Business Mom Summit Day Four-Marketing Preview Episode

Business Mom Summit Day Four-Marketing Preview Episode

Hi everyone. Amanda Tento is here, and I am here with Lanice Lavell, and she is an amazing content writer who also helps people to write sales pages that convert. So her topic is writing sales pages that drive sales and conversions. 

I am so excited about your topic because this is one of the last things that must be like the icing on the cake, right? Like, so you build the cake, it’s your webpage, and the words are the icing.

And if the icing doesn’t taste good, people will not eat the cake. It’s all; you want to avoid getting to the middle. Could you tell us a little about you and your business and how you started? My name’s Lavell, and I am a copywriter for female entrepreneurs and a content strategist.

I started by; I was looking for some side income; I started on content mills, like Upwork Freelancer; I wonder if that’s still around that kind of site. And then, as I learned and got better, I moved up, and now I own that content life, and I hope to help female entrepreneurs by either writing the copy for them or teaching them how to do it themselves.

That’s awesome. Do you have courses you do that through, or do you do it more one-on-one? I have a couple of self-study courses, and then I do like a lot of live workshops for those who, you know, don’t necessarily want something in-depth, like one-on-one. But they want somebody to look over their content and copy and see.

You know, get some feedback on it. So the live workshops are a lot of fun, too, cause people are just fun to talk to people. And you see so many different types of businesses and about, and products and other things like that, right? It’s great to see actually what.

What can you do with the online business? Like I’ve worked with people who are hosting events, and that’s their main priority, like their primary business model is hosting events and then doing watercolors, like moms who are building blogs, all kinds.

It’s exciting to tap into all those different industries but still focus on the one thing you do best. Yep.

It’s a weird form of NHI down, but it worked. It worked out for me. That’s good. Well, that’s what we need to do. You find what works and then stick with it. So what is the number one struggle for people when writing sales pages and getting those conversions and sales from those pages?

The number one problem, well, people often tell me that they’re struggling with coming up with the words. The underlying reason for that is that it’s just overthinking it, and we’re thinking about it from the perspective of a business owner and not the consumer.

So not the person who’s reading the sales page and like that perspective mess up will, will really make writing copies super difficult,

Have to shift into that consumer mind to write the copy. That’s stepping back enough to understand where they’re coming from as somebody who hasn’t already solved it.

Especially if the business is your baby, it’s tough; step back far enough from it, too, like when you’re saying that, it comes to mind. I include all the questions I would have as a consumer. I know, like a, because I know what my package has or the outcome is, but I’m expressing that, and I’m inferior at saying that. I need to be in one of your classes.

Please give me some examples of people if you have an example of someone getting it right in the sales page area. I invested in a couple of her courses, but Sarah, Dan, so she’s a business coach. She does well at not only sharing her story but still making sure that her story is relevant to the audience. Making sure that they’re, you know, she’s still connecting with where they’re at in their journey and what they’re seeking and stuff. So she does an excellent job at doing.

So we’ll have to check out that. So if you want to go Google her, Sarah, Dan, you can Google her and see her sales page and see how she connects and what content she gives to people. And she has some conversion opportunities on each page. 

What can people expect after they watch your talk to walk away? I’m a big fan of making sure that it’s not, I don’t want to say, fluff, but it’s something you can implement. After my talk, I would like to make sure you have a step-by-step process for writing your sales page.

It’s not like ideas and theories, but like, take my information and go like, actually, write your sales page and make money in yours. All right. That’s awesome. Well, from one, I cannot wait to see or talk, and I have said this in many of the other interviews, but I have handpicked all of the topics based on things I want to learn about.

I’m a business mom, and we all have strengths. So pulling from all of your muscles is the way to make the summit enjoyable. So thank you for being here and participating with us. She will talk to us about growing and converting our small email list. So welcome, Ashley. Thank you so much for having me. I am so excited to have you, and I get your emails. I’m on your email list and love it; I am also in your Facebook group and love seeing you. All of your tips and ideas, and I definitely, you’re on mine, the top of my list for people I need to hire next.

I started my business way back when, even before I knew it. I started by learning how to code websites from library books and a laptop that I bought with lots of babysitting money. And I started building websites for myself.

