Tina Tower [00:00:00]:
Hi, friends, and welcome to her Empire Builder show. This is an episode that I have a feeling is going to live on past its live week because it's going to be a good one for people to come back to and listen to time and time again. I know that throughout my business journey, I've read a lot of the same business books and I will read a book and then find a five years later will come back and read the same book again. And I will get so many different things from it because I am at a different place in my journey. And so today's episode is on marketing without spending a cent. And the reason that I wanted to do this episode was I was talking to one of my members this week who has started her business three months ago. And so she started from absolute scratch. She's come out of a corporate work environment, so she has no personal brand at all, has started everything right from the ground up.

Main Episode

Tina Tower [00:01:01]:
Now this is, it's a steep learning curve. You know, when you're starting from the very beginning, there are so many different things to create. You've got to make your website, your messaging, your social media, your course itself, like decide your branding. There are so many moving parts, like hundreds and hundreds of moving parts. And if you haven't had a traditional business before, I know a lot of people that come into her empire builder come from traditional business. So they've kind of built themselves like a name and a reputation and can then just online is really just another product. It's just marketed in a slightly different way. But you're not starting from scratch.

Tina Tower [00:01:44]:
And we have, I think at the moment, we probably have about 20 people that are starting right from scratch in the last few months. And it is hard. It is a really, really hard stage. And I know that for a lot of the time, people will feel like it's harder for them than it is for everybody else, and everyone else is doing it easy. But I want you to know if you're in that situation, that it is hard for everybody. But if you have been going for a long time, I do think that this episode is also very, very helpful for you because I think that at any stage, we want to be able to, you know, if you're in that growth phase and you want to reignite some stuff and, and kick it into gear, there are different marketing levers that we can pull to grow our listen in that way. And that is what I want to share with you. Today is 16.

Tina Tower [00:02:34]:
It's a weird number, I know, but when I was writing them out, there just happened to be 16 things. So we have the 16 things that you can use to market your business without spending a cent. And so I hope that you get something out of this one today. It might be one. You're probably listening while you're driving or walking or out and about. I know I had a lady last week say she listens while she's cooking dinner at night. Hello to you. I hope you're cooking something amazing.

Tina Tower [00:03:02]:
But whatever you're doing today, this also might be a good one. We will list them in the show notes so that later you can just copy and paste those 16 and kind of percolate on those and figure out which ones you want to do. I do think it's a combination of all the things. Sometimes I'll have people ask, well, what's the one thing I can do? I'm really strapped for time and effort. Like what's the one thing? And unfortunately, there is not just one thing. If you do just one thing, your business isn't going to grow. It's not going to survive. I don't want to go doomsday here because I am hopeful and I am an optimist, but I am also a pragmatist.

Tina Tower [00:03:39]:
And we are bombarded with a whole lot of messages all the time about, you know, what if it was easy and you can grow your business on 10 hours a week and make millions and all of these messages that can be true at different times. You can grow your business on 10 hours a week if you've already laid the foundation and you already have a team and you already have backing and all of that sort of thing. Start from scratch. To go from zero, from ideation into creating something takes time. It's a marathon, it's not a sprint. It takes time. It takes a combination of a lot of different things. You will get better at it as you go along, which will make it faster.

Tina Tower [00:04:20]:
You will get more confident as you go along, which means you won't procrastinate so much. Your messaging will be so much clearer. It does get easier as you go, which makes it faster and it makes it more leverage and it makes it more scalable. But at the beginning, it's going to feel clunky. You're not going to get the response that you deserve because you're going to be putting out, you know, these great thought leadership pieces and posts and putting all this effort in and, you know, build it and they will come is true to a certain degree, but you need to go get those people and going, getting those people is very highly effortful. But what I will say to you is if you are willing to put in the effort and you are willing to put in like a year, I think it takes a year to get a business from ideation off the ground for most people. I have seen people do it in a matter of six to eight weeks. Those people do everything and they've got an insane amount of energy and they're like, I'm here, there, everywhere.

