Marketing Consultation with Author Crista Tharp: How to Identify & Reach Your Ideal Clients

Are you looking to attract the perfect customers for your business but haven't quite found the right approach yet? 

You've likely given a bunch of marketing strategies a shot, but just can't seem to hit the bullseye. I totally understand how frustrating that can be. Even seasoned business owners find identifying and reaching their ideal customers challenging.

In this episode, Kelly Rice generously shares her expertise with Crista Tharp, a seasoned event planner and business owner with over 20 years of experience. Crista is breaking into the self-help space with her new book, which focuses on helping women overcome the Superwoman complex. But with a new audience comes new challenges, and Crista was eager to get guidance on identifying and reaching her ideal customers.

The tips and tricks shared in this episode will give you a solid foundation to nail your own business strategies. So, if you're ready to learn how to reach your ideal clients and increase your sales, tune in to this episode. 

Specifically, this episode highlights the following themes:

• Six-step framework for identifying your best audience
• How to reach and target ideal customers
• Finding the right engagement strategies

Other Mentioned Links & Resources

Email me your marketing questions for a FREE one-hour consultation with Kelly
vrayburn@treefrogmarketing.com

Get additional consulting assistance from Kelly:
https://www.treefrogmarketing.com/marketing-consulting-coaching

Learn more about marketing strategies:
https://www.treefrogmarketing.com

Get Crista’s book:
https://www.amazon.com/Ditch-king-Cape-Confessions-superwoman/dp/8794302642

Join the Priority Pursuit Podcast Facebook Community: https://www.facebook.com/groups/179106264013426

Follow or DM Victoria on Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/victorialrayburn

Transcript

Kelly Rice  0:00  
You have to remember as a small business, you can't do everything. So when you're creating your marketing strategy going back to your audience identification, those six steps that we went through what is the one or what are the first or second thing maybe that can generate the most engagement for you. Don't try to do everything at once. Start out with the thing that you think can reach the most people initially and start there.

Victoria Rayburn  0:32  
Hey there and welcome to another episode of Priority Pursuit. I'm your host Victoria Rayburn, or well, I'm usually your host, but today I am super excited to turn the show over to my co host treefrog marketing's founder and chief strategist Kelly Rice. Now guys, it is crazy to think about, but I have known and worked with Kelly in one capacity or another for nearly a decade now. And something that continues to amaze me is just how simple and approachable she makes marketing concepts for small business owners and to give priority pursuit listeners just a glimpse of the genius that Kelly is even though she would never say that herself. She has graciously agreed to offer one free one hour marketing consultation per month, which we will always record and share on the podcast. Today. I am very excited to share it Kelly and Crista conversation about how small businesses can reach and target their ideal customers. Crista Tharp has been a small business owner and event planner for more than 20 years. That quick side note if you are looking for a wedding planner in the Indian area, be sure to check out blissfully Simple Events. Crista is one of my very favorite wedding planners to work with as a wedding photographer, and her team is just incredible. But anyway, well Crista has a very successful wedding planning business and has owned and operated other businesses over the years, Crista is now breaking into the self help space with the release of her new book, which is all about how to overcome the Superwoman complex that many if not all women face. While Crista is a phenomenal business owner and writer and has a very powerful message to share. She applied for a consultation with Kelly because she's essentially building a new business for a new audience and just wanted some help and guidance. In this episode, Kelly breaks down how Crista can identify, reach and target her ideal customers so that she can sell them her book so that they can hear her message which guys again, you really want to check out this book, especially ladies. Yeah, you really want to check this out. But anyway, while Crista is an author, this six part framework that Kelly shares in this episode can be used by any small business owner. So if you're ready to get your products and services in front of your ideal clients, keep listening.

Kelly Rice  2:57  
Hi, Crista. It is great to finally meet you, and congratulations on your new book with all the responsibilities that you are actually responsible for. That is a major accomplishment. So before we get started, would you mind telling our listeners a little bit more about your small business and what you do? Sure.

Crista Tharp  3:15  
Well, it depends on which business you're talking about. Yeah.

Kelly Rice  3:17  
We could talk about all.

Crista Tharp  3:19  
Actually, I'm Crista dark, thank you for asking me to be a part of this. This is fabulous to be with women that know what they're doing. I don't get that very often. I started off with an event planning company, actually, before that was a gift basket company. And then I morphed into events, which I really like. And now that I've done it for 25 years, I'm ready to let that one go to the young people and work on something that's a lot more passionate for me, which is women and how you are able to live your bliss and live it unapologetically. So I'm so tired of doing it the way everybody says I have to do it. Because that's not me. So now I'm focusing on that. And that's what the new book is about.

