Katelyn Bourgoin on Figuring out Your Viewers

Welcome to the sixth and remaining (for now) installment of Social Proof with Katelyn Bourgoin. Katelyn is an entrepreneur and creator who’s constructed a number of firms and companies and even bought one efficiently.

She’s at the moment working because the CEO and Lead Coach at Buyer Camp, an organization devoted to serving to its shoppers higher perceive purchaser psychology. Her wealth of expertise in advertising and marketing and buyer analysis has earned her the nickname of ‘Customer Whisperer’.

On this interview, we speak about how she grew her private model, with a e-newsletter known as Why We Purchase that has an viewers of 10,000 individuals and a Twitter account with eight occasions that quantity.

Q: I’m so excited to have you ever on for Social Proof, Katelyn! What do you concentrate on private branding generally? And would you even name what you might have a private model?

Sure, I might name it a private model. I wasn’t very intentional about constructing a private model initially. What I knew was that I needed to increase my viewers past Atlantic Canada, which is the place I am primarily based and the place most of my shoppers are. However I did not need to be beholden to solely working with firms from one area, so it made sense for me to work on constructing an viewers past.

I selected Twitter as my first platform as a result of I like writing there – and I do some on LinkedIn now too. However I by no means went into it essentially considering, “I need a personal brand.”

I simply began sharing issues that I believed have been attention-grabbing and interacting with individuals I admired and thought have been attention-grabbing. I discovered that it was such a enjoyable place to each create content material and meet folks that I simply began spending extra time there. The viewers was rising after which ultimately was like, “Oh snap, I think I have a personal brand.”

Q: There’s usually a lot combating for our consideration, which have to be much more distinguished for you operating an organization, publishing on LinkedIn and Twitter, and writing a e-newsletter. How do you stability all of these issues? Do you undertake a constant voice throughout all of your channels and cross-post content material with a concentrate on one over one other, or do you might have a strategic strategy for every channel?

It is a combine that began with boosting site visitors for our enterprise. For instance, initially, I wasn’t working with sponsors or doing any revenue-generation with my e-newsletter. I needed to develop the e-mail record, however I used to be utilizing it as a channel to get the viewers to find the opposite components of our enterprise. I used to be additionally engaged on rising my social media following to develop consciousness of the corporate extra broadly. However I might say that since deciding to concentrate on rising the e-newsletter, I’ve grow to be way more intentional about my social channels than earlier than.

The place earlier than I caught to the identical matter of buyer analysis as a result of that’s our major product, now I am discovering that I need to create one thing extra like a hub and spoke mannequin that extra broadly covers purchaser psychology. So I’m educating the e-newsletter’s viewers on purchaser psychology after which on why they should do buyer analysis on their very own buyer base.

Q: You already talked about that it was the necessity to discover clients outdoors your fast area that led to you specializing in rising a private model. So rooster or egg query: would you say that it was a must develop your small business that led you to social media, or did social media encourage your small business concepts?

There are alternatives that I’ve now due to rising my social that I by no means thought of a chance. I knew that constructing my social would permit me to open doorways that will not have been open to me earlier than.

However like with the e-newsletter, for example, I by no means considered rising my social in order that I may sooner or later have a e-newsletter that would grow to be a revenue-generating asset for my enterprise, however as a result of I’ve the social channels and following. I knew at a excessive stage that it might open up doorways, however I didn’t know precisely what doorways would open. It’s been a implausible shock to see all of it evolve.

Q: Which of the channels you’re employed with have been probably the most helpful for rising your private model?

I might say they every play a task. Twitter’s undoubtedly the place the place I’ve invested probably the most time and vitality. And due to that, most of my e-newsletter progress comes from there within the sense that it is somebody discovering the e-newsletter via Twitter after which recommending it there as properly.

Then the e-newsletter permits me to deepen the reference to these individuals from Twitter as a result of I get to have this wonderful spot of their inbox each week the place I get their full consideration, versus being within the feed the place there are many different issues competing for consideration.

