[social_warfare]

SHOW NOTES

It’s never going to get any easier to attract your ideal customers than it is right now.

That’s because the internet is a place that continues to get more crowded with every passing second.

So how do you stand out instead of getting drowned out in this overpopulated space?

You’ve got to be louder and bolder than your competition, but that’s easier said than done.

In today’s episode, I’m breaking down four strategies you can start implementing today that will make your brand/business shine online. 

Tune in, and let me know what YOU do to stand out online over on my Instagram page @emilyhirsh.

And if you’re ready to work with a marketing team that can help you custom-build a strategy that attracts more eyes to your brand/business, head to helpmystrategy.com to apply to work with us!

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Emily Hirsh:

Hello my friends. Welcome back to the podcast. How is your day going? Thank you for tuning into me and allowing 20 minutes, or however long this episode ends up being, to be a part of your day. Appreciate you guys. I’m having such a good, gosh, week, month. I’m in California and I just saw the other day it was 106 degrees in Texas, so I was very happy to not be there. My plan is basically live in Texas, but not be there for about four months out of the year, because I just can’t do the summers. We’ve been talking a lot about like our long term goals and plan, my husband and I, and I think that we would love to buy another house in Oregon, or Colorado, to go there for like six, four months. Probably not six months. Four months because basically June through September is just so hot in Austin and I feel bad complaining because I completely chose to move there, like I did not have to. And I love it there all the other months out of the year, but I just cannot do a hundred degrees every day when you can barely go outside. I need my walks, I need to go outside, I need fresh air. Anyway, so all of you like born and raised Texans, I don’t know how you do it. Love Texas 10 months out of the year, or eight months. Math, cause I know how many months are in a year. 

Anyways, today I was reflecting on, we are just doing so well. I’m so grateful to be in such a great place with my business and my team, and just the people supporting me and my company, and our growth and our delivery, and how we’ve really tried to holistically look at everything from all different angles of where we can improve. Whether it’s our delivery, to our marketing, to our sales, to our organic, like marketing versus our paid marketing, and just taking each kind of section and category and not trying to do everything in every category.

You know, like I will still get team members who were like, “we should expand to YouTube where we should do this.” And I think they’re great ideas, but I’m like, save it for next quarter. That’s a quarterly goal. Like we have to focus. This is our, you know, that’s too big of a project to do and we have to focus on what’s working really well and doing that better. And definitely adding new strategies and things in, but I used to way over commit myself and then kind of do everything not as well as we could have. I don’t want to say okay, because it was still good, but I’ve just learned, I’ve learned to be like, that’s a really great idea, but next quarter, in three months. And so I’m proud of myself for that, but I was reflecting on how we have really taken everything into that holistic perspective and looking at all those areas of our business. I think has really led to having some of the best months in our business in the last few months, which is exciting.

And what I want to talk about today is how you can make it, and not just make it, but like thrive and stand out online because it’s only going to get more crowded. I recently finished the book, The Ultimate Sales Machine by Chet Holmes is the author of that. And he talks about how, you know, today it’s never going – this book was written a while ago, I don’t know exactly how long, but definitely like five to 10 years ago –  it’s never going to get easier to market your business and stand out like the future. It won’t get easier. It’s just going to be more crowded and there’s going to be more businesses, more competition, more people fighting for space in your client’s or your customer’s newsfeed, or mind, or in front of their eyes. 

And the reason is not just because there’s going to be more and more businesses, but because the level of stimulation, and like, from when he wrote this to now, it’s probably greatly increased. But the level of stimulation constantly thrown at people of like, look at this content, read this article, read this post, watch this video, listen to this podcast, read this book, consume this course, sign up for this, buy this training, buy this product, is insane. Like it’s crazy how much is thrown at us every single day as consumers, and not just consumers, but if you’re buying, if you’re a business owner buying help and support or a service or a product, you’re constantly, you have so many things being thrown at you and ideas and things that you should do. And so it’s not going to get easier to fight that, you know, the level of stimulation and competition for our attention today is just going to grow and is just going to increase and become more and more difficult to stand out online. 

