Make Marketing Suck Less

Michelle Mazur

We live in a world where people get burned all the time. Sales pages over-promise and under-deliver. And sometimes what gets promised doesn't get delivered at all.

And because of this, trust is at an all-time low in the industry.

And I know you. You aren't the problem. You're the type of person who over-delivers. You obsessively make sure you get all of your promises fulfilled because you couldn't sleep at night if you didn't deliver to your clients. But this fuckery of the industry, well, it impacts you too.

Even though you're amazing, get results for your clients, and follow through, your clients are slower to trust you. Who can blame them, right? They've been burned before.

So how can you overcome this? How can you build trust? And how can you reassure them that you'll deliver? That's where “Show Don't Tell” Marketing comes in. Let's talk about what it is and how I'm using it in my business. Let's dive in.

[00:01:28]

Get ready for the Rebel Uprising podcast, the only podcast dedicated to business owners who feel overlooked for their expertise, skills, and experience. Let's claim your expertise and turn your complex ideas into unmistakable messaging that grows your business. I am your host, Dr. Michelle Mazur, the author of The Three Word Rebellion and your Rebel Truth Telling guide to building a business that gets noticed.

[00:01:59]

What is “Show Don't Tell" marketing. It's exactly what it sounds like. Instead of people reading a sales page or your emails, or listening to a podcast, reading a blog post, and then making a buying decision, “Show Don't Tell Marketing” ask the question: How can you give your audience an experience of working with you before they work with you? Before they pay you any money? How can you show them what it's like before they buy in? And this is not doing a webinar and giving a ton of educational content.

It's showcasing your offers and your skills, giving them the roadmap to how you actually deliver. And so, as business owners, especially in a rocky economy where trust is so low, whenever we can show people what they get when they work with us, we should. Overall, it bolsters our own credibility and it gives certainty to your potential client because they know exactly what they buy into when they join something.

So I've been experimenting with “Show Don't Tell” Marketing in two different ways that I want to dissect a bit.

The first way is the "Make Marketing Suck Less” hot seats.

The second way is the “ExpertUp Club” open house.

So let's talk a little bit about the Make Marketing Suck Less hot seats. You have seen them in your podcast feed. These are 15-minute sessions with another business owner where we hone in on their biggest marketing headache. And I give them one, sometimes more, actions to take to make their marketing suck less, be simpler and more effective for their business.

So how do people end up being asked to be on this podcast and participate in a hot seat? It all starts whenever someone does the “Discover Your Marketing Achilles Heel” assessment. And that is my two-minute assessment where you get to discover where your biggest marketing gap is, so you know exactly where you should focus to improve your marketing and make it suck less.

When you take the assessment on the landing page for your results, there's an offer for a 15-minute call with me. And on these calls, I'm not doing any sales. It's just we talk about what your business is, what feels hard about your marketing. I look at your assessment results and I give you an action to take and that's all it is.

So you can sign up for those at any time, anytime you take the assessment, you are eligible for one. However, once a quarter I send out a call for hot-seat participants for this podcast. People apply, and I pick four, maybe I'll pick more next time. And then we basically record their hot seat for this podcast.

It is a win-win.

It's a win for them because they're getting a little PR boost from being on this podcast and they're also getting marketing help. They are getting my decades of experience looking at their marketing and helping them figure out how to make it easier and more effective.

It's also a win for me because I get to meet really rad people. The people who have been showing up are fantastic. I also get to play to my strength.

So when you listen to those hot seats, you get a glimpse of what it's like to get consulting from me to get coached by me. Strategy is one of my biggest strengths. I actually think it's number one on the strengths finder. So doing these hot seats are so easy on my energy. They are so much fun. And it's how my brain works. And I get so excited to show you how my brain works and the kind of support you could get from me whether you work with me one on one or you become a member of the Expert Up Club.

So that is one way I'm doing “Show Don't Tell” marketing. And I don't have data on this yet like “people who do these hot seats eventually become clients?” because it's more of a longer-term strategy that I'm playing with.

However, if you want a hot seat and a chance to be featured on this podcast, you have to start by taking the “Discover Your Marketing Achilles Heel” assessment at drmichellemasur.com/marketing.

And then if you don't care about being on the podcast, just book your hot seat with me straight away and we'll dive in and look at your marketing together. And if you do want to be on the podcast, I would wait a beat until you get an email from me for a request for an application.

So once again, if you're interested in a hot seat, if you're interested in appearing on this podcast, just go to drmichellemazur.com/marketing.

All right, so that's the first way I've been using “Show Don't Tell Marketing.”

The second way has been for the open house, for the Expert Up Club. Now, I just completed a mini launch for new club members at the end of June, and one of the things I decided to do was basically take a page from the real estate industry and host an open house, which is exactly what it sounds like.

