To listen to this podcast episode, go to http://jenlehner.com/ten
I just returned from Social Media Marketing World in San Diego and in this blog I thought I would share with you what I learned. Now, the thing about this conference and so many conferences is that for every one session you attend there's like a dozen others that happen at the same time. This is just a small slice of the conference from my very singular vantage point. If you're a regular listener of my podcast, The Front Row Entrepreneur, as regular as you can be when they're only 10 episodes, you know that I have this thing about the front row literally and metaphorically.
Metaphorically having a front row mindset means you're ready to step up. You want to see and be seen. You aren't wasting time being half-assed or non-committal. You're all in and literally, I believe that sitting in the front row like at a conference is really key to your enjoyment of the conference. When you sit in the front row, you see and hear the speaker better and there are a lot of other advantages as well. Let me give you a couple of examples. I attended this really exciting YouTube session led by this man, brilliant marketer named Billy Gene and of course I was sitting on the front row and at some point, he asked a question and asked us to shout out the answer. I shouted out my answer and while there might had been others in the room who shouted the same thing, I'm the person he heard first cause I was in the front row. After hearing my correct answer, he surprised me with a nice crisp $100 bill. No kidding. In other sessions there were times when I wanted to meet the speaker afterwards and of course being closest meant I was the first in line.
You know how after someone talks and especially if they're super engaging, then people go up to the front and they sort of stand in a queue to meet the person who was speaking. I didn't have to wait in that line because I was first to get there. At the closing keynote, Pat Flynn asked a question about new kids on the block or in sync. I don't know, one of those boy bands who I guess are still together and the woman in the front shouted out the right answer and Pat surprised her with two VIP tickets to Las Vegas to see whoever that boy band was. And finally, I've noticed that when I sit in the front row, the people who are sitting beside me or like-minded, they're go-getters. At each session, I think I really did my best networking just talking to the people on either side of me.
The conference head Honcho and CEO of social media examiner, Mike Stelzner, opened up the event with a keynote that was basically the equivalent of dumping ice water on our heads but it was a good thing. It was really, I think the wake-up call we all needed to hear because he was talking about the Facebook algorithm and what these changes are likely going to mean for us who rely on Facebook to help fuel our businesses. He reminded us that Facebook flat out told us that we're going to see for sure if you haven't already a decrease in traffic across all of our Facebook business assets, groups, messenger, your Facebook page, everywhere. But he not only gave the audience a glimmer of hope. I've found myself so excited. I was ready to jump out of my chair because he said, and I agree that small is the new big, meaning, a smaller, more relevant and engaged audience is more valuable than a larger, less engaged audience.
Facebook wants to see repeat viewers to our content and by content, he really was referring to videos. He said that it's time to go all in on video, specifically short-form video storytelling is the future. He said, and he told us to start thinking about creating episodic content like your own show and Mari Smith session, which I'm going to talk about more in a minute, but she echoed this and also encouraged us all to go ahead and fill out our applications for Facebook Watch now, even if we don't already have a show, to do this, just search Facebook Watch application in the search bar and you'll see it. Also worth mentioning. Stelzner said that vertical video with the sound on is the most watched video of all right now. I attended a few podcasting sessions, but even if you aren't interested in podcasting, you might appreciate a few of these takeaways.
