BizMagic Podcast

The 4 Types of Content Your Business Needs to Build Trust & Drive Sales with Keriann Bellamy

• Patti Meyer • Season 1 • Episode 17

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This episode is the permission slip, pep talk, AND strategy download you didn’t know you needed.

I’m joined by the one and only Keriann Bellamy—a ridiculously talented content strategist, email copywriter, and yes, the Content Manager here at BizMagic! Keriann is breaking down her signature framework of the four types of content your business actually needs to build trust and drive real, honest-to-goodness sales.

No hype. No trends. No BS. Just real strategy and examples you can actually use (plus a few gut health analogies because... why not?).

Here’s what we cover:

  • The 4 content types that move your audience through their buyer journey (and why you need all 4)
  • Why “just posting value” isn’t cutting it anymore
  • How storytelling makes your biz more memorable and more sellable
  • What “inspirational” content actually looks like (hint: not a quote graphic)
  • Why email should be your content insurance policy
  • What metrics to track to know if your content is working
  • How to shift your content when your audience evolves
  • PLUS: Keriann’s favorite tech tool, her Notion obsession, and how her theater degree secretly made her a badass copywriter

Wanna make your content actually work for you instead of just filling up your calendar and clogging your brain? This one’s for you.

About Keriann:

Keriann is a content strategist and email copywriter who helps online business owners attract dream clients and grow their business with done-for-you content and custom email funnels—so they can spend less time marketing and more time making an impact.

With a background in theater, health coaching, and seven years in digital marketing, Keriann blends expert storytelling with data-driven copy to help health and wellness coaches craft strategic and engaging content across multiple marketing channels. She specializes in capturing her clients’ authentic voice, ensuring their message resonates with the right people. She believes that great content is about building relationships, and effective messaging always wins over ever-changing algorithms.

When she’s not crafting compelling content for her clients, you can find her hiking with her border collie, Maple, or getting lost in her latest fantasy book. With a passion for holistic health, Keriann loves supporting female entrepreneurs with a mission to better people’s lives.

Links:

Learn more about BizMagic or the BizMagic Podcast.

Welcome back to another episode of the Biz Magic Podcast, your place for all things tech in your online business with solids. So General Biz Chat two. My name is Patty Meyer and I am the CEO and founder of Biz Magic, where my team and I support entrepreneurs who are overwhelmed by the backend tech of their business.

We create, implement, and teach the tweaks that help our clients make a bigger impact with less stress. Welcome back. I am super happy to have you, and today we have a guest on the podcast and we're gonna talk about content. So if you've ever stared at a blinking cursor wondering what the hell to say in your next email or your blog posts or social posts, then this episode could possibly be your new best friend.

Today I'm gonna chat with Carrie Ann Bellamy, a content strategist and email copywriter. All about the four types of content your business needs to build trust and actually drive sales, because if we're honest winging, it really only gets you so far. But first, let me tell you a little bit about Carrie Ann.

Carrie Ann helps online business owners attract dream clients and grow their business with done for you content and custom email funnels so they can spend less time marketing and more time making an impact. With a background in theater health coaching and seven years in digital marketing, she blends expert storytelling with data-driven copy to help health.

And wellness coaches craft strategic and engaging content across multiple marketing channels. Carrie Ann specializes in capturing her client's authentic voice, making sure their message hits home with the right people, and she's a firm believer that great content is. All about building relationships because effective messaging will always beat the latest algorithm when she's not helping entrepreneurs write content that actually works.

You can find Carrie Ann hiking with her border collie maple, or getting lost in a fantasy novel. She's got a passion for holistic health and love supporting mission-driven female entrepreneurs who are out to better people's lives. So with all of that said, let's dive into the episode. Welcome, Carrie Ann.

Yeah, thank you. I'm so excited to be here.

Yeah, me too. So, I did an introduction already talking a little bit about who you are and and what you do. But I would love to hear kind of in your own words, um, you just sort of tell us a little bit about, about you and your business.

Yeah, cool. I'll try to give you the SparkNotes version of like how I got to where I am now.

Um, but I am a content strategist and email copywriter for health and wellness coaches, but I love working with all business owners. But the reason I love working with health, health and wellness coaches is because they actually started. My online business journey as a certified health coach. So I got certified back in 2018 through, um, an online program called Institute for Integrative Nutrition.

Anybody kind of in the health coach industry might be familiar with it, and that's when I really started learning about what online business even was. I think even back then, I didn't know what it was, I just thought mm-hmm. I'll just like write a blog and people will just wanna work with me because my information will be good.

And so that's kind of where I started, just really wanting to share all the things I learned and hoping it would get me clients, but really having no clear strategy or knowledge. And so between like 20 18, 20 20, I just started taking a lot of different courses. Like I took an email marketing course in 2019 that really helped me understand.

Like, like lead magnets and funnels and like how to actually get people from point A to point B. And then I just started attending a lot of like free summits, um, listening to podcasts and sort of piecing together all this information. And it wasn't until 2020 that I found out what a virtual assistant actually was.

I think until then I sort of just thought all these people I was seeing online and kind of trying to emulate, just did everything by themselves.

I was

like, oh yeah, they write their website and do all their social media and like they do everything. So, and they never sleep. It's amazing. Yeah, it's fine.

It's, it's, and they make it look so effortless and easy. And here I'm trying to like learn how to do it all and I had learned a lot of great skills along the way, but I wasn't really getting where I wanted in terms of like my health coaching. It didn't feel like it was gonna be a viable source of income for me, like anytime soon.

Yeah. And so I

was like, what am I gonna do? I really love everything I'm learning. I, I wanna work in the, the health and wellness. Field. 'cause I'm so passionate about it. And so when I learned about virtual assisting, it was like something just clicked and I was like, wait, I can take everything I've been learning and actually use it to support some of these people that I like, look up to and really respect.

That's like. That's the dream. That's it. And it just kind of took all these other skills that I had and and just kind of combined them. And so I started doing that in like 2022. It still kind of took me a few years to like really figure out that path and what it looked like, but I started applying for like content assistant positions online, booked a few clients and that's when I really became interested in like not only doing the content, you know, like I was doing social media, marketing emails, blog writing, I was creating lead magnets, all that kind of thing.

