Salena Knight 0:02
So hey there, and welcome to the bringing business to retail podcast. If you're looking to get more sales, more customers, master your marketing and ultimately take control of your retail or E commerce business, then you're in the right place. I'm Selena Knight, a retail growth strategist and multi award winning store owner whose superpower is uncovering exactly what your business requires to move to the next level. I'll provide you with the strategies, the tools and the insight you need to scale your store. All you need to do is take action. Ready to get started.

Salena Knight 0:52
Hey there, and welcome to the bringing business to retail podcast now, we have been doing a series all about Black Friday and Cyber Monday and how you can leverage this peak season for your retail or e commerce Store. But we cannot forget about social media. Now you know me, social media is not my forte. It is not the thing that I naturally move my hands to, because honestly, I've been on social media since 2007 I was burnt out many, many years ago. I do it now because I have to, rather than because I absolutely love it. But that does not mean that I can avoid it, and that doesn't mean I shouldn't be using it to leverage my brand during Black Friday, Cyber Monday, and, of course, just every day. So I thought, Who better to get on the show than Michelle Gifford to walk you through everything that you need to know to leverage social media for your retail e commerce Store this Black Friday, Cyber Monday and even beyond Michelle, welcome to the show.

Speaker 1 1:51
Thank you for having me. I am ready to convince you that social media is where you're supposed to be. Challenge accepted. I'm ready.

Salena Knight 1:59
I love the fact that when I met you, the first thing that you were doing were just, you were just taking snippets of everybody just walking around doing just being natural, and, you know the B roll, you call it, and you had all these amazing clips that, honestly, I think it's, I think there's very much an eye of the beholder thing, because you have, you have the eye, And you were making us all line up under doorways and walk backwards and forwards. And, I mean, it was fun. I felt a little bit silly, but I'm sure you captured some great stories, some great reels, some great B roll to use for social media. So, I mean, how did you even get into social media? Well,

Speaker 1 2:37
I have, I have been in business for a long time and but really focused on social media the last five or so years, because I just love social media, because it's one of those platforms that it's I think it's one of the most liberating and free platforms for women, especially, to grow, to grow a business. And social media you it has millions and millions of viewers, and you can show up and have access to all of those people for no money. You just have to figure out how to create the right content and who just how to speak to the right person. And so that's why I love Instagram so much. Anyone can do it, and it's within a few tweaks, a few short, short video clips, you can completely change your business with the content you make. So I, I love that, especially for business owners, because there's it's expensive to get your your name out there, to get everything out there, and and with social media, if you learn how to do it and how to speak to your audience, then it can be a it can be like a focus group for your content. It for your products. It can be you can see which content does best, and then put ads behind it so you're not spending all this money on content that isn't going to work. So I love social media, I mean, for so many reasons, but for those reasons, specifically, because of the access we get to the people who are ready to listen to us. I feel

Salena Knight 3:59
like when you say you've specifically been so focusing, focusing on social media for the last five years, I feel like you're a newbie. Like, how much has social media changed in the last five years? I mean, five years was pre pandemic. Then we had pandemic. We are no longer dancing around like idiots. Now we're just lots of natural B roll like, it feels like it's much easier to create content. So I mean, how have you seen it change? And are you seeing any new trends?

Speaker 1 4:28
Sure, so I've been using and teaching social media for the last, like, eight to 10 years, but I really made a shift to really focusing on social media recently. And I mean, I've been using it again and teaching it forever. And the thing that's been really great about the changes, because people are always talking about they're so mad that Instagram changed, or whatever social media platform they're on. And the great thing about the changes is they are reactive changes to how people are using the app. And so as people are using the app, different the. App changes, and we want that to happen, otherwise people don't stay on the app and they don't have we don't have access to them. So the changes have been especially well Tiktok brought up in a new, different way to have a social media platform, and it was all algorithm based, right? It was like, if you go on Tiktok right now, you see content that you'll like, but you don't necessarily follow the creators. So Tiktok is all about, hey, you like this kind of content. I'm just going to feed you more of the similar content, whoever. It doesn't matter if you follow your follow the people or not. And Instagram is different in that in the last few years, it is, it. It has become a little tick tock ish, right? We have the rails, and we also have this algorithm. Now, the cool thing about Instagram, that's what I love so much, is because it combines the algorithm, which algorithms can be your friend, because it can put your content in front of people that it that the algorithm thinks would be would love to follow you. So I like to say the algorithm is always playing matchmaker. It's trying to match you with the people who want your content, and they're even paying for that. It's just doing it for you for free. Yeah, you just have to, you just have to create good content. That's it. And so so that has come on over the last few years and has completely changed how people use Instagram because it's now not just a social platform, but it's a social and search platform, and I would say one of the most powerful social platforms, because it has the ability to have a deeper connection. Tiktok, you don't have that quite as deep connection, because you don't really know who you follow, but on Instagram, you have stories and you have that more personal connection. And so I that's that's kind of the big changes that have happened, especially is that like Tiktok, came into into play, and so Instagram changed their algorithm, and have combined what they were doing well anyway, with social and added the search factor to it.

