Show Notes:
We’re digging deep in this episode as we talk about Phase 2, which is Connect. This is the phase of the GPS Method where you truly create a bond and connection with your audience.
Truth time: you can actually build an audience of ideal clients from scratch at a very inexpensive cost! You heard that right – you don’t have to break the bank to connect with your audience.
What I’m about to share with you will bring you consistently profitable months when done correctly. And believe me when I say that 90% of people aren’t even doing this! And even if they are, they’re doing it ineffectively.
In the Connect phase, you need to keep showing up consistently with relevant, value-driven content that your ideal avatar wants and craves. In this day and age, video is the best way to show up. But whichever way you choose to connect, make sure your audience sees you and hears you.
Creating new content is fantastic and exciting, but you can also start with existing content. Nothing needs to be perfect at the start, so go at it! Connect!
Share-worthy Quotes:
“The more you nurture your audience, the warmer your audience is, the more they trust you and see you as a credible expert.”
“Make sure your audience sees and hears you since this is the fastest way to stand out and create quicker trust.”
“Value-driven content, video and consistency play a huge role in the success of the Connect phase.”
Get the Transcript here:
Episode 3 – The GPS Method Phase 2 | Connect
Hey guys, welcome back to episode three of the Ad Agency Secrets podcast.
Wow. Episode two was a huge one. All about strategy, where we broke down the three main components you must do before ever launching an ad or marketing efforts. So if you didn’t listen to that one, I suggest you go back and do so.
In today’s episode, we’re diving into phase two of the GPS method, the connect phase. This phase, you guys, is where you truly create a bond and connection with your audience through relevant value-driven content and turn them into raving fans all while pre-framing them for the sale.
And what’s so cool about this phase is that you don’t have to have an existing audience to start with Facebook or to have successful campaigns. I know we’ve had clients come to us who didn’t have a huge following, and their fear was that it would take a month before ever gaining traction with their paid advertising. And that’s just not the case. With the connect phase, you can actually build an audience of ideal clients from scratch at a very inexpensive cost. I’m talking pennies. From there, you can nurture them ongoing consistently, for again, change.
So let’s start with the first question. Why is this so important? Well, like I said, in previous episodes, 90% of people aren’t doing this at all, or they’re doing it ineffectively. And the ones who are doing this correctly are the ones who see consistently profitable months. Why? Well, because the more you nurture your audience, the warmer your audience is, the more they trust you and see you as a credible expert, which means they’re more likely to buy from you.
Now, you might be asking how to do this, and it’s by showing up consistently with relevant, value-driven content that your ideal avatar wants and craves, which then builds trust because of the consistency and credibility because of the relevant content. It really is that simple.
And the best way to show up from my experience is through video. Since we live in a digital world, especially nowadays, and our ideal prospects are getting ads put in front of them left and right from random people they don’t even know, the fastest way to stand out and create quicker trust is for them to see you and hear you.
So let’s give an example. You know me, I love examples. We currently have a client who came to us early this year, who 100% understands the importance of nurturing their audience, and specifically told us they did not want any sales or conversion ads running. Period. They didn’t want any links or call to action in their content at all. And yeah, it kind of freaked us out a bit because we’re all about the holistic approach, which includes nurturing and lead gen and sales, but they just wanted pure content sent out all video content. I will add to build and nurture an audience.
So we did this, and within the first 60 days, they were getting a 5X return on ad spend. And again, we weren’t sending anyone to a paid offer, no links whatsoever. Then once we eventually started doing some purchase ads, maybe about five months from the time they onboarded with us, their return on ad spend jumped to closer to 10X to 12X. Okay. So as you can see in this example, value-driven content, video, and consistency all played a huge role in the success of the connect phase in their marketing strategy.
Now, I don’t want you to freak out. I know many of you are super afraid of video and would rather be stung by a scorpion. But we’re not talking anything super professional here. Okay. It just needs to be good content. And I always tell my clients who have a fear of video, who really, really struggle with this, just speak from your heart and teach what you love and what you know, and hopefully, it will come naturally.
