Imperfect Marketing
Imperfect Marketing
Bonus Episode: Improve Your Visibility without Paid Ads
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Today's bonus episode is about how to increase your visibility without Paid Ads.
Tracy Beavers has a ton of experience in sales and marketing, and while she isn't against paid ads, she believes in doing all the free stuff first.
Her follow-up and follow-through are quite amazing.
Click here to access the transcript and follow along!
Resources and Related Links:
- If you want to connect with her, be sure to check out her Facebook Community
- Also, if you are listening to this in January of 2023, be sure to sign up for her new Masterclass that starts on January 17th. She has six options for you to attend.
- Learn how to work with me in 2023!
Enjoy, and good luck increasing your visibility!
Looking to leverage AI? Want better results? Want to think about what you want to leverage?
Check and see how I am using it for FREE on YouTube.
From "Holy cow, it can do that?" to "Wait, how does this work again?" – I've got all your AI curiosities covered. It's the perfect after-podcast snack for your tech-hungry brain.
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Kendra Corman:
Welcome back to another episode of Imperfect Marketing!
Today we have Tracy Beavers. She is a business and sales coach from Arkansas, Little Rock, one of my favorite places to visit. She's helped hundreds of entrepreneurs over the years with everything from overcoming fear of sales, to growing their business visibility and email lists, which everyone knows is one of my favorites Through organic marketing strategies.
She walks hand in hand with her clients, providing them a roadmap of clear action steps so they can put their blinders on and confidently get to work. I love that!
Building your business does not have to be a struggle. Tracy shows us how to do that with ease, so that is fantastic, thank you so much for joining me today.
Tracy Beavers:
Thanks. I really appreciate the opportunity.
Kendra Corman:
So, one of the things that I like that you share with people often is you like to talk about growing your email list with social media and not paid ads.
Tracy Beavers:
Exactly!
Kendra Corman:
So, what are some things that people can do online, on social media to grow their email list?
Tracy Beavers:
Yeah, there's many strategies that we can employ on social media, without ever having to consider paid advertising. And that doesn't mean that paid advertising is a bad thing or it's not anything that anybody should ever do.
It's just, paid ads have their time and their place.
And in my opinion, let's do all the free stuff first and build you an audience, and build you an email list and get some offers out there that are proven to convert before we go into throwing some money at it with paid ads. So on social media, there's several different strategies.
A very basic one that I teach is making your, and talking about Facebook. But you could translate this into Instagram or LinkedIn or wherever.
But Facebook specifically. Talking about how your personal Facebook profile can actually grow your email list and people just don't think about it. These strategies that I've developed, I developed them because I was frustrated with paid ads.
And because all the trainings out there for list building that I had consumed, talked about making lead magnets and pushing them out into the world, which is a great strategy. However, there's more things we can do, and I was determined to find what are the more things that we can do alongside the lead magnets and things like that.
So, looking at your Facebook personal profile. I would love for everybody to take a look at their Facebook personal profile after this episode!
When I land on your personal profile, do I know... do I see a picture of you, first of all? Or is it a picture of a flower, or your dog, or your car, or your family? All those things are great, but we, if we are gonna be entrepreneurs and business owners, we have to make this space work for us.
So we have to use our photograph on the profile photo, not a photo of our dog or cat, but you. Cuz I wanna connect with you on a personal level. And when I see your eyes and I see your face, that makes a connection.
The cover photo. That's a, that's in the shape of a billboard. So, let's use it as a billboard. My cover photo will always be for some sort of promotion.
The next step that I wanna lead you to in my funnel, in my list building strategy. So now if you look at it, if you look at it today, just on a regular day. It's going to advertise my free Facebook group, "Be a Confident Entrepreneur: Get Visible and Grow Your Income."
I've got 1600 entrepreneurs in there. They can promote themselves; they can get support. It's an awesome community.
When they click on my cover photo, they're gonna see all the details for it and the description box that opens up to the right. They're also gonna see some of my free resources, my lead magnets that they can grab. Every link that I've got is in the contact section. My business page is there.
Basically, when you land on my personal profile, you know, without question, who I am, who I serve, how I can help you. And we have to remember that when we're interacting in Facebook groups, which is another great strategy that I teach, that personal profile is what's going to be active in that group.
You can create a personal profile specific for each group that you're in. To me that is a massive amount of time. I'm just gonna use my personal profile.
So that personal profile, that cover photo, let's lead them somewhere in your business that leads to your email list. My Facebook group grows my email list because the membership questions they have to answer when they come into my group. They get on my list that way.
Or if you don't have a free Facebook group, offer a lead magnet of some kind. Get their juices flowing and their curiosity up with what you're offering just on that personal profile. Same goes for your business profile. It's pretty much the same thing. Make sure you're using every nook and cranny.
And then, you know, with regard to social media as a whole, making content that attracts your ideal client and gives them some education and some knowledge, but also a call to action with a free download, a free pdf, a checklist to cheat sheet, the lead magnets, you know. That's a great place to put those into your content, but we've gotta be consistent with it.
In our social media content for me and my team, we put out a lead magnet a day. I have about nine different free lead magnets that we rotate, so we have our regular content and I have a lead magnet post every single day, and it's grown my list unbelievably in the last, oh, we've been doing this strategy now for about four months.
Kendra Corman:
Wow, that's fantastic. I love how you said to update all the pieces that you see on your personal profile. When's the last time we looked at our personal profile?
Tracy Beavers:
Yes.
Kendra Corman:
You know, it's something that gets overlooked. And I would encourage anybody who's listening to pull up your LinkedIn, your Twitter, your Instagram, your, I was like, I was looking at LinkedIn and I looked at my related links.
