Episode 22
Season 2
How to Consistently Attract Your Ideal Clients
Welcome Blaire Brown, Brand Strategist, to Saturday Soundbites! Blaire is a marketing expert who brings her expertise to our audience.
In this episode, Veronica and Blaire discuss how important it is to stay true to your brand to not confuse potential clients and ensure that the RIGHT leads are moving throughout your funnel. This episode is loaded with great ideas!
Blaire has easy strategies and steps that entrepreneurs can implement immediately AND over time can grow their visibility. The next step is the most important - being consistent!
Tune in to learn how to be consistent so you can be the magnet that attracts the perfect client!
Follow Blaire @businessbyblairebrown to learn more and step up your game
Transcript -
Veronica: [00:00:00] Hello. Hello and welcome to Saturday soundbites. I'm your host Veronica sofa. And I'm so excited to be here on Saturday soundbites because here we talk about all things, visibility strategy. We talk about branding, advertising, marketing, public relations, all the things you need to really grow your visibility and make sure that your business and your brand stands out and it attracts the type of clients that you wanna bring into.
Base. So if you are watching on Facebook or on YouTube, make sure you drop with some comments and my guest and I can come in and connect with you. And if you're listening on the podcast, make sure you hit subscribe. We don't want you to miss any episodes of Saturday soundbites. And with that, I am going to invite my amazing guest today.
We have Blair brown joining us. Welcome to Saturday soundbites.
Blaire: Hi, thank you so much for having me. I am so excited to be here. Oh, that's so
Veronica: great. I love the fact that you talk about attracting the ideal clients, because oftentimes when you're thinking about your visibility strategy, you get really [00:01:00] into the graphics and the color and the fonts, and you haven't done some of that.
Pre-work. So we're gonna talk about that, but tell us how you got
Blaire: into that. Oh man, it's a long story. But to sum up, basically I have always worked in the fashion industry. That's my main background. I have started two businesses before this one. First being a handbag design business. I ran that for about eight years.
That's what got me into the fashion industry. I ran a Amazon business. selling unicorn party supplies of all things. Okay. cause why not? And then, but while I was doing both those things, I was in and out working in the corporate world, but the, the commonality between everything was marketing, because if you have a business of any kind brick and mortar, Service based digital, wherever you're at, you have to put yourself in front of the right people, your ideal clients in order to go anywhere.
Right. So I fell in love with it because it's creative and it's fun. You get to work with people that [00:02:00] are excited about it, like you. And so I thought, you know what? This is gonna be the perfect field for me. I'm gonna go into marketing. Just do that full time and then work with entrepreneurs. And so here we are today.
That's
Veronica: fantastic. So tell me a little bit about what you learned from being in the fashion space and, I mean, I'm sure it's very, technical and broken down into your demographics and the, you know, people's, um, purchasing styles and all those kinds of things. How does that translate to what you do with entrepreneurs?
Cuz it seems like there, there might be a little bit of, of a stretch, but I'd love to hear your perspective.
Blaire: Yeah, sure. Well starting out in PA in fashion was just because that was my passion, even though rhymes, not trying to do that, but it you know, that's what I just loved kind of as a hobby.
Now I work with businesses of all clients. I have a construction client, but then I also have a wedding designer client, but, it does all translate into brand visibility because, you know, you have the visuals, like you said, people do get hung up with the visuals of the brand, like the colors, the fonts, et [00:03:00] cetera.
But. You have to start looking at the demographics and like, who actually wants your product. If you're selling something for $500, it might not go to a high school student who's on a budget, you know? at least not me whenever I was in high school. So you have to really look at data logistics and then start working on your brand message.
I think brand messaging is crazy important, which some people don't really understand what that is. It's you know, how are you speaking to your audience? Are you actually able to connect that message? Is it speaking to them? or are you branching it out to a huge audience? So you might not be targeting people, to where it's actually speaking to them.
Does that make sense? And like, did I
Veronica: and I, and I'd love to hear your perspective of that because I think, um, people get confused with branding and brand identity and brand marketing. And so, um, dive into that a little bit deeper, so our audience can get a better sense of if, if they're on the right path, when they're thinking about what they're doing for their [00:04:00] business,
Blaire: Sure.
