Make Marketing Suck Less

Dr. Michelle Mazur (00:00): What happens after you get a message that works for your business? AKA, that message is persuading people and leading them to work with you so it's generating revenue for your business. How do you get that message that works to the people who need to hear it, the people who right this minute are most likely looking for you but they don't know you exist? Well, not yet. That's where marketing comes in and building marketing assets for your business.

Dr. Michelle Mazur (00:40): So today, I'm going to take you behind the scenes of my own business to show you how my marketing ecosystem works and the marketing assets that are currently working for me, without me actively having to push them 24/7. So let's do this.

Dr. Michelle Mazur (01:07): You're listening to the Rebel Uprising Podcast. This podcast is dedicated to helping passionate business owners become recognized leaders who make more money and impact the world by turning their messy, complicated ideas into thriving thought leadership businesses. I'm your host, Dr. Michelle Mazur, and I'll be your no BS guide in the art of building a business that gets noticed. Each week, I share strategies, tools and insights on how to turn your complicated ideas into great messaging and solid business structures. Are you ready to create an uprising in your industry? Let's do this.

Dr. Michelle Mazur (01:49): Before we dive in today, I'm going to issue one big caveat. Do not compare your business' current marketing strategy to mine. You are going to be tempted. Our brains are hardwired to compare, but do not do that. I have been in business for 10 years. I have worked on refining my message. I've created a ton of marketing assets. So at the end of the show today, I'm going to give you a simplified way to think about your own marketing strategy, so stay tuned for that, especially if you're tempted to compare your marketing to mine.

Dr. Michelle Mazur (02:36): Second, let's define some terms. I want to talk about what is marketing and what is a marketing asset. Marketing simply is how we reach more people. And the purpose of our marketing is to find people, make them aware of the problem that they may have and how we provide solutions to that problem. That is what marketing does. And when I teach my workshop, Marketing Uprising, that's all about creating a 30-day marketing plan for your business. We go through this, what I call the three phases of marketing or the three jobs that marketing does for your business.

Dr. Michelle Mazur (03:22): The first phase is the grow phase, and this is discovery. So I call it grow because we're growing your brand awareness. And in this discovery phase, it's all about getting new people who don't know you to find out about you, grow that brand awareness, discover you.

Dr. Michelle Mazur (03:41): The second phase I call engage. This is where we are nurturing people, usually through our content, and preparing them to work with you. So this isn't about providing value for value's sake and just over nurturing your people. This is really about what are the conversations you need to be having and how are you having those conversations so that you're nurturing people, getting them ready for your work?

Dr. Michelle Mazur (04:13): And then the final phase is offer, and these are the activities that you do to create sales opportunities, to create sales conversations or get people on your website and ready to buy. So that's the three phases of marketing, and that's how I'm going to talk about my own approach to marketing today.

Dr. Michelle Mazur (04:36): The second term I wanted to define was marketing assets because one of the things that having a well-defined message allows you to do is to actually create assets for your business that you can use again and again. So basically, these are things that you create once and yet still refine over time that just work for your business. So think about a book, a webinar, a speech, an email sequence. Even your email community, I view as a marketing asset. So you're going to be hearing about my marketing assets and how they work for me in the background of my business to lead people to sales. Because I have my engage phase and my offer phase well dialed in and the messaging for those phases are dialed in, I am going to work backwards, so I'm going to start with the offer phase, go to engage and then end in grow because in the grow phase, because I know my message works, I'm able to do some fun experimentation right now, and the experiment is really to help my business to become less reliant on social media.

Dr. Michelle Mazur (05:55): All right. So let's talk about offers first. So my main vehicle for how I convert people, how I make the sale is a sales conversation. And I love, love, love doing sales calls. This is probably one of my favorite activities that I get to engage in with my business. I get to meet really cool people, hear about their business and really just see if I'm a fit. Can I help them create this message that they can use in their marketing and sales and PR efforts? And here's the deal. I have got my sales conversations dialed in, and I've joked on this podcast before that my sales conversations are so dialed in that my husband who's been working at home with me for the past two years can actually deliver the pitch. So that is my vehicle for conversion.