Tina Tower [00:05:19]:
They're putting themselves out there and they're going for it. Like balls to the wall going for it. For most people, I see a lot of traction happen after the first year because you're going through that second year and you're like, I've been here before, I know exactly what I'm doing. It takes time to build that repetition reputation. But if you put that time in, then the business that you can build over the next two or three years is incredible. It's very leveraged, it's very scalable, it's very profitable, but it does take that effort to get it off the ground. So here's some tips to help you do just that and to build your email list. Hello and welcome to her Empire Builder show.

Tina Tower [00:05:58]:
I'm your business strategist and host, Tina Tower, and I am so happy you are here. My goal with this show is to bring you the inspirational and informative conversations with interesting humans, as well as the tools, tips and resources to help you build your online business. Since starting my first business at 20, I have built and sold four times. And in 2018, while traveling around the world with my family for a year, I tripped and fell into this wonderful world of online courses and I instantly, instantly fell in love. I'm a million dollar course creator, a world traveler, best selling author, a mummer of two man children, and a lucky wife. There's no playing small here. It's your time to grow to run a highly profitable business that makes you wildly wealthy while you positively impact your clients and the world around you and have the life you've always dreamed of. Let's get it now.

Tina Tower [00:06:56]:
I am making assumptions, or I am not going to talk about the things that I'm assuming that you've already got going on inside your business. So I'm assuming that your messaging is already crystal clear. None of the things I am talking about today will work if you haven't dialed in your messaging. And what I mean by that is that you know exactly what you're selling and exactly who that person who it's perfect for. Like who is that person? That they will stop their scroll, they will see it and go, oh my gosh, she's created that just for me. Yes, it's finally here. When you get your messaging really crystal clear, everything else feeds into that really, really beautifully. So I'm assuming you know what you're doing and you know who you're doing it for.

Tina Tower [00:07:44]:
And that is coming across in all of the different marketing avenues that you have going on. The other thing that I'm assuming is that you've got your funnels set up correctly and your website is optimized. So again, with a lot of these marketing efforts that we're going to be talking about today, they're to funnel people through to your website, through to your lead magnet so that you can then have them on your email list. Now, if you don't have your lead magnet funnel set up, then there is not much point in doing all of the marketing because sure, you might get a little bit popular, you might get a little Insta famous. But I have seen people with, you know, 20,000, 30,000. I once worked with someone in a VIP day that had over 100,000 followers on Instagram and didn't make any money. And she was looking at me going, at the time, I only had like 4000 followers and we were making a million dollars a year. And she was going, how on earth have you done that? And it is crystal clear messaging.

Tina Tower [00:08:43]:
I don't want to be famous. I want to be known by the people that my business is right for. So you need to have your messaging really, really clear. And then you need to have your funnels set up so that when people go to your website, they are easily able to find what they're looking for. They know that they're in the right place, that it's for them, and they're opting in and joining your list through a really valuable lead magnet. So everything I'm talking about today basically funnels into your hero lead magnet. Now, just like a little sidebar on lead magnets. I could do a whole episode on that.

Tina Tower [00:09:17]:
Actually, I think I have one. If I find that, I'll put it in the notes. But little bit on lead magnets is you want to test and measure a lot of them. I like to do a new lead magnet every month. And then we have our heroes. So if you want to go to herempirebuilder.com free, you will see all of our hero lead magnets that we have had. So they're ones that perform better than other ones that we've had previously, and so we put them kind of on this freebie page that we have available so that if people are looking at getting to know us as a business and they can't afford to work with us anymore, or we haven't built enough trust yet for them to work with us, then we have all of our freebies readily available so that people can get things to add value to their businesses, they can learn and they can implement. But it'd be interesting from your point of view to see which are the ones that have worked the best for us.

Tina Tower [00:10:12]:
So you can go to herampirebuilder.com free. I recommend having a page like that on your website as well, so that when people are looking for freebies or looking for things, it's very easy for them to go and download all of your good stuff. So that is what I am assuming. Now, the other thing that I'll say before I get into it is that, like I said in the intro, it can take up to a year to get this done for a lot of people. They get a couple of months in and they're like, I'm not getting all of the results yet. I don't know what, what is happening? I don't think it's working. I'm gonna give up. This is not worth it.

