Marketing Consultants

I’m in the midst of helping a few clients construct marketing programs from the ground up.

Through my conversations and explanations around what to expect, I can now boil it all down to three parts:

1. Strategy
2. Systems
3. Measurement

If I could draw a diagram, it would look like a virtuous cycle where each part feeds in and out of the other parts.

Let’s break it down.

1. Strategy

Figure out who you’re trying to help and why they should choose you over anyone else. Overdeliver on those reasons. Be ready to adapt.

2. Systems

Run the business according to your strategy and talk about how you operate and why. Your actions should demonstrate why people should obviously choose you over anyone else.

Marketing is largely about reaching people to tell that story. It’s not about fabricating a story or putting lipstick on a pig. Poor business strategy, poor marketing.

You also want to build in ways to stay in tune with the needs of your customers. Track feedback, run surveys, ask questions, watch the money, see who’s them most delighted.

This is the only way to continue doing the things that make you the best for the market you serve.

And of course, the systems part. Do as much of your marketing as possible in a systemized way so you can sustain it as you grow.

Nothing effective happens at scale in an ad-hoc fashion.

3. Measurement

The key to all of it is watching the numbers as an indication of whether the system and strategy are working.

Look for trends over time.

Test things like input/activity volume (number of ad dollars spent, content produced, flyers mailed out, etc.) and watch for a desired output (number of leads, revenue, conversion rate, sales, etc.).

It’s not a perfect science, and no measurement is ever exact. But operating without numbers is a recipe for failure (or blind luck).

These are the three core parts of any good marketing program.

Each part informs the next and the previous. It’s an ecosystem.

As a marketing consultant, it’s our job to build out each of these areas with our clients and use it as a self-reinforcing system that gets more effective over time.

Sound simple? It’s not, but that’s fine. That’s why we do what we do. 🙂

Running a membership program might look like it’s really easy, but there’s actually quite a few moving parts, depending on how you do it.

Strategy, marketing, content, and community building aside, there’s also the technology side of things.

In my case, I offer a private podcast, content, and community as my membership’s core offering.

Which means I need to host everything and tie it together with the necessary payment processing, marketing, and back-end technology to make it work.

For those curious, here’s what’s involved.

Circle

This is the platform that hosts my community. It houses conversations, content, and the resources I include, such as a proposal template, KPI document, and onboarding questionnaire.

They just launched an iOS app which makes it really easy to keep members engaged. And while this company is still relatively new, I think they’re on to great things. Cant’ recommend them enough.

Google Workspace (formerly G Suite)

I store my shared content resources using Google Docs. It’s easy for people to get the latest version, download/copy it, and use it for their own purposes.

Simple but it works.

Transistor

Since I offer a private podcast with the membership, I need a place to host it. Transistor works great. The features are superb, it’s easy to use, it’s not expensive.

Definitely recommend.

Memberful

Memberful is the tool that lets me collect money, create a unique podcast RSS feed for each member, it connects directly (SSO) with Circle so there’s only one login required, it lets me link directly to a Billing Profile to let members easily cancel, upgrade, or download invoices from within the community, and quite a bit more.

I have to pay 4.9% + $25/month + Stripe fees, but the convenience of everything just working makes it worthwhile. Especially for my use case.

Zapier

I use Zapier to connect members to the various channels inside of Circle when they sign up. That way it’s all done and ready when they first log in and they don’t have to join the different channels manually. I wish it was easier.

Stripe

Stripe is the backend payment processor that handles all of my payments and automatically deposits money into my bank account most days. It’s by far the best out there, from my experience. I definitely don’t recommend PayPal. Too many reasons to get into it.

ConvertKit

ConvertKit powers my email newsletter. I post blog posts to kevin.me and it automatically grabs new posts via RSS feed and sends them to my subscribers. No logging in required, which I like.

I also like the story and people behind the company, and believe it to be a good platform to invest into as it continues adding new features.

WordPress

This is where I host my sales page for the Mindshare membership. It’s simple for now but I’ll turn it into a real site soon enough.

First get the idea out there, get traction, then make it better.

Twitter

Twitter is my primary social media channel for promoting Mindshare. Most of my coworking clients and followers are on LinkedIn, so I keep the worlds more or less (imperfectly) separate so I don’t confuse people about what I do.

It’s resulted in several signups from people I’ve never met nor encountered before, which has been an interesting experience. Lots of work to do there.

And that’s mostly it from a tech standpoint!

