Jasmine Star 00:00:00  Focus on long term marketing. I know it's tempting to think of short term revenue, and if you need to do that right now in your business, then you do you. But remember, marketing is the long, long game. And long game marketing is to build sustainable growth and lasting relationships with your audience. Welcome back to The Jasmine Star Show, a place we talk about business mindset and today strategies to take your marketing to the next level. Now, even if you're killing it in the marketing game, I want you to stick with me because we're going to be diving into some fresh, powerful strategies that can take your current marketing efforts and take it up a notch. But first, I want to read some sweet words from Jay Henchy, who said, listen, if you are a white person, if you have 1,000,001 questions about business, then this podcast is for you. I've been listening to the Jasmine Star Show. I've been a member, a social curator. She is an out of box thinker and a driven entrepreneur.

Jasmine Star 00:00:46  If you're struggling with business marketing mindset, then you need to follow this podcast now. Okay? Thank you so much for those kind words. Now let's get back into marketing. Now I have to just stop here. Reading these reviews makes me feel a little bit uncomfortable because it's like hashtag humblebrag. But really, I want you guys to know I read these reviews. They make a big difference in how we produce and the guests were able to land. So thank you. In this episode, we're going to learn four strategies that make up great marketing and a framework to apply them to your business. Make sure you stay until the end, because I have one, just one marketing action step that you can do today that is really going to move your efforts forward. Now the first strategy is to lean into possibility marketing. This means showing your ideal client what's possible for them instead of relying on fear based tactics. And that comes down to mindset. Possibility marketing starts with the belief that inspire your audience is more powerful than scaring them.

Jasmine Star 00:01:40  It's about painting a perfect picture about the positive changes in the outcomes that your offer can bring into their lives, instead of the negative consequences that could happen if they don't buy from you. And there's actually science behind this. Studies show that people are more motivated to take action when they're feeling positive instead of fearful. When you show people potential for a better future. Their brain releases dopamine that feel good transmitter, which enhances motivation for change. Now, on the completely opposite side, fear based marketing, you know, oh, this is going to happen if you don't do this. And 18 ways that you're going to screw up your kid the 18 ways, this is the wrong way to lose weight. The 18 ways only do this for weightlifting. Like okay, that is fear based and that drive stress, which might lead to short term actions, but not necessarily long term loyalty. If you've been a listener for the show for a while, you will know that I've opened up pretty openly about my weight. I have struggled with my weight.

Jasmine Star 00:02:33  I grew up obese. I lost weight in high school, but by my senior year I had gained a lot of weight. And then I went to college. And then I added that dreaded freshman 15, which, if you don't know, most freshmen will gain weight. They call it the freshman 15. I was one of those freshmen who gained about £15 at this point in my life. I didn't know how to eat best, I didn't know how to work out, and I felt embarrassed. So I started researching how to lose weight. And then I went a yoyo diet. All through my 20s, I did fad diets, crash diets, diet pills, lemon and cayenne all spice water for a weeklong cleanse. Let me just tell you, do not do a cayenne lemon. Weeklong is bad news. Now, I was doing all of this based on what I was reading and learning from social media and the internet. I'd follow people who would terrify me about my weight loss journey. And then I spent a decade hating my body into submission and then worried I wasn't doing enough cardio.

Jasmine Star 00:03:29  I was doing too much cardio. I should only be eating bacon. I should only be eating plant based. I should swear off eggs. No, no, I really need to swear off vegetables. You know, I was just a mess. But mostly I was afraid of becoming obese again. In my early 30s, I began to workout regularly. I did blood work. I studied what foods did best with my body. I began to see significant differences and then how I felt. And then 2020 arrived and 2020, the whole world got turned upside down, as did I That year we sold our house. We bought a fixer upper. We had 24 hour notice that we were placed for adoption with our daughter. We got stuck in another state at the start of the pandemic. We moved into an apartment because we couldn't live in that fixer upper we had just bought with a newborn. And then the world shut down. And then our renovation timeline more than tripled, along with the cost of the project of building out this house.

