June 27, 2024 • 23 mins
Unlock the secrets to building a robust marketing strategy as Julia Black-Parrison, CEO of Stratus Creative Marketing, joins me, Natalie Guzman, on the Virtual Insights Podcast to challenge the status quo. Step away from the follower count frenzy and learn why meaningful connections with the right audience lead to authentic engagement and, ultimately, loyal clients. Julia's expertise in blending the finesse of email campaigns with the viral potential of social media platforms will show you the power of patience and consistency. She stresses the importance of high-quality content in transforming curious followers into dedicated customers over time.
In our dynamic conversation, prepare to revolutionize your approach to lead generation. Julia walks us through the nuts and bolts of crafting successful campaigns on Facebook and Instagram, where offering enticing assets like PDFs or video series can capture emails and secure leads at an impressively low cost. We dissect how understanding your niche market and demographic targeting isn't just savvy—it's crucial for optimizing your ad spend. And as we delve into the art of email marketing, you'll discover how it's the key to nurturing these new connections into fruitful relationships. So tune in for a masterclass in turning clicks into customers without breaking the bank.
Master the art of virtual business & create a life you love! Join Natalie Guzman, your host on Virtual Antics, a weekly podcast for digital entrepreneurs seeking work-life balance.✨
Ready to revolutionize your success? Tune in & subscribe for weekly episodes!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to the Virtual Antics Podcast, where we
help entrepreneurs streamlinetheir business to six figures
and beyond.
These short, sweet andinfo-packed episodes will
inspire, educate and leave youfeeling motivated to take one
more step forward in yourbusiness.
So put down your never-endingto-do list, because in this
podcast, we are interviewing thebest of the best in the
entrepreneurial world as theyspill their secrets to success.
(00:23):
This podcast is sponsored byNadora, the all-in-one software
for entrepreneurs to grow theirbusiness, with unlimited landing
pages, automations, emails andtext campaigns, and so much more
.
I'm your host, natalie Guzman.
Now let's get into it.
Hey, welcome back to the VirtualInsights Podcast.
I'm your host, natalie Guzman.
So excited.
We have a really fun andinteresting call ready for you
(00:45):
guys today.
I have Julia Black-Parrison onthe call.
She is the CEO of StratusCreative Marketing.
She's a marketing strategistwho focuses on helping
businesses improve theirrelationship with social media.
Oftentimes, business owners arefrustrated because social media
marketing feels more likethrowing darts at a dartboard
than actual lead generationright?
(01:10):
So by combining social mediaemail strategies, julia and her
team have created a leadgeneration formula that brings
in more leads for clients andincreases their revenue.
Speaker 2 (01:15):
Welcome Julia.
How are you doing today?
Wonderful Thanks for having me,natalie.
Speaker 1 (01:19):
I'm so excited because we're going to talk
about one of my favoritesubjects.
I love marketing.
That's why I built a marketingvirtual assistant agency.
It's definitely so interesting.
There's so many differentaspects, and I love that you
have this strategy that combinessocial media and email.
So how did you get?
Started into the marketingworld.
Speaker 2 (01:37):
Yeah, so I actually like a lot of millennials.
I was working at a job thatdidn't have a social media
marketer, and I was the youngest, and so I got put in charge of
the social media because somehowwe knew what we were doing, and
so that's really how it allstarted.
I came out of the nonprofitworld, and in a nonprofit
(02:01):
everybody does a little bit ofeverything, so I was never meant
to be a marketer at the time,but I slowly self taught social
media, then learn how to buildwebsites, and then, when a job
went south, I decided to go offon my own and try to build a
business, and so I had threemonths of savings and I was like
(02:22):
all right, that means you havethree months to show that you
have proof of concept.
Like, can you even get oneclient?
And I did still here, andwithin six months I was hiring
my first contractor, and thenafter a year, she became my
first employee, and so Icelebrated six years in the biz,
(02:43):
and so that has been awesome.
Just to see how much my lifehas changed since then.
Speaker 1 (02:50):
So that's awesome and I love that.
It's like never the path thatwe planned.
You know we think about likehigh school and college.
They're like what do you wantto be when you're older?
Well, who says like a marketingstrategist?
Probably my daughter and Ithink that's like about it?
Speaker 2 (03:03):
No Well, think that's like about it, no well.
And that's the thing is.
I feel like younger generationsare finally like oh, I want to
be a social media manager, butlike when you and I were going
to high school, like socialmedia managers didn't exist,
like that wasn't a job.
Um, recently I talked tosomebody who they said that when
they after high school, theywanted to be a YouTube content
(03:24):
creator and I was like, oh cool,have you started a YouTube
channel?
And she's like no.
I'm like wow, that is the first.
Like people don't go viral justautomatically.
Speaker 1 (03:34):
I was like I highly recommend starting now yeah, and
the longer that you dosomething, the more likely
you're going to be successful.
I think about podcasters andthey always say you know
everyone.
My first question from clientswhen they come to us for
podcasting, they're like when doI get sponsors?
I'm like the the like mostpodcasters have to be a
(03:55):
podcaster for two years beforesponsors will even consider them
.
Speaker 2 (03:58):
Yeah, and like you have to have the numbers to show
it Like, and so I think, andyou have to start like numbers
to show it like, and so I thinkand you have to start like even
we have that with clients withsocial media.
They're like well, when will Ihit 10,000 followers?
