#193 How to Drive Organic Growth With Referrals and Word-of-Mouth

In digital marketing, there's a lot of shiny new objects that come about that people get excited for, and a lot of times they'll try it, it maybe won't work, kind of shoot from the hip type marketing strategy. So always working from some sort of strategy and the philosophy that all boats rise with the tide.

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All right, folks, welcome back to another episode of the High Voltage Business Builders Podcast. As always, like, share, comment, engage, leave me a Stein remark or a stupid comment. I don't care. Help the algo get out there and let the message get forward for this guest today. We're gonna be talking about digital marketing and content strategies, influencers, and building an optimized digital marketing strategy for your personal brand, your business, your e-com, anything related to online marketing. So I brought Ashley in. Hey, Ashley.

Yeah.

To talk to us today about this. So what is in, let's say in this year, what's on your heart to speak about in terms of like what people need to know about digital marketing right now?

You know, number one, which is kind of obvious, but definitely be working from a strategic plan. In digital marketing, there's a lot of shiny new objects that come about that people get excited for. And a lot of times they'll try it and maybe it won't work, kind of shoot from the hip type marketing strategy. And usually that can be pretty difficult to kind of push through going. So always working from some sort of strategy and the philosophy that all boats rise with the tide. So we do want multiple marketing channels that are working together in order to survive in digital marketing these days, because it is crowded out there.

It can be, it's kind of noisy.

That's a great word. And crowded is one of the ways I think that I would describe the e-commerce world in many ways. I'm sure in the digital world and the lead gen and the acquisition space and anything else you're working on for digital marketing. Crowded is a great word. What's helping differentiate in terms of the marketing right now? What could clients or somebody listening to this take on and say, okay, if I wanted to differentiate, what could you say today that would help that happen?

Sure. So in the digital marketing strategies that I work on, there's, you know, several main tactical components, one being paid email, SMS, and those 3 to me really work well together. And you want to make sure that they are working together, not competing against each other. But one thing that we've been throwing into the mix To really support bringing down the cost per acquisition for those channels is activating what we call word of mouth marketing, which I'm sure we're all familiar with, but doing that in a digital format. So, you know, activating your current database of customers and really figuring out how do you turn them into influencers, brand advocates for your e-commerce store, your event, your product, whatever it is that you might be selling and really leveraging that to help you grow. organically without having to necessarily spend more money on Facebook ads.

Yeah. Which channel is your favorite since you brought up Facebook ads? Do you have a specific one or you really feel like you're, you're strong in or something you're seeing that's working better right now for people?

As far as paid?

Paid media first. Yeah. Since we talked a little bit about— Yeah.

I mean, I wish I could say something different, but yes, Meta is a top performer across any client that I work with. We're always making sure that not all of our eggs are in one basket, so we're always You know, doing search, we're doing display, we're doing TikToks, sometimes Snapchat, sometimes X, sometimes LinkedIn, depending on, you know, what we're working with. But we do often get the, the highest return.

But yeah, yeah, it's a big platform, still billions of people. I know that, uh, you know, X has been growing pretty strong and they're really wanting to push advertisers. I haven't personally seen a lot of great CPL on, on X myself. You know, LinkedIn is out there, business strategy. It really gets down to whatever channel is where your audience is at, right?

Exactly. Yes. And Meta does have a wide reach that does extend far beyond Facebook or Instagram.

Yeah. Where in terms of, in your mind, I know creative has always played a big factor in the success of ads. What are you seeing with creatives working right now? I mean, you mentioned user-generated content. I'm sure that has a place in that. Where do you, where do you see that already?

For sure, within that user-generated content realm, focusing again, something that feels authentic, which is why user-generated content works so So well, which is why TikTok is having so much success, is the content does feel more authentic. And as we continue to really grow in this influencer world, celebrity endorsements, the more authentic the content feels, the better it sells, which, you know, surprisingly is becoming more and more difficult to distinguish between authenticity and sell. Yeah. Yeah.

Everybody's selling something. And so at times you're wondering like, well, Is that a genuine review? Is that a genuine influence? Is that a general use or is that just, you know, an attempt to sell, right? So what's the nuance? What are you seeing them do with it really kind of makes that genuine, you know, authentic vibe come out on the videos and the content?

Yeah, you know, it's really all about, as cheesy, interacting with your audience and making it feel like you're talking to them one-on-one, which is why things like referral marketing work so well because it is so catered in more of like a one-to-one conversation. So anytime your user-generated content feels like the, you know, influencer is talking to just you, that's usually the content that performs best. If they're trying to talk to the masses and, you know, please a large audience, typically that doesn't convert as well.

