March 25, 2025 • 20 mins
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What if I told you that your business could disappear overnight, just because of an algorithm change or a platform shutdown? It’s a scary thought, but for too many online sellers, it’s a real risk. In this episode, we’re talking about why relying solely on social media or third-party platforms is like building your business on rented land - and how you can take back control by making your website the heart of your brand!
I’m breaking down why your website isn’t just a “nice-to-have” but an essential tool for long-term success. We’ll talk about how to use it to grow your audience, nurture leads, and create a sales system that you own. Plus, I’ll share some simple but powerful tweaks that can turn your website into a revenue-generating machine, without requiring hours of extra work.
If you’ve ever felt stuck playing by someone else’s rules in your business, this episode is for you. By the end, you’ll walk away with an action plan to stop relying on rented land and start building a business that’s truly yours. Ready to take back control in your business?
02:06 - The problem with building your entire business on rented property
06:04 - How to create strategic content that attracts your ideal customer
09:15 - Your action plan for converting people from your website to your email list (and what to do once they’re a subscriber)
15:01 - Using your website and email list for retargeting
Links & Resources:
- Episode 73, Don’t Miss Out: You Need an Email Welcome Sequence
- Episode 116, How Do You Write Sales Emails That Don’t Feel Salesy? With Nicole Kepic
- Follow me on Instagram @kristendoyle.co
- Check out my Everything Page: a one-stop shop for savvy selling!
- The Savvy Seller Collective
- Join my private Facebook community: Savvy Teacher Sellers
- More resources for growing your TPT business
- Rate & review The Savvy Teacher Seller on Apple Podcasts
Show Notes: https://kristendoyle.co/episode140
Tired of constantly hustling to sell your digital products? Check out my free 19-minute training where I show you how to turn all those products you already have into a profitable, automated business.
Get more freedom and less stress ➡️ watch now at kristendoyle.co/training
Check out my Everything Page at https://kristendoyle.co/everything
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Kristen Doyle (00:00):
Hey, there. Have you ever had that nagging
feeling that you are buildingyour business on borrowed land?
You know, where you're workingso hard to grow your audience on
social media or drive sales on amarketplace platform, but deep
down, you can't shake that sensethat you don't really own every
(00:22):
piece of your business.
Well, news flash, there is a wayto take back ownership of your
business and your customers, away to create an audience that
no algorithm can take away fromyou and a platform that grows
with you for the long haul. It'syour website, my friend.
Shocking I know, coming from theweb designer, but anyway, today
(00:46):
we are going to talk about whyyour website should be the
center of your online businessstrategy, not just an
afterthought.
And then I'll share a step bystep process for how to use your
website to take back thatownership of your business and
your audience, because yourwebsite is hands down, the best
way to set yourself up forsustainable long term growth in
(01:11):
your business. So if you havebeen pouring all your energy
into rented platforms andignoring your own website, this
episode is your wake up call tostart investing in the one piece
of online real estate that youactually own.
Are you a digital product orcourse creator, selling on
platforms like teachers payteachers, Etsy or your own
(01:34):
website? Ready to grow yourbusiness, but not into the kind
of constant hustle that leadsstraight to burnout? Then you're
in the right place.
Welcome to The Savvy Seller. I'mKristen Doyle, and I'm here to
give you no fluff, tools andstrategies that move the needle
for your business withoutburning you out in the process.
(01:55):
Things like SEO, no stressmarketing, email list building,
automation, and so much more.
Let's get started y'all.
Before we dive in to the step bystep, let's talk about the
problem with building yourentire business on rented
property. This might includemarketplaces like Etsy or Amazon
(02:17):
or TPT or social media sites orreally any platform that you
don't fully own and control. Thedanger is that you're at the
mercy of algorithm changes andpolicy updates or even account
shutdowns. Your reach and yourrevenue can disappear overnight,
sometimes at no fault of yourown when you rely completely on
(02:42):
a platform that's not yours.
We have all seen that happen. AFacebook algorithm update
suddenly cut to your post reachby half, or a TPT change affects
your product listing visibilityor your search rank. Just last
month, I had a client who hadcreated all of their content on
YouTube only to have theiraccount shut down over a total
(03:04):
misunderstanding. All of thatwork just down the drain.
Plus, when you focus only onthose other platforms, your
audience isn't really yours. Youhave pretty limited ability to
communicate with them outside ofthat platform. Those 20,000
(03:24):
Instagram followers that youcan't actually email directly,
those Etsy or TPT customers.