I'm like I have no idea like,let's get you started, see, like
, how you're attractingfollowers.
And then like, let's keep doingit, and then, once we're in it,
(04:22):
I'll have a better idea of howfast this is gonna go, and even
then it's very unpredictable.
Speaker 1 (04:27):
So yeah, and think about it.
You could have 10,000 followers, not have a single relationship
or any one of them purchasingsomething, right?
So would you say like buildinga relationship?
Um, on social media is a reallyimportant part to your
marketing strategies oh for sure.
Speaker 2 (04:42):
I have, um, somebody in my network who has 150
followers but got a lead off ofit made 10 grand from them.
And I have other clients whohave 20,000 followers and are
not making any money.
And so I think there's like areally popular misconception
(05:02):
that, like, more followersequals more money, and that's
not true.
More followers, more followers,equals more money, and that's
not true.
More followers actuallygenerally equals more problems.
Um, because you have moreopinions to handle, like you can
come under fire for things thatyou say if they're not your
tribe um, or if they're not yourum, your group, um, your people
(05:23):
, and so I think there's thatmisconception that, um, oh, I
have to get more followers.
There's an advantage to havingmore followers.
Like, I won't say that there'snot, but I think that, no matter
what, whether you have 150 or10,000, if they're not the right
followers, they're not going todo anything for you.
Speaker 1 (05:42):
So yeah, 100 and it's so so much harder.
I feel like you, you can growreally fast only up to some
point, and if you want to takeit further, you have to have a
relationship with your viewers,and that's what the people I
feel like that's gone viral, um,like they show up on their
stories, they show up on lives,they're showing up in their
daily content and so that allshowing up is just the first
(06:03):
part of a relationship, right, Ithink about it like dating, and
so you know you can show up toevery date, but you're not
messaging them in between and,like you know, really learning
more about them and asking themquestions.
You not just talking, you knowit's not really going to go
anywhere.
Speaker 2 (06:21):
For sure I went to oh , I was just going to add on to
that I went to a virtual summitthat Facebook held last year, um
, and in it they talked about um, multipliers, and so
multipliers are like okay, ifyou're doing Instagram feed,
instagram stories, instagramreels, it's like the different
(06:43):
types facebook themselves, metasaid the more multipliers you do
, the more our algorithm likesyou.
So if you, if you are like in aplace where you're like, my
social media is just proof thatmy business is alive, by all
means do what you gotta do andno more, but like, if you're
(07:03):
trying to grow, the more ofthose multipliers that you can
add on meta itself, then it willreward it.
So it's just a quick tip fromthe, from the social gods,
social media guys.
Speaker 1 (07:17):
I love that.
Yeah, and I've noticed that too, like I've been showing up in
stories a lot more and I haven'thad like on.
I haven't really been trying togrow my Instagram.
Speaker 2 (07:26):
But since I started doing for stories and Facebook.
Speaker 1 (07:29):
Um, I had, like, no new followers unless I was like
me, unless it was someone I knew, yeah, um, and now, all of a
sudden, I'm showing up.
I'm basically not even postingon my feed and I'm getting
followers well, and that's thething is.
Speaker 2 (07:40):
I think that stories feel private and like this, I
think stories also build betterrelationships.
Um, because it feels private.
You're popping into people'sdms, they're getting to see,
like um, more like raw footageor real footage rather than like
something that's curated forthe feed, and I think that
(08:02):
people appreciate that more soyeah.
Speaker 1 (08:06):
I love it and that way people can get to know me
too, because it also helps, kindof like with the friends and
family stuff, right, because I'ma really busy entrepreneur and
so I don't always tell my familywhat's going on.
But they know they can hop onmy stories and find out.
Totally, totally agree.
Yeah, what are some of thebiggest mistakes you see um
(08:28):
people make on social media?
Speaker 2 (08:30):
um, one of them is, um, the lack of consistency.
Like I see a lot of posting,ghosting is like a common like
thing that you hear in ourindustry.
Um, social media also rewardsconsistency.
Um, the consistency doesn'tmean multiple times a day,
(08:50):
unless if that's what you needto do, um, but consistency means
doing it regularly.
Um, I think the other thing, um,and one of the big mistakes
that I see is businesses see,okay, so-and-so is successful.
I need to do exactly whatthey're doing.
That's like not correct.
(09:12):
You need to figure out, like,what your goals are and then a
strategy to get there, because Ihave a lot of people who are
like, hey, all these influencersare doing this, and I'm like
you're a mom and pop store onmain street, like you are not an
influencer, you do not need tobe doing what influencers do.
(09:34):
And I think that when wecompare ourselves and then um
borrow from other people'sstrategies rather than creating
our own, um, we end up burningourselves out too, because then
we end up doing way more thanwhat we actually have to do
that's a really good point.
Speaker 1 (09:51):
I see that in website design all the time.
Speaker 2 (09:53):
People are like.
Speaker 1 (09:54):
I just had someone recently.
They're like I love TonyRobbins website.
Speaker 2 (09:58):
I want to do it just like him.
Speaker 1 (10:00):
So, tony Robbins, he attracts, you know,
entrepreneurs, mainly right orhigh level executive.
This person was her targetmarket was young women that are
trying, just trying to get theirtoes into business, but they're
also primarily African-Americanand I was like, Ooh, those are
two different target markets.
(10:20):
I was like his looks reallypretty but is it really going to
do what you need it to do?
And I think that's a reallygood point.
