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Marketing Funnels - Carissa Kruse
187 Plays2 years ago
Happy Woo Wednesdays! Carissa Kruse is in the house. The Carissa's are explaining it all today.
The biggest takeaways There is not just one marketing tactic that works, you need to create a marketing strategy that involves 3 stages --> cold, warm, hot!
Hot Topic: How wedding pros can easily incorporate content marketing in their business to gain new followers and keep their audience engaged (no dancing required), so they can get noticed and boost their bookings instead of them getting bored and unfollowing them (or maybe never even hitting that “follow” button at all).
We can also chat about funnels if you think your audience would love to learn more about those too. I can weave the content and funnels together as content attracts the leads and the funnels converts.
Carissa Kruse, is your go-to wedding business strategist, coach + wedding business owner for 10+ years. Her background is in marketing and sales and leaped into the wedding industry when she had the chance. Carissa loves supporting wedding pros in cutting through the chaos while fueling their business with content and funnels (#hellostrategy).
Connect with Carissa Kruse
https://carissakruseweddings.com/wpcc
Connect with Carissa Woo
Get on your 1st preferred vendor list free mini masterclass
Text "vendor list" to 310-582-5464
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction to Mini Masterclass
00:00:00
Speaker
Happy Boo Wednesdays everyone! I have some exciting news. I have a new mini masterclass. It's about 20 minutes long and it's called Get on Your First Venue Vendor List.
00:00:13
Speaker
If you're not already on one, this is perfect for you, but if you're already on one and want to get on more, this is also for you. This mini course is catered to wedding photographers, but all wedding professionals will benefit. So text BENDERSPACELIST to 310-582-5464. It's also in the show notes. I have two my touch shifts and seven
00:00:42
Speaker
steps to get on your first venue vendor list. The holy grail of bliss. Hot leads without you doing anything.
Guest Introduction & Marketing Discussion
00:00:51
Speaker
So today I have a very special guest. Her name is Carissa Cruz. The Carissas are in the house and we're going to explain everything to you. Carissa explains it all. Carissa Cruz is a wedding business strategist and funnels queen. The biggest takeaway today is that there's not just one marketing tactic that works.
00:01:10
Speaker
You need to create a marketing strategy that involves three stages, cold, warm, and hot. I bought so many things from Carissa because she is just that good. She is the marketing guru and you are going to love this episode. Enjoy.
00:01:29
Speaker
Welcome to Get a Heck Yes with Carissa Wu. I'm your host, Carissa, and I've been a Los Angeles wedding photographer for over a decade. I've traveled the world, built my team, and seen it all. I now coach wedding photographers hit 10K a month and build a thriving business. In this podcast, we are going to deep dive into how top wedding creatives get that heck yes from their dream clients. We are not holding back on the struggles of the business and how to push through the noise, some healthy hustle,
00:01:55
Speaker
mindset shifts, up-leveling your money story, time packs because I'm a mom of two, a little bit of woo-woo, and most importantly, self-love and confidence are just a few of the many things we will talk about. I want to give you a genuine thank you for following along my journey. I hope to inspire you every Woo Wednesday so that you say heck yes to listening to this podcast. See you guys soon!
00:02:21
Speaker
Hey, everyone. Welcome back to Get a Heck Yes with me, your host, Carissa Wu. And I have a special guest, Carissa Cruz. Who are the Carissas? We're going to explain it all today. I've been following you for a long time, Carissa. She is a former wedding photographer facing Colorado and Iowa. And I bought a lot of your stuff.
00:02:40
Speaker
Thank you. You have really cool funnels. And that's what we're gonna talk about today. So a
Carissa Cruz's Background & Journey
00:02:45
Speaker
little bio about you, Carissa Cruz is where it's saying my name, but Carissa Cruz is your go to wedding business strategist, coach plus wedding business owner for 10 plus years.
00:02:55
Speaker
Same, her background is in marketing and sales and leaped into the wedding industry when she had the chance. And Carissa loves supporting wedding pros and cutting through the chaos with funnels and fueling their business. And yes, with funnels. Thank you so much. I'm super excited. I know we were chatting before about, um, yeah, the two Chris's today. So yeah, that's awesome.
00:03:21
Speaker
Tell me about yourself and just a little bit about your journey and where you are today. Yeah. So my background is actually business strategy, marketing sales. That's kind of where I came from.