Blogging, experimenting, and writing about how much I love macaroni and cheese. And then eventually, I got into the corporate world. I was in college. I thought I had made it and realized that it wasn’t what I wanted to be doing, and I knew it would take me a while to climb up the corporate ladder and do the pieces and everything.

And so I went through the process. Branching out and just taking that first step into starting my own business, which was Blank Slate Media Consulting. And then, from there, I dove back into my love for writing and got out web design and now just focused on email marketing.

Oh, that’s awesome. So what is your favorite part about email marketing versus web design? I know there are two completely different things, but what is your favorite part?  For me, it’s all about personality. I love being able to connect with other people. I am a connector, and so for me, I felt like I was missing that piece with web design; even though you designed for your ideal client, I really love the opportunity to be able to write in a way that’s more like having a conversation over coffee with your best friend. It just brings me so much joy to be able to do that.

That’s awesome. So what is the number one struggle? I know my work, but what is the biggest struggle you see mom business owners facing regarding email marketing? The biggest thing is it comes down to time, a lot of times, we’re struggling, and I have a toddler who is basically learning how to walk right now and likes throwing snack cups at me, wanting more snacks and all the things.

I can visualize that in my mind, even in my email list, so I love it—one last question for you. What are your, like, there are dozens of email providers, right? Email service providers that are different than your email, by the way, it’s not like Gmail. We’re talking about a basic email service with which you send your emails. What is your top? That you love to work with? My top three for three reasons: if you are starting and are just in the process of building, you’re opening it up for the first time, definitely check out Mailerlite. It’s free up to a certain extent. It gets you started.

It is a great way to dip your toes in if you are. A service-based provider who, you know, is interested in just the core numbers of your email marketing and is doing simple automation. I recommend Convert Kit. Convert Kit is what I use for my business because I don’t have anything complicated setup; the more accessible, the better.

We’re not trying to confuse anybody. And then the third one is if you are a product-based business or have a lot of. Integrations for courses like business is just complicated, to begin with. In terms of Sims, definitely an active campaign.

The Active Campaign will give you many more options for integrating, segmenting, and moving your audience around. It also is better for more extensive lists as well too. If you’re, if you have a list of a couple thousand, I recommend Active.

Graphic design, web design, and I worked at a design agency for a significant amount of time, and then about three years ago, I, you know, I’d already had my first kid, and I was just burnt out at my agency job. I started exploring what it looks like to have my own business, and with the real opportunity of the, you know, online business world, like, it was just kind of, I discovered it and got excited, and so I, that’s how I jumped in.

And so I did it on the side for a little while, and then, When I was pregnant with my second daughter, I was like, okay, after she’s born, it’s time to make the jump and go all in on, uh, my business. I’m enjoying working with the people I love to work with, doing work that I love to do, and not dealing with agency drama and all kinds of things.

It makes a difference. So we don’t have all that. Those other people to contend with on top of actually doing the work. That makes a difference. I think it’s interesting, and this has been my experience as well, but I think there’s something about being pregnant, knowing that a baby is coming.

And knowing that you don’t like what you’re doing right now will drive you to figure it out. Right. In that, yeah. Months  It was like, I need to make this business work. And I’m a; I’m the primary income for our family. My husband works part-time, but I’m the primary source of income, so that we will do this. 

And it’s been working out so far. Well, that’s awesome. I love it. And I love that story because that’s how I got started. And I always have a little bit of a, a soft spot for those kinds of stories where, you know, you’re trying to figure it out so you don’t have to go back and you couldn’t be home with the kids and working and still have that same income and yeah.

I love it. What is the number one struggle for mom business owners when having a sales page that converts? Well, especially if they haven’t done a sales page before or if they’re new to sales pages, there are just a lot of little details that people miss out on.

So they need to have the right kind of content on your sales page. Are you communicating enough of the information and then on the design side, like you need it to? Clean and professional. You know, you don’t have to have like a fancy design, you know, or pro professional design if you’re not at that level yet.

I can’t speak to those, and then for me, as a sales page designer, I will do the design, and I will organize your content as if you’ve written it yourself. I’ll make recommendations if you need to include anything or if something could be worded better for you. And then, I’ll set it up for you on your platform and make sure your tech’s connected to it.