Cliff Ravenscraft, AKA a podcast answer man mentioned a resource called cj.com, which stands for commission junction and it's a site that allows you to sign up to be an affiliate for a wide variety of products and services and online tools and such. If you'd been toying with the idea of dipping your toe into the water of affiliate marketing, you might want to check that out. I also like some of the mindset stuff that he shared. He talked about being very in debt at one point in his life. His wife lost her job and they had just had a baby and he said he just decided that he was going to be the kind of person who always earns at least $10,000 a month and he said sometimes he would be close to the end of the month and he would've only have made $7,000. He'd get busy. To make up the difference that $3,000 and if that seems so simple and maybe even unrealistic, but the truth is if you have any sort of skill, it would be possible to do this. I mean we might have to pick up the phone and call 100 people and say, “Hey, I've got a few coaching or consulting slots open. Are you interested? Or I have a few slots open to do this service for you. Are you interested?” But it can be done. He also said that he told himself a long time ago that he would be the kind of person who always paid his bills on time. That or in other words, he would never be the kind of person who didn't pay his bills on time and I just thought it was interesting that in both of those scenarios he made these traits part of his identity. It wasn't just a behavior or the money that he wants to make every month. That wasn't just an arbitrary number. It was who he decided to be so I just thought that was very interesting
In another podcasting session with Michael O’Neal, who hosts the Solopreneur Hour podcasts. I learned a lot of great new things. First, if you're thinking of doing a podcast, do a search and see if it's trending, where the audience is and what do they want to know. He gave an example of this dentalpreneur podcast where a dentist shares marketing tips with other dentists and it's really hugely popular and he also reminded us that as podcasters we can often get media passes to conventions and conferences that are in line with our podcast topic. I had never knew that then he gave some really great interview tips like make sure you pronounce your guest's name correctly by searching YouTube for videos of that guest saying their own name or whatever video. I thought that was a great tip and he says before your interview, look through social media to learn a little bit about them personally and find something they love that isn't related to their business. Do they love sailing or scuba diving? Just something so that when you begin the conversation, you can start with that and then this opens them up for the rest of the interview. He recommends jumping on video, first degree your gas, but then switching to audio only since audio only is really much more intimate for listeners and he said that his interviewers, it's up to us to ask what they're promoting and to get their appropriate links. We should not make our guests have to promote themselves. We should do the promoting. I thought that was really interesting. You know, I'm a new podcaster. I've only done a handful of interviews, so this was very enlightening to me. I also thought it was interesting that he said that the last thing out of our mouths when we introduce our guests should be their names and that he pointed to like talk show hosts the tonight show, whatever, where that's how it's done. So you would say, “Ladies and gentlemen, bestselling author, blogger extraordinaire and founder of Blah Blah, blah, Seth Godin”, I guess it makes the person's name more cemented in the listener's ears. He said that the time to ask guests to promote your show that they were just on his right after the interview, because they're all feeling good that the interview went well so you say, “Hey, would you be willing to share this podcast with your audience?” And usually, he said, they'll say yes and then on the day that is published, you send an email and say, "Hey, here's the podcast. Thank you so much for promising to share it with your audience. I appreciate it." He said that word promising is key. I don't know. I don't know if I've got the guts to do that, but I bet it does work.
Another podcast panel I attended really sparked some ideas for me, Gary Leland, co-founder of podcast movement. He was on this panel and he shared how he finds a niche and a product. Then he creates the podcast as a marketing vehicle for the product. For example, he found a wallpaper company or his wife had this wallpaper company that she just loved and then he started a podcast called fixer-upper and it's aimed to do it yourself first and he has all sorts of do it yourself guests like people who specialize in different kinds of do it yourself projects. But throughout the podcast he promotes the wallpaper on his show and he says he's got another podcast that is all about women's fast pitch softball, I guess he's like a big um, softball enthusiast, fast pitch softball enthusiasts and he sells sporting equipment on that podcast. There's no other sponsors, just his product and I thought it was interesting. We tend to think of the topic first and then figure out how to monetize it, but he does it in reverse and apparently, he's doing really well.
In the YouTube session with Billie Gene, he said his favorite type of YouTube ads are in-stream ads. He really wanted us to know that creating custom audiences on YouTube can be done just like on Facebook. You can upload your contacts and target them directly plus everybody is advertising on Facebook, not so much on YouTube. He says we're overlooking a huge opportunity. I do plan to definitely dive into YouTube ads in the near future and I'll keep you updated on that.