You've practically noinformation on them and no way
to contact them outside of theplatform. So that is why having
your own website is absolutelycritical. And I don't use that
word very often. I actuallydon't even really like that
(03:44):
word. But when it comes to longterm sustainable growth for your
business, you have got to haveyour own little piece of the
internet.
When you have your own website,you have complete ownership and
control. No one can take it awayfrom you, the rules don't change
unless you change them. Now Iknow there are tons of website
(04:06):
platforms out there, fromSquarespace to Shopify to
WordPress to Kajabi. They allhave their pros and cons.
Personally, I recommendWordPress for most content
creators who sell digitalproducts because it gives you
the most flexibility and themost control.
Some of the other platformsstill have in their Terms of
Use, that they can shut yourwebsite down, and that is just
(04:29):
not something I'm comfortablewith as I'm building my own
business, and I don't reallythink you should be comfortable
with it, either. But the mostimportant thing is that you have
a website of your own,regardless of which platform you
choose.
Your website gives you a placeto build your email list. That
email list is your one and onlydirect line of communication to
(04:49):
your audience that no one cantake away. And this is huge for
your business. When you havesomeone's email you can reach
them directly anytime, withoutpaying for ads or hoping an
algorithm shows your content inmy own business.
Moving from selling only on TPTto having my own site and store
and really building my emaillist was a total game changer,
(05:12):
because it gave me that way toreach my customers and to build
real relationships. That way,when I launch new products or
when I want to run a flash saleor anything like that. I don't
have to start from scratch. Ialready have a direct line to
people who already know andtrust me.
Your website also gives you aplatform to publish your free
content and establish yourauthority and expertise in your
(05:35):
niche. It really helps positionyou as that go to expert, so
that when it's time to sell,people already know, like and
trust you.
Now let's get into the how tos.
We're going to talk aboutexactly how you can use your
website as the foundation ofyour online business. And I am
going to walk you through athree step process that starts
with attracting the right peopleto your website, then converting
(05:55):
them into email subscribers, andfinally retargeting them so that
you can actually make money inyour business.
First, you need to createcontent that attracts your ideal
customers, not just randomblogging, but strategic content
that addresses your idealcustomers, specific questions
(06:17):
and their pain points, thatshows off your expertise and
your unique approach to theproblem that you solve, and that
ranks well in search engines sopeople can actually find it.
Here's where I would start.
Identify maybe three to five ishcore topics that are directly
related to your products or yourservices. That part of it is
(06:39):
important, because if you'reblogging or creating podcast
episodes, whatever it is aboutthings that aren't directly
related to what you sell, thenyou're going to build an
audience of people who aren'tnecessarily interested in what
you sell.
So if you sell digital planners,then those topics might include
things like time management,productivity, goal setting. If
(07:02):
you have a wide variety ofproducts in your business, like
a lot of teacher sellers do,then you might need more of
those core topics. Once youfigure out some core topics,
then do some keyword research tofind those specific search terms
that people are actually using.
You can use tools likeUbersuggest or KW finder or even
Google's own search suggestions,can help you a little bit with
(07:23):
this. Look for keywords withdecent search volume but lower
competition scores, and you'llfind those on Uber Suggest or KW
finder. Once you find yourkeywords, then you need to
create great content aroundthem, and that content can be in
the form of blog posts, podcastepisodes, video trainings,
anything that you like tocreate, that your audience likes
(07:44):
to consume.
Your goal is to become the mostthorough resource on the entire
internet for that specifictopic, and you'll do it through
creating lots of content. I'mjust going to call them posts.
But like I said, it could beepisodes of a podcast or video
training, whatever you like tocreate. You'll do that through
creating lots of posts arounddifferent aspects of that topic.
(08:08):
So if your keyword is mealplanning for beginners, then
you'll want posts on grocerylists and meal prep friendly
recipes and containers and othersupplies, and then you'll wrap
them all up into the ultimateguide that covers everything a
beginner would need to know.
As you're creating your content,make sure that you're optimizing
it for SEO, because while it'sgreat to send out links to your
(08:33):
content to people on thosemarketplaces, to send it out
through your email, you wantyour content to get discovered
in search by people who didn'talready know about you.
