177. How to Attract the WFH Segment to our Coworking Spaces

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177. How to Attract the WFH Segment to our Coworking Spaces

00:00:01 Welcome to the everything co-working podcast, where you learn what you need to know about how the world wants to work. And now your host coworking space owner and trend expert. Jamie Russo. Welcome to the everything coworking podcast. This is Jamie Russo. Thank you for joining me today. If you are not a subscriber to the podcast, make sure you hit that subscribe button.

00:00:38 I release a new episode every single Wednesday, so you don't want to miss out. Here's why today's episode is important. So this we're still we're we're in another wave of COVID and struggling again with demand. We are optimistic about the impact that a vaccine will have. We are optimistic about 2021. One of the segments that gets us excited about demand in 2021 is the work from home segment.

00:01:15 So today we're going to talk about how the work from home segment is different from our traditional coworking segments, the entrepreneur freelance or small business owner professional service provider. We're going to talk about who pays their bills, what expectations they have, where they are on the consumer purchase scale, what advertising platforms align with, where they are in the buying stage and some tactics to use on them to get them into the top of our sales funnel.

00:01:50 So we are going to dive in in a minute. First of all, I'm recording this after Thanksgiving. I hope everyone had a safe Thanksgiving with some zoom time with their family. We went to Paso Robles, which is a few hours South of where we live. It's like one of the Southern wine regions in California, lesser known, but absolutely gorgeous.

00:02:16 The wifi was not great. So we had a low device week, lots of time spent on long walks. We stayed next to a llama farm and I'd never seen Lamas in person. I've had sort of an obsession with llamas recently. They're super adorable. Super, super cute. So great. We've got to take the dogs. Lots of downtime. We made our first,

00:02:40 my daughter and I made our first homemade Apple pie. I'd always been super intimidated by pie crust I have in, I can't recall ever having made a pie crust from scratch or a pie at all, except in the fourth grade, I made a pie. I think with the crust we bought and some canned cherry filling. So the totally from scratch Apple buy was amazing and delicious.

00:03:04 And it was a good thing. We had a lots of exercise time last week because we ate the whole thing and it was amazing. Okay. So this episode is based on a training I did for my community manager university members on using Facebook ads. And when they make sense, so not going to give you the whole training, you have to be membership has its benefits,

00:03:28 but I'm going to highlight some of the concepts that we talked about, because I think it's important for everyone to be thinking about this work from home segment. So let's talk about our customer segments. So there's a couple of ways to think about this. So there's a bucket of customer segments that know that they need us and they know what we do. And then there's a segment of people that need us,

00:03:58 but they don't know about coworking. And if you're in a smaller market, then you've been dealing with that second bucket for a long time. And you knew that you had a heavy lift to do on the education front. But I was talking, I've been doing prep calls for the GWA conference. That's coming up next week. By the way, if you haven't gotten your spot yet,

00:04:21 the content is amazing. It's a free conference. It spans two days. It's totally fine. If you can't make all the sessions, the perspectives and voices, many of them knew. And I have been taking pages of notes. Whenever I sit in on one of the prep calls, I'm moderating a couple of sessions doing a little bit of emceeing. So one of the sessions I'm moderating is on marketing in this updated phase of phase of the world that we're in.

00:04:52 And Sarah Travers, the CEO of work bar was talking about. She's been in the industry forever. I think she started with Regis. I don't mean to date her, but she has lots of experience more than most of us have. And she said, she feels like it's 2001 again, where people would walk in and feel like coworking was just invented and you know,

00:05:14 say, this is the most amazing idea. Why didn't I think of this? This, this is so brilliant. She said, you know, she remembers that happening all the time back then. And she said, she's seeing a repeat of it because they're having the work from home crowd show up who never had a reason to think about coworking, right?

00:05:32 So there's all these people working at home. We know it's not, you're not doing your best work. You're not your best self when you're working at home every single day, sometimes it's fine. And so these folks who are starting to recognize that, and someone has gotten the concept of co-working in front of them are coming in and they are exposed to it for the very first time and are excited by the possibilities.

00:06:00 So we think coworking is, you know, totally 2015 at this point, but it's new to this huge segment of folks who were working in an office building until March and now they're not. And that's a really, really big percentage of the market. So we think, Oh my gosh, that's a huge opportunity. The challenge is most of them have no idea that there's a solution out there.

00:06:31 They may not even be entirely problem aware yet probably by now nine months or whatever we are into this. They're probably starting to be problem aware. Maybe the kids are starting to go back to school and they're realizing, okay, if I don't have to be at home, I don't want to be at home all the time, but they don't know that coworking is a solution.