I'm like, that's old.
Tracy Beavers:
Right?
Kendra Corman:
That's old.
Tracy Beavers:
And it happens to me too. I was like, I looked at my LinkedIn and my featured stuff. I was like, well that's ancient! I have to put something new out there.
We do forget about it because we are on so many different platforms and we're trying to do all these things at one time. So really, unless you've got a team that can follow behind you, You know, it's something that I would put a reminder on my calendar once a quarter, if, you know, just to make it easy on everybody.
Go into your Google calendar, put a reminder once a quarter to check all the things in all the places. I'll connect with somebody in a group and, and we'll have a DM conversation and it'll be like,
Hey, Kendra, how's it going? So glad we connected in X, Y, Z group. How are things in wherever, you know let's say you're in Atlanta, how are things in Atlanta?
And the message back is, I get, I moved out of Atlanta five years ago. I guess I need to update my profile.
I'm like, okay, sorry about that. Didn't know you weren't in Atlanta, but you know what I mean?
It's like,
Kendra Corman:
yeah,
Tracy Beavers:
old business names are there. Their old nine to five. Is there, you know, it's, yeah.
Kendra Corman:
Their old website, the out of date link for, you know, how to grow your business in 2018. It's like, that's not gonna help me.
Tracy Beavers:
Right. Right. So those are just some simple things, basic simple things that people can do for free, completely for free.
Kendra Corman:
Yeah. And I think one of the things that StoryBrand talks about and, I've talked about this on this podcast before, is make it easy to do business with you? Look at your website specifically as what they say, but that applies to all of your social media channels too.
Tracy Beavers:
It applies to everything, yeah.
Kendra Corman:
Is it easy to do business with you? Do you know what action step to take? And again, I think one of the other things that I thought was really interesting that you said was.
When you look at your personal profile, I can see who you serve.
Tracy Beavers:
Yes.
Kendra Corman:
Then I can self-eliminate if it's not me.
Tracy Beavers:
Exactly. Exactly right. They can land on my personal profile and go, oh, she can help me, or, oh, I already know all that stuff. She's a nice person and I'm glad I connected with her, but I don't need to potentially hire her.
You're exactly right.
Kendra Corman:
One of the things that I also thought was very interesting that you were talking about is, you meet someone in a group and then you DM them.
Tracy Beavers:
Mm-hmm.
Kendra Corman:
I think it's, I think one thing that you do amazingly well, cause I did join your group, is you follow up with those DMs. You welcome people personally, and maybe it's your team.
But again, I felt personally welcomed, and you know, it's, It makes a difference because so few people actually take the time to take that next step.
Tracy Beavers:
Mm-hmm, you're correct.
I think what I've been finding is that people are forgetting that they need to network. We are business owners. We may be online business owners., We may not have a brick-and-mortar boutique, or a restaurant, or a HVAC service company.
Those businesses are used to networking in person, they've never lost that drive and that realization that it's something that builds their business.
But I think one of the things that online entrepreneurs, the mistake we make is, we forget that we need to be networking too.
And the way to do that is, fortunately or unfortunately, in the DMs. And we all know how we feel about the DM conversations. They can feel awful. I mean, I get cold spammy DM messages all, and it just hurts my heart.
And I vacillate somewhere between do I wanna try to save these people's souls, and help them have authentic conversations in the DMs, which is a training that I have.
Or do I wanna just ignore them and, and be like, "oh, bless your heart!" as we say in the south. And just quietly exit and not respond.
And you know, it's just is like, ah, I can help you.
You know, don't send people cold spammy DM messages. Make a genuine connection. Of some kind, whether you, maybe you have mutual friends. Facebook serves those things up. It says it suggests people to you that you have things in common with.
It may be you live in, they both live in the same state. It may be that you're both mutual friends with Kendra. It may be that you're both in the X, Y, Z Facebook group. It could be a number of things.
But you've gotta find that just like if we were in a Chamber of Commerce lunch. Back in the day when we would, all, you know what I mean? When I was working in corporate American, I was in sales. I was, I went to the chamber, lunches and rotary and all the places, and we were networking all the time.
And it's not any different online, it's just the location is different. The conversation is the same. And so when you meet somebody in person, you are finding those common threads of, oh!
Just like you and I, when we started, Before we started the episode recording, you were mentioning that you'd traveled to Little Rock where I live. We made that instant connection of the restaurants that we both have in common.
That's deepening that know, like, and trust factor that is so key for sales.
And so my online clients are like, well, "what do I say?"
And I'm like, picture yourself sitting next to them at a Rotary Lunch. Or the Starbucks or the Women's Guild, or wherever it is that you would normally go to meet people, a cocktail party, the conversation's gonna be the same.
You're not gonna sit down and immediately go, "Hey Kendra. I teach entrepreneurs how to grow their businesses online without paid ads. Are you interested in hiring me?"
No! You're not gonna do that!!
Kendra Corman:
Well, I should tell you about this experience I had at a chamber networking event, which was really fun
Tracy Beavers:
Oh no!
Kendra Corman:
We were all networking, and this one guy was standing in a corner, and he had a pile of business cards and he just shoved the business card into your face when you walked by
Tracy Beavers:
Oh no.
Kendra Corman:
I was like, oh yeah, I can't. I can't do that.
Tracy Beavers:
Bless his heart. Somebody needs to teach him how to have some sales social skills. Yeah.
Kendra Corman:
Yes, agreed.
Tracy Beavers:
No, we can't walk into the chamber lunch and you know, confetti gun our business cards all over the room. That's not good.
