Marketing in Focus

You’ve probably heard about a welcome series already, but let’s be sure you’re maximizing its potential as a way to quickly connect with your new subscribers. See full episode notes here: https://kristin-miller.com/episode-22-6-emails-to-include-in-your-welcome-series/ Want to learn what your next step is to leveraging your marketing data to get better results? Take this 30-second quiz: https://kristin-miller.com/quiz/ 

It's no secret that collecting email addresses is one of the most effective ways to grow your business. After all, there are a lot of benefits to having an email list and it's easy for people to sign up! Here are the top ten places on your website to capture more subscribers. See the full episode notes here: https://kristin-miller.com/episode-21-10-places-to-collect-emails-on-your-website/ Want to learn more about how to repeat your marketing success (and stop doing what isn't working)?  Check out my quiz here: https://kristin-miller.com/quiz/ 

Social media isn't a strategy. It's a tactic. And it shouldn't be the only way you connect with your audience. Be sure you have an owned communications channel in your mix too.  In this episode we'll break down why you shouldn't be relying only on social media, and what you can do to create an owned communications channel of your own. See the full episode notes here:  https://kristin-miller.com/episode-20-social-shouldnt-be-your-only-strategy-and-what-to-do-about-it/ 

If you’re like most small business owners, you have a million things to do and not enough time or money to do it all. The tips in this podcast episode will help you stay focused the next time a can’t-fail new marketing tactic gets thrown your way. Want to turn your marketing to-do list into a marketing plan? Grab the free download mentioned in this episode here: www.kristin-miller.com/journey Check out the full episode notes here: https://kristin-miller.com/episode-19-how-to-stay-focused-when-you-are-tempted-by-new-tactics/ 

Today let's talk about how to intentionally use social media to guide your followers down a path to purchase. Social media is one of the few tools we have as marketers that supports all four stages of the customer journey. I’ll cover how to use social media to attract new people to you and convert them into leads; how social can help you close more sales and delight your customers so they keep coming back AND refer you to others. Links Mentioned: Course: Social Media Strategy for Growing Your Business  Freebie: Guide to Stress-Free Social Media Posting  Episode 4: Behind-the-Scenes of a Content Marketing Strategy

In all of my experiences when things went wrong, I was always better able to recover from it when I had already thought about what I might do when things went wrong.  So today I’m going to share my best tips on how to be prepared, so you can recover faster and with more grace. Identify potential areas for where things might go wrong Develop a plan for handling different situations. Identify business impact: how long would it take you to recover? Identify tools needed. Craft communications in advance Join the conversation in the Marketing in Focus Online Community (a.k.a. the Facebook group)

Take a second and think of the emails you are most likely to open.  Or the ones you read once you open them because you found it super relevant. The content speaks to an action you’ve previously taken, and tells you how to take the next step. Or teaches something more you could use. These are all examples of how the sender used segmentation to ensure the message you received was relevant to YOU. And there is a super easy way to do this.  That’s email tags. Types of Email Tags: Context tags provide insights to the individual subscriber, like what interests they have. Action tags connect to a specific behavior, like a lead magnet download. Temporary tags can be used for short-term things, like watching a webinar for a launch. Setting Up An Email Tagging System: Identify what tags you want for each type. Create a tagging structure (i.e. Category_Subcategory_Details or Action_Free Download_Social Guide) Add the tags to your email marketing system. Review your tags to ensure they stay relevant. Edit and merge as needed. Have questions about how to set-up or use an email tag strategy? Head over to the Marketing In Focus Podcast Online Community in Facebook. Hit me with your questions. I’d love to help you out!

Being uniquely you is uncomfortable and sometimes darn right hard, but it's what sets  you apart from everyone else and creates a deeper connection with your audience. 4 Tips For Standing Out: Use your personal experiences to build authority Share your value and beliefs Let your audience in on your successes and failures Share your goals How to Put it into Action: Look for ways to incorporate what sets you apart in your social media.  Review your website and be sure it reflects you.  Add a little YOU to all of your emails.  Links mentioned in this episode: Marketing in Focus Podcast Community Peacock in the Land of Penguins  

Top 10 Marketing Trends for 2020 Personalization Optimizing For Voice Search Video & Live Streaming Social Messaging Social Stories Content Marketing Podcasting Browser Push Notifications Interactive Content User-Generated Content   Resources Mentioned: Episode 4: Behind-The-Scenes of a Content Marketing Strategy Social Media Guide: How to Create Social Posts in Less Time and With More Impact Microphone Answer the Public Many Chat Interact Bucket.io Ask by Ryan Levesque

