​​Have you ever looked at your own marketing through the eyes of your potential, ideal customer? This is one of the first steps I take when approaching a well thought out marketing strategy, and it should be at the top of your list, too. 

Connecting with your ideal customer by understanding their fears, frustrations, wants, dreams, and the barriers to achieving their goals creates a deep level of communication and will attract those who resonate with your message. If you aren’t doing this, you’re making a mistake…but you aren’t alone. 

In today’s podcast, I’m revealing the top 5 mistakes even my highest level clients have made. If you’re ready to improve your overall marketing strategy, connect with your ideal clients, and avoid the mistakes so many are making, listen in!

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READ THE EPISODE TRANSCRIPT

Emily Hirsh:

Almost every time that we look at offer positioning, whether that is in a webinar, whether that is in a sales page, in sales emails, there is unclear sales language that causes confusion or overwhelm.

You are listening to the Not for Lazy Marketers Podcast, episode number 486.

Hello everybody. Welcome back to the podcast. I am back in Texas after being in Colorado last week. I had such a great time and I am even more excited to come home to a calendar that is not jam packed after being gone for a week. I’m just so grateful for my team, for the work that has gone into my business in the last six months, and to see it pay off. Like it’s just so rewarding to have a season after a season that just felt a little bit harder, you know, a little bit more resistance there and to, you know, when those things happen, you’re really pushing through and like the goal is like, just keep going. Like, I know it’s gonna change. I know it’s gonna get better. I know that this work is gonna pay off and, and one thing I’ve learned in my life and business is change does not happen overnight.

I know that’s super cliche, but it doesn’t, and it doesn’t happen in a week, and it doesn’t happen in a month. It happens in like three to six months. And what you do today is going to impact you in the months to come. And I think if there’s like one big lesson I could give you on that, it’s to remember that in the moments where you want it to be better tomorrow and you’re super impatient, like I am, to know that if you, you know, keep focusing on that vision and that goal that you have and what you’re working towards, it will happen. It just doesn’t happen overnight or in a week or even in a month. So I have a quick announcement that I wanted to share before I dive into today’s content. And that is on February 28th. So next week, on Tuesday, I am doing a workshop.

And this one is going to be really amazing. I decided to actually bring in our strategist, our Hirsch marketing strategist and do a co-taught workshop where we literally are gonna show you and walk you through exactly how we create client strategies. We do the best work out there in terms of very deep work on a client’s strategy and deep diving into their business, their messaging, their offer, their strategy, and then developing a custom strategy for their business that we then go run traffic to. So during this workshop, we’re gonna walk through every single step and component of doing that and creating a strategy, and you’re gonna do it with us so that you can create this strategy for your own business. So if you’re interested in coming to that workshop, you can go to hirsch marketing.com/workshop to register. It is a paid workshop. It’s gonna be intimate, there will be lots of time for questions, and you’ll walk away with a custom strategy for your business.

A lot of you probably have some sort of a strategy or like a skeleton of a strategy or a piece of a strategy. And so that’s totally fine because we’re gonna fully define that strategy from your messaging to your offer and your offer positioning, and the way you talk about your offer to the actual steps and experience you’re creating to your email marketing, to your content strategy. All of that is covered following the exact process we do with our high-paying clients. So it’s gonna be an amazing workshop and I’m really excited to show you with our strategists the process and give you that really behind the scenes look because I think, you know, I’ve perfected this process over the last seven years and it’s pretty incredible. All right, on that note, I actually wanted to talk to you guys about how I develop a custom strategy for a business today, really specific to VIP days.

So I’ve done two VIP days now, and I have this process that I really sat down and was like, what am I doing when I do this? Because you know, those things that you like just naturally do, and then you realize, oh, there is a method I’m following here. Like there is a method to what’s happening and a process to what’s happening. And I hadn’t defined it. And I think the things that you are naturally really good at, you don’t realize that there is a process happening. And so I thought it would be helpful for you guys to see the way that I create a custom strategy for a business in the form of a VIP day. And so I’m actually gonna break this into two episodes because when I got it out, it was so much. And so first I wanna start with what I look for before the v i p day, because I think this’ll give you good grounds for what you could look for in your own business right now and how you could do kind of like an analysis of what’s happening and where the gaps are.

