EPISODE 69 OF THE MARKETING SOLUTIONS PODCAST: HOW TO WRITE CAPTIONS AND EMAILS WITH CUT-THROUGH

Sonya:
Welcome to the Boom Your Biz podcast, a podcast for the movers, the shakers, and even bigger action-takers, in business. I'm your host Sonya McIntyre-Reid and each week I'll be exploring the question of what really makes businesses and organizations thrive? I'm on a mission to educate, empower, and inspire business owners and myself along the way. (singing)

Sonya:
Today, I am joined by Anjie, who has a business called Fit AF. Anjie, you actually have a couple of names for your business, what are you going under at the moment?

Anjie:
Yeah, I've been a little bit slack with social media and with bringing it all in line, we have some problems with Facebook. I originally started out as a Metafit coach and I grabbed that name for my business, in the town that I'm in, Muswellbrook, early on in the piece. And then, as my business expanded and my offerings expanded, I wanted to change the name into something that encompasses everything that I do, and I had massive back and forth with Facebook. They would not let me change the name. So, I haven't brought everything else into line with that. Probably that's a little bit disturbing for someone like yourself, but I know that it's on my to-do list to get it done, I'm just a bit casual about stuff like that.

Sonya:
No, that's all right. Look, now I know that, I can help you with that. I know the tricks to changing those names on Facebook. So, what banner are you going under at the moment, officially?

Anjie:
We are Fit AF. I think, we are Fit AF.

Sonya:
Yeah. Good. I love it. And if you are listening to this and we haven't managed to change the name on Facebook yet, I believe it is under PT With Angie. Is that correct?

Anjie:
That's on Instagram. I probably could change that within five minutes right now and I just haven't done it. I'm not a big Instagram user, I need to get better at that.

Sonya:
You're making me twitch, Anjie. You're making me twitch.

Anjie:
I know.

Sonya:
Okay. Why don't you tell us a little bit about your business as it stands today, how you got started and also about the town that you are operating in, because it is a country town, not a huge population base, which of course is a very different situation when you're trying to market a business versus if you're in a big city.

Anjie:
Absolutely. So, I've been a fitness trainer for about six years now, just over. I did start out as a group fitness coach and as I mentioned, I first started teaching Metafit. I'll go back to before that, I quit my job that I had had for eight years.

Sonya:
Oh, what were you doing, Anjie?

Anjie:
I was an office manager for a community organization. I had nothing in the works, I just decided to quit. And my mom has a fitness business in town. She's been a fitness trainer for, oh, I don't even know how long, a long, long time, way back in the days of aerobics. So, she's got those skillsets. She asked if I want to come and help her out in her business and I did a Pilates course, I said, "Why not? I might as well. I might as well start focusing on my health for a while." So, I started getting trained up and I came across this Metafit class, kept seeing it online.

Anjie:
I had two young kids at the time and I was finding it really hard to do the amount of exercise that I felt I had to do to become fit, lose weight, be a fitness trainer. And Metafit were talking about training for less than 30 minutes with your body weight only, and I thought, "That sounds amazing. There's nothing like that in town. I might just pop along and do the course." So, I did that and I got a really rude shock about my fitness. I had been teaching Pilates, freestyle step classes, running quite a lot, and I was not fit enough for the Metafit class. It smashed me, what we did when we went to the course.

Anjie:
I got certified in the October, I thought, "I'm going to do this twice a week up until Christmas. See if it's what it's cut out to be. If I get the results that they're talking about, and then I might offer it out to the community here." So, I did do that and the results were really good, just from doing two sessions a week and so, I started putting it out there.

Sonya:
Ooh, that sounds good, two sessions a week for results, and it's only 30 minutes. Is that right?

Anjie:
Yeah. But there is a trade-off in how hard it feels, so I didn't get a lot of fire in at first, and then I slowly built a client base and we got a lot of like-minded people that just loved training hard without having to compete with anybody else or be in a gym-based setting. So, it just grew from there.

Sonya:
Oh, fantastic.

Anjie:
And then, I got my own space as well.

Sonya:
So, did you separate from your mom's business at this point?

Anjie:
Yes, I was still teaching for mum. So, mum has a different market that she services and I was starting to get really busy with teaching my stuff outside to other groups of people in other towns around the area. And mum had also had some other ladies trained up as well, so I thought at that point, I said, "Look, mom, I'm struggling to write a really good step class a couple of times a week or a bar class, for your clients, and I think I really need to just focus on my client group, so that I can really focus there." So, we split off, but it's not competitive because everyone has a different niche, as you know.