Salena Knight 6:57
So do you think now? I it's interesting that you say that Instagram is where you can have, you know, have a conversation. That used to be Facebook, Instagram, you did not have a conversation. Instagram. All you did was you liked, you shared, you maybe wrote like, yay girl. Love that. Where do I buy it? You know, some banal comment, but you're saying now people are having conversations on Instagram.

Speaker 1 7:23
Yes, and the real factor, the wow factor of Instagram, is Instagram Stories. Everyone's tried to recreate the connection you can have in Instagram Stories. Tiktok tried. Facebook's tried, but it really like the connection that you can have with Instagram Stories is like unmatched, and the power of selling that you can have on Instagram Stories is really unmatched. So the great thing about Instagram and the conversations that you can have is that you can show up in your everyday life and have real people talk back to you and tell you like, ask you the questions that they're most wanting to know about the product that you're talking about, or maybe you are. You go on a mastermind, you know, and you suddenly let people in to what you're doing, and they feel like you, they know you, and they have this, like, really personal connection. I just did, like, a meet up with with some of my followers, and I just said, Hey, I'm coming to Utah. Anyone who's there, let's have lunch. And it was amazing, because people come in and they already know a lot about who I am, right? They know I'm a softball coach. They know like that I did well. I mean, I I'm aware. I'm aware of the things that I'm putting out. So I'm, you know, I'm careful, but I but it's also just really interesting, because I can have a better or bigger impact, because people know me well enough to trust me, right? They have a sense of who I am, like, actually who I am, not just like this persona, but like who I am. And it would not have been, it wouldn't been possible without Instagram or stories and the conversations I have, like in DMS and in my comment section. Okay,

Salena Knight 8:59
you sort of touched on, and I think this is the perfect segue into using Instagram and social media to sell. And I it's always this very it's always a balance on a tightrope for retail and E commerce brands, because it's like, how much do you put out that is a connection post. How much do you put out to try and get engagement? How often do you sell? How do you sell? Like, can you walk us through before we get to the Black Friday, Cyber Monday stuff? Because I know that you have a complete calendar, which I think is amazing. I saw it, and I was like, everybody needs this, but before we even get there, can you just maybe go through the different types of posts that we should be using? And I guess how maybe the ratio, like, this is my brain. What's my ratio?

Speaker 1 9:43
Yeah, I love numbers. I love ratios. I'm here for this. So when I am looking at content, and when I'm looking at creating, like, thinking about what I create for the feed, I think about so I'm going to tell you that this, the feed is different than. Your stories. Okay? So within my feed, and that's like, just what, that's what I would post a reel, or whatever. So when I'm looking at that, I know that there are people in different parts of a relationship with me, right? People, some people are going to see that, and they don't know who I am, and some people know who I am, but maybe don't trust me yet. And some people are all in with me, right? And so a lot of times in marketing, we talk about content funnels, we talk about what they are, and we use them and we love them, but rarely do we apply that specific thing, a content funnel, to Instagram. So when I'm creating my content, I am thinking about, Okay, I have to put out some content that's going to attract new people in, and I need to put out some other content that is going to nurture those people, and then I need to put out some content that's going to sell. Now, if I'm in a growth phase with my content, then I would do 50% attraction, 30% nurture and 20% sell. And that can be different based on, like, I know, I know E commerce is a little bit different, but like, just knowing that with your feed, especially if you have a face to your brand, I think that that's hugely important to really think about. Like, do we have a face to the brand? And do we not?