But what I was really interested in was looking at, okay, how do all these different forms of content connect? Like how do we get somebody from point A to where they learn about my client to point B, where they're like ready to buy and like, what does that journey look like? And so that's when I really started.

Becoming more interested in like the strategy side of it and more copywriting skills as well. So learning more like persuasion techniques and frameworks. And that's when I stepped sort of out of that VA role and really started focusing more on content strategy and helping clients figure out what that looks like for them.

I love that. And had you been interested at all before in writing or done much in the way of, like, were you avid on social media before you kind of fell into stuff?

I feel like I've done a bunch of different stuff. Like I had an Etsy, I have an Etsy shop, which I don't really, um. Work on actively anymore.

Um, I used to love writing in like high school and college and it's like, it's just interesting. I also was a theater major in college and I could talk about like the theater to marketing pipeline all day long. I feel like it's something that nobody talks about, but there are so many similarities to acting and theater and copywriting, and so I'm using the things that I learned with that degree like every day in copywriting, which is just, I mean, super satisfying, especially like.

You know, investing in an education like that and now getting to use it in a way I never expected. So yeah, I feel like it's, like I said, it's just like a combination of so many different things. I loved writing in high school. I always felt like it was something I was good at. But again, I just, I think a lot of people don't understand what copywriting is.

I don't really know about it. Especially like in like if you're in college or high school and you're like trying to think of different career paths. To me, like marketing seemed very, it didn't seem very creative to me. I didn't realize what a creative. Thing. It was like if I had known everything I know now, back then it would've been like a no brainer for me to pursue.

But like, I don't know, it's really just been all of these different paths that have sort of brought me to where I am now, which is like how I know it's what I'm supposed to be doing. Like as corn as that sounds, it's like, yeah. So I think that just like the combination of like what I learned studying theater, what I learned as a health coach, and then everything I've learned in online business has helped me.

Feel like this is like what I'm supposed to be doing.

Yeah. I really love that. And one of the things, um, and I didn't mention this in the, in the intro, but you are the content manager here at Biz Magic as well. Oh yeah. And you're going on three years working with me. And, and some of the things that ha have really impressed me in, in working with you is.

How, how curious you are and how invested you are in constantly growing and learning your skillset and your ability to capture voice and your creativity and the way you try different things. And it blows my mind on a regular basis that you kind of come up with these ideas. Of things that we can do for Biz Magic social that I would've never thought of, because that's not my strong suit.

It's not my, my area of genius and it clearly is yours, which is why I was so excited to have you on to talk about this stuff and which kind of leads me into, um, you know, one of the things that you talk about are the four types of content. Um, and you talk about. Content pillars and things like that. So I would love for you to kind of just dive in a little bit to talking about these four types of content and what that looks like and, and just talk a little bit about that.

Yeah. So, um, I think that everybody is sort of looking for when it comes to content marketing, like what is that, like magic formula, like that I can follow, that's gonna help me, you know. Whatever your goal is, and most people, their goal with content is like more sales, right? Right. Like whenever I ask people like, oh, what are your goals?

They're like, well, I wanna make more money. Like, yeah, none of us are on social media, so we can be content creators. That's not like what I mean, it's not what I wanna be on there for. I think that's why what I was doing with my health coaching didn't work because I was just creating content just to. Do it right.

And I'm like, I don't wanna be doing this. This isn't like really what I signed up for. And so I think a lot of business owners get frustrated when they're like, oh, I'm putting so much work and effort into this and it's not driving more sales. Um, and so I think the first thing to understand is that like there is a lot more touch points that need to happen between whatever it is you're posting versus the result you're trying to get.

Right. I think a lot of us are familiar with the whole idea of like. Your audience needs to hear from you at least seven times before they're ready to buy from you. Mm-hmm. But now, because so many more of us are online and there's just so much more content and we're being inundated with so many more marketing messages on a daily basis, that number has grown quite a bit.

I was just listening to someone talk about this, and I don't have the exact number, but I think she was saying it's like up in the twenties now, so it's like, God,

I 21 was in my head 21, so it must be like something around there. Yeah,

yeah. Gone are the days where it's. It's just like, you know, follow this, this step by step formula and you'll get X results.

And I think that's why people are so frustrated and like usually when they want to outsource their content or hire someone like me to do it for them, they either don't have time anymore, they don't want to 'cause they just don't like it or they don't know how to get those results. So I've kind of developed my own way of looking at it.

That helps me break down, okay, what are all of the core messages that we need to hit to get people from point A where they're just discovering who you are and point B, where they're wanting to buy from you and everything in between there is your content. And when I say content. I guess I should also specify, I'm not just talking about social media.

I feel like that's what most people think of and where most people want help, because that's kinda where the vanity metrics are, right? Yeah. That's like the shiny object, but I'm also talking about any type of content for your business. So email marketing, if you have a blog, if you have a podcast like Patty.

If you do YouTube, if you do like a Facebook Live every week, I have a client whose leads are all on a Facebook group, and that's how she, you know, markets her business. So there's lots of different ways to do it. There's no one right way. And everything I'm gonna be talking about today, you can apply to whatever strategy you're using.

So I guess the next thing I should say is like. I'm not reinventing the wheel here either. Like when I say there's like these four types of content, it's not like something that like I came up with that. I'm like, this is the formula that works. It. Taking everything I've learned from other people and from like timeless messaging strategies and marketing philosophies and kind of just like reframing them in a way my brain understands.

I think a lot of times in online business we are inundated with all these messages of like, this is my unique mechanism and this is how you're gonna, you know, accomplish this. And it's like sometimes things work because they work.

Mm, mm-hmm. You know,

like class, like we don't need to reinvent the wheel.

And I think a lot of times, like sometimes we skip that part and we're just trying to find like the person that has that like special formula when if you just learn the foundational messaging strategies that work, it's the same for everyone. And once you learn them, you'll realize that everybody's talking about the same thing.

They're just like calling it different stuff. So like I love

that. Yeah. Yeah.

I just wanna be clear about that because it's not about like coming up with some clever thing, it's just like. These have worked for decades, they're still gonna work. The trends are just what changes, right?

Mm-hmm. I love that.

And I just wanna sort of, I, I wanna say that again because I think that that is such an important thing, is these ideas of, oh, it, it's changing all the time and there are. Parts of it in, in more of what you're saying, like the superficial nature of it is changing at all times. Yeah. But the core base of content and marketing is the same.