Kelly Rice  4:03  
Wonderful. Well, I think a lot of small business owners understand the complexities of having a busy home life a busy work life and with you having multiple businesses. I think there's so many people going oh, yeah, we understand how busy your schedule must be. So thank you for taking time to join us today. So I'm actually really excited to answer your marketing question, which is like, how do you identify and reach your best clients? And I think for the majority of people out there, this is the million dollar question of how do I do this? How do I know I'm talking to the right people? Right, right. Absolutely. So but before I jump in, could you talk to me a little bit about what you're struggling with and why you're having trouble identifying your audience.

Crista Tharp  4:51  
Sure, absolutely. Even though I've been in business for 25 years, and I've done different things from the gift basket to event planning to speaking and all that stuff. I was really I am really good at creating content, very good at creating content, but I have not been able to get it to the people that need it. So it's almost it's a recipe. It's like, I want to eat the cake at the end, I know the cake would be good. But I don't know the right ingredients to have it be perfect. And that is frustrating to a small business person who is giving 110% of themselves to a business or several businesses and then their family that are the you know, like, right, who are they, but you're so busy doing everything else that you want it to get to the people that need to hear the message, or that would benefit from it. And I have not been able to create that perfect ingredient or recipe. 

Kelly Rice  5:50  
So because a lot of that is the mentality that we have as small business owners, if we just work a little bit harder right now, it'll be easier. So you put in that time, and then when you don't see the rewards of your effort being paid off, it can be really frustrating. Would you agree?

Crista Tharp  6:05  
Frustrating is an understatement. There have been times where I've thrown temper tantrums or I've cried, and I've talked to my husband, my stud. And he is just like, Crystal even today before today I told him I said I'm a little nervous. And he said no, you're not. You're excited. You're excited to get your voice out there. And this is why I married this man. He is he's hot. But he's also he knows me, you know very, very well. And yeah, it is extremely frustrating. It can become debilitating for some people. And a lot of people will like do it, they'll tell you, Oh, if this were easy, everyone would do it. I get that to an extent. But then something else that you mentioned was everything changes. So once you feel like like I got Facebook, I think I've got Facebook, and I understand Facebook, but everyone's telling me get on Twitter get on well, I can't talk in less than 140 characters, it's just not possible. So I'm not doing Twitter but Tik Tok get on Tik Tok get on Instagram. And then I do it. And I'm like, Cool, I'm stolen. So it's hard.

Kelly Rice  7:08  
It is. And the more the algorithms change, the more social networks that pop up, the more everything is out there. So today, my hope is that at the end of our conversation, you will have a plan of action, and you will feel much more confident and being able to move forward. And then also knowing that you're going to be able to apply what you've learned to be able to get the results that you want. Fabulous. Okay, so my quick answer to your question, and we'll kind of break down these things as we go is is that you first you have to make your customers the hero of your marketing story, then we have to figure out what they want, and what challenges they're facing. Okay. And because you're an author, and you've been in business a long time, you more than likely already done this without even knowing it. So today, we're going to walk through the framework that we'll be able to pull this information out of great. So in with this, you'll be able to like single out your best audiences because as small business owners, most of us will enthusiastically say, hey, everybody is our audience. Well, that's not true, because there are 100, Mary Smith's or 100, company ABCs, that we would absolutely love to have. And those are the people that we actually want to talk to. So that's what this framework will be able to do is pull this information out and then help you create marketing campaigns that actually capture your best audience's attention. So you're on board and you're ready to go. I'm ready. Okay, so I am going to have to ask you, if you bear with me for the next few minutes or so, because I would like to explain why it's important to make your potential customers the hero of your marketing story, and not necessarily your book or your business or anything like that. Okay, perfect. So when it comes to identifying and reaching your ideal customers, it really comes down to telling a great story, which you clearly know about. But the problem is, most people don't know what that actually means or how to do it when it comes to marketing messages. Because we don't have an entire book to lay out everything. We have a few characters right. Now, again, because you're an author, you're probably a little bit ahead of the game in this. But the reason that you want to utilize the story based framework is because a great story has the power to attract people engage and hold their attention and persuade them to do the thing that you want them to do in order to solve their problem. Like buy your book, right? So if you'll indulge me, so take a second or two and think about your favorite book or movie. And think about the flow of that. It more than likely followed a specific pattern that kept you engaged in rooting for the hero all the time, and the formula was probably something like this. So you have a main character or a hero of our story that wanted something. They wanted to stop the love of their lives from marrying somebody else or save their daughter from kidnapper. or stop the bad guys from blowing up a major city or something. However, this hero encountered a major problem along the way, and he wasn't sure what to do. And he may even thought that he wasn't even capable of completing his mission at all. So then the hero met someone who was a guide, who understood the predicament that he was in, and the emotional turmoil he was experiencing, then the guide helped the hero overcome these challenges. And because of this, the hero was able to save the day. So does that make a connection with you when you start thinking about that? Absolutely. So do you think that makes a connection? Because you're an author? Or that if you actually stop and think about every movie, or every book, you're like, oh, yeah, that really does happen.