Tina Tower [00:10:50]:
I have seen it take a couple months where people get massive traction and they do their first launch. That's like 30, 40, $50,000, which is a great result for your first launch. But those people are people that will take everything that I am saying today and literally do it all in like a month. And so you've got to pace yourself and run your own race. If you are someone that's like, you know, I'm spending a month and I'm gonna get my social media strategy sorted. I'm spending a month and I'm going to do this thing. I'm spending two months and I'm going to do this. Then give yourself that year and go your own pace and know that it's just going to take time.

Tina Tower [00:11:25]:
Be patient with yourself, and it's all going to pay off in the end. All right, let's get the first one in. The first one is remember to connect. So what I mean by that is utilizing local networks. Now, when you first come out of the gate or at any time, like with my first course. So I had been building my business previously, but in a completely different industry. So I ran primary tutoring centers. Now I was building online business, completely different industry, but I hadn't built a personal brand profile yet.

Tina Tower [00:11:58]:
And so my only option was to utilize my local networks. And so what I did was I shared it on all of my social, like my personal social media so that people could share it. From there, I went to all of my local networking events, so all of my local in person things and started talking about what I was doing. Often I'll talk to people and go, you know, how many people have you actually spoken to? Like, I would even stand in a supermarket checkout and make conversation with the person next to me and be like, hey, are you into this? Like, you start talking about what you're doing, go to local networking events, connect with people, spread the word. Even though we're in global online business, that doesn't negate the power of local networks, of people that know you already. So remember to use that. Remember to go and show your face, to have conversations with people, to connect. The second is to ask for referrals.

Tina Tower [00:12:56]:
So when you are working with people at the beginning, for a lot of people, when they go into online, they're moving from one on one to one to many. So, you know, everyone that starts an online course has specific expertise in a certain area. Usually you will get your expertise developed by working one on one with people or small groups and then going to how you can leverage it to go one to many. And so the people that you've worked one on one with really important to get those referrals from them so that you can say, hey, this is someone that the transformation promise that I am promising you here. This is someone that I've worked with previously, and this is proof that I can do the thing that I'm talking about doing. And so getting those referrals, making them into case studies, making them into stories so that you can share those stories, and so that people that are following you can see, okay, people like me do business with people like her already. And so you really want to connect with people and get those referrals really solid. If you don't have referrals yet, if you're brand spanking new and you don't have them, reach out to some people that you know already in your networks that would be perfect for your program that you're running and run it, run them through it for free, run them through it, coach them, get them the result, and use them as that case study so that you can show that you can do the thing that you're marketing to be able to do.

Tina Tower [00:14:23]:
Number three is guest on other people's podcasts. I know that this can be nerve wracking when you haven't done it before, but the reach of podcasts is bloody fantastic, I mean, even for the average podcast. So the average podcast, last time I checked, was about 117 downloads a week. Now, a lot of people will say 117 isn't much. Is it worth doing for that? But if you imagine a room with 117 people seated in it, that is a lot of people in that room. If you go on some bigger podcasts, bigger podcasts have thousands of people listening to them every week. You can get up to millions of people if you're going all the way. But if you're brand new, like start slow, start at, you know, a grassroots one, the thing to remember is, where is your perfect client? Wherever your perfect client is, what podcast they're listening to and already loving.

Tina Tower [00:15:19]:
Use the trust of that host to have that kind of rub off onto you and your brand. So when you go on that other person's podcast, you can give massive value to their audience. And this is the thing. Like the other day, I had someone say to me, I don't think I can go on other people's podcasts because I don't have a big enough audience yet. And so I don't feel like it's a fair trade for the podcaster to say, you know, I don't have as much to offer you in return. And that is, in a way, true. But sometimes podcasters, and I know this is a podcast host, sometimes, yes, you're looking for someone with a big reach and a big audience, but other times you're looking for someone with specific expertise that can add value to your listeners. And so if you are the expert in your area, which I know you are, then go to the podcast that you can add value with your expertise.

