Your marketing needs more than just random strategies—it needs an ecosystem.

In this episode, I’m breaking down the four essential layers of a strong marketing ecosystem: audience, lead generation, nurturing, and conversion.

I’ll walk you through how to create touch points that build trust, scale your impact, and drive consistent sales—without the overwhelm.

Plus, I’m sharing a real client case study that proves how small shifts in strategy can lead to massive growth.

Tune in now!

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More ways Embodied Marketing can support you:

Join Emily in Costa Rica for the Embodied Wealth Retreat—where adventure, meets luxury, meets business strategy all wrapped into a 7-day all-inclusive experience! Apply here: https://embodiedmarketing.com/retreat

Tired of inconsistent revenue & marketing strategies that leave you overwhelmed? Whether you’re just starting out or ready to scale to multiple 7-figures, book a call with the Embodied Team to see how we can help: http://helpmystrategy.com

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READ THE EPISODE TRANSCRIPT

Emily Hirsh: 

Oh my gosh, you guys. Hello. Welcome back to the podcast. I have been a little off my game of consistent podcast episodes because I have seriously been putting so much energy into uplevel podcast coming soon, the video, the YouTube show all in one. it will be a rebranded Kind of a rebranded. Yes, this podcast will get a new name, but basically an elevated name. So lots coming very soon for that. The first week of April right now, i’m not going to give a solid date, but we are going to do a podcast party and I’m going to be giving away something huge to everybody who comes to the podcast party and it’s going to be so fun. So I’ve been putting a lot of energy into planning for the relaunch, but also actually recording content. This is why it took me so long to do a video podcast, you guys, because it’s a lot more work.

I will tell you that it is completely worth it. And I’m like so stoked and so excited, but it’s a lot more work to do a video podcast just with all the tech and all the details. And then not to mention, I can’t just quickly press record on my computer and start talking. I have to be video ready and plan for it. So it’s just taking more energy. i’m going to be definitely more ahead on my podcast episodes moving forward. But I wanted to record little update and an episode that I’ve had planned for the last week and a half for you guys all about your marketing ecosystem. This is a topic that keeps coming up with our clients with potential clients that I’m speaking to last week on a training that I did.

It’s a very top of mind topic. And so I want to do an episode on it. And yeah, I don’t think I have many more updates. Oh, I will share for you guys because i feel like so much of this community has watched my CrossFit journey. You can literally go back to podcast episodes when I just started CrossFit. And when I made this decision and called myself out for something, related to CrossFit. So two years ago, I decided to go, decided to start CrossFit. And my intention when I started it was i was doing it for a purpose. I wanted to compete. I wanted to train. i wanted to have something more serious in my training. I’ve always loved to pretend like I’m an athlete, to have the lifestyle of an athlete And so that’s why I started CrossFit.

Soon after I started, i realized how far away I was from being good, like being really good, and not just from the top athletes in the world, but like top athletes in my gym. And I spent almost a year telling myself stories about I’m too tall. I’m starting too late. I don’t have the athletic background. Like I wasn’t a gymnast. I wasn’t, you know, a track and field athlete. You know, I played soccer, but I was not an athlete in my high school and college days. So I told myself stories like basically you’ll never do it. And I did a podcast episode. I should go back and find the number. But I did a podcast episode where I called myself out on this. And I was like, wouldn’t you rather – go all in and see what happens and commit to the journey detached from the outcomes, then not even try. Like, what are you doing? Right? You, you know this Emily, right? So I called myself out and this was about eight months ago.

