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Foreign hello everyone and welcome to episode 290 of the Kate Show. Today I'm talking about the great marketing trifecta that every home pro should at least be aware of because it's going to make your marketing content creation just a little bit easier. Basically, it is like story brand, but made lighter and more digestible and tailored to the home industry. So if you're trying to reach more high end residential clients, then this is the episode you should be listening to. All right, so let's just kind of get into it. Whether you're creating an email newsletter, a blog post, or writing verbiage for your website, you need to use this formula. And it's the same formula that we use internally when we are creating email newsletters, blog posts and website copy for our clients. We also of course use it in our own marketing, which as you guys know, is very effective. And I always have to giggle a little bit when someone reaches out to me for email marketing based on a piece of email marketing they received from me. It literally works. All right, all right, so what is this great marketing trifecta? Well, basically it is an idea followed by evidence, followed by action. And this is something that you can spread across an entire website or you can make it as succinct and simple as a 300 word email newsletter. So the idea is the longest section, followed by the evidence, which is optional but ideal, and then the action, which is the shortest section. So let's start with the idea or the longest section. The idea that you need to be presenting in any written area of your marketing is showing your clients what's possible. Now there are a number of ways you can do this. You could describe how they feel now, showing that you are empathetic and explain what their pain points are, because you should know they're your ideal client. And also describe how they'll feel after working with you, which really becomes a self fulfilling prophecy. You're showing them what's possible. You're showing them what you can do, but you're not doing it in a way that makes you talk about yourself all the time. You keep the focus on the client. Now you can also share this idea by telling client stories. Maybe they're not even your stories. Maybe it's someone that you know who's also in your industry, who has stories to share. Or they could be ideas. So literally design ideas, organizing ideas, concepts, whether it's your own or like your own unique take on things. I've implemented this in the sense that I believe marketing doesn't have to be expensive. I believe SEO should not be a mystery. And I believe that you don't have to live on social media in order to have a successful business in the home industry. So those are some of the ideas that I present. Now, obviously there's a lot to unpack with each one of those, but you need to figure out what are your ideas. Maybe you want to copy me, which totally fine. And say, you know, does remodeling have to be this complicated, at least for the client? It's always going to be complicated for you guys, right? Does organizing have to make everyone go into a state of fight or flight, complete paralysis of the mind because, ah, there's too much clutter? Well, that's a great way for you to tell a story while at the same time recognizing your client's pain points. The other thing you can do is explain how you do it. How do you help clients get out of the state they're in and into the ideal way they want to live? And that is where you talk about the actual implementation of your services. Again, some idea examples would be how designers use three layers of lighting. We have a newsletter on that. Or top ways that home organizers tackle your lack of square footage. I think we have a newsletter on that too. Or window coverings for hard to reach windows. Yes, we have a topic, a template for that too. Or the primary ways that home stagers make listing agents look good. So those are all small pieces of content. They could be a blog post, they could be a newsletter. You could branch off of that to your website copywriting if you wanted to, because they all present an idea. But now let's get into the evidence section. So evidence is optional, but ideal. You're not going to have evidence for every idea you put out there or every topic that you write about. It's not possible. But when you do have relevant evidence, like testimonials or client stories, portfolio photos, vendor photos, then use them. Now, like I said, you might not always have these items, and that's okay. And if you just need to operate without them, rely heavily on the idea itself and the ensuing action. You can also incorporate facts or industry data where possible. For example, a professional organizer might pull in some data around how clutter affects us all mentally or emotionally. And interior designers, you might want to get some data on how a person's life is changed by changing this. Not the square footage. What am I thinking of here? The traffic flow layout, colors in a space. Like there's a lot of psychological data that you could pull. And then going into the action. The third part of this trifecta is short, the shortest section of all, but it's also so mandatory. So basically the action section is how do you get your client to take action on the idea that you just gave them? You have to give them a specific next step, such as Click here to book a call or Click here to get the details on our blah blah blah service Here. The