Episode #086: Our 2025 Non-Negotiable Growth Strategies
Our 2025 Non-Negotiable Growth Strategies
On this episode of Not Your Average Online Marketing Podcast, I'm doing a deep dive into the non-negotiable growth strategies that I think will make 2025 a BREAKTHROUGH year in business for us, but can help YOU too!
I'm walking through five powerful strategies that range from advertising to content marketing that can stack to create a robust "engine for growth" - whether you've been in the game for 6 months or 6 years you're going to hear actionable steps to help you scale effectively in the upcoming year.
When you tune in you're going to discover...
How much we spent on ads in 2024, and why our goal is to spend EVEN MORE next year.
The synergistic power of combining funnels with live launches and the important place that both have in online course businesses.
The importance of consistent content production, weekly emails, and active engagement can keep your audience hooked.
This is one NOT to miss as we ring in 2025.
Links Mentioned:
Full Transcript:
Zach Spuckler:
This is Not Your Average Online Marketing Podcast, episode number 86. And in this episode, I'm talking about our 2025 non-negotiable growth strategies that we are trying to put in play to make 2025 our biggest year yet. So if you are in the market for scaling, for growth, and you want 2025 to be a breakthrough year, this episode is for you, so stay tuned. Hey. Hey. Hey. Not so average marketers. Welcome to another episode of the podcast.
Zach Spuckler:
I am stoked to be here. And if we're being really candid, I'm actually super stoked to be here because we're releasing 2 episodes back to back 1 week in a row. I feel like we haven't pulled that off in since October. And prior to October, we only did it once in August. Like, I'm really excited to be getting back into the podcast. I think I'm really enjoying talking to you guys and hearing that you're enjoying the show and sharing it with new people. And if I'm being really candid, our goal in in 2025 is to really get a podcast out weekly. Maybe we miss a week or 2, but I'd like the better half of the year weeks to have a podcast.
Zach Spuckler:
So what I wanna talk to you about today is some of the strategies that we're putting in play, to make our 2025 a growth year. And I have 5 strategies that we're deploying. I wanna walk you through them. Because if you're trying to grow in 2025, first things first, if you didn't listen to the episode I did last week, I highly recommend it. Episode number 85, the the big trends that are coming. This is kind of like an expansion of that episode. It's not required listening, but it'll kind of set the stage for why we're doing a lot of the things that we're doing to create massive growth in 2025. So if you want to grow and you kinda wanna look behind the curtain of, like, what Zach's plan to just make the business bigger, better, higher engaging, you know, more robust for his audience and himself, then you wanna listen to this episode.
Zach Spuckler:
So I won't bog you down with the details. I'm gonna weave some fun information throughout, but let's just get right in to the non-negotiable growth strategies. So strategy number 1 is we are planning to, this is so scary to say, double our ads budget in 2025. Now I felt felt like in 2024, we spent a lot on advertising. But when I look back at it, I'm like, I wish I'd spent more. You know, it's not that we didn't spend a decent amount. And I can give you a really specific number because if you're anything like me, you're a total nerd for like specific numbers. Right.
Zach Spuckler:
I love to go into an ads account and be like, how much did they spend? You know? And so we're going into a big launch. In about a week. And so in 2024, as of December 23rd, we've spent about $73,000 on, Facebook and Instagram advertising within the meta ads ecosystem. And I'd really like that to be $150 plus next year. I I really, I really wanna do that. And the reason that I'm sharing that with you is not for you to go, oh my gosh, I need to spend $150k on ads if I wanna get to Zach's level. You don't, I know people who are beyond my level that's been less. I know people that are below the revenue level that we're at, that's been more, you know, but what I can tell you is that our, really, if I'm really clear on what our non-negotiable is in terms of
Zach Spuckler:
Facebook ads. It's that we are spending that money to grow the audience. Okay. So we really number 1, like right now, if you actually go into our ads account and just look at the last 30 days or so, we've added 2,650 people to our list in the last 30 days from Facebook ads. Okay. And I share that with you because I want you to know that, like, that is where we are focusing our effort. We are putting our effort into Facebook ads to grow our email list. And I talked about this a little bit in the trends episode, but I think so many people are like fixated on this idea that like, oh, I need a low ticket offer funnel, or I need this perfect evergreen webinar funnel, or like I need passive income.