00:03:33
Speaker
the corporate world, I've always loved weddings, I'm a hallmark girl, like, just that whole vibe is just kind of me. And so I love that I landed in the wedding industry, it was not like, wasn't really where I was going, or what I had planned, I think years ago, and it just kind of happened that way. But it's like a dream, because I love being able to mesh my marketing sales skills in with the wedding side, and it's just,
00:04:01
Speaker
Yeah, it's just become kind of a dream business for me. Yeah, I guess choruses are hopeless romantics, right? Yeah, exactly. Yeah, yeah, it's and green and tough. Yeah. Did you get into weddings when you plan your own wedding?
00:04:17
Speaker
Actually, I did not know. It actually came from, it stemmed from when my sister got married, actually. So she was searching for a few different vendors and things like that. And it kind of stuck in my head because she was having some troubles finding
00:04:34
Speaker
some vendors and then that she needed to work with multiple vendors, you know, one vendor for each service and it was just got really kind of complicated. And so it kind of like put a little nugget in my head. I was like, you know what, I think there's like something here that I can kind of work with. And I had started a marketing company at the time.
00:04:54
Speaker
I was doing marketing for small businesses and I was like this this looks like this would be fun like so I told my husband or whatever I was like hey I'm going to start a wedding business and he's like what I was like oh just trust me and it's all kind of history from there so it's been fun that yeah it's been really fun and
00:05:12
Speaker
um the fun part of it's been because again like I said the marketing and sales is kind of my background and so um I took you know I was like okay and I worked with other small businesses like my marketing company outside of the wedding industry and so I was like I'm just going to apply that to this right and um it was really eye-opening because there was a lot of
00:05:33
Speaker
things that didn't work.
Marketing Challenges & Strategies
00:05:36
Speaker
And it's because the wedding industry is its own animal. It's its own like beast. It's just its own thing. And so what I realized was is when people were trying to go
00:05:49
Speaker
and find information and other wedding pros they can't really find it because if they try to apply what kind of the industry norms say it doesn't really it doesn't work and then they think like why doesn't this work you know I mean there's certain bits and pieces that do but um so there was a lot of trial and error to figure out kind of how to get marketing to work within the wedding industry
00:06:13
Speaker
Yeah, so before you started your own business for small businesses, were you working for like a marketing firm?
00:06:21
Speaker
No, I actually have a really weird background. I was in insurance for a while. And then I was also in real estate for a while and doing marketing sales different angles on those couple areas previously. So, and then I actually worked in a flower shop when I was in college. So that kind of weaves back into, I did wedding flowers back in college when I was there. And so it's really, and then the real estate part with venues
00:06:49
Speaker
and some rental stuff I have and things like that. So that all kind of weaves back to the venue side. So everything my past is done kind of then we back into the wedding industry, which has been really fun. Awesome. Yeah, yeah.
00:07:04
Speaker
A little fun story, kind of kudos to you, but I have a team member. Her name is Cindy and she does a lot for me. And I actually bought one of your like email sequences like twice. Oh, okay. That's how good you are. So she's like, dude, you just bought this.
00:07:25
Speaker
I was like, that's not good. Her, like, marketing is. She's freaking on. She's speaking to me. She's talking to me. She's talking to me. Thank you. Yeah, that's funny. That's a, that's a, yeah, that's, that's a good funnel right there. That's what we're talking about today.
00:07:42
Speaker
I usually ask what your woo factor is, but I'm going to ask you what your carissa factor is. What makes you stand out now as like an educator and a strategist and coach? You know, I would say the biggest thing about it that makes me different is just my vast background in actually marketing and sales and being able to own my own wedding business then and then weave
00:08:06
Speaker
weave that in, do a lot of trial and error, test a lot of things. A lot of things didn't work, you know, I waste a lot of money on stuff, that kind of thing. And, and then, yeah, just that vast background of being able to help. Because actually, my business, we do photography, videography, photo booth, DJ services, we've expanded it. And so I have my teams in each state.
00:08:29
Speaker
Uh, and so, and then we did invitations previous to COVID and things like that. And so, um, I just have this weird, weird background that I can really help a lot of different people. Um, and I can really hone in, I kind of have that technical brain too. So I can kind of hone in and make things simplified. Um, and that's where I love, you know, helping other wedding pros because.