It’s not hard to get things set up, but it’s not easy if you’re not reasonably able to use software like this.

Hope this helps if you want to do something similar. There are all-in-one solutions out there that handle much of this, but each have their pros and cons, and this was the product of my research.

Recently, my wife and I have been considering buying another property.

We found a place we liked, so I emailed the real estate agent to ask a few questions.

They responded, but nothing came of the inquiry. The house wasn’t for us.

Today, I noticed I’ve been added to that realtor’s mailing list. They started sending me their newsletter.

At first, I had no idea who this person was. I thought I was added to some random person’s list.

Then I noticed it was focused on the area of the realtor I reached out to. I put two and two together and determined I was added to their mailing list without my permission.

Here’s the lesson: don’t do that. Never add someone to a mailing list without their expressed permission.

In Canada, we have spam laws around that. But even if we didn’t, it’s not the right way to handle email.

Members of Mindshare, for example, aren’t automatically opted in to this blog’s list.

Though I should suggest they do…. but anyway.

Always ask people if they would like to be added to your mailing list. 

Had this person ask me if I’d like to be added to their mailing list and told me about the content they would send, I might have said yes.

Their newsletter wasn’t terrible, after all.

And from that, I might have kept the doors open to do business with or refer someone to them later on.

But having been added to their mailing list automatically, I now feel slightly burdened by the process of unsubscribing.

I know, it may not seem like a big deal to add people to your list. But without their permission, it won’t help your business. It can only hurt your reputation.

Instead, make an email list worth subscribing to and invite people to it on its own merits.

Now that’s a plan that works.

Yesterday, I talked about how the main purpose of my website was to build trust, which eventually leads to selling things.

Here’s a video by Miles Beckler that does a good job breaking down the mechanics of growing a business online using the ATM Strategy: Audience, Trust, Monetization.

Put this in your earbuds if you’re looking to wrap your head around what’s required in your “funnel” (a word I really don’t like). The video is great and really simplifies what you’re doing.

Chances are, you’re missing at least one of these ingredients in your marketing activities.

If you’re a subscriber reading this via email, you can click here to watch it.

What’s the purpose of your website?

For me, it does two things:

1. Builds relationships
2. Sells my products and services

It helps build relationships using two main factors: educational content and an email mailing list sign-up form. 

My newsletter is where I continue building the relationship via email, so that’s the gateway to deeper relationships.

It helps sell my services by listing what I do, who I do, how I do it for, and how much things cost.

But the thing is, nobody buys without building a relationship with me first, no matter how “productized” I make my services.

Which means the primary focus of my website should be to optimize for relationship building.

And that means my home page should be prioritized the same way. It should focus on building the relationships.

So, I updated my home page today to include an email subscription form at the top.

I also better articulated what I do, who I do it for, and why someone should subscribe to my email list.

Previously, it was vague about who should read. And the email subscribe form was buried several full article lengths down the page.

Now it’s right at the top. Organized and easy to understand (I hope).

I’m never done, but there’s one thing that’s for sure: always make the main thing the main thing.

Optimize every page on your site according to that page’s primary goal. In my case, I don’t try to sell on the home page. That wouldn’t work anyway.

Instead, I try to build a relationship with content and a reason to subscribe to my mailing list (where the real relationship gets built).

Here’s the new home page top section (followed by several full articles). A snapshot in time which will inevitably change.

As far as I can tell, there are only five kinds of content:

1. Education: teach people something
2. Entertainment: create an experience people enjoy
3. Stories: talk about someone or something that happened
4. Curation: find neat things and bring it to people
5. A blend of multiple: infusing multiple kinds of these into one

I tend to focus on education, with a few stories and the occasional curation piece built in.

But if I’m honest, that’s not the best plan to use. It’s just my default.

The best content strategy uses a healthy mix of all of these content categories.

Sometimes we want junk food, sometimes we want the main course. If you give people too much of the same thing, they get bored.

See if the above categories work for you as a prompt to keep your next content piece fresh.

This one was an “education” piece, but I’ll switch it up tomorrow and mix some more together.

Until next time!

Writing and publishing every day says something.

Even if your writing isn’t perfect, the fact that you show up consistently each day sends a clear message.

It says that you’re reliable. You’re committed, even when it’s hard. You’re a professional.

And that’s rare.

In a world full of low competence, no follow-through, and wavering levels of consistency, showing up every day demonstrates dependability.

And because it’s rare, people notice it. They’re looking for signs of dependability. You stand out.

Be unreasonably reliable. That’s where the value is.