Okay, now that I’ve explained why it’s important, let’s dive into what kind of content to use and how to structure it. So there really are two phases or two steps, two phases to the connect phase. One is audience building. This is top of the funnel, targeting a cold audience so that you can build and create a warm audience.
Then the next phase in the nurture phase is where you retarget those from the audience building phase with more relevant content so you can nurture and continue to build that relationship.
Now, each phase has slightly different content and methods behind them. So let’s dive in. So phase one, part one, is audience building. So the way we do this is we set it up in its own campaign. We normally label it internally at the agency, audience building. We set this up as an ABO campaign and set up individual ad sets for each video content piece so that we can control the spend on each content we put out. So one ad set, one ad for each content piece. You can use videos or blogs in this phase. I prefer the video. And when using video, it should be shorter, punchier, maybe around three minutes, give or take, because, think about it. If someone doesn’t know you, and you put out a 20-minute video for them to watch, they are way less likely to watch it for very long.
However, if you create a short, punchy three-minute video that gets to the point, gives pure value, no fluff, that will have a higher watch through weight, and you’ll build credibility with them fast because you removed the fluff and gave them what they wanted, which helped them trust you.
Normally, we put anywhere from three to five pieces of content in his phase that all cover from very different pain points. So this way you’re attracting different people with different hooks and angles. So for instance, if someone isn’t struggling as big right now with video number one, and video number one is, AKA pain point one, then maybe they’re struggling a lot with video number two, AKA pain point two. And we’ll watch that video instead.
Not everyone will connect with the same piece of content. So having a variety is key. I know a lot of our clients are like, oh, I put up this really, really good piece of content, but I always tell them, not everybody is going to be attracted to that. It’s like me putting out content right now. I could put out content about pixels. Well, that might really attract the people who are struggling with pixels in their Facebook ads, but the people who aren’t struggling with that aren’t going to be as attracted to that. So being able to put out different content to attract your audience where they’re at is super important.
We also call this content in the audience building phase, the gatekeeper content. Super important. This means, well, what we do is we think of the top three core areas that you help your ideal avatar with and create content around that. Okay. Ensure that this content is so specific to your ideal client, that it will attract them and repel non-ideal clients. Okay. It needs to be very specific topics. So when I say the three core areas, what I mean by that is we had a client who actually put out a video that was all about creating goals, like goal setting. The thing is, is that that wasn’t really the main core of their business. And even though the content was really good, it kind of a lot more people than just their ideal avatar. I mean, honestly, my mom could probably benefit from the goal-setting video. So that wasn’t as specific to their ideal client, and it wasn’t repelling non-ideal. So think of content that would do that. Okay. This is crucial because you only want ideal clients going down your funnel because that will increase page conversions, which means you’ll be spending your ad dollars on more qualified prospects and less on non-ideal prospects, which is exactly how we want it.
Key here. Okay. We also don’t add any call to actions to this content. In the audience building phase, this is pure content with no ask. This helps build trust with the very first interaction they have with you.
All right. So now onto part two, phase two, which is the nurture phase. Again, we have a separate campaign for this title, nurture. We like using ABO for this because we set up each content piece in its own ad set so that we can control how much spend goes on a daily. In this phase, you’ll retarget everyone from the audience building phase who watched at least 25% of any of the videos in that phase to the nurture phase. And this is where you continue to nurture your warm audience, day in and day out, to grow and maintain that relationship with them.
Now I said 25%, guys. This can be adjusted. Sometimes we do it through play, which is about 15 seconds. So you really can play with this. There are some ways that work all the time, and then we just adjust it based on our clients.
So this content can be a mix of short and longer videos this time. Some of our clients have done hour-long videos. As long as you have a mix of both, for those who like shorter videos and those who like longer videos, that’s really ideal.
You can also use blog posts, articles you’ve written or been featured in, long form posts that you write on Facebook etc. The goal here is to share good relevant content, not a meme or a quote. There’s a good for page posts for organic, but not for paid ads.
Now these ads do have call to actions on them, all of them. We do call to actions like buy this tiny $27 product, or join a group of like-minded people in this Facebook group, or book a call with me. The goal and reasoning behind this is to give people an opportunity to move to the next step in the funnel with you when they are ready. And this is what I think people miss out on.