Jasmine Star 00:04:23  And in a matter of about 16 months, I had put on £16, and on average that was about like £1 a month. And here's the crazy part. I had no idea how it happened. It just did. It happened slowly. It happened over time. So there I was again, listening to fitness gurus who had me terrified that I wouldn't be able to get my life back on track. And there I was again, embarrassed that I was turning to food for comfort when I was struggling with anxiety, even when I didn't know I was doing it. In 2023, I found a group of health professionals and they took an entirely different approach. They didn't scare me. They taught me. They explained how to hit protein goals. They broke down the benefits of lifting heavy weights. They discuss the merits of intermittent fasting. They created meal planning tutorials that didn't feel like I had to eat a rice cake and pumpkin seeds for dinner. They were so good at what they did. I wasn't scared, I was motivated, I wanted to change my life so I could live longer and better.

Jasmine Star 00:05:25  And I was doing it for my daughter. For the first time in my life. I wasn't running away from the fear of weight. I was running to a hopeful future. And as a special shout out Doctor Gabrielle Lyon, she stepped in. I was listening to her podcast. She's helped me, Adam Shafer from Mind podcast. Like these crew, like, these are just people that I've gotten to know and they've helped me see my workouts differently. And so my main intention was I became a mom. I kind of lost my way in regards to taking care of my health. And I thought to myself, if I have one more day with my daughter because of the positive decisions that I was making in my life, then I was going to be okay with this. Okay, how do you do this? And it might not even be like pertaining to your weight. So how do you do this? How do you lean in to possibility marketing? Here's a three step framework. Step one get clear on the transformation you provide.

Jasmine Star 00:06:16  The more specific the transformation, the better. I want you to use stories, testimonials, visuals that highlight and impact your product and the impact it has on others. So I want you to show your audience the journey from where they are now and then where they could be with your help. Step two write key messaging around that transformation. When you're writing that copy, you want to make sure that it positions your ideal client as the hero, not you and not your offer. You are not the hero in your business, not the hero. They're the hero. Why? Because people connect much deeper with stories where they can envision. They can see themselves as the main character, overcoming challenges in achieving their goals. So let's pause here for a second. When I am watching or listening to the Mind Pop podcast, and when I'm watching or listening to Doctor Gabrielle Lyon, they're not positioning themselves as the hero. They're saying you want to hit your protein goals so that you. So they turned the messaging from their great.

Jasmine Star 00:07:13  They're the gurus. Their way is the best way into this is about you. And so I started realizing that possibility marketing was the thing that was reprogramming the way that I was thinking about my particular journey. And then as subsequently, I bought things based on their recommendations because I believed that they were not the hero, they were the coach, they were the guide on the journey. And I realized that I'm just one of many people who go through the same thing. So when other people are seeing this, not only do they connect with it, but then they replay that narrative over and over in their minds until they make a decision to take action. That's what you get when they're the hero, and you want to make sure that your copy reflects that key messaging in everything your website when your team post on social direct message replies or email marketing, every interaction should reinforce the idea that your client is the hero of their own story, and your product or service is the tool that helps them achieve their desired transformation.

Jasmine Star 00:08:08  And you are the guide. Step three I want you to audit your social media and your website through the lens of your ideal client, not through your business lens, through their eyes. Ask yourself, how do I feel reading this? Like, do I feel excited? Do I feel lit up? Do I feel ready to take action? When you view your content from your ideal clients perspective. You're able to refine your messaging to be in the positive. And that way we can inspire deeper and more inspired action. So we're going to move on to this second strategy to improve your marketing. That's going to be initiating collaborations. So we'll pause. The first step had a couple sub points about how we get into possibility marketing. Now we're in point number two. And that's with collaborations So the moment you stop seeing competitors as competitors, but you see everybody as potential collaborators, you open new opportunities more than you could ever imagine. And this is very similar to possibility marketing because this too, it starts with your mindset.

