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Welcome to Make More Money without Selling Your Soul with me Polly Lavarello, evergreen marketing expert. This podcast is for you if you are an online entrepreneur who is looking to simplify their business to scale.  On this podcast you can expect to hear regular talk about wealth, about selling and about wellbeing. Because I believe these three core fundamental things are pivotal to your growth moving forward.

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Welcome to make more money without selling your soul with myself Polly Lavarello, Evergreen marketing expert and cushy business pioneer.  And today following on from the previous episode, where I talked about what data you need to be monitoring to create a scalable coaching business. Today we’re diving into social media and how to measure the success it has. This feels like such a relevant conversation because social media is this beast right it’s forever evolving. And I love words. And so there was a time when my social media was really popular because I love storytelling. So the majority of my content was storytelling, combined with a bit of punery. Love it love a few puns, is punery even a word? I don’t know, maybe I made that up. But I you know, I had really, really good engagement and it dropped off a cliff. The moment that reels came on the scene, because as I’ve shared with you on previous episodes, they are not my jam, I’m just not into it wasn’t ready to start dancing in front of camera, I did one or two and it just didn’t feel good. You know, when there’s people that will try things once tried it once wasn’t down with it. So yeah, so so for a while me and Instagram, were on a bit of a standoff, where I was trying to stay in my own lane do things my own way. And the algorithm was like, ah, honey, you gotta get in line and join in, join the circus to, you know, be to be able to play the monkeys. So there we have it. So this is why social media can feel really intimidating, and quite rightly so to the average online business owner, because what’s immensely frustrating is that unlike many other timeless marketing principles that you can learn as a business owner that will support you to make more sales. The frustrating part about social media is a, it’s constantly evolving, because like any form of marketing, once something has been done too many times people get bored of it, they kind of become blind to it. So it means that whatever is trending this month, would be totally irrelevant to what will be trending in six months time, which is probably why to a certain extent, I don’t really talk about things like that on this podcast, because I want this content to be evergreen and relevant whenever you listen to it.

So everything I’m sharing today is the timeless truth about social media, regardless of what’s going on, with what real trends and will support you to make the best decisions when you think about what you’re going to be sharing on social media. So I’m really, really excited to share it with you because like I say things are constantly evolving and changing. New platforms always coming about there’s a whole thing you know, threads, for example, came about a few months ago, it was a few months feels like a few months ago, and it still seems to be doing well. And you know that I mean, all of these platforms have their own way of managing them. So today I’m going to be talking specifically about Instagram, I talked I’m talking about it specifically because that’s my main playground. If you haven’t connected with me on there, do seek me out at Poly lover below. I would love to connect with you. I’d love to know who is listening to this podcast, I just my main playground. And it’s also where the majority of my clients also tend to get the majority of their sales, a combination of that. And LinkedIn. Obviously, it varies. Some of my clients do amazingly on tick tock too, but it’s what I feel most qualified to speak to. So yeah, let’s get into it. Without further ado, let’s look at how do you measure the success of what you’re doing on Instagram? Because I was going to throw in another thing. The other confusing thing about Instagram, of course, is that aside from the algorithm, and aside from all the different things we need to do to keep up with all the trends is that there are 1,000,001 different people out there. Sharing that their way is the only way to rapidly grow your following go viral, you know, all these different kind of measures of your success on social media when what I would love for you to tune into today is the only measure of your success with Instagram, because that’s the platform we’re talking about today. Your only measure of success with Instagram is based on how many sales it’s generating you because I get it. It’s a social media platform.

We go there to be social Of course, we develop our own relationship with it, some people Oh I love social media, I love Instagram, I probably love it a bit too much. I know there are other people who find it draining exhausting, it’s their least favourite part of having an online business. It’s fair enough if you’re going to have your own relationship with it. But ultimately, we need to remember whether you love it or whether you hate it. It’s not there as a hobby, it’s there to support you to make money. And when you apply a strategy, to how you share your contents, when you are able to measure the results of what you’re doing, hopefully, your relationship will become one that is more intentional. So whether you hate it, hopefully, it’ll help you learn to like it, because you’ll be able to measure how it’s supporting you to succeed. And if you like it too much, to the extent that you’re borderline, treating it as a hobby, hopefully it will support you to approach it in a way that is going to actually generate you better sales results. So let’s get into it. Let’s talk about how to measure your success on social media. And it won’t matter whether you’re using reels or whatever it is you’re doing, it’s understanding, how do we measure the impact of what it is that you’re doing on Instagram, so that you can almost measure the impact of your results on there. You know, obviously, there’s certain things that are very much down to Oh, don’t say chance. But I’ve definitely seen people do amazing content that’s barely reached anyone and still created results. And I’ve seen people go viral and make no sales off the back of it. So this is why what I’m sharing with you today is so relevant, because I don’t want you to be one of those people that can you know, get loads of engagement and have lots of people like you, but nobody actually buy from you. Because otherwise you’re not a frickin business. Right? Okay.

