Welcome, welcome, welcome.
So week nine of our Get Venture Ready program, I am excited because we have a masterclass
presentation tonight about branding and marketing.
Really tapping into your audience, and I know this is going to be beneficial for so many
people because as we build a business, being able to connect with our audience is key.
So I am going to bring up Ashley Danielle, and she is going to start her presentation
and tell you a little bit about herself.
Hey, Ashley.
Hey, everybody.
I'm so excited about this tonight.
I've been crunk all day.
So I'm just really excited to be here.
I hear you guys have had some amazing presenters already go through so many things.
I am honored to be able to talk about something that I love so much that I've had so much
experience with.
And I do want to start off apologizing for this little cough that I have.
I was just sharing that I recently got over COVID, so I still have a little cough lingering.
So apologizing in advance for all of the coughing.
But we can go ahead and get started.
So today we're focusing on branding and marketing just overall.
I titled this particular session DIY Branding and Marketing because I think when you're
really early in your business, sometimes a lot of it is do it yourself.
A lot of it is you are the everything.
You are the photographer.
You are the social media manager.
You are writing the copy.
You are sometimes you're designing your website.
You're doing all of the things.
And even if you are delegating those things out, you need to make sure that you understand
that your business is your business, and it's up to you to make sure that things are executed
properly.
I am a firm believer in handing things over to an expert, but I always like to know the
basics in every aspect of my business so that I can make sure that they're doing what it
is that I'm paying them to do.
But most of us just starting out, we just winging it out here.
So I want to take some of the winging it out of it and make sure that we're having clear
cut plans to execute when we are approaching our branding and marketing and knowing the
difference.
Also, I know that they have a place for you guys to put questions.
Please feel free to ask questions.
They'll be gathering them for me to answer at the end, but I love when you guys ask questions,
so please do.
So just a little bit about myself, my name is Ashley Danielle.
I am a digital marketing and content creator, strategist, web designer, and all of the things.
My background is in journalism.
So I went to school for undergrad to be a journalist.
So I have a lot of history in writing, that's where everything started.
But I always tell people, I finished undergrad in a very interesting time.
It was when YouTube was just becoming a thing and really, really getting on the rise.
I'm showing my age a little bit, but really getting on the rise.
And something that I am so grateful my senior seminar professor made us do, he made all
of us start YouTube channels.
And some of the other professors didn't understand why, but it was because journalists were becoming,
well, stations were wanting journalists to do everything.
If anyone else is in the journalism media field, you'll completely understand.
They really wanted us to know how to not only report the news, but write our own report.
Sometimes they wanted you out there with the camera, knowing how to set it up, report the story,
capture it, come back to the studio, cut the film, send it to production.
Like they wanted us to know how to do it all.
And one reason I left journalism, because they wanted you to do all of that without increasing
your pay, but it was good that he got us to do that.
So we started YouTube channels.
Well, my YouTube channel, I just made a natural hair YouTube channel.
I had a really big curly fro back then.
And just kind of chronicled that.
It was in the early stages of the natural hair YouTuber.
So my following got really big and really consistent quite quickly.
And then when Instagram started, I just kind of invited all of my YouTube people like,
hey, there's this new thing, Instagram, come follow me.
And they just came on over.
So that's kind of how I got into it.
And after me just consistently working my own brand
for so long, people started asking me,
how are you doing this?
Or what does this look like?
So I started doing one-on-one sessions with people.
And after the one-on-one sessions,
it would usually turn into,
well, can you just do this for me?
So then I developed an agency where that is what we do.
And we offer web design and social media marketing
and all of that good stuff.
But the heart of that is that while I was on YouTube,
I really was able to understand the benefit
of creating a community with your audience
for testing out what it is they like and don't like
so that you can then figure out what type of content
you need to put out in various forms,
not just social media, in print form,
all those different ways that we market,
commercials, all of that.
I was able to kind of navigate that area.
So that's my background.
That's who I am.
I'm also a mommy.
I have two small children, have a seven and an eight year old
and they only know this life.
I have been working this business since my son was born
and he's seven.
So this is all they know.
Okay.
And just here are a few clients that I've worked with.
One thing I said, I really like to be
the force behind a brand.
I don't necessarily need my own personal brand to be big.
I like helping other brands grow.
So even when I work with some clients,
some that aren't even mentioned here,
we have like NDAs,
like they don't even know that I'm behind the scenes.
We have a few professional athletes and stuff
and they think it's them responding on Instagram.
It's me.
You know, it's a great profession to be in
and it's a great tool for any business to use
is if they thoroughly understand the benefit
of marketing behind their business,
but they understand that sometimes
it's better for a professional to hold it, to handle it.
And then also there are times when,
hey, you can really just do this yourself
if you have a good understanding of what's important
to your brand and to your consumer.
All right.
So the basics.
Some of you, I'm not sure.
I know everybody's at different levels in their business.
And some of you, this may be elementary to you
when you're thinking about the basics,
but this stuff that we have to talk about
when it comes to branding your business
versus marketing your business,
because those are two very different things.
So first, when you start off
thinking about your particular business,
we have to start with identifying the mission
of your business or your brand.
So if you have a business that is producing a product,
an actual product that people need to
more than likely pay to receive,
sometimes we have products that are free,
but if your goal is to get this product out
in front of an audience, that is my mission.
That's what we're doing.
We are producing a product.
We want people to buy it.
Make sure you understand that is the goal,
because then as you are producing marketing content,
everything you're producing should be
behind the idea that we have a product
that we want people to buy.
Have you ever seen an ad and it looked really nice,
but you weren't quite sure what they were advertising?
