welcome to visionaries where we believe your powerful message is the best way to grow your business and live a meaningful life we have on katie white today what's up katie hi how are you good uh i'm so excited um i feel like we're two peas in a pod when it comes to like talking about messaging content and the impact of being able to grow your business with all that visibility and intention yep um but before you got into i mean you know you run an agency you sell different products before you got into this online like brand world like what tell us a little bit about your journey of what led you to this point and where you're going yeah cool thanks so much for having me don um so i have been yeah i've been in content in social media marketing for 10 years now it's hard to believe um and the my the depth of my background is really in consumer goods products so i started my career at burton snowboards um moved into beaut i've been in beauty skin care and you know i call them like grocery store brand type of thing so really physical goods um across the spot form of industries and i have been for 10 years developing content strategies um you know planning content producing content publishing content community managing social advertising kind of the whole gambit um and i've gone from being like a one woman show uh in the early days of course like 10 years ago social media was pretty new um and we've seen in this field too how it has been a slow roll for bigger companies like allocating resources to social media so i've kind of gone from this like one woman team into managing an agency of my own yeah um and and so that's that's how i got into it did you start brands and then you met into your own yeah yeah so i started i was at burton snowboards for eight years i worked um i started as a customer service rep there that was my first job out of college moved in worked um for jake carpenter who is the founder and owner while he was ceo for a couple of years which was an epic experience and then moved into the marketing department there and i started in the marketing department there just as a writer like a content writer um and yeah i was i was running the the women's blog and then our social media manager left and there they didn't you know two weeks notice type of situation and i got kind of thrown in to it so trial by fire and just self learning from there yeah oh that's so good you know i those brands are are so amazing to me like snowboarding yeah or brands um so cool so okay so that brought you to this point today um yeah like i want to get into some practical steps that people can take because what i often find is a lot of people in the online space whether they're just starting or you even mention i agree uh established brands do oftentimes too much planning when it comes to content and by doing too much planning you put off actually the creation and the promotion of that content to get results with it yep um yeah what are some uh solutions for those with the yeah

yeah that's a great question i think um it is true one thing you said about those established brands i think like the the level that the amount you want to plan and the lead time you want to give yourself is very dependent on like how big your company is right because the the the more we can high level plan but leave some of the nuance exactly like you're saying to more real-time publishing where you have this concept but you know the best social media is the social media that really takes into account like what it's social right so what's happening in real time um and so having a shorter lead time of your planning and spending spending more time in that publishing mode is is really an ideal state um and i think depending on what's happening so depending on the rest of your marketing calendar like if you have your big econ brand that has a promotional calendar that's pretty robust through the year you know there's certain content you can plan ahead of time because it's like it's going to line up with those promotions um but then there is other content you almost want to have placeholders for um and you know you're going to publish in that space and maybe you know what the concept is but you're going to carve out time closer to that publish date to produce it so that it strikes that cord of like time relevance and what's happening for your community um does that make sense it does yeah it does um yeah with yeah keep going well i was just thinking your question your question about like how do you like how do we keep the momentum and keep going i think one of the biggest not over planning is key one of the biggest production hacks it's like not it's kind of common sense a little bit when you hear it but people forget it is remembering that um content planning strategizing and planning is a different mindset and like whatever brain zone than producing and so really carving out like specific times where you're gonna produce and publish like in that sitting if you know you're gonna if you don't wanna over plan but separating it from your planning session so maybe your planning session involves like i know i'm gonna have a post on these following dates but i'm gonna put a calendar block and like write and be in the mindset of writing or producing whatever type of media you're working with at that time and separating it from your planning time is going to result um in just more efficient production of your creative does that make sense yeah definitely and i i feel like a big thing too that that people uh get caught up on a lot of brands is sometimes crafting the right messaging um for knowing actually what to say in the content whether it's a word podcast or video that actually resonates with their customers um what do you find works well with the process you guys take your clients through yeah that's my favorite question so what i have just figured out over the years of trying to to just sort of distill like what is the fastest way we can get to market a content plan right on behalf of a brand is that there are that we in social media in the field of social media is so easy to get overwhelmed um because it's chaos like there's you're supposed to be it's like how often should we be posting do we need to post on all these channels and the first thing we need to do is just way way simplify it because there's only really three types of content that any brand should publish ever and the first there's there's three and they sort of mirror the marketing funnel i also like to talk about how they mirror social skills like it mirrors how you make a new friend and the whole goal of social media is to grow our audience convert new prospects and then retain loyalists right so the first type of content is going to be that growth content it's kind of meeting your customer in it's like on a mutual ground between you and your customers so your customer is going to find this content useful entertaining valuable even without