00:06:52 It's never occurred to them. That there's a third place, like a gym where they could have a membership and go be with others or not even be with others, which I think is another important point about this segment. They may not care about all of the same values that we sell to our entrepreneurs, right? They may not be quite so community oriented or they may be because they're missing that community that they get from their coworkers.

00:07:18 You know, the friends they used to have, you know, to go to lunch with their go to happy hour, that's not happening anymore. Or they may just be looking for some heads down time. And Sarah shared that. That's a lot of what they're seeing with the folks that are coming to work bar and work bar is in downtown Boston, but also has quite a network of ho you know,

00:07:39 they have the hub and spoke model lots and lots of locations in suburban areas surrounding Boston, downtown Boston. So they're getting the work from home crowd, the companies that are saying, okay, we recognize this problem. We'll give a stipend to our members or our employees to join a space like a work bar. And she said, they're coming in. They're pretty heads down.

00:08:02 Anyway, if you haven't registered for the GWA conference, you can hear Sarah share her perspective and story. Along with Jeff Johnson, he's VP of sales of industrious and Harvey, Javier, I'm going to mess up his whole name. Garcia. He has more names. He's a CEO. He's been on the podcast before. Great story of iOS offices in Mexico.

00:08:24 That is just one of the sessions. You can go to global workspace.org, click on events. You'll get to the conference site. I will also put the link in the show notes. So back to our topic today, we have the segment out there who need us and know that they do and they know about coworking. And then we have the work from home crowd who may be starting to be problem aware,

00:08:47 but is not solution aware. They don't know about coworking. So let's talk about how people find coworking. There are active searchers who are aware and actively searching for a solution to their workspace need. There are folks that are aware, but not actively searching. And then we have folks that are not aware and not actively searching. So active searchers generally will come to us through Google right or SEO.

00:09:16 So we're kind of working both of those angles. We pay Google to put us first. If we're not on the top three or four, raise organic Results. And at the same time we're working on our SEO so that when somebody Googles, you know, coworking San Francisco, we show up. So our active searchers are going to find us usually through Google or SEO,

00:09:39 or maybe they're looking on Craigslist. That's very market dependent works really well in some markets, one of my community manager group members, we did our design to thrive in 2021 planning session today. She said she gets a great result in Facebook marketplace, which totally surprised me. So I love that. And then we have the aware, but not actively searching folks.

00:10:01 So those folks may come to us. They're not Google searching for us, right? They're not on Google maps. They're not typing in coworking near me and their search bar. So we might need to get in front of them. Another way that might be referrals that might be direct mail. That might be Facebook ads or Instagram ads, which was the subject of my training for the community manager group.

00:10:24 And then we have the not actively searching and not aware group. And I would put the work from home folks in that category. So when we're thinking about who it falls into, those buckets are active. Searchers are probably so folks who find us on Google startups that have a lot of uncertainty. They don't, they want the flexibility. They're not signing a lease.

00:10:55 And the startup community in general is aware of coworking because that word of mouth happens fast, right? And investors don't want long-term leases. So they get educated really quickly about the option of coworking, other active searchers, lonely freelancers. So they have been at home. They don't like being at home. They've been doing this for a long time. They understand being at home does not help them do their great best work every day.

00:11:20 So they're looking on Google organizations that need to meet. Sometimes they often will find us through search service professionals that can't meet clients at home. They'll find us on search, not actively searching, but aware might be a small business with an unwanted lease or parents at home with kids that they can't leave. So they know this is a solution. They don't have a way to,

00:11:46 to, to join you right now. So Facebook ads make sense for those who are not actively searching and not aware they have a problem, they have a workspace problem, but they aren't aware of the solution. And so we need to educate them and get in front of them with that education and that solution and get them into the top of our coworking sales funnel.

00:12:11 So if you think about a coworking sales funnel, like literally visualize a funnel at the top of the funnel, which is the wide part, you know, we're trying to get leads into our website. So we want to get as many people as possible exposed to our website, or maybe our Google, my business listing, where they can quickly figure out where we are,

00:12:32 learn more about us, see if it's a fit. And then we want them to schedule it to where we want them to show up for a tour. We want to give them an amazing tour. We want to do our follow-up sequence. We want to get them in for a trial day, maybe, and convert them to membership. So we can't get the work from home folks into the sales funnel until they know they have a problem that can be solved by coworking.