So those are all things that work together. If you have a good mix of all of 'em, you're gonna be in a good spot, but I'd say the number one keyword of that is consistency. So if with your brand identity, like who you are, who you're speaking to, how you're speaking to these people, how you're portraying yourself visually too, those are all different brand.
Combinations. if you have a good mix of that, and then your consistency with how you're speaking to people on your website, but then let's say they click a button on your website and they go to your social media platforms, whether it's Facebook or Instagram or even TikTok, how are, are you talking to them?
Same way there are you, do you look the same way? Is it all connecting? So that way, if you did a lineup of all your brand presence, like wherever the heck you are, mm-hmm . Mm. Does it look the same? Is it consistent? Are you speaking the same? Are you saying one thing here? And you're saying something else here.
Consistency is key to really building up that brand visibility and making that connection across the [00:05:00] board.
Veronica: Yeah, that's fantastic. And you mentioned data. Tell us a little bit about how data plays into this. Cuz a lot of people don't know where to go and find it. They don't know what resources exist around it.
And it's really important when you're looking at limited marketing dollars to put them towards something that really is gonna make a difference with their
Blaire: a. . Yeah. And I think budget is what people come to me the most and they're scared about, they're like, Ugh, I'm just starting out as an entrepreneur.
Where do I start? Data? Sounds like a bad word. it's not, you can do it for free. my favorite resource honestly, are Facebook groups. I love going into Facebook groups, write a post, say you're launching something and you're not sure. How even wanna, like where you wanna start with branding and marketing, right.
You're new. So go into Facebook groups starts do some creeping creep around, find out what people are asking questions about. And then why don't you ask a question? Hey, I'm working on this launch. I'm launching a product or I'm [00:06:00] building a product right now. I have a question for, and then insert your demographic.
Maybe. Female entrepreneurs or,yeah, it, it really could be anybody. People who have a new dog. Type that in. I have a question for this. Would you hop on a call with me? I have a couple of questions for you now to make it less scary. Just let them know you're not selling anything at all and don't sell anything.
right, right. By hopping onto a call with you. So I recommend, you know, doing Mar market research calls hop on a quick 20-minute call with people, ask them questions about them. What challenges that they're facing in the area that you want to help and then just make it about them and ask 'em all these questions, record the call.
Once you're done with that, you know, have it, um, trans transcribed. There are so many, like really quick, less than $10 transcription services online, and then pull the phrases that they're using. and then that's how you build your brand message because you're actually pinpointing where they [00:07:00] need help.
You're using their verbiage, not something technical that you think that they want because you're the expert. You're not gonna be speaking the same as they are ever. Mm-hmm and so just user jargon, that's a free, uh, very inexpensive, borderline free way to do it, and then use it across the board on social media.
And you can ask people on, you know, Instagram too. Hey, DM me. I'd love to ask you questions about this and people will do it. You'd be surprised.
Veronica: Yeah, no, that's a great idea. And what happens if you get 'em on the call and you're still not sure if you're connecting and the reason why I say that is because I've actually been on a few of these calls before to either help other people or find out for myself.
And sometimes the language, whether it was the vernacular or whatever it was, wasn't connecting and resonating. What does that, what does that say to you and how do you coach folks when it's, they're just not getting what they need.
Blaire: Uh, you need to go back. like really tweak the post that you're having about these calls and like really fine tune who you're targeting because you might not be targeting the right person then if they're not able to [00:08:00] connect at all, um, when it based on just a research call, you know, you're not trying to exactly.
Like I said, you're not selling anything on this call. You're just getting information. But if you're not even connecting on that level, it might not be one. It could might not be that they need your product that you're building. Sure. Maybe evaluate that and then evaluate if you're targeting the right people.
Mm-hmm .
Veronica: Yeah. And I've, and I've just experienced that before. And I feel like sometimes people are afraid to go back to the drawing board. Um, yeah. But sometimes it's what you really have to do if you're not connecting.
Blaire: Yeah. And you know what, it's life you're gonna have some flops and that's okay. the beauty of entrepreneurship is that you can always go back and you can always make those tweaks and pivots because you started with nothing as a product or service to start, right.
That was your vision and dream. So you can always go back and tweak it. It's your baby. You make it work. Just make sure that you have to be realistic and humble enough to realize. You have to go back and make tweaks here and there sometimes mm-hmm .
