February 5, 2025 • 25 mins
There are almost too many ways to go about creating social media strategies. I discuss some strategies that actually work with my guest, Sophie Zollmann. Sophie is the Founder of FMD Strategic Partners. They take the guess work out of marketing to get real results for 7 and 8 figure service providers.
Sophie was a stay-at-home mom and got into online businesses instead of paying daycare all her money. Customer service, business management, clerical work, etc. Then in 2009, after a short break, she came back to the work world and launched herself as a virtual assistant. One of the first things she did to get in front of people was to get on social media. She got on Twitter and Facebook, and six months later after meeting other virtual assistants and business owners who needed social media help, she had a business model, and she formed an LLC.
She used digital marketing, especially social media, to grow her business. In the process, she fell in love with social media. It’s become the bread and butter of her business. Sophie built a team and leverages their skills to help her clients grow their businesses like she has hers.
Where People Go Wrong with Social Media Marketing
The biggest thing is that they don’t have a strategy. People are throwing spaghetti against the wall to see what sticks, they’re trying the latest trends that may or may not work for them, and they may be on platforms that they don’t need to be on because they think they have to be everywhere. They’re also doing it themselves, even though oftentimes they dislike doing it.
That dislike is reflected in what’s produced and only ends up hurting them in the long run. If you don’t love it, you really shouldn’t do it because your distaste come through in your copy. Last but not least is people don’t have a strategy and a clear plan. They aren’t creating initiatives and campaigns that have measurable components such as KPIs (Key Performance Indicators), goals and objectives.
Success comes from knowing what works. You’ve got to be able to measure what you’re doing. Once you know what works, then you can maximize that. But you can’t figure that out without strategy, hiring people to do it for you, and having measurable campaigns and initiatives that you can know if it’s working or not.
How to Get Started with Creating a Social Media Strategy
It involves a lot of research. You’ve got to know who your ideal client avatar is. In most cases there’s multiple client avatars. Even in one industry you will have different demographics, psychographics, income levels, all the things that make them human beings. We are marketing to human beings. You must speak to them in a way that they can hear you. Knowing them deeply is a key component of your strategy, that’s your first step.
That research dictates what platforms you’re on, what you offer, how you speak about it and what you do to get them in the door. Your strategy must also have your competitive analysis. You must know who your competitors are, how you stand up against them, and how you can beat them. Because if you’re just doing the same thing that they’re doing you’re going to be lost in the sea of all the other people doing those things.
You Have to be Unique
And then of course once you’ve done that, there is making sure you have a very solid and unique value proposition, that’s a part of your research. You’re going to be looking at branding, do you really look good? Is it consistent and does it appeal to your ideal client? Branding is very important.
It all works together. When you have a completely defined strategy that takes in all the aspects of online marketing and what it takes to succeed then you have the monthly marketing plan. That’s where you get your measurable initiatives, you get your content strategy, you figure out where you need to be and where you don’t need to be, then you rearrange everything to make it fit together so that it all feeds each other.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Welcome to the Idea Climbing podcast. Today, we're
talking about how to create social media marketing
strategies that actually work with my guest, Sophie
Zollman.
Sophie is the founder of FMD Strategic Partners.
They take the guesswork out of marketing to
get real results for 7 and 8 figure
service providers.
We dive into topics such as how to
create a foundation to end up in a
(00:22):
successful place to launch your social media marketing
strategy,
how to pick an ideal client avatar and
not try to be everything to everyone,
how to stay consistent with your marketing efforts
and not burn out, and other golden nuggets
of advice. You're gonna love this show.
(00:44):
Thank you for making time to be on
the idea climbing podcast. So Sophie, I really
appreciate this. Thanks Thanks for having me. I'm
really excited to be here and to share
some great stuff with your audience.
And we're gonna talk about how to create
marketing strategies that, god forbid, work. Before we
get into that, though, how did you get
involved with marketing? Why are you so passionate
about it? What's your story there?
(01:06):
So I was a stay at home mom
twenty years ago who got into the online
business world to make money because that was
the only way I could make money and
not pay daycare all of my money.
And I'd be bopped around in different virtual
positions as customer service, business management, etcetera,
even did a little,
you know, other work here and there.
(01:27):
And then in 02/2009,
after a short break, I came back,
and I launched myself as a virtual assistant
online.
And one of the first things I did
to get in front of people was to
get on social media.
I got on Twitter and Facebook,
and I lived on it. I mean, I
was there all the time. My husband thought
he was you know, he didn't know where
his wife was because she was always on
(01:48):
the computer.
And
six months later,
I had met other virtual assistants and other
business owners
who were either hiring me
because they, you know, liked that I had
shown up. I was connecting, networking, and showing
my expertise,
or they were referring me to people to
hire just because of the relationship I built
(02:09):
with them on social media. So
when that happened, my business was born. I
became an LLC
and basically used digital marketing, especially social media
back then,
to grow my business.
And in the process, I fell in love
with it because I love being on social
media. I know people think I'm nuts, but
(02:30):
I love being on social media. I love
doing the things that you do in online
marketing, the reels, the videos. And trust me,
I didn't like reels and videos initially, but
I do now. I figured it out. But
it has been the bread and butter of
my business. I love it so much, and
I have built an amazing team of people
who are in the same boat
that we decided to create something that serves
(02:50):
others as well and gives them the marketing
they need to grow their business like I
have mine.
Before we get into what to do right,
I'd love to cover what we are talk
one of the things we spoke about off
camera. Where do people go wrong
with social media marketing?