00:08:53
Speaker
They do what they love, right? They, you know, they created their business because they, the service that they offer is probably what they love doing. But then the marketing side is just like.
00:09:03
Speaker
You know, it's just the agony of that. It's just hard. And I always say there's so much noise in the world these days. You don't even really know who to listen to. You don't even know what to apply. And you don't really have time to test stuff. And so that's kind of, I think, where I'm kind of different in how I can kind of help you get quicker to where you want to go.
00:09:27
Speaker
That's interesting you say that because I don't have much time, but I was looking at your website right before this conversation, and I was like, do I have time to deep dive into your stuff? But you make it really easy for people. We're going to talk about your trainings a little bit later. But you talked about what was not working, and then you figured out what is working. But in a nutshell, can you maybe explain what is working?
00:09:52
Speaker
Yeah, so the biggest thing is that we know, well, I'm a photographer. I know you have a lot of photographers that it's fun from the photography side because once you get a wedding, you can maybe if you do other photography, family, graduation, like all of that kind of stuff, you can kind of keep them as a client, right, to
00:10:11
Speaker
expand and continue with that side. If you're not a photographer, really the services you offer, it's kind of one and done. So you're always churning trying to get those new leads. And what I love, the biggest marketing things that I have seen working is
00:10:30
Speaker
that people aren't really taking a lot of control you know doing I guess is email marketing and then the funnels and that's where kind of the funnels part comes in and especially for photographers because you can get additional business from them the funnels are like
00:10:49
Speaker
an integral piece that I just love talking about to photographers because I'm like you are missing out on so many possibilities there that of just different ways that you can really add some income to your business and it could be from the print side if you're into that piece of it. It could be from additional sessions, family sessions,
00:11:09
Speaker
you know, if they're babies, that kind of stuff. And if you're not staying top of mind, they're just going to forget about you. Yeah. So, um, that's where funnels kind of help come in. And I will say, um, in content marketing, that's kind of the other piece that I really hone in on is content marketing. And a lot of times photographers that we were talking about this really quickly before that, um, it's fun for photographers because content marketing is not as hard because we have all our gorgeous photos, right? That we can, so it's easy for us to kind of
00:11:38
Speaker
you know, get into. Yeah, exactly. Right. Compared to all the other wedding, all the other wedding businesses. So content is usually not the biggest struggle for photographers. It is for the other wedding pros. But then the funnel piece is where I see a lot of yeah, I just see a lot of people not really maximizing that, that portion of it.
00:12:01
Speaker
Wow. Yeah. It is kind of, it is hard to get started, but once you get it started, it's so fulfilling. It's like the best thing ever. You're just like every person that signs up for something, you know, it's going to be a playlist for forever. Yeah, exactly. How do you get your head guests from your dream client? So the biggest thing that I have found is you have to stand out and be different. So the, um,
00:12:31
Speaker
And this is something that you probably hear me say, like if anybody's like in my world, I say this like every time I talk, is us as the wedding pro photographer, whatever we're doing, we get older, our clientele, like our couples get younger. So we have to really adapt to what they're looking for, what they're wanting.
00:12:52
Speaker
And that's really hard. That's the other piece that it's really hard because things have changed so they changed so rapidly and so quickly that we just get something figured out. And then it's like a 180 and now it's all, you know, all messed up and totally. And so that is where
00:13:11
Speaker
I really strive because I still work with all of my couples, um, for my wedding business. So I, I do all the sales for them. I do all of that. Uh, so I really am in tune to what's going on in the wedding industry still. And I really try to listen to what my ideal clients are saying, what they're, what they're asking for. What are they like the tone they're using? Like I really kind of dive in and each time I talk to a
00:13:41
Speaker
a bride groom or couple, I really, I'm always doing market research. Like just in the back of my head, it's just kind of the way my brain works. And that is kind of how I think I've really
00:13:57
Speaker
is one of the pieces of getting that heck yes because if you can train your brain to listen to what they're saying and not be so like here's what I'm trying to sell you'll build that connection and that relationship and you'll
00:14:13
Speaker
and you'll be sharing information that's important to them, that's going to get you that heck yes. It's going to, cause they're going to feel that bond and they're going to be like, Hey, they get it. And then I will make sure my packages are kind of aligned with what most of my couples are looking for. But then I can go back and sell to that and say, and hone in on those pieces that are in my package that are important to them because there's going to be certain things that might not be important to them. And I don't want to spend a lot of time on those because that's not,
00:14:42
Speaker
That's not going to be their driving factor on making that heck yes decision. So it's kind of a round of applause. That was a great, great answer. It's kind of funny that you said like, we get older, but then they get younger.