Do you find it's better that I go out and do my own content or somebody do it, or is it really best to go ahead and hire or, you know, grab other influencers or a combination of all the above in terms of your strategy?

Usually a combination of all of the above. If you've got the budget for it, for sure. You know, at the end of the day, you do want your own creative assets that you're creating because you're gonna have passion. You're gonna be able to watch it closely, A/B test, try new things, move quickly, get them into market. When you're working with influencers or user-generated type content, number one, you're probably never gonna be 100% satisfied. You do need to have your stuff together before approaching these people. You wanna make sure you have brand Guidelines, you know what can they say, what can't they say, so that you don't get in any kind of legal trouble. You got to think through those things. So having a mix is usually ideal. Making sure you have the rights to put paid dollars behind user-generated content or influencer content is important as well. You don't want to get in any kind of trouble there.

Yeah, well absolutely, because I mean it's a referral-based marketing, so they are kind of affiliates in the play. If working directly with you, obviously contractual and other obligations. If they're working through you know like a TikTok shop or something, they're gonna have to adhere to TikTok standards. Correct. For compliance and whatnot. Yeah. So it's best to probably try to make sure you figure out where your risks are in that. Yeah. Actually control the script to some degree. We'll leave them to their authenticity. At least I have tried to do that anyways, where I'm not controlling the entire script by letting them be who they are, but also saying, you know, like you said, don't say this, don't do that in the ad if at all possible.

Right.

Plus it's brand control at the end of the day, isn't it?

For sure. I mean, it depends. You have to really consider what kind of industry you're in. I've worked a lot in med device. fintech, and those are highly regulated. And if you are promoting content, and somebody says something that's considered off-label or adverse effects, all kinds of things, you can't be leveraging that content because that can come down on you. And, you know, there's a lot of red tape, and you got to make sure that you are playing within the red tape and getting as creative as you can. But, you know, you got to consider the FDA, the FTC, and any kind of regulations you might be held to.

Yeah, it's getting easier for them to catch People nowadays because there's so much of it happening. I think there's a crime of this narrative being committed online quite, quite often. I noticed when I'm just, you know, for example, TikTok and just watching some of the things that are being said and how are some of these products actually hitting the top, you know, charts, top 10 or whatever. And you're like, well, not everybody could be doing that well with the product or the product itself can't necessarily be doing all that well, but there are certainly a lot of people making money off of it.

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If someone doesn't have a brand strategy in mind just yet, because they're not sure what to do, what would you give them in terms of first steps?

First steps, I would say just basics of marketing. You need to know what your messaging is. What are you delivering to the world? You know, what's your value statement? And number 2, who is your target market? Super simple, but a lot of times people don't necessarily take the time to truly understand. Who their target market is, you know, create an actual customer persona. You know, how old are they? What's their age, gender? Where do they live? What do they like to do? What else? What do they read? What, anything you can think of about them, brainstorm and really create that customer persona because when you go to then create your marketing assets, that's going to be really important to understand. One, where do you spend your money? Because you'll be able to identify where this person's Spending time online? And 2, how do you cater your message to speak to them directly? Again, that kind of one-on-one personal touch.

Yeah, that's great. It really does come down to that message, doesn't it? I mean, at the end of the day, there's all kinds of mediums. We've watched a number of influencers, as bad and good as they are, even, you know, Kanye West shooting from a mobile phone in his car. When the message is there and the demand is there, it could be a great influence. So changing topics for just a second, you are a mom, you work From home or home office, if I'm not mistaken. Forgive me if I've got that wrong. And you juggle the kids, the life, and how'd you get started in all this and how do you balance it all? How's the work-life balance for you?

Sure. So I actually started my business because I was pregnant. This was 15 years ago and decided, you know, I need to make sure I have extreme flexibility because I want to spend as much time with my children as possible and be able to go to all the things. And so I kind of got started in my consulting career and Doing digital marketing. And yeah, I've always worked from home. This is not a post-COVID situation. I've worked from home for about 17, 18 years now. So I actually don't even know what it's like to go into an office.

Right? Oh, you'd be like—

Because I'd probably talk too much and not get anything done.

I don't think we fit anymore. We're not hireable. Once you get past like 15 years, you're no longer hireable. Sorry.

Yeah. So yes, I've just catered my career, my work around kids' schedules and just having that flexibility to spend my mornings with them, with their sports and activities and be present, which is very cool.

And kudos to you for getting to that. That's fantastic. If someone else was listening, another lady or somebody who wanted to do that, what would you encourage them or tell them to watch out for or give them any tips?

