About this episode.
Today we’re talking a little more long term, this is about taking some of those short term actions or strategies into long term strategies that are going to help you grow your audience, get seen by more people, attract more customers, make more money, and make 2022 your best year yet.
This episode is part 3 and the final episode of the Q4 series and today I wanted to highlight a few of the things we spoke about in parts 1 and 2 that you need to be taking with you beyond the festive season into the new year that are going to help you grow and scale your business, making 2022 your most profitable year yet.
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In parts 1 and 2 we really touched on uncovering why you might have been getting engagement on socials however not sales and some really great things that you can be doing, actions that you could take right now to help you call in those quick, pre-Christmas sales.
If you haven’t already, jump back to episodes 21 and 22 of the Podcast and give them a listen - part 1, which was episode 21 - why you’re getting engagement but not sales, and part 2, episode 22, 5 actions you can take to help increase sales.
Today we’re talking a little more long term, this is about taking some of those short term actions or strategies into long term strategies that are going to help you grow your audience, get seen by more people, attract more customers, make more money, and make 2022 your best year yet.
This episode is part 3 and the final episode of the series and today I wanted to highlight a few of the things we spoke about in parts 1 and 2 that you need to be taking with you beyond the festive season into the new year that are going to help you grow and scale your business.
The first thing that I want to touch on again, is your website.
In part 1 we spoke about average conversion rates, driving traffic to your website, product images and descriptions and being transparent with your customers around all of your delivery and returns information.
And I want to touch on these a little bit more, however with more of a long term strategy in mind.
You should be logging on into the back end of your website and or using google analytics to monitor the performance of your website on a very regular basis.
I would be aiming for weekly, however if you feel you can’t do that, fortnightly or monthly at most.
Being able to identify issues as they arise is going to be far more beneficial than waiting until the point where conversions or sales are really dropping off, and so much is going on, you can’t work out what the actual issue is.
If your website is not converting at a rate of between 1-3%, why?
Where is the drop off? Are people abandoning the checkout process or are they not adding to cart at all? Are you getting a lot of traffic however people are bouncing from the site, meaning they might only look at one product very briefly and then they leave - not taking the time to look around at any other pages or products.
We also need to be thinking about things like SEO, site load times, products images and descriptions, internal links and backlinks.
Sometimes the problem is easily identified, sometimes you might need to call on the advice or opinion of someone else.
You can also ask your audience, those that have abandoned cart but given you their email, not only should they have been automatically enrolled in an abandoned cart email sequence - you can ask them what stopped them from completing the purchase.
I get this may feel like a lot to think about, however this foundational work simply can not be skipped over, choosing to bury your head in the sand and ignoring this, is only going to prevent your long term success
Addressing these things on a regular basis will help to ensure sales are consistent and help you to grow your business and your brand.
The second thing that I want to dive into, is how are people finding you?
During parts 1 and 2 we spoke briefly about things like referrals, collaborations, competitions, creating shareable content and local communities and directories.
In part 2 we spoke about these things with a very short term focus, how we could get in front of more of the right people quickly and turn some of those people into customers.
How people are finding you, the ways you are creating visibility for your brand should be a focus on your business all year - people cannot buy from you if they just don’t know who you are.
We’re also coming up to Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales and I’ve seen a lot of chat about what businesses are planning inside a number of Facebook Groups.
Events like this can be great for some businesses, however if you don’t already have an audience these types of events aren’t likely to bring you the big sales days you’d hoped for.
Simply offering large discounts doesn’t equal know, like and trust and won’t help you build momentum, or find more of your dream customers. Instead of racing to the bottom via a pricing war, we want to intentionally build relationships with our customers.
So, when we’re diving into how people are finding you, I want you to think bigger than just simply posting to your own instagram profile and creating reels.
These are great tactics and should be utilised, but how else are people finding out about you?
This is where things like collaborations, influencers, referrals, press or PR, partnerships, competitions, online directories, local communities and in-person events all come in too.
They are all ways to expand your audience and reach new people.
Incorporating a visibility strategy into your marketing plan is imperative to expand your reach, grow your audience and your brand and to help you increase your sales and customer base.
Email marketing can be an incredible way for you to generate sales within your business, however if you’re constantly emailing the same 200 people, week in - week out, and you're not actively seeking to expand your audience, your reach and grow your list, it’s extremely likely you’ll start to exhaust your list and the sales that you want just won’t come through.
Building your audience and getting your brand in front of more of the right people is only going to help you increase your sales, make more money and create an even bigger impact.
And the third and last point I want to dive into, is building a long term strategy that is going to nurture the people who have purchased from you or joined your email list.
Not sending an email for 9 months and then finally deciding that you want to hit your list in the lead up to Christmas probably isn’t going to give you the results that you want.
Everyone that joins your email list should be contacted by you on a regular basis, this could be once a week, one every 2 weeks or once a month - however I wouldn’t recommend any less than this.
Email marketing is your opportunity to build rapport, trust, a relationship and nurture those who have decided to give you their email address.
It’s low cost and highly effective when done well.
As I also mentioned in point 2, growing your list and consistently adding new customers or potential customers is going to have a significant impact on your business growth and revenue long term.
I don’t want to go back into the whole ‘what if you lost your social media accounts’ argument again, I know you’ve heard that 1000 times over the last few weeks - but in all seriousness, if you didn’t have social media, how else would you be able to communicate with your customers or your audience? How would you be able to tell them about an offer or new product you had available?
Email marketing deserves a strategy, growing your list, the frequency of your emails, what you’re communicating, how you’re building rapport and trust and how you are going to use this list to make sales needs your attention,
If you do this, if you actively build your list and a strategy around email marketing this will result in more sales and will help you create raving fans.
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I genuinely want to see you end 2021 with an absolute bang, and I want you to go into 2022 feeling confident, prepared and excited for what's to come.
And don’t forget, if you’d like to work with me I am currently offering single 1:1 sessions where we can dive right into your marketing strategy, and come up with a plan for you to take on the rest of 2021, and start 2022 ready to go.
Head to kristy pask. Com to book in a time with me, I will also leave the links in the shownotes for you.
I do hope you found what I shared today incredibly valuable and helpful, if you did enjoy todays episode please leave me a review and don’t forget to subscribe so you don’t miss an episode.
If you have any questions or would like to connect with me, you can find me over on Instagram - I'm at kristypask - please feel free to DM me if you would like to chat or have any questions.
Once again, thank you so much for joining me again today, I really hope you enjoyed this series, I have loved putting it together for you!
I will be back next week with a brand new episode, until then, have a great week and I will chat to you soon.
Links and resources:
Learn more about my 12 week, 1:1 coaching program: The Holistic Marketing Method
Connect with me on Instagram: @kristypask
Book in a 1:1 single session with me here.