IAM1409 – Chief Copy Writer Empowers Business Owners to Attract Incredible Clients

Elizabeth is the Owner and Chief Copy Writer for ER Marketing Services. The agency empowers business owners to attract incredible clients, connect with their audience, and establish their industry authority. Elizabeth and her team specialize in designing marketing strategies and writing content for websites, blog posts, social media, and emails or newsletters.

• CEO Story: ‘How can I still help people tell their stories and make a difference in the world that they are in?’ That is the question Elizabeth was asking, after working in the corporate world having a family of her own, and a home daycare. She landed in a marketing agency. Where she could help business owners tell their stories that captivate their target market.
• Business Service: Digital marketing for the clients, starting with a blog post about a product or service, then making it into a social media post, and creating an email to the leads.
• Secret Sauce: Connecting the dots in an engaging way. Maximizing the concept of telling the stories and ideas and putting them into practice.
• CEO Hack: Systems genius, having a detailed organized workflow for a certain job Asana – app mention.
• CEO Nugget: Give yourself (as the CEO) permission to experiment. Not just with the concepts, but analyzing on what is working and what’s not.
• CEO Defined: Freedom to play, learn, help, and do whatever and think outside of the box. Try to reach for the possibilities that you dream of.

Website: ermarketingservices.com

Facebook: @ermarketingservices

Instagram: @ermarketingservices

LinkedIn: @elizabeth-ruth

Pinterest: @ermarketingservices

Twitter: @elizabethruthva

TikTok: @marketingminutewithe

Where To Go Next With Your Digital Marketing QUIZ – ermarketingservices.com/quiz

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Transcription

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00:22 – Intro

Do you want to learn effective ways to build relationships, generate sales, and grow your business from successful entrepreneurs, startups, and CEO's without listening to a long, long, long interview? If so, you've come to the right place. Gresham Harkness values your time and is ready to share precisely the information you're searching for. This is the I AM CEO podcast.

00:50 – Gresham Harkless

Hello. Hello. Hello, this is Gresh from the I AM CEO podcast. I have a very special guest on the show today. I have Elizabeth Ruth of ER marketing services. Elizabeth, it's great to have you on the show.

01:00 – Elizabeth Ruth

Thanks for having me, Gresh.

01:02 – Gresham Harkless

Yes, super excited to have you on and talk about all the awesome things that you're working on. And of course, before we do that, I want to read a little bit more about Elizabeth so you can hear about some of those awesome things. And Elizabeth is the owner and chief copywriter for ER Marketing services. The agency empowers business owners to attract incredible clients, connect with their audience, and establish their industry authority. Elizabeth and her team specialize in designing marketing strategies and writing content for websites, blog posts, social media, emails, and newsletters. Elizabeth, great to have you on the show again. Are you ready to speak to the I AM CEO community?

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01:35 – Elizabeth Ruth

I sure am.

01:36 – Gresham Harkless

Awesome. Well, let's get it started then. So, to kind of kick everything off, I wanted to rewind the clock and hear a little bit more about how you got started, what I call your CEO story.

01:45 – Elizabeth Ruth

Okay. A long time ago.

01:50 – Gresham Harkless

I love it.

01:51 – Elizabeth Ruth

When I first started my career out of university, I was a professional fundraiser, and I was in charge of hundreds of millions of dollars for capital campaign projects, new buildings, and equipment for universities and hospitals. And what I really loved about that job was helping people connect with each other, because we'd have our volunteer team and they would have influential and affluential, you know, affluence over their friends who also would have a connection, and finding those common threads of stories so that the right volunteer was talking to the right potential donor.

Because we all know, even in business or donations, you're really supporting people. Yes, ultimately, it may be a building, but that building serves students or patients. And it's the stories that thread us all together. And once I realized that so fast forward. Had kids, and had a home daycare for ten years. That was just, I wanted to be home to raise my children, and it was time to go back into the workforce. And I thought, what did I love about corporate that I don't want to do now? Because that was the first one in, the last one out.

My lifestyle had changed, and I just thought, you know, how can I still help people tell their stories and make a difference in the world that they're in? And that is how I landed on the marketing agency. I actually have a side project. My passion project is the hand, the ruthless crafter, where I knit and crochet character hats. And I write children's books to tell each character's story.

So there's a thread here. I love story time, and because I was doing that for myself, I really wanted to help other businesses differentiate themselves and tell their stories in fun and compelling ways so that they're not just standing on a corner saying, buy from me. Buy from me. No. They're making authentic connections and relationships while they're networking with current, past, and potential customers.

04:15 – Gresham Harkless

Nice. I absolutely love everything that you're doing and hearing about your journey and hearing how that common thread kind of even came through, even from, I imagine, just running the preschool as well, too. I imagine story time is probably a really popular time for you to be able to tell those stories that kind of captivate your audience.

