[social_warfare]
Simple marketing strategies will beat half-baked complicated ones EVERY day of the week.
And the foundation to all good (i.e. successful) marketing?
Listening to YOUR customer (and responding to her feedback).
(That’s why we create custom strategy for every client at Hirsh Marketing! Cookie cutter marketing doesn’t know what your customers need – but YOU CAN.)
Following what my clients really need is how I’ve built my company to multi-millions in revenue with a client roster that includes some of the biggest names in the industry.
And it’s the best advice I can offer you – whether you’re building an empire or serving a single client… Follow the feedback.
In this episode I’m telling a bit of my business story, PLUS…
- How to create a new offer that connects with your audience
- Where to get the *best* business advice for YOU…
- And a detailed example of how I respond to customer feedback with our monthly Hirsh Marketing Report
Tune in – and then head over to HirshMarketingReport.com to see this concept in action! Register for the monthly release of everything we know about Facebook ads (+notice how we’ve improved the report for YOU!).
And if you’re ready for custom-built marketing strategy + high-level feedback from Team Hirsh, head to HelpMyStrategy.com to apply!
P.S. Listen to episode 118, “The customer is NOT always right,” for more about when you need to step into your role as expert (i.e. when doing what your customer tells you to do is not a good idea!)
And check out episode 126, “STOP buying into the marketing noise,” for more about customizing your marketing strategy to fit your Ideal Customer.
Key Points:
[1:48] This is the foundation to any *good* marketing strategy
[4:31] Here’s how I’ve grown my company by following my clients’ lead…
[6:57] How to have SUCCESS with your new offer
[8:37] Respond to feedback in all areas of your business (not just marketing)
[11:07] Where to get the best, custom-built advice for YOU!
[12:52] This is what’s worked best for me…
[14:01] So tell me, are you paying attention?
[social_warfare]
Episode Transcripts:
Welcome to the podcast, everybody! I love talking about simple marketing strategies, because [it’s] so often that we just overcomplicate things and think we need these complicated strategies or funnels or segmented things… and we almost like that, thinking that equals success. But sometimes being really successful comes from just focusing and going the simple route. I really love looking at this, and when I’m reminded of this… and there’s times when I have conversations, or I see a strategy, and I’m like, “Oh, it’s about being simple. That really worked.”
And so, what I want to talk about today is a really simple concept, that is a foundational concept in marketing, that I think we forget about. We get lost in the noise out there of what other people are doing, or what we saw somebody do and have success with, or what we think we should be doing… and we lose track of these things. [So] today, what I want to talk about is just listening to your customer and what that means in your business and in your marketing.
This is why I’m also so obsessed with really customized marketing strategies. We talk a lot about giving our clients customized marketing strategies, because… we create it for their audience and their offer. Those are the two things that you should be considering when you create a marketing strategy. But then, going deeper in your own business, I want you guys to think about this. Obviously, we don’t do entire business plans for people! But, I was having this conversation with somebody where I was explaining to them just like a quick five-minute recap of Hirsh Marketing, and how it started, and how I’ve built it, and how I just kind of kept building it, and what my story is there.
For those of you who already know my story, [you] know I started just over four years ago as a virtual assistant, then started doing Facebook ads for people, and then built a team. Talking about it for a couple of minutes with this person, their reflection back to me was, “I love how you just have always listened to your customer and then built what they needed and built your business.” It was funny, because I didn’t say it like that. I didn’t say, “Oh, I figured out they need Facebook ads, so then I did Facebook ads,” but I realized this was a core piece of something I was doing since I started my company, to build it and have success with it was, I was always listening to my customer, and I was going the route that it kind of took me when something would work, or I realized there was a gap in the market.
This is how we’ve built our entire service at Hirsh Marketing, because we’re delivering one way and then we realize, “Oh, clients really need this,” so we add that in as a part of our service. That’s how I’ve created, not just this very basic Facebook ad service, but an entire team that our clients get to work with. I didn’t necessarily make that connection. I mean, I think I knew it, but then it was like, “Oh, that’s like a really core piece of how I’ve done this, of how I’ve built this, and how I’ve created a successful multimillion dollar company.” I think this is relevant in our business, and then especially in our marketing.
I want to talk about how that kind of shows up and how to be careful that you don’t lose that in your marketing and in your business, because like I said, it’s very easy to. For me and for Hirsh Marketing, I started and I’m, I think, naturally good at just saying ‘yes’ and ‘I’ll try this’ and ‘I’ll figure it out’ and not being kind of afraid. So, I’m lucky in that way… I don’t like to use the word lucky, because I created this! [That’s what] I tell my husband. I’m able to do that, right? I’m able to kind of dive in and do things that might be scary for [other] people and then learn. But, the way I built Hirsh Marketing was kind of following the direction of what was working.
