content, affilaites & amplification
$10,000 → $10,000++
It wouldn’t be a lesson in this series if we didn’t give a big, juicy caveat before sharing these last three tips with you:
Growing your business to $10,000++/month and beyond is NOT a requirement for a "successful business."
It’s not the only way to reach your dreams and goals in life. Most of those can actually probably be done with less money (as many studies have shown). Always remember this, friend, when you catch yourself thinking your worth as a business owner can be measured in dollars. IT CAN'T.
These last tips will show you the exact steps that helped us take a leap to reach our “enough number” in business revenue, where we happily sit and don’t need to grow just for growth’s sake.
β‘οΈ Tip #1: Dial in your content strategy.
At this point in business, you most likely have a few content things going on: An awesome weekly email newsletter; a fun-but-helpful podcast; an info-packed YouTube channel; a pin-worthy Pinterest plan; an interestingly-designed IG grid, etc, etc.
But, what you might not have, is a clear directive and STRATEGY for each of those content buckets. You may also not have a clue if any of them are direct contributors to your revenue (if you do, kudos to you, we did not at this stage of biz ππ€£).
Here are some examples of how to think about your content channels and having a clear plan about how they lead back to your overall sales strategy:
π¬ Your Email Newsletter: This is your real-time, value-packed piece of trust-building content with your audience. You want to have a clearly defined schedule your audience can get used to as well as a specific outcome they can expect with each email they receive. Then (and this is the strategy part) make sure you have a business objective being met in EVERY email as well as a lead-up plan for your product launches.
π Your Podcast: This is one of your strongest connection points to your audience, even though podcasting is a very passive listen. The reason it’s such a strong connection point is because it’s a somewhat intimate relationship. People listen to podcasts while living out their day-to-day lives and you get to be alongside them in those moments! You know, doing the dishes, driving to work, walking the dog, taking a shower, etc. But the trick with making a podcast strategic is to ensure you have reminders of the product you offer in each episode!
We think you get the idea with each content channel, but the key is to make sure you’re not just churning out content without thinking strategically of how it can impact your business.
You might be thinking, “great, I can do all those strategy things, but how do I see the actual ROI of my content efforts??”
βοΈ SUCH A GREAT QUESTION! Thank you for asking…
You create a post-purchase survey! A post-purchase survey is an embedded form or a linked form your customer sees immediately after buying your product. In that survey, you can ask a series of questions but one of the most important things you can ask is: “How did you hear about this product?” And you list out your content channels!
When we finally implemented a post-purchase survey (a Typeform embedded directly on our “thanks for buying” page), we found some really interesting data points:
That’s AWESOME for us to learn! Mostly because a content strategy can feel a lot like being on a never-ending hamster wheel. But, that hamster wheel gets easier to ride when you can see a certain % of your revenue comes from specific channels!
The post-purchase survey is also a great way to identify any content channels you might not be loving and thinking about cutting out. If your customers aren’t finding you through a certain channel, this can give you the data point you need to stop investing time and energy into that channel πͺπͺ.
β‘οΈTip #2: Create an affiliate program.
Okay, we could write a 2,000+ word section just on creating an affiliate program, but we’re going to distill it down to the actionable stuff we hope can help you right away.
Affiliates Part 1οΈβ£ - You absolutely need to have your product dialed in, your messaging nailed, and your entire customer journey working well BEFORE you add affiliates.
Adding affiliates to your business when things are on shaky ground is only going to cause headaches in the future (and create possible bad relationships). Our advice is to only move forward with affiliates if things are humming along smoothly!
Affiliates Part 2οΈβ£ - Find the affiliate platform that best fits with your website and offer.
For us, we use Affiliate WP (aff link π€ͺ) which is a Wordpress plugin built built by the same company that we use for our Membership Program (Restrict Content Pro - also aff link). There are MANY affiliate programs available so just be sure you pick the one that fits right with your website.
Affiliates Part 3οΈβ£ - Set your affiliate commission and put in effort to prepare your affiliates for success!
We do the following for our WAIM Affiliates:
Affiliates Part 4οΈβ£ - Be in constant communication to create a strong relationship with your affiliates.
