Creating Killer Content to Connect with Your Audience

Paul: Hey, It’s Paul.

Melissa: It’s Melissa.

Paul: We’re here with PROFITographers, we’re so excited to have you guys here.

Melissa: Yes.

Paul: As you come in, I know we had the countdown on the Facebook app, and also our own countdown that we normally do.

Melissa: Countdown-

Paul: Countdown to the countdown.

Melissa: … to the countdown. We want to give enough time for people to get on and just get settled in, because we have a lot of really good stuff to talk about today.

Paul: Yes, so excited.

Melissa: So make sure you get your pen and paper ready, ’cause we have a great topic for today.

Paul: Yes, and I’ll tell you what, this is our first webinar as a married couple. We just went through that entire experience ourselves as wedding clients, which was really awesome. I tell you what, just because we have all this software and different rigging here, let us know that you can hear us okay, that you can see us okay. Have Melissa jump in and look at-

Melissa: Rosalinda says she can’t hear us.

Paul: She can’t; hear us?

Melissa: Let me just see here.

Paul: Uh-oh.

Melissa: I hear us.

Paul: Okay. We can hear us, so I’m not sure.

Melissa: Give us some thumbs up if you can hear us.

Paul: Yeah, give us some thumbs up, give us something just to let us know that you can hear us okay, ’cause again, we’ve been off on hiatus so-

Melissa: Now she can hear us.

Paul: Oh, okay. Great.

Melissa: Yay! Okay awesome.

Paul: Great, we’re just want to make sure everybody’s squared and okay.

Melissa: Yep.

Paul: But one of the biggest things that Melissa and I, when we’re inside the community and we talk to a lot of fellow photographers they tell us they struggle with this whole social media game, what to do and so many people are so overwhelmed all the time.

Melissa and I were constantly like, “You know what? We took all these training classes, we’ve traveled, we’ve done a lot of workshops within the internet marketing space,” and it’s like, “Can we boil it down to some simple quick tips to be able to help guide you guys to maybe having a better content strategy?”

Melissa: Absolutely.

Paul: Because it’s really … If you’re out there, and I’ll tell you what, if you’re out there and you’re just telling people to buy, buy, buy from you as a business, no matter what business. Like, we’re in photography, but no matter what business it is, people are gonna get sick and tired of hearing that message. And if you notice, over the last several years that the advertisements and everything have gone more in the content direction where it’s kinda like there’s a subtle pitch in there. And I think we’ll be going over this as well, so I’m gonna turn it over to Melissa ’cause I know she’s the structured, organized one.

Melissa: I am. I have my list.

Paul: So, but please say, “Hello.” If you’re here, say where you’re from, let us know where you’re from. If we have a chance, we’ll be able to tap in on the live and then, be able to say hello to everybody. So, you wanna go ahead and get started?

Melissa: Yeah. So, today’s topic is all about creating killer content to connect to your audience. So, that’s exactly what we’re gonna be talking about, content creation. And before we get started, just wanna give a quick little shout out to 17 hats for helping make this education training available.

Paul: Possible. Yeah, yeah.

Melissa: Possible. Yeah, so thank you to them. We love them, they’re great people. And anyone that wants to talk about 17 Hats, we would love to talk about our experience with them because it’s an awesome product. It’s an awesome company that helps us with our business. But, thank you to them for helping make this content available for you guys.

Paul: Yes. Excellent.

Melissa: So, yeah. So, content creation is one of those things that it’s a big monster because a lot of times, we sit in front of the computer, we have all these great ideas, but it’s like, “What kind of message do I wanna give to the audience? How do I wanna communicate with them?” Besides what Paul was saying, “Buy my stuff,” like how do I wanna engage with them? So, we wanna go through a couple tips with you today as to how to create that killer content. ‘Cause content is king, queen, it’s the thing.

Paul: It’s the entire castle.

Melissa: Exactly. So, let’s … Wanna get to the first point?

