Posting on social media is the LAST thing you should do. And no, I’m not about to get all “you don’t own your social media accounts” or any other boring, generic advice like that.

What I quite literally mean, is that when you are building out and implementing your marketing strategy, the “posting on social media” bit should quite literally be the LAST thing you do when it comes to the order of when to action steps.

If ALL you have currently done to market and grow your business has been to post on social media, without a clear path to your offers for those people who DO find you on social, this is the podcast episode for you.

In today’s podcast episode, we are breaking down the “build it backwards” strategy for building out your marketing plan so that everything you do is designed to make sales for you!

In essence, the secret is THIS: DON’T start posting on social media or implementing ANY sort of visibility strategy UNTIL you are crystal clear on your offer, and you have built out a back end funnel that leads people directly to it.

Unfortunately, that’s not how most people approach social. They do THIS instead:

• Jump onto Instagram and look for a trending Reels audio;
• Haphazardly try to think of something that they could post to go with it;
• Cheer when their dancing Reel on something completely unrelated to their core offer and without any call to action leading into their non-existent sales funnel goes viral, and pat themselves on the back for their 10,000 views;
• Wonder why they aren’t making sales.

I exaggerate, but truly? Many people are doing some version of this, to a greater or lesser extent.

So, here’s what to do instead.

1️⃣ Start With Your Offer —

Decide on the offer you are currently promoting. If you have just one offer in your business (for example, in our Launchpad program, we recommend focusing on ONE flagship offer until you have scaled it successfully), it’s easy – you will ALWAYS be funneling people to that offer.

If you have multiple offers, you will chunk your year into marketing campaigns, and each campaign will be specifically focused on one offer.

2️⃣ Build Out Your Funnel —

Once you have your offer sorted, you then need to build out your BACK END funnel for it. This is the funnel that will take your social media followers from your Instagram (or TikTok or Facebook) account through to a sales offer.

The simplest example of this is with a lead magnet funnel.

In this example, you will decide on a free download that you can offer your audience that offers a quick win for them; something they WANT, even if it’s not what they need and which is closely aligned with your core offer.

We cover HOW to create an epic lead magnet in 60 minutes or less in this podcast episode, and you can download our lead magnet template at www.thecoursecartel.com/leadmagnet.

Once you have the lead magnet, you then need a series of automated emails that will go out that will lead your audience to a pitch for your offer.

This sequence of emails needs to make your audience aware that there is a GAP between the problem that your lead magnet solves, and then position your offer as the solution.

3️⃣ Create Your Content Plan —

Only once you have this set up should you start working on and rolling out your content plan, and ALL of your content should strategically funnel people into your funnel so that you can start making offers to them.

The “job” of your content plan is three fold — visibility, authority and lead generation. So, you will need to ensure that you are creating a content plan that is addressing topics that create desire for your lead magnet, and that focus on thought leadership by positioning you as the expert.

The secret?

To do this in a way that DOESN’T cannibalise your core offer, but instead creates demand for it.

Example — polarising positions. So, take a stand against something in your industry, and provide value on WHY your approach is better. For example, let’s say that you are a toddler sleep coach. You might create a content piece on WHY the cry it out method is outdated and should never be used to sleep train your child (if that’s what you believe to be true).

You would start with a HOOK to capture attention; something that stands out.

Then, you would follow it with three value bombs related to your topic, clearly spaced out.

And finally, you would finish with a call to action that leads people to your aligned lead magnet.

That way, you aren’t SELLING either your lead magnet OR your offer over and over.. because that would get tired, your engagement would plummet and people would unfollow.

Instead, you are capturing attention and establishing trust, directing them to a value first step and then letting your funnel do the heavy lifting on the back end.

Start with the end in mind.

Offer first, then funnel and then finally a social media strategy that “feeds” it with hungry leads. NOT the other way around.

Want to swipe our bundle to help you create your lead magnet in under 60 minutes? Head to thecoursecartel.com/leadmagnet now.

Are you ready to create, launch and scale your flagship digital course in 2022? Head to thecoursecartel.com/launchpad to apply for our 12 month, high touch group coaching program.

Keep Listening!

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