You know who's great at that,
great at being terrible at that?
Perfume companies.
You ever see a perfume commercial
and you're not even quite sure
what the perfume has to do with what you're seeing.
You see a very chiseled man in a leather jacket
and leather pants with a beautiful girl on the back
and they're in a desert and everybody's sweaty.
And then the bottom has a perfume.
I don't know what that means.
It works for perfume for some reason.
And I think it works because it doesn't really make sense.
And we're so used to it now in that industry.
But if you're selling luggage, I need to see the luggage.
If you are selling a planner that you created,
we need to see the planner.
If you have a business that,
if you have a trucking company
and I go to your social media outlets
or I go to your website or I pick up a pamphlet
at an event and I don't see the trucks,
what are you trying to sell me exactly?
So we have to make sure that you identify the mission
of what it is you are trying to do
and put that in the forefront.
Yes, there can be some other interesting things
sprinkled in, but don't lose the mission.
And anytime, if you hire a team out
or if you're creating it yourself,
always step back and look at it and say,
is this selling my product?
If it's not, we need to regroup some things.
Can you express a passion of yours
within your brand and your marketing?
Of course.
Can you stay up to date with current events
that are happening in the world?
world at the same time as presenting your brand
and your product, of course.
You can definitely do that.
Sometimes it's beautiful to step back away
from selling the product to acknowledge current events.
That's a beautiful thing.
So then your brand or your business
doesn't seem tone deaf to the culture.
But you have to understand that as a complete business
and brand, that is what you are doing.
With all the things going on in the world,
McDonald's didn't turn off the Golden Arches,
and Nike didn't pull down all of their billboards.
They incorporated it in.
They may make a statement, say how they feel about it,
and then we're right back to what's
happening because these businesses must still run.
Even if you're only doing a service, our job,
let's just say our goal, is to provide housing,
shelter for battered women.
That's what we're doing.
For victims of domestic violence,
that's what we're doing.
That's the service.
That's what my brand is doing.
You need to make sure that everything you are putting out
reminds people of that, reminds them of that need,
reminds them that if they know someone
who is in that situation, your brand is where they need to go.
You want to make your mission synonymous
with the name of your business.
I have branded myself as basically
that social media girl along the Gulf Coast,
from New Orleans to Tallahassee, Jacksonville,
Florida, whatever.
They know me.
And I did that on purpose.
That was strategic.
All of that was on purpose.
I made sure that whenever someone
was mentioning social media marketing, branding,
trying to get something for an event coverage, event
coverage, conference coverage, I wanted
them to make my name synonymous with it.
You need to contact Ashley Danielle.
I've done that repeatedly, and I did it for years,
to make sure that people know to contact me.
You need to have that same mindset
with your own business.
Next, you need to focus on identifying
your ideal audience.
This is not just any audience.
This is your ideal audience.
I think people, you see this all the time,
like what is your target audience?
I'm sure you guys have already discussed
what is your target audience.
But when it comes to marketing, it's
easy to get away from your target audience
and then start catering to any audience that
engages with you.
That's not always a good thing because your target audience
will stay with you.
They'll stay loyal to you.
They will request more out of you.
Any audience, they're just going to take
what you gave that benefited them for the moment
and then they'll move on to the next person
because they just kind of hopped on a trend or something
that you did.
It was pretty, so they connected with it and they got it.
Or they shared it or they supported it,
but it didn't connect with them.
So you never need to lose sight of your ideal audience.
And a lot of discovering that comes from going back
and it's, I always say, it's a big science experiment.
I'll talk about that later.
It's a big science experiment when you're figuring out
who your ideal audience is because sometimes that changes.
You may have an idea in your mind
of this is my ideal audience.
This is who I want to present my product or service to.
This is who I want it to benefit.
And then all of a sudden you start getting so much support
and love from another group that you weren't even expecting.
Now that's a solid, committed group of people
who are supporting your business
and wanting what it is that you provide.
Well, now you need to include them in your marketing.
You need to make sure that you are not leaving them out
because they have proven themselves now to be solid.
They are returning customers
or they're always sharing your things
or they're showing up and registering for your events.
Make sure you don't leave those people out
and pull them into what you have classified
as your ideal audience.
And again, don't forget to ask any questions.
Okay, so connecting with your audience
through relatable messaging.
So now we've identified our mission.
We have our ideal audience.
Now we want to connect with that audience.
We want to make them know that they feel seen.
We want to make them know that we have created this product
or service for them.
This is for you.
I am talking directly to you, not to a big group of people
but I have carefully thought about you as an individual
and I want to make sure that this particular product
or service is now in your hands.
So you need to make sure in all of your imagery,
in all of your text that's moving into the next point,
your imagery, your text or copy,
everything that they are seeing
is making them feel connected with your brand.
Fearless does a wonderful job of this,
of making sure that, okay, this is the group
that this is our community.
This is what our people look like.
This is what they wear.
This is the business they're in.
This is what their families look like.
This is their school they went to.
You know, they went to this college
or they didn't go to college.
college or whatever, they really take that to heart.
And you see it in the branding.
You see it in the marketing.
You could be scrolling through social media
and suddenly see something pop up in your stories
and almost immediately wonder, is this a fearless event?
Because you see it.
It's consistent.
The lettering, the font is consistent.
The colors that they're bright is consistent.
And that's what you need to do for your own brand
so that when you see it, you automatically know.
Even if we don't see the swoosh sometimes,
we can look at a brand sometimes or an advertisement
and know that it's Nike.
I keep going back to Nike because I love their photos.
But you'll know that it's Nike.
A lot of their photos have that grunge look to it.