Paul: Yeah, let’s go ahead. Let’s dive right in.

Melissa: Alright. So, the first thing we wanna talk about is engaging and building interest in your business so customers will buy. Because really, that’s the end all game, is that you do want the customers to buy from you. But, it’s all about that engagement. And I think what it boils down to, the first and foremost thing, is that know, like, and trust factor.

Paul: Right. So, before anybody wants to do business with anybody, this is just a philosophy that’s been out forever when it comes to marketing sales, is you have to have, before somebody will do business with you, they have to like, know, and trust you because if they don’t have those three factors, what happens is that they’re gonna feel uneasy, they’re gonna feel pitchy, they’re gonna feel salesy. And they won’t even care what kind of offer you have. If they don’t have a good gut feeling about you, they’ll actually go somewhere else. They’ll even spend more money somewhere else even if you have a better product or service, and even better pricing, they would still go somewhere else where they felt those three elements. So like, know, and trust.

So important because Melissa just said it, this is about engagement, right? So, right now, a lot of people that we see online ’cause we even see it with our friends and even some family members that own businesses, that they go out and they just see this big, huge free platform on all these social media channels to immediately go and drive their message home about their product, about their service. And all these people … Majority of these people did not like your page just to get solicitations all day long. They are not there to be pounded on over and over again. And when you’re just doing that over and over again, you have to understand you’re not building report. You’re not building those three elements. They are not liking, knowing, and trusting you. You have to create a human element around you and there’s methodologies that we can do in going through that and I think that goes into the next point.

Melissa: Absolutely. Well, and the other thing I wanna kinda bring up, too, is really, think about those companies that really engage with you. A really great example is Whole Foods. So, Whole Foods, if you go to their website, you’ll see that their website, it’s not just about the grocery store Whole Foods, but they actually wrap their pitch into their content. So, they’re educating people about healthy living, healthy eating, recipes, and when you go on there, they have this really awesome community blog and you get engaged with it. So, think about those companies that pull you in, that engage with you, and how do you wanna bring that to your business? How do you wanna engage with your customers? And that’s going to just really enforce that know, like, and trust factor.

So, people, they’re gonna look forward to the content that you produce. They’re gonna look forward to those blogs or those emails or whatever those posts that you do ’cause you’re providing them something really informational, educational, and really exciting to read.

Paul: Right, now this segues us into the second point, which is educating.

Melissa: Education.

Paul: So, it’s something that she used the exact example where you’re getting engagement, people are gonna follow you and get to know and get a good feeling about you before they need you and that’s the whole thing. You dig your well before you’re thirsty. So, what it is is you want to, in advance, you wanna influence the market, the people that are following you before they need your product or service. And the way to do that is through education, that’s one of the channels. We’re photographers, right? So, what’s some of the things that we could do to educate our clientele through content delivery? Now, what’s very popular, what’s very trendy right now in almost all the social media channels, the major ones, is behind the scenes type photos or behind the scenes videos.

There’s a couple photographers we know, they do destination senior portrait sessions, so CJ, right? And he’s out there and he’s doing behind the scenes videos, doing Facebook live, just showing it’s not the content, it’s not the photo, it’s not the end result, what he’s showing in an educational type of way like, “Hey, this is how we got here and this is what we’re doing.”

Melissa: And it’s great for the clients because parents, I’m sure, have lots of questions as to how that works. And then, also for other photographers that are interested in that niche as how you go about with doing that, it’s an educational piece. Education should really solve that question, that how to. So, anything, how to do this, how to do that. People have problems and they want their problems solved. They need answers and that’s what education is all about, is solving those problems. So, thinking about your clients and what problems do they have? What challenges are they dealing with? And can you, through your education with your content, solve those problems?

