Content Sells: Attract, Convert & Keep Your Ideal Clients with Content Marketing That Works

Ever felt “icky” about having a sales conversation or making an offer? Being vulnerable to the pang of rejection or having to ask people to “buy your thing” can feel intimidating… and often when we are presented with buying objections - we can freeze up or feel rejected or stutter and stumble not knowing what to say. In this episode your hosts, Suzi Dafnis and Michelle Falzon introduce you to Bari Baumgardner, one of the world’s leading authorities on using live events as a way to grow your sales, your community and your business and she’s helped the “who’s who” to have sales conversations with HUMANITY that are geared and SERVING rather than SELLING. Bari shares how you can feel GREAT about helping people move forward with you, rather than like a used car salesman pushing your product. This is a MUST-LISTEN episode for anyone who ever sells a product anywhere, not just at live events. You can also get Bari’s FREE Online Workshop over at www.liveeventworkshop.com . This episode is a recording from a presentation Bari recently delivered to our HerBusiness Marketing Success Mastermind which is an inner circle group we host for women business owners to grow their business and find a support system from their peers. You can apply for the Mastermind by visiting: herbusinessmastermind.com Listen to this episode to hear more about:  How Bari got over being so scared of selling she even quit Girl Scouts to avoid selling cookies, to become one of the most successful, authentic, confident and empathic sales person you will ever meet How to SERVE hard and SELL easy (this one is a HUGE relief for anyone who hates selling but loves looking after their customers) The REAL reasons behind some of the most common objections you hear every day (and the one simple question you can ask to get to those reasons) The one reframe you need to make BEFORE your next sales conversation that will change your life! How understanding what triggers YOU will make you more effective in your sales conversations and reveal the blindspots that are likely stopping customers from saying yes to you The most common objections - why they are universal and how to respond to each one when it comes up What to do if your customer tells you they have to “talk it over with their spouse / partner” Why “being polite” is not serving you or your customers How to have more human conversations that naturally lead to people wanting to buy from you And much more. Also mentioned in this episode: HerBusiness Success Mastermind FREE Live Event Workshop from Bari Baumgardner SAGE Event Management The Holistic Equine

When it comes to growing e-commerce stores, Susan Bradley of The Social Sales Girls knows her stuff. She’s grown and sold ecommerce businesses and has taught  thousands of people how to find their audience and turn website traffic into paying customers.   In this episode your hosts, Suzi Dafnis and Michelle Falzon, pick Susan’s amazing ecommerce brain for strategies for using content to grow your eCommerce business.   Listen to this episode to hear more about: The “go-to” lead magnet type all e-commerce businesses should have How to use discount codes and coupons The minimum number of visitors you need to your online store each month to make your marketing viable. The place where 40% of your sales come from (not where you think) Why your e-commerce lead generation content needs to be different to other business models How to keep your content focused on the sale  The two biggest determinants of whether you will convert a prospects into a customer?  The importance of the frequency of your communications Why you need to show the SAME content multiple times and in multiple places How many times you need to get someone to visit your website on average before they buy (the answer might surprise you) The specific and powerful strategy designed specifically for people who’ve visited your online store in the last 30 days that could double your sales How Susan uses email automation to get more sales more often from the SAME customers Tips for using SMS in your sales cycle  The role of Facebook Groups in getting more social proof and sales for your ecommerce store  The unusual way you can use Instagram Influencers to get sales Susan’s #1 email marketing strategy  And much more.    Also mentioned in this episode:    HerBusiness Success Mastermind  Social Sales Girls Website  Social Sales Girls Inner Circle  Social Sales Girls Facebook Page Social Sales Girls - 0 to 50k on Shopify

There’s almost nothing we love more than a content marketing campaign that really converts! One of the first things you need to make that happen is a strong hook that is going to immediately get people’s attention. Whether that’s for a Facebook ad, an email subject line, the topic of your lead magnet, your sales video, your webinar, your YouTube video… you get the picture… you need a catchy idea that is going to be relevant and interesting and attract the attention and curiosity of your IDEAL clients enough to get them clicking the link or watching the video or opening the email or whatever it is you want them to do next. But great hooks don’t always just pop into your mind - sometimes it takes a bit of work to come up with a good hook and that’s what we want to help you with. In this episode your hosts, Suzi Dafnis and Michelle Falzon, share 6 ideas to give you inspiration for your hooks. Listen to this episode to hear more about: Why a hook is not a headline (but a headline can contain your hook) How to use the language your customers give you to make your hooks better Why a “flabby tummy” is better than a “fat stomach” How to ask provocative questions to appeal to your audience (and the one “beginner mistake” that will make your question hook a non-starter) The 5 thought-starter prompts for a question type of hook How to use statistics to get attention (even if you don’t have any statistics of your own) How to borrow from global stories and thought leaders to create powerful hooks How to use humour to get more people clicking And much more. Also mentioned in this episode: HerBusiness Success Mastermind Episode 11 - The Step 2 Secret Episode 54 - Pleasure and Pain - Is there Enough of it in Your Content Episode 114 - How To Stop Writing so Apologetically and Start Selling More Episode 121 - Content Lessons We Learned From Lady Gaga