And it's what everybody is saying, whatever their spin is and the language they're using around it and whatever's it's being called today, but in the end, it's the same sort of base that's being used and has been used for decades.

Yeah. Like trends come and go, but like your messaging strategy is what's gonna like.

Stay with you for years to come. Right. And trends are just like how we package the message, but the message underneath is like what you really need to nail. So if you're just like following people online who are telling you to like. You know, and just like use this trending audio and like pair this hook with it and then you do it and you're like, it didn't work for me.

It's like, well what's the message underneath that? Like, do you have a compelling message? Are you saying something that's resonating? If you're not, that's where the work needs to go and that's what we're gonna talk about today. So

yeah. Okay. With all that being, so do it. Go for it. Let's talk about it.

Yeah.

So these types of four content are a really easy way for you to just have some type of roadmap. To follow so that you know, you're like hitting all the messages you need to hit. And they're really based on the different phases of the customer journey, which is just like a really basic marketing principle.

So there are three phases of the customer journey. The first is the awareness stage, and this is pretty much when somebody. Recognizes that they have a problem and they're like, oh crap, I have this problem. Like, and they need to learn more about it because people aren't going to buy a solution to something if they don't understand what the problem is in the first place.

Right. So like a good example of this would be like, say you're a health coach or like a functional practitioner, which I'll just use that example 'cause I work with a lot of functional practitioners.

Mm-hmm.

And let's say you help people heal their gut and the main issue they have is like IBS digestive issues.

People need to first understand their digestive issues before they buy a solution that's all about gut health, because they're not like, they have to be able to connect the two. Right. So that's typically the first phase people are in. They're like, okay, I have IBS, or I'm having like stomach pains. Like why?

Right. So

essentially they're experiencing something which is Right. Pain points that people talk about. Yeah. So they're in this experience, they're having something, but now they're searching in their own words and their own language, and they don't know necessarily that this is their gut at this point.

And so now they're getting to a point with their research where they have to learn that this is their gut, so that they know what to look for.

Yeah, exactly. And then the next phase would be the consideration phase. So this is when, okay, they know more about the problem that they're having now. They need to consider different solutions.

So like, okay, I'm having these stomach issues. I think it's related to my gut health. What do I need? Do I need a supplement? Do I need like to try a special diet? Do I need like a program with like a practitioner who's gonna work with me one-on-one? So they're considering all these different solutions and then maybe they don't know yet, which is the right one.

And then, then the final stages, the decision phase where they're weighing all the different things that they could invest and spend money on. And this is typically when they're weighing things like cost, um, the time commitment, the different features that are included and like the person that's offering it, right?

So that's when they're really into that nitty gritty. So if you can. Follow these four different types of content I'm about to share. They touch on each of these stages so that no matter where someone is, when they discover you, you will be putting up messaging that's gonna resonate with where they are.

'cause people enter your world at different stages. Some people right, might be coming in right at the beginning where they need a lot of education about their problem and some people might be coming in and they're ready to buy. They're just looking for the right person. And so they wanna know if you're that person for them.

And it is important to like understand what level of awareness your person is at. So like. Using me as an example, since I'm a done for you service provider, I'm probably not gonna create a lot of educational content around like how. To like, like very basic like DIY stuff for people who want, I want to buy from me because they're not at the phase where they're DIYing their content anymore.

They're at the phase where maybe they wanna outsource it. So it might not make sense for me to like create content for that particular audience. Right. Just like a functional medicine practitioner, if you find that a lot of people you're working with already into your world and they already know a lot about gut health, you might not need to create a lot of content that's so basic.

That they already understand. And the only way you're gonna really figure out, okay, what level of awareness does this person have is just by like doing your own market research and like talking to your people and understanding why they decided to buy from you. What stage of awareness were they at? Like you have to really dig deep and think about that stuff.

And that will come with time as you learn more and more about like who you're talking to. So the first, uh. Say something

to that. Oh, yeah, yeah. So, so, and I think, um, you know, you and I working together have seen this just to offer sort of another example as well. It's something that, um, it's almost like the chicken and the egg because it can also be that, oh, okay, I no longer wanna attract the people that I have been attracting.

I'm ready to maybe level up or I'm pivoting to a different offering or different service. And so therefore my content needs. To change because, so for example, right Biz Magic, switching a bit more away from DIY, which is what we were doing for a long time and switching more into more, uh, holistic done for you services and that sort of thing.

And so you and I together talked this all through and made that conscious decision to say, okay, well, we're not going to be putting out the same content that we've had because. We are looking to work with people that are in a different place, that are at a different level and that sort of thing. And so therefore we have to reconfigure the content and what we're putting out.

Yeah, and it's challenging too, and it takes time. Like you're not gonna get it right, right out of the gate. I like, I think it's just one big experiment, to be honest. Yeah. And that's why it can be frustrating because people just want to say, oh, this person gave me this hook. I used it, it didn't work. It's like.

It just takes time to like experiment with different messages and really see what resonates. And it takes like, proactively getting on calls with people and asking them, talking to your people. And like that's something for, for me as a copywriter that like, is so foundational to my work. But it's something I shied away from for a minute.

Like as I was transitioning from VA more to copywriter, it's like it is intimidating to take that level of ownership over your messaging versus just like sort of. Doing what other people are doing or like relying too heavily on AI to do it for you, but that's really how you stand out and you, you kind of stop creating like more generic messaging and get more specific.

Yeah, because you don't ever wanna just assume you know what your person is thinking. Um, you want to, you know, be sure and really be able to. Have that like, like, like have the proof that like you, you either saw it by doing your own market research and like looking online to see what people are saying about this certain problem.

Or you heard it right from the mouth of somebody who you've worked with. So

Yeah,

and that's, it just takes time and it takes practice and

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That's why marketing in general, content marketing, it's a long game. And yeah, people can get frustrated because they don't see results right away.

But it can take years. It can take months and years, and it, it's, it's frustrating, but it's definitely a long game for sure. Yeah.

And once you like start getting it and you really start taking off like. That's when you're like, it's satisfying.

Yeah. Yeah. Okay. So types of content. Everybody out there is like, okay, shut up Patty, let's go.

Let's go. So go ahead. Types of content.

