The Advertising Messaging Framework You Need To Use with Ashley Brock, CEO of Paid Ads Academy | Ep. 379

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0:47Get ready to turn the f*** up. We are back with another episode of the Market Millennials podcast. Today, I have Ashley Brock here and we're going to talk a little bit about messaging. And she has a framework that she has that is specific to what she does for a living. And we're going to dive into it, but I'm going to let Ashley talk about a little bit who she is and how she got into marketing. Yeah. So I'm so happy to be here. So my name is Ashley Brock. I am the founder of the Paid Ads Academy. And basically, we teach entrepreneurs to do their own advertising. So I actually worked in four ad agencies for over a decade, spent$200 million on ads.

1:32And now we've grown from zero to nearly eight figures in less than three years. So it's been such a journey. And one of the things that I feel like has led us there is our messaging and how how so many people can run ads and do advertising, but when you're not specific about what makes you different, it's really hard for people to gain traction. So that's what we're going to talk about. And I think the, I mean, the key word you have is Rainmaker. Could you go into like what Rainmaker means? And I totally agree on the side of, I think a lot of people know how to run ads kind of well, but they get lost in who they are, the positioning, how they're going to show up.

2:11One word could change a whole ad. So let's dive into this Rainmaker messaging framework. Yeah. So the definition, and actually everything that we built our brand on, is about Rainmaker. So I'll explain Rainmaker, then we can jump into each letter. But basically, a Rainmaker is someone who has an unusual level of skill that brings an unprecedented amount of revenue to a company. And as you know, marketing and advertising is one of the things that can speed up results more than anything else. And it can also be such a place where people spend money and don't get a return when they don't have good advertising or good marketing.

2:48And I think people can have great offers, but if they don't communicate their offer in a valuable way, then people don't even know and they'll never buy. And so being able to create this framework, it was kind of years of just saying or over a decade of trying to figure out the ads that did perform and the ones that didn't. What's the difference in the messaging? And then what I found is this Rainmaker formula is cool because it's not just what you can say in ads, you can also apply this to any of your marketing, whether it's your emails, whether it's your website, whether it's your social posts.

3:15This framework has worked really well for my business and the businesses that I worked with, which is cool. Yeah. I think the cool thing about starting with messaging, it's like that trickle down effect in marketing where a lot of people skip the positioning, skip the messaging, skip everything and go straight to, hey, let's just run direct response ads. Let's just run ads. We have good creative. Let's try and maybe it works for a little bit of time, but then the messaging doesn't fit the landing page. It doesn't fit the overall what you're selling. And then you end up in this bad cycle. So let's go into the framework and how it works.

3:57Let's do it. So every letter means a certain thing. So the R is relevancy. And one of the things that I like to say is your ads need to be relevant to where people are at. So what I mean by that is R for relevancy. A lot of times people can advertise to their, like to one, like just the solution. Like, oh, let me have someone searching for a marketing agency or someone searching for a chiropractor. Like I'm searching for the solution. But I think what a lot of people don't do well is they don't advertise to what's relevant to where the person is at, which could be the symptom or it could be the problem or it could be the solution.

4:35For example, yesterday, one of my clients was running some Google ads and we'll use this as an example. Someone was searching how to write a book. That person has a problem of they don't know how to write a book. But someone searching for book editing coach is already looking for the solution. And so it's very easy. You could spend 100 % of your budget on someone saying, how do I write a book that's not actually ready to pay someone. And so being relevant and having ads that are relevant to different phases in the journey from symptom to problem to solution, that's the R. I love that. I think relevancy in any content marketing, it works for anything where you have to, whether it's, and it could frame along, hey, is it relevant to the time of year?

5:20Is it relevant to the audience? Is it relevant to the interest of the audience? But I'd like the example of you, problem and solution, because a lot of people are either going way too top of funnel with their advertising or they're just trying to capture existing demand in the market. And I think you need a little bit of both to win and different messaging for both. You do. And it's kind of like when people turn on their ads, they're like, man, I just want to sail today. And that's like going on a first date and being like, let's kiss. And it's like, I'm not ready for that. I don't even know you.