In Mari Smith's Facebook session, she pointed out that there is still a profound opportunity for marketers. So this was sort of the antithesis to the ice bath that we got with Mike Stelzner, but she says 70,000,000 businesses have pages on Facebook and only 6,000,000 of those people are advertisers. Other interesting tidbits that she shared with us are Facebook lives get six times more engagement than regular video. She said Instagram is Facebook's next Facebook. She was saying that it inside Instagram we can make in-app purchases, which is really huge when you advertise on Instagram. The swipe up feature is available even if you don't have 10,000 followers. She said that the boost button boost post button is coming to groups, but actually a lot of people already have. My Assistant, Neeca, already has this feature in the Philippines, so I don't know if it's going to be a good thing or a bad thing. I am looking forward to trying it. She told us to keep our eye on WhatsApp, you know, WhatsApp is owned by Facebook and in China they do everything inside of WeChat. WhatsApp is the Messenger App of choice in the rest of the world. Facebook owns it and she said there's going to be a lot of opportunity for us with WhatsApp. We need to keep our eyes on that. Then she talked a lot about the episodic content and Facebook Watch and when she asked people in the audience how many people were watching that unique programming on Facebook, only about like 12 people in the room raised their hand and she said that next year she guesses that like 60 to 70 percent of the room will be raising their hands because it's just that they're moving fast with this Facebook Watch and they're coming for Netflix, YouTube, Amazon and Hulu. They want original content, dedicated eyeballs, and Facebook's advantage over all those others is that it's built on a social platform.
She said there's going to be a huge increase in exclusive streaming rights. She gave the example of how the India Premier Cricket League, Facebook bid to have the live streaming rights, $600,000,000 and lost to Rupert Murdoch at who bid $2,600,000,000 for this one event, Cricket. Why is all this important? She said that Facebook right now is where YouTube was eight or 10 years ago. We don't see it yet because they're still trying to find their way, but they're going to get there, she says. She also recommended that we start thinking more like screenwriters not like buy my stuff, copywriters and like Mike Stelzner, she said, we need to be focusing on episodic content. She said to win, we need the right strategy, the right tools, the right templates, the right content, the right targeting, and the right engagement.
With regard to messenger and bots, she said that she was worried because when the quote, when the marketers move in, the members move out and she stressed that when it comes to conversational commerce, I really liked that phrase, conversational commerce. It's all about how you make people feel. I agree. She says to act, think and feel like a member first and a marketer second. I agree with that whole-heartedly. Relationships first, business second. Yes, yes, yes.
Pat Flynn's closing keynote was fantastic. If you don't know Pat Flynn, he's the creator of smart passive income and you'd be hard-pressed to find anybody who just doesn't absolutely adore him. He's so likeable. His talk was all about creating super fans by really loving on your peeps and also creating experiences for them and surprising them from time to time. I have to say this has been my mos is the beginning and while I'm no Pat Flynn, that has worked really well for me. When you genuinely love what you're doing and the people you are servicing, it's actually not something you really have to think about. Is it? And aside from his awesome dance moves and just overall adorableness, my biggest takeaway was a tool that he mentioned called Bonjoro. It's a tool that allows you to send personalized video messages to your peeps. He gave this example of how ConvertKit does this and I think they have like one person and that is just his dedicated job. Every time someone signs up with ConvertKit, they get this email, they get this video and it's personalized. It will say like, "Hey Chuck, this is bill over at ConvertKit. I noticed you signed up with us. Thank you so much for putting your faith in us. I took a minute to go look at your webpage and I see that you run your website on a WordPress site and so I've attached a tutorial video that shows you how to easily connect, ConvertKit with WordPress and if you have any questions or you know, just hit reply on this email." and man, I mean what a great touch.
He showed a graph or a bar chart of the correlation of how long people stay with ConvertKit since they've been doing this a compared to how long they stayed with ConvertKit prior to that, people would sign up for the free trial and drop off before they ever really implemented and actually subscribed and upgraded. I thought that was really compelling. There are other free apps that do this, but what I'm learning with this app in the short amount of time that I've been experimenting with it is that it allows you to integrate with your CRM. When someone purchases something from you or opts into your list, the APP creates a checklist for you and then you can quickly move through the checklist and send these personal messages to people. I have to say that as great as this conference was, and it really was, my favorite thing was meeting so many of you in the front row.
We had a lot of people show up at our Front Row meet up for dinner, and it was just a blast to meet people in person who I've only known virtually up to this point. It's sort of surreal actually. If you aren't yet a member of my free online classroom, the Front Row, please head over to frontrowclassroom.com and join today and that link will take you there. I'll let you right in.
LinkedIn isn't the sexiest social media platform, but it's powerful and it's important And even if you don't spend much time there, if you have a profile on LinkedIn it's crucial that you make it look as good as possible.
You see, when someone searches for you on Google, your LinkedIn profile is one of the first things that will pop up, even if you don't use the platform much.