Unless you’re thinking about that consciously and creating strategies around how do you, your brand and your business, how do you stand out? How do you fight for that attention and win that attention of your audience, of your ideal customers of your ideal clients? So I have some thoughts on this and I was just reflecting on that comment because I wrote it down. I always take notes when I read my nonfiction books and I wrote it down so I was like so true. Like it’s not gonna get any easier. So what are we doing to really pay attention to this? And I just had some thoughts that really came down to constantly looking at your business from a holistic standpoint and being aware of this, but also aware of it in all different angles. 

So aware of it with your organic traffic, how are you going to consistently stand out so that what you post on social media, how you engage on social media, how you build connections and referrals and all of that organically on social media, how are you going to make that so that it’s good, and it’s valuable, and it’s different, and it’s louder. Just a little bit better, a little bit louder than your competition. Maybe that means you put in an extra amount of value. Maybe the, you know, the level of deepness that you go in your post. You never want to get in a place where it’s like robotic, of like we post three times a week on Instagram and two times a week on Facebook, and so just come up with content to post because we have to check those boxes. It’s about the quality that you put out there. 

So for organic, you know, how are you going to stand out? If you’re posting on Instagram, don’t just post a post. Post to make a difference. Post to make sure people read the content, consume the content. Even if it’s one post a week versus four, if that’s what you have to do to create one amazing post a week, that’s better than four posts that just check the boxes of, I posted four times on Instagram. So what are you going to do to stand out in that way? 

And then you can look at your ads and your paid marketing, and how are you going to stand out there? Are you going to just use strategies and templates that other people are teaching and not really take a step back and take the time to consider your audience, your ideal customers, and what you could do differently to serve them better? So, a good example of this is we currently are wrapping up our pop-up podcast series that we’re doing right now, which was, that came from me being like, okay, live webinars are great. They convert, they make us money, they get us applications, I love doing them, but also I think some of our higher level clients don’t go to live webinars. So how can I stand out? How can I be different? How can I serve them better? Well, I know they listen to podcasts, so let’s try this, and me just kind of taking that and stepping outside of the box and trying to innovate. And that’s with our paid marketing. So whether that’s with our ad copy, whether that’s with our actual strategy, there are common things out there that work for everyone and consistently work. And that is, you know, live presentations, or delivering valuable content before you pitch something that works consistently, but how you do it and the content you put behind it, and the way you give it to your audience and show up for your audience can all be unique to you and should be considered. How am I going to stand out against every other webinar out there, every other option out there, every other challenge out there, every other video series out there, how will I stand out different? And you should be asking yourself that question so that you can innovate and you can stay ahead. 

People ask me all the time, or not all the time, but often people are like, doesn’t it bother you when somebody copies you? Or like, I’ve had employees leave and take one of our spreadsheets and then try and sell it, and like, just stuff like that, that just happens. And I’m like, you know, it really doesn’t like it used to, but I always say they can chase me, but they can’t catch me. I will always be two steps ahead of anybody who tries to do that. So I don’t spend a lot of energy on being like, oh man they took my thing, or they’re copying me, or they’re trying to be me, or do this, because I know by the time they’re doing that, I’m already ahead. I’m already two steps there, and I’m two steps ahead of you. I’ve got a new idea, I’ve got a new thing I’m implementing. And that’s how we operate is that level of innovation. 

So that’s your organic, that’s your paid, and then the other piece is your delivery in your actual delivery of your product. And just having good marketing and good outward facing content is not enough to stand out and stay ahead, because eventually it would catch up to you if you don’t have an amazing actual delivery of your product or service. And so I am, those of you who listen to the podcast and I talk about this all the time, but I’m so aware of our delivery and how we can consistently improve it and be the best because that leads to a higher retention rate. 

If I don’t lose clients, I make a lot more money, actually more money than signing new clients. I don’t want to be in a wheel of like got assigned, you know, so many clients to keep up with the ones who we’re losing, that’s terrible, never want to be there. So we consistently are tracking our retention rate to keep it above 95%, which we do, especially in the last recent months, we hit every month, and we had one month of a hundred percent. Which is amazing, but paying attention to our delivery, how do I constantly improve that? How I actually track how many referrals are we getting from other clients? And we have a quarterly goal to get to sign actually 10 to 12 new clients from referrals only, and so we’re tracking like, is that working? Are clients referring us to other people? If not, how do we either improve it? How do we encourage them to do that? How do we improve our service so they want to do that? 

