Lessons

Lesson Info

Create Your Campaign Building Blocks

This is the halfway point, essentially, of this class. From this point, we started off real big, right? With that birds-eye-view of your marketing plan. And from here we've been kind of deep-diving into the different information that you need, to really build out a high quality, highly effective marketing campaign. Now we're gonna start putting that to use and when we build, when we create rather, these building blocks, then you will have all of the raw materials you need to construct the rest of your campaign. In all of the lessons after this, we're gonna be really looking at alright, what happens when? What do I need to do next? What does it need to look like? Okay? So we're at this kind of shift point, this transition point in this class, where things are gonna start really coming into focus on a much more detailed level. Sound good? Alright. So to start planning any campaign, you need to gather up all your tactics, review that ol' ideal client profile one more time, all that resear...

ch that you've already done, all the listening that we talked about. You're gonna get gung go about all the things you're gonna do right this time, right? This is, alright I've got the latest fad, I've got that down in my pocket. I've got my ideal client profile, alright. Yup I'm gung ho, I'm gonna do it this time. I'm gonna make it work. And then the blank page. (audience laughs) And you get this look on your face. And you're like oh dear lord in heaven, why is there a blank page? Whether it's your sales page, or the landing page from your webinar, or it's your calendar, or it's a WordPress blog post, or whatever it is that you use to start building this campaign, we've all hit that period where blank page syndrome hits. Alright? And this is a serious problem, because whether it's back in high school when you were writing papers and you hated it, or whether it's now and you're doing marketing and you think you hate it, but really it's fun. Blank page syndrome sucks. Here's the good news. Great copywriters, great marketers, they never start from scratch. Great marketers never start with a blank page. When I'm writing copy, when I'm creating a blog post, I never ever ever have a blank page in front of me. I have a formula, a template, an outline, call it whatever you wanna call it, but I have that and I have to fill in the gaps with the information I already know about my customer and the message I want to give them to get them to the next step, whatever that might be. Great marketers, great copywriters, start with a foundation of information and a template for execution. Every marketing campaign is built from a series of building blocks. Whether it's a sales page, a blog post, a schedule, a follow-up series, an auto-responder series, email marketing, a video, a podcast episode, every single piece of marketing is built from building blocks. You don't know it yet, you do it already, but I'm gonna make it a whole lot easier for you, so you never get hit with that blank page face again. Because when you get the foundation right, you become an unstoppable marketer. Get the foundation right and you become and unstoppable marketer. Now we are just gonna start this lesson right in the hot seat, because there is not much I can do to explain what we're about to do, I have to show you what we're going to do. And showing instead of telling is a good theory of education anyhow. So I'm gonna have Ainsley come on up here. And while she's coming up, I wanna point out that we are working in one of the bonuses with purchase right now. So if you bought this class already, you can go to class materials and download the marketing campaign building blocks worksheet. On the inside it looks like this and there's lots of blank gray spaces in it for you to create your building blocks from. If you haven't purchased the class yet, what are you waiting for? (laughs) So we're gonna be working from this work book. You don't need this work book obviously, you can do this on your own. But this is a great place to start every single time you create a campaign. You can just print this off and work through these so that you have that great foundation of information. Alright Ainsley, tell us who you are, what it is that you do, and tell us what it is that you are creating this campaign around. Sure, so my name's Ainsley Tanner and I run an organization called Personal Brand Agency where we help individuals clarify what they wanna be known for, and build their web presence around that. And that's exactly what I'd like to focus on. Okay so just your main offer, your personal branding offer. Exactly it's a full-service package where we do everything from the brand clarification and the positioning and identifying what they wanna be known for, all the way through to giving them their website. Well that sounds fabulous. And where can we find you online? Did you say that already? Oh personalbrandagency.com. Okay excellent, 'cause there might be people here who are very interested in that. That sounds great. Alright so who are the three to five people that you want buying your offer? Tell us about, maybe just tell us about one or two people who just really fit that ideal client target customer kind of vibe. You don't have to name names. But give us the rundown on who these people are. There are two kind of