Jasmine Star 00:09:09  Instead of thinking, what if my audience likes them more? Think about what unique value that we can create together that benefits everybody. So instead of thinking, what if they take my customers, you can think, how can we collaborate to expand our reach and attract new clients together? Instead of thinking, what if they outperform me? Think, how can we learn from each other and elevate both of our businesses and serve our clients better? So I'm going to pause here for a second, because I'm going to share a personal story about how I reached out to a peer and pitched a potential collaboration. But I am a consumer just like you are a consumer. We find and buy things off the internet and we take recommendations. And so oftentimes when I go to a speaking event, I will try to find a makeup artist that's local to the area. Well, recently I booked an event in Palm Springs and I was looking for a makeup artist and I reached out to somebody who I really like their work, I really like what they did.

Jasmine Star 00:10:02  And she responded and said, I'm so sorry I'm not available. Now. Normally I would assume that she would just give a recommendation, but she didn't. No problem. And so I said, but do you by any chance have any recommendations? Now I have receipts. She saw the text message because it said seen and I didn't get a response. No problem. We all get busy. And I was like, oh, I'll follow up in a week. Well, the next week I followed up and I'm like, hey, I hate to bother. Do you by any chance have a recommendation of somebody who is in Palm Springs? And I didn't hear anything. And I have to tell you that as a consumer, being ghosted feels one way. But being a consumer who was ghosted and then not given a direct answer because she could have easily said no, I'm so sorry, I don't have recommendations. Or she could have thought of somebody else in Palm Springs who she could have helped build their business with.

Jasmine Star 00:10:47  Now remember, you give business and you get business. I have grown my business so much by way of have collaborations. I recently reached out to a pier and I pitched them on a collaboration. Now I want to be very clear. I knew it was a stretch, okay? I knew it was like, I'm going to hope against hope, but I just had to throw it out there. So I've had incredible collaborations. I have collaborated with Ink magazine, I've collaborated with major educational platforms, I have collaborated with organizations for deal flow optimization. I have a lot of experience and I love it. But it's not always a yes. And as much as we want that yes to come, sometimes it's just not a right fit for both parties. So let's go back to last month. I pitched a good friend and a peer to pull our forces together, and I wanted to make a singular offer. Now, I listed all the reasons why I explained the benefits, and then I optimized it for opportunity costs.

Jasmine Star 00:11:41  Okay. Like I was in there. Like, I was like, this makes sense. I think it's amazing. I knew it was a long shot, but I promised myself to be unattached to the outcome. And guess what? This person loved the idea, but they said, you know what? The timing just doesn't work and they want to revisit this idea in 2025. So it's not quite a no, but it's not a yes either. So was I bummed? Yeah, a little bit. But I chose to believe that everything is happening for me. And when the time is right, everything will be better than I'd hoped. So how do you know if somebody is a good fit for a collaboration? Well, here's a little bit of a checklist one. Do they share the same ideal client? Two would it be mutually beneficial for everybody involved? And the third question is are they reliable and professional. And number four on the checklist is do they have a proven track record of success. These are all questions that we're asking.

Jasmine Star 00:12:34  Which leads us to number five. Is their brand compatible with your brand. And finally number six do they have a good reputation. Those are the things we're going to be focusing on. So we're going to be talking about possibility marketing and we're talking about collaborations. Now the third strategy is to embrace a not attached innovation and experiments with your marketing efforts. Now, please note that I said unattached or not attached. I don't even know the proper words that we're using. But no attachment. Zero. Zilch. Nada. I talk about testing a lot because it needs to be talked about. But here's the deal marketing your business is public, which can amplify the fear of failure. People are seeing what it is you're doing. They're seeing if it's falling flat. There is a big difference between failing at a private experiment and failing at a public one. I get it, but here's the truth. Experiments lead to innovation. It's how you stay ahead in your marketing. When you allow yourself to experiment openly, and then you learn from those outcomes, you're going to expedite your growth.