And I’m gonna share, like most of the time, whether this is in a v i p day or in a client strategy, in any form of working with a client, most of the time there are five things that I find in almost every single business. So in this episode, I’m gonna share with you what those five things are because it might give you clarity that it’s happening in your business. Then in the part two episode that I’m gonna release next week that goes with this, I’m gonna show you how I then take all of that intel and create the custom strategy for the business. And you know, the difference between, there’s a lot of similarities in what I’m gonna teach in this workshop and we’re gonna go deep in three hours in creating your strategy and a v i p day. And the biggest difference is just depth.

Like in a v i p day, we get to dig so deep into, honestly, a lot of times it’s messaging and then coaching comes out. And in both the v i p days I did, there was coaching around showing up and content and like being polarizing and really having that authentic message because a lot of people are scared, even myself, you know, to do some things that you’re scared of. How is how is it gonna be received? What are people gonna think about me? Is it gonna upset somebody, right? And so that comes, seems to come out in the VIP days as well. Whereas in a strategy call with us, it doesn’t really get to that like deep level of coaching and like transformation. So, okay, when I do a VIP day or a client strategy or anyone, here’s what we look for and here’s like kind of what you, what if you were to do this on your own business, what you would do.

So first is a deep dive. So we gather information, and what I’m looking for when I do this is I’m looking at the offer that this business sells through very fresh eyes. And I look at it from the perspective of what if I’m somebody who just came upon this offer today and I saw this and like came across the sales page, came across the business, how do I feel and how am I experiencing this? Am I confused? Am I overwhelmed? Do I not feel excited? Do I not really believe it’s gonna solve my problem? How’s it being presented to me? And so I look at it through that very fresh sense of eyes, then I really connect in with the ideal customer. And so I’ll ask the, we ask, you know, our clients who their ideal customer is, and then, you know, same with my v i p days, but a lot of times people don’t give me enough.

So I really dig and get my understanding of who that ideal customer is. And I really like, I tap into being that person. Like I pretend like I am that person and I’m feeling that pain that they are feeling, whether that’s related to their health or their business or their life or their relationships. And I really get into that mode because everything I review in somebody’s marketing, I need to pretend that I am that ideal customer when I’m reviewing it because it doesn’t matter what I think about their, you know, offer or their sales funnel or their strategy or their social media or their content. It matters how their ideal customer is gonna perceive it. It matters how they are going to feel and what action they’re gonna wanna take after they receive it. So the really important thing for any marketer, but also for you when you look at your marketing is to put yourself in the shoes of your ideal customer, which to do that you have to have an emotional understanding of them.

What are their fears? What are their frustrations? Like, what do they really want? What are their dreams? What are they scared of? What are stopping them? And I also tend to naturally do this, and I think it helps me a lot in marketing, but I’m like very a hesitant person. Like I’m pretty hard to sell, but then when I know I want something, I’ll buy it instantly. I don’t even need a sales call or anything, right? So I’m that person, which is a typical entrepreneur profile, but I think because I’m so hesitant, I don’t buy into a lot of material and marketing, and so you have to go deeper to convince me. So I put myself in the place of that ideal customer and I question everything, every email I see, every social post I see. And that’s how I get to a deep level of communication in my own marketing and then help clients get there.

So I put myself in the place of the ideal customer. I look at the offer through the lens of the ideal customer and I pretend like this is the first time I’ve seen it. A lot of times it is. I mean, with my v i p days, I’ve talked to them in my dms and then I’ve done a call with them to make sure they’re the right fit. So I have seen their offer, but I’m looking at it through the lens of this is the first time I’m seeing it. What are my thoughts? What are my feelings? What do I want to do? What, what is the reaction coming up for me? And then I look at everything from the current messaging that is being portrayed on social media, on their website, on any landing pages that were given to me. And an overall brand review, like going to their Instagram, watching videos, listening to podcast, watching the way that they show up their energy, what they’re naturally good at.