Salena Knight 11:17
I want to go there that I've actually got that down as a question to ask. Oh,

Speaker 1 11:23
okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, so this is content that is going to be reach a broader audience. That's what we're trying to do. So if you looked at a reel that you've already posted, you can kind of tell if it's an attraction real or not. You can tell if it's an attraction real or not based on the percentage of non followers who saw that rail. Go look at your most recent reels and see which ones are getting more non followers than followers. If I am just going in blind, the things that I will think about are like trending rails, a controversial topic, something that's entertaining. Lists, how tos, point of views, quick wins, before and afters, quotes, okay, those are all things that people are going to consume really quickly and probably want to share. Nurture are going to be like lives, helpful, carousels or education, value driven, reoccurring themes, highlighting your audience or your customers, graphics and infographics. And then we have selling. And that's like ads, product features, before and afters, new products, partnerships. And so those are what those are what story I mean, sorry. Those are what selling does. Those are the type of selling content. So, so when I'm thinking about that, there are different times when I like different different content has different goals, right? So sometimes I'm trying to attract, sometimes I'm trying to nurture, sometimes I'm trying to sell. And also we have different times in our calendar cycle where we are trying to sell more or trying to nurture more, or trying to grow more. And so taking that into consideration as we are creating our content can make such a huge difference.

Salena Knight 13:04
Okay, so in the lead I'm putting a pin in the face of the brand. We're going to come back to that. I promise it's on my notepad. But this is you've just perfectly segued into Black Friday and Cyber Monday. So throughout this series, what we've heard people saying is, in the lead up to Black Friday. This is repetitive I've done. I said it, but everyone else said it as well. Is in the lead up to Black Friday and Cyber Monday. It's the perfect opportunity to be building your email list and attracting new people to your business, because then it's much cheaper to sell to them once we've already got them. So let's get them in a time when customer acquisition cost is a little bit lower, although the scary thing is, we are recording this at the end of October, and I am already seeing Black Friday deals out there. It is super scary, and I think that's as a result of the current economic situation all around the world. But give me your opinion on what we're using this time in the lead up to Black Friday for, and how are we going to leverage social media to do that?

Speaker 1 14:02
Great. So one of the things I think about is like, Okay, how much time do I actually have? Okay, so I don't, I don't care if you're two weeks out and you're decide you're figuring out your Black Friday plans. Great. You know, if, if you're a day before, you might have waited too long, but the earlier, the better. So when I'm looking at my like, Okay, I'm gearing up to do Black Friday. I will, I will break it up and say what part the first part I'm going to do a trap, more attraction content. Okay, then as I'm getting closer, I'm going to do more nurture content. And then when I'm selling, I'm going to do more selling content. So the ratio, and again, this is, I'm just going to give you a starting ratio. You get to change it. However. Change it however you want. So at the beginning, when I'm trying to attract, it's going to be about 50% attraction, 30% nurture, 20 20% sell. And then as we're getting closer, it's going to be more 50% nurture, 30% attract, 20% sell. And then when we get to the selling portion, I would. 50% sell, 30% nurture and 20% attract. Those are just good starting points. So because we know that there are different times that are, we have different goals. Right at the beginning, we want to grow our email list, we want to grow our brand. We want to get more followers, and so we're going to focus more on attraction. And then as we get closer, we want to nurture those people and get them ready to buy, and then when, when it's time to buy, we want them to buy. And we don't want to mince words. We want to just get them we want them to purchase. Hit the button. So

Salena Knight 15:29
is that a place where people maybe fall down? So over Black Friday, Cyber Monday, they're like, I don't want to be too salesy, so I'm just going to put one post up, I'm going to send one email, and I'm gonna just like, cross my fingers and hope that people actually see my one post and my one email and come to buy.

Speaker 1 15:49
Yes, this is the biggest the biggest mistake I see is that we are apologetic about our business, about our products, about buying from us. And guess who's not apologetic? I don't know gap. I mean, how many Old Navy emails do you get, or whatever, right? Like we get so many emails, and it's because there's a higher you have higher competition right now, and it's harder to see your content, right? And so you have to put that out of your head that you post about it once. Sharon McMahon, when I interviewed her, she said, once on the internet is never so you have to keep talking about it. And so when you're so, when you're creating, your strategy is, I want you to, I want you to post about it and an uncomfortable amount.

