on my email list, great cool.
• 16:29
  Speaker 2: I'll get in touch with you when I have something to sell you Like.
• 16:32
  Speaker 2: That doesn't work.
• 16:34
  Speaker 1: And sometimes every once in a while, email newsletter does not work.
• 16:36
  Speaker 1: It actually increases your unsubscribes like it's going out of style.
• 16:40
  Speaker 1: So that's always good to good to keep in mind when when you're working on that.
• 16:45
  Speaker 1: So if you're consistent, you're more trustworthy.
• 16:49
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 16:49
  Speaker 1: And I'm a huge fan of email marketing too.
• 16:51
  Speaker 2: So, but because, they're unsubscribing, okay, but I want to.
• 16:55
  Speaker 2: I want to.
• 16:55
  Speaker 2: Sorry, interrupted you.
• 16:57
  Speaker 2: No, I really want to drive this home.
• 16:58
  Speaker 2: If people are unsubscribing, there's a couple of things that are happening.
• 17:01
  Speaker 2: Number one you didn't deliver on the promise that you said you were going to deliver on, so they didn't get the value that they thought they were going to get.
• 17:09
  Speaker 2: Number two the quality of content with which you're putting in the newsletter is not great.
• 17:12
  Speaker 2: Or number three they're just not the right person for you anyway and they're never going to buy from you in the first place.
• 17:19
  Speaker 2: So I think it's important to pay attention to the trends with your unsubscribes.
• 17:23
  Speaker 2: Like, if you're running a Facebook ad, for example, to a lead magnet and that conversed really well, but then, right after that, they're unsubscribing like mad, then there's something wrong with that audience, right.
• 17:32
  Speaker 2: So we just have to pay attention to the reasons and not get bogged down with okay, well, I have to change everything now because everybody's unsubscribing.
• 17:42
  Speaker 1: Why?
• 17:42
  Speaker 1: You gotta ask why.
• 17:43
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and I think again, just going back to you, know there's reasons for unsubscribing and infrequent contact is one of those.
• 17:51
  Speaker 1: They forgot they signed up.
• 17:53
  Speaker 1: They think you're sending them spam and then it wasn't welcome because you haven't sent them an email in three months.
• 17:58
  Speaker 1: You can't be doing that Right.
• 18:00
  Speaker 1: So you have to be consistent to, and again, consistent isn't weekly, might be monthly.
• 18:06
  Speaker 1: I wouldn't go less than monthly.
• 18:08
  Speaker 1: What are your thoughts?
• 18:09
  Speaker 1: I?
• 18:09
  Speaker 2: agree, I agree.
• 18:10
  Speaker 2: I agree, especially because what I always tell my clients is the less often you email them, the less often you can sell to them.
• 18:18
  Speaker 2: So if you are only sending them an email once a month or once a quarter, then you might only be able to do a promotional launch once a year because they're not getting that information.
• 18:28
  Speaker 2: On top of what you just said, which is they're going to forget that you exist.
• 18:33
  Speaker 2: Even monthly, I always recommend weekly.
• 18:36
  Speaker 2: I think a lot of people out there do and I think there's a lot of stress around that, like well, we have nothing to say.
• 18:42
  Speaker 2: I had someone on my podcast a couple months ago and he gave a brilliant piece of advice, so I'll share it with your listeners.
• 18:50
  Speaker 2: If you're like I have nothing to put in an email he's like and you're posting on social media, he takes his top performing social media posts and just shares that with maybe a little bit longer form build out of that story and that's his newsletter.
• 19:05
  Speaker 2: So he's taking content he already knows is performing well with his audience, repurposing it in a newsletter, sharing it and driving people back to social media to engage for more, and that's it.
• 19:14
  Speaker 2: It doesn't have to be complicated.
• 19:18
  Speaker 1: No, and I love repurposing because, guess what?
• 19:21
  Speaker 1: They didn't remember that they saw the social post.
• 19:24
  Speaker 1: Odds are they forgot about it, even if it was two hours ago.
• 19:29
  Speaker 1: They might be like, oh, that sounds a little familiar, they forgot about it.
• 19:33
  Speaker 1: So, like, don't worry about repeating yourself, because nobody else saw it to the extent that you did, because nobody else saw it to the extent that you did.