Paul: Right. I’ll give you an example of one of the most popular posts that I have on our business page that goes to the public that we get the most results out of every year, and that’s the week before July Fourth, I have a PDF, an info graph, that gives tips and hints to allow the average consumer out there to understand how to take better photography when it comes to fireworks. And it’s something that we don’t go out and we don’t photograph it every day of the week and we enjoy and we’re very present when it comes to fireworks and life events like that, and we’re very rarely bragging and showing our images online. So, in a way, what we’re doing is we’re creating a piece of content that is making us look like the expert. It’s positioning us as the local area expert when it comes to photography and we’re doing it in an educational way that’s actually helping others in the public.

We know, using photography is a great example, that every other person that we know these days owns a digital SLR and if they don’t, they at least have a camera phone. There’s things that we can do that we could show people and guide them in a very non confrontational way so that they understand photography better, so that they would get educated ’cause again, they’re gonna revert back and they’re gonna look at you as the expert. In a different way, years ago, we used to do shoot outs and model calls and everything, and we went to Puerto Rico last year and photographed an incredible wedding based on somebody that was just somebody in the marketplace, Diana, who looked at me as the local area expert because I organize these events and I put them on. So, I was educating other photographers, she was present in that environment, and she saw me as an expert.

So, that’s why years, many years, later she was like, “Boom, Paul and Melissa, they’re gonna be the ones that photograph our wedding and we’re gonna take them on this destination with us.” What other things can you do depending on a niche that you’re serving, depending on a business that you’re in, what could you do to educate? It’s like the Whole Foods example, of course they’re gonna sell the product, the food, the ingredients, and all that thing and of course you know where to get it. But, instead of them saying, “Hey, look, this is on sale, this product.” They’re actually showing you how to utilize it, how to incorporate it into your normal life. And by having a recipe, they’re guiding you like, “Oh, I need these ingredients. So, I’m gonna go to Whole Foods and get these ingredients.”

Melissa: And you could do this with any business, so try to think outside of the box as to whatever the product it is that you’re promoting, selling, what are some things that you could do to educate your client that’s gonna lead them down that path?

Paul: Right. In all marketing sales, when it comes to this, the biggest thing is exactly what Melissa was saying, and there’s an acronym WIIFM, what’s in it for me? And stop. Not you.

Melissa: Not me.

Paul: Not this person here, but the consumer, what’s in it for them? So, can you explain … So, let’s say you were going after the, let’s say, the wedding market for example. What are some of the struggles, some of the fears, the things that are keeping those brides and grooms up at night before they would even contact you as a photographer? ‘Cause if you can figure out what those are, you can help educate … We’re in the industry as photographers and we can educate them on, maybe, how to select a photographer, the 10 mistakes that people make in selecting a photographer, here’s the ten most common mistakes or five most common mistakes that people make in selecting a wedding venue as an example. There’s different creative things that can get people before they come to you to get them to like, know, and trust you. So, again, education, very key.

Melissa: Yeah. And this works hand in hand with that engagement. Engagement and education, they work hand in hand together. And it’s really your job with the content that you produce, again, whether it’s written content or video, that you portray that. That you’re the expert and that you help inform your customers. Because customers nowadays are more savvy and they don’t wanna be just sold on. They want … They’re seeking, they have a thirst for knowledge and they want to know what they can do to help solve those problems.

Paul: Right. So, let’s transition to the next point.

Melissa: Yes. Alright, so the next piece is entertainment.

Paul: Entertainment? Oh, no. But, I’m an introvert.

Melissa: This is really … And the first … I think that’s the first thing that we wanna talk about. With anything with entertainment, you wanna make sure that it’s congruent with your brand. And there’s lots of different ways to entertain. There are some people out there that are naturally performers. They just love to be in front of the camera, they love to share and educate, everything we’ve been talking about so far. And there’s other people that that’s kinda weird for them, they’re maybe a little bit more introverted, they kinda like to be a little bit more behind the scenes. But, there’s definitely ways that you could educate. The biggest thing is making sure that you’re authentic because when you’re not authentic, it comes across totally … Audience reads right through that and it also comes across really cheesy and we don’t wanna be cheesy with anything that we do with content creation.

