Scale Up Strategies: The Business Podcast for Coaches, Consultants, and Speakers
We're your hosts and Business Coaching experts Mary Fain Brandt and Laura Bashore
We’re sharing all our mistakes and insider tips from our 20+ years in business and
how we successfully scaled up our businesses without losing our minds or our husbands.
Sure you can piece it together and try to DIY your way to success
OR
you can listen to us every week and learn the shortcuts because we promise there
are some.
Scale Up Strategies: The Business Podcast for Coaches, Consultants, and Speakers
Master Facebook Advertising: Unleashing the Power of Strategic Campaigns with Stacy Zeal
What if your Facebook ads could do more than just gather likes and shares? Join us as Stacy Zeal, a fractional CMO and guru in paid social platforms, helps unravel the misconceptions around Facebook advertising. Were talking through the maze of Facebook's advertising landscape, demonstrating why it should be seen as an integral part of your marketing strategy rather than a solitary tool. Her journey from organic social media management to leading paid campaign strategies for top brands equips her with unique insights that are invaluable in today's digital climate.
Throughout the episode, we dissect the strategic elements that lead to Facebook ad success. Forget boosting posts for engagement alone; Stacy teaches us to aim for objectives that translate into real results, like conversions and leads. We dive into the art of crafting compelling ad content and mapping out a comprehensive customer journey.
As we wrap up, we'e love to hear from you, our listeners, share your Facebook ad triumphs and trials. Don't miss out on this chance to elevate your advertising game—subscribe, rate, and let's continue expanding our marketing horizons together.
Guest Stacy Zeal:
https://stacyzeal.co/
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You're listening to Scale Up Strategies, the business growth podcast for coaches, consultants and speakers. We're your hosts and business coach experts Mary Fane Grant and Laura Bay hore.
Laura Bashore:We're sharing all our insider tips from 20 plus years in business, including how we successfully scaled our businesses without losing our minds or our husbands.
Mary Fain Brandt:Sure, you can piece it together and try to DIY your way to success. Or you can listen to us every week and learn the shortcuts, because we promise they're really awesome.
Laura Bashore:So grab your favorite cup of coffee, tune in and let's start the show.
Mary Fain Brandt:Hey Laura, have you ever done Facebook ads for your business?
Laura Bashore:Not for my business, but for another business, that actually my mother-in-law's business. She just, you know when people think you're a jack of all trades. So she just asked me to try and do this and I did. She got some back from it, but not of the roi that I think she nor I was looking for. So, um, yes, but I don't think it was very successful. How about you same here?
Mary Fain Brandt:yeah, I did it once with my girl, amy. I think you know amy, from san diego.
Mary Fain Brandt:We tried it you know, put a little money behind it but like nothing. So you know, I'm so excited that Stacy is joining us today, because Stacy's a fractional CMO and a Facebook ads expert and I'm looking forward to her educating us on Facebook ads, cause I mean, do they still work in 2024? Like that's the big conversation. Everyone's like, oh, do they work? I don't know. You know you have to put hundreds of hundreds of dollars behind them. So I'm really looking forward, put hundreds of hundreds of dollars behind them. So I'm really looking forward to this conversation with you, stacey. And before we get started, why don't you tell our audience a little bit about your background and how you know?
Stacy Zeal:how you got started on Facebook ads. Yeah, thank you for having me. I'm excited to be here with both of you. So how I got started. So it's interesting. Like I did, I remember my first internship.
Stacy Zeal:Well, first good internship because I had some terrible ones, but my first really good internship that I had in college, she I remember my manager saying to me Stacey, we need you to figure out Facebook and Twitter for business, because at that time, facebook and Twitter were, you know, mostly just personal sites. People were starting to use them for business, and so she was like you know, you're the designated millennial, I've always been the designated millennial in every job I've had, and they're just like okay, you can figure it out.