And I remember the conversation that I had with my friend where I was like, okay, like I’m going all in. This is becoming my number one priority. My business and my life is going to work around my training. And the CrossFit Open just happened, which I shared on a podcast episode that it was happening. And I said, i don’t even think that I could make the top 25%, which is what moves you on to quarterfinals, except for a side note, they canceled quarterfinals this year, whatever. So I said that on a podcast like two, three weeks ago. i was like, I don’t even think I could make that. And it just wrapped up and I landed in the top 11% in the world for all women all ages. So I’m against like 18, 19, 20 year olds, top 11% in the world of CrossFit far exceeded my goal, which was top 25%, which would have made quarterfinals and also is a 30% increase from where I was last year. So I was top 41% year now top 11% last year and now i’m top eleven So over a 30% increase. Pretty cool. Pretty cool. And i just want this whole journey of mine to be a testament and an example for you guys that you can literally have anything you want.

You can do anything you want. You can have anything you want. You can be anything you want. If you are willing to make the decision and go all in, meaning show up and do the work. And I have trained 10 hours a week for the last eight months. And the you you know the the outcome is just a byproduct of the journey. So I get to share that story, that update, because I am very proud of myself. My friend yesterday said, be proud and stay hungry. And I was like, I’m very hungry. We’ll see we’ll see what the next year brings. And I’m actually – have a goal, but I’m detached from it. Like I really love the journey right now and the process.

All right, let’s dive into today’s content on your marketing ecosystem. So this is so important for every single business right now. And I want you to understand that where this ultimately is coming from and why it’s so important is because in today’s in today’s industry and with the level of noise out there, the amount of touch points that a potential customer needs with your brand is a lot. There was a study done that an e-commerce company did that they spent, I think, like a million dollars on this study and And they tracked every move that their customers made from the first touch point with their brand to becoming a customer.

And they found that it was 30 plus touch points that somebody had with their brand before buying. I’ve said this before my podcast. I’ll say it again. A touch point can be something as small as seeing your email and reading the subject line, but not opening it. seeing your Instagram story, scrolling past your ad on the feed and not clicking on it. So all of those little micro, micro milliseconds of attention that you are garnering from somebody are a touch point. Obviously some are bigger, like consuming my podcast, very big touch point. Seeing my ad on Facebook and scrolling past it, smaller touch point, still a touch point, still putting my brand, my business in your field. So having a marketing ecosystem, which I’ll explain what that means, means that you are building a system that allows you to be everywhere to create those touch points.

It also means that you are creating an experience for for somebody within your marketing at all levels of your marketing. So when they interact with your content, when they opt into your lead gen, when they sign up for your webinar, when they join your email list, when they consume your content, you listen to your podcast, all of those things are experiences that somebody is having with your brand. And so your marketing is building out both quantity, but also quality of experiences. We recently had a client join our agency in January and she was doing about $10,000 a month when she started with us.

And has scaled to this month is like record breaking month for her. I think she’s done close to $30,000 already. And then we’re like halfway through the month. And my team did a whole deep dive on it. You know, what caused that? What was the biggest impact? And the reality is like, yes, we’ve improved her ads. We’ve improved the volume of leads, the cost per lead, the volume of calls being booked and cost per call. But really, we’ve built out this ecosystem. So what does your ecosystem consist of? You’ve got three, four levels, so four levels of your ecosystem. You have your audience. That’s the first level, right? That’s someone’s first interaction with you.

You have your lead generation. Then you have the nurturing of those leads. And then you have your conversion. And each one i’m going to talk about what what is in that ecosystem. Okay? So your audience consists of your social media, your content, like if you have a podcast, YouTube, blog, which I recommend having at least one of those or one of those that you focus in on. And then visibility ads, which visibility ads promote one of those two things. your social content, your content, and reach more people. Amplify it. That’s how you grow your audience.

Your lead generation is obviously your lead generation funnel that you create. So the offer, download, webinar, maybe both. But how you amplify that, your lead generation, and create your ecosystem is through ads, organic, it’s posting on social, or maybe it’s guest appearances. It’s actually going on someone else’s podcast and getting your name out there and then those who will be coming leads. These are all just ideas as well. So as you hear these, you’re like, oh my gosh, I’m only doing one out of five of these. so We’re going to talk about how to implement this without being overwhelmed. Because having a marketing ecosystem is like your ultimate goal.