5:57I don't trust you, all those things. And I know you want the result, but typically over time it will come. And so the relevancy piece, like an example, one more like example of a client that I was working with, she's a nervous system regulation coach. Okay. And like some people are searching for that. Some people are searching for someone to help them with the problem, which is burnout. They don't even know that nervous system regulation is a thing. They don't know the solution. They There's some people that are in denial of them having burnout. And so they're just struggling with the symptom of, I feel like all my emotion is gone.

6:30I feel like I'm sad. I feel like all these things are happening. And so every, every advertiser that's trying to get people that are unfamiliar or kind of familiar or very familiar, you have to be relevant to each of those. That's why the first one is our total sense. And it's also, I think you need all three of those parts that you said in the funnel, because of relevancy to searching a symptom, searching the actual problem, or searching the actual solution at three different ways. And I think some people are really good at one or two, but I want to keep going down the relevancy to the A now, Rainmaker.

7:07That's perfect. So the A is articulation. And one of my quotes that I've come up with, this one is just what, it's just how you say what you're saying. And so one of the quotes that I've created is that articulation leads to elevation of your communication. And being able, like there's this study and it basically was saying it's like the 735, I think it's the 58 rule, but it adds up to 100. But basically it's saying only 7 % are the words that you say, 35 % is how you say them. And the other side is the body language that comes alongside it. And so I've seen people say, here's my ad script. And I'm like, the words look great, but how you articulate that message can really make a difference on if it's going to stick or not.

7:49So the A is articulation. That's a good one. Also, I think all those parts, one is articulate the way you say. Some is a fond choice you decide to choose. It could be the creative behind that changes the articulation of those words. So there's so many different things that one little tweak articulates it a lot, but your example is more, if you can do, let's say, video ads or UGC ads or stuff like that, the way that creator or you as a business owner is coming off could mean the excitement could mean one thing. Monotone could mean one thing. So that's a great one. Yeah. No, I completely agree. So the next one is I, which is identifiability.

8:39And all it really really is saying is identify who you're talking to and just say that. I had one of the things I had my clients do yesterday. This person has a$25 million business. They're doing exceptional work. And then sometimes it's like, you just need that perspective. And I was like, read me that script on that ad and go line by line by line. And the first sentence was like, do you ever feel like you're trying everything with your clients and it's not working? And it's like, I have actually no idea what your business is on that first line. Like you're not saying who it is. It's like clients.

9:10It's like, yeah, a lot of people have clients, but I don't know if that's for me or not. So I'm skipping. And so calling out in your ads who this is for at the very beginning, as clearly and specifically as you can, it's so simple, but people just overlook it. And they're like, yeah, no, I said doctors, like four sentences in. I'm like, right. And they'll never make it to that part because they skipped the hook that was really boring and didn't call out who it was for. So that's I, which is identifiability. Yeah. So I'm just thinking of an example. So me saying marketers, if I'm trying to go, hey, marketers, you might have, or hey, demand gen marketers in Miami, you might have this problem.

9:47Let's talk about it. Instead of just saying, like, my clients, you're specifically calling out your ICP in the first sentence, basically. And the reason that that's actually helpful is not only for the consumer, it's informing the algorithm who to serve that ad to. So if the consumer is confused, the algorithm is too, because it's trying to pull. What is this saying? Who's going to resonate with this sentence? And it's like, I don't know, everybody could, because it's not specific. I love that too, because especially with AI now, even on social, they're crawling captions, they're crawling transcripts, they're crawling everything.

10:26So if you're not saying those specific things, they're just going to serve it to everybody. That's a great one. So, okay, so R-A-I, and now we're going to go to the N part of it. Yep. N is an easy one and it's just necessity. And it's communicating why people need what you have to offer specifically. So I like to say that specificity creates necessity. And so it's very easy for anyone who's advertising anything to be like, I know why people should use this company. I know that obviously you can use this product for all of these three reasons. It's in your brain, it's not in theirs. So communicating, like here's the exact reason this product, like you need this one.