Well, the biggest thing is they don't have
a strategy. They're throwing spaghetti against the wall
(03:11):
to see what sticks.
They're doing the latest trends that may or
may not work for them. And they may
be on platforms that they don't even need
to be on because they think they have
to be everywhere.
And they also are doing it themselves, and
they hate it usually. So it reflects in
what is produced and what they put out
there. That's another big thing is if you
(03:32):
don't love it, you really shouldn't do it
because it does come through.
And last but not least is
measuring what works. Most people, because they don't
have a strategy, they don't have a definitive
plan.
They aren't creating initiatives and campaigns
that have measurable components, KPIs,
goals, objectives,
(03:53):
whatever you wanna call them. You've gotta be
able to measure what you're doing because the
idea not the idea. The success comes from
knowing what works.
Once you know what works, then you can
maximize that, but you can't figure that out
without strategy,
hiring people to do it for you,
and having measurable campaigns and initiatives
(04:14):
that you can know if it's working or
not. Well, someone's watching or listening, and and
that resonates with them. You know, I'm on
a I'm on a few platforms. I kinda
think I know what I'm doing. I'm kinda
getting some results.
To get strategic,
where do where do they start?
Say, with not just showing up on three
different platforms. So where do they start and
how do they get strategic?
(04:35):
They've gotta they've gotta research
the dickens out of this. I mean, they've
gotta know who their ideal client avatar is.
And in most cases these days, there's multiple
client avatars.
Because even in one industry that may be
your niche,
the people within that industry, that niche have
(04:56):
different demographics,
psychographics,
income levels,
all the things that make them a human
being because you are, in the end,
marketing to a human being, and you have
to speak to them
the way they can hear you. And by
knowing them that deeply,
that's a part of your strategy. That's your
first step because that dictates
(05:18):
what platforms you're on, what you offer,
how you speak about
it, how you what you do to get
them in the door. And that's just one
piece of a strategy because the strategy also
has to have your competitive analysis. You gotta
know who your competitors are, how you stand
up against them, and how you can beat
them. Because if you're just doing the same
(05:39):
thing they're doing,
you're gonna be lost in the sea of
all the other people doing those things.
And then,
of course, once you've done that,
there is making sure you have a very
solid unique value proposition.
That's a part of your research. You're gonna
be looking at your branding.
Do you really look good, and is it
(06:02):
consistent, and does it appeal to your ideal
clients?
Branding is huge.
And then storytelling
and whatnot,
your content.
It's a combination of different things.
And, of course, we can't forget SEO. You've
always got to mix SEO in there because
without SEO,
(06:22):
you're still kind of throwing spaghetti against the
wall. You're a little bit more defined,
but it all works together. When you have
a completely defined strategy that takes in all
the aspects of online marketing and what it
takes to succeed,
then you have the monthly marketing plan
comes from that, and that's where you get
your measurable initiatives.
(06:44):
You get your content strategy.
You get you figure out where you need
to be and where you don't need to
be, and you rearrange and you make everything
fit together
so that it all feeds each other
and makes it all more effective
and also more measurable to know what's gonna
work and what's not.
So so many people say
(07:04):
I serve anybody in, you know, a broad
industry. The one I hate to hear at
networking events is anyone with money. It's like,
that's not right. As far as actually picking
one to three avatars or even your first
one, what advice do you have for those
people, and how do you go about picking
an avatar not trying to be everything to
everyone?
Well, you you definitely have to do your
(07:25):
research. You have to you have to know
who you well, if you're an established business,
one one thing you can do is look
at your favorite clients, your best clients.
Your best clients are usually your ideal avatar.
But, usually, they're not the exact same person,
so to speak. They're not the same
likes and dislikes, demographics, psychographics,
(07:46):
and you really gotta get nitty gritty with
them. And you can do that with one
to one interviews with your clients. You can
send out surveys and feedback forms.
But even if you're just getting started,
one thing you can do is, first of
all, figure out who you wanna work with.
What do you you know, look at the
passionate side of yourself and what you do
and go,
I wanna help, you know, moms who do
(08:08):
this or, you know, men who are this,
and then go deeper.
Start looking at who they are as a
human being.
Look at their demographics, their psychographics,
their likes, their hobbies, all those things.
And then once you get that dialed in,
the key next step is creating an actual
(08:29):
persona.
Give them a name.
Give them a picture. Give them, you know,
a marital status, a family status,
you know, a home you know, all the
things that a real human being would have.
Because when you can actually look at that
persona and that avatar and see them as
a real human being,
then you can figure out
(08:51):
what they want, what they need, and how
to talk to them and present it to
them so that they're gonna be dying to
get what you have.
So once you pick the avatar or avatars
as the case may be,
how do you create a foundation for a
successful strategy and not just go buckshot wild
on on social media? How do you create
that foundation to end up in a successful
(09:12):
place with strategy?
So from there, once you have your avatars,
you have to look at all the messaging
you have, your branding,
and make sure that everything is cohesive,
that everything makes sense, that they will get
it, and that it is appealing to them.
Because, you know, the
but appealing doesn't necessarily mean pretty or frou
(09:34):
frou because, you know, some people can have
this really gorgeous frou frou pretty website, and
their client their ideal avatar goes up there,
and they're like,
what is
this? They get so distracted by the prettiness
and the frou frou, they don't even read
the content to find out if you're a
fit for them. You've gotta really figure out
(09:55):
the branding, the website. You've gotta have all
your pieces and parts together, and that includes
the SEO
and and the and knowing where these people
are gonna be. Because once you know where
they're gonna be, where they're gonna find you,
then you can start building out the depth
the inner depths of the strategy that will
lead to your monthly marketing plan to know
what content to put where,
(10:16):
when, how to measure it, etcetera.