Stacy Zeal:So I'm like, okay. So you know, that's really kind of launched my career into social media. So it was primarily focused on organic, did the STEM and corporate, worked with lawyers and you know all different kinds of you know businesses. And then I got to this place where I started to be very intentional with my career, because I was gotten to the place where I was just like, oh, I'll take this job, take that job. But I really was like I want to get in tech, I want to work with big brands and I want to really, like you know, be a part of a marketing, like a big marketing team. And so I got to this place where I started working at Zappos, and at Zappos my role was all paid social, so it was all Facebook ads, instagram ads, tiktok, pinterest, all the different social platforms, youtube, all of all of those platforms. And I got the opportunity to work directly with Meta, work directly with TikTok. We were spending significant amounts of money and so I got to learn a whole whole lot. I had really really great boss taught me a whole lot of money, and so I got to learn a whole whole lot. I had really really great boss taught me a whole lot of stuff.
Stacy Zeal:And so then I really just kind of all throughout my career I've been side hustling. I've always been someone who's like I can help you build a website, I can help you do this, I can help you do that. And so I finally, while I was at Zappos, I was like okay, what's next? Because I always get these what's next moments in my life and the only thing that I could see that was next was being full-time in my business and really kind of like betting on myself and just going all in. And so it took me a couple of years of massaging and shifting and changing and trying this, trying that, but I finally got to the place where we are now, where we are a fractional CMO agency because we provide a deeper level of support for our client, for our marketing clients and some of the other, like you know, agencies and other people out there, because we really get involved in people's businesses.
Stacy Zeal:We want to look at all of the different pieces, and the way that that impacts ads is that you know ads are. I think a lot of people look at ads. It's just like one piece of the puzzle or like one thing that they can invest in and it'll just take their business to the next level and that's all they have to do. But I started to realize that people you know there's the way ads have shifted and changed and over the years is now that it's more so a piece of your marketing puzzle. It's not the entire puzzle, it's not the entire picture, but you have to have it as as an addition to what you're already doing, and so we wanted to have a deeper level of support.
Stacy Zeal:We also are Facebook ads experts, so we wanted to bring that to our clients, and that's really how we got to. Where we are now is just, you know, looking back at my career, it started out in organic, having to have my hands in a lot of different types of marketing, because I was the only you know person doing marketing or some most of the time it was the youngest person doing marketing you know there, or whatever, and so I had to figure out a lot of different types of marketing. But then, when I got to Zappos, I really got to specialize and really see the power of advertising specifically on social platforms, and now we just bring that to our clients and help them to take their businesses to the next level.
Mary Fain Brandt:I love that. I think a lot of people think, oh, I'll just do some ads and I'll sell tickets or sell my book or sell my course. But there's, I think, a lot more that goes into that. So I'm excited to learn more about what Facebook ads look like in 2024.
Laura Bashore:Yeah, especially because I think what you're mentioning there, Stacey, is exactly what businesses struggle with. They think I'm just going to go all in on this one thing and then that's going to deliver for me. And then I like what you're saying about the millennial and wearing a bunch of hats, because I too I'm on the cusp of millennial and I've always found myself typically the younger one in the leadership roles where I was working, and so you just take on multiple hats, even within your own title. So, really looking forward to dive into this with you and just to make sure that our audience knows exactly who we're listening to.
Laura Bashore:So this is the CEO of Stacey Zill Co and says she is on a mission to help small businesses scale to seven figures and beyond, sharing her expertise to help them make more money, save time and boost visibility. Yeah, I think we could all use that. As the host of her own podcast, Roadmap to 1 Million, Stacey imparts actionable marketing and business insights weekly. She's been featured in Business Insider, CNBC and Peacock's Podcast Network, and we are thrilled to dive into this. So let's get this going.
Mary Fain Brandt:So I think we have three points that Stacey is going to go over, just so if you guys are listening. So three topics today why boosting posts is a waste. What you need in place before running Facebook ads, that's that pre-work and three essential pieces of a good Facebook ad. Do you want to start us off? And okay, so we get those little ads or whatever, all the time? Do you want to boost this post? And sometimes you're like, yeah, why not? It's just a few dollars, let me get it in front of more people. So that's a lie.
Stacy Zeal:Kind of it's not necessarily a lie, I'll say, but more so the reason that what a boosted post is. Let's start with what a boosted post is. So what a boosted post is essentially, um, you're telling Facebook that, um, well, facebook makes a 10th. And they're like, hey, don't you want to boost this post and show it to you know, 10,000 more people? Or a thousand more people? And you're like, yeah, absolutely so you hit, boost, you spend some money. You think, oh, yeah, I'm running ads and you know more people are seeing my posts. You're getting likes, comments, but you're not getting anything else right. You're not getting people to sign up for your lead magnet. You're not getting people to book calls with you. You're not getting people to DM you to ask you, you know for context it's important to understand.
