The #1 reason People Buy

February 23, 2023

I've worked doing sales, recruiting, and training in a direct marketing firm in NYC. The number 1 thing they taught me was that people buy because of you.

I witnessed the marketing logic aka magic first hand in NYC. Marketing is sticking out for giving an experience that meets or exceeds expectations. You set these expectations for customers based off of how you engage and relate to them.

For example two great locally known store owners Maria and John sell the same clay. John keeps customer interactions simple and quick at his shop selling to buyers. Maria hand gives customers quick samples of her clay in front of her store from time to time. Building genuine engagement. Who receives more business and stronger connections? Maria or John?

You've just read two different sides to great business. However,Maria would be the one to win. Maria doesn't highlighting the offer she highlights herself by giving out samples.

It communicates all the values that todays modern market loves; authenticity, transparency, and confidence . Maria openly displaying her product and personality is a win. The atmosphere she creates at her store front is free promotion and branding for her business.

Even the people that don't buy still become consumers and eventually even advocaters for Maria and her clay. Marias clay display overtime builds awareness and increases conversions.

I've seen it proven first hand. The more you show who you are and what you do the better your conversions get. Focus on how you can show up in face to face or digitally in front of customers and audience. Get them genuinely engaged and relate to them.

For more Branding and business info subscribe to One Shot Made.

How to Start a E-mail List

June 23, 2022

Your e-mail list is underated but creates a huge impact in your business. It is an essential when it comes to operating your business. We will discuss what an e-mail list is, why it's important, three ways to start your list, and the benefits behind each.

An e-mail list is a collection of your supporters and not just customers or clientele. The people on this list have taken an extra step and freely given you their name, e-mail and even number. They didn't have to do this but the fact that they did only confirms your value in their eyes. This gives you the chance to build a relationship with them. Your e-mail list is owned and available to only you. You do not and never will own any subscribers or followers on your social media, but your e-mail list is all yours.

You can collect any e-mail digitally online or in person. Collecting emails online can happen through social media and content creation. On social media you can create content that we call a lead magnet.

Lead magnets are offers you make that usually give people something free in return for signing up. These include but are not limited to ebooks, guides, and templates. This strategy is often seen and utilized on instagram. It is very simple and effective as long as you can catch your prospects eye.

You can also utilize your website and create a landing page with a offer. This strategy takes people directly to your page where they can view you and even poke around your website. I suggest this only if your confident in your websites performance and presentation. Websites can kill conversions if done incorrectly, so if you're just starting or unsure use a lead magnet.

Content creation is needed in every business and usually is used to educate others. If you're not doing it you're holding your business back. Do you you know what people remember more that a laugh? A lesson. Knowledge is so powerful having it is priceless but being able to present it is skill.

If you create content a portion of it should ve educational because the people looking to learn are open to being taught. For example on YouTube no one types in how to's if they don't intend to learn or listen. Your educational content should include links to a page people can go to to sign up for anything you have to offer. On YouTube you can include these in your description box along with other relevant info and offers.

Finally, in person is another way to get sign ups. Yes, the internet is amazing but face to face is unbeatable. Organizing and promoting an event shows your prospect three things. One, you are confident in what you offer.Two, you are ready and willing to show up and take charge. Three, you will engage with your clients. All of these sound simple but in the current state of the world business may not be willing to do all three. This means less competition for you.

You can organize and even online as well but face to face leaves a different and more personal perspective of you and your business.

The Secret Behind Branding

June 30, 2022

A brand in short is areputation. It is not a logo or just a consistent theme. A brand creates and captures feelings that build a bond with their customers. These same connections coupled with consistency keep customers coming back.

Leadership starts with direction and brand leaders start with focused impact.

No one likes to feel like a number or just a consumer. People may value your products but they also want the brand to value their feelings or even social causes or issues. It's always a win when an interaction with a brand makes you feel great and like you are creating an impact.

Focused impact is long lasting. The more you can hone in on who exactly needs your brand and how to solve their problems the better. You need a target audience that you can nurture and build an emotional connection with. Your brand needs to impact people outside of your products and services.

Once you effectively do this your brand starts to become human. The perspective around a business is sales and negotiations. A brands perspective is engagement and inclusivity. Don't just give a product impact peoples lives.

Traditional Business is Overrated

July 7,2022

Traditional business has been challenged over the last few years especially during and after the pandemic. Any business can succeed and gain clients and a stable income.However, what business is has evolved and continues to progress further.

Many businesses have closed down, lost clients, lost income, and have even been shorted on their stocks. There are more grants and programs now to assist business in recovering.

Do you remember the PPP Loan being given out during the pandemic? It's no secret that many businesses big and small have to switch up their approach.

What peoples lives look like now is different, so how your business fits in the world and how it impacts customers may change too. Many people have supported and fed into businesses that did not impact their lives beyond products. As a result many businesses closed and lost clients.

Authentic brands with engaged clients have grown in numbers tremendously. A good example is Convert Kit owned by Jessica Stansberry. She creates digital product and courses that help people and create long lasting impact from education.

Traditional businesses sell products.Progressive businesses sell impact and transformation.

Stop Chasing Clients

July 14, 2022

If you feel like your chasing clients you may not understand how to find your target audience. Brand leaders start with focused impact, and that comes from knowing their target audience.
When you start your business in order to succeed long term you need a target audience.

A target audience is a group of consumers that you aim to market a product or service towards.
You can find your audience with the creation of customer personas. These are somewhat fictional archetypes that you construct based off research on who would buy from you. Customer personas should clearly define demographics, hobbies/interests, customer goals, and customer challenges.