Veronica: Yeah, no, that, that [00:09:00] makes complete sense. So you get on these calls and you're getting what you need and you find the phrases and you're ready to launch.
How do you take that next step? especially when you're on a limited budget.
Blaire: Social media. I mean, it's a free tool and resource, and I think people will say, you know, it's good to narrow down your audience, find where they are, but try to, you know, take your content and repurpose it as much as you can. Mm.
Um, you can take, you know, a call like this, for example, and you can repurpose it across. Pinterest Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, wherever you want. And that takes, you know, however long that time segment was, and you can flip it across so many platforms and it saves you time and it reaches more audiences than you would than you would with one platform.
Veronica: and what do you yeah. And it's free. That's what I love about it too. Absolutely. Yeah. And there is, there's so many free resources out there for all of us. and I love [00:10:00] that when you're looking for your ideal client, there's, um, an opportunity for you to find places where you thought they were and then places where you didn't know that they were.
And, um, I love that you said Pinterest, cuz we don't talk about Pinterest a lot on Saturday soundbites. Tell, tell us a little bit about how that might be something folks should be looking
Blaire: into. Right. So Pinterest is great because it's the gift that keeps on giving . There's so many stats. I don't have one with me, but I will tell you that it is a search engine and it.
it should, you should treat it as one. It's like Google and it's like YouTube. They are all search engines. So use that to your advantage because if you put something in there today, it's gonna be doing the work for you over months span. It could be years. I've had somebody reach out to me and. Um, I should be using Pinterest more than I am right now.
So , but I'm just saying like, people will reach out to me seven months from now from something I post yesterday and they'll be like, yeah, I saw your pen and it was really great. And it brought me to your website and it's like, [00:11:00] Amazing. And you can also use scheduling tools like tailwind app. That's a really great hack for Pinterest.
Um, you do have to pay for some of it by, I believe they do have a free account as well, where it schedules and then it also will circulate and re reppin your pens. You posted however long ago. So it's great because when you post it once and you don't have to worry about it four months from now, it'll post it again for you.
Strategic. That's a, yeah, I wasn't
Veronica: aware of that one. That one sounds really good. OK.
Blaire: Tailwind app.com. It's.
Veronica: Are excellent. What are some other hacks that you like to share with folks when they're in this early phase of identifying their target audience and trying to bring them in and hone their brand message?
Blaire: Well, it goes back to really. Repurposing your content everywhere that you can mm-hmm, be smart about it. You scheduling tools automate as much as you can. Obviously there's a lot of things that you need to be personal about emails. Um, I mean, you can even automate your emails if it's to your subscriber audience, you know, um, I use flow desk for that.
It's easy to set [00:12:00] up with your branding. It's great because you can use your brand colors, your fonts, um, put your logo on there once, and then it's always on your template. Very easy. , so really the main points I would say is brand consistency, you know, across the board, ask your friends and your audience.
Hey, does this, if you're wondering, like maybe branding, isn't your strength. Hey, does this make sense across the board? If you were to land on these three locations, what would you think? And then take their feedback and then make tweaks accordingly. So then your branding is consistent and then maintain that social media presence.
If social media scares you. Get over it. , , it's here to stay. It's not everybody's favorite. It's not even my favorite, but it's necessary. And it's a free tool and resource. I definitely would take advantage of that. Mm-hmm .
Veronica: Absolutely. And do you think that that's true for both service providers and for product, uh, providers?
I think, you know, oftentimes people think, well, I'm a service provider, I'm a [00:13:00] consultant. I do X, Y, Z. So social media really. Isn't where I should be. What do you say to that?
Blaire: I disagree. I think that you have, it might not be, you know, YouTube might not be your spot or sure. Pen, you know, Facebook might not be your thing.
If you have like a super, super, super young audience. Right. They aren't even on Facebook anymore. but know I'm like, uh, I'm on Facebook, but yeah. Um, I love it. It's, you know, find your audience if maybe you're not everywhere. Talk to them. I don't care what business you're in. If you're product service, you have an audience on social media.
Everybody is glued to their phones, utilize it again, it's free. And if you don't like doing it, hire some help. There's, um, you know, inexpensive ways to outsource your help. Um, you can find them in the Facebook groups and you can find them in other locations too. Just you have to look for it. Be an opportunity seeker.