Stacy Zeal:So Facebook Algebra is very, very sophisticated and it understands you know the different behaviors of its users ad to someone who is more likely to take an action, like going to a sales page and buying something, or going and downloading a lead magnet, or booking a call, or watching a video right or engaging with something. So it knows, you know, based on our behaviors as users, what we are more likely to do. And because and the reason that's important for advertisers to understand is because the first thing you'd really want to do when you're running Facebook ads is you want to tell Facebook what you want out of it. At the end of the day, if you want sales, you want it to. You want Facebook to show your ad to people who are more likely to, you know, convert it to a sale.
Mary Fain Brandt:Wait, I don't want to show it to everybody. Wait, right there, I'm just going to show my ad. I'm going to do a Facebook ad. It's going to go to everybody. And I'm going to do a Facebook ad. It's going to go to everybody. And out of that everybody, I'm going to get like this bracket of people. So you're saying that's not the way to do a Facebook ad, you don't want to show it to everybody.
Stacy Zeal:Yeah, well, I mean, facebook is not going to let you necessarily show it to everybody, because what it is going to require you to do is select an objective. Because of what it wants to do, facebook wants us to be successful. It wants us to get the, the, the the desired result. Because what happens when we get the result? We spend more money on Facebook, right? And so they want you to get leads If you want leads. They want you to get sales If you want sales. So you can't just say, hey, show it to anybody. What Facebook is going to do is it's going to show it to people who are more likely to take the action that you have set forth. And so, with a boosted post and how that ties back to boosted posts, is that a boosted post by default, is an engagement objective, meaning Facebook is going to show this ad to people who are more likely to comment, like and share, not do anything else, not people who are more likely to go to your, go to your page and go download something or buy something no-transcript, sophisticated with it, but on a basic level, they do bucket people into, like you know. Are you more likely to take a sales action? Are you more likely to become a lead? Have you shown signals that you buy things from ads, right, you know? So it's taking all of that kind of stuff and putting it in and categorizing people. And so, as advertisers, what you want to do is to say like hey, if I want people to sign up for my lead magnet, I want Facebook to show to the people who have, who are more likely to go ahead and sign up for the lead magnet, not the people that are just going to like it and comment and share, because likes, comments and shares, as we know, don't pay the bills. I need people to sign up and become leads. I need people to get into my sales system. Right, I need to have calls with people. That's what I need to do.
Stacy Zeal:As service providers, as consultants, you know e-commerce is a little different, right? You know e-commerce is like do I like the product? Do I trust the brand? Sure, I'll buy it right. But with social service providers, you know podcasters, content creators, all of that trust that we also need to build, and so usually that first step is hey, come into my world and give me your email address, so that way I can give you some value. I can, you know, show you who I am, I can build that trust, and then you're more likely to come in and say, hey, yeah, now that I know you, maybe I do want to buy your course, maybe I do want to, you know, enroll in your program. You know so. So we have to take a more staggered approach with it, and that's why boosting posts is really a waste of money, because it's really just an engagement.
Mary Fain Brandt:Right there, that's like the best tip ever. I mean, trust me, I knew that. You know boosting a post doesn't really get you anything, but I didn't know it was really built for engagement. Yeah it is Okay now that I know that, yeah.
Laura Bashore:And now that you mentioned it, I'm like visualizing what that pop-up looks like. And when it pops up it says get more eyes on, like it's not talking about get more sales. It literally is sharing with you what it's going to do, but we're just not reading it. Yeah, all right.
Stacy Zeal:And I think that they also make it a little sneaky too. I think that they think, you know, people kind of get dip their toe into advertising in that way and they start to see, oh yeah, I'm getting, you know, I can reach a lot more people, and then you know, it's a lower barrier of entry. So, you know, I think that they do make it a little enticing and they try to, you know. But I but I agree with you, right, Like I said, they are telling us exactly what they are doing. But because of what our desires are is like I want more people to see this, because I want them to join my email list, Right, Right, exactly, oh, more people will see it.
Mary Fain Brandt:Then they'll join my group or they're by my course or my book.
Laura Bashore:Okay, so that's really good to know. I love that.
