From Daily Posts to Predictable Sales: A FB Ads Success Story

INTRO 

Kathryn Thompson: Hey, hey, super stoked that you're tuning into episode & how I used Facebook and Instagram ads and an on demand master class to skyrocket my growth and why I chose this approach in the first place. But before I dive into sharing what the ecosystem is, why it's important. why I chose this approach and what my four simple step process is and the return on investment that I'm experiencing with this simple approach.

I want to break down for you a little recap of what we covered to date because it's really, really important because without what we've covered, it makes the ecosystem not work. And so I want to tie this all together for you beautifully so that you can see this visually of why this is really important before we ever go and build an ecosystem or execute a strategy.

So in order for a strategy to work, we need to have messaging and an offer. that sells. If we don't have the [00:01:00] messaging or an offer that sells, it's not going to matter what strategy you use or don't use. All of the strategies work. I'm sharing with you the ecosystem that I created and why I chose this approach in the first place.

But if I didn't have messaging and an offer that people ultimately wanted, and I didn't position it in a way that sort of sold itself, that it would make this really difficult. The messaging and the offer are the thing that get your clients to go from cold to sold faster. The strategy is just the pathway or the ecosystem or the customer buying journey that takes someone from cold to sold faster.

And that is why it's important to have an ecosystem in the first place. But you can see why I've created the episodes I did before this one and didn't just jump into teaching you the strategy, Any strategy works, any ecosystem will [00:02:00] work as long as you have messaging and as long as you have an offer that people want and it's positioned in a way that has you creating that demand and desire for it.

So onto the ecosystem, what is the ecosystem? When I reference ecosystem, it really is the customer buying journey. You might consider it a funnel. It's a customer journey. It's the whole ecosystem that is created. for your people to be able to come into contact with your brand. So that could be like your website would be part of the ecosystem.

If you did YouTube videos, they'd be part of the ecosystem. If you're writing a blog, it's part of the ecosystem. If you've got a masterclass, it's part of the ecosystem. If you have ads, social media. I think you get the point of what that ecosystem is and why it's important if we don't have a customer buying journey where we're taking someone from that point of getting to know you, to liking you, to trusting you, to creating demand and desire for what it is that you offer and guiding them [00:03:00] to the offer.

It's going to be really hard to create predictability. I'm not going to say that you won't sell because you could absolutely sell via word of mouth, referrals, you name it. But if you're relying on referrals and word of mouth, or you're relying on the post and pray method on social media, you already know that it's not predictable.

You already know that. People might drop into your inbox on Insta or your email or reach out to you and inquire and you actually don't know where they came from. Leaving you probably feeling a little unsafe in your business because there is no predictability around that. Which is why I chose this approach in the first place, but even more than that, I chose it for simplicity.

And I know that funnels get sort of a bad rap because people find them to be overcomplicated. And I think we can absolutely overcomplicate creating our funnels and our ecosystems and customer buying journeys with upsells, side sells, down sells, or believing that we need to [00:04:00] create a low ticket offer to get people to buy into that first.

in order to then upsell them into a higher ticket because they have to build the no like and trust and that's the fastest way to do it. And that to me just adds in unnecessary steps into the ecosystem or the process, which then leads to. obviously creates more complexity. The other thing I often see people do is that they, they launch new trainings every month or every quarter, because there's this belief that you need to create something new in order to continually bring people into your world.

And I want to debunk all of that with my very simple ecosystem, because I was running literally the same Facebook ads for a year and a half before I ever started to play with new ads. I have the same master class selling the invisible that I launched well over a year and a half ago that I've never [00:05:00] changed.

with the exception of the end of it as I raised the price. So I want to sort of give you some hope that you can keep this really simple and that you don't constantly need to be creating something new or whatnot, unless you want to, of course, if you love to create and you want to create new things and by all means do that.

But that's not what I wanted in my business. I wanted to create a machine that and this ecosystem that did a lot of the heavy lifting for me so that I could be in client delivery and also have the space in my life that I didn't need to rely on having to create something new, having to sell a low ticket to then sell a high ticket.