But then the other thing is that you had mentioned that I do follow up, and I do because the follow up, you've heard this, the fortunes and the follow up, it's the absolute truth.
Same thing if you meet somebody at a chamber lunch or the rotary event, and you get their business cards and you go home and the business cards sit on your desk and they collect dust.
You might as well have never left the house. You've wasted your time.
And it's the same thing online. If I meet somebody super cool in a group and I feel like maybe there's a chance for us to be referral partners for each other, maybe there's a chance for us to collaborate with each other.
Like in my Facebook group, I bring in a guest expert once a month on a topic that I don't teach because it. First of all, I think the members would get bored listening to me every week after week after week. So I have to spice it up a little bit. But also, I wanna bring in them content that I can't teach.
Things like, you know, how to dress for success on Zoom or how to do your, like I was talking to a gal today who teaches women how to show up as their most authentic selves through their makeup and the and, how that helps their brand.
And I was like, oh my gosh, you have to come into my group and present on this.
So this person that I'm meeting in this group in the DMs may be a great guest expert for my group, which helps my visibility, which helps me solidify the know, like, and trust factor with my potential clients in my group. But also they may in turn ask me to come present to their audience.
And so using these visibility strategies, we end up growing the email list because we're opening each other up to each other's audiences and people we might never have met.
But unless you follow up and you build that connection and you try to find the common area of how you can be of service, you're gonna miss it.
Kendra Corman:
Yeah.
And I think that the follow up, like you said, the fortune is in the follow up. Follow up is key because not enough people do it.
Tracy Beavers:
They don't.
Kendra Corman: My husband's uncle has his own business out in central Pennsylvania and he was, he was telling my husband, he goes, it's not hard to be successful in business today. You just have to be passively good at what you do, and do what you say you're going to do.
You're outperforming everybody else.
Tracy Beavers:
Exactly.
Kendra Corman:
Just doing that.
Tracy Beavers:
Yep. Mm-hmm. Yep.
It was amazing to me all the years I spent in sales before I started my online business, very few people would follow up.
And I have clients now that I help here locally. They do have offices here and things like they're not, I have online clients, but also brick and mortar clients.
And I'm asking them, so are you following up on with those people that you met last week at the, so you know, the so-and-so lunch?
And they're like I haven't reached out to 'em yet.
I'm like, well, let's talk about what you're gonna say when you do because you need to.
And so I'm helping them get comfortable with it and realize that. It's not, it should not be an uncomfortable, it's just, you're just having a conversation.
You're communicating as a human being with another human being who has the same heart that you do the same wishes that you do the same. They've got the kids at home that are driving 'em crazy.
They've got, you know, all the things that juggling Christmas and Hanukkah and all the, you know what I mean? The holidays and, you know, end of school, start of school, PTA meeting.
You name it, we're all doing the same things, so we just have to find those common areas to relate to each other.
Kendra Corman:
Yeah. And again, I think it's, I think it's about scheduling it.
One of my clients who does an unbelievable job on social media, she makes sure that she schedules a half an hour on her calendar after every event for follow up, outreach, and posting on social media.
Tracy Beavers:
Very smart.
Kendra Corman:
So, she's very present. Cuz I think that that's really important at the events that she's going to, because they're brick and mortar and, and very localized.
But, She's very present in all of the meetings that she's in, because she's not posting till later, so she can think through her post later. And you know, again, not posting right then and getting absorbed into that and checking the spelling and all that fun stuff.
But then she also is following up with people that she has conversations with, and she has that built in at the end of every event at some point in the afternoon.
Sometimes it might be two hours later, you know?
Tracy Beavers:
Right.
Kendra Corman:
It just depends on what's in her schedule. But she has that guaranteed on her calendar after every event.
Tracy Beavers:
Yep. I love it. I do.
I teach my clients the very same thing. It's when you meet somebody, let's say you meet somebody on a Wednesday, whether it's online or in person. By Friday, you need to have sent them a message that says, Hey, I loved talking to you at the rotary lunch.
Or I keep going back to that or the, you know, the chamber networking event or the after-hours business after hours thing or whatever, or the networking event that in some of the paid Facebook groups that I'm in, paid memberships, they have networking events.
And so as I'm meeting people online, I'm making note of their name, which can be a challenge because when we go live on Zoom, Some people don't have their full name on Zoom.
They just have like all, you'll see like my name's Tracy, they'll just see the name Tracy. And I'm like, well, well for God's sake, what's your last name?
You know, so, if you're gonna network on, here's a tip. If you're gonna network on Zoom, make sure that your business name or your name is there.
Like mine always shows up as Tracy Beaver's Coaching, cuz that's how I want them to remember me, and how they can find me on Instagram and all that. But anyway, hopefully their name on Zoom matches their name on Facebook.
But I always ask 'em, are you on Facebook? I'd love to, let's connect. And then, you know, a few hours later or the next day, I'm sending them a DM and I'm saying,
"Hey, it was so much fun to meet you. I love what you said about, you know, how you're growing your business. I thought you had a great tip about" whatever we were discussing.
And you know, just kind of deepening that relationship to figure out how this person could fit into my business.
Kendra Corman:
And I think that it's important to think, you know, again, that you're sitting with that person when you're, when you're writing the dm.
I think that that is such a key insight. I had Brenda Miller, she was my first guest. She's a LinkedIn expert, as my first guest on my podcast. And one of the things that she said is, Always reply to comments.
Tracy Beavers:
Mm-hmm, yes.
Kendra Corman:
It's like someone saying hi to you from across the room at a cocktail party. What do you do? Just turn around and walk away.