Mary Fain Brandt:Good information.
Laura Bashore:Now I feel like I know more.
Mary Fain Brandt:I know we're ready now, Laura. We're ready. Now, Laura, we're ready. Okay, so the next thing that you want to educate our audience on is what do you need to do before you do Facebook ads? So you're saying, yeah, I have a Facebook page and I shouldn't just like go in and try to run some Facebook ads. There's pre-work Stacy. Tell us about this.
Stacy Zeal:Yes, yes, there's always pre-work when it comes to marketing. I think people you know people don't understand that, like, there there is a pre-work, but really what you want to think about is you have to think about where we're at in a landscape of where people and where buyers are at these days, cause that's really what impacts, like you know, trends and marketing and stuff like that is buyer behavior, and so buyer trust is at an all time low right now. Right, people have been burned, people have invested in other kinds of programs and they have not gotten the desired result, right, you know, people kind of coming off the COVID boom of, like you know, everybody was like had, you know, had time and money to spare, right, you know, to invest in things and to try different things, but then sometimes those people got burned, sometimes those programs weren't, you know, fully developed and they didn't get the promise. And so people, right, so now, people, so so trust is at an all time low. And so we, as brands and as marketers and, you know, business owners and advertisers, have to understand that we have to build trust in order for people to give us any kind of you know, money or, you know their time or even their email addresses, right, cause now, email address is currency. I know if I give you my email address, then you're going to email me a bunch of stuff and to get me to buy stuff try to get me to buy things right. So now you know, people are a little bit more hesitant to give you their contact information or their credit card information because they've been burned before, and so what you have to this is assuming you have an offer that works. You are like this is beyond a sales conversation, so the offer is great, you have people, you know, let's just assume that. Right.
Stacy Zeal:But if you're thinking about, you know, bringing in more people to it, you have to have the right messaging first, and that's the first piece of the things you want to make. Who am I talking to? Right? What do they care about? What are their desires? Right? What are the pain points, what are the things that they are? You know the transformations that they're seeking.
Stacy Zeal:Because what you want to do is you want to call in the right people with your ads. Right, like everybody with a pulse is not your customer, right? You know you want to think about who is your best client, who is your best customer? What is it about them? Where were they at before they invested with you? What is the kinds of things that they were, the solutions that they were looking for? And that is what you do and you put in part, into your messaging, because where messaging shows up is what your ad creative is, what your ad copy is, and even down to like who you're targeting and putting you know the different targeting metrics that you're putting in into your ad.
Stacy Zeal:So it's really, really important to make sure you have messaging locked down first, because you want to make sure that the ads you're creating are calling in the right people, not just anybody, but the right people. The second thing that you want to make sure you have in place is a clear customer journey, because the thing about it is people do not get on Facebook to see advertising. Right, we see ads, but we're not getting on Facebook saying like, I hope I see an ad for a coach today. Right, people are getting on to be entertained. They're getting on to, you know, to, to, to, to catch up with friends.
Mary Fain Brandt:Cat videos, literally videos. I always think I can dance, like you know exactly. Like I can do that dance.
Stacy Zeal:Yeah, yeah, and so that's what people are getting on for. And so, if you're thinking about, what you're doing is with, as you're interrupting people from that pattern, right, and so you're interrupting people from being entertained from their cat videos, from their recipes right, because you want them to take a desired action off of the platform. Like you know, that's always the goal with ads is to get people off the platform. We do not want to keep people on Facebook, right. Like you know, boosted posts keep people on Facebook right. That's what you know. You comment and you keep on scrolling.
Stacy Zeal:What we want someone to do is to leave Facebook or Instagram, go to our website, check out what we have to say and then do something like sign up for a lead magnet, watch a video, buy something, whatever, right? And so, because of that, you have to outline a customer journey that moves people from. I have no idea who you are to. Please take my money, because most of the people you're going to be reaching on Facebook are cold. They're cold, they don't know who you are, they don't know you exist, and so we have to make sure that, like I said, because trust is at an all-time low, you have to build that trust.