Crista Tharp  10:40  
Oh, no, it's every it's life. Everyone has a story. Everyone has a story. That would be cool to hear. But they just don't share it all the time.

Kelly Rice  10:48  
And they don't know that they're telling a story. Yeah, exactly. Absolutely. So if we follow the logic of story, as a small business, you don't want to be the uncertain hero who needs help. You want to be the guide, the one that helps the hero do the things that you want to do, your customer must be the hero, because they're the ones that need help solving their problems. Does that makes sense? Absolutely. Okay. But as business owners, we constantly fight to overcome our natural instinct to put our services and accomplishments in the forefront, especially in our marketing messages. And when we do this, it makes us the hero of the story and not the guide. And we want to be the guy, not the hero. So when we start talking about how great our products and services are, we only show authority over the matter. We don't show empathy. But empathy or emotional validation, is what a great guide always gives first, then they follow that with authority or facts. So again, if we're going back to the movie, you know, the guide comes in, and he was like, hey, it's going to be a ride, I've been where you've been, you're going to be able to do this, I have confidence in you. And here's the thing that you need to do in order to do that. But if we don't build up their confidence, if we don't relate to them first, we're just coming in and telling them what they need to do. Right. And this point, is important to understand. Because people make buying decisions first based on emotion, and then they follow them up with facts. So using a hero led messaging is basically the equivalent of a man walking up to a woman and saying, Hey, you're beautiful, I'm attractive, we should get married. And that's a little nuts, right? Like you would look at somebody and just be like, Can somebody help me, please. But that's exactly the position we put our potential customers in, when we make our businesses the hero of our marketing story. So can you see how flipping from being the hero to the guide in a story is much more beneficial?

Crista Tharp  12:42  
I love that, actually, it's a different perspective. And I love it when I have different perspectives to look at. Because I'm very much a compare, like, this person's doing this. So how can I do that? Like that? So that I love that.

Kelly Rice  12:54  
Okay, so if you're going to now be the guide in your story, you need to figure out who will benefit from your advice, right? So aka your audience. So let's outline the six steps that will help you identify your best audience. Are you ready? I'm ready, okay. First, you need to learn who they are, what is their age, income, gender, work to understand what their values are, what their opinions are, what they're interested in, also need to determine where they live, or if that even makes a difference at all, like learning that demographic information. But then also that psychographic information about what they're interested in what their values are, all of that information is extremely important. And then finally, finding out how they want to be communicated with because a lot of the younger generation, they certainly don't want to send you an email, they don't want to call you, but they will DM you or they will chat you directly from the website. So understanding these things about your audience. So if you can identify your audiences, you know, 17 to 25 year old boys, you more than likely aren't going to reach them on Facebook, they're not going to send you an email or pick up the phone. So it's learning these types of things that are really important to get started. And to do this, you sometimes can ask your current clients, so if you have an established business, and you know Mrs. Smith or company, ABC, maybe there's three or four of them that you really, really like, ask them, like, ask them the questions that you're needing to get answered. Other times you can get creative and you can use social media to ask questions, you know, put out kind of that ad hoc survey of hey, I have a question about this or about that. Or if, if this would happen, what would be your reaction, those types of things. Or you could even connect with people who may be struggling with the same problem you talk about in your book, like connect with them, ask them, Why is this going to be important to you, you know, what are some of your Valerie's What are your interest? How can an ad that you see maybe on social media relate to you what makes you click on that? What makes you open an email you know, asking those types of questions will be extremely valuable. But then there's some times We literally just have to make educated guesses about who your audience is, and try out different messaging to help narrow that down. Now we try our best not to have to do that. But sometimes there may not be data or it may be a new business or something like that, that we have to just make an educated guess and start from square one and go from there. So the first step is you have to learn the tangible items about your audience. Does that make sense? Absolutely. Okay. The second thing you need to do is determine what your audience wants to accomplish. So do your best customers want to save time or money? Do they want to build a stable business? Do they want to feel independent? Do they want to find a comfortable pair of shoes? What is the thing that they really want help finding or achieving?

Crista Tharp  15:47  
Can I ask you a question? Sure. So here's one of the issues that I've found that I have issues with. And I've told Victoria, this is having sold gift baskets in the in the past and do event planning, that is service. It's not a product. I mean, technically, it's a product. But for me, in my head, I'm not teaching anything. I'm more. I'm trying to get them to relate to me to understand to actually start having the conversation that oh, wait a minute, I can stop zombie like walking through life. And actually, I can say no, if I want, how does that translate? When you've got someone that has a product? Like Victoria's photos, she has her service where she's actually giving a product? But for me, how do I talk to clients and make a mission when there's not a literal product? Does that make sense? It does.

