WS359: Your Guide to a More Human Content Marketing Strategy with Lyndsay Phillips

Today’s guest is CEO and Founder of Smooth Sailing Business Growth, Lyndsay Phillips. Lyndsay is a serial entrepreneur and warrior content marketer for life and business coaches, accountants, and other online entrepreneurs across the globe.

[INTRODUCTION]

[00:00:00] ANNOUNCER: Welcome to The Real Estate Syndication Show. Whether you are a seasoned investor or building a new real estate business, this is the show for you. Whitney Sewell talks to top experts in the business. Our goal is to help you master real estate syndication.

And now your host, Whitney Sewell.

[INTERVIEW]

[0:00:24.1] WS: This is your daily Real Estate Syndication Show. I’m your host Whitney Sewell. Today, our guest is Lyndsay Phillips. Thanks for being on the show Lyndsay.

[0:00:32.9] LP: Great, thanks for having me, thank you.

[0:00:34.2] WS: If you are getting into this space as a syndicator or you’re trying to raise capital, you’re trying to do all those things so many people I know in this business are trying to do, this is going to be a show you’re going to want to listen to. Lyndsay is an expert on content marketing and everything that goes into that and she’s coaching, helping lots of people in this business. I’m looking forward to this conversation and I hope you are to and I hope that, you know, if you’re putting out content, you’re going to want to hear this show. But before we get to it, I want to remind you to go to Life Bridge Capital, go to the Contact Us page so you put your email in there and your name and I will personally connect with you and have a phone call with you and would love to help you anyway that I can. I hope you’ve done that, I hope you’re sharing the show.

A little about Lyndsay, she’s a serial entrepreneur, self-professed organizational freak, she wrote that, I didn’t come up with that. Client-appointed task master plus project ninja, and warrior content marketer for life and business coaches, accountants, and other online entrepreneurs across the globe.

She’s the CEO and Founder of Smooth Sailing Business Growth and Smooth Business Growth Podcast. She loves sharing practical tips, business building and content marketing strategies so that you can be more productive and attract more customers faster. Lyndsay, this is a great topic, I get calls every week. I mean, so many every week asking me about podcast and you’re asking me about how we’ve managed to do this daily show for this long, or was it worth it? I get this so often. Was it worth it to do a daily show or podcast altogether? Is it worth my time? That’s what people are trying to judge. I’m looking forward to getting into this.

But tell the listeners a little about who you are and what your focus is and let’s dive in.

[0:02:13.5] LP: You bet, I know in content marketing is such a big term that some people think it’s just social media, or they’re not really sure what it entails, right? To me, it’s like all that good experience and the knowledge that you have in your head and it’s how you get it out to other people to serve them and help them and give them resources and tips.

Whether that’s videos, or blogs, and of course podcasts, social media, live Facebook’s, even opt in’s because there are ebooks, and so forth. Email marketing, they’re all the different mediums that kind of makeup content marketing. It is a broad term, so can kind of feel a little bit confusing. We help people in every way; sales funnels, podcast production, of course, I love podcasting. I have my own show.

Yeah, it’s just sharing your knowledge and your expertise with people so that you can attract your ideal client, you can build relationships and then of course, you know, the name of the game is conversion.

[0:03:14.5] WS: Let’s talk about that, you know? Attracting our ideal client, get us started in thinking about that and how we want to go about doing that – whether the listener has gotten started on their thought leadership platform or not, they need to be thinking about who they’re trying to attract.

[0:03:28.8] LP: Yeah, you have to have that information to do anything. Otherwise, you’re just throwing spaghetti on the wall and hoping it sticks.

[0:03:35.9] WS: That’s not too productive is it?

[0:03:37.5] LP: It’s not really. It might be tasty but –

[0:03:43.1] WS: You know, knowing who our ideal client is, you know, let’s say we – I don’t know. Most of the people are going to be looking for that. The business owners or the high-paid professionals, or you know, that are too busy to own their own rentals or manage their own rentals, but they understand that they need real estate, you know, they need to own real estate for the tax benefits and passive income benefits, numerous other things.