Zach Spuckler:
And listen, I'm not saying you can't do those things. You absolutely can. In fact, we have a low ticket offer funnel. We have an evergreen webinar funnel. But where I focus my effort to be really candid is on growing the email list. I'm growing my email list every single day. And the reason I'm doing that is not that I don't think low ticket offer funnels work. In fact, we'll talk about some of our low ticket offer stuff in a little bit here, but it's because I think there's so much value in growing my audience and nurturing my audience.
Zach Spuckler:
I really do see the value in that. Right? Because I think so many of us are like, oh, I've got a, you know, money, money, money, money, money. And yes, absolutely. Cash and cash flow is the lifeblood of your business. But we get so fixated on the money side of advertising that we forget about the long term benefits. Right? Like we when we released our podcast last week, it's honestly one of our, most downloaded episodes in the 1st week. Based on the current trajectory, it's still got like, at the time recording, this still got about 3 more days. Granted that's Christmas Eve and Christmas day.
Zach Spuckler:
I don't know. But it's basically projected to be one of our best performing episodes that we've done in almost, 6 6 months, you know, and that's just in its 1st week. And and the reason that is, is because we've done so much audience growth and list building and content engagement over the last 30 to 60 days. And even beyond that. I think there is so much unspoken value in just growing your audience. Number 1, because it is in my experience, one of the cheapest forms of advertising, right? It's like it's the fastest, cheapest way to grow your audience. In terms of when you spend money on ads is just to grow the list with a freebie or, or an opt in. Right? Second thing with list building ads is that they're running all the time for us. They've now become second nature.
Zach Spuckler:
And so we have this little, stat, if you will, this little stat tracker in our business that we use. We created it. It's it's an internal tool that we use. But every week, my team and I go in and we report how is everything performing? We go in and we report, hey, like literally, did you, hit these numbers? Right? Like, what are the numbers for the business? And some of the numbers that we're looking at are like revenue and growth, but you best believe our first two stats that we report on this thing, this little tracker, is how much money we spent on Facebook ads over the last 7 days and how many leads we generated. Because what I have found is that when I look at is the list growing and are we consistently marketing to our audience? The business is growing. It's just an observation that I've made. Love it. Hate it.
Zach Spuckler:
We're we're seeing it consistently. Right? So anyway, I'm a huge fan of growing your email list. I think if you are going into 2025 and you're like, what's the number one thing I could do to grow the business? Listbuilding is always gonna be a fallback for me. And again, I know what people say. They're like, oh, low ticket offers, you know, are better or or don't grow your audience with free leads, get the paid leads. And yeah. Totally. They're great.
Zach Spuckler:
I love them. And those ads are harder to run. Those ads take more time to learn, and you can start growing your email list in a week or less, even if you've never opened the ads manager before. I truly believe that because it's such a learnable skill and a transferable skill as you grow your business. Okay. Now the other strategy that I want to talk about is intentional funnels and live launches as a combination. So I've been in this internet marketing game and and especially around advertising for probably 10 years now. We started our business like our LLC was formed, February 15th of 2015.
Zach Spuckler:
I wanna make sure I say that right. So in in about less than 2 months, our LLC will have been around for 10 years, you know. And over that time, I've observed this fascinating phenomenon, and that is the vilification of the opposite strategy. And I think we all do it in some capacity. It's a part of marketing, like my way is the best way. But I I see this again and again play out almost every single year. You don't need to launch. Launching is exhausting.
Zach Spuckler:
Funnels are the only way to go. Funnels don't work. You need a live launch to grow your business. I think there's a middle ground. I really do. And that is intentional funnels combined with live launches. And so what I mean by that is that we are always growing our list. Right? I I mentioned that as, like, our first strategy.
Zach Spuckler:
But the other thing is when we grow our list, people go through an email sequence. Right? They go through an email sequence. We have some retargeting ads, and we're intentionally funneling them into our primary offer, which for us is our membership, and we're just funneling them through there. But guess what? Funnels don't convert like wildfire all the time for us. We have weeks where I'm like, this funnel is popping off. And then I have weeks where I'm like, is this funnel even working? You know? And so there's definitely ebbs and flows to evergreen for sure. We generally, you know, see sales most days, but there are days where it's like we see 7 sales and it's like there's days where we see one sale and I'm like, and are we working on that? Absolutely. But I think that combining our evergreen funnels with a quarterly live launch is the way to go.