Paul: Right. And I’ll tell you what, when it comes to content creation and the entertainment aspect, you might … Some of you might be good with this, doing the live. I’ll tell you what, it was a transition for Melissa and I going from recorded things where we could seek perfection to, “You have to roll with it.” When things go wrong and every time there’s a glitch somewhere …

Melissa: I know some of you guys have been there when things have gone really wrong.

Paul: Yeah, you’ve been through the journey with us, right? But, if we flop or make a mistake, you just keep rolling. It’s like like TV. And that might be something that some of you, you might just need doing still images and showing behind the scenes or maybe, you’re a little bit more comfortable in writing a blog or writing a post. I would say go with what you naturally are most comfortable with because people will seek that from you and the people that like that type of engagement, like that’s the type of way that they absorb information, we tend to, ourselves as time progress, understand that even for us marketing out there, people take … assimilate information differently.

Melissa: They do.

Paul: So, we need to do the lives, we need to do the recorded, we need to do the blogs, do the emails. It’s overwhelming. It can get really overwhelming. And I think actually in a way, just coincidentally having 17 Hats sponsoring this, I know Melissa every morning, you wanna talk about how you wake up and see the dashboard ’cause we would, without a content schedule, we would never put out the stuff that we have.

Melissa: Absolutely, absolutely. That’s really important and that’s a really good point as far as that. With 17 Hats, I sit down and I have that dashboard that basically shows what I need to do that day. So, with your content creation, if you have entertaining things, engaging things that you wanna get to your audience, you could have it planned out ahead a year in advance where you sit down and you don’t even have to think about it and that’s the really wonderful thing about it. And the entertainment aspect piece of it, I mean, that’s important because if there’s something like there’s a specific holiday coming up and you wanna do something fun, you wanna be fun, you wanna be engaging, there’s always a time to be serious, but you wanna show that side of yourself to your audience again.

So, it all … It’s really kinda funny ’cause all these points, it’s not just a separate [inaudible 00:16:46], they all lead into each other and feed on each other because again, with entertaining, that’s gonna create that know, like, and trust factor to engage your audience even more.

Paul: Right. And entertaining doesn’t mean I have to sit here and juggle balls around, it just means you have to be engaging and interesting. ‘Cause if any of you came on to this video right now and I was like, “Hey, I’m Paul. Thank you for joining us. For the next three hours, we’re gonna be talking …” It’s like, “Bueller, Bueller …” You’re just like, “No.” So, it’s just something that you just have to have some energy and excitement behind what you’re talking about to engage and influence and pull and draw people in. So, not all of us are gonna sit here and do all these tricks and things and that’s not congruent with who you are, but there’s probably some people out there. We know people within even the photography industry, they’re known for certain things.

Some people are edgy so they have that and they create their persona throughout, some people have the bow ties, some people have different looks and vibes and feels, and they’re congruent. They’re very, very congruent. And I would say be authentic with what you really are and go that direction.

Melissa: Yeah, that’s the number one thing is be authentic. Absolutely, absolutely.

Paul: So, do you wanna see if there’s any live stuff that’s coming over, just to say [crosstalk 00:17:51]?

Melissa: Yeah. Let’s see here, we have … And then, before we move on. We have a lot of people. We have a lot of people that are checking in and saying hi.

Paul: Yeah, we had a couple …

Melissa: I see some shout outs here, so [Rosalinda’s 00:17:59] in here, Eddie’s in here from Florida [crosstalk 00:18:01].

Paul: Hey, Eddie. He’s down in Florida, no.

Melissa: Yeah, let me see here. Dan’s in here, he says, “Hi, Mr and Mrs. [Marvinson 00:18:09] here and the baby’s asleep so I can listen in so that’s awesome.”

Paul: Oh, okay.

Melissa: Virginia’s in here, “How was the honeymoon?” We had a really … We had a fun adventure.

