Today I want to dive into one of the hot topics in our community – how to actually build an audience, an email list, and a following of real buyers… not just those people who turn up for the free stuff and disappear when it’s time to invest.
Look, I am all about sharing value – if you know me, you know I love to give you amazing content for free, whether it's via the podcast, socials, or my blog. But if you’re feeling a bit like a content vending machine (just press the button and BOOM! – yet another free resource pops out), then this episode is for you. We’re chatting through strategies so you attract buyers, not just browsers.
Key takeaways from today’s chat:
If you're wanting to get the foundation of your business is place head to Brand Builders Academy
If you're ready to scale to your next $100k apply for the Amplify Accelerator
To check out everything else head over to www.suzchadwick.com
Suz Chadwick [00:00:00]:
Hey, lovely. Welcome back to the Brand Builders Lab podcast. Awesome to have you here today. I want to share with you how you can build an audience, an email list, a following of buyers. Because I think that we are so focused on all the free things that we give our audience that we just need to have a bit more of a strategy around it so that you're not just constantly giving without getting paid for your expertise as well. So today is all about that and I wanted to give you a few strategies and tactics that you can be using and also just a new way of thinking about now if you're new here. Hey there. I'm Suze Chadwick.
Suz Chadwick [00:00:42]:
I'm a personal brand and business and minds coach. I work with coaches, consultants and service providers to help you to create scalable impact, which basically means that you know that you want to go bigger, you know you've got something to say, you know you've got something to share, and you want to build scalable products that help you to reach more people without the burnout. So listen, today, the reason that I wanted to talk about this today is because it's really easy to just keep giving free things. And over the years, I've done a lot of free webinars. They've been fantastic for attracting new clients. Selling Brampa's Academy, which is like my level one program, and more recently, and I think this is more about a shift in the market, is that we have been running those live webinars. They are free, we get a lot of people that sign up. But in the last four, five, six months, I've really found that the commitment rate, the show up, right, the sale, right, as not been as good as it has been in the past.
Suz Chadwick [00:01:51]:
And so my question then is how do we attract the clients who are happy to pay because they've got a problem and they've got the funds to be able to sort the problem out. Now, I think that there's levels that you can be thinking about. I think we give a lot of free content away on our socials. We give a lot of free content away if you've got a YouTube or if you've got a podcast or. And so there's so much information that's available. People can get a lot of information, but we really want to be the solution for their pain point, the solution for their problem. So whilst they can go and consume all of that free, amazing content, you've probably got a blog as well. While they can go and consume all of that free content, we really make sure that when we are doing something that is next level, where they can implement, where they can learn something that is more in depth, where they can get a win very quickly through something that we're doing, it's okay to charge for it.
Suz Chadwick [00:02:55]:
And I think that the reason I want to really share this with you today is because we want to be teaching our ends that not everything that we do is free. And I think we also have to look at how the market is changing and the fact that information is so readily available that we're really here for the transformation, not the information. We're really here to help our clients get that transformation. So I want to break it down into a few different elements. The first thing is that when you are on socials, because that's usually the gateway to potentially new people, is that sharing information with them, helping them to understand what you do, and potentially getting a mindset shift or learning something that can help them have a win is fantastic. But then we want our calls to actions to be action focused. So dme this word if you want to fix this problem or comment x to get my resource on how to fix this problem. And that might be something, could be anything from $7, $27, $47.
Suz Chadwick [00:04:06]:
So people who really want it, the people who want to solve that problem, who are willing to pay for it, because that's who we want to attract, people who are willing to pay for the solution are able to do that. And I know that some are going to be like, but what about growing my email list, et cetera? And yes, we absolutely want to grow our email list. And through the free content that you also provide, people can sign up. Yes, you can have a free lead magnet, but what you don't want to do is have loads and loads free lead magnets. We want to have like one or two that we know works. It could be a webinar, could be a resource, a download, but then anything else we want to really be looking at. How are we charging so that we attract buyers and not just tire kickers, people who want everything for free. You don't have to be one of those people that does everything for free.
Suz Chadwick [00:04:59]:
So the first thing is to create things like value ladders. So for example, you might be charging $7, something, $27 for something that could be a resource. Next thing is that within that you might want to then position an implementation session. So that could be time with you, it could be time in a group where they then pay to come in and get a taster. And so instead of a free webinar you could do a paid workshop. So recently I did a $95 paid workshop for for map your med. Now mapping your method leads into Amplify. And Amplify is a 12 month accelerator and it's 800 odd dollars a month, $10,000 for the year.
Suz Chadwick [00:05:45]:
And so I'm not looking for people who are freebie seekers. I'm looking for people who really want to solve the problem. They are coaches, consultants, service providers who maybe want to move into coaching or consulting and they want to learn how to build scalable impact, they want to build their program, they want to get really great at commun value, they want to build out their whole business. And so by charging I'm now really attracting clients who like I'm willing to pay to solve this problem. Now whether they join or not is another thing but it means that they're willing to invest. So that's the first thing and it was interesting because I did put out an email to my list and said this is the workshop that I'm going to be running. If you're interested, let me know. So reply to me.