Salena Knight 16:35
Okay, that's going to lead us to that all important question that everybody wants to know the answer to, which is, How often should I be posting? So if I can, maybe I'm going to skip the where we are right now. But in that lead up, let's talk about the, say the first two the two weeks out from Black Friday, because a lot of people are starting, you know, even the bigger brands are starting their Black Friday deals then. So in that two weeks, in the lead up to Black Friday, how many times should we be posting? And should we be using your mix of because we're down to like, 50% sell, 30% nurture, 20% attract. So does that mean we should be posting like three times a day to be able to fit all of this stuff in, and if we just focus on Instagram, because I think it's probably the most universal platform that will be listening to be utilizing. How many times a day are we posting, and how much of this content is going where?

Speaker 1 17:32
Sure. So one of the things I would think about is, what do you have the capacity for? Okay, I post a couple times a day, and that makes people want to die. Sometimes, if they when they hear that, right is they're like, I can't post two or three times a day. Totally fine. And if you do not have the systems or the people or the content in place to actually do that, then don't do that, right? So I want you to look at your content calendar and really look at it and say, Okay, what are my goals? What part does Instagram play in making those goals happen, and how much, how much time and energy and effort Am I able, actually able to put into this? Because we all live real lives. We all have real businesses. And so I want us to look at our real marketing and say like, Instagram is a Instagram is a money making task if we do it right, right? So let so how much time can we a lot to Instagram marketing. Okay, so when I if you are two weeks out, I would really skip the attraction part and do more nurture and selling. So like, because a lot of times with Instagram, your reels take one to two weeks to go viral anyway. Like to get the traction that they are going to get. I thought, oh yeah,

Salena Knight 18:47
two weeks in Instagram land. Was like, You are died in grave. Not

Speaker 1 18:51
anymore Instagram content. Most of my viral reels don't go viral for about three weeks. Wow. And sometimes it can be sooner, but your Instagram content is lasting longer than it used to. And so I would focus on, how do I get my audience engaged? Because Instagram is looking at engagement to determine if your content is going to be seen next week, when you're selling. So how can I engage my audience right now? Are there, is there anything that I can do that my audience would like just eat up, that would be so valuable that they'd want to share it with a friend. Because right now, Instagram is looking at shares per post and shares per view. If it's a real or shares, you know how many people? What's a percentage of people who are sharing your content that are viewing it? Because shares are where it's at right now on Instagram. So if you can create this content that is getting more shares, probably more nurture related, right? It's like more value driven, then Instagram is going to start showing that quickly to more people if you get more shares. So I would focus more on nurture and getting people ready to sell like, you know, for if we're two weeks out, we're going to nurture, nurture. And then next week, we're going to get ready to sell. I

Salena Knight 20:01
know that you mentioned before some of the things that retail and E commerce brands could be doing in that nurture phase, but in case people weren't listening, which is highly likely, well maybe not. They weren't listening, but they didn't, you know, they didn't mentally bookmark that spot. Can you maybe go through some of the things we're posting in our reels, in our stories. Are they different? Are we posting different content for nurture content in those places? So what are some examples of what we could be posting, and where are we posting that content? Sure.

Speaker 1 20:31
So with, if you as a e commerce and retail brand, we should still be adding value to our audience, right? We should still be adding value in some way. So that can be education. It can be, we get people engaged. We are funny, right? We're entertaining people. So we've got to figure out, like, what, how do we add value to our brand and to our people? One of my, one of my clients, is their happy, happy house plant on Instagram. They're amazing. And she is a retail brand, and she sells plant food, the best plant food ever. Okay, so, but she spends a lot of her content not just being by my product, by my product, but being a resource for people who like house plants. So, so when she's nurturing her audience like it's it's actually providing a ton of value, and then that is a really easy way to turn people into customers. So when we are selling, and I recommend that when when you're selling, especially in your feed, then you're going to want to make sure that you're it's think about, how can I still add value and sell my product, right? Stories, you know, or giving me, showing me the transformation. I took this plant that was on death store to now it's flourishing, right? Like, how can you show the transformation? Because if you show up, this is how I see most e commerce brands use Instagram. Is they use it as a billboard. They'll just put a post up and it's like either a random quote or it is like some obscure statistic or whatever. That does not connect me with your brand. And so if you want to show up and be different, if you want to show up, then build a personal connection and start solving actual problems that people actually have, right? And start tapping into those emotions. So that's going to be in your feed, in your stories, you can sell a lot more. You can talk directly to camera. I sell most in my stories, and not as not a ton on my feed. Mostly it's in my stories, because and, and if you're an E commerce brand, I would just be constantly sharing the story of what your life, the transformation that your product gives people. That's what that's how I would be selling, because that's what gets people right.