We’re talking to someone who has recently had 66% engagement in her Facebook Group. That’s a pretty amazing number… and as we found out on the show… she’s actually JUST updated those numbers to a whopping 90% engagement (that’s 9 out of 10 of her members have engaged with her in the last month!). Fiona Keary is a business owner we LOVE - she is a long time member of the HerBusiness Community and the HerBusiness Marketing Success Mastermind and we’ve seen her go from strength to strength year on year. As the brains behind Style Liberation she has created 1:1 and online services, products and courses and on this episode she gives us the inside story on her AMAZING engagement statistics and how she’s getting her Facebook Group Community so involved. Be sure to check out Fiona’s Facebook Group 35+ Where To Shop to see all these strategies in action! Listen to this episode to hear more about: The smart move Fiona made on Day 1 when it came to launching her Facebook Group How niching down to women 35+ and being clear about who this group is for and who it’s not for has been central to Fiona’s success (in other words, it’s BEST not to try to please everyone!) Why this Facebook Group worked where others had failed (and the ONE thing Fiona did different that everyone should know before starting a Facebook Group) The role of creating a “safe space” in an online community and how you can create that safety for your members The 5 things Fiona did to enable her group to “take on a life of it’s own” The smart use of customer stories to seed her paid offers Why sometimes you’re best to block people in your group who don’t share your values How to know how much content to give in a free group and when to pull back so you don’t give too much and cannibalise your paid offers The balance between free content and marketing offers in her content plan The 3 pieces of content Fiona posts EVERY week that have been central to her group’s massive success Why you MUST know the problem you are solving for your group - right from the start The perils of not showing people what you do in your paid offers (and how to get around that) And much more. Also mentioned in this episode: HerBusiness Success Mastermind Style Liberation 35+ Where To Shop Facebook Group HerBusiness REACH Retreat Episode 27 - Videos That Sell With James Wedmore Episode 29 - How To Create a Landing Page That Converts - Part 1 Episode 30 - How to Create a Landing Page That Converts - Part 2 Episode 114 - How To Stop Writing so Apologetically and Start Selling More Kristy-Lee Billett - The Footprint Group

Amanda Farmer of Your Strata Property, a one-stop-shop for information and education about strata living shares with us how she converted 23% of her prospects from a small email list of just over 300 people into her PAID membership. It’s quite extraordinary what she’s been able to do with a small, very strategic list and in this episode you learn just how special this list was and what she did to get those kinds of mammoth conversion rates. 23% - that’s almost one in 4 of the prospects on her email list converting to PAID customers and she did it all in just a matter of days. Listen to this episode to hear more about: How a small niche became a flourishing business What the key mistakes were that Amanda made when starting her Membership How closing her membership and only re-opening it twice a year reinvigorated her numbers The unexpected benefit of a closed membership on Amanda’s ability to focus on her paid members How Amanda planned out her campaign step-by-step The eye-opening insight Amanda gained from her April launch that enabled her to more than double her results on her September launch How Amanda’s “All roads lead to Waitlist” strategy enabled her to create a list of ideal buyers who were begging her to open her membership And much more. Also mentioned in this episode: HerBusiness Success Mastermind Your Strata Property

One of our most popular episodes was way back in 2017 when we shared some of our favorite books of the year… so we decided to do it again! Between us we read a LOT of books and these are our TOP picks when it comes to content marketing books for 2019. Listen to this episode to hear more about: The HerBusiness Book Club and why it’s one of Suzi’s favourite things What we’ve learned from Seth Godin (and the amazing way he was able to distil online marketing to just a few lines) The book that had Michelle nodding every 5 minutes and spontaneously shouting “that’s right!” How crafting memorable moments became one of our most memorable books of 2019 The one book Michelle used as a “manual” when revamping a client’s online course that resulted in more than double their goals being met Some of the biggest myths about creating habits busted… and the book that revealed all And much more. Also mentioned in this episode: HerBusiness Success Mastermind Content Sells Reading List