It is literally a tour of the ExpertUp Club. We talked about the values of the club, the community, and the problem it solves for the industry and for your business. I showed them the resources that are available to nail their message and to make marketing easier for their business. We also highlighted the community events we have and how they can get feedback and access to me.

And they got to meet some of the members, which was kind of my favorite part of it. So I had members who are already advocates for the ExpertUp Club come to the Open House and mingle with the people who were considering joining.

Let's talk about how that worked. So here are the numbers for the mini launch of the Expert Up Club. In total, I received 17 applications. And from those 17 applications, 10 people decided to join the Expert Up Club, 2 other people opted to work with me one on one.

So the overall conversion rate from application to new business was 71%, and the conversion rate from application into the Expert Up Club is 59%. That was great. My goal for this launch was between ten to twelve new members, and I got ten members plus two one on one projects.

So awesome. Excellent. I was very happy with that.

So how did the open house perform?

For the open house. I had 54 people sign up. 18 people showed up live. Nine applications were received from the Open House within 24 hours, and 6 of those applicants joined.

So let's break down those numbers a little bit. So the 54 people who signed up for the Open House represented a 2% conversion rate from my list, which you might be thinking, wow, that's kind of shit Michelle, 2% conversion rate. And yeah, it's low, but I don't necessarily think that's a bad thing, and I'll tell you why in a moment.

So 18 people showed up live, which is a 33% show-up rate, which is excellent. A show up rate of over 20% is phenomenal in the industry right now. I've heard from some friends of mine that webinar show-up rates are about 5% at the moment, so I'm perfectly happy with 33%.

The nine applications that were received were a 50% conversion rate. And then the six applicants of the nine who joined from the Open House, that's a 66% conversion rate.

So it's not too shabby as a way to invite people into this community that I have been curating. So here's what I learned about doing open houses and why I think it worked so well to show people around.

Number one, people loved the transparency of the open house because it was clear what I was inviting people into. They got to see what the community looked like. They got to see the community platform, they got to see the type of events we had. They got to meet some of our founding members. And there was no real bait and switch from education on a webinar like educate, educate, educate, and then switch to selling. I was selling the whole time. But the difference was that people chose to be there.

They knew that they were going to get an opportunity to see the club, discover the resources, and see if this might be a good fit for them.

So because of this, the conversion rate from the email list to the open house was much lower, which I think is actually fine because when you do something like an open house where you are showing people what it is you're offering, you're only attracting the people who are actively considering joining your offer, right? And considering conversion rates in the industry for sales are about 1% to 2%. Having 2% of my list show up or sign up for this is pretty good.

And I think the best part for me is it surfaced the people who were most ready for the Club, because if you were raising your hand and saying yes to this and yes to showing up for it, you were going to be ready to join.

The third thing that I learned is whether people joined or not, they loved seeing what the club was all about. It made the offer clearer to them because I realized that this community-style offer is fairly different from what we typically see in the industry. So they got to see it. I had a few people tell me that they loved it, but now wasn't the right time for them, but they might join in the future.

And the final reason I think it worked is because my community members, my founding members of the ExpertUp Club showed up and they were my best advocates. They answered questions people had in the chat while I gave people the grand tour.

So if you're asking yourself, will I be doing the open house again? Yeah, hell yes. I will definitely be doing the ExpertUp Club open house again. I loved delivering it. I loved showing people the great space we've created. I loved showing off our members.

And it's actually already scheduled and the landing page is up for the fall. So if you're thinking, hey, this ExpertUp Club sounds really cool, I'd like to check it out. You can go to drmichellemazur.com/openhouse and sign up for the open house we'll be having on September 20.

That's drmichellmazur.com/openhouse.

And for me, what was thrilling is that it worked. Obviously, I'm thrilled with the numbers, the conversion rate, but the new members, they are incredible. They are just the right people for this offer. They are already in there making the community a more vibrant, supportive place for each other.

So the fact that it brought me all the right people is amazing! That is better than money or conversion rates or any of it. That was the most important thing.

It's also showed me where I need to work in the future, like I need to work on my audience growth. Because this offer is not right for many people. Like some people prefer one on one. Some people might be newer to business and some people might not consider themselves experts.

So it's time for me to grow my audience, my email community, and just grow the brand awareness around what I do and the club. So that's really where my focus is going to be for the second half of 2023.

So what do you think? Did you have any AHAs? And could you see yourself doing something like this for your work? It might not be hot seats, it might not be an open house, but I challenge you to figure out how you can show instead of tell in your marketing.

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The Rebel uprising podcast is a production of Communication Rebel. Our production coordinator is Jessica Gulley-Ward of Juggling Logistics. Our sound engineer is Stephen Mills. Rebel Uprising podcast is recorded on the unseated traditional land of the coast Salish Peoples, specifically the first people of Seattle, the Duamish people, original stewards of the land past and present.