The $1M+ Marketing of Liz Theresa

A look into the most referred Web Developer on Facebook's rise to relevancy + success AND how you can implement her strategies into your own business.

A few days ago, I was asking myself how I can create the best, most informative, entertaining, and educational Substack in all the land.

Inspired always by Coco Mocoe, a literal creator genius, and how much I LOVE her “Brilliant Branding of” collections... I decided to sit down and figure out how I could make that my own.

I don’t watch the news. I don’t pay attention to pop culture. And as much as I like dissecting reality shows - I don’t want them nearly enough to create series or reoccurring themes on them.

And as a Facebook Marketing expert, a believer in using social media as self expression, and the leader of Massachusetts + Beyond: A Community for Creatives, Businesses, and Freelancers..

I wanted to be able to bring relevant concepts that people know into my world and give my opinion on them.

I became curious on who and what is something I love, that everyone knows, that shows the power of Facebook as a platform.

And immediately—I knew what Step 1 was.

It was to interview Liz Theresa on how she became the most referred Web Developer on Facebook.

So I immediately sent her a DM through Messenger, and we had a date lined up within 10 minutes.

Now, Liz may not have the A-list celebrity name that you recognize instantly from Billboard Top 100, or trending movies.

But if you’re local to Boston, are active in women’s networking groups, or have even just googled “Best Web Developer” in New England—chances are—you know Liz.

Who is Liz Theresa? 👀

Liz - to her core- is iconic.

She is a Web Developer, Graphic Designer, Copywriter, Social Media Expert, Promotional Products Guru, Branding Queen, Conversion Genius, an accent-less Bostonian, and yes - a theater junkie.

Liz has not only built a successful business and agency —she has built a name for herself as a thought leader.

She has received awards from Boston Business Women, Best of South Shore, and countless other local Massachusetts organizations.

Coined “The Best Web Developer in Boston” but also has been recognized for her social and graphic design work.

She been featured in Forbes, Better Business Bureau, Elite Daily, and many more you can see on her kickass website.

Last year - while battling Hodgkins (an extremely rare form of Cancer) she generated over $315k in revenue.

60% of that coming from Facebook.

(do the math - thats $189k)

(oh and make sure to congratulate her on her remission!)

When my mouth dropped and I asked her “how much money have you made on Facebook all time"?” - She didn’t miss a beat when she responded:

“Easily over $1M”

A PAUSEEEEEE… (especially for the platform that most think is DEAD)

Liz has been in the game for 10+ years and has created close to 1,000 websites for a variety of brands, products, services, and more. When looking on her website for more of her story - I found 20+ videos of clients RAVING about her and their experience working with her.

It validated that the world IS indeed obsessed with Liz.

Due to HER obsession with social media marketing and conversions starting in grad school, she has scaled her one-woman show to a small agency who focuses in on how to make others as famous.

In addition to all her business success—she is also just COOL AF.

The perfect mix of big blunt no-bullshit energy, mixed with being someone you can actually talk to, mixed with peak entertainment.

Why Liz?

I met Liz through a women’s networking Facebook group called Boston Business Women.

In my 4+ years of being the Head of Marketing and Sales with Boston Business Women - I had seen Liz’s name referred in the comments - no exaggeration - over 400+ times.

Anytime there was EVER a post asking for recommendations on websites, promotional products, branding —you could expect to see 30+ comments recommending Liz.

It was a huge indicator of—this woman isn’t just getting referred—she has FANS.

Fans who are willing to JUMP to recommend her any chance they get.

Which has created the word-of-mouth referral machine that is her Facebook.

You have to actually BE the BEST - not just want it

So when Liz and I sat down on Zoom the following Wednesday—I knew I had questions to ask her about her strategy, her posts, and all other marketing things.

We started chatting about me going full-time in my Facebook Marketing business, what’s on the horizon for me, how she’s doing since beating cancer.

We hit record after 2 minutes because I honestly knew no matter wtf we talked about - you guys would want to hear it.

And I started by asking her the biggest question I had:

“How did you get to being the Best Web Developer in Boston?”

Her response was simple— “I became the best.”

AKA not just someone who sees the Forbes 30 under 30 and “wishes” they were on it.

“My brother works for the news. I haven’t been on Channel 7. He’s worked for every station in Boston. And I’ve never been on the news. I remember I used to say, ‘Why am I not on the news? Why can’t I be in the show?’ I remember saying it.”