So what that looks like isincluding your keyword in your
title, in your headings,throughout your content, making
sure your page loads quickly, itworks great on mobile and that
(08:53):
you are including images thathave the keywords in your alt
text. You also want to make sureyou're including internal links,
those are links to relatedcontent on your own website, and
if you can get other websites,good, reputable websites, to
link over to your content,because that helps build your
site's authority with searchengines like Google and Bing and
(09:14):
whoever else.
Now, once you have people comingto your website, the next step
is to get them onto your emaillist. Keep in mind, your email
list is the only audience thatyou truly own. So here's your
action plan for that. Createtargeted lead magnets that
directly solve specific problemsfor your ideal customer, instead
(09:37):
of having one generic freebiefor your entire site or a new
freebie on every single blogpost. Get strategic with it.
Create a few three to five isprobably more than enough.
Smaller, more specific leadmagnets that target your biggest
audience groups or their biggestpain points.
(09:57):
And then once you've createdthese, there are four places
that you need to put your opt informs on your website. The first
one, and you can kind of pickand choose one of these two, the
first one is either in yourfooter at the bottom of your
site or in an announcement barabove your header. The reason
this is important is becauseeither of those two places will
give you site wide visibility,so they will be visible on every
(10:19):
single page of your website, nomatter where a visitor lands.
You'll also want to includespecific opt ins within the blog
content that is related to them.
So maybe you end up with threeto five opt ins that are similar
to those three to five topicsthat you came up with, and you
put the one that is related toeach blog post based on the
(10:41):
topic that it's about.
Don't just drop these in at thevery end. In fact, I really
don't recommend those pluginsthat will pop a an opt in right
at the end of every page. Theyusually don't look that great.
They don't necessarily fit withthe flow of your pages, and if
you drop them at the very end,people may not even pay
(11:02):
attention to them. So put thesewithin the content. You'll just
want to grab the embed code foryour form and put it right in
the middle of your blog post,wherever it makes sense.
The third place that I wouldrecommend you put your opt ins
is as an exit intent pop up. NowI know, I know pop ups are
annoying, but they work. Andexit intents aren't so bad,
(11:25):
because they don't actually showup until the visitor goes to
leave your page when they movetheir mouse out of your window,
like they're gonna hit the backbutton or something like that,
that is when the exit intent popup shows up. So it really
doesn't get in the way of peoplebrowsing, but it can definitely
grab them before they leave. Foryour exit intent pop up, I would
(11:46):
recommend picking your bestconverting opt in since you'll
only have one of those.
And then the last place is everysingle one of your opt ins
should really have a dedicatedlanding page that you can direct
traffic to. When it comes tocreating those opt in forms,
make sure that they areirresistible. You'll want to use
(12:06):
benefits focus language, notjust features. So you're talking
about what they'll get, butyou're talking more about what
they'll get out of it, thebenefit for them from the thing
you're going to send.
If you at all can do this, makesure you include an image of
your lead magnet anywhere thatthat works out. You probably
won't do that in theannouncement bar at the very
(12:28):
top, but basically everywhereelse, you should have an image
of your lead magnet so thatpeople can see visually what
they're gonna get. Keep thoseform fields minimal, if at all
possible, just ask for theirfirst name and their email
address. The last thing you wantto do is ask people for so much
information that they're turnedoff of opting in.
I saw an email opt in for afreebie not too long ago that
(12:51):
asked for my phone number, andyou had better bet I hit that
back button so fast I was notabout to give a stranger on the
internet my phone number just soI can get a free PDF from them.
Absolutely not. So keep thoseform fields as minimal as you
can.
If you want extra informationfrom people, so that you can tag
(13:12):
them based on their interests,or something like that, you can
send that out in surveys withinthose first couple of emails
that you send to those newsubscribers instead of putting
it on the opt in form.
And another great idea for youropt in forms is to include a
little teeny snippet of socialproof. And when I say social
proof this time, I am nottalking about long testimonials
(13:35):
or anything like that. This isfor a freebie, but if you can
say something like, join 5000plus subscribers who got this
result or downloaded thisfreebie, or whatever it is, that
just helps people know thatthey're not alone, and other
people are using this.
You want to make sure that youdeliver that freebie to them
right after they subscribe.
You'll set that up as anautomation in your email
(13:55):
platform. And follow up on itwith some valuable content that
really builds trust, whether youcreate a special welcome
sequence, which I wouldabsolutely recommend that you
do, or you just drop them intoyour regular weekly emails where
you're sending that good,valuable, educational content.
