I think I literally jumped for joy when Candice Coppola agreed to be a guest on the podcast. To know her is to love her, she’s an author, podcast host, business coach, and entrepreneur who believes that you shouldn’t have to do business (or happy hour) alone.
She’s grown her business over the past decade from the spare bedroom of her home into a multi-country, multi six figure wedding business that she then sold in 2019 to pursue business coaching full-time. She is just like a phenomenal human, wicked smart marketer, and incredible business coach. I hired her to be my business coach when I was in the wedding industry, and she played a huge role in the success that my wedding business still sees today.
In this interview, we talked about her omni-channel marketing approach, what it is, how she views marketing differently, how she used Instagram as a part of her strategy (but not her entire strategy), and so much more. So if you know or you have been feeling that kind of itch to start diversifying your marketing efforts, this is the episode for you.
Make sure you listen to the end because we also talked about how we all need to shift our marketing for Gen Z, and also I asked her some questions about the coaching industry, like how we can vet coaches to find an incredible coach like her. If you’re in the wedding industry, I highly recommend working with her. I cannot stress the impact she’s made in my business enough and I’m just so grateful for her. Now, let’s dive into the episode.
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Table of Contents
What is omni-channel marketing?
YES! It’s something that’s been really top of mind for me over these last couple of months. Omni-channel marketing has become a buzzword, and the truth is that omni-channel marketing can mean different things to different people. If you Google it, the first definition that comes up is something like “having the same message across multiple platforms”, and I thought, that’s not really what I think omni-channel marketing is. In my opinion, omni-channel marketing is literally just being on every marketing channel that makes sense for your business (or where your customers are hanging out) and sort of having this omnipresence online where your business, your brand, your voice, your messaging is everywhere.
What’s Your Perspective on Marketing Beyond Instagram?
I think marketing is sharing your message so that it attracts and reaches the right people. That’s all marketing is to me. It’s having a message and then finding ways to share that message in different channels, different places, different spaces, so that it reaches your ideal customer. That’s all marketing is. It’s not Instagram, it’s not blogging, it’s not YouTube, it’s not this podcast. It’s not networking, going to conferences, or speaking on stages. All of those are ways that you share your message, but marketing is just the ACT of sharing your message.
How do you use Instagram as a larger part of your strategy?
I see Instagram as a place where I can connect with my ideal client, build relationships, and have conversations. I don’t see Instagram as a place where I need to create a hundred percent original content for the platform. I’m not there trying to be an influencer. I’m not there with my Amazon storefront, and this is no shade to anybody who’s doing that, but that’s not why I’m using the platform. I’m a business coach, I’m an educator. I have courses, I have a mastermind, I have a podcast, and so I see Instagram as a place where I get to connect with my ideal client and have conversations.
When you say you use it as a place to have conversations, does that mean it’s more of a nurture platform than growth platform for you?
Yes, I really see it as a way for me to accelerate that know, like, and trust factor. So in marketing, people need to know you, then they need to like you, and then once they trust you, they’ll buy from you at some point if they need your services or if your services solve a problem they have.
I see Instagram as a way for me to nurture that and to share tidbits of my life, to share behind the scenes of my work, my hot take opinions on things. I answer questions. I’m encouraging. Most of the time I’m shit posting though. I’m literally there posting housewives memes. I’m sharing stuff that I think is funny or I find charming or humorous.
I don’t see it as something that I need to pour into every moment of every day, and I certainly don’t sit down at my desk and create all this Instagram content for Instagram. Kara actually does that for me for one of my Instagram accounts (hey – if you’re reading this, contact me to find out ways we can work together on this!), but I don’t see Instagram as a way for me to do that. It’s just not how I choose to use the platform.
But just because I use it differently doesn’t mean you have to, but hopefully the way that I use Instagram can help inspire you to think about it a little bit differently if you’re feeling burnt out on it or if you are just hanging your hat solely on one channel like Instagram.
“Beyond Instagram Marketing, Create Content People Want to Consume”
There was a great piece of marketing I got on Clubhouse back in the day and it was where somebody was talking about email marketing, and how email marketing can be really challenging, and nobody’s opening their emails. You can go into any email marketing platform community and see people just bitching about this and somebody offered up this advice: When you write emails that people want to open and people want to read, people WILL open your email in the promotions tab, unspam it, etc. They WILL make it a point to open it if it’s something they want to read.
I think that same idea should be applied to any marketing channel we have. Create content that people want to consume. If your content isn’t performing, then it might be because it’s not good or people don’t really care for that one piece of content or what you’re saying that day. If you create things that people want to watch/read/hear, they will.
