144: From Leads to Clients: Mastering the Art of Organic Content Funnels with Samantha Weckesser

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Welcome to the Course Creators MBA podcast. I'm your host, Dr. Destiny Kopp, and I help business owners increase the revenue with digital products and evergreen sales funnels. In this podcast, we go deep into product and marketing strategies for digital product creators. We cover everything from digital product creation, how to market and sell your digital products, and just as important, how to find your ideal customer. Let's jump right into our show.

And my special guest today is Samantha Wekeser. Samantha is a seasoned online marketing strategist with a track record of success spanning five years as the founder and CEO CEO of Mama Hen Media. Samantha and her team have helped countless clients achieve their goals for growth through organic content marketing with a combination of expert strategy and effective implementation. She shares her busy but love filled home with her husband and their four children, two golden doodles and a flock of backyard children, chickens and Samantha, thank you so much for joining me. I am so excited to delve into this content, this topic with you. We're going to be talking about, of course, content, because that's what you do. And we're going to be talking about how to use content to fill up your funnel. And this is a subject I'm super passionate about. So very excited for the conversation. But before we get into all the questions I have for you, can you tell the audience just a little bit more about you and how you help people?

Absolutely. Well, first, thank you so much for having me on the podcast, Destiny. I'm really excited to speak with you today. So I help online specialists, coaches and consultants craft their organic content funnels with visibility focused strategies to help cultivate leads into clients.

So let's talk about that a little bit more. Some people who are listening might not understand what is organic content marketing because that's what we're going to be talking about. So can you define that for them and tell them a little bit about the difference between maybe organic and stuff that they would pay for? Like pay for in Facebook ads and what have you?

Yep, absolutely. So organic organic content marketing is how you share your story online and attract your ideal customer. And it's without the use of paid ads. So it's creating high quality content that your audience will find useful, informative, valuable, entertaining, and promoting it through channels like social media, Pinterest, email marketing, using SEO to attract them rather than using paid ads to get new leads.

Okay, so what you mentioned there was social media, Pinterest, which you didn't include Pinterest and social media, so we can talk about that too. SEO and then email versus somebody paying for and I used to be a Facebook ads manager. So some people listening here are probably familiar with my time there. But you know, somebody, you know, when you're doing paid advertising, obviously you're paying Facebook to show your content on social media. Social media. So really what we want to, in what you mentioned here, organic content, you know, to get leads into your business. And a lot of people that are listening, they're familiar a little bit with the term funnel. So can you walk us through what is a funnel and why somebody might need, why they need to have that in their business?

Sure. So simply put, a funnel is how you take people from leads. So finding your brand, attracting them to your brand and then nurturing that relationship into a customer, subscriber, member, whatever that final action is that you want to take. I use a three part funnel of capture, nurture and convert. And it's really the framework of the content and the strategies that you're going to implement to get in front of that right customer into however you're able to help them. And you really need a funnel because essentially the success of your business is based on how well you generate leads and convert them into buyers. So it's meeting your customers, where they're at on the buying journey and connecting with them to grow your audience and growing your sales.

So you mentioned you use a three part one with the capture, nurture and convert. Let's talk about these stages in a little bit more detail. Can you talk about capture? What do you mean by that? And what kind of organic content would somebody be, you know, putting together and producing in that stage?

Yeah, so the top of the funnel is often known as like brand awareness, getting in front of new audiences and it's really capturing their attention, you're connecting with them to show that, hey, you have a problem, I understand your problem, I have the solution and generating interest. So for top of funnel, it's not where you're selling, it's where you're just trying to grow your audience, grow your band and attract the right people. The middle of the funnel is where you're doing more of the nurturing, establishing the relationship, showing your value, testimonials. And then the bottom is the conversion where you're actually turning them from a buyer or turning them into a buyer or subscriber member.

Okay, so let's talk about, so when you're doing the content for capture, what is an example of some type content somebody would produce and put up on, let's say Instagram as an example, what, what would you suggest they do? There.

So for on Instagram, reels are really great for the capture part because reels get you in front of new audiences and they're, you know, pushed more on Instagram right now. Pinterest is my favorite top of funnel platform. Users on Pinterest go with intent because they want to find solutions, they want to find inspiration, they want to find how to do something. And 97% of searches on Pinterest are unbranded, which means that users go to Pinterest not looking for specific brands, but just a way to solve their problem or find the solution to something. And so it's a really great opportunity for businesses to get in front of these new audiences who are in a buyer mindset using blog posts. SEO for your blog posts. So somebody goes to Google and they search for something and your content shows up. Then they go to your website and they read the blog post, and then maybe you have a call to action or a lead magnet at the end of the blog post so that you can start to nurture them through the journey to become a customer.

Okay, so let's move on to that nurturer stage of the, you know, of this buyer's journey, if you would. What kind of content would you be? Should they produce or we produce at that stage and where are we sharing it?

So the nurture is really the meaty part. And this can be the part of the funnel that takes customers the longest to move through, just depending on, you know, they need to know, like, and trust you. You know, demonstrating your authority, sharing value, doing case studies, testimonials, social proof. And you can do that a few different ways on Instagram. Instagram stories are great middle of funnel because those are people that already follow you. And so you have a way to really nurture those relationships, show behind the scenes. I love email for nurturing, setting up nurture sequences that drip out and deliver content and value of your audience so you stay top of mind. Blog posts can be part of that nurturing, informing, sharing information, and just building those relationships with your audience.

