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EP 280 - Customer Acq. + Retention Roundup - 1:3:25, 4.39 PM: Otter Voice Meeting Notes

EP 280 - Customer Acq. + Retention Roundup - 1:3:25, 4.39 PM

Ellen Yin35min

Ellen Yin

00:00

You're listening to Cubicle to CEO episode 280. Welcome back to our highly anticipated roundup series, this time featuring our top 10 guest insights on boosting customer acquisition and retention. Try these tested tips on creative lead generation, qualifying high converting customers from the get go and lucrative ways to keep your buyers coming back for more.

Ellen Yin

00:21

I'll set the stage for each sound bite with the guests name and the original episode number, so you can dive deeper into the full case study interview if an idea really hits home. And for your convenience, all the episodes are linked below in the show notes for easy, bingeable access. Let's roll the clips.

Ellen Yin

00:41

Welcome to Cubicle to CEO, the podcast where we ask successful founders and CEOs the business questions you can't google. I'm your host. Ellen Yin, every Monday, go behind the business in a case study style interview with a leading entrepreneur who shares one specific growth strategy they've tested in their own business, exactly how they implemented it and what the results and revenue were. You'll also hear financially transparent insights from my own journey bootstrapping our media company from a $300 freelance project into millions in revenue.

Ellen Yin

01:22

Tip number one is from Nicki Krawczyk, episode 234. Everyone always recommends making the customer experience as frictionless as possible. But what if adding a double opt in actually creates a more engaged and higher converting community?

Nicki Krawczyk

01:37

But we have found, consistently across all of our brands that requiring people to do a double opt in gets better results in the long run, and it's very much anti everything else we learn in marketing about like, Oh no, it has to be frictionless. You have to make it super duper easy for them to but we have found that when we require people to go in and take the action to say, Yes, I'm confirming to get the video that we get so much better engagement throughout the entire funnel, and I keep, we keep retesting it in again and again, just in case, because it may be the numbers in Facebook would make me so much happier. I mean, we do.

Nicki Krawczyk

02:17

Don't get me wrong. The way our system works, we use drip, and what drip will let you do is it will let you collect everybody, even if they don't double opt in, because they gave you their email address, so effectively, they did opt in. So we run an automation that if people don't do a double opt in, they don't complete it within I want to say it's 24 hours. 24 to 48 somewhere in there. We send them through it anyway, because, look, I worked to get those leads, whether or not they actually went back, maybe it went to their spam folder, God forbid, whatever. But we still find that people who take that double opt in are just more engaged and more likely to buy throughout the whole process. So adding a little bit of friction in that way actually makes them a better customer.

Ellen Yin

02:59

That's brilliant. I love that you get the best of both worlds, because, like you said, if someone chooses not to opt in, it's not like they're missing out. They're still going to get the emails just a little delayed. But I love that theory, I guess that you've tested and it makes sense, because they're essentially qualifying themselves further and also reminding themselves, like what they signed up for. Because I feel like a lot of times, people quickly, especially with auto fill on Facebook or Instagram, right? It's like, you click on something, you auto fill it, and you forget what you even opted into, and then you forget you subscribe to this person.

Ellen Yin

03:29

And that's when you get, like, angry emails from people who are like, Why are you sending emails? And it's like, well, you, you chose to you elected you. Yeah, you elect join your ecosystem. But they forget, you know, and so I feel like that double opt in does kind of solidify in their minds like a memory of, at least, you know, agreeing to receive communication from you. So super smart.

Ellen Yin

03:54

Tip number two is from Kenya, Kelly, episode 245, wow, prospective brand partners by guaranteeing your content will drive high intent leads that slide into your DMS with this manychat automation.

Keenya Kelly

04:08

I will say this, I learned something from some of the other marketers because, like, I became this accidental influencer where brands want to pay me to create content or whatever. And of course, we know that the platforms don't really like for us to say, click the link in bio, yeah. And so now we are able, when we're selling like the package to the brand, and say, Hey, we will create a chat bot, and they will look like this, this, this, this and this. And every single time we talk to a brand, they're always like what, you know, and we're like, we can guarantee we can get them into our DMS, they are. They go crazy about it.