In this episode, I share all of my best LinkedIn tips and strategies. Simple things you can implement right now to see immediate results. There's a checklist, too!
(If you do not have a list yet, or are brand new to online marketing, you can skip this email.)
I wanted to share this quick tip with you because I've had such success with it these last few days.
If you have a portion of your list that has gone "cold", this will help you to get them re-engaged.
Basically, you export your cold subscribers to a CSV file.
Then, you upload that file into Facebook to create a custom audience.
Once the audience is created you launch an ad an target this audience.
Click the button below to download the cheatsheet.
The craziest thing. I've been planning to launch a podcast for a while now. But I wasn't planning to do this until December 2017. Then, yesterday, I was taking a walk and listening to Gary Vaynerchuk on James Altucher's podcast. Out of the blue, Gary V announces that if we (the listeners) start a podcast right now and launch two episodes, he will appear on our podcast for 5 minutes. Then Altuchers pipes in "me too".
I take them at that word. So today, I spend 16 hours learning how to edit, how to create intros and outros, how to publish to iTunes and Stitcher, and I've got myself a podcast.
Tomorrow, I will launch episode 2, and send a tweet to Gary V and Altucher.
Even if they don't make it on the podcast, the good news is, I've got a podcast!
Have a listen:
Here is something different for the blog! Recently i appeared on the "Thriving Launch" podcast with Luis Congdon and Kamala Chambers. We ended up having a great conversation and I shared a lot of cool Twitter strategies you might not know about. Click below to listen.
Recently, a member of my online community, The Front Row posted a question that received such amazing tips, tools, and feedback that I wanted to make sure and capture it all and share it with the world at large! (Here’s the original thread.)
I’m looking for some advice on something that's really getting me down. Basically, I need to learn to write faster! I tend to be the slow and fastidious type when it comes to writing, both for myself and for my clients, but struggling to produce a single blog post in a day is harming my profitability and stopping my business from growing further. Does anyone have any advice please?
Batch writing! Writing several pieces in one sitting/in a row, rather than trying to write one a day? Also "writing prompts" can be very helpful -- just to get your mind flowing. If you are writing about a specific industry, try journaling/brainstorming a list of topics and then break each topic down into different ideas. Also, just old-fashioned story telling works -- sharing personal stories, defining moments in career, hurdles overcome, crazy things on the journey, etc are always a hit -- people love to read about other people's stories. Give yourself permission to free-flow write -- a lot of it will be junk, but you will find the treasures in there too!!! http://www.serped.com/client-blog-post-ideas/1903
Contributed by April Adams Pertuis
Give yourself permission to write a shitty first draft (maybe using April's ideas above for prompts, batch writing, etc). Print out what you've written, read for clarity and punch, and edit.
I'm suspecting you are putting undo stress on yourself by thinking you are letting your audience down and ultimately hurting your credibility and bottom line. If you write out of stress and anxiety- it shows. It sounds to me like you would benefit by resetting your expectations of your blog to something realistic so that you can work on other higher priorities. Chin up. There's only 24 hrs in a day and 12 of them are reserved for your personal strength. Yes?
Contributed by Colette Noelle Micrae
Recording yourself talking almost always reduces the stress, gets ideas flowing, and gives you a ton of material to revise and edit later. A key to making this work is not to try to edit or revise as you speak. Just talk and record. Also Dragon dictation, Google Voice, or Evernote recorder can help, too..
Contributed by Marnie Ginsberg
Repurpose. Write it. Take out lines and make great quotes. Write a riveting intro for people to click to read the rest. Can you make 5 ways to do this or 7 ways to do that out of it? Break it out. Squeeeeeeze all the juice out of it you can. Write a blog about getting stuck. Repurpose the heck out of it. Share your solutions and continued challenges. Another trick I have is I write my rough and leave it. Then I might another 2 or 3. I give it a good day. Then I go back. Give myself 20 mins on it and break again. Over and over I come back, until it's either complete or I become more inspired. Something about the limited time and upcoming break helps.
