Why Your Content Isn't Converting (And How to Fix It)

You know you need better content — but better looking isn't always better performing. In this episode, Matt and Liv break down the framework they use with every client: how to identify what your content actually needs to do, how to build a strategy around it, and what the process looks like from the first inquiry all the way to final delivery.

Whether you're a business owner trying to figure out where to start, or you've been posting consistently and still not seeing results — this one's for you.

A podcast about what really goes on behind the scenes of building brands, businesses, and personal platforms. 

We talk marketing, content, branding, community, and the uncomfortable middle between idea and execution.
Built for founders, creators, and business owners who want honest conversations, not recycled advice.


Hosted by Matt and Olivia. Audio-only for now. New episodes regularly.

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Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

If you're struggling with creating uh better content, uh smarter content, if you need better ideas and you need to you if you need help executing content and photo shoots and video shoots and strategy with your business or brand, this one, this episode will be for you.

SPEAKER_00 0:26

Episode 12.

SPEAKER_01 0:27

Episode 12, bonus episode. We've been wanting to do more educational stuff like this on the podcast to use this as more of a resource for people when we jump on calls with them. So yeah, this one's gonna be a good one because we've had a lot of conversations with business owners talking about this exact stuff, this framework basically.

SPEAKER_00 0:48

And I think what we've learned and what we've taken away from it is that everybody's very different, but we're all trying to achieve the same thing.

SPEAKER_01 0:58

Yes. No matter the space industry you're in, you can create content in a lot of different ways. But the the the meaning and the why behind the content is always the same. You're either building awareness, getting as many eyes on your brand and business as possible. You're trying to get more sales, people buying your stuff through online or in store. Third one is typically more for traffic, getting people through your door.

SPEAKER_00 1:28

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:29

And there's more, but I think it comes down to those three.

SPEAKER_00 1:34

Yeah, 100%. And I think those are very specific and depends on what your business is, obviously. But I think you can also tap into each and every one of those pillars for any content that you're doing.

SPEAKER_01 1:48

Yeah. A lot of the episodes we sorry, not episodes, discovery calls, we jump on. One of the questions we always ask is what is the goal? What is the objective behind this? What is a home run look like for you when we do a content day like this? And a lot of the answers are they know they need better content, but in their eyes, they just need better looking stuff. And so it's like, okay, we can create pretty photos for you. Totally. And we can create these videos that look great for you, but like, is that really gonna move the needle for you?

SPEAKER_00 2:27

Right. And a lot of the businesses and brands that we work with, they want to increase their sales, they want to have more foot traffic, they want to just grow their business. So it's like, okay, yes, a beautiful video looks great on an Instagram feed, but is that really what's going to convert into sales?

SPEAKER_01 2:49

Are you talking to your ideal client or customer?

SPEAKER_00 2:52

Yeah. And I think that there's a healthy balance between good content, educational content, and like lead driving content, but it's like you need to be very specific with what you're looking for in order to move that needle.

SPEAKER_01 3:08

Yeah. My some of the examples I've brought up on these calls have been like if you're selling a product or service for, let's say, five thousand dollars, and let's say a content day is costing twenty five hundred dollars. If you get one lead in one booked project from that content day, you're making back double what you paid for this project.

SPEAKER_00 3:33

Yeah. A little investment can go a long way.

SPEAKER_01 3:36

100%.

SPEAKER_00 3:36

And sometimes that is a bigger investment for some people. But again, if it's working for you, and that's what we want when we create content for you, we want it to work for your business in order for you to get that ROI.

SPEAKER_01 3:53

No matter the budget you're working with, everyone has a price.

SPEAKER_00 3:57

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 3:58

No matter the budget you're you're wanting to spend, our goal is to make every dollar you invest with us worth it.

SPEAKER_00 4:07

100%. So when we are delivering that content, what kind of walk through how we establish that plan for people?