There’s a trend going around where people are ONLY posting agitation content, and it gets old, especially in what CAN be a slimy marketing industry anyway (coaching). Right?
Exactly. That kind of tips and tricks and constantly preaching or pontificating, and only having one message and just staying on that one message all the time isn’t what people want to see anymore. I agree with you that while we all need to have a little spice (I think we can all do a hot take marketing piece and we should definitely have that in your arsenal or in your content buckets), at the end of the day, if you’re just constantly complaining or you’re just always providing a hot take and never giving anything else, people become tired of that. It gets stale. It’s like a one-trick pony.
So you have to diversify your marketing channels, but also the message that you’re putting out there. Or, if for whatever reason you need to have a singular message, you need to find ways to share that message that feels different to the person hearing it.
What do you feel like the biggest benefit of an omni-channel marketing strategy is?
Well, when you’re able to diversify how you share your message and where you share it, you reach people in their natural habitat and you can connect with a wider audience, creating a larger lead base, and expanding your reach. Instagram is very specific. There’s a certain type of user that uses Instagram just like Facebook. Facebook is where my aunts and my mom hang out. It’s not where I choose to get all my information. It’s a great place if you’re looking to connect with an older Gen X or a Boomer, but it’s not a place for Gen Zs or millennials, Instagram similar. I find that it has an older audience, a more mature audience. Millennials are there.
First things first, when you can diversify your marketing channels and have more of an omnipresent marketing strategy, you have this opportunity to reach all different types of clients at different generationally, at different stages in their journey, and you just broaden your footprint, which I think everybody reading this is looking to do.
When you plan out your marketing, do you feel like certain platforms yield better results for you or do you feel like it’s truly collaborative?
I don’t think that everything needs to work together in order for the whole entire “organism” to work. And I think sometimes when we get into that way of thinking, it leads to analysis paralysis and overwhelm, and we’re constantly trying to create but we get stuck in the behind-the-scenes of preparing and never actually do something.
With that said, I do believe that I have created an ecosystem in marketing where things do talk to each other and they play off one another, and I am taking somebody on a journey when they discover my content or when they type something into a search box, I take them on a journey and provide them with different ways that they can solve their problem, both free and paid and on a podcast or my YouTube channel or in a blog post or over on Instagram. Things do talk and they work together, but I didn’t set out to create something that had to work all together to function if that makes sense.
Something that people miss is they might be on Instagram and then let’s say they are blogging, but all they are doing is sharing on Instagram that they wrote the blog post, which the people watching them do not care about and they’re not going to leave the platform to go and read your blog post.
So I think that in terms of having this omnipresent omni-channel marketing strategy, you have to consider that you are likely in different channels already, and it’s all about trying to find ways to bring them together and to connect. So what I might do in a blog post is encourage people to go follow me on Instagram and maybe even give them an idea of what they would discover over on my Instagram account.
Am I on Instagram every day teaching the fundamentals of business? Absolutely not, but by sending a reader from my blog, a very cold lead from Google or Pinterest, over to Instagram, I have this opportunity for them to get to know me, to get to like me, and then to get to trust me through watching my stories or seeing what I’m posting about. Then, eventually, they may buy from you.
Omni-channel Marketing for Affiliate Income
I was recently on HoneyBook’s podcast talking about my affiliate marketing strategy. So part of my whole revenue ladder, I guess you could say, is affiliate marketing. My business does really well in affiliate marketing, and I have developed an amazing affiliate revenue stream through having an omnipresent omni-channel marketing strategy where I show up for the right search engine results, I’m on the right platforms, and I take people on this journey helping them choose to purchase or invest in the products and services that I think can help grow their business.
I do that through exactly what we’re talking about, creating this ecosystem of marketing through my blog, YouTube, my podcast, and things that are more long form content that have lasting staying power, and I link them all together. I sort of use this analogy of a forest floor and how the root systems of trees talk to each other. There’s all this stuff happening that we can’t see, that we can’t hear, that we don’t know about, but it’s happening beneath the forest floor. I look at my content like that. I have developed a content strategy where below the surface things are working in harmony together to help people solve their problems.
For those listening that want to kind of diversify, do you have recommendations for where someone should start?
Absolutely. I want to give a little disclaimer that everything that I’m sharing with you today about my journey has been over several years. It’s been several years to get my business to this point where we have this omnipresent omni-channel marketing situation happening behind the scenes, and we’ve built this up really. I mean, I’ve been blogging since 2011, but in this specific business, since 2019.
It’s important to say that because we can hear somebody on a podcast with this great strategy and see all these things they’re doing and instantly feel overwhelmed if we’re starting a few steps behind or maybe a few years behind that person. It’s nice to know, “okay, this took Candice from 2019 to 2024 to have this presence that she’s created” and maybe have the same expectation of how long it might take you to have a fully omnipresent omni-channel marketing strategy.