Salena Knight 22:51
So you're talking about these different ways to nurture and like, I'm not the creative person, but as you're talking I used to have a baby and kids brand, and so I'm just thinking about the things that used to connect with my customers. And I'm guessing something that we could have shown back in the day Instagram was not around, was maybe something like taking a kid's t shirt, you're getting it dirty, and then washing it and saying, look how well this came up. It like as a parent, that's what you're looking for. You want durable clothes, or you want, you know, here's this shirt, and it goes with four different pairs of pants,

Speaker 1 23:26
right? That's exactly right. Like, like, showing your products. And be like, Hey, let's build a capsule wardrobe with with eight products for your kids, right? Then you could have five shirts, really, right? Right? Like, show, give the value, and start meeting people, your customers, where they're at, right? Because it's like, you know, you have all these moms who are looking at, maybe they have three or four kids, and they're looking at, like, oh my gosh, I have to buy 1 million pairs of jeans and 6 million shirts, right? But if you were able to say, like, Hey, you are, you could declutter, right? You wouldn't have a ton of clothes in your house, but you can make a capsule wardrobe this way. Let me show you how to do it. Then suddenly you're serving them and meeting them right where you're at, and you're becoming the expert and adding that trust factor. Because you start, you started with value, and then the selling doesn't it's not hard, or it's not weird, because you were, you were actually building a relationship. It's funny.

Salena Knight 24:22
The things that you remember, like even 15 years later, is we used to sell this little stuffed toy, and it was a it was like a flat bear. And it was funny, because it came in all different characters, but this one particular character, it had this habit of just disappearing in the store and turning up somewhere else. I assume people would pick it up and put it somewhere different. But it was just so random that it was this one particular character that used to just move around the store. And so we used to take like, this is pre Elf on the Shelf. Guys like, this is, you know, this is OG original. Retail, but we would take pictures of where it had turned up, and we would post them on Facebook. It's like, oh, look, the bear is here. Oh, look, the bear is there. And even in the product description, we ended up changing the product description to say this got us a little bit sneaky. He's gonna turn up in places that you never thought. It was always a little bit fun. But I guess it's really thinking about I guess, even just taking what your customers are saying when they're talking to you and like, can you make something as simple as a quote that they've given you into a piece of content that somebody else could be useful? So if someone's asking, Hey, how does this shirt wash? Hey, will this bear be suitable for my two year old, or is it better for a younger kid? Like just taking those pieces of information and using that to make content, yeah,

Speaker 1 25:44
absolutely. And especially, like, I love that example of having that little bear that, you know, just appeared everywhere. And it's like, having an inside joke with your audience is so great, right? Because it's like, it's one of those touch points where they can be like, Oh my gosh. Like, I can't, I can't wait to see where the bear ends up. And then it could be like, then you could get your audience involved, and they could start taking their bear on family trips or vacations. And like, the bear suddenly in Spain, and we, you know, I just think, like, of course, I took it to a different level, but that's what I do. But I think, like, just knowing that it can be so fun, like that is so fun, right? To be able to connect and to have a little inside joke and to be making fun and like, just, it's light hearted, and it's just a way that, like, helps your brand stand out in a way that another brand can't.