buying your content then the second type of content that you want is the convert content it's lined up with your products they it's it's talking about your products and customer benefit driven terms and then the third type of content is um is your like it's the most about you now you have them you have two pillars that are really all about them and your third type is where you can talk about your mission your process whatever your secret sauce and like whatever it's gonna be that kind of it's like that moment in where you've met someone they're an acquaintance and then the conversation's going so well they tell you a story about themselves you're like i love this guy like it's that content um and so once you start to once you start to organize yourself and realize there are really only those three types you can start to get more organized and more streamlined about what those stories are for you that live under each one of those types and then that opens up a whole world of being able to kind of bridge the gap between your organic content and your performance marketing we were talking about how a lot of people have killer two kind of like is their sales funnel and they've got their sales funnel over here but then they've got organic over here and we're we're spending all of this time producing weekly if not daily organic content that then barely gets any reach um so if you organize your content strategy in a way that mirrors the marketing funnel you're also then able to layer on performance tactics to some of your organic marketing so you're able to you know target new eyeballs on a type 1 content piece even if it's just you know even i call it a new boost like we don't usually boost but it's like a little micro campaign so we will even if it's ten dollars behind a post if your targeting is right you'll see that that goes so much further and it starts pulling people into your funnel i don't know if that that was too much or if that makes sense that was i mean you're speaking my language because i'm i'm marketing with you at heart you know yeah yeah and i i i want to expand on that because what you said is so valuable um and it totally mirrors similar frameworks to what we'd use um at connection supply um and i i want to kind of extend on that relationship analogy you started referencing with friendship yeah um and i get to the level of like like a um uh like a a partner or a spouse or a boyfriend or girlfriend right where it's that the relationship customer um many times i call those three phases of those three pillars uh no love and trust content so you're getting to know your customers right um yeah for you it's that grow phase right and yeah they start to fall in love with you and become a lead and that's during that second pillar of content which is what was the word use again um oh convert convert convert yeah convert yeah yeah so same thing if we're trying if we're talking about service providers that's where they give you their their uh their number so to speak yeah yeah their number you got the digits and then um eventually you can propose you know you they show that they trust you when they pay you um and so it's that trust phase that no love trusts people here on the know like trust factor um love me is a lot more indicative of a relationship yeah which is what you're in with your customers um and so i i love that well that does follow that the marketing funnel it's that sales funnel totally yeah and that love phase is like the loyalty phase right we talk a lot about i think this is really relevant for most businesses whether they're selling products or services um you don't we're not in it for a one-time customer like we want customers who have such a great experience and love us so much um that they refer us to their friends and in it we often overlook the fact that organic social and just social media marketing in general can play a huge role in that digital word of mouth like they might not have an experience with you and then go sit down at their computer and send off an email on their iphone and send off an email to all their friends talking about you but if they are following you on your social channels and you put out a great piece of content that they love they are much more likely to send that off dm style to their friends um so i think that like that love factor is really we want to always we want to be digging in there as much as possible building that relationship and building that community because it's kind of it's just a ripple effect um you know it's it's it's a long-term game for sure that can really pay off when you look at it that way oh yeah for sure and and it's it's interesting too because you sometimes for the retention right retain is is your third phase right of content mm-hmm um with that as they trust you um people can fall out of trust um the times that i've made mistakes you know like my agency we've you know definitely net no agency is perfect mistakes happen yeah um you tend to lose trust with clients or if it's products you're selling and you have to retain that trust in that love and that no that knowledge um like with any great relationship you know otherwise a divorce will happen you know right those yeah ways with you and yeah someone else who uh yeah offering something better uh and so i think the funnel to me is kind of like a loop right you go through it successfully you get 100 but then continue to help them get to know you grow to fall in love with you and then you know scale with that ability to keep showing ways to trust and that's where other products or upsells and other offers and products you can offer them along the journey that they're on with you yep uh is awesome yeah

yeah and i think that third that that trust fee is that's really especially for service providers too that's the best place to be putting your um you know you're behind the scenes like all of that stuff because early on in the relationship you're really making the know and the like i assume this is similar for you you're making that known like they are the center of that world like they think they're getting to know you but really they're just getting to know how well you know them and what they need and so it's then it's finally time after you i always use this analogy of like a cocktail party back when there used to be in-person networking right like you know they're exactly back in the day like 60 years ago you know like i'm thinking of like mad men right they had like cocktails yeah be like that yeah but you're like i know i know this i know that person i want i know that like i need to make a connection with that person i'm gonna get an intro you get that intro and you don't just start like if you're savvy you don't just start talking about yourself you've done your research you find out like if they like golf you start talking about golf and they're like oh i'll listen to this part and you slowly bring the conversation