Contributed by Isabelle Baker
Next time someone does something nice for you, make mental notes on how you would tell this story to a child or someone with a very short attention span. If you only have a few minutes to make your point and get to the "feel good" punch line, you'll have to be brief. When you edit, make sure that most of the story is about the person and the kind act. It’s best to start at the end of your content by asking the question, “What is the main purpose of this piece of content?” Once you know the purpose of your content, for every sentence you write, ask yourself this question, “Am I going off track and confusing my reader, or is this sentence helping achieve my content goal?” When you know the ultimate goal of your content, you’ll find yourself writing both faster and better. (Source: http://www.influencewithcontent.com/writing-engaging.../ )
Contributed by Brian Lee Rouley
I do a lot of outdoor activities (walking, running, biking, dog play) and find that some of my best "writing" happens when I'm in motion. I don't make any record of it, analog or digital, but rather just rough out main points in an outline in my head. Key phrases tend to get memorized easily too. I think anyone can benefit from this, as I think it's not a gift but rather a craft. Just the other day, columnist Connie Schulz had a nice post about walking, thinking, and writing
Contributed by Tony Ramos
Anytime I'm stuck, I go to my dragon (google voice works too) and start talking thru what I want to say - sometimes I start with " I'm trying to explain XX and I'm having trouble - here's what I wish I could get people to understand ... talk it thru. Then I leave it alone for a couple of hours (or a day if deadlines permit) and go back to reframe and edit. It works. Also - HUGE fan of SFD - it's the only way you're going to get words out of your head some days.
Contributed by Phyllis Stubblefield Nichols
Write drunk. Edit sober. . ? Also, I use 750 Words http://750words.com/ Contributed by Yves Dropp
Start with the single thought that guides all your storytelling and strengthens the conclusion. Divide it into three blocks, to make it simple for you to write and the others to read. Make three titles and subtitles first, that are explanatory and interesting. Then comes the central text. The first one is "intro block", where you may start with one strong phrase that describes and intrigues at the same time and contains also your keywords. Like saying something about the issue and then start with a question. In the intro, you can make three phrases, not more. The second block gives more details and you can make the list of terms that you will use to explain it deeper (bullet points). The third block is the conclusion that has at the end the call to action. You can use also the self-explanatory images for each block. If you start with this simple structure, it will help you to take out the "image" you want the others "see" and "accept" about something. Imagine you have a friend who would like to know "what happened". Just like that. Once you have this "habit" to take out the structure, you can work on formats. And this way will help you to shorten your time and finish the article in max few hours. (Put some good music on while writing.)
Contributed by Valerija Brkljac
What are you best tips? I'd love to know. Comment below or send me a message.
Other posts on this topic you might find helpful:
How to find Ideas for content when you're stuck
How to Make a content assembly line
How to write a content marketing plan, step by step.
Social Media Marketing World 2017 was absolutely incredible! We talked about everything. We talked about live streaming, Facebook ads, blogging, chat bots, artificial intelligence and every social media channel that there is. And I'm excited to give you a rundown of all the most important stuff. And I'm gonna cover all of that with you in this rundown. But what I really want to focus on is Facebook messenger and messaging apps.
(TRANSCRIPT FROM VIDEO ABOVE) The most exciting thing that I took away from Social Media Marketing World 2017 was information about chat bots and Facebook Messenger. Let me explain. First of all, when I talk about Facebook Messenger and chat bots, I'm always going to be talking about it in regard to your business page on Facebook, not your personal profile. So here we are on my Facebook page and I'm going to go into "settings." And what Facebook has had for a while, in their settings that a lot of people didn't know about is that for quite awhile you've been able to set up automated responses. So if someone messages your page, you'd been able to set up an autoresponder. Mine used to say "Hey. This isn't the best way to connect with me. Hop onto my email so I don't miss whatever it is you want to talk to me about." And that served me well for a time. But a whole new world has opened up. Let me explain.
I'm going to go over to a third-party app called ManyChat. Go ahead and purchase it right now. Its about $10 a month; worth every penny when you see what this bad boy does. So as you can see I have 15 subscribers. What does that mean. These are 15 people who have opted in to my messenger, they have messaged my page and engaged with me. There are only 15 because I just started this yesterday.