Paul: Yeah, we did a pre honeymoon. We do something that’s called a jar trip where we actually … We had all of our guests, ’cause we normally do this on our own, we had all of our guests put in inspirational places where we could go and we drew one of them out on Monday after the wedding ’cause we were planning on doing our honeymoon later on. But, Melissa thought we weren’t gonna do anything, so when she pulled one out, normally we plan that six, eight weeks in advance. So, she was looking at the calendar, I was like, “Okay, pack your bags. We’re going right now.” So, we went to Berkeley Springs, West Virginia.

Melissa: Berkeley Springs, West Virginia, yeah.

Paul: Which is a place, that’s what these trips are about. We would’ve never gone there.

Melissa: We would’ve never been there.

Paul: And it actually was a really nice, incredible relaxing … I call it a pre honeymoon, but thank you for mentioning that. We digress.

Melissa: We digress and Scott said, “Admit it, though. You can juggle.”

Paul: I can. I can.

Melissa: He can.

Paul: I can.

Melissa: Maybe we’ll do that next time.

Paul: I was a little clown. I wanted to be a Globetrotter when I was younger. So, I learned … You give me a basketball, I actually can do a lot of stuff with it. But, I’m definitely rusty these days. That’s a different topic.

Melissa: That’s a different topic.

Paul: So, right now, we caught up on everybody there.

Melissa: Yes, we’ve caught up on saying hi.

Paul: So, when it comes to content creation, though, definitely a schedule … Very, very important. ‘Cause it amazes me every year when I see people, a week before Valentine’s Day as an example, I see all these people pushing at the 11th hour almost, it’s like it snuck up on them. And it’s like, “No, it’s the same day every year.” You could’ve, a year in advance, you could’ve planned it. You could’ve put reminders in something like a piece of software like 17 Hats so you that you don’t have to think about it.

Melissa: Exactly.

Paul: ‘Cause if you leave it up to your mind, you’ll get sidetracked and off track and I’m telling you with content creation, it’s about consistency. It’s so, so important. You can build a following, you could be doing things great for a couple weeks or a month or so, and getting things built up and then, all of a sudden, you go inconsistent, people instantly stop following you. So, it’s something … Consistency is very, very important.

Melissa: And it’s very easy to fall into that trap if you aren’t organized with it, which is why having a system in place is really, really important. Again, with the consistency, that still again, it keeps you consistent with that know, like, and trust factor because once you build that audience, people, they wanna hear more from you. And then, they’re gonna be like, “Oh, this was just a fly by night person. They posted a blog one day and then, they’re gone for six weeks and then, they reappear.” It’s much harder to maintain that consistency and that trust factor if you don’t have systems in place. Like we were saying earlier, what I love about our 17 Hats system is that you literally can wake up and you sit down at the dashboard and see what you’re doing.

So, if you … Valentine’s Day for example. In December, I could have a little reminder there, “Hey, it’s time to write your Valentine’s Day content.” And you would write that all out and then, you would schedule it to whatever platforms you’re doing, whether it’s a blog, whether it’s your social media posts, whether it’s an email series. But, you have it all written in advance and you’re not doing that rushing around last minute thing the week before Valentine’s Day trying to think of a promotion, and then shoving it down your audience’s throat because by then, they’re already doing something else or …

Paul: They already committed.

Melissa: They’ve already committed. It’s too late.

Paul: By the time somebody makes a decision to purchase, they’ve already done the investigating up to that point, so if you’re waiting until the 11th hour, you’re only grabbing that small, small, small percentage of people that procrastinated and had no influence up until that moment and that’s dangerous ’cause you’re always gonna be chasing that carrot. And you need to … You wanna bundle those carrots. We always say, the longer the runway, the better success. So, you just need to definitely focus on that. So, we have another point.

Melissa: We do have another point.

Paul: When it comes into the content creation.