Veronica: Yeah. And so when you've, when you've launched your, your product or your service and you feel pretty confident about, um, the group that you're [00:14:00] in, cuz maybe you're getting really great, um, uh, response. How do you Blair go back and make sure that you, um, capitalized on that and leveraged all of that? And the reason why I ask is because I've heard people say I had this really great launch and it was fantastic.
And then. I didn't know what to do with it. And so they've got these email lists that they've, you know, grown and they may have an email sequence, but they're not leveraging it. How do you help folks kind of get past that initial success of a launch? Because that's really where the, like you said, Pinterest is a gift that keeps on giving.
That's really where the, the meat is.
Blaire: Yeah. So I, it goes back to automating things again, mm-hmm so once they are interested in your launch, you're not harassing them. they like sign up for your webinar or live event, whatever you're hosting, you have a successful launch. You are on this high of life from it right now.
Cuz it's so much work, right? Yeah. Keep it going. Set up a plan in advance, an automated system to keep these people interested because the [00:15:00] average person is not going to buy immediately. Sadly , mm-hmm, maybe a fuel, not a lot. I believe it's about seven times at least, but for people to touch on your brand before they make a purchase.
Hmm. So set up an awesome email system. Even if you have 20 subscribers or no subscribers, start an email system. Create a content, uh, that that's value. And then also an invitation mm-hmm people get scared. Um, business owners do of emails, because I think that they're like, I don't wanna be too salesy and scare them away, but there's a way that you don't have to be salesy and scare them away.
It's called value and an invitation. If you let's say you send out two emails, a. One day a week. It's value. You're not selling anything. You're providing an awesome blog for a resource, showing them a cool post that you did on Instagram. A a really cool hack that they can try on their own that day. That takes five minutes and it's free for you to give them that advice.
But then they're, [00:16:00] they're like, oh wow, Veronica has this amazing email. I'm opening all of 'em because she has all the hacks. Right. So. That's a value, then the next one could be an invitation. Like, Hey, I'd love to invite you to my Facebook group. That way you can engage with them further on a personal level, or, Hey, I just launched a YouTube channel.
Go check it out. There's free content. There. That's something that's inviting them into. To be, uh, more connected with you. Mm-hmm , but you're also not selling something. However, it opens that window of opportunity for them to be more interested in buying from you later. Yeah. But another invitation that you could slide in there is an invitation to that webinar that you already had.
Uh, they're already interested in it. Obviously they signed up to be on your list to watch it initially, but maybe they need to see it a second time to really connect and actually wanna buy it. And they're like, okay, Veronica has the real deal. I'm ready to buy the product now. So in my opinion, I would set up a or recommendation, really set up an automated email system.
If you have two going out a week [00:17:00] value invitation, boom. That's a better way to connect with them.
Veronica: Yeah, I like that idea. And sometimes people don't realize that that's a really strong marketing strategy. To implement. Um, and I love that you said that people have this conflict between marketing and sales, and I tell people all the time you're marketing your brand.
What you do next is, is the sale. But the marketing part is really the invitation and the opportunity for them to connect with you. So I loved that advice, um, that you gave about an email sequence. And, um, how do you, how do you recommend folks increase their email list?
Blaire: Um, it's really just being on social media.
I know I'm really harping on that today, but , you know, and being social on social media. Right. No, I think Facebook groups are an excellent way to get email addresses. Um, you know, you have to, you don't have to make them private, but it's a strategy to make your Facebook group private. So that way, whenever they ask to join, you can have asking them for an email to be a part of that.
Mm-hmm , you know, then immediately [00:18:00] they're connected in your group, having conversations. If you're doing it daily, then you also have them on your email list. It's a win, that's a great way to grow it. Also, you can of course create freebies. Create a free tool. That's gonna give them a success. Don't give them just some blank piece of paper with a grid on it.
Right? Give them something that actually helps them and gives them a win. And then they're gonna say that was cool. That really helped me out. I would love to see what else she sells. If that's for free. What is she providing? Whenever she's selling something, it's gotta be amazing. Right? So make it actually provide value, but in order for them to get the freebie, have it be set up where you capture their email address and then also on your website, which hopefully you have a website.
If you're not filled one yeah. Have locations on your website to capture their email address. Um, you'd be surprised at how many I get without a freebie, even so definitely utilize.