There are generally 3 ways to add more revenue into your business, aside from simply raising your prices, and two are often overlooked. So let’s take some time today to dive into the three ways to increase revenue in 2020, including where to focus your marketing efforts to drive results for each. The three ways to increase revenue are: You can find more customers. You can sell something better to your current customers (enhanced experience). You can sell something complimentary to your current customers. See full show notes here: www.kristin-miller.com/3-ways-to-add-revenue-2020  

If you’re running an online business, content is the heart and soul of it all. This is how you connect with new people, and how you can show up and serve your audience on the regular. But, it also is one of the most time-consuming parts of running an online business. It takes A LOT of time to produce quality content that will serve your audience well. Are you sometimes unsure of what content your audience wants? About what will work to pull in new people? I’ve got you. Last week we talked about how much time you save when you plan, so let’s talk about planning content. What I’m going to cover today is a way to brainstorm ideas for filling in your content calendar. You can do this 2-4 times each year. And keeping a running list of ideas helps speed up this process over time. Some ways to keep track of your ideas are: Using the notes on your phone Using an app like Evernote or Google Doc Using a project management tool so you can move ideas to projects I’m going to go through four different ways to easily look at what content is popular. Before you start, get organized on how you want to track your ideas. I like to create a different list for each content pillar, or content category (something I covered back in Episode 5 - How to Create a Content Calendar). Alright, once you’ve organized yourself a bit the first place to go is Google. Type in a keyword and watch for the auto drop down options of popular phrases. Write down the exact Google suggested phrase. Run a search for your keywords and review what pops up on the front page. Review the "what others are searching for" section at the bottom of the page. After you’ve searched a bit in Google, the next tool to use is Pinterest. Type in a keyword and watch for the auto drop down options of popular phrases. Run a search for your keywords and review what additional words or phrases pop up along the top. Review pins for popularity and take note of what is pinned more frequently. Next is a cool tool called Answer the Public. Search for keywords phrases and review the Questions, Propositions and Comparisons sections. Last, review frequently asked questions. Look for questions you answer all the time. Search Facebook groups where your ideal customer hangs out for popular keywords.

If you’re like so many online entrepreneurs I talk with, you are most likely a planner. And this season of planning is one of my favorites all year long. Today I want to chat about the benefits of planning, and then how I put planning into action in my business based on everything I learned over the years of running marketing teams. 1. Saves you time by keeping you focused Studies show that 1 hour of planning will save you 10 hours of doing. That’s a great ROI for your time, and if you weren’t taking planning seriously before, hopefully this stat will help you create a planning habit for yourself. 2. Keeps your business moving forward Set goals to push boundaries and gives us space to think about what’s possible 3. Know what’s working Gives us something to benchmark against Often I find if you’re not sure if something is working, it’s because you didn’t have a plan that included goals of what working means to you How to put planning into action: Annual Revenue Goals + Budget > Impact Goals [there’s more about this in episode 10] High-level calendar - launches! Quarterly Budget review Weekly Content - set topics for the next quarter [learn how to put together a content calendar in episode 5] Social media themes assigned daily [don’t use themes in your business yet? Check out the details in my social media guide] Lead magnet review Monthly Batch schedule for content creation:  Podcast, Lead magnets, Emails, Social media captions & graphics Check analytics:  what’s working and what’s not, what’s popular Weekly Schedule social content Assign daily “top 3” tasks: projects + admin Daily Review schedule for day and adjust if needed Check in on emails twice a day (morning and evening) Spend time engaging with others on social: 15 minutes in the morning, 15 minutes in the middle of the day and 15 minutes at the end of the day Want to start the year off strong? This workshop is a can’t miss! You can learn more and register at www.kristin-miller.com/workshop.