And it kind of goes the sameinto like the emails, right?
I know a lot of people willforward me emails and be like I
like how this person did it, Ilike how this person did it, but
you're not.
You're using their voice andnot yours.
And also, like you said,everything should be based on
(10:42):
your goals, and that's actuallysomething I preach on websites
is like, whatever your goal is,your website should reflect that
.
Um, yeah, so that's a reallywebsite should reflect that.
Yeah, so that's a really,really good point.
And then so how do you usesocial media and email marketing
to kind of really help withyour marketing efforts?
Speaker 2 (11:01):
Yeah, so we.
So I, like I said I've beendoing like this for six years
and started just as like asocial media manager and
realized that a lot of myclients were not happy with the
results.
I think one of the biggest,hardest problems with social
media is attribution.
Like it's really hard.
(11:22):
Social media ends up being alot of brand awareness and in
order to have attribution, youneed to have things like, like
your Google Analytics need to beset up really well, like you
need to be having UTM links, allof these things that, like just
regular business owners aren'tthinking about and they
(11:42):
shouldn't have to.
And so we started realizing,like our clients weren't very
happy, so we brought in ads, notjust any kind of ads, we
brought in lead gen ads.
So, basically, we're trading anasset, usually a PDF, video
series, something that's reallyvaluable to the customer, like
(12:04):
the end customer, we're settingthat up as a download.
So for all of us listening,like, if you have ever been on
instagram or facebook, and youget an ad that says, hey, I have
this free pdf, that's whatwe're setting up for our clients
and we're basically tellingmeta facebook and instagram um,
(12:25):
hey, we only want to pay foremails like that's what we want.
We don't want to pay forviewers, we don't want to pay
for, like it, going throughpeople's feeds.
Give us the emails of thesepeople, um, and so we can use
targeting to find those people,um, and so we're trading emails
for the pdfs.
(12:46):
Most of our emails, like most ofour clients, are getting new
leads, those new emails, for allof them are getting it for less
than $5.
But most of them are getting itfor just under $2.
So it's kind of like a gumballmachine, like you can say Okay,
now I got these many emails forthis much money, how many emails
(13:07):
do you want?
And you can start workingbackwards.
And so then we actually sendout follow-up email marketing
because, just like we weretalking about social media
creating relationships andstories, I think email also
helps create relationships.
There's something about theprivacy of your email and
letting somebody into that, andso that's how we do.
(13:31):
It is.
We're using social media to doproof of life, showing expertise
, attracting people, um, thenwe're running ads to get new
contacts and then we'refollowing up with those contacts
via email marketing, and sincewe've started doing that, our
clients have seen better results, which makes them happier, um,
(13:51):
but it still, lets us keep doingwhat we love, which is social
media.
Speaker 1 (13:55):
so oh, that's awesome , I love that.
And under two dollars, uh forroi is amazing.
Speaker 2 (14:01):
So roi for those listening, don't know.
Speaker 1 (14:03):
Is return on investment?
Um, those type of like metricsand things are really really
important when it comes tosocial media.
Like julie was saying um, butunder two dollars is actually
really really good, yeah I willsay, oh, go ahead.
I was gonna say we've seen itlike as high as like 50,
sometimes like with, especially,I feel like sometimes the niche
(14:23):
, if you especially, yeah, theniche industries, it's
definitely like a little bithigher.
Um, oh, like I'm talking aboutlike the super, super niche,
like yeah, um, well, we havelike we do.
Speaker 2 (14:35):
I did want to like add a disclaimer.
Like I do have one company thatit costs $25 to get them a lead
, but it's like an energycompany in Idaho, so like who
wants to really sign up for anenergy company?
Speaker 1 (14:49):
not very many people like um.
Speaker 2 (14:52):
Or we had one client who for a while she, um, she is
a floral designer and only wantsto target like within 20 miles
of her zip code and so that wassuch a tiny audience.
It cost it cost like fivedollars a piece, so still like
around our average but, um,definitely on a more expensive
(15:13):
end.
But for people who are runningonline businesses that you can,
that you're coaching or thatyou're trying to reach every
like everybody in the UnitedStates, like in Canada, those do
really really well because youcan.
You can have a large enoughgeographical area that you can
get a large enough audience.
Speaker 1 (15:34):
Yeah, and you know something that we haven't really
talked on the podcast I thinkwould be beneficial, so maybe
you could talk on it, but it'ssample size.
Can you kind of explain whatthat is and how it's beneficial?
Speaker 2 (15:44):
Yeah.
So, like, your sample size isgoing to be really important,
because if you have, like asmaller group, um, all of your
costs to reach them are gonna goup.
Um, if you have a bigger group,all of your costs to reach them
is gonna go down because youhave that bigger sample size.
And so that is really reallyapparent in um, in ads.
(16:08):
And I want to say, like thatdoesn't mean that you shouldn't
niche, like that, you shouldn'tlike have a smaller sample size
audience like that's not, that'sirrelevant.
Like if that's what you'redoing, like keep doing it
because somebody needs to servethat niche.
But on the same wavelength,like if you have an audience so
(16:28):
large, sometimes you can'treally speak to the specific
needs.
And so I think it's important,like as business owners and
marketers, to kind of figure out, okay, who do I want to serve,
but also, how much is it goingto cost me to reach them?