00:15:02
Speaker
Right? That is hilarious.
Personal Insights & ADHD Management
00:15:04
Speaker
Yeah, I say that like every time I do it, like every time I speak up because it just resonates, it helps us to understand why, you know, why things are changing, why aren't they maybe like, you know, understanding like it's like, or why isn't it, you know, connecting and it's just because
00:15:20
Speaker
Yeah. They're constantly getting younger. We're constantly getting older. Oh my God. Like sometimes when I go down, like I don't get back up. Like I need like my assistant videographer to like pull me back up. Yeah. Right. My hips are like giving up. It's so crazy. Okay. One more question before we start geeking out on funnels. Yeah. What were you like as a kid?
00:15:45
Speaker
Um, so this is funny, actually, I just learned about three or four years ago that I have ADHD. Oh, yeah. And so that has explained a lot of my childhood like now. Um, yeah, I was always constantly doing stuff when I was younger, um, actually started gymnastics when I was three years old. That's something like,
00:16:06
Speaker
That's random, I don't think I've ever told anybody else that within my body, because that's a nude nugget for people. But yeah, I saw I was in gymnastics when I started at three and ended when I was 10, but I was always in sports and all of that kind of stuff. So always doing stuff, and that's kind of probably why, because if I ADHD, I couldn't sit still. Interesting. I took my daughter, my almost three-year-old, to gymnastics for our first day yesterday. Oh, did you? And she didn't do it.
00:16:33
Speaker
She didn't do it? Yeah, it was, and she's pretty brave too. She's like braver than the older one. And I was kind of surprised that she went, she choked. She, I, I bribed her with Cheetos, with M&Ms, KitKat. Well, that's hot. Well, maybe it was just cause it was new. Maybe it was like, I don't know. Yeah. Yeah. I'll try it again. But I was surprised. She like, she was, her face is so, so scared.
00:16:58
Speaker
got it yeah that was uh yeah and there's some things i think you know as a kid like i remember i this is a random story but i remember um i must have been maybe eight um and my parents had had me do a singing
00:17:14
Speaker
like a play type singing camp thing or something or other. And I remember that I was just terrified. I was like, I, and I think I was even crying and like, I am not like, this is not me. Like I can't do this. And yeah, so there, maybe there's just something that's like, you just kind of a
00:17:33
Speaker
fear of hers. That's an intro. She doesn't even know that maybe this looks scary. I don't know. It was so scary. How are you coping with ADHD? And then, um, is it like microdosing Adderall? Or have you, um, now that you realize that, like, um, is it, was it crazy, like awakening for you? Um, so I don't take any meds for it. Um, I actually have just kind of
00:17:58
Speaker
tried to adapt and figure out like mentally like and do some just other things to really understand but um it's really yes it's been eye-opening i think when i first realized it i was like oh okay like but then over time like i would say really over the last couple years it's really soaked in more and i've like as i'm doing a task i notice i'll get sidetracked and i'm like don't hold it back in
00:18:23
Speaker
Like, and so it's more of like the awareness has helped me to try to stay on task a little bit more. Yeah, it's still like it's, it's a learning curve. And the other part of it is, is I previously I would give myself a hard time, I think a little bit for doing certain things. And now I understand like, oh, it's just part of my ADHD. Like I said, give myself a little more grace for certain things like that now, which is,
00:18:52
Speaker
which is good for your own self and stuff like that. Yeah, I get it. I mean, you seem so smart and that's why you created these amazing funnels and you have the Rubik's Cube behind you, but we could do another podcast about ADHD. Yeah, definitely. Yeah, let's do it. Yeah, today we're going to geek out on funnels, but I guess we kind of explain funnels, but you can explain it one more time and then why it's so near and dear to your heart and then we'll just kind of banter about some tips and tricks.