The last thing you want to do is leave your affiliates feeling like they have to do everything on their own. You want to make their promotional efforts as SIMPLE as possible so it’s a no-brainer for them to promote and support your program.
As a fun note to finish off this tip, in our previous two WAIM Unlimited launches, affiliates have accounted for 50% of our new members! πππ We’ve had a sizable jump in revenue with each launch due to affiliates and love that new customers are joining our program from existing members!
β‘οΈ Tip #3: Amplify the marketing bridges that are working!
Once you work through the tips of the previous lesson and Tip #1 in this lesson, it’s probably time to pour a little biz-accelerant on your marketing fires.
What content channel is working THE BEST for you?
Is it your podcast? Your YouTube channel? Pinterest? IG? Etc? Whichever one it is, you want to identify it and brainstorm ways to pour biz-fuel on that wonderful, very safe and not hot, marketing fire π₯!
Our last example for our dog-loving Squarespace compadres: Oodles of Poodles π¨π© has a weekly podcast we told you about in Tip #1 called Grooming Squarespace πβοΈ. Poods’ has noticed an uptick in podcast listenership and has seen a good amount of people have been visiting the podcast-only page they direct people to on their website for more helpful Squarespace Tips. They’ve also done a recent launch and noticed 15% of their new customers found them via the podcast (rad!)
Oodles of Poodles π¨π© is going to focus on growing their podcast listenership by trying to appear on other podcasts. They take the time to research the top 20-40 Squarespace-related podcasts (or design-related podcast where Squarespace is mentioned) and they build an outreach plan to be a guest on these podcasts - making sure they only reach out to shows who have guests. Their pitch is to appear as a podcast guest and share an actionable set of Squarespace tactics most people don’t know about. This helps the other podcast hosts know value will be given to their audience and it’s not just a random pitch hitting their inbox.
Showing up on these other podcasts gives Oodles of Poodles π¨π© a chance to promote their Grooming Squarespace πβοΈ podcast and increase their audience!
It might not be a podcast you’re going to amplify but the key in this final tip is to look for a marketing channel that’s already having some amount of success and growth and π₯ it up a bit!
β‘οΈβ‘οΈ BONUS TIPPPPP: All the tactics in the world are useless if you can’t get things done.
We couldn’t finish the final π¦ lesson with just three tips, could we??
When we get asked how we run TWO online businesses and create all the content/stuff we create, with virtually NO team at all (we do have two developers for our software app Teachery), the answer is PROCESSES.
Need to write a weekly email newsletter? Here's our process:
That may sound simple, but it’s a repeatable process. It’s what’s helped us write and send 800+ email newsletters over the past 8 years.
We have similar processes for our podcast, YouTube channel, articles, IG posts, monthly live coaching curriculums, customer update emails, new products we build, new features we add to our software app Teachery, etc.
We also have daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, and annual meetings together. Those meetings have a structure to help us know what to focus on and how to keep the WAIM Train π moving forward!
Good processes, ones that you hone yourself from experience and learning from people who do the things you want to be doing, are how you can get more stuff done AND not burn yourself out.
*We do want to acknowledge that not having kids (yet) makes our output a lot easier. That’s an intentional choice we’ve made. We also want to acknowledge our inherent privileges (things like our education, upbringing, being neurotypical) that we know contribute to our ability to create processes and execute within them. We know this might not be as simple for everyone, but we hope you'll lean into what works for your brain, your life, and your circumstances!
It’s not the only way to reach your dreams and goals in life. Most of those can actually probably be done with less money (as many studies have shown). Always remember this, friend, when you catch yourself thinking your worth as a business owner can be measured in dollars. IT CAN'T.
These last tips will show you the exact steps that helped us take a leap to reach our “enough number” in business revenue, where we happily sit and don’t need to grow just for growth’s sake.
At this point in business, you most likely have a few content things going on: An awesome weekly email newsletter; a fun-but-helpful podcast; an info-packed YouTube channel; a pin-worthy Pinterest plan; an interestingly-designed IG grid, etc, etc.
But, what you might not have, is a clear directive and STRATEGY for each of those content buckets. You may also not have a clue if any of them are direct contributors to your revenue (if you do, kudos to you, we did not at this stage of biz ππ€£).