Melissa: And I think this all ties in again, these points aren’t standalones, they all kinda tie in together and the last point is about inspiration and inspiring your audience and this is really about weaving this into your content so that you can lift your audience up, that you can empower them. And there’s lots of ways that … Whether you’re selling a product or a service, there is lots of ways that you can inspire people to do better, to push themselves to their limits, to think about the future, to empower themselves. And as your job, that is one of your jobs, is to inspire people for greatness.

Paul: Right. When people feel it in here, people will follow you and again, that like, know, and trust factor. Once they feel in the gut that you’re sincere and serious and like your help guiding them, you always benefit when you’re giving to others, it will always come back ten fold to you. So, how are you approaching this? How’s your attitude? How’s your outlook? Because again, you’ll be revealed very quickly. If you’re just trying to fake through content, but you really just have a goal on selling something to people, that’s a short term thing and people see right through that. There’s not an authenticity aspect there, just like when Melissa and I, we never focus on the money. We’re thankful that the abundance comes there on the backend, but really what we’re focused on is giving as much as we can to those that like our message and that are drawn to us because we wanna help everybody else move the needle in their lives.

And then, hopefully, in turn, they’re gonna make the same impact to other people as well, to inspire others and help guide them with the information that we’ve learned through our lives and through our businesses and everything to move everything forward. But, it’s something that, it really comes back to the content creation, consistency is very important. Scheduling it in, doing behind the scenes, these are a couple of, actually, little points that I wanted to mention that I know Melissa didn’t have on her list, is you do not have to … When it comes to content, all the pros out there, they do what’s called batching and that’s where you actually, again, schedule your content. And then, you look and say, “Okay, I wanna do this type of … Maybe once a month, I wanna do blank.”

Right? Maybe it’s a … Whatever, a video or something. Well, you technically could record all those videos in one day and you could have them slowly drip out over the year so you’re not running around like a nut every time and most of the social media platforms allow you to do scheduled postings so you can schedule them in advance. There’s a lot of software out there that can help minimize your stress as far as placing the physical content itself, but when it comes to …

Melissa: That’s the worst feeling in the world, if you have a blog due and the night before, you’re sitting there, typing as fast as you can to get it out there. Or figuring out what kinda topic you’re gonna do for a video. If you jump on a live video and five minutes before like, “Okay, what am I gonna talk about today?” That’s the worst feeling. And the more that you batch and prepare and have systems in place, you’re gonna be able to deliver better to your audience and you’re gonna be able to give more of yourself. You’re gonna actually be able to strategically plan out what a whole year of content looks like for them, that you can take them through a journey, which is awesome. You could take them through a whole series of just teaching and learning them … Teaching and learning them? Teaching them, teaching them a specific skill through your content.

But, you can’t do that if you don’t plan ahead.

Paul: Right. And that’s something, I’m telling you, that’s so important and so overlooked is a lot of … This is probably the biggest thing that I wanted to circle back into it, it chokes me up even thinking about it. It’s overwhelming. It’s seriously overwhelming. All the social media channels that are out there or all the opportunities that are there, A, number one, you have to identify who are you going after and go to where they hangout. So, if your audience hangs out, that you’re going after, hangs out at Instagram, hangout on Instagram. If you have a base and a following and you don’t have the … ‘Cause we have several … Even Tony and Amy [Hawford 00:25:48] that are … They do a little bit of Instagramming and a little bit of Facebooking.

But, people follow their blog. People know that they’re dropping blogs on very specific days of the week and people follow the blog, not as much as the other social media. They do get some from that, but mainly, it’s the blog. People know to go to the blog. But, the thing is, everybody is successful because they’re consistent and typically, they’re very, very good at one of the channels. You know certain people that are incredible Youtubers. You know people that are incredible Instagrammers. You know people that do very well and incredible on Facebook. Very, very rare does people do very well on all the channels at all the same time. It would just drive you crazy and each of them have to be treated differently ’cause the audience responds differently to different kinds of content.

So, I would say definitely say, definitely work on learning one channel inside and out and mastering it, just like you would … Sorry, sorry.

