Episode 19: This is the kiss of death for boutiques and brands

In todays episode, Ali Dee discusses the importance of this one main part of your business that is often neglected that you must tackle and get good at immediately so you can skyrocket your sales.

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Hello friends. Welcome to the retail success club podcast. Today, we're going to talk about why you cannot under any circumstances. Outsource your marketing for your boutique or your brand, especially when you're just getting started. I would say anywhere from the zero to five years in business. Or $0 to, you know, 20 K months, if you're in that range. You cannot even think about outsourcing your marketing. So let me talk about what that means and why this is so important that you understand this concept today. I was doing dishes this morning and I was like, you know what? I need to talk about this because I hear so many boutique owners and brand owners when they first like, get in contact with me or find my page. And they're like either one they've hired somebody else to do their social media for them or their marketing for them without actually even knowing the most foundational things that they need to tell that person. So they can make sure that they're getting the biggest bang for their buck when it comes to actually outsourcing your marketing. For example, they have to know exactly who your ideal customer is. You have to be able to. Hand over what I call like a brand Bible or a brand guide. So they know every single thing that goes down with you and your brand. Like there's so much that has to happen to actually get your ROI when you are outsourcing your marketing. But this can also look like something smaller. So that's like an agency example. But this could also look like you just deciding that, you know, the young girl in your store is going to be the star of your social media or your neighbor's daughter is 18, and she's going to make tech talks for you. Okay. I see this all the time. And what happens is there is a major disconnect between the products they're selling and who the ideal customer is and who the store owner is and how they're buying these products for certain people. And those people that are showing up on their social media that are actually implementing their marketing are not going to be able to communicate the message effectively, no matter how hard they try, they are not the woman. For the job. And I see this so much, like I'll go to boutiques and you're like, oh yeah, well, I have, you know, so-and-so in my store. She's been doing all my tech talks and I'm like, yeah. But, but why, because she's not the person who should be selling your products or be in charge of your marketing. So guys, let me just, let me just go. I'm already diving right in, because this is like a hot topic for me. I am serious about this. But let me just talk about your job. As the business owner. Like one of the most important things you will do. Is develop your marketing strategy. And for some reason, and I was the same way. So it's like I'm all high and mighty, but for some reason, this like falls to the bottom of our priority list because. We think, oh, well I'm busy shipping. I'm busy adding new products to the Shopify site. I'm busy, you know, doing whatever the heck is that we run around and fill up our to-do lists with. And then at the end of the day, I realized we haven't posted on social media, which is literally the most important thing you're going to do to generate sales. Like you're nothing without your content, because your content brings in your sales. If you're selling online, right? If you have a brick and mortar, while you have another sales channel, they're good for you. But there's a lot of us out there that are just selling online or a lot of you out there that are just selling online. And this is your sales channel. Your sales strategy is from sales generated. With your content, but we're putting it at the bottom of our priority list or we're divvying it out to someone else who we think is going to figure it out easier than we are. So like, what are the number one things I hear boutiques and brands saying, and you may be over there going, oh my gosh, Allie's talking directly to me right now. Is that a lot of times you think like, well, I'm just not good enough to be the face of the brand or the boutique or I, um, I'm not likable. I don't know how to be on camera. I'm. So cringe, I'm not the one to do this. Like I need. like all those things. I hear those thoughts. So many times from boutiques and brands, when either they first start working with me and like the trends that our membership or in sales lab, this is like one of the first things that there's terrified to show up online and be the face of their boutique or brand. But here's the cold, hard truth. You are exactly the right person to sell your items. So just let that sink in for a second. You are 1000000% good enough. 1000000% the person to do the job. 1000000%. The one who's going to generate the most sales. And 100% the person who should be the face of the brand. So you literally are good enough. You are exactly the right person. You were exactly the person who needs to do this. So I hope I'm like getting this point home to you that there was no one out there that you're going to hire. That's going to be better that than you for this job. And here's why. Going back to a little bit. What I said earlier, you're the one that's doing the buying for the boutique. Okay. Cause Lord knows we're not outsourcing our buying. You're the one that's doing the buying for your boutique. You're the one that's coming up with the products for your brand. So you have. All of the reasons why this item is going to be perfect for somebody who's looking to shop and who may need an item like you have. So you may think, well, you know, I'm just, I don't know that I can communicate that you're going to learn all of this. Okay. Everybody that is successful in this business understands that they have to learn everything that it takes. To show up and sell online. And you're going to learn it too. It's not like it's that complicated. All it is is you just have to learn the skills. This is what I always tell my students. I always say, showing up and posting on social media is a learned skill. This is not something we're born with. This is not something we can naturally do. The biggest and best boutiques in the world had to get good at this skill. And you will too. You just have to decide right now, like, okay, I get it. Allie said, I'm the woman for the job. I'm the fricking woman for the job. Because another thing is guys, this is the biggest needle mover for your business. You have to know exactly what it takes to move product for your business. Before you can tell somebody else what to do, because you're just throwing them out there to the wolves. And they're gonna, they're gonna feel bad because they're not going to be able to generate any sales for you. And there's just always going to be this well, she's doing the trending audio or she's doing this, or we're showing our new arrivals or we're showing up in front of our. You know, cute background or whatever it is, but nothing's moving, nothing's moving it's because you're putting somebody in a position to do a job that they don't know how to do, because you're not telling them how to sell. So you have to be in a position to learn what it takes to be able to coach somebody else to do that. And we're not there. Like, let's just be. We got to get there. And the way we're going to get there is by jumping in front of the camera, ourselves, learning the strategies and techniques. You can learn all this inside the trends that our membership. 