It’s what you’re constantly working towards. And then once you have it, you’re constantly improving and up leveling. Okay. Nurture. As you bring in the audience, you bring in the leads, you’ve got to nurture. This is where all the touch points come from. Once someone is in your world, they might need years of touch points before they buy. This consists of emailing your list as well as automated nurture sequence. So when like the first person or or when they first join your list or they opt into a sequence, they get emails. You could also put social content in this category because I think it bleeds into both, right? And same with your content like a podcast, it’s it is also a nurture strategy, right? Because it’s not all just new audiences coming into your world. You’re also constantly staying top of mind for the people who are already in your world, which is both, is your audience and and nurturing, which a lot of times we do that through emailing your list, for example.

And then the final one is conversion. So that’s converting the audience, converting the leads into sales, which looks like maybe your follow-up system, somebody who has voiced that they are a hot lead and you now have to follow up with them.

It also is your cash infusions and your live launches and your promotions. And I think this is a really important part of your ecosystem. And it’s why I teach how you have something automated. You have something running every single day. You have an evergreen strategy that’s always going. And then you also have live launches and you have cash infusions. And that is what builds this system that ultimately is constantly working towards sales.

It’s also your marketing ecosystem over time should become something that is always running without you needing to hustle for it. Like that’s why I love visibility ads and I love Facebook ads because The CEO is not on there creating endless amounts of content to get the visibility and to get the leads. And then kind of an overarching piece of this and critical, important component to the success of your marketing ecosystem is your messaging and you’re your brand voice. I put branding, but it’s not branding in the sense of your logo and your fonts. It’s more like, what is that impact that your brand has? Like really tuning into that and thinking about, when somebody comes across my brand, whether that is in any of these categories, they see a social post, they listen to a podcast, they read an email, they sign up for one of my free experiences, they buy my offer.

What is that experience they’re going to have? What are the brand values and the voice And the messaging that when somebody thinks of you and your brand, that’s what they think of. The stronger and more powerful that is, the more magnetic you’re going to be. The more you’re going to build really true believers and mentors followers, but not just followers, like they consume, they give you that attention. And if you think about the people that you follow and the brands that you follow and you choose to engage with and give time and money to, you have that emotional connection to them, guaranteed.

So in order for you to garner attention, generate leads, generate sales, you’ve got to create that. So overarching in all of your marketing ecosystem is what is that brand voice? What is that brand impact that we have? The stronger you are in that, the more defined that is, the better all your marketing will be. That stems from your values, your mission, your messaging, and your emotional connection, your emotional connection and understanding to your ideal customer, which is why I always harp on those. Okay. Next piece to all this that I want to talk about. That’s a very like fast and fast and I don’t want to say like overwhelming, but it’s like a fast.

That’s a very fast, high level overview of your marketing ecosystem. Now I want to talk about how to implement this without overwhelm, because I think the one problem with this is you’re going to hear what this all consists of and go, oh my God, that’s so much. I don’t have a lot of this. if any of this, and how am I going to do all this? Like, where do I start? And this is why marketing can become so overwhelming for people is they hear all this information and all these platforms and strategies and things that you should be doing, and then they don’t know where to start. So first of all, The best thing you can do is choose one of these categories and focus on what’s going to move the needle the most.

Dial that in first and then move to the next piece. So I’ll give you an example of a client right now. They’ve actually been in business for a while, but they’ve gone through this kind of phase of things that they used to do, they stopped doing and they need to bring it back. They don’t have a solid brand content really like impact. And so when we look at their marketing right now, and I’m with them on their team in their, they’re in their money VIP package, when I look at their marketing, we break it down into phases and we look at, okay, what’s going to move the needle the most for the business right now. That’s the first phase. We are going to put all of our resources, both my team and theirs behind that phase. Once we get that going, once we get that moving, we’ll move to the next phase.