Tracy Beavers:
Right, right.
Kendra Corman:
No, you say something back and that's why you need to reply to all comments.
You need to engage with the DMs. That's something that I definitely fall short of cuz I do not schedule enough of that on my calendar. Too many meetings, but 2023, my calendar's all cleaned up. I'm all ready to go.
And I'm adding those follow up times in there to go ahead and check it, and I'm making sure that I'm owning that.
I do. I, well, I shouldn't say I do.
So I have a Workday startup and shutdown ritual that involves social media.
Tracy Beavers:
Right.
Kendra Corman:
But I had been scheduling over it and in 2023, I'm not doing that.
Tracy Beavers:
Right.
Kendra Corman:
I'm actually keeping it consistent. And that's one of the things that's in there is to go on to LinkedIn and Facebook and check my messages.
Tracy Beavers:
Yes. Yes, exactly, you're exactly right. It's part of my startup. And shut down as well so that I, I'm not, people ask me, are you in the DMs all day?
Heck no. I'd never get anything done.
But part of my morning routine is some of the admin things that I can do before I've had my first cup of coffee. You know, when you're trying to get your engines running. So, it's a very easy thing to do is just check the DMs.
Now, my assistant will check the comments or the likes, the hearts, the comments on Instagram. And sometimes she'll comment for me if I'm running short on time. But if there's ever an ongoing conversation with somebody in Instagram DMs, that's me.
It's always me. If she sends a DM in Facebook for me, she'll say, "Hey, it's Jill from Tracy's team", so that people know that it's not, because I, that is hurtful.
I have had some DM conversations with people that I thought I was talking to them. Turns out I'm talking to their assistant and I'm like, really?
You could have just said, this is so-and-so's assistant. You know, this isn't the real per and I, that would've been fine. I would've had the conversation with you.
But now I feel like the disconnect has happened. The know, like, and trust factor has been broken. You know, so we have to be careful about that.
Kendra Corman:
So, okay.
So I like where you're headed with that. So again, it looks like you're on DMs all the time, right? To a lot of other people.
Tracy Beavers:
Right?
Kendra Corman:
And you're not. How are you finding the time outside of your startup and shut down rituals?
Tracy Beavers:
So, I am in the DMs twice a day in the morning. I am, anybody that has accepted my friend request. I am, I keep screenshots of 'em. If somebody accepts my friend request at seven o'clock at night and I get the notification, I just screenshot it. To save it into my camera roll so that I don't have to go write it down or anything.
Cuz usually I'm sitting on the couch watching Netflix and I don't wanna forget about it either.
So I will look at the list of the, of the people, the screenshots. Or I'll go into the notifications and send them a DM that says, Hey, so much fun to connect with you in the whatever group or however we met.
And, you know, how are things going? Tell me, you know, tell me more about what we talked about, in the networking event or whatever.
So in the morning I will spend some time in the DMs, and then late afternoon I spend some time in the DMs. If I've got time during the day, you know, like if I happen to be in the passenger seat of the car and my husband's driving and you know, he's got the radio on or whatever, and it's not a time, not a time when he's gonna feel like I'm taking time away from him, or the kids or whatever, then I'll go ahead and pop in a couple of messages.
But for the most part, for me it's morning and afternoon. Sometimes at lunch, if I'm here by myself. You know, scarfing down lunch at the kitchen counter, I'll return a couple of DMs.
But you know, I truly enjoy networking. I always have, and I know not everybody does. So for me, it doesn't feel like work.
For me, it's, I'm connecting with other people. I'm meeting other people, which energizes me. I'm learning all the other cool things they're doing, which gives me great ideas for the things that I could do.
I'm making really great connections with people who can help me further my business and I can help them further theirs. So for me, it doesn't feel like work.
But I hope that helps cuz I'm, I'm definitely not on social all day and I'm not in the DMs all day, but I do schedule it very similar to your client that books in that follow up time.
I also book in time every morning to connect and interact in the groups that I'm in, because I feel like that's very important for my visibility and for my contribution to the group.
For people to, for me to help wherever I can.
Kendra Corman:
So, let's talk about groups. I have, you know, my thoughts on Facebook groups. I love them. I like being in them. I like providing advice.
I think a lot of people struggle with them because they don't know... I don't wanna, this is gonna sound strange. But like, it's not that they don't know how to behave, but they don't know how to sell without selling.
Tracy Beavers:
Uh huh.
Kendra Corman:
And it's, it's something that I think people regularly struggle with.
So can you tell me a little bit more about how you go about interacting with people in Facebook groups where you're not allowed to do any self-promotion?
Tracy Beavers:
Yep. I call it promoting, without promoting. I, funny, I do have a training about how to sell without selling. And that's about overcoming your roadblocks and mindset, shifting your mindset about sales.
But what I call it for Facebook groups is promoting without promoting. You can go into Facebook groups and contribute in a way that doesn't have anything to do with anybody buying anything from you, or advertising my free Facebook group or anything like that.
So in the groups that I'm in where there is no promotion allowed generally there's an opportunity to give something. Like a lot of groups will have a tip Tuesday. And I'm not promoting anything, but I'm giving my business tips and my knowledge.
Like one of the trainings I have is how to write emails that your clients are gonna wanna open. And I can give, you know, tip Tuesday. Not sure what to say in your emails. Here's three ways to overcome that mindset shift so you can have authentic, you know, email conversations.
And I give the tips and I'll say something like, let me know your best tips for writing emails. You know, what, or what was the subject line of the, of your most popular email based on open rate or, you know what I'm saying?