key areas. One are those leaders in organizations, folks who are working within their companies but they want either a promotion or to change careers. And so they really need to do the job of clarifying why they're the right person for the job. So that's one category. And the other is your entrepreneur, your individual solopreneur, if you will. Somebody who's the face of their business, who wants to take their business to the next level, maybe is having trouble with getting as many sales as they'd like, converting as many customers as they'd like, and so we work with them on that. Alright, fantastic. Now I didn't have Ainsley name names here because that would be rude. (laughs) I like privacy as much as the next girl. But, for you at home and for you in the audience, I want you to name names here. I want you to have two, three, four people in mind that you are thinking about when you are answering the questions that we're gonna answer in each of these building blocks, okay? Because and so I want you to be thinking about your specific people too. Profiles don't give us great answers. People give us great answers. You'll come up with better information, better phrasing, better everything, if you actually focus on real people, instead of a profile. Like for instance, every time I think of a new offer, Michelle is one of the people I think about. What would Michelle say? What does Michelle need? How can I help Michelle? So I want you to really be thinking about that. It's not a profile of someone who looks like Michelle. No, it's Michelle. Okay? I cannot make this any more clear. (laughs) Alright so that's perfect. So we've got our people in mind that we're starting with. Now we need to build each block. Each building block has two sides and they're generally pretty related. They're two sides of the same coin, and there's nine sets of building blocks here. And as we go through them, you may find that some of your answers repeat. Or that things sounds a little similar. That's fine, please don't stress. The idea is just to ask as many questions to give us as much raw information, as much raw material as possible. So that every time we go to build that sales page, or a blog post, or do a podcast episode, whatever part of your campaign you're in, you have the raw material to draw on, okay? So our first building block is Current Knowledge or Experience, what your customers know right now, that itch that they're trying to scratch, unaware. And their Ultimate Goal. So like I said it's two sides of the same coin. What are they obsessed with? What are they constantly trying to itch at? What question do they keep coming back to over and over again? And then ultimately, where do they want to end up? Who do they want to be? What is their experience going to be like? Alright so Ainsley, what is your customer's current knowledge or experience? At the unaware stage? Well so for the individual customers that you're thinking about. What do they know right now? Or what itch are they regularly trying to scratch? They have a goal they want to achieve, and they maybe don't know exactly how to get there. Okay. What, is it sort of like an amorphous thing? Like man I really want that but I just don't know where to start? Or do they have any kind of specific questions around that? The particular person I have in mind for this, he's aware that he wants to make it into the executive team, but, and he's also aware of personal branding, so I don't know if that takes him too far down the spectrum, but he knows that he needs to manage his personal brand in such a way that he's perceived as someone who should be on that group. Okay alright. So let's write down personal perception. And if you were doing this, for real, you might get a lot more detailed in here. I say write as much as you can. You can't have too much raw material here to work with. And then what's his or her ultimate goal? To be on the executive team. Yeah, he wants that promotion. And is this next promotion ultimately where he wants to end up? Or are there many steps beyond that? There are steps beyond that. Okay so executive team, possibly wanting to become CEO later on? Yup. Alright. So this person wants to be the CEO. Which is really interesting because that actually probably ties both of these customers together, right? Yes. So no matter where they might be right now, maybe they're a freelancer, or they've started a small business but they have visions of so much more, they don't know how to connect the dots, they don't know how to be perceived the way they want to be perceived in the market. Yeah I think this personal perceptions piece is huge. They're just not getting the recognition they want, right? And they have goals, they don't know how to get there, but ultimately, that Ultimate Goal is that they wanna be perceived as someone who is worthy of being the leader of this company. Whether that's their own company, or whether it's someone else's company. Okay pretty straight forward, right? Alright. That's just one block. Block number two, is their Core Problem and the True Solution. So where as block number one came entirely from the customer, we're 100% focused on what they know, where they wanna go, this piece is coming from you. What is their problem right now? Why are they not perceived the way they want to be perceived? There could be a number of reasons. Okay. What's