When I was studying for my MBA, my most challenging class was statistics. And even though I managed an A- in the class, it took every one of the few analytical brain cells I had to do so.
So imagine my pleasant surprise when I sat down to analyze the statistics of my business over the last 12 months and found myself engrossed, fascinated, excited and practically dancing for joy. Armed with this critical data, now I know exactly where to spend my time and efforts going forward to receive the highest and best rate of return!
I ran a total of about 10 reports, but let me share some of what I learned specifically from my shopping cart's reports:
Shopping Cart Stats
The shopping cart system I use (1ShoppingCart) has the ability to run sales reports in a variety of ways. Below are four of the reports I ran, what my results were, and how you can apply the results to your business:
a. My Monthly Sales Totals…
…showed me how many sales I made each month, and from that information, I discovered that my best month financially was this past January, followed by March.
I reviewed my marketing and sales activities (in other words, the offers I made) for that month, and what I found was this:
In January, I launched my Platinum Coaching program, which generated $43,450 in sales.
In March, I offered my 21 Easy & Essential Steps to Online Success Take Action Group 10-week coaching program, which is one of my bestselling programs.
Both of these programs have higher price points, so if you've already developed some products or programs at the lower-priced end of your marketing and product funnel, consider adding a more comprehensive program at a higher price to your offerings to in^crease your bottom line.
b. My Sales by Ad Campaign…
… showed me which special offers were the ones you were most interested in taking advantage of. Now I know which offers to consider repeating, or offering on another product or program in the future.
This is something you can do as well. Guessing if a special campaign you ran worked well or not doesn't make good business sense. Tracking actual numbers does, however, and it's super-simple to do in 1ShoppingCart.
c. My Sales by Clients/Customers…
… showed me who my top clients/customers are, what they've bought, and how much they've invested in my offerings. And since I know that one of the most effective ways to grow a business is to make additional offers to those who have already bought from me, you can bet that not only will I do that, but I'll do it in a way that makes them feel special – because they are to me – by offering them special access or discounts or additional benefits as my way of thanking them for their continued business and loyalty.
If you track this information, you can do the same and increase your sales and your customer loyalty at the same time.
d. My "Where did you hear about us" Report…
… showed me that even though I thought that some of my online networking efforts weren't really paying off, mainly because I didn't think I was focusing enough time on them, I was wrong. It seems even the small amount I had been doing was making an impact.
So now I know the top three places to really focus those efforts going forward. If you've found online networking to be a struggle for you, tracking this information makes what can seem like an overwhelming marketing activity (some lists are SO active) into an extremely managable and once-again enjoyable one.
I gleaned all of this information from just four reports from my shopping cart. And this doesn't include the reports I ran from my email list service (Aweber) or from my web stats (Google Analytics).
Measuring the results of your business activities is critical to your success, and anyone can do it (it's really one of those "if I can, anyone can" kind of things). I really want to encourage you to take a look at where you've been over the past 6-12 months, analyze that data, and make some strategic decisions about where you want to focus your efforts going forward to get where you want to be.
Are you working too hard in your business? If you're an entrepreneur, you probably are, especially if you're in the early stages of your business building. And you're not alone.
Here's an example from my own client files:
I was recently working with a client who was a real go-getter, very serious about being in business for herself, and marketing only to a more affluent clientele. She wanted to increase her reach into that market online. And she was considering adding article marketing to her mix.
At this stage in her business, she was already doing quite well. She was close to making 6 figures and charging 5 times as much as her counterparts – and getting it easily. But she wasn't satisfied. She really wanted to break the $100k mark before the third anniversary of her business, which was coming up in just a few months.
When she asked me, "What is the quickest, most cost-effective way to regularly market articles?" and then told me she planned to do this work herself, I stopped her.
"You know, just because you can do this task, doesn't mean you should…"
She was quiet for a moment before asking me to elaborate.
"I know your writing is high quality and of high value to your market, and I definitely think you should be getting that content out there, to the appropriate places that will bring you the highest return-on-investment for your efforts. But I don't think you should be doing this yourself. It's not a good use of your time or your energy. What do you think?"
After a bit more discussion, she agreed to hire someone to do this for her.
As you read this, did you think of perhaps one task that you routinely do (or that falls by the wayside because you can never just get to it) that you know is 'below your pay grade' and yet you continue to waste time and energy on it (even if that time and energy is just thinking about how you're NOT getting it done?)?
This concept was (still is, from time to time) difficult for me to grasp when my own coach shone a light on it for me. But since I've tried to be aware of how much effort I really need to put into a task to get the result I want, it's opened up space for things to flow more effortlessly and more quickly than ever.
Here are four ways you can do less and still grow in your business:
1. Email
Do you spend more time than necessary responding to emails? Do you write two paragraphs when a two-sentence response would suffice? Do you respond to emails that actually don't require a response? Do you check email every 5 minutes (come on, fess up!)? What if you didn't do any of these things and still had a handle on your inbox? You can, if you put the right system in place.