And it’s something I’m looking at. And so a very holistic view of looking at organic marketing, paid marketing, our delivery, and how do we make more money by improving our delivery, or improving the way people refer business, because that’s all organic, you know, business. And that’s how I will stand out and stay ahead when the online space is getting more and more crowded. So I have some other thoughts that I just jotted down on how to stand up, but how to stand out, not up, how to stand out in your business and stay ahead of that crowd. And these are all like values that I really live by. 

So one is to be really bold and direct in your messaging and content. I think this is really important. You have to have passion when you’re talking to your ideal audience and your ideal customers and clients, because they will know if you’re following templates. If you’re staying surface level, if you’re not really connecting with them, they will know. And so you need to be bold and direct with your messaging, with your content and really stand out. And like, that sounds simple, but what comes from that is you need to know your audience. You need to know how do I go the extra step, or go a level deeper than anybody else out there by nailing their biggest struggles, by nailing their the biggest dream they have and really speaking to that in a better way than anybody else could. And the only way you do that and be bold and direct with your messaging is A, have a lot of passion about what you’re talking about and, you know, have that energy because that comes off, but then B, knowing your audience and knowing them well enough that you can talk to them better than anybody else. And that’s why I talk about messaging and knowing your audience so much on the podcast, because it’s so important. 

How else can you stand out? You can stand out by being consistent. Minimum one time a week of new valuable content, whether that’s podcasts, videos, social posts, whatever it is. It’s not about necessarily about like quantity. You don’t have to do it seven times a week or five times a week. You don’t have to do that to stand out. Be consistent with valuable content that goes that extra level of deep and takes the time to really deliver more value than anybody else out there is. Ask yourself that. Is this more valuable than anybody else in my industry? Is what I’m putting out there, whether it’s a video or a podcast or whatever it is, can I confidently say that this is the best? And if not, how do I get it there? What do I do to get it there and set goals around it, accomplish that? So be consistent, minimum one time a week with new valuable content, this will help you stay top of mind. This will help you be the go-to in whatever niche that you solve a problem in. This will help people build trust with you, and by going the extra level deep with the quality of it, it will really help you stand out and be better than anybody else out there. 

The next piece I spoke to, but I’m going to say it again because it’s so important, have amazing delivery and actually track your referrals and organic business around this, because it will tell you if you’re doing a good job with this. And one of the best ways to increase your growth in your business that’s not that hard is to make sure that you’re getting referrals because you’ve done the work to acquire a lot of those customers and clients already, who now, they all know people. They all have networks of friends, of clients, of students, of whatever colleagues, you know, whatever industry you’re in that you can now leverage. Like you’re in their circle and they now reach a whole other circle of people. 

So how are you strategically reaching them, but then also, are you getting them so excited about what you sell and what you’ve offered them that they just talk about it? Because I know that when I buy something, or I work with someone that I love, I talk about them. I mean, how often do I talk about Alex Charfen on here? I mean, he’s like my best friend, but still he’s so good at what he does in his delivery that I talk about him all the time, which then brings him business. I’m sure of people who are like, oh, I heard, you know, Emily talk about Alex. And like, that happens all the time to me. And so look at your delivery and actually try to have a measurable metric that you can track of are we getting organic leads and organic referrals and either customers or clients through my business? Cause then I know if that’s working or not. 

And then the other piece I have in how to stand out is continuing to innovate your content and messaging. I already spoke a little bit to, which is making sure you’re not falling into those cookie cutters. You didn’t, you know, sign up for a course and hear about somebody’s method and then follow that to a T even if maybe your guts, like, I don’t know if that’s going to work for my audience, but I’ll try it because it worked for them. I know so many people have been in that situation and you’re not wrong for being in that situation. I want you to actually know you’re right for questioning it and to follow that instead of following the cookie cutter template. 

