Do you ever feel like you’re doing all the right things and yet, it seems like you’re simply speaking into the void? Like you’re taking time to create stellar content, leveraging short form video, prioritizing outbound marketing, and basically everything else you know you’re “supposed” to do, but your audience remains quiet and those sales just aren’t coming in the way you want them to?

Before we get into how to resolve this, let’s talk about why this might be happening:

1) You haven’t adapted your marketing strategy: Let’s be real, things have changed in the marketing world in a big way. If you’re still trying to leverage what worked 5 years ago (heck, even last year), you’re probably not going to see the best results.

2) You aren’t effectively guiding your audience off of social media: In the hustle and bustle of social media where we’re so fixated on enhancing our reach, growing our audience, and expanding our network, it’s easy to forget that social media is simply a space for discovery. It isn’t always where the actual conversion happens, which is why we need a process in place to get your audience off of these platforms and deeper into your brand.

3) You don’t have a diverse and solid conversion plan in place: Content creation is not enough for conversion. *Read that again.* Content is simply a tool that allows your brand to get discovered, build trust, and nurture towards a conversion. We need a conversion plan in place for your business that's an extension of your content plan. That’s where the magic will happen.

The good news? You probably have part of the puzzle put together, and we might just need to adjust the pieces in front of you or add a few new ones in. Our problems often require a little bit of re-working versus an entire re-haul. And today I’m going to help you do just that: adjust your approach to transforming your audience into actual conversions. And we’re going to do so through a simple 3-part process:

1. Attract

2. Connect

3. Convert

1. Attract Through Effective Marketing

What once was effective in your marketing strategy isn't necessarily effective today. What does this mean? It's time to adjust your marketing strategy to accommodate for buyer behavior changes that have happened over the last few years.

For a deep dive into how buyer behavior has changed (and how this should inform your marketing strategy), read 2024 Marketing Trends: Top Strategies to Grow Your Small Business This Year.

What it really boils down to? Your audience needs to trust you. And they might need more time to develop that trust with you and your brand before they make an investment.

Here are a few ways to develop deep trust with your audience right now:

Be Who You Are

People can smell fake from a mile away, so always be yourself and add more of your unique personality into your marketing. This will help you cut through the noise and stand out among a sea of competitors.

Examples:

• Show your face more. Consumers want to feel like they know you. I’m not saying you need to share every nitty gritty detail of your personal life, but try to incorporate more of your personality.
• Use your unique creativity in your brand visuals. I know this one’s a bit abstract. But figure out what lights you up creatively and find a way to incorporate that into your marketing. This is another great way to stand out and not only capture your audience’s attention, but keep it.

By being true to yourself, your audience will feel like they actually know you which is the first step in gaining their trust.

Display Your Expertise

Have you ever heard the expression “Show vs Tell”? In writing, it’s important to paint a picture for readers (aka Show) instead of simply telling them what happened (aka Tell). The same goes for your marketing. Don’t simply tell your audience how amazing you are, or how incredible your product or service is – show them through your marketing.

Examples:

• If you’re a brand designer, include a portfolio on your website or share your works-in-progress on Instagram Stories
• If you’re a consultant, share video testimonials from previous clients or an Instagram carousel breaking down how you helped a client reach a specific goal

By displaying your expertise, your audience will see that you not only know what you’re talking about but you might be the right person for the job.

Provide a Stellar Customer Experience

This might seem out of place considering it isn't directly related to marketing. But the caliber of your client experience determines how much positive word of mouth marketing your brand gets. And word of mouth marketing will often lead to quicker conversions for your business. Think about any time you've been referred to someone – a doctor, a brand designer, a coach, even a restaurant – and how much trust you had in them because you already knew someone who trusted them.

Not only should you do what you say you’re going to do. But in this day and age, you should aim to go above & beyond. If you provide customers with a stellar experience, they’ll be more likely to refer your product or service to others – and that’s how you build positive word of mouth marketing.

Examples:

• Hyper-personalized touchpoints to enhance the customer journey
• Refine your customer experience based on actual feedback (this shows that you’re willing to listen and adjust according to their needs)

By providing a stellar experience, your customers will feel deeply seen, known, and understood. And they’ll appreciate you going above and beyond for them (because not everyone does).

2. Connect with Your Audience through a Powerful Customer Journey

Once we've attracted your ideal audience member – often through your marketing presence – we can move them to the connection phase of the process.

So many people obsess over audience growth, going viral, reaching tens of thousands of followers, but if you can’t effectively convert them, what’s the point? For perspective, we've worked with people who had a collective audience of over 300,000 followers but couldn't land a single sale (hence why they came to us). On the other hand, we’ve worked with people who had less than 1,000 followers and had a multiple 6-figure business.

The numbers don’t matter if you can’t effectively serve, nurture, and convert them.

This is where a powerful customer journey comes into play. Think about this in two primary phases:

1) Discovery and Connection Building

Think about how and where your potential customers discover you – it’s often going to be through your marketing presence. How are you providing a variety of touch points through your content that not only allow you to capture their attention, but to hold it. You’ll likely want a blend of educational, entertaining, inspiring, and promotional content to not only keep your audience on their toes, but ensure they're able to get to know you and your brand at a deep level.

