In this week’s episode of The Engaging Marketeer, Darren speaks to Laura Burnett of IT Moon, a self-confessed Tech Geek and Harry Potter nerd. Able to master any software in a matter of minutes, Laura discusses all things landing pages and email marketing wizardry.
Darren: Among the main skills you have, I believe one of the things you talk about a lot is funnel building.
Laura: Yes, that is correct. I didn’t mean to do it, it just kind of happened by accident.
Darren: All the best things happen by accident!
Laura: They do – I was literally just in a meeting with my team. We track everything by different groups, so we do social media, SEO, tech and funnels. We noticed that funnels had just totally taken over everything.
Darren: So, when when you say funnels, are you talking about building funnels for clients?
Laura: Yep, so we tend to build simple three-step funnels. We’ll build the landing page, we’ll build the lead magnet (no matter what it is), and then we’ll connect it to email marketing. We write the emails, get the upsells done and then track the progress, checking the success and conversion rates.
Darren: Which is the important thing – actually getting leads into a business.
Laura: Exactly, yes.
Darren: So, let’s look at the actual funnels themselves. What software are you using typically, or do you use a range of different software for it?
Laura: I use a range of software. Like everyone, I obviously have my favourites. I’m a natural Tech Geek – you can give me a software that I’ll have never used before and within 10 minutes I’ll probably be an expert. It’s just how my brain works.
Darren: So, when you’re taking on a funnel for a for a client or for yourselves, what’s the first thing that you look at before you start building something?
Laura: I have to get all the pieces together – it’s like a jigsaw. We have to establish the end goal first – what do you want the outcome to be? It’s a good idea to look at the pain points, and the transformation we can offer customers through the process. The lead magnet is the last thing we work on, once everything else fits into place.
Darren: Let’s talk about that, because you’re right. I see a lot of people in businesses throw together a lead magnet they put a lot of effort into creating the content for, it but the lead magnet itself is dull. It’s boringly titled, it’s boring to look at, and nobody downloads it. This leads them to think that this digital marketing thing just doesn’t work – so what tips would you have for these people in creating a lead magnet?
Laura: The number one rule is it’s got to be insane value. My way of judging this is to say, “would you charge someone at least 7 pounds for this?”, and if you wouldn’t, it’s probably rubbish. I did a course once, which taught people how to use Trello to create a social media planning board. It was a free video, super-duper simple, and I’d happily charge 30 quid for it, just because of how much success people have had from using it. Every time I put that out for free, it goes insane, and I get hundreds of people sign up. I’ve literally just put it out free in the last seven days for a collaboration I’m doing, and we had 500 email subscribers in seven days.
Darren: Wow. In term of the emails that go out one then – one of the most difficult things is improving your open rate, and getting people to actually open the emails in the first place. Have you got any advice or tips on how to improve the success rate?
Laura discusses how she uses familiarity with her customers in business
Laura: We call it the ACE strategy, because you have to give things a fancy name in business. So, you attract people in through the lead magnet, but what a lot of people miss is the ‘C’, which is connect. A lot of people will send out a lead magnet, and then a day later they’ll send out another email saying, “buy this from me” – so they’ll just dive straight into sales. With me, they’ll get a proper welcome sequence, which just helps to build that trust factor. They’ll start to become familiar with the look of the email, and they’ll actually start to open them, because I’m not selling them anything.
Darren: And it’s personalised, from Laura: IT Moon.
Laura: Yeah, so you’ve got to think about how people will recognise you. I don’t think many people know me as Laura Burnett – I’m just Laura the tech geek, or Laura: IT Moon. There are a million Lauras out there, so we recommend going with a combination of your company name and first name. Then, it’s just about finding out what your audience wants, and not forgetting them. You need to be sending them regular emails – we send out a weekly email every Tuesday, no sales. They’ll get advice, or a story about something I’ve been up to at the weekend, which I can kind of tie into tech stuff. Even though we don’t sell in those emails, we have something called Quick Links at the bottom, and it’s amazing how many sales you make from that, if people are reading and enjoying your emails.
Darren: It’s a similar thing with relationships isn’t it. If you don’t phone a friend for a few months, and then suddenly you phone them up because you want something, they’re going to think “oh yeah, they want something from me again”.
Laura: Exactly. You’ve got to show that you’re not just there for the sale – you’re there to help out. We’re all in business to make money, but you’ve got to show up and be yourself as well.
Darren: A lot what you’re saying is about being you and about showing your personality. This sort of thing crops up all the time with LinkedIn, and you have the “LinkedIn police” who are saying “you can’t be posting pictures of your kids on LinkedIn” or “don’t be posting photos of your holidays, this isn’t Facebook”. What’s your take on that?
Laura talks about the importance of being yourself, both in and out of work
Laura: I just show up as me, and I always will do. It’s easy being me, whereas if I’m trying to be someone else, it’s just going to be forced, and I’m not going to enjoy it. At the end of the day, you want to work with people who like you, for you. It’s the same with friendships and relationships – you only want to be around people who accept you for who you are. You don’t have to be an outgoing person to have personality – whatever your personality is, just be that person.
Darren: I love that outlook. There’s some people who think they should keep themselves to themselves, and keep their private life separate. But if you are yourself, you’ll attract the kind of people who naturally like you, and it makes working with clients easier, because they’ve chosen to work with you based on who you are. If you hide aspects of yourself and try not to have any personality, you could end up working with people who, quite frankly, you don’t like, and don’t get on with, which makes it more difficult.