Zach Spuckler:
So like in January 2025, from 13th to 17th, we're gonna be hosting a live 5-day Facebook Ads for Listbuilding Bootcamp. And that is our big push for January. We wanna get like a 1,000 people into that boot camp, which we charge $25 for. We help you, you know, write copy design images, set up your Facebook Ads. And then our goal is for people to basically generate their first 50 to a 100 leads in a week or less. And so what that does is like the people who go through our freebie, which is about Facebook ads, they may be like, oh, this is great, but they don't implement it. Our live launch picks up those people who we know are interested in Facebook ads because they opted into the freebie and it gives them the opportunity to work with me live, experience me live. And then y'all my live launches.
Zach Spuckler:
I have so much fun. I can't spill the beans yet, but we're doing some really fun and engaging stuff this time. I'm I'm so stoked for this launch. We do like themes and giveaways. So funny. When we did our launch in September of 24, our our giveaway and theme was cats. Like, not the musical, but just like cats in general, and people went nuts for it. It was so much fun. And so we make our stuff engaging and fun.
Zach Spuckler:
And I think it's important to mention that you might be like, what does that have to do with your your growth strategy, making it fun and cat themed? Because I think funnels are great in the sense that they nurture and engage and share your content. But I think if you do a live launch, right, especially challenge launches, you also get to showcase who you are. And I think this is true even with webinars. You can make jokes and have fun and showcase your personality. Y'all, I can't deny it. I am a full blown Swifty. Like, if if you see those TikTok or Instagram real videos where people are like, oh my gosh, Taylor Swift wore, you know, these shoes with like 4 straps on each side and then 5 bracelets, which is 13, which is her favorite number, which means, you know, this album is coming out on this day, like I'm down that rabbit hole. I can't deny it.
Zach Spuckler:
Right? I'm also a huge, cat lover. We have, 2 cats right now, but one of them is a hairless cat. That is my soul cat. She absolutely makes appearances on my live streams when I'm doing my launches, like, Artemis will show up. And again, does that inherently, really translate to sales? Not necessarily, but it does mean that my audience gets to know me and I get to share who I am, and I just get to be my authentic self and have fun. And so, again, funnels great for content training, you know, getting this podcast into people's hands, emailing my list. But live launches, y'all, my personality gets to shine through. And I really believe that as this industry shifts and changes in the landscape evolves, people are gonna buy from people they trust and know.
Zach Spuckler:
You know, they're gonna buy from people they like. And so that really brings us into the next strategy. Strategy number 3, which is content production and sharing. This is my Achilles heel. If you are a long time listener of the podcast, you might be like, how can I be a long time listener? Sometimes you post, sometimes you don't, but we've had our podcast, in some capacity over at least 5 years. It's it's probably been a little longer than that. In terms of when we first published an episode, I'm actually scrolling through. Yeah.
Zach Spuckler:
So we started our podcast in 2016. So it's almost been 8 years. But in that time, we've only had, you know, only it's all subjective. Right? We've only had about 235 episodes, but if you're doing the math on that, 8 years with an episode a week should be, like, 400 episodes, and we're on 235. And that is my Achilles' heel, but I'm realizing that as 2025 rolls in, I think that AI content and AI content production is gonna be important. I think it's gonna help us. I think it's gonna supplement us. I think people are gonna consume more content that is produced by AI for sure.
Zach Spuckler:
But I also feel like talking to people is just gonna become more and more valuable. You know? And when I do my podcast, I get to show up and talk to my audience and with my audience, And I just see a lot of value in that. And so if you are saying like, okay, you look at the the strategies I've talked about so far, you're growing your audience all the time. They're going through funnels. They're coming to live experiences. But what's happening in the interim? If it's that they're just seeing you on, you know, social media or and you're not, you know, sending a weekly email or you're not doing a podcast or a YouTube or a blog, I'm not saying you need to, like, go high production. You know, it's me, to be really candid right now, like, I could probably stand to, wash my hair, get a little put together, but this is how I produce content. You know, I I show up, I get it done, and I get to share what I'm thinking in a way that hopefully resonates with my audience.
Zach Spuckler:
But the you'll notice that I didn't say it's just about content creation. I also said it's about content production and sharing. Because creating good content, especially as we get into 2025, isn't gonna be enough anymore. With the insurgence of AI, we can't deny it. We can't hide our head in the sand. We can't pretend it's not happening. There's going to be no shortage of content. You are going to have to proactively put your content out there.
Zach Spuckler:
You're gonna have to do that. You're gonna have to push your content out to the world. So you need to not just say, hey. You know, I'm gonna create a podcast every week, and hopefully Google picks it up. Ain't gonna work no mo'. I know that's harsh. I know that's direct. But, you know, even the SEO, which is search engine optimization, the way that stuff shows up in Google is changing.