Ellen Yin

04:43

Oh, that is like goal, as someone who does a lot of brand partnerships and sponsorships, that's so smart, and what a great way to differentiate yourselves. And I mean, I can see why brands just salivate over that, because it's like the intimacy of a DM really heightens the. The affinity or the relationship they feel with that brand, or whatever it is they're trying to promote. So so smart that one piece alone is like making this entire episode gold. So like, please, please, don't underestimate the power of that. Thank you for sharing that awesome tip. I really appreciate that.

Ellen Yin

05:18

Tip number three is from Candace Ward, episode 262 what are the markers of an ideal buyer? Candace walks us through the four factors to pay attention to when determining if someone is a good fit for your offer.

Ellen Yin

05:32

What other high indicators of interest have you noticed over your years, both in corporate sales and in what you do nowadays as an educator and even pitching brands for your own business, what are those markers that you always look for to, like, really lean in on a conversation?

Candice Ward

05:49

Yeah, absolutely, that's such a great question. And this is something that I teach to my students. Is I kind of look at four qualifications or markers. The biggest one is, and it's used interchangeably with like being able to gage if a prospect is viable, or if a brand is interested in potentially working together, or if somebody's purchasing my course or a coaching student. This is transferable across any industry, but essentially, really the four like things that need to align in order for somebody to purchase an offer would be they have to have a budget for it. They also have to have a timeline for it, like a specific, defined timeline. They also have to have a need, obviously. And then they need to be sold that your offer is the right offer to give them the results or the desired outcome.

Candice Ward

06:39

So whenever I am communicating with a person or a brand, I'm always thinking, how can I check the box in all four of those areas? And so for these individuals that were responding, and I was able to uncover by asking a simple question, have you worked with brands before? Okay, you have great. What has been your biggest challenge, or what are you hoping to get out of our time together? You would be surprised at how much information you can get about somebody or potential prospect or a potential buyer, just by asking that simple question. Because A, people like to talk about themselves. B, you're learning about what their pain point is, and that is what motivates people to buy. If you know what their pain point is, and your offer can be the solution to that, they will purchase your product.

Candice Ward

07:20

But again, the timeline and the budget has to align as well. So I was able to create a timeline. I was pitching this offer to say, you know, q3 and q4 is the highest earning potential for creators like historically. And so my offer was basically like, I'm going to be in the trenches with you, pitching alongside you, because I also need to be pitching to brands right now, and we're going to be doing it in time to secure those partnerships for q3 and q4 let's do it now together, instead of waiting until the opportunity has passed, right so that timeline was created, and then the budget piece was really how much do I think, based on historically, the offers that I've extended before to My audience, will they invest in this level of coaching?

Candice Ward

08:03

And so my digital course is priced at 549 and then the VIP offer, which is three coaching calls, is priced at 899 and I never have an issue filling those spots. So I was like, You know what? Let's price this one at 999 because I'm going to be way more involved than my 899 offer. And so I was able to really sell the value of that very easily, because it wasn't that much more than my VIP offer. But I think we're getting way more of my time. I've even done more calls than I even originally told them I was going to it was supposed to be a bi weekly, and it's been every week, which has been great. Oh my gosh, but, and I love it, because I'm able to get really deep into their business, and what it is that they're trying to get out of our time together. Yeah, no.

Ellen Yin

08:46

I mean, that's a steal of a deal. I'll just tell you as like, a third party, you know, person observing that. I mean, for less than twice the cost of your self paced, self guided, course, if you will, they get, I mean, 12 weeks of access to you. I think that is huge. I am not surprised at all that you sold out. And I'm glad that you mentioned this piece about timing the presentation of the offer correctly with you know, you sold this at the beginning of summer, and like you said, by the time the 12 weeks wraps up, we'll be right in the middle of quarter three, so they could really take advantage of the prime selling time for brand partnerships when brands have the biggest budget. So I love that you utilized the timing of the release of your offer to help you create this urgency around why now, like answering that question of why now.

Ellen Yin

09:35

Tip number four is from Kiri Mohan, episode 247 want clients that can literally see themselves in your business. Test out this reflection framework that'll magnetize ideal clients to your business.

Ellen Yin

09:49

Kiri, can you first define your reflection framework and the psychology behind this approach?