A lot of their, it almost seems like that same angle,
the same camera setting.
It's all very similar so that it catches your eye immediately.
Who is it?
Thinking of car.
I think it's BMW.
I keep seeing their ads right now.
But yeah, I think it's BMW right now.
They have a lot of ads on billboards in my area
and it's different vehicles,
but all from the same side angle,
look like they were on the same cliff in the mountains
or something taken in the wording of which vehicle it is,
is all the same in the same place.
So now I'm programmed that when I see anything
that looks like that angle and that mountain side
and that font, I automatically think BMW.
And that's what you want to do with your brand.
Okay, so now we're making the most out of the internet.
One thing when it comes to branding and marketing,
we want to take advantage of as many free
or low cost marketing tools as we possibly can.
I am all for saving a dollar,
even if you have a large budget.
So if your budget for marketing
or budget for your business in general,
if you're like for this particular campaign or project,
we have about $5,000 to spend,
not just on marketing,
but like $5,000 to spend on hiring a bookkeeper.
We need to hire all these different people out.
This is all we have.
That's not a lot of money
depending on what it is that you need to do.
So making the most out of free
or low cost marketing tools really, really helps.
First, that would start with your social media channels.
Don't knock the social media channels.
I need you to understand
that is some of the best free advertisement
you can ever receive.
Aside from word of mouth
and just networking, social media channels,
you really need to invest in a quality look to your brand
if that is imperative to the success of your business.
There are certain businesses
where you may deal with a lot of government contracts
and social media just isn't really important to you
when it comes to gaining new clients.
It may not be important to gaining new clients,
but when a new potential client hears about you,
nine times out of the 10,
the first thing that they're going to do
is go find your social media.
They're gonna look up your LinkedIn.
They're going to look up your Facebook.
They're going to look up your Instagram.
So you at least want to have a current presence.
And by that, I mean,
if you are a retailer or if you're a realtor,
if you're a realtor,
and the last post I saw that you made
about you selling a house was November of 2021,
in my mind, you haven't sold a property
since November of 2021.
You probably have, but if you didn't post it,
I don't know it.
So at least just have something consistent.
That doesn't, consistent doesn't mean constant.
So that doesn't mean that you need to have something
every single day or every single week,
but whatever the consistency is for your particular brand,
it needs to be that people know
that your business is alive and well.
So automated customer service,
very important when it comes to a small business,
because you can't be everywhere all the time.
I can't stop and answer phone calls all the time.
It's actually on my business card
that I don't take phone calls.
On my business card, it says all of my contact information
that you can do through your phone or computer.
And then by my phone number,
it says phone calls by appointment only.
So when people call me about business,
I usually let it go to voicemail
because it says that I can't,
I don't have the bandwidth to do it.
But there have been seasons where I hired that service out
to make it so that an automated response goes through.
And also when people do try to call that number,
the voicemail that they receive
automatically tells them the best ways to reach me.
It lets them know, send me an email.
It lets me know, go to my website
and fill out the contact form
and I will get with you within 24 hours.
Or for certain services,
please complete the consultation form on our website
and someone will get back with you within two business days.
Like it's laid out automatic.
They know this is what's.
happening, but I don't have the time to pick up my phone every time it rings and tell someone,
hey, can you go on my website and complete my consultation form? So you need to make sure you
have automated things in place, even if it comes to selling a product. If someone submits feedback
on your website and they're saying, hey, I'm having a problem with this, make sure that there's
something that's automated that goes back to them to let them know that at least you received it and
that someone will be hearing from them. This may not sound like branding and marketing, but it is
because marketing a good customer service is a big part of marketing. Because as we know,
people aren't very quick to tell you everything that your business did right on social media.
They won't blast that very often, but as soon as you mess up, soon as something doesn't go right,
it's a whole thing. They've made a TikTok and everything just to say your business is trash.
So make sure that people are receiving responses from you in a timely manner and that they are
receiving the best customer service possible, even if that means hiring out a virtual assistant.
I have a virtual assistant, and so we utilize Dubsado in my business, and she's automated
almost everything. So even when people fill out consultation forms, it automatically populates
their information into a response and sends it to them. And then when they decide, yes,
we want to move forward, they can click a button and it automatically creates their contract with
the information that they have submitted and tells them the pricing and puts everything in.
That takes a lot off of my shoulders, and it also makes my client feel important,
makes them feel like, yeah, she really wants to work with me because I really do. And I don't
want them to think because I was at swim practice with my kids that I didn't want to, that their
business wasn't important. Always make your client feel important. And so next would be making sure
that you have a seamless e-commerce platform. You need to have a quick and easy way for people
to give you their money. That is very important when it comes to branding and marketing your
business. There have been several times where I have went to a website and probably saw something
that I wanted to purchase. Maybe I saw it on Instagram and I clicked it, and when I got to
their website, I couldn't find it. I'm only going to look for it for probably 10 seconds.
If that, honestly, if that link didn't take me directly to it, I'm not even going to be bothered.
That's something for your social media manager. That link should always go directly to the item
and things like that. Those are things you need to consider when you're making sure that
your brand is getting a good reputation, especially in its early stages. You don't
want to get the reputation of that brand is unorganized. That brand is, they're so slow.
It takes them forever to get back with you. That's not the kind of stuff that you want to do.
Or I wanted a refund for something. Excuse me. There's that COVID. Sorry, you guys.
I wanted a refund for something and I wasn't able to process it. I couldn't get in touch with
anybody. I couldn't find their shipping policy or return policy on the website. These are all
things you need to make sure are easy and set in the standard across the board within your brand
or your business so that your brand has a good reputation. Analytical tools and reporting.