Help us to think about how to attract that type of individual?

[0:04:06.8] LP: First, and one of my coaches said to me years ago was think about your top three or five favorite clients that you have. What brought them to you, what was their pain point, what did they need help with, and then what makes them your ideal client? Is it how you serve them, is it their personality, you know, do they pay on time? That’s always a thing. But just that relationship and what you’re doing to help them and what you’re doing to solve their problem. What is that sweet spot?

Really dive deep, write down all your points and really, you know, decipher what they’re about and where they’re at in their business or their life, depending on your business, and again their personalization, their goals, what makes them tick, where are they hanging out? That is huge, you know? Don’t invest your money in LinkedIn if they’re all hanging out on Instagram. You really need to kind of do a little bit of RND and kind of you know, be a stalker for a day, and check them out and see what they’re posting, what they’re asking, where they’re spending most of their time.

I’ll never forget Snapchat was all popular and everyone was jumping on that bandwagon and I said to one of my clients, I’m like, “But your client, they don’t even know what Snapchat is, let alone using it. Why create that platform?” You don’t want to spend your time and money in places that are not going to give you that ROI.

Those things are really key and that will help you not only know what social media platforms to put your time in, you don’t need to be everywhere, you just need to be where your peeps are hanging out. Same with content; we did this really great survey once when another client and we found out that the bulk of their time on the resources that they wanted to read, view, whatever was YouTube. Therefore, it made sense to do more videos rather than writing blogs.

Yes you still want to have some blogs at your feed for your site and stuff for organic traffic but really, they were just all into the videos. Put your time into that, and again, with podcasting, right? If your ideal client are, I don’t know, 60 let’s say and they barely know what a podcasts is, don’t startup a podcast because your ideal client is not listening to them, that is your crucial starting point.

You know, even look at your competition, right? The leaders in your industry. What are they doing? Like, do a little RND there, right? Where are they hanging out? They may have a bazillion followers on Facebook and have hardly anything in LinkedIn. Just kind of paying attention to those nuances, the topics that they’re talking about, even look at their YouTube videos, you can see which YouTube videos have like, you know, a thousand views and which ones only have a few views.

You can really kind of start to garner a lot of information that is useful to you to know how to step forward on where to be, what kind of content to put on, and even the topics to cover. It’s amazing how much information you can get.

[0:07:06.8] WS: That’s great advice, look at what other people are doing, right? I mean, look at what’s working already before you get started. I guess, could you walk us through some things that we need to know to get from knowing who that ideal client is, and I appreciate that, thinking about who your top one’s are now. It seems so simple.

[0:07:23.0] LP: Yeah, totally.

[0:07:24.3] WS: Think through that. That’s awesome, but now I’m going from thinking about who that is, we figured that out, to that conversion. What are some steps and things we need to understand to getting them to the conversion?

[0:07:35.6] LP: Sure, I always say that content marketing is as easy as ABC. A is attracting your client, B is building relationships and C is converting. I mean, I could do a podcast episode on each one individually, it’s a lot of information but now that you’re, you know, putting out content to attract your ideal client, you of course want to convert them, it’s great that they’re interacting with you on social and they’re on Facebook and they’re loving your videos but you want to get them on to your email list so that you can nurture them and make more offers to convert them.

You want to go for the ask, right? Ask them, DM them and just say, “Hey, I noticed you’ve been commenting on a lot of my stuff, maybe you’ve got some more questions, let’s hop on the phone, let’s have a phone call.” That’s a conversion, right? You’re bringing them closer into your circle, you’re growing that relationship, and you’re having a chance to have the conversation and then potentially, you know, convert them into a sale or whatever you want to call it.

