SHOW NOTES

There’s a lot of talk about the “Next Best Thing!” in marketing. And you’ll notice, it’s different depending on who you’re talking to (and what they’re selling).

If you’re feeling stuck, confused, and overwhelmed with all the ‘noise,’ please know that you’re in good company.

But here’s my advice for moving forward:

Stop listening to what’s working for everyone else.

Forget about the overwhelming advice you read on the internet and think about YOU + your business!

What will help *your* ICA move from “just looking” to “must buy now”?

Yes, there’s a lot of people talking about which marketing strategies work best… for THEM, right? Because it’s easy to talk about that! It’s easy for me to detail + celebrate what works well as my launch strategy.

But what worked for one business might not work for another.

Because the KEY to success with marketing is custom-built strategy.

So, in this episode I’m highlighting one of the greatest roadblocks to marketing success… listening to the noise of a busy industry.

I’ll explain what to focus on instead, plus…

The 3 KEY pillars to online business success (no, it’s not ONE strategy)
Why successful marketing doesn’t always equal ‘complicated’
And the 1 thing 95% of business owners aren’t doing right…

Tune in for another marketing pep talk – and then hop over to Instagram (@emilyhirsh) to ask me your Q’s!

P.S. Listen to episode 124, “Everyone has a funnel,” for more about catering to YOUR Ideal Customer.

If you’re ready for custom-built strategy by Team Hirsh, head to HelpMyStrategy.com to apply! We have 2 options now: our Performance Package (to get these 3 pillars in place + working!) and our Premier Package (to optimize + scale!). We ONLY take on clients we know we can help – so apply today to get started!

Key Points:

[3:13] Throw away the ideas of everyone else

[5:32] All you need is… brand awareness + visibility

[6:29] What about ads? Here’s the ONE funnel you can start with

[7:51] Get these 3 things to convert – before you do anything else!

[10:04] And then DO NOT switch your strategy *just* because it’s the “next best thing” in marketing

[15:21] The KEY here is… Invest in what’s working before you do something new!

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Episode Transcripts:

I’m Emily Hirsh, and this is the Hirsh Marketing Underground Podcast. Attention innovators, influencers, creators, and game-changing entrepreneurs: Your internet domination begins right here. We are the powerhouse marketers that you’ve been looking for. You’re already making waves in your industry, and we’re here to help amplify those waves of change by creating a connection that cuts through the noise. We take everything you’ve built inside your zone of genius and find its audience. With killer strategy and laser eye for impact, we launch multimillion dollar campaigns and skyrocket your reach online. And now, we are doing the unheard of. We’re unveiling everything we’ve learned, taking you behind the scenes with the Hirsh Marketing Team, and giving away the secrets to our clients’ success. Stay tuned for top converting strategy, ROI reports, and insider knowledge that you won’t find anywhere else. You’re changing the world, and we’re the team to help.

Emily Hirsh: Hello, everyone. I hope you’re having an amazing week. [It’s] almost Thanksgiving here in the US. I know Canada’s already had it. I’m enjoying, so much, the fall weather. It does get a little cold in Austin, but I will never complain about that after the summer and the heat! I love it, I love fall. And so, we are home for Thanksgiving and just enjoying being home most of this month. I had one trip, but other than that, being home and in our routine and just in probably nesting mode, as a pregnant lady.

Emily Hirsh: So, today I am diving into kind of a rant for you guys, but… Stop buying into the marketing noise! And so, this is actually inspired from a speech that I did in October in Toronto. I always love when I do speeches, and I think I mentioned this on our previous podcast… I get the biggest takeaways, that I wouldn’t have thought would be the biggest takeaways, because I have, afterward, hallway conversations. And people tell me what resonated with them the most. This was something that did resonate with them.

Emily Hirsh: And I think it’s a really good topic for end of 2019 and going into 2020 and thinking about your marketing and thinking about your strategy. And it’s just a reminder that everyone, including myself honestly sometimes, needs to remember, which is… I know there is so much noise out there with marketing right now and what you should do and what strategy you should do and what the newest strategy is and what’s working and what’s not working… And it’s so overwhelming, I think it kind of handicaps people at times, because they think they need either this really complicated strategy, or they need all these steps or all these funnels or this value ladder built out or just like so-and-so, to be able to run ads or to be able to have any success. And it’s just not true!

