Profitable Posts

Chapter 1

WHAT IS THE POST$ TO PROFIT$ PROCESS?

I’m pretty much fucked.

Entrepreneurs, when they realise building an online business is 95% marketing Entrepreneurs with online service businesses want to solve problems. Copywriters want to help their clients sell more stuff. Fitness, nutrition, and life coaches want to transform people’s lives. Business coaches want to guide people to six-and-seven-figure incomes. Vocal coaches want to teach the next global superstar how to reach their full potential. Therapists want to heal people’s trauma. None of them wants to build complex websites, sales pages, and opt-in automation. None of them wants to edit videos and create beautiful graphics worthy of display in The Louvre. None of them wants to waste hours online sending cold DMs and fending off trolls. But it’s the crushing reality for many who dream of living the freedom lifestyle. There’s no avoiding it. You must learn how to market your business to have any hope of making money. And, unless you’re working in marketing, you’ll have to learn new skills. Fast!

Posting content and building a massive following is the shortcut to success (or so the story goes). But the bright lights of social media leave would-be entrepreneurs blinded to reality. Struggling entrepreneurs fuss over likes and followers, trapping themselves in engagement anxiety. The glaring problem—no marketing strategy—

stays unresolved. Instead, getting more engagement remains the only goal. It’s

madness. But this is the distorted view of marketing in a world where social media status is king.

But social media marketing doesn’t have to be a frustrating, never-ending learning curve. There is an easier way—a way to spend less time flooding social media with content and giving value. A way to focus on what you do best and avoid the lead-less Lemmings walking straight off the marketing cliff. The way is, of course, The Posts to Profits process.

My aim is not to make you the world’s greatest marketer. My goal is to give you just enough information to generate the largest returns and then let you move on with life.

Think of the following 250 pages as a sojourn—a temporary stay in the marketing world. Once you have what you need, feel free to leave and only return when you need guidance. This doesn’t mean it’ll be a cinch, or you’ll get the skills overnight. Heck!

You’ll need to do more than read this book to master the marketing basics. You have to take what you learn and put it into practice. Because it’s not about how many books you read, boxes you tick, or even how you fill your time. It’s how these activities change you and your business. So, there’s hard work ahead. But, if you’re up for it, the Posts to Profits process will make it easier than ever. But if the thought of hard work is disappointing news, stop reading. Close the book and move on to some manifestation clap-trap.

This Posts to Profits process won’t work miracles. But it will give you a rock-solid social media marketing strategy. You’ll learn the techniques to attract your ideal prospects and convert them into clients. No massive following required. No soul-sucking trends. And no spam tactics and cold DMs.

The Posts to Profits process comprises six stages.

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Assess the gaps

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Define your strategy

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Get leads

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Make sales

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Consistency

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Mastery

While planning this book, it became evident I couldn’t cram everything into one volume. I suspected you wouldn’t want to read a 1,500-page tome, so the book focuses on strategy, leads, and sales. These elements give you the foundations of a profitable online business. This is far more crucial than worrying about mastering complex marketing strategies. At least for now. .

We begin our marketing adventure with The Gravity Method.

Chapter 2

THE GRAVITY METHOD

You may hate gravity, but gravity doesn’t care.

Clayton M. Christensen

Ever feel out of your depth in your business? Like you’re in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, 500 miles off the coast of America, and the sharks are circling. Some call it Imposter Syndrome. I call it being shit-scared of failure. This is how I felt when a high-end gym chain asked me to create its social media strategy in 2019.

I was still a one-man fitness coaching business. I had a background in marketing, and my solo business was growing, but this was different. I was okay with winging it, failing, and figuring everything out on the fly. After all, if things went wrong (which they often did), I could brush it under the carpet and move on. No one would be any the wiser. But taking those risks with someone else’s business wasn’t an option. I decided to call in reinforcements.

My buddy Rich is a phenomenal sales coach. I figured he’d know a thing or two about pitching for and delivering this sort of work. Rich and I got together and spent two

days planning a winning proposal. The problem was that we didn’t understand the business. We needed to see the facility, speak to the team, and see the problems first-hand. The following Friday, Rich and I hopped on a train to London to visit their HQ

and meet the manager. On the 90-minute train ride, we discussed our approach to the meeting. We needed a way of communicating our marketing principles and method (which didn’t exist as we stepped on the 7:02 to London Euston).

I thought about everything I’d learned in my corporate job and my journey as an entrepreneur. I sketched a crude three-part content marketing ecosystem on a scrap of paper. It wasn’t complicated. Audience, Offer, Content. Not exactly ground-breaking.

It needed something more—a little pizzazz—to stand any chance of impressing the client. So, I did what any good marketer would do. I dreamt up a catchy name.

Audience, Offer, and Content became Your World, Your People, and Your Gravity. The Gravity Method was born.

We didn’t win the project. I wasn’t mad. I should have turned the opportunity down from the outset. I had no framework, credibility, or business thinking I could help.

