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Lesson Info

Marketing Goals & Plan

So we spent this morning looking at business landscape, you know, understanding what makes you stand out and, you know, one of the things we highlighted was customer needs, and so we're going toe start diving into that in more detail here, and I know that there are a lot of questions about that, like yesterday when I asked, what do you guys looking forward coming into this marking piece, that's going to be full of lots of information for you guys? So hopefully walking away with a marketing plan or at least the start of one? Like I said, this is a non linear process. So as we go through the finances and action planning and cohort stuff tomorrow, you're probably circle back and add more things. So getting the word out, I like to think of, you know, being sure when you're clear about who you are and what your business stands for, like what we did yesterday, it's much easier to communicate a clear message, right? So the work you guys did with the business vision, the values, the purpose an...

d passion proclamation that helps you get really clear about what you and your business stands for, and you do that without even trying, right? I mean, even just with nathan standing up there is talking about his business. I mean he's, just who he is and very compelling so it's like, oh, without even trying you're like selling people on this idea you know what I mean? And you know, kathy with your awesomeness and france is talking about health and wellness it's like you just exude already well, you're passionate about and that is one of the first steps to getting the word out, showing up being clear. So what is marketing? So instead of, you know, the definitions of marketing, I like to think of it as an enticing invitation to connect with your perfect customers. So instead of this idea of, like, bombarding people with messages, I have to, like, tweet things and facebook things and get the news later, let her out it's an invitation to connect with you, right? And even, you know, not necessarily to sell something it's about building relationships first and then they'll want more right? So think of it as an invitation to connect and really it's how you let your perfect customers know that you have something they need right? Certainly speaking tonight to them in that language about what is it you've been hearing that they need in that customer needs river section and being able to speak to that, you know, in terms of maybe your messaging, your products and services being really clear on that um curious here how else do you guys think of marketing and I know that somebody would have been in business for a while candy I think it is relationship building yeah it's just kind of building in the relationship you know, something that just comes to mind off the top of my head is that I see marketing as away tio share the gifts that you've come to share and if you just it's like we all are born with gems and we can enjoy them and keep them to ourselves but if were courageous enough to share them yeah it's kind of a divine duty and we share a gems by marketing telling people I have this if you want some fact laying out with me exactly love that language go go bernie okay, I just say I think it may be the single most important aspect to everything that we're doing because marketing really is the tunnel it's the path towards all the great creativity and ideas that we have in the room and all of our talents and making it a reality and monetizing it exactly. So yeah, we just want to have all these ideas be hobbies you know then you don't have to worry about marketing your hobby necessarily you want to make a living you know for yourself then marketing's you know, probably the most important thing it's really key yeah if your hobby your friends your family might buy your stuff but if you want to make it to business you need to reach and find the right people who are willing to pay money for your gifts so totally important and you guys have to do a lot of great ground work yeah, we have some people online timing in way have the doll project and she says marketing it's about knowing your target audience and speaking directly to them and dreaming big says cultivating relationships with people I don't know I said the door though the door through my product offering we instantly have a common interest it's about finding the most creative ways to create customer loyalty cool yeah the cool thing about that one is it's about the long term right? The loyalty doesn't just happen with one tweet right? They get to know you then they follow you and then they see like oh cool this is what you have to say about divorce about health care about serving your family and love and all that kind of stuff right then you'll help build that over the long term were there mark yes way we've got this like a little sixty second delay or so what we're talking about yeah another airport pouring in okay, we have we have patients ten l says sharing with others the values that you can give to them and we have we have amy e and thank giving and receiving equal exchange of energy nice and I love this beth on slow creative I got that right I just treat people like they're already friends my clients become my friends and that makes it really easy to connect cool yeah there's like this relational quality and it's not about me trying to sell you something that really getting to know that yeah exactly that's exactly what mary mcdonough said inviting not convincing nice so inviting not convincing customers to access your services yeah that's so great and that such you know that kind of masculine way of like, oh god, I hate when I go to networking events like person there's a person there just shoving their business card in your face I don't even know you we haven't even talked like why do I want to have your business card right it's about connecting lisa you're laughing? Yes I e o networking uh I also want to just touch really briefly on branding zay know that comes up as it relates to marketing's when you're really clear about your brand, your marketing will be a lot more effective so when I talk about branding it's really the heart and soul of your business it's what people you know experience from your work right so it's the emotional that image, the emotional response and the experience and when it's consistent, you helped leave this lasting impression so it's, like when they think of caitlin and you're image styling, they have a certain feel or experience from you, so it can include your words, your tone, your energy or your style, it's all sorts of things that make up your brand when you think of, like, iconic brands like apple or I don't know nike nike, right? I mean, we all it all conjures up certain tones or images, and the more you hone your brand, the more recognizable you'll be. So just like with my he with the solution that just do it, um curious here, folks, you know, have a clear sense of their brand and it's something you're