Tina Tower [00:16:09]:
It doesn't matter how big your audience is yet. What matters is how much value you can give to the people that are listening. And then the key to being on other people's podcasts, and this is one of my assumptions at the beginning, is to share the link to your download. So whatever lead magnet is, whether it is a webinar, whether it is a PDF, whether it is like I shared my forward slash free page, whatever that is, make sure you are sharing at least two or three times, not in a gross way, but in like, not in a follow me at like, it will come into conversation and you'll be able to say, I do have more resources for this on my website. You can go to whateveritis.com and get that so that you have it for a resource going forward, and so you can seed it into conversation in a way that is helpful to people, and then that will convert them onto your email list. So that's number three. Number four, do in person presentations. Now, I know you could be saying, but Tina, we're talking about online business here.

Tina Tower [00:17:12]:
Nothing builds trust and credibility like standing in front of a room of people in real life. In person presentations is a great way to start. It also gets you a lot of photos, a lot of videos, a lot of content that you can use in your social media going forward. So to give you a bit of an example, when I first started inside online business, I ran profit plan throughout the country. So I went to twelve different locations. I ran in person presentations. Some of them only had two or three people booked in. My biggest one was twelve people.

Tina Tower [00:17:46]:
So I want you to know, like, we all start from somewhere. Now, I could run that and I'd fill a room at 100, 200 people, but that wasn't always the case. And so starting it and doing in person presentations, some of those people that were in the very first profit plan workshops with me are still clients inside her empire builder today. And so we've built relationships, connections, friendships, even like real life friendships, because the people that you work with in the beginning are going to be the people that you are able to give the most transformation for, because you've got the time and you need to be able to make them super successful so that they can then share it with other people and you can grow from there. So in person presentations, do not discount the power of that. Okay, number five. I'll also just say, if you can hear background noise today, I sincerely apologize. I've been waiting for, like, a week to try and get a quiet space.

Tina Tower [00:18:42]:
Our neighbors are doing a whole lot of yard work and cutting down trees and a whole lot of things, and there's just no space without noise. So I'm hoping that you can't hear it too badly. But if you're like, what is that in the background? It's chainsaws. Yep, chainsaws. The joy of being a podcaster, okay, number five, is to partner with someone who already has your audience. Now, this can be in things that I've talked about already. So it can be in podcasts, it can be in in person presentations, it could be on going with Instagram Live, it could be on doing a workshop together. What I mean and why I wanted to make it its own separate thing is there are a lot of people that already have your audience.

Tina Tower [00:19:19]:
So an example of this is say you're talking about personal brand, right? So you're an expert in personal brand or there is an expert in personal brand and you are a photographer and you want to sell courses to people on how to do your personal brand photography at home. So for the personal brand person that talks about personal brand marketing and building thought leadership, it would be amazing resource for them if you, as the photographer approached them and said, look, I want to do you photos for free. I want to come along and give massive value to your audience and we can do a workshop together and I can help them be able to take their own photos so that they can build their personal brand using all of the tools and tips that you teach. Now that to that person is massive value, but it also means that they're super willing to share you because they've gotten something out of it as well. And so if you've got someone that has your audience audience and you can value add to them, but they could also, in return, massively build your exposure and your business partner with them and get a win win situation. So what I find often is if you always approach someone and you're like, how can this be a win for me? And for them, it's always going to end well. Even if it's a no from the person, they'll be like, you know what, that was a fair exchange that they were looking for. So always try and think, like, think creatively in going, if you don't already have a massive audience yet, then go, how can, what can you give that's value added that is going to make it a win win for both.

Tina Tower [00:20:57]:
And there's always things that you can do that is going to make it a win win. You know, I have people approach me all the time for different partnerships and different things, and some of them, it's not a win win. People just want to take for themselves but don't want to give anything back in return. And so for that I say no. But I also make a mentor note to never work with that person again. And then there's other people that don't have a massive audience that I know I can put in a place of authority and it will massively build their credibility, it will massively build their audience, it will massively build their business and their profit. But they come to me with a win win situation in going, look, I know this is something that you need, I know this is something that you want and I can give this to you and then in return you can give that to me and it's fair and so if you're always approaching someone with that win win in mind, you're going to get really great partnerships. And there's people that I have partnered with in business over decades because we know we always make it worthwhile for each other.

