December 31, 2019
Today Evie and Lindsey are welcoming one of their favorite people ever on the podcast, their marketing manager and Facebook Ad extraordinaire, Max Sadik.
Max is a Miami & Los Angeles based Wedding Photographer as well as a certified Facebook and Instagram Ads Expert. He helps creative businesses & wedding pros leverage the power of Facebook and Instagram Advertising to target the exact clients they dream of working with so they can run a happier business and live a better life.
He has consistently booked himself solid year after year using strategies that are tried and proven to work!
But, his life hasn’t always been this way. Back when he first started his business he struggled to even get leads in his inbox, and booking anyone seemed like a far fetched dream. After diving deep into the world of advertising and investing thousands of dollars in marketing workshops and conferences around the world, he discovered the secret sauce. Today he’s here on the podcast to share his magic secret sauce with you.
Lindsey and Evie hired Max last year when preparing to launch their first online course, and without a doubt Max was the best investment they ever could have made. Max is incredibly knowledgeable about Facebook and Instagram ads, but more than that, he’s a freaking genius when it comes to tried and true marketing strategies. In today’s episode he holds nothing back.
Max breaks down what should and shouldn’t be in your ad copy, he walks through multiple examples of setting up a sales funnel, what the heck a Facebook Pixel is, and so much more. If you’ve ever been curious about Advertising on Facebook and Instagram, this episode is for you!
Max’s journey to Facebook Ads and Marketing wasn’t linear or straightforward. Max went to college, got a degree in business administration and marketing, and found a corporate job. Max found this job unfulfilling and decided to open his own construction company. Around this time was when Max picked up his first camera, a Canon T2i, and spent a lot of time googling the ins and outs of photography! The opportunity presented itself for Max to sell his company and he decided to become a full time photographer. He quickly realized how hard it was to get bookings.
After trying the traditional marketing methods, he knew that this was not going to cut it. He decided to use the marketing tactics he used in the corporate world to market his new photography business. Max immediately dove into learning Instagram and Facebook Ads because this was where his audience was. He admits to becoming obsessed with it and went to every workshop he could find on the topic. Investing his time and money into workshops and education paid off. Before he knew it, he was completely booked.
Other photographers noticed Max’s quick success and started asking questions. As Max started to share what he knew, it took off, and that is how he got to where he is today.
There are two ways to look at it: from a quantitative analytical point of view or an anecdotal point of view.
From the anecdotal point of view, think of it this way. If you walk into Starbucks or a supermarket line, you will see a phenomena that didn’t exist twenty years ago. Almost every human there is on their phones scrolling. In the past we had to tolerate boredom, but we now live in an era where every single second can be filled with something interesting. Everyone is on Instagram or Facebook. It is so rare to find people on other apps.
From a quantitative analytical point of view, you can look at the data. Facebook reports their monthly active users count, defined by someone who has been on the app within the last thirty days. As of the last time they reported their number of active users it was 2.3 billion. Keep in mind there are between 7 and 8 billion people on the planet! This means that around 27% of everyone on this planet is an active user on Facebook or Instagram. If you zoom in and look at the United States numbers, and specifically the younger population, more than 75% is an active user on Facebook. If you want to find your clients, Facebook is the best place to look.
The free vs paid marketing argument is not as straightforward as we may think. You can either run an ad on Facebook (or Instagram) or work on organic marketing. People get the best results when they combine organic and paid marketing. Organic marketing allows you to build a relationship but is difficult to reach new people; whereas, paid ads allow you to reach people who may not follow you but it is challenging to stay in front of them time after time. Reach your audience first with paid ads, bring them in, show them how awesome you are, and then follow an organic strategy so they see you again and again. It takes multiple touches before someone will know your brand and this is how you can get those touches.
If already have a website with traffic going to it, go for the low hanging fruit, retargeting. Retargeting the idea of going back and targeting someone again. For example, think of a bride who goes on The Knot, finds your images interesting, and clicks on your website. This bride has now seen your brand once and is likely to forget who you are. But, if you go back and put an ad in front of her and get her back to your website for the second and third time, it’s far more likely that she will remember you. Retargeting tends to be really inexpensive because it is easier to engage with someone that has already been engaged with you than it is to engage with someone completely new.
Imagine that someone came to your website and looked at your about page, pricing page, and contact Form. They filled out a contact form and you responded, but they are still shopping around. What if, as they are shopping around, the next time they went on Instagram they saw a five star review that you received. The next time they get on Instagram they see yet another five star review. An impression starts to build in their mind about you. If the other vendors are not doing the same, they may start to disappear in their mind and you will stand out.
Ads are step one. You still have to communicate properly, be authentic, and have a strong brand presence on social media and your website in order for the ads to be successful.
Imagine a relay race where you have multiple runners. Think of your ad as runner number one, your website as runner number two, and your booking form as number three and so on. The client is the baton. If each runner isn’t prepared and running well you are still going to lose the race. Each part of your marketing strategy needs to run smoothly.
Remember, you may set up an ad perfectly, but if it’s not communicating in a friendly language and doesn’t sound authentic, it doesn’t matter if people click on the ad because they aren’t going to connect with your brand.
Forget all of your grammar and English rules when you write your marketing copy. None of them apply. You don’t want to sound like a boring robot. Speak like you speak to your friends. If this is hard for you to translate in writing, simply record yourself and write that down.