Salena Knight 26:33
So we now have our ratio of what we're posting pre Black Friday. What would you posting during Black Friday? I would love to know what are your suggestions post Black Friday. So in that gap between Cyber Monday and Christmas, which is very, very small this year, because Cyber Monday falls on the second of December, I'm going to say so we really only have a couple of weeks to be then moving straight into our Christmas selling. What are we doing differently in that time frame? So

Speaker 1 27:05
you you have to know that this is going to be allowed time to be on social media too, right? People are not going to businesses aren't going to shut up after Black Friday, Cyber Monday, and they're going to be posting. So how can you show up and bring your audience along? So are there special deals that you can have, you know, or are there is there a special series or something that you could bring your audience along with you, that that you could have content that they are coming to expect and that they are looking forward to, whether that content are deals or whether it's tips or whatever. But how can you keep your audience engaged and and keep them coming throughout that week? Because, and you have to, I'm going to say it again, everyone's going to be like, everyone's going to be posting, right? Because, especially when you're when you're mailing physical products, like you have a timeline before you can't get any other products to your to your house. But by Christmas,

Salena Knight 28:01
then we just filled out cards. That's the plan. Gift

Speaker 1 28:04
cards. Yeah, absolutely. Gift cards are great, but you want to push for those last two right? Those two weeks between December, December 2, which is Cyber Monday, to like the 15th, you still that's your selling period as well. So, so I would like not stop selling, but I would try to do it in a way that is unexpected, right? I just got off a phone with a client, and she's like, I'm doing a cookie, a cookie recipe every day for 15 days after Black Friday. So it was like, No, she's, she's like, a recipe person, right? And so she's so but, and of course, that doesn't quite fit the retail but, like, it would if you sell kitchen sold kitchen products, right? Yeah, you know, like, so is there something fun that you could get people involved in that and, and I'm gonna say fun again, because we are going to stand out. The way we stand out is through our energy. And maybe your energy isn't fun. And, like, you know, like laughing, but like, how can you think of something creative that no one else is doing and that would get your audience involved? Whether that's like a lot of people do, like the 12 days of Christmas, a lot of people do things like that, and that 12 days could have could be like 12 days of deals, or it could be like 12 Days of Giving. It could be so many different things. But just thinking ahead to we have this time and what would be fun for us as a company, what would our audience enjoy and what would benefit our bottom line? Yeah,

Salena Knight 29:32
and I think what I'm taking from you here is you can unashamedly sell during this period. Yeah, can unashamedly post way more than you feel comfortable with. And the thing is, a lot of people aren't even going to see it like you feel like it might be overwhelming, and you feel like, oh my gosh, it's the same as emails. You can send 15 emails. I can guarantee you, most people aren't opening 15 emails, and if they are, they're probably. Gonna buy something like then you will find most people don't unsubscribe in this period, because we're just we're just taught, we just know that our inbox is going to be COVID. And I don't know about you, but unless I'm looking for something, I just get in there in the morning and I Bulk Delete until I find the thing, the thing that I'm looking for pops up. And I go, Oh yeah, I'll click on that one, right,

Speaker 1 30:21
right? And we know, like, as consumers, we know this is a selling period, so don't be ashamed of that. And it's actually would be weird, right? If you had a company who was like, dancing around that they were selling something, right? Let's just, let's just be, let's just do it like we're selling. That's, yeah, let's double down on Yeah. We want to, want to give you some chills during this time when everyone's buying. And

Salena Knight 30:43
I think the other thing we forget is if you choose not to sell, and we have had some podcasts where we've talked about some anti Black Friday opportunities, where, if it's not in alignment with your brand, some other things that you can be doing to be anti Black Friday, but which also attract attention and engagement, which you could be leveraging. But I think the what people forget is, if you're not doing it, your competitors are, and they're going to take those sales like people are going to spend regardless during this time. Do you want their money, or do you want their competitors to take that money? To take that money?

Speaker 1 31:19
Yeah, and we get really in our head about, about being bugging people, and I'm again, like, it's, you're a business, like, you'll

Salena Knight 31:30
be to sell stuff.

Speaker 1 31:31
This is your job. This is part of having a business. And I have never went, you know, when I go to the store and I'm like, looking for a present for my sister. I'm like, so grateful that I found what I wanted, right? I'm never like, dang it. Wish This wasn't here, and we just have to know that that's true, that we are here to let the right people know that we have the right product for them.