So unpack that a little bit more. What
is a good
successful monthly marketing plan look like? What are
some components there?
So a good monthly marketing plan is gonna
be well rounded in at least
three or four things. First of all, your
(10:36):
SEO
has to be dialed in. It has to
be good, and you have to know
what the ideal keywords are for your market,
your
audience. That has to be built into your
website, and then it will be built into
your content marketing, your blogs, your social media
posts, your ads, etcetera.
Of course, you're gonna have a website or
something. I mean, there some people get away
(10:59):
with not having a website, but it's really
ideal to have a website.
And then knowing what social platforms to be
on and making sure
when you set them up, they're cohesively branded
with everything else. Your the parts you get
the parts you get to fill out are
speaking to your ideal clients, but also SEO
(11:20):
friendly because SEO covers
everything, not just your website.
And then you're gonna make sure you have
a blog a blog plan,
a social media plan,
and usually a video plan, whether that's reels,
lives, combination thereof.
And then last but not least are paid
(11:40):
ads.
To date, I haven't seen
a strategy
that works without some paid ads. And I'm
not talking about spending the big bucks either
because,
you know, contrary to popular opinion,
ads don't have to be expensive
to work.
In fact, the the way you figure out
what works is by starting small and inexpensive
(12:04):
to test the waters
because
testing is a big factor as well. If
you're testing something, it's measurable.
If it works, then you can expand upon
it and make it better, and you can
maximize it.
And you don't wanna spend
a fortune
testing stuff
(12:25):
because
that is a waste of money. If you
test three things
and nothing works till the third thing and
you've spent
10,000 on each of those things,
oh my god.
That's $30 to figure out what works. That
is so not necessary.
It doesn't take near that kind of money
to use ads, to figure out what works,
(12:47):
and to use ads to drive traffic, to
get opt ins, to generate leads, and to
generate sales.
But it all works together when you're doing
all those things together.
Once you get it up and running, how
do you keep it running efficiently? I mean,
with everything you said, it seems like that
could be kind of a beast to control.
How do you keep it going and not
just have the excitement of the initial climb?
(13:08):
And I know my avatars and I know
my places.
But over time, how do you get consistent
with your marketing and not burnout?
You hire a team. You we have to
build a team. You have to delegate.
Delegation
of your marketing
is one of the keys
to being successful at it. Because with an
(13:28):
extensive
deep dive marketing strategy
and then a very comprehensive marketing plan that
includes all those things,
one person
cannot do it.
So you can't even delegate to one person
to do all that for you
because you need experts in the different areas
of that strategy to make sure you're getting
(13:49):
the best results possible. So you need an
SEO expert. You need a director of marketing
or a marketing coordinator or whatever you wanna
call your lead person.
You need a copywriter. You need graphic designer.
You need social media VAs. You need
an entire team of people
to do it all for you because it
stays consistent.
(14:10):
It also is tracked and measured by them,
so they're constantly making sure it's doing what
it's supposed to do, and they're making it
better. They're also bringing new ideas to you
to say, hey. Have you thought about doing
this? I think if you did this in
your social media, at least for, you know,
thirty days, we might be able to up
take your your your traffic or your leads
because the whole point of having a strategy,
(14:32):
a plan, and a team
is that the experts who love doing it
are doing it from that place,
and they also know you and your business
like a well oiled machine because
they have done the work to do the
strategy, to implement it, and to manage it
to make sure that it's always doing what
you need it to do.
(14:53):
So if someone's listening or watching right now
and they're thinking that, you know, that's great.
I can't afford everything you just said at
the that at once,
what would you tell them to delegate first?
What if they make a little bit of
extra profit and they say, I can do
one or two of those things, what would
you suggest them they do to get started
with delegation?
Well, it a lot of it depends on
the strategy that that comes out of it.
(15:15):
I would the first thing I recommend is
no mat even if you can't afford a
marketing team and an entire plan,
get the strategy.
The strategy is so crucial.
Because once you get that strategy from an
expert who does that strategy for you, you
can you can tell them flat out, you
know, I'm not ready to go into this
monthly marketing plan that's gonna cost me so
(15:35):
much money,
but I wanna get started. And I can
get started on my own and delegating a
little bit of it. And based on the
strategy that is put together and even the
monthly marketing plan that can go with it,
the top few things can be
sectioned out, so to speak, and your whoever's
doing your strategy for you can say, okay.
If you can't do it all, start here.
(15:56):
And a lot of times, what we say
is SEO and brand
are are first and foremost. Make sure your
SEO is dialed in and your brand is
top notch and it's good and all those
things,
and they match your your ideal avatar.
And then, you know, you can always start
small.
Start with a monthly blog post,
(16:16):
you know, consistent social media posts on the
right platforms
and a little bit of ads. I mean,
literally, $5 a day,
boosting a post even, can mean the difference
between success and failure when you're trying to
do it on your own to get you
that little bit of oomph that's gonna get
you generating more revenue to be able to
go, hey. Now I'm ready for that marketing
(16:38):
team. Bring it on.
Well, once you get everything running, I'd imagine
that not imagine, but things change over time,
whether it's new platforms, new algorithms.
How do you know when you should change
course and when to stay the course?