So the first type of content you wanna prioritize is educational content, um, which I have a lot to say about, but this is gonna be for those people who are at that first stage of awareness. And there's two goals with this type of content. So the first goal is to progress their learning journey and to like really educate them on the problem they have and also for you to build a.

Authority as a person who knows what the heck they're talking about, right?

Mm-hmm.

And I think just people have a lot of opinions on this because if you are like following like marketing gurus online, what they'll say is like, educational content is dead. Like you don't wanna be doing that anymore. Like you don't wanna be the free tip person, but like the truth is like.

It's not that educational content is dead and people don't need it, it's just the way in which we consume it has changed. Because if you think about like five or six years ago, um, you know, especially like 2020 and Covid when everybody was online all the time at home and just like consuming content.

'cause there wasn't a lot to do. You know, people wanted lots of information. But now we have AI and there's so many more people online. It's like that kind of generic. Content doesn't really work anymore. So an example of this would be like, like what people are pretty much saying like, oh, stay away from this.

Would, again, going back to like maybe the gut health example. So if you had a carousel that was like five tips to heal your gut and then you have like five tips, it's like that might have worked like five or six years ago, but now that's just. You know, it's very generic. It's, it's not very specific. Right.

We could go find that type of information anywhere.

Mm-hmm. But what

you wanna do is you wanna make it very specific to you. So you could take something like this and flip it. So instead of saying five tips to heal your gut, you would say, if I was starting my health journey all over again, here are five things I would focus on for better gut health.

That's instantly gonna like be more engaging and make people wanna know what you have to say because it's specific to you. Right. So that's kind of like a simple thing you can do to make it a bit more engaging. And then with educational content, you always want to be like pointing towards a very specific.

Issue that points to a larger issue, right? Because another concern people have about like, oh, I don't wanna give away too much for free, or I don't wanna just educate

mm-hmm. For free. But

it's, it's not necessarily about, about that. It's, it's kind of like if you can pick something very, very specific in whatever your offer is based on, to teach them to give somebody a quick win, but then point it towards a larger issue.

So let's say again, I'm just gonna stick with like the gut health coach example. So let's say one. Way that you can support your gut is like everybody knows, is like probiotics, right? So maybe you create a post that is talking about, this is a specific probiotic I like to use for my clients. That really helps them.

But a probiotic isn't the only thing you need. You also need X, Y, and Z. And those are the types of things I teach in my pay program. See, so you educated, you gave a really helpful tip, but then you also pointed them to the larger issue of like, you didn't solve everything for them in one thing. Right?

That's another thing that people, a mistake people make with this type of content is they try to solve the entire issue in one post or in one blog post or in one email. You don't need to do that. Yeah. You can pick one very, very specific thing to focus on to give your people a quick win to progress their learning journey to the next step.

And then, but remember, you need the whole picture, which I have, which is inside my paid program.

Right. And now it builds trust because they're like, oh, this person knows what they're talking about because I got this quick win. That is essentially, it's a, it's a dopamine hit, right? It is something that says, oh yes, this is great.

And now that's associated with you when we really wanna talk about it, you know, when we gotta get in. Yeah. And if it's

memorable too, it makes you memorable. Mm-hmm. I saw this real like a few weeks ago from this gut health coach. And she was talking about how it was like, I wish more people knew that like doing squats every 45 minutes is more effective for regulating your blood sugar than taking a 30 minute walk.

Hmm.

And it's like, I still remember that. And now I'm like, should I be setting a timer to like, do squats?

I just thought, uh, that, I mean, that was very impactful to me. I'm like,

oh, I could, I could use that. Yeah. I think about how specific and useful that is to somebody. Yeah. And it instantly makes me wanna go back to her.

Page and like learn more from her because I'm like, wow, that was really helpful. Right? So you can be helpful without being that like person who's just giving away all these generic tips, some other tips for this type of content, you can address common mistakes people are making address common myths in your industry.

So like what are some misconceptions people have about your topic? Um, and you can use things like statistics. So again, if you're, especially if you're in the health and wellness world or any type of world where people really want that roof, um, using like research back statistics just to like get people's attention and to really build that authority.

So

yeah. I love that.

Yeah. Okay, so the next piece of content would be relatable content, which is, this is now people are moving out of that like. Awareness phase more into the consideration phase. So they're like, okay, I kind of understand more about like what it is I'm dealing with, and now I wanna know like what are the different things that I need for help?

Relatable content is all about building that know, like, and trust factor. If you've heard that, that's a really common marketing phrase that people use. And this is all about showcasing why you are the right person to help them, right? You want to. People don't buy from people they don't like or they don't trust.

That's just, especially like now if we consider like the climate we're navigating mm-hmm.

In these

times, like people wanna buy from people who have similar values as they do, who align with who they feel like they are. So you really wanna be showcasing things like why you do what you do. Like what is your brand story.

Get very, very clear about like your origin story, right? And. Tell it in lots of different ways. There's so many different ways you can tell your origin story like over and over and over again. Don't be afraid to continue sharing it in different ways. You also want to, again, lean into your values and think about ways that you can incorporate those into your content.

And then if you have any like hot takes in your industry, that might be different from what other people. So think about what other people who do similar things that you do, what kind of hot takes do you have that might. Be different than that and like lean into that. 'cause that's gonna really make you memorable and really gonna resonate with people.

And then the best way to really create content like this is through storytelling, which I think people struggle with because they're like, my life is so boring. I don't know how to come up with things. But like if you start studying marketing and you get on people's email lists, like especially like choose a few marketers that you like and just start reading their emails, you'll see how they just take.

Simple lessons from their everyday life. Like, oh, is that wine in the grocery store today? And someone said this crazy thing and this is how I related it back to business. Mm-hmm. Like that's a really great way to not only help people get to know you in your daily life 'cause you're including details about your daily life.

Yeah. But then also bring it back to how you serve people.

Yeah, and I wanna say there, because that's something for, so a lot of these things, because I've worked with you and because I, you know, have been doing this stuff for a while myself, are are things that I'm familiar with to an extent. And so.

That's one of the things that I always love when I see out in the wild, those people making those connections to moments that they have in their everyday life and connecting it back to business. And so that's something for me that I'm, it's not a strong suit of mine. Mm-hmm. Because, uh, I, my brain just doesn't work that way.