Suz Chadwick [00:06:31]:
And I got a lot more replies than I got bookings, which says to me that people, they want it if it's free, but they're not willing to pay for it. And once again you've really got to start to take a look at your business in a different way where you're like okay, how am I really attracting the people that are happy to invest to solve this problem? Because if they're not happy to invest $97, $27, they're clearly not going to be happy to invest a larger amount of money. And you've just got to be okay with as well because like I said, you already give an incredible amount of free value that anybody and everybody can access all the time. So just on the email element is something I've been doing a lot more is getting people to raise their hands. So saying this is what I'm thinking of doing. If you're interested, let me know. Now once again that really gets your email list interact with you. It also says to me, is this person an action taker like this of interest enough that they're willing to respond via email and say yes Suze, I want this because I think that sometimes our email list can be a very passive place.
Suz Chadwick [00:07:43]:
We're emailing, we're giving lots of value, which is what I do every week and then we put links in our emails for them to go check things out. We're not actually getting them to do anything, like to take action. And so once again, as I said before, somebody's willing to pay for an outcome, then they're happy to invest potentially in something bigger. If somebody's willing to respond to your email and say, yes, I'm interested, they're taking action, you're getting them to actually invest their time, their effort or their money. Now, if you're not getting your audience to do any of that, then potentially you've got people that are happy just to sit back and let you continue to give them information, but they're not required to do anything. Now, I also want to share with you my thinking around this too. So there are a couple of people who I follow online. I'm on their email list.
Suz Chadwick [00:08:36]:
I fully expect them to sell to me. Why? Because that's what they've trained me to expect from them. So if you don't know, Maria went. She's an online entrepreneur and she does a lot of small priced products. And when I say small price, it can be anything from $27 through to say, $500. And so she creates fairly regularly. And then she'll send out an email saying, okay, this product is coming. You can join the waitlist here so that you can find out when it's released.
Suz Chadwick [00:09:10]:
Because if you buy on day one, it's going to be 97. If you buy on day two, it's going to be $149. If you buy on day three, it's going to be $200. And so she's training her audience to take action. Here is the thing that's coming. Join the wait list. Take action. If you buy on this day, this day or this day, you're going to get different price points.
Suz Chadwick [00:09:32]:
And so the people who are like, yes, I absolutely want it, they're going to buy on day one. And I am a big one for seeing entrepreneurs sell. We are in business to help our clients have a transformation. But we're in business and we can only stay in business when we make money. And I remember Laura Belgrave from Talking Shrimp. She's an expert. She was sharing how she changed her email cadence, where on say a Monday and a Wednesday, she would give value, where she'd be sharing great tips on email marketing, et cetera. And then every single Friday she would sell and she saw a huge increase in her revenue because she created this cadence with her audience.
Suz Chadwick [00:10:16]:
So they knew Mondays and Wednesdays was value. Friday she would sell something whether it was like a low price product or whether it was bigger product. That was her Day to sell. And so people then expected that there was offer coming on a Friday. And I think this is really part of training your audience like you deciding how do I want to run my business, how do I want to set the expectations for my audience when it comes to how I sell and the things that I deliver and give them. So I'm going to give you lots of free content through the podcast, through blogs, through my social media content, through YouTube, etc. And then I'm also going to be selling and doing paid workshops and products and small priced downloads or resources. And so ask yourself, have you created a cadence with your audience where they have an expectation and they know that you're going to be selling at certain times? Now the other thing that you can do is obviously like a PS strategy is one of the easiest things.
Suz Chadwick [00:11:22]:
So even when I'm sharing value based content with my audience on how to build their brand and grow their business, I also have PS strategies which are if you're looking to do X, then come and join us in this program. This is happening just at the bottom of the email and I do that on a regular basis. So my audience, my subscribers should expect that I'm going to be selling in the PS on a regular basis so that they can find out how they can work with me and what we can do together. You can also do things like flash sales if you've got smaller priced products. I wouldn't do this for larger price, but you could do it for smaller price products. I saw a creator who has got email templates and it was their birthday and they did like a 24 hour or 48 hour flash sale on that particular product and I got that through an email, I saw it on socials. And so I know that every month they do paid workshops that they've got the smaller products and I know that every now and again they'll do a sale on it. Now let's talk about social media because I think it's really important, like I was talking about with your emails where you can say if you're looking to do this thing or get this result, I'm going to be running a workshop, going to be creating a resource.