06:40

So these are the three ways that I would like you to think about measuring your success on social media. So there are three things that we want to do when you’re going on Instagram, we want to a, generate a demand, want people to be excited to work with you, then we want to be able to convert those people, there’s no point generating a demand, if they’re like, Oh, I’m now aware that I have a problem, but I’m gonna go work with your competitor, because their ads just popped up and they look way more with it than you do. That would be rubbish. So we want to convert those people that are, you know, getting excited to work with us. And similarly, we want to be able to retain loyalty, we want to be able to retain and nurture those relationships with people that come into our world. So that not only do we retain those clients, but similarly let’s, you know, Let’s not lie here, it’s not going to look bad for you, if you’ve got your existing clients, you know, lapping up and responding to your content and reinforcing what a great person you are to work with. So those are the three lenses, I would love for you to look at your content through in terms of how you measure your success, one, content that generates demand to content that converts the demand, and three, content that retains loyalty. Now, you may be listening to all of us and go, but what does that actually look like? Well, lucky, lucky for you, I’m going to break this down for you to a certain extent, and a great staff view. So generating a demand, what does that look like in terms of content that looks like aspirational content where someone sees you and goes, God, I wish I had all of that. Oh, and she helps with that amazing. It’s content that qualifies the people in your world.

So it’s kind of polarising, it’s the stuff that kind of, for example, a lot of the content I create is around the whole realm of you already have expertise. Because I don’t want to be speaking to those who are really early on who are not confident in their expertise, they need to be confident in their expertise, for them to be a good fit for how they worked with me. So I often alienate anyone who’s not confident in expertise by regularly reinforcing that that’s who they are. And I don’t necessarily even use those words that you’re confident in your expertise. But I speak to somebody I speak in a way and I use messaging that if somebody weren’t confident in their expertise, they would see my content and go, or No, I don’t think this is speaking to me. Okay. And that’s the goal. I also, you know, generate demand by creating shareable content. What content can you create? So those amazing kind of borderline meme esque content, why memes, for example, a good example of shareable content where it’s got some funny strapline next to it, that makes people want to share it with other people, which helps other people discover your account. So we’re generating a demand by creating content that generates new follows, generates shares and all of these things which are going to ultimately and this is how we measure it, right? So when we talk about how do we measure the success of that, we measure the success by reach by shares by follows by video views.

All of those things show that we are ticking the box of relevancy and January To demand, you know, generally speaking in terms of benchmarks, you know, we want to be looking at your benchmarks for how you’re growing your business all the time, and have the goal to be beating it month on month. Okay, we want that growth to be getting better month to month. How do you do that? By looking at the content that has previously generated, the most reach shares, follows video views, and create more of it. Honestly, the amount of people who overcomplicate how they need to do business, because they want to be led by their gut or their heart or what comes through for them intuitively. But ultimately, if you want to have space for creativity, and play, do that in your personal time, because you’ve got so much of it, because you’re so successful, because you know what works and you double down on it, that is what’s going to create a freedom based business for you. So I really, really encourage you, you know, of course, we want to share what’s true to us, but make sure you’re balancing it with content that ticks all those boxes. So that’s how you generate a demand. Now, let’s talk about how do you convert the demand? What kind of behaviour happens on our content that indicates to us that somebody is really close to wanting to buy from us? What kind of behaviour does somebody do on our Instagram to tell us that they are seconds away from like, Yes, this is somebody I want to work with? Well, one thing they might do is save, they might save your post, because they want to come back to it. Because they want to kind of re explore what it is that you’re sharing with them. Now, of course, I do see particularly in my space, a lot of competitors save my posts, because they’re obviously thinking, Oh, I could take this same strategy and do the same kind of carousel. So that can happen. But save still are a really great indication that somebody is really, really interested in you. Similarly, what’s the other thing someone does when they’re really interested in working with you, they go visit your website. So make sure you know be tracking how much website traffic has been generated from your content.