When I started and I was just a virtual assistant, and then I started doing Facebook ads for those people, and then that started working out really well, and I realized I could probably make more money offering strategy and marketing and Facebook ads than I could doing technical one-on-one work for people. So, I started going in that direction, and then I kept going in that direction, and specialized in it, and got really niche down, and that’s all I offered.
And then I realized, “Well, I’m fully booked! And also, I don’t have the full [talents] to be able to do copywriting and design and ad management and strategy. What if I just did the strategy and I got experts to do the rest?” So, that’s how I started building my team. I hired copywriters. I hired designers. I hired an ads manager. And then, for a long, long time, I did all of the strategy. And then, over the last, really, year, I’ve actually delegated out the strategy portion, which was the hardest to delegate out, but we now have an amazing team who [does] our client strategy and [does] those strategy calls and [drives] that. But I just kind of followed what the client needed, and that’s how I’ve done it in my delivery.
And then, in our team, what makes us different was, I was like, “Oh, well, we need copywriting. We can’t run ads without copywriting, so we have to have a great copywriter.” And so, I found that and made it a part of our package. Whereas a lot of agencies, they don’t offer that, because they don’t want to do the copy. But that’s in the product piece of how I’ve kind of always listened to the customer, but also in my marketing I feel like I have done that, and our clients, this is what we encourage, because the best way to have success and to know that something’s working in your marketing, or if it’s a product you’re selling or an offering, is to just listen to the customer.
I think often, I know I do this, where I want to have everything figured out. If we’re going to launch something new, or there’s a project we’re working on, I want to have it all figured out and perfect before we launch it. That’s never realistic, because what you have to do is shift that mindset so that you instead are constantly open to customer feedback and your audience’s feedback, because you might think one thing and then you launch this and you’re like, “This is perfect, and it’s going to convert really well. There’s going to be no changes, and I’m just going to set it and forget it.”
That’s never realistic, because what’s going to happen is, it might convert out the gate, especially if you have an audience, and then you are going to start getting feedback, and you’re going to start to realize, “Well, if I made these couple of tweaks, I might be able to get an even better conversion,” or “People really seem to be resonating with that webinar topic or these type of emails or these type of stories or this offer,” who knows what it is for your business, and then you follow that and you’re able to really increase the efficiency and effectiveness of what you’re doing. But you’re never going to know that if you just are like, “Well, I know exactly how I should do my strategy. This is how it should be, because I’m replicating ‘so-and-so’s’ strategy, and I’m not going to change anything.”
I think it’s really important to constantly come back to this and take the feedback from your customer, and really your audience, too, in all areas of your business. So, are you listening to them in your marketing? Are you actually paying attention? Here’s an example. Let’s say you have a podcast like I do or you do regular videos, and let’s say that you have been doing that for the last six to 12 months, and you haven’t ever really questioned your strategy or thought, “Are people really listening to this, or what episodes or what videos are they listening to more of?” If you haven’t really done that in a while, chances are you’re probably wasting energy on things that aren’t effective, where you could be putting that energy into things that are effective, if that makes sense.
Here’s an example for us. We have the Hirsh Marketing Report every month that goes out. We’ve been doing that for over a year. We’ve been sending out the Hirsh Marketing Report. It’s got its template. It’s got its format. It’s got how much ad spend we managed, how much revenue we generated for our clients, strategies, tips. It has its PDF format. We’ve got a process. We do it every single month. We haven’t changed what we’re doing in a year.
Well, I just went through, and I’ll probably talk about this in another podcast episode, but… I’m like a crazy pregnant lady in my business right now, and I just went through our entire marketing and sales department and, basically, broke everything to rebuild it. It was really fun, and it’s amazing. I am going to talk about it in another episode. But one thing I did was, I looked at the Hirsh Marketing Report, and I was like, “We could totally update this.” I had all these new ideas, and it’s actually… when this episode comes out, [it] should be launching around this time. So, if you’re not registered for the Hirsh Marketing Report, you can go to HirshMarketingReport.com to get it, because we’re going to be launching a new version. It’s going to be pretty awesome.
But I hadn’t looked at it in a year, so we were just doing what we knew! And it wasn’t bad necessarily, but I came up with all these great new ideas about what we could incorporate into the report to be more valuable, to attract our clients better, to really engage people better. And I wouldn’t have really thought of that a year ago, because a year ago, when I built the Hirsh Marketing Report, I thought I was building the best thing out there. And then, a year of data and just customer feedback and knowing what’s working and what’s not working there and listening to my audience, and I have all these new ideas that I wouldn’t have had a year ago.