Kelly Rice  16:40  
So thinking about the same thing of what do they want to accomplish? Do they want to feel more independent? Do they want to feel more in control? Do they want to make memories with somebody? What is that end goal? It doesn't have to be a tangible thing. It can be a feeling like I want to feel more in control. I want to have more time away from the office and spend more time with my kids. Or I literally just want me time. Does that make sense? 

Crista Tharp  17:08  
Yeah, it's the it makes sense. It's, if I want to make it very simple, it's adding bliss to their life, it's making them happy. Again, it's making them being able to, I like to control although we're never fully in control. So you know, talking about where they feel that they are missing that joy.

Kelly Rice  17:26  
But you have to remember though, to that when somebody tells you that they want to be more in control, because you know what, you know, it's like curse of knowledge. You're like, oh, well, it's not really we're not really always in control. But somebody will tell you that I want to be more in control, because that's the language that they're using. So you have to use that language as well. Yep. For that, right. But if you tell somebody that they need to find more bliss, it's not going to relate to them or find more joy. Well, what do you mean by joy? Because my joy is different than your joy.

Crista Tharp  17:58  
Exactly.

Kelly Rice  17:59  
What does that relate to. So defining that thing that they want to accomplish, you need to be very specific, especially with your book. So let's say that your book talks about, you know, the work life balance between home and life and how crazy it is, and how you never have time to do anything, and you're going 100 million miles an hour trouble. as small business owners, we would really, really love to have a plan of action that says it's okay to live in chaos, but it needs to be structured chaos. And here's kind of how you do that you can be more in control of your time. Does that make sense?

Crista Tharp  18:32  
Absolutely. Again, a different way of looking, which is what I why I like talking to so many different people. So I could see something a little different. Actually, I wish I had that makes a whole heck of a lot of sense.

Kelly Rice  18:45  
Okay, so the third step out of our six step framework is that you need to identify the problems that they're facing. So we now know what they want to do, they want to be in more control or whatever that is. But most people put stumbling blocks in their own path when it comes to solving their own problems. For some, it's, they say it's a lack of time, or a lack of knowledge or lack of confidence, or fear of spending too much money, or literally just having to feel like they have to break a societal stigma in order to do the thing that they want to do, right. I think a lot of wives working mothers feel that they feel like they have to be everything at home and everything at work and do everything with the kids and be a great wife and do all of these things. And breaking that societal stigma of being super woman is needs to happen. But it's also a huge challenge for them that they put in front of their faces. So you have to figure out what their pressing issue is, so that you can help them solve it, you know, are they fearful of something? Are they uncertain? Are they frustrated? What is that problem or what is that emotion that they're facing? Which kind of drives us in to the fourth thing, which is in conjunction to that third thing to that third step is you have to understand how these problems make them feel So if they are, if they feel like they live in chaos all the time, or they're, they're supposed to be superwoman all the time and have everything and carry all this mental load and do everything, how does that make them feel? Are they frustrated? Are they tired? Are they wore out? Are they burned out? Like, what does that look like? So when you know how the problems, make them feel, you then get an opportunity to help them overcome their challenges as a guide. Right. And that's our whole goal in this is to become the guide and not the hero. So for example, we kind of alluded to this, but so if somebody is struggling finding a work life balance, do they feel burned out? How about feeling like a failure, as a wife, or mother or business owner, because they're pulled in so many directions? I mean, I know that you can write, you can relate to that I can relate to that. And I think every other woman on the planet, whether they are employed outside of the house or not, can actually feel that. Yeah. So if we can figure out how the problems make them feel, you can provide guidance out of their emotional turmoil as a guide. So we've identified what their problem was. And now we have to identify how it makes them feel. Because again, remember, people make buying decisions based off of emotion first, then back it up with the facts, because the human brain goes, you can't make that decision based on emotion that is not logical. So the brain then starts searching for these facts to back up why you want to make this emotional decision. So in order to help people make these decisions, we have to know what emotions that they have. Right?

Crista Tharp  21:31  
Find their cheese.

Kelly Rice  21:34  
Right, exactly. Have you read that book? Oh, yes, but it was a long time ago. Yes, absolutely.