That’s something I look at a lot in my v i p days is because I’m trying to tailor the strategy too, to get people more in alignment with them. Both the v i p days that I’ve done so far, I’ve really looked at encouraging them to be more of themselves. Both of them had gotten advice in the past around their marketing that made them in some areas show up much more templated and calculated than I could tell they were when I talked to them or when I found content that I was like, oh, that is them being authentically them and that is what people want. So I’m looking for that. I’m looking for, you know, are they one of, one of the v i p day businesses that I did was, is very like edgy and direct and the other is not as much.

And so I would not advise the same type of messaging and content for both because they are different. And you have to show up, especially when you’re the face of your brand. But even if you’re goal is to not be the face of your brand, like you still have values that have to represent you. And so, you know, for, for example, the business that the first v i p a day I did, she’s a lot like me where she’s very direct, she’s very get to the point, no fluff. She is edgy. She can say controversial things, you know, she knows what she wants and she has that personality and I’m similar. And so when I looked at it, some of her stuff, I was like, I think that’s not coming out enough in your social media, for example. So when I go in and I look at that, I’m looking at their current messaging and I’m looking at their overall brand.

How is the experience if I go to their Instagram, if I consume their content, if I go to their website, if I go to their funnels, like what is that experience for me? What message am I getting? If I was to guess their values, what would it be? How do I feel? Right? And all of this takes me like maybe an hour or two hours and I do it, sometimes I do it, I put it down and I come back to it. That’s just how I work. And sometimes I’ll be like laying in bed when I’m, you know, scrolling, laying with my son at night, which is not a good habit, <laugh>, but I’ll go to these, these v i p days businesses and just like experiences if I was someone, you know, checking out their content as people do, right? Normally. So that’s what I do first.

And then from that I’m gathering that feeling. I’m gathering that intel and what that experience is and here’s what I consistently find and what I’m looking for. And so there’s five things that I’m gonna share that if you were to go do this to your business, you would maybe find these things. But these are the consistent things that I find, whether it’s in a v i p day, whether it’s in a strategy with a client, whether it’s at an event and I’m helping someone out who asks me a question about marketing. And so this is specifically also what I’m looking for because it’s the most common things I find. The first one is incongruence in their messaging and their content in their overall brand. So I mess, I, I mentioned this earlier, but incongruence in the sense that either it feels very templated, it feels like somebody else created it, it feels like it wasn’t created for their ideal customer, and it feels like it’s not authentic to them and it’s not something that they would naturally do that I’m attracted to as someone who just came across their brand.

And incongruence also in the messaging and content that’s creating confusion. Like if I ever go to somebody’s Instagram and I’m like, I’m not really sure what they do or the problem that they actually solve, that’s a big problem, right? Then there’s incongruent messaging happening because that means in your content and your overall brand awareness, you are not clear about your pillars and your values and how you’re showing up. And so a cold traffic person coming to your brand, coming across your brand is maybe not clear on that. And so that’s one thing I see very often where I see, okay, they’re, they’re trying to either attract this person or they I know are an edgy, direct, no fluff person, but then I see these videos and they’re toned down and they’re templated, they’re scripted and they just don’t sound like them. So that’s the first thing that I look for and, and note and often find and it shows up in either messaging, like copy language, it shows up in content a lot.

Videos, podcast, like how they consistently show up it, it is showing up, there’s an incongruency happening there. And then just the overall brand website, sales funnel links, like different places that you’re going in that experience you’re creating and is there incongruency. The second thing that I look for in this happens a lot of times and the reason this happens is because having really solid messaging that attracts your ideal customer doesn’t happen overnight and takes a lot of refinement. And so oftentimes I see messaging that is not going to attract their ideal customer. And a lot of times what’s happening is they’re not being specific enough in their messaging and in their content that it’s not being direct enough to attract the person they’re really trying to attract. So it could be that they’re trying to attract a business owner at a certain level, but the content that they put out is not attracting that person.