Suz Chadwick [00:12:35]:
If you're interested, let me know. And they need to reply the same with your socials. Now obviously if you use something like ManyChat, then this can work well where you might have a resource, you might have a product, they comment a word and then they get the automated message back where it sends them to the cart, the sales page, whatever it is. Now, if you've got a higher price product and you want to have a conversation with somebody, then commenting a word in your Dems allows you then to create a conversation, have more of a chat sell in chat as well. So if you're somebody who doesn't want to do sales calls, then selling in chat is a great way to go. And obviously the more that you do it, the better you'll get it as well. But we're really getting the people who are like, yes, I want this. So I did a post the other day about the cost of being unknown in your industry and the fact that we have to get out over ourselves.
Suz Chadwick [00:13:27]:
Now obviously that's my language, I'm very straight talking, I don't bid around the bush. And my call to action was if you are tired of being unknown, if you are wanting to get over yourself, then DM me the word grow and let's talk. And I had somebody messaged me within a day and said your recent post slapped me in the face and I know I've got to get sorted. So getting your audience, like if you're really connecting their pain points, you're speaking directly to their desire and what it is they want and you're getting them to take action, all of those things means that you're attracting people who are going to do something. Now, I don't know about you, but I work with action takers. I want to work with people who are willing to respond to the email link to DM the word willing to get in a conversation, willing to book the call, like that's who I want to work with. Because if they're not willing to do that, then getting into my programs and thinking they're just going to like ease through it and not have to do any of the work is just not going to work for either of us. So I think you've also got to think about what is the behavior that you want from your audience that is going to set them in good stead for working with you.
Suz Chadwick [00:14:38]:
The thing is that when you get somebody to DM you, then it's private. If you're going to say a post comment this word and it's more for solving a bigger problem, working with you, they may not want to do that publicly. It's really interesting. A lot of clients that I've worked with don't have a big social presence. Like that's one of their problem. They don't have a big social presence. They're definitely higher level professionals and so they don't always want to Put out publicly. Yes, I need help with this.
Suz Chadwick [00:15:09]:
So when you get them to DM you, that's private. That's something that they can do without anybody else knowing. And it's just a conversation between the two of you. The next thing is to really think about language. So words like premium. Yeah. So this is a paid workshop or this is a premium product. This is for those who are really wanting to work at a higher level, high touch.
Suz Chadwick [00:15:36]:
So when I see any of those words, I know it's not going to be $5 and that's okay. Like I'm always willing to invest when I had a problem to solve. And I feel like the person that I am considering is positioning themselves at the level that I'm looking to work at. So I think that when you are too cheap, when everything is free, when it everything is low price, once again, you're potentially not attracting people who are willing to work with you at that higher level. Also having things like client only resources so people know that they have to be working with you order to get this particular thing. And it's just starting to create language around what it is that you do that. If I come to one of your workshops, it's paid. If I want to get on a call with you, that's not like a discovery call but a strategy that obviously that's paid that the language that you're using is premium and higher end if that's who you want to work with.
Suz Chadwick [00:16:38]:
And then the other thing to think about is scarcity. And obviously you want this to be real. So for example, with the Amplify accelerator with cohorts, we only take in 10 people at any one time. That is non negotiable. And so that is something that we're focused on is that there's only X number of left or I'm looking for three people to join this month. If you're wanting this transformation, this result, you can also have scarcity or a timely offer which is that the price is going to be going up the next time with this. So you can also use that as well to get people to take action. But I just really want you to think about right now when you look at your business, can I go to your website and give you money? This is a question I always ask my clients.
Suz Chadwick [00:17:25]:
Can I go to your website and give you money or does everything require me to get in contact with you or to do something else? Because you want to have those different things. You've got all of your free content, which is your customer facing content, Your podcast, your YouTube, your blog, your social media, that's all good, it's all free, it's amazing. Then you've got your lower price products, which means that people are willing to pay money to solve problem that they've got. Then you've got your next level up, which could be anything from like a hundred to $500. And then you've got like your higher price products. So BBA is at the $3,000 mark right now as we speak and Amplify is at the 10k mark. And then I've got my coaching as well. So just really understanding your own ascension model when it comes to pricing the problem that you solve, the support that your clients get, being able to confidently, and I think this is the word confidently, talk about it, talk about money, talk about the transformation, talk about the process that you take them through, which is what the map, your method paid workshop was that I did with my clients this week.
Suz Chadwick [00:18:35]:
It was how do you confidently and clearly articulate how you work with clients, what the opportunity is and the fact that this is going to get them the transformation that they want. When you can do all of those things through your free low price and higher paid products in a really strategic way, then you'll start to attract people who are buyers. If everything that you do is free, you're gonna attract people that love free but are not willing to invest and pay. So I just want you to think about what your strategy is around all of your different levels of content and all of your different levels of coaching, consulting and support. If you've got any questions, let me know. If you wanna find out how you can work with me in Amplify to build your scalable impact and grow your coaching, consulting or creative business, then make sure you hit me up in the DMs on Instagram and I'll see you next week.
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