I’m lucky to have each, and I would a lot somewhat work together with my viewers on Twitter than reply forwards and backwards by way of e mail – I feel it is extra enjoyable for us. The conversations are extra easy and informal. I feel that the 2 are utilized in other ways however are additionally symbiotic. They work collectively.

Q: There’s a query I wish to ask which is are you able to outline your private model in three phrases/phrases/phrases?

I’ve given some thought to this as a result of I used to personal a branding company. So we’re very intentional about my model, the Why We Purchase model. I need individuals to consider me in three phrases: ‘geeky’, ‘fun’, ‘marketer’.

I get excited concerning the nerdy components of promoting – purchaser psychology and understanding individuals, however I additionally need to make it enjoyable. I need to make it enjoyable for me, and I need to make it enjoyable for my viewers. So I would say if I needed to sum it up, I am a geeky marketer, however I actually need it to be enjoyable. I need the individuals studying concerning the typically dry and boring stuff that we educate to be entertained.

Q: You’ve the label “Customer Whisperer” in your Twitter bio, which is so attention-grabbing. Is that an intentional private model label or a nickname that took place due to your work?

Properly, anyone known as me that, so I did not provide you with it myself. We provide coaching [at Customer Camp], and sometimes we’d do it via companions right here in Atlantic Canada. And considered one of our companions works for a corporation that helps an entire bunch of various kinds of companies and helps them to export outdoors of Canada. And she or he began introducing me to the workshop individuals because the Buyer Whisperer.

So I began utilizing it, and I feel it creates curiosity which is admittedly essential in advertising and marketing, nevertheless it additionally speaks to an evident want that folks have which is that they need to have extra clients, and so they know that they should perceive them to have the ability to have extra of them. I feel that it simply matches with all the pieces that I need to be about.

Q: That’s a cool instance of the facility of social proof in your private model – all the pieces you’ve been speaking leads individuals to the conclusion you need them to have of you and your model. You have carried out a whole lot of work with branding and understanding the shopper psyche. Has that impacted the way you talk your self and the initiatives that you just work on or your achievements?

Completely. I do not contemplate myself to be a brilliant buyer researcher or purchaser psychology knowledgeable, however I contemplate myself to be extra like somebody geeky about it and at all times studying. Oftentimes the matters that we’re speaking about within the e-newsletter are offered like I’ve a high-level understanding. However actually, we’re simply studying about it forward of educating it to others. There’s so much that I am studying about solely weeks earlier than I am sharing examples in my e-newsletter or on social.

I like studying about these matters after which testing them in our personal enterprise and seeing what works for us and what does not. It at all times makes me mirror again on our personal advertising and marketing collateral or web site or on messaging and see alternatives for optimization. We experiment and apply most of the ideas we cowl as a result of our viewers depends on our recommendation, and we wish it to work for our clients.

Q: Are you able to paint an image of actions you’ve taken in your private model as Katelyn Bourgoin and never essentially as Katelyn of Buyer Camp? And what alternatives have these actions gotten you?

I might say probably the most important actions which have led to alternatives are participating with individuals I love.

Once we have been nonetheless producing our podcast, most of our company got here via the interactions and relationships I’d constructed on social. I’d been participating with individuals whose careers I admired, like Rand Fishkin and Bob Moesta, not for any ulterior motives however as a result of I admired them. So once I reached out to get them on the podcast, they stated sure. Then once we bought to fulfill on the podcast, as a result of we had so many issues that we have been geeky about in frequent, we’d simply begin speaking, and that led to different alternatives to get to work collectively. Bob Moesta and I co-hosted an occasion collectively, and Rand Fishkin invited me to a founder retreat he was doing in Italy. All of this got here from attending to first begin with very small interactions on social and amplifying their work, supporting them, and getting enthusiastic about what they have been doing, which then led to actual offline friendships with individuals who I solely ever dreamed that I might get to speak to.