Salena Knight 31:57
And if people weren't interested, they wouldn't have gone through your website, or they wouldn't have walked in your door. I always use this analogy of, I won't walk into a music shop because I'm not. I don't play an instrument unless I was specifically going there to buy something for someone. If I'm waiting for the bus, I'm not going to walk into a guitar shop. Not interested. But if I was somewhat interested, if I if that was the chance that I might buy something, I would walk into that shop. And so people, quite often, think that people might just be window shopping. It's like, Yeah, but there's still something in your store that brought them in. Otherwise they would have just stayed outside. They would have just scrolled on their phone. They would just talk to the person that they're with. So like you said, I think we quite often get in our heads. Can we circle back to the comment that you made about being the face of the brand? Because it is this juggling act, where, if you're trying to scale and grow, then I feel like, well, I feel that that that could be a bit of a detriment, because when you go to sell, the person who wants to buy says, Well, you're the face of the brand. If we take you out of the equation, then the price of the brand, the value of the brand, drops. So can you maybe give us your opinion? Because my opinion is not always

Speaker 1 33:16
right, yeah. So I think it depends on what your ultimate goal is, right. If you are someone who, like, this is your brand, you really have no intention of selling, then being the face of your brand, it's so much easier to have a brand that has a person behind it, because people connect with it. And I also think there's a world in which you build a brand with a face, and then as you are getting ready to sell, if that's what you're going to do, you can start transitioning before you sell, to to taking the face out of it and making it more faceless. So I think that there's a place for everything, but it really depends on what your goals are and what what you want to do with the brand. I know some retail brands who they started out as the face and then they started. She's one of my clients has, like, a clothing shop. And so she started out as a face grew pretty quickly. And then she started incorporating an assistant who, like, was, you know, would do the try ons. And then so she just started transitioning over, like, a year, transitioning herself out, and because she just, she couldn't do it anymore, right? It was just too much. But that face at the beginning did make it easy, easier for her to grow faster because they had that connection point. Is it the only way to do it? Absolutely not. And on Instagram, it tends to be a little bit easier.

Salena Knight 34:32
Okay, so if you're maybe past the point where you're working in your store every day, or you've gone past face at the brand, can you maybe just throw in some examples for people who do have one of their store associates doing the try ons, or do a lot of maybe product based pictures rather than the more nurturing and engaging posts, what are some creative things that maybe people haven't thought of that they can be using? If they're not the face of the brand, or they don't want to be in there all the time,

Speaker 1 35:05
yeah, I would start using UGC content, right? User generated content. So there's, there are people that you can pay, not very much money, to create this content for you, and they're good content creators.

Salena Knight 35:16
You can jump in there and say, Yeah, we just had a fantastic company called Air post on the podcast talking about Black Friday, Cyber Monday. And what they do is, you send the product to them, they create the content, and the content is only $150 and you only pay if you decide you want it.

Speaker 1 35:34
Wow, that's incredible. Yeah. So I think that there's that type of UGC. And then I think there's also, I would start using influencer marketing. I mean, if I didn't want to be the face of my brand, I would get my product in the hands of every influencer. And you just know, I know you're going to tell me influencers like, it's hard, because you don't ever know if they're really going to post or whatever. So either pay people, because then you can, you can set the terms for how you want your product to be seen in their content. Or you just, you just know that it's a it's a numbers game that, like, if you send 100 out, you're gonna get 20 people that that talk about it. But I just know that, like affiliate marketing, I would just go like, I would go all in on that and get, get people to start creating content taught who already have a who already have a following, that they know that the following trust this influencer and have them use your product in everyday life. Because those, those people I was, I was gonna say women, because a lot of them are women, but they are really good content creators, really good content creators. And so if you can get their your product in their hands, it's, it's, it would be fascinating. It is fascinating to hear how they talk to their audience about the problem that your product solves. And so I would definitely do UGC. I would do affiliate marketing. And then I would, I would do, I would get not like when I say user, I mean, like people who are actually using your content to, you know, create that content for you.