And so we have decided as a team, what will move the needle the most? And then let’s put all our time and energy as much as possible. Obviously there’s like delivery things and stuff that they need to do, but put our time and energy into what’s going to move the needle the most. Okay. So focus on what’s going to move the needle the most, dial that in, and then move to the next piece. Next thing is support. Like when you look at this, can you bring in support? I can’t emphasize this enough because I want you to compare. The version of you who knows, I need all of this. I need all of this built out. I need to create the content. I need to have visibility ads. I need to have a lead generation funnel. I need to have a nurture sequence.

I need to email my list regularly. and need to run live launches. That’s a lot. Okay. I know I need to do all this. I can either try and do it all on my own and know that I might get 10% of it done and it’s not going to be as good. Or i can allow my time to go into the biggest impacting places such as creating the content, coming up with the idea for the webinar, creating the webinar content, being the content creator, and then bring in support in other ways. And that doesn’t mean that you have to jump right into, oh i need to, you know, have full done for you agency. Like a lot of business owners aren’t ready for that yet. But there are ways to bring in support. There are, for example, my done with you program, literally why I created it for the people who can’t hire the full done support yet, but want some of it.

Strategy created, guidance on the messaging, guidance on the strategy, guidance on the ads, done for you, ad copy and creative. You could hire v a VA. You could hire someone just to do your copy, just to do your design. Doing it all on your own is like the slowest thing. path to growth. And that it’s a choice. It’s a choice that you need to make consciously. Last piece of this and in doing it without overwhelm is thinking about where your time goes and your job as the CEO, your job is to drive that messaging, drive the voice, drive the the depth and the creativity in the experience you’re wanting to create in this ecosystem.

If you can align where you put your time and energy, and your brain capacity with that, and then bring in the support in the execution, it will be extremely powerful. That’s how I run my marketing. i stay very high level and I am the creativity behind the content, oftentimes behind what, you know, topics we’re teaching, I’m teaching. I leave myself so much space and white space for this so that I can drive really innovative, creative experiences and not be stuck in the execution.

There’s obviously seasons and levels that you have to work through to get to that point. But my point being, the more space you have for creativity, The more space you have for driving that messaging, that brand voice, the values and the depth, the more you’re going to stand out. The more you’re going to create those innovative experiences and really stand out from the noise. So last thing I’ll say here with all of this is… This is your ultimate goal. Okay. Every business needs a marketing ecosystem. You need to every day have each one of these things going, growing your audience, generating leads, nurturing everybody in your world and converting them every day.

If you don’t have that, it’s like that’s where we start. We’ve got to strategize what that whole ecosystem looks like. Then we choose what’s going to move the needle the most and we put our time and energy into that so we can bring depth to the execution. And then we move to the next thing. And then what’s going to happen is eventually you are going to have all these things going, the audience, the lead gen, the nurture, the conversion, and then there’s going to be an optimization opportunity. Like, hey, we haven’t looked at what we’re doing for our content creation in a while, or we’ve run this same lead gen forever. I wonder if we could… update the wrapping paper on it. And that’s what we did for my client that we took from $10,000 a month to $30,000 a month. We didn’t increase the ad spend much at all. It was how do we get more out of what we’re already doing?

How do we improve the nurture sequences? How do we improve the emails to the list? How do we dive so much deeper on the messaging? How do we make sure we’ve got the audience growth and the lead generation dialed in? How do we get more? How do we bring depth? And so you’ll go in this cycle constantly of here’s your marketing ecosystem. Where is the spot in the ecosystem that needs the most improvement? And then we move to the next. And it’s a constant evolution that you honestly can’t decide what needs to be done next and until you go on the evolution and you learn from it.

And then you up level and you continue to get better. So hope this got you guys thinking today about your marketing ecosystem, where you could put your time and energy to get the most out of optimizing it, building it, growing it. And that should be an an ultimate goal for all of you guys. All right, everybody. Thank you so much for tuning in. And I will be back next week on the podcast.