When the gym owners first asked for support, I was just delusional enough to be totally confident. With every meeting, every video call, every email, I was praying they’d tell us, Thanks, but no thanks. Despite the fortunate failure of our proposal, the Gravity Method stuck in my mind. I began refining my ‘back of a fag packet’ idea, turning it into a cohesive framework. I added layers of detail to each section, tweaking the formula as I tested new ideas. Niching, positioning, branding, content strategy, building offers. It had everything. In the summer of 2021, I knew I had a process that would help other businesses overcome their social media woes. Two years after its genesis on a train ride to London, I was ready to teach others the Gravity Method.

These are the three marketing concepts you need to start getting leads and sales online. Don’t let any social media snake oil salespeople tell you otherwise.

I’ll put it another way. If you have great products and phenomenal content, but you’re communicating to the wrong audience, you won’t make sales. If you have amazing

products, but your content sucks, the right people won’t know you exist, and you won’t make sales. And, if you’re creating compelling content for the right audience, but they don’t want what you’re selling, you won’t make sales. You must have all three elements of The Gravity Method to start and scale any online business. Resist the temptation of getting distracted by passing trends and useless tactics. Without the fundamentals, any other activity is causing sales to drift further and further away.

I’ve divided the book into four sections. The first three give you the details behind The Gravity Method, and the fourth helps you bring it all together. For now, here’s an overview of The Gravity Method, starting with Your People.

Your people are your ideal customers. The clients you’d love to clone and attract to your business at will. Understanding this perfect customer is crucial. A vague, nebulous niche and attempting to appeal to everyone leads to mediocre sales (at best).

It’s better to be the go-to person for 1,000 people than the person who 100,000

people forget.

The Gravity Method teaches you the simplest way to find the right niche. The people you’ll be passionate about helping and who won’t make you dread waking up in the morning. You don’t need to know whether your ideal client likes a double-shot vanilla macchiato. You don’t need to know their shoe size or favourite breakfast cereal.

Unless you’re selling macchiatos, trainers, and Frosties, of course. All you need to do is answer one question. I’ll tell you what the question is soon.

Entrepreneurs waste an inordinate amount of time and money trying to generate leads. They invest in courses, software, and ads, often overlooking the fundamental issue. An issue that, if left unfixed, throws all businesses into an uncontrollable tailspin. Branding. I don’t mean logos, fonts, and colours (although they have their place). Branding is what sets you apart from the competition—your unique identifier.

It’s the common thread linking your values, offers, and content to your ideal customer.

Without a strong brand, you become a commodity, and the only way for customers to assess your worth is through price. Unless you’re willing to sell your products at rock-bottom prices, you’ll never win that war.

The Gravity Method helps you create a stand-out brand: Your World. It teaches you to think of your business as a planet. Your World’s core is your mission: why you do what you do. Layered on top of this are your values, visual branding, products, and services. Create a world designed for your ideal customers, and you’re two-thirds of the way to consistent leads.

The final part of the Gravity Method is the easiest (if you’ve done everything else correctly). But it’s what most online businesses struggle with most: creating profitable content. Your Gravity attracts Your People to Your World (and keeps them there). It’s your social media content and lead magnets. This compelling content is the mechanism to get your offers in front of the right people. If your offer sucks and you’re pitching to the wrong people, the greatest content in the world won’t save you. It’s why content is the last component of The Gravity Method. Even though your content sucks, be patient. We’ve got to rewind to square one: Your People.

Chapter 3

YOUR PEOPLE

The Gravity Method: Part One

No niche is too small if it’s yours.

Seth Godin

It was sometime around December 2018 when self-doubt tightened its grip and panic set in. I had been recording podcasts for almost two years, but no one was listening. It doesn’t take long for fear and loathing to cloud the mind of a paranoid entrepreneur.

So, it was surprising I hadn’t quit several months before. But there I was, churning out regular episodes to a few hundred people. It seemed pointless. The voice inside me was screaming, Holy Jesus! Give up already. When I look back years later, the problem is obvious.

Switching from corporate marketing to fitness coaching put me on the defensive.

There was a self-imposed need to prove myself—to show my knowledge and gain credibility. I thought I had nailed it. In my mind, I was striking the perfect balance between practical advice and scientific theory. Listening back to those old episodes years later, I couldn’t have been more wrong. Every podcast was a trudge through audible treacle. Pointless PubMed references on top of turgid research psychobabble.

The only people who knew what I was talking about weren’t even listening. Those who did tune in regretted their decision within seconds. It felt like I was broadcasting on dead airwaves. Mayday. Mayday. Can anybody hear me? Silence. There was only white noise, static, and several one-star reviews.