As we near the end of the year we were thinking about how we’d like to round things out and one of the things we’ve done over the past year that was really popular was to share some of the top Marketing tips from the very talented women in our Marketing Success Mastermind… and so we’ve decided to do that again! We recently asked our Masterminders to share the #1 content marketing strategy or tip that is most effective for them in their business right NOW... so you know it’s relevant and actually working for other people like you, in business TODAY. Listen to this episode to hear more about: The one strategy an online legal kit firm is using to create compelling customer stories, even in a regulated industry How a fitness business is using MVPs to iterate faster and get to what’s working sooner (without an excess cost of time and money) How to apply the “MVP” philosophy to all kinds of products and industries… even books! The incredibly smart thing a music education business to leverage a big industry conference by creating their own “online show” - and how that dramatically improved their authority and brand awareness The unexpected “knock-on” effects of spending time creating and curating your customer stories How to create a “peaches and cream” match when looking for strategic alliances - and how businesses as diverse as sales CRMs, electrical trades, fashion and music are winning with strategic partnerships How a fashion stylist is taking one 2-minute piece of regular content she creates every week and repurposing it across social, email and other platforms to get maximum leverage And much more. Also mentioned in this episode: HerBusiness Success Mastermind Episode 121 - Content Lessons Learned from Lady Gaga Episode 20 - How To Get Awesome Client Stories and Customer Testimonials Strong Healthy Women Black Rock Music Piano Teaching Success Zyteq Talking Mats Australia RP Emery Legal Kits SalesPod Lady Gaga Enigma Residency Las Vegas

We’ve just been to see Lady Gaga LIVE in Las Vegas! And boy, did she have us in the palm of her hand. Standing ovation after standing ovation as she made her way through some of the world’s most-loved Jazz songs. The entire evening was a masterclass in how to create a connection to your audience, know your message and be unapologetically true to yourself. We thought there were SO many lessons we could apply to our marketing and communications that we decided there were a “million reasons” (see what we did there!) to do a podcast episode sharing our top takeaways from this epic concert and this truly once in a generation performer (can you tell we had an amazing time!?). And don’t even get us started on the costumes… did we mention we LOVE her? We also recorded a video version of this podcast, which you can check out on our Facebook Page. Listen to this episode to hear more about: What you can learn from George Gershwin about knowing when to follow the rules and when to innovate How Lady Gaga handles failure and the brilliant reframe that can get you to success sooner How she proved her promoters wrong with her Jazz shows and what we can take from that when it comes to our offers to our audiences The one thing Lady Gaga did right at the start of her show that guaranteed her a standing ovation at the end of EVERY song and how we can use that same idea to encourage the behaviour we most want from our audience The role of vulnerability in creating connection with our most ideal customers Why we each need to pick up our own damn torches And much more. Also mentioned in this episode: HerBusiness REACH Retreat in Hawaii HerBusiness Marketing Success Mastermind Lady Gaga Enigma Residency Las Vegas

That’s a wrap on the 2019 HerBusiness REACH Retreat in Hawaii. WOW what a week! So we thought we’d pull the curtain back on the marketing we used to fill this high end retreat (you’ll notice many of the strategies we’ve already shared on this podcast were key to our success).  Listen to this episode to hear more about: Why you need to focus on the pleasure and pain of your offer WAY more than the features of your offer. The copy approach we used to get our ideal clients applying How we used Facebook LIVES to tell our customer stories The branding secrets we used to create a recogniseable look and feel for the campaig And much more. Also mentioned in this episode: HerBusiness REACH Retreat in Hawaii HerBusiness Success Mastermind Episode 54 - Pleasure and Pain - Is there enough of it in your content? Episode 73 - How We Got Started With Facebook LIVE Episode 20 Get Awesome Client Stories and Testimonials Episode 53 - 5 Ideas for adding compelling social proof to your Content Episode 57 - How To Use Seeding To Move People Forward With Your Content  Episode 23 - How To Craft An Offer That Sells Episode 81 - Call to Action with Joanna Wiebe

We’ve just concluded the annual HerBusiness REACH Retreat in Hawaii (A-Mazing!). And one topic we discussed was how to communicate your value. It brought up some REALLY fascinating conversation about what stops us from really charging what we’re worth and owning the value we bring… so we thought we’d continue the discussion (and some tips on how to overcome those blocks) on today’s show! Listen to this episode to hear more about: Why you’re not alone if you sometimes feel like a “fraud” The BIG reason many people don’t create their sales content (Hint: It’s not always because you don’t have the skill) How to deal with criticism from others when you raise your prices or start really owning and sharing the value you bring The “rip off” complaint and why it’s not as scary as you might think And much more. Also mentioned in this episode: HerBusiness REACH Retreat in Hawaii HerBusiness Success Mastermind Episode 27 - Videos That Sell with James Wedmore Episode 73 - How We Got Started With Facebook LIVE Episode 56 - Webinars That Sell Episode 22 - How To Use Guarantees & Risk Reversal in Your Content To Get More Sales Episode 65 - How To Create Great Visual Models & Frameworks