But if you agree with me that you want your business to show up as the solution to your customer’s problems everywhere your customer is searching for that solution, the first thing that you can do is look at a marketing channel that you’re either excited about or that feels really easy to bring into the folds of your marketing strategy. If you are on Instagram, which you likely are, that’s great. What can go hand in hand with Instagram? What might you be excited about? What feels easy?
I will use podcasting as an example. Podcasting is by no means an easy marketing channel. It requires consistency. There’s a lot of prep, but when we look at podcasting versus launching a YouTube channel, podcasting is definitely a front-runner for getting started, getting set up, and even financially the investment to start a podcast is always going to win. It’s why I started a podcast in the very beginning.
In 2018, I started my show and I chose it because back then you didn’t have to be on video, so I could record it in my top knot and jammies in my messy office. It was just my voice and my ideas. I’d edit the audio and upload it and it felt so much easier.
I think there’s something to be said about that when you’re thinking about how you can expand your marketing into a new channel. Choose the easiest thing to start instead of always picking the hardest thing that you could possibly pick. Instead of trying to start a fully produced YouTube show that’s produced on a daily basis, five days a week, maybe launch a biweekly podcast and see how that works.
Build an audience, get some experience talking about your subject, a little public speaking experience, and then throw some video in the mix while you’re recording, and just grow and learn as you grow.
You just started YouTube. This is pretty platform-specific, but do you have any tips for people that want to dabble over there?
Oh my gosh, it is a beast. Okay. You think YouTube is overwhelming, and you’re right, it is very time-intensive and expensive. I launched my YouTube channel last year, and YouTube for me was a way to show up in search engine results in a different modality that people might want more. So I said, you know what? I love SEO and blogging, that’s been my jam.
So I asked myself, how can I show up in search engine results even more, and even in a different modality than just my blogs and the articles that we write over on my blog? The obvious choice was YouTube. So I started to create cornerstone content over there (cornerstone content is content that is relevant yesterday, today, and hopefully for years to come).
For me, I was thinking of what the newest wedding planner will be looking for, things like: how do I book my first client? How do I price my services? And these videos that I’m creating and producing are those foundations. So I saw YouTube as a way to expand my content footprint and create lasting long-form content in a different modality.
I repurposed a lot of blog posts in my first YouTube videos, and I continue to repurpose blog posts in upcoming YouTube videos, so I’m not creating brand new from scratch content. A lot of times I’m literally reading the outline of the blog post, or I’m referencing it in the video, which Kara would know because I mean, she’s helped write many of the blog posts, so I’m just taking that content and finding a new way to deliver it.
I do think a lot of people use YouTube to research to get information, and what’s so nice about it is they get to see me, they get to hear my voice, they get to see my personality, my humor, and almost instantly, somebody might land on a video and be like, “I want to learn more from her. I trust her. I’m going to go buy the course she’s talking about in her video, or I’m going to go check out that resource that she’s talking about”
The truth about starting a YouTube channel
YouTube takes a good amount of effort, preparation, and equipment. But there are a lot of benefits to being there. I know that it’s probably not good to say this out loud because people will tell you (and I’ll be the first to say!), just get your hands dirty, test it out, and experiment. But while it doesn’t need to be perfect, I do think eventually you want to have nicely produced videos.
It’s also a long game. I was uploading videos for months and they were getting 11 views, and these are nicely produced videos that cost me a lot of money to create, and I spent a lot of time and effort making, and it wasn’t getting the same amount of views and traffic as my blog or as Instagram, and that was a bit defeating.
Honestly, I could have quit, but my mission on that platform was never to create an audience of a million subscribers. It was to create a foundation of content that is cornerstone, that is always relevant, that I can link to on my blog, that I can reference in Instagram posts that I can link to in my email marketing. And so for those reasons, it’s paid off. And then also the views have started to come. It started to gain traction now but it’s been almost a year.
What’s the biggest thing we are all doing that will not work for Gen Z Marketing?
The millennial pause, the inability to get to the point sometimes, when somebody comes up on Instagram stories and they’re like, “Hey, guys, just wanted to pop on.”
I can tell you recently coaching with my clients and then also just seeing how people are operating online, making it difficult for people to buy from you is something that I think is doing you a disservice, especially when it comes to Gen Z. Gen Z hates being sold to, so how do you sell to somebody who doesn’t want to be sold to?