Tina Tower [00:21:54]:
Okay. Number six is to write articles for other sites and publications. Now, this doesn't, I will be honest, like, it doesn't gain you as much traction and followers and like email subscribers as what it did five years ago, but it does, it's still very much worth it because of the credibility building and because of the way that the credibility building can lead into other opportunities. So what I mean by, by that is say, like for me, for example, is Huffington Post. So a place that is, is reputable and my target market would go, oh, yeah, like impressive Huffington Post. So if I write an article for the Huffington Post, is anybody reading the Huffington Post really going to go, oh, this is, this is great. I've subscribed and this is awesome. I'm going to go across to Tina's website and I'm going to subscribe.

Tina Tower [00:22:43]:
There will be some people there. But where it pays off is not necessarily for the existing subscribers of the HuffPost. Where it pays off is I can then get that logo, put it on my website as social proof, and then when I'm pitching to other people's podcasts, it increases my credibility because I'm somewhere that they've recognized already. It also gives me more social media clout so I can post, you know, here I am on the Huffington Post, and that all builds that trust and that credibility, which will lead to higher conversions when you go to sell. And so it's very much worth it on a multitude of different angles. Number seven is to have a solid social media strategy and keep your consistency. So social media, unfortunately, is changing all the time. The algorithm's always forever changing.

Tina Tower [00:23:29]:
So what works one month isn't necessarily going to work the month after that. The moment video content is working really well, but less so on educational video and more so on the more viral sort of video, which is actually my least favorite to do because I'm like, I want to add value. I want to give people something meaningful. I don't just want to do like clickable shit, but, you know, you got to play the algorithm to a lot of the time. So you've got to bend and adapt to what is working at the time. Thankfully, educational carousels work really well. And so I feel like I can do what I want to do with those and be able to give value to people through educational carousels. But the point is, just throwing spaghetti at a wall, like looking at something and going, you know, I'm just going to post every day on social media and see how it works isn't going to work.

Tina Tower [00:24:16]:
Inside her empire builder, we have like a 30 day repeatable social media strategy plan that we give to our members every single month so that they can grab it and implement and have a good mix of content that is thought leadership content, spotlighting on customers, that is, remembering to talk about your products and your services and selling. That is fun and engaging content that converts. We have all of the different types of content there so that one is not neglected. Because when it is a solid strategy, that is when you're not just getting popular, but you're also closing sales or people aren't just clicking off because you're just trying to sell, sell, sell, and shove things down people's throats, but you're also showing a little bit of yourself and your personality and your thought leadership in there as well. So having a really solid social media strategy and consistency is worth it. Now, this episode is how to make money without spending a cent. But I will also add on here, if you are in this stage where you're like, I'm going for massive list growth. I really love like a five dollar a day lead magnet ad on social media.

Tina Tower [00:25:20]:
It just gives you that little bit of acceleration at the start that you can find your target market and start getting some traction. So if you've got the budget to do it, you can shortcut the time it's going to take you. But it is one little strategy out of all of these strategies. Number eight is to run a monthly webinar or workshop. So one of the skills that you have to get really good at as an online course creator is being able to present online and then convert people. So when you are not selling, so most people are going to do a live launch, you know, two, three times a year. When you're not selling for the first two years of online business, I would recommend doing a monthly webinar. Or if you're further along, anytime that you're like, I want to do a, I want.

Tina Tower [00:26:04]:
I'm in a growth phase. I really want to do a level up. I would bring back like, if it was my thing. So at the moment, I, I am not in a massive growth push in my business at the moment. I'm really happy with the size that we are and the business that we have. But if I woke up one day and I was like you know what? I've got that fire in my belly again. I want to see just how big we can go. One of the first things that I would start to do is put on a regular monthly webinar so that I'm constantly marketing to fill up that webinar and then putting those people in.

Tina Tower [00:26:36]:
I'm being able to connect with people one on one, answer their questions, have people there committed, and then at the end, either sell a product if we're leading into launch, or getting them onto the next step in our kind of ascension model. So sometimes it's not selling them into your big program, but it might be, you know, a low cost offer that is something that can then get them ready for when your program is launching. But having people into a webinar, it just, it's just that extra bit of attention. It's just that extra bit of people have opted in. So they're usually going to clear their calendar for that time and they're coming in and they're paying attention, and then they're able to connect with you a whole lot more. And this is when I say it takes time. I have had people go through three, even four of our different trainings that we do. So every time we do a live launch, we've got one happening in September.