action step should be a headline paired with a button so that it stands out from the rest of the message. The headline and button pairing can be used in a newsletter or on your website. It could even be in a blog post, quite honestly. And it could also be part of a lead magnet. The call to action is the part that most people forget. They'll take all this time describing the ideas, how it works, and evidence for this, that and the other thing, but then they forget to actually make the ask. So don't be like that. Don't forget to actually tell people what you need them to do next. Now, I could talk all day long about this in theory, but I actually want to show you what this looks like. So for those of you who are just listening, don't worry, you're not going to miss anything. I'm not sharing my screen for this episode, but I am going to read to you. Don't worry. It's short and sweet. A newsletter that we wrote that uses this marketing trifecta idea. And this one in particular is for the interior designers out there and it's called turn your spec home into your forever home. So obviously we had someone request this because they had a lot of clients who were purchasing spec homes. But as you guys know, spec homes are kind of generic. They're not very exciting. And this is the newsletter that we came up with. The spec home. Largely affordable at initial purchase and often in a great location, but lacking in individuality and character. As a professional interior designer, I've never met a spec home that wowed on its own, but I've seen the amazement on my clients faces after making a few aesthetic changes to their formerly spec space. Let me take you behind the scenes. Then we go into three sections, each with their own headline and image. The first section is all about flooring. So the problem? Most spec homes are built using the most basic hard finishes, low grade lvp, basic tile. And that tile is often used in every bathroom laminate or busy granite countertops with no backsplash and the same carpet in every bedroom. Ugh. The solution is simple. I start with ensuring the floor plan works well for My client. If it does, or if their budget doesn't allow for the removal of walls, we then just focus on the esthetics. Cheap or repeated flooring is replaced by hardwood or luxury vinyl planks, deeper piles and layered with rugs where appropriate. Laminate or busy granite countertops are replaced with quartz or a similar material. And we always add a beautiful tile backsplash. If budget allows, we also consider replacing, refacing, or repainting the cabinetry. Now, as an interior designer, you might be like, ooh, I wouldn't make those changes. I'd make these other changes. Well, guys, that's why these templates are customizable. You can change whatever you want. You can tell us to change whatever you want. But this makes the whole process of using the marketing trifecta in your own marketing really easy. Okay, so the second section is about wall treatments. The problem is spec. Homes are obsessed with agreeable gray because it goes with everything and pretty much does nothing for the space. It's not a dark color yet it makes a face the space feel darkish, which is not great. The solution is that we add bright white to the ceilings or even wallpaper to enhance the space. We also create a color palette for each room that may or may not include patterned or textured wallpaper, wainscoting, reclaimed wood, you get the idea. Texture is better than strong color, ironically. And we're not necessarily trying to make each space look like a rainbow splashed across the room. Now, again, if this is not how you would handle wall treatments, you can easily have it say something else. The third section is about hardware and fixtures. The problem is builder grade. Cabinetry is lackluster, but it doesn't have to be. If custom cabinetry isn't in your budget, we can still help. Also, basic plumbing fixtures and light fixtures are common and boring, so let's fix that. A great way to upgrade cabinetry is to simply replace the hardware. We source door handles and drawer pulls for our clients. Existing cabinetry that will fit the existing screw holes, preventing damage to their cabinets while completely changing the overall look. We also discuss and manage repainting the cabinetry if preferred. Lastly, we look at replacing the plumbing and lighting fixtures with pieces that are intentional and custom. After that, the newsletter goes into your headshot, a very short bio and that all important call to action which says, are you ready to transform your space? The first step is always a phone call and then there's a button that says contact us now. That could also say book a discovery call now or complete our contact form or whatever. It needs to say so. That's what the marketing trifecta looks like in an email newsletter. I'm also going to read you very briefly some website copy that also embodies this idea. Professional Organizers this one is for you. This is one of our custom websites that we did for a professional organizer in the Los Angeles area. And we did her website design and her SEO, which of course means we also did her copywriting. So I am going to read just a little bit from her homepage and that way you can really understand what I'm talking about here. I'll start with the opening headline, which is Luxury Home Organizing and Concierge Moving in Los Angeles. And then it goes on to say, our clients want to be organized and tidy, but they often can't get