00:19:19
Speaker
Yeah, sounds great. So marketing funnels are kind of a newer concept in the wedding industry. I would say they've kind of become a buzzword that are starting to kind of roll around. And funnels really are the idea of attracting your ideal clients into your world, getting them to know about you, and then getting them to
00:19:42
Speaker
want to book your services so that you're getting more money in the bank. That's the concept of the funnel. And you can kind of think of a funnel. They're coming in the top and we're coming out the bottom and that's kind of how it works. And usually you have the repeat funnel, but for the wedding industry, a lot of times you don't have the repeat.
00:20:03
Speaker
That's really weird. That's really what a funnel is just to make it simplistic because sometimes, again, I've tried to like, they can get really complicated but I've just honed in here's what we need to know for the wedding industry specifically. And what this does is for the young, because of the people we were trying to attract.
00:20:24
Speaker
they need nurturing, they need lots of touch points, they need that reassurance. And that's what funnels do. So years ago, it used to be, you know, somebody would come, you know, somebody would
00:20:40
Speaker
find you they you know maybe even find you on the phone and then you could convert them pretty easily right within maybe you know just talking to them well now they want to end up figuring out what um like find you on social media first check out your website so yeah so the biggest thing is is we're wanting people to um
00:21:00
Speaker
Continue to know you want to continue to nurture them because that's where kind of our ideal clients now that they're younger. That's what they're looking for. And so that's what the funnels really do. But what the funnels do is they automate it for you so that you don't have to worry about
00:21:16
Speaker
you know, manually doing all of this stuff. So that's where it's fun because you can create this machine to do kind of this work for you. And then you fill in those gaps with your own still manual touch points that are personable and stuff like that. But all of those things that we can automate and keeps you in front of them, we'll do that within the funnel.
00:21:41
Speaker
I didn't know how to get into spaces that I wasn't invited into. My aha moment was I finally found a venue that I jammed with and I think that we're gonna have a great relationship so I'm super excited to be on their list.
00:21:58
Speaker
I have presented myself, my art, and my business in a way that is speaking to someone, that is speaking to somebody enough where they recognize my brand. They know who I am and I don't know who they are, which is amazing, and they want to work with me.
00:22:16
Speaker
Yep, she's just one of my dozens of students crushing it. Go to my website www.hecyesmedia.co and book a 15-minute strategy session with me. Only if you want to be booked out on multiple preferred vendor lists and have a proven marketing plan.
00:22:36
Speaker
Pardon this short interruption, but me and the Get A Heck As team have some exciting news. If you haven't heard, I have a free mini masterclass how to get on your first preferred venue vendor list, the Holy Grail of Bliss. Hot Leads and these couples don't really care about price. It's 20 minutes and packed with goodness. The link is in the show notes.
00:22:58
Speaker
Also, we are offering website copy writing for all wedding professionals. With my digging and coaching skills and my team member Cindy with 15 years of copywriting experience, we will create your perfect website copy.
00:23:12
Speaker
We want you to cry of happiness when you get it back and say, wow, I'm so proud of myself as a business owner. Get a free audit of your current site. Go from meh to heck yes. Just DM me your website and I will send you a loom audit back.
Successful Marketing Techniques & Engagement
00:23:28
Speaker
My Instagram is at Carissa Woo. Back to the conversation.
00:23:33
Speaker
How do you get people to get on your funnel with, is it Lean Manic? Yeah, so there's a few different ways. So content marketing is kind of one of those pieces, the organic way.
00:23:47
Speaker
Um, and you can have, you know, several different ways to do that. So you could have a lead magnet and that's kind of what, um, I break down. So I'm doing a funnel training the end of this, um, month. I'm not sure when this podcast will go live. Um, it's April 24th and 25th. Okay, cool. Okay, cool. So April 24th and 25th, um, I'm hosting a free funnel training and yeah.
00:24:14
Speaker
So, um, okay, cool. Yep. There's two different dates and then two different times, like in daytime and in nighttime. So that way, whatever people's schedules look like. Um, but I actually, it will break down. Um, and I've created it into three different funnels and those three different funnels have kind of their own key pieces. And so that the first funnel is kind of your attract and excite funnel.
00:24:38
Speaker
And that's where you're going to get people into your funnel. And our biggest strategy in there we're going to use is a lead magnet. But we want to create that, wow, lead magnet, that lead magnet that's going to woo them, right? And we're going to create that to get them excited about us. Can you give one example of a cool lead magnet that you feel like converts?
