You know what’s delicious? 🍪 Your cookies.

You know what’s even more delicious? 🍪 People tellin’ you how amazing you are for those cookies. 😍

Attention is my favorite dessert. It’s smooth, it’s silky, and it’s immediate satisfaction. It’s like eating your favorite Talenti (Madagascar Mint btw) and then realizing you had a whole ‘nother Talenti in the freezer that you forgot about.

🤤 Yum. YUM. 😋

But ego is the enemy of strategic marketing. Why? Because ego-centric marketing is not conversion-centric marketing. In conversion-focused marketing, we work on ways to convert our audience from an eyeball to a paying customer. In ego-centric marketing, we work on turning those eyeballs into likes.

🤔 “But don’t we need likes to increase reach and thus engagement?”

Yeah – but why are you wanting those likes? To get people into your funnel? Or to get people to tell you how awesome you are? Only you know what your secret motives are – but in this week’s 100th podcast – ️🎱 we challenge you to call your shots.

If you’re posting for an ego stroke and not a sale – shout out to the universe, 🗣️ “I WANT ATTENTION” – then post away, knowing full well your goal is to get an ego boost and not a bottom line boost.

😘 Ask yourself these questions to determine if you’re doin’ it for the ego boost or the bills. 🤑

👉 1. Are you posting because you know this is when your target audience is likely to make a purchase or are you just posting as soon as you get a set done because you’re excited to show off your work?

👀 You finish an amazing set – so you hurry off to the ‘Grams at 11:30 PM and post a “LOOK AT WHAT I MADE” photo completely disregarding posting strategy or active audience times. 😴 The few poor parents whose heads haven’t hit the pillow yet give you a double tap before they head off to snooze-ville.

Your ego is stroked – but your inbox is void of any sales because normal people who aren’t zombie-ing around against their better judgment (or cryin’ kiddos) likely aren’t pressin’ the purchase button at 10-til-midnight. But you spent so long doing such an intricate set. Cool! Go get them likes! You deserve it – but remember, 🎱 call your shot.

👉 2. Are you posting sets you truly don’t want to do that eat into your profits but puff up your ego?

Macrame? More like mac-ra-made-no-money. Corrie fessed up to ego-posting a set she’d “rather die than ever do again.” So why post something you don’t wanna redecorate to your audience? Ahhh – the never-satiable ego beggin’ for that attention. If you want your audience to purchase more easy-breezy-beautiful-to-decorate-in-half-the-time mermaids, p👏o👏s👏t m👏e👏r👏m👏a👏i👏d👏s.

Or – post for likes – macrame-it-up. Cash in on the reactions! But 🎱 call your shot.

👉 3. Are you doing it to inflate your page numbers with other cookier likes or are you doing it to inflate your bottom line?

Cookiers love cookiers cookies. They’re the biggest cookie-related fan club. So how do you attract those cookier eyeballs? 👀👀👀 Cookier hashtags. You know who isn’t likely searching cookie industry hashtags? 🕵️ Your target audience who thinks “flood Friday” has more to do with the weather than with RI.

A great indicator of ego-focused posting is using industry hashtags. Sure – hashtags help with the algo, but focusing on industry hashtags rather than your local hashtags? Recipe for an ego stroke. And enjoy it! Enjoy the attention from other cookies – because they’re paying ya in heart reacts and “where’d ya get that cutter” comments. Just remember 🎱 call your shot.

👉 4. Are you more concerned about follow / unfollow counts than you are about conversions?

They’re not called “vanity metrics” for nothin’. Less the cookiers who ninja-followed our Sugar Cookie Classes Instagram to see how we run things, our following on that account is super low. And do I care? No. We sold a class to the tune of $900 this weekend. To an audience likely below 500 target audience folks. I’ll brag in bills before I focus on followers.

A small account can have mighty conversion power. And on the flip side, an account with 70,000 followers can make very few local sales. Don’t fall prey to vanity metrics unless you want to become an influencer. In which case – by all means, just 🎱 call your shot.

👉 5. Is the view count something that affects your mood? Are you inclined to archive when things don’t garner the views vs assessing what drives purchases?

Reels “really” play with your ego. You have content that hits the explorer feed and travels straight up to your now oversized ego. 🧠 YUM says your brain. Gimme MORE. You post another Reel, but no viral hit. You sulk, archive it, and try again – and again – and again – 🎯 focused on the ever-shifting target of views. Totally forgetting about your sales. Hey – you wanna be a Reel creator? Awesome – keep at it! But 🎱 call your shot.

👉 6. When you post content to groups – is your copy to get adoration “look at me!” or is it designed to move people into your sales funnel, “I love being asked to do birthday parties – I have openings on XYZ dates.”

Another way to see if it’s ego or bottom line is your copy. If your copy gets people into your sales funnel towards a purchase decision? You’re focused on your sales. If your copy is asking people to lawd ya with praise and honor for being the world’s most creative cookier? 🎱 Call your shot. You’re ego-baiting – and that’s okay – but you also gotta recognize that likes =/= sales. And ego strokes =/= private islands.