Analytical tools and reporting. Also important when it comes to building your brand.
Analytical tools are really great when it comes to assessing your audience that we talked about
earlier. You want to know, we'll talk more about that later, but you want to know who you are
marketing to, how they are responding to different types of content, how they are responding to
different products when you release new products. How many people from our ideal audience group,
how many people actually clicked on this? How many of them went through and purchased it?
How many people purchased this e-course but didn't finish it? They started it, but they
didn't finish it. Where are we losing people? They made it through the first three modules
and never did the rest. Am I giving too much information in the beginning? Should we pull
back and give some later? These are things that you need to know and consider and things that
you will know if you have good analytical tools and reporting in place. These are also very
important when you are requesting funding from an outside source. They want numbers.
They want to know what are you doing. They want to know where is my money going? Are you going
to be responsible with it? What have you done so far? Have you not done anything so far,
but do you have a very organized vision? I have been in that position where I hadn't
quite done much yet, but
But my plan looked amazing and it made people get behind me
because they're like, you know what?
She has a vision.
You can sell people on your vision.
So, but still make sure that you have those tools in place
and just research, see, ask each other, ask other people,
see what's working and what's not working.
Don't just always go with what's popular.
Don't always go with what's the most expensive.
You know, sometimes there are very cost-efficient programs
and tools that you can use that will give you
the information that you need
to create a good marketing plan.
And your tailor-made user recommendations, like I said.
So always make sure that you are reading reviews
of other people who have used these systems
to see exactly what it is that they liked and did not like
before you start implementing it into your business.
All right, so also with your marketing and branding,
where to start creating your brand's profile.
I'm sure you guys have discussed this a little bit,
but understanding who you are as a business or a brand.
You're starting with that purpose,
that mission that I said earlier,
and your imagery and your visuals.
What does it look like?
What is capturing the eye of your ideal client,
your ideal audience?
Again, not just your audience in general,
your ideal audience, your audiences in general
is anyone who your information comes across.
Your ideal audience, that's that target audience
that you are laser focused on.
When you created this brand or business,
you had this particular audience in mind.
So your imagery and visuals should gear
towards that smaller group,
but not saying that that smaller group is a small group,
which is smaller than the grandiose number of people
who your information could come across.
And also thinking about with your brand, your tone.
How does that ideal audience like to be spoken to?
And that's something that takes a little trial and error,
but me, something as a social media manager,
something that I have to take into consideration
in depth because so many brands I work with
have different tones.
An NBA player usually has a different tone
than a cleaning service.
They don't have the same tone.
They don't speak the same way.
And sometimes you have some amazing, wonderful,
high ticket brands,
but they just have a really laid back personality.
Like that's their tone.
That's how they speak.
They don't want to sound overly educated
when they're speaking to their audience
because their audience is probably a group
that is not on that same level,
or they have a group that just likes to let their hair down.
So they may be targeting,
hey, I'm targeting very successful, educated women,
but the way we speak to each other,
I want my brand to speak to them like we homegirls.
So that is how their marketing is geared.
So you have to learn that about your own brand.
How do you want to speak to your audience?
How do they like to be spoken to?
The ones who are actually,
the content that you're putting out that has this tone,
as opposed to that has another tone,
that's what A and B testing is for,
that has one tone as opposed to another tone,
which one is drawing in more people
that are going completely through to check out?
How many people responded to this type of content
that actually attended my event?
How many people signed up for the free thing,
but they never bought the other thing?
Tone is very important,
and sometimes you'll have to play around for a while
as your business grows to see which tone works the best
and which one still stays authentically you.
Next, presenting your product or service to your audience,
different ways to do that.
We can go first and foremost,
like I said, through social media, it's free.
Facebook, LinkedIn,
and I hope you guys aren't ignoring LinkedIn.
LinkedIn is boss.
Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest,
please don't ignore Pinterest either, also boss.
But these are different ways
that you can get in touch with your audience,
and also YouTube.
I think we leave YouTube out of social media a lot.
YouTube is still a social media platform,
and it is the largest video social media platform
in the world.
So don't ignore social media.
Well, don't ignore YouTube
and see how you can incorporate that into your brand.
And then just networking.
Networking in general,
just by attending events.
That's why I say when you start,
that's what says networking part one.
Networking part one would be attending events.
Always have your business cards with you.
Always be a walking representation of your brand
in any way that you can.
Then seeking out your target audience.
Start with your local community events.
I'm not saying it has to be something super small,
but your chamber of commerce will put on events.
Get connected with the chamber of commerce.
Attend the sessions that they may be having
for other.
business owners. That's a great way to connect with other business owners. Online communities,
figure out, like join different Facebook groups, join different Facebook groups. And there are
usually, they may be other business owners sometimes, but those business owners may be
your ideal client. I'm in a lot of Facebook groups for business owners because just about all
business owners are my ideal client. I haven't niched down some, but those are my people. They
will need a service that I offer in some form. And that is a great way to start and build
relationships, get tips, kind of get encouragement. It's a great way to join. It's great to join those
online communities when you can. Again, back to social media, when you're seeking your target
audience, sometimes, and I'm going to say this, do not steal other people's followers or like
poach other people's followers. That's not what I'm about to say. What I'm going to say is that
it is beneficial to look at businesses that inspire you and see the type of people who
connect with them. If that, because there's a good chance that maybe if you have a similar product,
that may be the same type of person that's your ideal client too. Don't go to other people's
pages and start just following all of their followers. That's weird, but you can learn
some things and see, oh, okay, this is how they speak in their comments. And these are the types
of women who are responding, oh, they actually have a lot of men. And I haven't been focusing
on men, but they have a lot of men who follow them and actually engage with their content.