Tina Tower [00:27:32]:
And every time we do a live launch, we have a training that we do for free so that people can come in and get to know us before they actually commit to joining her empire builder so that they know they like my teaching style and what we talk about. And it just vibes really well. But for a lot of people, they'll do day one. So most people, day one and then day one is our biggest converting day. It's when people are like, I've seen enough, give me more. I'm ready to go. But we have the other camp of people that they'll come to a whole four day training, not once, not twice, sometimes three times, sometimes four times before they've built that up in themselves to go, okay, I'm ready for this. Like, I'm ready to take that next step.

Tina Tower [00:28:16]:
And so I would definitely be running that webinar. And yes, you'll have the same people coming back time and time again and don't go, ah, they're just kicking the tires. Or they're just like, for some people, they need to be sure and so keep giving them everything you've got, keep giving them that massive value, keep helping them, and they will become clients. Number nine is to go live every week on social media. And present and host a Q and A. So I love going live every week. Live is very different to running a webinar. Yes, you are hitting record on the same sort of thing, but a webinar people have opted in for.

Tina Tower [00:28:52]:
They're committed. They're usually there for the whole time live. People will come in and out. You know, people will get the notification that you're running live at the moment. They will jump on in and then they'll jump. You'll see people jump in, jump off in 30 seconds, jump in, jump off. And so it's a very different format to be running. Why I like it is because for people that wouldn't otherwise register for a webinar, it gives them a chance to just check you out a little bit.

Tina Tower [00:29:18]:
It also allows you to build that consistency and show up for people, which will build that trust. It will also help you hone your messaging. If you are going live every week and you're talking about what you're doing and you're giving massive value, you're testing out different topics which will show you what lands really well. So then when you make your webinar, you'll know, what do people really love and what didn't they love? When you're making your lead magnets, you'll hang on to a topic that people are really loving at the time. So it allows you to kind of like almost distill your own thoughts in real time when you're doing the live and also can build that credibility when you're doing a q and a. I love Q and a because it means that you don't have to prepare anything for q and a, and it gives you a chance to show you what you know. So super, super helpful for number ten is to start a weekly newsletter to your database. Now, at this point, people are already on your database.

Tina Tower [00:30:14]:
So, you know, in terms of marketing, a lot of these points that I'm talking about are to get people from following or from like the wide world of the Internet onto your email list. But then once they're on your email list, you don't want to ghost them. So I have this here as its own point because it's really important to do your weekly at the very least, least a fortnightly newsletter. Monthly isn't enough. If you subscribe to a newsletter list and you don't hear from them for a month, it's highly likely, unless it was something really specific that you really wanted, it's highly likely that people be like, what even is this? And just unsubscribe because they don't remember opting in. So I would do a weekly or a fortnightly, keep it casual, keep it conversational. What the idea of the weekly newsletter is, is to, like, lift the hood a little bit and show people behind the scenes a little bit more than what you would for people on social media. So to me, when people are coming in, like, if you imagine your house, social media is like, you know, people are on your front porch, they're there, they're like having a look in the windows.

Tina Tower [00:31:18]:
They're trying to spy, but they can't quite see in yet. To me, once people join your email list, you've opened that front door, they've stepped in over the threshold into your front door. They're now in your home and standing in your foyer. And so when they're there, they can kind of know you a little bit more. They can get to, they can get a little bit more comfy. You can drop your guard a little bit. When they're customers, you're going to take them into the lounge room, you're going to sit down, you're going to have a cup of tea. But in the meantime, you kind of got those different barriers that you'll allow people into.

Tina Tower [00:31:48]:
Number eleven is to have a new friend sequence set up for when someone joins your email list. So a lot of this work that we're doing is to try and get people to join our email list. But what happens when someone subscribes? So inside her empire builder, we call it our new friend secrete. So when someone becomes a new friend, what is that journey we want to take them on? I have seen, like, back at the beginning of my online course journey, I was building kajabi sites for people because we didn't have enough money coming in from courses and memberships yet. So I was still doing done for you services, and I remember building one guy's like, new friend sequence and he had 72 emails in this new friend sequence. I was like, oh, my gosh, I've never seen anything like it. This is not what I recommend, but I recommend like three or four. So when someone's coming in, you've got that email that goes out immediately, then you've got 124 hours later, maybe 72 hours later, and then another one a few days after that.