Like I wanted the most simple, straightforward process that allowed me to sell the offer that I was really, really passionate about in the first place. Now, if you're passionate about low ticket, Absolutely do that. Again, this is not designed to give you this paint [00:06:00] by number approach, right? It's about showing you what I did so that you can get introspective in your process and kind of go, what can I do and how do I want to do it?

And how can I make this my own? And like I said, I did the most simplest approach and I want to share the four steps that I've taken. in order to create multiple six figures and growing, right? I'm continually generating predictable sales in my business as a result of this ecosystem. And the four steps are one, I ran Facebook ads and Instagram ads to an opt in page promoting My on demand free training, selling the invisible to a landing page, basically with the training on it.

So when someone opted in, they got redirected to an instant access page where they could watch the training in that moment. Or [00:07:00] there was a follow up email sequence with 14 emails on it that was sent over like a three week period. So it wasn't sent all at once, but it was sent over a three week period.

And those emails were not like, buy my thing, buy my thing, buy my thing. The strategy behind those emails was, I know that when somebody opts into something that in that moment, they might not be expecting to sit and watch an hour and a half training. I wanted to be in contact with them in email to remind them to highlight some of the key things in the training, to talk more in depth about the key things in the training.

It wasn't until the last final couple emails where I introduced the offer. And the reason for that is because Oftentimes, what I see is, is that people really struggle with the selling the offer because they're trying to sell the offer all the time. And I always say it's about putting the right offer in front of the right people at [00:08:00] the right time.

And if you're hitting somebody up with buy my thing, buy my thing, buy my thing, before they even know what it is you do and how you can help them, You're likely putting the offer in front of them at not quite the right time, which is why the ecosystem and the customer buying journey is so important. But more specifically than that, why knowing your messaging and the offer is that much more important than the ecosystem itself, because the ecosystem is just the frame.

It's just the frame that you're putting people in a lot of ways to take them down that customer buying journey to lead them to an offer discussion. That's why it's very strategic and how we do that and why introducing the offer too soon could turn somebody off because they're like, well, I don't even know if I want the thing yet.

You're now pitching me before you actually really know me, all of those sorts of things. And so it's just the frame. The ecosystem is just the frame. It's what we put in the frame [00:09:00] and how we put that in the frame, that is vital. But without the ecosystem, it's really difficult to create predictability without having to rely on referrals, word of mouth, or the post and pray method on social media, where you're just posting content and hoping to God that somebody or resonates with what you're saying and inquires about your services.

If you've got this customer journey that you're taking people on, you're consistently attracting people into your world, which is what the Facebook ads was doing, right? The Facebook ads was consistently attracting new people into my world where they would opt into my selling the invisible training. So for you it could be some type of conversion event.

It doesn't have to be a masterclass. It doesn't have to be a training. It could be a meditation challenge. It could be a hypnosis track. Like you, you want to think about who your audience is and what they want and, and how that is in alignment with what it is you're going to offer them at the end of it.

[00:10:00] And then for me, the simple thing that I wanted to do was invite somebody to book a call. Because for me, being in conversation with somebody, was really beneficial. It was really beneficial to really start to even deeper understand my people, but that's how I love to sell. I love to sell in person, in conversation.

I loved it in my brick and mortar. I was trying to figure out a way of how to replicate that in the online world. And for me, the work that I do is very sacred and it's intimate. And I really want to make sure that people are in alignment on both sides before saying yes, you can just buy something off my website.

Now with my do it yourself programs, absolutely. There's a sales page on my website. You can absolutely buy it that way. But with Spellbound, it's application and that is via a sales call. And so that's my process. Literally, if you haven't watched Selling the Invisible yet, I highly recommend you do so that you can [00:11:00] literally look at the frame that I created ads to opt in page to instant access page where I host the training.

It's on demand. You can watch it anytime. There's no deadline. I'm not using webinar jam. I'm not using any of that. I'm not using ClickFunnels. I use Kajabi. It's all integrated within there. And then I have automated emails that go out and I've created one time. I'm not recreating the masterclass. I'm not creating something new all the time.

