Developing Your 2nd Tier of Content & Traffic
Developing Your 2nd Tier of Content and Traffic
This is following a series exploring Laurel Portié's paid ads strategy. If you are unfamiliar with the strategy and haven’t seen this post first, we recommend starting here.
Up until this point we have been exploring what Laurel Portié calls "Tier 1" of her paid ads ecosystem.
This is the Tier of "Enough." For many people, especially solo entrepreneurs / freelancers, Tier 1 is more than 'enough' to get everything you want in your business.
You just have to follow the steps.
If you haven't gone through Tier 1, visit the article below and get caught up before continuing.
![The Laurel Corner [Start Here]](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_140,h_140,c_fill,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep,g_auto/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fbfdd6d9b-9f93-45d6-88c1-ac350d3e5fa5_623x399.png)
Tier 2 can only happen when you've hit a certain level of metrics, because certain dynamics are going to change.
Tier 1 is about Clarity,
Using the data to get Clarity on who you're speaking to and what the right messaging is,
Most importantly, this is getting your video ads to a point where you are adding 1000 people to your "invisible list" each week (more on that concept in a future article.)
Because Tier 1 is going to Cold Traffic, you may not be able to get as many conversations as you need from it - this is why the tipping point going from Tier 1 to Tier 2 is not conversations, it's the invisible list
Because Tier 2 will be able to taking what is now Warm Traffic, and tipping them over into conversations.
Tier 2 rounds out the "Enough" phase with a useful and valuable framework that is design to get you consistent conversations with your ideal prospects on demand.
This dips into what we call, in The Guardian Academy, "The Pyramid of Complicated Stuff" - a subject we'll explore with Laurel in a future article based on a version of this pyramid she presented at The Super Duper Awesome Ads Event in Phoenix, March 2024.
For now,
Once you have your Tier 1 established, dip into Tier 2, which we'll take a look at through this excerpt from Laurel Portié's book, Super Duper Profitable Ads.1
Laurel’s methodology, program, and book are heavy in Guardian Academy principles that she reinvented and improved specifically for her domain - and has become one of the best advertising programs out there.
DEVELOPING YOUR 2ND TIER
The next tier of content is your Middle of Funnel (MOF). This includes your Power Content with Call to Action (CTA) and your next layer of Conversion Multipliers. These have only one variable to track…
How many people are commenting to request your value bomb.
Keep in mind, this is very different than tracking a specific KPI within your ads manager.
Here’s what it looks like:
This “Warm Stack Audience” is the Invisible List you’ve been building. This content won’t get delivered to your Invisible List until you’ve got at least 1,000 people in that audience, but that won’t stop us from getting it published right away.
You’ll notice from the diagram that the 2nd Tier has Power Content as well as more Conversion Multipliers.
Each type of content will have a Call to Action (CTA). However, there is an important distinction between these two types of call to action!
In your Conversion Multipliers, the 60-second short form video, your call to action is asking people to respond if they want the value bomb you are offering.
But with your Tier 2 Power Content, the call to action will be an invitation to work with you.
For example, in a Conversion Multiplier, I might say “comment YES below if you’d like me to send you the value bomb on how to launch your first ad.”
But for the 2nd Tier Power Content, the call to action could be “If you’d like for me to show you what this strategy would look like for your business, drop me a line below this video and I’ll reach out and we can hop on a quick zoom call and I’ll give you a free demo.”
Both calls to action invite a conversation in Messenger, but each one sets different expectations for the prospect.
A common question I get at this stage is…
“Laurel, why are we ONLY asking people to work with us in the Tier 2 Power Content and not anywhere else?”
Remember something called Pipeline Equity that I taught you back in an earlier chapter? We want to keep our content ratio 75% goodwill content and 25% sales content. The Tier 2 Power Content is where we will actually pitch them at the end of our value video to work with us.
I told you this strategy is super stealth!
While we’re on the topic of direct offers, I want to highlight how simple the invitation can be.
Take a look at my example again. “If you’d like for me to show you what this strategy would look like for your business, drop me a line below this video and I’ll reach out and we can hop on a quick zoom call and I’ll give you a free demo.”
I know that a little purple book told you that you need to make one very strong promise along with a guarantee that will make your offer “irresistible.”
