Tina Tower [00:00:00]:
Hi friends, welcome back to another episode of Her Empire Builder Show. I am your host, Tina Tower, and it is fabulous to be with you here today. I hope you are doing something fun as you listen to this. I know I've been listening to a lot of podcasts recently on walks and in the car and in the sauna. I always wonder, like, where are people tuning in from? But I hope wherever it is, I hope you have a smile on your face. Uh, if you are alone, actually just smile right now for no reason. It just feels really good. All right, let's get into it because today I want to talk about marketing.r revenue.

Main Episode

Tina Tower [00:00:39]:
Uh, this is because when I work with a lot of people, uh, who are in online business and all day every day I am working with hundreds of women who are in online business and the last couple of years I've seen a bit of a trend where we have stopped doing a lot of the marketing and put all of our eggs into the social media basket. And so today I wanted to kind of shine a light on a few of those other marketing techniques. Now, when I was going through this— this is something that I teach in detail inside Her Empire Builder, which by the way, we are opening in a couple of weeks. So if you would like to jump on the waitlist for that, go to herempirebuilder.com/waitlist. I'll also link it in the below, um, because that is, that is how I teach to— how to do all of these different things. And a lesson that I did inside Her Empire Builder this month was on our marketing audit, our full marketing audit, and everything that we should be doing in our business. Now I am making the list of that available to you. So this has 37 different things that you should be doing inside your business.

Tina Tower [00:01:55]:
Now, inside Her Empire Builder, I actually teach you how to do those 37 things, but today I wanna run through a few of them. And if you would like that list and you wanna audit your own business, you can go to herempirebuilder.com/audit, or I'll link it in the notes. Or if you have Instagram in front of you, just DM me the word audit and it will come straight through to you there. Um, because as I said, a lot of people are forgetting about all of these things other than social media. And I don't know about you, but lately social media is— well, it's not my favorite place to be, if I'm being honest, because it has— oh gosh, it's gotten so much harder. Um, and I know that that's probably not a cool thing to say, but when I first started in online business, you could grow a million-dollar business with organic social media, hands down, no problem. Now I would say it's possible, but it's a rarity. And so on social media because so many people are doing it and so many people are using AI to produce a lot of crappy content.

Tina Tower [00:03:03]:
There is a lot of content there, and so that means that we're being very saturated with a lot of, um, you know, I know you probably feel when you're scrolling through and you're like, this is a whole lot of generic stuff, there's nothing that's really connecting or grabbing me or entertaining or at an emotional level, at a real level. Um, there's still people doing it, but they're few and far in between. And even when you're doing a really good job and you're being really natural and authentic and connecting with people, you've got to compete with all the noise. And so I am a massive fan of low-level Facebook ads, being able to run to those, uh, so that you can get that traction. And 2 years ago, me— like, if you go back and listen to early podcast episodes or watch masterclasses that I taught a couple years ago, I was very against Facebook ads, um, because I think a lot of people wasted a lot of money on them and it just wasn't necessary. Whereas now unfortunately is necessary, but that doesn't mean that that's all we get to focus on. We want to focus on a lot of the different things. So let me run you through some different things that you can have in terms of your marketing audit.

Tina Tower [00:04:11]:
So the first one that I want to go through is personal brand. So when you are looking at the marketing mix that you have inside your business, it depends on what level that you're at, uh, in terms of you know, whether you're starting from absolute scratch and nobody knows who you are, or if you're springboarding off something else. So when I started Her Empire Builder back in 2020, I started in online courses in 2017, so a little bit before that— nearly 10 years! Oh, that's exciting. Um, but when I started there, I had already built a business profile. So because I've been running my business since 2004, um, I had spent a long time while I built my previous business, which was a franchise company, totally unrelated, but I had been speaking on a lot of stages. I've been getting a lot of media and winning a lot of business awards. And so I'd already built my credibility and reputation as a business leader in Australia. And so when I kind of made the switch into coaching and consulting, uh, there wasn't really never really had to start from scratch.

Tina Tower [00:05:21]:
It was all— people had watched my business journey and were kind of like, yes, she's finally teaching us how to do it. So I did have a massive head start with that, and that is what you have to take into consideration when you're starting from scratch. There are sometimes people that will, will say to me, you know, I did a few things for my personal brand and I didn't get much uptake. It's like, if you're starting from zero, it takes time, uh, and I wish it was the other way. The, the other day I had a, had a lady— she may be listening now because she said she was a podcast listener, um, and she was like, you know, I need to get this started really quickly. So if I'm going to join her Empire Builder, it's $599 a month, um, and so how long will it take me before I'm making money? I'm starting from scratch, I've got no personal brand, I've got no social media, I have no reputation in the industry, I don't know what I'm going to teach yet. Like, all of these different things that keep her— like, she's very, very beginning, and that is totally fine. But what I like people to have is realistic expectations.