00:25:07
Speaker
Yeah, so for photographers, we always wanna think of the lead magnet to lead back to our services we provide because we don't wanna do off topic of something that doesn't lead back to our services. And we want it to kind of be a step before they're going to book us.
00:25:27
Speaker
So those are kind of the two key factors that I see a lot of people kind of deviate from, and then their lead magnet's not successful. So for photographers, for instance, an engagement session, guide of some sort, or like what to wear, I think a good sound is a really good one, what to wear, because that's always a, what do I wear type thing, you know? And you're gonna kind of have fun with that, and you could use your own photos in that lead magnet,
00:25:55
Speaker
to, you know, to share kind of different aspects. Um, you could even take that, um, a couple different angles and you could do like, um, indoor versus outdoor and you could kind of put a spin on that. Um, so that's really good because if they're, they're wanting that lead magnet, they probably haven't done their engagement photos yet, which means they may have, might not have booked a photographer yet. Yeah. But that's kind of the concept of where you're wanting your lead magnet to go. And, um, as you're starting to create that as,
00:26:24
Speaker
is those are the two pieces we wanna make sure we incorporate into that to make it as successful and get as many people into your funnel as possible. And so the idea behind that is people, if you're not familiar with the lead magnet, it's also called a freebie or an opt-in. So it's kind of got three different names and they are going to give their contact information. So they're usually their name, email address. I usually also will ask for their wedding date
00:26:50
Speaker
or in our industry. And so then that way I know too, if they're even an option, maybe I'm booked that day, right? And so it just kind of gives me that information. Oh, that's a good tip. That's a good tip. That's a really good tip. Do you use offload desk or?
00:27:07
Speaker
So, um, so I use active campaign. Okay. That's the one that I use and love. Um, but the flow desk works, convert kit works. The only reason why I love one of the things as I, um, create, uh, funnels and things like that. And as I share resources, I always look for like, what's the most cost effective. And so active campaign, um,
00:27:34
Speaker
I have a code against you like nine bucks a month type thing, whatever. So you, it's really inexpensive and it gives you that tagging and some of that stuff. Um, but yeah, so, uh, really you just need your website for the funnel part. You need your webs, a website. So wherever you want to host that at, and then you'll need the email marketing software, which is, you know, gaff to k flow desk, convert kit, whatever that might be. And then, um,
00:27:58
Speaker
your CRM system, obviously, and however you're gonna kind of keep track of everything. So those are really kind of just the three pieces you need. And it doesn't have to cost like a ton more, like a ton of money or anything to implement. Yeah, that's super cheap. What is like a tip for you for your nurture sequence? Like, do you do like a whole every month for a year? Or is it like, do you have a shift in system? I mean, I know, because I bought your stuff a bunch of times, it's so good. But what would be like a tip for our audiences today?
00:28:28
Speaker
what's in the nurture sequence. Yeah. So usually, um, so once they come into your lead magnets, then we go to the next funnel, which is that nurture sequence. And that's where we're usually I say like 10 emails in that nurture sequence over a 30 day period is usually what we want to do. Um, because one, we, we want to keep and usually I'll do like one day in between for like the first
00:28:54
Speaker
three days. Um, and then they kind of spread out from there a little bit. Uh, but we want to stay top of mind because obviously if they snagged that lead magnet, it is a, you know, is at the top of their mind, but we don't want to also, um, be like annoying to them either. Sweet spot. Um, and it's not always that they're going to open all of our emails either. So that's always the thing we have to think about is, is just because the email lands in their inbox doesn't mean that they they're going to open it. And so that's why we need to continuously kind of follow up.
00:29:25
Speaker
And so that's usually what I recommend is around 10 emails. And then after that, then you would put them into a bi-monthly, so twice a month, email newsletter system. But the thing with the emails is you want to make sure that you are
00:29:44
Speaker
they're value-based, story-based, like you're leaving in your own services, your own experiences into these so that they're not just like, hey, are you ready to book my services? Because that's gonna like totally turn them off and they're just gonna unsubscribe. So if we can weave in that story value where they see like when they, they wanna open your email because they're like, what are they telling me today? Like that's the excitement we want to create because if you can, you probably have,
00:30:12
Speaker
you know if you can think of your email you there's probably a few emails that you get in there from people that you get excited about and you're like oh what are they telling me today like yeah that's what you want yeah that's kind of what you're trying to um what you want to kind of accomplish with your email sequence as well for your nurture sequence yeah i used to like i had like daily love you know i love yours um a
00:30:40
Speaker
I have this family photographer. She's so good. I just posted last week. Some people just give really good value, and I love reading their stories. I would say a question is, why do we need to nurture them? Is it because that people are trying to get on our list or find a photographer even before they're engaged?