• 19:45
  Speaker 1: And you know, as we were talking on before we started recording, you're not that important to them, like.
• 19:48
  Speaker 1: You're not their priority.
• 19:49
  Speaker 1: Yeah, like, and you're, overall, you're not.
• 19:53
  Speaker 1: So don't get caught up on.
• 19:55
  Speaker 1: Well, I already said that.
• 19:56
  Speaker 1: Yeah, good, say it 15 more times and then in the next couple of weeks and then you can switch to something else because, people are not seeing all of your messages.
• 20:07
  Speaker 2: I liken it to like when I go to the gym and I'm walking on the treadmill and like I, the first few minutes that I'm there, I'm like like, okay, which treadmill do I want to walk on?
• 20:16
  Speaker 2: Who's going to be looking at me, like who's going to be judging me, and then you're like nobody's, nobody cares.
• 20:21
  Speaker 2: Nobody's looking at you, nobody's paying attention, nobody's saying, oh my gosh, look at how weird she walks.
• 20:25
  Speaker 2: Like nobody, nobody really cares about what you're doing.
• 20:28
  Speaker 2: So that's why that language is so, so, so important, because that's how they feel connected, that's how they feel heard, because you're talking to them like almost like your best friend or like you're in their head and they think that you are the best person to help them with their problem, because you truly get it.
• 20:47
  Speaker 2: And I want to kind of go back to the AI thing for just a second, because I think what's also really great is, if you're struggling with creating content for your website, for example, again go back to some of those social media posts that did really really well.
• 21:02
  Speaker 2: Take that copy that you've already written, put that into AI with a specific prompt and say could you turn this into a headline for my header on my website?
• 21:12
  Speaker 2: Or into three pain points that my audience might be struggling with that I could put on my website.
• 21:17
  Speaker 2: That's a great way to use AI, because you're taking your own words that you know are performing well and then removing that blank cursor issue with how do I now turn this into website copy.
• 21:29
  Speaker 1: I love that because it's starting with you, it's starting with your content.
• 21:33
  Speaker 1: It's starting with content that resonates, and I would say the biggest thing you need to do is it's going to give you an idea.
• 21:39
  Speaker 1: Build off of that, go into thesauruscom, go into some other sites and make sure that the word choice is what your audience will resonate with.
• 21:50
  Speaker 1: Right, I started my online course business with a content marketing 101.
• 21:57
  Speaker 1: Nobody else calls it content marketing.
• 21:59
  Speaker 1: I had meetings, I had calls with my target audience and I asked them well, what would you call it?
• 22:04
  Speaker 1: And they're like I don't know.
• 22:06
  Speaker 1: But now that I know it's content marketing, they're like that's what I'd call it and I'm like that's not helping me.
• 22:13
  Speaker 1: But they called it like blog writing, they called it podcasting, they called it whatever that item was, and so content marketing didn't make any sense to them outside of the marketing world.
• 22:23
  Speaker 1: Right, it was not a word that they were familiar with and very few people resonated with that, and so I think that that's key.
• 22:32
  Speaker 2: It's so important because we are in our businesses all the time.
• 22:35
  Speaker 2: We know the jargon.
• 22:36
  Speaker 2: I don't care what you're selling or what you do, you have your own jargon and I think that is such a critical thing to remember.
• 22:43
  Speaker 2: And I think that goes back to also like once you kind of have some updates on your website or you've done some things, find a random person or like somebody close to you that you can be objective, or maybe you have a best friend.
• 22:57
  Speaker 2: All of my family is like I have no idea, I don't understand what you do.
• 23:00
  Speaker 2: I don't get what you do on a day to day right.
• 23:02
  Speaker 2: So I could call my brother and be like hey, we're just launching this new product.
• 23:08
  Speaker 2: Could you find it and ask somebody to do the action that you need people to take, whether that's contact you, whether that's fill out a form, an inquiry, whether that's to actually make a purchase and ask somebody could you complete this action?
• 23:23
  Speaker 2: Could you do these three things?
• 23:24
  Speaker 2: And if they can't, that's going to tell you that you're not speaking in the right language or you're not using the.
• 23:31
  Speaker 2: You know it's not a user-friendly kind of situation.