I never thought about that. So maybe I should gear some, a little bit more gender neutral content.
So you can use social media to test out where your target audience lives. But like I said,
please don't go poaching people's followers. That's just weird, frowned upon. Somebody's
going to call you out at some point. So we're not going to do that. We're going to
attract, attraction marketing. We are going to put out marketing that attracts our ideal
clients to us. And networking part two, like the first part I said, attending
events to meet people. Networking part two would be directly networking with other businesses.
So finding other business owners, maybe in your group, what you guys are doing now,
connect with these people, stay connected with the other people in this cohort so that you guys can
promote each other, can uplift each other, inspire each other and give tips to each other as your
businesses continue to grow. Real quick, how does social media work? Again, I know this may sound
very basic, but we're all at different levels. How does social media work? Personal interaction.
We use social media just to have fun with each other. We use social media just to broadcast,
hey, so-and-so had a baby, or I'm getting my doctorate or something just to stay connected.
You're posting pictures so grandma can see them. Personal interaction is one of the first and
foremost ways that we are using social media. Professional interaction is when we are producing
content that is directly geared to making sure that showcasing our brand to people who we want
to benefit from it in some kind of way. Because you have to think about the fact that even if
you are presenting content to appeal to an investor, an investor is investing in you because
it benefits them as well in some kind of way. It also benefits them. So you need to not only
showcase your, well, show content that shows your consumer that I have what you need,
you need to be showcasing content that shows potential investors what I am producing the
people need. See how that's kind of the same but not? What I am producing the people need because
that is what an investor is looking at. They're like, is what that person is putting out something
that I want to put my money behind? Because people are showing that they want it. They want
more and they'll keep wanting more. So the money I'm investing will keep growing and keep growing
because they are on to something here. So your professional interaction with people is something
you don't want to ignore. Don't get so caught up in trying to make the sale that you forget to also
create an experience through your marketing, no matter what it is. Like I said, it could be a
pamphlet. It could be a guidebook. It could be whatever. It could be like, it could be social
media. It could be text messages in a text community. Whatever it is, all of this is
marketing, but make sure that it's also showing, it's creating reports and analytics that you can
showcase to an investor and say, hey, I am creating a product that other people want.
They're showing they want more of it. I would love to give them more of it because you invest
in what I'm building. And then also just understanding on a social media level, the
difference between a producer and a consumer.
Producer, that's us.
We are producing the things that the people want.
And so we get on social media with a different agenda.
But all of us are also consumers.
Not every consumer is a producer,
but all of the producers are also consumers.
Because just like we get caught up
in the late night scroll of Instagram
and end up buying things,
I just randomly bought some new sunscreen.
I bought a new office chair.
Just randomly getting caught up.
I'm a consumer.
If you show me this ad too many times,
I'm probably gonna buy it.
I am that person.
So I'm also a consumer,
but I also watch other producers differently
than the regular consumer because I'm a producer as well.
So the things that make me click on an ad
and make it to checkout,
I will check out and then think,
hmm, how did I get here?
What was it about this ad
that got me to this point?
Was it because it was so simple and so practical?
Or was it because it was so beautiful?
Is it because the woman in the ad looked like me?
Or did the woman in the ad look like
what I wanna look like?
So I start thinking about all those things.
So then when I'm presenting my own services,
I start implementing that.
And that's something else you should do.
Look at other producers.
Even if they're producing something
that has nothing to do with the product
or service that you provide,
it got you some kind of way you just ended out at checkout.
So always think about what got you to that point
and see how you can implement that into your own business
and into your own marketing.
Now, different ways to dominate your social media presence
when it comes to your business
and your marketing and your brand.
These are things that I think sometimes get lost
when I say social media.
So blogs, blogs are still social media
because blogs have those wonderful comment sections
where we continue, we can talk back and forth,
we're still being social.
When people are, when bloggers,
a lot of the bloggers have now just become YouTubers,
it's still blogging.
So don't underestimate the power
of that part of your business.
If you're using platforms like Pinterest,
the point of Pinterest is to get you to click on something
and take you to a blog post somewhere.
It's kind of what Pinterest was built for.
We think about just recipes and things, but no,
it could be a pin that takes you to five tips
to schedule your next dream vacation.
And you're a travel agent
and you have a blog on your website
and a beautiful Pinterest pin.
So if you're getting that Pinterest pin
in front of a lot of people,
they're going to your blog.
That's increasing your SEO on your website.
That is giving people more ideas
about the services you provide.
Now that they're on your website,
you should have a beautiful pop-up
so you can collect their email address.
Like these are things that all,
this is all a part of a marketing plan.
The marketing plan isn't just,
show them a pretty view of a vacation
and hope they book me as their travel agent.
No, build the dream for them.
Tell the story for them.
Microblogs.
Microblogs are basically what we do on TikTok
and Instagram and Facebook.
We've all kind of just become microbloggers
and we're not doing such long stories,
but sometimes we're doing a long or lengthier post
or we're doing affiliate links and things like that.
We're microblogging.
That's the basis of what that is.
Social media networking platforms just in general,
making sure that you are using those in your business
and figuring out which ones work for you.
You don't have to be on everything.
I usually tell people to start out with two.
Which two work for you?
Find those two, dominate those two.
Video sharing.
Of course, YouTube, TikTok, Reels.
These are ways that you need to kind of focus
on making sure your brand is seamless
across all of these particular platforms.
Podcasts.
We know podcasts are the thing right now.
I have a podcast.