You know, there is a book that I like to recommend that really helped me kind of figure this out and get the drive. And it's called The Desire Map by Danielle LaPorte. I think I'm saying her name correctly. I'm honestly not sure, but the Desire Map, and it's really more of a workbook. And you go through this workbook and it touches on all areas of your life. And when you get to the end of it, you've essentially come up with what she calls core desired feelings. So you narrow it down to 3 to 5 core desired feelings and you figure out how you plan your days. To essentially feel those on an ongoing basis. Of course, not every day is going to be perfect, but you know, a majority of your life, how do you want to be spending it? How do you want to feel? And I've done this book, this workbook several times. I'll do it every few years or like going through a new season in life or things are changing. And every single time that I've done it, the core desired feelings change, of course, but there's usually There's one word that has come through every single time that I've done this exercise, and that is freedom. And you know, I live in the U.S., so our definition of freedom is awesome present and awesome. So I do say that privilege. But when I first started again, I was very young, newborn baby, and the word freedom for me meant like financial freedom. I wanted my own business. I wanted to make as much money as possible. And essentially, as I evolved and did this book again, the word freedom was still there, but it changed. to time freedom. All right, I've got this business, it's running me dry and I need more time to actually spend with my children. And so you figure out how to make those adjustments and then it's continued to evolve even now where the freedom in the sense that I'm, you know, looking to feel when doing this is that opportunity freedom. So now just having the freedom to choose the opportunities, the projects, the businesses that I want to work on.

Yeah.

And that's amazing. And what a great testimony it is to just perseverance and tenacity and Then balancing what works for you. And I love how you went from the, you know, the realization that financial freedom is one thing, but time freedom is probably greater in terms of wealth in many ways than the money. Because sometimes the money can entrap if you're not careful and really steal your joy and your time back from you if you can't find a balance out of it, which is really, really cool to hear. Is there, is there something that you are working on this year that you find most enjoyable, you know, getting the most joy out of?

Is there anything specific to that this year?

You know, we do have our business Ice Cream Social, which is a social referral widget that can bolt onto any website or checkout flow. And the whole purpose of it really is to turn every single customer into an influencer for your brand or your business or your event. And again, just kind of adding to that marketing channel stack that you have of paid email, SMS, whatever else may be, and just helping you get the most the most out of that and really have an active customer database.

Ice Cream Social.

I know.

I love it. That is a super catchy name.

And so it bolts onto a website, a Shopify or other platform, and allows every customer the opportunity to become a brand ambassador or a content creator.

Exactly. Because I have this idea that every single person can be an influencer, even if they're not on social media.

Yeah.

Really?

And then how would you, how would they do that? Just somebody around town, a referral?

You probably have a friend or a family member who's just not on social media.

We all know them. They're weird, but we know them.

Yeah.

Who's the weird people not on social media these days? Like, really?

I mean, you probably talk to them in person or on—

oh no.

Yes. People that still have, you know, a say in your life or, you know, you still enjoy what they have to say just because they're not ranting and raving over everything on social media doesn't mean that they don't still have a respected opinion. And so Ice Cream Social helps you tap into that audience because if you think about it in the grand scheme of, you know, consumer online, yes, there's a lot of content out there that's being shared, but honestly, the amount of your customers that are actually out there posting on social media and telling the world is not that many. A lot of people are more comfortable sharing a product one-on-one with their And so if you essentially give them a platform that allows them to do that in a very easy way.

Very cool. Very cool. Well, let's post the notes to Ice Cream Social. I just like saying it in the comments below so you guys can check that out. Is there another question or something I didn't ask you yet that we haven't covered that you'd like to bring up or talk about?

I don't think so. I mean, I do love, as you mentioned, if anyone has questions supporting you on figuring out your entrepreneurial freelance consultant journey. Like I said, I've been doing it for 17, 18 years, have had a lot of ups and downs, lots of advice. So if you have any questions, feel free to hit me up. Wonderful.

We'll make sure that goes out there into the notes on all the, on all the social media, media that we're on. And for those of you who are not listening to this, sorry. Maybe someone will share it with you and tell you about it if you're not on media. Hopefully it'll happen today. How about that? Well, thank you so much for spending some time with me and we'll get this out there in one way or another. I appreciate your story and your tenacity, and obviously you know what you're doing. Shout out to your website. We're going to, we're going to mention Ice Cream Social too. Where else should I send them if they want to chat with you?

icecreamsocial.io. I'm going to get you with that one. It's sneaky. Uh, ashleynstanford.com, or you can search me on social, LinkedIn, TikTok.

One way or another, if you've got a question about media and strategy, if you want to have an ice cream social, connect with Ashley. That's the good word for the day. Thank you so much for joining me.

Yeah. Thank you, Neil.

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