Well, you’re very transparent in your information and you don’t make them go through a 70-step process in order to get the details they need to make a decision as to whether to book you or to buy your product or service. That’s one thing that I see a lot of service providers and small business owners wedding pros do. It just makes it so difficult for people to purchase from you if you’re not willing to adapt your process to the changing needs and style of your clients.
Candice has an episode on HER podcast, the Power in Purpose, all about Gen Z marketing! Make sure to tune into that here!
You were my business coach for over 3 years and made a HUGE difference for me. How can we better vet the coaches we hire before we hire them?
There’s people who want to be coaches, who want to be famous, who want to be recognized, who want to be successful, and it’s tough. It really is. I think for me, the biggest qualifier for whether somebody is qualified enough to lead you in your business journey or even in your life journey is how long were they in business and what were they able to achieve? And do those achievements line up with what you would like to do in your business?
Plus, if they’ve been a business coach longer than a month or two, what kind of results are they actually getting for their customers? And can you speak to somebody who’s worked with them to get a private download of what that experience was like rather than just a paid for testimonial or they gave away a free coaching session for a nice testimonial?
At the end of the day, I think your intuition should hopefully guide you towards the right people that you want in your life. And so if something feels off about somebody and you’re listening to them talk on a podcast or you’re watching them on Instagram or something and you’re just like, the math isn’t math, the situation isn’t situation, it’s not making sense it, it’s not you, it probably doesn’t make any sense. The person is fudging results or not being a hundred percent transparent about how they were able to do something successfully. So just trust your gut and intuition because it’s usually right about the people that you meet.
I believe in thinking positively and getting positive results in certain aspects, but a lot of what you see online is bullshit. They haven’t gotten the results for their clients. They might be able to get results for themselves, but the way that they do business isn’t ethical or isn’t right.
You also see, and this is something that’s frustrating for me, is you see a lot of people who have one good year in business, and suddenly now they’re an expert and they’re launching a coaching program and they’ve literally been around for a year or less, and I’m just thinking, you might be smart and what you’ve done might be incredible in a short period of time, but what qualifies you to then work with someone? What experience do you bring to the table with that to give that person to help them grow their business?
What is something that you wish more people knew about hiring a business coach?
I wish more people understood that a coach is meant to be a guide. They’re not going to solve every problem you have and they can’t do the work for you. When you hire a business coach, you’re asking somebody to come in and guide you, to advise you, to support you, but they can’t do the work for you.
At the end of the day, you have to put the time and effort into your business and only you will reap the rewards of what you put in. So if you go to a business coach and you hire somebody thinking that they’re your savior or this is your last chance to make it work, you are going to be disappointed, and the likelihood that they can get you results on their own without any effort from you is pretty much zero.
Do you think everyone should work with a business coach all of the time?
No, I don’t. I think that there are certain stages of your business journey where having a coach and or a community of people helps to keep you moving forward, and it’s okay to take a break if you need a break, not just from your coach, but just from coaching in general, because coaching requires you to show up for your business. If you’ve got a good coach, they’re going to be pushing you and motivating you and getting you to do things that are tough and outside your comfort zone, and sometimes you might need a little bit of a break from that or a slower quarter where you’re not getting coached.
So the short answer is no. Not everybody needs a business coach, but some people really excel with a coach and community. Some people don’t want to do business alone. The thought of sitting at their desk and trying to figure out everything on their own and having nobody to just run an idea past is horrible.
I mean, I feel that way honestly. I’m like, I don’t want to do this by myself. I would much rather be able to pick up Voxer and Vox, my community, or my mastermind members or my coach and say, “what do you think of this idea?” Even if they’re just like, “yeah, it’s great”. That’s what I need to move forward sometimes. So sometimes it’s not just about the intensity of coaching, it’s also just having someone to do business with that’s not your spouse or your partner.
DID YOUR BUSINESS EVER EXPERIENCE A TIPPING POINT?
I think the biggest tipping point for me was when I decided that I was going to sell my business and I was going to go into educating wedding pros full-time. I was going to make a big go at being a coach and creating courses and doing all the things that I do now.
The tipping point was knowing when one journey had ended and a new one began for me, and had I not made that decision to sell my business and to move on and to do something new, I mean, I definitely wouldn’t be here. I think I’d probably be a burnt out wedding planner, tired, crotchety, cranky. Definitely not loving the work that I do now, not nearly as much. So for me, that was the tipping point.
LINKS MENTIONED:
- Learn more about Candice Coppola
- Hang out with Candice on Instagram
- Tune into Candice’s podcast episode about how to market to Gen Z in 2024
- Listen to Candice’s interview on Honeybook’s podcast about affiliate marketing
- FREE guide on how to balance fast and slow marketing strategy
- Learn more about working with our marketing agency here
- Follow me on Instagram