That is all where the metrics
(17:06):
stats from social media, from the e the
CRM,
from Google Analytics, from the ads. You're constantly
watching
what's going on with what you're doing. And,
of course,
as new things come out, new social media
platforms, new, you know,
types of content, whatever the case may be,
if you've got a marketing team in place
(17:27):
who's already doing all your marketing, they're gonna
be watching the trends too. And if they
see something new come up that they see
is a fit for you, they're gonna bring
it to you on one of your regular
meetings and go, hey. You know what? This
is new on TikTok,
and this could actually be a good thing
for you because you're not sitting there doing
silly stuff. It's actually a professional cool approach
(17:48):
that would be authentic to you,
and your people would be on there watching
it or looking for
it kind of a thing. They're gonna be
watching the trends and being keeping you up
to date even though you're not up to
date.
Well, I think I know the answer to
this, but I wanna just discuss it a
little bit. How do you know when something
like a TikTok comes along or now there's
(18:08):
blue sky?
How do you know when to say yes
to it and when to say I don't
need that right now? How do you pick?
Well, you have to look
when it's at especially a brand new platform,
you have to give it time to establish
itself
because you wanna see
the audiences that are on there first and
foremost because that is the biggest key to
(18:30):
know whether to jump to another one or
not. Is your audience there? And not only
are they there, but are they looking for
you there? Because, you know, TikTok started out
as this really crazy fun place with all
kinds of weird videos and things.
I mean, it still does that. But people
the the
people found their clients there, and so they
(18:51):
started doing the TikTok videos that were more
serious, that were, you know, fitting to what
they are and who they are, and it
started to take off. Once you see it
working and if it's is a place you
can be, meaning your audience is there, your
content will be well received,
and it's something you can be somewhere where
you can be authentic and genuine depending upon
what the platform is, then you can make
(19:13):
that jump. And you can also look at
and make sure the current platforms you're on
are still ideal for your audience. Because, you
know, just recently,
a ton of people left x.
They left x to either go nowhere else
or some are going to the blue sky.
But, you know, that's the other thing to
keep an eye on because if your audience
(19:34):
is exiting a platform,
then there's really no reason for you to
be on there anymore because it's just
extra work and extra content and extra stuff
that's falling on deaf ears because your people
aren't there anymore. Because that's another thing that
happens. People leave social platforms. They leave different
content platforms because it becomes a trend, and
then it dies. I mean, Clubhouse is another
(19:56):
one.
All the rage for how long?
And now I don't think I hear anybody.
I mean, I'm sure people are still on
it, but it's not all the rage where
everybody's like, come to my Clubhouse room. Come
to my I I don't hear any of
that anymore.
So, you know, that's the other thing you
have to be careful of. Jumping platforms
may seem like a thing, but then if
(20:16):
it dies completely,
you've spent a lot of time and money
there. And and, hopefully, you've gotten return on
your investment. But if
if it dies, even if you are getting
return on your investment, then you gotta know
what to do to make up for that
because that can be a huge loss as
well. So you gotta make sure
it's gonna be a long term bet before
you really dive into it hardcore. Because if
(20:37):
you dive in and then it dies,
it it can be problematic for your marketing
strategy and your budget and everything else.
So it sounds like you're saying one of
the criteria for knowing when to jump off
of or dump a platform
is being very
aware of, am I getting interactions with my
potential clients and referral sources? Would that be
(20:58):
correct as far as deciding when to jump?
If they jump, you follow them, or what
does that look like as far as deciding
to dump a platform entirely?
Yes. That is definitely one of the key
factors is if your ideal audience is no
longer there, if they're leaving it, and
it looks like they're not all gone because,
you know, some people are just diehards and
they'll stay. They don't care. But, you know,
(21:19):
if if enough of your because if your
your engagement goes down, if your
conversions go down because you're running campaigns that
are gonna have
conversion statistics,
if engagement goes down, if
conversions go down and go down a great
deal for an, you know, certain length of
time, you know, roughly ninety days ish,
(21:41):
it probably is a good idea to leave
the platform. But you do have to give
it time because, you know, people are fickle.
Yes. Let's let's just be real here. People
are fickle.
All the people that just left x in
droves
could very well go back in six months
because they're gonna be like, blue sky fell
out or, you know, they're not getting anything
(22:02):
on blue sky or whatever the case may
be. They're gonna be like,
well, you know, everybody's going back to x
because everybody figured out that you really still
need to be on x and x is
better than this or whatever, and then you
have to go back to it. So, you
know, give something three to six months before
you make a jump
either way, getting off of it or getting
on it because it needs to be a
(22:24):
well established trend that's gonna last, not something
that's just a fad for, like, you know,
thirty, sixty, ninety days.
We have covered a lot of ground in
a short period of time. When it comes
to creating marketing campaigns and strategies
that actually work
with everything we discussed, whether it's reiterating something
or something we haven't touched on yet. If
you were to say, you know what? If
(22:45):
if you're gonna do it right, at least
do this one thing. At least this above
all, what would you tell people to do?
The one thing to do above all is
to get a very
a
very
precise strategy going
even if you do it yourself.
Strategy is key because the the whole throwing
(23:06):
spaghetti against the wall is so I mean,
honestly,
bad marketing in a lot of cases is
worse than no marketing at all,
believe it or not.
So get clear on the strategy.
Figure out you know, start small. Start with
one thing. Maybe start with one social platform
and create
a defined
(23:27):
strategy
for that platform of what you're gonna do,
what you're gonna say, who you're targeting, all
those things,
and then create social campaigns. Say say it's
Facebook.