2. Blog
Are you writing blog posts that are long? Maybe it even feels cumbersome to try to write a post the length of an article. Don't – keep them short and pithy. Make sure your keywords are in the content and it doesn't matter how long your posts are to the search engines – and your readers will probably appreciate shorter posts as well. Better yet, turn your weekly ezine articles into blog posts to save even more time and energy.
3. Website
Are you constantly updating your website? Does it really need to be revamped so often? More to the point, is this something you have to do yourself? No. Most virtual assistants can make website updates for you at a much lower cost to your time and energy than you doing it yourself.
4. Customer/Client Relations
Who responds to questions and comments from your clients and customers? Are you processing refunds, working out payment glitches, resending download links, answering the same questions about your programs over and over, or any other task that could easily be passed off to a capable assistant? You can quickly and easily train someone to respond to these inquiries in your voice by having them shadow you via blind-copying them on each email you send out. Then reverse the process and voila – another time and energy drain has been removed from your shoulders.
If you've been a client of mine, it's very likely you've heard one of my mantras, "Done is better than perfect." I usually follow that with, "And it's never going to be all done." So choose to cause yourself less stress and DO LESS. Experiment with this and see how much more productive you'll actually be. Think of just one thing that you could do the easy way instead of the hard way, or delegate to an assistant, or better yet, take off your 'must-do' list altogether.
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Writing valuable content-rich articles for your target market and submitting them to article directories and other publishers is one of the best ways to market your business, become known as an expert in your field, and add subscribers to your list.
For example, if you regularly write an article for your ezine, you can get a lot more mileage out of it if you submit it to article directories and other online publishing services. And making every piece you write work more than once for you is one way to work smarter and not harder. That’s called leverage.
There are several reasons why you want to do this. One is to get your name and your business out there so people will learn who you are and what you do, and it helps to position you as an expert. No more keeping yourself a secret and hiding behind your computer!
Another reason is that your articles give people a taste of your style, what it is that you offer, and it gives them an opportunity to get to know you a bit without risking anything.
At the end of each article include a resource box so if people want to find out more about you and your business, they have that information at their fingertips. Once someone reads your article, if they like your stuff, they will likely visit your website and sign up for your Free Taste (your free offering that gets people on your list). And writing articles is one of the fastest (and FREE) ways to get lots of exposure, especially if a publisher with a large list picks it up!
Want to get started? Here are the 4 easy steps:
1. Write the article or recycle one you’ve already written, giving it a fresh edit (it never hurts).
Write or revise an article targeted at your niche that is full of valuable content. A couple of tips: Articles can be anywhere from 400-800 words in length for the best chance of being picked up (if you have a longer article, consider chopping it in half and making it two shorter articles). Also, articles with lists, steps, or mini-chunks of information seem to be the most read.
2. Add your copyright.
Don’t forget to protect your work by adding a copyright. At the end of each article, put a copyright notice with the date of when you first published the article. For example, Copyright 2009 Alicia M Forest.
3. Write the copy for your author’s box.
After your copyright notice comes what’s usually referred to as the “resource box” or “author’s box.” In order for others to publish your work, ask that they include this information at the end of your article, keeping what you provide in it whole and intact. As this is standard practice, you’ll find most publishers will honor this request.
Write 3-5 lines that entice people to find out more about you by providing the web address to the sign-up page for your Free Taste. Using this space to encourage people to join your list by signing up for your ezine or other free offering is another way to leverage your article.
A tip: Again, don’t send your article readers to your home page. Send them to a page set up specifically to add them to your list. For example, say “for more articles like this, please visit www.yourezinepage.com to sign up!”
4. Submit your article.
Although this is one of the most time-consuming marketing tasks, it can be made much simplier by either hiring a Virtual Assistant to do it for you, or by using an article submission service.
There are literally hundreds of websites that offer free content for publishers who are in need of quality articles for their own publications or websites. Here are some of the best ones:
www.ezinearticles.com
www.ideamarketers.com
www.goarticles.com
www.article-host.com
www.articlecity.com
Bonus step:
If you want to see stronger results from submitting your articles, contact directly those publishers of ezines and websites in your niche. Google publishers of ezines in your target market and then send a query to the editor/owner about submitting an article. Present yourself as a professional and offer your article for their use, provided the resource box remains intact. Paste your article under your message (attachments can get blocked, and if the receiver doesn’t know you it’s unlikely they will open and read it anyway).
Writing and submitting articles is one of the tried-and-true, if slow-and-steady, ways to build your list, become known as an expert, and offer value to your target market.
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One of the reasons I love the business model I teach is because it effortlessly PULLS clients to me. I never have to chase them or worry about having as full a roaster as I want. The first step in making this happen is creating what I call your CFO – Compelling F.r.e.e. Offer. The problem is that very few solo-preneurs actually utilize this simple method of attracting all the clients they want.
Your Compelling F.r.e.e. Offer (CFO) is what entices people to want to find out more about you and what it is that you’re offering. When you make your complimentary offer compelling enough, more people will be interested in taking advantage of it, which increase the audience to which you can then market to.
