Podcast Episode

TRANSCRIPT

Hello, and welcome back to the sales show. I'm your host, Maree Kirkpatrick, and we are coming into the end of Quarter one and the beginning of quarter 2. And so I thought, today's podcast we would look at what are the marketing trends to watch in 2025. Now that things have settled down. People are getting back into the year, and what? Not only what are those sales trends, but what's working, what's not working? And how can we boost ourselves based on what we are looking at? So there are still business owners out there, and I talk to them on a regular basis that are doing the absolute most on social media. They are busting their backside, they are constantly creating content. They are wondering why no one is buying. and I guarantee that it's probably not because what they offer isn't great, or that they're not good at what they do, and it's not because of the climate or the election or anything else going on outside our business environment.

It's because we don't have a really good marketing and sales strategy, or that we're stuck in stuff that used to work, maybe back in 2023, 2024.

But we need to move with the with what's going on in the world. But we also need to move with the current trends of business, and how our consumers are buying these days. So I'm going to give you a really fast, punchy download of what's not working anymore so that you can stop doing any of that if you are, we're going to look at what's working right now, so you can double down on that and really turn up your marketing and sales based around that. And then what we need to lean into to stay ahead of the curve in 2025 to really just boost your business. And it's not just going to be like a used video and show up consistently. Type list. Right? You should know me better than that. I like to give you really good, juicy stuff that you can work with the real conversion driven stuff that is going to move your business forward. And I I'm working with clients day in and day out. I'm working with her. Her sales club members. So I know what people are trying, what's working, what's not? I watch the industry quite closely.

And so let's look at what we actually need to do to build our business. But I want to start with what's not working. And if you're taking off a few of these, I want you to kind of maybe stop doing them or consider what else you can do differently. So here's what's not working. What is not working is posting daily with no real clear messaging and no real clear strategy. So posting just to stay top of mind or posting, just to have your social media out there, and you know, doing your social media thing, because that's what you feel like everyone else is doing is not going to work. Okay. It is a quick path to Burnout. It is a quick path to lack of consistency and not wanting to do anything you're showing up. Yes, but you're not probably leading anyone towards a cell, and you've got no real strategy behind it. So we want to stop the posting just for visibility purposes, with no messaging and no strategy behind it.

The second thing we want to look at is we want to stop the long and confusing sales funnels. Now, I'm always curious when I purchase people's stuff. Or I join a wait list, or I opt in for something to see what their sales funnels are. Now, the day of 12 email sequences, multiple landing pages, and you know, pre-recorded webinars. And all of that is so not what people are wanting these days. People want fast paths to value. We want quick wins. We want to be able to move our business forward, or whatever it is that they're opting in for we don't want to be reading 12 emails to get to what it is that you can actually help us with. So if your pro, if your sales process and your buying process feels really long and like a maze. let's stop doing that. Okay, because it's not really going to work for you. I guarantee that there's better ways that you can do it.

The other thing that I see people doing is around launching. So I see people that haven't got a clear strategy behind them that haven't planned for their year, or their month, or their quarter, or whatever it is, and so they go up all of a sudden. I'm just going to drop a new and exciting thing, and people are just going to buy it. It doesn't really work like that. You can't ghost your audience for weeks and then scream can't open or buy now and expect results just doesn't work. And when I look at people's social media, it's 1 of the 1st things I do when I work with VIP clients, it's like, let's look at your social media. Let's look at the ways you've been selling at the moment, and when I look at their social media. They've got some like tips and stuff. And then all of a sudden, it's just like boom card open doors open buy. Now, you know, they're just selling constantly, without a real lead up or an excitement or engagement.

We need to pre-frame your offer. We need to have a really beautiful path for people to understand what it is that you do, and as they understand that, then they're ready to buy, then we create our offer to sell towards them. The other thing that I see that I want people to stop doing in 2025, because it doesn't work, is pretending to be everywhere and pretending to be selling and serving everyone, but actually selling no one. And it's just not landing right. Being on 5 platforms are across all the social medias means nothing. If your messaging isn't connecting right depth, connection relationships win. Okay? What I like to do when I, even in my own business, is. Once we've known our messaging in our office, and we're really connecting with our ideal clients. Then what I do is I tweak our content to different platforms. So the messaging and all of that. The underlying tone is still the same, because they're still my ideal clients. But we don't want to just be everywhere and trying to smash everything out, but not actually connecting it just doesn't work.