Again, if you have lead magnets or an opt in, you know? Put in your name and your email to get a checklist or a video series, or whatever it may be. That is a conversion. If all your peeps are like hanging out and loving you on Facebook, you want to put that call to action out to “Hey, I’ve got this awesome resource, check it out, you know, go here.” Then you’re going to convert them to get on to your email list.

This kind of moves them into your sales funnel, it moves them into that kind of – that B part where it’s building relationships and you’re just going to serve them, give them some great tips, give them some statistics of what’s going on in the world.

Especially with you know, real estate. I mean, there’s so many statistics, there’s so many legalities and changes and like I just found out the percentages of how many people have gone into debt and foreclosure and you know, bankruptcy rates and like all that information is useful, especially when you are in the real estate sphere.

Share that stuff with them, that’s going to be useful. That is going to help build that like and trust and they’re going to feel like you’re in their corner. You’re not just asking for a sale or whatever it may be, asking them to do it fast. I mean, this is cliché but you can’t ask them to marry you before you’ve like, you know, you’ve dated and you’ve gone out a few times, they like you, you feel like you’ve got some mojo together, you connect and you know each other a little bit better. You can’t just jump and close them. Especially as you know Whitney, with real estate investing, that like and trust factor is everything, right?

[0:10:13.7] WS: It is everything, it really is, you have to be able to – I like how you went thr4ough attracting building relationships, conversations and yes, I’d love to do a show on each one of them. You know, you do have to attract them in some way, right? But that relationship component. I mean, if that doesn’t happen, they’re not going to convert.

[0:10:29.9] LP: Absolutely. I think quite often, so many people think, well, if I have a product up there, an info product, a course, a mastermind or whatever that may be. They’re just going to come and they’re just going to buy or that’s not the case. You have to show that you’re like a normal average human being that someone would want to go have coffee, or go meet at the bar, have a beer with. That they like you, you know what I mean?

One really great tip too, Whitney, is that, I find a lot of people in the real estate investing sphere or otherwise. In social media, everything is so industry specific, you know, don’t be afraid to post pictures of your backyard or that you had your family over, something you don’t think that’s crazy personal but – or that you want on a trip last weekend or – people just want to connect with you on a human level, right? Feel like they can hang out with you and like you and trust you, and those little things, make a huge difference.

[0:11:27.7] WS: Well, let’s hang out on that, the building relationship component a little bit and now, I appreciate you bringing up like the, putting out personal photos, you know? Like a photo of our family or something. Could you talk about that a little bit? I mean, some people like you see – some people in the same space, I mean, you see their family numerous times a day in Facebook live or you know, just on Facebook in general but then they’re also putting out content in a real estate content, whatever.

You know, how much is too much as far as like just blasting out every day, all the time and even personal versus you know, the professional or real estate content?

[0:12:01.1] LP: You love your kids, you love your cats and your dogs, but people don’t want to see them every day. They’re not their kids or dogs. But like you know, a couple of times a week, it’s like, you know, my dog did a crazy thing, or my cat is extra cute today, or whatever it may be. It’s something that’s amusing, right? Your cat walks across your computer, you take the picture, this is me in my office today.

It’s little funny things that people are going to like. They’re going to comment, “That’s really cute.” People just want to know that you’re not all about money and all about business all of the time. They want to relate to you, you know what I mean? I love The Minions and you’ll probably see a lot of Minion stuff on my Facebook because they’re just hilarious. Some people know, I don’t do it for this reason, but people know I’ve got a sense of humor.

I like beer, I’m not going to lie so you know, on a Friday, woohoo, I want to have a beer this weekend or I’ll post a picture of like, you know, our family at a campfire, going camping. Don’t saturate the market with it all but like you know, pepper your post with like personality or you went to a great dinner and you recommended it, or whatever that may be.

Just don’t go crazy. You know, I have a Facebook profile that’s just family and friends and I do have one that’s just business stuff, but you just can’t keep it all about industry all the time or people just think you’re too sales-y.

