client outreach, offer, & articles
$1,500 → $3,000
Our previous two lessons have been about your client service-based business, and this lesson will be the last one in that arena before we start transitioning into scalable, digital products.
Too often, though, we see online biz owners try to make the leap into digital products too soon, while not building enough client runway to sustain the time that transition takes.
As a reminder, we are all about slow, methodical growth in business ππ’,which often means sticking with client work for a while longer to avoid burnout and dips in business revenue.
β‘οΈ Tip #1: Focus one day of your week on client outreach and thorough client pitches.
When you’re at the $1,500 per month revenue mark with your client business, you’re probably not quite at the stage where you can cover all your bills with your profit (some folks may, and if that’s you, AWESOME ππ!) This is why our first tip in this lesson is to continually be investing time in your client outreach and potential client lead list.
Where do you find leads? Start with who you WANT to work with! Based on last week's tips, you now know the importance of getting super-specific about who your ideal client is. Use that info to search your social media channels for businesses and business owners that fit the criteria you established in the previous lesson.
By clearly knowing exactly who you want to work with it becomes much easier to search those clients out and put them in an outreach spreadsheet.
This leads us to this next point: Build a client outreach spreadsheet. It seems like suuuuch simple advice, but we’d be willing to bet our merino wool socks most client-based biz owners do not have a client outreach spreadsheet. If that’s you, that’s okay! Now’s the time to fire up Google Sheets, Numbers, Airtable, Notion, or (if you absolutely have to)… Excel π¬π. Having a spreadsheet with a list of potential clients is how you keep your business organized and your leads nurtured.
π Carve out one day per week to nurture your leads and create/send pitches! It is very unlikely that you’re going to grow your client roster at this stage of your business simply through your social media content creation (aka: posting on IG) and referrals from the few clients you already have. At this stage, you can't sit back and have a "they'll come to me" mentality; you have to be thinking "Let me go find them."
This is why it’s key to put time on your calendar each week to invest in the future of your business! We actually have three sub-tips to this tip's sub-tip π #tipception:
New clients aren’t going to fall in your lap which means more money isn’t just going to magically appear in your bank account.
β‘οΈTip #2: Get creative with your client offers!
An easy trap to fall into when you’re starting a client business is to have one core service offer (which is great!) but then not give yourself permission to experiment π§ͺ with other revenue-generating ideas.
For this second tip, we want to encourage you to think about a smaller, mini offer that isn’t a huge ongoing time commitment but could bring in a splash π¦ of revenue to your biz! A gradual splash, you know? A spritz. You get it.
If you recall, our fictitious business we’ve been talking about these past few weeks is Oodles of Poodles π©π¨, a Squarespace design company for yoga instructors. The main offer (website design and build) can take weeks of work to complete, so let’s brainstorm 3 other offer ideas that require less time:
Offer Idea 1οΈβ£: Squarespace bug fix day - For $500, you’ll spend a day ironing out any bugs on someone’s site. These could be CSS-related, email form setup, page organization, etc.
Offer idea 2οΈβ£: Squarespace site setup - For $500, you’ll hop in someone’s brand new Squarespace account and get all their pages set up (Home, About, Blog, Product, and Contact), their blog started, and their settings how they want them.
Offer Idea 3οΈβ£: Homepage redesign blitz - For $500, you’ll redesign someone’s homepage and offer them two layouts as a refresh from what they have now.
As you can see with these offer ideas, they don’t take ongoing work and can create a nice bump in monthly revenue. If Oodles of Poodles π©π¨ was able to land 2-3 of these per month, that could quickly help them add $1,500 in monthly revenue without any ongoing work.
β‘οΈ Tip #3: Write 6-8 foundation articles that can bring you more email subscribers today and a year from now.
We like to think about foundation articles on your website like the old Chinese proverb about planting a tree: "The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second best time is now."
Similarly, if you're wondering when you should get some SEO-friendly articles published on the blog of your website, the answer is as soon as possible.
Foundation articles are great for short-term and long-term (gradual) business growth.
π©³ Short-term growth - Once you have your articles written, you can share them on your social media channels and try to convert those folks into email subscribers. Your articles become immediate marketing opportunities. They establish trust with your audience as your followers begin to see you as a source of expertise.
π Long-term growth - The goal one year from now is that the almighty Google has seen your article(s) as helpful for certain keyword searches and you’re getting organic traffic to your site which converts into new email subscribers!
If you’ve been putting off writing articles that can build organic traffic (which lead to new email subscribers) it’s time to stop delaying this task!
What are “foundation articles?” Plain and simple, they are helpful articles that can attract your ideal customer based on problems they’re searching for on Google. Shall we take a look at some examples for our friend at Oodles of Poodles π©π¨? We should?? Okay, then!
These are not perfect ideas BUT there are no perfect ideas in any part of business! You want to do a bit of search term research (which we did for those 6 article ideas) and adapt what you find to fit what your ideal customer is looking for.
**
Next lesson we’re going to venture past the client-side of growing your business gradually! We hope you’re excited and enjoying these lessons πͺπͺ.
Too often, though, we see online biz owners try to make the leap into digital products too soon, while not building enough client runway to sustain the time that transition takes.
As a reminder, we are all about slow, methodical growth in business ππ’,which often means sticking with client work for a while longer to avoid burnout and dips in business revenue.
When you’re at the $1,500 per month revenue mark with your client business, you’re probably not quite at the stage where you can cover all your bills with your profit (some folks may, and if that’s you, AWESOME ππ!) This is why our first tip in this lesson is to continually be investing time in your client outreach and potential client lead list.