Half of everybody I know got a podcast.
And it's because it's a great way to just build,
to humanize your brand.
People get to see a face.
It doesn't have to be you.
There are several larger brands,
especially marketing agencies,
who the people who we see doing the podcast
aren't the owners of the company.
There's somebody else who they may just be two employees
that are really good at that.
So it doesn't necessarily have to be you.
Don't be so nervous and think that it has to be you.
But it is a great tool,
especially when it comes to YouTube,
to kind of record yourself doing your podcast,
giving out those tips,
and then having the audio available.
And that's in any service that you provide.
If you're just selling hair products,
you could have a podcast about horrible hair care stories
or wonderful hair care stories.
women telling their stories of learning to love their hair.
It could be anything, but you have to figure out
how it can connect with your people.
And virtual worlds, that's a new thing.
You know, we're in the age now
that virtual worlds is a thing.
And if you feel like there's a way to connect it
to your brand, I say, jump on it.
I don't want us to ignore it.
And that's what I don't want you to do.
I don't want you to say, well, I don't understand that.
So I'm not going to implement it into my business.
At least learn how it works and just tuck that information
into the back of your mind, because when the time comes
or if the time comes that you need to know
how to implement that, you'll be ready.
Just stay ready so you don't have to get ready.
All right, we're almost done.
Okay, so which marketing platform should your business use?
This is the biggest question I get
when people start with social media.
They're like, so what do I use?
I don't know what I should be using.
These are the things you should think about.
What type of content is posted on that site?
Focus on what that particular platform is known for.
If it is a digital platform,
they will prioritize the type of content they request.
Instagram told us they want reels.
Around September of last year, 2021,
they said, we want reels.
We're going to feature reels.
You need to give us reels.
In October, they flipped the switch.
They went to reels.
And if you weren't ready or not willing to play the game,
you got knocked out of the algorithm.
And there are people who will say,
I want to be on Instagram, but I'm not making reels.
Well, you need to use something else.
You need to figure something else
because if you don't play the game
that these particular platforms want you to play,
there's no point.
If you're going to post content to Pinterest
and just focus on the visual,
but it doesn't take them to a good blog post,
there's no point.
That's not what Pinterest is for.
If you are going to do Twitter,
but only every now and then,
and you're not going to give them
multiple short things in a row,
they want it back to back.
You don't have to do it every day,
but when you do it, they want something,
boom, boom, boom, boom, boom.
If you're not going to play the boom, boom, boom, boom game,
you need to use another platform.
So focus on those two,
possibly two platforms that you want to focus on
and figure out the game they're playing and play it.
Which posts are the most popular
on that particular platform?
So after narrowing down what is requested,
focus on what type of content your audience likes to receive
from your brand or business.
So, okay, you're going to create the videos.
What type of videos?
How do we know?
Science experiment.
Just play with it.
See what they like.
Do they like longer ones?
Do they like shorter ones?
Do the business that you're in,
if it's not on social media and it's more in person,
if you're creating paper content for people,
do they like thick magazines about your business,
depending on what it is that you do?
Do they respond more to postcard type information?
Do they like little three, little trifle pamphlets?
Test it out and see what people are responding to.
And that's what you need to use.
So therefore you're not losing money.
You're not wasting money on things
that people aren't responding to.
And you aren't just,
it stops you from looking unorganized or ill-prepared.
How often are users and companies posting?
As I've been saying this whole time,
it's all a big science experiment.
So you must study the goats.
Who do you like?
Who is it that you look up to?
What are they doing?
Don't try to be them.
Be inspired by them.
Two completely different things.
You are you.
Your brand is unique.
Understand what makes you you,
what makes your mission different,
what makes what you are putting out into the world valuable
and put that in the forefront
so your audience can see it.
But if you're just not,
if you need more inspiration,
go to the people who are at the top of your industry
and see what they're putting out, what they're doing,
and see, okay, well, how can I make that me?
How can we make this look like our brand?
How can we present this on this level of excellence?
Because we just admire their excellence,
but we don't want that exact imagery.
What can we do to make it us?
So those are the types of things you want to consider.
And where is your target audience currently?
Meet your audience where they are.
If you've been taking notes,
meet your audience where they are.
Don't make them go to a marketing source
that they don't like.
If your audience has already shown you,
we are loyal to you on Instagram.
We are loyal to you on TikTok.
We are loyal to you on Twitter.
We don't wanna do Facebook.
Stop trying to force them into a Facebook group.
They don't wanna do that.
So just stop, figure something else out.
One of the great ways is ask them.
I wanna build more community with you guys.
And we're talking some,
but I want a more private place for us to talk.
What would you guys like?
If you want an app, would you guys like a text message
community?
Would you like something like Mighty Networks?
Ask them.
Take a poll, and then create it and see if they actually
engage in it.
But don't try to make your people be where
you think the cool kids are.
If your audience isn't on TikTok,
but you're like, I've got to start a TikTok
because everybody's there.
No, you don't.
You just don't.
Meet your people where they are.
And also, do the necessary research
when it comes to developing your brand
and building that community with your audience
and marketing to that particular ideal audience.
Consider their gender.
Consider their age.
Consider their income bracket.
Where do they live?
What are the popular attractions in that area where they live?
I live on the Gulf Coast.
I live in the city that founded Mardi Gras.
Mardi Gras is a big deal down here.
So if I'm putting together a marketing plan
and it's going to flow into that time of the year,
I need to incorporate Mardi Gras into our marketing
in some kind of way, no matter what it is.
I don't care if we're selling shampoo.
We got to figure out how to get marketing
into this marketing plan because that's what our area does.