Stacy Zeal:People have to get to know you. So you want to have a way, podcast episode or something so that they can start to get to know you and experience you and you get them into your world. And then it also looks at getting an email address to give them a nurture sequence, or like a series of emails that go out to give them all the information that they need to go ahead and buy from you or book a call or whatever the next step may be. And so you want to make sure that you have that customer journey mapped out. Some people like to call it a funnel. I like to call it a customer journey because funnel kind of scares people, I think it is a funnel, though it's like having a lead magnet and then having your email sequence all set up so that you're nurturing them.
Mary Fain Brandt:So, Laura, it's a lot about what we talked about in our Black Friday episode having your lead magnet having your email. So customer journey or funnel system, they're interchangeable. Just so that people understand, because people hear customer journey and I'm not sure that that's used as much yet Like that's used like oh, create your customer journey map. Like. That's different from like a customer journey for your Facebook ads, I feel yeah.
Stacy Zeal:Yeah, exactly, and people like, when I say funnel, I think a lot of times people think that it has to be this autumn, like this, you know, like 20, 30, 50 email sequence with all these automations and segments, like it doesn't have to really be that. Like my customer journey is someone engages with my content. They typically will indulge in my podcast or, like you know, they find me on social. They indulge in my podcast and then they get on my email list somehow and then they're ready to book a call with me, right. And then they come and they go to my site, check out my stuff, they book a call with me. That's my customer journey, right. And so if I'm going to, you know, facilitate that for ads, I just need so, if there are certain podcast episodes that I know that people listen to before they book a call with me, I can put that in my email sequence, right? Are there certain blog posts that people need to read before they, you know, before they book with you? You know, or before you know?
Stacy Zeal:I have a client who's a CPA and he has a video that's like five things to know before hiring a CPA, because we want people to watch that video to make sure that, before they get on a call with them, they understand how this works and they understand that this is what they, that they actually need a CPA, right, and that they don't need, like, a bookkeeper or something different. Right, you know. So there are different things. You know that you have in your world that you could already use as part of your customer journey, but you haven't had it mapped out right. You just really haven't thought about, like, what is that, that journey that people take in order to get to the desired result, which is, you know, becoming a client or a customer or something like that? So those are really.
Stacy Zeal:So the first thing is messaging. Second thing is customer journey. Then the third piece is really kind of having a way of building community, and what I like to say is it's more so about having that organic presence so that people can get to know you. Like you know, posting on stories, going live, people can hear from you, right, because organic is great for building community. Paid is great for building volume, right, getting people into your world and getting more people to know about who you are. But where we're at in marketing now is that we have to build community and we have to be. People want to feel a sense of loyalty to a brand. They want to feel a sense of connection to a brand and particularly if you are a thought leader and you're showing up organically, you know and you're. You know whether you're on the main channels, like Facebook, instagram. You know the channels that work really for you and LinkedIn right, LinkedIn is a great channel, right?
Mary Fain Brandt:That's our channel. Come on, don't forget LinkedIn. Yeah, that's the one channel. I know we're talking Facebook ads, but you know, when you're talking about build community show up organically.
Stacy Zeal:Laura and I, you can find us on LinkedIn, yes, yeah, so so wherever it is that your clients show up, you know is where you need to be right and you need to be showing up there. So that's really. Those are. The three pieces is one is understanding your messaging and having that dialed in. It's having a customer journey or a funnel that's already set up to move people to the desired place, which is booking a call with you or becoming a client somehow. And then the last piece is making sure that you are, that you're showing up organically and you're you're fostering community so that people can get to know you and feel that connection to your brand.
Mary Fain Brandt:Okay, we're covering a lot, so just to recap you guys boosting posts kind of a waste of time.
Mary Fain Brandt:You're just going to get engagement. Before you run your Facebook ads, you need these three things. You're messaging who's your best client. You got to have your messaging tied to that best client. And then a clear customer journey. I love this to get people off Facebook or Instagram to your website book a call, buy something. So understand where they're engaging with you. Like listening to your podcast, reading a blog. I like what you said, stacey, about a blog or an email that says five things you need to know before you hire a. I put XXX. I actually took some notes here. I think that's good. Five things you need to know before you hire an AI consultant. It's not magic. I'm going to do that. And then the last thing is building community, which Laura is amazing at building community. So you are, you're an amazing, amazing community builder. Okay, so we have one more tip for our listeners, which is the three essential pieces of good Facebook ads.
Laura Bashore:Listen to that you guys need to hear this.