Create your your posts and your campaigns
accordingly
with specific content topics, specific ideas, and calls
to actions,
(23:47):
and then start implementing it,
start measuring it,
and see what works. And when you get
really definitive and defining your strategy and your
marketing plan
and think with things that are measurable,
you're gonna start seeing results, and then you
can expand from there.
Other platforms,
blogging,
(24:08):
videos, whatever the case may be, build it
a little of at a time. But strategy
is the key to marketing success because it's
gonna give you all the things you need
to know
to market to the right people in the
right place at the right time
to get results because you're gonna be able
to measure it.
(24:28):
This has been excellent. And if people wanna
find you online, what place or places should
they go?
My website is sophiezoe.com,
and I'm on Facebook,
Instagram,
x, LinkedIn,
and YouTube. I also have a podcast on
the Word of Mom Radio network.
It's called Building Your Empire with Sophie Zhou,
(24:50):
and
there is plenty of information on my website
as well. There's free gifts. There's a free
digital success session,
all the things that you can, find out
more about me and us because it is
me and my team and and see if
it's something you wanna get into with us.
Thank you again. I really appreciate the time,
Sophie.
(25:11):
Thank you.
And
scene.
Thank you for joining us today. I hope
you enjoyed the episode. I also hope that
you'll subscribe to the Idea Climbing podcast and
rate us on iTunes.
Visit ideaclimbing.com
to learn more about Idea Climbing and hear
more episodes about mentoring,
marketing, and big ideas.
Welcome to the Idea Climbing podcast. Today, we're
talking about how to create social media marketing
strategies that actually work with my guest, Sophie
Zollman.
Sophie is the founder of FMD Strategic Partners.
They take the guesswork out of marketing to
get real results for 7 and 8 figure
service providers.
We dive into topics such as how to
create a foundation to end up in a
(00:22):
successful place to launch your social media marketing
strategy,
how to pick an ideal client avatar and
not try to be everything to everyone,
how to stay consistent with your marketing efforts
and not burn out, and other golden nuggets
of advice. You're gonna love this show.
(00:44):
Thank you for making time to be on
the idea climbing podcast. So Sophie, I really
appreciate this. Thanks Thanks for having me. I'm
really excited to be here and to share
some great stuff with your audience.
And we're gonna talk about how to create
marketing strategies that, god forbid, work. Before we
get into that, though, how did you get
involved with marketing? Why are you so passionate
about it? What's your story there?
(01:06):
So I was a stay at home mom
twenty years ago who got into the online
business world to make money because that was
the only way I could make money and
not pay daycare all of my money.
And I'd be bopped around in different virtual
positions as customer service, business management, etcetera,
even did a little,
you know, other work here and there.
(01:27):
And then in 02/2009,
after a short break, I came back,
and I launched myself as a virtual assistant
online.
And one of the first things I did
to get in front of people was to
get on social media.
I got on Twitter and Facebook,
and I lived on it. I mean, I
was there all the time. My husband thought
he was you know, he didn't know where
his wife was because she was always on
(01:48):
the computer.
And
six months later,
I had met other virtual assistants and other
business owners
who were either hiring me
because they, you know, liked that I had
shown up. I was connecting, networking, and showing
my expertise,
or they were referring me to people to
hire just because of the relationship I built
(02:09):
with them on social media. So
when that happened, my business was born. I
became an LLC
and basically used digital marketing, especially social media
back then,
to grow my business.
And in the process, I fell in love
with it because I love being on social
media. I know people think I'm nuts, but
(02:30):
I love being on social media. I love
doing the things that you do in online
marketing, the reels, the videos. And trust me,
I didn't like reels and videos initially, but
I do now. I figured it out. But
it has been the bread and butter of
my business. I love it so much, and
I have built an amazing team of people
who are in the same boat
that we decided to create something that serves
(02:50):
others as well and gives them the marketing
they need to grow their business like I
have mine.
Before we get into what to do right,
I'd love to cover what we are talk
one of the things we spoke about off
camera. Where do people go wrong
with social media marketing?
Well, the biggest thing is they don't have
a strategy. They're throwing spaghetti against the wall
(03:11):
to see what sticks.
They're doing the latest trends that may or
may not work for them. And they may
be on platforms that they don't even need
to be on because they think they have
to be everywhere.
And they also are doing it themselves, and
they hate it usually. So it reflects in
what is produced and what they put out
there. That's another big thing is if you
(03:32):
don't love it, you really shouldn't do it
because it does come through.
And last but not least is
measuring what works. Most people, because they don't
have a strategy, they don't have a definitive
plan.
They aren't creating initiatives and campaigns
that have measurable components, KPIs,
goals, objectives,
(03:53):
whatever you wanna call them. You've gotta be
able to measure what you're doing because the
idea not the idea. The success comes from
knowing what works.
Once you know what works, then you can
maximize that, but you can't figure that out
without strategy,
hiring people to do it for you,
and having measurable campaigns and initiatives
(04:14):
that you can know if it's working or
not. Well, someone's watching or listening, and and
that resonates with them. You know, I'm on
a I'm on a few platforms. I kinda
think I know what I'm doing. I'm kinda
getting some results.
To get strategic,
where do where do they start?
Say, with not just showing up on three
different platforms. So where do they start and
how do they get strategic?
(04:35):
They've gotta they've gotta research
the dickens out of this. I mean, they've
gotta know who their ideal client avatar is.
And in most cases these days, there's multiple
client avatars.