Melissa: I digress, but if there’s a channel that you don’t like, don’t do it. What’s the point? If you really … Find that channel that resonates with you. We do a lot of Facebooking. I’ve been doing more Instagram. I really enjoy those channels. But, for me, I know you do a little bit more, I can’t stand Twitter. I just … I can’t stand it. I’m not a Twitter, but so, I don’t go on there. I don’t go on that channel a lot. So, you don’t have to do it all at one time. If you’re not quite sure with this whole content creation thing, if it’s overwhelming, pick one first and start there and get that system in place, get that schedule in place. Do it consistently. Then, once you get that going, if you wanna add another channel, then add another channel. But, with everything that you do, all those points that we talked about with education, and engagement, and entertainment, you can do that on that channel.

Paul: And I’m telling you, some of the content, it’s the stuff that you’re doing in your business every day that you’re just taking for granted that nobody would be interested in, but I’m telling you, that’s exactly what people are interested in. If I was a graphic designer and I just like, “Hey, guys. I’m just gonna show you real quick the process I go through on creating a logo. I’m just gonna show you the first step that I go through.” And that’s it. And people would be like, “Oh, wow. It was a little learning. Wow.” But all of a sudden, it creates value in you. You’re like, “Wow.”

Melissa: I have a good friend, Sammy, who does a lot with vintage shopping. And she, on her channel, she shows what she wears and where she finds things. It’s just the coolest thing and things that if she didn’t really think about it, she would overlook it. But, she takes a picture of what she wears, where she found it, why is it vintage and that’s really interesting.

Paul: Right. We’d love to hear from you guys, though. So, I’m not sure. Would you like to see if anybody’s commented?

Melissa: Yeah.

Paul: We’d love to dialogue or answer any questions.

Melissa: Here’s a good question Scott has, “Is using the same ad over and over a bad thing? Can I schedule something to go out three times, but the wording and images are the same?”

Paul: Okay, this is a different, this is … We were talking about content, now you’re talking about advertising. We actually should separate the two ’cause an ad is clearly doing … Oh, I’m going to fall off of this chair.

Melissa: Don’t fall off.

Paul: That would’ve been a great blooper.

Melissa: Again, live, live TV here.

Paul: Yeah, that would’ve been awesome. I would’ve hit me head back there. We, for the last three and a half years, have been using the same image and same ad for our engaged couple because while it might not impress other photographers, the ad that we run, it’s an 11 dollar a day ad, and the ad that we run only gets exposed to people that are engaged. So, if you just got engaged, it’s the first time you ever saw the photo.

Melissa: It’s new to you.

Paul: It’s new to you, so you will not see that image. The whole idea, and this is getting into a deeper conversation when it comes to advertising, is they have to do what’s called split testing. So, you just talked about having three different images. Well, make three different ad sets and track them and look at the dollar spend and the action and reaction to those, because one or two of them might not perform as well as the third one. So, whichever one performs the best, you keep that, and then you split off. But, only change one element. And you should do drastic changes, not little tiny changes. So, have one imagery go this way, you’ll have another imagery go this way with the same wording. See which one gets the best results ’cause that’s an extreme split test, which will tell you, “Okay, people are responding this direction. Not this way.”

But then, ’cause you don’t tweak [inaudible 00:30:11] at first, you wanna do dramatic different type of ads, and then hone in from that point. But, you have to have enough data so if you’re just doing, again, the ten dollar a day ad … Or, 11 dollar a day ad that we do these days when we do [inaudible 00:30:25], that came from almost six months, probably more than that, of split testing to narrow down. But, now we know for about every 160 dollars that we spend on that ad, we will book a … Right around a 6,000 dollar wedding from it. So, we’ve gotten it down to a tee that creates that result.

Melissa: Yeah.

