Lessons
Lesson Info
Class Introduction
Hey there, my name is Ashlyn Carter and I am the calligrapher and the copywriter behind the brand Ashlyn Writes. And I'm so excited to get to talk to you today about one of my very favorite things, branding and copywriting. So essentially today we're talking all about marketing. And I feel like that means that I need to address the elephant in the room. That there is a lot of noise out there. A lot of marketing and media noise that we have to figure out, as creative entrepreneurs, how to put our message out there in a way that stands out. Because the people that we wanna work with interested in working with us. Now I feel like organizing media and marketing used to be a little bit easier. Decades ago. I remember when I was growing up, I was obsessed with magazines so that made me a shoo in for a journalism major. But I used to chronologically organize all of the magazines that I got under my bed in stacks in neat little rows. I loved my magazine collection. It was just, it was so organ...
ized. And it would still be there. Except my dad is probably, he was freaked out in my parents house that one day the kitchen would cave in because Ashlyn's magazine collection was a little bit too much. But it used to be easier. To organize marketing and media. And even moving up a little bit closer on the timeline to maybe even just a few years ago. Like 10 years ago. A decade ago. When there weren't as many apps and different outlets for us to put out messages on. I remember about during this time period I was interning at Southern Living, it's a Time Inc. publication. And I loved it. I was writing all the time. And one day I wrote a story that went live online and my editor said, great work Ashlyn. Now I need you to go back to your desk and I want you to publish this on your Twitter account. Maybe repost it on your blog. Freaked out. But I said yes sir. And I ran back. I had to start a blog. I had to start a Twitter account. It was all brand new. But it still wasn't too hard to organize and manage all of the media and the messages. But fast forward to now. Every day there are 432,000 hours uploaded to YouTube as content. I love YouTube. I get a lot of tips and tricks from YouTube. But that means for every one hour I watch I'm about 431,999 hours behind. That is so much content. Also, on Instagram, one of my other favorite apps, there are 95 million posts uploaded every single day. That's a lot. So, it's easy for us to want to be all the places when we're figuring out how to market our creative small businesses. And to let that noisy world of all the hustle and all the marketing overwhelm us when we think about starting and running our businesses. And like I was saying earlier, talking to those right people and getting them interested and working for us. But what I want to kind of frame this talk with is getting you to think about how you can quit adding to the noise. And instead start whispering to the right clients. To the right people. And the best way for us to frame that is I want you to think about, what is enough for you? What does enough marketing for you? But to take it back a little bit further, what does enough look like in terms of your sales goals? Now my friend Dominique is teaching a great class on this and I don't want you to miss out on that. Be sure to check it out. But it really does come before marketing. So many times marketing seems like the cool sexy thing that we wanna do when we start our business. We wanna pick the color palette. We wanna design the logo. We wanna get the website up and running. But what you really need to do before you do all that is start thinking about what are your sales goals. What is enough income for you to bring home? How many clients do you need to get there? And I want you to figure out, start thinking through it, how can you hit that number so you can rest? This is gonna start reframing the way that you market and add to all the noise. Because if you can start thinking about just whispering to the amount of clients that you need to get to come through the doors it's gonna kind of simmer everything down a little bit. According to the pareto principle, something called the pareto principle, about 20% of the effort that goes into something generates about 80% of the results. This is an economic principle. But it applies to us as creative small business owners too. So what I really want you to think through here with me for a sec is that maybe, just maybe, 20% of your marketing efforts could pull in 80% of your revenue. It is really quite possible. So, I want you to start seeing how the sustainable marketing plan in action could be you putting in your eggs in the right basket. And calming a little bit of that marketing hustle down. So instead of focusing on being all of the places at once, we're gonna say no to some things today. We're gonna say no to maybe some good things because we wanna say yes to great things. We wanna say yes to the right things as you market your business. So, our job as marketers, I love this quote, is to understand how our clients or our customers want to buy and then to help them do so. A lot of times sales makes, at least for my students, and other people that I'm talking to, it makes people feel icky. It makes your palms start to sweat a little bit when you think about talking and having those money conversations with your potential clients. And I don't want you to feel like that at all. Instead I want you to start thinking through what would it look like if I reframed sales in my brain and start considering how many I have a gift and a talent and an art. And if that gets in the hands of the people that really need that I could help them. I could help them get to where they wanna be. Copywriters have a phrase and a saying that we think about that everybody when they're purchasing and making buying decisions is just buying a better version of themselves. From if I'm buying Tom's toothpaste at the grocery store. To buying a new piece of art for my living room. When I make purchasing decisions I'm making them with my emotions first and I'm backing them up with rationale. And that is the same thing that your clients and your customers are doing. So I really want you to start reframing sales. Get it less icky. And instead get excited about getting your products and your services in the hands of those who need it. And we're gonna cover a whole lot today. But as I wrap up this intro, I have two quotes, just two. I tend to be a little bit of a quote hoarder. I love them. But it wouldn't be a good marketing talk if I didn't have a Seth Godin quote in here. Our job is to connect with people, to interact with them in a way that leaves them better than where we found them, and more able to get to where they'd like to go. And I know you've probably heard this one before. Form Maya Angelou. She said, people will forget what you did, but they will never forget how you make them feel. So how can your marketing be a way where you help people understand if they are a fit for you or if they're not a fit. And that's okay. Sales shouldn't feel sleazy or slick or slimy. Instead I want you to feel really good about it. That you are clearly explaining what you do in a way that makes people either raise their hand and say yep, here she is, the one for me. Or nope, not gonna do this. This is not the right fit. And move along on their merry way.
Class Materials
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Ratings and Reviews
user-c49d1c
Awesome class!! Super great info, Ashlyn is a great presenter!
KimberlyAnnMurphy
What a great class and Ashlyn really knows her stuff! Thank you for this super helpful information!
Marta Oliehoek-Samitowska
Very helpful and informative! Ashlyn does a really great job! So much ethusiasm, lots of good advice and so many simple but handy tips!