Stacy Zeal:Okay, yeah, I love, I love talking about this. So what I'm going to walk you through is my hot ads framework, and so the three pieces are HOT. And so, before I jump into that, what I want to make sure that we understand is the job of a Facebook ad, right? So when you think about what the role of a Facebook ad plays in your messaging or plays in your marketing excuse me is that the goal of a Facebook ad is to capture attention, is to get them curious enough to take the next step. It is not to sell them on every single thing in the actual ad, because there is a landing page that they still have to go to right. There is still a second step or third or fourth, fifth step that they need to take, and so the goal of the Facebook ad is to capture their attention, get them enough information that they need in order to say you know what I'm interested, let me keep going, right. And so, because a lot of people would what mistakes people make is that they put every single piece and all the information into the ad and they make the ad really kind of like sell the thing Right, but that's not really cause I had, like I had a client who came to me.
Stacy Zeal:They were working with an agent. Well, it was a some program that they were in, not necessarily an ad agency, but the um they were sending. They were telling them to run ads to their video sales letter. So they use their video sales letter as the ad. And then the ad was driving to an application, and so I was looking at this.
Stacy Zeal:I'm like people don't. People don't know who you are yet, people don't know you, they don't know if this program actually works. They have not gotten any information even about the program. Right, it just went from a VSL to a to an application. And I'm like why am I going to give you my contact information? I don't even know what I'm giving you my contact information for, right.
Stacy Zeal:And so you have to keep in mind that all of these pieces work together, and that's why I like to tell clients that you have to zoom out and look at the entire puzzle, and not just Facebook ads, as being the thing that you know that drives your business. It's really a piece of a bigger strategy, and so I say that because you want to think about, so we understand the role of a Facebook ad right. So it's attract attention, it's to capture attention, get those people to take that next step. So what we want to do with our Facebook ads those three things that you really need to have is you want, you need to have a hook, you need to open people's minds to what's possible, and then you have to tell them what to do next no-transcript my you know they're not aligned with what I do, they're just.
Mary Fain Brandt:you know I love that. So qualifying questions.
Stacy Zeal:Yeah, and this is. And when you think about a qualifying question, this is a self-qualifying question, and this is. And when you think about a qualifying question, this is a self qualifying question, I mean. And so they should be able to say, yes, that is me, or no, that is not me, right, you know? So it's not about you, right? It's not necessarily about saying, like you know, do you want to, you know, download my lead magnet. Why would I want to download your lead magnet, right? Like you know what? What does this do for me? Right?
Laura Bashore:But the question is Mary likes to purchase things. She, she is the uh, whatever your lead magnets doing in Facebook. Mary's going to get that program and she will look at it in two years, but she's going to get that program. She will have that I did buy my makeup off of Facebook ad my.
Mary Fain Brandt:OG is organic, but they fed it to me for a couple of weeks. But, yeah, I'm the person that's like well, what are they doing? Like, I'll I'll look at a lead magnet and sometimes I'm like oh, that was crap, you know. And I'm like nope, I'm like are you kidding me? But then sometimes I'm like oh, that looks really nice, so I'm that person that does market research.
Stacy Zeal:I love that. I'm always looking at other people's ads, yeah.
Laura Bashore:Yeah, I'll purposely stop on a Facebook ad and just stare at it a little bit, if I don't have time to really look at it, you know. So it's like put this back in my feed in a little while.
Stacy Zeal:Yes, or click on it so they show it to you again.
Mary Fain Brandt:Laura and I will both like scroll through until they want our email. We're like I'm not quite sure yet. Yeah, exactly it. It's like I'm not ready for that kind of commitment yet. You know it was. It was a nice ad though, yeah, so the hook, the hook gets you. Do you want curly hair like I? There's an ad right now on Facebook about pros or it's the hair ad, like taking your frizzy hair to curls and this. You guys, if you're watching the video, this takes work, because this is not what it looks like in the that frizzy stuff, and I keep looking at it like beyond.
Laura Bashore:I know Right.
Mary Fain Brandt:I just wake up like this, but I keep looking at that ad because it's a self-identifying question.
Stacy Zeal:Do I want my hair?
Mary Fain Brandt:to look like that or that. Well, of course I want it to look like that, but I don't know.
