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It’s National Train Your 🦮 Dog Month, Reader... Sit 🐕 UBU, sit! Good dog.

In today’s edition:

• Today's 👉 Tip of the Day is for marketing strategy

• 🛠️ Scaling lead acquisition and sales

• ⚡️ 2024 marketing trends from Facebook

• New TikTok 🔥 measurement points

• 📣 Additional industry news from Threads and X/Twitter

Are you struggling to build awareness with potential customers? Maybe the issue is that your customers don't even know they have a problem, let alone one you can solve.

Persuade Cold Prospects’ Brains to Pay Attention to You

The trick is not to explicitly name the problem you solve, at least at first. 

Instead, focus on the symptoms and pick away at them until your audience gradually becomes aware that this issue is bothering them. Make your audience aware of their problem by highlighting all of the little irritations and pain points that it causes.

For example, if you’re marketing an at-home espresso machine, instead of comparing it with cheaper home methods, compare making coffee at home with the hassle of going out for barista-made coffee. 

Soon, consumers will reach a tipping point where they become problem-aware—what Google refers to as “the Zero Moment of Truth.”

Today's tip is inspired by Kenda Macdonald.

Your Opinion Means a Lot!

We know you love this newsletter. But sometimes, you may wish that we covered something different or in a little more detail. This is your chance to help shape the topics that we focus on in 2024. 

How? Each year we survey our subscribers and customers. And we use the data to plan out our content for the year. As a newsletter subscriber, your opinion means a lot to us. 

Would you please take a few minutes to participate in our annual survey?

I want to share my feedback!

A Scalable Strategy to Acquire and Convert Customers

The likes, comments, or shares on your social media content are great vanity metrics but they don’t mean anything to your bottom line. 

The truth is that 80% of business results that apply to your bottom line come from 20% of your effort on social media; the ads and clicks that actually funnel customers into your business

You can improve that 20:80 ratio dramatically with a strategy that lets you track the exact percentage of viewers who become leads and leads who become customers. And, best of all, you can scale up your results without scaling up your effort because each step of this strategy brings a specific benefit to your social media marketing.

Step 1

Your first task is to identify the channels that deliver the highest volume of traffic. 

Next, decide how to leverage each traffic source to reach more people. The most effective customer acquisition machines use a mix of paid and organic sources because most people won’t be ready to convert after seeing just one of your ads. Instead, they’ll see an ad and interact with your organic content over time, and then finally be ready to move to your lead mechanism.

Scaling Tip: Focus on paid customer acquisition channels to help you scale fast in the short term, and use organic content to increase your conversion rates in the long term.

Step 2

Attention without conversions gets you nowhere. You’ll need an effective lead mechanism to qualify those viewers as leads so you can nurture them toward a sale. Things like: free training such as a webinar, masterclass, or mini-course; case studies that educate or inspire; access to assets such as templates; or a direct video sales letter that makes the case for doing business with you.

The key is to offer something valuable that your prospects want access to so that they’ll fill in a registration with the details you need to assess each lead and contact them again.

Scaling Tip: Your lead generators should have a much greater effect than the effort it takes to create them. For example, after you spend just a few minutes recording a video sales letter, you can use it to reach hundreds or even thousands of leads. That means you can scale up fast.

Step 3

If you’ve completed the first two phases correctly, then these will be the easiest sales you’ve ever made. Whether you make all of your sales calls personally or you’ve scaled up enough to have a sales team, there is one golden rule to improve your close rates: never book a sales call for more than 24 hours in the future.

Scaling Tip: Create and use a document of common objections and how to handle them. Then, refine and optimize your lead mechanisms and offer based on each call and customer feedback.

Today's advice is provided with insights from Ravi Abuvala, a featured speaker at Social Media Marketing World.

An Extra Day of Training for Reader?

Many attendees tell us the workshops are the most valuable part of Social Media Marketing World.

Here’s what’s waiting for you with your All-Access ticket:

🔥 J.J. Peterson: Using the Power of Story in Business

🔥 John Jantsch: How to Make Referrals Your Most Effective Marketing Channel 

🔥 Melanie Deziel: A Complete Content Marketing System 

🔥 Ben Amos: Video Strategy: A Proven Framework for Repeatable Success

🔥 Alex Cattoni: Build Trust, Create Believability, and Inspire Action With the Written Word

🔥 Jeff Oxford: SEO Ranking in 2024: Create Content That Delivers Search Traffic

YES… I want the extra training!

🗞 Facebook Trends: After featuring top marketers in our 2023 Performance Talks series, one key theme emerged: AI drove performance and strategy for innovative companies this past year. As we enter 2024, Meta leaders predict three trends that will shape digital advertising performance: Messaging will help businesses be more productive, as people want to communicate with companies the same way they do with friends. In 2024, conversations within chats will enable people and businesses to accomplish more; With over 200 billion Reels plays daily, performance will improve through creative content built specifically for Reels. Meeting audiences where they consume content will lead to better campaign results; Generative AI tools will unlock performance by helping businesses quickly and effectively create and scale ads. AI will transition from a buzzword to an essential tool for creative teams to boost output and optimize performance. The consensus is that 2024 will usher in a new era of AI-driven digital experiences that inform strategy and lift performance to the next level. Messaging and short video represent key mediums through which businesses can harness this AI potential and connect with audiences. Source: Facebook

🗞 Threads “Latest” Feature: Yesterday, some iOS Threads users reported seeing a new "Latest" option to sort search results on the social media app. However, Threads stated this was an internal prototype accidentally made available to a small number of people, not an externally tested feature. Source: TechCrunch

🗞 TikTok Cross-Channel and Lift Measurement: The TikTok Marketing Partners Program is expanding its Measurement Badge category by announcing two new partner specialties. The new Cross-Channel partners focus on TikTok's influence across digital touchpoints leading up to a purchase. This includes multi-touch attribution, analyzing effectiveness across channels, and post-purchase surveys gathering direct customer feedback. The new Lift partners specialize in measuring TikTok's incremental impact, through brand lift polling, sales lift, store visit lift, and tune-in lift. After extensive cooperation with TikTok and global advertisers, these partners meet the highest measurement standards in their fields. The additions both widen the scope of expertise in the Program and provide brands with fuller insights into TikTok's value. Source: TikTok

🗞 Vertical Video Ads and Brand Safety on X/Twitter: On February 1st, 2024, X will expand access to a pilot program that partners with Integral Ad Science (IAS), a global media measurement and optimization platform. This partnership classifies vertical video ad environments for brand safety and suitability, following industry standards. Through the program, advertisers gain control of ad placement within X's vertical video feed. Since launching, the pilot has provided strong results for ensuring appropriate brand safety. Given the success thus far, X aims to make the IAS partnership available to all United States advertisers. Additionally, X plans to grow its internal brand safety team in Q1 2024, hiring new positions like a partner manager and operations manager. Source: X/Twitter

Did You Know?

Dorothy’s Toto was a Cairn Terrier. FYI: Cairn Terriers tend to be left-pawed.