I'm not doing any of that. And I did that, like I said, for about a year and a half where I didn't change anything other than the price. I am going to share more about that in another episode, but that is as simple as the system is. I've now got more sophisticated to some degree with it. Again, we'll share more of what that looks like, but that particular approach and simplicity in approach generated me multiple six figures.

It generated me six figures in five months. And again, I'm not [00:12:00] saying this to sell you on. some sales number in a certain period of time. That's not at all what I'm doing. I want to just show you what's possible when you have an ecosystem in place and you've got a customer buying journey that does the heavy lifting for you and how simple that can be and that I'm selling a high ticket offer.

So my offer is, and by high ticket, I mean anything over 2k, 3k, right? So spellbound is over 3k, and therefore, it debunks the whole notion that you need a low ticket in order to then sell somebody into, you know, It debunks the idea that you need to give people a deadline to watch the instant access masterclass.

It debunks the idea that people don't convert from a masterclass, that nobody's watching a masterclass anymore. It debunks all of that because it works. And one of the other key [00:13:00] touch points, and I just want to share with you in here, so there's the emails, right? There's that touch point and invitation to a call on my instant access page.

I invite people to book a call. And then I also have a DM strategy in place where I'm reaching out to people who left their Instagram handle to check in, to see what they thought about the training. And that is it. There's no sales approach there. It's literally like, just curious how you found the training.

And that is literally the message. And the reason why I wanted to send that message was because I got a ton of feedback. The problem I think sometimes with these types of ecosystems or funnels is that we don't get the feedback. And then we go and make a ton of changes. And I'm going to share how I've decoded the data to optimize my growth in the next episode.

But this is where I think. We get really stuck in some way, shape, or form because if we don't see the results that we want, we make decisions without really knowing the [00:14:00] data or having the proper feedback. A lot of people get stuck at this sort of level of it, one, because of that belief that it's overcomplicated, or they're making it more complicated than it needs to be, and two, they're making decisions about it, without allowing the thing to sort of flourish.

And I was having a conversation with my team member who takes sales calls for me, who I absolutely adore. And she said to me recently, because we just had five people enroll in Spellbound this month. And she said to me, Interesting, did they all come from sales calls? And I said, no, actually not. I said two came from sales calls, but the rest of them came from my email and not the email sequence they get when they opt into the training, but people that have been in my world for a year, which reiterates why the ecosystem is so bloody important and why I think we give up on these things before we ever [00:15:00] allow them to sort of create that snowball effect.

A client of mine recently said to me, she said, I feel like I'm in that snowball effect now. And usually in the first 30 days, Before the 30 day mark, it's usually the first two weeks, people are like, it's not working yet. Kathryn, I'm not seeing results. And I'm like, it's been two weeks. You've got to give this ecosystem the long game.

Because like I said, three of the people that just joined Spellbound this month, came from my quote unquote ecosystem. They came in and watched the free training and they've been in my world for a year and they're just ready now to make the investment, which is a hundred percent okay. We're building this ecosystem to bring people into our world so that we can consistently create that predictable sales in our business and be of service to people when they're ready.

But like I said, the problem is most people run this for two [00:16:00] weeks or 30 days and they're like, I'm not getting the results. So that means there must be something wrong with my masterclass. I'm going to rerecord it. There's something wrong with my messaging. So I'm going to go back to the drawing board and reality, we just haven't allowed ourself to create the snowball, but we're also thinking from things from the perspective of the short term gain versus the longterm game, not gain, but game, right?

We have to switch our thinking on that. And that is probably the biggest lesson for me when I finally sunk myself into the ecosystem. Because I will tell you, it took six weeks from the time I launched this to sign my first client. And I remember at about 30 days feeling this like, Ooh, I'm not seeing a return on those ad spend.

What if this doesn't work? And then boom, at six weeks, I had two people join and then I had two more people join and then I had two more people join. And then [00:17:00] since then I've consistently attracted anywhere between two to five people per month into Spellbound or I've attracted high ticket clients who want me to write copy for them.