04:34 – Elizabeth Ruth

Absolutely. And tapping into imagination. That was really big in the home daycare, imaginative play because as we learn from, we're very small, we have imaginary friends, or we take a stick and that becomes our sword, or it becomes so many things. The potential in one simple item for what it could be.

04:58 – Gresham Harkless

Awesome. Awesome. Awesome. I love it. So I wanted to drill down a little bit more. I know, I know. We talked a little bit on, like, how you serve your clients, how you're working with them. Could you take us through a little bit more about that, what that looks like, and how you're serving the clients you work with?

05:09 – Elizabeth Ruth

Yes. One of the biggest problems that I have had with people when they come to me is they're just so overwhelmed, essentially, we have a business. You have to tell people about it, or else you're just working in your office for fun. You're pushing papers that you're not making money. So we need to tell what we do and how that helps people, why they would want to choose you over maybe the other competitors that they are doing their initial research for. And because they're overwhelmed, they don't have a lot of time. What we have done is we can do a month's worth of digital marketing for you.

We will start with a blog post, write it out, and it's based on either a client case study. We can share as many details or make it as private and anonymous as you like. But really the evergreen content that describes maybe the why, the pain points, or details that describe your products or services. And once we have that. So the reason why we do blog posts is because when you have current content on your website, it boosts it, and Google or the other search engines will browse it again. That's the whole reason why we're doing that. And also we're using a keyword phrase to attract people to your website in different ways.

Because someone, let's say you're a wedding planner, someone may look up wedding coordinator, well, someone else may look up wedding planner or someone else may look up day of coordinator. We can have different blog posts that target each of those keywords so that we're just attracting them in different ways of how they're searching for us. Then what we do is we take that blog post, we chop it up and we make it into standalone social media posts. And then you're really able to take that nugget, dive into the content, and share it with people in digestible ways that also show your authority in the industry, that you know what you're talking about and you are the right choice.

Finally, we take that blog post and create an email because that's where your past, current, and potential clients are living. And we need to keep those leads warm. So then when you're ready to put out an offer, let's just use the event planner example again. I have, in July and August, I have three wedding spaces available. If you're planning it, get booked now. And because your list gets, they're your VIPs, they have first writer refusal. They're warmed up because you've been communicating with them regularly. They know what you do, they know how you can help them. Then when you make the ask, you're more likely to fill those spots with people who love you already.

08:00 – Gresham Harkless

I love it. So would you consider that to be what I like to call your secret sauce? The thing you feel kind of sets you apart and makes you unique? Is it that ability to not just, you know, I guess, connect the dots between somebody who has those products and services, but also to be able to tell that in a compelling and engaging way, as you said?

08:17 – Elizabeth Ruth

Well, yes, I would say that is definitely unique about us because often, well, especially CEOs who are solopreneurs or have a very small team, and it's tasked to them. They just think, oh, social media. And they just focus on social media so they're not maximizing, oh, but I have this idea and a story and spend the time once, and then I can maximize it. They understand the concept, but to put it into practice is often a little confusing to them.

08:49 – Gresham Harkless

Yeah, absolutely. I always feel, I don't know if you find the same thing with clients as well, too, that sometimes having, you know, fresh eyes, for lack of a better term, is a really good way to, like, sometimes we can't see or even explain our own genius. We need somebody else to kind of extract that from us to help us so that we are actually communicating with and connecting with the people that we want to see walk through the virtual or literally physical door, I guess.

09:14 – Elizabeth Ruth

Absolutely. Think about when you go to a doctor's appointment and they start using the terms and, you know, they're using a fancy word for the flu, and you're like, what are you talking about? And then they say the flu, and you're like, oh, I know what you're talking about.

09:28 – Gresham Harkless

Right.

09:28- Elizabeth Ruth

So it's the same thing. When we are in our zone of what we know so well, we can use industry-specific terms that the general audience who's looking for what we offer, doesn't connect to it. So because I and the team are at arm's length, we can make it really accessible. We can use accessible language that they understand.

09:53 – Gresham Harkless

Yes, if only that was the case. I think that's what makes it truly beautiful. When people showcase and understand the excellence of their work, it may appear fluid, natural, and even effortless to them. However, as you mentioned, it takes years of play and experimentation to reach that point.

It's also about dedicating time to perfecting their craft and effectively communicating that expertise to their clients. So. Absolutely appreciate that. So I want to just, care a little bit. And you might have already touched on this, but I want to ask you for what I call a CEO hack. So it could be like an app, a book, or a habit that you have, but what's something that makes you more effective and efficient?