Zach Spuckler:
Google's AI is now like, oh, you don't even need to go to the website to get the information. We'll bring it right to you in your search. Right? And so pop ups and engagement strategies and blog posts that people used to go down the rabbit hole on doesn't work the same way anymore. So you have to proactively share your content, which brings me to my 4th strategy. But before we get into that, let's do a super quick recap. So the 3 growth strategies we're using so far are Facebook Ads consistently and especially for list building, intentional funnels combined with live launches, consistent content production and sharing, which is creating things regularly and making sure you offer it up to your audience to consume. And that moves us to our 4th strategy, which is consistent emails and engagement.
Zach Spuckler:
So we are working really hard in 2025. My goal, and I'm working on, like, a little, tracker for myself is that every week, an email goes out to my audience. Even if it's just, how's it going? There's an email going out every single week. Vital, non-negotiable, must happen. My goal is actually to email more frequently, generally speaking. If you're not consistently emailing your audience, they're not hearing from you. And everything you've done up to this point, the the Facebook ads, the funnels, the content production and sharing, like, it it doesn't matter. Because people aren't hearing from you, they'll forget about you.
Zach Spuckler:
You have to stay top of mind. I think that attention is the biggest currency we're seeing right now. And if you're not consistently talking to the audience you're building, it's a missed opportunity. And that also means that engagement matters. And so for us, that's a 2 pronged strategy. I can't sit here in good conscience and be like, we are going all in on Instagram and YouTube and Facebook. We're gonna really get into, you know, organic. We probably won't.
Zach Spuckler:
You know, I'm not big on organic, personally. It's great. Organic can still be a very strong strategy. I just don't like to post on Instagram all the time. I get bored, with stories. I feel like my life's not that exciting. I mentioned earlier I could probably stand to, wash my hair. You know? Like, I'm not I don't I don't wanna get I don't get zhuzhed up to shoot an Instagram story.
Zach Spuckler:
And there's still so much you can do with engagement. So, yes, consistent emails, but we'll also in the next year be as we produce podcasts, I want to run them as advertisements to all the people who are on my email list. So we're gonna push more social engagement and really, you know, multichannel presence. I wanna show up in your inbox. I wanna show up on your Facebook. I wanna show up on your Instagram. I wanna give you multiple ways to interact with my content and make sure that you're seeing it. You know? Because when people are consistently seeing you again, it comes back to what we're talking about in the last strategy.
Zach Spuckler:
It's like, you've gotta have that top of mindness. When someone says Facebook ads, I want it to be synonymous with, oh, that's Zach. You know, you should check out Zach. And to be really honest, like in 2024, we saw a lot of that. There's like 3 or 4 Facebook communities with like 2- to 10000 people in them where it's like, oh, you need Facebook Ads. You need to go talk to Zach. Right? And that comes from a number of things, but the biggest thing is just general engagement. Right? Connecting with people who are in those communities, posting in those communities, supporting in those communities.
Zach Spuckler:
And again, please hear me out. This is not me saying you need to go show up in Facebook groups and add value in 2025. No. This is me saying, hey, as a by-product of all this other stuff, when someone tags me in a post in a big group they know I'm in, I respond. When someone has a question and it shows up in my newsfeed because I'm in these communities where I'm now getting tagged, I respond. And that response and engagement creates authority. And that authority combined with everything I've done up to this point means that people are actually listening to the strategies and and offers that I've got. Right? So, again, I'm not saying you need to, like, go into Facebook groups and build your authority.
Zach Spuckler:
I like to do advertising. But what I am saying is there's value in engaging with your audience where they are, where they could be to come into your audience and where you know there's value in your content. The last piece that I think is really gonna be key for us in 2025, and I'll be candid. I don't know if this is going to apply to you, but I would be remiss if I didn't share what we're actually doing, is affiliate and referral traffic. So our Facebook and Instagram Ads for Listgrowth Bootcamp, we do it 3 to 4 times a year, and a huge source of reach for us is our affiliates. We're spending even more on advertising next year, which will definitely help our reach. But we love when our when our our past boot campers and current membershippers share our content. And we get really great engagement from our affiliates.