Kiri Mohan

09:55

Yes. So a lot of this goes back to branding, but that's just a very whole list. Stick overview, okay, so when I was working as a freelancer and doing hourly pricing, because that's what everyone, quote, unquote, says you should start with, right? And I started looking at ideal clients and ideal industry I wanted to work in, and I wanted to start raising my rates, and I didn't know what to do, I actually, instead of looking at what other freelancers were doing, I looked at what, what is my ideal client or ideal industry doing? What does their websites look like? How do they charge their pricing and even like, how do they put their social media posts out there? What kind of social media platforms are they on, right, right? And from there, I just kind of mimicked them and copied them because I knew if I was going to approach them or if they were going to be interested in my services.

Kiri Mohan

10:50

People gravitate to what's familiar. They gravitate to what they are comfortable with. And so if you're in a healthcare industry and all your branding across the board is like green and blues and tans, which is very common in that industry, or if you're a startup, and it's some oranges and reds and blues, that is what you should be using in your branding. So you're reflecting back to them what they're used to seeing, and then they're more likely to be comfortable with you, reach out to you and want to work with you. So that's it at, like, a very basic, high level, makes sense? Yeah. So with that, I was able to say, Okay, I'm charging hourly. I don't want to be charging hourly. I want to be working with startups. And specifically I was looking at like, startups in Chicago and New York City. I was looking at PR, social media, startups, agencies, that kind of lifestyle.

Kiri Mohan

11:37

So then I started being like, Okay, what colors are they using? And I really did break it down into a spreadsheet. I would just go to random companies. What colors I took, the common colors, used it in my own branding, reading my web page. How are they even formatting their web pages? How many tabs do they have? What kind of case studies do they have? What kind of testimonies? Where does that all go? And I would just mimic all of that, put it with my own spin on it. Where are they on social media? That's where I'm going to focus on. Actually, back then I started on Twitter, and then now, then I moved to LinkedIn, so I kept watching the trends right, and then finally, how do they price themselves, right? And that was a little bit more tricky to figure out.

Kiri Mohan

12:13

Not everyone does that, but I noticed that a lot of it was not hourly. A lot of it was an all inclusive price. And a lot of it kind of revolved around either, like the turnaround time, how fast these things get done, or how available you needed their agency to be. So then I just implemented that into my own and as an executive assistant, it's kind of like executive assistant freelancer. It was like, How do I even do that? I mean, these are like agencies not doing EA work. And so what I ended up doing was saying, Okay, if someone wants me to be available from, let's say like 7am to 9pm if they want me to change their flights, if they want me to do all these things during that time period, and they want me to get back to their emails and their clients emails within 24 business hours. That's going to be the highest tier.

Kiri Mohan

13:01

So then I was able to jump my pricing, like, I think I was charging like, three or four years ago, even just like, 40 bucks an hour. And then it was like, Okay, well, let me try $1,500 a month. Let's see what happens there. Then, you know, more people started coming to me when I was using this reflection framework, and they were finding me, and I was like, Okay, I'll do 2000 and then 3000 and then 4000 and so then I was able to slow down on how many, like, not slow down, but cut out clients, and just have about, like, anywhere between five to seven, between three to 5000 a month. And it was all based on, like, how quickly do you need my services? And then it's like, it really can apply to so many people. So let's think about like a website designer. How quickly do you need a web page? How many calls do you need when you're making that web page? What kind of branding do you need? Do you need SEO?

Kiri Mohan

13:48

And then when you have that, everything they want in a dream list, and then you include the turnaround time or availability, depending on your sector of freelance, you're gonna be able to charge a lot more. And so that is, like, the essentials of the reflection and how to move away from hourly and not stick, because there's other aspects too, right? Like, I see a lot of freelancers, sorry, I'm rambling now, but there's a lot of freelancers who also do, like, Oh, but I do package rates. I do $800 a month, and I say, but what is, what is your contract saying? They're like, Oh, but it says it includes 20 hours like well, if you have that in there, immediately, the client's gonna do 800 divided by 20. Okay? That's $40 an hour, right? Immediately, because I do it, when I see freelancers come to me saying, Here's my services. It's not really a package rate. You're not building a lifestyle business, because you still need to hit all those hours.

Ellen Yin

14:38

Tip number five is from Michelle Lucchese and John Ruggiero. Episode 274 cold pitches aren't dead, but bad ones will be banished to the digital graveyard. Here's how you craft a can't ignore cold pitch straight from the mouths to founders who have landed licensing deals with legendary brands like Jack Daniels, Jeep and Lord of the Rings.