Victoria Rayburn  21:44  
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Kelly Rice  24:14  
So the fifth step is to create a clear solution to your customers problem. Like how can your book make their lives better, or help them solve a problem. Just like in your favorite book or movie that we alluded to at the beginning of this episode, the guide didn't just pat the hero on the back and raise his confidence and tell him that he was going to be okay. He told him what he needed to do in order to save the day. So empathy first, then the authority or the solution and this is the solution that we're asking you to be able to give. So the first four have been talking about your audience and the problems they have and the things that they feel. Now it's our turn to come in with the authority piece of because if we can validate their emotions and say hey, we know what it's like for this or we've been in your shoes before, we know how to get you out of that there's the authority piece. If you just do these three things you can get out of your emotional turmoil. So for like, here's an example, you can have as a call to action on your website, potentially read this book and follow my three step system to feel more confident in control, and then hours back into your day, right? Because we're telling them what they need to do. But before that, we're going to show them a little bit of empathy by saying, Hey, since we've been in your shoes, we like, literally for you, you're like, I have 10 kids, and I run five businesses, so I can tell you how to do this. Does that make sense? How it's kind of flowing together? Okay, perfect. Okay. And then the final step of identifying your audience is defining what will happen if they actually follow your advice. So if someone chooses to read your book, what will they get in return? Will they have more time? Will they have more money? Will they be less frustrated? Or will they be more confident in what they're doing? You want to answer that question, what's in it for me in the way that you can do that is we've already identified their problems in the way that makes them feel. So if we know that they feel like they're not confident moving forward, the successful outcome that they're going to feel after they read your book is that they are going to be more confident. So you will always want to go back to those problems, and the way that it made them feel and give them the reverse of that give them the solution to if I'm feeling out of control, you're now going to feel more in control. Right? Does that make sense? Uh huh.

Crista Tharp  26:32  
Yep, absolutely, actually.

Kelly Rice  26:34  
Okay. So I know we quickly went over those six steps. But do you have any questions?

Crista Tharp  26:39  
No, it all makes sense. I love how it flows together. Okay.

Kelly Rice  26:43  
So now the second part of your question was, how do I reach my audience, right, because we've already talked about identifying them. Now you need to know how to reach them. Because we don't want you cry into your husband anymore being frustrated or, or throwing tantrums anymore.

Crista Tharp  26:59  
Good luck. Those are always going to happen. 

Kelly Rice  27:02  
We just want you to be like jumping up and down and going. Oh, my gosh, did you see how well this worked? That's what we want. Those are the tantrums we want? Yes, exactly. Yeah. So I literally could talk about this subject for hours. But I'm going to narrow it down for your sake to just three things. So one, you want to present your business as a guide, and never as the hero of your marketing story. And we just talked about how you can kind of do that. Got it, too. You want to use your audience information that we defined in those six steps to create messaging that captures your potential customers attention, and leads them to do the thing you want them to do. And at treefrog. We call this type of messaging, our marketing, guiding statements. And Crista, I'll share the formula with you for creating these. And then to everyone else listening, you can find these in a download in the show notes. Or you can go to treefrog marketing.com. Forward slash marketing guiding statements. And also Crista, if you ever lose what I send you, you can go there. Fabulous. Find those again, I'm thrilled. I'm excited. Yep. And three, use digital marketing and the flywheel method. flywheel. The flywheel method is when your website and online marketing efforts are in sync, and they function as a flywheel to continually produce results. So even if you're not in the office, or not paying much attention to your marketing, it's still working for you. Gotcha. Would you like me to quickly outline the flight? We'll bring it lay it

Crista Tharp  28:31  
all out there big. Okay. I'm going to be a millionaire by next year.

Kelly Rice  28:36  
All right. I like that. Yes. Okay. So I'll do my best to keep this concise. And then please stop me if you have any questions. Okay. So the first step in the firewall method is to develop a strong foundation by creating a website. This is because your website is your small business's, most powerful marketing tool, and it must be created with your audience in mind. So when creating your website, remember to fight the urge to be the hero of the story, and use your marketing guiding statements so that you can be the guide to help people solve problems and the things that they want to do. That makes sense. Yeah, so it's beyond the traditional website, have, here I am, here's all of my great things you should buy from me. We're completely working through our six steps to create messaging that will go through that. And again, how to do that will be in that download that will send you or the listeners, you guys are able to get off of treefrog marketing.com, forward slash marketing guiding statements. Okay. Now, the second step is to create good content, you've already expressed that you know how to do that. And by good content, I mean pieces of information that your audience would like, people want to interact with information that they want, not necessarily the information you want them to know. And they want to do it on their own time. Right. So again, as business owners, we constantly fight that challenge of saying, Oh, but we want you to know this. Oh, but we want you to know this But in reality, going back to our in control example, they don't know that they fully can't be in control, they want to be in more control. So we need to utilize their language and we need to help them overcome that problem. So we need to make sure that we're creating content that addresses that. So creating content that helps you act as a guide is extremely important. Because when you use blogs, or videos or downloads, to pique curiosity, or provide guidance, you'll get your audience to willingly engage with you. And that's the difference between what we call traditional outbound marketing, and then inbound marketing. So outbound marketing is I'm preaching my message to you, and I'm preaching it everywhere. And I am telling you that you need with all the authority to use me for my services or my products, you're going to need to do these things. Inbound Marketing is just the opposite of us creating content that people want to engage with. And we put it in front of them and allow them to engage it whenever they want to, but that content is developed to lead them to do the thing that we know that will help them. So that makes sense. Yeah. So here's an example. So you could get your potential readers engaged by giving them the first chapter of your book for free, in exchange for their collecting their email address, right, you could offer signed copies of the book, you know, a limited time bonus, or even have people record a video testimonial about why they loved your book. So having all of these pieces is you're helping guide people, you're giving them things, you're giving them value for free. But then from an authoritative perspective, you're having somebody else tell people how amazing this book is, you're not, because nobody's gonna trust you that it's a good book, because you wrote it. But if 14 Other people say that this book changed my life, and it was amazing. Well, reviews when they're you probably going to get that book, right?