Tina Tower [00:06:18]:
And sometimes I'll work with people and, you know, it's a couple months in, they've done a couple marketing things, they're like, well, I'm, I'm not famous yet, what's going on? And if you have been in business for a few years, you'd be listening to this and chuckling, uh, because it does take time. And the downside of that is we have to be patient. The upside is a lot of people give up too soon. And so the, the coast is kind of clear on the other side. Once you get through the hurdles, once you have the staying powder— power, um, there is a lot less competition. On the good side. So there's a lot of people at the start, a lot of people at the starting gates, all there, but not many people can actually withstand the marathon. So when you're looking at building your personal brand, I think one of the easiest, quickest, and cheapest ways to gain traction is to start to guest on other people's podcasts.

Tina Tower [00:07:14]:
Uh, if you're a regular listener of Her Empire Builder Show, I'm sure you've been— you've discovered amazing people on the show lately. We've had Ellie Swift, we've had Melissa Brown, we've had amazing guests, and we've got some really good ones coming up. And what that does is every time I have people on the show, it expands their personal brand. And so they are able to get exposed to new people that they didn't before. And so when you are looking to get started, I would say before starting your own podcast, get really good at being a guest on other people's podcasts because it is going to open a lot of those doors. Uh, now if you are at the beginning, you may be saying Tina, who's gonna have me on their podcast? And what you have to do is add massive value to that audience. So I have— I get pitched all day, every day, all day, every day, um, probably 2 to 5 a day, and I have on about 20 a year on the show. So there is like a lot more nos than yeses, but the ones that I say yes to are the ones that people have said, hey, This is the value that I can give to your audience.

Tina Tower [00:08:20]:
This is why your audience will really enjoy this. And so you always want to pitch with the, with the goal of this is what, um, this is what I can bring to your audience and to your show. I can make it better for you. So never think about like what's in it for me. Think about what's in it for them and pitch with that, guys. Uh, and then stepping stone it up. So start on some small shows and then as you get some traction there, you can get more and more and more as you have each of the guest, uh, slots start making a Spotify playlist of all of your guest expert— uh, guest sessions that you're doing so that when you're pitching, you can put a link to that and they can hear, hey, she's a pretty good interview on there. She knows what she's talking about.

Tina Tower [00:09:02]:
I'm gonna get her on. So guesting on podcasts, one of the easiest ones. Then there's of course producing your own podcast. I'm a massive fan of podcasting. Um, it's a weird medium in that it's the last anonymous vestige. Like, I will look at our stats every week, and I go, who are these people listening? Like, I don't know. And I would— I've been like, we had the 300th episode, I don't know, 20 episodes ago, and I said last year when we hit 300 episodes, like, let me know where you're listening from, share it on social media. And we had like 5 people share it, but 1,000 people listened to the episode.

Tina Tower [00:09:41]:
I'm like, I'd love to know who you are. Um, but it's a way that people are listening to me all the time. And I'll have people join Her Empire Builder who have never spoken to me before, and they will say, I've been listening to the show for the last 6 months, or I've been listening to the show for the last 6 years, um, and they've got to know me, and I didn't even know. And so it's a really good way to build relationships with people in a very, very scalable way. Like, right now you're listening to this, you're learning from me, and I, I— you don't even have to talk to me. That's an amazing, amazing thing. Um, so really good way to build trust, build that credibility, so that when you do go to launch and you do go to sell things, people are there and people are ready to buy. Uh, so in personal brand, there's a few other ones that you will get in the marketing audit as well.

Tina Tower [00:10:31]:
Uh, so jump on to herempaybuilder.com/audit and you will be able to grab that one. So when it comes to social media, I want to just touch on a couple in the social media category as well. Um, so when it comes to social media, making sure that you're not posting just for the sake of it, but you're following— we call it our social spark guide, uh, where you are doing a combination of different posts. So you're making sure that you are talking about the promotion of your products, you're making sure that you're connecting with people, that you're sharing your thought leadership, that you are shining the spotlight on other people to get that law of reciprocity going. There's a few different things that you can do when you're doing your social media so that there's strategy behind it, because what we don't want to have happen is we don't want you to win a popularity contest but never be able to sell anything. Um, and I mean, I've had VIP days before with people that are superstars, um, that have, you know, hundreds of thousands of followers, but then they've gone to sell something and people don't buy it, or worse, people get mad at them for trying to sell something. Uh, and then some of the people that I've worked with that have some of the best sales, you— they've got less than 10,000 followers on social media. So the number doesn't necessarily matter as much as the engagement.