So that's something that I just want. you to consider when you're creating this. If you desire and want to create this is that your ecosystem is a long game approach. It's not a short term gain approach. And that obviously we want to see a return on investment. And so a lot of people will often say, well, Kathryn, how much are you spending on ads?

A month. And I love that question. And I equally despise that question. And the reason I do is because it doesn't really matter what I'm spending. It's going to matter on your industry, your audience, your offer, all those sorts of things. I'm in a highly, highly, highly competitive market. I'm in the marketing market.

It is one of the most competitive, and I'm up against giants, right? I'm up against people that are spending [00:18:00] millions on ads. And I am spending a fraction of that. I started out spending about two to three K a month and I was making, you know, eight X return. And that's what we're looking for. We're looking for an eight X return, or we're looking for a five X return.

We're looking for a two X return, right? Oftentimes people will kill their ads because they weren't getting a good enough return on investment. And I'm always like, If we're seeing even a break even, or you're seeing like a double your money, there's so much promise here, right? Obviously we don't want to lose money, but what I'm saying is, is that I don't want you to give up too soon.

Now you might be thinking, I don't have 2K or 3K to spend, and that's absolutely okay. I have clients literally at a client recently who spent 140 pounds and made 3000 pounds. This is possible, right? I have another [00:19:00] client who spent 250 and made 15, 000. I have another client who spent 1, 000 and made 13, 000.

I mean, these are really good returns on investments. So I don't want you to think, Oh man, I can't get into the game because I want to run ads and I want the simplicity, but I can't actually do it because I don't have the ad spend budget. You can start small. It just means that the growth is going to be slower.

And that is absolutely okay. Again, this is the long game we want to think about and we want to think about building the ecosystem so that we have people in our world consistently, um, who at some point, hopefully, will be ready to invest, and if not, that's cool, but we've got people in our world. Now, this isn't about growing your email list to massive amounts of numbers and casting these big, big nets or whatever.

I'm all about quality over quantity. So my email list is under 2, 000. You might be shocked by that. [00:20:00] I have a following of under 5, 000 right now. As I'm recording, these are my numbers, but that's where I kind of live at because I think you can have a small audience and still do really, really, really well.

And I think these are things, again, that kind of hinder our approach and our decision making because we think we have to get. All of these things in order, or we have to have all these big numbers and everything like that in order to, to start to grow. And that's actually just not the case. So that to me is the ecosystem and the customer journey.

And I want to ask you before we wrap up is like, what type of customer buying journey do you want to create? Because I've shared the four simple steps that I created and, and I'm going to. You know, I don't like to give homework, but I want to say if, even if you have taken selling the invisible training, I'd love for you to go back through it.

Or even go back through this because I've created this the exact same way, right? I'm running ads to an opt in page to a page where you can access all the [00:21:00] podcasts to invitations to book a call if that's what you're, if you want to chat more about how I might be able to support you and there'll be other additional sort of touch points.

You'll receive emails from me and if you left your Instagram handle, you'll receive a lovely reach out to see how you've enjoyed the podcast. But that's it. That's how I. That's how I run the ecosystem. And then I'm continually nurturing and sending valuable information and thought and insight and relevant, you know, things to consider and introspective and all that sort of stuff via my email, even though you've come out of the email sequence, quote unquote, that is the podcast or selling the invisible or the quiz.

that you're on my email list unless you choose to opt out, which is absolutely your choice. But I will share once a week some really epic stuff with you because I truly value you being in my community. And that's the approach that I take with everything I create is that I want to give before I ever ask anything in return.

And that I want you to walk away with value [00:22:00] above everything else. And that if you ever choose to invest to work with me, I That would be amazing. But if you don't, I still am so grateful to have you in my community, in my world. And I don't want to waste your time or effort in that. And I don't want to spam you every day with, by my thing, you know, I want you to feel equally valued in this partnership, because this is a partnership, in my opinion, if you're choosing to be in my world, this is a two way street.