The profit for my private model was that the extra I bought to type of be seen in affiliation with these of us – authority figures of their trade – it acted as a type of social proof: Oh, Katelyn bought Rand on her podcast, that is wonderful, or oh, she’s doing a webinar with Bob Moesta, she should know her stuff.

The fact is it simply got here from beginning to construct a community on social after which turning that into a fast dialog and being enthusiastic about the identical issues after which turning these into friendships.

Q: Would you say that Buyer Camp depends in your private model so much, or have you ever been capable of separate the 2? I ask this as a result of in my analysis earlier than this interview, I nearly fell into the lure of continually equating all the pieces Katelyn with all the pieces Buyer Camp.

When you requested me this query two years in the past, I might have stated very wholeheartedly, “I’m a champion of Customer Camp, but at the end of the day, I want people to know it’s bigger than me.” I had a bigger staff on the time. And so sure, individuals will affiliate me with the model because the founder, however in the end Buyer Camp is what I need individuals to think about, and I need there to be a separation between us.

Within the final two years, my life has modified in lots of surprising methods, some good and a few troublesome. So we had a child, however on the identical time, my husband ended up having two surprising surgical procedures and was unable to work and elevate our son. That triggered me to make some modifications to the enterprise, and I had some plans of how I used to be going to develop Buyer Camp that I reevaluated and adjusted.

Now I am truly within the strategy of specializing in rising Why We Purchase as a media model and me being the face of that. So I am okay with individuals associating Why We Purchase, our e-newsletter, with me as a result of I plan to develop that asset, and I need to be the face of it in the identical approach that – and this can be a loopy instance I am not evaluating myself to him – Joe Rogan is the Joe Rogan Expertise. You may’t simply pop him out and put anyone else in and have the corporate be the identical. I need to do this with Why We Purchase, however that wasn’t at all times the plan.

Q: With all the pieces we have mentioned thus far in thoughts, what would you do should you have been beginning your private model as we speak? What platforms or mediums would you determine to go together with?

I would most likely I might nonetheless do Twitter as a result of it matches into my life and takes benefit of my private strengths with short-form writing.

I may also contemplate TikTok, however I may see myself moving into the weeds and attempting to take advantage of elaborate TikToks ever. However I’ve deliberately stayed away from it as a result of I simply do not want one other factor to be hooked on.

And I might throw LinkedIn in there as properly. The good factor is which you could repurpose most of your Twitter content material. Whereas I have not been as intentional with LinkedIn as I’ll begin being, I’ve been capable of take years price of content material that I have been creating over on Twitter and modify it for LinkedIn.

Q: Have you ever skilled any downsides in constructing a private model?

I wrote a thread about this once I crossed 75,000 followers on Twitter, sharing seven classes I’ve discovered and 5 onerous issues that no person tells you about however rising your viewers.

For one, social media turns into addictive and never in a great way. You are continually logging in and refreshing, ready for extra notifications – that is not good in your mind. It isn’t good in your relationships as a result of such as you’re approach too plugged into what’s taking place in your telephone.

Additionally, as your viewers grows, it turns into tougher to reply to all the pieces and work together with everybody. Typically, I get a whole lot of notifications – 1000’s if a put up goes viral. I used to have the ability to work together with everybody, reply each query, and reply to each remark. Now I am lacking issues, and it is onerous to make sure I’ve interacted with everyone.

You will additionally begin to have much more individuals attain out to you, asking questions, for recommendation, in your time, and infrequently individuals who you’ve got by no means interacted with earlier than. I would wish to get to a spot the place I can reply to everybody, however I do not see how until I rent anyone to begin managing my private account. I do not see how I may sustain with all of it, particularly because the viewers retains rising.

And the ultimate factor I talked about within the put up is you begin to evaluate your self to different individuals. You evaluate your self to different creators. You see individuals which can be rising quicker than you which can be placing out much more content material than you, and also you surprise how they’ll do all of it as a result of they’ve a busy life too.