After you have written your copy, go back a day or two later and read it out loud. You will quickly catch the edits that need to be made.
Continuation is incredibly important. Whatever is in your ad, both copy and image-wise, needs to transfer over to wherever the ad clicks through to. If you are writing about a specific wedding you shot, don’t send the ad link to your homepage. There has to be consistency and continuation.
Purpose. What is the purpose of your ad? Don’t just boost your post. Sit down and think through an entire strategy. What do you want the end result to be? Think of the desired end result and back track from there so you have each step. This is called a funnel. When you have a written down funnel and you know exactly what you are going to do, it becomes much easier to know what ads you need to run, what copy you need to write, and what images you need to use. As a result, you are creating a conversation as opposed to just one ad.
A funnel is a set of steps that is designed at the top to bring a large crowd of potential leads through a series of steps that separate out the good matches from the bad. The bottom of the funnel is designed to make the desired end result happen.
It is shaped as a funnel because it is hard to tell in the beginning if someone is going to be a good match for your business or not. Once you have interacted with them several times it is easy to separate them from everyone else. Each step is designed to narrow the group of people so that you are left with the right leads.
Here’s an example:
Say your desired end result is to shoot a wedding in Iceland. At the top of the funnel are all engaged couples. The next step is to eliminate everyone who does not want to get married in Iceland. To do so, you may give them a lead magnet that is Iceland specific such as a “Guide to Planning the Perfect Elopement in Iceland”. This eliminates anyone who doesn’t want to elope in Iceland because they are not going to click on that ad or download the pdf. The next step is to eliminate anyone who is not a good match for your photography style. You keep eliminating each person that does not fit so you are left with a much smaller pool of people. You don’t need all the leads you can get, you just need the right leads.
Following the example from above, at the top you need to give them something that doesn’t require them to give you their email or name such as blogs or written material that they can consume for free. It allows you to get in front of them in a low friction and casual way. After they consume this material, they are going to get tagged with your Pixel on Facebook. A Pixel is a little piece of code that goes on your website and identifies the person who lands on your website. It essentially matches a user on Facebook or Instagram with whoever came to your website.
When it’s time to collect their email address and name, you want to give them something a little bigger and more valuable. At this point they have already consumed some of your material and are beginning to understand your brand. If you offer a pdf guide or quiz that is more comprehensive and ask for their email address and name, they will be more willing to do so.
Now that you have this information, you can start emailing them. You can further build a relationship and trust over time to eventually get the sale.
Step one is to have a website that is designed to convert. Once you have your website, go to business.facebook.com and set up your account. Navigate to a section called “Pixels” and create a new pixel. When you create this pixel, Facebook will give you a menu of different website platforms. Pick the one that you use and copy the code and put it in the header of your website. (Don’t worry, there are plugins for this!) Facebook will then track everyone who goes to your website. Now, sit down and design your funnel and journey for your potential leads. Create resources on your website that are helpful to these people. Make sure it’s about a five minute read and delivers real value. Run ads on both Facebook and Instagram that direct people to those specific resources. Once people start clicking on this ad, retarget them and provide something a little more robust that asks for their name and email address. Once this is collected, start sending emails with materials that are relevant to them once or twice a week. After this process flows for a few weeks, go back and put a sales email in front of them.
Facebook and Instagram have a ton of information about us. When you are logged into Facebook, whether you are doing things on Facebook or off, Facebook is tracking you.
Every time you click, post, or like something Facebook is reading this. You would be surprised how powerful their machine learning and AI algorithms are. Their AI can understand what you are posting and then categorizes you. Beyond their own platform, when you are searching the web, most of these websites have a Facebook Pixel. They pay attention to what kind of websites you visit and how long you stay there. Facebook has thousands of data points on you as a person. The more you engage with websites that have Facebook Pixel and the more you are engaging in the app, the more Facebook knows about you.
That is how Facebook can really specifically target ads. Facebook takes all the steps you have taken, combines them into a robust statistical algorithm and derives what else you may want to buy or do.
If you are building your Facebook ad, on top of age and location you are able to type in interests. You can target your people very precisely. Ask yourself, what is it that my people really love and that people who are not my people won’t care for?
Go to marketingbymax.com and click on “Take Me to the Facebook Group”. The Facebook group is free and the only thing that is mandatory to join the group is that you have a business! Inside the group you will see a section called “Units” with over 30 hours of videos of step by step tutorials and everything you need to get started.
There is a great community of 4,000 people who are happy to jump in and help!
HoneyBook: www.share.honeybook.com/heart
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If you want to connect with us and other listeners in the Heart and Hustle community join our Facebook group here.
Facebook Business Manager: https://business.facebook.com/
Check out Max’s step by step video on how to navigate Facebook Marketing. First, visit his website, Marketing By Max: marketingbymax.com. From here, you can find his Facebook group. In the group there is a section called “units” and inside that section there are all the educational videos.
Follow along:
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WASSUP FRIENDS. We’re Evie + Lindsey, co-founders of this wild partayyy called The Heart University. Our goal is to empower entrepreneurs to kick freaking BUTT in their businesses, dive down into the heart of their why and how, and serve you with all possible tools you’ll need to up-level your business game and CRUSH those goals of yours.
Whether you’re coming to an in-person workshop, joining our online course, or soaking up all the strategies via this blog or our podcast, we’re STOKED you’re here + can’t wait to see you out there kicking butt.
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