Ellen Yin

15:02

How did you actually approach this to begin with? How did you get in contact with the right agent? Like, was this a cold pitch? How did you approach the pitch? How did you find this contact? I'm sure there's so many listeners thinking, Oh, I have this dream partnership, but I would have no idea how to even get into their, you know, sphere of awareness.

Michelle Luchese

15:19

Yeah, there's a couple different ways you can go at it. You know, you can hire, like a licensing agency to help you, if your brand's big enough, you know, usually they'll take you on. Or you can just, you know, cold email them, and you can put together a beautiful, fantastic pitch that shows what you do and why you're special. You know that that also wins these days, it really does. People get so bored of the same like, Hey, I'm not gonna waste your time. But blah, blah, blah, boring emails, you know. But like, show them, show them something gorgeous and beautiful. Show what's special to you. And, you know, a lot of times people will, you know, rise up and say, Oh, wow, this is really cool. Okay, fine, let's, let's do a 15 minute phone call, you know. Yeah.

Ellen Yin

15:59

So how did you guys create that pattern interrupt, if you will, to catch their attention. How did

Michelle Luchese

16:04

we do that? So we, we did actually hire somebody in in house who had licensing experience, and so she went after a host of of different licenses for us that year. And so we built a bunch up. It was nice. Yeah, that's awesome.

Ellen Yin

16:18

Do you try to in the same way that you create an experience for your customers. Do you try to, like, I know sometimes when people go out of the box with pitches like you said, maybe they don't just send an email, maybe they send, like, some sort of experiential package. Do you guys do anything of that sort? Or do you start just simple with the email contact and then kind of move from there?

John Ruggiero

16:37

Yeah, no, for sure, we actually try to go in best foot forward every time. And so we'll actually spend the time prior to reaching out, usually, to put together a whole pitch deck. And so we'll work with our products team and our creative team, and we have an amazing creative minds here that can put together these designs before we even reach out to them. So by the time they get a pitch deck from us, we have the story behind each ring. We have the initial concepts of a design for each ring, and, and ultimately, they're looking at it, and they can actually see it, you know.

John Ruggiero

17:08

And, and sometimes we'll even send a sample so they can then touch it and feel it. And so, you know, it's you're kind of presenting. This is what it would be like, as opposed to, you know, hey, let's work together. We don't really know what we're gonna do, but, you know, let's chat about it, which is less appealing than sending, like, a package that's like, look, this is like, halfway done. It's gonna be awesome. Do you want to finish it with us? And I, I feel like it's almost like a spec, a spec thing, you know, it's like, do the work, do the legwork, get it ready to go show them what could be and then sell them on that. And ultimately, you know, if you do a good job, like, why wouldn't they want to

Michelle Luchese

17:43

exactly, I think that we we often get kind of in our heads about, oh, well, you know, maybe this isn't going to work. Maybe it isn't, you know is going to work, whatever. I don't want to put the time into it, and then you just get in your own way. Whereas if you just spend the time and energy to put together something beautiful, you know, take out of your brain what is gorgeous and amazing, put it on paper into a deck, and then, yeah, like you said, you have put your best foot forward. You show you're showing what you can do and what your company can do, and then how can they not pay attention?

Ellen Yin

18:15

Tip number six is from Amanda Schuman Episode 232. People are feeling the Zoom fatigue. So how do you ensure your virtual events don't turn into a boring meeting or predictable webinar? Amanda reveals how to create unforgettable branded events that actually convert

Ellen Yin

18:33

the first thing I want you to do I alluded to this is tell us what a branded experience or a branded virtual event is because I think for many of us, when we think of a virtual event, and we're like, Well, if you're you know, if your brand is attached to it, isn't that a branded virtual event, but I'm sure you mean something a little bit different. So how would you define that, and how is it different than a normal virtual event?

Amanda Shuman

18:56

Yeah, so a branded event for us, whenever we talk about branded events, the easiest way to bring it to life for people is like a costume party that you get invited to. Yeah, it's it's basically a themed event. So I'm sure we'll get into this some more. But one of our flagship events that we do is our Find your first class ideal client challenge, and it's first class idle client. And it's a travel based so all the imagery that you see has, like suitcases and packing your bags and like travel destination, all of the terminology that we use in there, it's very like, has puns and wordplay.