“And one time he said, ‘You have to be newsworthy,’ and it really hurt my feelings at the time.”

But it’s true. You have to be interesting.

You don’t become the best by feeling bad about not being the best.

You become the best by putting your head down, working your ass off, creating something people LOVE, and becoming the best.

It means turning down clients who aren’t a good fit despite the financial loss. It means investing money into coaches, great employees, and systems that are going to save you time and money.

It means working more, looking at yourself dead in the eyes, and asking yourself, “how tf am I holding myself back?”

It means getting honest about how many scrolling breaks you’re taking, where you’re spending your time, and if you’re actually “burnt out” or you just are simply not devoted to the “best” title that you crave.

When you devote yourself to this—your clients feel it on their end as well.

Get People Obsessed with you 101

It’s not enough to just have satisfied clients.

You have to create Raving Fans.

So in the midst of navigating Facebook, Instagram, Newsletters, Ads, and marketing resources - look at your backend ops first.

So when asking Liz “Why are people so obsessed with you?”

She responded:

“I think what might make me different is because I sell more than a website. I’m selling the dream that comes with that. Meaning, I truly partner with my clients.

I get inside your business and ensure that your offer is strong enough for the website to also be a converter. And if I sense weakness or gaps, I’m also the first person to say anything. Even if I’m not explicitly hired for that reason.

People COME for the website - but they stay for the party because working with me, if you’re willing to take advice and want to succeed is going to get you there.

I also have a ton of connections so clients end up being matched with each other at times for collaborations and friendships.

It’s about GENUINELY caring about the client and customer experience of working with you.

And overdelivering TF out of it.

Liz could’ve VERY easily stopped at web developing. She could’ve worked with the basic tech that has always been around. She could’ve created great websites and never touched another thing.

She said

“My purpose is to help my client be the star of their life and their business”

And that goes beyond a website

Client relationship could’ve easily stopped at that too.

Love Your F*cking Clients!

Now you may or may not know Liz but she is also as incredibly easy person to talk to, work with, and confide in.

(take it from me who was opening up in the first 3 minutes LOL)

I could easily see myself loving her even more if I ever decided to work with her. You gets tons of calls, face to face time, a lot of personable sharing about your business, what you’re creating, who you are.

It’s pretty much opening up the portal that is your life’s soul, mission, and purpose to someone.

So needless to say - things get close.

And Liz fucking LOVES that.

She loves having genuine and loving relationships with her clients.

When she beat Cancer - she had clients SOBBING WITH HER. Sobbing because it hurt them that she had to experience Hodgkins in the first place.

This is beyond the typical experience you have with a contractor.

This becomes a friends and family, first name basis, drop-everything-and-actually-want-to-say-hi-at-the-grocery-store energy.

Where does Facebook come in?

Now Liz is a Millennial.

And Millennials love Facebook.

(two over generalizing assumptions in less than 10 words 💅🏻)

Facebook is the place where Liz goes' to share pictures of her family on Thanksgiving, odes to her parents who had passed away, or cheering along other small businesses.

It’s a place where she has over 2k friends and followers, tons of tagged posts of people raving about her work, and 100+ likes and comments on many of her posts.

It’s the platform that she has been on the longest and is also where a lot of her clients are hanging out.

It’s also the only platform that has mastered Groups and Communities which she loves dearly and contributes to most of her success.

As Liz is a human being and not just a web developer - she hangs out in groups associated with her interests like reading, living in South Shore, being a business women..

(despite being a mom - she did NOT indeed vibe with the mom groups though LOL)

So needless to say - Facebook Groups are a big thing for her.

And as a Human Design Projector, posting was never a huge priority.

It’s all in the Comments

I’ve seen 1 Liz Theresa post on my feed in the last 3 months.

And it was saying that she beat cancer.

And I knew coming into this interview that Liz didn’t post often.

Which honestly sparked my attention even more.

And initially when I met her - it was why I was so confused as to 1) how I didn’t know her and 2) how she was being referred 24/7 without even seeing an introduction post or anything.

But in the last few weeks - my bucket of mental marketing knowledge has been flipped on its head 25+ times.

Between my coach who has 17 clients and doesn’t post, Liz never posting, and one of my favorite coaches believing ONLY in hard sales and hardly sharing anything personal..

I’ve developed a “knack” for being proven wrong.

So when Liz said..