So I love that. So Instagram stories, great places to show behind the scenes. Maybe some social proofs, some, you know, Instagram stories of customers who have purchased from you in the past. And also email us really good way and having those nurture sequences set up. So let's move on to the last stage in your example, which is convert stage. What kind of content should we produce in that stage and where are we sharing that?

So the bottom of the funnel is going to be your smallest audience. So these are People who have already, you know, gotten to know you, decided that they want more information, you know, they want to go to the next step. And it's really important to make it easy for them to take the next step. So if that's, you know, in your social media or on your websites or on your Pinterest, to have call to actions, you know, buy now, book a session, join the membership, and you're going to be making these conversions in a few different places. If you host webinars, you can host a webinar and make the conversions right on the webinar sales sequences, through your emails, your landing pages, right on your website. And on Instagram in the DMs, you can make conversions too.

I love all of those. So in looking at all of those options which you mentioned, the email, your landing pages, the DMs, webinar, which one would you say is the most effective or does it just depend Totally depends.

Totally depends on your audience, your brand, your offer and your business model, and your personality, too. Don't set yourself up to build your funnel on Instagram if you're not going to show up consistently on Instagram. If you want to attract through SEO, then, you know, through blog posts that are optimized for SEO, then you have to make that commitment to, to do your keyword research and optimize your content. So it just depends on where your audience is at, but also what you want to create and where you want to be.

Now, Samantha, one issue that a lot of people have is they have this wonderful funnel set up or, you know, this ecosystem, this content marketing ecosystem, but they don't really have a lot of people going through it. It's a crowded marketplace. Maybe they're in a crowded niche. What would you suggest to someone to get more people into their funnel?

So one of the strategies that I love to use is other people's audiences. So participating in summits or appearing on people's podcasts, guest blog posts, because these are audiences that you haven't tapped into yet with your own content, but you have the opportunity to get in front of through your networking or collaboration with other brands.

Okay, that's a great. You know, I'm a big fan of that too, as you know. So that's one of my key strategies in my business and one that I also suggest in, you know, for other people, especially if they're just getting started and they might not have a huge budget for, you know, Facebook ads or Instagram ads. Say that somebody is just getting started. They're like, Samantha, I love. You know, I agree with you. I need to set this up. What are some of the first steps that you would recommend in helping, you know, getting them started and building their content funnel?

So before you start building the content funnel, you really have to make sure you have the foundational pieces, which is you have to know who you're going to be helping, who your offer is for. So really digging into who your ideal customer is, the demographics, the buying habits, the psychographics, what platforms they're on, what kind of content resonates with them, what offer you're going to be funneling them into to make sure that the content really leads them into that offer and then how you want to get them there. So whatever platforms you want to use, whatever type of content that you're going to be able to consistently produce to attract those customers and then nurture them through your buyer's journey. And you have to understand what's the goal of your funnel. So when you sit down to create your content marketing strategy and build your funnels, it's knowing your audience, knowing your goals, and KPIs, planning out your content. So this is a bulky part where you're doing your research, your SEO, which platforms you're going to be on, optimizing your content for the platforms, and then you get into actually creating your content and building out your funnel. And once that's all done, you go back and you adjust and you tweak and you measure your analytics and you test and do it all again.

I love that and totally agree with you. Now, one of the things that you know somebody who's just getting started, they're building this and Maybe they have 100 people go through it, what would you recommend that they look at? If they're not getting the conversions, where are some of the first places they should look at to maybe looking at, tweaking something or doing something a little bit different.

Understanding really your audience and where they're at and making sure that you're speaking to them. And there's a few things that tiny tweaks can make a big adjustment. Looking at your content with fresh eyes, not using jargon or technical language, making sure that you're using the language that would make sense to them and where your drop off points are. You know, if you get so many people on your email list through a lead magnet and they're opening your emails, but none of them are buying, you can identify the area of your funnel where there's an issue and sort of dig into that and how to close that Gap.

So, Samantha, before we wrap it up here, any last minute tips for the audience?

I would say that building an organic content funnel can be really powerful to attract, nurture and convert your customers, but it takes time. It's not a quick and fast solution. It's not going to get your leads as quickly as, you know, maybe doing like an Instagram ad or Facebook ad. But you reap the benefits long term. All the content you create, when it's optimized and targeted towards your specific audience, it's a snowball effect and it just keeps building and building and you rank higher in Google and you grow your audience and you get loyal fans that recommend you to others. So just being dedicated and giving it the time and the effort to be consistent and persistent in your content to build your funnel.

And I agree with you. I know that a lot of the blog posts that I did, you know, five years ago, they're still working today. So you got to be in it for the long, for the long haul there. Samantha, can you let people know where they can find you? And I believe you have a free gift for them also.

Yes. So you can head to my website@mamahenmedia.com I'm also on Instagram and Pinterest, Mama Hen Media. And I am going to be sharing the power of organic Content funnels. It's a guide and workbook to help you convert your prospects into your customers.

And we will make sure, Samantha, all those links are in the show notes so people can click on them and find you and download your free gift. And thank you so much for joining me. I loved our conversation and chatting with you about organic content marketing.

Well, thank you so much for having me, Destiny.

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