I'll drop a link in the shownotes to another episode if you
(14:20):
need more details on creating awelcome sequence.
Once you create those opt informs and you get them on your
website, don't just walk awayfrom it at that point and let it
run on autopilot. Make sureevery so often that you're
tracking your conversion ratesso you know what's working. Go
back into your email marketingplatform and check to see how
(14:41):
the different forms are doing.
If you're getting a lot oftraffic to a certain opt in but
no subscribers from it, then youwant to maybe experiment with
different language on that optin form, different placement on
your website. Or you might needto try swapping it out for a
totally different lead magnetuntil you figure out what works
for your audience.
Now the last piece of thisstrategy is using your website
(15:04):
and your email list for what'scalled retargeting. This is just
showing ads to people whoalready know you and to people
like them. These are, handsdown, the best audiences to send
product ads to.
What you'll do is take youremail subscriber list and upload
it to your ad platform likeFacebook or Pinterest. You can
(15:25):
also use the people who gottagged as visiting your website
by your pixel and with those twosets of information, you can
create two different types ofaudiences.
The first is a warm audience.
That is an audience of theactual people who have
interacted with your content inthe past, or they've purchased
something, or they are on youremail list. But you can also
create look alike audiences, andthose are audiences that your
(15:48):
platform, like Facebook, willcreate, of people who are
similar to the ones that are inthat warm audience. The beauty
of using warm and look alikeaudiences for your ads is that
they typically have lower adcosts and higher conversion
rates compared to cold trafficthat you get based on just
interest that you put into thead platform.
(16:12):
And if you're not ready to runads right now, you can still
take advantage of retargetingthose email subscribers with
special offers in their inboxbased on what they were
interested in. When youprioritize your website and your
email list, you own and controlyour platform so you don't have
to worry about getting banned oralgorithm changes. You can build
(16:36):
your email list, which wealready said, is that one place
that you own your audience andcan reach out to them.
It also positions you as that goto expert in your space. It
gives you a way to get freetraffic from search engines, and
you can add multiple incomestreams, like your own products,
(16:56):
affiliate offers, ads,sponsorships, all sorts of
things. Your website becomesthat central hub that you can
send all your traffic to, nomatter where you are reaching
out to them.
So what is your first step?
Start by auditing your currentwebsite, assuming that you have
one. Is it set up to attract theright visitors? Do you have SEO
(17:17):
optimized content that is highlyrelevant to your products or
your services? Does it have anirresistible email opt in, or
two or three, strategicallypositioned throughout the site?
And then, are you leveragingthat audience that you're
building with some retargeting?
(17:38):
This week, I want you to pickjust one area to focus on first,
whether that is creating onepiece of great content, setting
up one strategic lead magnet, orinstalling that pixel so you can
get ready to do someretargeting. Don't try to do it
all at once, just take your onenext step for now.
(17:58):
If you found this episodehelpful, take a screenshot while
you're listening and share it onInstagram. Tag me
@kristendoyle.co so I'll see itand can share it with my
audience too. And don't forgetto hit follow on your favorite
podcast app so you never miss anepisode of the show. Talk to you
next time!
Hey, there. Have you ever had that nagging
feeling that you are buildingyour business on borrowed land?
You know, where you're workingso hard to grow your audience on
social media or drive sales on amarketplace platform, but deep
down, you can't shake that sensethat you don't really own every
(00:22):
piece of your business.
Well, news flash, there is a wayto take back ownership of your
business and your customers, away to create an audience that
no algorithm can take away fromyou and a platform that grows
with you for the long haul. It'syour website, my friend.
Shocking I know, coming from theweb designer, but anyway, today
(00:46):
we are going to talk about whyyour website should be the
center of your online businessstrategy, not just an
afterthought.
And then I'll share a step bystep process for how to use your
website to take back thatownership of your business and
your audience, because yourwebsite is hands down, the best
way to set yourself up forsustainable long term growth in
(01:11):
your business. So if you havebeen pouring all your energy
into rented platforms andignoring your own website, this
episode is your wake up call tostart investing in the one piece
of online real estate that youactually own.
Are you a digital product orcourse creator, selling on
platforms like teachers payteachers, Etsy or your own
(01:34):
website? Ready to grow yourbusiness, but not into the kind
of constant hustle that leadsstraight to burnout? Then you're
in the right place.
