We were lucky to catch up with Brenna McGowan recently and have shared our conversation below.

Brenna, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Let’s start big picture – what are some of biggest trends you are seeing in your industry?

I work with entrepreneurs in the online space who do time-specific sales promotions with their courses, programs, and digital products.

One of the biggest trends I’m seeing is how consumers are being more careful with their spending — and how you have an incredible opportunity to respond as a business owner.

A few reasons why consumers have slowed their spending…

1. Inflation and recession are shrinking people’s budgets, especially on what they consider non-essential items

2. Because of the pandemic, the online industry was flooded with new courses, programs, etc. So, supply increased, which means demand naturally decreases (thank you freshman year economics class!)

3. People have been burned. Like I mentioned above, the online industry has been flooded with new programs, some good, some not so good. Because of that, unfortunately there’s been some consumers who haven’t had great experiences. This has created a hesitancy in the market — especially in times where supply is up and budgets are tight.

With all of this in mind, business owners have a unique opportunity to meet their clients and customers where they’re at and give them a lot of space and autonomy in their buying decisions — while also creating an environment where they can get their prospects really excited about buying from them in a non-pressured way. More on that below…

Brenna, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

It’s a bit of a long story.

I started my business almost by accident. I’d been helping a friend do social media marketing with her online business and it was getting some attention.

However, I quickly decided I didn’t love social media marketing and pivoted into copywriting. And with my copywriting, I started to write launch sales copy. Through these experiences and understanding the customer journey, I began to see how business owners were not properly warming their people up before a launch.

That’s when I decided to niche into pre-launch, the runway before you officially promote your product/course/service. I also developed Anticipation Marketing™, which is where I show entrepreneurs and marketers how to create immense anticipation for their product or offer, which leads to an increase in sales.

Anticipation is widely used in other industries like retail and entertainment, but it’s the most under-used strategy in the online world.

There are actual studies that show how anticipation increases focus (and we all want to cut through the noise and get people paying attention to us). Anticipation also builds incredible momentum.

There’s actually one study from the 80’s that showed how people value things happening in the future MORE than actually getting the thing they want right now.

We as humans derive pleasure from the act of anticipation itself. Think about a vacation you’re planning in the near future — how excited you were when you bought the plane tickets, grabbed a hotel, or planned a fancy dinner. You get excited ABOUT the event, without directly experiencing it.

This is the feeling you can infuse in your marketing, and with the momentum and anticipation comes an eager want with your audience, which directly correlates to an increase in sales.

Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?

Well, when I was a full-time copywriter, I’d established a name for myself in the industry. It felt a little scary to pivot and to niche into pre-launch and Anticipation Marketing™.

First, I’d never heard anyone talk about pre-launch before as a niche. So it felt uncomfortable — and exciting — to niche into it. Secondly, because I was a copywriter and marketer, I knew how much work is behind each pivot.

This is something, at least in the online business world, that’s not talked about a lot. People will talk about how “it’s ok to pivot.” Which I agree with. But before going into a full pivot, you should carefully consider the “cost of the pivot,” because there’s time, work, energy, and money that goes into it.

So, with that said, I consulted with mentors, coaches, and friends before I went all in with changing the scope of what I was doing. And I’m happy to report that the pivot was a success! By pivoting and niching down, my income and visibility shot through the roof. Yes, the pivot was a lot of work, from re-writing lead magnets, bios, to website copy. But it was the best decision I could’ve made.

How’d you build such a strong reputation within your market?

There are a few things that helped me build my reputation within my market.

To begin, being a kind and generous person. I don’t think of it as traditional networking, although I guess it is a bit of that. I look for ways to genuinely build connections with others and find opportunities to support them and shout them out.

The other thing that I’ve mentioned is niching and becoming the go-to expert in my field. There’s so much power in being known for one thing. It helps people remember you. It helps get visibility opportunities like podcast interviews and magazine articles. These things help build up your authority in your industry and have potential buyers want to work with you.

Publishing good content is another way I’ve built my reputation. When you create good content, are super clear in your messaging, and grow your network, these things have a compound effect which gets you known quicker and easier.

Contact Info:

• Website: http://www.brennamcgowan.co
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/brennamcgowanco/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/brennacmcgowan
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brenna-mcgowan-978724163/