When it comes to internet marketing and building strategies that work, so people are so good at it, that they actually become part of the marketing and branding in itself. For example, if you wanted to learn about the skyscraper method for creating content and backlinks, you would likely already know of Brian Dean and look up his information when trying to learn the strategy. Another good example is Pat Flynn with podcasting. Whenever you have someone that has perfected a process and managed to turn it all into a business of it’s own, then you know it’s a winner. If you are good enough, you can actually reverse engineer the process, learn from it, and then build your own strategy as well. At the same time, these individuals aren’t just building personal brands, they are usually generating millions from their expertise! With all of this in mind, today we are going to look at Russell Ruffino, and how he’s perfected the art of not just growing his brand and reach with social media, but how he’s using it to convert content into new followers, and then converting those followers and site visitors into paying customers.

Russell Ruffino on Facebook

In order to truly understand how an individual or brand is using social media and content to their advantage, you need to spend a decent amount of time reviewing and studying what they already have in place. Head over to Russell’s Facebook Page and this is easy enough. Amongst the various content on his page, you are going to find two things that stand out right away. The first is that he posts status updates all the time with custom created images and videos that quickly grab the attention of his audience, while also branding himself in the process. These updates are winners for a few different reasons:
  • Visuals/video is always going to work well
  • Custom images and personal branding is a plus
  • Usage of icons at the top of social updates
  • Effective headlines, news and testimonials
  • Call to action to ‘learn how’, without needing to be an ad
You can see a working example of this in the screenshot below. Russel also currently has around 40,000 fans/followers on his Facebook page, so each of these updates are likely getting a decent amount of organic exposure. You can also be sure that Russell has a bunch of remarketing campaign and sponsored updates throughout Facebook as well. If you take some extra time to view other social updates from his page, you will also find recordings of his live interviews with other industry experts. When live, these Facebook events actually do quite well. It not only give Russ the ability to reach news and audiences and connect with other experts (and their audience), but also allows his followers to engage in the event and conversation as well. In the example below, you will see the live event had 58 comments, 12 shares, and nearly 3k views. This is original evergreen content at it’s best.

Takeaway: Everyone wants to have a large social media following and be seen as an expert, but most people aren’t willing to put in the time and effort to create visuals, updates and content of value. This is something Russell is working on daily, which continues to help growing his social following, branding, and overall business in the process. This is especially true with his live recordings and when he gets his audience to participate with Q&A and live broadcasts.

Convert Social Traffic into a Lead

With more than three billion users spread across all of the major social media platforms, getting social traffic over to your site really isn’t a big deal. What is a big deal, is being able to convert that traffic into a high-quality lead or customer. This is exactly what Russell is doing with the majority of his content on Facebook. First, Russ focuses on the value of his content. Gives it away for free, and then offers a call to action in the process. This can clearly be seen in any of the social updates on his profile page, and especially in the first one where it has the call to action of “Learn how you can do it too: codworkshop.com“. Should any of his social users click on this link, it would then send them over to his call to action landing page where they can request access to his video series which is titled “The Super Simple 4-Step Funnel that Takes Prospects From ‘Click’ to Client in Less Than 48 Hours (even if your price is $3,000 – $10,000 or more!)“. As we all know, the most serious brands and entrepreneurs are all using landing pages to grow their businesses. This can also act as a good filter to weed out any smaller affiliates or individuals that aren’t really up and running with their businesses yet. The “(even if your price is $3,000 – $10,000 or more!)” tagline in his CTA is also great for this as well. In short, Russ has higher end products and services, so it’s important for his social media efforts, funnels, and ad campaigns to not just target those audiences, but also walk them through a process so when they are ready to take action, he has a good idea of who they are and what type of business numbers they might be running.

Takeaway: For anyone who has been active in the affiliate marketing and lead generation space, this isn’t going to seem like rocket science. However, so many individuals and brands are still doing this type of social-to-landing pages-to-email marketing wrong. It’s all about the value, branding, and engagement process. No one is going to purchase a high-end product or service the first time around. It’s all about building a following, nurturing your audience, and then gaining their trust so they are ready to give them your money. When this is done correctly, like in Russ’ case, it could result in millions of dollars in revenue per year.

Replication Across All Social Platforms

As mentioned earlier, there are tons of people on social media these days. Once you find something that works on one platform, it’s best to take that same content and marketing strategy and then adapt it to your other social profiles. If you were to head over to Russ’ Twitter Profile, you would see this exact same strategy in place. (Same with Instagram as well) Best of all, if you are using this same landing page and email grab method, you can then set up remarketing campaigns through Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and Google Ads as well — which ultimately makes sure your ads are being seen across all platforms.

Takeaway: Something Russ Ruffino likes to talk about through many of his videos and courses, is that he is always looking to perfect his content creation and marketing methods. Once this is accomplished, it can then be applied at a mass scale. This is especially true when using paid advertising. If you are already using landing pages, take some time to split test with different call to actions and formats, then use that winning campaigns across multiple platforms and see if your volume and revenue continue.

Implement these Expert Tips Today!

While it might look like there is a lot going on here, it’s actually not that advanced. The hard part is actually taking the time to implement everything once you have the content, social following, and call to actions/upsells in place. Did you enjoy this expert marketer case study and follow through guide? If so, you are in luck! Next we will be taking a look at how Gary Vaynerchuk uses social media to engage with millions of followers and fans, who ultimately help Gary grow his branding power and business at the same time.

By zacjohnson

Zac Johnson is an entrepreneur with more than 20 years of online marketing and business experience. Follow his blogs at ZacJohnson.com and Blogging.org.