Hey there, welcome to the Coming Home to Joy podcast episode number five. This is Tina Joy Cochran and I'm your host. I am grateful to have the opportunity to Jump into your pocket this morning as your business coach and talk to you a little bit today about the two things that you must know to master marketing. Before we get started, maybe this is your first episode, and I wanted to give you just a brief overview of Who I am and how you can find out more. Long story short my name is Tina Joy Cochran, as I said, and I am a business coach, published author and speaker. And my mission is to help women master sales and marketing so that they can have joy in their business and grow a business they love for a lifetime. You can find out more about me and the community Golden Heartland that I run at goldenheartland. com. I invite you to check that out as there are always some cool freebies there as well. So let's jump into today's topic. Today's topic is the two things you must know to master marketing We're going to do a quick review of. Some things we talked about in episode three, the most effective marketing strategy. If you did not get a chance to check out that episode yet, go ahead and do that. But let's dive in. We're going to talk about the review. Then we're going to talk about the two things that you must know and how to figure them out. And then I'll, as always, give you some action steps. Let's jump right in here with some review. In episode three, the most effective marketing strategy, we defined marketing as the process of helping people become aware of what you have to offer and then guiding them to make a decision and take action on it. We also learned that there are three parts to marketing. There's a message, a strategy, and a call to action. In episode three, we talked about strategies and the most effective one that anyone can access. I'm not going to tell you what that strategy is. If you don't know already what that strategy is, go back to episode three. Check it out. It's worth the 25 minutes or so and find out today. We're going to talk about the other two parts, the message and the call to action. You see, in order to grow a business that, you can love for a lifetime. You need money, right? I hear you. Oh, she's going to talk about money and sales. Yeah, I am. See, as followers of Jesus, we often get stuck there. We don't want to be salesy. We don't want to make it all about the money. Often we don't even get into business because we want to make money. We get into business because we created some stuff and somebody said, Oh, you should sell those. And then we thought, Hmm, is it possible? That I could actually use the things that God gave me and use the things that I'm going to do anyway, whether it is helping people figure out how to go on their next trip or creating fiber arts products or pottery or painting, drawing, writing books, any of those things, is it possible that I could actually use that for earning an income so that I could live Maybe on that farm that I want to live on and then we get tied up in the money part I've got some people I want to talk to I've got some ideas to bring in for an entire Episode on this whole money thing for today. What I'd like you to do is take this truth It doesn't have to be about the money, but you can't build your business without the money. So if you think about that, it doesn't matter whether your business is a for profit or nonprofit or just a hobby, you can't do it without the money. And if we want joy in our business, then we need people to spend money. And in order for people to spend money, they need to buy from us. And in order to help people buy from us, we need to do marketing. You see how this all fits together? And this is where the message and the call to action pieces come in. Because you see, Confused people don't. What do I mean? Think about this for a moment. Have you ever seen something you really liked and didn't know how you could buy it or even if it was available? Have you ever heard somebody talking about some contractor, some hairdresser, some coach that they worked with and you thought, wow, that's really cool. I wonder if I could do that too, but didn't know if that person was even taking on new customers. Have you ever been at a craft show or stopped at a garage sale and there was no price on something, so you just moved on? It happens to all of us. That's what I mean by confused people don't buy. If you don't know what's available for sale or how to buy it, you're probably not going to buy it. As a business owner, it's our job to clearly state the message or what we are selling and the call to action, how you can buy it. So the customers who want can take action on it and working with hundreds of clients over the years, I found that this is the area where people just skip, they skip over the deep work and jump into action too soon. They're posting on social media like crazy there and then complaining that it's not working and why will nobody buy from me? But they've never ever actually put out where you can buy it, how much it costs. What payment methods you take how to reach you and they're confusing their customers and then they're hindering the growth of their business. So today I'm going to give you a way to get started in fixing this. There are four big questions that you need to be clear on. In order to put your marketing and your business in a growth mode and to have the confidence to put it out there. Many of my clients say, Oh, just, it's fine if I have to talk about somebody else's stuff, but I don't want to put myself out there. Well, if you want to have confidence to be able to put yourself out there and to be able to put your business out there, so people can be clear on what you sell and how to buy from you. These are the four questions to start with. Number one. What are you selling this sounds like, well, duh, of course, I wouldn't know that, but you'd be amazed at how many people that I have talked with and customers and clients. I have worked with as a coach over the years that don't answer this question clearly. They give you a hashtag, all the things for the interest of not taking up your entire day and jumping on a soapbox. I'm going to move on to the next question. The next question is, who is your ideal customer? You may have heard the words target market, ideal customer and to the point where you roll your eyes and say, I don't know. It's everybody that anybody that and. The reality is, the thing that you are bringing, the what you are selling, who is it for? Who is it for? Take some time to really dig in and answer that question, because when you answer that question, who is it for? Then it's easier. To know where to put your message. Third question. Why are you in business? As I mentioned in the beginning of this episode, sometimes we get in business because somebody told us we should, we get in business because. We need money and we just figure we'll figure something out. If you take the time to step back and say, why am I really in business at all? Why is this business? Why is it not a hobby? Then you can start to build the confidence of I am a business owner and as a business owner, there are things that I need to do. Last question, and I'm so amazed that I hardly ever hear business coaches asking this question, and it's so important. How big do you want to be? Take some time and ask yourself this question. Bigger. Is not the answer. How big do you want to be? This business that you're trying to grow? Are you growing a business to support a lifestyle that you want to live? Or are you wanting to be that serial entrepreneur on shark tank with a multinational 78 figure business that has 15 locations? Either answer is fine. Just get clarity on that. I know, I know this is deep work and it can take time to figure it out, but it's worth it. It is so important that I designed an entire course that