10:32 – Elizabeth Ruth

Well, my systems, I've been called a systems genius. My clients and my friends, and they're always like, how would you do this? And they like to pick my brain on how to work. So I see the big picture, but then I see real details. And I'm going to say that Asana works really well. Trello, anything like that on Monday. I personally choose Asana because I can have a big project goal, but then all of the subtasks are in there to make it happen.

And as well, I do have a team now. It makes our systems and processes very fluid because it's kind of a hot potato for some projects, you know, okay, you write the blog, then you edit the blog, then you do the graphics, then you do this and make it sure it's scheduled so that we don't drop any of the, you know, key things that need to happen to make our clients happy.

11:29 – Gresham Harkless

Appreciate you sharing that, you know, that, that system and what you use as a CEO hack. And I want to ask you now for what I call a CEO nugget. You might have already searched on this as well, too, but this is a little bit more of a word of wisdom or a piece of advice, something you might tell your favorite client. Or if you happen to do a time machine, you might tell your younger.

11:44 – Elizabeth Ruth

Business self, yes, give yourself as the CEO permission to experiment. And that's not only coming up with the concepts but analyzing what's working and what's not. So often I have clients who, I don't know, have a goal. They want to grow their social media, so we start the process. But if you don't give it a couple of months, it's not immediate. It's a long game of marketing because you need to test. Are people responding to videos of the CEO or whoever the visual spokesperson is for the brand? Or are they responding to still photos?

Are they responding to stock photos or to custom photo carousels, which are multiple photos that people have to shift through or text? Do they answer questions? If your audience is not answering questions, what are they responding to? What's getting them excited? And that's from the platform's analytics, as well as what you're actually hearing on the ground from your comments and your engagement. So I would say experiment. Don't be afraid and don't dismiss things quickly would be part of that. Experimentation is how can you tweak it. It's almost, it's a game. Entrepreneurship is a game, right?

And we all want to win at it, and we all want to find ways to be successful and to ten up our competitors. So that is part of the experiment, whether it's marketing or anything else that you are trying to move forward on a new product, a new service. It may not work first thing, but how can you tweak it? Maybe you just haven't expressed what the problem is and why people would want it. Well, so it's hard to know at what level, you know, for a product-based business. Is it the photos? Fix your photos. No, that wasn't it. Is it the price? And you do one thing at a time as well. Don't do too many things at once, or else you won't know where the problem has been.

14:01 – Gresham Harkless

Awesome. Awesome. Awesome. So I want to ask you now my absolute favorite question, which is the definition of what it means to be a CEO. We're hoping to have different quotes and quote CEO's on this show. So, Elizabeth, what does being a CEO mean to you?

14:12 – Elizabeth Ruth

Being a CEO to me means freedom. And that's freedom to play, freedom to learn, freedom to help, and also to do it on my terms. As I've gotten older, I don't want to listen to other people's rules and flows. I want to create my own. And seeing those sometimes my experience in the corporate world was a little limiting because I had other people's boundaries. Being an entrepreneur has given me permission to think outside of the box and to actually try and reach for the possibilities that I dream up when I'm in the shower or on a walk.

15:00 – Gresham Harkless

Awesome. Awesome. Awesome. Well, Lisbeth, truly appreciate that definition. And of course, I appreciate your time even more. So what I wanted to do now is pass you the mic, so to speak, just to see if there's anything additional that you can let our readers and listeners know. And of course, how best people can get a hold of you. Find out about all the awesome things you and the team are working on now.

15:17 – Elizabeth Ruth

Terms of digital marketing. If you're not sure where to go next with your marketing, I've actually designed a quiz. It's up to ten questions and it will tell you what to start with. You can find it on my website and that's where you can contact me at ermarketingservices.com. The quiz is everywhere. It'll pop up. But if you're interested in connecting about possibly getting your digital media done in less than an hour a month of your time, hit my contact page and you'll immediately be sent a link to my calendar so we can set a time to chat.

15:53 – Gresham Harkless

Absolutely. And of course, to make it even easier, we're going to have the links and information in the show. Notes, I appreciate you and I hope you have a phenomenal rest of the day.

15:59 – Elizabeth Ruth

Thank you so much for having me, Gresham, and for everyone here, thank you.

16:03 – Outro

Thank you for listening to the I AM CEO Podcast powered by Blue 16 Media. Tune in next time and visit us at iamceo.co I AM CEO is not just a phrase, it's a community. Be sure to follow us on social media and subscribe to our podcast on iTunes Google Play and everywhere you listen to podcasts, SUBSCRIBE, and leave us a five-star rating grab CEO gear at www.ceogear.co. This has been the I AM CEO Podcast with Gresham Harkless. Thank you for listening.

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