And the other thing that I think is slowly disconnecting from our audience is that really hyper, polished. content with no real rawness and no real authenticity and soul, you know, like we're human. We're business owners. We stuff things up. We have lives behind the scenes. We aren't picture perfect. 24, 7, we even. And I was talking to someone about this the other day. It's like, when you see people's social media posts and all their images are of their photo shoots or professional photos, professional videos, all of that. And then they show up on a live or on a webinar, or once they've bought your offer, they meet you, and that's just not your day to day image right like you're not always that polished.

So I think it's about getting rid of that over polished side and and being real, being connected to who you are and showing up exactly who you are. Show up exactly who you are. So that when people meet you they're like, Oh, yeah, you're the same in real life. Okay? So that's not. That's what's not working at the moment. Now let's flip it. Here's what I believe is absolutely working and is making money right now, clear, confident, messaging, right. super clear. People know what you're selling. They know who you serve. They know what you're about. The businesses that are killing in 2025 are not the ones that are trying to please everyone. They are the bold, specific, direct, know exactly what their ideal client is wanting and needing. And they're saying, This is who I help. Here's how I do it. And here's how to work with me full stop.

There's no hidden jargon. There's no trying to polish things up and make it really Jargony, and trying to sound smart and prove themselves. They are like, I know who I work with. I know how I can help. Let's play. Okay. So we want to have really clear confident on point messaging. The second thing that I see working really well at the moment is low ticket, easy access offers. So anywhere from like the $7 all the way up to the $97 are the easy yes, offers, and they, my dear friends, are still queen. They lower the barrier, they build the trust with our ideal clients. They let people get a little bit of a taste of us. and they let people experience our magic before they commit to a bigger option. Okay, I was having this beautiful chat in her sales club with one of our members, and I had given her some feedback on her sales page and I was reading through it, and I was like these people don't want to wait 12 months to get the outcomes. They don't want to wait till your doors are opened.

What can we do now to help them move forward. Because, ladies and gentlemen, if you are not, if they are not buying from you, they are not getting their needs met. They're going to go somewhere else. Okay, they're not necessarily going to wait for you to have your doors open or for your offer to be ready, or for your wait list to be open. Okay, give them small steps along the way that is helping them move the needle forward. Whether that's in their personal life, their business life or anything else. Okay, so this is why our low ticket offers are constantly working. Because if you're not ready to deliver a big program now, which is totally fine. You don't have to have everything open and running all at once, but make sure that you have the ability in your business for people to still buy and make a really easy decision. Okay. the next thing that I see working really well is stories like stories about you stories. 1st in your emails connect with the real human that's on the other side of the computer that you're writing to as well as you as the human and the business owner. Okay. we want that value. We want that connection. We don't necessarily want really long drawn out emails and sales pages. Okay, we want connection and conversion.

Yep, and I think I want to kind of throw in here, too, that the reason why I say story 1st is because a lot of the time. We've got AI doing a lot of work for businesses these days, which is not a bad thing. Right? I am all about AI using it the right way. But it's also that AI is not human right. It misses that soul, that connection, that authenticity element sometimes. And so that's why we want to have that connection up first.st And we want that story that people relate to stories. So we want to have that built in first.st Okay. the next thing that is working really well and I think will always work really well is those personalized sales touch points. So we are craving genuine connection. Things that are working like. DM, voice notes. Video replies, tailored follow ups. Oh, my God! Tailored, follow ups not, hey? Just checking in seeing if you want to move forward like tailored build that trust and connect. Okay? So we want those personalized sales touch points. And if you don't have a personalized follow-up process, go back to our follow up. Podcast that was that went live last week. And there's actually follow up guide in there for you that can help you. But I want you to be. I want you to get that. We want to have personalized sales, touch points. Okay, people don't just need one touch point. Sometimes they need multiple. And so we want to make sure that every single touch point is personalized and high converting always. And then the last thing that I see working really well is content that educates and converts. Okay, so it's not just adding value for value's sake, but that content that shows your audience. The why behind your offer, it removes the objections and makes that next step feel easy and a no-brainer. Okay, so we want content that educates and converts, not just educates, not just sales and high converting. But we want to mix those 2 together. Okay. so that is what I'm seeing working in 2025 what I highly suggest you lean into in 2025, and if we've kind of let go of the things that aren't working, maybe Marie Kondo, your marketing. you know, if it's not bringing you joy, if it's not working, we let it go.