Tina Tower [00:11:50]:
So people following along, people engaging with your posts, uh, which is happening more now on stories and DMs than it is in the public forum. So if you're feeling like, you know, you're putting your posts out there and it's like there's no one around, then I want you to know you're not alone with that because a lot of people aren't commenting. This is also my PSA to comment on your friends' posts. If you see people having a go— like, even friends, strangers on the internet— if you see people having a go and you're like, I like that content, I can see them putting the effort in, give them an outer girl, like, give them a little like, go, I see you, I see what you're doing, you're nailing it. Um, because it really does make a big difference and go a lot— a long way, as we know when we're putting ourselves out there and we're posting on social media, that, you know, it helps when you get that encouragement. But make sure you've got that combination because that is what is going to get the most traction. And stories is where it's at. So daily Instagram stories— if you're in the stage where you're like, you know what, I'm on a build phase, uh, I want to see your face, I want to see you on stories every day, uh, or at least most days.

Tina Tower [00:12:59]:
I want to see you going live, preferably live with other people so you can expand your reach as well. Uh, we talk about cold ads, how to run ads for that, how to run retargeting ads. Um, there's a few other things that you can do when it comes to social media. Again, grab them on your audit. Uh, the next is third-party media. Now this is the one that I think is forgotten a lot, uh, is third-party media. Now what I will say is I don't think there's many people out reading the newspaper right now, you know. Um, I used to love that, like back in the day.

Tina Tower [00:13:35]:
I used to love a Sunday morning cup of coffee, sit down with the Financial Review. I probably haven't done that for at least 5 years. Um, I think I did it in COVID was the last time that I did it, but I— now I'm gonna do that this weekend. I'm gonna go old school and I'm gonna get a Financial Review. I'm gonna sit down with a coffee and coffee and just read it. Um, but so the point of doing social media and getting stories is credibility. As we get more and more into AI and the age of fake, uh, it is getting harder and harder to discern what is real and who is real and who is not. And so when it comes to trusted sources and third-party media, if you've got that beautiful social proof bar on your website that's got as seen in Financial Review, the Sydney Morning Herald, Huffington Post, all of the good stuff, uh, then that means people go, okay, She's a real person.

Tina Tower [00:14:31]:
She's actually knows what she's talking about. This is someone I can trust. And so that goes a really, really long way and it is very forgotten now. The other thing is lately I have had people finding me through ChatGPT and Gemini and Claude, and I haven't had that previously. Like, it's a lot in the last few months that people are inquiring about private coaching or her Empire Builder or finding out different programs. Through AI. Now, AI works the same as any other SEO, so exactly the same as Google in that it rewards more social proof that you are a good person to recommend. And so this is where that third-party media comes into play, is if you've got that third-party media coming in, then ChatGPT sees that and goes, all right, she was just profiled in the top 40 women under 40 to watch, let's put her in as one of the top coaches in that area.

Tina Tower [00:15:32]:
So you want to be having those, um, so that you can have the SEO and so that you can have that credibility and that trust. Then we go into your website. There is a lot of different things. Don't forget your website. Now I am guilty of this. The other day— oh my gosh, I gotta tell you this because it can sometimes feel like someone in my position should have it perfect. And sometimes I feel like people think I have a much bigger team than what I have as well. I did have a discovery call with a lady a couple weeks ago.

Tina Tower [00:16:04]:
She's like, I can't believe it's you. I can't believe you get on the calls. I'm like, who else is getting on? I don't know who you think I am, but I'm not that big. Um, you know, I don't have a sales team. I don't, I don't have— it's, it's me and, and my fabulous VA. Um, we're running this show. And so What, um, what, what I need to be able to say when it comes to website is, so the other day I was looking at my website and I was looking at all the page views and we were looking at our stats because we're coming into launch, um, launch in a couple of weeks. Join the, join the waitlist, herempirebuilder.com/waitlist.

Tina Tower [00:16:38]:
Um, so I was looking at all of our stats, looking at all of our page views, looking at all of our lead magnet downloads and our opt-ins and where they all go. And I am ashamed to say there were some that were very not optimized, um, some that I had not gone in and people were coming and downloading them and they were having like the confirmation email to a training like a year ago, or like a lot of different things that were just going in the wrong place that hadn't been updated. And this is work we've already done, right? We have— we've put so much effort into making our lead magnets, into making our evergreen sales pages, into making all our funnels on our website, but often we like time can go past and we forget to go and audit those. We forget to optimize those. Same with, like, the evergreen funnel pages. I know a lot of my members at the moment are working— BSL funnels are working really well. So a lot of people are running like the $97 BSL deadline funnels, and they're being optimized all the time because as soon as, you know, a couple weeks pass, we look at the data and change them. You can keep optimizing them rather than creating new stuff all the time.