Jasmine Star 00:13:32  I am always trying new ways to test marketing, and it's not always the fanciest. And it's not like the most edited content that works best. I'm going to be real. More often than not, the marketing that does best is simple, scrappy, and it's filmed on my iPhone. But I couldn't say this with confidence if I hadn't tested and failed with a ton of marketing experiments. Every successful business out there has had a share of experiments that haven't been all that great. And though these trials exist, it's through them that you really uncover what resonates with your audience, and then you refine those strategies for the better. In fact, I read a great example about how Netflix, you know, how like what you see is like the binge worthy recommendations that started off as an experiment. It started off as a challenge to encourage users to spend more time on the platform by discovering shows they love, and then hopefully, they recommend. So Netflix personalized its recommendation algorithm not only to suggest shows that users might like, but also to recommend shows that would keep them watching for extended periods of time.

Jasmine Star 00:14:36  Now, the results were impressive. They refined the recommendation system, and that led to increased engagement and viewership and time on the platform. So this experiment became a feature that they still use well, at least at the time of this recording Netflix is still using this, and it goes to show how embracing experimentation can lead to increased LTV referrals and overall business success. And the fourth and final strategy. Oh, can you believe we're here? We're here. This is bringing up the goods y'all were talking about. We're going to uplevel our strategy. And I'm going to I'm going to I'm going to go with number four. And it's not going to be popular. I know it's not. And that's to focus on long term marketing. I know it's tempting to think of short term revenue. And if you need to do that right now in your business, then you do you. But remember, marketing is the long, long game. And long game marketing is to build sustainable growth and lasting relationships with your audience.

Jasmine Star 00:15:27  So we're going to pause here. I didn't think I was gonna bring up this example, because I don't like to talk about things publicly until they've been finalized. But the podcast videos, on the podcast audio of the podcast, it really is about documenting the journey. And so I'm at a point in a relationship where I have been given a really great opportunity to partner with a company, and they came to me and we were talking about equity. We were talking about multiple ways that I might be able to get involved. And one of the ways that they had said was, oh, we do have an opportunity to have you lead an affiliate program. And I said, oh, we could stop the conversation right there. I am not right now in my state and my business in the game of doing affiliates, nothing about them. It's just not a fit for me. I said, if I am going to be talking about a partnership with your company, I'm going to be thinking about something long term.

Jasmine Star 00:16:13  And I only do long term brand building and long term marketing. If we are going to partner, then I would have an expectation that you wouldn't see any movement in the marketing. I would be out there creating, doing and building, but actually having an ROI. I'm going to need 12 months before we even start looking at those numbers. Long term marketing is the game. Long term marketing builds trust and long term builds likeability and know ability. And I believe that the way that you play the long game is to choose to say, I'm going to forego the short term successes, because what I'm going to build in the future is better than what I can get today. So how do you do this? You focus on three things and I'm going to call them the three C's community, consistency and credibility. But these probably are not going to work the way that you think. So I'm going to explain okay. So let's start with community building. People want to belong to something bigger than themselves. And building community around your business is not just about getting followers.

Jasmine Star 00:17:09  Like not at all. It's not like I have a lot of people in my community, you know, it's about creating a space where people you serve like they feel valued and heard and connected, and these people may never spend a dollar with you. And that's okay. The average person knows 600 people personally in real life. So if they're not ready to buy from you, but they have a great experience with you and your brand, they'll most likely reciprocate by referring somebody to you or becoming an evangelist. And maybe you have like 30 evangelists who know 600 people in real life. That's better than any ad campaign. There are a ton of ways that you can build community. There's a ton of ways that you can get people talking about you. And I'm going to link to an episode that I did with Michelle, Grant. It's titled Creating Brand Loyalty, Social Media Virality, and User Generated Content because she is an incredible community builder, and she built and scaled her business in three years, and she sold it for $105 million.