11:08This is the service you should go to. This is the company. This is the one that you need and communicating that specifically and not just saying, no, we're the best. It's like, why are you the best? Communicate that, why they need it so specifically, and they will be like, oh, okay. If you didn't plan it in their brain, it's likely not in there because you're obsessed with what you're advertising or marketing more so than the person on the other side of that ad is. So specificity creates necessity. That's in. So what are some examples of like someone being specific? Because you could say there's different ways of doing it.

11:42Obviously, you can call out exact numbers where you could say, instead of saying, we have 100 customers, you could say we have 121 customers or something. or we have a 4.92 rating instead of saying five, we have 10 five-star ratings or something like that. So that is one thing you could do. And actually it's like, I talk about that credibility piece because it matters so much. And that's actually kind of close to the R, the last one, the Rainmaker is being very specific with the reviews and how much volume you have. the way that I think about necessity is actually how it differs for each person the reason that you need to take action on something versus the reason that I need to take action on something is different because every person is different you may care more about your time I may care more the time something saves you I may care more about the money that it saves me I may care more about how it helps my team and so this necessity one one of the things I like to do is I like to create multiple different ads for multiple different buyer types So it's like this person needs the data and the logic.

12:49That's why they need to buy because 72 people have said this and they like, or they're, you know, there's a 20 % increase on average for our clients when they do X, Y, Z. That's why they need it. But someone else needs something different. So when I create ads, I like to say, what are all the reasons someone would need to jump in? Well, there's urgency, there's scarcity, there's specificity because of the reason the things that matter to them. And so just having different ads that speak to the different needs that someone might have when they're considering buying your product. Yeah, that makes total sense.

13:17So somebody might have, they're trying to scale revenue. Some people might want to cut internal costs. Some people are looking for a new tool to replace the current terrible tool. Some people are looking for integration. Just calling that out in the ad instead of just being broad or saying we're the number one software in the world, basically. Yeah. Okay, so M is the next one. As marketers, we're all trying to answer the same question. Which investments are actually driving revenue? And too often, the honest answer is an educated guess. CallRail replaces that guesswork with proof. With the help of AI, you can connect every lead to the exact campaign that drove it.

14:09Analyze your conversations and capture leads around the clock. That's why over 220 ,000 businesses use CallRail to market smarter. Stop estimating impact and start proving it. Try CallRail for free at callrail.com slash prove it. M is memorability and the best I can do because I know you like stories. So one of my clients, he owns two companies. One is a golf simulator company called Forefront. and one is a renovation company called New Edge. And so this person is currently installing a golf simulator in my basement while I record this with you. So it's really cool. And one of the things he does is he brings basements to life.

14:53And so I was looking at his Instagram and I'm like, okay, I know I'm your client. You're not mine yet. It will happen. But I was like, hey, your Instagram says that you like renovate basements. I'm like, that is cool, but that's not memorable. And so because once I get something in my brain, it goes to town trying to figure out something that would allow it to be memorable. And so I'll give you the example of what I gave for him. But memorability can be created through alliterations. It can be created through rhymes or specific taglines. It's like, what is memorable? So I'll give you an example for his business.

15:25His Instagram bio said, we renovate basements. And the reason I care about his Instagram bio is because he is considering running ads. And the worst thing that someone could do is turn on ads and have a not so great experience when someone lands on the Instagram page. so I was like let's create something that people remember and so I came up with we renovate and elevate your basement to take your bottom level to the next level and like that is so much better he's like that's sick and I'm like I know we're gonna update it today but it's because that is like hey what do y 'all do that's a tagline that's someone like dang that's good that's why like what we created in my business that we trademarked was advertise your name make it rain it's I end every call I'm in every podcast and every single thing with that tagline because it's memorable and it's not just like all right bye so everybody everything that you can do for the companies that you work with, the advertising, the marketing you're doing, having a tagline that's memorable, even if you're the one that creates it and says, hey, what if we said this?