The important thing here is that you're sharing a variety of content. For example, if you only share educational content, this may come across as stale and lifeless. On the other hand, if you only share lifestyle content, your audience may be left wondering, “Does she really know her stuff? Can she really help me?” But if you share a mix of the two, you not only showcase your personality (capturing attention and building connection) but also your expertise (deepening trust and establishing your authority).

2) Establishing Deeper Trust

Let’s be real, there’s only so much trust that can be built through a 30-60 second Instagram reel, TikTok, or Facebook post. Once your potential customers have decided they like you, feel connected to you, and have a base level of trust in you, they want more.

This is where two things come into play:

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1. Long Form Content

Although short form content is still crucial to your marketing plan, it can't provide a well-rounded journey for your potential customers. To do that, you need short form content working in tandem with long form content. Think about how much more of your expertise you can show in a podcast episode, blog post, or lengthy email newsletter than in one Instagram post. It’s a stark difference.

Depending on your capacity, you may find you can only manage one of each. That's okay. I would much rather you be present on one short-form platform and one long-form platform versus two short-forms. Remember, we’re aiming to take your potential customers on a journey throughout your brand – one that provides them with the level of depth they need to establish trust pre-conversion.

2. Getting Your Audience OFF of Social Media

Beyond nurturing your audience across your marketing channels and social media, we actually need to get them OFF of these platforms and further embedded into your brand. Think about the difference between nurturing someone through a TikTok versus having them scroll through your website. It’s a totally different experience. Not only will there be less distractions on your website than on TikTok, but there's specific information and next steps available to them that they don’t have access to on social media.

As you craft your content for social media, think about WHERE you want to guide your audience next. Maybe it’s your website, an application form, a free resource, a blog, or your newsletter. Regardless, this should be a central part of your overall marketing strategy.

3. Convert Your Audience with a Strategic Conversion Plan

Once you have effectively established a connection with and nurtured your audience, you can focus on converting them. You should focus on doing so at two levels:

1) The initial conversion from audience member to paying customer

Establishing a conversion plan for your business will require that you look at your unique business model, sales goals, and overall capacity. What works for one business may not work for another. And truth be told, there are so many different conversion options available. Before deciding the path you want to take, ask yourself:

• What has historically worked well conversion-wise?
• What exactly am I selling, and what is the most effective way to sell it? (Example: a landing page may not be powerful enough to convert someone into your high-ticket 1:1)
• Are there any sales tactics I’ve been wanting to test for my brand?

When it comes to converting a brand new customer, you want to think about ways to get them off the fence and into your product or service.

Here are a few ideas to get your gears turning:

• A regular launch cadence: If you’re selling something like a course or group program, an ongoing launch cadence could be a great way to draw attention to your offer as well as get those “fence-sitters” moving. You could host a launch event, run a special deal, leverage affiliate marketing, and so much more.
• ***A proactive sales strategy:*** This is something we integrate with every single client we work with. Your content strategy plus a proactive sales strategy is often the powerful duo you need to get those mid-to-high-ticket sales through the door. Sometimes people need to talk to a human, share their concerns or questions, go through objections, and more. And that can be the very thing they need to finally opt in.
• Special promotions: If you have a product-based business or a passive income division, leveraging any special holidays to put on fun promotions can be a great way to land those initial sales.

2) The conversion from one offer to another in your offer suite

Once a customer is acquired, this is just the beginning. Over time, the goal is to build a holistic offer suite that allows you to retain those customers within your offers, thus increasing your customer lifetime value.

To learn about the power of increasing your customer lifetime value, watch this where we break down how we acquired close to $100,000 from just one client.

When it comes to retaining and / or upselling your current customers, consider the following options to get you started:

• Introduce a retention strategy: If you have a solid base of customers you work with one-on-one, you MUST have a retention strategy in place. This means, before you ever reach the off-boarding phase, you're introducing the opportunity to continue your work together. You can showcase overall progress made so far as well as your ideas for continuation of service and how you can help.
• Give your existing customers firsthand access to new products and services: Never forget that your existing customers are your hottest leads. They have already experienced the power of your brand and support in a way your audience hasn't, making it much easier to sell them into a new experience. When we launched our group program The Awakening Academy back in 2020 this was how we were able to fill ALL of our spots within a few short weeks.
• Focus on building an intentional funnel long-term: If you've built out your strategic offer suite with a variety of offers that provide a nice journey for your customers, a funnel can work beautifully to retain and upsell. Not only can you acquire through an email funnel, but you can upsell, downsell, increase your scope of work, and so much more.

You CAN Go from Crickets to Booked Out

And the good news? It doesn’t have to require a full rehaul of your strategy. You just need to zoom out, identify your current gaps, and make a few tweaks to get things moving. Following this simple formula – attract, connect, and convert – will help you do this swiftly and simply.

Want to see how other entrepreneurs have boosted profitability and freedom in their business? Download The Awakening Archives: a backstage pass to see our client’s stories, experiences, and transformations.

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