Here’s a really good example of this. There is a course out there that a lot of people take who actually come to work with us in our agency, and inside of that course is Facebook ad training. Which is fine, which is good. The problem is the Facebook ad training was all based around what this person did with their own ads and so it’s like the exact process that they did with their own ads. And first of all, they had success with this. I think it’s been a couple of years that they’ve like implement it. So they’re teaching the same strategy. they haven’t really changed it from that strategy. But then second of all, it worked for their ads and their product and their service and their funnel, and that’s not always the case. So instead of taking a template and taking a strategy and following it to a T because somebody else did it, you have to be able to say, well, my audience might be a little bit different and so I have to customize it.

And what those people should be doing is teaching their students, in my opinion, how to think, and how to read data, and how to choose a strategy. And that’s what I do in Ignite. I don’t say do a webinar, like that’s what everybody needs to do. We give them four or five different funnels and we say, here’s if you would consider this, here’s why, and here’s how to do it. Right? And we kind of make them make the decision. And then also have the critical thinking of getting the numbers back and saying, is this working or not working? So really make sure that you innovate with your content and your messaging and your strategy, because if you’re not, like I said earlier, like if someone copies me, I’m two steps ahead. By the time something is working really well and everybody’s doing it, it’s time to innovate it. 

And it doesn’t mean the template and the basis of it still doesn’t work. Like webinars, for example, webinars have worked forever. It still works, doesn’t mean don’t do a webinar because everybody’s doing webinars. It means how do you make your webinar better so more people show up? And how do you make your webinars better so more people convert and sign up to it? How do you do that? And you have to ask yourself that and you know, that’s again where the podcast series came up. For me, it was let me try this because I know my audience. I know they love audio. I know they listen to podcasts because I have this podcast, because I put out good content here. so I’m going to try it. And I will dissect the results for you guys and how that is, which so far is doing very, very well, but just ask yourself, how do I innovate my strategy? How do I innovate my content and my messaging so that I can stand out? And likely, you know the answer because if you know your audience, you know what they want, and you have to just connect with that person that you’re trying to connect with. 

So those are my tips on how to stand out, how to look at your business from a holistic standpoint. It’s not just about the marketing. It’s not just about the delivery. It’s not just about the organic strategy, or the sales. It’s about all of it working together in a system and being the best that you can possibly be, and it’ll never be perfect. My business is never perfect. We’re always improving things and I’ve had to just get used to that, which is hard. It’s really hard to know like, okay, we never like made it, quote. You know, like we never just arrived and we can just sit back. There’s always something we’re improving, but you always want to constantly be, how do you stay two steps ahead? How do you consider your audience and be the best, whether it’s your free content, your paid content, your offer, your marketing, your organic, your referrals, all of those things? How do you stand out? 

Because like I said, it’s not going to get any easier to attract your ideal customers than it is today. It’s just going to continue to get harder. And not saying that to, you know, make you feel discouraged about trying to do it. It’s just, you’ve got to stay on top of it. You’ve got to stay innovative. And if you are a personal brand and the CEO of a personal brand, you know that’s your job to know your customer so well that you’re able to implement and suggest strategies in going out and finding them, and being the best in attracting them, and standing out just a little bit better than everybody else out there.

So I hope that made you guys think a little bit today. Maybe you, you know, hopefully came up with some ideas about what you could do differently in any area of your business to be a little bit better. And if you’re overwhelmed and you’re like, there’s something I can do in all areas of my business, just pick one to start with and ask yourself, you know, how would I, what are like three exact action items that I could do right now in the next two to four weeks to improve my marketing? To be the best in my marketing? To stand out more in my marketing? And then focus all in on that. Especially if you don’t have a team, you know, you don’t want to try and do everything at once. Eventually, like I’m in a place where I can look at all of that cause I have a team to go implement things, but we’re never, you know, sometimes we’re more heavily focused in one area than the other and that’s totally okay. So just pick one that you think will be the most impactful, the most effective for you, and then go all in with that in trying to improve it and make it stand out better. 

Thanks so much for listening today guys. If you want support with your marketing, this is some value that we hold with clients is always staying two steps ahead. And that’s why part of why we test things on my own account and in my own marketing, so that then we can bring that to clients, or we can innovate, you know, one client account. This thing worked so well, so we’re going to bring that over to another client account in a similar industry and just keep it non cookie-cutter and very customized so that it does stand out, that it is the best out there. If you want that level of support with your marketing, you can go to helpmystrategy.com to see if you qualify to work with Team Hirsh.