Welcome to The Savvy Seller. I'mKristen Doyle, and I'm here to
give you no fluff, tools andstrategies that move the needle
for your business withoutburning you out in the process.
(01:55):
Things like SEO, no stressmarketing, email list building,
automation, and so much more.
Let's get started y'all.
Before we dive in to the step bystep, let's talk about the
problem with building yourentire business on rented
property. This might includemarketplaces like Etsy or Amazon
(02:17):
or TPT or social media sites orreally any platform that you
don't fully own and control. Thedanger is that you're at the
mercy of algorithm changes andpolicy updates or even account
shutdowns. Your reach and yourrevenue can disappear overnight,
sometimes at no fault of yourown when you rely completely on
(02:42):
a platform that's not yours.
We have all seen that happen. AFacebook algorithm update
suddenly cut to your post reachby half, or a TPT change affects
your product listing visibilityor your search rank. Just last
month, I had a client who hadcreated all of their content on
YouTube only to have theiraccount shut down over a total
(03:04):
misunderstanding. All of thatwork just down the drain.
Plus, when you focus only onthose other platforms, your
audience isn't really yours. Youhave pretty limited ability to
communicate with them outside ofthat platform. Those 20,000
(03:24):
Instagram followers that youcan't actually email directly,
those Etsy or TPT customers.
You've practically noinformation on them and no way
to contact them outside of theplatform. So that is why having
your own website is absolutelycritical. And I don't use that
word very often. I actuallydon't even really like that
(03:44):
word. But when it comes to longterm sustainable growth for your
business, you have got to haveyour own little piece of the
internet.
When you have your own website,you have complete ownership and
control. No one can take it awayfrom you, the rules don't change
unless you change them. Now Iknow there are tons of website
(04:06):
platforms out there, fromSquarespace to Shopify to
WordPress to Kajabi. They allhave their pros and cons.
Personally, I recommendWordPress for most content
creators who sell digitalproducts because it gives you
the most flexibility and themost control.
Some of the other platformsstill have in their Terms of
Use, that they can shut yourwebsite down, and that is just
(04:29):
not something I'm comfortablewith as I'm building my own
business, and I don't reallythink you should be comfortable
with it, either. But the mostimportant thing is that you have
a website of your own,regardless of which platform you
choose.
Your website gives you a placeto build your email list. That
email list is your one and onlydirect line of communication to
(04:49):
your audience that no one cantake away. And this is huge for
your business. When you havesomeone's email you can reach
them directly anytime, withoutpaying for ads or hoping an
algorithm shows your content inmy own business.
Moving from selling only on TPTto having my own site and store
and really building my emaillist was a total game changer,
(05:12):
because it gave me that way toreach my customers and to build
real relationships. That way,when I launch new products or
when I want to run a flash saleor anything like that. I don't
have to start from scratch. Ialready have a direct line to
people who already know andtrust me.
Your website also gives you aplatform to publish your free
content and establish yourauthority and expertise in your
(05:35):
niche. It really helps positionyou as that go to expert, so
that when it's time to sell,people already know, like and
trust you.
Now let's get into the how tos.
We're going to talk aboutexactly how you can use your
website as the foundation ofyour online business. And I am
going to walk you through athree step process that starts
with attracting the right peopleto your website, then converting
(05:55):
them into email subscribers, andfinally retargeting them so that
you can actually make money inyour business.
First, you need to createcontent that attracts your ideal
customers, not just randomblogging, but strategic content
that addresses your idealcustomers, specific questions
(06:17):
and their pain points, thatshows off your expertise and
your unique approach to theproblem that you solve, and that
ranks well in search engines sopeople can actually find it.
Here's where I would start.
Identify maybe three to five ishcore topics that are directly
related to your products or yourservices. That part of it is
(06:39):
important, because if you'reblogging or creating podcast
episodes, whatever it is aboutthings that aren't directly
related to what you sell, thenyou're going to build an
audience of people who aren'tnecessarily interested in what
you sell.
So if you sell digital planners,then those topics might include
things like time management,productivity, goal setting. If
(07:02):
you have a wide variety ofproducts in your business, like
a lot of teacher sellers do,then you might need more of
those core topics. Once youfigure out some core topics,
then do some keyword research tofind those specific search terms
that people are actually using.