Where do you find leads? Start with who you WANT to work with! Based on last week's tips, you now know the importance of getting super-specific about who your ideal client is. Use that info to search your social media channels for businesses and business owners that fit the criteria you established in the previous lesson.
By clearly knowing exactly who you want to work with it becomes much easier to search those clients out and put them in an outreach spreadsheet.
This leads us to this next point: Build a client outreach spreadsheet. It seems like suuuuch simple advice, but we’d be willing to bet our merino wool socks most client-based biz owners do not have a client outreach spreadsheet. If that’s you, that’s okay! Now’s the time to fire up Google Sheets, Numbers, Airtable, Notion, or (if you absolutely have to)… Excel π¬π. Having a spreadsheet with a list of potential clients is how you keep your business organized and your leads nurtured.
π Carve out one day per week to nurture your leads and create/send pitches! It is very unlikely that you’re going to grow your client roster at this stage of your business simply through your social media content creation (aka: posting on IG) and referrals from the few clients you already have. At this stage, you can't sit back and have a "they'll come to me" mentality; you have to be thinking "Let me go find them."
This is why it’s key to put time on your calendar each week to invest in the future of your business! We actually have three sub-tips to this tip's sub-tip π #tipception:
- π Block off time on your calendar one day per week when all you’re doing is your client outreach work.
- β‘οΈ Also block off time on your calendar for making your client pitches (read: cold emails) STAND OUT. You have to stand out from everyone else sending pitches and that comes with creativity and effort.
- β³ Plan for a 4-6 week lead-time to land a client from your spreadsheet. In that time, build a follow-up email schedule (and social follow-ups).
New clients aren’t going to fall in your lap which means more money isn’t just going to magically appear in your bank account.
An easy trap to fall into when you’re starting a client business is to have one core service offer (which is great!) but then not give yourself permission to experiment π§ͺ with other revenue-generating ideas.
For this second tip, we want to encourage you to think about a smaller, mini offer that isn’t a huge ongoing time commitment but could bring in a splash π¦ of revenue to your biz! A gradual splash, you know? A spritz. You get it.
If you recall, our fictitious business we’ve been talking about these past few weeks is Oodles of Poodles π©π¨, a Squarespace design company for yoga instructors. The main offer (website design and build) can take weeks of work to complete, so let’s brainstorm 3 other offer ideas that require less time:
Offer Idea 1οΈβ£: Squarespace bug fix day - For $500, you’ll spend a day ironing out any bugs on someone’s site. These could be CSS-related, email form setup, page organization, etc.
Offer idea 2οΈβ£: Squarespace site setup - For $500, you’ll hop in someone’s brand new Squarespace account and get all their pages set up (Home, About, Blog, Product, and Contact), their blog started, and their settings how they want them.
Offer Idea 3οΈβ£: Homepage redesign blitz - For $500, you’ll redesign someone’s homepage and offer them two layouts as a refresh from what they have now.
As you can see with these offer ideas, they don’t take ongoing work and can create a nice bump in monthly revenue. If Oodles of Poodles π©π¨ was able to land 2-3 of these per month, that could quickly help them add $1,500 in monthly revenue without any ongoing work.
β‘οΈπ‘ BONUS TIP: If you’re a savvy offer creator, your smaller offer could be a GREAT lead-in to your larger client package. Offer Idea 3οΈβ£ (homepage blitz) is a great example of this and could lead to someone starting with paying $500 but then wanting help implementing the design for a larger client package!
We like to think about foundation articles on your website like the old Chinese proverb about planting a tree: "The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second best time is now."
Foundation articles are great for short-term and long-term (gradual) business growth.
π©³ Short-term growth - Once you have your articles written, you can share them on your social media channels and try to convert those folks into email subscribers. Your articles become immediate marketing opportunities. They establish trust with your audience as your followers begin to see you as a source of expertise.
π Long-term growth - The goal one year from now is that the almighty Google has seen your article(s) as helpful for certain keyword searches and you’re getting organic traffic to your site which converts into new email subscribers!
If you’ve been putting off writing articles that can build organic traffic (which lead to new email subscribers) it’s time to stop delaying this task!
What are “foundation articles?” Plain and simple, they are helpful articles that can attract your ideal customer based on problems they’re searching for on Google. Shall we take a look at some examples for our friend at Oodles of Poodles π©π¨? We should?? Okay, then!
- Article topic: 3 things your website needs to book more yoga students
- Article topic: Best practices for a yoga studio website design
- Article topic: This is the best Squarespace template for yoga studios
- Article topic: How to host online yoga classes through a Squarespace website
- Article topic: Yoga website inspiration to get more yoga students
- Article topic: How to create a yoga studio brand and website people love
These are not perfect ideas BUT there are no perfect ideas in any part of business! You want to do a bit of search term research (which we did for those 6 article ideas) and adapt what you find to fit what your ideal customer is looking for.
π Related: Does SEO completely baffle you!? It used to baffle us to until we learned just enough and put that enough into practice. Learn everything we know about SEO here!
ππ Related #2: If you want to learn our full content strategy read our Content Salad Strategy guide (with even more foundation article advice).
ππ Related #2: If you want to learn our full content strategy read our Content Salad Strategy guide (with even more foundation article advice).
**
Next lesson we’re going to venture past the client-side of growing your business gradually! We hope you’re excited and enjoying these lessons πͺπͺ.