And so, you know, of course I've beat myself up for it at various moments, but I think like, even if. As a starting point, you, and I'm telling this to me right now as I'm thinking about it, um, like just journal in a very light way of the things that you did today. And it gives you sort of a, you know, a library of things that you can then maybe sit and, and if you're building content at one, one day, sit and look at like, oh, here's last week's all the things I did.

And it, it can be mundane things. Mm-hmm. If you're looking at it and you're actually just sitting down and looking at it from that lens, maybe there'll be some inspiration there and something that will pop up, you know? Yeah,

and, and honestly, the more mundane the better because it's more relatable. Yeah.

Like people want to find commonality with you in any way that they can. It's gonna help them to trust you and, and when they, when they are in need of whatever it is you provide, you're gonna be the person they think of because they feel like they've built this relationship with you. Even if that relationship is just reading emails.

And I will say, I think email marketing is the best way to accomplish this. It's the most personal and dynamic form of content. And so if storytelling is something you really want to get better at, it's also a skill that you can learn.

Mm-hmm.

Which, mm-hmm. Takes practice. And again, I think that's where like my background in theater is something that I really took for granted until I started doing this work and was like, holy shit.

Like I really do understand just like how to craft a narrative because I was just sort of learning that in the background as I studied theater.

Yeah. So

it is something that you can learn. There's so many like great books out there for storytelling and like, I would just, like you said, start, just start writing things down that happened to you that feel like ma just made you go.

Hmm.

Yeah, and

just like start thinking about how can you like, relate it back to like lessons that people need to learn about for whatever it is that you teach. Yeah. So like a great example of this is like, I like, and this is, this is kind of like. A lucky example 'cause it was very obvious, but I got, I got my taxes done a few months ago and I was talking to my tax lady and she was talking about how she goes on a lot of cruises.

So when she's not in tax season, that's what she does, which is awesome. But she was saying that she's been on so many cruises now that she gets a lot of, um. Like good deals and offers, and her email is just like full of so many emails from all these different cruise lines. And she was showing me and she had like hundreds of unopened emails.

And she goes, I open every single one of these emails, even if I, she's like, I save them and then I'll open them. And if it's a, if it's an offer that I want or if it's going to a location I'm interested in, I save it. And if it's not, I just delete it. And it was so funny because a few weeks. Before I had been talking to a few clients who were saying, you know, I just don't think people wanna read my emails.

Like I don't wanna send them too many emails 'cause I don't want, you know, to bother them. I don't want it to like sit in their inbox. And I was like, that would make such a great antidote. Yeah. For those people who have that fear of like, I don't wanna send too many emails, it's like, well this, you know, my tax lady has hundreds of emails, but if mm-hmm.

People wanna hear what you're saying and they're interested in what you offer, they will read them. So that's just like an example from, from something from my everyday life. I could write a whole story around. So again, I know that one is kind of more like, it was very specific. Oh, that's great though.

Yeah. No, it's great. You never know when those things are gonna. Just organically come. So like, yeah, have a journal, have a some space where you can start writing this stuff down so that you can always come back to it when you're looking for ideas.

Yeah, I love that.

Yeah. Okay. So the third type of content is inspirational content.

And this is more than just like some sort of inspirational like quote, but that's kind of the gist. But the whole goal behind it is a bit deeper. So the goal of inspirational content is to build, build belief that re the results or transformation you provide are actually possible.

Hmm. So if

someone doesn't believe.

That what you offer will work for them. They're, they're nev, they're never gonna buy it. So like, say you wanna lose weight and you've tried all these different, like weight loss things in the past, and like you're someone who offers like a weight loss program. If that person doesn't actually believe it's possible, they're not gonna buy it.

Same with like the gut health issue that we talked about. If this person has been having stomach issues and they've tried everything and nothing has worked like. They have to overcome those beliefs. So this is a bit different than like the educational content where we were talking about like myth busting and like common mistakes.

This is more like deeper psychological stuff. Like what are the limiting beliefs that people have mm-hmm. That are stopping them from taking action. And this isn't about being like slimy or like trying to manipulate people into buying something they don't need. Right. We're not talking about that. We're really talking about like.

People get in their own way all the time, right? And if you have a product or a service that you really believe can help somebody, but they're not taking you up on it, there's probably some objections or some type of belief that they have that they just need a little bit of help. And you can do this in your content in a ton of different ways.

And the best way that I think people should do this is to really like go back and look at, okay, well what are my core values in my business and in my like brand voice. And really going with that. So that can look like, you know, pep talks, gentle reminders, like permission slips. So if you tend to be more like a pathetic, you know, that's like your brand voice is very like, caring, empathetic.

I'm just like your partner. I wanna be your friend. You don't have to like come out of the gates and be like. Because I feel like sometimes this type of content can really turn people off if it's done in a way that doesn't align with their values. You know what I mean?

Yeah, absolutely.

Yeah. So you can always just, I know like we've done this a lot with your content Patty, I know with like emails and certain content, and it does really resonate with people when we sort of just give them.

Like a little gentle reminder and a little bit of encouragement. Yeah, because sometimes people just need a little bit encouragement on their journey. So like your ideal client would be a fellow business owner who needs support in their business. Business is hard and there's a lot of hurdles you're gonna have to overcome.

And so sometimes people just need, you know, a message addressing some of those beliefs or some of those hard things that they're going through. So you could use this type of content to do that. You can also use it to do future pacing. So inspiring people by painting the picture of like what their life will look like once they overcome this problem or once they have this solution and getting them really excited and pumped up to take action.

Yeah, like reminding them like, this is what's at the finish line. If you just keep going. And then you can also, like the most powerful way to do this is to showcase like social proof and like client success stories. And again, there's so many different dynamic ways you can do this. You don't just have to slap a testimonial up and be like, here you go.

You can like, yeah. Create case studies, use storytelling, just however you can start to get that person to start picturing what those results are gonna look like and be like, here, this person did it and, and help them like resonate with that person's story is gonna be like the most engaging way to do that.

So.

Yeah. Absolutely. I love that. The whole time you were talking, I was thinking case studies, so I love that. Yeah. That that means I was on the right track,

which made me validating. Yeah, and the great thing about like a case study versus a testimonial is it's more like it follows a storytelling framework.