Mainly because we don't want tobe surprised, like when people
are like oh gosh, like that's$25, a new lead, and I'm like,
(16:52):
okay, but let's think about thisLike you are in this small
geographical area, it's mostlycountry, um, or countryside.
So, like people, your, yoursample size, your group is going
to be smaller, um, because Ithink otherwise we're just going
to end up being surprised aboutthings that, um, I think
(17:13):
otherwise we're just going toend up being surprised about
things that we could haveexpected.
Speaker 1 (17:20):
So, yeah, a hundred percent.
And I also say you know, nevergive up on a tactic when you
have are only testing a smallsample size.
So say you even have a very lowbudget, so you're only trying
to do like five.
I have a lot of clients come tome and they're like $5 a day
and I'm like, okay, don't expectto have results until we have
at least like two to threemonths, because we need a big
enough sample size to see what'sworking, what's not, to see if
we have to change a landing page, see if we have to change, you
(17:41):
know, the wording of the ad orthe look or the feel.
So I feel like a lot of peoplegive up and they're like, oh't
working, but they only based onthey only reached maybe 100
people and I feel like for sure,more people you reach, the
better understanding you have ofwhat's
Speaker 2 (17:56):
working no, I agree, and I think, like we say similar
things to our clients, I thinkon the flip side, we also have
clients who are like here's 10grand, can you go spend it in
two weeks?
And I'm like no, that's dumb.
Like let's, let's take a coupleweeks and like a quarter of
(18:16):
that budget to test, and thenlike let's go spend the rest of
it.
Because the same way, like, ifyou're like test, I feel like
marketing is half art, halfscience, like, and so half art,
half science and then anotherhalf of math, like, and so I
think that we have to testthings, but you don't want to
(18:38):
blow your whole budget ontesting.
But also, if your budget istiny, it's just going to take
longer.
So I think like you have tothink about, like the more money
I have, the faster I can test,um, but like I've seen a lot of
people blow their budgets onsomething that didn't work
because they didn't test, andthen afterwards they were like,
(19:00):
oh shoot, that didn't work, likeso, yeah, 100%.
Speaker 1 (19:05):
We just had a scenario.
So also trust the people thatyou hire and like from start to
finish.
Don't bring them in halfwayit's you're going to save so
much time money when you bringin like a higher expert, like
Julia.
So that way it's start tofinish.
Because we had someone come inand they they kind of had their
idea of the landing page andthey're like this is how I want
(19:27):
to do, it do exactly how I'msaying, and so they didn't get
the expert opinion of us.
So we did exactly how they did.
We ran their ad.
They had 257 clicks and onlyfour signups.
That tells me the landing pagewas definitely where it was
dropping off Right Because thead worked.
It got our clicks and it was.
It was only like um a hundreddollars budget too.
Speaker 2 (19:48):
So it wasn't.
It was actually clicks and itwas.
It was only like um $100 budgettoo.
Speaker 1 (19:51):
So it wasn't, it was actually that's amazing.
Yeah, so 257 clicks off $100budget.
I was like awesome, that'samazing.
And then the but only havingfour signups.
I was like that's a landingpage issue.
So luckily we went in and wejust like completely redid it
and now it's the ads are workinggreat but, yeah, and AB testing
too.
Can you explain what AB testingis?
Speaker 2 (20:11):
Yeah, so AB testing, we use it a lot for ads.
That's where we're creating.
When we do it for ads, likewe're basically putting up, okay
, the same image but differentcaptions, or the same caption
but different images, like itgoes all the way back to like
grade school, when we learned,okay, like what's what works
(20:31):
better, but like we have to havelike a control, um, and so like
we have our variables and ourcontrols, um, and so we can see,
um, which graphics attractpeople more, which captions
speak to people more.
You can do it with email, youcan do it with websites, like
you can do it with email.
You can do it with websites,like you didn't do it with
anything really, and you coulddo it from with websites.
(20:56):
You could do like two weekswith one type, two weeks with
another type.
You could also do ads that goto like either one and see which
ones perform better.
There's so many different waysto do it and I think that when
we don't do it, we're missingout on being able to optimize
what's going to work best 100%.
Speaker 1 (21:18):
We actually just talked about this in depth in
our Nadora Facebook group, whichI know a lot of you guys
listening are in.
So that's awesome.
We love you guys.
But we went in depth on thisbecause a lot of people were
changing multiple things at onceand we're like no, how do you
know what's working, what's not?
I was like you got it.
I love that.
You said two weeks this and twoweeks that you have to change
(21:40):
it.
Wait, look at the data and thenchange something else.
It's not a get rich quick thing.
It's not like instant result.
You are going to continue to beimproving.
Speaker 2 (21:52):
Totally, and it goes back to the idea even with ads
like if you have a budget to dotesting, you can test faster.
If you don't have the budget todo testing, it's going to take
more time, because you couldabsolutely build two pages, run
ads to them and then test itthat way and you could figure
out your results in a week.
(22:12):
But you have to have the budgetto do that.
And so I think that that'swhere there's some confusion,
where some people can get theirtesting done quickly because
you're right, like you only wantto change one thing at a time.
But if you can test it for twodays with a budget and then
change another thing, you coulddo that whole process faster.
(22:34):
But you have to have the eyesto see it, and so that's why I
usually do things for at leasttwo weeks If there's not budget
behind it.
Speaker 1 (22:46):
That's a really really good point.
So where can we find more aboutyou and your services?
Yeah, for sure.