16:16As long as it lies with the brand, you need something that allows people to say, oh, it's that one. I remember that. Yeah. I think you just doing even like a Rainmaker framework, it's easy to think about someone instead of saying, I have an ads framework that works. My framework is called Rainmaker. It stands for this, blah, blah. It's memorable to say like oh you have that rainmaker um framework uh instead yeah uh i like that i think it's figuring out how to be memorable i think it's a lost art i also like what you said i think we skipped over a little bit but it's important but the importance of having actually updating your social profile that you're running ads from if you're running from instagram or Facebook and not having this blank page or a bad bio or no links or nothing in there.

17:09That's like your second landing page, basically. And people are showing your credibility when you land running an ad. So people who are not even posting regularly and makes it look like you're not a credible company. I completely agree. So memorability is big. And the next one is A, which is avoiding. And I just, I have a few things that I like to avoid. I have some clients that are in the top 10 of like all Amazon influencers. And I know that it's very common for people to be like, everyone was asking me, y 'all been wanting this. And I know that that can work. So I'm not saying never do that.

17:44But what I am saying is in your ads, if you're advertising, like, let's say it's B2B, let's say if it's service-based, whatever it is, avoid saying me, my, and I. I so much more prefer just when you run an ad saying, Hey, are you, because there's only one person watching the ad and just say, Hey, as I'm saying, Hey, I know y 'all might be looking for someone to come into your business and create this automation. It's like, Hey, are you struggling with getting the systems to talk to each other? Do you envision this day where you have everything you walk in and it's all, I mean, there's a, there's a way that you can frame it so that you're just saying you.

18:18So one of the things that I, but just because it's a connection thing, Humans buy from humans. And so as much as you can do to connect by looking into the eye of the camera, not at the screen where that you see you, but like looking into the eye of the camera, saying you, number one, it creates connection. The other thing I like for people to avoid, and this happens in advertising and marketing all the time. In fact, I bet when I say it today, you'll find somewhere that you can be like, Oh, yep. So I'll then do that. And it's where people say their product or their service before they say, or they say their product and service first, and then they say what comes on the other side of that.

18:49So for instance, someone will say, hey, when you enroll in our program, you'll get X, Y, and Z versus flipping it and saying, here's the payoff. And that's created through our program. So it's like, hey, do you want to have utter freedom and time back in your team? Do you want people, you want to get applications of the right candidates every single day? That's exactly what's possible when you enroll in our employee automation software. So it's just flipping, not what you do and then what they get, but what they get and then what you do in that order. So the main, the main thing to avoid is being me, I, and flipping it to who you're talking to using you, um, using words that are speaking to, I think that's also a good lesson to every ad should be speaking to one person.

19:39And the way you said that only one person, that one person's watching that ad and the one time you're not speaking to nobody there's not a room of people sitting and being like i love this ad it's but only if you're maybe at a super bowl party maybe but um on like a social channel that's not happening so i like the way you said that that's exactly right it's very rare that everybody's watching the ad like a movie so just speak to the person who's the decision maker so that is the things i like to avoid so k is knowledge and so the saying i have for knowledge is that lingo is bingo. And here's a story to explain that one.

20:17So one of my clients is a speech language pathologist and her best performance was just a blank ad with a pink background. And it said, SLPs, are you tired of soap notes? I can help. And for Daniel and I were like, huh? SLPs, soap notes, what are they talking about? I was like, she's speaking the lingo of the people she's trying to attract. SLPs means speech language pathologists and soap notes is one of the notes that they have to take at, you know, when they're, they just met with a child and they're having to do this paperwork. And it's like, Hey, are you tired of the paperwork? What if you could use your skill another way?

20:52That was one of the best performing ads because lingo is bingo. The people that saw that she knew the lingo knew that she knew what they were going through. And it was so simple. And it was just because what she knew about them, she spoke to, and it works so beautifully. So K is just use the knowledge, you know. So if you are advertising to a B2B software company and you know, the CTO is struggling with these three things, speak in the CTO's language. Like, are you tired of this, this, and this? But it's in his lingo that allows them to be like, ooh, they know what I'm talking about. So I trust them.