Amanda Shuman

19:40

We'll do stuff like, during the last challenge that we had, I had virtual event backgrounds, and so we did, like, Guess the destination, and you would win like, prizes if you could guess the destination behind me. And so it's, it's very like, full on, all out, like theme. And parties that are virtual events for the first class idol client challenge, we break it down into the three days. The first day we actually, we called it security checkpoint, so basically making sure that you have all the right things, like packed in your your bag, we have a what's called your completed like client compass. And so a lot of like, word play is really, really fun. Day two was called perfect in flight pairings, so having to like, pair the right audience with the right message. And day three was your custom itinerary. So every day is like, branded in that that travel theme.

Ellen Yin

20:46

Did you get feedback in the moment from people experiencing this in real time saying, like, Oh, I love like, did people were, were people commenting on the branded aspects and and do you feel that influenced their engagement or conversion on the back end in any tangible way.

Amanda Shuman

21:03

I think that in the day and age that we are in, you might have heard this come from Ashlynn Carter before. She has said, win the attention, win the dollar. And so that's the main reason why I started branded events from the beginning, is because we are in such a noisy online space that I wanted to do something that was out of the box and caught people's attention and made them want to sign up. So I can't think of anything like people said that comes top of mind, but I do think that it helped in capturing people's attention and getting them inside the challenge, of course, converts in the back end.

Ellen Yin

21:44

Tip number seven is from Jasmine star, episode 273 while fundraising to build out her SaaS product, Jasmine knew that not all money is created equal. Here's how she qualified exactly who to target and raised half a million dollars in just one hour from her own community.

Ellen Yin

22:02

So the wait list was it open to the public or just to the people who are already active users?

Jasmine Star

22:10

It was just just to active users. And so one thing that we like to balance very strategically is how much we're making an Ask publicly. So I've always grown up with this idea, give, give, give, ask. And Gary Vaynerchuk had a much smarter way of saying it. He says Jab, Jab, Jab, Right Hook. So a jab is going to be something like, Oh, I'm just gonna, I'm gonna give you something, I'm gonna give you something, and then a right hook is an ask. And so we wanna be very careful and strategic when we're making asks outward facing. We know that when we make an ask, it's very powerful.

Jasmine Star

22:41

We are able to move because we have way over indexed the amount of information and goodwill and education that we're giving on outward facing, so that when we make an ask, somebody feels like, Yes, I am ready to be committed because I've received so much on the front end. So when we were doing this lifetime sale, they would have required way too much messaging and convincing of a cold audience, what they were building into. And we didn't want a cold audience coming in, because my cold audience, like 1500 that's really nothing people spend, you know, 510 $1,000 on a course getting 1500 just to be a looky loo was not for the market that we were trying to serve. We wanted people who wanted to build alongside us.

Jasmine Star

23:19

So it was a really beautiful thing that our segment was a lot smaller than anything out publicly, and so people felt like they were on the ins. And I was going into the community. I was doing live videos. I was explaining why this was gonna be the language and the cadence, and just like the overall energy that you carry in with people who are already paying customers is so different than a cold audience,

Ellen Yin

23:38

absolutely. And you brought up a brilliant point, which is that not all money is equal, even if you like you said, person A gives you 1500 person B gives you 1500 it's about what they do with that investment of the 1500 and I think that's really smart, because you're right. There are lots of people who might have just been curious about what you were doing, and would pay, but would not be active, would not give you feedback, which would therefore defeat the purpose. So 100% excellent, excellent point. I think we can all stand to remember that whenever we're launching something and thinking through, are we going to make this a public ask or a private ask, and really asking like, what is the end objective of the type of users that you want to get in there? What types of behavior do you want to be promoting, and then making sure you're filtering based on that? That's so smart

Ellen Yin

24:22

tip. Number eight is from Giulia Guerrieri, episode 233, when does the customer journey really begin? Giulia shows us how to create a scalable yet high touch user experience that people will rave about from the moment they hit purchase.