Yeah. So we're really talking about, this is where this person must, before they started working with me, this was like the journey we took them on and these were the results. We're not just showing the results, we're really showing the messy middle so that that person can resonate with all of those different.

Hurdles that they might have hit along the way. And I think a lot of times business owners might wanna shy away from that. Like they're like, oh, I don't wanna talk about like the messy middle. I just wanna show like the shiny ending of like how I helped this person. But that messy middle is gonna be what resonates with that person who still, you know, needs that help.

So it's important to like, really, and this is like we're getting on interviews like with past clients and like really talking to them about. What about your services really helped? Obviously this is more for like service providers, but even people who sell products and things like that too. That's where this is really important because you gotta get those stories from those people's own words because they're the ones that are gonna be able to resonate deeper with the people who maybe are still on the fence on whether or not they wanna, you know, move forward.

Yeah, I love that.

Yeah. And then the last piece of content is really simple and straightforward, and it's just promotional and just like talk about the stuff that you offer. Promote yourself, like. They kind of forget that part, right? Mm-hmm. They get so caught up in like the trends and all the different things that they should be doing.

They kind of forget to just like talk about that thing that they forget sell. And this is like when people are in that like final decision making process. So think about they need that information to make a decision. So think about things that are on your sales page or in your sales sequences. So like FAQs features and like what are the benefits of those features, right?

Um, like testimonials, like we said, um, that kind of thing. So. I can't tell you like how many people I will start following or discover. Like, so if I'm like following you on Instagram for like a few months and I still don't know. Like what you do, like might know how you can help

me. Yeah, yeah, yeah. If I

don't actually know what you sell and like what your program is like, that's a problem.

You know what I mean? Right. Yeah. Mm-hmm. We talk about what we do all day long, so I might know like, oh, you're this person, but like, I don't actually know if I wanted to pay you in five minutes. I don't even know what the program is.

What is the offer? What is the actual offer? Like how, yeah, I know that you can get me from point A to point B, but I don't know how, and you haven't laid out exactly how I can hand give, let me give you my money.

Exactly. You have to ask for the sale and this type of content, like traditionally it's gonna get less engagement. It's gonna not, I guess, perform as well, but like it's just as important. So think of start thinking about like what is your unique framework or methodology? Do you approach the way that you help people in a way that's very different?

And you can really start leaning into that and focusing on like what sets you apart. Um, and that's really gonna help people like make that final decision. So.

Yeah, that was amazing. That was all like, so incredibly helpful. Um, I really love that. And, and kind of to that last one, and I've mentioned this in some of my other episodes as well, the lessons that I have of forgetting to share the CTA they call to action or, um, being afraid to sell to my list.

And, you know, and I've definitely said this before, that I have a coach or had a coach that. You know, I was being weird and uncomfortable about wanting to send emails, promoting my services, and she was like, but literally you have a business because you want to make money in some way. And yes, you're delivering a service, you're doing what you love, but in order to do that, you have to make money and therefore you have to sell.

And it's, it's like. Yes, I'm here to make connections. I'm here to, you know, make friends sometimes and all of that. But also at the end of the day, I'm here to make a living. And so if people leave my list because I'm doing promotions or they unfollow me, then they're probably weren't going to be somebody I was gonna connect with or somebody that I could help in some way anyway.

Mm-hmm. And so it's okay to just say, cool, you weren't for me, and I'm gonna let you go.

Yeah. Like we said, like you're not here to be a content creator. That's not right what you started your business to do. Right? Yeah.

Yeah. And it's looking at it from that different perspective lens sometimes of, you know, yes, you go into business to to help, to have your passion and all of that, but in order to do that, you do have to sell.

People have to pay you so that you. Don't have to do something that you don't love so that you can pay your bills. You wanna do this and your passion to pay your bills and therefore people need to give you money. So like, 'cause sometimes there's money that that trips people up when we talk about the sales part.

Yeah.

And if you really believe in the service that you provide, yes. You know that the best way you can help people is if they. Invest in that service. Right? Like free content is great, but it's not going to be like solving people's like deeper, deeper problems. Right? That's not what the purpose of it is.

Right. It's really to get people the help that they need.

Yeah.

Regardless of what that problem is, whether it's like a teeny, tiny little problem or like a real big life problem.

But that

is a mindset hurdle I think a lot of us have to overcome. And I've kind of always looked at it as like, if you truly do believe in the service that you provide and you know it helps the people that it's meant to help.

Yeah. Then you are doing a disservice by not talking about it.

Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. So, uh, based on everything that you said that was so incredible, how can business owners use the content themes, um, these four types of content today in their own strategy for their business?

Yeah, so like I said earlier, there's no like perfect formula that you can just bloop, bloop, bloop, like plug in and it'll just work for you.

I wish that were the case. That would make my life a lot easier. Like while I use these as sort of like a guiding light. For the work that I do with clients, it's never just like cut and dry, drag and drop. Type of situation. It's like different for everybody. Yeah. Because everybody's audience resonates with different messages.

So if you're brand new to this, or maybe you've already been trying a lot of this and you're like, I'm not really sure, the best thing I could tell you is to just start experimenting until you find the types of messages that resonate best with your audience. So like I've had clients where the educational types of content where we really dive deep into like the science behind the problem they're struggling with resonates huge.

Like it gets tons of engagement and it's so funny 'cause they might have somebody else telling them like, oh, that type of content doesn't really work anymore. But then I'm creating it for them and it's like getting us. Great engagement and I'm like, no, your people wanna hear this. Yeah. Because they're the type of people who really want that science based evidence before they make that decision to maybe work with like, like again, a practitioner, because I work with a lot of practitioners.

Whereas then I'll, I've worked with other people in the health and wellness industry where. We've hosted educational content that people need to know to for the problem, but they're not interested. And then we'll post like an inspirational piece of content about some results they got for somebody. And it goes crazy.

And then I have people like you who, the Biz magic stuff, the relatable content performs the best. Yeah. Because you know, people wanna work with you for who you are because you're a service provider. So it's like people aren't just working with Biz Magic because they need the help. They're also signing up for Biz Magic because they like you as a person and.

They connect with you. And so it's interesting, I've like tried and tested these with all different types of businesses and clients and I'm always surprised by like which one seems to do well. So like if you're getting advice from people online that are telling you like, don't do this, only do this. It's like, well, they don't know your business and they don't know who your target market is and like who your people are.