[0:13:29.9] WS: Yeah. You have two different profiles? They’re both like personal pages under like, almost the same name or slightly different?

[0:13:35.7] LP: Slightly different, yeah. I have one that’s friends and family because, you know, they want to see my kids all the time and people that I – my clients and my prospects or whoever, my community, they don’t want to see them all the time. I just, you know, I’m allowed to have my privacy as well, right? And what’s going on in my life and stuff like that.

You just have to find that balance and not everyone, I’m an open book, it doesn’t really matter to me so much but not everyone is like that. But just know that people want to know who you are as a person and what your life is like and just like a reality TV is crazy out there. People want to know what’s going on, but they just want to know who you are as a person not necessarily all the time what you are doing in your business. Does that make sense?

[0:14:25.4] WS: Awesome, yes it does, and I’ve heard numerous people talk about just getting to know people on a personal level. They relate in some way, right? And there is this connection that you have outside of business that really converts somebody.

[0:14:38.4] LP: And it makes them remember you more, right? Because there is that connection.

[0:14:42.4] WS: Yes, so help us to build that relationship through. I want to use the example like email marketing and what that should look like. I know there is numerous things, so many things we could talk about, but you know email marketing about themselves, can you give us some tips on email marketing, what that should look like, what we should be including? Fire away.

[0:15:00.4] LP: You bet, yeah. So yeah, with email marketing that’s where so many entrepreneurs they just forget about the nurturing part of it, right? I mean if you find an article on Bigger Pockets let’s say and you just found it super crazy helpful then share that in an email, you know It shows that you’re serving, it shows that you are on the ball and reading more and you know what is going on in the industry, whether it is like “easy” or e-newsletter that you are doing.

I got one the other day and I can’t think of his name right now but it was an email that he sends out I think once a week and it just list about five different articles that he just read lately that were super helpful for those in the real investing industry. I am like, “That’s so smart” it is not like he’s having to reinvent the wheel and write it. I am sure he writes some of his own stuff too, but it just shows that he is trying to help you knowing what the stats are, what is new in the world, and what he found interesting. So that is really key.

Then sharing the content that you have. So, if you are publishing a podcast obviously, like yourself, or blogs, a video post, whatever that may be, do an email that just shares that podcast or just shares that article. So, you are sharing your content, you are giving them strategies and tips. They may not read every article or every email but the more that you are in front of their face on a consistent basis then they are going to remember you.

So, when they are ready to buy or make a move or take an action or need your help, they are more likely to contact you because you are top of mind and you’re consistent. Consistency Whitney is everything because it shows that you are on the ball. It shows that you are around for the long haul that you care, that you’re organized, that you are professional, like all of those little things in between the lines, right?

[0:16:55.8] WS: So how much is too much? How many emails? Obviously, I am doing a daily show. I mean I could send out content every day and I felt like a lot of people are going to be like, “Wait a minute, that is just way too many emails in my inbox,” you know? What is too much?

[0:17:09.8] LP: There are so many schools of thought. I have some clients where they are like, “No I only want to email them this many times because they’re just going to get annoyed.” I beg to differ on that. I think let them choose. I have one client where some emails are twice a day and they’re like every day. You just have to gauge your audience and the biggest thing that you need to look at is the stats at the backend of your emails. So, you can go to all the emails that you’ve sent out.

And to see, okay how many are opening, how many are clicking the links inside, how many people are unsubscribing? So, if you have – say you go gangbusters for two weeks and you sent out a whack of emails whatever that may be. If you see that your open rates are dropping or your opt outs are increasing, you’re like, “Whoa okay I am going to back off,” right? Don’t be crazy, don’t make a rash decision because you are naturally going to get a bit of attrition but that is always a good thing.