• 23:33
  Speaker 2: So that's a great way also to kind of take that next step once they've done what you just said, which is figure out the right words, because that makes a big difference.
• 23:42
  Speaker 1: It makes a huge difference.
• 23:43
  Speaker 1: I know my assistant was going through my website with my new copy and she's like it makes a huge difference.
• 23:47
  Speaker 1: I know my assistant was going through my website with my new copy and she's like this doesn't mean anything and I'm like you're right, but I really liked it.
• 23:55
  Speaker 1: It's so hard.
• 23:56
  Speaker 1: And it's personal too.
• 23:56
  Speaker 1: It is.
• 23:58
  Speaker 1: It was my baby I wrote it and I was like, all right, we're going to change the words, how about this?
• 24:02
  Speaker 1: And she's like, oh, that's much better.
• 24:05
  Speaker 1: I'm like, okay, we're getting the places Right.
• 24:08
  Speaker 1: And it's not always going to be right A hundred percent the first time out, and I think that that that's okay.
• 24:13
  Speaker 1: You can edit your website on a regular basis.
• 24:16
  Speaker 1: You can change it hourly if you needed to.
• 24:20
  Speaker 1: I don't recommend that because that's not going to give you enough data, but still you could if you you wanted to, and that's you know.
• 24:28
  Speaker 1: Again, it's all changeable.
• 24:29
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it's not permanent.
• 24:33
  Speaker 2: Your email and your social media is a great way to test out language also.
• 24:37
  Speaker 2: So if you don't want to be making updates, if you have it on your calendar, we're going to do it every other month, or whatever.
• 24:42
  Speaker 2: Test out some different language in your email and in your social media and or your ads, like that's a great way to kind of see what resonates.
• 24:53
  Speaker 1: Very good, very cool.
• 24:54
  Speaker 1: So we've had an amazing conversation.
• 24:57
  Speaker 1: Thank you so much.
• 24:58
  Speaker 1: You should be looking at your website at least quarterly for all of the details, but your header at least monthly.
• 25:06
  Speaker 1: Do not phone everything in on your website through AI.
• 25:11
  Speaker 1: Yes, it speeds up the process, but it disconnects you from your audience, and I think one of the key takeaways that we're talking about is audience first, no matter what it is, and then, if you're looking to get conversions, make sure you map out the entire process from start to finish.
• 25:27
  Speaker 1: Yes, they start on your website, but then what?
• 25:30
  Speaker 1: Map that out, prioritize it based upon what's going to be bringing you in the most revenue and go piece by piece.
• 25:38
  Speaker 1: It doesn't all have to be done tomorrow, because none of us have the time to redo everything right in one day.
• 25:44
  Speaker 1: So I think all of that is really important to keep in mind.
• 25:49
  Speaker 1: So thank you so much, sammy, for all of these insights.
• 25:53
  Speaker 1: They are definitely really practical things that I think that anybody listening and watching can take away, and hopefully they will.
• 26:01
  Speaker 1: But before I let you go, there is a question that I ask everybody, and that is this show is called Imperfect Marketing, because marketing is anything but a perfect science, as we've covered here.
• 26:12
  Speaker 1: What has been your biggest marketing lesson learned?
• 26:17
  Speaker 2: Too much, too fast.
• 26:19
  Speaker 2: So I would say we all go through different stages.
• 26:23
  Speaker 2: You could be a brand new business, you could be around for 15 years and all, all of a sudden, we forget about just the pure foundation of marketing and to me, that is consistency.
• 26:35
  Speaker 2: Consistency on a channel that makes sense.
• 26:37
  Speaker 2: Again.
• 26:38
  Speaker 2: Going back to audience, right.
• 26:39
  Speaker 2: So I think we all hear ideas, we hear great things.
• 26:44
  Speaker 2: We're like, oh, we should try that you have a.
• 26:46
  Speaker 2: You know somebody who comes in your business is like, oh, we should try that you have a.
• 26:47
  Speaker 2: You know somebody who comes in your business is like, hey, I've had tons of success, I've been making tons of money doing this.
• 26:51
  Speaker 2: And you're like, oh, let's just try it like that, try that new thing and we should jump over to that new thing.
• 26:55
  Speaker 2: Consistency matters.