Speaker 2 (22:52):
So come and visit us on Instagram.
That's where we spend most ofour time.
It's Stratos Creative.
It's S-T-R-A-T-O-S.
Our website isstratoscreativemarketingcom.
Yeah, that's where we, butreally Instagram is like where
we hang out the most.
Like, you can see all of ourstaff, we can see our pets.
(23:17):
You can see, like like we, alot of us travel while we work,
and so you can see a lot ofthose adventures.
So we'd love to have you overthere Awesome.
Speaker 1 (23:29):
I'll make sure I put all that in the show notes as
well, but thank you so much,Julia, for coming.
It has been so much fun and wewill talk to you guys next time
on the virtual antics podcast.
Welcome to the Virtual Antics Podcast, where we
help entrepreneurs streamlinetheir business to six figures
and beyond.
These short, sweet andinfo-packed episodes will
inspire, educate and leave youfeeling motivated to take one
more step forward in yourbusiness.
So put down your never-endingto-do list, because in this
podcast, we are interviewing thebest of the best in the
entrepreneurial world as theyspill their secrets to success.
(00:23):
This podcast is sponsored byNadora, the all-in-one software
for entrepreneurs to grow theirbusiness, with unlimited landing
pages, automations, emails andtext campaigns, and so much more
.
I'm your host, natalie Guzman.
Now let's get into it.
Hey, welcome back to the VirtualInsights Podcast.
I'm your host, natalie Guzman.
So excited.
We have a really fun andinteresting call ready for you
(00:45):
guys today.
I have Julia Black-Parrison onthe call.
She is the CEO of StratusCreative Marketing.
She's a marketing strategistwho focuses on helping
businesses improve theirrelationship with social media.
Oftentimes, business owners arefrustrated because social media
marketing feels more likethrowing darts at a dartboard
than actual lead generationright?
(01:10):
So by combining social mediaemail strategies, julia and her
team have created a leadgeneration formula that brings
in more leads for clients andincreases their revenue.
Speaker 2 (01:15):
Welcome Julia.
How are you doing today?
Wonderful Thanks for having me,natalie.
Speaker 1 (01:19):
I'm so excited because we're going to talk
about one of my favoritesubjects.
I love marketing.
That's why I built a marketingvirtual assistant agency.
It's definitely so interesting.
There's so many differentaspects, and I love that you
have this strategy that combinessocial media and email.
So how did you get?
Started into the marketingworld.
Speaker 2 (01:37):
Yeah, so I actually like a lot of millennials.
I was working at a job thatdidn't have a social media
marketer, and I was the youngest, and so I got put in charge of
the social media because somehowwe knew what we were doing, and
so that's really how it allstarted.
I came out of the nonprofitworld, and in a nonprofit
(02:01):
everybody does a little bit ofeverything, so I was never meant
to be a marketer at the time,but I slowly self taught social
media, then learn how to buildwebsites, and then, when a job
went south, I decided to go offon my own and try to build a
business, and so I had threemonths of savings and I was like
(02:22):
all right, that means you havethree months to show that you
have proof of concept.
Like, can you even get oneclient?
And I did still here, andwithin six months I was hiring
my first contractor, and thenafter a year, she became my
first employee, and so Icelebrated six years in the biz,
(02:43):
and so that has been awesome.
Just to see how much my lifehas changed since then.
Speaker 1 (02:50):
So that's awesome and I love that.
It's like never the path thatwe planned.
You know we think about likehigh school and college.
They're like what do you wantto be when you're older?
Well, who says like a marketingstrategist?
Probably my daughter and Ithink that's like about it?
Speaker 2 (03:03):
No Well, think that's like about it, no well.
And that's the thing is.
I feel like younger generationsare finally like oh, I want to
be a social media manager, butlike when you and I were going
to high school, like socialmedia managers didn't exist,
like that wasn't a job.
Um, recently I talked tosomebody who they said that when
they after high school, theywanted to be a YouTube content
(03:24):
creator and I was like, oh cool,have you started a YouTube
channel?
And she's like no.
I'm like wow, that is the first.
Like people don't go viral justautomatically.
Speaker 1 (03:34):
I was like I highly recommend starting now yeah, and
the longer that you dosomething, the more likely
you're going to be successful.
I think about podcasters andthey always say you know
everyone.
My first question from clientswhen they come to us for
podcasting, they're like when doI get sponsors?
I'm like the the like mostpodcasters have to be a
(03:55):
podcaster for two years beforesponsors will even consider them
.
Speaker 2 (03:58):
Yeah, and like you have to have the numbers to show
it Like, and so I think, andyou have to start like numbers
to show it like, and so I thinkand you have to start like even
we have that with clients withsocial media.
They're like well, when will Ihit 10,000 followers?
I'm like I have no idea like,let's get you started, see, like
, how you're attractingfollowers.
And then like, let's keep doingit, and then, once we're in it,
(04:22):
I'll have a better idea of howfast this is gonna go, and even
then it's very unpredictable.
Speaker 1 (04:27):
So yeah, and think about it.
You could have 10,000 followers, not have a single relationship
or any one of them purchasingsomething, right?
So would you say like buildinga relationship?
Um, on social media is a reallyimportant part to your
marketing strategies oh for sure.
Speaker 2 (04:42):
I have, um, somebody in my network who has 150
followers but got a lead off ofit made 10 grand from them.
And I have other clients whohave 20,000 followers and are
not making any money.