Because even in one industry that may be
your niche,
the people within that industry, that niche have
(04:56):
different demographics,
psychographics,
income levels,
all the things that make them a human
being because you are, in the end,
marketing to a human being, and you have
to speak to them
the way they can hear you. And by
knowing them that deeply,
that's a part of your strategy. That's your
first step because that dictates
(05:18):
what platforms you're on, what you offer,
how you speak about
it, how you what you do to get
them in the door. And that's just one
piece of a strategy because the strategy also
has to have your competitive analysis. You gotta
know who your competitors are, how you stand
up against them, and how you can beat
them. Because if you're just doing the same
(05:39):
thing they're doing,
you're gonna be lost in the sea of
all the other people doing those things.
And then,
of course, once you've done that,
there is making sure you have a very
solid unique value proposition.
That's a part of your research. You're gonna
be looking at your branding.
Do you really look good, and is it
(06:02):
consistent, and does it appeal to your ideal
clients?
Branding is huge.
And then storytelling
and whatnot,
your content.
It's a combination of different things.
And, of course, we can't forget SEO. You've
always got to mix SEO in there because
without SEO,
(06:22):
you're still kind of throwing spaghetti against the
wall. You're a little bit more defined,
but it all works together. When you have
a completely defined strategy that takes in all
the aspects of online marketing and what it
takes to succeed,
then you have the monthly marketing plan
comes from that, and that's where you get
your measurable initiatives.
(06:44):
You get your content strategy.
You get you figure out where you need
to be and where you don't need to
be, and you rearrange and you make everything
fit together
so that it all feeds each other
and makes it all more effective
and also more measurable to know what's gonna
work and what's not.
So so many people say
(07:04):
I serve anybody in, you know, a broad
industry. The one I hate to hear at
networking events is anyone with money. It's like,
that's not right. As far as actually picking
one to three avatars or even your first
one, what advice do you have for those
people, and how do you go about picking
an avatar not trying to be everything to
everyone?
Well, you you definitely have to do your
(07:25):
research. You have to you have to know
who you well, if you're an established business,
one one thing you can do is look
at your favorite clients, your best clients.
Your best clients are usually your ideal avatar.
But, usually, they're not the exact same person,
so to speak. They're not the same
likes and dislikes, demographics, psychographics,
(07:46):
and you really gotta get nitty gritty with
them. And you can do that with one
to one interviews with your clients. You can
send out surveys and feedback forms.
But even if you're just getting started,
one thing you can do is, first of
all, figure out who you wanna work with.
What do you you know, look at the
passionate side of yourself and what you do
and go,
I wanna help, you know, moms who do
(08:08):
this or, you know, men who are this,
and then go deeper.
Start looking at who they are as a
human being.
Look at their demographics, their psychographics,
their likes, their hobbies, all those things.
And then once you get that dialed in,
the key next step is creating an actual
(08:29):
persona.
Give them a name.
Give them a picture. Give them, you know,
a marital status, a family status,
you know, a home you know, all the
things that a real human being would have.
Because when you can actually look at that
persona and that avatar and see them as
a real human being,
then you can figure out
(08:51):
what they want, what they need, and how
to talk to them and present it to
them so that they're gonna be dying to
get what you have.
So once you pick the avatar or avatars
as the case may be,
how do you create a foundation for a
successful strategy and not just go buckshot wild
on on social media? How do you create
that foundation to end up in a successful
(09:12):
place with strategy?
So from there, once you have your avatars,
you have to look at all the messaging
you have, your branding,
and make sure that everything is cohesive,
that everything makes sense, that they will get
it, and that it is appealing to them.
Because, you know, the
but appealing doesn't necessarily mean pretty or frou
(09:34):
frou because, you know, some people can have
this really gorgeous frou frou pretty website, and
their client their ideal avatar goes up there,
and they're like,
what is
this? They get so distracted by the prettiness
and the frou frou, they don't even read
the content to find out if you're a
fit for them. You've gotta really figure out
(09:55):
the branding, the website. You've gotta have all
your pieces and parts together, and that includes
the SEO
and and the and knowing where these people
are gonna be. Because once you know where
they're gonna be, where they're gonna find you,
then you can start building out the depth
the inner depths of the strategy that will
lead to your monthly marketing plan to know
what content to put where,
(10:16):
when, how to measure it, etcetera.
So unpack that a little bit more. What
is a good
successful monthly marketing plan look like? What are
some components there?
So a good monthly marketing plan is gonna
be well rounded in at least
three or four things. First of all, your
(10:36):
SEO
has to be dialed in. It has to
be good, and you have to know
what the ideal keywords are for your market,
your
audience. That has to be built into your
website, and then it will be built into
your content marketing, your blogs, your social media
posts, your ads, etcetera.
Of course, you're gonna have a website or
something. I mean, there some people get away
(10:59):
with not having a website, but it's really
ideal to have a website.
And then knowing what social platforms to be
on and making sure
when you set them up, they're cohesively branded
with everything else. Your the parts you get
the parts you get to fill out are
speaking to your ideal clients, but also SEO
(11:20):
friendly because SEO covers
everything, not just your website.
And then you're gonna make sure you have
a blog a blog plan,
a social media plan,
and usually a video plan, whether that's reels,
lives, combination thereof.
And then last but not least are paid
(11:40):
ads.
To date, I haven't seen
a strategy
that works without some paid ads. And I'm
not talking about spending the big bucks either
because,
you know, contrary to popular opinion,
ads don't have to be expensive
to work.
