92. Why More Followers Won't Increase Your Sales

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Everyone thinks the fix for slow sales is a bigger audience, but audience size and being remembered are two completely different things. Followers are sometimes just the people who have scrolled past your content once, whereas  memorability is what gets you the clients and the referrals.

In the episode we cover:

• The real difference between being seen and being remembered
• Why relaunching your offer for the third time probably isn't going to fix what's actually broken 
• What memorability requires
• Three things to do this week
• How brands made ordinary products feel like an experience without inventing anything new

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Hello, and welcome back to another episode of Inspired by Design. Today we're going to be talking about why having more followers won't immediately give you more sales, more leads. A lot of people think that, you know, if I had more followers, then I'd finally hit my sales goal or I'd finally sell out all my offers. And believe me, I'm guilty of it too. We all think that the bigger the number, the bigger the sales that will be. But that isn't the actual case. Just by having a larger audience doesn't mean you're automatically going to make more sales. And I see a lot of people chasing audience size instead of asking themselves why the audience they already have isn't converting. If the audience you already have isn't converting, then having more people isn't going to automatically make that convert. It means that the problem is not needing a bigger audience. It means that the problem is brand recognition and not having that remembrance factor. So we're going to talk all about this in today's episode. And we're all I'm also going to give three tactical pieces of pieces of advice that you can utilize right after this podcast episode to implement and hopefully help fix your sales problem and help you focus not on the audience size, but nurturing the audience that you already have. Before we get into the episode, just some housekeeping things. We are currently booking projects out for September start dates. We have one spot available for mid-August, and then the rest of our spots are September and beyond. So if you're looking to invest in full branding and website design, I would love to get on a brand consult and you can snag one of those start dates. In our complimentary brand consult, it's a 30-minute call and we really just talk about what's currently working in your business and what's not working and what you can do right now to fix that. And then also potentially how Brandon Webb could help solve that. So if something you've been thinking about, definitely book a consult. You can book a concept consult directly with me through the link in the show notes. I will attach that link in there. You can also fill out our contact form um application first if you'd like. But if you want to just jump straight into booking the call, you can go ahead and do that. So I'm really excited to talk about this today because I feel like this is something that I've been struggling with and also thinking this. So if you do think you need a bigger audience, um you need to sell to more people, you're not alone in this. It's so normal. And uh this is something that I had to work through with my business coach because I was feeling literally the same way. And uh through this is something that I literally help my clients with, but you know, when you're doing it for yourself, it's a lot different. And so I feel like I say these same things to my clients all the time, and then I was like, I'm not even listening to my own advice that I'm giving. So I've really been working on nurturing the audience that I already have and figuring out like how I can nail nail it so it converts to the audience that I already have and not wanting to just be bigger and seen by more people because that's not always necessarily the answer. So let's get into it. Being seen can happen in a scroll. Like people are just scrolling through social media and they just happen to scroll by one of your posts. Being remembered is someone taking the conscious decision to stop on that post, to possibly engage with your post, to linger on it a little longer, read the content, scroll, watch the video, whatever it is. And the truth is there's just so much out there now that most of the time we're just being seen within a scroll. You have to ask yourself, what are you doing to be remembered? Are you using engaging visuals? Are you fall just following trends? Are you doing something unique? Are you wearing funky cloth funky clothing to get someone's attention? Are you utilizing hooks at the start of your reels? Are you doing things that allow people to stop? And what helps me with this is thinking about my own habits as a consumer of social media or of products or of services, whatever it is. Put yourself in the consumer's shoes and think about the kind of content that you stop for, the kind of content that draws you in, that you linger on a little longer and that you are more than willing to consume and learn from. And then typically that kind of content is the kind of content that you will enjoy creating and that is making the biggest impact right now in the industry. So what makes someone actually stop and understand who you are versus just liking a post and moving on or just scrolling by and not even interacting is the content itself, but it's also mainly the visual exterior to it. Someone's not reading the carousel post by just scrolling by, but they may scroll by and see a really vibrant shade of orange or deep purple with like a very contrasting butter yellow on top that's really making them stop and then consume the info. So the visual itself is so, so very important. And most of the time we think that the people with the most followers are the people that have the most sales and they sell out all their offers, but that is almost always not the case. And I've seen countless of examples of this just within the coaching industry itself. You can really look like you have sold out offers and have a massive following, but meanwhile, in the back end of your business, you're struggling with leads and you're struggling to convert sales because even though you have a very large audience size, your audience is confused. And on the contrary, I know a lot of coaches that are booked and busy and literally had like 300 followers, but they had really