Jasmine Star 00:18:02  And she's building another business right now is pretty incredible. And she's doing everything super scrappy. She built and sold $105 million business, and she started off with Google Docs as part of her marketing campaign. so but first, I want to ask you to ask yourself these three questions. If you're revisiting how you're going to build your community, first, I want you to ask, how am I or somebody on your team facilitating connections among community members? If that's not happening, this is going to be an incredible growth lever. The president of social curator and our content director are in our private community every day looking for ways to connect members with each other, respond to their questions with really great content, and foster relationships with monthly challenges. It's not about the business, but the community that the business this offers. Now, the second thing to ask is what ways can I ensure that my community remains inclusive and welcoming to new members? And third, what feedback mechanisms like what are the things? What are the systems that I can put in place to ensure that my community feels heard and that their input is acted upon? So our head of Customer success keeps track of feature requests and commonly asked questions.

Jasmine Star 00:19:08  For example, our head of Customer Success informed our content director that people were asking for a deep dive resource on how to use many chat for chatbot marketing. Because she was keeping track of this data, the team was able to make an informed decision about what action plan to create. Now, once it's created and it's added to our content library, our Head of Customer success is going to email every single member who made that request to personally let them know that the content is ready and waiting for them on the inside of social curator. Now, the first sea of long term marketing was community. Now we're going to move on to the second component of long term marketing strategy, which is consistency. Now you might be thinking, okay, Jasmine, I know I need a job consistently. You say it all the time. And that's true. You do. But I'm talking more about than just frequency. I'm talking about consistency is also maintaining a cohesive voice, delivering consistent quality, and providing a unified experience across all their touchpoints, all your touchpoints with them.

Jasmine Star 00:20:02  So how do you ensure that this is happening? Well, you create standards, you document those standards and you enforce those standards. And before you're like Jasmine, my team already has been doing things a certain way and I don't want to add any more rules. I don't want to add more complexity. I want to assure you that team members want and they like standards hold everybody to that standard so that your long term marketing is effective across the board. In the beginning, maybe you'll get pushback. Maybe. But these standards make everybody's life easier and it makes your business stronger. So how do you do this? You define and document clear guidelines for your brand specific voice, product, service quality, content, formatting everything. Everyone on your team is going to be aligned and then they know how to represent your brand consistently. From the customer service to copywriting, it should all feel and sound the same. And by this I mean you shouldn't be able to tell who on the team wrote it because it's so consistent across the board.

Jasmine Star 00:21:00  Every piece of content, every interaction, every touchpoint should reinforce your brand identity. And these efforts are going to go a long way because consistency builds recognition and recognition builds loyalty, and loyalty builds trust. And this sets up for a long term component of marketing. Now we're going to get to the third key. So we went through the first and second key. And the third key is going to be credibility. And credibility builds trust. And trust is the foundation of long term relationships. So what does that exactly mean to be credible. It means you're delivering on your promises. It means you're being transparent. It means you're maintaining those high standards. We talked about about being genuine and authentic with your audience. I can never forget the fact. And you know what it probably mentioned on the podcast before, but it deserves to be said again because y'all. The social media platform crashed and people couldn't log in. This was 2019 and it was on a weekend and I was out of town and I didn't know how to fix it.

Jasmine Star 00:21:57  And I was I had to go into a Facebook group and I just had to say, I am so sorry this is happening. It was embarrassing. But if people were going to be upset, I wanted them to know the truth. I wanted to hear it from me directly. Now, being transparent allowed me to connect with the members, and they were so gracious and they felt like they could trust me more because I owned it. We made a mistake. Our platform crashed. I'm committed to making it better. I don't know when it's going to happen, but please know it is my number one priority. That is not easy to say, but by saying that people say, okay, I see 100% of you want to see 100% of this, then they're fully empowered to make a decision, and oftentimes they trust you a little bit more for that. So one of the best ways to build credibility in your business, and I know I have talked about this on podcast before, is overdeliver. When someone over delivers on a promise it becomes an unforgettable experience.