00:12:56 So we need to educate them and then get them into the top of the funnel. The easy people to get into the top of the funnel are the active searchers who are already aware and are already searching. So they go to Google, they find us through an ad or SEO, and they drop into the top of our funnel. So the not actively searching,

00:13:21 not aware folks, Facebook is an option, right? So it's a way for us to interrupt them or Instagram and educate them. So for the folks that are not actively searching and not aware, we need to get in front of them. Right? So think about the folks on Facebook or Instagram as being a cold audience, right? They don't know you.

00:13:50 They know about the solution. They, you know, they might scroll right past you. They've not heard of you. You know, they live in your geographic target area and fall into your ideal customer avatar, but they haven't interacted with you. They're not been to your space. They don't know about you. They may not even know about co-working at all.

00:14:09 So you want to help them learn about coworking, learn the why. Coworking is a solution for their challenge of working from home. We want to activate their interest. So maybe we get them to register for an event, might be virtual. They want, we want us to them to help them get to know us, or we want them to opt into our newsletter,

00:14:35 which might be in the form of a freebie that we offer to tempt them, to opt into our newsletter because they don't know why they're interested in our newsletter or we, and then eventually we might ask them to come in for a free co-working day, buy a day, pass rent, meeting room, or join us as a member. And I think an important note that I've made in my training is a lot of advertisers go straight to the ask.

00:15:01 So the framework which I learned from a woman named Tracy Morgan, I'm going to put her info into the show notes because, so this is episode one 77. If you go to the website, you can find the, the show notes for episode one 77. And I will put a link to Tracy Morgan's website. In case you're interested in learning more about Facebook ads.

00:15:22 I'm not here to train you on Facebook ads. You do need training on Facebook ads to do them, right? This is not generally something you can learn to do well on your own. And for our sides of business, it typically is not really an option to outsource them. It's more, generally more expensive to outsource them. You'll spend more money outsourcing than you will on the actual ad.

00:15:43 So somebody on your team may want to learn how to do them in house. But when we're talking about our work from home segment, we need to educate them and warm them up before we go and sell to them because they don't know why. So we will just they'll scroll right past us if we're going straight for the ask. So we need to date,

00:16:05 we need to start with first base and go to second base before we ask for marriage. So think about helping them learn about coworking. Maybe that's through video, maybe you're doing member interviews, maybe you're highlighting members or highlighting. Eventually there'll be events in your space. I think though the most compelling way to get people to, to learn about your space is to highlight member profiles,

00:16:38 because they want to know that this solution works for other people like them. So make sure when you're thinking about your marketing, if you're going to target this work from homes segment, what's important to them, what do they want out of this space? What are they curious about our entrepreneurs? So I would say for a small business or an entrepreneur professional service person,

00:17:02 somebody with a consulting group, whatever it may be, they're probably very interested in the other entrepreneurs in your space because they want to see that there are other people along the same journey that they can connect with. And, you know, kind of like-minded folks in this space, even if they're not the exact same, we want a diversity of folks in our,

00:17:24 in our membership most often, but people want to know that they'll be among people who are going through the same type of life journey as them. And so if a work from home person thinks that coworking spaces are only for tech startups, they're not going to see that as a solution for them. Right? So tell a story, offer them a transformation,

00:17:48 offer a view into the life of someone like them. That is a member in your space. Show them what the possibilities are for someone like them, not just your tech startups, or your small business owner, because they may not relate to that profile. So, you know, think about it, about who your ideal community, the avatar is from that work from home segment,

00:18:15 get super clear on what's important to them. What they're looking for. Maybe they're looking for a head down space or a place to meet, or, you know, place to collaborate with a group. Eventually, probably today. It's really about heads down work and getting out of, I personally don't work well at home. I 100% empathize with the don't do my best work at home.

00:18:38 I need a change of scenery. So I, I don't know if I shared this. I had to take my car to get serviced a few weeks ago. Yeah. It was probably about three weeks ago now. And I asked ahead of time if they had wifi and it was if it was okay, if I just waited while they did the service,

00:18:57 because it was about 20 minutes away from my house. And so I took my laptop and I get my Starbucks on the way. And it was like such a great morning to be working somewhere besides home. I've been working I'm at home. I don't have a coworking space near me, except we work. And so I have not joined one. And then I'm in California.

00:19:18 We just went back to purple, which means we are also not supposed to go to the office. And then I had to do some 20, 21 planning. I went to my daughter's learning pod space to do my work because I don't think the same at home as I do when I'm away from home. And I think there are people that recognize that.