the core problem you solve? People often make the mistake of thinking that others are gonna recognize in them everything they have to offer. And people just don't have the capacity to think about every facet, every strength that you bring to the table. So you really need to be focused, and singular, and conveying this is what I am excellent at, this is what my strength is, and help people see why you're the right person for the job. Yeah, so it's almost like. It's about having a more tailored message. Because people can't, they don't have the capacity to see you in all your, all your nuances, all the strengths that you have. They just wanna know what's relevant for them. And so it's really being targeted with that. Okay I love that! I love that and okay. And so then the flip side of that is having a tailored message, right? Tailored targeted message. And this is what you offer with personal branding. And would you say this is the part of the solution that is most resonant with people? Like when they get that are they like oh yeah I need that? Sorry when they get what? When they get that that having a tailored message is going to help them have that perception that they're otherwise lacking, are they like really excited about that? People get very excited at the idea of somebody else seeing in them, so clearly, what they have to offer. It's like so many times people say oh I wish I recorded that, whatever I just played back to them. Like oh you're the one. And so it's really powerful. So like being seen. Yes. Alright love it. Again, fairly straight forward, right? Breaking this down. Block number three is Before and After. So this one is similar to block number one but it gives us a little bit of different information. In block number one again, we're kinda looking at the birds-eye-view, we're looking a little bit further out. Block number three, I wanna hone in really close to the point-of-sale. So what is the customer's situation like right before they decide to buy? What's the story that they're living? What are the bullet points that you might assign to that before? And you wanna use as much specific detail as possible. And then on the flip side of that is the after. And after is right after they use your product or in this case right after they go through you service and have that website, what's the new story that they're going to be living? And again, use as much detail as possible. So let's look at the before. What are some of the specific things that come up? The specific problems, frustrations, pain points that come up right before someone makes the decision to buy your Personal Brand Agency service? So again this could vary from person to person and situation to situation. Because, especially on the entrepreneur side, people may have already created a website for themselves. They may have already cobbled something together but they're just not getting the results that they want. Where as on my more individual leaders, they might not even have thought of having a website before. So for them it's more the challenges around gosh I'm frustrated somebody else got promoted over me. That one! Yeah. Yes, didn't get the gig. Didn't get the gig, didn't get the promotion. What else? Well I suppose they're feeling frustrated. Maybe a little bit lost. Okay. They feel like they have so much to offer and it's just not getting through, it's not being recognized. Love it. Great language. Alright. After. After, they're proud. They are clearer than they've ever been before about how to talk about themselves 'cause often times people feel uncomfortable about that so having language that they feel comfortable with, sharing with others is pretty powerful. And they notice a difference in results. So whether that's more people who come to their website are reaching out to them, or they're starting to get noticed at work and ultimately get the role that they want. Yeah. So more gigs, more interviews, more opportunities. Fantastic. Alright, again, fairly straight forward. Fairly straight forward? Hopefully you're starting to see some of this raw information that we're starting to gather and how you might use that on a sales page, in a blog post, all of those different pieces. Block number four is Past Failures or Fears and Special Snowflake Qualities. I teased this one earlier. We'll get into that one a little bit more. But let's talk about past failures. So in the before, here, you mentioned that they didn't get the gig. Or they didn't get their promotion. Why? What was that failure? What did they see that failure being attributed to? So not what did I see, what did they see? What did they see? Because what are they afraid of? That's another way of looking at this. Well often times I'd say there's blame associated with not getting the results that they want. Great, blaming themselves? Or blaming others? Both ways. Both? Blaming themselves with the should-haves, but also blaming others for oh so-and-so's just a better networker or so-and-so just is friends with so-and-so, and that's why they got the promotion. So making excuses. Feeling like they failed at networking? Yeah. Do you think they could fear being stuck in the same role for the rest of their life? Oh absolutely. Stagnation is not something that's appealing. Yeah past failures and fears is something that we often overlook because we don't like to talk about