- Are you ready to get out there in the online space
without spending days and days on a master plan?
Here are five easy steps
to develop a marketing strategy today that works.
And stay tuned until the end where I'll share
how to turn someone who's just heard about you
for the very first time into a lead
and then a customer in your business as fast as possible.
My name is Elise Darma,
and I am an elder millennial here to bridge the gap
between the pre-internet world, the corporate world,
and today's digital marketing world.
And today we're talking marketing strategy.
First, I recommend that you choose a platform
that's best for building relationships.
For some people that might be LinkedIn,
but in my opinion,
the best relationship building platform today is Instagram.
Instagram is an amazing free tool that we have today
that's literally built for us to make sales.
That's because there are so many features within Instagram
that really help us cultivate relationships,
and then turn those relationships into sales.
I've done a whole video on this topic,
of how you can turn direct messages into sales,
check it out right here.
So once you've chosen your platform
where you're really gonna nurture relationships,
the second platform you're gonna wanna choose
is a search based platform.
So, this could be Google or YouTube.
Which platform are you gonna publish content on
that people can then discover you through?
So, if you're a writer you're gonna want to publish blogs
which will then appear in Google searches.
If you are more of a talker
and you're comfortable being on camera,
or at least you're willing to learn,
you might wanna choose YouTube,
and create YouTube videos that help answer the questions
that you know your audience is searching for.
That's it, just two platforms,
one for relationships and one for searchability.
This is key so that you don't get overwhelmed
because the fastest way to burn your marketing strategy
to the ground is trying to be on all the platforms
all the time.
If you're just getting started with your business
or your marketing strategy, this is the way to do it.
The second step of your marketing strategy
is to specify who exactly you're trying to reach.
And ideally the people you're trying to reach
are living on the platforms that you've already chosen.
So, if you've chosen Instagram,
ideally your target customer is already hanging out there.
If you're not sure, go ahead and Google
the demographics of Instagram.
Or if you've chosen YouTube, like myself,
they're ideally using YouTube to search for answers
to their questions.
At this point in your marketing strategy,
you gotta be specific
because you can't be trying to reach everyone on Instagram,
you can't just be trying to reach women
who want to live a happier, healthier life.
No, you want to layer down and get specific.
Maybe you are trying to reach stay at home moms
who have kids under three and are struggling
with preparing meals for the family every single day.
If you're not sure what your target audience
is struggling with,
use those platforms that you've already selected,
in my case, Instagram and YouTube,
use those platforms to create content
to connect with them and ask them questions.
For example, on Instagram, you can use Instagram Stories
and use the poll sticker, or the question sticker,
and ask your audience, what are they struggling with?
What are their pain points?
What's really keeping them up at night?
Use this data to get very specific
on who exactly your audience is.
Your next step in your marketing strategy
is to figure out what kind of content you're going to post.
Now, this can be daunting
but I ask you to have an open mind
when it comes to your content,
and to put on your experimenter hat,
or your scientist hat,
because content is data.
And I know content can feel emotional,
like when we put a piece of content out there and it flops,
or it doesn't really get the feedback we had wanted,
we take it personal because we think that that content
is a personal reflection of ourselves.
It's not, it's just data,
I put out posts all the time on my Instagram,
some of them take off and some of them flop,
but the ones that flop, I leave them, because it teaches me
that whatever I did with that type of content
my audience isn't resonating with.
So as you're collecting data
on what's working and what's not,
I really recommend that you do a major brainstorming session
of all the types of content
that you could put out there to test.
In fact, I've created a method for this brainstorming
called the Under the Umbrella method.
And in just a few minutes,
it will help you generate up to 80 content ideas.
I cover my Under the Umbrella method in full
in my free workshop.
And you can head to elisedarma.co/secrets
to check it out today.
Once you've generated those content ideas,
or angles, or themes, or buckets,
there's all these names for them,
what you're gonna wanna do
is then translate those content ideas
into different features of Instagram.
So for example, if you really need visibility
or new followers on Instagram,
you're gonna want to hone in on making Reels,
short form videos.
So take your content ideas
and look to see which ones can be transformed
into talking head tips
in the form of 10 or 15-second videos.
Reels are currently the best way
to get new eyeballs on your profile.
But after that,
you're gonna want to engage with your new followers.
And the best feature for that is Stories.
Stories are the best way to interact
with your current followers to get their feedback
using engagement stickers,
or to ask them to reply to your story
so that you can generate a private DM thread with them.