And then that's supposed to say beliefs.
Sorry, you guys.
The beliefs and values of your ideal audience.
Like, what do they feel is important?
What do they value?
And what makes them feel good?
Does a $2,000 bag make them feel good?
Maybe that's what they like.
If you're selling a $2,000 bag, those are your people.
Are they the people like, I would never buy a $2,000 bag?
They're not your people.
Stop trying to make them your people.
And instead focus on the ones who already value
and treasure what it is that you're offering.
And that one was repeated.
And that's the end of my slide, my presentation, you guys.
So here are just a couple of ways to connect with me.
I don't know if you guys have any questions or not.
I'll see if Siobhan has that or not,
but I loved doing this presentation.
I always like to say, you can sit with me.
So you don't have to work with me.
You don't have to sign up for anything I'm doing,
but I like to stay connected with people
who are doing programs that I've done presentations to.
Even if all we do is just kiki in the DMs with each other,
I greatly appreciate it.
So that is all I have.
And we'll see if Siobhan can get back in here.
Here we go.
And I can't see you guys' questions until they pull them in
or I would just start answering them,
but I don't think I can see them.
Can I?
Let me see.
Oh, I can.
I can see them.
I'm so sorry, you guys.
I can definitely see them.
I made that up.
Okay.
So, all right, question one.
This is great information.
I was interested in looking into a virtual assistant.
Can you explain in more detail?
Yes, I can explain virtual assistant.
I've had my virtual assistant for four years
and virtual assistants offer so many different services.
I brought mine in to handle the potential client
to closing a client flow for me
because I was getting so many consultation requests
in at one time.
So, once she checks my email every morning
before I get up and filters out all of the craziness
that is in my email.
So then when I get up,
only the important stuff is still there.
So she takes out all the ads and stuff like that.
But if a client responds to something
and maybe I haven't responded yet,
she'll send me those reminders of,
hey, did you get back with so-and-so?
Or she reminds me with some of my social media clients
that it's time for them to renew their contract.
Hey, I went ahead and did their new up-to-date contract.
Here it is.
Do you want me to go ahead and email them
to see if they want to renew?
Or do you wanna send it?
Some clients, she already knows it's automated
that I want her to handle it.
But maybe a new client, I may want to do it.
But she handles a lot of the day-to-day ins and outs
of my business.
At the end of every month,
she's the one who makes sure my books are in order,
reconciles my books at the end of the month.
I hate numbers.
I don't like, well, I don't like money numbers
unless it's giving me money, but keeping track of it.
Not my jam.
You gotta know your strong points.
That is not one of my strong points.
So she handles all that.
Usually if you hire a virtual assistant,
and like I said, I had my contact information up.
If somebody wants me to refer her,
I know she has a couple of open slots right now.
But if you research virtual assistants,
usually you can find a comprehensive list
of what they provide.
And it will let you know,
hey, I could benefit from this service.
This is an area that I'm struggling with in my business.
and it would be great for somebody to take that off,
to take it off my hands.
Question two, do you recommend, what was that?
Do you recommend QR codes as a form of business cards?
I personally don't, I've seen it, it's just not my jam.
I don't, I've never been in a situation
where somebody was like, scan my QR code.
I've seen other people do it
and I don't know, it's just not my thing.
Maybe I'm just old school, I just, I like business cards.
I do, I really like them,
or even I'm even more prone to a digital business card.
If somebody has like the image, excuse me,
and they send it to me,
I have a file in my phone of business cards
I have had sent to me through events while I'm at events,
and I just keep them all saved in there,
but the QR code thing where you scan it
and then it goes to like their website
or their link tree or something like that, it's okay.
But I feel the problem with that is if I scan the QR code
and it takes me to maybe your link tree or something,
well, if we were out, we're probably out right now.
I'm not about to do it right now.
And me personally, I'm going to forget
by the time we get home.
But your business card at the end of the night,
I'm gonna clean out my purse,
clean out my little handbag that I have over here
and all the business cards from tonight,
I'm gonna lay them out on my desk.
And then the next morning I'm gonna DM everybody
or email everybody or say it was nice to meet you and stuff.
But if I just, if it pulled up a page,
I will probably forget.
And I have done that so many times.
And I'm sure other people have done that,
that I'm just not on the QR code business card bandwagon
right now.
But if somebody else is doing it and it's working,
keep doing it.
But again, science experiment, test it out,
see if it works.
If not, just go back to the good old regular business cards.
So my next business card,
I want to merge my personal brand with your business card.
How should I go about it?
Should I stick with just one business card
for two different ones?
Oh, thank you.
Thank you, amazing information.
Thank you.
I used to have double-sided business cards.
I was the program director for a YWCA.
And then I also had my marketing business.
I had them back to back on different cards.
These two things had nothing to do with each other.
But I literally, one card, the back was,
the YWCA has their strict branding.
So it was orange with that font,
with the Y and all of that, and had my information.
Then on the back of that card was my logo with my name
and contact information and all of that.
So that was something I did.
And even I wrote a book a few years ago, there it is.
I wrote a book.
And when my book came out, I got new business cards
where the back of the business card
said swimmingingracebook.com.
And the front had all of my marketing business information
and stuff in the back.
It didn't even say anything else about the book.
It just said swimmingingracebook.com on the back.
And then on the front was my main stuff.
So I'm all down for double-sided business cards.
If those two brands don't, if they're not married.
So there's another side to me as a brand.
I'm a yoga instructor and my yoga brand
is a whole nother beast in itself.
I usually don't market my yoga stuff
with my digital media stuff because they're so separate.