other people's pain, right? We're not those kind of marketers. But what happens is that past fears and failures start to turn into objections. So someone might say, well having a better personal brand sounds great, but if I'm a terrible networker, how is that gonna help me? Or having a great personal brand sounds great, but I am stuck in this organization and no one is every going to see me for what I really bring to the table. And so that fear, that frustration, that failure, becomes a reason to not hire Ainsley, when really it's the perfect reason to hire Ainsley. And so that's why this particular block is really important, because if we don't talk about those kinds of fears and failures, we don't have the opportunity to overcome those objections. Okay? The other half of this is Special Snowflake Qualities. This is a favorite of mine. In current cultural parlance, it does not mean exactly the same thing with what I mean here. What I mean by Special Snowflake Qualities is that we all have these kinds of objections that sound something like well that works for so-and-so, but I'm blank. Or that might work for everybody else, but I'm special and so it's not gonna work for me because. We all do this. If you've noticed I've tried to overcome some of those things in this very class, right? I set up and say hey your marketing campaign didn't fail because you suck at marketing. Right, there's all these other reasons. But I have to acknowledge that Special Snowflake Quality first to get you to even think about how you might do marketing differently. So what are some of those Special Snowflake Qualities of your best customers, best clients? Okay so I'm thinking of things like I'm an introvert, I don't like putting myself out there. Yes oh I did that one too. Also, that I don't like talking about myself, I want my work to speak for itself. Yeah that's great because that's kind of a deeply held belief, I want my work to speak for itself, I don't wanna have to speak for my work. I love that. Anything else? Also, even people who think well this isn't gonna work for me because, I'm not an out-there personality. Yes! I'm not the creative type. I'm not the interesting one. Oh there's so much good stuff in here. Haha! I love it! Those are great! You guys have some Special Snowflake Qualities in mind for your offer? Some reasons that people give that are just complete BS? That you're like, oh man okay, so that sounds like, it should preclude you from this, but really it makes you awesome. Alright awesome, fantastic. Building block number five. Jobs to Accomplish and Elements of Value. So this really gets down to talking about the value proposition behind your offer without me saying the words value proposition. Which tends to be a scary phrase. So Jobs to Accomplish is simply, what do your customers actually want to change? What do they want to do differently? Yeah what do they want to have change? Beyond getting the promotion or getting more clients? Yeah, if something else comes up for you around that, that would be awesome. Well I suppose they want to come across as credible. Okay. They want to be seen as an authority. As an expert. They wanna be recognized. Yeah those are great. Alright. Yeah, actually that's fantastic. Learning how to be more credible, becoming more recognized. The flip side of this one is Elements of Value. And I have a cheat sheet for you guys on this one. Yeah so this is a list of things that we value in products and services that we buy. We value products that save us time, we value products that reduce our risk, making things less risky. We value products that simplify the task at hand, that's probably a big one for you, right? Is you just, you make this a lot more simple. I'm gonna write that down. Simplify. I spelled that right, right? Okay. Obviously we value things that help us make more money. That's gonna be another one for you. We value things that create affiliation or belonging, right? That give us a sense of identity with a greater whole. We value things that provide us hope, that have therapeutic value. There's a whole bunch of these things and really if you Google elements of value Harvard Business Review, there's a fabulous article on this that I share all the time over at CoCommercial 'cause it just really helps you get your head around how to talk about your product or service, the offer that you're making in really valuable terms. We've got two here for Ainsley, is there another one that you wanna add? I'd say saves time as well. Okay! That's great. 'Cause rather than doing it yourself, you're outsourcing a lot of it to us. Yes exactly. So you could say by creating a more compelling personal brand, we'll teach you how to be more credible or appear to be more credible, we'll show you how to become more recognized in your office or in your market, and we'll simplify that process, we'll help you make more money, and we'll save you time on the path to getting the job or the gig you really want. Right? Just like that. Yeah it's a fantastic way to talk about what you do, and all you did was you grabbed some random things out of the ether, and you put it all together. Amazing. Yeah, love it! Okay fantastic. Building block number six is why you're the Right Guide and why your offer is the Right Offer. So this really comes down to that evaluation piece. And the last lesson we were talking about