Laura: That’s right. Anyone who follows me know I’m a Harry Potter geek, so everything in the business has a magical theme to it. I always end an email with “magically yours”, and we use the word “wizardry” in the things we create. I’ve made Harry Potter part of my business because it’s something I love, but it also gives clients a way to remember me. I have messages from clients who see Harry Potter items in shops and say, “this made me think of you”. Anything that makes people remember you like that is good for business.
Darren: You’re 100% right. Everyone knows that I’m a Star Wars fan, and somebody at a networking meeting bought me a Mandalorian mug a couple of weeks ago. It’s great that clients can make that association with you – and it means you get loads of free stuff too!
Laura: Exactly – it’s good to get your personality out there.
Darren: Now, I would like to ask some in-depth questions about funnels and landing pages. Obviously, the landing page is very important, as it needs to convince somebody that what you’re offering them is what they need. What elements do you think are important, and how would you incorporate them into landing page to make a conversion?
Laura’s tips for building a landing page that works
Laura: I do have templates that I give to people, but the one thing I will say about landing pages is that the look does matter. You wouldn’t think I’d be the person to say this, because I am not a creative person when it comes to graphics – I cant even draw a stickman – so I have someone in my team who does it for me. If you want the landing page to convert, it does need to look nice. You can pay someone to do this for you, and then next time you need one, you can just duplicate it and edit the text. Don’t worry about finding the perfect title straight away either, as this may take a bit of testing. If you choose a title, it doesn’t mean you can’t change it up if you find that it’s not connecting with your audience.
Then you’ll need a subheading that’s going to capture your audience’s attention. The most important part is to have a button or a form right at the top, especially if you’re giving something away for free, so people can see it straightaway; a lot of people generally won’t bother to scroll to the bottom.
I always think you need to get into the pain points early on, so identify how your audience is feeling. Money, time and relationships are normally the main problem areas, so gear your content towards a solution, or implement a three-step framework as to how you’re going to address their issues. Everything should be presented in a nice easy manner, so don’t just chuck text in there – try to break it up with icons or boxes. You might have some testimonials or social proof, but that’s really all you need.
Darren: And now the million-dollar question. Let’s say you’ve got your lead magnet, you know it converts, and your landing page works really well – how are you driving people to it?
Laura: That’s the hard bit. So, you could do a ‘limited time’ launch, like with my Trello course. If you add some sort of scarcity element to it, people are more likely to want to get involved. If you’ve got something that’s a bit more evergreen, you’ve got a few choices.
There’s the social media method, which is where you literally just keep posting it out every week. Think about spots where it could get extra attention – like in your LinkedIn bio, for example, or your profile on Facebook. You’ve also got your paid ads, which works well, but is obviously a bit of an investment. You can collaborate with other businesses, too – I’ve found this gives me really good growth on my email list.
Then obviously, you’ve got your long-term content, such as podcasts and YouTube. You can put links in your show notes and your video description. It just depends on what your ability is in regard to how much money you have to throw at it, and the size of your audience.
But everyone needs an email list. If you put a post out today, then maybe 2% of people who follow you will see it, and you have zero control over that, because of the way the algorithm works. But if you have an email list, you can guarantee a lot more people are going to see it.
Darren: There are so many business owners I speak to (not clients of ours, thankfully) who say, “I don’t need an email list, I’ve got 10,000 followers on Facebook”. They don’t realise that they don’t own the platform– what happens if they cut you off?
Laura: Exactly. We’ve had a record month when it comes to leads, but those leads haven’t come from just one place. We’ve had leads from LinkedIn, we’ve had leads from email marketing, we’ve had leads from YouTube. Every business owner needs some sort of short form promotion, so that’s your social media platform, but everyone needs email marketing, no matter the size. Finally, you need your long form content, like a podcast, blog or YouTube channel. If you can get them three things running for your business, you’ve got leads coming in. It’s easy.
Darren: You’ve just summed it up. It’s easy.
We are pretty much out of time now, so if somebody wanted to get in touch with you to talk about lead magnets, email marketing or even just Hazza Potter, what’s the best way for them to reach out?
Laura: You can find me on LinkedIn, and obviously go to our website IT Moon if you want to have a look around. You’ll be able to book a chat with me if you’re interested in working with us, or you’ll see all my YouTube links and stuff like that over there as well.
Darren: Thank you very much Laura, it’s been a pleasure.
Laura: Thank you for having me.
More about Laura:
Laura Burnett is a digital marketing specialist, and the Hermione Granger of the tech world. Director of IT Moon, she has made her place in the Top 100 Female Entrepreneurs to Watch by the Telegraph – for good reason.
You can connect with Laura here:
LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/laura-burnett-mhe
Website – https://itmoon.co.uk
About your host:
Darren has worked within digital marketing since the last century, and was the first in-house web designer for video games retailer GAME in the UK, known as Electronics Boutique in the States. After co-founding his own agency, Engage Web, in 2009, Darren has worked with clients around the world, including Australia, Canada and the USA.
iTunes: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/engaging-marketeer/id1612454837
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/darrenjamieson/
Engaging Marketeer: https://engagingmarketeer.com
Engage Web: https://www.engageweb.co.uk