Paul: But, that came from a lot of split testing to get to that point. Nobody has the perfect ad. Madison Avenue, huge marketing companies, they do … They go into little demographic areas and they do test marketing to see how people react to products and services and also, they do focus groups to figure out how people react emotionally to advertising before they take it to the mass. So, they’re not just gonna spend all this stupid amount of money to find out that the ad didn’t emotionally evoke … Didn’t get the emotionally evocation side to get them to wanna purchase or have a certain feeling about a product or service. So, don’t think that we’re gonna come out the gate with a perfect ad just like that. So, you need to do what’s called split testing.

Melissa: Yeah. And I think it’s really good information, but again, I think you said something in the beginning, to really remember that we’re talking about two different things here.

Paul: Yeah, ’cause that’s advertising, we’re talking about content creation.

Melissa: That’s advertising and this has been content, yeah.

Paul: This is you slowly dripping on your audience over a period of time, so that they build report with you before they need your product or service. So, that’s what you’re doing, is you’re purposely creating a schedule and you’re creating consistency by delivering so people like, know, and trust you, feel great and comfortable and confident that you are the person to use before they pull the trigger for that service.

Melissa: Because that’s the biggest mistake that we see when we’re coaching and mentoring people, is that they get really excited about it, and then they put the ad out there and they don’t get the results. And it’s because they haven’t built that report yet, they haven’t built that trust yet. So, that content creation is huge, again, with your blogs, with your videos, with your connection that you have with your audience. So, just making sure that we’re talking about two separate things there.

Paul: Sure, sure. Great. Thanks for defining, and let’s see. Was there anything else there, or …?

Melissa: Yeah, yeah. I think we’re caught up on comments. Yeah, we’re caught up on comments it looks like, so yeah.

Paul: Okay. Again, I want to thank everybody that … I saw some comments rolling through congratulating us on our marriage.

Melissa: Yes, thank you so much.

Paul: So, thank you for that. It’s 10 days now. I feel like it’s the 17th. Oh, crap. Where’s the time go? [crosstalk 00:32:45].

Melissa: I know, right? It’s crazy. It’s crazy.

Paul: So, but we do these live calls every week, so definitely, if you’re not already on our email list and you would like to get a reminder, please shoot us an email and simply just shoot it to … Which should they send it to?

Melissa: We’ll do it to the VIP.

Paul: Sure.

Melissa: The VIP@Paulpruitt.com. So, you can send that. And again, if you’re a photographer and you’re interested in joining a really supportive online community, we have our PROFITographers Facebook group. So, we hangout there a lot. It’s an awesome community where everyone kinda works together and answers questions. It’s supportive. It’s all about business marketing, branding, sales, for your photography business.

Paul: Yeah, it’s all about photographer entrepreneur, about being that, your daily life of what you’re going through, the challenges. All of us go through the same thing. It’s a no ego zone. There’s over 12,000 people, fellow photographer entrepreneurs that are in it, and if you’re not already there, we’d love to see you there ’cause we definitely are exchanging ideas back and forth and helping and guiding on a daily basis there as well.

Melissa: Yeah. And we wanna thank 17 Hats again.

Paul: Yeah, thank you guys.

Melissa: For this particular piece of content to deliver to you guys ’cause again, without them, we wouldn’t be able to do this so we really appreciate them. Anyone that does have any questions about 17 Hats, again, feel free to email as well if you wanna ask a one on one question, we’d be happy to answer that, too.

Paul: Sure.

Melissa: But, I think that’s it for today. So, again, remember with your content, remember when you wanna engage, you want to educate, you want to entertain, and you want to inspire. And having all four of those pieces working in conjunction with each other is really gonna deliver that content that your audience wants, that they desire, that they deserve, it’s gonna make you the expert in the field and it’s really just going to just make your business just feel more organic and authentic.

Paul: And I cannot add anything more to it than that. Wow, you can’t follow up to that. That was awesome. I knew i married you for something. But, we do appreciate everybody coming out today and every week and we’d love to, again, hear from you. So, we gave the email earlier on, just VIP@Paulpruitt.com and until we talk again, everyone.

Melissa: Stay profitable.

Paul: Bye.

Melissa: Bye.