Welcome to episode 365 of Hit the Mic the Stacey Harris.
Three things you need to know, September 2017 edition. It’s that time of year, guys. Summer is over in the northern part of earth. Winter shoulder be coming to a close in the southern part of the earth, and it’s launch time. I’m sure you guys are already getting inundated with emails about launches. I know I certainly am. I’ve been getting a ton of emails. Not just on promotion side of things, but potential clients and clients saying, “Hey. We want to do this in September. We don’t want to do this in October, we want to do this in November,” and I say, “Great. Welcome to launch season.”
I wanted to talk about some launch-related things today for the three things you must know. Really, they’re all kind of around Facebook and using Facebook as a tool to launch whatever it is you want to launch.
Number one thing I want you to know, don’t just jump in and start selling on Facebook with your ads or with your organic content, whatever it is.
Don’t just jump right in and be like, “Okay. It’s launch time. Here you go.” No. First of all, look at your audience as it is now. Are they engaging? Are they paying attention to you? If they’re not, we need to make sure we run an engagement set of ads before we open up our ads for whatever pre-launch and launch content you have.
In fact, we talked about this in this month, we just went live on Friday, inside of Hit the Mic Backstage, we talk about a four-ad ad sequence to run to reengage a stale audience. If you are looking at launching, be sure to check that out because that really is going to be where we dive into what this four-ad sequence looks like, what these ads are, and how they really lead into your pre-launch and launch content. Check that out if this is something that’s sort of hitting home for you. Be sure, be sure, be sure that you do whatever you need to do to make sure your audience is paying attention to you before you start selling them because if the first post they actually see from you in six months is an ad to buy something, it’s going to be a tough sell.
On the flip side of that, the same is true for your email. If you haven’t been sending any emails, make sure you start sending some content before your first email to your list is, “Hey. Here’s my new program.” I’m not just talking about here’s a new mini-class and that mini-class is your launch content. No, I’m talking about just pure, unpitched, no-sale content. Just literal value. It’s all it is because, again, if they’re not used to hearing from you, if you maybe took the summer off, or the last three months off I should say, and you’re like, “I should probably get back to emailing the old list-a-loo. I’ll just send them this free mini-class that’s going to then pitch my program. They’ll all buy. They read my emails before.” No.
First of all, you’re going to get a massive unsubscribe, which is probably not horrible because they’re cold leads, so why pay to have them on your list? On the flip side of that, they’re not in a position to buy from you right now, so don’t just jump in and sell. On the Facebook side of things, you want to make sure you’re running some ads to reengage the audience. On the email side of things, you’re going to want to make sure you’re sending them some value. Be aware, if you haven’t been emailing your list and you email them, even with just pure, undoctored value, you’re going to get some unsubscribes because there are going to be people who forgot why they’re on your list or who’ve full on forgot they were on your list. Be ready for that, but this is the time to reengage your audience.
The same is true for Twitter and Pinterest and Instagram. If you’ve been gone for a while, don’t make the first thing they see a pitch cool. Again, even if that pitch is for a free master class or to opt in for something, that’s still a pitch. It’s still an ask. You may not be asking for money, but you’re asking for time, you’re asking for an email address. You’re still making an ask. I want that first piece of content they see to be ask-free. Cool? Cool.
Number two: make sure you’re following the Facebook ads rules.
Facebook has been cracking down a lot this year and over the last couple of months on people not following the Facebook ads rule. By that, I mean, and we have a whole Facebook checklist and guide, Facebook ads checklist and guide, and I’ll make sure it’s linked in the show notes.
You’re not using negative copy. You’re not assuming the feelings of the person reading the copy, meaning you’re not saying something like, “Hate your body?” No. You’re not saying something like that. On the flip side of that, your landing page matters too. This is where I see most people drop the ball when it comes to Facebook ad rules. You need to have a privacy policy in terms of service kind of thing on any page that an ad is running to. FYI, you should have one on your site anyways, but make sure that if you’re using a lead page or something like that, maybe by default it shows up on your website, but now you’re using a lead page or something like that, a third-party tool. Maybe you don’t have that defaulted to the bottom of your page. Don’t delete that little link lead page put there. Put the link to your terms of service where it says legal or whatever tool and whatever verbiage it used. You need to have that on there.