It’s attracting the lower level person. It could be that they’re trying to be super inclusive because they don’t want to miss out on sales or leads, but then what happens is their messaging is way too broad and not compelling enough. And so looking at from the perspective of social media content, add copy landing page, copy, emails, all of those things, am I really clear who their ideal customer is? And, and do I understand that and relate to that? And is it the ideal customer of their offer, right? Because a lot of times I see this where the people are afraid to actually call out and say like, Hey, you have to be at this level or you have to have this health issue, or you have to be this person for this to be the right fit for you. And calling that in, in all of your messaging on the front of your marketing.

So that’s the second thing that I look out for and that I frequently see. The third thing is, almost every single time that I work with a business in this way no matter the level do I see this, and it’s also because of the constant refinement that is required here. And even myself who has worked on this so much and I, you know, love marketing and get it really well, I’m still constantly refining this. And that is your offer positioning and the way that you sell your offer, especially if you are somebody who’s writing your own copy, you are too close to the offer to write the copy that is as clear as it needs to be for somebody brand new to understand the offer. It is really hard to do this, especially when you don’t even get a conversation with someone. This is why, you know, sales calls work so well is because you’re able to customize the way you talk about an offer and to somebody’s experience and to their pain and to their emotions, and then sell the offer.

Obviously for everybody, sales calls is not the right fit, nor should you be doing them based on your offer and the price of it. But you have to repeat that same process in all of your marketing. So in your sales page, in your emails, in all of those places, you have to repeat the process of customizing to their emotions, the experience and tying your offer to that. And so a lot of times when I look at a sales page or I look at anywhere that the offer is being presented, I feel either confusion about what the offer actually is and what I’m gonna, you know, accomplish, but also I don’t understand the full path to how I’m gonna get there. And there’s a lot of, here’s the features. It’s this many modules, it’s this many coaching sessions. It’s it’s a Facebook group, it’s this bonus.

There’s a lot of the, the here is what it is, here’s the ingredients list and not enough of the outcomes. And so something that I help clients with and that we did in this v i p day is look at every single component of the offer and tie it to a result. It’s this module so you can achieve X, Y, z, it’s this Facebook group so that you can do X, y, z. And then I’ve talked about this in the past, but also whenever you sell an offer, especially if there’s a lot to the offer, you have to paint the picture of how somebody’s gonna get to the result. I have to believe 100% when I hand over my credit card and wanna buy your offer that I will get the result I want to get. People do not buy offers hoping that they’re gonna get a result.

Now will everybody go use it and get the result? No. But in the moment of buying, they have to believe that they will. And so your sales language has to show them the path, which means showing them milestones. Or like one thing I worked on with one of our clients is we created 30, 60, 90 day expectations. Cuz her offer has so much in it and it has so much value that I wanted her to break down and say, okay, in the first 30 days of joining this program, you’re gonna be able to achieve x, y, z 60 days, this 90 days this, and here’s how you’re gonna do it. We have a step 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. And with all those steps, we connected what was in the program so that the actual what of the offer was connected constantly to outcomes and a pathway and milestones and accomplishments.

So almost every time that we look at offer positioning, whether that is in a webinar, whether that is in a sales page, in sales emails, there is unclear sales language that causes confusion or overwhelm. And so constantly I’m looking to improve that. And I bet if you went and looked at places you sell your offer right now through the lens of first time seeing this, trying to understand, you know, what this is and if I need it as my ideal customer, you would experience that. And that’s why I’m saying if you write all your own copy, it’s really hard to get out what you already have this deep level like knowledge bias towards and, and get it out clearly for somebody who’s gonna see it for the first time. Okay, there’s two more things that I’m looking for and that I see almost every time.