moving people from being solution aware to being product aware. When they're solution aware, they know the kind of thing they need, but they don't know they need your thing yet. This is the building block where you're gonna describe in as fine of detail as you can, why you're the right person or the right brand to offer this thing, and why your offer in particular is the right thing. So why is your brand, why is the Personal Brand Agency the right guide for this process? Will this have to do with the fact that we provide the full service? Yes, okay! So you don't have to go and get five different providers to get your branding and your copywriting and your design and website. Yeah, do you have a particular expertise or experience in this area? Or a particular methodology that makes it even better? I do in the up front brand strategy piece. Okay. We have our way of identifying what your brand should be. It's really around making a strategic choice about how you wanna be seen. Okay. Where you wanna be positioned in the market. I think we talked about this privately before, but do you have a name for that system yet? I don't have an official name for it, no. But we talked about-- Okay I think that would be the next step in here. Anything else on why your company is the Right Guide? Well I suppose there's also just our approach. We take a coaching approach, we listen, we start by listening and understanding who you are and where you're trying to go, rather than just fitting you into some box. Yes, not one-size-fits-all. I'm gonna start moving over to the Right Offer. So it's not one size fits all. The full service also comes over into that piece as well. Anything else about the offer that makes it the perfect offer for the specific people that you wanna reach? A lot for you because the brand is the thing that you're selling also, there's a lot of overlap between these two. Some of us, some of you are going to have a lot less overlap here. Where you might have your brand stands for one thing, and so the guide piece of this is really focused on you maybe, in particular, or a particular general approach that you have. But then the offer is something really really specific. It's not separate from the brand, but it's a smaller piece of that brand, so you wanna talk more specifically about that offer. But because you have brand and offer overlap here, I think that's why these things kind of all apply on both sides of the aisle. Alright block number seven is Personal Values and Values Match. In other words, how your customer, so what your customer's personal values are and how your offer is uniquely designed to support some of those personal values, alright? What are some of the top personal values of your right customers? Leadership. Kay, great. Trust. And these overlap, to be honest, with our values as an organization, so. But also observation and listening. And we also have a value of artistry, and I suppose they would also appreciate that as well. Alright great. So how is your offer uniquely designed to support their leadership? How we help to position them. The credibility that we're able to impart. Okay. How's your offer uniquely shaped to support their values for observation and listening? The coaching approach that we take. Really investing the time to get to know them. Great. And tell me more about this artistry piece. So that's all about being able to blend beauty with results. So it's not just pretty pictures, though it does look nice. Make sure your photography looks stunning, and all of that, but it's all done with a purpose. Yeah. There's a reason for why we took that particular shot. Why your hands are in that shot. Why you're looking at the camera that way. Why you're wearing that. It's, yeah. Okay great. Yeah there's a lot behind it. Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful. Block number eight, we're almost there guys. Is Objections. We've kinda been dancing around objections this whole time. These are all the reasons someone might give for not buying your offer. Alright? So what are some of the objections that you get to the Personal Brand Agency offer? I know these all so well. It's too expensive. For some of my entrepreneurs, it's I have a referral-based business, so I don't need to invest that much in my website. Okay. Some of this goes back too, to some of the things on one of the other blocks, but about the not necessarily needing oh the introverted, not liking to talk about themselves all of this kind of stuff. Great. Okay perfect. What are some of the alternatives that they might try instead? So not necessarily other providers, not other people to build their website or take pictures of them, but things they might try to get the promotion instead of developing their personal brand? Well they could try to DIY it. They could keep doing what they're doing, status quo. Yup. They could hire someone to work on their LinkedIn profile, their CV or resume. Those are great. Yeah? Yeah, that's fine! Okay great so in block number eight we could go further with this. And I would ask you to really get into okay, it's not too expensive and why. Or if you have a referral-based business, why do you still need to have a strong brand? If you're an introvert, why do you still need to have a strong brand? The answer is, the stronger your brand is, the less legwork you have to do. Alright. And then