Crista Tharp  31:53  
Question? Yes. When launching a book, that's difficult when you're doing it on your own, and you don't have someone like you to help. And I have found, like, I told you earlier with that anger I found near the end that like, no one's helping me. When I wrote this, no one's helping me. But what I did learn was, you know, what, just go out there and do whatever you can. So that's what I'm doing at this point. And it's good to hear that you say that, because I've got a thing out there now for reviews and asked for I told them, I'd give them my free ebook. And if they wanted to review it, and I had, I think it was over 100 comments, which was wonderful. But of course, I've only got 10 reviews right now. But that's I'll take it 

Kelly Rice  32:38  
Yeah. 10 reviews is better than 00. Absolutely.

Crista Tharp  32:41  
I'll take it. And so you know, I'm at right now, I wish I had this huge team that could just be out and doing it, but it's me. And so I find I can only do one and two things a day to make it work. So when you're putting this stuff together, how do you know what to hit? Like, for me, here's what I feel like I'm doing. I'm throwing stuff at the wall. And seeing if it has stick my whole wall has spaghetti all over Getty that fell. You know, like it was too slippery. It was too you know, none of them just stuck. And so how do you know do you start it tick tock? Do you do a blog? And then you break that blog into? I mean, really? That's insane. And I know so many small business people are like me are like I have you ever read the EMF? Yes. Okay. So I was the technician when I got into the business, and my manager is always not been good.

Kelly Rice  33:34  
But that's why a lot of us start businesses, right? Because we are the technician and we know what we're doing.

Crista Tharp  33:38  
And we know what we're doing. But then you miss the I've got the entrepreneur, but my manager needs help.

Kelly Rice  33:42  
So everything that you just said is we've heard it 100 billion times, right? Like you are not alone in this. And one of the things that we always say is that you have to go back and identify your audience first, work through those six steps create then your your marketing, guiding statements, because from that, you'll understand who your audience is, where they are and what they want, then that's when you start developing your marketing strategy. What content Am I writing? What is my website going to look like and have on it? Should I be on Tik Tok? Should I be on Facebook, like all of that, you'll be able to create your marketing strategy, because you'll be certain of who your best client is. Because again, if we go back to if you're trying to reach boys, age 17 to 25 Facebook is probably not where you're going to be. So you shouldn't waste your time on there. But somewhere like Snapchat, Instagram, Tik Tok, maybe something that would work for you. Does that make sense? Yes. Okay. So going back and identifying that audience writing out your guiding statements, because what your guiding statements will do, they'll help you present a problem so that the human brain when they read it, like if I associate with that my brain is gonna go, oh, yeah, me too. I need to pay attention to that. Then So you're going to state a problem, and then you're going to show some empathy. Because what happens when you show empathy over authority is as you become the guide, and as a customer, my sales threshold lowers, I'm like, Oh, well, you're not trying to sell me anything. You're trying to be my friend. Right? So we have this dialogue of like, my brain says, Yes, that makes sense. That's me, too. Oh, my gosh, you totally understand me, because you just validated every emotion that I had. And because of that, you now are telling me that you can solve my problem. I'm in okay, what's the next step? And that's what we want people to do. So if you go back and you understand your audience, and you create those marketing messages, then you create strategy, to be able to know where you need to market. And when you use your guiding statements to market, you'll be able to get the brain to flow in the manner in which I just described, does that make sense? Perfect. Yes. Perfect. Okay. So the first step of the flywheel just to recap quickly, is to create your website. Second is to create good content that people want. But like you have done creating great content is not the end all be all right? It used to be to build it, and they will come if you build a website, and that just doesn't happen anymore.

Crista Tharp  36:14  
Doesn't happen because I built they didn't come right.