And so I think there's like areally popular misconception
(05:02):
that, like, more followersequals more money, and that's
not true.
More followers, more followers,equals more money, and that's
not true.
More followers actuallygenerally equals more problems.
Um, because you have moreopinions to handle, like you can
come under fire for things thatyou say if they're not your
tribe um, or if they're not yourum, your group, um, your people
(05:23):
, and so I think there's thatmisconception that, um, oh, I
have to get more followers.
There's an advantage to havingmore followers.
Like, I won't say that there'snot, but I think that, no matter
what, whether you have 150 or10,000, if they're not the right
followers, they're not going todo anything for you.
Speaker 1 (05:42):
So yeah, 100 and it's so so much harder.
I feel like you, you can growreally fast only up to some
point, and if you want to takeit further, you have to have a
relationship with your viewers,and that's what the people I
feel like that's gone viral, um,like they show up on their
stories, they show up on lives,they're showing up in their
daily content and so that allshowing up is just the first
(06:03):
part of a relationship, right, Ithink about it like dating, and
so you know you can show up toevery date, but you're not
messaging them in between and,like you know, really learning
more about them and asking themquestions.
You not just talking, you knowit's not really going to go
anywhere.
Speaker 2 (06:21):
For sure I went to oh , I was just going to add on to
that I went to a virtual summitthat Facebook held last year, um
, and in it they talked about um, multipliers, and so
multipliers are like okay, ifyou're doing Instagram feed,
instagram stories, instagramreels, it's like the different
(06:43):
types facebook themselves, metasaid the more multipliers you do
, the more our algorithm likesyou.
So if you, if you are like in aplace where you're like, my
social media is just proof thatmy business is alive, by all
means do what you gotta do andno more, but like, if you're
(07:03):
trying to grow, the more ofthose multipliers that you can
add on meta itself, then it willreward it.
So it's just a quick tip fromthe, from the social gods,
social media guys.
Speaker 1 (07:17):
I love that.
Yeah, and I've noticed that too, like I've been showing up in
stories a lot more and I haven'thad like on.
I haven't really been trying togrow my Instagram.
Speaker 2 (07:26):
But since I started doing for stories and Facebook.
Speaker 1 (07:29):
Um, I had, like, no new followers unless I was like
me, unless it was someone I knew, yeah, um, and now, all of a
sudden, I'm showing up.
I'm basically not even postingon my feed and I'm getting
followers well, and that's thething is.
Speaker 2 (07:40):
I think that stories feel private and like this, I
think stories also build betterrelationships.
Um, because it feels private.
You're popping into people'sdms, they're getting to see,
like um, more like raw footageor real footage rather than like
something that's curated forthe feed, and I think that
(08:02):
people appreciate that more soyeah.
Speaker 1 (08:06):
I love it and that way people can get to know me
too, because it also helps, kindof like with the friends and
family stuff, right, because I'ma really busy entrepreneur and
so I don't always tell my familywhat's going on.
But they know they can hop onmy stories and find out.
Totally, totally agree.
Yeah, what are some of thebiggest mistakes you see um
(08:28):
people make on social media?
Speaker 2 (08:30):
um, one of them is, um, the lack of consistency.
Like I see a lot of posting,ghosting is like a common like
thing that you hear in ourindustry.
Um, social media also rewardsconsistency.
Um, the consistency doesn'tmean multiple times a day,
(08:50):
unless if that's what you needto do, um, but consistency means
doing it regularly.
Um, I think the other thing, um,and one of the big mistakes
that I see is businesses see,okay, so-and-so is successful.
I need to do exactly whatthey're doing.
That's like not correct.
(09:12):
You need to figure out, like,what your goals are and then a
strategy to get there, because Ihave a lot of people who are
like, hey, all these influencersare doing this, and I'm like
you're a mom and pop store onmain street, like you are not an
influencer, you do not need tobe doing what influencers do.
(09:34):
And I think that when wecompare ourselves and then um
borrow from other people'sstrategies rather than creating
our own, um, we end up burningourselves out too, because then
we end up doing way more thanwhat we actually have to do
that's a really good point.
Speaker 1 (09:51):
I see that in website design all the time.
Speaker 2 (09:53):
People are like.
Speaker 1 (09:54):
I just had someone recently.
They're like I love TonyRobbins website.
Speaker 2 (09:58):
I want to do it just like him.
Speaker 1 (10:00):
So, tony Robbins, he attracts, you know,
entrepreneurs, mainly right orhigh level executive.
This person was her targetmarket was young women that are
trying, just trying to get theirtoes into business, but they're
also primarily African-Americanand I was like, Ooh, those are
two different target markets.
(10:20):
I was like his looks reallypretty but is it really going to
do what you need it to do?
And I think that's a reallygood point.
And it kind of goes the sameinto like the emails, right?
I know a lot of people willforward me emails and be like I
like how this person did it, Ilike how this person did it, but
you're not.
You're using their voice andnot yours.
And also, like you said,everything should be based on
(10:42):
your goals, and that's actuallysomething I preach on websites
is like, whatever your goal is,your website should reflect that
.
Um, yeah, so that's a reallywebsite should reflect that.
Yeah, so that's a really,really good point.
And then so how do you usesocial media and email marketing
to kind of really help withyour marketing efforts?
Speaker 2 (11:01):
Yeah, so we.
So I, like I said I've beendoing like this for six years
and started just as like asocial media manager and
realized that a lot of myclients were not happy with the
results.