And so I would say like if you're brand, brand new and you're like, I really have no idea, just start testing them all evenly. Again, like promotional, that's really like, that doesn't have to make up a huge part of it. Like you can really leave that for the tail end. Right? So maybe you could do like. Like assign a day each, or like if you're using this for email marketing, maybe you do like an educational email the first week of the month and the second week of the month you do a storytelling email.

Then the third week of the month, you send people like a little pep talk or like some type of. I don't know, gentle reminder. And then maybe the last week is like overcoming the objection and like selling hard. Right? And so then repeating that, you could repeat that for a blog post strategy or could, could repeat that for like podcasting.

Um, so that's like how I would recommend you do it. And then the next thing you really need to start doing is tracking your analytics, which is something that I put off for a really long time. Mm-hmm. Because I'm like, me too. Yeah.

Yeah. That was gonna be my question is like, how do we measure then? Yeah.

What is success and then what isn't successful?

Super important. Also tricky because if you don't have a ton of data to measure, it's difficult to like to, to kind of, to, for it to, to see like the numbers, right? If you don't have a ton of numbers, it's like, what am I looking at? But you have to start somewhere.

So even if you have smaller numbers and it's, you know. Just at least start and like, like I said, I kind of resisted doing it for a long time, kind of for two reasons. First, I just like, I'm not good with numbers. I guess maybe that's not true, and I just think that about myself. But the other reason I was really nervous is if I started sharing analytics with clients.

It's like, what if the numbers aren't good? Mm-hmm. Like, what does that say about my work? Does that mean that like my work doesn't have the value I thought it had? And that's not true. Honestly, like once I just started doing it consistently, it only made my work better because I was able to start finding patterns of like what worked and what didn't work, or, oh, I thought this message was gonna do really well.

It kind of didn't. But, oh, I did this one message and all of a sudden it just like took off. People must really wanna learn more about that topic, or maybe it was like a certain way that we framed the message. And so you are really only gonna know what works once you start tracking things and start looking for patterns.

And so it doesn't even matter if your numbers are really small, you can see. Still find patterns and you can start following them, and that's just gonna help you get closer and closer to where you eventually wanna be.

Yeah, I love that. And yeah, and it informs what you are doing because otherwise you're kind of flying blind, you know?

Yeah. And you're really just sort of making it up and not having any feedback and how do you improve or keep doing something that's working if you don't have that feedback and the analytics are that feedback. Yeah. So. I think my last question kind of on this is, so when we talk about. You know, okay. So we just need to start somewhere and we wanna experiment, but because all of this is a long game and we are looking at numbers, so when is it a good sign or a good time to switch it up and say, okay, this is clearly not working.

Like, is there a point where it's like three months, six months, or when you see no movement mm-hmm. In response to a specific kind of content over X, you know, like. What does that look like for you to say, okay, I've experimented. This is clearly not it, and then you move on to something else.

I think that's tough.

I'm not sure I have like a specific answer. Usually I will give something like three months just to see at least, so we can gather some data to see what direction it's heading in. And if you're not getting like any type of like feedback or momentum, I think you have to kind of step back and look at the bigger picture as well.

Because I think a mistake that a lot of business owners make is they do things in isolation and they don't have like a clear. Customer journey mapped out. Mm-hmm. So they might just be posting a ton to like one specific channel, but then they're not taking leads anywhere. Like maybe they're getting engagement there, but it's not leading to sales.

But it's like there's a disconnect there. So like if you're really not seeing traction in one certain area, first you need to like set realistic and specific goals. Before you even start tracking stuff. So like what are you even trying to accomplish? And the end goal is sales, but like that's not the first goal.

Like we said, there's like lots of different touch points. So start really, really small. Don't start with some big, lofty, unrealistic goal and then when you don't meet it in three months, be like, well this didn't work. I'm trying something else.

Right,

right. 'cause that's not necessarily a problem. Maybe with the strategy, just like the strategy wasn't realistic.

Yeah. So I would say at first, like you really need to take a step back and like map out your entire strategy, and that involves like multiple marketing channels. It doesn't mean you have to be on a bunch of different platforms. I think at the very least you need. An email list, and you need maybe like one form of content that can be long form content, like a blog or a podcast or something like that.

Or you can choose like a social media channel that you. Like using that you're gonna use Yeah. And that your people are on, ideally, like you can find something that's both, um, and then really give it your all. And there's more than just content, right? I think especially with social media, another thing that I see a lot with clients is like, they're not engaging on the channel.

So they could be posting like the best high quality content, but they're not gaining any traction because they're not actually using it. They're just like posting it and then just not okay. Really, they're only checking to see their notifications. And it's like, it's, it, it, that platform is, is made to build relationships and to be social.

And so, like, unfortunately, like if you're, if you're, if you're analyzing your metrics and it's like you're not seeing the results, it could be for a lot of reasons. So yeah, it might not just be the content. It could be other things. It could be like, again, you're not, you're not using engagement. Maybe you're, um, targeting the wrong audience.

Like maybe you don't have a clear next step. Yeah,

for

people like you don't have an email list set up or you do, maybe you don't have a welcome sequence for your email list, so maybe you're getting a lot of people onto your list, but then they're just sitting there and you're not like giving them the next step.

So you really have to look at it holistically.

Yeah,

and have like a bigger, like you said, long game in mind and then you can start setting smaller, um, like metrics to measure and just be really intentional about them.

Right. Which is why we're calling it content strategy because it is a strategy and that is something, there are so many points from.

In, in a lead's journey from the moment that they see you on social media, to them getting to your list and to them, to them. First of all, getting to a place to sign up for your list, and then actually making the step to sign up for your list and then opening your emails, and then clicking something in an email and then, you know mm-hmm.

Whatever it is. There are so many points at which the process can either break, technically speaking. Yeah. Or. It can break because you just are putting energy into one of these streams, and so that's why it can feel daunting and overwhelming. But I do think starting small and doing one thing at a time and just doing one step so that it doesn't feel as overwhelming as helpful or hire somebody.

Yeah, that can help you with that. That has the strategy in mind, that has the technical side, if that's what you need, like whatever it is, figure out what it is your need is. When it comes to that. I mean, there's a reason that people have. Full-time social media and, and marketing people because it is huge.