Sonya:
Mm-hmm (affirmative). And I think that is a really, really important reminder because what is the population of your town?

Anjie:
Ooh, I want to say, I'm probably really wrong here, maybe it's 15 to 20,000, the area itself.

Sonya:
Yeah. Yeah. So, it's not a huge population base.

Anjie:
No.

Sonya:
But even then, there is still the scope for people to have different niches.

Anjie:
Absolutely.

Sonya:
Which I think is really important to highlight. And you talk to a very specific person, I feel like whether or not you've realized that you do it, when you write your captions on social media, I feel like you're calling me out. You're telling me a story, you're making it personal and the reason I got Anjie on the podcast today is because I love her captions. Every time that I need to go in and set up an ad, I'm like, "Well, I've got heaps to work with here because this is all so amazing in terms of telling a story." So, how did you learn to do that? And I mean, what does that typically look like when you sit down to write a caption on social media?

Anjie:
I didn't formally learn that. I think I've always had a bit of a love of reading and a little bit of writing. I've read a lot and I just enjoy the written word. So, I'm not, by no means, highly educated, but I don't have a process. I think that it's a bit cliched, but the only thing I could think of to answer this question was that I just decided not to care what anyone thinks and write about things, how I experience it. So, I'm a little bit that way inclined, personality-wise already, but it still can feel a little bit overwhelming to put yourself out there. And I think it's just a skill, you just practice it, you just write from a place of your values and it comes through to the right people.

Sonya:
Mm-hmm (affirmative). I'm just going to read out one of your latest posts. So, it says, "I get bored by exercise." And then, next sentence is, "I'm in a much better mood now summer is O-V-E-R. Now we can get stuck into the serious stuff. I'm sorry, if you continue to buy into short-term fads, challenges, eating, et cetera, in the pursuit of a finish line, because there isn't one. If you'd like to keep testing that theory, I'm not the coach for you. I have a nasty little habit of being honest about the process. It's generally not what people want to hear when fitness shopping in summer. Now, can we get on with things?" I love it.

Sonya:
And I think what you're doing here is, you're using your captions and your marketing to attract a particular type of person. You've made it very clear in those few lines, that you are not after someone who just wants to get a bikini body for summer. It's about sustainable fitness and health and lifelong habits, for you. And maybe that's all it comes down to, being really clear in your message, being clear on who your target audience is, and then talking really personally in those captions to get their attention.

Sonya:
And I would just say to people as well, and I'll link to this post just so people can see what I'm talking about in the show notes, but then you've linked to Why I No Longer Sell Fitness Challenges, a blog, which goes on to explain the process. Again, I think you're educating your potential clients about who you are and what it is you're selling and what the offer is, in a way that they buy into your brand and your values. Do you ever get any backlash from any of your posts on social media?

Anjie:
Probably behind my back, not in-person, and I laugh because it really doesn't bother me. And one thing about that post, it just came to me and it comes to me based on again, an experienced. So, the first line of that post is something that probably more than one person said to me this summer, when they came to me asking for help. It's an excuse, right? "Oh, I've tried this and that and that, but I find that I get bored with exercise." There's some facts that people need to face if they want to reach their goals and unfortunately, they're consuming a lot of social media, which tells them that it's really quick to do that, or they're going to get amazing results in a really short amount of time. And it's just not normally the case for the average person, unless they completely overhaul their life. In my opinion, a lot of times, that does more harm than good to a person for their overall health.

Anjie:
So, this is where I'm coming from. It's a little bit of a tough love. And one thing I wanted to say about that post was that I do actively, maybe not consciously again, it's probably a personality thing, but I'm okay with repelling people with my posts. Because one thing I've learned about working with people in the last six years and trying to learn about social media and marketing as well, is that when you're a service-based business, you can't work with everyone. And if you try to work with the wrong type of clients, it just costs you time, money, all your resources and your sanity as well. So, that's been a big learning curve.

Sonya:
100%. That's what leads to burnout.

Anjie:
Yes. Absolutely. I listened to your podcast on burnout and I need to share that with a few people too, because I could recognize a lot of symptoms or the lead up to burnout within myself. And I think I've high-fived the burnout zone quite a few times and I've never gotten to the point of getting physically ill. Oh, maybe once, but not the hospitalization.