Tina Tower [00:32:48]:
So it's just getting people like, whatever step you want them to take, whether it's that next freebie, whether it's selling them into a low cost offer, whether it's giving them your origin story. We've got all the recommendations inside of our program. So if you're a member, jump on, find new friends sequence. Write your own if you haven't already. But if you are not a member of her Empire builder one, you should be. Second, think about what you want people to do next and what you want them to know when they first join you. Okay, number twelve is be helpful in Facebook groups. Now, I'm going to caveat this one because this can go wrong, right? I know you've probably seen it yourself where you see people in Facebook groups and they're just like, blatantly selling to gross.

Tina Tower [00:33:36]:
Even people that try not to, but you can still tell what they're doing. It's like, we can see through you, man. We know what you're doing. And so don't be that guy. Like, really. When I say, be helpful in Facebook groups, be helpful. Don't try and sell to anyone, especially in someone else's Facebook group. Like, that's just rude to go into somebody else's group that they've cultivated and they've built and try and sell your own services or message people privately.

Tina Tower [00:34:06]:
Like, no, that's a big, big no. No. What we do wanna do is if someone's asking a question and you have value to add, that's in your expertise. Add that value and ask for nothing in return. That's it. I guarantee you. I see it happen all the time. Inside the Facebook groups that I run is when people are just selflessly helpful.

Tina Tower [00:34:27]:
People will automatically contact them and go, hey, thanks so much for your help. I really appreciate it. That was really kinda, hey, I'd like to know more about this service that you do. People will automatically click on your Facebook profile. They'll go and check you out because they'll think you're a lovely, nice human. That's very, very helpful. So be that lovely, nice human. Don't be the one that gets kicked out of the Facebook groups.

Tina Tower [00:34:50]:
It's not worth it. Okay, number 13 is run a contest or a giveaway. This is probably like, this is one that I haven't done for a really, really long time. But it is good. It is good to a point. So if I was in the stage where I was like, you know, I really want big growth, and I'm not so discerning of my particular market. What this does is it grows numbers in a big way. But you will get people on the periphery of your perfect client.

Tina Tower [00:35:25]:
Because what I've found is there are freebie hunters and people, people like winning things and getting things for free. And so if you're doing something, say you're going to give away an audit or you're going to give away some sort of service that you can do for someone or you've got a prize pack that you are going to put together and give away. If people share you on social media or if they follow you or whatever it's going to be, that will grow your following quite a lot. And so it is helpful in terms of growing followings. I would just do it carefully, have a really solid new friend sequence so you can get those people off your list that aren't right or keep the people that were right for that. Okay, number 14 is personally sell and create case studies. So this is slightly different from the referrals that I said for number two, referrals is more people that you've worked with already and you're getting those referrals so that you can share them. What I would do in terms of personally sell and create case studies is look for people in your networks.

Tina Tower [00:36:31]:
So say, let me do an example. You are a teacher helping parents teach their kids how to read. And so there are parents and kids everywhere. The market is huge for that age group. I know a lot about that. That was my previous business was teaching kids how to read. And so what I would do with that, if I haven't yet built my online presence, is I would do all the things that I'm talking about today, but I would also go and partner with someone that already has those students. So say the local childcare centre.

Tina Tower [00:37:05]:
And I would ask the local childcare centre if I could run an information night for parents on helping their kids learn to read. I would then run that information night. And my call to action at the end of the info night would be work with me for either free or a very heavily discounted price where I can teach them my methodology and then use them as a case study in my marketing. So I would get them one by one and go, okay, here's my like, say my program was usually 597. I would do it for 197, but in exchange for them being a case study, and I'd be super upfront about that and say, I want to use you as a case study so that you can document it along the way, but personally reach out and sell to people, instead of waiting for people to come to you, go get them, think where are they and how can you connect with them and how can you go get them? So otherwise, what I find is people will sit there and go like I'm doing my social media, but I'm not making any sales. It takes so much more than that, unfortunately. You really have to talk to people. You have to connect with people.