The next thing I want to show is this. This is a broadcast I sent to everyone who is a subscriber, and I want you to see the "open rates." As you can see, there is a 100% open rate. This is revolutionary. This is what almost made me fall off my chair when I watched this presentation by Molly Pittman who works for Digital Marketer. She showed and explained to us that currently messaging apps have now surpassed social media when you look at the world at large. Like in Asia, most people do everything inside messaging apps. Everything- schedule their doctor's appointments, buy their groceries, interact with their bank accounts; everything. And we're heading in that direction as well. People find it more convenient to be in a messaging app. So we don't have to click away and open up our messy inboxes over on email. So that sort of explains why we're getting these huge open rates. And what this app allows you to do is basically allows you to send out sequences (I'm going to go to "sequences" then "sample sequence." This is something that they've setup). And as you can see, just like with an email service provider like Convertkit, Click Funnels or any of them, you can send out an automated messaging sequence and because its popping up in someone's messenger, they're definitely more likely to engage with you. I want to say right here, right now, that I know people are going to abuse this and this isn't going to be soon enough. Like people are going to abuse this, and we're going to get super annoyed with pitch messages. But I don't know about you but I'm not going to use this for pitches 95% of the time. I'm going to use this to really have some nice, genuine and FUN engagement with my audience.
Now, the thing is, you can only message your people who have messaged your page. So ManyChat has these growth tools that allow you to do some really cool things. So if I click on Facebook comments what I'm telling ManyChat is, I created a post on my Facebook page that ask people to engage. So it says "Hey I need your input. What email service provider do you use?" 22 people responded. And then, when they respond, they get this message: "Hey, thanks for taking the time to comment. I'm doing a little research. Let me know the size of your email list." And I gave them 3 choices A, B and C. And then they would type the answer below. Once they do that inside your messenger, they are now a subscriber. And they're notified accordingly and ManyChat also let's them know they can unsubscribe at any time but that's how they become a subscriber. So this is one way that you can grow your list of subscribers using ManyChat.
The other thing that is really, really exciting involves Facebook advertising inside of Messenger. So you can advertise inside of Messenger but what I like is this. I'm going to go to Ads Manager on Facebook. And I've already set up an ad, and its a little video (which by the way, you can now put video gifs as a video ad inside of Facebook) which says "Message me." And this is what it looks like. There would be a bunch of texts above. "So this is text. This is where my comments go." And its populating over there on the right. So you'll be able to see. This is what the ad looks like which really looks like any other ad you see. The difference is here. You see the button that says "Send Message"? When people click on that, its going to take them into your messenger and then you get to engage with them or have your bot engage with them.
Now finally, I'm going to go back to ManyChat and show you some pretty incredible things. So this is a broadcast that I sent. Its just a silly little broadcast that I did to demonstrate ManyChat's capabilities. So it says "Hey [First Name] (because of course you can customize this) I'm recording a tutorial on how to use all the cool new features on Facebook Messenger with ManyChat. If you have a second please reply with the emoji that best describes your day so far. Here's mine, which is a smiley face. So I gave them the option to say "Sorry. No time." And if they click that, then they get this message: "No worries. I completely understand." Or if they the smiley face, they going to get this automated response: "Yay! I'm glad your day is going well." And if they do the poop emoji, then I'm going to say "Uh oh. I hope your day gets better. Anything I can do to help?" No one, I noticed, clicked that.
So let's go ahead and create a broadcast so I can show you a couple of these options. So I can say "What's your favorite social channel?" And then maybe here. So the first button is Facebook (and I can also include a picture there if I want, or a video or an audio to go with that message). Let me just grab something so you can see. If they click that, then I am going to reply with this message. I can either write something, open a website or call a phone number. So I am going to create a message and say "I love Facebook too." Have you seen my latest free training?" Then I can add a file or I can add a video to that free training. Or I can add a PDF or I can put a sales page or take them to a lead page. So many options. I hopefully light bulbs are going off all above your head right now with all the possibilities that are in store for you with ManyChat. Essentially, what ManyChat allows you to do is create your own chat bot. This is just the beginning of this chat bot world that we're entering and I've said it a million times already in this short training but I am super duper excited about it.