Sonya:
That's lucky. That's good.

Anjie:
Absolutely. If I reflect on that, in a lot of cases it comes back to trying to help everyone or trying to work with everyone. Not everyone gets my message and that's okay if they don't. With some of my content, I do actively try to repel people. I have a pretty funny story or a couple of funny stories about my email backlash style. Quite often, if I put-

Sonya:
Yeah. Good. Because this is what I was about to ask you about as well. So, what Anjie also does as well as her social media posts, she does really, really compelling emails. Every time I receive one of her emails in my inbox, I'm sucked in straightaway. Again, because she's telling a story and I feel like she's talking directly to me, maybe because we share similar values in terms of fitness and health. So, tell me about your email marketing, what what's happened in terms of backlash there?

Anjie:
So, it's evolved. It's been a process of learning and a process of practice as well and that's what I wanted to say about my captions, everything that I do, I've had to learn by trial and error. And I can link that to diet and exercise too, if there's one thing I can get people to take away from this, it's that you only get better with practice and you have to make mistakes. I look back at some of my old email content and think, "Holy shit, what was I thinking?" But at the time it felt like the right thing to say.

Anjie:
And I think if I get in the zone and I'm in my flow and I just start writing, it's the same with my captions. I just start, I just open up a document and start typing them out. I've learned the hard way a few times before, not to type them directly into Facebook because you lose them sometimes. You can be typing away ... Anyway, I start typing, pretty much brainstorming, and I do this with my emails and I wrote one about making excuses and it might've been summer. I use the ... What's it called? Like a mail merge, where you can insert the person's into the email.

Sonya:
Oh, so like, the first name, so you can be like, "Hey, Sonya."

Anjie:
So, it's like I'm talking directly to them and I sometimes do that, but I didn't realize that some people don't realize that I'm not talking directly to them and this email was about making excuses. And this poor lady replied to that marketing email in capitals, telling me why she couldn't get fit and she couldn't lose weight, and she was maybe upset. And all I could do, I just, I think I did reply to her in a nice way in the end and say, "Oh, that wasn't just for you, that was for everyone." But she did unsubscribe and that's okay, but that's an extreme example of a reaction to some content that I've put out there and a really good example of someone who is not for me.

Sonya:
Yeah. But I think at the same time, it's a real testament to the fact that your writing seems really organic and like you are talking directly to someone, right? It doesn't feel like a mass produced email that's going out. So, I would count that as a bit of a win, to be honest. You're on the right track.

Anjie:
Yes. But it's interesting, the emotions that are attached to fitness, diet, making progress, excuses. Yeah.

Sonya:
Yeah. Oh, absolutely. Absolutely. For your marketing at the moment, how often are you posting on Facebook a week, and how often are you sending out an email?

Anjie:
I would say, I've been a little bit slack lately. I don't have a schedule. This is another thing that might make your eye twitch. I don't have strategic plans in place. I have tried and it's something that I probably need to practice. I literally come up with things as they present in my work with people throughout the week, comments that people make, questions that they ask. And I have not been able to get online and send my emails and do my posts, as much as I would like to lately.

Anjie:
I also find that I need to be in the mood for it and I know that the algorithm probably doesn't account for that, but if I'm not in the right place when I'm posting, I just find that it doesn't come across the way that I want it to. It doesn't resonate with the right people. It doesn't get a lot of engagement and I don't get anything out of it. So, I think a big thing for me, is that I enjoy putting this content out. I get a lot from it myself and that's not just ... I don't care if nobody likes it, I find the process of writing it is really handy for me.

Sonya:
Yeah. And I think maybe that's the reason that these posts are coming across as so genuine and they're coming from the heart and they're coming from real experiences as well, and that's probably why they're so effective. There's not one way to do social media.

Anjie:
No.

Sonya:
And I think you've proven that you don't necessarily need a set strategy or a set schedule to be going out, because your content is resonating at the end of the day. It's probably a situation where it's quality over quantity for you.

Anjie:
Yeah. And it's hard work, speaking to anyone who has a small business or a service-based business out there, sometimes it feels like you're putting things out and you don't know if it's moving the needle on your bottom line. It's really hard to tell if it's worth spending your time doing it. So, I think that you have to enjoy it. And I think if there's anybody listening specifically in the fitness space, to this podcast, just stop consuming other people's content in the industry, stop feeling like you have to be like everyone else, because that is so boring. People have been sent that for years and years and they don't want another overly positive, "You can do it," type of person, every day, because that's not how the reality of getting it done is.