So don't beat yourself up. And, and I think yeah, like one step at a time for sure. With all Yeah. Start small. Yeah. It's sort of like, um, you know, as a theater person, right? Like if, if light doesn't turn on. On the stage, there are more than one places that, more than one place for it to have gone wrong. You know?

Mm-hmm. If the light's not coming on, we have to check the connection to the lighting board. We have to check the connection to the actual power source. We have to check the connection on the actual light. We have to check the bulbs to make sure the bulb, like there's all of these different places, and it may seem like you're just turning on a light, but it's not that, and people don't.

Realize that if you're not in lighting and you haven't never done tech and theater before, um, they don't realize that there are so many places that can go wrong to turn on a freaking light in a theater. And it's the same thing with marketing in that way. There are so many points at which something could go wrong that yeah, not working, you shouldn't

be putting all your weight at the top of that funnel.

Yeah. It's, it's not responsible for everything. There's so many different, like you said, you have to make sure you have the right offer. You have to make sure you have the right messaging for that offer. You have to make sure you're targeting the right. Person, then you have to have the customer journey mapped out, and then you can start focusing on the micro pieces of content.

And please don't bank your success on like one email or one blog post. You know, again, it's a long game and like, honestly, that's why I really love writing content, and especially why I love email copywriting because it's just so fun. You can be more creative and, and sort of like the stakes feel a bit lower because it's like, yeah.

Just sending out an email to like build that relationship. It's not like something like web copy, which is also super fun to write, but that shit is like living on your page. It feels more permanent.

It does, even though it's not at all, but it is because it's such a lift to get it. And it's so much work to, to change out your copy, but now we're just terrifying everybody.

So, you know.

No, I do love it. It's a different process though. It's a, it's a totally different process and so, you know, don't bank all your success on like one piece of content. It's more about the overall. Flow and like direction you're headed in. It's just one big experiment. Yes, people say they know what they're doing, but they're experimenting just like you, like The best people you can follow online to learn about this stuff are people who are constantly experimenting and learning and trying things.

Yeah. I love that so well because you know, obviously that I'm a, I'm a tech person. Oh yeah. I love to hear. What is one tool that you use that changes your life with your business or that you just love?

Easy. Easy. It's an notion 100%. And I have you to thank for that. Like everything I know about Notion started when I started working with Patty.

And like I will say, if anybody. Is interested in notion and like wants to learn how to use it better. Like your template that you sell on your website is so fantastic and it's like super easy to customize. I feel like some templates that you go and, and download or buy are like, so it, it's just so much and yours is just like, it's, it's so great.

And so I've modeled a lot of my, like, I guess my business HQ after what you've done inside Biz Magic. So I have like. Yeah, it's, it's, I mean, it was, it, it was such a huge game changer for my business when I started learning how to use it. So I have like client facing portals where, um, you know, if you sign like an ongoing content retainer with me, you'll get a notion portal where you can like review, um, and leave feedback for all your content.

You can see it on a calendar so you know, when everything's getting published. It's just like a really easy way to collaborate with people. And then I use it for like, all my personal life stuff too. Like I use it to plan trips and like. Like when I'm traveling somewhere I've never been before. I have like a meal planning system in there.

Recipes, like just all sorts of, and of course I have like so many ragtag like pages full of that. I'm like, I dunno what any of this means. So I probably need to clean it out. But like, yeah, I love notion 'cause it's like a blank slate where you could just create what you need. I don't think I would do well inside, like a project management system like Asana.

It would feel too like. Structured for me. Mm. I really like to go in and like create things from scratch and just like customize it. Like I have like my client databases in there, like, and even like my marketing, I have like a. Content planning system, even though I'm not really putting out content right now.

Yeah. For my business. Um, I have like a system in there that works really well for me and you can just customize it, so Yeah. Yeah. Motion for sure.

I love that. This was not a paid promotion, by the way. I did not bribe Carrie Ann in any way to

Yeah, no, it's really good. It's really good. It has everything in there too, like, just, just things that I don't see other people even like thinking about, including like.

I definitely recommend

it. Yeah. Awesome. So if anybody wants to work with you in any way or find out more about you or they're like, I don't wanna do all of this strategy myself, I want Carrie Ann, uh, where can people find you?

Yeah, so I just launched my website, which I'm so excited about. I've been, this has been like years in the making because.

Yeah, great. I'm such an awesome project to work on. I'm really proud of it. So, and I'm really happy with like the copy and everything. I worked so hard on it. So even if you just wanna go check it out, you can go check out my website, which will be linked in the show notes. Oh, it's uh, carry on copywriting.com.

And then you can find me at the same handle on Instagram. Um, which again, I'm not, I haven't been putting out a ton of stuff, so, but you can connect with me there. And then if you wanna work with me, I offer a few different ways you can work with me. So I have ongoing retainers for people who want to outsource their content, content and want me to do it for them.

So those are custom retainers based on what your strategy is or if you need help creating a strategy. We can talk about that. And then I also do custom email sequences for people. So if you're really wanting to set up email as that backbone of your marketing strategy, I look at email as like your content insurance policy.

You shouldn't be putting content out if you don't have an email list to back it up and support it. So I help people with their welcome sequences if you need support for an upcoming launch you're doing, or an evergreen sales sequence. Um, also like nurture sequences. Really, whatever you. Need, we can book a project there.

And then for listeners, I'm also offering a free content audit. So if you have a piece of content that you want some feedback on, maybe you worked hard on it and you'd like to know, okay, maybe why did it perform well, why didn't it? Um, you can just click the link in the show notes and submit it. Um, you can submit like a blog post, an email, maybe a piece of social media content, and I'll get back to you in three to five days with some just like tips and feedback.

I love that. So yeah. Thank you. That's so

generous of you. Um, yeah, for sure. This has been so awesome. I know. Thank you so much. Thank you so much for joining me today.

Yeah, for sure. And again, if anybody has any questions or just wants to follow up on anything we talked about, feel free to send me a message on Instagram and be happy to answer those for you.

Okay.

Thank you for listening to another episode of the Biz Magic Podcast. Like most small businesses and podcasts, we rely heavily on word of mouth. So if you like what you heard today, or in any episode, please share with your friends and colleagues and rate, subscribe, and comment on your favorite podcast platform.

Till next time, cheers to your magical biz success.