loyal followers and it built from there. So having a lot of followers does not equal having sales, being booked out, any of that. And so I want you to ask yourself with in the in the idea of being seen versus being actually remembered. I want you to ask yourself if someone saw my content ten times, could they tell a friend what I actually do and why I'm different? Because we do, I'm sure you've heard of it with sales and just um exposure and being seen, people need to see your stuff at least seven times. But if someone saw your stuff seven times, if someone saw your stuff ten times, would they be able to explain to a friend what you do and what makes you different? If the answer to that question is no, then you're not accurately expressing your value and what it is that you even do. And so, how are the people who are following you supposed to know that and supposed to buy into your services and your experience? And we make the mistake often of thinking that our audience knows more than they do. We think because we're in our business and we know the ins and outs of it, that everyone else does too. And so we almost look at content sometimes from being too close to it and too into it that we assume that by leaving this detail out or by trying to make it like overly clear and overly concise, that we leave out details that actually are really important that our clients may not know. And our clients, what our clients don't know, they can't invest in. And so we need to make sure we're very clear. And so I think often having more followers feels like the fix because the audience size is the easiest metric, the easiest metric to blame because it's visible, it's trackable, and it feels like the obvious lever. If I have 300 followers right now and I'm getting one client a month, if I doubled that, I would have two. If I tripled that, I would have three. If I quadrupled that, I'd have four. And so we think that by like we think that the audience size is a direct correlation to the sales, but the sales and you selling out your offers has a lot more to do with your actual brand messaging, how clear you are in communicating your brand value through your branding, through your visuals, because I've said it once and I'll say it a million times. Your content and copy is what seals the deal, but your visuals are what bring them in in the first place. And you can't seal the deal for anyone that isn't sticking around. And so a lot of people think that more followers will validate that the that your brand is working because it signals authority, it will make selling easier, and it will prove that the strategy is right. But what more followers actually does is just grows your audience of people watching. That is it. And watching does not equal buying, it does not equal referring, and it does not automatically equal trusting. And the truth is that a founder who has like 3,000 followers and a sharp offer can totally outsell a founder with 30,000 followers and no clarity and a vague offer. Sometimes that number can just mean that they have like they just have a social following. They don't actually have the conversions happening behind the scenes. And followers measure the reach that you have, but they don't measure the relationship and they absolutely do not measure revenue. And there is plenty of accounts out there with huge numbers that convert maybe 1% or less. And because the audience was built more on entertainment and intrigue rather than actual positioning and actual like explanation of value, and there's also plenty of small tight-knit followings that convert like 15 to 20 percent of people because every person that's following them knows exactly what the founder does, who it's for, and why it costs what it costs. The value is communicated, and so the number that you should actually be chasing is how many of your followers understand your positioning well enough to refer you to someone without having to ask you for more information. And that's typically a much smaller but much more useful number. And it's built through clarity and consistency and brand recognition, not volume. So it's way better to have a hundred people, a hundred followers who are really super engaged and really understand what it is you do rather than 3,000 people who just find your content amusing and have no idea what you do. And I also want to hit another myth on the head of that your offer isn't the problem either. And I see this so much, and I'm I've been guilty of this when I was first starting out, and even like sometimes, you know, we all have these days where we're just like, okay, something's not working, let's just like reinvent the wheel. And oftentimes I notice my clients, I see it in the industry when a coach will have an offer that they're really selling, selling, selling, then all of a sudden the offer is different, and that is confusing. And so I think we often get in this wild goose chase of repackaging and relaunching offers, hoping that the new one will land. And that is causing more confusion. The consistency is so important because you really want to nail what it is that you do and why people need it. And so oftentimes it's rarely the offer that is the problem. It's the problem is that no one understands why you're even different in the first place. And maybe they know what your offer is, but they don't understand what value it provides. You're not accurately communicating the difference in your value. And the positioning has to happen before the offer does the selling. You need to be positioned in the market, you need to know your unique value, you need to communicate that, and you need to have a brand and messaging that backs it up. And so I want you to think about this for a second and think, could you explain your differentiation in the market in one sentence? And I want you to really like get rid of all the industry jargon, all the filler language that you see everyone else in your industry doing, and just really try and hone in on one sentence that genuinely just explains what it is you do and why that is different. Now, memorability and having people remember you actually requires you to be consistent with your message. So the question that you just asked yourself are you consistent with that message or do you only say it every now and then? And I don't I want to make it clear that it's being consistent with posting does nothing if you're not being consistent with your message through each and every one of those posts. They should all be tying back into the same