“I’m not a heavy poster. I’m a heavy engager. I consider it like—that’s my marketing: Facebook group engagement. Meaning I read and care about everyone, and that comes the most natural to me energetically.”

“If I answer questions, that’s my most effective way to show my expertise. And it’s also energetically better for me than shouting in the street.”

Shouting in the street AKA posting on her personal or in groups.

Gone are the days of me commenting “love it!” “congrats” “so excited for you” (or I’d like to think so lol)

Because the way you thoughtfully respond to others MATTERS.

Think about the difference between someone just commenting..

“rooting for you” on your post

VS commenting “hey I totally hear you!! There is legit nothing worse then spending 45+ minutes writing a post for you to share it and get 0 likes/comments. Do it 45x and you never want to do it again. One thing I did was started a group chat with my friends who are businesses and creatives and now we share our posts with each other so it never happens again. It’s also a good invitation to check in with what are we posting, is it engaging, where are people’s attentions dropping off, and how can we make more of a connection. Every business is different and every platform isn’t for everyone but just remember consistency is most important!! If you need any tips on platforms, systems, or want to hire on some help - don’t hesitate to reach out!”

Feel the difference in that?

It’s almost like the customer experience starts BEFORE the customer even becomes a customer.

Which also means letting them know who you are

Use your Personal TO BE Personal

Like I say to literally all of my clients..

Personal accounts are your golden ticket to success.

And Liz Theresa is the golden example of that.

“I post mostly about my life or if I’m a speaker somewhere I’ll post about it. But I post much more about life, awards, milestones and things of that nature.”

“I don’t do a lot of tips. Occasionally I’ll give advice, but I think a lot of people come to my website and read my articles and listen to the podcast to get advice from me. So I use social media a lot more to be... me.”

And naturally - if you know me - I was stimming off this part.

I could talk for days about clients earlier in my career just wanting to hard push their offerings, events, and business.

And while I know marketing is an expensive outsource and you want to see ROI - you also have to see the value in personal, none promotional content.

So often we get so caught up in promoting our businesses that you start to become background noise.

“oh yeah it’s that lady again in my feed trying to sell me something”

It gets old.

My favorite creators are constantly coming up with new creative ways to talk about what their doing in a way that invites me in.

Which - shameless promo - is what I do with my clients

BUT - as we said about being the best - you have to bring something interesting to the table.

People inherently already know and love you on your Personal Facebook so milestones, family pictures, awards, and other personal stuff do WAY better engagement wise.

Which - on top of creating connections - I like to think tickles the algorithm into liking you more

It also reminds people you exist!!!

When you have good messaging, a solid tagline, or can describe what you do easily - PEOPLE ALREADY ASSOCIATE YOUR NAME WITH THAT.

Just seeing your family picture is a reminder you exist.

So not everything NEEDS to be promotional.

*stating again for those who didn’t hear me fully*

SEEING your NAME and FACE on people’s FEEDS inherently REMINDS them you EXIST AND ARE A BUSINESS.

So you don’t NEED to constantly remind them that you run a business.

At this point between our 5 minute - catch me up on your life - update, and 45 minutes of riffing off each other in marketing - it was time for both of us to jump.

I asked Liz how can I let my audience know more about her - and naturally she said - share my website :)

So if you’re in the need for some Liz Theresa (which many of us are - whether you know it or not)

Your prescription is below:

https://liztheresa.com

TLDR

So Liz and I ate.

And maybe you’re like me and transitioning into long form content but your money brain still can only compute for 7 seconds or less thanks to the 20 million Tiktok’s you watched during lockdown.

I gotchu!!!

• Facebook isn’t dead

• Don’t just whine about not being the best. Give the world a reason to recognize you.

• Over deliver the FUCK out of your client experience. Create raving fans and become a part of their life.

• Your clients are your biggest marketing resource - always look at how you can continue to learn and improve in your craft

• You don’t to post daily, pay for Ads or 24/7 promote your business to make $1M+ on Facebook

• Don’t sleep on the power of thoughtful comments

• Your face is a constant reminder that you exist as a business owner.

The Playbook

The rest of this article is exclusively for paid subscribers. :)

In the rest of this article we will detail 3 things you can take away from Liz’s strategy and implement in your own marketing and Liz’s favorite Facebook Groups right now.

As many of you know, knowledge without implementation is a huge waste in my eyes so I want you guys to have all the tools you need to take this time you invested to read this article to the next level.