Emily Hirsh: So my message for you guys, and what I want to talk through today, is really to stop buying into that marketing noise! And how do you do that? Here is what instead you focus on, and of what we do for clients and what we do for myself, is… Throw away all these ideas, because it’s so easy to have ideas, it’s so easy for people to tell you that the greatest strategy, the greatest idea they had, and the next biggest thing. That’s not hard to share that with people. What’s hard is actually implementing it and getting results from it, which is what a lot of people don’t do. So pretend like all that doesn’t exist and really think about your ideal customer. I want you to go back to, who is your ideal customer? And what is the experience they need? […] I talked about this a couple episodes back, on [episode 124] “Everyone has a funnel,” when I was talking through on that episode of the podcast… but I want to reiterate it here.

Emily Hirsh: […] Good marketing does not mean complicated marketing. It’s sometimes very simple. And the simple strategies sometimes do better than any of the complicated, crazy things. And I think we’re drawn to the diagrams with all the steps and the emails and, “If they don’t do this, then you do this,” and “If they do this, don’t do this, then you do that.” I know how cool that sounds… and you want to implement that, because it looks like what you need. But here’s the core foundation of what you need…

Emily Hirsh: First, know your audience, know what kind of a customer journey and marketing experience they would want to have, to go from somebody who doesn’t know you to becoming a buyer… And I’m going to hound this in so many times in this podcast, because when I say “know your audience,” I think people sometimes let it go over their head, and they’re like, “Yeah, yeah, I know my audience.” But here’s what I mean: If your audience is not going to participate in a challenge, do not do a challenge… which is what everyone is telling you to do today, currently! They’re very hot, right? But if your audience is not going to actually participate in it and it’s not the best experience for them, it will never work for you. If your audience is not going to sit through a webinar, a webinar will never work for you. You have to know your audience to know your strategy.

Emily Hirsh: So first, know your audience. Then, you can create a custom strategy for them. And I want you guys to just stop the marketing noise, and here’s what you need: You need brand awareness and visibility. So, you need to commit to some form of… is it going to be podcasts, is it going to be videos, is it going to be posts? How are you going to show up online and connect with people through value content? You need that. That’s a must-have, we have to have that. And you’re going to put ad spend behind that so people actually see it, but you need some way of connecting with content. So for our brand, we do podcasts. That’s my number one medium of connecting and value. We post about the podcasts, we send emails about the podcasts. It is at my core content that I make, and it gets repurposed by my team.

Emily Hirsh: What’s your brand awareness and visibility? Again, going back to who is your audience? What are they going to consume? Is it podcasts? Is the videos? How are they going to connect with you? And how are you going to draw them in with that content? That’s one part you need. Then you need to have a lead gen funnel. You need one lead generation funnel to start with. You don’t need an opt-in and a quiz and a webinar and a video series and all of those things, and to test them all and spread your budget out across all of them. No way, because none will be successful if you’re spreading your budget out across four or even two or three funnels. You’re just spreading resources of time and money across those and taking away from one actually taking off, if that makes sense.

Emily Hirsh: So you need one lead generation funnel. Is that a webinar? Is that a video series? Is that a lead magnet? Is that a quiz? Is that an application to book a call? What is that one lead generation piece you’re going to have, customized to your avatar, to your customer, to your client… the experience they need to have? And then you need, obviously, your offer.

Emily Hirsh: So I want you to see how these all fit together. And it’s simple. I’ve talked to so many people where I’ve been, in casual conversation, like, “Here’s the strategy I think you should do.” And I just give it to them. And they’re like, “That’s it? That’s the strategy?” And I’m, “Yes. For now. We can add the bells and whistles and the extra email automation and the abandoned cart [ads] and all those cool things, we can add them. But first, get the bare bones converting!” Get the main, core piece converting: your core offer, your core lead magnet, and your core visibility content. Those three pillars, if you can get those working and get response in all of them, then you have something so solid, that 95% of business owners don’t have, honestly.