I am going to challenge that right now.
What if I told you that I made my first million WITHOUT having a one sentence “irresistible offer?”
That’s exactly what I did, and it’s my macro-belief that POSITIONING is way more important than an offer.
What do I mean by positioning?
Market positioning refers to the ability to influence consumer perception regarding a brand or product relative to competitors. The objective of market positioning is to establish the image or identity of a brand or product so that consumers perceive it in a certain way (credit for this definition - corporatefinanceinsitute.com)
To give you a clear concrete example.
In the beginning of this book, I told you guys about the start of my business. I went LIVE for over 100 days teaching business owners how to do a simple $5 ad strategy.
I never put out any promises or guarantees.
Everyday, I showed them over-the-shoulder examples of what I was doing and proof of results from ad manager screenshots and the recorded zoom calls I was doing with happy customers.
I never had to sell my “offer.”
My audience already knew the value I could bring from me showing up and giving them an over-the-shoulder look at what I was doing and the results I was getting.
They saw my content and said, “I want THAT!”
How much easier do you think it is to sell your program and services when people are asking you… “How do I work with you?”
I don’t think I have to explain how much easier it is. You’re a smart cookie.
After you’ve launched everything, you should have:
3 Power Content Videos in Tier 1 of your funnel
3 Conversion Multipliers in Tier 1 of your funnel
A mix of Power Content with CTA and Conversion Multipliers in Tier 2 of your funnel
Once all of that is in place, here’s what your completed funnel looks like. You’ll notice that MOST of the ecosystem is built to start conversations while one part goes after a direct sale.
Ad Budget:
$5/day per Power Content video to COLD traffic
$5/day per Conversion Multiplier to COLD traffic
$2/day per Power Content video to WARM traffic
$2/day per Power Content video to WARM traffic
TEST AND RETEST
Here’s one example of how this can play out in real life.
A new client of mine needed to have conversations to get feedback on a new offer…
So, I helped her create a value bomb that would attract who she thought was her ideal client then helped her write a 60 second reels ad to give it away.
We threw it into ads manager for $5/day.
On the 1st day, she had 34 people raise their hand to say “I want that thing...”
To everyone that said “I want that thing,” I helped her craft this EXACT DM.
“Hey X. I see you want my guide to X.
I actually have two versions of it.
Are you ____ or ______?
How you answer that will determine which I give you.”
The result?
16 people ghosted
18 people responded
0 of the 18 people actually needed that specific value bomb
11 of the 18 people weren’t ready for that value bomb, so I helped her create another on the spot and delivered it
So I helped her write a new 60 second reel to give away THAT value bomb and the next day I helped her launch a new 60 second reels ad to give that new value bomb away...
This time she got…
86 hand raises
We tweaked the DM script to reflect the changes
“Hey X. I see you want my guide to X.
I actually have two versions of it.
Are you ____ or ______?
How you answer that will determine which I give you.
Now this was the result.
11 people ghosted her.
75 people responded.
She was able to transition 2 of those to a phone call and now I’m going to work with her on transitioning those leads into more phone calls.
We are also going to double down and spend $10/day on this ad to get more volume because now we know it works!
IMPROVING VALUE BOMBS
When you are not getting the comments you want on your value bomb offer, it’s likely due to two major causes:
People aren’t ready for that value bomb (like in the example above)
The value bomb isn’t connected to the prospect’s felt need
This is why starting real conversations with prospects is so vital, especially when you are first starting out with your paid ad campaigns.
The fix on this one is simple. If no one comments to request your value bomb in your 2nd Tier Content, offer a new value bomb!
I know, that sounds too easy, right?
But remember, you are speaking to people from your invisible list who have already watched at least 25% of your Power Content and 95% or more of your Conversion Multipliers. So while they might not be super warm yet, they are warm enough to respond if the value bomb is relevant to them.
A BONUS TO GIVE YOU A BOOST
Take another look at that diagram above. You’ll notice I snuck in a little something extra.
The #1 complaint I get from students is that their organic reach on their business page sucks.
So here’s your bonus…
Any time I post content on my business page, whether it’s success stories, value posts I write out with text, a personal win or any fun lifestyle posts I simply “Boost” that content to that Invisible List audience that I am using to send my tier 2 content to.