21:19I think that's super important because the CEO of the company I work for also always says, again, your content, just say CAC. Because if you need to spell it out, that person doesn't, you're talking to the wrong type of audience. Sometimes you can spell it out, but at least like say CAC cost of customer acquisition costs. Like you could say CAC customer acquisition costs just so people who might not know it, but spell out those, those lingo. So people, like people want to know that you are the expert of things and you're credible. And if you don't speak the talk, the talk, you're not going to, people will be like, Hey, that's not a expert market.

22:05That's not an expert plumber. That's not an expert. So I, Okay. That's a hundred percent a great one. Like show your knowledge in your ads. That's it. Because it all comes down to them trusting you. And when you do speak that way, they will. So the last two, so E is energy. And there are days that some of my clients will send me ads. One of my clients, he's a therapist. He has 22 therapists in his practice. He sent me an ad and I was like, I love that you put this ad together. And were you having a bad day? Because it sounds like that you might've recorded this ad after having it, like two hours of sleep.

22:39You and your spouse had an argument and then you recorded this ad. I was like, this is not the one we're going to use. The script was right, but your energy was low. And so there's times when you got to call a spade a spade. There's times I don't need to record because what I believe is that you transfer what you do have. You can't transfer what you don't have. So you can't transfer excitement and encouragement. And this is why you should buy this thing if you don't have it. So E all comes down to energy and just being self-aware of when you should and should not record an ad so that you can transfer what you ultimately want.

23:06because how you feel when you record is how they'll feel when they watch that ad. So really being intentional about that matters a ton. So that's why E is energy. That's something I need to work on even in like going to talk. I'm pretty chill when it comes to things, but I think I'm trying to let people be comfortable when people are listening to the podcast. But I think it's such a good point that if you're trying to get excitement, you have to be excited. If you're trying to get relaxing, you should be relaxing. thing. If you're trying to get this, you should match the motion you're trying to portray in your ad.

23:41And you have a brand. I have a brand. We all have a different brand and we're different because we relate and connect to different people sometimes. And that's a good thing because not everybody... That's why I love when I run YouTube ads and people skip. I'm like, good. You hate my voice? You will definitely hate 20 hours of my training. You're like, good. I'm glad I didn't pay for that ad. So I think it's good that everybody has their vibe and their brand and what's true to them. But yes, there are times when it's like, Hey, you want to get action. Emotion puts people in motion and logic can make people lethargic.

24:10So if you get to a place where it's like, it's two instruction and there's not some, sometimes it can be like, we all have something that we can take from somebody else. But energy is one of those things with ads that it's magnetic. Let's go to the next, the next piece of the puzzle. So R is the last one and it's reputation and it's why will they choose you over anybody else? And so the saying that I have for that one is that credibility does not negate humility. Sometimes people are saving, oh, I've actually had a million downloads. Oh, I've been doing this for 27 years, help people make millions of dollars.

24:44It's like the reason, there's too many people out there just trying to make money or advertise something that they don't have the experience or the authority in. And so if you don't say why people should listen to you, they won't. In fact, I was in a mastermind group and I was training some other business owners on something. And I started the training off and just started teaching. And I got interrupted by the leader in front of everybody. And she said, she's like, Ashley, Ashley, she's like, can you stop for just a second? And I was like, yes. And she's like, why should they listen to you about this topic?

25:17And one of the things that we had done in the business is we had had a million dollar day. And so I was teaching something about how that happened without them knowing that that had happened. And then, and then all of a sudden everybody's like, okay, I'm, I'm taking my notes now because they didn't know me. They're like, I don't know why I can trust her. And it's so you, any brand that has any experience, any credibility, any results, any features, like even on your, the marketing millennials page, you have some great credibility of different brands that you've worked with. That is so important.