Because maybe you are weeding out those that are not engaged, or they are not an ideal client anyways. So, it is just going to make your email deliverability and your stats better but just gauge that. Just test, right? Maybe do it three times a week, see how that goes for a while and then just check out your stats. If your opens are going up and your opt outs are not and you are getting more clicks and you are getting people that are responding to your emails or opting in for XYZ or saying yes to a strategy call. Then you know you are on the right track.

So, don’t be afraid to push the envelope a little bit, just don’t go from one a week to seven a week. You have to graduate it otherwise your peeps are going to get a little shocked.

[0:18:55.1] WS: No that’s good, great advice you have to look at the stats. All right, what is happening, and that makes so much sense, and adjust accordingly. You know you had mentioned too like email marketing, sales funnels, there are things that you are helping people with, what kind of sales funnel should we be thinking about and when do we need a sales funnel?

[0:19:11.1] LP: That is a great question and I get that a lot – no matter how small, how big, whatever it is that you do, you should have at least one opt in so that you could grow your e-list. Again, whether it is a checklist, a video series, an ebook, whatever your audience wants, right? Something that is going to solve one of their biggest problems quickly and then of course you want to nurture them and send emails afterwards and you want to make sure that they actually read the thing that they opted in for.

So, don’t be afraid to send out – I call it an engagement sequence. So, a few emails like, “Hey did you see this tidbit on page four? Then share this. Well if you missed it, click here,” so you just want to make sure that they are engaged and that they are digesting that information, right? And then obviously they are going to nurture them along the way and then you have to go for the ask at some point. So even if you are not selling products, even if you don’t have a mastermind, or a coaching program, or event.

Or whatever you at least at the very least I imagine would have like a consultation call, or strategy call, or discovery session, whatever you want to call them. So that would be your funnel. You would then put out a series of emails that is basically going to be like, “Hey are you struggling with XYZ and you are banging your head against the wall? You can reach me anytime. Click here to schedule a call,” and so that is your task. That is your –

You know you’re bringing them in, you are nurturing them, and you are going to be asked. So that is how you are going to covert them. There are different ways to go about it. You can have a landing page that is all about the strategy call and how it has helped others and testimonials and so on but at the very least that is like the basic funnel, right? Bring them in, engagement series, nurture them and then go for a few emails where you are going to invite them to be on the strategy call.

[0:20:53.6] WS: Nice, so what is really the hardest part of this content marketing piece that is so important?

[0:20:58.9] LP: Consistency. I mean we all kind of – and I am guilty of it too. You know, I haven’t done a video in quite a while, slap my wrist but it is making sure that you are getting content out there on a regular basis, making sure that you are getting social media out there on a regular basis. You know, just so that you are always top of mind, first impressions are everything, right? If someone goes to your Facebook page and you haven’t done a post in two weeks, they are going to be like:

“Well I cannot rely on them. Clearly, they’re barely in business, they are not posting everything, what are they doing?” So those first impressions are huge and then same with emails, right? You want to at least reach out and touch them in some way, reach out to them, share information, even if it is a three-sentence email that says, “Hey, how are you? What is going on? Are you struggling with XYZ or do you need any help? Hit reply.” It can be super easy.

Just get on a schedule, mark it in your calendar that you have to this, that and the other every month and just plan on being consistent and start small, right? Even if it is two blogs a month and you know an email once a week and obviously social media posts but start there, get consistent, and then you can build onto it.

[0:22:16.9] WS: Okay, what is a way say recently that you have improved your content marketing that we could apply to ours?

[0:22:22.6] LP: I actually hired an amazing writer. We are putting out some new blogs and they’re really SEO driven. So, they are targeted for specific keywords. They are longer, there is more graphics in it. So, I haven’t looked at my stats or anything yet because it is still pretty new, but I am pretty excited about it. The articles are amazing, so yeah, I am pretty excited about that.

[0:22:46.1] WS: How did you find a writer about that?