Dr. Michelle Mazur (06:53): So how do I get people on sales conversations with me? There are several different ways, but one of the assets that I have working in my business is the pricing guide. So when you hear the mid-roll about working with me on your message, you'll be directed to download a pricing guide. And so the pricing guide gives you all the details of working with me, the prices, services that I offer. So when someone downloads the pricing guide, and I'll be honest, I am not as consistent on this as I should be, which is a shame. You'll see that in a minute. So if someone downloads the pricing guide, another marketing activity I do is I send a quick buongiorno video. And so buongiorno videos are just you make them on your phone and it's a high touch way of reaching out and seeing if people have any questions. Right?

Dr. Michelle Mazur (07:48): And so one of the things that I love to do in my business is I really feel like my business is high touch, high value. So if I see someone download the pricing guide, then I'll send them this quick little video like, "Hey, I noticed you did this thing. Do you have any questions?" And it just puts my face and my voice in front of them, which is lovely, and just starts the opening of that conversation. While I've been doing this, I've probably created 70 of these buongiorno videos, which sounds like a lot but they're 45 seconds' long. And like I said, the message is dialed in so they're super easy for me to do. And it's generated $15,000 in revenue just from people responding and being like, "Hey, I have this question or is this the right time for me to jump on a sales conversation with you?"

Dr. Michelle Mazur (08:38): And sometimes it just leads to great conversations where somebody tells me something that's going on in their business and I'm able to provide a resource because sometimes they're not ready for messaging at that moment, but is there something else that I can help them with, with my 10 years' knowledge of business?

Dr. Michelle Mazur (08:56): The final vehicle for creating these sales conversations is email marketing. So in every email I send, I have, I think, they call them the super PS where you just talk about how you work with people. So I have two bullet points for that. One is you can work with me one-on-one. And I always update my availability because right now, I have one client spot left for the whole of quarter one, which is awesome. I'm very excited about that.

Dr. Michelle Mazur (09:26): And then I also create what I call both-and sales emails. So if you've been listening to the pod for a while, you've heard talk about this idea that I believe that you can both sell in an email and also nurture people in an email. And I look at this, I just call it the both-and sales email method. It's a very clunky name, but I'm not teaching it or anything.

Dr. Michelle Mazur (09:52): And if you're on my email list, you probably have seen these where I will pretty much write a substantial piece where there is something very tangible in it for the reader, for my potential client to let them have an aha, but then it leads naturally into the one-on-one work that I do. So I believe in both the nurturing and selling at the same time. And you can hear more about that in the episode on how we're over nurturing our people. All right. So that's the offer phase.

Dr. Michelle Mazur (10:28): If you're listening to this podcast and realizing that, hey, you know what? I'm not having the sales that I want to have. My business isn't generating the revenue it should be generating. Then, it might be time for you to work on your message and figure out that comprehensive strategy for how to build that argument for your work and turn people who don't know you at all into people who are ready and willing to sign up to work with you. And this is exactly the work we do in the 3 Word Rebellion Messaging Intensive. So if you're digging this episode and you're thinking, yes, this is my next step or it could be my next step, then I encourage you to go to drmichellemazur.com/3, the number three, W-R. That's drmichellemazur.com/3WR and apply for a free consultation call. That way, you and I can discuss if messaging is the right move for your business. Now back to the show.

Dr. Michelle Mazur (11:46): Now let's talk about the engage phase. So this is nurturing, AKA getting people ready to work with me. Well, you know what? You are listening to one of my strategies for that right now, this podcast. Hello. This is a vehicle for nurturing people and helping them get ready for my work. In fact, recently I had one sales conversation where the woman just said like, "Oh, I binged your podcast. I think I convinced myself to work with you." So this podcast is a very important nurturing vehicle. It's going to show you my approach. You're going to hear the argument that I am making for my work. And there's going to be a lot of helpful things for your business in here. And if you're a long time listener, you already know that.

Dr. Michelle Mazur (12:40): You probably also know that I have a second podcast with my friend, Maggie Patterson, over at Small Business Boss, called Duped: The Dark Side of Online Business. Yes, I believe that's like an engagement and nurturing vehicle. I also believe that it is the grow phase as well. It's very much a vehicle of discovery because that podcast is way more popular than the one you're listening to right now. And even though we're not in season, we're still in the top 200 of marketing podcasts, which is pretty remarkable. So my podcast is this main way that I'm consistently showing up and nurturing people.