So I wouldn't merge those two,
but if they can kind of live together,
you could put them together.
I hope that made sense.
If it didn't, send me a DM.
Mentioned an app around the analytics slide
and Nikita wanted to know the names of the apps
that you mentioned.
What did I mention?
I don't remember.
Analytics slide, just with apps in general,
trying to figure out what is it all that I use
when collecting information.
I don't know, because I don't even think I said Trello,
but I use Trello to correct analytics.
A lot of the systems that you use,
these platforms have great analytical insights
and usually their direct insights
will be even more accurate than an outside app.
If somebody else remembers the app, I say, please say it.
And then I'll say why I said it.
What are some ways you recommend to collab with founders?
I've done giveaways, which are great for both parties,
but wanted to hear any other recommendations.
Personally, I make it a point to get in their space.
Like what are they doing?
And if there's an event, I'm going to be there.
I will pay to be there.
You will keep seeing me.
If I really want to work with you,
I will pay to be at everything you have.
I will sign up for everything.
You will be like, dang, every time we have a brunch,
Ashley's here, you right.
And I'm going to be around.
And so then when opportunities present themselves,
they'll think of me.
That is literally how so much of my success
and just favor from God, so much of my success has come about.
I've made sure I was in the room,
and I did whatever I needed to do to be in the room
so that when the opportunities presented themselves,
they're like, hey, Ashley has this business.
Would you be interested in being in this program
or benefiting from this?
We want to do a little think tank or something.
Can you be a part of it?
Yes, I will be a part of all the things.
And that has really helped for me.
So whatever you can do to be in the room, do that.
While experimenting with different social media platforms,
is there a length of time
that you recommend running a new experiment?
Some can be very short.
So when it comes to marketing,
let's just say email marketing.
If you're doing A and B testing on an email,
let's just say we have a new event, sign up for it.
We're doing an A and B email to see which one.
A lot of systems will, they'll do it for you.
It'll run both of the emails for like an hour
and send them out to your email list
or for like even shorter time, maybe like for 15 minutes.
They're running this one, both of them at the same time.
They will see which one gets the most opens,
how many people actually open it.
And then they'll send you a message and say,
okay, this one is winning.
We're gonna send this email out
to the rest of the email list.
We're not doing the rest.
These systems will do it for you.
Oh, Dubsado something, Dubsado, D-U-B-S-A-D-O.
So it's Dubsado.
Dubsado is kind of like HoneyBook,
just a way for you to keep your business organized
and things and process your invoices.
People pay you directly through it.
It does everything.
It does all the things for you.
So it's Dubsado, D-U-B-S-A-D-O.
It's a complete CRM system.
So it's not just like an app.
They have an app that you download to run it,
to help you run it, but it is a complete system.
Dubsado, sorry about that.
Okay, yeah, so I was talking about trying something new.
Yeah, let it run for a little bit.
If it's an actual social media post and it's different too,
if it's a still post,
I would say leave it up for the whole day.
Leave it up for at least the whole day.
I'm not a fan of deleting posts, I'll tell you that too.
I mean, leave it up as in collecting the data from it
to see how it performed.
But for example, on the flip side, Reels,
you know usually within about an hour
if that Reel is a dud or not.
You can tell and you can,
but sometimes you don't know why and that's okay too.
But yeah, and I say do it a few times
and then see what's working.
But like I say, do what the app recommends.
Have you ever been on Instagram and they'll say,
hey, this popular sound, you know,
7,000 people are using this popular sound.
I will click on it to see what the sound is
and see if I can use it.
Like, what is this?
Oh, I can use that.
I can find something in my phone and use that sound.
So see what they are recommending
and see if that works for you.
Still virtual assistant and what type of questions
do you ask to find a good one?
I like virtual assistants
that do not have a hold on to clients.
I asked them how many clients do they take?
And it's because I'm very needy and I need a lot.
So when I found my virtual assistant,
she is mine until I die.
I already knew her
and I kind of encouraged her to become a virtual assistant
when I was shopping around and couldn't find one.
But we were in grad school together.
She has a master's in public administration.
She's trained to run things.
Like that's what she does.
And I told her, I was like,
hey, you would actually be really good at this.
And she has been a lifesaver.
So yeah, ask them how many clients do they take?
Ask them what their background is.
See if they have any references
from people who they've already serviced.
Ask them what their specialties are.
What their specialties are.
I cannot say that word right now.
Because if they tell you what they specialize in
and you don't hear what you need,
probably move on because they didn't even think about it.
Not saying they're not good at it
and that they wouldn't be,
but they didn't even say that as one of their key things.
And you know, you need that.
Might wanna shop around a little bit more.
And last one was,
are there any successful examples of sales dicks
you can refer us to?
Examples?
I mean, I have a few that I've used,
but a lot of times when a company
is looking to fund something,
a lot of times they will give you
like a little short bullet list
of make sure this is included.
And so make sure this is something that you're doing.
So always just be sure that you're giving them
at least what they asked for.
If nothing else, give them what they asked for.
So that's all the questions.
I made it through.
Yes, you did. Thank you so much for all of the great information. The chat, everyone
says thank you. They really enjoyed it, taking in all of the information around marketing.
I'll be sure to put Ashley's PowerPoint into our networking group so you all can follow
along and you also have access to the recording. So thank you all for tuning in. I just wanted
to remind you, so next week is a holiday, so we will not have a master class on Tuesday.
It'll resume the following week. So I just wanted to let you all know that. So enjoy
the rest of your evening, enjoy the holiday, and I will see you, I guess, I think that's
the 12th or the 11th, but I'll see you then. Bye.
Bye.