through the mental blocks to make it happen. And then if you were looking at her site, this would all make sense to you, but it goes into a client story that goes kind of like this. Once she experienced our luxury home organizing service, with every bin and label in place and every pile of clutter conquered, she turned to us with teary eyes and said, I'm not going to cry. I'm just so happy and I can't wait to use this space for what it was meant to be. I feel like I can get so much more done now. You see, after their kitchen or closets or whole home is sorted, our clients find they can think more clearly, become more confident hosts, more structured parents, and less stressed human beings. Okay, so that is a client story without actually featuring a client testimonial per se. Now, trust me, this client has quite a few of her own client testimonials throughout the site. But she doesn't stop there. Here is what we had her say about herself. She said, hi, I'm Alyssa. Much like my clients, I wear a few too many hats because I've visited the depths of clutter driven worry and brain fog more than a few times myself. I have deep empathy for my clients when they come to me with that exact same problem. Because yes, getting organized and creating good, tailored systems is life changing and it's also nothing to stress over. Alongside my team, I methodically approach your home with organizing strategies that will make sense for your unique family and space. Plus, my goal is to make your home run independently of our services, which is why I spend a great deal of time creating systems that your family can easily follow. Once our organizing services are complete. Every family deserves to be well organized and feel good about it. I look forward to working with you. So again Even in her short bio on the homepage, she's really still talking more about the client and what they should get to experience. We then had her copywriting go on to say, are you a good fit for our services? Our clients tend to be. And then we listed out some characteristics that our client had shared with us. Here is what she shared and what we ultimately wrote. Our clients tend to be self motivated and often entrepreneurial. Focused on self improvement and self care. Mindful, grateful and appreciative. Decisive and action focused. Able to spot long term value. Focused on learning and intentionality. Prepared, timely and professional. Now this is important because we didn't want her to attract just anyone with a cluttery home. We wanted her clients to recognize themselves when they went to her website. And by the way, the SEO score of her site doubled in four weeks once we had this done. So there's a lot more website copywriting here. Literally thousands of words spread throughout the entire site. I'm not going to read all of that to you, but I wanted to give you a real life example of what it looks like to use the marketing trifecta to really connect with your clients to talk more about their life and their issues and their results than you do about yourself. Because if all we do in marketing is talk about ourself and our accreditations and our certifications and like, nobody actually cares. They want to feel seen and heard. So that is what we have to focus on here. All right, guys, this is a shorter episode, but it hits hard. So I want you to go look at your own website and decide. Are you talking to your ideal client? I want you to go look at your last email newsletter. Are you hitting on the idea, the evidence and the action that the marketing trifecta demands in order to be successful? If not, then there is an easy way to fix that. You know, clearly, like, we are very accustomed to writing in this way. We provide so much written content for our clients so that they don't have to come up with it themselves. And it's only for the high end residential industry. So if you're a designer, a stager, a window pro, or a home organizer, we would love to work with you. You can go to socialitevault.com to get all the details and pricing on the plans that we offer. But if nothing else, guys, if you have the time, this is something that you can try to work on yourself too. I am not going to sit here on this podcast in front of this microphone and say, you can only do this with our help. No you don't actually need our help, but you do need some clear guidance. And in a world where we are bombarded with marketing hack after marketing hack and we're told social media is the only way and everyone should launch a course, you know, all these things that are really just time sucks, things that promise us passive income but never actually deliver on that. And sometimes we just have to get back to basics. Present the idea, present evidence, and then ask your person to take action. That's marketing. And it will work if this person has come to know you and trust you. And the only way they will come to know you and trust you is if you have been showing up consistently. So they got on your email list however long ago you've been sending out an email every two to four weeks. They're used to hearing from you. They know that you're not trying to constantly pitch them. And they know that when you do have something to offer, it's genuinely helpful, educational, interesting, inspirational. It's all part of the marketing ecosystem because marketing is one big relationship. All right, guys, thank you so much for listening. Until next time, keep your marketing simple, your message clear, and I will talk to you soon.