'cause I think the biggest thing too, is that a lot of times we just think, oh, we'll figure it out. We'll figure it out. We'll figure it out. And months, and months and months goes by six months, seven months, eight months a year. We've had our store and we haven't yet figured it out because you're not just going to quote unquote, figure it out. You have to learn the strategy it takes to sell online. This is what I do in the trends that are content strategy. It's a very specific way that I teach my students to show up and post on a daily basis. So they're never wondering what to, what to post or how to sell, because I fricking tell you. But this is what it takes. It takes an actual strategy. So I, I want you to just like, take a deep breath and go. Okay. Well, I get now that I need to be the one showing up. I get now that I'm not going to just magically figure out how to do this and that's okay. You have to learn business. You got to give yourself a little grace here. You can't just expect yourself to show up and kill it the first day or the first week or the first month or the first three months. But, you know what. After a couple months, you're going to look back and go, okay, I know how to do this. I have the strategy. I've been doing the reps. Look, I look a little bit more natural on camera. I'm starting to figure it out, but if you just. Outsource it. Quote, unquote to someone else. And they continue to not get results, not get results, not get results. None of that's going to change unless you know what to do and you know how to do it. And you step in and do it. So that's the first thing. Just knowing that you are exactly the person who should be selling your products and you don't have to be whatever is in your head that you think needs to be the person, you know, the, the like most bubbly, fun leather. Blah, blah, blah. Like none of that matters. You're the girl you're going to attract your ideal customer. Listen, there's boutique owners out there that are bubbly, AAF. There's boutique owners out there that are super serious. and they all have amazing customer bases because not everybody in the world is fricking bubbly SU and not everybody in the world is serious Sue and not everybody. And so everybody has different people that they vibe with. So I really want you to just take that to heart, because this is something that we have to get over as an industry. You know, just because you're 40 something or 50 something or whatever it is, doesn't mean that you can't learn and fricking learn to own social media and dominate the heck out of it. It's not about how old you are. It's not about, you know, Any of the things that you think it's about, it's about you owning who you are, being confident in yourself, showing up and understanding that you're the best person for the job. You you are. So let's just, let's just own that. Okay. And again, it's the biggest needle mover for your business? Why are we outsourcing that to someone who's, you know, fresh out of high school? They're not going to get it. You know, I know that that's like something like, well, I'm just going to push this off on somebody else because I don't want to deal with it. I have too many other things to do on my to-do lists, but I'm telling you, you can teach anybody how to ship. You can teach anybody how to add new product. You can teach anybody how to edit your photos or whatever it is that you feel like is so much more important than learning social media. You're not learning it because you're procrastinating because that's the, at the end of the day, you don't want to do it, but you got to do it. And we're going to totally change your mindset. So you feel super confident and super comfortable doing it. So that's the scoop on that. And then another thing is. And I really want this to like, Be absorbed as well. And this is, I'm going to sound a little bit like an old fuddy-duddy here, but it is what it is because it's the truth. The way that we are able to now show up online. Create content. Post it and within seconds reach thousands of people. Who are interested in buying from us? Is the biggest blessing to any business? In the entire universe right now. Because not that long ago. Literally 10 years ago, take talk. Wasn't even around. 15 years ago, Instagram was just getting started. Maybe it was 10 years ago, even. So there was before that it was Facebook. Otherwise, you were literally like a new PR. You may not even know what this is, but you are literally buying an ad in a phone book to reach people like you were spending hundreds and thousands of dollars to try to advertise your business. And now we can do it for absolutely free. With the push of a button, the only thing that costs you is your investment in learning the strategy and learning how to show up, which let me tell you is a heck of a lot cheaper. Than actually buying advertising back in the day to get your business in front of maybe. The right people. And social media. When your content strategy is so good. And so honed in every single time you post content, you will get sales from it because you have so dialed in and train the algorithm on exactly who your content is for. That within minutes of posting you'll get sales. And this is how it is for me. And this is how it is for a lot of my students right now. They joined trendsetter. They're kind of like, oh, I've been posting. I'm not really seeing a lot of sales. I've gone weeks without an online sale. I don't know what to do. I'm posting every day. They learn the trends that our content strategy. And I'm telling you within days of applying the strategy, everything changes for their business because they understand, oh, this is how you show up and sell online. This is what I need to be doing. This is actually how I can spend. A few minutes, a day, creating and posting content and get hundreds and thousands of dollars worth of sales from just my effort. And a little bit of an investment in how to learn, like for example, the trends that our membership is 97 bucks to join. Hello. What if $97 brings in thousands of dollars in sales? Would you say yes to that? Um, Frick? Yeah. So it's just understanding you're the woman for the job. Number one. Number two, this is the biggest needle mover in your business. We can't hand this responsibility off to anybody else. And number three, we are so lucky and we take for granted sometimes that we're able to show up and post and reach thousands of people for our businesses every single day. And these, this is the cold hard truth. When I talk about don't outsource your marketing, don't count on somebody else to show up for you on social media. It's too important. It's too fricking important to your business. So, yes. Can the 18 year old at your store help you ship and pack? Yes. Can she help you organize? Yes. Can she be the face of your social media, if that is not your target market? No. So we just really need to like, have a whole, a whole heartedly, honest to God discussion. Because I want you to feel comfortable and confident knowing you are the woman for the job. Okay. I hope you have an amazing day. Please be sure you hit me up on IgE. Let me know you listen to this episode, share it. Tell your friends about it that are in the industry. I am just, my mission is to make sure that the next wave of women step into their million dollar era and start building massive impact online. I know you can do this. I believe in you have an amazing rest of your day.