I think one of the biggest,hardest problems with social
media is attribution.
Like it's really hard.
(11:22):
Social media ends up being alot of brand awareness and in
order to have attribution, youneed to have things like, like
your Google Analytics need to beset up really well, like you
need to be having UTM links, allof these things that, like just
regular business owners aren'tthinking about and they
(11:42):
shouldn't have to.
And so we started realizing,like our clients weren't very
happy, so we brought in ads, notjust any kind of ads, we
brought in lead gen ads.
So, basically, we're trading anasset, usually a PDF, video
series, something that's reallyvaluable to the customer, like
(12:04):
the end customer, we're settingthat up as a download.
So for all of us listening,like, if you have ever been on
instagram or facebook, and youget an ad that says, hey, I have
this free pdf, that's whatwe're setting up for our clients
and we're basically tellingmeta facebook and instagram um,
(12:25):
hey, we only want to pay foremails like that's what we want.
We don't want to pay forviewers, we don't want to pay
for, like it, going throughpeople's feeds.
Give us the emails of thesepeople, um, and so we can use
targeting to find those people,um, and so we're trading emails
for the pdfs.
(12:46):
Most of our emails, like most ofour clients, are getting new
leads, those new emails, for allof them are getting it for less
than $5.
But most of them are getting itfor just under $2.
So it's kind of like a gumballmachine, like you can say Okay,
now I got these many emails forthis much money, how many emails
(13:07):
do you want?
And you can start workingbackwards.
And so then we actually sendout follow-up email marketing
because, just like we weretalking about social media
creating relationships andstories, I think email also
helps create relationships.
There's something about theprivacy of your email and
letting somebody into that, andso that's how we do.
(13:31):
It is.
We're using social media to doproof of life, showing expertise
, attracting people, um, thenwe're running ads to get new
contacts and then we'refollowing up with those contacts
via email marketing, and sincewe've started doing that, our
clients have seen better results, which makes them happier, um,
(13:51):
but it still, lets us keep doingwhat we love, which is social
media.
Speaker 1 (13:55):
so oh, that's awesome , I love that.
And under two dollars, uh forroi is amazing.
Speaker 2 (14:01):
So roi for those listening, don't know.
Speaker 1 (14:03):
Is return on investment?
Um, those type of like metricsand things are really really
important when it comes tosocial media.
Like julie was saying um, butunder two dollars is actually
really really good, yeah I willsay, oh, go ahead.
I was gonna say we've seen itlike as high as like 50,
sometimes like with, especially,I feel like sometimes the niche
(14:23):
, if you especially, yeah, theniche industries, it's
definitely like a little bithigher.
Um, oh, like I'm talking aboutlike the super, super niche,
like yeah, um, well, we havelike we do.
Speaker 2 (14:35):
I did want to like add a disclaimer.
Like I do have one company thatit costs $25 to get them a lead
, but it's like an energycompany in Idaho, so like who
wants to really sign up for anenergy company?
Speaker 1 (14:49):
not very many people like um.
Speaker 2 (14:52):
Or we had one client who for a while she, um, she is
a floral designer and only wantsto target like within 20 miles
of her zip code and so that wassuch a tiny audience.
It cost it cost like fivedollars a piece, so still like
around our average but, um,definitely on a more expensive
(15:13):
end.
But for people who are runningonline businesses that you can,
that you're coaching or thatyou're trying to reach every
like everybody in the UnitedStates, like in Canada, those do
really really well because youcan.
You can have a large enoughgeographical area that you can
get a large enough audience.
Speaker 1 (15:34):
Yeah, and you know something that we haven't really
talked on the podcast I thinkwould be beneficial, so maybe
you could talk on it, but it'ssample size.
Can you kind of explain whatthat is and how it's beneficial?
Speaker 2 (15:44):
Yeah.
So, like, your sample size isgoing to be really important,
because if you have, like asmaller group, um, all of your
costs to reach them are gonna goup.
Um, if you have a bigger group,all of your costs to reach them
is gonna go down because youhave that bigger sample size.
And so that is really reallyapparent in um, in ads.
(16:08):
And I want to say, like thatdoesn't mean that you shouldn't
niche, like that, you shouldn'tlike have a smaller sample size
audience like that's not, that'sirrelevant.
Like if that's what you'redoing, like keep doing it
because somebody needs to servethat niche.
But on the same wavelength,like if you have an audience so
(16:28):
large, sometimes you can'treally speak to the specific
needs.
And so I think it's important,like as business owners and
marketers, to kind of figure out, okay, who do I want to serve,
but also, how much is it goingto cost me to reach them?
Mainly because we don't want tobe surprised, like when people
are like oh gosh, like that's$25, a new lead, and I'm like,
(16:52):
okay, but let's think about thisLike you are in this small
geographical area, it's mostlycountry, um, or countryside.
So, like people, your, yoursample size, your group is going
to be smaller, um, because Ithink otherwise we're just going
to end up being surprised aboutthings that, um, I think
(17:13):
otherwise we're just going toend up being surprised about
things that we could haveexpected.
Speaker 1 (17:20):
So, yeah, a hundred percent.
And I also say you know, nevergive up on a tactic when you
have are only testing a smallsample size.
So say you even have a very lowbudget, so you're only trying
to do like five.