Do you ever feel like you're grasping at straws, trying to decide what to do next for marketing your business? Not sure if your marketing efforts are supporting your business goals?  Or, maybe, you’re not sure what the difference between a business goal and marketing goal is? Even if you have goals, if your marketing isn't providing the results you want there is likely a mis-alignment between the two.  Having clarity on your business plan, including goals, will guide your marketing, making it so much easier to know what to do daily, weekly, monthly and quarterly to drive your business forward. Business Plan - a.k.a. What You Want To Achieve Sets overall vision for business: mission & goals (financial) Often used as a financial tool to drive your budget Reviewed annually Marketing Plan - a.k.a. Actions You’ll Take Explains how you’ll achieve those goals Is a section within your business plan Reviewed quarterly While our business plan is the WHAT, and marketing is the ACTION, they are interdependent and must be consistent.   Question #1:  What Are You Going To Sell? Decide what to sell, and for how much, then review this each year for opportunities to grow your business. Will you add a new product or service in order to increase the revenue in your business?  Will you make edits to a product or service to increase the price? If you have multiple products or services, prioritize them and answer the next two questions for EACH of them.  You might prioritize them by seasons, or by what you expect to drive the most sales.  How this connects to your marketing strategy: When business (and life) gets crazy, you'll be happy to have already decided which one should get more attention and which ones you can give yourself more grace on.  You also want to be sure to set a different marketing strategy for each, so if you have multiple products or services, take the time to answer the next two questions for each one.  Question #2:  How Much Are You Going To Sell? You should set two financial goals: one for revenue (how much you’ll sell) and one for profit (how much you’ll keep). Write your profit goal at the bottom of a piece of paper (or a spreadsheet).  Add in all your business expenses above it.  Add it all together. That’s your revenue goal!  It’s important to be sure the profit goal you wrote down is the same increment of time as your expenses. If you pay annually for your website, but wrote down a monthly profit goal, you’ll need to adjust the expense by dividing it by 12 months. Now, breakdown the revenue number into how many products or services need to be sold to accomplish that. If you sell one product or service, take your total revenue number and divide it by your price.  That's how many sales you need to achieve your profit goal. If you have multiple products, determine how much of each product you'll sell based on the priority it in the question before. For example, you want to get 70% of your revenue from one-on-one coaching and 30% from your membership site or online course.  Total revenue * 70% = Revenue from Coaching / Price = # of Clients Total revenue * 30% = Revenue from Membership / Price = # of Members   Not sure how to break it out?  Look at where your sales come from today.   Don't like how it breaks out?  Now's your chance to shift your strategy towards what you want to be the revenue driver in your business. How this connects to your marketing strategy: Marketing, ultimately, is a numbers game.  If you know how many people you need to purchase, you can factor in how many people you need to get in front of.   Question #3:  Who Are You Going To Sell It To? Prioritize who each product/service is a good fit for.   Is it people that are on your list, or following you, who haven't purchased before?   Is it an up-level for current customers who could take advantage of another offering? How this connects to your marketing strategy: Of the three questions, this one is most vital to driving your marketing strategy.  It helps you know where to spend your efforts. Need to get new customers?  Get to building your email list with a new free resource, social traffic and digital ads.  Is your best opportunity selling more to current customers? Then add up-sells to the transaction process, have a strong email campaign, or focus on your private Facebook group. Alright, friends, hopefully this was helpful as we prepare for the new year and new goals.  I’d love to hear what your goals are for next year. Send me a DM @KristinMillerMarketing and let me know! Don’t forget to grab this amazing new free resource: FREE Guide: How to Create Social Posts in Less Time and With More Impact

The importance of a consistent visual brand identity is something that has stuck with me. And what I learned about how to do it, from award-winning agencies and amazing graphic designers, is that it really isn’t that hard.  It’s just setting an intentional course and sticking with it. Visual brand consistency has been an on-going focus for me every time I create a new piece of content.  Back in episode 2 I shared how to create a brand guide to keep yourself consistent, and help share your brand rules with others (like a graphic designer or VA).  Today I want to take you behind the scenes with me and tell you how I manage my branding to keep it consistent. Affiliate links are used within this post to help sponsor this episode. I only promote products and services I use myself. I use Canva - a freemium tool. My favorite features include: Brand Kit section, store all branding assets in one place Logos Fonts Colors Create graphics easily No need to remember size for common graphics Free stock photos Free stock templates that are easily customizable Go Pro for additional benefits Folders to stay organized More stock photos Magic resize to instantly resize any graphic Ability to upload my own fonts Ability to make true templates out of my graphics rather than just editing the same file over and over again Ability to set multiple color palettes, so I can have a core brand palette and color palettes specific to products Ability to download designs with a transparent background Once logged in, check out their Design School for some great free trainings. Try Canva Pro Today Not sure how to pull together your brand identity (and no budget to hire out)? Check out episode 2 for my tips on building a brand identity, and grab my free Brand Guide Workbook to get started!