SPEAKER_01 4:18

Yeah. Let's talk about the process a little bit. First, it's usually getting a DM or an inquiry through our website. Yeah. From there, we're kind of doing a quick test to see if they're qualified. Hopefully jump on a call with them to get a better idea of what they're looking for, their goals, their budget, kind of make sure we're a good fit. From there, we either send pricing or we jump on another call two days after to kind of go over pricing in a more detailed way.

SPEAKER_00 4:51

And that's kind of what we've learned recently that the importance of separating the discovery call from the pricing. It's like your discovery call is to make sure that you're aligning with that potential client and not just throwing out numbers right away. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 5:05

Yeah. Cause I think if you're we this has happened in the past, if you're just throwing out numbers through email, yeah, there's a lot of cat and mouse happening.

SPEAKER_00 5:13

Yeah. We don't want to chase people, people don't want to chase us. And it's just like, let's make it easy. And this is the breakdown.

SPEAKER_01 5:19

Totally. And so after we jump in a call with pricing, we will either go ahead with the project. From there, it's usually sending over a contract and the first invoice, locking in things, going through the onboarding process, which usually includes questionnaire, sometimes like a deeper dive into their content strategy.

SPEAKER_00 5:40

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 5:41

Really looking at what's has worked for them, what hasn't worked for them. Depending on when we're shooting, that's kind of going into the planning process and getting super clear with what we're shooting, how we're shooting it, scripts, shots, mood boards, making sure there's no questions left unanswered.

SPEAKER_00 5:58

Yeah, having like a very solid and strategic plan for how a shoot day will go.

SPEAKER_01 6:02

Yeah. And we're doing all the heavy lifting. And so there's a dashboard, there's a client-facing dashboard everyone receives. Yeah. Breaking down everything and kind of laying those expectations out again. From there, we're shooting, getting everything we need, whether that's a day or two days.

SPEAKER_00 6:17

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 6:18

From there, it usually goes into that's the time we're editing. So most projects are between two weeks and three weeks. Sometimes there's a there's a rush fee on top of that, depending on how fast you need to back by. Yeah. Once the content is that kind of done, we're usually sending a review link if it's a video. Sometimes we're getting on review calls. Yeah. If it's more a little bit more specific with kind of the tweaks we need to make. That way I have I felt I've noticed that that helps with communication and getting that process done a lot quicker. Totally. There's less going back and forth with the tweaks needed to be made.

SPEAKER_00 6:56

Yeah, when the expectations are clear, then everything runs very smoothly.

SPEAKER_01 7:01

And if we're doing photos at the same time, we will usually open up the Lightroom catalog and quickly run through the photos there as well.

SPEAKER_00 7:07

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 7:08

Just to see if they have any insight on or notes on how the photos are looking, if it's too grainy, if it's too dark, too bright, that kind of thing.

SPEAKER_00 7:18

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 7:19

From there, that's when we either deliver the content in a nice packaged email.

SPEAKER_00 7:24

Little bow.

SPEAKER_01 7:24

Yeah. And then hopefully getting a reviewer testimonial link set up to them. So there's not much that happened on their end. They just gotta show up for the calls, the revisions, approve some things that need to be approved. And that's it.

SPEAKER_00 7:39

Yeah. And I think there's like it's something really great about the revisions too, is that you're working with the clients on delivering exactly what they want. So it's very clear, like upon delivery, that like you've given them everything that they've wanted out of this. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 7:56

Let's talk about strategy for a bit. Okay. Because this plays a huge part into what we're creating, how we're creating it.

SPEAKER_00 8:03

Yes. What about strategy?

SPEAKER_01 8:06

It comes like it t it comes down to what we're shooting sometimes. And so for a local business or a small business, most of them don't have a strategy in place.

SPEAKER_00 8:15

No. They're just putting content out there for the sake of it. Yeah. Most of the time.

SPEAKER_01 8:19

Yeah. And so what usually happens is you're creating content or or let's say you're doing a photo shoot. Yeah. What usually happens is you do that photo shoot, you get sent this gallery of sometimes it could be I don't know, 30 photos. Sometimes you're getting sent quite a bit of photos. Yes. And it is so overwhelming.