00:31:04
Speaker
Is it is it kind of like the wedding industry? They're just too too many photographers and we need to like stand out. Why is this like nurtured sequence like so important? So a lot of times there's a couple different ways that that that happen. Usually a lot of times they're not you know for wedding photography and things like that they're not really reaching out before
00:31:30
Speaker
Um, they get engaged, but they'll end up maybe reaching out to four or five, six, seven, eight, nine, even 10, you know, who knows how many photographers, right? And they don't really know, um,
00:31:44
Speaker
And they're just doing research. They don't even know what things cost sometimes. They don't even know what they need. They don't even know who they want to work with. And I always say that like in the wedding industry, there's like a hundred different, over a hundred different decisions that a couple has to make. And so we want to make it easy for them. So you do kind of have to stand out. And that's how these emails, the nurture sequence can do that.
00:32:06
Speaker
And it'll build that relationship a little bit before they even maybe talk to you. So you already kind of have that leg up because you've already done some heavy lifting through getting them to know a little bit about you, you know, maybe why you love what you do, just, you know, that kind of whole thing. And you can even share like different pieces about like something about, you know, you that's unique and things like that, because that might attract
00:32:35
Speaker
attract them that you know like maybe like for instance I have chickens like and so you know it's like you know maybe you had chickens or something maybe weave something in about a chicken or something I don't know but yeah and then they might have grown up on a farm or had chickens or something like they it's just these weird nuggets that can grow in at different times that can just really attract them
00:32:56
Speaker
and make you stand out. And yeah, I think we're always trying to connect like even when me like hosting or interviewing you just like, Oh, we have the same name, like look at our backgrounds, or like, you know, pops of color, they're kind of pretty pinks and please. So I just, I always want to connect and it's just like, even when I look for like people like going to tattoo me, or if I'm going to look for someone to do my like kid's birthday,
00:33:25
Speaker
I just wanna connect with them before I even reach out. So it's like, okay, so when you do book them and you do trust them that they're gonna show up and do a good job and they care. And then, you know, for a photographer that does have a beautiful funnel and you can help them with that, it does show that they're kind of like an expert at their craft and you could really go to a deep dive on like their work because when you go on Pinterest,
00:33:54
Speaker
Like I go there on all the time for like home decor, but it's like, I don't really care about the photographer. I'm just looking for inspiration. But with these emails, it's kind of like, you know, about your chickens, about your turtles, about something that you play guitar, you play tennis, tickle ball, whatever, like when you connect with the actual person behind the lens. So I think it's so powerful.
00:34:15
Speaker
Yeah, you're definitely correct. And especially with photographers, they want to feel like, because we hang around with them like for hours all day on their wedding day, right? So they want to know like, they, you know, it goes both ways. We want to hang out with people that we enjoy hanging out with too, like, and they want to hang out with, you know, people that they feel comfortable with as well. And so that's what those nurtured emails are. And I also recommend when,
00:34:43
Speaker
And I talk about this kind of in the funnel training and the courses that I teach is that there's actually a different couple of different ways that leads can come into your funnel. So even if somebody reaches out direct and doesn't come into your lead magnet, I still put them into, they kind of skipped that first funnel, but they go into that sec, they go into the, the warm, the second funnel.
00:35:07
Speaker
And so because you're writing them to be value-based, sharing about you, it's building that underneath stuff. So you can still do your follow-ups. Because obviously, if they reach out through a website, we want to follow up right away, see if we want to do all of those things still. But then this can run behind scenes and just feed in to a little bit more of those exciting things about you that just
00:35:37
Speaker
gets them even more excited that you don't even know because it's doing the heavy lifting for you. Nice. Chris, I think you were like a mad scientist in your past life. I can actually think of like little like funnels and like explosions of potions. Yeah, yeah. What's funny is when I went to school for marketing and whatever eons ago it feels like now, funnels have always been around, right? But it really never had its name because it was
00:36:07
Speaker
But it add out in here and then they come to purchase like it doesn't, it was a simple funnel like if we didn't even really have the name of funnel but now, so years like I would say five, six, seven years ago when they started to become more of a thing.