Fortunes changed after a sales call with a prospective client. She was from somewhere in the United States: Boston? Delaware? Iowa? I don’t recall. She loved listening to the podcast purely for my accent (well, it wasn’t for the content). Despite being a fan of the show, she had some constructive criticism. She told me that I had a split personality. To her, I was a cross between James Bond and Gary Vaynerchuk on social media but a suit-and-tie-wearing stiff on my podcast. She was right. I wasn’t talking about the wrong topics. I wasn’t a coach bereft of new thoughts and anything interesting to say. My delivery was all wrong. Rather than create content for those who wanted to listen, I created content to avoid backlash from my peers. In the end, I pleased no one, not even myself.

Early in 2019, I revamped the podcast. Out went the dry science chat. In came a healthy dose of my true personality. The show went from a 30-minute lecture to a 15-minute chat down the pub with your best mate. It had character, style, and practical solutions. It appealed to a time-poor generation who didn’t want to listen to a 90-minute waffle (aka, my niche). It was podcasting SAS-style. In. Out. On to the next one.

(I have no idea if this is the style of the SAS. It sounded good, so I left it in).

Designing the show for my niche changed everything. Twelve months later, Lean Life Radio exceeded 60,000 monthly downloads. And it didn’t stop. The show grew to almost 90,000 downloads a month by the time it ended. Even though I stopped recording episodes in 2021, the podcast still gets 5,000 - 10,000 downloads every month. I’d have a low-effort side hustle if I wanted to sell something to those listeners.

My focus is elsewhere, though; anything I had for sale is now free.

Niching not only saved my podcast, but it also saved my business (and my sanity). The show’s growth boosted my Instagram traffic and gave me instant credibility. Instead of short bursts of engagement, I had my ideal client’s uninterrupted attention. Long-form content helped me build stronger relationships faster. I became the go-to person for a small group of people, which was all I needed for a profitable business.

What is niching?

Niching is.. and that is what I want, okay? David Brent (if he was writing this book).

Choosing the right market is a make-or-break decision. Get it wrong, and your business is on the slippery slope to failure from the outset. You could have the most incredible product in the world, but you’re doomed if you pitch it to the wrong people.

Imagine trying to sell the finest 28-day aged Angus steak to vegan restaurants. It won’t work. Don’t be the business that sells meat to vegans or ice to Eskimos. Be the business that creates the perfect product for a specific demographic.

The often fatal mistake is targeting a broad niche. It’s a decision driven by fear. Fear that channelling efforts into a smaller demographic limits sales.

The fledgling copywriter thinks her writing chops are sharper than Lorena Bobbitt’s kitchen knife. When she writes, she sells. Why limit potential revenue by focusing on sales pages for Business Coaches? The simple answer is that people want experts.

Imagine you have an original BMW 3 Series E21 from 1980. It’s your baby—your pride and joy. Which of the following garages would you trust when it needs repairs or servicing?

Series 3 Servicing: a family-owned business specialising in maintaining classic Series 3 BMWs. The father-and-son team has been in business for over four decades. What these two don’t know about the 3 Series isn’t worth knowing.

The alternative is Anycar Servicing. This garage prides itself on rock-bottom prices and servicing anything. The garage even has We fix anything writ large across the front of the building. Most of the Anycar Servicing team have never seen a car from the 80s, let alone serviced one.

The decision is simple. The expert wins almost every time and charges more. Here’s a copywriting example.

Customers expect to pay for expert knowledge if you offer a specialised service. The more specific the service, the easier it is to market and the more you can charge. Stay

too broad, and you rely on attracting customers based on either price, personality, or your gigantic unrivalled reputation (which, I guess, you don’t have).

There are situations where staying broad works. In any industry, unicorn businesses come along at the right time, with the right product, and hit pay dirt. But, trying to reverse engineer these mythical beasts often leads to failure. So, play the percentages.

When your business is in its infancy, niche.

How to choose the right niche

Here’s a five-part formula and one key question to help you pick the right niche.

1. Don’t choose a market in free fall.

When Netflix started booming, only fools would contemplate opening a Blockbuster-style store. You might have made money while people were considering a move to streaming services. But, the brick-and-mortar rental business was in sharp decline.

A declining market is a ticking time bomb. Soon, you’ll run out of selling opportunities and scramble to pivot your business. It’s a headache you don’t want, so steer clear.

2. They must be easy to find.

Choosing a niche is one thing, but finding them is another. When considering your niche, ask one crucial question. Could I target this audience with an advert? You don’t have to start running ads, but if you did, could you target those ads to your niche? If the answer is no, your chances of success, even with organic content, are low.

3. They must have cash

When I was in my early twenties, I was a struggling student. I lived in a dilapidated shared house in Bristol with four random dudes I’d never met. One was a crazy Russian called Ivan, who once smeared his name in blood on a wall in his bedroom. I forget the names of the other three. They didn’t leave the same unforgettable impression as Ivan.

One thing this rag-tag bunch of students had in common was a distinct lack of money.

Our house was rundown. Every morning, a cornucopia of slugs greeted us in the kitchen. The molluscs slimed