Zach Spuckler:
So what we do is our Facebook and Instagram boot camp, to join live is $25. If you refer someone to that boot camp, we give our affiliates, a 100% of the front end ticket, a 100% of the $25 sale. And I've talked to a few people who are like, why would you do that? Well, number 1, it's it's a good incentive. Right? But number 2, it's because we don't make our money right on the boot camp. We make our money on the membership that we offer at the end, which we do also give affiliates a a percentage of. But here's the really cool thing. If you look at all the strategies up to this point, we're growing our list all the time. We're doing these intentional funnel and live launches so people know about our boot camp.
Zach Spuckler:
We're creating content that builds trust and authority. We're engaging with our audience. When we say, hey. Do you wanna share our boot camp? People are like, oh my gosh. Yes. This boot camp is so good. Of course, it helps that our boot camp is really powerful and fun and good content. I truly believe that.
Zach Spuckler:
But people wanna share it with us and for us. Right? And so I see affiliate and referral traffic being a huge piece of the puzzle in 2025. Do I see it as the mass majority of our revenue? No. But it's done enough for us. And I continue to see it do powerful things for us that I'm like, we're gonna keep the party going with affiliates and referrals. I also think it's super fun from a, like, energy exchange standpoint to be like, hey, you loved my content. I think you're great. I wanna reward you for sharing my content.
Zach Spuckler:
Like, I want us all to win. You get paid, I get paid. Everybody's growing as a by-product to this. And so I do see affiliate and referral traffic becoming more and more. The other thing is I kinda talked about this a little bit earlier, but, like, with with the insurgence of AI content and just, like, mass consumable content, I think people are gonna trust the people they trust more than they trust content going into 2025. And so if I can get somebody on my side saying, yeah, your boot camp looks great. I'd love to share it. Then it's like, oh, no brainer.
Zach Spuckler:
We've we've we've I've gotta check that out. Right? So I'm also leveraging borrowed authority from where I think authority is gonna exist the most in 2025. So there you have it. Those are our big nonnegotiable growth strategies. Number 1, Facebook ads for list building. Number 2, intentional funnels and live launches. Number 3, content production and sharing that content. Number 4, consistently emailing our audience and engaging with them.
Zach Spuckler:
And finally, using all of that to build great trust and authority with our audience that they want to share and refer people through affiliate and referral traffic. So those are our strategies. I hope you found some value here. My goal with this is that you listen to this and you can pick 1 or 2 or even 3 strategies and be like, I'm gonna use those. So maybe you listened and you said, I need to start running ads. I would love for you to join us in January. More details coming very soon. Maybe you said, I do need to get back to my content production schedule.
Zach Spuckler:
I've just been using Instagram and email, and I I really do, need to, you know, put out a blog every week or a podcast or a video. Right? Wherever your comfort zone is. But I just want to encourage you that in 2025, if I could sum it up into 1 or 2 key things, it'd be growth and engagement. Grow the audience, engage the audience. Grow the audience, engage the audience. You can't sell to people that aren't engaged. I think that is gonna be a bigger and bigger trend that grows as we continue. So I hope you got value from this episode.
Zach Spuckler:
If you did, feel free to DM me over on Instagram @zachspuckler. I love hearing from you. And, of course, do not be afraid to leave us a review on iTunes or Apple. It's Apple Podcasts now, but it used to be iTunes. I've been around too long. Leave us some feedback on, Apple Podcasts or Spotify. I love hearing from you guys. Reviews are fantastically appreciated.
Zach Spuckler:
And like I said, DM me. Let me know what you thought. I also know it's the holiday weeks. We're in those last couple weird, nebulous weeks of the year, so if you just wanna listen and enjoy, we appreciate that too. But if you want a recap of this show, you can go to heartsoulhustle.com/nyap086. Again, that's heartsoulhustle.com/nyap086 for Not Your Average Podcast episode number 86, we will have the show notes, the transcript, the recap, the link to that previous episode, number 85 that I had mentioned earlier. And, yeah, I I just hope you have a wonderful season as the holidays wrap.
Zach Spuckler:
Whether you celebrate Christmas or something else or you celebrate the new year or you don't, going into 2025, I see this as a great year for the industry for those who take the opportunity and seize it. I hope that's you. I hope you have an incredible rest of your year. We have one more episode dropping before the year wraps. Just kidding. I can't do math. I'm looking at today. Our next episode will be in 2025 when you hear this.
Zach Spuckler:
I cannot wait to talk to you in the new year, have you as a listener in the new year. Have an incredible end of 2024, and we will see you in the new year. Until then, stay not so average.
