[social_warfare]
SHOW NOTES
If you follow The Hirsh Process to marketing… it always, always works (even in a worldwide economic crisis, apparently).
Here’s proof!
When COVID-19 started to shut down the US, a handful of our clients wanted to pull back, shut down ads, and wait it out.
Because that sounds easier, right? (Or less risky.)
But today, I’m sharing a real-life story (from a Hirsh client!) to explain why that’s the worst mistake you can make right now…
Now’s really the time to step up. (The survival of your business depends on it.)
Because truly, there’s opportunity for every business, even within this crisis.
Your job right now is to figure out exactly what your clients/customers want and need… and then show up with that product/service.
In this 20-minute episode, I’m highlighting one of our clients who went from wanting to turn off ads to getting $0.79 leads + 284% ROAS, plus…
- The KEY changes to pivoting your marketing right now (+one MISTAKE to avoid)
- How to ensure business GROWTH v decline over the next six months…
- And why what you do NOW will likely determine your long-term future
Tune in a.s.a.p. and then head over to Instagram to share with your #bizbestie (tag @emilyhirsh so I can see, too!)
And if this episode really resonates with you, please take the leap and apply to work with Team Hirsh today! If you qualify, I promise, we’ll find the opportunities for your business right now…
Key Points:
[1:49] When COVID-19 started to shutdown the US, this client wanted to PAUSE everything
[3:15] Because it’s easier to quit, right? (Or, less scary.)
[6:09] Here’s what had to change with her marketing strategy…
[7:18] And this is the MISTAKE most people are making right now! (Don’t do this.)
[10:55] Now she’s getting $0.79 cost-per-leads and 284% return-on-ad-spend…
[14:21] Think about this: If you choose to wait this out… will your business survive?
[15:57] Take action on what you can control right now
Emily:
Hello, everybody. Welcome back to the podcast. I’m excited to be here with you guys today and share a cool story. I love when our process, and the way I talk about things, and how if you follow the process, I talk about how it always works, and how grounding and coming back to numbers and all of that is so important… When it plays out in a real life, amazing example scenario, it gets me super excited, because it just shows that I’m on the right track, and it really does still work. Everything I talk about in this podcast is constantly being proven by my team and our clients. It really does, if you follow it, it really does work.
I want to share a story today about a client of ours who, when the COVID crisis and everything started happening and the economy started crashing and people were really scared, her initial reaction was to want to pause ads and, “Pause everything until tell this calms down,” is what she said, which she was one of like three [clients] that felt like that. I was very proactive with reaching out to our clients and making sure they felt very supported and that we had a plan and knew what was happening so that didn’t happen, but she was feeling that way.
She’s in the space where she does life coaching and business coaching, and so I was, “Hold on, because there’s a huge opportunity for you.” So, our team talked to her about all of the opportunity and the game plan we had and the strategic plan we had for her marketing, and so she, thankfully, decided to stay on, and we implemented her marketing and have seen amazing results.
I’m really excited to talk about this story, because I just think it is such a good example where, I guess you could say the easy way out or the less overwhelming and scary way would have been for her to maybe pull back her marketing, but then she wouldn’t have known about all of this opportunity and leverage she was sitting on top of. I think sometimes it’s easy to get to a place where you’re like, “I’m just going to quit,” or, “Let’s just stop, because then I don’t have to think about it,” or, “Pull this back.”
This can happen in so many ways. Sometimes this shows up with a promotion or a marketing funnel or launching a product, or sometimes it was with a team member. It’s like, “Well, the easier thing is just to fire them than to work through this.” Sometimes we feel like that, or sometimes it’s with our whole business, “Let’s just quit the whole thing, because then I don’t have to worry about all these things.”
But where the true results and growth and everything comes in is when you push through those moments and you’re willing to, I guess, take a chance, because you know, she could have … This was a chance where she said, “Yes, I want to continue marketing. I want to spend money on this. I want to put this live virtual event out there and try it.” It’s a gamble, because, yes, it could have not worked. It could have completely not worked and not converted to sales, and she could have lost money on it. So, it’s a gamble. But I think that we… Thankfully she didn’t, which I will share, but she did have to make that choice of, “Yes, I’m going to do this,” or, “I’m not.”
I think that we get to this place where it’s easier to just throw our hands up and say, “Let it go, and scale back,” because it’s less scary and it’s less risky. But also we are entrepreneurs, because we’re willing to take those risks. I’ve 100% been there myself where it’s like, “I just can’t even right now, and I just want to throw my hands up and quit.” Usually you have to come back and push through, and when you do that is when you see the best results.