So for instance, if you just provide content and the only time they can buy a tiny $27 product from you or register for your webinar is when they see a direct ad for it, then you’re limiting their ability to progress with you when they are ready. They may watch a video of yours, maybe the fifth video they’ve seen, and are just dying to learn how to connect with you further. So giving them a call to action of some kind allows them that opportunity and allows you to move more people down your funnel quicker.
Now, in this phase, you want to continuously update the content that you are using so that your audience continues to get fresh content each week or so, because again, this builds trust and credibility. Some of our clients put out one new content piece a week. Others put out daily new content. Now there’s no need to go overboard here and do daily content. But I would say having four to six pieces of content in this phase at any given time is probably a good range, as long as every couple of weeks, you remove some and add others in so that it stays fresh and relevant.
All right, guys. So now that you know why they connect phase is so important, the type of content to use, and how to structure it. I’m sure you’re thinking this is a lot of work. This could potentially be 8 to 10 pieces of content right out the gate. Where are you going to find the time? All right. Breathe in, breathe out. Here, my friend, is where I want you to get creative. Yes. Creating new content is fantastic. I love it. I always preach it. But you can also start with existing content. If you don’t think you have any content, I’m going to give you a few ways to find potential existing content that you might have. So one way is, have you done any videos on your business page or a YouTube channel over the last year that is still relevant and can be used. If you’ve done even one video per month, that’s at least 12 potential content pieces you can use. And if the video’s long, you could possibly even chop it up and have more content pieces.
Have you sent out any emails? Emails can be repurposed for content in ads easily. So if you send out a weekly email over the last year? That’s 52 potential content pieces you can use. Have you posted a long form post anywhere that can be used on Facebook or Instagram? There’s potential content. You can take pieces from your paid product and chunk them into bite-sized content pieces where you can give them a taste, but not the full picture.
So for example, if you have 10 modules in your course, you can pull out a golden nugget from each module and potentially have 10 or more content pieces you can use. Have you been a guest expert on someone else’s podcast? You can use that as a content piece. Have you published an article or been featured anywhere? You can use that as a content piece. So there’s no need to wait and create 10 new content pieces. Nothing needs to be perfect at the start. It just needs to be good enough. Okay. Good enough, not perfect. So put together, minimally, I would say three audience-building content pieces and let’s say five nurture content pieces so that you can start strong, and you can always add to it later.
Okay. So let’s summarize everything, you guys, to ensure you have actionable takeaways from this episode. So you must be getting visible and nurturing your audience through the connect phase. This is vital to your long-term success. Audience building content must be short, punchy content around three minutes, give or take, super specific to your ideal client and repels non-ideal clients. No fluff, and no call to action in them. Pure value-driven content. Start with roughly three audience-building content pieces, minimally. You can go up to five eventually.
Now nurture content can be a mix of long and short videos. Blogs, articles, long-form posts, just as long as it’s relevant content, must be updated every week or two with new content and has called to actions added to them to bring prospects further down the funnel. Start with maybe five nurture content pieces, minimally, and then you can eventually go up to whatever you want. Look at any and all content you’ve created. Even if you don’t think it’s worthy and look for its potential. You may be able to use the content as is, or you may just need to add a few tweaks to it. Do not wait for perfection. Get started right now.
And now you have, actionable steps you can implement today in your marketing. And that concludes episode three, going over the connect phase, phase two of the GPS method.
Guys in episode four, I’m super excited, because we’re going to be talking about phase three of the GPS method, the convert phase. This is your lead generation phase. This phase is where you’ll spend the majority of your budget on. So this is a must-listen if you want to ensure you are spending your budget wisely. We’ll dive into the best types of lead gen funnels working right now for our clients, the industry-standard metrics you should be looking at to know if your lead gen campaign is performing at par. How to increase your landing page conversion rate and how to lower your lead costs. Yeah, all of that in one episode. So get ready, stay tuned for the next episode. And I’ll see you guys then. Bye.
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