So that, Doesn't, I'm not saying, "Hey, I'm Tracy Beavers, I'm got 20 years’ experience. I can solve all your business and sales problems."
You know what I mean? I'm not saying anything like that and I'm not saying join my free Facebook group cuz that would be promoting and I'm not saying, "Hey, I've got a launch coming up and you know, get on my wait list."
I'm not saying any of those things, but what I am doing is showcasing my expertise and my knowledge in a very authentic, genuine way, that that is sharing, not selling anything. I'm just sharing.
And they're gonna see that and they're gonna go. Well that made a lot of sense and that really helped me.
Then the next time I do it, they're gonna go, oh, here she is again. That Tracy Beaver's girl. She said something last week in Tip Tuesday. That was really good.
Here she comes again with another thing that really helped me. I'm gonna click on her personal profile. And Kendra, you probably know where I'm going with this.
They're gonna click on my personal profile. They're gonna go to my personal profile cuz that's how I'm interacting in that group, and they're gonna see all my.
They're gonna see my cover photo advertising, whatever part of the business I'm promoting at that time, whether it's the free Facebook group or my wait list, or a masterclass or a course or whatever.
They're gonna see who I am and who I serve and how they can hire me. In the intro, they're gonna see my, in my work area, they're gonna see my business page, they're gonna see my website, they're gonna see my Instagram, my Pinterest, my LinkedIn, you know, all my things.
The whole menu, just like Donald Miller says in StoryBrand, make it easy for people to make it,
the restaurant makes it easy for us to order from them, right? When we walk in and sit down, they give us this massive menu with all the things. So I want you to give everybody all the things on your personal profile.
Kendra Corman:
Now, I think that that's great. And I think that applies to anybody and everyone. So even if you're not an online business owner, or, you know, even if you're working for a nonprofit or volunteering with a nonprofit, you can use and leverage exactly what Tracy is saying here for any of those types of organizations.
Tracy Beavers:
Mm-hmm.
Kendra Corman:
I was, I was talking with one of my nonprofits and they were like, we're gonna get our marketing person involved in these groups.
And I started talking about the authenticity of him being in the group, and I'm like, we're gonna have to change his profile.
Tracy Beavers:
Yeah.
Kendra Corman:
Like, we're gonna have to change his personal Facebook profile to line up a lot more with what it is. Because he's joining mom groups and he is not a mom.
Tracy Beavers:
Right.
Kendra Corman:
And he's joining mom groups and you know, and all these other pieces that didn't fit up, you know, authentically, with him. And I'm like, people are going to see that. So,
Tracy Beavers:
yeah.
Kendra Corman:
We can still do it; we just have to talk about how.
Tracy Beavers:
Exactly.
Kendra Corman:
And how to coach it so that it's real.
And
Tracy Beavers:
because he probably wouldn't be admitted into the group if they look, cuz when somebody wants to join my group, I'm gonna look at them. First of all, I'm gonna make sure it's a legit account and not some spammy spammer robot person or robot.
And then I'm gonna look and see, okay, do these people have a business? This person, is this person an entrepreneur?
And if I were looking at that, and it's a mom's group and I'm looking at this guy going, hold on, wait a minute. And it's not obvious on his profile how he could serve that space, I'm not gonna let him in.
Kendra Corman:
Right.
Tracy Beavers:
I'm gonna like, nope. The script's not for you.
Kendra Corman:
Exactly. Yeah, exactly.
And so, you know, so eventually we got to the point where he's actually not posting in the groups, cuz, once I started asking some of those questions, it didn't make sense.
But again, it doesn't matter if it's your business or a nonprofit that you work for or volunteer for, or where you work or you know, again, make sure that everything is lining up.
Tracy Beavers:
Mm-hmm.
Kendra Corman:
And give them all the things as you're saying. You know, give them the menu that they can choose and order off of to work with you, to talk with you, to connect with you.
Because, again, even if you're not trying to get them to buy something from you, they could, you, they could hire you later on. They could, I mean, there's just a bunch of different things that you can do, but it's part of your brand.
Tracy Beavers:
Yeah, for sure. They could end up referring you to somebody.
You know, and I love what you were saying about, it doesn't matter if you're in the online space or not. I give a really great example of I was in the Real Estate arena for a long time. So a lot of real realtor friends here in town and some of 'em are my clients.
And I tell them the same thing about their personal profile, and I give 'em this scenario. I'm like, look, if I am buy, wanting to buy a house and I come to your open house on a Sunday afternoon and I meet you, and I think you're super cool.
What am I gonna do? The first minute I get in the car, I'm gonna be searching for you on social media. I'm gonna find out who you are. I'm looking at all your stuff, your Instagram, your website, your Facebook, your LinkedIn.
I'm looking where you are because before I let you have my money, I'm gonna make sure you are who you say you are, and that's gotta line up.
And if it doesn't, then I'm walking. We can't trust, unfortunately, as easily as we used to be able to.
Kendra Corman:
Yup.
Tracy Beavers:
There's just too many people out there that are not who they say they are. And we've got, we have to make it super, like we were talking about, we have to make it super easy for people to do business with us and not have any fear or question or anything.
Like, we just want it to be, everything lines up and it all matches and it's all on brand and the messaging is the same and there's no, there's no weirdness going on that, that would make them stop and pause and go tell our competitor.
Kendra Corman:
So one of the other things that you said that you, that you mentioned was that you're posting twice a day.
Tracy Beavers:
Mm-hmm.
Kendra Corman:
So, let's talk about that. You said you found a huge increase in the number of people joining your list because you're actually promoting your lead magnets regularly.