Ellen Yin

24:37

I'm curious if there's anything we haven't covered that you feel were key decisions that you made in some of these changes to your program that made it again a more scalable or B just increased one of the following things, either increased the referral rate, increased retention rate, or reduced refund requests. So any. Strategy or tip we didn't cover that you feel really impacted one of those three areas, or scalability that you want to make sure our listeners come away with

Giulia Guerrieri

25:08

absolutely it's be a human. Like, I think we forget, because we're in front of a screen all day, that these are real people. So like, for example, when I would get, you know, I wouldn't even call it like a complaint, but like, let me just give you an example to really, like, land this plane and drive it home. A client reached out to me and was like, hey. Like, I feel that I am at my 60 day mark, and I haven't yet seen the result that I was hoping to see. Right? She made, like, $3,000 she wants to make 10k by the end.

Giulia Guerrieri

25:39

So first of all, I'm like, sister, you got 30 days left. You can absolutely knock it out of the park. You still have another four months of the group coaching calls. You have access for life. And the minute, I just went in there and had like, a conversation with her, and I was like, there's really nothing to worry about here. You're in a great position. You made $3,000 you built your brand, you landed on your offer. Like, look at all these accomplishments. And I think I used to fear that stuff, and I think it's so much of this, like, and I'm sure you could resonate with this, where it's so much of this, like, internal dialog, where it's like, oh, is it my? Course, is it me? Is it me? But I could really see her and meet her where she's at, and say, like, I understand your fear and your worry, but this is a human to human conversation, like, we got your back, and I basically just, like, re inspired her and reminded her of all her wins, all her accomplishments.

Giulia Guerrieri

26:37

And she was like, honestly, I was just feeling a little bit scared. I was just having a little bit of FOMO, and it's like, at first that may come off as, like, this isn't working. I don't like this, and she didn't say those things, but maybe she was feeling that way. And for me as the coach, when I can just say like, I always say to my sales team, figure out the real reason why. What is the deeper reason why? Because it's never the surface level stuff. So it's like, talk to your customers.

Giulia Guerrieri

27:06

You know, one of my mentors always says there's no such thing as a passive relationship. So there's really no such thing as a passive income, because you need to constantly fuel it where it's like, if I went and go to my boyfriend, like, hey, let's have a passive relationship. He's out the door, right? You got to nurture your relationship every single day, right? You have to still buy them cards three years in. You got to still make Valentine's Day sexy and exciting. You have to do the same thing with your customers, and you have to remember that the minute they buy is the start of the relationship and not the end.

Ellen Yin

27:43

Tip number nine is from Sophia Parra, episode 239 so often people neglect nurturing their existing buyers instead prioritizing all their attention on seeking out new ones. Here's a way to both surprise and delight your existing customers and prime new ones to convert

Sophia Parra

28:00

So a Q+A party. What I love about a Q+A party, I'm gonna, I'm just gonna start there is, it is so freaking simple. If you are listening here, and you tend to check yourself out of a lot of the strategies out there, because you're like, I don't have a big enough list for that. I don't have a team for that. I don't have an email platform. I don't whatever it is, whatever stage of business you're in, like this is not fancy at all. It really comes down to why businesses work, and that is relationship first, in my opinion, right? So what it does is it creates an actual event around the nurturing of your community.

Sophia Parra

28:40

We create events all day long. We create events for growing. We have bundles, we have summits. We have all of these like appointment based marketing to grow our audience. We create appointment based marketing for our sales strategies. We have launches, we have discovery calls, we have bonuses, we have flash sales. We have all these events that we have thought about for growth, and that we have thought about for sales, but we are not thinking about nurturing in the same way. And I think this is really why it is so hard sometimes, especially in the beginning, to see sales inside of your business, because we think nurturing is just about posting content.

Sophia Parra

29:15

I'm going to post great content. People are going to see it and they're going to think, damn, I cannot wait to work with this person, like, when are they gonna start selling to me? I'm so excited, like, that's what we think is supposed to happen, but that just is not how it happens these days. So the Q and A text list party, or I do mine on a text list, but you can do it in lots of different formats. This is designed to bring that same appointment based marketing that works so well and the other important pillars within our marketing strategy, and bring it into the nurturing pillar. So what is it a Q and A text list party, or a Q and A party? Again, I don't want to make it a text list thing, but for me, that's where I do it. It's essentially a an appointment that you have with your community. There's a star. Time, there is an end time, and you're inviting people to ask a question that you are going to get back to, one by one. So for me, what that looks like is, I have a text list, right?