[0:22:47.8] LP: I’ve been connected with Yan for a long time. I am actually going to be partnering with him on some podcast consultation services. He is a wiz at podcasts, yeah he is amazing and he is a great copywriter and so I am like, “I didn’t know you did this” he’s like, “I can do it for you” I’m like, “Sweet!” So yeah, see? This is where relationships came in handy for me because I have known him for years and we always connect, and now we are partnering up together on a few things and yeah, he is a huge resource for me.

[0:23:19.2] WS: Nice and what is the number one thing Lyndsay that has contributed to your success?

[0:23:23.6] LP: I would say my stubbornness and perseverance. You know everyone has their ups and downs, but I always keep taking action. If you’re scared do it anyway and just keep moving and consistency absolutely.

[0:23:41.5] WS: Nice, yeah consistency is so important and so unfortunately, we are about out of time but tell the listeners how you like to give back.

[0:23:48.5] LP: I love helping entrepreneurs. I give so much free tips away and my business coach is like, “Your strategy calls, or your consultation calls are too long,” but I just love it. I love steering people in the right direction. So, I do have a free 20-minute consultation call if people are looking to just figure out where to start, right? When it comes to content marketing and what should I do and not do, so yeah, I love just sharing tips. I share the tools that I use all the time and do and how-to’s. Again, my coach is like, “You are giving too much away,” but I love doing it, so.

[0:24:26.0] WS: Wow, give us a good tool that we need to know about?

[0:24:28.8] LP: I cannot live with Project Teamworks, which is my project management tool. I cannot live without Canva for creating killer graphics and it is not just for social media, it is for everything, worksheets, you name it, brochures. I love WordPress obviously and all the plugins that they have especially Pretty Links, so you can have pretty URL’s. The list goes on, I have way too many.

[0:24:53.1] WS: What is Teamworks? Is that the Facebook thing?

[0:24:55.8] LP: No, Teamworks is project management. So, kind of like those base campers Podio.

[0:25:00.4] WS: Asana?

[0:25:02.0] LP: Yeah exactly.

[0:25:02.7] WS: Okay.

[0:25:02.9] LP: So Teamworks it even has a chat feature, which is like Slack. It even has a desk feature, so if you have support tickets for your business, and it just allows my team and I to collaborate on projects and for myself and my business partner to keep our fingers on the pulse to make sure everything is going smoothly.

[0:25:20.9] WS: Awesome, I appreciate you providing those tips as well. That is pretty valuable but unfortunately, we are out of time. Tell the listeners to get in touch with you and learn more about your business?

[0:25:29.3] LP: You bet you, they can go to smoothbusinessgrowth.com and there is even a social media roadmap on the homepage there to get consistent with their social that they can dive into and of course, yeah I am happy to hop on the call and do a free 20-minute consultation to chat about their content marketing.

[0:25:45.1] WS: Awesome, thank you Lyndsay.

[0:25:46.8] LP: You are very welcome. Thanks for having me, it was fun.

[END OF INTERVIEW]

[0:25:48.8] WS: Don’t go yet, thank you for listening to today’s episode. I would love it if you would go to iTunes right now and leave a rating and written review. I want to hear your feedback. It makes a big difference in getting the podcast out there. You can also go to the Real Estate Syndication Show on Facebook so you can connect with me and we can also receive feedback and your questions there that you want me to answer on the show.

Subscribe too so you can get the latest episodes. Lastly, I want to keep you updated so head over to lifebridgecapital.com and sign up for the newsletter. If you are interested in partnering with me, sign up on the contact us page so you can talk to me directly. Have a blessed day and I will talk to you tomorrow.

[OUTRO]

[00:34:07] ANNOUNCER: Thank you for listening to The Real Estate Syndication Show, brought to you by Lifebridge Capital. Lifebridge Capital works with investors nationwide to invest in real estate while also donating 50% of its profits to assist parents who are committing to adoption. Lifebridge Capital, making a difference one investor and one child at a time. Connect online at www.LifeBridgeCapital.com for free material and videos to further your success.

[END]