You can’t autoplay your video on the landing page. The other thing you need to really be aware of is that on your landing page, you’re also not making any sort of crazy claims, like “make six figures taking naps.” I’m totally making stuff up here, but just like you can’t use that kind of language in your ads, you can’t use that kind of language on your landing page. Be really conscientious of that. Then just sort of some of the best practices. There have been some ads that have been running into problems with an overuse of Emoji or an overuse of all caps. I know there are a lot of Facebook ads experts who gave you templates that are loaded down with Emojis and all caps. Use them responsibly.
Somebody said to me the other, and I cannot remember for the life of me who it was, but they said something about attitude is like salt. A little sort of spices it up, but too much and you ruin the whole dish. Emojis and caps are like salt. A little bit spices it up. Too much of it ruins the whole dish. Okay? Use responsibly. Alright? That’s just something I wanted you to remember. If you’re not sure about what the Facebook ads rules are, because everything I listed here is not the entirety of them, I will link to the Facebook ads policies. Be sure, do yourself a solid, even if someone else is running your ads, quite frankly, especially if somebody else is running your ads, and familiarize yourself with this. It’s not a long document, but it’s worth reading. This is not like your Apple terms of service kind of thing that we all just sort of skip past. Maybe that was just me. This is something where the ability to run ads is on the line. If you ever want to run ads again, don’t let just a lack of knowledge cost you that. Cool?
Number three. I can’t remember if we talked about this last month, but I really wanted to hit on it because we’ve tested it now for a while and it’s really been a game changer.
Facebook frequency.
Across my page, across our clients’ pages, we are seeing a benefit to actually posting less frequently. In fact, I’ve got a couple of clients who are posting two or three times a week and they’re seeing a 25 to 40% organic reach on their content. By organic, I mean they’re not boosting. There’s no ad money behind that. It’s just their reach. They’re also seeing engagement go up, which is what’s helping their reach.
Test it. I’m not saying you skip from twice a day to once a week. Test it incrementally. I’ve shifted from twice a day to once a day. Again, my organic reach has about tripled, which is awesome because I have to produce less content. I have to schedule less content. This is something definitely worth testing on your own content as well to see if yours is lining up the same way. Again, every page, every industry is different. We absolutely, all the time see pages, usually really massive pages like Starbucks that post three or four or five or six or eight times a day. We see that a lot with publishers, you know, Buzzfeed and Refinery29 and those kind of places. They have new things to publish all day. You probably don’t. Again, test decreasing your frequency a bit and see what it does to your reach. Don’t just test this once. Don’t just test this twice. Give it a good 14 days and see what your numbers are like. Go back and review and see what your reach is like, see what your engagement has been like, and go from there.
Decreasing your frequency may increase your organic reach and your engagement, which is super killer. Alright? There’s your three things that I want you to know in September. Most of all, I want you to remember that now is the time to take action. Any day now, we’re going to start getting those end-of-the-year emails that I rag on every year, but you’ll probably get one from me. Not in September because it’s not even quarter of yet. Anyways, now is the time to take action for this year. Not just next year. There’s no reason to fold it up. Look at what you said you wanted to do in January. Where are you with that? If you’re not there yet, what can we do to put you in alignment with it before the end of the year? What can we do to put you on track to blow that out of the water next year? There’s plenty of time left this year. Do not fall prey to, “Okay, what are we doing in January? What are we doing right now?” Okay?
A big part of that can be a part of joining a community where there is some accountability. That’s why we now have the VIP option, the Bam upgrade available inside of Hit the Mic Backstage, meaning you can join us, get monthly one-on-one coaching with me, get some serious accountability with me. If you are interested in that, we do have a couple of spots open right now, so go to HittheMicBackstage.com and you can see that there is now three options to purchase. One of them is the VIP Bam option. If you all want to learn more about what’s included in Bam, just go to thestaceyharris.com/bam. There’s also a link to sign up right there and I will see you inside of Backstage, whether it’s at the Bam level or not because I want to see you taking action and getting the information you need without any fluff and without any ulterior motives is a really, really good place to start. Join us backstage. Even better, join us at the Bam level and get some serious, butt-kicking accountability. Cool? Alright. I will see you next week and of course, I will see you backstage.