You can use tools likeUbersuggest or KW finder or even
Google's own search suggestions,can help you a little bit with
(07:23):
this. Look for keywords withdecent search volume but lower
competition scores, and you'llfind those on Uber Suggest or KW
finder. Once you find yourkeywords, then you need to
create great content aroundthem, and that content can be in
the form of blog posts, podcastepisodes, video trainings,
anything that you like tocreate, that your audience likes
(07:44):
to consume.
Your goal is to become the mostthorough resource on the entire
internet for that specifictopic, and you'll do it through
creating lots of content. I'mjust going to call them posts.
But like I said, it could beepisodes of a podcast or video
training, whatever you like tocreate. You'll do that through
creating lots of posts arounddifferent aspects of that topic.
(08:08):
So if your keyword is mealplanning for beginners, then
you'll want posts on grocerylists and meal prep friendly
recipes and containers and othersupplies, and then you'll wrap
them all up into the ultimateguide that covers everything a
beginner would need to know.
As you're creating your content,make sure that you're optimizing
it for SEO, because while it'sgreat to send out links to your
(08:33):
content to people on thosemarketplaces, to send it out
through your email, you wantyour content to get discovered
in search by people who didn'talready know about you.
So what that looks like isincluding your keyword in your
title, in your headings,throughout your content, making
sure your page loads quickly, itworks great on mobile and that
(08:53):
you are including images thathave the keywords in your alt
text. You also want to make sureyou're including internal links,
those are links to relatedcontent on your own website, and
if you can get other websites,good, reputable websites, to
link over to your content,because that helps build your
site's authority with searchengines like Google and Bing and
(09:14):
whoever else.
Now, once you have people comingto your website, the next step
is to get them onto your emaillist. Keep in mind, your email
list is the only audience thatyou truly own. So here's your
action plan for that. Createtargeted lead magnets that
directly solve specific problemsfor your ideal customer, instead
(09:37):
of having one generic freebiefor your entire site or a new
freebie on every single blogpost. Get strategic with it.
Create a few three to five isprobably more than enough.
Smaller, more specific leadmagnets that target your biggest
audience groups or their biggestpain points.
(09:57):
And then once you've createdthese, there are four places
that you need to put your opt informs on your website. The first
one, and you can kind of pickand choose one of these two, the
first one is either in yourfooter at the bottom of your
site or in an announcement barabove your header. The reason
this is important is becauseeither of those two places will
give you site wide visibility,so they will be visible on every
(10:19):
single page of your website, nomatter where a visitor lands.
You'll also want to includespecific opt ins within the blog
content that is related to them.
So maybe you end up with threeto five opt ins that are similar
to those three to five topicsthat you came up with, and you
put the one that is related toeach blog post based on the
(10:41):
topic that it's about.
Don't just drop these in at thevery end. In fact, I really
don't recommend those pluginsthat will pop a an opt in right
at the end of every page. Theyusually don't look that great.
They don't necessarily fit withthe flow of your pages, and if
you drop them at the very end,people may not even pay
(11:02):
attention to them. So put thesewithin the content. You'll just
want to grab the embed code foryour form and put it right in
the middle of your blog post,wherever it makes sense.
The third place that I wouldrecommend you put your opt ins
is as an exit intent pop up. NowI know, I know pop ups are
annoying, but they work. Andexit intents aren't so bad,
(11:25):
because they don't actually showup until the visitor goes to
leave your page when they movetheir mouse out of your window,
like they're gonna hit the backbutton or something like that,
that is when the exit intent popup shows up. So it really
doesn't get in the way of peoplebrowsing, but it can definitely
grab them before they leave. Foryour exit intent pop up, I would
(11:46):
recommend picking your bestconverting opt in since you'll
only have one of those.
And then the last place is everysingle one of your opt ins
should really have a dedicatedlanding page that you can direct
traffic to. When it comes tocreating those opt in forms,
make sure that they areirresistible. You'll want to use
(12:06):
benefits focus language, notjust features. So you're talking
about what they'll get, butyou're talking more about what
they'll get out of it, thebenefit for them from the thing
you're going to send.
If you at all can do this, makesure you include an image of
your lead magnet anywhere thatthat works out. You probably
won't do that in theannouncement bar at the very
(12:28):
top, but basically everywhereelse, you should have an image
of your lead magnet so thatpeople can see visually what
they're gonna get. Keep thoseform fields minimal, if at all
possible, just ask for theirfirst name and their email
address. The last thing you wantto do is ask people for so much
information that they're turnedoff of opting in.