still working on, we're not going to die of too much into it, but I just want to get a sense here still something that's forming? Yeah, I think it's still forming for me, it is becoming more more clear because I've been working on what in my offering and doing processes like we're doing here in this workshop are so critical for understanding what is my brand, because my brand like he said, is a representation of who I am, right and I found that the better I get to know who I am and what I value the more clear my brand has become because my brand is representing the very values that I'm trying to live and just share with the world right? And I think people will often shy away from talking about their business or even like they spend so much time like what's the logo right who spent all this money and hire graphic designer like what's the logo and not out there talking with people and learning more about your business and seeing what they respond to. So I think, it's that whole being in relationship, understanding your perfect customers that's actually the valuable part and from that interaction you get the clarity around the brand. I mean, I have found that for myself too it's like right brain business plan there is like this brand about it when we were kind of actually living and breathing it in this room together is an experience, and when I was at my kitchen table in two thousand seven making my first rate bring business plan, I don't feel like, oh, there needs to be a local one of my color is like just evolved over time and then became this brand so this is something where I know people struggle with and they feel like I need to get this right and there's a lot of that left brain stuff around, it is super important and you can let it evolve one thing that like to add to that is I think especially for creative people we can get a lot of inspiration from a logo and so I really encourage creative people who don't have logo's to go out and talk to some graphic designers and see how other creative people interpret your business and you get really great ideas so there's some awesome websites I don't know my allowed to say websites and stuff so I used a web site called ninety nine is just going to say that reminds you ninety nine designs yeah yeah it's called ninety nine designs dot com and that's how I got the logo for divorce cafe and what's cool about that is you just you talk a little bit about your business you know you you get to write you know what you want to do the kind of customers you wantto approach and you get designers from all over the world interpreting your business and coming up with different designs and it's really it's inspiring it's super creative it's energetic and I think that you know the designer that did the divorce cafe logo is from romania suite yeah and the way that process works like you put out a bid right and you don't pay until you you don't you know you want to guarantee it is not that expensive people think no I can't afford the designer it's two hundred ninety nine dollars is a steal right, so I'm not it's a great way to kind of you're doing a focus group in a way and then you get an actual tangible take away from that and you can revive it doesn't need to be the end all be all it's a lot of people are intimidated by logo on graphic designers and what my message is don't be intimidated just do it just go to the website and there's other design websites like it talk about your business a little bit and see what comes in and so I think that you sometimes can even get reverse inspired from love that you brought that up and you know and none of them work you don't have to pay anything, right? Yeah, and because you guys have been doing this work here, you can even include like a link to your big vision collage and we're going to be doing perfect customer profiles, right? And so that helps to communicate them kind of overall feel that you're wanting and that gives them even more information than just a text description. So that's why all this work that we're doing with these visual plans in the right business plan is that communication tool to help communicate what's in your head about what you're wanting to create that other people can execute can create logo's and your marketing and all of that so that's why these air so important totally. And the last thing that ad is marketing can be an overwhelming concept. If you have a really cool looking logo and you feel represents you you feel pretty confident compass stronger going into marketing with it, I totally agree and then people respond to it as well. It can speak for you in a way. Yeah. Francis he had a hand up it's just going to add quickly that there is one other group. When I was trying to do ninety nine designs, I lacked the clarity that I needed to feel like I could really give the designers direction. Yeah, good direction. So I actually started working with fiver dot com and so it's five months to get your design that's, right? And I really I really liked that approach, because then you can just throw like twenty five bucks out there. You get five designers who will work on your stuff and so it's kind of a low risk, low budget way to do it too. That's great. And how do you spell visit the fight and five e e e ar dot com go great. Curious. If there are other comments online about branding or anything like that, we have square root photo who says brandy ghouls and organized manifestation of your overarching identity as related to your business cool, cool way have a couple more my business dna, that's impatience. Nice. And then dreaming big says the consistent look and feel of a symbol that represents your offering. Cool. Thank you. I want to make sure you guys have your getting the word out, please. Sheets, because we're going to feel a little bit in on that. So for the folks at home, hopefully have it printed out for the studio. Folks should be on your clipboard before we go into the perfect customer portrait. It's it's important. So the place she it looks like this. So there's kind of two sections. There is a top part in this blue section that says by getting the word out goals. And there are spaces for two balls there if you want to put two goals and then ah place for perfect customer description of your perfect custom. First, if you want to write out a description there but before we dive into, you know, perfect customers. An actual plan. It's helpful to know why are you doing marketing? What is it you want to accomplish through your marketing? What are the outcomes? So some examples I know it be helpful to see, like what are some examples? So maybe it's, you want to sell one hundred products by the end of the month? Right? So you'd put that here in this section that relates to maybe it's double the number of clients in the next three months could be one land, twenty five new commissions by next quarter like maybe with anything's example maybe there's identify three strategic partners that want to participate in the weapon are so some kind of clear goal or metric