Dr. Michelle Mazur (13:24): The second tool I use is email marketing. And so there are some email marketing things that I have dialed in that are passive. So for instance, my welcome sequences. My welcome sequences do a great job of nurturing people and getting them ready for this work that I do. I'm also going to be rebranding my newsletter in the next few months as the Rebel Truth, and it's going to have its own standalone proposition because I love writing my email newsletter. It's such a fun activity for me. It's creative. I enjoy it. I enjoy picturing you reading it. So email for me is a great way to nurture, to get out thoughts that I'm not sharing on the podcast, to share stories of something that's just happened or a question that I was asked. So it's really just this way for me to continue nurturing people that's not publicly available because you have to give me your email address to be there.

Dr. Michelle Mazur (14:22): And then obviously, I do have opt-ins that get people in my email community, and these are more marketing assets. So I have the free chapter of the book. I have the workbook that goes along with the book. I have a quiz. All of those things are operating in my business.

Dr. Michelle Mazur (14:42): And then finally, I have a book. The 3 Word Rebellion is probably my best engagement tool ever because people read the book, they do the activities. And then if they're not able to land on their three-word rebellion, a lot of the time, that leads them to a sales conversation with me. The brilliant part of my book is that I'm laying out my whole process. My whole process is in that entire book. And some people are able to do it themselves, and other people just want my expert help. So the book does a phenomenal job. And if you haven't checked out the book yet, please do. And it's also now available. The audiobook version finally came out, so that is on Audible and the Google Play Store, and I believe in Apple and Kobo and all the places. The audio book is everywhere. So if you've been waiting for that, it is here.

Dr. Michelle Mazur (15:37): Now, finally, it's the grow phrase. And this to me is my most interesting part of my business right now because I feel like the other things are dialed in and they're running well and I just need to keep consistently doing them. So grow is this how am I raising my brand awareness? How am I being discovered? So there are things that I have already been doing that are working in the background.

Dr. Michelle Mazur (16:02): So the first thing is I do have an Amazon ad for the book. I spend anywhere between 50 to a hundred bucks on advertising a month on Amazon. It's a very effective way to get the book out there, and it's not like Facebook advertising. Amazon ads, if you have a book, I highly recommend you consider running some Amazon ads to it because it is cheap and it gets your book out there in front of people who are reading books. So it's amazing for that. So I have the Amazon ad running.

Dr. Michelle Mazur (16:34): I'm also doing a Facebook retargeting ad for my quiz. And so I'm only targeting people who have been to my website, then they will get an ad for the quiz. I'm not spending a ton of money on that. Maybe I think 50 to a hundred bucks a month, but it's getting me 15 opt-ins so it's growing my email community and raising my awareness.

Dr. Michelle Mazur (16:56): I'm still on social media for now. I'm doing Instagram. I've picked up more on Instagram recently, but I've been doing Instagram and LinkedIn half-assedly recently. I've been a little burnt out on social media and the constant creation of content for that platform. I'm going to talk a little bit more about that in the next episode about arguments that we all buy into about how we should run our business, but more on that later.

Dr. Michelle Mazur (17:23): And then finally, I've been doing podcast interviews and virtual speaking. So this is basically a strategy of borrowing other people's stages. So those are the things I've already been doing.

Dr. Michelle Mazur (17:33): And now doing some experiments. So one of my goals is to rely less on social media for my business because I don't think it's a good use of my time or really my client's times, but we'll talk about that another day. So I'm doing a Pinterest experiment, and you might be thinking it's social but that is not social. It is very much a search engine. So I have hired a team. I have outsourced that. I'm very hands off. I'm just checking the analytics once a month, and that's going to be a six-month experiment to see how well does it drive traffic to my site? Am I getting conversions from this?

Dr. Michelle Mazur (18:12): I've also engaged in the community project, which you heard about I believe in episode 269, the it should have been me project. And that is an awareness growing experiment. It's also super fun and still going on. So if you want to sign up for that and just join us where we're at because that's how the project is designed, you can go to drmichellemazur.com/me and sign up for that because it's going on during the month of March.