The next big topic as you can imagine at Social Media Marketing World was Facebook Ads. In fact, Facebook ads was such a popular topic that Social Media Marketing World had to turn away hundreds of people from each of these sessions because there just wasn't enough space for everybody who wanted to come in and listen. So my takeaway from our session, with Rick Mulready, a Facebook ads expert were that we should experiment using vertical video in our video ads on Facebook because what will happen is when people watch your ad on mobile, which most of them will, it takes up their whole phone screen. So I definitely made a note of that. And he's the one who let us know that you can use animated gifs in a video ad. He also pointed out, which I have overlooked, which I think is a great idea, that you can upload several videos for one ad and create a video carousel. We've always been able to do that with pictures but now we can do it with videos and he said that's a great way to use your video testimonials. So if you're launching a course, and you have 4 or 5 video testimonials you can put that with your ad. I thought that was a great idea.
Then the John Loomer sessions, was phenomenal! John Loomer is also a Facebook Ads expert. I would say he probably goes more deeply into the nitty gritty of Facebook ads than just about anybody else out there. And he basically said the number one reason why our Facebook ads don't do well is usually because of targeting. And he reminded us that we can now create custom emails inside Facebook based on just about anything you can imagine. From people who visit your website or different pages of your website to any kind of specific engagement that they take on our Facebook pages whether they click on an ad or engage in an ad in some way, whether they comment or share or whether they save your ad or page or save a post that you've written and any interaction with any video that you have on your page. Do that now. He also pointed out that launching Facebook ads to a cold audience is not a good long term plan. Obviously our ads do better with a warm audience. And so we have to create those warm audiences especially if we don't have big email lists or a lot of people liking our Facebook page. And so doing these custom audiences is a way of doing warm audiences. Then he pointed out "not all warm audiences are the same." I know in my own advertising, I will post an ad to my warm audience, period. But he says "There are different degrees of warm audiences." So if you're considering people who watch your videos for 10 seconds the same amount of warm as someone who's been on your email list for 2 years, you're wrong. They're completely different. You might want to consider talking to them, or showing them different content. The people who know you really well don't need an introduction to you. But the people who saw your video for 10 seconds, they might need to be introduced to you and your brand.
Livestreaming. This was another one of those topics/sessions that were just jammed pack at Social Media Marketing World. And my takeaways there are a couple of things. Rick Mulready reminded us that Facebook likes it because users like watching live stream. So if people comment and engage with your live stream. It tells Facebook "Hey, this is good content." So they're going to reward you handsomely for that. So remember, when you're streaming to ask people to comment. Give them multiple choice questions and ask them to put the answer in the chat box, really encourage them to engage with you during your live stream.
And then finally, Chalene Johnson. She's a health nut/guru for years. She used to do infomercials and she was part of "Beach Body" and now she's really a marketing expert and she just gave a fantastic, off-the-chain closing keynote. It was full of energy and funny! But what was really great was that she was sharing her experience as an infomercial person and that they launched this infomercial not too long ago for her latest workout video called PIYO, I think. And, it BOMBED. And they had spent well over a million dollars producing it. So she went to the company and said "Hey, let me film this, on my iPhone and do some live streaming and let's see what happens. Well, you know, the rest is history. It sold like crazy. And she was talking about how when she sells anything on live streaming which isn't very often (she's not always selling) but if she's got a program or something she uses what she calls the "infomercial formula." I'm not going to go through every step of her formula here but I will list it down below. But its sort of like 15 or 16 things you want to hit on to sell most effectively if you are promoting something. One thing I really appreciated is when she said "Go slowly when you present your offer." Which really made sense because so many of us rush through our offer because we're uncomfortable in that space of selling. But what she said was a really good point. When you're buying something, and you've stuck around that far into the broadcast to get the offer that means you're considering the offer and if you're considering purchasing something, don't you really want to know all the features and everything that's included? The answer is YES- at least it is for me!
Grab them in the 1st 10 secs of broadcast
Establish your expertise position
Detail the problem
What you figured out
How you figured out solution (like they do on Shark Tank)
The possibility (testimonials)
Why is it unique? Your USP
What, in detail, is this? Go slowly! (Show the course)
Price comparison "You can go to Harvard and spend 200k or you can sign up for this course" or, does it save people time?
Price
Why act now?
Proof of concept (testimonials)
Reduce risk (guarantee)
Call to action
Walk them through the process step by step: "after you click the purchase button, you will be taken to a log in page..."