Jasmine Star 00:22:47  So how do you do this? In marketing. Okay. Let's chat. Three ideas to overdeliver in your marketing. First, you can build credibility. You know, do this in a big way is to go behind the scenes, but not just like, oh hey, here's my workspace, come spend the day with me. Those are fine, but I'm talking about behind the scenes. By sharing what you're learning, what you're doing, what you're creating while you're in the trenches. If you have listened to more than a few episodes of this podcast, you might have heard my quarterly episodes. We call them like bricklaying episodes. Where I do this, I'm going to link them in the show notes for you because they're the most loved episodes, because I share real time experiences and challenges and exactly what I'm doing virtually in real time to get my business to the next level. And when you do this, like as a bonus, this type of content shows your audience how you're leveling up and continuously learning to serve them better.

Jasmine Star 00:23:36  And if it's resonating with you and I'm a link in the show notes, you really should check them out because the feedback has been amazing. You're doing the same thing for your audience is going to be incredible. So the second way is to offer some free resources that don't have a pitch. You're going to give away content, you're going to give away information and then not pitch. So I just did a three part series for seven figure entrepreneurs, and I didn't pitch at the end of the three classes. Why I'm playing the long game. I'm list building. I'm in a season of give. In fact, I had people asking how to work with me during these live classes, and then I just sent them to a waitlist like, I'm not here to pitch. So now the third way to build credibility is to visually show proof of the promise. Now, of course, if you have a business that gives a visual transformation like, okay, a weight loss coach, like amazing, but in case you don't have that, we can get really creative.

Jasmine Star 00:24:27  So let's say you're a finance coach. Numbers are great, but can you turn your data into infographics or charts. Steady show like the perform really well or even better? Can you show lifestyle pictures of before and after? What does it mean to have your money change? So reading something is one thing, but seeing it will take your social proof up a notch. So before we get into the action step, I'm going to recap what we've gone over so far. Remember, at the end, I'm going to show that one thing is going to really push your marketing forward. The first strategy was possibility marketing. This focuses on positive transformation that your offer is bringing and not fear based tactics. The second strategy was to initiate collaborations, and we went over how it's a mindset shift from viewing potential competitors to potential collaborators for business growth. And then strategy number three was to embrace experimentation. Why? Because experimenting leads to innovation, and it helps you learn what resonates with your audience. And strategy number four was to focus on long term marketing.

Jasmine Star 00:25:23  Now this is where we talked about the three seas. And that was community consistency and credibility okay. So now my action step for you is to choose one of these four strategies and take some kind of action today, even if it's just small. If you're just getting started, I specifically chose strategies that I knew you could take action on immediately right now as you're watching or listening to this podcast, because this show is about getting you results, I have to tell you that taking action is the least easy thing that you can do. But I don't want you thinking that if you listen just to one more podcast, or if you want to watch one more video on YouTube, if you just learned that one more thing. If you just save that extra dollar, if you just get that extra book that then your business is going to take off. No, no, no, your business will take off in the direct proportion that you are ready to make an offer and ask for sales. Everything that I create is to facilitate, to get you to that point.

Jasmine Star 00:26:14  Every action step in this marketing plan has to get you to the point of making an offer and asking for sales. I want you to do something today. I want you to prove to yourself that you can ask for the sale, and I want you to prove to yourself that your business is worth it. I also want to say thank you for listening to The Jasmine Star Show. What an honor and a stinking privilege to make this for you. If you got one thing from this, I would love to hear from you. You can shoot me a DM on Instagram at Jasmine Star. That way we can hold each other accountable to each of our action steps. Thank you again.