What's the other piece of content? Because you know, lead magnets, yes, they add value, how do you go about your other pieces of content?
Tracy Beavers:
That's a great question. So on Facebook for example, we might have an inspirational quote that pertains to business in some way, and then a lead magnet. Or it'll be my live weekly training where I offer the free download for that particular training.
Instagram, the same thing. It could be a reel, and then the lead magnet. Or a tip Tuesday where I give, you know, business tips to build your business and then a lead magnet.
So there's always something that's a value and education that isn't a promotion. And then there's the, "Hey, I've got this free thing that you might want."
Which is kind of a promotion. I mean it is cuz I'm basically saying buy my stuff without buying my stuff.
Kendra Corman:
Right.
But it's valuable.
Tracy Beavers:
Yeah.
Kendra Corman:
And it's important.
Tracy Beavers:
Yeah.
Kendra Corman:
And so there's a lot of value and I think that there's a lot of value in everything that you've been covering so far.
I do wanna ask about your email list and your email marketing, cuz again, I'm a huge fan of, of email marketing. How do you serve the value to your email list versus your Facebook group?
Or is it similar? How are you treating those groups?
Tracy Beavers:
Yeah. So the email list gets the content that's going into the weekly live training. So my email list receives an email on Tuesday from me that says,
"Hey, this is what I'm gonna talk about on Thursday's live training. This is why it's important. Come get some free live coaching. Here's the link to join the group and join us live."
And then obviously there's always a, another call to action in the PS area, depending on what's going on in my business at the time.
Lately it's been a free bundle giveaway that I've been doing for this season of the year, and that's been super popular.
And then the other email they get from me is on Thursday. I send them a 30 minute warning email that says, “Hey, I'm going live in 30 minutes. Here's today's topic. Here's how you can join the group.”
You know, come join me. So that's how I do my email content. And then occasionally I will, if I find something that will be of, of value to my email list, like a, a podcast episode that I loved or that I was on, or a YouTube video that I found insightful.
Like I just got an email from Canva today about how they, they have a new AI feature. Which is astounding, and so I'll probably email that out to my group. But that's kind of a one-off situation.
Weekly, it's Tuesdays and Thursdays. I used to add in one on Friday, sending them the training from the day before, but I felt like that was too much and just paired it back to twice a week.
Kendra Corman:
Sending two emails a week, your audience is finding that fine?
Tracy Beavers:
Yeah, my list is really tight. I, as much as it pains me to remove the unsubscribes cuz the number goes down, I just hold my nose and do it because I know that I need a tight list and it needs to be the people that really wanna be with me.
My email open rate is an average of 44%, or. So I feel, I feel good about it, and then people do reply back. It's really fun.
You know, for, for a long time when I first got started, nobody was replying back about anything and now they are, and it's like, oh my gosh, you know?
Kendra Corman:
Well, and I think that's important, you know, don't compare your beginning to someone else's middle.
Tracy Beavers:
Yes.
Kendra Corman:
A lot of people get replies. A lot of people will engage at the beginning, though they might not, And that's ok.
Tracy Beavers:
Yeah. And then, you know what's funny is some people will say, so my list size right now is just under a thousand.
Like I am right on the verge of busting through a thousand, and then I'll have people say, well, you've only got a thousand.
And I'm like, but you don't understand. My list is the people who wanna be with me. They open my emails. You know, versus some people that they'll say, well, I've got, you know, 5,000 on my list and their open rate isn't as good as mine.
And they haven't scrubbed their list in forever. So they've probably got a whole bunch of hard bounces and unsubscribes and things like that going on. So just as you were saying, don't compare your beginning to someone else’s, you know, middle, mid-career.
I think it also, we can't, just because someone has a big email list doesn't mean that that list is as engaged as it sounds like they are.
Kind of like when people have 10,000 followers on Instagram, my next question's always, well, are all 10,000 of those people, your ideal clients? Cause I'm not sure that they are.
But you know what I mean. So a healthy list of several hundred can be very lucrative versus, you know, trying to get a massive number.
Kendra Corman:
Yeah, I have over a thousand, but I think I've taken out over 600 people that weren't interacting.
Tracy Beavers:
Yeah.
Kendra Corman:
And everything throughout the year. So every quarter I go in and I do my list hygiene. And I think one of the really good points that you're mentioning is, you've got people that want to hear from you and want to engage with you.
And the more that they engage, that sends signals to Yahoo, Gmail, outlook, every service provider, you know that, that people are getting emails into. It sends them signals that people want your emails, which increases your deliverability, which means that your emails are more likely to make it to the inbox.
The person with 5,000 that has one or two people clicking, their email's probably going to spam.
Tracy Beavers:
Yeah.
Kendra Corman:
Every time somebody new signs up.
Tracy Beavers:
Yeah. Interesting.
Kendra Corman:
And so you definitely want to remove the people that aren't engaging. And it's actually funny. So, every six months I send out a note that says, “Hey, you haven't been engaging with my emails.”
Like, I'm not gonna hate you if you unsubscribe. Like, click here and let me know if you still wanna get them or if you don't.
Tracy Beavers:
Right.
Kendra Corman:
And if you don't, I'm just gonna remove you in a couple weeks. And its funny how many people actually click. No, no, no. Keep me on!
They're just not engaging.
Tracy Beavers:
Right.
Kendra Corman:
You know, they wanna look and read it. They're not necessarily downloading the pictures, you know, with which is the open. But they are. They find the content valuable. They're just not clickers.
Tracy Beavers:
Mm-hmm…
Yeah, same thing. Same thing in Facebook groups. I'll have clients that'll say to me, "Tracy, my Facebook group is dead. I think I'm gonna shut it down."
