I want to apologize to you all today.
Because I feel like in recent weeks, I may have said some things that gave you the wrong impression about having a cool online freebie.
To catch you up real quick, a freebie is a piece of content you can offer online as an incentive for a lead to join your mailing list.
So you can begin to share what you do in your OFFLINE biz to an ONLINE audience.
It could be:
So here’s what I want to clarify…
A FREEBIE IS NOT A STRATEGY.
It’s a TACTIC. And it’s ONE part of taking your biz online.
But it’s not enough to make a cool freebie and post it online.
Which, I think, is why I’ve been hearing people saying to me lately:
“I have a cool freebie and I posted it online… SO NOW WHAT?”
Today, I’m gonna give you the “So Now What”.
It’s actually one of the things you should think about BEFORE you even create that freebie.
Because what comes after the cool freebie is what we call: the customer journey.
What Is a Customer Journey?
It’s a fancy marketing term that means: How you bring someone along with you on the road to a purchase, or a contract, or whatever kind of relationship you’re looking to create.
Think of it like dating.
Your freebie? That’s kinda like your first date.
You go on your first date… and think SO NOW WHAT?
Step two is: You start the dating process.
In marketing terms, it’s called NURTURING.
And if you think about it, nurturing IS kinda like dating…
Because in this stage, the person you’re on a date with is deciding if they wanna go all the way with you…
… to a PURCHASE. 😉😝
In terms of a practical approach (and to get your dirty mind out of the gutter), here are some ideas of what the nurturing part of the customer journey looks like.
(Buzzkill, I know…)
So you have your cool freebie online and someone signs up.
Now you want to nurture that person along in their relationship with you.
By being patient. And caring. And putting their needs first.
Which means your followup messages and emails shouldn’t be like: BUY THIS FROM ME. AND DO IT NOW.
Because, sister, you’re gonna burn your list.
Sidenote: did you know that it can take TWENTY ONE times before a person decides they want to work with you?
That’s TWENTY ONE DATES!
So what do you do on your dates? You have FUN!
This is where you can share personal stories, insights, and deeper nuggets of information.
You want your nurture plan to make your new lead feel like you’re there to support them... you know what you’re talking about… and you’re going to take good care of them along the way.
See why hitting them up for a purchase on Date #2 is a bad idea?
It’s the equivalent of someone forgetting their wallet.
Whole lotta NOPE right there.
Now here’s the secret to making this courting process manageable: marketing automation.
Meaning, you create the emails ONE TIME… and then set them on a schedule.
This is easily done in any basic email marketing platform.
And, the schedule is relative to when someone JOINS YOUR LIST. So every time you get a new first date, you’re prepared for that courting process.
Alright, so I gave you the scoop on what happens after you create a cool freebie…
But I know you’re MOST excited about Step 3: Going alllll the way… to a purchase. 🙈🙊🙉
And what I’m talking about here, you naughty girl, is an online offer.
This is a COMPLEMENTARY ONLINE OFFER to both your core biz AND the freebie they signed up for.
It doesn’t have to be directly related to that freebie, but it should exist in the same universe.
Here’s an example a friend of mine recently did.
She’s a personal trainer. So obviously her biz got shut down pretty quick earlier this year with the whole COVID situation.
When I talked to her back in the spring, she literally said to me, “Hayley, I may have to move in with you because I’m dipping into my savings and I’ve never done that before.”
So I said to her, “Girl, you need to go online.”
She didn’t know what I was talking about, so here’s what I helped her do.
First, she updated her website. Just a light refresh to reflect that she was available online.
Then, she created a freebie and a nurture email sequence: “how to work out online and keep those COVID 19 pounds off”.
Then, she decided to create an online offer: a weekly class online and she collected money via Venmo.
It’s so funny that she was shocked when people started paying her for online versions of what she did in person… but I knew it would work.
Once things relaxed a little bit with COVID in the late summer / early fall, she kept up her weekly Zoom classes AND started doing social-distanced bootcamps in the park.
She told people about it on Instagram and announced it in the monthly newsletter she started.
And guess what?
People showed up for that too.
So even though the gym isn’t her primary home anymore, when it reopens fully, she has her old job back… PLUS two new revenue streams.
All she’s doing is using her knowledge and skill set in multiple, creative ways.
Her latest thing is filming videos for an online course to teach her students how to turn a room in their house or garage into a home gym…
...So she can start bringing in even more passive income.
Okay, so when she told me THAT LAST PART the other day, I was like:
Hold up… the girl who 6-7 months ago was planning on crashing on my couch because she couldn’t work at her gym anymore is now talking about creating passive income streams online??
What I’m telling you with this story is that your freebie is the START OF A JOURNEY.
But this dating process – the customer journey – most small biz owners don’t know how to make it work.
So they’ll quit before they even start.
Here’s what I absolutely know: There IS an online opportunity you’re leaving untapped.
All you need is a roadmap to build an online aspect to your business.
Which is why when my personal trainer friend told me I needed to create a business training course about teaching people who have been struggling in their biz HOW TO DRIVE TRAFFIC and build an online component to their biz…
I said, OMG yes!!
And so I did.
This is about HOW TO CREATE A COMPLIMENTARY OR SECONDARY OFFER FOR YOUR OFFLINE BIZ.
And it’s step-by-step – with me teaching you how to do this, just like I did my personal trainer friend.
It’s basically business school training created for small biz owners.
I’ll cover ALL the business foundations you need to market and sell online effectively, including:
What online promotions work for small businesses (including a simplified premade Facebook ad funnel that you can swipe and apply RIGHT AWAY, using the content you’ve been making for your emails, your social, your website, ALL OF IT along your journey).
I’m asking you to check it out because I’m sure it will help you elevate your biz to a new level.
I hope you join before I close the doors next week.
Again, I’m sorry if I made it seem like creating a cool freebie is all it took to go online.
It’s part of the plan, but not THE plan.
Remember, this is about the customer journey…. the dating process.
From first date, to courting, to… PURCHASING. 😉😝 😂
As always, I’ll see ya online.
XO,
Hayley