And in the DMs, this is where the sales happen,
this is where people feel
like they can really get to know you,
they can ask you questions about your products, your offers,
and if they're on the fence,
the DMs are where you can help them make a decision.
This is why your content brainstorming is so key
because it all starts with your content,
then your Reels, then your Stories, and then your DMs.
If you do all of that correctly,
your content is literally gonna help you generate sales
back to your business.
When it comes to your content,
don't forget to include calls to action,
tell your audience what you want them to do.
So if they're watching a Reel, for example,
include a call to action at the end
where they can save the video,
or share it with their audience, something to that extent.
If you can't fit your call to action in your video itself,
be sure to include one in the caption
where you actually give your audience an action to take.
When it comes to your call to actions, you wanna think,
where do I want my audience member to go
after consuming this content?
They've seen this content,
do I want them to go to my DMs?
Do I want them to go to the link in my bio?
And that leads me to the next step
of your marketing strategy,
and that is to create a journey
that you want your ideal customer to take.
You can literally map this out and you wanna start broad.
First, where do they discover you?
Is it gonna be on Instagram?
Is it gonna be on YouTube?
How are they finding out about you?
Once they've discovered you,
what do you want them to do next?
Do you want them to engage with your Story?
Send you a DM, click the link in your bio?
What is the next step in the journey?
For many people, including myself,
it's all about collecting email leads.
Followers are great, but you don't own the followers
that you have on a platform,
you do own your email list however,
so most people will create an opt-in page,
a way for someone to enter your email list or to join it,
and they'll include the link to their opt-in page
in their Instagram bio.
So if that's the journey
that you're taking your customer on,
when they become a new follower,
you're going to want to direct them to the link in your bio
as much as possible.
And if not that,
you can simply direct them to your DMs
where you can share the link with them privately,
that's why I love the DMs,
there's no limit to the number of links that you can share,
you can send a voice note, a video, a photo,
it really is where relationships happen.
So now you've got them on your email list,
what happens after that?
For most people,
it's about setting up an automated email sequence.
So, when someone joins an email list
and they're just new to your world,
you're not gonna just send them your regular content,
this is a relationship, you wanna warm them up,
it's like you're dating, right?
So you're gonna slowly introduce them to your brand
and your business by setting them up
to receive an automated sequence of emails.
Now, if this isn't the path that your business has set up
where you have an opt-in page and email sequences,
that's totally fine.
When someone becomes a new follower,
you don't have to direct them to the link in your bio,
you can simply direct them to your DMs.
And in the DMs, have those conversations,
and maybe the next step is for them to book a call with you,
like if you're a coach,
oftentimes you wanna drive people
to book a discovery call with you,
then on the call, you can offer your coaching services
or any package that you have.
So, like I said, there are many variations
of how this customer journey can go,
but you want to write out what works best for your business
depending on the systems that you currently have today,
because what I'm talking about right now is called a funnel.
Customer journey or a funnel, it means the same thing.
But the idea is, if you think of the shape of a funnel,
most people at the top, your followers,
that's gonna be the biggest group of people.
Then it's gonna be a smaller group of people
who are gonna take the next step,
maybe opt into your email list.
And an even smaller group of people
will take the very next step,
maybe to book a call with you.
And then a smaller group of people will book your packages,
or book your coaching services, whatever you're offering.
That's why it's called a funnel,
and that's just human behavior really.
But the key to having a successful funnel that works,
especially if you're running it all on Instagram,
is to have it mapped out so that you know
exactly where you want your customer to go next.
The last step of this brilliant marketing strategy,
if I say so myself, is especially when it's working,
you wanna keep it running,
you want to continue to show up consistently,
create more content so that you can generate more followers
who can then go through your customer journey
because that is how you're gonna consistently generate leads
and sales back to your business.
It doesn't do you any good
if you set up this beautiful funnel or customer journey,
and then you turn the tap off,
you stop making content
and therefore you stop getting fresh followers,
and therefore you stop getting people
going through your funnel.
Once you have something that works, keep it going,
keep the momentum going and continue to show up,
especially when it comes to making new content.
I know I covered a lot of different options,
especially when it comes to your funnel,
but did you know that you can create
a very successful customer journey all on Instagram?
Yes, Instagram Stories are the perfect place
to create your funnel.
And in this video right here,
I cover the entire strategy from top to bottom.
I hope to see you there.