And I'm like, hold on. You know?
How do you know your group is dead?
Well, it just feels like it. Nobody's saying anything. Nobody's commenting. Nobody's doing it.
I'm like, okay. We can't base this on emotion. Let's go to our analytics in the Facebook group. What does your analytics show?
You have, what's your percentage of active members in your analytics? And we go check that. And their percentage is great. And I'm like, your Facebook group is far from dead. You just got a bunch of lurkers.
Kendra Corman:
Yep.
Tracy Beavers:
They're in there and they're looking and they're paying attention and they're watching.
They're not saying anything, but they're in there, just like you're saying, they're opening the email and they're consuming it. They may not be replying back, they may not be clicking on all the things.
So yeah, that's a really good point. It's amazing what, what, when we take the emotion out of it, and we just look at the numbers of, you know, what is your open rate, what is the click through rate on the emails, what is the Facebook analytics and the group showing is your active percentage?
It makes me feel better actually. Cuz if we feel like there's nothing going on and then I go look and I'm like, I've got a 70% engaged group. Okay. That, that's, that's pretty good.
Kendra Corman:
Well, no, and I think that that's important. And again, I think it's really important to keep, keep all of that in mind because yeah, your efforts might sometimes feel like they're falling on deaf ears, but they're not.
Tracy Beavers:
Right.
Kendra Corman:
People want the value you can provide. They just have to find it. And once they find it, they'll become your biggest fans. And I think that that's hugely important.
Like I don't engage a ton in a bunch of different Facebook groups. But you stuck out in my mind cuz when I joined yours, you DMed me.
Tracy Beavers:
Yeah!
Kendra Corman:
Said, Hey, welcome. Where are you from? What do you do, you know?
And I was like, oh, this is great. Like I felt welcome and personally welcome and I felt like I had a connection and then like I belonged.
Those little details are what makes the difference.
Tracy Beavers:
Yeah, I agree completely. I, on my live weekly emails, I sound like a broken record, but I say it every single week.
Being an entrepreneur is freaking hard and we can feel like we are alone some days. And when I created this group, I thought...
I want this to be a collaborative, supportive place where people feel welcome and they know that they are not alone. And you know, just that, that inclusion, we all wanna be included and we all wanna be supported.
And I don't want anybody sitting alone in their kitchen, you know, trying to build a business and. Feeling like, you know, getting up all in their head and their mindset goes into the crapper and then, you know, next thing you know, two months have passed and they haven't made any forward progress.
I want people to hop into this group and get support and know that, you know, we're, we're cheering for 'em.
So I, we, I do welcome. So, the welcome email sometimes comes from me. If someone, if I'm approving the person, if they're already in the group and approved, once I've done that part, then Jill, my assistant, will send out an email on Thursdays, we welcome all the new members and Jill will send out a DM that says, Hey, it's Jill from Tracy's group.
Cuz I want people also to know that they can tag Jill if they have a question. Cause she's really good with my graphics and things like Canva. How to set up a Facebook Live event and the things that she does for me, a lot of the people in the group will have questions about, and I'm like, oh, this is a Jill question.
She's the, she's the genius at this. We need to ask her. So, I want them to get used to that. Jill's my assistant and that they can message her too. And so they have the two of us in there besides the other 1600 members that can support them with whatever they need.
But yeah, we try to make it you know, I want people to feel like they're sitting at my table having coffee with me.
Kendra Corman:
I think it definitely feels that way. And you know, I love that you said that... being in business for yourself is hard and you can feel alone sometimes.
Tracy Beavers:
Yep.
Kendra Corman:
It is so, so true. And the thing to remember is that you're not alone. Cause the rest of us feel that way too.
Tracy Beavers:
Exactly.
Kendra Corman:
No matter how long we've been in business.
Tracy Beavers:
And the ones that say they aren't feeling that way, they are not telling the truth. Because I have, you and I have worked with enough people to know, and I say this too every week, it doesn't matter if you're day one, hour one, or you're 15 years in and you're making 20 million dollars a year.
Those two people feel the same thing, and we've gotta admit it and we've gotta have that conversation.
I just, I just think it's so unfair for us to just talk about the highlight reel and, oh, I had a six, you know, a six figure launch or whatever, but they don't ever talk about, all the work it took to get there, you know?
Kendra Corman:
Exactly. And you know, before Tracy and I jumped on, we were talking about, you know, I launched one of my courses that will not be launching again.
But I learned a lot from it. Yeah. But I learned, I mean, it sold, it was profitable, you know? But I learned a lot of lessons from it.
My students got a lot of value, which is important. I mean, it wasn't like it was junk, but it wasn't what people needed. And so, you have to evolve and adjust, and you have to go ahead and admit the fact that sometimes stuff you are gonna do doesn't work. And it's okay.
Tracy Beavers:
Yeah. We're gonna stink at some things in the beginning. Yeah.
Some of my clients are really they get themselves really, really stressed out about going live. Cuz I'm, I'm a big proponent of weekly live video.
And they're just like, I don't know if I can do this.
What if I mis, you know, what if I misspeak? What if I forget what I'm trying to say? What if I, you know, stumble over my words or, you know, what if the doorbell rings or what?
I'm like, no, it's, you're, we're gonna stink at this the first few times we do it. And then you're gonna get really good at it and the doorbell's gonna gonna ring and you're not gonna care cuz it makes you a human being, you know?
Kendra Corman:
Exactly!