SPEAKER_00 8:43

Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_01 8:44

And they like them, it looks great. But the holdup is like, okay, we have this gallery of photos.

SPEAKER_00 8:53

What do we do with it?

SPEAKER_01 8:55

What what do we do now?

SPEAKER_00 8:57

Right.

SPEAKER_01 8:58

And I think they're so perfect sometimes that they sit on it because they want to wait for the perfect moment.

SPEAKER_00 9:05

Yeah. The perfect moment is like right now. Yeah. Just do it.

SPEAKER_01 9:10

Yeah. That's why we sell a lot of like retainer packages and monthly and quarterly.

SPEAKER_00 9:15

Well, and that's and that's where you can get very specific with the strategy too. So like when you were working with a retainer client or like a month-to-month, you can really narrow down the specifics of what you're creating. And so everything that is being delivered is specific to that month or the month ahead. Yeah. So it's like, okay, you don't have a lot of time to post this. Your strategy is that you are getting out the content that is specific to what your brand is promoting or what you're trying to sell or whatever.

SPEAKER_01 9:44

Yeah. I think it also depends on the industry you're in. For example, one of our real estate clients, we do quarterly brand content days for them. It's I don't think a real estate company needs monthly content sometimes because their volume of houses and listings are so high that their content is already filled with that bucket basically. And so you just need those filler pieces throughout the next three months to kind of keep you posting a mix of everything. Yeah. Whereas if you're a local business or a studio or product or service and you have new product coming out or new services coming out, and you just need that constant traffic and eyes for people to see your business, or if it's a campaign.

SPEAKER_00 10:33

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 10:34

It's it might be better and more effective to do go down like a monthly route.

SPEAKER_00 10:40

Totally. I agree. And like not to say that there's not things that can be refurbished or like reused when you're working repurposed. When you work with retainer clients, like you can still create real like relevant con content over like the months that you work together that you can use like like a year from now.

SPEAKER_01 11:01

I I literally created a video about this the other day with our one of our best clients. We have worked every single month together for the past year, and we're able to use the clips from April 2025 because there's a system in place where it is so easy to go and search for a clip we need and use it for this current content day month, basically. And so that's the one of the benefits of working closely with a team. Yeah. Because we have that bank of it for you. For a business or small business that doesn't necessarily have the budget to invest into a content team like us, for example, or a photographer? What is your take? Like what is your advice for them? Where do they start? Is it do they get a better idea on strategy first? Do they just jump into a photo shoot quickly and get that bank of content right away? Or is it more of a thought-out process?

SPEAKER_00 12:15

I would say it's a mix of first and last. I think if you're on a budget, a photo shoot isn't necessarily the first thing that you can do when you have a small business and you don't necessarily have the budget for it. I think strategy and being very intentional with the content that you can create, even if it's just iPhone content to start, just creating even if it seems low quality, some iPhone stuff can be high quality, but being very intentional with the posting that you are doing and really creating a strategy for your business and thinking about what it needs in order to get to the point where you can budget for a photo shoot.

SPEAKER_01 13:01

Yeah, I agree. I think that's usually the most conversations we have is how they know the next step is to get a team. They've tried to do all the in-house stuff, get taking their own photos, taking their own videos, but I think the biggest investment is that switch to someone or team that has a better idea of what to create based on what you're looking for. So this one was a quick one. Perfect for a little afternoon walk, yeah, a little drive to take a walk out. We want to do more episodes like this. So if you enjoyed this one, a little bit easier to follow. Send us a message.

SPEAKER_00 13:43

Yeah, even reach out if you have things that you want us to talk about too.

SPEAKER_01 13:47

Yeah, that's a good one too. Yeah. We should do that more often.

SPEAKER_00 13:51

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 13:51

Yeah, that's smart. Okay. Episode 12, episode 13 is coming out hopefully next Thursday. And uh talk to you then.