That’s a great example, because we get stuck in our routine and how we do things and strategies we’re kind of replicating, and we forget to just stop and be like, “Is this actually working? Is this working as effectively and efficiently as I want it to? Or should I make changes?” And for me, it’s been always hard to know… I’m not going to know what those changes are until I go through this experience and get that feedback.
So, whether it’s with your products or your funnel or your marketing strategy… or for us, the PDF that we’re releasing to our audience every month… are you listening to your customer and your audience? And are you really listening to that feedback and following it? Because that’s the best advice you can follow is, listening to the, because they are your buyers. They are your loyal tribe, and they have a lot of the answers for you. [But you] forget about it.
I love this concept, and I want you to look at it in all areas of your business, because I’ve had conversations with people where they’re like, “I have to sell these two products. I have to sell my one-on-one coaching and they have to have this course that I’m also selling.” And it turns out, as we talk [I realize], everybody wants, let’s say, the coaching and not the product, and it’s like, “Why are you trying to make your business mold into this template that it has to do this, when your audience doesn’t want it?” That’s just an example, but there’s many scenarios where we think we have to do this thing and it’s going to work, and if we just do that, it’s going to work… but we’re ignoring audience and customer feedback.
So, one of the best pieces of advice I can give you… and it’s something, as I reflect, I realize, [it’s] especially in our product delivery, that I’ve done so well, which is why we have so many client referrals and such a reputation in the industry, is because I’ve always just listened to the customer. I’ve always said, “Okay, they need this, and so we’re going to mold our service to serve them.”
Now, there are some times where the customer is hiring you as an expert and they may not know what they need [listen to episode 118, “The customer is NOT always right!” for more about this], but you can still listen to them. Sometimes I know what our customer needs and they don’t even know what they need, but I’m paying attention to the way that they get results or have a good understanding of something or need something communicated to them. And they don’t know it, but I’m still solving that problem, by listening to either feedback or a situation or something. There’s always a solution that comes out of a situation or somebody’s feedback. Even if they’re not directly telling you what to do, they’re still giving you feedback in some form. Either they’re taking action or not taking action, or they’re struggling with something or not struggling with something. You kind of have to follow that.
So, look at your marketing. Look at your business. Look at your products. And really ask yourself, “Are you paying attention to what your customer and your audience is telling you about what they want more of, what they don’t want more of, what’s engaging them and what’s not engaging them?” And I promise you, it will be really effective in your overall business growth.
Thanks so much for tuning in today, guys. If you want that custom marketing strategy in your own business, this is something we do, at least on the marketing end, for all of our clients. I’ll give you a quick example. We just had a client come sign on with us, and she did a strategy call, and she already had this funnel in place. She was going to do a paid challenge to her audience, which was actually targeting… people who wanted to lose weight and get healthy, so it was a consumer audience. She wanted to do a paid challenge, because pay challenges are all the rage right now, I know, because of some specific influencers in the industry teaching it, which is fine, it works for them. That’s great. But! As soon as she came in and said, “Here’s my strategy. I’m working on my funnel,” we could have easily just taken that and been like, “Yeah, you should just go do that strategy. We’ll go implement it for you.” But we actually didn’t. We said, “We don’t recommend this strategy, and here’s why.”
Here is why, if you’re thinking about doing a paid challenge. One, if you don’t have a huge audience, they’re not going to buy a challenge from you. There’s not a lot of value in someone buying a challenge from you when there’s all these free challenges, so unless they’re your warm audience, they’re probably not going to buy it. Two, she’s targeting consumers. They are especially not going to buy a challenge, or at least a very, very small percentage would, because there’s so many free challenges in the health and fitness industry already. And so, why would they do that?
We’re way better off… we changed their strategy [to] having a free opt-in leading to a tripwire on the ‘Thank You’ page, that’s more a self-liquidating small offer, and then leading to her bigger offer. So, we reworked her whole strategy, whereas most marketing people and experts and agencies are afraid to kind of stand up and say, “No, we don’t recommend that strategy.” This client coming in, she had lost the sight of listening to her audience by trying to create that strategy, because she was lost in the noise of people having success with paid challenges out there.
That’s what I try to speak out against is, question any strategy you hear, because just because something worked for somebody’s business, somebody’s audience, somebody else’s customer, does not mean it’s going to work for yours. The business-to-business space is way different than the business-to-consumer space. Your products are different and your branding, your audience. You have to know your audience and your customer, and then listen to them in your marketing, in your business, in your offerings, in everything.
If you want that custom strategy, if you want that kind of critique and eye and strategy and feedback on your business and your marketing strategy, you can go to HelpMyStrategy.com to apply to work with Hirsh Marketing, and I will see you guys all soon.