and it doesn't need to be like the deal and all goal this is just to kind of help us go through the process it's helpful to put something on paper okay, so take a few moments to do that and I will want to hear from folks because it creates accountability and I want to remind everyone that this is one of the free downloads when you enroll for the course so you can just go to the course page and enroll and download from that first section right beneath the big photo there, so we're just staying at this top portion here layer on during the section will start filling in the details of, you know, the what and the how just staying at the high level what you want to accomplish, please cathy getting really scared about this what's till I commit to it like I'm like we're one that doesn't happen or ok great and I want to bring that up and I think it's worth talking about I think that relates to business plans of general uncle setting is we refrain from writing it down we're like, oh my gosh, if I write it down, it doesn't happen I failed so not true, right it's like putting us it's think of it as putting a stake in the ground and then if it happens or not it's just information it's like, oh ok, if it didn't happen by this time, okay, well, what do I need to do differently? Right? Or maybe the goal wasn't the right goal and I need to tweak it so throughout this whole process just know that it's better to just write something down how something that you're shooting for because it's going to help you take steps for and so even if you have the goal of you know so one hundred products by the end of the month and you sold eighty that's still pretty great it's like ok, what worked with how you sold it um and if you didn't even have that goal, would you have taken the steps to even sell things in the first place? Thanks as a left brain telltale moment totally we have some coming in. Okay, well that's cool we have sprinkle hearth and happiness, finkel health and happiness who says my goals are to find ten people for a new workshop and write one block post awesome so I love that it's got the metric of the ten people on block post I love to know if there's a time frame when the ten people buy and when if the block post it's like weekly or ok give us more details a timeline and we have infinite happiness goals they're not giving yourself permission for negative self talk they're for inspiration to move towards the positives beautiful thank you for that y'know cap is making its way definitely hope timelines on these goals because what they say a dream a goal is going to be one with the deadline I need some lines because it could be the next ten years you're writing blank foes so you want well, exactly so we have adrian farm says his goal is getting at least five people to recommend my work great okay, we have bill response coming in about timing from sprinkle health and happiness who says a blood post two times per month and ten people by the end of february nice we go get on that will help a person. No did I meet this or not? Also, we have one more from impatient on patients goal three new contracts with retirement communities again let's put a date on that because that again gives you that focus exactly to achieve your goals exactly I love that it's clear about who they're targeting with the retirement home very cool so let's check in with the in studio folks and you're still scribbling away rebecca do you have something and I actually wrote down three and cool so I guess my first most basic one is increased my social media presence so I put specifically fit increase my facebook audience by one hundred ok, bye may great kind of did a swag they're bringing the swag on and then I said get in at least ten new clients or photo assignments and I said this year but I'm obviously hoping to do more but that's just kind of a low gas would it help to actually make it a smaller amount but closer is that you know what? Six I'm a yeah yeah then it makes it easier to check in your progress you know it's yeah this time okay on and then my final one was I'm sort of working on some re branding and marketing materials right now, so I want to do a marketing push to at least fifty potential clients through promo materials and email ok, cool so what's the outcome that you want to have from the marketing ussr to relates to the pretty this one we're getting new clients from that goal okay, cool but I guess yeah, the first step is doing the marketing yeah, okay, great did you have something frances you're thinking I'm like I'm wondering if I did it right but we get to I mean because it's a left brain activity so maybe there is a right way to do this you can tell me ok so might getting my word out goals I started with the strategy of speaking are teaching in two to three new places and cities that I travel tio okay ok number two is continue to regularly publish my podcast and interviewing top notch experts for my podcast because that seems to be really effective for driving traffic and then just took handed I borrowed years double my clients in the next three months okay, great. So that second one can you repeat that one again continue regularly publishing my podcast and interviewing top notch expert equal so that one feels a little bit more nebulous in terms of what the result would be like in terms of the goal it actually feels like that's one of your marketing mediums and that kind of think so yeah you mentioned something about traffic so it might be if you can put something around a metric around traffic I don't know but yeah I totally nail it right now but I think you're thinking in the right way in the right direction okay um anyone else caitlin shit um my first one is to style one hundred clients this year and then I broke it down into forty before may increase and then I said, right? Five e articles or I can think of the word just guess posts proposed yet by may to build my, um my email list, I'm to double my email a straight again then to speak at ten events or functions this year. Well, minor, pretty specific, my goal, it isthe by february fourteenth, I'm going tio get my estimates for a new di to create my new product, and I'll have all the new art work finished and the new colors else, so I'll have a product by february fourteenth a new product cool so that's about the product how are you going to tell people that might tell people thing here listing? How am I going to tell people about that? And, um, I have some tutorial uh, ideas that I can propose to my blogged about how to create oh, what it was just a silly backdrop for photo shoots with cupcake liners I can block that, but how I don't honestly, I don't know how I'm going to reach me and that's truly finds they think you might get a little bit more insight when we do the perfect customer cultured exercise on, so maybe the goal might be that you want to sell a certain amount do I want to do I want it I need I want to increase my sales by I want to double from last year. Great. So dull it from the master. Yeah, okay, great, great.