from them to you and you wait for their sort of like indicator that you've you have said enough of the right things that prove you have enough in common that then they want to hear about you and so it's the same way in all of marketing and social media marketing as well you really want to make sure a lot of brands mess that up they have that that trust that trust content that retain content that pillar three all about the brand content is like the majority of their content which is all wrong it should be only about 20 right because you're mirroring that like we need to we need to have the pedal on the top of funnel it needs to be pressed down harder than the bottom and so um and it should be less about you and more about them so a lot of brands kind of put themselves in their brand story at the hero of their social media channels and wonder why you know their engagement is low and it's because it's too much about them you know it's it's so much easier said than done though uh it's so easy to use i um and to reference ourselves our stories i think of instagram stories when you go to like do behind the scenes it feels like well this is about me right so in that that no phase or that grow phase for content creation uh how can someone turn their mindset to think about their customers um as the hero or they're telling them the content yeah that's a great story and that gets to really i think the the like historical like when when social media first hit the scene most brands weren't looking at it at all as a sales tool it was just a top of funnel marketing tool so all social media content was that that top of funnel pillar one content and so i think that you apply this kind of old school social media marketing mentality to it which is um we talk in our agency about like we kind of think about big ideas on a quarterly basis and then we take those down and bring them down into like maybe monthly blog posts or something but the idea of them and that top of funnel content is that that common ground between you and them and there is the evergreen type and then there's the time sensitive type and um i think that this is like a really relevant time to talk about that you know we saw a huge shake-up in the field of social media marketing um last year that we're still in the middle of and it's and it the the the limited mindset sounded like brands that would say covid's not arlene or like this covid related topic not arlene right or whatever whatever's happening is not our lane people still want to hear about this and it's like well actually the world is going through this like we're going through this collective experience that that that is your lane on social media or figuring out how it relates to you so as a service provider like an example of this might be like work from home content we're like commiserating about being a small business owner in the current times that we're in right it just gets their attention that you have that thing in common that you're living that that shared experience um i think that sometimes we uh we too think about it in terms of the that's more the time relevant piece but the evergreen piece for service providers we get really caught up in like it's that how-to content it's how to do the stuff that you know your prospects and customers clients want to do and we get a little hung up on we don't want to give too much away because like this is what we do right if we tell everyone how we do what we do then why will they need to hire us um but the opposite is true the more you show someone the more you flex the more your ideal customers want you to do that for them um so so i think making sure our mindset is super abundant for that type of funnel content is really really helpful does that make sense yeah yeah the abundance is definitely a keyword that jumped out to me and and also um you started to reference it towards the end which i i mean all that was very good and valuable um the thought that jumps out to me is this idea of information and that we feel like we have so many secrets that are our our thing our signature framework the list goes on um and that we only want to reserve those say for courses or workshops that people have to pay to get access to um yeah but in all reality like this is something i have to remind myself constantly of is there's only so much information that is so new right like marketing and storytelling like all these things have been around for years it's just the tools that have evolved right the ability to create video faster or to now be radio show host with a podcast you know is becoming easier uh and so at the end of the day there aren't too many secrets as there are just our unique perspective on certain proven processes that work marketing can be pretty simple uh if you break it down to the essentials and for it to work well you got to follow a process and people throughout you know we have different words for different state phases but we still break down in three phases right and we you know we may use different tools or you know software to implement it but um i think there's power to be said in the fact that um your uniqueness is going to come down to your perspective and um how you achieve results for your customers be that through products or services um versus the information itself because people like information can be accessed anywhere online the internet's crazy loaded with information yeah so i think we need to give away all of our secrets um and be able to do that and then people will pay for you know the help for how to get that done the implementation yeah of that information yeah i think i think um and here you say that what comes fine for me is like the idea of just marketing in general as a service provider really shares that um with social media marketing just like as a general field um the that being like what makes it work is the nuance of humanness like what makes it strike a chord is just exactly what you're saying like it's the unique perspective it's the unique presentation it's whether or not someone enjoys the way that you talk and present something and if they like the way you do that with one thing they're gonna stick around and learn if there's a topic they could learn in a hundred different places they're gonna wanna learn it from you and i think um really trusting that is is definitely key and and it's the same it's the same reason quite frankly this could be an unpopular opinion but i i advocate for a lot of small business owners to empower themselves to lead their own social media marketing and like maybe that's not doing all of it to lead it lead like actually be engaged instead of like before you just outsource to an agency you're you are the one that has the most knowledge about your customer your product your in your service your industry what has worked what strikes cords and like all of that is so valuable to be embedded in you know the most human part of your marketing