Kelly Rice  36:16  
So the third and final step of the flywheel method is getting your information out in front of the audience. So we kind of jumped this just a little bit when we had our conversation about strategy. But the premise is still there. So I was gonna ask you the question like, Have you ever wondered why your social media posts don't drive new business, or why my marketing ads aren't doing this, or those types of things. And you've kind of already expressed how frustrating that is? Well, you're also not alone, because many small business owners think that simply uploading content to their website, or posting to their social media channels, will drive new birth business. And boy do I wish it was that simple. But unfortunately, it's not how it works, especially now, like you talked about, you alluded to about algorithms changing and all of these types of things. So in order to get the attention of your audience, you have to get the content that they want, in front of them with little to no effort on their part. Because nobody wants to work for anything anymore. In terms of being educated or seeing something we are so used to things coming via our email or a text or along one of our feeds. Within a social media were like, Oh, I didn't know that was happening, we'll click and read a news article or that type of thing. So it has to be extremely easy for them. So that means using tactics such as search engine optimization, social media ads, Google ads, and strategic emails, that can help attract and lead people to your website. Because once you build a strategic website, the easiest way to reach your potential clients or customers is to use social media advertising, and to be successful and your social media ads should lead back to the content that is housed on your website, because you've already created a website that is built to be the guide and to help lead people to do the thing that they need to do in order to solve their problems. So you constantly want to send them back to somewhere on your website that is going to help them. So I know, I just talked a lot. So let's take your the first chapter of your book, kind of as an example of being able to do this, okay. So you could use your marketing guiding statements to write a social media ad, that leads people to the first chapter page on your website. But if somebody wants to read your first chapter of your book for free, there's going to be a form on that page that they need to fill out. And if they give you their name, and their email address, that first chapter of their of your ebook will be delivered right to their inbox, okay, so you're providing value, they want that thing, they're willing to trade getting the first chapter for an email address. But the beauty of this is that the customer gets the immediate satisfaction of being able to read that first chapter without having to buy it to see if this is something that they want to do or not. But you now have an email address from somebody that is already interested in your book, okay, so you can use this as your advantage by sending them a follow up email in a couple days, letting them know that hey, if you buy my book, I'll sign the copy of it for free, or I'll do this thing for you or it's a buy one, get one or whatever offer that you wanted, plus this type of content marketing, where you're leading them back to a valuable piece of content on your website, you're exchanging that information for an email address, you're building an email database. Yeah, that makes sense. So then you can send out testimonials you can send out additional blogs, offers content on a regular basis to people that are already interested in what you're doing. And it all started because you identified your audience. You created guiding statements. You built a strong website that is Built to help the person do the thing that they need to do. And then you create a content that was extremely valuable for them. And then the, the actual step of that is that, like you said, if you just build it, they're not coming. But if you take that social media ad, and you utilize the formula in terms of the marketing statements of saying, here's the problem, here's some empathy. Here's the solution, this is what you need to do next, you're going to send people to your website, you're gonna start gathering email addresses, and then you can mark it to them beyond that.

Crista Tharp  40:29  
Is there a benefit to you had mentioned reading? I haven't had my official launch yet, which is fine. That's going to happen later. But on a video, you know, reading the first chapter, not just the first page, but reading the first chapter, is there a benefit to that? Or do you think that there's no benefit to that it's better to have them read it on the website, and to get their email?

Kelly Rice  40:50  
Honestly, this is going to sound like a political answer. But it depends on who your audience is. If your audience loves audiobooks, record audio of it, but then also provide people the option to be able to download it and read it. And maybe it's an option that is on the form. And if they click download it, they get a PDF version of it, if they click audio version, then, you know, they get a video of you read the note or they get the audio of that. I mean, there's ways to be able to do both, especially if you're not quite certain who your audience is, and you're experimenting, see how many downloads you get versus how many people want the audio version of it?

Crista Tharp  41:24  
Yeah, then I'm finding already on the I know who my market is. It's between 35 and 60. The women and most of them are moms, but it's not all so I'm finding now with women having to get a download. They're like, it's not working. So, you know, people my age and a little older, even though I've got a little bit of tech savvy, some are not. And so I have to remember that, that it's got to be easy. That's why Facebook, for me, it was so easy. You know, getting on to Tik Tok. I thought, oh, that's just young kids. But no, I'm seeing women my age and older, just rockin tick tock.

Kelly Rice  42:02  
But you have to remember, as a small business, you can't do everything. Yeah. So when you're creating your marketing strategy, going back to your audience identification, those six steps that we went through, what is the one? Or what are the first or second thing maybe that can generate the most engagement for you. Don't try to do everything at once. Start out with the thing that you think can reach the most people initially, and start there. So then when book sales start coming in, or testimonials start coming in, or you start seeing some other things, add something else in, don't try to overwhelm yourself with that.

Crista Tharp  42:39  
Okay, gotcha. So that'll be the next thing I'll do is, I think that's a great idea, an option of just the printed first chapter and then one of the reading it, like on a video. So cool. I'm excited about that. That's like one thing I know to do now.