alternatives, why are these not the right things for them? We don't do enough contrasting our offers with the other things people might buy. And they might buy all sorts of different things to try and solve their problems. Some of them are very cheap, some of them are very expensive. The more we talk about why they should buy our thing instead of x, y, or z, the more success we'll find. And so actually laying that out is an important piece. Okay that's Objections and Alternatives. Block number nine is the Cost of Delay and the Consequences of Inactions. You mentioned status quo as being one of the Alternatives. That really kind of hits the nail on the head for block number nine. What happens if they delay working with Personal Brand Agency? Their income doesn't go up at the rate that it could. Yup. They don't move up as quickly as they might want to. Yup. They are gonna watch other people pass them by. I don't know how far to take it but they'll be unfulfilled and unhappy. The further you take it the better. This goes back to what I mentioned earlier. Where we don't like to talk about people's pain, we don't like to talk about all the negatives, the fears that could happen. But if we don't we don't motivate people. A part of the marketing and sales process, is helping people understand why now is the best time to buy. We call it a buy now button for a reason right? We need them to realize that now is the time to take action. So if you say to someone, hey, you need to develop your personal brand or you're gonna not make as much money as you could. If you don't act now on your personal brand, you're not gonna get the job you want. You're gonna watch other people pass you by. You may actually end up feeling less fulfilled that you otherwise would in this career that you've chosen. Now is the time to act! The point is not to make them feel scared, obviously that's what we wanna avoid. But we do want them to realize, that they have to make a change to get what they want. And at the beginning of making a change, is buy your product or your service or your offer, in this case. It doesn't have to be, we're not forcing them to do something, right? But that's what's happening here. Okay Consequences of Inaction. For you, they're probably all very similar. Cost of Delay in this case is the same thing. To look at it in two different ways, you could say if you develop your personal brand a year from now, or five years from now, that's less money in your retirement account right? Yeah, you're gonna eventually get to CEO, but how long is it gonna take you? Whereas Consequences of Inaction are you don't get to CEO, you don't start making more money. So again, for some offers there, the difference might be a little bit clearer, for you it's just a matter of timing I think. Okay? I'm gonna show you what we're gonna do with this in just a couple of minutes, but as you guys can see, what we've got here for Ainsley is really a whole lot of information we can take and plug in to a landing page, a webinar, a sales pitch, a sales conversation even that you're having on that phone. You've almost got sort of a blocky kind of script here already, where you can take this piece or this piece or this piece and use that as an answer to a question somebody has for you. Or in an email that you're using to get people on board. Okay? Well so I have a question then. Yes, please! Because we've done it in these blocks, and there are different bullet points in each of the blocks, so are you saying separate out each of the bullet points for separate? Or would they all be addressed in one block? So that depends on what you're, where you're plugging these things in at. So for instance, the Before and After block. I tend to get as detailed, and make that feel as expansive as possible. Like I really wanna paint that picture. So I'm gonna use, on a sales page, for instance, I'm probably gonna use all of the bullet points in the Before, I'm gonna use all the bullet points in the After. However, if I was using this in a blog post, I might wanna talk about just one, Five Reasons You Didn't Get the Gig. Okay? And so I'm taking just one bullet point out of block number three. So you kind of think of this as pre-writing in general, but you can also this about it literally as that plug-and-play piece too. Fantastic. Yeah! Okay thank you. Thank you! Alright, questions? Do you guys have questions about the building blocks? Yes? So I was identifying for the Alternatives in block eight, it depends on where the perspective person is. So if they're unaware or if they're solution based, the alternatives are in different buckets, so is that just, now I'm aware of that and then when I know who I'm talking to I just pull from whatever that is? Bingo! Bingo, yeah absolutely. So you might, now that you're aware of that, you might realize, you know I really should write a blog post on why this alternative is not the right thing, and that might be for an unaware audience. Where you're saying this isn't the right solution for you, and here's why, 10 reasons you shouldn't buy this particular thing to solve your problem or to scratch your itch, right? In a very general sense. But, on a sales page, maybe that ship's already sailed and you need to focus more on the alternatives that someone who is solution aware would be, or product aware would be aware of or thinking about, okay?