00:19:37 And so show them, connect those dots for them. Right. Get super clear on what's important to them and what their underlying needs are. I hear a lot of people talking about how we know this it's preaching to the choir, but we're not talking to people who know it already, right? So we have to back ourselves up and remember what it's like 10,

00:19:56 not know all the benefits and the fact that it's costing people to be at home, but people are say saying, you know, it's really hard to separate work life and home life. And I think lots of the, you know, corporate employees always used to dream of working from home because they wanted to get rid of the commute. You know, they wanted to work in their sweat pants,

00:20:18 whatever was appealing to them. And now that they're doing it, they realize, Oh, there are a lot of trade-offs to being at home and a coworking space it's really close to home, can solve those problems. We had to speak directly to those problems. So determine what your strategy is to get them, to be aware of you, to get to know you,

00:20:41 to act their interest, and then eventually ask them to come in for a trial day or however, is that you want them to get to know you, or it may be, you know, simply a tour and then create your ads and your landing pages and your thank you pages and get yourself set up in Facebook ads. So I'm not going to go into,

00:21:00 I'm not, this is not an argument specifically for Facebook ads, but it was the intention of today's episode is really to just talk about that work from home segment and the fact that they are different from the traditional members that we likely attract probably over time. We've had some remote workers who are coming in, but maybe not very many. And so we mostly talk to the other segments,

00:21:28 the small business owners, the startups, the professional service folks. So talking to this group is new and different. A couple of other notes I would make about the segment. They may have different expectations around safety and internet security, for example, then your other members may have, because they're coming from a corporate office. So our startups who didn't already,

00:21:53 you know, work at Facebook or Google or some amazing corporate campus may have fairly low expectations. You know, if you're coming from the kitchen counter or Starbucks, you're thrilled with most coworking spaces. But I think a challenge of this work from home segment may be that their corporate office, it, you know, has a level of support and amenities and whatnot that will be different than a coworking space.

00:22:18 And one of the conversations we're having around sort of security and comfort and prep for the GWA conference was talking about, you know, a lot of corporate offices are really, you know, going through every level of detail to make the workplace safe. So special air filtration, making everything touchless. And there will be a number of coworking spaces out there who have not made those investments.

00:22:43 And so know that you may struggle with the work from home segment who is going to the corporate office. Once we go back there, maybe they're going to the corporate office a couple days a week, and they'd want to come to your space a couple of days a week. There may be a significant contrast inexperience. If corporate office has implemented, you know,

00:23:04 all the touchless things, all the safety protocols, you know, door opens with, you know, facial recognition, whatever it is. If our technology has not been upgraded to support that we may not be able to go after the work from home segment that sensitive to those safety requirements. The other thing I would say is that this segment may also be a challenge because the parent company may not be comfortable paying for a third space yet.

00:23:38 There's a lot of liability for companies to put people in third places like co-working spaces. So they, while independent operators are very well positioned geographically. So now independent operators used to be in suburban areas that were maybe a little quieter with less demand. And now, Oh, that's where the action is. And, and there's lots of excitement around that. But the work from home segment may not have someone to pay for that for them.

00:24:08 And they are not an entrepreneur. And so they may not just have gotten to the point where they think it's normal to pay for workspace, right? They have a headquarters that they could go to, or they work from home. It may still be a leap for them to pay if their company's not giving them a stipend or, you know, paying the coworking space directly for a certain number of spaces.

00:24:30 So folks are having success with this. Sarah Travers from work bar shared on our prep call. They're having success, but they're pretty scrappy. They have a marketing group, you know, they're going directly to companies and selling this work from home package. So the independent operator does not have the same resources to make that happen. Your best bet is to be listed on the liquid spaces,

00:24:54 the instant offices, the desk passes the coworker.com where folks are going to search for local solutions and they may, those platforms are probably selling to enterprises. So make sure you're listed on those, but know that getting that work from home segment to pay may be a challenge and then aligning with their expectations around security and safety may also be a challenge. So just a couple of thoughts I wanted to share about the work from home segment start thinking.

00:25:28 So we've been doing our 20, 21 planning with the workshop. We had our second session today, which was really about getting numbers on paper and saying, okay, what are our monthly targets? How are we going to get there? And if the work from home segment is on your mind as a way to generate revenue and find, you know, a broader segment that has a pain point of working from home,

00:25:52 just be aware that your marketing and your approach to that segment likely needs to be different from what you've been doing for the startups and other folks. So lots to think about just kind of planting some seeds about a framework for thinking about that group. Hope you are all hanging in there and heading into an enjoyable holiday season, getting ready for 2021, doing your planning and thinking about how to successfully prepare yourself to take advantage of the demand.

00:26:21 Once we get through this next, this ongoing period of struggle that we're seeing. So we will talk to you next week.

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