Tina Tower [00:38:08]:
You have to have so many different touch points. It used to be, I think when Seth Godin did the study, like ages ago, it was like 17 touch points, points with people before they buy from you. And so you've got to keep going. You've got to keep going, keep being consistent, keep adding value, and those people will do business with you. Okay, number 15 is start your own podcast and have great guests. Now, I put this at the end because I think you should do points one to 14 before you start 15 and 16. And so with 15, starting your own podcast is awesome. It is like a gateway to so many other opportunities, which is fantastic.

Tina Tower [00:38:49]:
But when you are starting your own podcast, it takes a massive amount of effort, it takes a little bit of budget. I mean, I am amazed at how cheaply you can run a podcast for the return that it gets you. But what I love about it is if you have great guests on every time, say you're trying to build your list, if you have a big, high level guest on your podcast, they will often share it. Not always, but often, because most people, good people, they will often share it with their networks, their email list, their social media, which will then get you a whole bunch of new followers that otherwise didn't know you existed yet. So it's an amazing opportunity to be able to do that. So you can add value to the listeners that you are doing your podcast for, but also you're expanding your reach in there, too. And number 16, our last one is to put yourself forward to speak on live stage. And so for this one, it's slightly different to like, in person presentations, where you're making your own in person presentations.

Tina Tower [00:39:51]:
This is going on live stages. So finding people that are running conferences for your industry, finding people that are running live events, anything that you see people are doing, put yourself forward for contact those organizers and say, I would love to speak. Here's what I can do for you. Because being on those stages, it will again solidify your thought leadership, but also it expands your reach, it expands your audience, it increases your credibility, increases your trust. Like, the conversion that you get from a live stage is nearly double what you get from a webinar. And so I love webinars because obviously I never have to leave my home. I can do them in my, in my tracksuit pants and bare feet like there is. It is so accessible and it is so easy.

Tina Tower [00:40:40]:
But if you're really looking to build and really looking for that impact at any stage of your business journey, I would highly recommend getting out there, getting out there in front of people, talking to people, connecting with people, because the impact from that will then convert to the online as well. All right, so that gives you 16 different ways. There is no excuse for you saying that you cannot build your business. There is no excuse for you saying, I need more people on my list because you can do all of these things. And I guarantee you if you do all of these things, you will build an epic business. These are all the things that I use to build a seven figure a year business. What I would do is when you do them, if you're not getting great results, then you can do better. So go, all right, I've done that one thing.

Tina Tower [00:41:29]:
I didn't get the result. How can I tweak it? It, what did I miss? How can I change it? How can I get better? And we always improve a little bit, a little bit year on year. You're always going to get better at these things. Once you get more confident, once you, you know, learn from your mistakes, be kind to yourself because you're going to make mistakes at the start. That's what everybody does at the beginning. But if you're one of the people that want to be in the arena, if you're one of the people that want to build these beautiful businesses where you can make hundreds of thousands or million dollars a year from selling your knowledge online, you totally can. You just have to do the time first and do the work to be able to build the audience of those people. Then it becomes so much easier, so easy, so leveraged, so scalable.

Tina Tower [00:42:14]:
So if you're in that growth period, I just want to say, I see you. I know how hard it is. I see people doing this all day, every day. But I also see people get over that tipping point. I see people go over the precipice and they're like, we're often racing because when you show up like this and when you do all the things, you are going to get to the other side where it is going to be incredible and it is going to be amazing. The only way you won't get there is if you give up and you deserve success because you're so smart and you've done so much work to get to this point and you care about the people that you're doing this for. And so focus on them, focus on connecting with them, focus on showing up for them. And I promise you, it'll all pass payoff.

Tina Tower [00:42:56]:
Okay, go and do some marketing and have fun. This episode was brought to you by my signature group coaching program, her Empire builder. The best online education for female course creators in the world. Check it [email protected]. along with so many free resources to help you get building your empire and seeing those results that you deserve. If you loved this episode, please don't keep keep it a secret. Share it with a friend on social media and tag Meena Tower and give it a review. It really does help us to be able to bring you bigger and better content as we grow.

Tina Tower [00:43:33]:
Have the most beautiful day. I'm Tina Tower, and I'm cheering you on all the way.