Sonya:
Yeah. 100% and I think that goes for every industry. I find myself sometimes looking at all these other agencies going, "I should know this and I should be doing that." Or, "They said this and they said that. I should be teaching my clients this too." And I have to stop myself and go, "No, stay in your lane." I think it's good to be inspired by other people in your industry, but if you're consuming all of their content, all the time, then what happens is there's this little bubble in industries that happens, where you're all putting out the same content and having the same opinions on things.

Anjie:
Absolutely.

Sonya:
And no one's individual. And it's very hard when you're looking at that content, to then separate what you're putting out, to be individual and having your own original thoughts. So, I completely agree with that. You often have a low barrier to entry offer, happening for you business. Is that effective for your local market, and can you give me an example of times you've done this previously? What has that offer looked like and how does that sales process work? Is it just a matter of getting people to pick up the phone and having a conversation with them first and then working out what's best for them? Or how does that usually work for you?

Anjie:
Okay. I've tried a few variations of that over the years, and the short answer to that is they have not been effective for me. So, we're talking low-cost. Is that what you're meaning by low barrier?

Sonya:
Yeah.

Anjie:
Low cost, low commitment. So, a good example at the moment is my 30-Day Online Meal-Prep Challenge. I find them really hard to sell. Logically as a business owner or as a fitness ... And this happens so much in the fitness industry in general, even with face-to-face offerings, is that we feel like we have to push the price down to remove that barrier because some people will give you feedback that they can't afford your services and that's the reason that they can't become healthy or reach their goals. And so, you take that on board and you think, "Oh, well, I need to be able to help people in different ways."

Anjie:
From my perspective, offering online stuff was also a means to remove the barrier of having to show up to a space, for people who may not be confident enough to do that. They might not have the time to do it. So, it's basically, I think as fitness trainers we're naturally problem solvers. So, putting all kinds of ways to help people out there and they are not effective for me, if we're talking financially with my business. The amount of effort that I put into marketing them, as you know, and putting them together, is not returned in what I get from them so far. But what I do get from running these short online courses is I get to hear from different people that I might not come across if I was only able to be accessed face-to-face. I get to hear about their different problems in regards to diet and exercise, and I can take that and build that into my programming, to be able to help people with what they're really struggling with.

Anjie:
So, I get a lot out of it in terms of the conversations that I get a lot of practice talking about a particular topic. In the past, I have done low-cost trials to come and try my classes. I also found that really ineffective and just, I was putting more into it than what I got out of it as a business, and people just tended not to stay if they were doing the low-cost services. I'm actually finding face-to-face, I'm whittling away and getting rid of low-cost face-to-face options because people don't tend to stick with them and they don't tend to value the service that you're trying to give them as well, if it's low-cost.

Sonya:
I don't know about you, but pre-COVID for me, I was doing a lot of workshops. So, these workshops would probably only be about 40 to $50 for two or three hours, to teach people how to do social media and ads, and that kind of thing. And what I found was that while I would have a room full of people, it was very rare that those people sitting in the audience would actually turn into clients. But what I did find is that it got the word out there to businesses that could afford my services, in the community.

Sonya:
They saw that I was promoting this and it put me out there as the expert and the person to go to, or it would spark that word of mouth with people that did go to the workshop, they'd say to their friend, "Oh, hey, you're looking for someone to manage your social media. I just went to this fantastic workshop, you should reach out to Sonya." So, I'm not sure whether you find, when you put those different offers on, whether or not it doesn't necessarily result in big sales for those low-cost offers, but it's a talking point and something that sparks that word of mouth in the community. And so, down the track, you do see a boost in business almost indirectly from it. Would you say that's the case?

Anjie:
It's hard to say with myself. What I do get is the practice in public speaking and I love giving workshops on fat loss. I quite often do a free one on the basics of fat loss. And I just love talking about it, it's great practice for me. And I think that these offerings like workshops or online courses, where you're interacting with people, is that they get a chance to see what your life and what your values are. Because I think sometimes, I might come across as a little bit scary on social media because I can be quite blunt and to the point, and I think it's not until some people start working with me, that they realize that I'm actually really passionate, I'm not that scary. Or it's even a chance for them to come along and listen and say, "No, this doesn't resonate with me." And I've had that with workshops as well and that's absolutely fine. Yeah.