Sophia Parra

30:13

I It is always a surprise. I don't always tell them when it's happening, because I want them to, I want it to kind of feel like, act fast, like it's happening now, right? And I don't even want them to think too hard about it, like, whatever the first thing that comes to mind. I want them to feel like they can just shoot me the message, right? So I literally open the doors, kind of like you do on Black Friday, right? Like we start it, like we're gonna open at 4am surprise, here are the deals you're gonna get, right? That's like, what we do for Black Friday, for the Q and A party. I'm literally, like, surprised it's 9am until 5pm I am answering any question you got over on my text list. Shoot me that question at this is my phone number. I'm gonna go one by one. This ends at 5pm right?

Sophia Parra

30:58

And the idea is, throughout the day, like I usually pick a light day, I will go one by one and answer the questions. I do voice memos I do, like sometimes it's not that it's a screenshot of something that they're asking, like a logistical or a technical question, but I try to give them as much of an answer as possible for them to be able to take the next step on whatever the thing is that's keeping them stuck right now. Yes, the reason I'm doing this, and I'm sure we'll dive into this even more, but the reason I'm doing this is to create the kind of conversations that tell me a few things. One, what is my audience struggling with right now? This is a profound market research tool.

Sophia Parra

31:40

But two who in my audience needs what I sell today, right? So I often strategically use this right before a launch, for example, to understand who's a perfect fit for the program I'm about to go into launch week with for next week, right? So that I can make personal invitations and make sure they're on my webinars, but the Q and A text list party for the time being, at this stage is really an event for people to raise their hand and say, I need you so that I can respond and say, I got you.

Ellen Yin

32:14

Tip number 10 is from Katie peacock episode 270, retention saves you up front and makes make a box for your business on the back end, here's one way Katie makes it a no brainer for her clients to return again and again.

Ellen Yin

32:28

Is there anything else I missed today Katie that you want to impart to our listeners around referrals, repeat clients and you know, getting outside of your your niche and your community to connect with new ones.

Katie Peacock

32:41

I think one thing I would say about repeat clients, because that has been a really key part of my success with these strategies, is having a way for past clients to work with you that doesn't necessarily include as much of the work that it might take to work with you for the first time. So a lot of my repeat business has come through VIP days or VIP weeks, because that allows you to just kind of drop back into someone's business, whereas starting a whole other project might come with a lot. You know, in my case, as a copywriter, we do the research process again, we have that, you know, brand clarity questionnaire that the client has to fill out, which I know is always something that they dread about the process.

Katie Peacock

33:32

Yes, and being able to just drop back in with the VIP day or VIP week allows them to come to me for something with a quick turnaround and know that, you know they already trust that I can deliver the results. So it's a very easy way for us to work together again. And so I think that that's a really integral component to trying to make, you know, repeat clients, or retaining your clients, a big part of your strategy.

Ellen Yin

33:58

That's such a good point. And from the client side, I absolutely agree that sometimes the most burdensome part of hiring help is the onboarding process, as essential as it is. And of course, you know, we understand why we have to answer those questionnaires and all that stuff, but it can be a lot because you have to block out that additional time on your work schedule to be able to complete that. So I love it, and I think that that's why there's a strength in the you know, familiarity of working with someone you've worked with before is that they don't have to relearn your entire business. And that drop in component, I think, is huge. So that's really, really smart. Thank you for bringing up that point.

Ellen Yin

34:38

Thanks for tuning in to our customer acquisition and retention Roundup. If you enjoyed this episode, make sure you add to your play next queue the other roundup episodes we've published on themes like hiring, email marketing, podcasting, launching, pitching, lead generation, conversion, customer feedback and out of the box marketing ideas. Find the clickable links to all previous roundup episodes. Notes below in the show notes.

Ellen Yin

35:09

if you love today's episode, send it to a friend. Tag us on Instagram @CubicletoCEO, or give us a five star rating at ratethispodcast.com/cubicletoCEO. You can also access bonus episodes on our private podcast by joining the C Suite, our flagship annual membership providing exclusive cash savings content and an offline community for small business CEOs. Check out the link in the show notes to join us.

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EP 280 - Customer Acq. + Retention Roundup - 1:3:25, 4.39 PM

EP 280 - Customer Acq. + Retention Roundup - 1:3:25, 4.39 PM