You’ll Want to Start Using This Brilliant Marketing Strategy

Today we're diving into the way you create content and connect with your audience. First up, I'll share a brilliant marketing strategy that shows us how shifting focus from the product to the experience can make all the difference. We'll discuss the value of using customer testimonials and feedback (aka their own words) to craft compelling marketing materials that actually resonates. Stay tuned til the end, where I'll break down three key questions to ask, even if you're just starting out, so you can elevate your messaging, captivate your audience, and boost your sales. Trust me, you won't want to miss this episode!

In this episode we’ll be covering:

• How a focus on customer experiences creates more engaging content. 
• Incorporating the words and experiences clients and customers use into your marketing content to engage potential buyers.
• Analyzing websites and reviews can provide insights into creating effective messaging.
• Collecting testimonials and feedback to help refine your messaging and understand the client's perspective.
• Conducting interviews with previous clients or ideal customers can provide valuable insights into why they chose your product or service.
• Three key questions to ask past or ideal clients: why they bought, how they felt before their purchase, and why they would recommend it.

Links to videos in this episode:

• TikTok Video

Other episodes you might have missed:

• Episode 006: Selling a Lifestyle, Not Just a Product
• Episode 010: Turning Testimonials into Engaging Content for More Sales
• Episode 016: Overcome Social Media Overwhelm with Timeless Marketing Strategies
• Episode 019: Convert Viewers to Followers with the “That’s Me” Reel
• Episode 023: Create Content That Pops by Knowing Why People Want to Buy

Sign up for Reels Lab

Join the Social Squad Society

Love this conversation? Tap the follow button so you never miss an episode.

Connect with me over on Instagram!