Laura Bashore:You feel, like you're in control right, Like I've chosen to pay attention to you. That's important.
Stacy Zeal:It's important to call that out because you want to make it seem like you're having a conversation with somebody. Because a lot of times people are talking at people and they're just like no, no, no, no, no, like like you've ever seen those that would just start going. It's like, oh my gosh, like them the option to continue on, you know, with what you're giving them, it more feels like a conversation rather than I'm just talking at you and giving those things to you. And that really kind of brings to the second piece is really like, you know, after you've hooked their attention, you're like gotten that person to say, yeah, I do want to learn more about you know this particular topic. Or I do want to, you know, or I am, you know, I am an agency owner who is looking to take things to the next level. Right, you know, whatever the qualifying question is, they've said yes. So now the next piece is to open their minds to what's possible, and the O stands for open, Because you want to make sure that you start with having them understand, that you understand where they're at right. You know, like I understand where you're at.
Stacy Zeal:That's why it's important to understand pain points and problems and things that people are experiencing, because you start with saying like you know, I know that you're, you know, I know that you're doing this. I know you're feeling that you know, and I know what you want. And here is my expertise to how I can get you there. Right, so you want don't want to make your ads about yourself, right, like I know that you are the greatest thing since sliced bread. However, people do not care, right, people want to know do you understand my problems? Do you understand what I want and do you have a solution that will help me to get to where I want to go? And so that's how you really have to position your ads. Is it's not about you? It's really is about what the other person is looking for. And so you want to make sure that you're saying things like you know what are the pain points they're having, what are the desired results they want.
Stacy Zeal:Expertise has helped other people get there or how your expertise that you know, you've gone through this yourself and you've helped people to get to the next level, and you really want to make sure that you're you're, you're opening their mind to that. There is another option outside of suffering or staying stuck or whatever it is as keeping them, you know, from their next level. So that's the open piece. And then tell is just call to action. So tell is just tell them what to do next. We always want to make sure we close the loop with people, like don't just expect them to know that you want them to go take their quiz, don't just expect them to know that you want them to go download the thing or book a call or whatever. Tell them what to do next. Right, you know. And even like saying like you know the the first step in getting to where you want is by downloading my lead magnet, or is by booking that call with me, or it is by particular product so you can understand where you're at.
Stacy Zeal:Yeah, yeah, cause people like you know people understand that all of their problems are not going to be solved with a free ebook Right?
Mary Fain Brandt:Do they really actually? That's a great question. That's a great question. Some people are like, well, I thought I was going to get all the answers on how to scale my business in this PDF ebook.
Stacy Zeal:I'm like, Ooh, you've been living under a rock, like yeah, yeah, and those are not necessarily the people that you want right, not the people.
Laura Bashore:No, they're just there for the freebies Exactly. You want those yeah.
Stacy Zeal:You want those people that want to move like, that want to act, and that's why I also tell people, like, create your ads for people who are aware that they have a problem and then they're in that consideration phase. So if you're thinking about, like, buyer stages, people have to be aware that they have a problem. They have to be considering that. You know considering, you know doing something about it. They have to be, you know, intentional with, like, who they're going to invest with or what they're going to invest with, and then they purchase and Right, like, don't make ads for those people and make ads for people who are aware that they have a problem and want to do something about it, because those are people that you know it's so good, Laura.
Mary Fain Brandt:I'm like, oh, I'm going to have to have a session with Stacy at some point, what's?
Laura Bashore:really bad is? I am. I'm fully engaged in this right now, but I'm also getting really inspired. So I'm like creating things in my head. I'm like, oh, that's the hook I'm going to use there, and then here's the action. I'm going to tell them what to do. So I am all in on this. This is great information, and what's funny is some of this is like yeah, I know, but we get so caught up in the result we're trying to do that we kind of focus in on that instead of really perfecting the method of how we're going to get that. This is really great information you're sharing. I love it.
Mary Fain Brandt:Yeah, thank you, stacey, so much. This is great. Before we wrap up, laura's going to take the next section, but before we do that, stacey, do you want to tell everyone where they can find you, what platform they should reach out? And we'll make sure that everything is included in the show notes as well.