In fact, the the way you figure out
what works is by starting small and inexpensive
(12:04):
to test the waters
because
testing is a big factor as well. If
you're testing something, it's measurable.
If it works, then you can expand upon
it and make it better, and you can
maximize it.
And you don't wanna spend
a fortune
testing stuff
(12:25):
because
that is a waste of money. If you
test three things
and nothing works till the third thing and
you've spent
10,000 on each of those things,
oh my god.
That's $30 to figure out what works. That
is so not necessary.
It doesn't take near that kind of money
to use ads, to figure out what works,
(12:47):
and to use ads to drive traffic, to
get opt ins, to generate leads, and to
generate sales.
But it all works together when you're doing
all those things together.
Once you get it up and running, how
do you keep it running efficiently? I mean,
with everything you said, it seems like that
could be kind of a beast to control.
How do you keep it going and not
just have the excitement of the initial climb?
(13:08):
And I know my avatars and I know
my places.
But over time, how do you get consistent
with your marketing and not burnout?
You hire a team. You we have to
build a team. You have to delegate.
Delegation
of your marketing
is one of the keys
to being successful at it. Because with an
(13:28):
extensive
deep dive marketing strategy
and then a very comprehensive marketing plan that
includes all those things,
one person
cannot do it.
So you can't even delegate to one person
to do all that for you
because you need experts in the different areas
of that strategy to make sure you're getting
(13:49):
the best results possible. So you need an
SEO expert. You need a director of marketing
or a marketing coordinator or whatever you wanna
call your lead person.
You need a copywriter. You need graphic designer.
You need social media VAs. You need
an entire team of people
to do it all for you because it
stays consistent.
(14:10):
It also is tracked and measured by them,
so they're constantly making sure it's doing what
it's supposed to do, and they're making it
better. They're also bringing new ideas to you
to say, hey. Have you thought about doing
this? I think if you did this in
your social media, at least for, you know,
thirty days, we might be able to up
take your your your traffic or your leads
because the whole point of having a strategy,
(14:32):
a plan, and a team
is that the experts who love doing it
are doing it from that place,
and they also know you and your business
like a well oiled machine because
they have done the work to do the
strategy, to implement it, and to manage it
to make sure that it's always doing what
you need it to do.
(14:53):
So if someone's listening or watching right now
and they're thinking that, you know, that's great.
I can't afford everything you just said at
the that at once,
what would you tell them to delegate first?
What if they make a little bit of
extra profit and they say, I can do
one or two of those things, what would
you suggest them they do to get started
with delegation?
Well, it a lot of it depends on
the strategy that that comes out of it.
(15:15):
I would the first thing I recommend is
no mat even if you can't afford a
marketing team and an entire plan,
get the strategy.
The strategy is so crucial.
Because once you get that strategy from an
expert who does that strategy for you, you
can you can tell them flat out, you
know, I'm not ready to go into this
monthly marketing plan that's gonna cost me so
(15:35):
much money,
but I wanna get started. And I can
get started on my own and delegating a
little bit of it. And based on the
strategy that is put together and even the
monthly marketing plan that can go with it,
the top few things can be
sectioned out, so to speak, and your whoever's
doing your strategy for you can say, okay.
If you can't do it all, start here.
(15:56):
And a lot of times, what we say
is SEO and brand
are are first and foremost. Make sure your
SEO is dialed in and your brand is
top notch and it's good and all those
things,
and they match your your ideal avatar.
And then, you know, you can always start
small.
Start with a monthly blog post,
(16:16):
you know, consistent social media posts on the
right platforms
and a little bit of ads. I mean,
literally, $5 a day,
boosting a post even, can mean the difference
between success and failure when you're trying to
do it on your own to get you
that little bit of oomph that's gonna get
you generating more revenue to be able to
go, hey. Now I'm ready for that marketing
(16:38):
team. Bring it on.
Well, once you get everything running, I'd imagine
that not imagine, but things change over time,
whether it's new platforms, new algorithms.
How do you know when you should change
course and when to stay the course?
That is all where the metrics
(17:06):
stats from social media, from the e the
CRM,
from Google Analytics, from the ads. You're constantly
watching
what's going on with what you're doing. And,
of course,
as new things come out, new social media
platforms, new, you know,
types of content, whatever the case may be,
if you've got a marketing team in place
(17:27):
who's already doing all your marketing, they're gonna
be watching the trends too. And if they
see something new come up that they see
is a fit for you, they're gonna bring
it to you on one of your regular
meetings and go, hey. You know what? This
is new on TikTok,
and this could actually be a good thing
for you because you're not sitting there doing
silly stuff. It's actually a professional cool approach
(17:48):
that would be authentic to you,
and your people would be on there watching
it or looking for
it kind of a thing. They're gonna be
watching the trends and being keeping you up
to date even though you're not up to
date.
Well, I think I know the answer to
this, but I wanna just discuss it a
little bit. How do you know when something
like a TikTok comes along or now there's
(18:08):
blue sky?
How do you know when to say yes
to it and when to say I don't
need that right now? How do you pick?
Well, you have to look
when it's at especially a brand new platform,
you have to give it time to establish
itself
because you wanna see
the audiences that are on there first and
foremost because that is the biggest key to
(18:30):
know whether to jump to another one or
not. Is your audience there? And not only
are they there, but are they looking for
you there? Because, you know, TikTok started out
as this really crazy fun place with all
kinds of weird videos and things.