00:36:24
Speaker
What? Because there's so many moving parts. And it took me a while to get this all honed in and figured out. And I'm like, well, if it took me, and I have this marketing technical brain, I'm like, no wonder why people don't set these up because they've made them so complicated. And so that's what I've tried to do is really just simplify it and give you exactly what you need to build your own funnel.
00:36:50
Speaker
with those three pieces. Oh, I love it. Okay, so if you guys like this conversation, we'll talk more about the April 24th training that you have, but I'm gonna go into GraphiFire questions, but what is your biggest or your best content marketing advice? To post consistently, even if you are not, even if you feel like nobody's watching.
00:37:17
Speaker
So a lot of times you might post and you're like, oh, I only got two likes or only I got zero comments or whatever, keep posting. I would say that's one of the biggest things that I see is that we just think it's not working. But what I want you to remember is there's a lot of lurkers out there. So they're seeing your content, they just might not
00:37:40
Speaker
like you know they just might not like it they're the best but they do like it so like I'm actually a lurker I a lot of times um go on and just sometimes like scroll through stuff and like I don't really and it's and the reason for it is I'm just kind of tired I'm it's not that I'm like my brain's already exhausted yeah and I'm just like okay I'm just sitting here I'm scrolling through you know and so
00:38:03
Speaker
And over the last couple years, I think more and more people have gotten tired just with everything going on in the world. So they go to social media and they're doing their thing, but they're not really, they're just, yeah. So they're, so they might not, you might not get as much engagement on stuff at certain times or all of that, but just stay consistent.
00:38:23
Speaker
Yeah, I love that advice. What does the phrase in your background say and what does it mean?
Staying Unique & Personal Interests
00:38:30
Speaker
Yeah, sometimes you got, I think it was, sometimes you got a zig while everyone else is zagging. So the idea behind that is,
00:38:38
Speaker
everybody's going this way you you can be different and you can change you know show up differently do some different things and you can zag and you can make really a big impact into your business and your life because a lot of times again we hone in and we get we think that we have to do everything like everybody else is doing um but we don't like you can you can be a little different you can you can stand out and you can um make your own path
00:39:06
Speaker
for your business. And so that's kind of where that comes from. So yeah, so I kind of came across that. I was like, ah, that really resonated with me and I love that. I love it. What do you like to do for fun?
00:39:17
Speaker
So I end up, a lot of times I have my, my chickens on the cam, my dogs. Yeah. Yeah. I have like pets are a big thing to me. And my Hallmark movies, I do like my Hallmark movies. So yeah. Well, tell everyone where to find you and more about your training and how to like work with you.
Upcoming Funnel Training Event Information
00:39:43
Speaker
Yeah. So I have my, um, funnel training. It's April 24th and is during the day. And then April 25th is at night and you can, um, go to my website, Carissa cruzy weddings.com. And it's right at the top. I actually have a banner at the top, um, that you can snag your seat. Um, it's free. And then we're going to dive into what funnels are and the three funnels I kind of, um,
00:40:10
Speaker
That I teach you on and talk. I kind of give you all of those details in there as well. And then at the end, I will share an offer on how you can work with me and from my core site and that you can end up Building these three funnels yourself so and and usually you
00:40:31
Speaker
Can get them because that's the other thing within the wedding industry to is is you're all over the place from a. A timing standpoint right we're busy sometimes we're slower sometimes all of that kind of stuff and that's the fun thing is is we can build kind of each funnel. At a time and that way and it's still doing what you need it to do so you don't have to implement everything at once to start getting traction.
00:40:52
Speaker
Yay, give it up for the Carissa's. And we're to find you on Instagram. I don't think you said that. Yep, you can go at Carissa or Carissa Cruz's weddings. Yeah, spell the same as me. Yeah, exactly. Well, thank you, Carissa. This is awesome. And I can't wait to see you on the 24th and post this episode. Awesome. Thank you so much. I love chatting with you. This was so much fun.
00:41:21
Speaker
Thanks for joining me this week on Get a Heck Yes with Carissa Wu. Make sure to follow, subscribe, leave a review, or tell a friend about the show. Take a screenshot and post to IG. Tag me. Also, don't forget to download my free guide on how to become a lead generating machine. See you next time, wedding pros!