One of the best tricks of the copywriting trade I’ve learned is that the more you understand your audience, the easier copywriting is. When you know what their day looks like, what their dreams and challenges are, and even how they talk, it’s a lot easier to be a better, more relatable copywriter. You’ve likely heard about the need to create an ideal customer avatar, persona or a profile.  If you haven’t heard those terms before, it simply means creating a profile of your target audience as if it were one person; the exact person you’re looking to serve. They often include demographics like age, gender and occupation, and then dig deeper into things like favorite book, whether they like coffee or tea, and celebrities they follow. Personas can be a super helpful way to keep your content consistent and help you connect with your target audience.  You may need a persona for each offering. The persona may not change too dramatically and that’s ok. You just want to be sure you’re understanding that target person that you know you can help so you can meet them where they’re at. You can document this in a Google doc, a notebook, a giant post-in note for the wall in your office; whatever makes sense for you. You’ll want it accessible anytime you’re creating a content calendar or content itself. You also may want it shareable if you’re working with a team. If you're like me and like a good worksheet, I've got you covered! Download it here: www.kristin-miller.com/persona. Section 1: Demographics Age Gender Occupation Geographic location Anything else that helps with digital ad targeting  Section 2: Related to Your Product/Service If you’re selling a course on how to be a better blogger, you’ll want to document how long they’ve been blogging, what platform they use and their revenue streams. If you’re service is virtual fitness coaching, you’ll likely want to document where they are in their fitness journey, how often they exercise currently and what their fitness goals may be.  You’ll also want to document challenges, or hurdles, that could get in the way of what you’re offering. Are they short on time? Are they on a fixed income? Including the specific words and phrases your target audience uses is helpful as well.  When you need to write content about where your audience is today, and create content to overcome objections, these pieces will come in handy. Documenting them ensures you’ll be consistent.  Section 3: Lifestyle Whatever items you want to document that make the audience real and can work into your content and digital ads.  This is where favorite books, mentors, how they take their coffee, and what they love to do in their spare time goes. Not only can you reference it in copy, like the email subject “better than a mochaccino” or digital ads. Did you know you can target people on Facebook based on pages they like?  Yep, you can. So knowing a favorite author can help target your ads to just the right audience. Make it fun! If your business is new, don’t stress about it. It’s ok to take guesses. It’s ok to get things wrong and modify them later after you know more about your target audience.  And because I know it can feel daunting to start at a blank page I’ve got a downloadable pdf with prompts to help you get started. Go to www.kristin-miller.com/persona to grab it.

The ONE tool that will 10x your productivity: a Project Management tool. Now I know you’re probably thinking that the LAST thing you need is another thing to do every day, and I understand because I had that thought, but hear me out here. We only have so much time in the day. Time is finite, we can’t create more of it, so we have to be really mindful of how we use the time we have.  And a project management tool is going to help you be more intentional with your time. Save Time: By NOT going to constantly thinking about what to do next. Instead you’ll be ready to take action. By being laser focused and knowing exactly what to do next. Outsourcing tasks, and have visibility into what’s getting done How to Get Started: Find a tool that works for your business, like Asana, ClickUp, AirTable, Trello  Commit to showing up in your project management tool every day. Put all your tasks in the project management system.  Be sure each task has an assigned person and due date. Make templates of processes you do repeatedly. Find the “Getting Started” guide for the tool you chose and dig in! Download the app. Some examples of projects are: Content Calendar for weekly blog posts or podcast episodes, weekly emails, and your daily social media posts Administrative tasks like documenting your financials Projects like new course build-out plan or a project for each client so you can track prep work and follow-up tasks. Don’t forget to check out the integrations to see where you may be able to streamline even more! Which project management tool did you pick? Let me know in an Instagram DM @KristinMillerMarketing. I’d love to hear what you chose and how it’s working for you!

The biggest task we have in how marketing works today is content creation. And, with social media, the amount of content we need to create, and create consistently, can be exhausting. One of the biggest struggles in online marketing, regardless how long you've been at it, is finding the time to create high quality content consistently. Psst….looking for the guide I mentioned in the episode? You can find it here. Last week’s episode was all about saving time by planning your content out so you can dive right into creation mode, but that doesn't make creation is faster.  One way to eliminate a whole lot of stress (and save a TON of time) is by finding multiple ways to use the content you worked so hard to create. This is a great way to keep your content consistent, helping both your audience and the search algorithms know what you’re expertise is.  And, when you’re repurposing content your audience loved, you’re working to ensure your audience gets your very best tips, tricks and advice.  Steps to Making Content Go Further: Determine which content to choose by starting with your goals. Gather content you have on your chosen topic and look for pieces that your audience loved, connected with or asked questions about. Give it a refresh, if needed, and republish. Review to break into smaller pieces for social posts. Convert content into another format to give it life and additional reach. Blog posts can become: E-book, guide or webinar by putting multiple posts put together Infographic Podcast Resource section Social posts Video Comments and customer service inquiries can become: Blog post (FAQ) Post-purchase emails with links to relevant blog posts Resource Section Video E-books and guides can become: A series of blog posts Infographics Podcast episodes Social posts Video Webinar/presentation Workbooks Webinars can become: Blog Post Infographics Mini videos / video series via email Podcast episodes Slideshare Social videos Video tutorials Video Blog post Email Infographic Guest Post Mini versions Social graphics Updated video or a video that digs deeper into the topic Worksheets If you need help keeping your content looking consistent while you're putting these tips into action, check out my podcast episode: 6 Tips to Making It Easier to Brand Your Content.