But what I suggest that you lean into for 2025. To be ahead of the game is relationship led selling is number one. So 2025 is all about that personal connection. Us humans, the more AI, and the more automation that we have in life and the noise we're craving that connection want better conversions. Be a human. It's really simple. We want to build relationships in your DMs, we want to connect with people on calls. We want to find ways that we can have really genuine conversations with people that can be even via email. But I want you to show up as the real human that you are okay. If you're fun and you crack jokes, your content and your marketing should be fun and cracking jokes. Okay. we want the You element within your business. The next thing that you want to lead into is those really quick, easy offers, and value ladders within your business. So give people an easy way to buy from you at every single stage. So whether it's your freebies, whether it's your small offers, whether it's your core offers, whether it's your high ticket offers, lead them through with really clear steps to get that clarity and that connection confused customers will never buy. Okay? Or they buy and think, I think this is right. And then once we actually get into things we're like, that's not right. That's not what I was looking for. And then we've got to deal with refunds and ickiness behind the scenes. Okay, so we want to have really clear offers and value ladders as we go. We then want to have a look at our brand voice, and we want that brand voice to be really strong and clear. strong, clear brand voice. People are following brands that are sounding like people that have that vibe, that personality behind it. Your voice matters more than your color palette. Okay. so if you're spending hours and hours and hours on canva or creating stuff, or you're paying someone to create your social media or your content or your visuals.

Make sure that your brand voice is so freaking clear. Okay, we want them. We want you to show up as you whether you're creating it or someone else is, is creating it. If someone else is creating it, have a really clear brand voice guide. Okay, if you're using AI have a really clear brand voice guide that goes through all your marketing. Okay? So that brand voice is more important than your visual side of it. Okay, they both need to be on point, but don't spend hours and hours on the visuals. If you don't have a clear brand voice happening and being said through your business. The next thing that I think people need to be leaning into in 2025 is that community and not just content. We want to feel like we're belonging. There's so much disconnect these days. Even in with social media. We think we're connecting with social media. But are we really developing that strong community vibe and connection that people are wanting? We want to belong, not just consume the social media stuff. Okay? So whether it's a Facebook group, a live challenge or how you show up in your stories. Create a vibe. Okay, not just value a vibe. People should know what you're about. Who are the people that you're attracting? Some of the best business coaches and leaders that I've seen have their best communities because they're attracting the right kind of people. Okay? So you go into a business event and go. Wow! I don't know how she does it, but she always seems to bring in awesome people.

That's because of the community that she creates. It's not just the content. And then I want you to think about your messaging. So I want you to nail your messaging before you look at all the tools and the platforms and the tech, and all of that. Okay. Messaging is the foundation of what it is that you are doing. Messaging is the difference between people buying and people. Not messaging is the difference between people connecting with you and people, not. It is the absolute foundation of your business, and if you don't know how to get clear on your messaging, go and figure it out. Okay, you don't want to just know how to sell what you're doing in a pushy, disconnected way, so that people aren't buying and that hustle mentality. Your messaging, if it's nailed, will draw people in. People will be like she gets me. She's looking inside my window. How is she inside my head.

How is she reading my journal in secret, like, what does all that look like? Okay, this is the stuff that I dive deep into with. Not just my Vip clients, but very much in her sales club. It is something we are constantly touching base on. It is something that every time someone creates an offer. We want to make sure that the messaging is nailed before we've even talked about the pricing or the inclusions in it. What is the messaging. How are we getting it across? How are we connecting with people so that, my dear people brings it all home? So stop wasting time on strategies that don't serve. You start focusing on connection, clarity and content that converts that connection piece is so big in 2025 and lean into where things are going. Not necessarily where they've been. Some of the most successful businesses that have been out and about in the past have fallen away because they haven't learned to move as things move right. It's like the whole blockbuster video, easy kind of business model. They didn't move with the Times. They stayed stuck and so concrete in what they believed was right for their business. But they didn't look at what was going on around them. Okay. So, leaning into where things are going, and not necessarily where they've been.

But I also want to give you a little bit of homework. Okay. we're coming up to the end of the quarter. You've got a fresh quarter ahead of you. Fresh start! I want you to audit your marketing and your sales. What needs to go? What's working? And what are you excited to lean into this year that you can then amplify? Okay, it's got to work for you as well as your ideal target market. I also would love to understand. What are those things that you're not sure about in your sales and marketing. Send me through a message. Ask the question, and get some really good tips and advice on what you can do to move forward. If any of this resonated with you, I would love for you to take a screenshot, tag me in it at Maree Kirkpatrick. and tell me what's 1 trend that you're going to be adopting into your business for the next quarter. If you are wanting some help with your messaging and your marketing and your sales, come and check out her sales club, where we go through your messaging, your marketing, your offers, your ideal clients. We look at your converting strategies. We look at your follow up strategies so that you're really clear on what you need to do to get those sales coming through the door with ease and grace and energy. Okay. that is all from me for this episode. I hope you have an amazing week. Go out and sell like the Queen that you are.