Stacy Zeal:Yeah, definitely, thank you. So you can definitely reach me all over these social streets. I am on LinkedIn, I am on Facebook, I'm on Instagram, I'm on YouTube, I'm on all the places. But I would definitely say that if you are really kind of thinking about you know whether ads are the right next step for you or what really kind of like you know getting an assessment of where you're at with your marketing. I do have a quiz. If you want to go and take that quiz, it's at stacyzielco slash quiz and you can take that. It'll give you an assessment of where you're at right now and tell you some things to focus on, whether that's ads or you know, all kinds of different stuff that she could really kind of focus on right now. So that's a great way to contact me as well If you're interested in learning more and introduce it. You know interested in, you know, getting to know how working with me is a little bit.
Mary Fain Brandt:Awesome.
Stacy Zeal:Thank you, Laura.
Mary Fain Brandt:Do you want to take us home with our last little part of our podcast?
Laura Bashore:Yeah, so we like to ask four questions of every single guest that we have on our episode. Questions of every single guest that we have on our episode. So I'm going to keep these up for you.
Stacy Zeal:And the first question that we have for you is what is the number one social platform that you use for your business? Facebook, and it's my professional, my professional profile. Like Instagram, has the creator profiles, facebook has a similar yeah, that's when I get most of my leads, most of my clients come from.
Mary Fain Brandt:Facebook. That makes sense. It's what you do, yeah absolutely, absolutely Okay.
Laura Bashore:And then next is what was the last risk that you took as a business owner?
Stacy Zeal:Hiring a team. I for a while it was just two of us, myself and my sister, which my sister. She already she's a operations manager. She's already kind of had her own business. So I hired her to work with, work with me, and it's been two years of just being me and her and she's my sister, so I trust her with my life. But then this year the business has grown significantly so we had to hire some people who I don't know and people who you know like. So we've had really great hires and it's scary to have people that are, you know, betting their I mean not betting their likelihood on you, but you know you're playing a part in your business, is playing a part in the helping them to reach their goals. It's a little scary, but now it's exciting. I've had some really great team members. Now we've gone from a team of two to a team of four this year and now we're going to be a team of five before the year ends.
Laura Bashore:Well, congratulations, I know that is really. It is really frightening, especially when you feel like you've been doing so well in your business and you've got this system down, but you're like, ah, it's a scale I have to bring on people and it's like giving up that control and putting that trust in them too. So yeah that's great, and then can you share with us, if you have, like, a quote that you live by in your business or something that inspires you in the way that you handle your business.
Stacy Zeal:Yeah, my favorite quote is by Toni Morrison, and it's if you want to fly, you got to give up the shit that weighs you down. Ooh, I like that Okay. I like it.
Laura Bashore:And that's hiring on new people right Like yeah, yep.
Stacy Zeal:Yep, facing yourself is the biggest, biggest lesson of entrepreneurship, for sure, like facing your own, facing your own stuff.
Laura Bashore:Yeah, and identifying it and being real about it, right Like, oh yeah.
Mary Fain Brandt:Well, stacy, yeah, thank you so much for your time. I just want to say thank you. We connected through a stream yard thing and then on LinkedIn, so I forgot to mention you know people always ask Mary, where do you find your guests?
Mary Fain Brandt:I'm like, well, we don't just randomly pick them up off the street or online you know we actually have conversations and vet them, and so I just appreciate the time that we spent together before the podcast getting to know each other and you know you guys reach out to Stacey if you're looking for Facebook ads and, as a reminder, please follow, like and subscribe to our podcast Scale Up Strategies. Go ahead and share it out when you see it on the platforms and subscribe to our new YouTube channel, which is in the process of getting everything uploaded, I think. Right, laura, right.
Laura Bashore:Yeah, we have our first couple episodes up, so we have that there. It's available in all of our show notes too, and once you dive into Facebook ads or if you've been struggling with them, share that with us too. We would love to hear your feedback and see where your pain points are with that, because I bet we share similar ones. But hopefully, after working with Stacey, that'll be gone.
Laura Bashore:So, thanks again for coming on today and to all our listeners, here's to great coffee, great conversations and even greater success. We will talk to you on the next episode. Ciao, bye.
Mary Fain Brandt:If you enjoyed the podcast, show us some love. Please rate, review and subscribe to our podcast, and if you have any feedback, go ahead and share that with us too, because we want to hear from you. Until then, stay focused, stay motivated and stay caffeinated.