which is social a lot of the times i mean and so um i think just just yeah remembering that i have to do the same thing all the time remind myself that that like just the abundancy mindset is the way to go um and and when you do uh you can kind of really just like block out the noise and get into your own zone and lean into like why people like you in the first place and just cultivate more and more of that yeah that's so powerful because a lot of people listening to or watching this podcast um are the visionary types who have big vision for the brand they want to build uh they're maybe at different levels that they're just starting out or they're deep into growing a brand after many years um but they're looking to break out with to get more visibility um and only at the end of the day too like and i say this often like i truly believe in order to achieve what you want in in business and definitely in life is by having a clear vision knowing exactly what that looks like uh to achieve that vision uh but then your vision's only as good as your ability to communicate it uh and your way you communicate it is obviously through content like what we've been discussing and using these strategies and so um kind of like your customers are never going to know how much you care about them how much you want to serve them if you don't actually talk to them um right and so you know you need that visibility there um same way like i never would have gotten married if i never would have asked out my wife you know or you know yeah there's all these different um comparisons but i think there's a lot of power uh to be had in all of these practical strategies you've been walking and you have plenty of frameworks and resources you know people can go learn more about what that is um through your different channels uh but what what are some like parting words and directions for people who are like okay yeah i'm feeling more a little more confident that i can put some structure here categorize my content into these three types um yeah what what's their next right step to feel confident that they can become more visible um i love that question i think i have two two really basic thoughts the first is um this idea of start wherever you're most comfortable so you and i were talking earlier about how um you know i was reading i think it was a hootsuite report like a 2021 report and it was talking about how um one of the social media marketing industries pitfalls is that we're constantly chasing newness and like shiny object syndrome is literally embedded in this like our field so yeah so um you know in strong brand social we actually we talk about this a lot of the we went to market last year with our courses really focused on instagram and facebook and we know we want to add more channels um but we also know from really being accountable in our agency relationships for measurable growth and attribution that like these table stake platforms are really a great place to start and if you're feeling like oh i'm late to the party wait i can't you know if you have paralysis because you're not on you're not doing a lot of video content yet for example or you're not on tick tock yet and like you don't know how you're gonna get those resources know that tons of incredible brands like are built with with the most standard approach and if you're most comfortable with some coffee and some stock images like start with that and just get it out there um because the the i guess to loop back and close that loop the article that hootsuite was reading it was like tick tock was all the craze in 2020 it's all that marketers were talking about yet when measured it had the least it was the least effective in terms of actual measurable business impact um and so like it can be easy to get overwhelmed with feeling like well [ __ ] oh i'm so far behind i can't even get i don't even know where to start when really like your tried and true fundamentals are enough to grow your brand um and then the other the other piece is thinking about um you know one of the one of the questions you asked me earlier just about that pillar one content and getting it out there i think it's um people listening to this are probably probably familiar with the concept of the lead magnet right and so that's kind of what the direct response market has done to what i think of is just pure like pillar one social content and that content that really bridges the gap between you and your prospect and provides value without them having to buy something and i think um consider consider doing something similar to a lead magnet but in just a blog format where you're just without all of the like cumbersome tech to it not not necessarily needing to like capture the email on the first blast or have that thank you page after and funnel it into the list like at the very minimum viable just place it like taking up a few sentences for ad copy that are driving click through to a blog um and being able to see more quickly like what that click-through rate looks like and get more messages out to market that pillar one content really is is what people come into your brand for um and so kind of dialing back the mindset of what's needed for a lead like if we get people to our website and our pixel is firing that's a lead that we can retarget and so just making making the barrier to entry a little bit lower um to bring people into your world i think is is a probably a valuable thing to think about yeah and and simplify like i feel like you know you talk about the shiny object syndrome and like that's all that's so valuable and and what kind of the theme i pulled from that the nugget is to simplify right we can have all these directions we can go all these strategies and things we can do but particularly if we are a team of one or just a team of few before a team of any then we should simplify as much as possible um i'm saying this mostly for myself right like i'm trying to yeah myself right now yeah because it is like we have to constantly be like looking at what we're doing and like okay where are we paralyzed in our uh you know need to take action um what areas do we need to truly focus on and and i think yeah you know you said it so well with this idea of putting out messages and just getting that visibility in some form even if it starts so simple um like this yeah yeah oh this is so good we always oh yeah thank you so much darling this has been so good yeah i appreciate it thanks for uh thanks for joining on thanks so much we'll see you soon thanks so much for listening uh once again if you would like to learn more about how you can use your unique message and share with the world through video and create videos that actually are professional and perform bring you money and all of the results and influence that you want to make then i invite you to learn more by going to contentsupply.com thanks again for listening and we'll talk to you very soon

‍