I saw an email opt in for afreebie not too long ago that
(12:51):
asked for my phone number, andyou had better bet I hit that
back button so fast I was notabout to give a stranger on the
internet my phone number just soI can get a free PDF from them.
Absolutely not. So keep thoseform fields as minimal as you
can.
If you want extra informationfrom people, so that you can tag
(13:12):
them based on their interests,or something like that, you can
send that out in surveys withinthose first couple of emails
that you send to those newsubscribers instead of putting
it on the opt in form.
And another great idea for youropt in forms is to include a
little teeny snippet of socialproof. And when I say social
proof this time, I am nottalking about long testimonials
(13:35):
or anything like that. This isfor a freebie, but if you can
say something like, join 5000plus subscribers who got this
result or downloaded thisfreebie, or whatever it is, that
just helps people know thatthey're not alone, and other
people are using this.
You want to make sure that youdeliver that freebie to them
right after they subscribe.
You'll set that up as anautomation in your email
(13:55):
platform. And follow up on itwith some valuable content that
really builds trust, whether youcreate a special welcome
sequence, which I wouldabsolutely recommend that you
do, or you just drop them intoyour regular weekly emails where
you're sending that good,valuable, educational content.
I'll drop a link in the shownotes to another episode if you
(14:20):
need more details on creating awelcome sequence.
Once you create those opt informs and you get them on your
website, don't just walk awayfrom it at that point and let it
run on autopilot. Make sureevery so often that you're
tracking your conversion ratesso you know what's working. Go
back into your email marketingplatform and check to see how
(14:41):
the different forms are doing.
If you're getting a lot oftraffic to a certain opt in but
no subscribers from it, then youwant to maybe experiment with
different language on that optin form, different placement on
your website. Or you might needto try swapping it out for a
totally different lead magnetuntil you figure out what works
for your audience.
Now the last piece of thisstrategy is using your website
(15:04):
and your email list for what'scalled retargeting. This is just
showing ads to people whoalready know you and to people
like them. These are, handsdown, the best audiences to send
product ads to.
What you'll do is take youremail subscriber list and upload
it to your ad platform likeFacebook or Pinterest. You can
(15:25):
also use the people who gottagged as visiting your website
by your pixel and with those twosets of information, you can
create two different types ofaudiences.
The first is a warm audience.
That is an audience of theactual people who have
interacted with your content inthe past, or they've purchased
something, or they are on youremail list. But you can also
create look alike audiences, andthose are audiences that your
(15:48):
platform, like Facebook, willcreate, of people who are
similar to the ones that are inthat warm audience. The beauty
of using warm and look alikeaudiences for your ads is that
they typically have lower adcosts and higher conversion
rates compared to cold trafficthat you get based on just
interest that you put into thead platform.
(16:12):
And if you're not ready to runads right now, you can still
take advantage of retargetingthose email subscribers with
special offers in their inboxbased on what they were
interested in. When youprioritize your website and your
email list, you own and controlyour platform so you don't have
to worry about getting banned oralgorithm changes. You can build
(16:36):
your email list, which wealready said, is that one place
that you own your audience andcan reach out to them.
It also positions you as that goto expert in your space. It
gives you a way to get freetraffic from search engines, and
you can add multiple incomestreams, like your own products,
(16:56):
affiliate offers, ads,sponsorships, all sorts of
things. Your website becomesthat central hub that you can
send all your traffic to, nomatter where you are reaching
out to them.
So what is your first step?
Start by auditing your currentwebsite, assuming that you have
one. Is it set up to attract theright visitors? Do you have SEO
(17:17):
optimized content that is highlyrelevant to your products or
your services? Does it have anirresistible email opt in, or
two or three, strategicallypositioned throughout the site?
And then, are you leveragingthat audience that you're
building with some retargeting?
(17:38):
This week, I want you to pickjust one area to focus on first,
whether that is creating onepiece of great content, setting
up one strategic lead magnet, orinstalling that pixel so you can
get ready to do someretargeting. Don't try to do it
all at once, just take your onenext step for now.
(17:58):
If you found this episodehelpful, take a screenshot while
you're listening and share it onInstagram. Tag me
@kristendoyle.co so I'll see itand can share it with my
audience too. And don't forgetto hit follow on your favorite
podcast app so you never miss anepisode of the show. Talk to you
next time!
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