Salena Knight 37:07
I feel like I was such a pioneer, like back in the day, all these years ago, I'm so old. Back in the day, what we used to have was reviews board, and so we would have these VIP client, VIP customers who would get first dibs when companies would send us product to test. Because we got to the point where none of us in the store had babies. All of our kids had grown up, and so we needed babies to try these things on. So we had this, I think there were seven altogether, and we just gave them like a bit of a run sheet of when you do a review, these are the things you need to cover off. You know, brand new mums, they think it's great this. Remember, this was before the time when this was before Instagram, so the idea of being on a blog and having your picture out there like it was a big thing, and you got to show all your friends, but it meant that we had somebody who we had this team of people that we could rely on to create that content for us. And this was when we were doing a lot of blogs. Lot of blogs, and blogs used to take a lot of work, and so again, if you could be getting somebody in to be doing that work for you, that was always a bonus. But I love the way that you also referenced affiliates, because shameless plug here, we just did a podcast with Zane from commission factory, who told us all about how to use affiliates to grow our retail and E commerce brands, and especially how to use them for Black Friday Cyber Monday. So it's like, I just fed you all of your dad.

Unknown Speaker 38:28
I like, I felt it. I felt it.

Salena Knight 38:33
All right, Michelle, I know that you have this content calendar that regardless of whether people are two weeks out, whether this is four weeks out, I've been through the calendar. I looked at it, I thought it was amazing. I'm going to allow you to do a shameless plug here and sell it, because that's what we do as business owners. So tell us more about the content cup. You didn't ask to do this. I just think this is a, you know, it's a community service. I get nothing for it, but I think that the people out there who are really struggling with social media. Could utilize this resource.

Speaker 1 39:04
Great. Thank you. So we created a Black Friday blueprint, and it walks you through a calendar of what to post when on which day. It gives you the prompts and the templates that you need, and we also tied it into the other marketing platforms that you are already using. We have email templates. We have SMS templates. We have affiliate emails that you send out to your affiliates to to get them prepared for for Black Friday and Cyber Monday. And so we did the strategy, because I'm all about like, hey, let's use this. We got to be strategic about this time and the content we're creating, because it takes a lot of time and energy, and then, and then, how do we make it easy, strategic and easy. That's what I wanted this to be. So we created the strategy for you with a calendar review, and then we also did all the templates, the email templates, the Canva templates, the text templates, all of the things that you need to make your content creation for Black Friday super easy. Okay. Where do we get it? You can go to I am Michelle gifford.com Com slash Black Friday, and you're gonna love it. It's gonna be great. Okay,

Salena Knight 40:04
I will make sure that the link goes in the show notes. We'll make sure we post that link on social as well, because, as I said, I've been through it. You were gracious enough to let me have a look, and I thought it was amazing. I don't very often let people do shameless plugs on this podcast, but this is one of those times when I just think, you know what, if they buy this thing, it's a win, win.

Speaker 1 40:24
Yeah, it's great, and it's only 97 bucks. So, like, that's worth an email, right? Like, that's I'm like, if I don't have to write my emails, are you kidding me? That's worth it. Love it.

Salena Knight 40:34
Love it. Michelle, thank you so much for sharing. I have all these stats. I'm going to make sure I combine all of these in the show notes, very succinctly, the different percentages ratios. I love a good ratio. Remember, don't have to be mathematical, but I love a good ratio. I love the ideas that you gave us that we can use for our content. Thank you so much for sharing all of that.

Speaker 1 40:55
Thank you so much for having me. This is such a joy. I love talking to you and your audience. Thank you so much.

Salena Knight 41:03
So that's a wrap. I'd love to hear what insight you've gotten from this episode and how you're going to put it into action. If you're a social kind of person, follow me at the Selena night and make sure to leave a comment and let me know. And if this episode made you think a little bit differently, or gave you some inspiration, or perhaps gave you the kick that you needed to take action, then please take a couple of minutes to leave me a review on your platform of choice, because the more reviews the show gets, the more independent retail and E commerce stores just like yours, that we can help to scale, and when that happens, it's a win for you, a win for your community and a win for your customers. I'll see you on the next episode.

Michelle Gifford is THE social media expert! She helps business owners message and market their business, inspiring them to take action and delivering the tools to make it happen.

She's helped hundreds of businesses and been the strategist behind 6 and 7-figure brands and launches.

Michelle is a “serial entrepreneur” who was a photographer, dressmaker, and business strategist. With each new venture, she learned valuable skills along the way.

She doesn’t hold anything back, she’ll share her wins and losses openly, and she knows entrepreneurship inside and out.

Too often women feel isolated as entrepreneurs and moms, but Michelle has built a community of women working to fulfill their goals through her expert coaching and guidance.