You’re welcome!
Ad Budget
$3/10 days for Boosted Posts to your business page content
WHY I DON’T MEASURE RETARGETING METRICS
Throughout this entire book, I have laid out a few fun stories that I learned from working in television. The way my brain thinks about retargeting also comes from those good ole days at CBS.
You see, I’ve never had a client come in and demand to know “which commercial brought in that client?” That actually sounds pretty silly when you think of it that way, right?
Yet, so many of us want to treat the social media ads platform in exactly that way. I hope that by reading this book, you no longer see the platform as a slot machine, getting X amount of dollars back from whatever dollar amount you’re putting in. Instead, I hope by now you have started to see that advertising isn’t one dimensional.
I often get asked the question…
“Laurel, what metrics do you read when it comes to retargeting?”
I say, “I don’t even look at the metrics, at least not in the way that we do for the cold traffic campaigns.”
Let me explain what I mean by that.
Let’s say you see one of my Power Content ads and you watch it 25% but you don’t ask for my value bomb.
The next day, you’re retargeted by one of my conversion multiplier ads. You see it, but you don’t even watch it… you just keep scrolling.
Over a period of the next 4 months, you see my content show up in your newsfeed consistently.
You watch my videos, but never comment until one day you see one of my longer form tier 2 power content videos and you take me up on my offer to book a free strategy call with me.
Which of those ads worked?
Come on, you know the answer to that by now.
They ALL worked.
But the ads platform will only show the conversion on the Tier 2 Power Content video ad. This is why you cannot look at ads as one dimensional. Just like why my television commercial clients never asked me… “Which commercial brought in those sales?”
YOUR ON-GOING 7-DAY CONTENT FLYWHEEL
Now that you’ve got everything in place, it’s just a matter of constant practice and repetition of the basics.
This is what I have done every single day over the last 5 years. This is the SECRET to going from zero to almost $3 million in sales in just a few years.
Here’s how it plays out…
Day 1: Check Power Content cold traffic content metrics, kill any that aren’t working
Day 2: Check cold traffic Conversion Multiplier metrics, kill any that aren’t working
Day 3: Post a piece of content on business page
Day 4: Produce a new Power Content video and launch it to cold traffic
Day 5: Post a piece of content on business page
Day 6: Replace any cold traffic Power Content videos with new ones to test
Day 7: Replace any cold traffic Conversion Multipliers that aren’t working
Day 8: Start the flywheel over
IMPORTANT - This is the Flywheel you’ll use after you’ve reached at least 1,000 people in your Invisible List.
To see this in action and download the checklist for your 7-Day Flywheel, click the link below:
www.adswithlaurel.com/checklist
The video highlights the Content Flywheel principle, which is to take consistent action, always test your content, and continue to always optimize. Most folks post some ads and then sit on them for a month waiting for stats. That’s not the approach here!
Get that content up and then continue adding new content and optimizing.
TGA Principles Applied
The Pyramid is a concept we've only briefly mentioned, and which will be discussed in a future article.
But it's also important to understand on a basic level.
Because most people, when they try to do something new and different, tend to go for "the complicated stuff." In advertising this might be complicated funnels, self liquidating offers, and that kind of thing you see apparently successful entrepreneurs and businesses doing with paid ads.
But for most people all that stuff is superfluous.
That's the top of the pyramid.
The very bottom of the pyramid, the base layer, the largest layer, the strongest layer, is "Enough."
"Enough" is conversations. The majority of people, especially solo entrepreneurs and freelancers, don't need to do more than "Enough" to get everything they want in business.
Tier 1 is "Enough" to get started. And you HAVE to go through Tier 1 in order to get Tier 2 (because 2 requires a level of interaction with your Tier 1 ads to be effective).
Until you have consistent conversations coming through your ads, and you've established Tier 1 first, and then Tier 2, you really won't benefit from doing anything else with paid advertising.
When you're ready, join Laurel Portié's Ad Coaching for $74 program, where you can learn step-by-step how to apply this ad strategy starting today.
Laurel Portié is a Guardian and has been a student of our founder for the last five years. Recently, they did a free training condensing everything Laurel has learned and implemented into five days.
You can get the full five-day training for free here
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