For example you sell cleats. A person who wears cleats plays in a sport like football. From this information we know to target athletes as a whole and football players as a segment. You can even be more specific with demographics and target highschool or college kids that actively play and need cleats.From here we can find their goals or challenges, and create strategies that get your products in front of them.

You can also use answerthepublic.com to figure out what people are searching. They give you alternative searches that people have looked up when you put in a word or phase like cleats. By doing this you can gather more information about your audience to create personas or market to them.

Click the link below for answerthepublic.com.

Avoid Business Owner Burnout

July 21, 2022

Yes, you read that right. Burnout is a real thing and everyone deals with it. Business owners are constantly solving problems and researching new ways to keep their business up to date. However, not many have someone to help them solve their problems. A big one being burnout.

The best service you could ever do for yourself is properly take care of yourself. You need a clear and focused mind to do that. There are three ways you can manage and be preventative with burnout.

One, plan and map out your content. Content is a must but when you're tired it's annoying and draining. Plan to create, map, and schedule content ahead of time. It is a habit that needs to be cultivated and practiced with every business owner especially service providers. The benefit is time off and the space to relax.

Two, double down on customer retention by focusing on engagement. Keeping your business positioned in the mind of your customers will save you in the long run. You also build more trust and authority with customers by consistently or frequently engaging with them. The benefit is comfort for both parties involved. The more frequently you engage with a customer the better you become at solving their problems. Everything becomes quicker and more efficient for you. You can also automate the process with sms or e-mail marketing.

Three, make it a priority to dedicate one week out of every month to you getting grounded. No body can give 100% all the time. Business operations and work flows no matter how amazing, automated and effective require you to show up. However, a burnt out version of you helps no one and can harm your business. The same way you manage your business all the time you must manage your health. A week should be dedicated to resetting, reworking or relaxing from you everyday business operations. Being consistent with this is very easy to achieve with plan and scheduled content. The benefit is avoiding being overwhelmed,overworked, or losing your passion.

Planned content, customer retention, and a week every month for grounding are three ways to manage and prevent burnout. Your health is way more important than a sale so take care of it.

Subscribe to our YouTube channel for more branding and business information.

3 steps to Increase Content Click-Through Rate

July 28,2022

Start immediately increasing content click through by optimizing titles, A/B testing, and appeal to emotions.

Step 1- Analyze Your Titles

SEO is major when it comes to a your content being ranked. The algorithms used on YouTube, social media, and basically the whole web rank content according to this. You can use a free tool called Headlines.Sharethrough.com. It rates the overall SEO score, engagement level, and impressions that a title has. This saves time creating content that won't be clicked on.

Step 2- A/B Test on Social Media

Content comes in all different sizes and that works to your advantage. Before commiting to creating or publishing long form content A/B test short form content on your social media. Social media platforms like instagram come with insights into your audience and how they interact with your content. Utilize your insights to know what content your audience will like more. Then, lead them off social media and to your long form content.

If you have a YouTube account you can also apply the same strategy using YouTube shorts. However, the algorithm has separated the YouTube shorts recommendations from your YouTube channel recommendations. This means you have to get your viewers to visit your channel outside of your shorts.

Step 3- Appeal to Emotions

Spark emotions in your audience by appealing to their emotions. The way you present your content should evoke an emotion. For example, when someone has foreclosed on their house they through many emotions. If you can understand and appeal to these emotions you will keep people on your content. Never underestimate the power of emotions to drive genuine and authentic engagement. Many brands have built their audiences with it.

People finding your business does not equate to them consuming or engaging with it. You need to take extra precaution to ensure the attention stays on you. Simple steps like analyzing titles, A/B Testing on social media, and appealing to emotions are easy ways to increase content click- through rate.

The Hard Truth about Branding

Aug 4, 2022

Today we are going talk about what a brand really is, why you should have one, and 3 statistics that support this.

A brand is simply a reputation build off interactions and engagement emotional or otherwise with your audience. It molds perception and increases receptivity through frequent and consistent branding. A good business cultivates an audience a brand cultivates a community.

Branding is a part of marketing that is increasingly becoming more popular. The benefits are establishing a position in the marketplace, standing out relative to competition, and an audience that can grow with you. Positioning is the space that your offer or business occupies in the mind of your audience. Your position is important because it helps customers find you and recognize where you fit relative to the market and their needs. Your audience must position you but you can make this easier through branding. It takes 5 to 7 impressions for people to remember a brand according to statistics from smallbizgenuis.net.

A brand creates it's own identity becoming human like and at the same time distinguished in a sea of copy cats. A business is an entity and people love human interactions hence the big buzz around AI and no longer just plain machines. There is an increasing need for more humane and emotional interactions. Creating a brand is now more important than ever. Many people buy with emotion and justify it with logic later. If your audience can't feel you your pockets may pay the price. Brands with poor company branding pay 10% higher salaries according to statistics from smallbizgenuis.net.

Every brand and business needs an audience. However, a brand can cultivate a community through shared values. These values are a guide for the brand and expectations for their community. It brings the business, employees, and customers together. It also sets standards on behavior in an environment or toward a problem, social issue, or movement. If the business was ever dissolved the brand and the community will remain and a new business can be built. If you create another business the audience that you have can be brought over and help you grow. 89% of shoppers stay loyal to brands that share their values according to statistics from smallbizgenuis.net.

Now that you know the true meaning of a brand, the benefits, and statistics supporting this you can begin build one. If you would like personal assistance with this schedule an appointment with us.

Donate to Us

Donate products,books,or self care items to us. We've done giveaways. We've partnered with LUSH and the book 7 Virtues of a Philosopher Queen.

Join Community Outreach

Let us know what you want to collaborate on. We help build brands.We want to see you grow. We document brand stories.

LEADERS WITH IMPACT

An ongoing series of original interviews telling unique stories of personal and business brands.