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How to Attract Your Ideal Client

Once we know who our ideal client is, now it's time to attract. So, this is the point where everybody wants to start and there was a slide earlier on that says do not pass go, do not collect $200. Do not come here, do not come here and play in this house unless you know who you're talking to. So, the biggest mistakes that I see quite often when it comes to online marketing is the following. Look how great my business is. Look what's new in my business. I have my business, products, and services are in sale. That's what I see as marketing endeavors online, but this marketing isn't valuable. What I suggest is if you're at a point where you want more business, the thing that would be best and behoove you is to create a marketing ecosystem. So, what's a marketing ecosystem? Well, it's a system that ties all your marketing efforts into one plan. If you don't know it now, you will definitely know shortly that I love plans, I love strategy, I love things when things are just compartmentalized...

in their little boxes and I know what to do. So, if we have a plan and we know who we're talking to, the guesswork is kind of eliminated. So, some of you probably are tired of marketing. Some of you feel like I'm marketing and I'm not getting the results that I want, or you feel like you're doing it wrong. And a lot of times the thing that I hear that, again, hurts me is people saying nobody's listening, and I believe that every voice should be heard, but you might be talking to the wrong people. So, let's see what we can do to kind of rethink the situation. So, I believe in creating marketing content to show your perspective, your insight, and your knowledge, and the vast majority of the people in this room could get better at it. And I'm not looking at anybody 'cause the time when we do hot seats will come. (laughter) Okay. So, if we can agree to this... And one thing that I have to... I'm just gonna take a little side breath. I noticed that I actually can't watch the videos from Creative Live that I've taught in the past. It's just something I just can't, but sometimes I'll just see promotional pieces and I look so angry all the time when I'm teaching. I'm so like, yes, you're gonna do this and you're gonna learn. So, if you guys smile at me, it'll be a reminder for me to smile. So, my question, my ask of you today is just smile at me because then I remember that I am actually a pleasant person in real life. Okay, so what we see a lot of is marketing that looks like I am a photographer, here are my photos. I am a graphic designer, here are my designs. I am a cake baker, here are the cakes that I bake, and that's not marketing. That's a commercial. I suggest creating content that should be less about your business and more about your customer's needs. So, remember how we started the day we talked about a value proposition. A value proposition strictly is how can you speak to somebody's needs. So, do you want more business? Yes, well then you must create more value than you are creating now. Do you want your business to stand out from the competition? You must be doing something different than your competition, and the best way to do something different is to answer unanswered questions. What is everybody else talking about? Stop talking about it. The only way to stick out is to stick out. Okay, how, right? 'Cause I can say create valuable content. Okay, create it, awesome, but let's get to the nitty gritty. I want you walking with actual steps. So, first thing's first is who is your customer? Well, once you complete your 25 questions and once you have your story, you know who that is. So, once you have your story, you know who that is, you're gonna think what does this person need help with? So, here I am, going on this new adventure, developing a business strategy consulting business specifically for online entrepreneurs. What do I think Elle needs help with? This is actually a real thing that I do. I think, if she's at her business, what does she need? Well, Elle has heard about Facebook Live, but she's really uncomfortable being on camera and she thinks it's all kinds of awkward and she doesn't really know how to do it. So, I put together a blog post, how to use Facebook Live for your business, and then I went on Facebook and had a Facebook Live on how to use Facebook Live for your business. I mean, what, it's like so meta. But here's the thing, (laughter) when I'm talking about how to use Facebook Live for your business and I am using it for my business, I'm doing the thing that I'm preaching to you guys. We're creating value, but in the process of creating value we're pointing it back to us. More on that in a second. So, what does she need help with? What are the things that keep him or her up at night? Are there tips and tricks that are in your wheelhouse that you can share with people that make their life easier? Okay, so this is where some people are like, no. Again, I'm not gonna create content that will teach people the thing that I do, and oh you who vastly overestimate the capabilities of people online, right? We think, I could literally walk somebody step by step by step: this is how you take a photo. Guess what? They're probably not gonna take the photo right, right? We can overshare and only one to 2% of the people will actually take it and apply it and succeed at what that methodology is. Why? Because we're all good at what we do, we are. I don't even know what you do, but I know that if you're in this room and if you're taking the time to watch this class, you're good at what you do, period. So, if I was a graphic designer, I would talk about how to create your own logo. How to create a business card. What are the top three mistakes that people are making when they design their own business card, right? We're thinking about what is somebody online searching for? And I always think in search terms. The vast majority of the titles on my blog are search terms. How do I use Facebook Live for my business? How do I stick out in social media marketing? Do you guys see what we're doing? We're creating an ecosystem, we're creating plans, we're creating the foundation, we're gonna back to that. So, people say why would I create content that is going to take business away from me, and my response is the following. You're people that are searching for what... They don't know they're searching for you yet. They're searching for the thing you're providing. So, you're gonna be... These people are searching for answers or they're searching for solutions and the content you're creating are going to serve both. So, they're serving an answer like, how can I create my own business card or they're searching for a solution. They thought they wanted to design a business card and once they got to your site, they're like, wow, this person is so much better than I could ever be, so you know what? I switch the plan, I'm gonna go with this person. So, this is what content does. So, let's kinda dig more into this example. If I was a graphic designer, how to design a business card. Now, I would include content in this type of blog post. What is the proper size of a business card? What's too big? And then you talk about, well, you wanna make sure that the business card fits in a wallet. You wanna make sure that it doesn't stick out of somebody's pocket at a networking event. These are all basic stuff, right? But these are all searchable keyword terms. What about, how much room should I leave for bleed on a business card? 'Cause people think, if I design a 2.5 by 3.5 card, it'll be 2.5 by 3.5. No, you actually have to make the card bigger because when they print them and they cut them, right? You're sharing content and as you're sharing content, every example, you wanna make sure that the business card fits in a pocket, and then you say, I designed this business card for Bob the Builder and look at how cool it looks for his thing, right? So, we have to leave room for bleed. This is what the design that I sent to the shipping. Do you see the extra room along the side? And this is I did for Helen Honeycut Photography, dadada. You're using your work as examples to buttress you pitching your business. Now, how many people will find that blog post so much more valuable than, so I designed a new business card, go check it out. (buzzer) Next. We have to function the way that... We have to create content for the way that we function on social media. We don't click over... As much as we love our friends and as much as we love seeing what our competition's doing, very few times are we clicking over to see new work. We're clicking over when something is dynamic. Okay, so I believe that this type of content, helpful, valuable content, is going to be the things that convert them to customers, and if it doesn't convert them to customers now, it will convert them to customers in the future. I believe this and this is my mantra. If you don't believe that, I need to walk you through the process so that you too believe these things. And here's how you're going to do it. When I created how to use Facebook Live for your business, I created an additional checklist for your first Creative Live... I mean, for your first Creative Live. Yeah, I should do one of those too. For your first Facebook Live, (laughter) here's a checklist to ensure that it goes successfully and you're not intimidated. Fill in the blanks. What's your goal? How many people watching will be a success? How many organic reach do you want? Is your mic clear? Are you in good light? I gave a checklist to ensure, but in order for them to get the checklist I had to get their email address, and once I get their email address, boo, I didn't make you a customer now, but imma make you a customer in the future 'cause what I'm selling to I right now you don't find valuable, but when I sell something in the future that you do find valuable, I have built trust, I have built loyalty, and I have built a relationship specifically on the thing that you are looking for. That is how you create long-term growth in a business. I do not propose short-term goals, I propose the long game. You and I are in it for the long game. I don't want you to be here in business for a year and a half. I want you to be in business for 100 and a half years. Now, the goal of creating content, the goal of creating valuable content is to position