Transcript

Shannon McKinstrie [00:00:00]:
I am your host, Shannon McKinstrie. Welcome to Good Content, the podcast where I remove the never ending content creation, guesswork and overwhelm so that you can actually enjoy being on social media again and growing your business with what has always worked. Good Content. You know, I saw a really brilliant TikTok the other day and real quick, apologies for my voice, my allergies, sinuses, everything's a mess. Happy spring, everyone. Or almost spring. But I saw this brilliant TikTok, right? And you know, TikTok shop people are making lots of money by like sharing products and getting a commission for it, right? So it's like this little tic tac toe game that's like automated as a little box, literally.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:00:45]:
Like you press one and it lights up anyway. It's really cute now, usually, I'm sure I would see it and go, cute and keep going, right? This is what was genius. It was a couple sitting at the dining room table and it says, whoever loses has has to do the dishes. And right away I was like, this is marketing. This is genius. Like, it's not about the product, it's about the experience that they'll have with the product and giving people ideas of how they're going to use the product in their life or your what their life will look like with your service in it. And that brings me back to the most important thing that you will ever hear on this podcast or from me or any experienced marketer, which is you need to start incorporating the experiences, feelings, words that your clients are telling you and that your customers are saying to you. Take everything they say, the experiences they do with your product or service, the transformation they got.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:01:34]:
Their words are what need to be in your reels, your carousels, the tagline in your website, the copy above the fold of your website, your Instagram bio, your LinkedIn bio, that is what you need to put there. So if you're not taking the words and things that your buyers and customers are saying and putting them into your content, that's why you might be struggling to stop the scroll, get the sale, convert followers to huge fans, or to convert new visitors to followers, right? When I saw that tic tac toe video, gotta say that three times fast on TikTok, I didn't feel sold to. I was invited into this couple's world and seeing a fun little way that they, at the end of dinner, go, know if I beat you in tic tac toe, you're on dish duty. We don't want to be sold to. We're not scrolled of course, we love to buy things, but we're not scrolling to be sold to. We're not scrolling to. Right. I always like to say, you're walking through a mall.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:02:28]:
What's the worst experience ever? Those people on the kiosk that try to, like, chase you down with the hair straightener and try to put lotion on you as you're trying to walk, and you're like, can I just, like, vibe at the mall? That's the equivalent of just people screaming at you to buy things on Instagram, TikTok, et cetera. That TikTok. Great example. What does the product look like in your life? And because it's obviously just, you know, some husband and wife, it's not the manufacturer itself. You should have seen the engagement. Actually, I'm gonna try to find it for Steph and put it in the show notes, but it had so much engagement, it was crazy. I'm sure she made a great commission. She could have said, oh, my gosh, guys, look at this thing I found boring.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:03:03]:
She showed what it looks like. So with that said, what does it mean whether you sell a product, a service, or you're not even selling anything yet? How do you get those words? Favorite question to be asked. Like, literally, I geek out. And every time I do an Instagram audit or work with someone in the Reels Lab, I'm like, if they're just now selling something and they're like, I don't know why people want the XYZ I'm selling, go to your competitors websites, look at the copy. And let me give you an example. One of my favorite marketers who I love to follow on LinkedIn and everything, and I just love her insights. And she has a newsletter that I'm obsessed with. Cause it's all about why we buy.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:03:33]:
And her brain works very similar to mine where we just love to dissect copy and content that's working and see why people are obsessed with it and buying it. And her latest newsletter gave a really good example of how to do this. So again, Uncommon Goods, they instead of going like, oh, people love our bath, whatever. Oh, we've sold a thousand units of this. Like, who cares? They literally show the product. It's like a bath bomb thing. And it just says, bath time turn from ugh to yay. And.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:04:02]:
And it was actual words from their customer. That says a lot more to me than top selling this or fan favorite that. It's a mom's words of saying, it turned bath time from ugh to yay. Now say you make A product. And your ideal clients are moms. But you're like, why do moms wanna buy that? She just told you bath time felt like ugh until this product. So let's say you are selling, you know, some sort of product that's for kids. You make sure to go to those sites that other people are buying said products and go to the reviews and take those words.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:04:34]:
We're not taking someone's review. That's an actual review from that person. But you could easily say how to take. I mean, gosh, you, if you're a fitness coach, you can even use that copy taking your at home workouts from ugh to I can't wait. But again, what you do is you go to other products that you like or within your niche. Look at the testimonials. All your answers for your struggles with your copy are either directly from people you've already worked with and all the testimonials you've gotten from people. If you're brand new to this world and you're like, I don't have those testimonials yet, Shannon, go to the competitors.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:05:05]:
Or you know, I don't like to say competitors. Right. And the way I actually like to say it is go to the people that you look up to. So you're in fitness. Who's the big guru you love? And another way to do this, not even just the testimonials on their site, go to their comment section. And like, even for me, when I do a series, I wouldn't say, you know, I used to say stuff like, oh, low views and yeah, that would grab some people. But then when I switched to saying to 200 view jail, it got a lot more attention from people because they're like, they know that feeling. So the big lesson in this podcast, which I think this episode is probably one of the most important to ever listen to, to be honest, because as much as I can give you prompts and tell you what to say, the most powerful thing to say is what your customers are saying.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:05:42]:
So another thing I always tell business coaches, especially, you know, anyone in a field where people usually write out an intake form, go back to those intake forms. What were the problems they told you? Why did they say they were going to sign up with you? Right. But this is what your assignment this week, I want you to find if you already have been in the game a while and you've got clients and customers, I want you to reach out to two or three of those past customers, clients or your favorites, Maybe they're repeat buyers, referrals. You can either a email them a survey, but I mean, that's okay. But what I want you to do is get on Zoom or a phone call with them and say, I need 10 minutes. Here's a $5 gift card. Or Dunkin Donuts, whatever, $10. I just got to ask you a few questions.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:06:20]:
Why did you choose me? Why did you refer me? Right. Get these out of them. Because what they're going to tell you is stuff that you didn't even realize. And as someone who has launched so many things, sold so many products online, I can tell you this one thing real quick. The first time I launched something, I'm kind of guessing why they want it. I'm like, this is why I created it. This is what they told me. This is what they said they needed.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:06:38]:
So this is what I created. Once that bad boy is launched and people have bought it, the first thing I do is interview them at least five plus every to offer. I ask them questions like, why did you buy this? Why would you tell someone else to buy it? What was life before? What was life after? Things like that. And then what I do after that's done, I completely revamp the sales page, completely revamp the emails that we send out, completely revamp my copy. Because now I know. And you will be shocked at how much they'll tell you that you're like, that's why you bought this. Again, the mom bath time went from ugh to yay. Now I will a thousand percent tell you.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:07:16]:
I hate bath time. I hate the nighttime routine. That's why I often give Chloe a bath, like in the middle of the day. Cause I'm like, by 7:00 at night, I'm spent. I'm done. Right? So you don't know that unless you talk to your customers. We don't know their lives. We can assume.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:07:29]:
So let's say that Uncommon Goods, if I was their content creator, this is what I would do with that information. I would do a reel. I would do a bunch that basically said this. I'd say, POV used to dread bath time and now it's gone from ugh to yay. And then the video would show probably me putting the bath bomb in there and like, whatever. And then another one could be, watch me take the dreaded 4 to 7pm window from ugh to yay. Right? We literally use her words and just create a bunch of different reels with it. And then the third could be, if you're wondering why some parents don't dread bath time every night, it's because of this Right.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:08:01]:
So again, you take the pain point of your customers and clients that they're actively telling you, and you turn it into content, and you look at what's working. You listen to this podcast for every week I'm telling you reels that are going crazy and you incorporate that copy into it. No one is going to help you sell more stuff faster than the people who've already bought from you. Now, if you're someone who is yet to sell anything, hasn't launched their product or service yet, what you're going to do is talk to people who you'd love to buy your product or service in the future and interview them, and you simply ask. I've had literally bookkeepers do this with me. They're like, hey, Shannon, can I just pick your brain for 10 minutes? I'm like, sure. And we'll get on Zoom and they'll say, how'd you feel? Because they know I already have a bookkeeper or I already have whatever service they're offering. So say, how'd you feel before? What was it that made you choose this person? What is it that.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:08:48]:
Da, da, da. And I tell them everything. And every time they're like, I never thought of it that way. Oh, my gosh. And then they use my words and their copy to get clients. You can do this. Trust me, you can do this. Especially if you're in the beginning stages, you can't hire a brand strategist, you can't hire a social media manager, you can't hire a content creator.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:09:04]:
Talk to your people. And the best way to do it is interview style. So grab those testimonials from people you look up to, Grab the testimonials you already have, take those words and copy out that make you go, oh, my gosh, there it is. And every time I do an Instagram bio for someone, I find everything I need to know in their testimonials. It's all right there, all the information I need to know about them. And if you ever do work with a brand strategist or a copywriter for a sales page, the first thing they will do on your forms, when you are doing all your stuff to get them ready, they're gonna ask you for past clients and customers to reach out to and interview. It's the first step. I always say messaging first, social media second.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:09:41]:
Because once you know your messaging and why people buy from you, why people wanna follow you, why your product or services take something from ugh to, yay, you got it. Tic tac, toe. Show me what it feels like, and then to bring it back to the tic tac toe video, it's like, show me parts of my day to day life that this product will be found in, that the service will be found in. Look at the past testimonials, talk to some people, interview them, ask them why they use your product. So again, if you're a product, I want you to find out the experiences and day to day activities, things like that. So again, that tic tac toe game, it's like, oh, that makes doing the dishes maybe a little more fun, right? It's the thing we dread. What makes it more fun? We're on social media, have fun. How does your product or service make life more fun and showcase it and or create content that just shows the POV side what it's like to wrap this up, really.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:10:30]:
It's just you gotta ask these three key questions to either a previous customer client that you really, really like or someone that would be an ideal future customer of yours, right? The first question is why did you buy? So that means like why did you buy it from someone else or why'd you buy it from me? Right? So if they bought from you, why did you choose me? Why did you buy from me? Why did you hire me? Right? Enter whatever makes more sense for that and just let them talk, okay? And if they've bought your product that you haven't even launched yet from someone else, ask them what have you purchased and why? Like what is it that made you buy it? And the second is how did you feel before buying xyz, whatever that product service is that how was your life before? What did it look like? What was the pain point before? Right? Let them go back because you really want to find out how they felt before buying the product or service. And that might be a little hard for them. They might have to really think back, like really think. Before you lost the weight, before you found this game changing tool, before, what was it? How did you feel? What was your mindset, what was the dread of the day with that? And the last one is why would you tell someone else to buy it? That's it, three easy questions. Why'd you buy it? What was it like? What was your life before? So you can really get a sense for how they're feeling in that moment before they've found your product, bought it, etc. And then lastly, why would you tell other people to buy it? And let them say, because guess what? We buy from our friends and family and people in Facebook groups, we go, hey, who you use as a travel agent? Who did you use as a realtor? Does anyone know? Or what sofa do you have that you love? We see it all the time on Facebook and people go nuts in the comments suggesting right. Why would you tell someone to buy my sofa? Why would you tell someone to hire me as their travel agent and let them tell you and use those words in your copy? And like I said, this is not the sexy part, this is not the fun part. No one wants to do it, but once you do it, it's actually really fascinating.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:12:15]:
It's really fun. It's really eye opening. And guess what? The engagement on your content and your sales go through the roof. So you have no excuses. You've got the three questions, get em on zoom, get them on a phone call, ask them to coffee and get those answers. And then next week we will dive back into content and everything you learn from those. I'm going to tell you what to take with that information to create content because I know this is going to take you about a week to get all this information ready. Go.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:12:40]:
I love you. I'll talk to you next week.