This one is a disconnected sales funnel experience. It’s where there is not a focus on what has proven to work. There’s not a connected experience. It’s throw spaghetti at the wall. It’s like maybe an opt-in over here, a webinar over here. There’s, there’s many times that I’ve talked to somebody and this did happen in one of my VIP days where there was things that had worked that then they jumped over and started doing something else instead of kind of refining that and, and digging deeper on that strategy. So the next thing, like after, you’ll notice that the first three things are all messaging related. It’s all related to how we’re going to attract your audience, how we’re gonna sell to your audience, like that congruency that we’re gonna create in your messaging. And then we can focus on the strategy. So then I look for disconnected sales funnel experience.

I try to find like what is working, what is not working, what can we repeat more of? What can we stop doing? So that’s a question that I ask for my v i p days so that I can dig into that. And in part two of this I’m gonna talk about like how I create the strategy from the v i p day, but I specifically am looking for do we have anything that is working and do we have evidence of things that are not working? And then where’s the disconnection and where is the, where is the experience flawed in creating something that takes somebody from brand new to your audience to a lead to a sale? And then the fifth thing that I look for and typically have to have a conversation with I only had to do this in one of my two v i p days, but is lack of focus trying to do too many things.

I most of the time simplify somebody’s business and there are times that I, you know, I’ve gone into strategy calls and, and moments with people where I’m like, I’m sorry, I’m gonna say this. You don’t have to take my advice, but I am gonna say this, I am gonna plant the seed that I don’t even think you should be doing this offer or this funnel. I think that we should go all in on X, Y, z. And, and typically people are like, oh, you’re right, or they’re like, relieved to hear that. But I do look for trying to do too many things, trying to make too many things work and doing them all not well and just okay, because you’re trying to do too many things. So that lack of focus is gonna hinder. And, and what I try to get all of our clients and my v i p days to do is really hone in on what is that one offer, one funnel that we are going to go all in on for the next 90 days at least and make sure that it’s working.

And then it depends on the level of business, but then we can tie in like higher ticket offers or lower ticket offers. But we have to have one major focus, especially if right now something isn’t working for them. So those are the things that I look for. And I typically find when I am looking at businesses and, and diving super deep into them. And so part two of this, just because it would’ve been a super long episode to make this into one episode, so I’m gonna make it into two, I’m gonna now say, okay, that’s like my analysis, that’s what I’m doing beforehand. That’s what I’m, you know, looking at. That’s what you would probably find if you went to go look out for your own business. Part two is now how do I actually create the strategy that we then go execute And I, you know, I’m in the process of for my first v i p day, cuz it’s been a month now since we did it.

We’ve built the new funnel, we’ve audited her webinar a few times and like we’re going to execute this which is now gonna be part two. Like, how do I create that strategy and go execute that strategy? If at any point you’re listening to this and you’re like, I would love to have this level of hands-on support for my business, then just send me a message like, these v i p days are very exclusive. I make sure I can 100% help you that it’s the right fit to have this full day, or I’ve split a few and two on Zoom, or we can do them in person in. But if you want that level of like such depth and overhaul and also some coaching, like I said in both of them, coaching came up around like them as a ceo, content creation, confidence around that, how they can show up more authentically and, and taking my experience of helping hundreds of businesses do this successfully.

So if that’s of interest of you as you’re listening to this, I just want you to send me a message on Instagram at Emily Hirsh and we can chat and we can get on a call if we feel like it’s the right fit. I only have one more spot for this quarter, which there’s one more month left, otherwise I’ll be taking spots for q2, which I do think will fill up quickly. I have some people already interested that I talked to, to in q1, so if you’re at all interested in that, send messages, we can chat and then I’ll be back next week with part two, which we’ll talk about how I actually create the plan, execute the plan and and what goes into that.

Thanks for listening to the Not for Lazy Marketers Podcast. If you love this episode and want deeper support with your marketing, head over to helpmystrategy.com to see how Hirsh Marketing can help take your marketing to the next level no matter where you’re at today. We help our clients scale faster than ever, find hidden leaks in their funnel, experiment with new creative marketing strategies, and help their business explode and be more profitable than they ever dreamed possible. Head over to helpmystrategy.com and see if you qualify for a free strategy audit with Team Hirsh.

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