Here are some examples of how to think about your content channels and having a clear plan about how they lead back to your overall sales strategy:
π¬ Your Email Newsletter: This is your real-time, value-packed piece of trust-building content with your audience. You want to have a clearly defined schedule your audience can get used to as well as a specific outcome they can expect with each email they receive. Then (and this is the strategy part) make sure you have a business objective being met in EVERY email as well as a lead-up plan for your product launches.
- Example: The lovely and talented folks at Oodles of Poodles π¨π© have their Squarespace Sunday Selection emails. It’s a newsletter that contains (1) an actionable Squarespace design tip, (2) a new, awesome Squarespace template or inspiration-worthy site, and (3) a callout to purchase their Squarespace website creation course for non-designers - highlighting a different tip or lesson from the course.
π Your Podcast: This is one of your strongest connection points to your audience, even though podcasting is a very passive listen. The reason it’s such a strong connection point is because it’s a somewhat intimate relationship. People listen to podcasts while living out their day-to-day lives and you get to be alongside them in those moments! You know, doing the dishes, driving to work, walking the dog, taking a shower, etc. But the trick with making a podcast strategic is to ensure you have reminders of the product you offer in each episode!
- Example: Oodles of Poodles π¨π© has an awesome podcast called Grooming Squarespace πβοΈ. It’s a weekly show that delivers Squarespace tips and gives non-designers an insight into leveraging the platform to grow their businesses. (It's also a clever pun for grooming dogs!) The strategic part becomes ensuring there’s always a callout to signup for the free Squarespace Tips email series, which is an easy-to-remember URL only for podcast listeners!
We think you get the idea with each content channel, but the key is to make sure you’re not just churning out content without thinking strategically of how it can impact your business.
You might be thinking, “great, I can do all those strategy things, but how do I see the actual ROI of my content efforts??”
βοΈ SUCH A GREAT QUESTION! Thank you for asking…
You create a post-purchase survey! A post-purchase survey is an embedded form or a linked form your customer sees immediately after buying your product. In that survey, you can ask a series of questions but one of the most important things you can ask is: “How did you hear about this product?” And you list out your content channels!
When we finally implemented a post-purchase survey (a Typeform embedded directly on our “thanks for buying” page), we found some really interesting data points:
- π 12% of our WAIM Unlimited customers find us through our podcast
- π₯ 9% of our customers find us through our YouTube channel
- π€³ 8% of our customers find us through our IG account
That’s AWESOME for us to learn! Mostly because a content strategy can feel a lot like being on a never-ending hamster wheel. But, that hamster wheel gets easier to ride when you can see a certain % of your revenue comes from specific channels!
The post-purchase survey is also a great way to identify any content channels you might not be loving and thinking about cutting out. If your customers aren’t finding you through a certain channel, this can give you the data point you need to stop investing time and energy into that channel πͺπͺ.
Okay, we could write a 2,000+ word section just on creating an affiliate program, but we’re going to distill it down to the actionable stuff we hope can help you right away.
Affiliates Part 1οΈβ£ - You absolutely need to have your product dialed in, your messaging nailed, and your entire customer journey working well BEFORE you add affiliates.
Adding affiliates to your business when things are on shaky ground is only going to cause headaches in the future (and create possible bad relationships). Our advice is to only move forward with affiliates if things are humming along smoothly!
- Note: We didn’t add affiliates into the mix for WAIM Unlimited until the third year of our business. We had customers asking about it before then but it wasn’t the right time as our foundation wasn’t as solid as it could be.
Affiliates Part 2οΈβ£ - Find the affiliate platform that best fits with your website and offer.
For us, we use Affiliate WP (aff link π€ͺ) which is a Wordpress plugin built built by the same company that we use for our Membership Program (Restrict Content Pro - also aff link). There are MANY affiliate programs available so just be sure you pick the one that fits right with your website.
- Example: The good-boy-alert dog-lovers over at Oodles of Poodles π¨π© will probably use MemberSpace (with Rewardful) as they’re a Squarespace-specific affiliate platform.
Affiliates Part 3οΈβ£ - Set your affiliate commission and put in effort to prepare your affiliates for success!