I mean, it still does that. But people
the the
people found their clients there, and so they
(18:51):
started doing the TikTok videos that were more
serious, that were, you know, fitting to what
they are and who they are, and it
started to take off. Once you see it
working and if it's is a place you
can be, meaning your audience is there, your
content will be well received,
and it's something you can be somewhere where
you can be authentic and genuine depending upon
what the platform is, then you can make
(19:13):
that jump. And you can also look at
and make sure the current platforms you're on
are still ideal for your audience. Because, you
know, just recently,
a ton of people left x.
They left x to either go nowhere else
or some are going to the blue sky.
But, you know, that's the other thing to
keep an eye on because if your audience
(19:34):
is exiting a platform,
then there's really no reason for you to
be on there anymore because it's just
extra work and extra content and extra stuff
that's falling on deaf ears because your people
aren't there anymore. Because that's another thing that
happens. People leave social platforms. They leave different
content platforms because it becomes a trend, and
then it dies. I mean, Clubhouse is another
(19:56):
one.
All the rage for how long?
And now I don't think I hear anybody.
I mean, I'm sure people are still on
it, but it's not all the rage where
everybody's like, come to my Clubhouse room. Come
to my I I don't hear any of
that anymore.
So, you know, that's the other thing you
have to be careful of. Jumping platforms
may seem like a thing, but then if
(20:16):
it dies completely,
you've spent a lot of time and money
there. And and, hopefully, you've gotten return on
your investment. But if
if it dies, even if you are getting
return on your investment, then you gotta know
what to do to make up for that
because that can be a huge loss as
well. So you gotta make sure
it's gonna be a long term bet before
you really dive into it hardcore. Because if
(20:37):
you dive in and then it dies,
it it can be problematic for your marketing
strategy and your budget and everything else.
So it sounds like you're saying one of
the criteria for knowing when to jump off
of or dump a platform
is being very
aware of, am I getting interactions with my
potential clients and referral sources? Would that be
(20:58):
correct as far as deciding when to jump?
If they jump, you follow them, or what
does that look like as far as deciding
to dump a platform entirely?
Yes. That is definitely one of the key
factors is if your ideal audience is no
longer there, if they're leaving it, and
it looks like they're not all gone because,
you know, some people are just diehards and
they'll stay. They don't care. But, you know,
(21:19):
if if enough of your because if your
your engagement goes down, if your
conversions go down because you're running campaigns that
are gonna have
conversion statistics,
if engagement goes down, if
conversions go down and go down a great
deal for an, you know, certain length of
time, you know, roughly ninety days ish,
(21:41):
it probably is a good idea to leave
the platform. But you do have to give
it time because, you know, people are fickle.
Yes. Let's let's just be real here. People
are fickle.
All the people that just left x in
droves
could very well go back in six months
because they're gonna be like, blue sky fell
out or, you know, they're not getting anything
(22:02):
on blue sky or whatever the case may
be. They're gonna be like,
well, you know, everybody's going back to x
because everybody figured out that you really still
need to be on x and x is
better than this or whatever, and then you
have to go back to it. So, you
know, give something three to six months before
you make a jump
either way, getting off of it or getting
on it because it needs to be a
(22:24):
well established trend that's gonna last, not something
that's just a fad for, like, you know,
thirty, sixty, ninety days.
We have covered a lot of ground in
a short period of time. When it comes
to creating marketing campaigns and strategies
that actually work
with everything we discussed, whether it's reiterating something
or something we haven't touched on yet. If
you were to say, you know what? If
(22:45):
if you're gonna do it right, at least
do this one thing. At least this above
all, what would you tell people to do?
The one thing to do above all is
to get a very
a
very
precise strategy going
even if you do it yourself.
Strategy is key because the the whole throwing
(23:06):
spaghetti against the wall is so I mean,
honestly,
bad marketing in a lot of cases is
worse than no marketing at all,
believe it or not.
So get clear on the strategy.
Figure out you know, start small. Start with
one thing. Maybe start with one social platform
and create
a defined
(23:27):
strategy
for that platform of what you're gonna do,
what you're gonna say, who you're targeting, all
those things,
and then create social campaigns. Say say it's
Facebook.
Create your your posts and your campaigns
accordingly
with specific content topics, specific ideas, and calls
to actions,
(23:47):
and then start implementing it,
start measuring it,
and see what works. And when you get
really definitive and defining your strategy and your
marketing plan
and think with things that are measurable,
you're gonna start seeing results, and then you
can expand from there.
Other platforms,
blogging,
(24:08):
videos, whatever the case may be, build it
a little of at a time. But strategy
is the key to marketing success because it's
gonna give you all the things you need
to know
to market to the right people in the
right place at the right time
to get results because you're gonna be able
to measure it.
(24:28):
This has been excellent. And if people wanna
find you online, what place or places should
they go?
My website is sophiezoe.com,
and I'm on Facebook,
Instagram,
x, LinkedIn,
and YouTube. I also have a podcast on
the Word of Mom Radio network.
It's called Building Your Empire with Sophie Zhou,
(24:50):
and
there is plenty of information on my website
as well. There's free gifts. There's a free
digital success session,
all the things that you can, find out
more about me and us because it is
me and my team and and see if
it's something you wanna get into with us.
Thank you again. I really appreciate the time,
Sophie.
(25:11):
Thank you.
And
scene.
Thank you for joining us today. I hope
you enjoyed the episode. I also hope that
you'll subscribe to the Idea Climbing podcast and
rate us on iTunes.
Visit ideaclimbing.com
to learn more about Idea Climbing and hear
more episodes about mentoring,
marketing, and big ideas.
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