Emily Hirsh: Because, think about this: If you get just a lead generation campaign and it’s working, and say you’re getting good cost per lead… great! But then you’re not getting any sales. Something’s wrong with the lead generation campaign in that process of going from the lead gen that you just attracted, the email you just got, to the offer. Something’s wrong in that pathway. So if you then decide, “I’m just going to change my offer and offer something different and try to fix that,” or, “I’m going to change my lead generation, because that’s the problem, is the actual medium,” you don’t know what the problem is, probably it’s messaging, a lot of times it’s messaging… But you need each of those three pillars: brand awareness/visibility, lead generation, and sales, the offer, to convert on the bare bones of that, with your messaging. And then you can create a more complicated strategy, and then you can add in testing a challenge, and then you can add in all of the email automation with the complicated rules if you want!

Emily Hirsh: And [that’s just] icing on the cake and adds to your overall conversion, but it doesn’t make or break if it’s successful. And that’s what I want you to see is, having 50 emails in your sequence [that are] all customized based on an answer they gave or something they clicked on, which is so cool, and it sounds so cool, and people will share that with you at a marketing conference and convince you [that] you need to buy their tool that does this… Who’s sitting there going, “Oh my gosh, I’ve done that! This has happened to me.” That does not make or break your success. Your success in marketing is going to continuously come down from those bare bone pillars… Are those successful or not? Are those converting or not? Is the messaging on point for those or not? Is the strategy on point?

Emily Hirsh: And here’s another thing people will do is, they will start to get these pillars but then totally switch their strategy, because they heard about something at a conference or a webinar or someone’s content out there, and then they’ll switch their strategy, which is going back to square one. And most people that I talk to, the conversation goes like this. They come up to me, and they’re like, this is usually after I speak, they’re like, “I did what you’re saying. I was listening to too much marketing noise, I didn’t have a solid strategy. But I tried this for a little while, and it didn’t work, and so I’m not really sure what to do next.”

Emily Hirsh: And my questions are usually, to them, of like, “Okay, tell me about the strategy you tried.” And they tell me, and then I say, “Okay, well tell me how long you tried it for.” And they’re like, “Like two weeks.” And I’m like, “That’s not enough time, because you have… ” And then I also will ask them, “And how much did you spend?” And it’s usually $500 or less. It’s not enough time!

Emily Hirsh: Getting those three pillars in place… I’m getting excited talking about this, because you guys don’t understand! If you can get those three things in place and converting, it will be the best investment you can ever invest into your business, because then you have an ATM machine that you can only make work better!

Emily Hirsh: So, the beginning, getting those converting, getting the brand awareness to connect with people, getting the lead generation to convert, and then getting the offer to sell… in the beginning, that might be like, you’re spending money and you’re not getting money back. In the beginning, for 90 days, sign up for it, “Yes, I’m going to do that. I’m going to commit to 90 days.” Obviously, you’re not committing to 90 days and sitting back and just waiting. You might be making changes to it. You might be optimizing it. You might be changing the messaging and testing new things. You’re making decisions during that 90 days, but you’re not quitting because you didn’t get your money back right away. Does that make sense?

Emily Hirsh: So, if you can do that, if you can stick through with that, and you can get something working, and you can get something that you feel is converting for your audience, and those three pillars are basically successful… you have created the most valuable thing in your company that so many people lack, and it’s why they have the up and the down months. It’s why they have unpredictable income. It’s why they can’t scale their business or grow their business, because they don’t have that, and they’re not willing to put in that investment for that, and they’re going to conferences or coaches or buying programs that have a lot of noise and are like, “Try this strategy or this tool or this software or this landing page thing.” None of those things matter if you don’t have the three pillars and you don’t have the foundational pieces!

Emily Hirsh: Going into 2020, going into this next year, I guarantee you that what’s going to win is the custom marketing strategies that really thought about, who is that lead, who am I trying to attract? And how am I going to do it? And it’s not going to be just like my coach’s, or it’s not going to be just like my best friend’s or my mentor who I look up to, who has a successful business. Everybody’s business is unique, everybody’s customer is unique. And so if you do that, you are shooting yourself in the foot by choosing strategies that you’re going to waste time and money, like, “Oh, well it converted for them, so it’ll work for me.” It won’t, because you didn’t do those foundational pieces.