Your CFO can be packaged in a variety of ways: a mini e-course, a checklist, a CD, an audio download, a special report, a free teleseminar, etc. I offer a few different CFOs – a special report, an audio download, and for joint ventures I offer one of my paid products for free as a bonus to their paid offering.
The content of your CFO should be broad in scope, yet address a particular problem your target market is struggling with, something that they’d pay to have a solution to. That’s what makes your offer compelling in the first place, and it’s what attracts them into your Marketing & Product Funnel. Your CFO should be loaded with valuable content, so much so that you leave your prospect thinking, “wow, if this is what he/she gives away, imagine what his/her paid stuff must be like!”
To lead them further down your funnel, you’ll want to be sure to not give away the store in your CFO, but share what the problem is, what your solution to the problem is, giving them a taste of how you can solve it for them. But what’s key to making your CFO successful is to not just give great content, but to leave them with wanted more. The ‘more’ comes by way of your paid products and services.
The results of having a CFO are three-fold: you build your credibility and become known as an expert in your niche, your word-of-mouth marketing catches fire, and you’re approached to share your CFO with even more people through joint ventures and strategic partnerships.
The mistake I made when I first started my consulting business was trying to pitch my services to people who didn’t even know me (I cringed when I remember all those wasted early morning networking breakfasts). We all know that it’s much easier to get business by referral, right? Because the person referring you has a relationship with you, and they have come to know, like and trust you well enough to pass your name along to their friends and colleagues.
That’s what this method of marketing does for you. Your CFO is the start of building that critical know, like and trust factor with your prospects so that when they are ready to invest some money in a solution to their problem – whether via a product or service – your name is at the top of the list.
And the best part? You NEVER have to sell them on what you’re offering. It’s brilliant, really.
So, start researching what it is that your target market wants most, what problem is keeping them up at night. Then create your solution and offer it to them as your CFO to get them into your Marketing & Product Funnel. It’s a winning formula every time!
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One of the many things I discovered when on my recent private retreat with my mentor coach Kendall Summerhawk was that I sometimes still have a tendency to bend in situations where I shouldnt. Not actually bend-over backwards, but enough that I end up not feeling good about the situation. Ive actually strengthened this boundary quite a bit in recent years, but as always, Ive been tested on that a few times lately, so I wanted to share some of the ways Ive strengthened this boundary within the way I run my business so you can do the same.
Here are 4 ways that you can gracefully set boundaries in your business:
1. Have a policy page
For every product, program or service you offer, someone is going to ask you to do something different for them. It could be to offer it in a different format, at a different time or day, with a payment plan option, or dozens of other scenarios than I cant possibly cover here. As a general rule of thumb, dont accommodate. Yes, there will be times when you make a different decision, but most of the time, stick to the parameters you created in the first place. You cant please everyone, and every time you accommodate someone, you a) typically un-accommodate someone else who was just fine with the way your offer stood in the first place, and b) attract more people who will ask you to bend things for them in the future.
What do you do with the requests you get? Create a policy page from each and every decision youve made on how you will or will not run your business. Then when the next person makes a similar request, you simply send them to that page that explains clearly what your policy is, and that the policy applies to everyone. It takes the edge of it feeling like saying no was a personal decision as much as it makes it super-simple for your team to handle these requests.
2. Be fair to ALL your clients
Being fair to all my clients is one value that I hold that makes it easy for me to be clear about the boundaries I have in place in my business. If you remember that its NOT that you arent willing or dont want to be accommodating, but that it simply wouldnt be fair to the rest of your clients and customers by doing so, it makes it much easier to say no graciously, and it keeps your integrity intact.
3. Have a buffer
Having someone on my team who manages these requests is imperative. First, as the businessowner and leader of my company, its not the best use of my unique brilliance to be dealing with these requests personally. Second, my team is quite capable of knowing when a request may require my attention, and I trust them to let me know. And third, it makes saying no less personal and much more graceful and respectful to the person making the request when they get an answer from my team instead of from me.
4. Be willing to let go
Ok, this is the one thats popped up more than once the last month or so and got me thinking about writing this article. I still struggle with a tendency to over-explain. I like to craft just the right words to make sure someone understands my decision about something. Ive realized that in doing so Ive wasted a lot of time, energy and emotion. So I stopped doing that for the most part. Recently, I found myself back in that loop again, and when I realized how much of my teams time I was wasting, it bopped me over the head. I instantly went back to my short-but-sweet way of responding.
Heres the thing: theres always going to be a tiny percentage of people who want you to customize and accommodate them. But let them go play somewhere else. Because what happens when you stick to your guns is that you honor your value, your time, and your self-respect. You attract more clients and customers who are ideal and who are respectful of you and your team as well, and your business runs more smoothly and more joyfully.
(c) 2009 Alicia Forest
About the author: Alicia M Forest, MBA, 6-Figure Business Breakthrough Mentor, teaches self-employed professionals how to attract more clients, create profit-making products and services, make more sales, and ultimately live the life they desire and deserve. For FREE tips on how to create wild abundance in your business, visit http://www.ClientAbundance.com
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