Veronica: Yeah, no, I think that's a great idea. Um, so I, I wanna ask you what is like one of the biggest mistakes you see [00:19:00] people making you see on online entrepreneurs they're coming into this space and what makes you cringe when, when you see people just launching and missing an opportunity.
Blaire: Oh, great question. There's quite a few cringy things. Um, I would say as a brand new entrepreneur, the cringes though is whenever they say I don't wanna spend any money at all on my business to start out. Oh. Because I would rather just Google everything for free and, and then I'll find all my answers. You can absolutely.
Yes, you can. Google's out there. It's a lot of information. However, it will hold you back from starting your business, because it's going to take you, it's gonna add a year of researching and stress and conflicting ideas on Google. Right? Right. Cause there's always conflicting things have a free beat.
Don't have a freebie, you know, that's gonna stress you out. It's gonna. Get you in this hamster wheel that you can't get out of. Whereas if, if you invest in the right [00:20:00] tools that are actually gonna guide you, you're learning from people who have made the mistakes. So you don't have to, that's gonna springboard you into a more successful route than Googling it for the next year.
Um, so I definitely. I think the cringes thing is not investing in yourself and I'm not saying spend millions of dollars, right? You don't do that, but really value yourself as an entrepreneur and as a business owner, because that's what you are and value the fact that you're taking this leap and that you're ready to invest in yourself as an entrepreneur.
Cuz it does take time to build up. It's not overnight, usually really ever right, right. So, if you invest in the right tools from the start, even on a smaller scale, it's gonna help you out so much long
Veronica: term. Oh, that's such great advice. Blair such great advice. So tell us how you help folks. How can people work with you if, if they're listening to the podcast or they're watching the video and they like what they hear, how can they
Blaire: connect with Blair?
Sure. So I work with new [00:21:00] entrepreneurs all the time. I that's like, honestly, my passion because I've done it before I am doing it. and I have made all those mistakes. So I work with people as a consultant. They come to me and they're like, Blair, Ugh. I hate marketing. I don't know what to do. I have nowhere to start.
I help guide people in the right direction. I'll be like, okay, pep talk. Let's roll. Here's a list of strategies. Step one, step two, step three. It provide. So much clarity and actually a roadmap of where you need to go and in the right direction. So that way you're not stuck on that hamster wheel for a year.
Instead, we talk for an hour and you already have a roadmap done for you. That is so much better than. You know, stressing about where to go and then making those mistakes that I've made. So I do that. Um, people can schedule calls with me to have a consult call, but I'm also building a program right now.
It's launching in June, um, to help people out. We partner together. I create a, well, I am creating an entire course about here's, how to make [00:22:00] your business official from the start. Here's how you can set up the brand branding and marketing for your business on a foundational level. That's gonna set up all your, your social media initiatives for success, and then here's how you set up the operations at the end.
Mm. So that way it really gets you started in the right direction. And then there's going to be weekly group. So that way, if you do get stuck, you're not just in this course world on your own, you actually have me to talk to, in a group call and you can actually ask me questions personally, and I can help guide you.
so that's how you can work with me. And I help people with marketing as well. So you can check all that out on my website, email me it's me who answers to emails, or just message me on social media. On social media. I'm at business by Blair brown. And I have a podcast curate your success podcast.
That's
Veronica: exciting. Well, I've put your website on there and all your contact information will be in the show notes. I'm so excited that Blair, that we got to connect and your tips were fantastic. I loved them.
Blaire: [00:23:00] Thank you. Thank you so much for having me today. This has been great.
Veronica: Awesome. All right, folks, you need to go out and connect with a Blair.
She is fantastic. Now she's got an E on the name on her name too. So make sure you get that, um, click any of the links in the show notes. You will want to connect with her, get some great resources and tips. Marketing is not something you should be scared of. We can all do it. We just have to find the right formula that works for us.
So with that, I'm gonna wrap up this episode of Saturday sound bites. If you are listening on the podcast, make sure you hit subscribe, but we don't want you to miss any episodes. And if you are watching on Facebook or on YouTube, drop us some comments and Claire and I bla, and I will go back and clarify any questions that you have and make sure that you get the resources you need to grow your business.
So with that, I'm gonna wrap up this episode by sending you lots of positive energy and light.