Q: What would you advocate for somebody that’s attempting to be intentional about not solely constructing their very own channels, whether or not that is publishing YouTube movies or writing a e-newsletter, but additionally attempting to deepen the reference to their viewers on social media?

I feel it’s best to go actually deep into one channel and construct an viewers there, get good at creating content material for that platform, and perceive what works along with your viewers on that platform. After you have an viewers – and it does not should be a giant viewers – it is perhaps time to get began getting individuals to join a e-newsletter. Concentrate on publishing that e-newsletter each two weeks and getting your Twitter following to permit you of their inbox.

What I feel that folks wrestle with is that they attempt to be on too many platforms directly with a too-small staff. When you have a bigger staff, it is sensible so that you can be throughout these completely different channels. However for a lot of firms, they have one marketer, and so they’re anticipating them to put up to Fb and Instagram and Twitter and Tiktok.

Present up of their consideration, after which get their belief sufficient that they’re going to come to the place you might be and truly get worth over in your home.

Q: Lastly, I’d love to tug on the thread of going all in and direct that to the subject of choosing a distinct segment. Would you say that specializing in buyer analysis and purchaser psychology was a sound preliminary strategy in your content material?

It will depend on what you are speaking about and who your viewers is. For Twitter, I used to be actually targeted on understanding the shopper – that was the factor I needed individuals to affiliate with me. However I additionally recognized my sub-topics in providing advertising and marketing ideas and usually sharing issues from my private life. I’m very intentional about staying on matter, however I pepper in different issues to see the response.

With the e-newsletter, I attempted to keep away from a mistake I usually see others make. They’ll decide a subject that aligns with the service that they provide or the merchandise that they promote, however their audiences aren’t enthusiastic about studying about it day-after-day. Or one that’s solely related to them after they’re doing a related undertaking. I’ve seen individuals launch newsletters on writing gross sales pages, and it is like, that is a e-newsletter that individuals are gonna join after they have to put in writing a gross sales web page. After which, three weeks later, they don’t seem to be going to open your emails anymore as a result of it is not related.

So in my case, I may have written my entire e-newsletter about buyer analysis, however in most firms, buyer analysis is a undertaking and never one thing they do day-after-day. It isn’t one thing that they at all times care about. However purchaser psychology is one thing that, no matter what you are engaged on, it may be related whether or not you are designing a brand new touchdown web page or whether or not you are attempting to persuade your boss to present you a elevate.

Relating to individuals’s newsletters or YouTube exhibits, you need to develop an viewers that is going to come back again to you week after week. You need to be sure that the subject that you just speak about is one thing that’s going to be persistently related to them.

Takeaways

Katelyn’s expertise constructing a private model has developed along with her progress as an entrepreneur. She’s grow to be so well-known for her data in purchaser psychology and buyer analysis that she earned the nickname “Customer Whisperer.” Listed here are a number of the high takeaways from our interview with Katelyn about constructing a private model that speaks for itself:

• Decide a distinct segment that has lasting relevance: Katelyn’s – and Buyer Camp’s – experience and repair is in buyer analysis. However each the founder and the corporate are recognized for a deep understanding of buyer psychology – a broader matter that has relevance no matter whether or not the viewers wants their service or not. Attempt to discover matters that your viewers will at all times come again to you for, no matter whether or not they want your companies instantly or not.
• Begin with one channel and work your approach up from there: As Katelyn stated, individuals usually attempt to be on too many platforms directly however find yourself being unfold too skinny. Develop an viewers and develop belief on one platform – then carry them over to different channels as you evolve your private model.
• Undertake cross-posting in your private model: A sentiment we additionally heard from Jack Appleby is that you need to be repurposing content material throughout your social media platforms. It saves you time and is a simple technique to join with a brand new viewers utilizing content material you’ve already created.

🔌 Do you need to construct deep relationships along with your viewers and showcase your experience? Begin publishing persistently to your chosen channels with Buffer as we speak.