Sonya:
Yeah.

Anjie:
So, it's a great opportunity to get a feel for me, from the client's perspective.

Sonya:
Yeah, no, definitely. Definitely. How important do you think it is for business owners who are under high stress, to maintain a healthy lifestyle? Because the narrative used to be this kind of hustle mentality and this image of this middle-aged, overweight CEO, who just dedicated 24/7 to work, how sustainable do you think that is? And what do you think the impact of a healthy diet and lifestyle is on productivity? And how much exercise should we be doing, if that's our aim as a business owner?

Anjie:
I used to work in HR, so this gets me fired up as well. It's not sustainable. The levels of chronic health issues that we have, particularly in our community, demonstrate that trading off time in your life, where you could be working on your health particularly, it's not sustainable. It links to ill health and disease. I don't know what the answer is. From my perspective, I try to give a range of options to work with me in-person and online. And I try to whittle down fitness to the point where anyone can do it, anyone can become healthier, day-to-day lifestyle habits, just making it as simple as possible.

Anjie:
At the end of the day, I think people need to start pushing back. I worked in HR in London about ... Ooh, what year are we in? 16 years ago. And they were putting flexible work arrangements in place there then, and I know we've got different businesses like mining here, where you do literally need to turn up to work. But I feel like Australia hasn't quite gotten their head around getting people to work for an outcome rather than the literal hours that they sit at their desk or at a piece of machinery. It really concerns me, the impacts of this, this workplace culture that we've got, where you must be literally at your desk all the time, available all the time. And it's a big reason that I get for clients canceling sessions. Yeah. And not getting in enough training as well or not eating well.

Sonya:
Yeah. Reaching for those quick, easy options because they think that they don't have the time, but then it's this cycle that perpetuates where, then you feel crap and tired because you've eaten that massive greasy meal and then, you don't feel like you've got the energy to exercise and then your focus at work isn't as good. So, it takes you longer to get tasks done.

Anjie:
Oh, absolutely.

Sonya:
And then, you're working longer hours, and it's just this cycle.

Anjie:
Yep. And people can do that with fitness too, when you talk about productivity and being efficient. People can be really inefficient with fitness. And if you see people posting online that they're at the gym for two hours at a time, six times a week, some people can do that. But if you're a busy CEO or whoever, who works long hours, and you are consuming that kind of content about fitness online, it can lead you to think, "Well, I don't have time for that so therefore, I can't become fitter." And that is not the case.

Anjie:
Yeah. So I feel like there's a lot of damaging messages online with regards to fitness. We know that. And the way that it's being delivered as well in that, "Well, if you can't commit to these hours and hours of training or completely cleaning up your diet and only eating organic, then therefore, you can't be fit." That's not the case at all. So, that's what I try to work on with my clients on an individual basis, because everyone's got different barriers happening and there's always a solution to the problem, but you need to be a little bit solution-focused, and that's a big thing that I spend my time coaching people on.

Sonya:
Anjie, if there was anyone out there listening to this podcast, like a business owner, who's going, "Hey, I need a bit of guidance, needing a program tailored for me, but I'm not in your town." Is that something that you offer?

Anjie:
Absolutely. Some of my favorite clients are online. I work with them online and that's a process of assessing the person, assessing their lifestyle, and working with them directly every week to put things in place, to help them reach their goals. So, you don't need to be in Muswellbrook to work with me, not at all, but if people are interested, they can get in touch and we'll go from there.

Sonya:
Amazing. Now, where is the best place for them to reach you? I'll pop this in the show notes.

Anjie:
Okay. So, my email is the best place I would say, or they can message me via Facebook.

Sonya:
Mm-hmm (affirmative). Perfect. All right. I will link to both of those in the notes for this show. If you are reaching out to Anjie, just let her know that you heard about her on the podcast and she'll know how you've come across it, hey? Anjie, thank you so much for your time, I really appreciate it. I think this conversation took a turn to areas outside of marketing, I didn't expect, but I think it is really valuable for people, especially business owners, to have an understanding of their health and fitness when it comes to productivity and listening to their body and the importance of working with a professional as well, for some guidance.

Anjie:
Absolutely. There is a way for everyone.

Sonya:
Mm-hmm (affirmative). And it's going to be individual for each person.

Anjie:
That's right.

Sonya:
Beautiful. Well, thank you so much for your time, Anjie.

Anjie:
Thank you, Sonya. (singing)