I just want to share the process that we went through with this client, in case you’re in this situation. So, everything went crazy. Her first reaction was, “Let’s just pause ads.” She actually sent me a text and was like, “I just want to pause right now until everything calms down, and then figure it out.” I knew [then] that everything [wasn’t] going to calm down very fast. Also, we’re going to be in a different reality for a long time. Of course, my team, I said, “Just give us until your weekly call this week. We’re going to come with a strategy. I see a lot of opportunity for you. Just hear us out.” She was like, “Okay, cool.”
She went to that call, and my team came… I wasn’t on the call, but my team came to the call with, “Here’s our plan. Here’s the opportunity we see for you. Here’s what we think that you should do,” and then she just was like, “Yeah, I’m in. Let’s try it. Let’s see if it works.” We did that for every account, because I feel like every business right now in their marketing needs to, if you haven’t yet, needs to look at, “What do we have to pivot and change?” Whether it’s just messaging, whether it’s the positioning of your product, whether it’s your lead generation strategy, how you’re connecting with your audience, your content. There’s a lot to be looking at to stay relevant right now, and so we did an audit on every account.
We did this audit on our account, and we created the idea that she was going to do a live virtual event, basically like a webinar, but it was a little bit longer, and it was very much tailored to her audience and what they wanted. [It was] like a webinar, it’s basically like a webinar, but the content was around what’s happening right now. It was supporting her audience through that, and then it was going into a $397 product, a course that she has.
What we had to change here… this is really important, because we obviously tailored the actual live event webinar training to her audience, the content of it, the title and the content was tailored to the times, which means the ad copy was also tailored to the times, which means her actual delivery on the live event, we had to make sure was tailored to the times. Here’s what wouldn’t have worked: change my webinar title and change my ads, so that it’s tailored to the times, but then deliver the same exact webinar and don’t change my content in the webinar to speak to the times or the way I position my offer.
It was crucial that on our end we changed the marketing messaging and what was drawing people in, and then on her end, she changed the webinar content and, this is very important, the way the offer was positioned. For some people right now, this is where they’re missing out. This is where they’re struggling is, I’m seeing people do a good job on the front end, changing the marketing messaging, speaking to the times, connecting with their audience. And then there’s a disconnect once they get people into the funnel.
I have a friend who’s actually just come over to work with us from another agency, but I was talking to him, and he was like, “Well, we’re getting all these sales calls right now, but nobody’s selling, and I think sales conversions are just down, because of the times,” and I was like, “I don’t. I disagree, because people are booking those calls, not thinking that it’s going to be free, what you’re selling. They’re signing up for those calls willingly knowing that you’re going to pitch them something, because why else would they sign up for those calls?” Because of the way they’re positioned.
I said, “The problem is the way you’re positioning your offer in the calls. You’re changing everything on the front end of your marketing, but then once somebody gets to a call with you, your sales person is doing the same exact script. There’s a disconnect. They’re like, ‘Yes, I need this thing. I’m connecting with your content on the front end. It’s going to support me through this crisis, and I need this.’ Then they’re getting to the sales call, and they’re like, ‘Hmm, I don’t know if I really need this right now.'” That was eye-opening for him. That’s just a little side note.
But what was crucial here to her success was that, we did our part in changing the marketing messaging and changing the way that we positioned that live event, and [we] made sure that it made her audience feel like it was going to solve their problems right now and support them right now with what they’re going through. But on our client’s end, she had to hold her weight and change and make sure her content that she was delivering in the actual training and the way she positioned the offer… The offer itself did not change.
She’s had this course for, I think, years. That’s really important to note here, because some people think you have to go create a brand new offer to stay relevant right now. You don’t. You might have to add training to your offer or add some material, but your offer is probably still relevant right now. It’s sometimes just the way you position your offer. In my friend’s case, same thing, I was like, “Your offer is still good, and you’re also adding all this stuff to your offer right now, this training and extra support for your members that you need to make sure you’re talking about, because that’s what people want right now.”
It doesn’t mean throw away your actual, what you’re selling, it might just be the positioning of it. We did all of this. She’s now done two live event, live webinars. I’m calling them events, because that’s what she called them, but they’re essentially webinars. We were seeing a 79 cent cost per lead, cost per webinar registration, and she had 284% return on her ad spend, which is incredible! And so why I am freaking so happy, I love this so much, is, we were able to go through the process of, take this client who was… I guess you could say in panic mode, but was definitely overwhelmed and stressed and thought the best solution was, “Stop all my ads, wait this out”… take them from there to, “No, let’s be proactive. Let’s come up with a strategy. Let’s figure out how we can tailor to your audience.”