helps you sift through all of this because these questions bring up a lot of the stuff. I like to joke sometimes that being a business owner is forced personal development because Your business only grows to the level that you do. So we have to start there, I designed an entire course called the Sandbox Blueprint. That addresses how to really go deep into these questions and get answers. It's something we make available in our golden heartland community. But what I've discovered is that the answers to these questions also evolve over time. And so by sifting through it regularly as a community, our confidence can grow and our message grows and the marketing gets easier and easier. Bottom line. Our job as business owners is to do the sifting and get a clear message with a strong call to action so that the people God has already prepared for us can make a decision and take action. Ephesians 2 10 says, for we are God's handiwork created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. Therefore, It's already prepared. Our job is not to convince people to buy. Our job is not to run around like a crazy person. Our job is to get so clear in our message and our call to action that people can easily decide if it's for. So as you sift through these questions. What are you selling? Who is it for? Why am I in business at all? And how big do I want to be? You'll get clarity on that message of who am I talking to? What do I put in that Facebook post in order to speak to the who I'm trying to reach and tell them what I'm selling? And how much do I need to do it? Based on the size of the business that I want to grow. So message becomes very clear. But let's talk about part three, that call to action piece. What is a call to action? It's telling people what to do next. See, the message sets up the question, Is this for you? That's all marketing is. Is here's what I have. Is this for you? And then the call to action says. If it is for you and you say yes, here's what to do next. We sometimes get so tangled in strategy. We talked about strategy. We spent a whole episode on strategy. The how you get your message and your call to action out there. We spent so much. Time learning all the technology, learning all the strategy, thinking about, which platform works best. How do I beat the algorithm? What do I need to use? what pictures do I set up that what we end up doing is confusing people to the point where they don't buy from us. And burning ourselves out and then we start believing the doubts we start believing. I'm not really good at marketing. We start believing. I'm not a business owner. I can't do this business thing. I want to encourage you today. That's not true. If you have ever invited anybody to join you for dinner, you have done marketing. Think about it. What are you selling? Essentially what you're selling is your time. Come spend time with me. What, who is it for the person you're asking? And so what do you do? You pick up the phone, there's your strategy, pick up the phone, call that particular person and say, Hey, I'm going to dinner. Would you like to come and we're going to go to. This place at this time on this date. Clarity, clarity, clarity. The person now can step back and look at their calendar and say, yes, I'd like to come to dinner with you. No, I'm sorry. I can't come to dinner with you, but I'd like to do that at another time. Or no, I don't really ever want to go to dinner with you. That's marketing folks. That's exactly what we do when you do marketing. So take a minute right now and ask yourself, have I done marketing today? I would bet you have, I would bet at some point today, you have asked somebody. If what you had to offer for them was for them. Deep stuff. This is why I do what I do, because it matters. So let's talk some more about this call to action. Call to action says, if this is for you, then do this. So what is your specific call to action? How does that person who sees what you have to offer and say, yes, this is for me? How do they get it? What's the next step for them? Do they call you on the phone? Do they send you a message on social media? Do they go to your website? Do they maybe drop by the craft show or the fiber festival or the farmers market and See you there and buy in person. Do they come to your shop? What is your specific call to action for your business for this specific message that you have? Make sense? Don't forget to do that. Don't get so busy in posting cute cat pictures for attention on social media that You don't tell people where they can buy the things that they see So let's put this all together. Number one, the message. What is it? And who is it for? Essentially, as you dig into those four questions and answer them clearly, what you put in your social media posts, in your email marketing, all of those things become simpler and easier. Next, the call to action, how you get it if you want it. Is that simple? So you put those two things together and you have the makings of marketing, and you can send a blog post, a social media, an advertisement, right. The message, what is it and who is it for the call to action, how you get it if you want it. And like we talked about in episode three, the strategy, what is the strategy? The strategy is essentially how you deliver the message and call to action to the world. Can you see how if you don't have clarity on what it is and who it's for and how you get it, if you want it, the strategy then becomes an exercise in wasted time, wasted money. And I would hate for you to do that. So let me give you an example. Here's my message for the work that I do. Number one, the message. I help women learn sales and marketing so they can grow a business with joy through the things they create that God has given them to create. That simple call to action. You can find out more about me, the work I do, the community that I run by going to goldenheartland. com. That's simple. Next steps, the strategies that I use. Well, one of the strategies I use to get this message out to the world is this podcast. The more I can talk about this, the more opportunity that folks who it is for get to hear it. And my hope is that some of you will want to join our community. And my heart is that all of you will find something that changes your life in listening to some of the things. that I want to share. I'm on Facebook and Instagram and LinkedIn and social media, an email newsletter, do free consultations. Those are strategies that I use in my business. So you can sit down with your own business and do the same thing. What's my message? What's my call to action? What strategies are going to use? Now you've got the makings of a cool, cool marketing plan. So I always promise to give you action steps and what to do today. What to do next. So here are today's action steps. Number one, ask yourself the four key questions. What are you selling? Who is it for? Why are you in business at all? How big do you want to be? Once you've asked yourself those questions, take some time to really dig in and where it's unclear, take time to journal, pray, seek clarity on that. And then step three, I invite you to go to goldenheartland. com slash contact. And share your answers with me. I would love to hear what you're discovering as you do this work to dig in, to get clarity, so you can have more confidence in your marketing. It may be hard at first. I do understand that, but your business is worth it. And remember, joy is waiting for you. On the other side of change, you can do this. You can use the gifts and talents. God gave you to earn income through business marketing. It's your friend to help you do this. Take time with a message and call to action and it can change everything. I promise. My name again is Tina Joy Cochran, and I'm the founder of golden. Heartland. Join me next time for more encouragement, insight and inspiration so you can come home to joy. Thank you.