In my opinion, and so I would love for you to consider what type of customer buying journey do you want to create and I want you to really tap into what feels most genuine to you and remember that your clients are everywhere because one of the biggest things I will hear is that. I want to do it this way, but I just don't know if that's going to be right, or I don't know if that's going to work.

You know, when, when I think of my four simple steps, everybody told me that if I didn't put a deadline on it, or I didn't make it expire, or I didn't create, [00:23:00] you know, scarcity, that nobody would watch the class and it would be hard to engage people. And I've debunked that for you, right? I was told that nobody watches masterclasses anymore.

And I've debunked that for you. I was told that If I didn't sell low ticket first to get someone in and create that trust, then they would, wouldn't buy the high ticket straight out of the gate. I've debunked that for you. So anything that you're holding onto where you believe that you need to do it a certain way in order to be successful, even though it doesn't feel genuine, I want you to release that.

I want you to set that aside and just go for a minute and dream about what you want to create. My customer buying journey in the brick and mortar was I had a sign on the street that told people that we were there. I had presence online, like on Facebook and Instagram, but it was literally me sharing, creating the wine in the [00:24:00] store and showing people the labels and stuff like that.

That's how people came into my world. We got a free newspaper ad or like a newspaper story that people were coming in years later with that clipping going like, this is you guys, you know, it was free. It was a free feature and that's what brought people into my world. And that for me was the journey or the start of the journey to create that awareness.

And then once they were in the store, we just loved up on them. And we gave them the best experience and made them feel seen. And I remembered all their names and I'd remember nuances of their story, like who they were married to and their kids names and where they traveled last and all those sorts of things.

I made that a point of knowing those things. So they felt really valued as customers. And then on point of purchase, I asked them for their email, asked permission for their email, and they shared it with me. Some didn't, but some did. And then I had an email list of 700. Like when we sold it four years in, we had 700 [00:25:00] people on our list.

There was barely any people on that email list. I mean, 700 is a lot, but like not in terms of what oftentimes is communicated as what you need. Like thousands and thousands of people had 700 people. And our whole business was built on the notion that if we could have 700 customers who bought four times a year, we would be successful.

And that was a simple. Customer plan and customer journey that we took people on and then I would email people once a month with store updates. It was that simple. You know, I've had people come to me that write blogs and love writing blogs and so we optimize them for search engine optimization and people find them that way.

Like you don't have to be the loudest on social media. You don't have to dance on reels. You don't even have to do a masterclass if you don't want to. And again, I'm debunking that in a lot of ways. And I'm sharing more of that in another episode in terms of what I've discovered, even since launching the ecosystem where I just shared with you the four simple [00:26:00] steps of how I'm starting to really debunk even the masterclass concept in a lot of ways, because at the time I created it, That was something that, one, I wanted to do, obviously, but it was something and a method that I truly believed in that I needed in order to build trust, and I'm starting to see how that isn't always the case, and I'm going to share more about that in another episode.

So. Those are the questions I'd love you to ask yourself. What type of customer buying journey do you want to create? And what ultimately feels most genuine to you? And then also, like for me, simplicity was huge. So it's like getting kind of back to the core of like, what would feel really good for you and your body to create?

And remember clients are everywhere. And of course, if you're like, this is amazing. I want to create the funnel, the customer journey. in combination with knowing what to say and how to say it along that journey to move someone from cool to sold faster, then I would invite you to book a call with me or one of my team members so that we can share with you how we might be able to [00:27:00] support you.

This is literally what Spellbound is all about. It is really to help you create this ecosystem for you and your business to create that get your work in the hands of more people. And if that is you right now and you're relying on referrals or word of mouth or posting and praying, and you're just not wanting to do it, and you want that machine that will do sort of the heavy lifting for you, then book one of these calls.

Again, they're sacred. They're really designed for people that are going to value my time, but also we value your time as well. We don't want to waste your time. And so it's for you. If you're really considering getting the support and want a thought partner in this to create this journey. with you so that you can create that predictability, then I highly recommend booking one of these calls.

And with that, I cannot wait for the next episode, decoding the data, how I've optimized for continual growth.