Tracy Beavers:
You're working from home. You know, so the doorbell will ring during my live videos and it used to make me crazy. But now I'm just like, I tried to be anchorwoman perfect in the beginning, you know, the perfect lighting, the perfect setting, my hair, makeup, you know, earrings, all the things and you know, put the dog away so he wouldn't bark.
And you know, put a sign on the door that says, you know, quiet. I don't know what I was thinking. It was a snore. It was so boring.
And when I finally just loosened up and was my true self, that's when people started saying, oh my gosh, I don't know what you're doing differently, but your Facebook Live is amazing today.
You know, it actually seemed like you and I, and then of course that means the dog's barking in the background and, whatever. I mean, my dog threw up in the middle of one of my live masterclasses in September. I was like.
Kendra Corman:
Oh my gosh.
Tracy Beavers:
Yeah. I mean, but it was, I, it was funny. I was like, I stopped in my little, in the middle of it.
I'm like, you guys, my dog literally just got sick on the floor. And, and then of course, everybody wanted to know is the dog okay?
And I'm looking at the dog and he's perfectly fine. He feels so much better now. And I'm like, oh, great. This is, this is great. I just kept going. I, we didn't have very long left in the masterclass.
I just kept going and I finished it, but I'm like, you know what? If they don't wanna hire me after that incident, then they are not for me because I'm a real authentic person with a dog that.
Kendra Corman:
Exactly,
Tracy Beavers:
interrupts the show.
Kendra Corman:
I think you know, I attended a training and it was Jam Gamble, and I always, I always forget her name and now I can actually give her a credit for what she said, but she said, if your hair is outta place or your makeup's not right, or you stutter, she goes, I don't care.
You're not that important to me. Like they're not looking at those details to the level that you are.
Tracy Beavers:
Right.
Kendra Corman:
Provide the value that they need to hear and that they need to learn to advance themselves, their business, whatever it is that you serve. That's all that matters.
Tracy Beavers:
It is. And if that other stuff,
Kendra Corman:
The rest is just noise.
Tracy Beavers:
And if that other stuff matters to them, they're not my people because that stuff doesn't matter to me either. I mean, I'll, I make up words all the time.
Oh my gosh. I'll say, I'll put words together and then I'm like, wait a minute, is that even a word? I'm like, okay, it's a word now. You all can use it.
Kendra Corman:
Here's the definition of them emailing it to Websters. We're good.
Tracy Beavers:
Putting it in Urban Dictionary. It's gonna go in tomorrow.
Kendra Corman:
And then you'll be able to look it up.
Tracy Beavers:
Right.
Kendra Corman:
But yeah, no, I think, I think that that's fantastic. All right. Well you've shared so much before I let you go, I have a question that I ask every single one of my guests, and this is a show called Imperfect Marketing because marketing is anything but perfect.
What's your been your biggest marketing lesson learned?
Tracy Beavers:
Oh, What kind of, what we were talking about, just to be me and be okay being me. My authentic, goofy makes-up-words-self.
You know yeah, that's the biggest thing because I did try to be buttoned up perfect, striving for perfection in things, and it just didn't feel good. It felt like a lot of stress.
And the minute I took a step back and allowed myself to be myself, was when the business just took off.
Because I firmly believe that when we align our spirit with the gifts and talents that we're given in the way that the universe wants, the universe will respond. And I was trying to be somebody that I wasn't.
So that's my biggest marketing lesson that, well, that. And then I would also add on, if I can what I call the wonder Twins of business success, which is patience and consistency.
Kendra Corman:
Oh, consistency. I preach that all the time.
Tracy Beavers:
Yes.
Kendra Corman:
I love adding in patience. That's huge. Yeah.
Tracy Beavers:
We have to be patient. These organic marketing strategies, they, there will be a tipping point where the business will just explode, but it's like pushing a boulder up a hill, and if you quit before you get to the top, you're just gonna have to start over.
So we've gotta be patient and consistent and know that the seeds are gonna sprout. It just, it just takes a while.
Kendra Corman:
This has been so valuable and so, so interesting. I've loved having this conversation with you and you taking the time to share this with me, I do appreciate it.
Tracy Beavers:
Thank you.
Kendra Corman:
Now if you are listening to this, when it's released, because this is pre-recorded, like all the podcasts are Tracy does have a masterclass coming up, how to grow your email list and Attract clients without paid ads.
We'll have a link to those in the show notes. Is there anything you wanted to add about that?
Tracy Beavers:
Yes. I'm gonna be teaching them in the masterclass four simple strategies for organic list growth. Nobody else is teaching these strategies. They're the ones that I've created and I, nobody else is teaching them, and I'm so excited.
Kendra Corman:
That's very cool. So very exciting. And that starts January 17th.
Tracy Beavers:
Mm-hmm. January 17th is the first masterclass, and there'll be six dates and times to choose from. So plenty of dates and times, date and time options. The week of the 17th and the week of the 24th. And they just need to go to Tracybeavers.com/masterclass to sign up for the date and time that works best for them.
Kendra Corman:
Okay, perfect. And if you're listening to this after that, you can always join her Facebook community, which we will go ahead and have a link to in the show notes too and stay in touch with Tracy that way.
Again, I think that there's just so much valuable information that you shared, so thank you again for doing that.
Thank you everybody for tuning in today to another episode of Imperfect Marketing. I hope you enjoyed this extra bonus episode. I wanted to get it in front of you before all of her masterclasses are over for sure. So go ahead and, and check that out for sure.
And then if you liked and got a lot of value out of this episode, I would love it if you would rate and subscribe wherever you're listening to podcasts.
Thanks, and I'll see you on another episode of Imperfect Marketing.