Kelly Rice  42:54  
Good. Yeah. All right. So to quickly recap, then the flywheel method, it's to reach your audience, you have to build a customer focus website, then create content that will engage your best customers, and then use some kind of paid advertising to drive people back to your website to that content. Okay, now, you can utilize organic posts. But there's such a big difference between posting in ADS. So posting is normally utilized to keep your page active. For people that already know like and trust you, you're probably not going to drive much business there. It's utilized for some backlinks and links to your website, and you know, SEO purposes as well. Ads are used to actually attract people that have no idea that they need your book. Okay. Right. So only like a half, I think it's a half a percent of people that follow you, especially on Facebook actually even see your content, like your posts, to where ads you can get in front of 1000s of people a day, depending on what your budget is. Does that make sense?

Crista Tharp  43:58  
Yeah. Great. I never knew how to even start that. Yes, years ago, I did Facebook ads and didn't know what I was doing. So

Kelly Rice  44:05  
I think it's a trial and error. It really is. And I know if you go to our website, treefrog marketing.com, we have a bunch of small business resources. And I'm sure that there's probably a how or why you should do Facebook ads, if that's somewhere that you're going to go, you may be able to find that benefit. Okay. And if not shoot us an email, we'll be happy to create a blog or a piece of content for that. Great. Okay. So I know that we've talked about a lot. But do you kind of see how it all works together now and how we're constantly going back to it depends on what your audience wants.

Crista Tharp  44:39  
Absolutely. And I wasn't thinking that route. I was thinking, what are all the things that I need to do in order to get them? So it's the hard work? I mean, making sure just like when I started a business, I had to do all that research to see is it okay for me to do a business here or would it you know, that's never the fun part. Right? Just like the guest list in a wedding. It's never The fun part. So you just have to focus on that. And that way I know, visually because I'm a visual learner so I can actually see it. So that's Check one, check two, check three. And this is perfect for that. So all day today, I'm going to be playing.

Kelly Rice  45:16  
Good. And that's why we were so excited about you know, your question as well, because so many other small businesses do exactly what you do. And they jumped in headfirst, and start doing all the things, as opposed to stepping out and saying, Oh, I probably need to define what I'm doing first. So who do I want to talk to? And then, you know, following those six steps, creating your marketing, guiding statements, then figure out what you need to do, because it'll make it a lot easier to write content to write social media posts, and all of that. Right. Wonderful. Do you have any other questions that I can answer for you today in terms of what we've talked about?

Crista Tharp  45:52  
Oh, I have loads of questions. But that would get you on to 5000 other podcasts. So this has been great, because I think we tend to feel like as a small business person, there's so many options out there and you don't know what works. I'll tell you what else is very frustrating as a almost 50 year old woman is seeing these young teenagers making millions of dollars on tick tock, I don't get it. I don't get it. It's a different generation. And I remember years ago, when I had the gift basket company, being told I needed a website, and I did it kicking and screaming, I did not like it. I was not happy with it. But can you imagine a business without a website? Now? I mean, you just didn't think about it. So there are so many things. So many times, the times are changing, that gets overwhelming, you feel like you're not able to give your message out. And then you're like, forget it, I'm done. And that can't happen to small business people know.  

Kelly Rice  46:48  
And if you follow the steps that were outlined today, or that are in the download, you will feel so much more confident moving forward, because you will have a plan of action. And of course, it's going to be a little Fundly along the way, because you've never done it just like you know, you've never entered in the world of tic toc before and you're like, what are these filters? And what do I need to do? And how do I get this out? You know, the more practice you have at it, the better it'll be in your first ads that go out in two months from now you may create a different ad and it will work a lot better. It's because you understand better what your audience wants.

Crista Tharp  47:22  
Exactly. And throwing things against the wall is just a waste of time and money, basically.

Kelly Rice  47:28  
Yeah. And you as a small business owner, you don't have any of that despair, either one of them.

Crista Tharp  47:32  
Absolutely. This has been fabulous. Wonderful.

Kelly Rice 47:35  
Well thank you for your time, Crista. 

Victoria Rayburn  47:41  
Thank you guys, wasn't that amazing? Like I said at the beginning of this episode, I am forever impressed by how approachable and simple Kelly makes big marketing concepts. Kelly will be back on the show and next month for a another marketing consultation. But in the meantime, if you were interested in applying for a free one hour marketing consultation with Kelly, which is a $300 value by the way, apply by emailing me your most pressing marketing questions at vrayburn@treefrog marketing.com. Or if you'd like even more consulting help from Kelly, be sure to visit our website treefrog marketing.com Well, we are a full service marketing agency. Kelly also takes coaching consulting and strategy clients meeting she is more than happy to create a marketing strategy specifically for your small business based on your time, budget and resources that you can then implement yourself or with the help of your team. Thank you for tuning in to another episode of Priority Pursuit. We cannot wait to have another priority driven conversation with you next week in hopes and helping you build a life and business you love.