I look for ways to systemize nearly everything in business, and in life, to free up my brain power from thinking about what to do next to actually creating the next thing.  One of my favorite systems is planning content. Because actually producing great content takes so much effort, who has time to waste thinking about what to do next?! Instead of thinking about it post by post, dedicate some time to figuring it out for a longer stretch of time. Then you can spend your time creating and promoting instead of planning. So a good content planning session needs a content calendar. You can find content calendar templates EVERYWHERE these days. But everyone seems to skip the part about how you fill it in. Staring at a blank calendar with the best of intentions, but not sure what to do?  No worries, I’ve got you!   Grab a pen and paper and create a master list of content ideas. Create your content pillars. Create social media themes. Grab your calendar and write in your big dates, your weekly content publish date, and social themes. Fill in the details of each. Schedule your next planning session. Need a starting point? Grab my free content calendar template here. Want to see examples?  Check them out here. Digital project management tools mentioned: CoSchedule Trello Asana ClickUp Looking for my free marketing guide mentioned in the episode? Grab it here! And, as always, you can find me on Facebook and Instagram. I’d love to connect!

Using content to drive your marketing and sales efforts can be SUPER confusing.  Today we're going to get into the nitty gritty behind using a content marketing strategy because I think understanding the WHY behind the WHAT you’re doing to market your business will really help you navigate if a new tactic is right for your business, and make it easy to measure your results. You can grab the free marketing guide to help you put this into action in your own business.  What was a bit of a revolutionary marketing tactic in the early to mid-2000's has turned into the new way of marketing. At the heart of it, content marketing is simply giving away value for your ideal customer to engage them in order to get your audience to know, like and trust you. It really is as simple as providing value at each stage, nurturing the relationship with someone from stranger to brand advocate. So, how do you know if you’ve taken on a content marketing strategy in your business? If you are using tactics like a blog, social media channel, Facebook groups, live video segments, a podcast or really any other method of giving free advice or information out there to draw your audience in - congratulations, you are a content marketer - even if you didn’t know it! This concept is easy to understand when switch your thinking and approach everything in your business as if it were an employee and give it a job.  In nurturing your audience, there are four jobs: . Megaphone - whose job is to attract people to you and help you get in front of those who best fit your business. Like the person standing outside of a store making you notice them.   Greeter - helps create an experience that matches their needs and converts them onto your list so you can stay connected.   Sales guru - who takes them on a journey that leads to your product or service as being the solution to their problem.   Customer service specialist - who provides such a great experience at each turn that people keep coming back and, even better, tell all their friends about you. I’ll dig into each of these phases even more in my free marketing guide resource, so if you want more details (including tips on measuring the effectiveness of what you’re doing) be sure to grab that resource. It’s SO GOOD. 

I am a firm believer that every business needs an email marketing strategy as a part of their marketing strategy.   Email marketing is a lot of work, there’s no doubt about that. So it’s my goal today to help you understand what’s working so you can do more of it, and alternatively what’s not working so you can stop doing that.   The seven email marketing metrics you should have a pulse on: Open Rate Click to Open Rate Unsubscribe Rate Compliance Rate Bounce Rate Forward/Share Rate List Growth Rate Want all the details on each? Head over to my website for the episode transcription.   Every business will have slightly different email marketing metrics, so it’s important to set some benchmarks for yourself first. Hop into your email service provider and chart each of the 7 metrics across your emails from the past 6-12 months. I like to have one line on the chart that is my weekly newsletter, and one that is my automated emails. Find the average you experience for each and set some baselines and goals for yourself. Review your charts to find outliers. BONUS! You can look for patterns in topic, subject line, or time of day sent. This deeper dive may be something I do only a few times a year to be sure I’m optimizing, unless I’m really looking to improve a specific metric like open rate. Interested in my free marketing guide resource I mentioned? Grab it here: www.kristin-miller.com/journey   I’d love to hear which metrics you’re working on improving in your email marketing. Send me a DM on Instagram and let me know!