• 26:58
  Speaker 2: Start just like you kind of alluded to just a few seconds ago start with what you can do well and then expand from there.
• 27:05
  Speaker 2: Once it's working, once you know it's converting, once you know your audience is engaged, then add something else, then add something else.
• 27:12
  Speaker 2: You don't have to do everything at once, and if we're inconsistent in 15 things, it's way more damaging than being really consistent in three things.
• 27:21
  Speaker 1: I love that.
• 27:22
  Speaker 1: I love that 100%.
• 27:23
  Speaker 1: I always talk about.
• 27:24
  Speaker 1: I had a guest a long time ago and I can't even remember exactly who it was, but they're a marketing strategist and the only social media that they drove people to was LinkedIn, and, as a marketing strategist and marketer myself, I felt like I had to be so many places.
• 27:41
  Speaker 1: I felt like I had to at least understand how all those platforms worked, and so I was very inconsistent on like everything.
• 27:49
  Speaker 1: Linkedin is my platform of choice.
• 27:51
  Speaker 1: That is where you will find me If you want interactions, that's where you go to get me.
• 27:55
  Speaker 1: But, yeah, like, I accidentally started all of them and I would say that that's one of the biggest things that I regret in my business is starting so many of those, because it's hard to keep up.
• 28:10
  Speaker 1: It's, I mean, it can be a full-time job posting on TikTok, instagram, facebook.
• 28:17
  Speaker 1: You know all the places, right.
• 28:20
  Speaker 1: And so, yeah, start small, start consistent, add what you can as you go, but also factor in what you can do as your business grows.
• 28:31
  Speaker 1: Because, yeah, in the beginning, when I didn't have any clients, I could post on social all day long, right, and then and then, all of a sudden, I'm maxed out on clients and it's like I got to post on social media, which is why I do podcasts, because podcasts give me all my baseline content great valuable content for all of my listeners and social media, which is why I do podcasts because podcasts give me all my baseline content, great valuable content for all of my listeners and social media followers, and it's just streamlines the process so much more.
• 28:56
  Speaker 2: But well, yeah, and I want to say to that point too, like that's the beauty of podcasting and the beauty of you as a listener if you're listening to this and you're like, okay, you know they're sharing some really great stuff, this is cool.
• 29:05
  Speaker 2: Like I have a list of things that I want to come back to, so I just keep a list of.
• 29:11
  Speaker 2: You know, this is a great idea.
• 29:16
  Speaker 2: This is not right now, but I don't want to forget that this thing exists, so put just like keep a Google Notes, whatever, like just find a spot where, when you're listening to something or you come across an article, article or a strategy that you can kind of put it somewhere and come back to it when you're like, okay, I'm ready to, I have capacity to kind of add something else, that I'm going to go back to this list of ideas and you can always come back and I use Asana and I have an ideas area inside of my personal company's area.
• 29:45
  Speaker 1: I have one actually inside all of my clients' areas and things like that inside their projects, and it's good to go back to it.
• 29:53
  Speaker 1: And I can when I have time is when I go back to it.
• 29:56
  Speaker 1: I actually have a recurring task that has a date that says go check it.
• 30:02
  Speaker 1: You do, and sometimes I'm like, nope, too busy.
• 30:04
  Speaker 1: Yep, I checked it, we're going to pretend I checked it and it's still not.
• 30:08
  Speaker 1: For now you know, and that's okay, but again, that way you don't forget that it's there, you don't forget to add things, and it really gives you again.
• 30:18
  Speaker 1: I love it as like a base or a hub for all of those ideas, so that none of them get lost.
• 30:24
  Speaker 1: And I went back to one of them and I was like, yeah, that doesn't even exist anymore.
• 30:33
  Speaker 1: Well guess, I'm glad I didn't do it, no, so fantastic conversation.
• 30:41
  Speaker 1: Thank you again so much for spending time with me.
• 30:42
  Speaker 1: We will have, as always, links in the show notes so that you can connect with Sammy, her agency and, of course, check out the digital marketing therapy, which is her podcast.
• 30:51
  Speaker 1: Thank you all, again so much for tuning in to another episode of imperfect marketing.
• 30:55
  Speaker 1: See you next time.