thing and communicating the same thing. So, for example, if you are a health coach and you focus specifically on gut health and hormones and the relationship between the two, if you're constantly just posting about basic nutrition coaching posts, you know, trying to get leads and just posting things about nutrition as a whole, you're not honing in on your unique differentiator. So, your unique differentiator is that you focus on the relationship between gut health and hormones. So every single one of your posts should connect back to that gut health hormone relationship. And that is how people are going to start to remember she isn't just any other nutrition coach, but she's actually very well-versed, well-experienced, and well-educated in the gut health hormone connection. And that is niche in itself that those people that that speaks to are going to be sold immediately because of your specialization. And so having memorability requires you to have consistency of messaging, not just consistent, not just consistency of posting, but it also requires you to have a clear point of view that people can attach to. And not just generic values and things, but having a very clear point of view. And I'm gonna shout out one of my past clients, Rachel of RH Health and Nutrition. And she does a really great job of displaying her point of view when it comes to nutrition coaching, and that is not restrict not being restrictive about your dieting and eating. She wants nutrition to be fun, to be fluid, to be involved in your life, and she is never going to restrict you from foods that you quote unquote can't have. And so a lot of her content is centered around not restricting eating, having freedom, especially when it comes to summer and cookouts and eating things that you want and not shaming yourself. And she really ties into like pop culture with like Love Island was out, and she was posting about, you know, like having those guilt-free evenings while you're watching Love Island and really just focusing on gut health and nutrition, but really anchoring into her point of view of not having it be restrictive. And you can go and look at her posts. Her Instagram is at RH Health and Nutrition, and she just does a really good job of having a unique point of view and really establishing that and making it well known. And what's important with this is having that repetition of the same core story, the same point of view, and the same stance across all of your content so it really starts to stick and people remember you. And I think it's very important to also add that your brand and your visual identity also have a huge role in this because you want to be recognizable before someone even reads the caption. You want someone to be scrolling and see a piece of your content and trigger in their brain that recognition of your brand and they know it's you before they even read the content, before they even consume the post, before they read the caption. You want to have that memorability, but also just that remembrance factor of showing up consistently with the same colors, the same typography, the same visuals, and having a logo and having an experience and a feeling and a full brand. So what you can do this week instead of chasing a follower account is first audit your last 10 DMs or Instagram or inquiry calls or discovery calls, whatever it is you call it, just your last 10 experiences with a potential client or a lead. If you don't have 10, just take your last five, just look at your most recent calls that you've had with people or conversations and look for the exact language that people use to describe their problem. And then ask yourself if that problem is something that you're actually trying to solve. Because if people are coming to us and our language is already iffy, they might be coming with concerns and problems that aren't actually our ideal client or what our service ideally will help solve. So pinpointing that, but also seeing what language they use to describe their problem and then using that language to put it in your homepage headline, your Instagram bio, your next newsletter subject line, your past leads and past clients and past experiences with people becomes how you can then reach more people. You want to be so specific. And so if you have a client come on a discovery call and they tell you they're they're a coach and they say, I'm really struggling with motivation specifically on Mondays. Coming back from the weekend, I just I can't I can't get into the week. You talk to them on the discovery call, they send them on their way. Maybe that was a few weeks ago. Your newsletter this month goes out to your entire audience and it says, struggling with the Monday motivation after summer weekends question mark. And then in that newsletter, you answer that question. Now that client who you had a call with opens that email and they feel so seen and they feel so understood, and you know that you can help them. And this is just another way that you are proving to them that you can help them. And so you want to make sure that your language is really centered around their problems and how your services are the solution for that. And include real words from real clients that you've served because that kind of content will always outperform whatever you're currently trying to guess at. So utilize your past experiences with clients and even past experiences with leads, with people in networking settings, when you start to talk about what you do, start to notice the problems and things that arise for others. People that you can solve and use that language to really help showcase how you can solve their problems. The second thing is to reach out to a few of your past clients and ask them one question. Ask them what almost stopped them from booking. On the contrary, if you wanted to ask a more positive, you could ask them what was the one thing that converted you to book with me. And that answer will tell you exactly, if you ask them what almost stopped you from booking, that answer will tell you exactly what objection maybe your sales page, your discovery call, your website, your Instagram might have been lacking and isn't necessarily answering yet. If you ask what was the one reason that converted you to book with, like what was the one reason that sold you to book with me, that question will tell you what you're really doing well that you can do more of. So both are great in their own way, just depends which one you want to tackle. And then if you do f ask the one