I have a lot of clients come tome and they're like $5 a day
and I'm like, okay, don't expectto have results until we have
at least like two to threemonths, because we need a big
enough sample size to see what'sworking, what's not, to see if
we have to change a landing page, see if we have to change, you
(17:41):
know, the wording of the ad orthe look or the feel.
So I feel like a lot of peoplegive up and they're like, oh't
working, but they only based onthey only reached maybe 100
people and I feel like for sure,more people you reach, the
better understanding you have ofwhat's
Speaker 2 (17:56):
working no, I agree, and I think, like we say similar
things to our clients, I thinkon the flip side, we also have
clients who are like here's 10grand, can you go spend it in
two weeks?
And I'm like no, that's dumb.
Like let's, let's take a coupleweeks and like a quarter of
(18:16):
that budget to test, and thenlike let's go spend the rest of
it.
Because the same way, like, ifyou're like test, I feel like
marketing is half art, halfscience, like, and so half art,
half science and then anotherhalf of math, like, and so I
think that we have to testthings, but you don't want to
(18:38):
blow your whole budget ontesting.
But also, if your budget istiny, it's just going to take
longer.
So I think like you have tothink about, like the more money
I have, the faster I can test,um, but like I've seen a lot of
people blow their budgets onsomething that didn't work
because they didn't test, andthen afterwards they were like,
(19:00):
oh shoot, that didn't work, likeso, yeah, 100%.
Speaker 1 (19:05):
We just had a scenario.
So also trust the people thatyou hire and like from start to
finish.
Don't bring them in halfwayit's you're going to save so
much time money when you bringin like a higher expert, like
Julia.
So that way it's start tofinish.
Because we had someone come inand they they kind of had their
idea of the landing page andthey're like this is how I want
(19:27):
to do, it do exactly how I'msaying, and so they didn't get
the expert opinion of us.
So we did exactly how they did.
We ran their ad.
They had 257 clicks and onlyfour signups.
That tells me the landing pagewas definitely where it was
dropping off Right Because thead worked.
It got our clicks and it was.
It was only like um a hundreddollars budget too.
Speaker 2 (19:48):
So it wasn't.
It was actually clicks and itwas.
It was only like um $100 budgettoo.
Speaker 1 (19:51):
So it wasn't, it was actually that's amazing.
Yeah, so 257 clicks off $100budget.
I was like awesome, that'samazing.
And then the but only havingfour signups.
I was like that's a landingpage issue.
So luckily we went in and wejust like completely redid it
and now it's the ads are workinggreat but, yeah, and AB testing
too.
Can you explain what AB testingis?
Speaker 2 (20:11):
Yeah, so AB testing, we use it a lot for ads.
That's where we're creating.
When we do it for ads, likewe're basically putting up, okay
, the same image but differentcaptions, or the same caption
but different images, like itgoes all the way back to like
grade school, when we learned,okay, like what's what works
(20:31):
better, but like we have to havelike a control, um, and so like
we have our variables and ourcontrols, um, and so we can see,
um, which graphics attractpeople more, which captions
speak to people more.
You can do it with email, youcan do it with websites, like
you can do it with email.
You can do it with websites,like you didn't do it with
anything really, and you coulddo it from with websites.
(20:56):
You could do like two weekswith one type, two weeks with
another type.
You could also do ads that goto like either one and see which
ones perform better.
There's so many different waysto do it and I think that when
we don't do it, we're missingout on being able to optimize
what's going to work best 100%.
Speaker 1 (21:18):
We actually just talked about this in depth in
our Nadora Facebook group, whichI know a lot of you guys
listening are in.
So that's awesome.
We love you guys.
But we went in depth on thisbecause a lot of people were
changing multiple things at onceand we're like no, how do you
know what's working, what's not?
I was like you got it.
I love that.
You said two weeks this and twoweeks that you have to change
(21:40):
it.
Wait, look at the data and thenchange something else.
It's not a get rich quick thing.
It's not like instant result.
You are going to continue to beimproving.
Speaker 2 (21:52):
Totally, and it goes back to the idea even with ads
like if you have a budget to dotesting, you can test faster.
If you don't have the budget todo testing, it's going to take
more time, because you couldabsolutely build two pages, run
ads to them and then test itthat way and you could figure
out your results in a week.
(22:12):
But you have to have the budgetto do that.
And so I think that that'swhere there's some confusion,
where some people can get theirtesting done quickly because
you're right, like you only wantto change one thing at a time.
But if you can test it for twodays with a budget and then
change another thing, you coulddo that whole process faster.
(22:34):
But you have to have the eyesto see it, and so that's why I
usually do things for at leasttwo weeks If there's not budget
behind it.
Speaker 1 (22:46):
That's a really really good point.
So where can we find more aboutyou and your services?
Yeah, for sure.
Speaker 2 (22:52):
So come and visit us on Instagram.
That's where we spend most ofour time.
It's Stratos Creative.
It's S-T-R-A-T-O-S.
Our website isstratoscreativemarketingcom.
Yeah, that's where we, butreally Instagram is like where
we hang out the most.
Like, you can see all of ourstaff, we can see our pets.
(23:17):
You can see, like like we, alot of us travel while we work,
and so you can see a lot ofthose adventures.
So we'd love to have you overthere Awesome.
Speaker 1 (23:29):
I'll make sure I put all that in the show notes as
well, but thank you so much,Julia, for coming.
It has been so much fun and wewill talk to you guys next time
on the virtual antics podcast.
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