Generally speaking, you know, you want your click through rate of your content to be around 1%. And to be looking at your own benchmarks and be you know, with it with a view to beating it. Now, what kind of content can you do to convert demand when it what is sales receivable? What will generate website traffic? It’s creating content that speaks to the features and benefits of what it is that you do know it’s clickable content, it’s you know, is sharing the unique value proposition that your offer has. So that people are like, wow, I didn’t know she did that. So maybe it could be like even you know, behind the scenes, a preview of the kind of work that it is that you do or perhaps breaking down, you know, are you always stuck here? Do you wish you had x y Zed? You know, this offer? Does x y Zed? I mean, obviously, that wouldn’t be a real would be a carousel. But similarly, even with a carousel, you know, you could be sharing a way that you’ve helped a client and what it’s done for them. Like there’s so many different ways of doing it. But we want to be converting that demand. Okay, and thinking about what content do you create that converts that demand? In fact, one of the best ways of measuring what converts a demand is to look at your content and see where have you got the most saves? What has generated the most website traffic that will give you your own personalised benchmark as to what is working for you and your business. And finally, with retaining loyalty, how do we do that we do that by sharing behind the scenes by sharing client case studies, by sharing news stuff that shows our credibility, our mission and values, you know, all of those things will kind of nurture those long lead buyers, and potentially bring back in people who were working with us previously, and make them want to work with us again. And the way we can see how well it’s working for us is again, comments and shares. And you know, again, setting your own benchmarks and seeing what’s working for you. Is there a particular content that you share, that generates a lot of comments from your kind of loyal and most avid followers, and ideally, x or existing clients, that will give you an indication as to what’s working for you. Because ultimately, what you want to create with your content is your own kind of like microcosm, your own little community.

You know, you don’t need to have a Facebook group when you can effectively do this with your own Instagram account. But it is an art form. And the thing that allows it to be an art form is creating content that retains loyalty that highly engages people, which makes them want to share and respond to your content, which makes them want to get involved with the conversation. But honestly, even when I say the words like it’s an art form, which can therefore feel a bit intimidating, when you understand those are the only three measures you need to look at your social media through. And obviously you can do exactly the same you can apply the same principles to LinkedIn to tick tock to the other content you create to ensure that there is a balance of everything that you’re sharing, because if nobody knew for example is discovering your account, your list growth is going to slow down. I know your list growth can come from various different channels like you know, SEO and various others.

But social media should be one of the most significant drivers of your mailing list growth. And if you’re not continually bringing new people into your world, if you’re not continually generating new followers, that’s going to slow it down. Okay? And it doesn’t necessarily need to be a huge amount of followers growing you all the time. You know, it’s quality over quantity every single time for sure. Like you say, I’ve seen people who’ve gone viral overnight, got hundreds of 1000s more followers who’ve dropped off almost as quickly afterwards, when they’ve learned that actually, they’re a business and they don’t actually want to buy anything from them. So all just sat there and damaged the algorithm and damage the reach for that account. So, you know, like, via going viral, or getting a shed tonne of followers, if they’re not quality followers, is not what it’s about. So it’s about sharing content, you know, don’t start showing pictures of kittens, because that’s gonna get you more follows if it’s got nothing to do with your business. So just be mindful of what you do to go about doing this. Keep it super relevant to your business super relevant to what is unique about you. And then think about ensuring that you’re not always bringing people into a world by sharing kind of exciting tantalising content, and recognise that you want to be converting that demand. So what content are you sharing? That’s going to enable you to convert those new followers that are coming into your world?

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And finally, what are you doing to retain the loyalty of those who love to be in your world, don’t

always be speaking to people, like they’re brand new to you. Make sure you’re speaking to those people, those people who’ve been there, having your back for however long that they’ve been having it for and make sure that you’re engaging, you know, sharing content that engages conversation with them as well. When you focus on all of those three things, I can guarantee you will see sales so much faster. So really recommend that you kind of get down three columns, look at generating demand, retaining demand, we’re also converting demand and retaining that demand. Free columns retain demand, convert demand, generate demand, and look at your content and it perhaps even audit last month’s content, and see how effectively, you are ticking each of those boxes. If you are really in one column and not in the other two, that is your invitation to do more of the other two, so that you make more sales this month. Isn’t that juicy? I hope it’s juicy. I feel like it’s immensely juicy. So I hope you have loads of fun playing with that strategy to social media that way of measuring your results, measuring how you essentially strategize what content you’re sharing to get the most sales because that’s what I want for you because rich CEOs make the best cushy CEOs because it gives you choices and choices make for cushy right. So there we have it. I hope you enjoyed today’s episode. I hope it was illuminating. I hope it wasn’t too overwhelming. I will be back in your ears next week talking about the three things you need to focus on to scale from six figures to multi six figures.