yourself as a professional. You have put something out so good that you're just slaying. You're just that good. (laughter) That's just it. You can say you wanna dye your own hair in a box, but look at all these little tutorials that I'm doing for you. You can't do this at home. And you're doing this and you're showcasing the thing that you're doing so magically that people don't even know that they're truly being sold to, and they don't know that... They don't feel like they're being sold to, they feel guided, and when people feel like you're guiding them to the solution, they trust you as a result. And so many entrepreneurs write blog posts in a certain way, right? Outside of the here's a new update of what I'm doing. Right, those we know all exist, but what I see... Let's just carry this example of me as a graphic designer. I talked about the right logos to use, the business cards, but what I see a lot of graphic designers do is the top three things you should know when working with a graphic designer. How to choose the right graphic designer for you. What to have prepared for your graphic designer. And this type of content assumes one thing, that the person that they're trying to serve knows that they already want to know they want to work with a graphic designer. And a lot of new business owners don't know they want... They don't want to work with... They don't want to spend more money. Our job is to educate them why it is important that they invest and spend more money. Is your content doing that? And if it's not, there's a lot of room to grow. There's only... We're only going up from here. So, when we have stuff that... How to work with a graphic designer, the things to have prepared, that's a commercial. I love when my clients have a Pinterest board of 2,071 photos. No, you don't. No, you don't. What do you really want? What do people really need help with? How to create a Pinterest board, and you say, here are my top tips with Pinterest board. When I work with clients, I really only recommend 21, which makes a lot of hard work, but when you see 21 images, the voice of your brand changes. Oh, yeah! You're right. Here I am trying to have 700 photos on my Pinterest board. That type of psychology and how we're selling online, very different landscape now. You wanna be on the front of it, you don't wanna be struggling right behind everybody else when they know and you know... You see good marketing, you see good value marketing, be on the front of that. So, this type of marketing isn't gonna be about you. It's gonna be about what you can do for them. Let's flip the script a little bit. So, if you're struggling to get new business, the thing that you need to focus on is you need to create value for them and we need to know exactly who we're talking 'cause when you build value and trust (snaps) the sale becomes much easier. So, when you create this type of marketing, outside of just attracting new clients, a few good things. You get greater SEO. People, so search engine optimization. People just stumbling, how do I use Facebook Live for my business? How do I design my own business card? You're gonna have more relevance. When you actually have an opinion about something... It's so crazy how often I look around and I see business owners who don't have opinions about anything except for the stuff that they're producing. Have an opinion, rub people the wrong way, and by rubbing people the wrong way you're gonna have a tribe who's so much more loyal to the thing that you're saying. They're gonna support you. They're gonna be like, hey, she helped me 10x my business and what? Thank you. I didn't have to get involved in that conversation. You also have position as a leader in your field. I became a leader in my field simply because I said I was a leader in my field. That's what the internet has done, and oh, I could see the chatrooms are gonna be lighting up right now. Who does this girl think she is? (laughing) Try it. Try it, try it at home. Be a leader, boo, be a leader. I want everybody to walk out and say, I am a leader in graphic design. I am a leader in event decor. I am a leader in empowering female entrepreneurs to find a job of their dreams. Say it because then you start acting like it, and when you act like it it comes to you. And you're also gonna have more people paying attention to what you're doing. It's crazy. When you're out and about, when you go home, y'all, I just gave you a gift. I gave you the gift of a Creative Live blog post. Talk about how you're investing in your business. Talk about... Somebody came here from Florida, where is she? We have two people, two people from Florida! I mean, you all came to the opposite coast. This definitely warrants you saying I did this for my business, here is why. This makes you stick out. This is a unique opportunity, so leverage it to the best of your abilities. And here's the thing, when people feel like you're helping them, they become thankful, and when you have a tribe of thankful people they stay by your side through thick and thin. These people aren't just customers and clients, they become long-term supporters and that is just as valuable for social validation, and all of this leads to more business.