Dr. Michelle Mazur (18:43): And then finally, I'm going old school and I'm trying out some guest blogging. So I'm an executive contributor at Brains Magazine, which I think is the funniest name for a magazine. It makes me think of the walking dead, but I'm trying that out, seeing if the articles I write lead to traffic on my site because they're very generous and they allow you to link directly to your freebie and have a call to action. So that is super exciting to me. So I'm just going to see how it all works. And maybe in another six months, I will update you on my experiments.

Dr. Michelle Mazur (19:17): So that is the behind the scenes of how I'm marketing my business, how I'm using my message to create these marketing assets that are working for me and how I'm applying the strategy.

Dr. Michelle Mazur (19:29): Now, here is what I want you to know. First, I can do all of these experiments because my message is dialed in. I know what to say on a sales call. I know what to say in my marketing. I am a hundred percent confident in my message, so now I can do these experiments in the grow phase because I know that the engage phase and the offer phase are going to work. When you already know what to say, what your message is, the conversations you need to create in order to get people to work with you, literally any marketing strategy can work for you.

Dr. Michelle Mazur (20:11): So let me say that again because I think this is super important. Any marketing strategy can work if your message is dialed in, period. That is the truth.

Dr. Michelle Mazur (20:25): And second thing I want you to know is that my marketing strategy is ambitious. I am doing a lot in my marketing, however, I have created so many assets over the years. It took me about a year to write the 3 Word Rebellion book. It also took me a year to create the quiz for my website because that was a whole thing. It actually took me probably four months to create it, and the rest of the time just spent thinking about how I wanted to conceptualize the quiz. And same with the email welcome series. I created all of this over time. So even though it seems like I'm doing a lot, I have a lot of assets, the books, the opt-ins, the email sequence. I'm even repurposing emails in social media. So it seems like a lot, but I have a lot of content already created. And once you know that your message works to bring you sales, you can start creating marketing assets that do the heavy lifting for you, so you're not always creating.

Dr. Michelle Mazur (21:31): And finally, at the beginning of this episode, I talked about a way to simplify your own marketing strategy. And in the Marketing Uprising Workshop, I teach what I call my rebel one method. This is what it is. You want one grow activity. That might be social media for you. It might be an SEO strategy. It might be Pinterest. I don't know, but you want to pick one grow strategy. And if you pick social media, it's not all of the social media platforms. It's literally one. Master one social media platform. Not all of them. This omnipresent stuff has gotten out of hand. So one grow activity.

Dr. Michelle Mazur (22:14): And then for nurturing, do either a blog, a podcast or a video. Not all three. Don't try to master all three of those. Pick one. Go all in. And pick the one that you like. If you love being on video, be on video. I love speaking. Podcasting makes sense. If you love writing, do a blog.

Dr. Michelle Mazur (22:37): And then the final part of this is your email. I really believe in the power of having an email community that you can tap into, that you can talk to, that you can prepare for your work. So one grow activity. Choose either a blog, a podcast or a video, and then email, and that can be your entire marketing strategy. Done. You have your activities. Call it good.

Dr. Michelle Mazur (23:05): So I hope you really enjoyed this episode of the podcast. I know it's a little bit longer for a solo show, but I really wanted to dive in and show you how my messaging is working for my business because this is one of the things I'm asked all the time. So if I get this message, what do I do with it? Well, you start creating marketing assets and then you implement your message into your marketing strategy because you can choose any type of marketing that you want to do. And if your message is dialed in, if it resonates, if it persuades, then that strategy is going to work for you.

Dr. Michelle Mazur (23:47): Thank you for listening all the way to the end of the show. Your support means the world to me. Did you know the Rebel Uprising Podcast has a quiz that can help you pinpoint the number one way to build an audience of super fans while staying true to your unique personality? We do. And it's called What's Your Rebel Roadmap to Exponential Impact and Influence? And you can take it at therebelquiz.com.

Dr. Michelle Mazur (24:10): If you're loving the podcast, do us a favor, rate and leave us a quick five-star review wherever you listen to your podcasts. It helps more people like you find the show.

Dr. Michelle Mazur (24:20): Until next week. Remember, your ideas matter, and now get back out there and cause an uprising in your industry. You got this.