Because here’s the thing, if we didn’t do that, her business would not have grown for probably the next three to six months, if she [paused], because we all know this wasn’t going to just be over in one month… which is maybe what she was thinking when she initially wanted to pause, but it’s not. If you’re not willing to create the solution now, to stay relevant now, to see results now, is your business going to survive this? Probably not. You don’t have a choice but to do that right now. We were able to take her from there to say, “Okay, let’s create a strategy. We’re going to make this work.” Like there’s no way around it. There’s opportunity for everyone right now. For every business there is opportunity to create a solution, to pivot, to adjust to the times and to see success.
We’re going to find that, and then we’re going to test it, and we’re going to get it to work. Luckily for her, it worked the first live event she did, but it took following the process, and following this process and connecting with her audience, and making sure we came from a place in every step, from the ads, to the landing page, to the webinar content, to the offer, to the positioning of the offer… we thought about, “What does her audience want right now? What’s going to help them? What’s going to serve them? How do we pivot so that that is relevant?” It’s not about following what somebody did. Throw all that away. It’s not like, “Oh, this live event is why this was so successful. Everybody should do a live event.” No, that was what was relevant for her audience, a live webinar. That’s what was relevant for her audience. Your audience might be different, what they need.
My audience, I wanted to do a podcast series and a live webinar. That’s what I did so far. Everybody’s audience is going to be different, and so it’s not about picking some cookie cutter of, “2020 things have changed. Now, everybody needs to do this.” That’s not how it works. Put yourself in the shoes of your audience and your customers, and just ask yourself, what do they need? What’s going to benefit them right now? What’s going to support them right now? What’s going to make them feel like they can get support through this, they can grow through this? And you have the answer within you right now, you know what that is. It’s just tuning into that and knowing from each level, “What are the ads that they’re going to click on? What is the webinar topic they’re going to sign up for? The content in the webinar, how is it going to help them and support them right now?” Then how does your offer solve a problem for them right now, today, based on what they’re going through?
So from wanting to shut off all her ads and pause all her ads to 284% return on ad spend and 70 cent webinar registrations. Unbelievable, you guys, I can’t believe how cheap ads are right now. That’s amazing! I want to share this, because if you’re in a place where you think right now that just waiting this out and not doing anything and not taking action and pulling back is the answer, you’re wrong. Stepping up is the answer right now. If you choose to pull back right now and to not take action and just to wait things out, I want you to tell me what’s your business going to look like in three to six months from now of doing that? It’s not going to be great.
Step up and take action to make it work. Let’s say for this client that we launched this webinar and it just totally didn’t convert and… let’s just say the cost per lead was way too high when we launched the webinar. Would I have said like, “Oh, pause now. You should pause. You should pull back all your ad spend and pause, because your audience doesn’t care right now.” No. I would’ve said, “The messaging is off. Let’s fix the messaging, and let’s do it again, because we’re going to make this work,” because we don’t have a choice but to make it work. If we don’t make this work, and if we don’t adjust and continue to bring new people into your business and your world, new leads, and get new sales, your business is going to go downhill.
We don’t have a choice but to figure out how we pivot and how we successfully pivot and how we become successful in the times today. That’s the reality. If you’re feeling that pause, wait… I know that’s the easy route. It’s the less risky, it’s the less scary. I know we’re all going through this, it’s scary times, and a lot feels unknown, but you do have some control. You have control over your actions, and you have control over how you’re going to show up right now. That’s what I want you to choose.
I hope this was an inspiration for you, and if you, of course, want support like this… and I really, I’m not just saying this… having a team who’s willing to take your business, strategically look at it, and give you the blueprint to success is so critical right now, and help you come up with that blueprint of, “How am I going to get leads? How am I going to grow my business? How am I going to continually make sales?” Because I know most businesses out there are not going to be okay if they just stopped making sales for the next three to six months. I wouldn’t. I need to make sales, and I am, and I will, and I’ll continue, because I’m making that choice to show up how my audience needs me so that I stay relevant.
If you want that support in your business right now, you can go to helpmystrategy.com to see if you qualify to work with Team Hirsh. We’d love to support you. I’m so excited by our clients’ momentum and results right now, because we’re following this process that I laid out here. At the least, you should do the same. We’re following the process. We’re sticking to the numbers and the data and the hard facts instead of the emotions, and we’re seeing results. So, helpmystrategy.com, and I will catch you guys on the next episode.