Emily Hirsh: And one last thing I want to leave you with is, once you do those foundational pieces, that is not the green light to then go restart and make a new funnel or a new customer journey. So, for example, let’s say you got your brand awareness and your visibility, your podcast is getting good response, it’s getting downloads, your webinar is getting people signing up for it within what you want to pay for cost per registration… and then your offer, it’s converting on that webinar and it’s doing well. That doesn’t mean like, “Okay, now I’m going to go do a challenge.” That means, how do we optimize this funnel even more? Let’s think about it. How do we get more people on our webinar? How do we add in a nurture sequence if they didn’t buy on that webinar, for the next 90 days, to follow-up with them and sell to them again? How do we even get our cost per lead down just a little bit more?

Emily Hirsh: Because once you have the foundational pieces working, then any small change you make to improve that funnel, it’s going to make you so much more money. So when you have those foundational pieces working, that’s not the green light to say, “Let me go make a brand new funnel, launch a new product, do something brand new.” That’s the green light to say, “How do I optimize this?” Yes, it’s boring. Yes, it’s not exciting. And yes, it’s simple. That is what the winners are doing. That is what our clients did to get either where they were when they came on with us or are doing to get to the next level. It’s where we have to constantly bring people back to focus. That is how you win the game. It’s not really a game. But that is how you do it!

Emily Hirsh: And so, your to-do’s and your focus right now, if you don’t have it, is those foundational pillars of brand awareness/visibility, lead generation, and your offer… getting those working in the most simple, effective, cost-effective way… but also seeing it as an investment. So, not being afraid to spend $3,000, $5,000 to get it converting, to learn from the data, to test things out. And then optimize that. Don’t change a strategy yet. Don’t launch something new. Don’t be taken away from somebody who’s like, “You gotta have a downsell, or you gotta have an upsell, or you gotta have another offer because you’ve got leads in the pipeline who are not ready to buy that level, so you got to create another one.” No. Say, “No, I will not do that,” if somebody tells you that, because your job is to fully optimize what you already just invested to get working, not to distract yourself and go do something new.

Emily Hirsh: So throw away all that marketing noise. Honestly, events are great, but there’s a lot in an event [where] I’m like, “Man, the whole room is getting this advice, and they’re going to take it, and they’re going to go do this, and it’s going to work for three percent of the people in here.” Because it has to be customized, which is why I say that. And any time I speak, any time I talk to people, it’s like, “I don’t know exactly what will work for your business until we sit down, customize it for your audience and your offer, then test it and get actual numbers and data to make decisions.” That is the process. It’s not that exciting, but it’s very effective, and it can’t go wrong if you do it that way! You can’t go wrong if you do it that way, with marketing.

Emily Hirsh: So, all right, guys. I feel like this was a really good episode! I feel really good about this one, because I don’t think there’s anyone else saying this out there. There’s a lot of people who will try to get you to buy into their strategy. I’ve seen it, god, all over social media, “You’ve got to have a low priced offer,” that’s another one I’ve seen a lot recently is, “I made a lot of money from a $27, or $47 offer, so that’s the new way!” No, it’s not. That worked for somebody’s audience. That’s great, amazing for her, so amazing. It’s not what everybody else should do. It doesn’t make sense for some people.

Emily Hirsh: Okay. If you guys want to work with us and work with Team Hirsh, get your strategy customized, get help with all of this, help with those three pillars, help with making sure that you have them, they convert, and then they’re optimized… we have the two different packages. We’ve got our Performance Package, which is really for getting those three pillars, foundational in place if you don’t have them yet. And then our Premier Package is more for people who have those three pillars, they do work, and they’re looking to scale and optimize them. And so, we are now able to take in both audiences. As long as you know who you’re targeting, we can support you with those two different packages. So you can go to HelpMyStrategy.com to apply to work with our team. Thanks so much, guys. I’ll see you on the next episode.

Emily Hirsh: Thanks for listening to the Hirsh Marketing Underground Podcast. Go behind the scenes of multimillion dollar ad campaigns and strategies, dive deep into The Hirsh Process, and listen to our most popular episodes over at HirshMarketingUnderground.com. If you loved this episode of the podcast, do me a favor and head over to iTunes to subscribe and leave a review, so we can reach more people and change more lives with this content. That’s all for now, and I’ll catch you next time.