and find what objection you might be lacking, fix that. And already you've done way more for your bookings than any follower account, than any follower account ever would, because you're using real experience from past clients. And the third one is to pick one referral source and make it so easy for them to send you business. And what I mean by that is making it so easy for them to refer you or for them to leave you a review that will then lead to people booking with you. For the review, you can send them an email and say, like, reply directly to this email with your review, and you can handle the logistics of uploading and everything. You could also ask them a few questions in a survey, and then from those answers, create a review, send it to them directly and say, from your feedback, I've created this review. Do you mind uploading it to my Google business? Asking they can change it as they'd like, but just making it so easy and removing that factor of um like procrastination. And then you could also send them like a one-paragraphed description of what you do that they can forward to other people, a testimonial that they can screenshot, send them a direct line to your booking page if they have people. You can also set up a referral program where you send them a referral kickback when they refer someone to you. But warm, the whole point here is that warm referrals convert so much faster than any cold follower ever will. And a lot of times we focus so much on finding new people and building our audience and growing the eyes. When in actuality we have so much great stuff right here already. Like we have past clients that we can look to, we have information from them, we also have their people. And I think about like how I do business and or as a consumer, like how I look for things, and I always will ask people, like, do you have a recommendation? And if they send one, I'm 98% of the time gonna go to that rather than like a cold search on Instagram or on Google to try and find the same thing. And so we need to recognize how much better it is to refer to convert a referral lead than a cold brand new one and focus on that. So overall, I just want to make it very clear, and hopefully you got this from the podcast episode, but growth isn't always about being more known and recognized, but more so about being remembered and being unmistakable in the things that make you you and your services and your experience unique to you. And I recently saw a YouTube video, and I think it relates, um, and it was about how you don't necessarily need a brand new revolutionary business idea. And she featured some products that have reinvented themselves in a way, and one was like sunscreen. So sunscreen is obviously essential, everyone uses it, but then I don't remember the brand, but that's that brand that like put sunscreen in a whipped cream can and made it like kind of a whipped consistency, and it literally went viral on TikTok. It's just sunscreen, but it's unique, it's a fun experience, and for that it went viral. The same thing with hand sanitizer. Hand sanitizer is practical, it's been around forever, and no one reinvented hand sanitizer, but the brand Touchland, that's the one with the cute little square hand sanitizers that you spray, they made it look like a beauty product and they made it an experience. It's slimmer, it fits in your bag, it's more aesthetic. So they took a product that already exists and they just made it better and more unique to them. And now there's a bunch of dupes of Touchland all out there trying to do the same thing. And then, same thing with energy drinks. Energy drinks are popular, they've always been popular, but Bloom made them better for you, and then they pushed energy drinks into an entire new market of people who are more into wellness and more health conscious. And again, they took a product that already existed and made it better. And then lastly, the other one was face masks, and face masks are fun and an experience already, but Medicube made them a jelly consistency, they made them pink, and they made it an experience to have it on. And now influencers are basically doing their marketing for free because of how aesthetic it is, and they've blown up just from that alone. And so I know these are product examples, not necessarily service examples, and most of my clients and the people who listen to this podcast are service providers, but I just really liked this concept because it really just hones in on the idea that you don't need a new offer and you don't need a revolutionary idea or more followers. You just need to make your existing offer feel unique and like it's its own experience that people want to buy into. And you can do this by really involving people in your process, sharing your personality, and reminding people why you are different. So I hope that you got something out of this episode. I realize that I haven't done a what's been inspiring me this week in a solo episode in a while. I think I get really good at asking the question when I'm doing the interviews because it just naturally flows towards the end of the episode, but then when I'm recording them myself, if I don't write down that I need to talk about it, I forget. So what has been inspiring me this week is the beach. I just literally, I mean, it's summer, it's July in the East Coast, and I just love the beach, and I just love being near a body of water. There's just something about being near a body of water, whether that be the lake or the beach, that just makes me feel more like myself. And I don't know if that has something to do with my human design or my zodiac, or I don't even know. Maybe I just like water, but I have been going to the beach a lot, checking out lakes and stuff, and I just feel like I've spent a lot of time waterfront, um, where wherever that may be, and that has been really amazing and just giving me new ideas and new excitement and has been absolutely inspiring me. So I've been having a great summer so far. I hope everyone else is, and I cannot believe that the month is already basically over. I think when this episode comes out, it will be basically August in like three days. So that's crazy because it feels like it was May yesterday. So does anyone else feel like it's flying by? I feel like it is flying by, and I feel like everyone keeps saying it's flying by. But I just can't believe how fast it's flying by. So anyway, thank you so much for listening to today's episode, and I can't wait to be in your ears again next week.