Tina Tower [00:17:50]:
Just working on what we've already got can go so much further. And so I, I won't go into the detail of it, there's more detail on the marketing audit, but review your website, review all the pages, make sure it is not, um, out of date, because I would hazard a guess that most people have out-of-date things on their website. Uh, the next area, so our final area that we're going through, so in the marketing audit, it orders— audit It's personal brand, social media, third-party media, website, and sales. So our fifth and final spot is for sales. Now, when it comes to sales, it is doing simple things like communicating with your database, and that includes sending a weekly newsletter. Now, one of my members a couple weeks ago was saying she's just started— she's been running Facebook ads, she's built her list up from absolute scratch. So she's one of those people that I was using as an example before that's like starting from scratch. She now has about 400 people on her list in the last couple of months.

Tina Tower [00:18:51]:
She's doing great. Her conversions are really good. She's selling low-cost offers, um, off to a really great start. But I said— so she's, she's playing— she started like building the list and selling low-cost offers with the idea to start her membership in late March. And so all roads are leading to that. Everything's getting ready. And so I said, how's the weekly newsletter going? She's like, well, I haven't started sending it I'm like, why not? Like, you've got the people there, they're just waiting to hear from you. You don't want to ghost them and then all of a sudden you're like, hey, buy my thing.

Tina Tower [00:19:22]:
Um, and so she had said, well, I've fought so hard for these people that I don't want to send them an email and they all unsubscribe. I was like, oh, okay, that totally defeats the purpose. Um, because one, you won't get many unsubscribes. You'll get a few, but you won't get many. And that's the point. We want people to unsubscribe that are not right for what we're doing, and the people that are right for what we're doing, we want to be able to nurture that relationship. We want to be able to talk to them and communicate with them and connect with them, and that is a way that we can do that in such a leveraged way. And so I think if you are in online business and you're not sending a weekly newsletter, you're missing one of the easiest touch points that we possibly can do.

Tina Tower [00:20:06]:
Um, I think sometimes people put big barriers in front of that and overthink it a lot. I will say my weekly newsletter is one of the only things that I don't use any AI for, uh, so I write it straight off the top of my head. And you can usually tell because my sentences can be rambly, but it means that I sit down and I think about what I'm thinking about at the moment, what is happening in my business, what is happening in my life, and then that is what I share in my newsletters. And that is often the thing that connects the most. It's not something strategic that ChatGPT has come up with of the, you know, my audience, the top 50 problems that women are having with online business. Like, snor-fest. What it is is the real human elements. And so doing that, communicate— don't overthink it.

Tina Tower [00:20:56]:
People will read it or they won't read it. They'll delete it, they'll unsubscribe, or they'll get to know you better and they'll read every few of them. And then when it comes time to sell, people will either be ready or they won't, but they will be ready. And so we want to be sending that weekly newsletter. Okay, I've got like another 10 things on the sales list, um, that you will see when you download the marketing audit. So grab that, um, at herempirebuilder.com/audit. I've linked it in the show notes below. There's 37 different things on that list, and what you'll be able to do is you'll be able to give yourself a score out of 37, that will tell you how your marketing is going and where you need to fill those holes.

Tina Tower [00:21:40]:
Uh, and of course, if you wanna know how to fill any of those holes, that is exactly what we do inside Her Empire Builder. So we are opening doors in just a couple of weeks. Um, so hopefully you jump onto the waitlist for that, and then I see you on the inside. I'm also running a free training for launch week. I do it every year. We run the Empire Accelerator. This is actually the last time I will I'll ever run the Empire Accelerator live. I'm gonna do a new training after this, um, I have ran the accelerator for the last few years, so this is going to be the last one.

Tina Tower [00:22:15]:
So if you've always seen it and never jumped into my free Empire Accelerator, um, go to teenaweek.com and you'll be able to register for that. Uh, I'll start promoting it a lot more next week. It doesn't really get released officially until next week, but you get to sneak in there early if you want to because it is the last time that I'll run it live, and I'll be running it live from Palm which I am so excited about. Alright, my friends, grab all of those good things, audit your marketing, get out there. Don't just think about social media, think about how you can get in front of your audience in all of those different places and how you can really optimize the things that you have already put massive effort into creating so that you can get the best out of it that you possibly can. Have the best day. I'll see you next week.