We do the following for our WAIM Affiliates:
- Give a 40% commission (yes, 40% - we want it to kick ass and we love knowing our payouts can actually be a substantial source of income for our affiliates! To us, this is just part of taking care of our customers.)
- Create an in-depth Affiliate Area walkthrough video
- Share a “WAIM Launch Plan” with pre-written emails, prompts, and lots of information about our business they can use in their marketing to promote WAIM
- Offer up pre-designed (and also customizable) assets to make sharing our program easy on any social platform
- Have thorough FAQs we constantly update with common questions
- Make asking us additional questions extremely simple and straightforward
- Send lots of email and Slack affiliate reminders before and during our open enrollment periods!
Affiliates Part 4οΈβ£ - Be in constant communication to create a strong relationship with your affiliates.
The last thing you want to do is leave your affiliates feeling like they have to do everything on their own. You want to make their promotional efforts as SIMPLE as possible so it’s a no-brainer for them to promote and support your program.
As a fun note to finish off this tip, in our previous two WAIM Unlimited launches, affiliates have accounted for 50% of our new members! πππ We’ve had a sizable jump in revenue with each launch due to affiliates and love that new customers are joining our program from existing members!
Once you work through the tips of the previous lesson and Tip #1 in this lesson, it’s probably time to pour a little biz-accelerant on your marketing fires.
What content channel is working THE BEST for you?
Is it your podcast? Your YouTube channel? Pinterest? IG? Etc? Whichever one it is, you want to identify it and brainstorm ways to pour biz-fuel on that wonderful, very safe and not hot, marketing fire π₯!
Our last example for our dog-loving Squarespace compadres: Oodles of Poodles π¨π© has a weekly podcast we told you about in Tip #1 called Grooming Squarespace πβοΈ. Poods’ has noticed an uptick in podcast listenership and has seen a good amount of people have been visiting the podcast-only page they direct people to on their website for more helpful Squarespace Tips. They’ve also done a recent launch and noticed 15% of their new customers found them via the podcast (rad!)
Oodles of Poodles π¨π© is going to focus on growing their podcast listenership by trying to appear on other podcasts. They take the time to research the top 20-40 Squarespace-related podcasts (or design-related podcast where Squarespace is mentioned) and they build an outreach plan to be a guest on these podcasts - making sure they only reach out to shows who have guests. Their pitch is to appear as a podcast guest and share an actionable set of Squarespace tactics most people don’t know about. This helps the other podcast hosts know value will be given to their audience and it’s not just a random pitch hitting their inbox.
Showing up on these other podcasts gives Oodles of Poodles π¨π© a chance to promote their Grooming Squarespace πβοΈ podcast and increase their audience!
It might not be a podcast you’re going to amplify but the key in this final tip is to look for a marketing channel that’s already having some amount of success and growth and π₯ it up a bit!
We couldn’t finish the final π¦ lesson with just three tips, could we??
When we get asked how we run TWO online businesses and create all the content/stuff we create, with virtually NO team at all (we do have two developers for our software app Teachery), the answer is PROCESSES.
Need to write a weekly email newsletter? Here's our process:
- We brainstorm the content together and jot down bullet points
- I (π¨π»π¦² Jason) write a rough first draft in Notes app, then add it to our email newsletter template in Notion
- Caroline π©π»π¦° goes through the draft and makes it great π
- I take it from Notion, put it into our email provider, add in any fancy images/color formatting, and then schedule it for sending
That may sound simple, but it’s a repeatable process. It’s what’s helped us write and send 800+ email newsletters over the past 8 years.
We have similar processes for our podcast, YouTube channel, articles, IG posts, monthly live coaching curriculums, customer update emails, new products we build, new features we add to our software app Teachery, etc.
We also have daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, and annual meetings together. Those meetings have a structure to help us know what to focus on and how to keep the WAIM Train π moving forward!
*We do want to acknowledge that not having kids (yet) makes our output a lot easier. That’s an intentional choice we’ve made. We also want to acknowledge our inherent privileges (things like our education, upbringing, being neurotypical) that we know contribute to our ability to create processes and execute within them. We know this might not be as simple for everyone, but we hope you'll lean into what works for your brain, your life, and your circumstances!